AoS Night 20 October - Death Pew Pew, Mannderp and the Beastclaw Raiders

[Nico]

So it was the calm before the storm of our monthly dedicated AoS club night next week. I wanted to try out a paper list that I'd been tinkering with for a while. This involved my 12 Ushabti as Death Pew Pew - surely not! As models I use lightly converted Kurnoth Hunters made of marble on sand, which look decent. We also had a new player Andres @Creepyguy who wanted to give his Stormcast a spin.

My opponent in the first game Max was bringing his beastclaw plus Moonclan unmitigated filth. My army certainly wasn't tuned for his, but I thought I had a chance.

Armies and Battleplan

Max had:

• Stonelord (Battle Brew)
• Huskard on Thundertusk
• Huskard on Thundertusk
• Huskard on Thundertusk
• Moonclan Grot Shaman

 

• 20 Grots (Archers)
• 20 Grots (Archers)
• 20 Grots (Archers)
• 1 Fanatic
• 1 Fanatic
• 1 Fanatic

I had:

1 x Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (1)	440
1 x Count Mannfred (1)	160
1 x Liche Priest (1)	120
1 x Necrotect (1)	100
1 x Crypt Ghast Courtier (1)	80
2 x Ghouls (20)	200
1 x Ghouls (10)	100
1 x Ghouls (10)	100
1 x Ghoul Patrol (0)	100
4 x Ushabti (12)	480
1 x Screaming Skull Catapult (1)	120
Total	2000

 

The theory behind Max's army is that the Stonelord will delete anything, while the Thundertusks will delete anything else. The Grots block charges with fanatics and pretend to shoot.

The theory behind my army is that the Ushabti have an effective range of 30, with rerolling hits (normally 4+) on a unit of 12 from the Vampire Lord on ZD (VLoZD), and righteous smiting, they should be able to do some good damage. 12 Ushabti would be a block of 48 wounds with a 3+ save (rerolling ones from the Necrotect) against damage one attacks and a 5+ ward save from the Allegiance Abilities.

Count Mannderp was going to pop up on a Balewind and deal a mortal wound to every unit within 12 of his target model, which was cute. The catapult would then spread some -2 bravery love on the Grots. Of course the Grots are effective bravery 7 while they have 10 or more models and are out of melee (which is just ridiculous - same as Paladins) and 4+ save against shooting. They should be 140 points not 120.

The VLoZD would counterpunch.

The Battleplan was Border War, which I like. Ghoul Patrol on Border War - what could possibly go wrong?

Deployment

I deployed my Ghoul Patrol off the table as one drop, then the artillery right at the back (probably still in Thundertusk effective range, after all the Moon is in Thundertusk range). Mannderp was part of the artillery. The VLoZD also stayed back.

Max spread out but put his Stonelord centrally.

 

One Thundertusk was fairly advanced, so I set up the 12 Ushabti to be largely in range of it and to be able to take the Damned Terrain buff.

Battleround 1

I had the choice and elected to go first. There was a logic to this.... I knew that the Huskards heal other Beastclaw models (absurdly), so it was kill one or nothing. Accordingly I resolved to buff up the Ushabti and take off the Thundertusk turn one. Meanwhile I would conga line the 20 Ghoul Unit from the right board edge across the middle, so that it would block the charge of the Stonehorn for a turn. Then even if he won the double turn, he would only get one round of combat against the Ushabti wall before I got another turn and dropped another Thundertusk.

 

Things started omininously - Mannderp failed to cast Balewind on a 5 - so he couldn't cast any spells for turn one due to being out of range (this is a major reason why the Balewind is pro-balance - it reduced how god awful having turn one and the potential double turn can be). I cast Righteous Smiting on the Ushabti thanks to Arcane Terrain. I also failed mystic shield on the Ushabti from the VLoZD. Not looking good.

I took the Damned wounds on the Ushabti and moved 11 of them into range of the Thundertusk. The Ghouls came on from each side. The Conga line looked impressive across the middle.

Now it was time for some pew pew. So 11 Shots on the Thundertusk, hitting on 3s, rerolling hits, 3s to wound, 5+ saves and D3 damage - I got one attack through the armour - the worst shooting I've ever rolled. It did at least do 3 wounds. The average (without the damned terrain buff) is 10 wounds to a 4+ save. The other Ushabti also failed to kill any Grots, while the Catapult missed the same unit of Grots with both shots. My heart sunk.

Charging was next. 10 Ghouls made it in on the back left onto 20 Grots. The 20 Ghouls failed their charge - I later realised this was crucial - the line they made wasn't quite long enough to stop the Stonelord. Had I been able to advanced to the left with a 9 charge I could have completely enveloped the Stonelord while keeping out of 3 inches (while attacking the Grots with a few models). The 10 Ghouls failed to do much damage thanks to the netters and Max passed the Battleshock test.

I scored 5 points.

Score 5-0

Truly an abysmal start.

Max responded by immediately healing up the Thundertusk that I'd chipped wounds off. He also got reroll wounds of 1 on the Stonelord.

His Shaman fluffed his mushroom, so no mystic shield on either side. To my surprise he didn't simply lob 18 mortal wounds at the Ushabti. Instead he worked to smash the Ghouls from the objectives. I had a major let off as 2 of the 3 Thundertusks failed their shooting attacks - "hope lives" I proclaimed.

He chipped away 9 Ghouls from the big unit and 8 off the back left unit and 9 from the near left unit. The main action was in the middle, where the Stonehorn dodged the Ghouls and made an easy charge into the Ushabti. He killed 5 Ushabti by himself - 20 wounds worth - utterly ridiculous. Max rolled 8 out of 9 saves for the Stonelord in response - really not my day.

I had some unexpected luck in the Battleshock phase rolling ones for the Battleshock tests - which meant I would get D6 models back in my next hero phase from the formation. I didn't roll a 6 for the Ushabti Battleshock thankfully.

However, I still needed to win the initiative to have any hope of turning this around. I lost it.

Score 5-5

Battleround 2

I'll keep this quick. I immediately considered conceding then and there but decided to play on. Max passed his mystical roll for the Stonelord - that was my last chance. Max obliterated all bar 3 of the Ghouls. He lobbed two of the Thundertusk shots at the Ushabti and killed another two. The Stonelord wiped out the rest comfortably. It wasn't even close.

Score 5-10

In my turn, Mannfred finally got on the Balewind and lobbed mortal wounds at the left Thundertusk - doing 3 damage. He also lobbed a bolt at it. This also chipped away at the Grots and the Shaman. The Liche Priest cast mystic shield on the VLoZD who flapped forward to go and kill the right Thundertusk. The catapult missed twice again, so the left one clung on with 7 wounds left. The Vampire Lord managed to cast Blood Boil but only did a single wound to the right Thundertusk.

I forgot about the reroll hits command ability (as mentally it was still on the already wrecked Ushabti). I proceeded to miss with the VLoZD's pestilent breath, then thanks to the utterly infuriating -1 to hit from the Thundertusk only took 2 more wounds off it. This was pathetic.

The Liche Priest was also subject to -1 to hit from the netters and failed to kill any.

Max passed all his Battleshock tests for his Grots.

I won the initiative.

Score 6-10

Mannfred again hit the left Thundertusk with Wind of Death - so the Grot Shaman was down to 2 wounds left. He followed up with bolt. The Thundertusk was swaying now with only 1 wound left. The VLoZD was out of range for Blood Boil.... I took the mystical terrain buff and didn't fluff the roll. The Catapult got one skull through, but Max saved it, so not even a consolation prize of killing the left Thundertusk.

Now rerolling everything, the Vampire Lord finally came good, doing 11 wounds with just the jaws attacks - killing the right Thundertusk. However he needed to have done this a turn earlier and to have killed the back Thundertusk in this turn (while also distancing himself from the Stonelord). I conceded the game.

Conclusion

It was a fun game overall and good to finally see the horrors of the Stonelord. 

Failing mystic shield on your tank unit is almost as decisive as losing an initiative roll - this was devastating against the Stonelord. It was an uphill slog once that first round of magic shooting had failed so badly, but I think i could have turned it around if I had won the first initiative test.

Death Pew Pew isn't a complete failure - the cheapness of the Ushabti makes it viable - but the VloZD is going down the toilet. For such a supposedly strong model he was hopeless. He's 20 points less than the Stonelord, which did 6 times more damage than he did in one turn. I'm thinking to replace the VLoZd with big Mannderp next week - his command ability buffs himself, the Catapult and the Ushabti, so could be worth a try even with only a 6+ ward. 

Death Pew Pew vs Stormcast

I played Andres in a starter game - Blood & Glory Battleplan. He had a nice theme for his Stormcast army (basically the starter set plus a questor). We played 900 points.

I had Mannfred, a smaller Ghoul patrol and 9 Ushabti. They really shine against damage 1 opponents.

I made Andres go first and he advanced - his Prosecutors did some significant damage to Mannderp and charged in. Mannderp killed 2 of them in return.

In response, I basically focus fired everything into the Retributors and ground them down and charged into them and his Liberators with the Ushabti. The Ghoul patrol snuck in from behind. Only one unit made it into the Judicators.

The Retributors were down to 2 maces pretty swiftly. The mystic shield on the Ushabti was sweet.

I won the initiative and wiped out the Retributors. The Ghouls now made it in and started chipping away. Two Liberators in the middle held their ground but with a 2+ save the Ushabti weren't going anywhere.

Andres went next and blasted Mannderp with the Relictor's lantern. He was down to 2 wounds. He failed to kill the Prosecutor. The Questor beat 3 wounds off the Crypt Ghast.

Andrew won the initiative and blasted Mannfred again. The final wound came off from the Prosecutor Prime. #epicfail The Questor fluffed his hit rolls even with rerolls so the Ghast lived and pumped the Ghouls back to full strength.

An interesting game. Andres needed to put 5 Liberators behind the Judicators. I think Death are a really good match up against Stormcast.

 

[Grimnaud]

An interesting report! Loved the pictures, and the originality of the list.

I'm a bit puzzled by the conga lining of the Ghoul Patrol on turn one though. The rules for the ghoul patrol reads that you "must set up all of these units wholly within 6" of any edge of the battlefield". Surely the "wholly" means that you can't conga line them up the middle of the table, right? 

[AlexHarrison]

I agree with the above, I was scratching my head at that.

[grunnlock]

Thanks @Nico for this battle report, it was a fun game! Beastclaw raiders with grots are a pretty good combo, even though I still need to learn the gimmicks of the army (and think about the zillion actions to do during hero phases).

24 minutes ago, Grimnaud said:

I'm a bit puzzled by the conga lining of the Ghoul Patrol on turn one though. The rules for the ghoul patrol reads that you "must set up all of these units wholly within 6" of any edge of the battlefield". Surely the "wholly" means that you can't conga line them up the middle of the table, right? 

I was as well when Nico explained me what he was gonna do, but we decided to play it this way. I personally find the wording really ambiguous and can't really say how it should be played...

[Nico]

I hadn't looked at the "wholly" - that would be an odd way to word it considering when they want all the models to be within an area, they say "models" - look at the Escalation Battleplan as the best example.

Normally a unit is within a distance if a single model is within. I'll revisit this point. I only have the FEC book in hardcopy so cannot see it on my phone.

The other issue (which I was pondering during the game) is whether the models can come on different board edges - it's ambiguous. 

[Grimnaud]

18 minutes ago, Nico said:

I hadn't looked at the "wholly" - that would be an odd way to word it considering when they want all the models to be within an area, they say "models" - look at the Escalation Battleplan as the best example.

Normally a unit is within a distance if a single model is within. I'll revisit this point. 

The other issue is whether the models can come on different board edges - it's ambiguous. 

I've always played it as all models of these units must be deployed within 6" of any one edge, but anything that would make the Ghoul Patrol more powerful would just make me happy. I'm more inclined to accept them coming on from different table edges than stretching past the 6" mark though. All the summoning in the FEC battle tome uses the "unit" description (apart from the AbGKoZD and Royal Family abilities that summon single models) and here I'm happy to accept one model of the unit being within 3", but the "wholly" seems like a very strong indication that all models in the unit must be within 6" of the table edge.

[Nico]

So Summon Royal Guard on the GKoTG is simply "within 3" of any edge" - so the normal wording - conga away. If there is an extra "wholly" in the wording of the Ghoul Patrol, then that would indeed have the effect you suggest. Weird that these would be inconsistent with each other.

[Grimnaud]

9 minutes ago, Nico said:

So Summon Royal Guard on the GKoTG is simply "within 3" of any edge" - so the normal wording - conga away. If there is an extra "wholly" in the wording of the Ghoul Patrol, then that would indeed have the effect you suggest. Weird that these would be inconsistent with each other.

GW works in mysterious ways.

I'm more and more convinced that there is nothing stopping you from deploying the Ghoul Patrol units on separate edges however. The wording is "wholly within 6" of any edge", not any single edge, or any one edge. Ohh Ghoul Patrol, just when I though I couldn't love you any higher 

[Nico]

Yeah - "an" edge would be one. The units on any of the edges is simply ambiguous as it could mean any unit on any edge or all the units on any one of the edges.