Koristan

Had a game with the new book last night (no book but using the leaked rules and app warscrolls) against Slaves. I brought He brought Battleplan was position over power. Deployment I deployed more or less on the line, with one stalker unit and the riders on the left and right corners of the deployment zone, kata in the middle with immortis next to him and the soulmason, boneshaper and other stalkers held the right middle. He deployed warriors back a bit from the line and knights/varanguard behind them. Turn 1 I gave him first turn, the cavalry was back so didn't directly threaten a first turn charge, and I would rather control the double (or the time between healing) than not. He advanced a little, keeping the warrior front line in the middle and the knights/varanguard behind them, dropped the corvus on my left flank objective and took the roll on the eye of the gods BT to score 5. I started my turn with a bunch of buffs, putting run & charge on my left stalkers, getting kata's aura up, etc. Bad luck on spells as empower & mystic shield were denied, but drain vitality went off on a unit of warriors and the free soul guide went on the riders. Left stalkers pushed within three of the corvus, right riders tagged the other flank objective and I tunneled my boneshaper to pick up cunning maneuver on the right side objective. Everything else advanced up the middle. Both stalkers made their charges, flank into corvus and middle into the drained warriors. Both units were given the damage stance and the warrior unit was given extra rend at the start of combat phase. Middle warriors were dropped to two and corvus was wiped out, hit back was a couple wounds on both stalker units but no casualties. Score 6 with the bonus for holding a side with a GC. Turn 2 Lost the roll off, but wasn't too concerned. He took the turn and chose the charge 3 units tactic. Knights went out to my left flank after the stalkers, varanguard went out to the right after my boneshaper and riders. (I personally feel this was a mistake as it pulled his hard hitting units from the middle, but hard to tell). The two warrior blocks not yet in combat advanced up to threaten charges on immortis/kata and the middle stalker unit. He tunneled his general to just outside the right side objective. Tried charges with everyone and made them all except his general (no bonus point for a GC on an objective). A couple counter-strikes were handed out on the immortis and left side stalkers to mitigate the nurgle marks. Against the knights, the stalkers went defensive (likely a mistake on my part) and AODed, lost one and a bit and hit back to kill ~2 knights. In the middle, the two units of warriors that charged were wiped out after battleshock with one losing ~7 from the stalkers and the other losing ~8 from kata (who rolled 6s to hit on both his polearm and shield attacks) and the immortis. On the right, the riders did a wound or two and lost all but the champ who had two wounds left (the 5+ command ability saved a wipe). He picked up another 5 points, but had effectively lost the middle with only two chaos warriors and one chaos sorcerer left facing slightly wounded but still full on models stalkers, kata, immortis and the soulmason. Bottom of two, I picked desecrate (probably should've done the deathrider strat and retreat/charged his general instead) and healed up the riders back to two models and healed in the middle, my left flank stalkers were too far out of range to heal. Empower miscast, the knights were drained and mystic shield failed. Immortis with the soulmason in tow advanced to threaten his sorcerer who redeployed 6 to escape. Riders and boneshaper started to retreat back towards the center with the riders shielding the shaper from just outside 3 of the varanguard. Middle stalkers cleared the last two and left flank stalkers (buffed for rend and damage this time) picked up another few knights for another dead stalker. Picked up 4 on the turn as we tied 2-2 for objective control. But the battle had shifted hard in my favour, the only units below starting strength were the riders and the left side stalkers while he had lost all the units near the middle objectives. Turn 3 He retained priority, buffed the varanguard and wiped the riders. The boneshaper redeployed back towards the middle. He used cunning maneuver. The knights lost a few more and killed another stalker on the left flank. He scored 5 on the turn from tactic, side and his middle objective and the GC point. I went for eye-for-an-eye to try to wipe out the last three knights with my three stalkers. I wanted to save the sculptor's entourage for turn 4/5. Otherwise just repositioned my middle stalkers to meet his varanguard if he won priority into 4. Stalkers wiffed on the knights doing zero damage (after he made 5 5+ saves), so only picked up 3 on the turn from holding three objectives. Turn 4 I won the roll and took priority. Picked sculptor's this time and middle stalkers squared up on the varanguard. They redeployed 2 so not really enough to escape. Left side stalkers finally cleared the knights out and the other stalkers killed 3 varanguard for some damage on one stalker back. Another 5 and at this point we talked the rest out. He had no reasonable way to score anything in the last two turns with three varanguard and two sorcerers left (both had picked up the +1 rend eye of the gods ability, go melee wizards!) I took 5 in turn 5 with gaining momentum to kill the varanguard, so final score was 26-15 Thoughts on the list: Petrifex big boys has some legs to it, they shut down a lot of the burst damage through the reduce damage by 1 and healing. That many wounds with the healing and damage capabilities will be a tough nut to crack for any army that relies on high damage attacks to deal with strong threats. Kata is great, the free command ability, aura and debuffs are solid. Didn't manage to mess with his command points too much, but I could tell it he was having to think a lot more about the possibility of having to pay two. Stalkers are just as lethal as ever and with generic command abilities are quite fast, and counter-strike can make it punishing to charge them, its a great command ability. Immortis tanked and slapped hard, but didn't really see much combat. I am considering swapping the mason for another shaper (don't have two painted), didn't find as much use for the full spell lore, but drain vitality and empower weapons are both key. Also debating changing the riders for another 3 immortis and whether to split one of the stalker units just to get a bit more coverage. The carrion endless spell would also be a possible addition. With the small number of objectives, I didn't feel a lack of units, but I could see a bit more challenge on a battleplan with more to have to fight for.