Nico

Game 2: Juggernauts - easy pickings For my second game on Table 4, I somehow dodged KO and DoT and ended up against Khorne. I felt increasingly confident when reading the list - loads of Juggernauts. I knew full well how abysmal their melee damage was. My melee combos were stronger than Khorne's and I had the Bloodwarrior buff to boot. Deployment I deployed between some buildings, with a view to funneling the Khorne forces to reduce how many could attack. I left minimal forces on the flanks. The Battleplan was Escalation, so my Verminlord was pinned back. The Juggs bunched up on the right, all 12 of them. Turn One Slavek had a bunch of Battalions, so he could pick and decided to go first. He did some movement and tried to charge my line of two units of 10 Clanrats, but largely failed. His unit of 3 Juggs made it in and popped 10 Clanrats. i took some wounds off a Jugg in exchange. Slavek gained a Blood Tithe point. In response, Sayl cast his spell in order to fish out the first Brazen Rune. Archaon cast his summoning spell to fish out the second. Death Frenzy was cast. The 40 Clanrats took the buffs and prepared to wreck face - they retreated from the 3 Juggs to engage the line of units behind. To my horror they double oned the charge. Turn Two Thankfully I won the initiative at least, however, this time I failed Sayl's cast roll; and more importantly failed to cast Death Frenzy. I summoned on a Herald of Tzeentch, who proceeded to nuke the Bloodsecrator (oddly not planted) with Pink Fire. The Clanrats went in - however, I weighted them too heavily towards the Bloodletters (instinctive fear of these) and not enough on the Juggs - I had hoped to get the 20 Stormvermin into the Juggs as well. I rolled an 11 for the charge, which allowed me to reach around the Letters and kill Skulltaker, who was chilling at the back. All 30 Letters were shredded. I also killed two Juggs (who had +1 save). However, the Stormvermin failed their charge. In response, Slavek unleashed his Slaughterpriests on the Stormvermin, 3 rerollable D6 mortal wounds is disgusting! He charged my 10 Stormvermin on the right flank with 3 Juggs and 5 Bloodwarriors - I was stupid for sending them this way - even if I scored a point as a result. The Juggerlord charged in too and did some mortal wounds on both the Clanrats and the Stormvermin - it's brutal that it's every enemy unit within range. The Clanrats started dying in droves (with no Death Frenzy). My Stormvermin did 4 wounds on the Lord. Then the Lord shredded more Stormvermin, which eventually popped. The Juggs killed off the 10 Stormvermin as well. Turn 3 I won the initiative. Archaon was moving on the left flank to go and beat up 20 Bloodreavers, with 10 Clanrats in support. With my centre shattered, I buffed up the Verminlord, who went into the Juggs in the centre, along with a Warlord. The other Warlord Sayled over to engage a pair of Slaughterpriests. The Verminlord was unlucky to only kill 2 Juggies. The Warlord failed to take out a Slaughterpriest. Slavek pinned Archaon with a pile in, which stopped him getting to the second unit of Reavers. Archaon derped again and failed to kill the Reavers (who didn't have Battleshock immunity). In response, the Slaughterpriests killed a Warlord; and the Juggerlord and the other unit of Juggs slammed into the Verminlord and the Warlord, doing a tonne of wounds. The Verminlord went down to mortal wounds, rather than in combat (which would allow him to attack); and Slavek healed his whole army. Archaon still couldn't grab back the left objective (although I held the centre by a rat's whisker). Turn 4 Slavek won the turn and mopped up my centre. I had a newfound respect for Khorne and for Juggs in particular. The failed cast on Death Frenzy was absolutely huge in hindsight as were the early failed charges. I can see the Prayers getting Rule of Oned very soon.

Game 1: Kunning Rukk I was hoping for a soft start to the tournament as I really didn't want to be pushed to qualify like at Heat 1. Naturally I got 40 Arrers and 2 Stonelords for Game 1. The Battleplan was 3 Places of Power which was not ideal for my list. Deployment I deployed 10 Clanrats on my right - this pulled his first Stonelord out to that side, where it would struggle to connect with my army turn one. I then bunkered in the middle with my Verminlord at the front. I expected my opponent to give me turn one, whereupon I would lob the Clanrats in, and block the Stonelord charge and gradually grind them out and pin the Arrers out or range of the rest of my army. After a lot of thought, he took the turn. This was good in a sense, as he had deployed the arrers as if he was going second (i.e. behind a wall of chaff), which reduced the damage output for turn one. Turn One The Stonelord brewed up and made its charge. The Arrers didn't move very far and took 4 wounds off the Verminlord. The other Stonelord stayed back. on the right objective. The Clanrats did a wound in return. The Stonelord made the charge and proceeded to delete the Verminlord and some Clanrats. In response I planned to Sayl the Clanrats forward - using their retreat and charge ability and get them into the Arrers. In fact, Sayl failed to roll a 6 on 3 dice. I was not happy. Instead, the Clanrats went for a retreat charge into the Stonelord. Archaon and Clanrats moved up on the right - the Clanrats shielding Archaon. There was no where to summon the Herald to and Archaon failed mystic shield. The buffs went on the 20 Stormvermin, who prepared to charge the Stonelord. Sayl did his once per game zap attack in the shooting phase, which chipped off another 2 wounds. The Stormvermin made it in and narrowly killed the Stonelord. Archaon charged into a unit of Boyz and derped his attacks, the Clanrats shielded him from the Stonelord. The Clanrats started to chew through the Boyz as well. My other heroes nudged forward, as they would be needed to score. Ominously, Destruction won the initiative, so his gamble paid off. Battleround 2 The Arrers shot at the Stormvermin and dented them significantly. The Stonelord and Megaboss went into the Clanrats. This was worrying as the Megaboss could potentially clear them out of the way only for the Stonelord to bury Archaon. The grind continued in the middle. However, before getting to the Megaboss I spotted an out for Archaon. He wasn't base to base with the two Boyz in front of him and so he could orbit around him and then touch base - putting him out of range of the Stonelord and also getting him into range of the Arrer Boyz. This saved the game for me. Thereafter my heroes came in for the Arrerboyz, while Tretch and the second Warlord went off to the left objective. The Herald came on and did some damage to the Stonelord. Sayl did some reasonable melee damage in the centre, but the 10 Stormvermin initially failed to kill the Shaman. The buffed Stormvermin rolled well and deleted the Stonelord and the Megaboss in one stroke! While the Destruction player had amassed a fair lead. I now proceeded to score points on all 3 objectives for the rest of the game. Ultimately I tabled him. Relief after an edgy start. With a Major and 2,000 points in the bag (never got that in game one before) would I manage to reach the lofty heights of the Livestream?

So I was fortunate enough to snap up a last minute ticket to Heat 3. As my DoT are about 1/3 painted (and I hadn't then settled on a list - I have now) and my KO were just a collection of unopened boxes - I was going to have to take an army for the second time to an event. I thought about taking a Fyreslayer plus Stormcast combo, but the news that Fyreslayers would be getting an allegiance pack made me pause. Instead I dug out my Skaven for Archaon's Furry Friends. After some practice games (I ultimately lost all 3 of these including to Bryan Carmichael's Host Duplicitous on the Friday before Heat 3), I tweaked the list, so that the cannonball units would be 40 Clanrats, 20 Stormvermin and 10 Stormvermin, rather than the original 40 Clanrats, 30 Clanrats and 30 Stormvermin. This made the army a bit less exposed to Battleshock; and retained 3 units that could still basically delete multiple enemy units using the buff stack of +2 attacks, reroll 1s, rend and double damage on 6+ to wound that had worked pretty well for me at The Warlords: This also left space for a very efficient 120 points of summoning for either a Balewind (to nudge forward a unit largely and snipe crew) or a Herald of Tzeentch, who could reliably pump out 5 mortal wounds on the turn it is summoned at 36" effective range. The hope was that this would give me an answer to Savage Orruk Big Bosses and the like.

Oooh Krunk it up to 10! Looking great. Are you at Heat 3 Chris?

Sigmar has a big anvil in the fluff doesn't he? For reforging Stormcasts?

Reminds me of the Celestant Prime's lion armour on his chest.

While I've not been pumping out painted armies like I did last year, I did manage to convert and paint up my Kairos/Loc: The first conversion was attaching the flames from an Exalted Flamer to his outstretched paw for some Pink Fire action. The second conversion was building a set of 5 disks which would constitute a giant clock for Kairos to perch upon and having this clock suspended above a pool of magic water emerging from the lava fields of Chamon. I used spare bits from the exalted chariots to create the framework of 4 disks. I created the water effect by following @Vincent Venturella 's technique for bright ocean water. I tried to use Vince's technique to make metallics pop like NMM, which showed some progress. The final element was using an actual bronze clock face and using the spare sword as the hand of the clock. Guess what time it is?

It reminded me of a Death shoulderpad - a Morghast's one in particular.

The Exalted GDs are way off the mark at the moment. Should be closer to: Nurgle 340, Slaanesh 340 Tzeentch 320 Khorne 400.

Please add me to the list of entrants (Nicholas Ruesink-Brown). I've just paid. Hoping to lead a decent crew across from the South London Legion.

Game 3 was against the Bristol Big Uns. It was the third game of the day and against a Grot/Ironjawz force. However, my game had the distinction of being the only game of AoS that I didn't enjoy in any way. A truly dismal mixture of arguments about everything (whether Fanatics count as a drop when deployed for example), slow playing, chatting to a third party during the game to further slow things down and my opponent's ignorance of the basic stats of his general (movement 4 Megaboss). Ben got an 11-9 win, but James and Tom were defeated. I got a 16-4 victory. Sadly, this meant that our team lost 32-48 overall. I made a small error in deployment, such that Settra was out of range of the Tomb King, which made my turn one alpha strike less brutal. Nevertheless, the Necropolis Knights rocked up to 3" away from the Moonclan Grots in a spread out line. The Fanatics came out to play, but rolling a 2-2 for a charge meant that one died and his buddy didn't make it in, while the other Fanatic only pinned one snake. The first pile in smacked into his forces and did brutal damage. The second pile in added to the first. The counter attack was painful, following a double turn I went down to just one snake remaining. However, thanks to the 1" bases of the Grots surrounding the last Knight, I was able to reach over and restore a model behind the Grots (there was another argument about this) and then another 2 Knights popped up. I ultimately took down the Megaboss and was well into crushing his right flank. On the left his general and buddies made some progress. A unit of 10 Zombros managed to not die to the attacks from a Megaboss which tipped the major victory to me. Had we gotten five turns it might have been a tabling. 16-4 to me and a disappointing 32-48 overall. I was completely shattered by this point.

Once again I engineered the draw so that I might get the chance to take on the Sylvaneth Gnarlroot player and once again this option was presented to me and I took advantage of it. Game 2 ended up being a remarkable carbon copy of Game 1. We were playing the WWW team, which had had some drop outs (I think Paddy dropped out from memory). Ben @Thanatos Ares ended up stomping 19-1 on the poor Claire (who was pretty new to the game). It was a friendly affair though, with the players having a good chat afterwards. James went down to Chaos Warriors I seem to recall, while Mick (who deserves kudos for flying in that morning while wasted to make the event) brutalised our Tom 20-0 using the Changehost battalion (this was pre-DoT - it's an old battalion). In my game, the Sylvaneth went first again, popped out some Wyldwoods and sent forward Durthu and Kurnoths. Then in my first turn, a buffed up Arkhan deleted Durthu and possibly the Ancient as well in the same turn, while the Krell Bomb wreaked havoc. This time I don't think my opponent John actually had an Order Wizard in the list, which was odd. After that it was mopping up from the Necropolis Knights. I got a 19-1 victory. Totting it up, we edged it 42-38!

Round 1 We were fortunate in knowing our opponents were the legendary EATBATS crew - so super dudes with awesome paint jobs. As for the draw (itself a fascinating part of the game), you are basically able to choose the opposing army for two of your players (by putting your player out front and holding the other one in the "pocket" so to speak). Throughout the event, I adopted the approach of protecting James (who was our least experienced player), rather than going for aggressive 20-0s. Ben's list was pretty solid all round and I figured that Tom would be competitive in most match ups (his big downside was the low range of his pew pew). As none of the rest of the team were particularly experienced against Sylvaneth I opted to take on Jimbo's Sylvaneth. I'd played Jimbo at Heat One (one of my best games - sadly only a practice game on the Friday so it didn't count). Jimbo had a text book Gnarlroot plus Loremaster list. I deployed in a bunker behind some of the Zombros. Battleround 1 James went first and spawned a Wyldwood on my left and another one on my right. He moved his 3 Scythe Hunters through to the central Wyldwood. His Kurnoth pew pew fired at the Necbromancer but achieved little due to the wound bouncing mechanic. Durthu and the Ancient moved to the Wyldwood on my left and did some pew pew, but elected not to charge in. The Scythes made it in and killed a Necropolis Knight and dented the Wight King. My turn was brutal. Arkhan buffed himself with Vanhels Danse Macabre, but double oned the Mystic Shield cast like a boss. The Liche Priest did cast Righteous Smiting. The Necromancer lobbed a bolt at Durthu and did 2 wounds. The Necropolis Knight came back to life. Mr Whippy buffed the Wight King, before he teleported 12" forward - off to hunt the Loremaster. Arkhan moved 16" forward over the Zombros to be 3" away from Durthu. Settra and the Knights stayed put for some grinding against the Hunters. Arkhan made the charge as did the Wight King. I activated Arkhan first and he proceeded to delete Durthu without much difficulty. The 6 attacks from the Spirit Hosts exploding and doing a mortal wound on 4+ was brutal. I deliberately ensured that the Ancient was out of 3" both to avoid the Stomp and to avoid a pile in. The Kurnoths hit back and from memory did some damage to Settra. I wiped them out in return. The Wight King slew the Loremaster comfortably. Battleround 2 Jimbo won the initiative and extricated his forces to distant Wyldwoods. He knew that he had bounced and was quick to switch to playing for the secondaries. The Ancient went back to defend the Bow Hunters. In response I put the movement buffs onto the Necropolis Knights and send them sharply right towards the Kurnoths. The offensive buffs went onto Arkhan again. Arkhan smashed into the Ancient and half killed him, took some wounds back, but healed back two at the end of the phase. The Necropolis Knights managed the feat of losing 3 models out of 6 when they charged into the Wyldwood. They killed another Hunter. Battleround 3 James again won the initiative, which kept him in the running. The Ancient went off to support the Kurnoths in the race to wipe out the Necropolis Knights (and to hold an objective). Against all probability his pew pew attack actually went through and did 5 damage. The combat was tight. The Hunters were wiped out, but the Ancient managed to get his impaling Talons through on the last Knight. With only a few wounds left, Jimbo needed a 3+ to wipe out the unit. Tragically a 2 it was. The Knights clung on. Mr revenge was brutal - Arkhan cast the reanimate spell on the Necropolis Knights to bring back the banner bearer - I put the model closer to my forces and then planted the Tomb Herald's banner to bring back another model and a third came back from the banner bearer - evil! I put the buffs onto the Necropolis Knights. Arkhan also flapped over to hit the Ancient from behind. Settra rolled about pointlessly. The Ancient went down and I had the objective now. Battleround 4 I won the initiative and tightened the noose. The Wight King moved over to take the building (which was one of my secondaries). Arkhan and the Necropolis Knights went after the Bow Hunters who were hiding in a Wyldwood on the far right of the table. Jimbo did what he could, but probably could have retreated more aggressively. Battleround 5 Jimbo won the initiative and made a play for one of the secondaries with the 5 Tree Revenants that were in his back corner - my whole team (and Jimbo) were playing this wrong to our disadvantage all tournament (playing that the unit had to be in the enemy deployment zone at the end of the game, not at any point - which is trivial). In my final turn, Settra had to make a charge into the Tree Revenants to wipe them out and stop Jimbo scoring. Everywhere else the forces of Death wiped out the last of the Sylvaneth, but Settra derped. That made it an 18-2 victory to me. A promising start. Even better, while James and Tom had lost, they had kept the losses to marginal ones; whereas Ben had smashed face, so we recorded a 49-31 win! Jimbo @Jimbo was a pleasure to play against - a true gent as always!

The South London Legion is running a Hinterlands Campaign under the guiding hand of @Bowlzee. I wanted to share the narrative I've cooked up. Thanks to @bottle for generally being a hobby legend and creating Hinterlands. Warband Mercenary Captain James Delaney (Runesmiter) - General (Reckless) 40 Quartermaster Horace Delaney (Battlesmith) 40 Mercenary Lieutenant Keziah Delaney (Hearthguard Berserker Champion) 16 Corporal Nootka (Hearthguard Berserker) 16 Corporal Musgrove (Hearthguard Berserker) 16 Sergeant Carlsbad (Auric Hearthguard) 16 144 Gold Background James Delaney forged an unusual career. He was born to Valerie Delaney at the height of the siege of the Azul Lodge by Gruzlit's fleet of Grotbag Scuttlers. Valerie was entranced by his glowing eyes - a sure sign of Grimnir's blessing. Whether by coincidence or divine hand, the eruption of the long dormant volcano, Drakesmaw, decimated Gruzlit's ragtag fleet - plumes of magma swallowing up the Grots' rickety contraptions. Forced to fight on the ground, the Grots fell in droves to the counterattack of the Vulkite Berserkers. Gruzlit attempted to fall back - only to find the Forge Brethren rise out of a pool of molten rock - Magmapikes blazing. His minions scrambling to escape, Gruzlit narrowly dodged the arc of a Grandaxe and swiped his cutta into the neck of Cindermaw Runefather Azjol's Magmadroth. Gruzlit was dead kunning, but should have known better. A spray of magma vaporised the left half of his face. Cindermaw roared and clambered to its full height, but then the Manticore venom kicked in - sending the great beast into spasms. Cindermaw toppled down a slope taking Azjol with it. Momentarily stunned by the fall of their leader, the Vulkites watched as a charred Grot Scuttlebag swooped down. Gruzlit's bodyguard of Nasty Skulkers picked up there crippled leader and unceremoniously dumped him onto the vessel. A hail of Fyresteel Axes dented the armour plates of the Scuttlebag, but it limped off into the distance - disappearing into the sulphurous clouds. With their leader escaped, the Grots courage buckled and the Fyreslayers took bloody vengeance - wiping them out down to the last Grot. That last Grot was the Shaman Rizzik, who coughed up the whereabouts of Gruzlit's fortress in the Yhorn Mountains. While the Azul Lodge had withstood the siege, the Fyreslayers had suffered brutal losses including James's father Harold Delaney - his spine split by the a Skulker's cruel Back Stabba. It would be many years before the Lodge could venture forth to hunt for Ur-Gold or take on a contract. Valerie brought him up to be a priest - a Runesmiter rather than a Vulkite - with hope of him avoiding Harold's fate. James took to this naturally becoming a skilled manipulator of metals - molten or otherwise. Like all inhabitants of the Azul Lodge he held a burning hatred of all Greenskinz and longed to raze Gruzlit's fortress to the ground. Following his initiation into the priesthood at the Lodge, he resolved that he would not devote his time to studying the books of grudges or tinkering at length with alchemical recipes - he wanted action - he wanted revenge. Craving power He began to dabble in forbidden rituals - carving tainted and curvaceous runes into his flesh from a dusty tome he had found in the Lodge's library written in pink ink. Other Runesmiters took note of his unusual progress and gossiped behind his back. His power increased twofold as did his appetites. James and his two younger brothers Horace and Keziah could demolish a keg of ale between them. Half drunk on power, half drunk on ale, James found himself drawn to his sister Zilpha in his dreams. Zilpha was already married at the tender age of 19 to the Battlesmith Zenit. Zilpha too began to see visions of James arising out of the ground and enveloping her in fuming magma. She was captivated. She resisted James's advances at first with disgust, but eventually succumbed to his advances after he infused a runic tattoo on her thigh with Ur-Gold. Neither of them knew that Selene - an emissary of the Dark Prince was manipulating them both for unknown ends. As luck would have it, The Honourable East Azyr Company - a swift Sky Fleet from Barak Zilfin - docked that winter at the Azul Lodge. Admiral Thaddeus was looking for keen adventurers to join his expedition to the Yhorn Mountains. James was attuned to the breath of Grungni in their Aethermatic weapons and gleaming Endrins. Normally so calm, he felt a rush of blood to his head. Before nightfall, James had signed up (in triplicate) the voluminous contract of The Honourable East Azyr Company. With his mother dead, it was Zilpha, who saw him off at the dock with an unusually passionate kiss for a sibling. He mounted a Frigate, which glided off into the clouds. Years of raiding in the lava fields of Moltania followed. James found his formidable prayers complemented the more direct approach of the Arkanauts. His fellow Arkanauts shuddered when James carried out grisly rituals on enemy corpses and living captives. His power continued to grow. Whispers of cannibalism followed him. Nevertheless, he impressed Admiral Thaddeus and promotion to Captain followed on the heels of his heroism against the fearsome Megaboss Krumbler.

Good report! It seems you had swingy luck in both directions. Good seeing two of the worst cavalry units in the game swing pillows at each other (not so Mighty Skullcrushers and Pigs). It felt less one sided than I'd expected though. What did you think of the Blood Tithe system?

Lord Verminant.

While in principle I like this idea (some kind of buff related to being in combat while keeping the mobility of Destruction), I don't think Ironjawz need any more encouragement towards MSU for combat. They are already between a rock and a hard place where MSU Brutes means that the later units to attack will be severely depleted before they get to do anything (or put another way mid-sized Deathstars with stacked buffs crush MSU in melee, e.g. 30 Stormvermin with 2" reach over their 25mm bases, +1 attack each, -2 rend and Daemonic Power for rerolls). Whereas a larger block of Brutes means that the default command ability will likely fail (command ability that only works on a dice roll was such a bad decision) and they become so susceptible to Battleshock (let alone Bravery debuffs) that you have to use inspiring presence anyway.

The meta hasn't done Ironjawz any favours at all lately. Stormcast have mutated from good honest Mace to the Face alpha strike, which Ironjawz could deal with, to Raptor plus Judicator bunker plus stack defensive buffs with Fanatics Aetherwings to wreck all the Ironjawz charges. Blades of Khorne are horrible for Ironjawz to deal with (although the move away from more models helps a tad). Skyfires are another serious problem for Ironjawz.

The list My 2,500 point list was as follows: Settra 369 Tomb King 100 Liche Priest 120 Necromancer 120 Necrotect 100 Tomb Herald 100 Arkhan 340 Coven Throne 260 Wight King 120 6 Necropolis Knights 320 9 Spirit Hosts 360 30 Zombros 180 2480 points The units in blue were the options. I could build 3 lists of 2,000 points - 1 offensive, 1 bunker and 1 bunker with the Coven Throne. Spirit Hosts were perfect for a defensive unit as they synergise well with Settra.

Budget-Krell Krell mysteriously lacks points, so I had to come up with a way to use the budget version - the wight King with Black Axe, who has 1 fewer attack and only a 4+ save (significant nerfs). However, being generic does open up artefacts and the Cloak of Mists and Shadows fitted perfectly. This meant that the Wight King could be setup 12" forward in the hero phase (after being fully buffed). He would then be able to move 14" (with Fly) and then charge, for a suitably deadly cannonball (for 120 points)

Enter Arkhan Arkhan solved one problem in the list - namely that of unreliable casts of spells. He could take charge of casting Vanhels and Mystic Shield with +2 to cast. However, Arkhan also supplied another cannonball for my arsenal - for he is a Skeleton. That means that he is able to be buffed by Vanhels and Righteous Smiting and by the Tomb King buff (unlike Nagash or any other Mortarchs or other big scary heroes). Arkhan is movement 16", so long charges are a real possibility. Full buffed, his Ghosts would be 6 attacks, exploding on 4+ and simultaneously doing a mortal wound, which is great. The Claws would be 6 attacks, exploding on 4+ , 3+ to wound, rerolling ones and then -2 rend, 2 damage. Furthemore, Arkhan could also summon with +3, this gave me the option of using either Spirit Hosts or Zombros as a summoning pool. I devised the following plan. After buffs were placed on the cannonball, Arkhan would summon 20 Zombros on a cast of 5 (there was no Battleline requirement by the way under the pack) to form a protective wall or ring in the middle of the table, which Settra could move up into (so that he could be in range to buff the cannonball. The first cannonball could fly over the Zombro wall in the movement phase (as Settra grants Fly in the movement phase only).

With the Talisman (and Mystic Shield), the Cabbage might actually survive the Pew Pew from 27 Skyfires turn one. Happy days.

Great idea! Looks awesome. Worthy of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. I imagine DoT would be good at this too - especially as 3 Triumvirates would be 9.

Hoping that Sepulchral Guard means a return of Krell!

I had a sobering experience yesterday down at the South London Legion - it was my fifth game with my Sylvaneth and my fourth defeat. Admittedly none of these were in a tournament setting. I played against the new Shinies - Blades of Khorne - wielded by John @Gitli I took this list: Allegiance: SylvanethLeadersTreelord Ancient (300)- General- Artefact: Briarsheath - Deepwood Spell: Verdant BlessingTreelord Ancient (300)- Artefact: Moonstone of the Hidden Ways - Deepwood Spell: RegrowthBattleline10 x Dryads (120)5 x Tree-Revenants (100)- Sylvaneth Battleline5 x Tree-Revenants (100)- Sylvaneth BattlelineUnits5 x Spite-Revenants (100)5 x Spite-Revenants (100)5 x Spite-Revenants (100)5 x Spite-Revenants (100)6 x Kurnoth Hunters (360)- Scythes3 x Kurnoth Hunters (180)- GreatbowsBattalionsDreadwood Wargrove (100)Outcasts (40)Total: 2000/2000 The Battleplan from the SCGT pack favoured me as I needed to use generals to score diagonally opposite objectives (failing which more models scored). John had deployed quite aggressively on my right to attack my objective. John's general and a ring of 10 Maras were on my left. I deployed my Wyldwood on his objective as a Les Martin Cluster. I figured that John probably wouldn't swap sides and I would be able to do some damage with I was aware of the availability of Brazen Runes which would be a once per game auto-unbind with infinite range. These were a horrible prospect for an army as Magic Dependent as Sylvaneth. Dreadwood Wargrove The basic plan was to use Ambush to redeploy the Scythe Hunters to come and smash John's general, then hopefully the rest of his army would get in the way of itself as it tried to react. I rolled up 3 abilities on the D3 - so I could use all 3 abilities. You need to plan on the basis of one such ability. On reflection, the unbinding is either an ability or a form of "casting spells" point discussed above should have meant that he couldn't use the auto unbinds as they were capped to a 12" range by Hidden Attackers (although this is ambiguous). I also used Sneak Attack, although following the FAQ to decapitate the Free Spirits - this ability appears to be almost useless due to the low movement speed of Sylvaneth and the ability to use Navigate Realmroots instead. The exceptions would be Alarielle and possibly Drycha, as she would be able to move 9" and then 9" and then use Flitterfuries to hit much of an enemy bunker. Another use would be if you had no Wyldwood in the middle and wanted to lob forward a line of 20 Dryads to act as a shield - as they could move 7" plus a further 7" and a run in the movement phase. I took turn one and used Awakening on the Wyldwood - this bounced off the 2++ ward vs spells that the Brazen Rune also provides until expended and killed a few Reavers. I realised with dismay that the Wyldwoods generated by the Ancient cannot be used that turn for the purposes of Navigate Realmroots (as they have to be more than 3" from any model) - Verdant Blessing is different. Luckily I cast Verdant Blessing and popped another Wyldwood down near my general and the rest of my forces. I used a combination of Navigate Realmroots and I left the Dryads in reserve (probably a mistake). I figured that some Bravery debuffs would really hurt the Khorne forces so I moved in with them. I shot up the 30 Blood Reavers with the Kurnoth Hunters - killing 12 - This prompted me to charge in with the Tree Revenants and 5 Spite Revenants. The hope was that the unit would pop, but that I would be able to block the Warriors and the Wrathbros behind in John's next turn . However, as I only just made the charges the Spites were behind the Revenants when I would have preferred the opposite. On the left, I killed 8 Bloodreavers of the 10 ringing the Mighty Lord. However, when it came to charge I found that John has legally broken coherency in order to block the gaps between the tree stumps. This meant that only 3 of the Kurnoths got into range and only the Champion against the Mighty Lord. Had I spotted this beforehand I would have gone into the Khorgoraths full throttle and hopefully dropped the unit of 3 (I had taken the Damned buff in exchange for 3 wounds). The non-general Ancient failed a long charge as the Bloodreavers near the Lord who had been 9" away were all dead as did the right Tree Revenants. The general one say back a little on John's objective behind a screen of 5 Spite Revenants. What happened next was horrific. 3 of the Scythe Hunters were out of combat even with a 2" reach. The Champion bounced off the Mighty Lord (not that surprisingly. However, John passed 2 out of 4 saves on sixes for his Blood Warriors, so the total damage inflicted was 1.5 Blood Warriors and 2 Blood Reavers from my hammer unit. I'd completely thrown away the game turn one it seemed. John attacked back with the depleted Blood Reavers, who were only 2 attacks each at the moment. They killed 3 Tree Revenants but no Spites. In response I activated the Spite Revenants who had also charged the Mighty Lord - they actually did a wound before the Mighty Lord deleted them. Then came the Khorgis at 3+, 3+, -1 rend, 2 damage. All 3 managed to get in and John rolled up 8 wounds. I proceeded to fail 6 of the saves - which came to 12 wounds plus the 3 earlier ones - 3 Dead Kurnoth Hunters in my turn! Plus this activated a Bravery debuff. The Spites and Tree Revenants did poorly. It's inexplicable to me that Tree Revenants aren't 3+ to hit (considering the army has no buffs to hit rolls whatsoever) and these chaps are the same cost per model as Phoenix Guard and Temple Guard. Battleshock meant that all bar 2 of the Blood Reavers popped. However, the tragic news was to come as I rolled badly for the Kurnoths and a further 2 models fled. 5 dead in my turn! Perhaps my worst first turn ever in AoS. I also lost the Tree Revenants even with the reroll - I think they are awful for 100 points - they should be 90 at most. I was considering whether to concede at this point. I was at least on a 3-0 lead and I wanted to see what the BoK could do. In short John moved his Wrathbros towards my general and the Mighty Lord came out to try to get him as well with the Reality Splitting Axe. This time the Les Martin Cluster worked in my favour as the fat base of the MLoK together with the remaining Spite Revenants meant that he had to go a long way round or waste a turn on the Spites. The Blood Warriors on the left went into the other Ancient, who had done nothing so far. The Moonstone was a complete waste of space on this. The plan had been to have him up with the Kurnoths unleashing the stomps to help keep them alive, but due to my bad positioning, he had ended up in the wrong place and out of combat. The Blood Warriors chomped up the Ancient, while the Khorgis thankfully failed a mid range charge. John cleared up my front line on the right flank. John won the initiative and got his General and the Wrathbros into my Ancient. I skillfully forgot about Gnarled Warrior for some reason, so John chipped away some wounds. An elaborate multi turn dance began whereby the Ancient with extra attacks from the Wrathbros hoped to do serious damage to the Mighty Lord only for it to pass its saves or its 5++ vs melee attacks (new trait)! John got to roll on the Reality Splitting Axe (now it kicks in immediately rather than at the end of the phase, which resolves the previous rules query as to whether you still have to roll if the MLoK is dead - Rule of Cool said yes!). However, he failed. Several turns later I still had a lead of 4-0, but in the pivotal combat, the MLoK took D6 damage from my Branch attacks, only for me to roll 2 wounds and then for him to save both of them with the Ward. Then the 2 Talon attacks (still one Wrathbro) hit him and again the ward save held!. John responded as only Khorne could - splitting my reality. I promptly conceded Reflections The positives were that despite the bad start, the army was still able to stand up to the Khorne forces for some time. The stars were the 10 Dryads who alone managed to hold up 10 Blood Warriors for 2 turns. The negatives were the Spite Revenants the Tree Revenants, the Bow Hunters and the Battalion itself. The Spites only seem to function in a scenario where they enemy are coming towards you and you're hiding in Wyldwoods. This jars with the Dreadwood Battalion itself which seems to operate as an alpha strike list (although it could be used as a bunker perhaps). The Tree Revanants melted so easily and even when they were able to pounce on the Bloodsecrator in my second turn, they didn't achieve much. Managing 2 wounds (admittedly against a 3+ save) over 2 turns of combat. I simply don't understand the supposed power of Bow Hunters, the 4+ to hit just puts them in mediocre or swingy land to me - the range is great, but I'm more impressed by Raptors (let alone Skyfires). I resorted to taking the Damned buff (even without Regrowth as John unbound it automatically), but they still underwhelmed. The Khorne Book looks solid. The Pilgrims with the rerollable saves and the autounbinds were huge. John rapidly got to 8 Blood Tithe (good work Spite Revenants....sigh) and used the 7 ability. I'm going to tear up the list - a paid of Ancients seems like a complete fail. On the plus side, I then got to go and be a guest a few hours later on Warhammer Weekly with @Vincent Venturella and @Thomas Lyons, which was epico! #MostlyGrots