Hello everyone!
In the second round of a local tournament in our cosy basement in Warsaw downtown I was paired against Paweł and his wonderfully painted Skorne. Games against Paweł are exciting in most cases, in some I just get wrecked ;d I was hoping this one will be on the exciting side ;d Paweł picked Jalaam1 and I took Vayl1.
Paweł’s Jalaam1 list:
[Jalaam 1] Primus Jalaam [+28]
– Cyclops Raider [9]
– Mammoth [32]
Extoller Novitiate [2]
Hermit of Henge Hold [5]
Mortitheurge Willbreaker [2]
Tyrant Rhadeim [8]
Cataphract Cetrati (max) [15]
– Tyrant Vorkesh [0(5)]
Praetorian Ferox (max) [17]
Praetorian Swordsmen (max) [12]
– Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard [0(3)]
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer [0(5)]
My Vayl1 list:
My Vayl1 list:
Legion
[Theme] Oracles of Annihilation
[Vayl 1] Vayl, Disciple of Everblight [+27]
– Angelius [14]
– Scythean [14]
– Seraph [13]
Blight Archon [9]
– Mekanoshredder [4]
– Raek [6]
Blighted Nyss Shepherd [1]
Blighted Nyss Sorceress & Hellion [0(6)]
Thagrosh Hellborne [0(5)]
– Typhon [18]
Blackfrost Shard [9]
Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters (min) [9]
– Bayal, Hound of Everblight [0(5)]
Ice Witches [5]
Deployment
I won the roll and decided to go first. Paweł decided to take the side with a ship wreck.
I deployed Vayl somewhat centrally. Seraph and Scythean at her sides. Thag0 and Typhon on the right, Blight Archon with Reak, Angelius and other models on the left. Ice Witches and BFS stood in the back, as support models should 😉 Hex Hunters were advance deployed in the center.
Paweł deployed Mammoth on the right flank with a clear intention to move around the rock on it’s right side. He also put Swordsmen there to go to contest my rectangular zone. Jalaam was deployed centrally. Cetrati were put slightly toward the left side. Ferox and Rhadeim were put on the far left.
Round 1 Turn 1
I ran with my warbests forward. I put Leash on Angelius, Frost Field on Scythean, Drago’s Blood on Typhon (+2 ARM) and Crimson Balet on Blight Archon. I kept all my models outside of direct fire from Mammoth. Reak was meant to go around the forest to contest enemy rectangular zone. In the center, Angelius and Scythean were there to take care of Ferox and heavy infantry. On the right, I planned to use Typhon’s spray attacks to get rid of Swordsmen. Thag0 took reroll mutation as the first one. To be fair, I wasn’t sure what was I going to do with Mammoth, should he join the fight in the middle. I kept Helion on the right side too, with an intention to use her ability to block enemy (Mammoth mainly) shooting within her 8″ cmd. I kept Seraph in the middle of my army, in order to be able to support my army with Slip Stream on either side.
Round 1 Turn 2
Paweł decided to push aggressively in the center and protect those models with Jalaam’s feat. Cetrati moved in Shield Wall with +2 SPD bonus from Tyrant and thanks to their UA minifeat they repositioned 5″ forward. Heavy infantry with +4 ARM, no kd and tough are no joke. Ferox followed them and prepared for the next turn. Swordsmen ran forward, Hermit right behind them. Mammoth moved forward and opened fire, but his shots missed.
Round 2 Turn 1
Such tough to kill heavy infantry supported by Jalaam’s feat is hard to deal with, unless you have a warbeast with Murderous, 2″ reach, thresher and Grievous Wounds eager to join the fight 😉 Thag0 took free animus mutation and placed Typhon 2″ forward. Blight Archon moved away, Seraph Slip Streamed Vayl. She moved closer to the center, Slip Streamed Scythean forward, cast Incite and used feat. Ice Witches gave Puppet Master to Angelius, Scythean and Typhon. Sorceress on Helion moved closer to the center to allow beasts with flight to charge for free. Angelius charged in and with boosts to hit slayed several Feroxes making more space for another beast. Scythean charged in and with additional dice to hit, thanks to Murderous, managed to hit and kill every Cetrati within his reach. That was a painful blow to Skorne’s plan. Typhon moved forward and sprayed Hermit and Swordmen. Hex Hunters charged enemy models and managed to kill another Cetrati, I believe. Reak ran forward to contest the rectangular zone together with Angelius. Then everything moved and repositioned thanks to Vayl’s feat. That was a great turn.
Round 2 Turn 2
Although I managed to wipe almost entire units in the middle, Skorne still had capabilities to get rid of the warbeasts in the middle. First, Hermit walked up and used -2 ARM debuff. Then, Ferox, together with the last remaining Cetrati and Tyrant Commander managed to deal enough damage to slain Angelius and Scythean. Fortunately, Paweł didn’t have enough models to contest my flag. Reak kept contesting the rectangular zone, too. Mammoth destroyed my objective and dealt some damage to Typhon I believe. Swordsmen killed the two blocking Hex Hunters and one of them managed to squeeze through and contested my rectangular zone. Paweł scored 2 points, I scored one, 1:2 to Skorne’s advantage.
Round 3 Turn 1
My plan was to clear the center of the board and deal with the models in the back in the following turn. I was pretty sure taking Mammoth down was out of the question. With a help of Seraph, Blight Archon and Hex Hunters I managed to clear the circular zone. Hex Hunters’ Battle Wizard ability helped a bit in dealing additional damage to Hermit. Typhon easily killed the contesting Swordsment and added a couple more with his spray attacks. Mechanoshredder toed my rectangular zone in case I would lose Typhon next turn. I scored 3 points and Paweł scored one, as I didn’t have enough models to contest his flag, 4:3 in my favour.
Round 3 Turn 2
Paweł was running out of models but decided against running Mammoth forward, opened fire instead and put some damage into Typhon. Charging Swordsmen finished my severely wounded warbeast and spread across my rectangular zone to contest it and buy some time. Nothing really happened in the center, Swordsmen contested the zone and blocked my movement a little. On the left, Cyclop and Tyrant failed to put Reak down. I scored my flag, Paweł scored his, 5:4.
Round 4 Turn 1
I was running low on time, so I had to speed up. I knew that Paweł was hoping that I will clock myself out, and he knew I knew 😀 we all knew! Not this time! Seraph placed himself leftwards with apparition to open line of sight from Archon to Tyrant Commander. Vayl walked up and cast Incite. Blight Archon charged Tyrant and cast Impending Doom. Cyclops was pushed in a way that he stopped contesting the rectangular zone and was blocked by Tyrant’s base before he could start contesting the circular zone. This way I had to kill Tyrant only and Blarchon managed to do that. Reak and Seraph charged and killed the objective, barely! Ice Witches and Hex Hunters managed to kill remaining Swordsmen that were contesting two zones and I scored 5 points! The final result was 10 to 4 and I had much less than a minute left on the clock 😛
On the photo below you can see the Cyclops still contesting the rectangular zone, as we were discussing what would happen if I wasn’t be able to push Cyclops out of the zone, but we quickly realized that I needed 4 points to win, so that didn’t really matter in the end 😉
Afterthoughts
I created a buymeacoffee profile, where you can support me and contribute to development of this blog by buying me a “coffee”. Funds gathered this way will be used on blog maintenance and making more 3D terrain 😉
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Oh how I love playing this list! It has such a great damage output, so many damage buffs and threat extenders! If you haven’t play Vayl1 yet, I recommend you to try her out 😉 I know I said it before, but she is so much fun.
If it comes to the game, Scythean with all the buffs and Murderous surprised Paweł and managed to punch a hole in my opponent’s battle plan. This was the pivotal moment that changed the tides of the game dramatically. Without the strong center Skorne’s tactical situation collapsed like a house of cards.
Taking the above into consideration, keeping Mammoth out of the melee fight turned out to be crucial for the rest of the game. I managed to put Typhon far enough to threaten the gargantuan with a charge. Typhon with Incite and Kiss of Lyliss is able to reach P+S 21. That combined with situational Puppet Master and 8 attacks in total is able to dish out a lot of damage.
After the second round, the point was not to lose on clock, and I surprisingly managed not to 😉
Thanks again, Paweł, for the game! It was a nail-biter until the very end!
Cheers,
Piotr