3 February, 2018
Game 2 of the league
Initial Thoughts:
Well, my initial thought is bummer, why did I agree not to play my herd today. I originally was going to use my new herd list adapted for the Clash of Kings 2018 rules. So I agree to play the abyss because Swastakowey wants to try out his new herd list. Neither of us yet has the abuse book (Clash of Kings 2018), so we agree to play by last year’s rules. He unleashes 2 regiments of spirit walkers, 2 hordes of lycans, 2 brut oxen, 2 mounted shamans, a mounted chieftain, a lycan alpha and 3 beast packs. I know these units well, and I know that I should be able to give them a good fight. What worries me is that he will be able to use the terrain much better than I will. I do have some shooting, which is something he does not, so I plan to use it for as long as I possibly can.
Set Up:
The plan: put the infantry in the center as a threat, have the faster stuff swing in from the wings. Use shooting first couple rounds to delete the beast packs and shamans. With that out there, my deployment from left to right: Gargoyles, horsemen with pathfinder, Lord of Lies, harbinger with Boomstick, hellhounds with Brew of Courage, succubi with Ram’s Helm, harbinger with Lute, succubi with Blood of the Old King, Demon Princess Sophie, tortured souls with Brew of Haste, and gargoyle troop. Lined up against me, we have, from left to right: a lycan Alfa, beast pack, mounted chieftain, brutox followed by mounted shaman with heal, spirit walker regiment, beast pack, brutox, spirit walker regiment, lycan horde, beastpack followed by mounted shaman with heal, and another lycan horde. a lazy W formation.
Turn 1:
The herd wins the roll for first and we’re off. Everyone moves forward cautiously, the whole left flank protected from attack by the woods, except the lycan alfa who hauls butt down the line.
I move the gars down the line to threaten flanks, the rest of the army advances cautiously but deliberately. The lightning should do very well right now, but it doesn’t. The LoL only manages 2 wounds and no waver on a 9/11 unit. the boomstick harbinger misses all 3 shots, and Sophie gets 3 wounds on the far right, resulting in a wavered pack. I will say it right now, since gars have been made even more fragile by the rules committee who somehow think they’re abusive, I was too cautious with them. I should have hit the lycan alfa and put the others on the hill, but it seemed like a good idea not to do either at the time.
Turn 2:
(I got a little ahead of myself with the pic.) The beastpack who should have been wavered, but wasn’t thanks to a lousy nerve roll charges the horsemen. The chieftain charges across the wall into the gars. The beast pack in the center charges the hellhounds. The right side moves into charge range. For shooting, the right side shaman heals 2 wounds on the wavered beast pack. In combat, each beast pack manages a single wound, and bounces back. The mounted chieftain fails to wound the left side gars, and they are free to flitter off.
Not well positioning my right side gars takes a toll. (Actually, looking at this now, and writing it up is a bit painful since I can see the abundance of errors I made.) Had I put them on the hill, still out of charge arc, they could have done something at least semi useful, instead they move to block the lycan horde. The left side gars flank the brutox while the horsemen counter the beast pack. The LoL charges the spirit walkers all on the left. The center I make another mistake. I should have put the hellhounds into the spirit walker flank, but foolishly decided not to. Instead they and the griffin banner girls hit the beast pack. For shooting, the boomstick manages a single wound on the right brutox. Combat is a mixed bag with the 2 beast packs being slaughtered, but the gars really botch their rolls on the brutox, and the LoL does even worse. Where it all goes badly is on the right, leaving both Sophie and the souls open to flank charges. Again, I really forgot that tactics were important in this game. The one hope I had was that I could back up 2 or 3 inches with the horsemen, but that didn’t happen, leaving the lycan alfa a clean flank on them.
Turn 3:
The mounted chieftain again charges the gars while the spirit walkers counter charge the LoL and the brutox and lycan alfa combo charge the horsemen. On the right, the lycan horde counter charges Sophie, the other lycans charge the gars, and the spirit walkers and brutox combo the souls. The left shaman heals the brutox and the right shaman heals the lycans. The chieftain manages a single wound, but the gars shake it off. Unfortunately, the horsemen go down to the brutox and alfa while the LoL holds after taking a single wound. The souls are splattered and returned to the abyss as are the gargoyles, but Sophie holds despite some incredible attack rolls against her. 11 wounds out of 18 attacks on a 3/4 pretty fabulous.
Well, at least I have some charges. The gars, hounds and LoL triple charge the spirit walkers on the left, The griffin Banner girls chrge the brutox, the other girls charge the spirit walkers, and Sophie re-engages the lycans in the woods. The only shooting for the turn is a successful bane chant on the succubi attacking the walkers. Both spirit walker regiments are dispatched to the great beyond, as is the right side brutox. Sophie adds 7 damage to the lycans, who waver. Worst possible result at this point. On the left, my lack of tactics again shines. for some strange reason, I decide to advance the LoL instead of turning to face the brutox and lycan alfa. The result leaves the alfa a rear charge on her. The hellhounds and gars do at least face the right direction.
Turn 4:
(I had some issues with the turn 4 pics, so we’ll just roll on without.) On the right, the brutox charges the hellhounds, the alfa rear charges the LoL and the chieftain again attacks the gargoyles. The 2 lycan hordes attack Sophie. The beast pack advances to support the lycans. The gars take 2 wounds and are wavered. The LoL takes 10, but is okay, and the brutox has some bad rolls causing 4 damage on the hounds. Sophie is crushed.
The LoL counters the alfa, the hounds counter the brutox. The gars regenerate their damage and turn to aid the hounds and LoL. The griffin banner girls charge the beast pack and the others charge the injured lycans. I get silly with my harbingers now, and keep them both supporting the left side fight, instead of one going to the right. The boomstick harb fails to wound the chieftain, while the other gets a bane chant off on the hounds. Everybody on the left holds, while on the right, the injured lycans die, and despite terrible damage, the beast pack holds. (OK, this is my third game of the weekend where a snake eyes roll has cost me the game. It was really getting old.)
Turn 5:
The melee continues. The somehow surviving beast pack counter charges the griffin girls, while the lycans and mounted shaman charge the other girls. The hellhounds die, as do the gars, and the LoL is wavered. The lycans and shaman do a combined 5 wounds, but roll a 12 on nerve. had I not been stupid and moved a harb to inspire them, they would have held. The beast pack cause a single wound on the griffin girls, and because of positioning can’t push back.
Damn, so the purple girls can’t charge the lycans because of the odd angle. Instead, they have to counter the beast pack that shouldn’t be there. The LoL again counters the alfa. The boomstick harb zaps the brutox and wavers him. The LoL again does terrible against the alfa, and the beast pack finally die.
Turn 6:
The chieftain joins the alfa in attacking the LoL, who finally goes down. Between regeneration and heal 10, the brutox is reduced from 8 wounds to 1. The lycans charge the griffin girls, but they hold.
The griffin girls do the unexpected and corkscrew around the lycans to charge the mounted shaman. The The boomstick harb tries to shoot the brutox, but it turns into a fizzle stick. The other harb bane chants the griffin girls, who go on to slaughter the shaman and position them to score. If there is no turn 7, it’s a draw in Swas’ favor. Naturally, there’s a turn 7, and the griffin girls take a triple charge and are obliterated, giving the herd a significant win.
After Thoughts:
I think I’ve pretty much covered these through out. I made a lot of mistakes that Jayden was able to capitalize on. The snake eyes on the beast pack really did cost me the game, though as those other lycans should have gone down to a bane chanted succubus charge. Not taking anything from Jayden who played a solid game. I just didn’t.
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