Vengeance Rising - Battle 12 - Tomb Kings vs Warriors of Chaos - 30/6/12

Well onto the first battle report of the day. It was going to be Warriors of Chaos against my Tomb Kings gun line so to speak. Taking this list purely for fun and a bit of a laugh. I've no doubt its effectiveness will disappoint me but we'll see how it goes anyway. Taking out armour is always going to be a struggle with S3 fire.

Blood & Glory

Lists:

WOC

Level 3 - Fire
BSB
10 Warriors of Khorne - XHW
10 Warriors of Slaanesh - Halberds
15 Warriors of Tzeentch - Hw/Shield
6 Knights of Tzeentch
5 Knights of Tzeentch
5 Marauder Horsemen of Slaanesh
Hellcannon
4 Trolls
2 x Warshrines of Slaanesh

Tomb Kings

Hierophant
LHP - Death
3 x 20 Archers - Std/Mus
3 x 5 Horse Archers
8 Ushabti - Bows, Std, Mus
4 Ushabti - Bows
SSC
Casket
2 x Necrolith Collosus - Great Bows

WOC- Fortitude - 6, Breaking point 2
TK - Fortitude - 6, breaking point 2

Deployment

Spells -

Level 3 - firestorm, fireball, flaming sword

Hierophant - veng, desiccation, smiting, protection
Death - spirit leech, fate, doom, sun

Chaos wins the roll off. My initial concerns were just not having the consistent ability to do damage to the enemy army, just far too much armour!!

WOC 1

Everything advances, all tests passed.

Ruby ring goes off on the big ushabti doing no damage. Fire ball does 5 hits and 2 wounds. Firestorm fails.

WS buffs warriors with +1 Ld.

TK 1

Bit of reshuffling.

Magic - I roll 3 x 1s on my opening spell of Vengeance. Yay. 6 dice purple sun, IF, (forgot to roll 7 dice to gain power dice as well!) death priest jumps in the warp. Sensational. 2 trolls die and a single knight.

SSC scatters and kills a horse archer.

Trolls lose a model to shooting.

WOC2

Trolls charge into Horse archers. Warriors of Khorne into Horse archers flank.

Purple sun moves away from the battle.

Magic fails to cast ring, dispel fireball onto ushabti.

Warshrine onto warriors again, they get +1S.

Warriors mince through HA. Overrun and run into knights halting there momentum.
Troll kills HA and overrun into Ushabti.

TK2

Bone giants and small Ushabti charge into khorne warriors.

Stalkers arrive behind knights.

Purple sun moves 4" north.

Powered up smiting goes off. Heals Ushabti, and archer.

Stalkers kill 3 knights. pass panic.

SSC misfires.

BSB takes a wound from archer fire. 6 warriors drop from archer fire. panic passed.

Ushabti chop up troll and reform slightly to face threats on west flank.

Giant takes a wound, Ushabti takes a wound, everyone carves up the warriors (Unstoppable Assault FTW!!). Overrun into Knights and BSB. Ushabti reform.

WOC 3

Warriors charge into archers. Hellcannon charges into archers on back line.

Purple sun moves off board. I scroll flaming sword on warriors to prevent auto wounds.

Warshrine gives warriors +1 armour save.

Hellcannon kills 6 and further 6 crumble. 8 remain.

Warriors kill archers and overrun into second unit.

Bone giants kill BSB and knight. Reform to face warriors rear.

TK3

Bone giants into rear/flank of warriors.

Desiccation on warriors, casket goes off but does nothing. Powered up smiting goes off again healing some wounds!

Shooting all does nothing. 

In combat the bone giant kills the Level 4 equalling his breaking point. 

Result - Tomb Kings Victory

Wow, what a sensational game. First off I thought I was in a world of hurt from the first turn just with damage output. The purple sun was really going to disrupt the opponents plans but it decided to float away. The gunline is a pretty cool concept although I'm not sure on the longevity of it. The Bone giants won me the game hands down. Cleaned up the warriors of khorne, some knights and the BSB, and then smashed the general for the victory. They never hit with their bows but I think it certainly gives the opponent something to think about and be aware of what they can do. I was hoping to pull the knights out of formation so they exposed a flank and I could get a shot in with the bolt throwers but this result is far better!

I was reckless with the purple sun but it was the only way it was going to go off. If I stayed composed I think I should have perhaps spirit leeched something and doom and darkness on something as well but all good. The powered up smiting's really saved me as well. My opponent couldn't roll high enough and I through 6 dice at them and luckily didn't get box cars.

Thoughts and comments always welcome.

Vengeance Rising - Battle 11 - Tomb Kings vs Warriors of Chaos - 26/06/12

The Battle for Eclipse Tower

Lists:

WOC:

Level 4 - Tzeentch, Puppet, Golden eye, Roar, disc, I10 sword
Level 2 - Tzeentch, Blood of Tzeen, Talisman of Pro
BSB - MOT, Banner of the Gods
49 Chaos Marauders of Tzeentch - FC, LA, Shields
20 Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch - FC, Warbanner
19 Chaos Warriors of Nurgle - FC, GW, Festering Shroud
Hellcannon
Chaos Giant of Slaanesh

TK:

Tomb Prince - Armour of Destiny, GW
LHP - Scroll
LHP - Book of Ashur, Ironcurse, Lore of Death
21 Archers - Std
20 Archers - Std
6 Chariots - Flaming
6 Necropolis Knights - Std, Mus
38 Tomb Guard - FC, Banner of Swiftness
Casket
Hierotitan

Spells:

level 4 - baneful transformagation, call to glory, pande, gateway
level 2 - curse of the leper, glorious rot

hiero - cursed blades, protection, smiting, desiccaiton
death - doom, sun, caress, soulblight

Deployment:





TK 1

Purple sun goes off towards the Hell cannon killing 2 crew.

Soulblight onto the Warriors in the building IF, power drain - carress of laneth is the only spell I end up with left!

2 dead warriors in building from shooting.

WOC 1

Pandemonium goes through, gateway onto the Tomb Guard fails to dispel by 1. Lose 7 models.

Hellcannon onto Tomb Guard but misfires causing a S10 hit on the template. 8 croak it. Hellcannon can no longer fire.

TK2

Caress of laniph kills the level 4 miscasting and killing 8 TG.

Shooting kills 4 warriors in the watchtower.

WOC 2

Hellcannon applies pressure to the Tomb Guard flank whilst the Marauder block carefully advances.

Magic fails to do anything forthcoming. Purple Sun fizzes out.

TK3

Necropolis knights charge into warriors. Chariots into the flank of marauders.

Cursed blades on NK.
Desiccation on hellcannon.

Shooting kills another warrior in the watch tower.

In combat the Necroknights are left with 3 models. 

Marauders pass Break test and reform.

WOC3

Hellcannon charges Hierotitan and takes a wound from difficult terrain.

Dispel and Scroll magic phase.

Knights take 2 wounds from festering shroud.

HT and HC deal a wound each to draw a combat.

Knights are destroyed and warriors reform to face East.

Chariots and Marauders keep dishing out pain and the chariot loses one model.

TK4

TG charges building.

Magic - cursed blades on TG
Dess on Hellcannon

Shooting - 1 nurgle warrior dead

Combat leaves 1 chariot left on 2 wounds.

Prince fluffs all attacks and Tomb Guard perform poorly pushing me out of the building.

WOC 4

Giant advances on Tomb Guard, Warriors of Nurgle face South.

Remaining chariot falls to Rot glorious rot in the magic phase.

Hierotitan wounds Hellcannon.

Brother rolls a 6 ending the game.

Result – WOC Victory

In conclusion the list performed well, would have been much better provided I didn't miscast on two dice on turn 1. Really missed not having options for the level 4 death priest in the later game, doom and darkness could have really come in handy.

My own debrief:

Deployment – Plan was to capture the tower late game with the Tomb Guard. Chariots and Necroknights to hold up blocks. I was really banking on lore of death to help me get rid of the Hellcannon.

Turn 1 – Solid start to the game although purple sun not taking out the Hellcannon was just plain unlucky and then backing that trend up with rolling boxcars for soulblight was just terrible! Oh the pain!

Turn 2 - Another miscast but at a appropriate cost this time taking out the enemy level 4 wizard. I perhaps should have used the Knights here instead to immediately start hammering away at the warriors in the building rather than going for the turn 4 capture with the Tomb Guard.

Turn 3 – Big mistake here on my part, I should have combined my combats and put the chariots into the flank of the warriors, I’m confident I would have dished out enough hurt to either break them or destroy them allowing both units a good chance at overrunning into the Marauders.

Turn 4 – The push for the tower ultimately failed. The prince rolled 2 x 1’s and a 2 so there was no love there and I think the Tomb Guard themselves even with 5+ KB only managed a measly 3 wounds.

Game over.

Had the game progressed and I had managed to get into the tower I would have no doubt been counter attacked by the second unit of warriors. At this stage I think they had barely two ranks left so with a bit of shooting and magic I’m confident I could have secured the watch tower. However none of this matters now! 

Unit breakdowns:

Tomb Prince - Armour of Destiny, GW

Didn’t do anything notable of the whole game, the WS boost didn’t even matter for the Tomb Guard. Can’t be judged on a single game though however.

LHP - Scroll
LHP - Book of Ashur, Ironcurse, Lore of Death

Great magic setup.

21 Archers - Std
20 Archers – Std

Standard core choices for me currently.

6 Chariots – Flaming

I need to play around with the chariots a lot more. I’m dirty on them for a number of reasons, firstly I snapped one of the crew members in half. Secondly I should have slammed them into the warriors flank. I think armour just puts me off attacking anything.

6 Necropolis Knights - Std, Mus

Love the knights even though I used them very poorly this game.

38 Tomb Guard - FC, Banner of Swiftness

I’m sure I can get use to having these guys in a list, good sized unit but once again this battle report doesn’t do a whole lot to showcase them as anything but expensive bone shields.

Casket
Hierotitan

Standard rare choices. Hierotitan really put the pressure on the opponent by boosting spells and making those easy 2 dice dispels becoming spells that required 3 dispel dice to get rid of.

Next game could either be a 2500 point or a 1500 point depending on if I enter a local campaign which would be interesting as I don’t mind the smaller games at all.

Thoughts and comments appreciated.

Vengeance Rising - Battle 10 - Tomb Kings vs Warriors of Chaos - 23/06/12

Dawn Attack

My brother was up for the weekend so he opted to face the 6 sphinx list with a chaos list.

Warriors of Chaos Army

Level 4 - Tzeentch, Puppet, Golden eye, Roar, disc, I10 sword

Level 2 - Tzeentch, Blood of Tzeen, Talisman of Pro

BSB - MOT, Banner of the Gods

49 Chaos Marauders of Tzeentch - FC, LA, Shields

20 Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch - FC, Warbanner

19 Chaos Warriors of Nurgle - FC, GW, Festering Shroud

Hellcannon

Chaos Giant of Slaanesh

My list:

Tomb Prince - General, GW, Armour of Destiny, Warsphinx, FB

Liche Priest - Level 2, Feedback Scroll

19 Archers - Std

20 Archers - Std

6 Chariots - Flaming

5 Horse Archers

3 x Warsphinx - FB

Casket of Souls

2 x Necrosphinx

Spells

TK - dessication, vengeance

L4 - gateway, call to glory, flicking fire, baneful transformorgation,

L2 - flickering fire, pandemonium

Deployment:

I rolled a 6 and got to go first!

TK 1

Movement and nothing else exciting, shooting and magic do nothing.

WOC 1

Magic sees pandemonium dispelled however Infernal gateway goes off on tomb prince. I use my feedback scroll which only yields a single wound. Gatway slays the warsphinx and the prince wards one wound. The hellcannon then kills the tomb prince!!

TK 2

Shooting manages a single wound on the giant.

WOC 2

Giant and nurgle warriors charge warsphinx, warriors make it.

Pandemonium goes off. Gateway on warsphinx on IF killing it. Miscast does nothing (7).

2 wounds on casket with roar.

Warriors hold necrosphinx and do two wounds.

TK 3

Warsphinx charges the giant.

I reposition the Necrosphinx in order to trap the Level 4 however of course in the magic phase Light of death kills the lvl 4.

Combat sees the Necrosphinx break and pursue the warriors falling short 1" of the marauders. Warsphinx held with Giant.

WOC 3

Marauders charge into necrosphinx.

Magic phase sees me dispel pandemonium.

2 wounds on southern Necrosphinx with hellcannon.

Giant chomps 2 wounds onto warsphinx I do one back.

Necrosphinx dies to crumble. Marauders overun 10"

TK 4

Warsphinx charges flank of Giant.

Magic sees me get desiccation off on marauders. Archers kill 4 marauders.

Giant kills damaged Warsphinx, charging Warsphinx kills giant, giant falls kills 8 marauders and Warsphinx overruns into Marauders.

WOC 4

Hellcannon drops NS. :-(

Crew KB BSB in combat. Thundercrush hits, does 5 wounds. Thunderstomp does 1 wound. Marauders break, flee 7, I pursue 2".

TK 5

I charge with the Warsphinx into the rear of the marauders who fails terror test/caught/destroyed and I reform.

Magic sees me get desiccation on the Hellcannon negging S/T by 2. Archers do 2 wounds on HC and 2 warriors drop.

WOC 5

Warriors and hellcannon charge and destory horse archers. Overrun 2" short of chariots.

TK 6

Chariots charge into warriors.

Light of death kills hellcannon.

Desiccation on warriors.

Archers kill remaining chaos dwarfs.

Chariots kill 3 warriors, warriors do 7 wounds back, crumble to 2 chariots left.

WOC 6

Warriors fail fear 1 wound on chariots. Chariot do nil back. 1 chariot left on 1 wound.

TK Victory!

Conclusion.

Well unsure about the 6 sphinx list. I was unlucky/stupid to deploy the prince where he was but my brother was damn lucky with his Infernal Gateways and Hellcannon shots!!

Cool list and I will probably invest in another 3 sphinxes to keep playing with it! :)

Star Wars Legion Tournament Report - Brisvegas Comics

Morning folks

Yesterday my son and I attended our first tournament for Star Wars Legion which has been an overdue event. Previously work has always conflicted with events in the past so it was good to finally get to one and support the community.

The location was Brisvegas Comics which is a store tucked away in Fortitude Valley near the heart of Brisbane. Parking wasn't too much of an issue and the venue itself although a little cramped had good air conditioning to ward off the 30+ degree day outside.

$25 for 3 games at a good venue and a feed was included by the resident celebrity chef. Bargain. 8 people showed up and we were all ready for the laughs and frustration that come from rolling blank dice.

As per usual with any game of Legion I decided on a list and then analysed it to the point where I decided not to take it, and go with some complete different. I repeated this process a further 6 times. I really want to get competent at a single list type, and just continue to craft that approach. No doubt it will take a considerable amount of time and effort in order achieve that greatness or the 'zen' of legion but it is the current path.

I ended up running the following list:

800/800

11 Activations

Agent Kallus (Strict Orders, Offensive Push, Ascension Cables, J-19 Bo-rifle)

Bossk (Hunter, Seize the Initiative, Targeting Scopes)

Stormtroopers (T-21 Stormtrooper)

DF-90 Mortar Trooper

2x Shoretroopers (T-21B Trooper, Offensive Push)

2x Stormtroopers (DLT-19 Stormtrooper)

3x Scout Troopers (Strike Team) (DLT-19x Sniper)

Developing Sympathies, Covert Observation•, Merciless Munitions•, Push••, Reptilian Rampage••, Ruthless Tactics•••, Lying in Wait•••, Standing Orders••••

Contingencies: Face Me!•, ISB Investigation••

The Long March, Advanced Positions, Hemmed In, Major Offensive

Key Positions, Intercept the Transmissions, Sabotage the Moisture Vaporators, Breakthrough

Clear Conditions, Fortified Positions, Rapid Reinforcements, Supply Drop

Round 1

The matches were drawn and my first opponent was Rob. Firstly, the paint job on his army was incredible. In fact, I didn't see a poorly presented army at all over the course of the day which was cool to see.

Rob was running Cassian and K2SO backed up with Wedge in an Airspeeder, Shriv driving the bus full of Wookiees and an assortment of Rebel Troopers and Veterans and a pesky unit of Tauntauns. We ended up running (from memory) Recover the Supplies, Roll Out, and Supply Drop.

My biggest threat was the bus full of angry bears, and the Airspeeder getting behind me taking out my long range assets piecemeal. 

I deployed most of my firepower anchoring a corner, whilst a sniper team scouted into a good position to snatch a crate early in the game. Rob has Tauns on a flank ready to scream down, the other flank was covered by the Airspeeder and the bus took near centre stage with its hairy payload. Although it wouldn't come into play, my bounty went onto K2SO after seeing Cassian deploy on a tower close to a board edge. Wisely, he wasn't coming to play with the Empire. At least not closely.

Deployment

Summarised the battle went something like this. Rob pushed his Airspeeder forward, and I think I popped it first turn. The DLT's certainly helped, but the sheer amount of critical hits that the Shoretroopers generated from combined fire made me nervous that my dice would abandon me later.

The Empire gun line....

After the bus took a few wounds he backed it up swiftly to prevent the Wookiees from being left out in the open. A bit of cat and mouse took place jockying for position in order to charge my lines but for the most part well timed standby tokens and elevated positions nullified the Wookiees preventing them from rushing into an open area only to take damage.

The Bus backs up in self preservation mode

The Tauns plinked some wounds onto my units and Kallus ended up charging them and killing them over a few turns locking them down. By this stage both Rob and I had nabbed a box each. There was a quick one to grab in the centre and I just had too many bodies to achieve the objective and came out a point ahead.

Kallus about to charge the remaining Tauntaun.

If Rob has pushed the bus forward instead of reversing it, I think the game would have looked very different. Perhaps even if Cassian and K2 played a greater role in the game I would have been spanked. But alas, the spankings were to come.

Round 2

I met Jerome, interestingly enough, Jerome runs a list similar to what I love and play. Operative Vader backed up with some meaty reptilian monstrosities who hurt when they hit. Secondly, Jerome won the last event so I knew from the on set this was going to be an uphill battle. He was running something like this:

Krennic

Op Vader

Royal Guard

2 x Dewbacks

2 x Snipers

2 x Stormtroopers

Snowtroopers

Objective weren't kind to me and I was stuck between Payload or Hostage Exchange. Both terrible options against Vader. Lastly, I was in a horrid spot when Hemmed In was the deployment.

I was so pissed off with myself for making such a rookie error in this game and it ultimately led to my downfall. I was so fixated and confident that Jerome would use Darkness Descends as Vader's first order card, that I was totally rail roaded when we played New Ways to Motivate Them. Of course, first turn I was dealing with a pair of Dewbacks slammed deep into my lines. To add salt to my wounds, I intended to pick Kallus' ISB Investigation command card in order to nullify Vader's 1 pips for a turn, but for whatever reason I instead pulled Ruthless Tactics. Not a great start.

I managed to drop an opposing sniper team first turn, and his Royal Guard were hurting after taking a load of accurate fire from Shoretroopers. Despite being charged by a pair of Dewbacks, the casualties were minimal as some solid saves came through. Vader went and did Vader things to my Shoretroopers, Snipers, and Mortar whilst the rest of my army charged and dealt with Dewbacks eventually killing them. 

By this stage though it was clear I wasn't going to be close enough to the objective to score. I went for a hail mary against Vader with Bossk to nail a bounty but the law of averages weren't broken and he remained alive.

Jerome took the victory through clever play and running the objective from turn zero. I took the morale victory nailing Krennic and the Dewbacks. All in all, a great game and I certainly walked away from it with a new mental check list.

Round 3

Dan was my third and final opponent for the day. He was running a Cassian/Sabine rebel list with Mandos, Clan Wren, Bus + Wookiees and some Rebel Troopers. It was Recover the Supplies, Hemmed In and something else.

I stacked an area of heavy fire support in one area and lit the bus up immediately. Once again, all the crits and stacking damage from Impact was enough to take the bus out in the second turn I think. Of course this left the Wookiees in no mans land but Dan wasted no time and charged through a bunch of units into Bossk, killing my lizard.

There was a lot of back and forth action with Cassian sitting back sniping away my snipers and other targets of opportunity. Kallus's ISB Investigation came through blocking Sabine's Explosions command card a turn earlier and when he eventually played it, I used contingencies to play Kallus' one pip and charged her ensuring she copped some bomb damage as well.

She would eventually drop to punches from Agent Kallus and Shoretroopers for what feels like 2-3 turns later.

Once again I was happy sitting back and shooting at stuff, rather than actually focusing on the objective. Dan jumped in and eventually Cassian walked away with the winning pot of gold in which I couldn't get the angle to nail a shot onto him. Well done Dan.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the best part of the day for me was attending a tournament with my son. We both performed terribly placing 7th and 8th but I guess consistency works at both ends of success and failure right? He had a good time, is still learning the game and the GAR as an army and was running Yoda for the second or third time. The lucky lad even took away the Imperial Bunker terrain piece as a lucky door prize. Guess who gets to paint that?

Everyone walked away with some great loot in the forms of alternate artwork cards which was great but more importantly, pumping more life blood into the local Legion community. Big thanks out to Aaron for organising and Bryant's support as well.

Both my son and I are looking forward to the next one. If you read up to this point then I salute you.