Long time followers of this blog should be asking at this point..."What's with all the battle reports? Where are the painting bits?" Apologies. I'm mid-way through a crazy project at work and have had little time to whip up something new on the hobby table. That will turn around at some point. But, in the mean time...
Elliot and I got together for our Tuesday night game at the club. This was a 50-point tilt between pKreoss and Bloody Barnabas Tier 4. Battle of the knock-down casters. Going in, it looked like the winner might be the caster to feat first. Kreoss should have a mild advantage due to 2" extra in control radius...but that's why you play...to find out.
We played "three flags". I'm Menoth on the right side of the table. Elliot is Minions, playing on the left side of the table. Terrain is forest and rocks. Flag stands can be seen down the middle of the board.
Elliot's starting line. This is On his right flank, closest to the camera, he is sending Wrong Eye, Snapjaw and a Croak Hunter to look after one flag. The rest of his army, Barnabas, Wrastler, Spitter, Horror, and two Gator units are going up the middle. Bog Trogs are ambushing.
My starting line. I have pKreoss, two Reckoners, a Vanquisher, a Redeemer, Hierophant, Flameguard with UA, Choir, two Vassals, a Mechanik, Rhupert, Daughters and Wracks. Mine is a shooting army with the pop & drop assassination threat, plus DEF 18 Daughters to infiltrate Elliot's backfield.
Tier benefit for Barnabas enables Elliot to go first.
Minion turn 1. Barnabas gets out Warpath and lays down some swamps. He will use swamps to negate my range combat advantage while closing.
Coming up my left flank is the Wrong Eye group. Croak is out front.
Menoth turn 1. On my left flank, I send the Daughters over to deal with Wrong Eye. They get Dirge of Mists from Rhupert and Defender's Ward from Kreoss. DEF 18.
In my center, I send everything else. Elliot's force is relatively slow, so I'm advancing as a messy cloud. I'll sort everyone out once the battle is engaged. Kreoss has Lamentation up.
Minion turn 2. The flag on my left flank (closest to the camera) disappears. Bog Trogs come in agains the Daughters and kill three. Then we remember that Daughters have Terror. We roll the Bog Trog morale check after they attack. They fail (head slap), and will remain fleeing for the remainder of the game. Although we did this incorrectly, and I should still have the full unit of Daughters out, we just left half the unit dead.
In the center, Barnabas gets all the heavies into swamps, but keeps Barnabas back to avoid shooting...and my feat, which is coming up. There is a screen of gators in the lead. I believe Elliot is worried about an alpha strike on his heavies.
Menoth turn 2. Kreoss moves up and feats. He catches everything in the center except for Barnabas. No problem. My strategy is to play for attrition, and this should give me a leg up. The Reckoners assault into the leading Gators. Flameguard charge into Gators, mini-feat and set a couple of guys on fire. The Vanquisher kills one Gator outright with his opening shot, and sets 5 other figures on fire. Follow-up ancillary attacks from the Vassals set more Gatormen on fire, while another goes down to a Reckoner shot.
This was one of those rare Menoth games when fire did a lot of work. And I mean a lot. Fire dice were on fire. Skipping ahead a little...ranged attacks and fire alone killed 6 of the 10 Gatormen on the table. Ouch.
Anyway, Elliot's heavies were relatively unscathed. But the Gators got the snot kicked out of them. I kept my 'jacks back to force Elliot to shake effects when it came around to his turn.
On my left, I got Daughters into contact with Wrong Eye. One landed an incredible hit that brought the Warlock down to 1 hit point.
Minions turn 3. Barnabas feats. All my stuff gets knocked down. However, as suspected I'm at an advantage in this knockdown exchange. Elliot's troops must get up and move into me, diminishing their hitting power by quite a bit. In the end, Elliot delivered a beat down to my Flameguard, but the 'jacks were relatively unscathed. Barnabas wants to Iron Flesh, but Lamentation is up, so he decided to camp his fury instead. Elliot knows he is on the slippery attrition slope and is worried I may break through his line and get to Barnabas on my next turn.
Menoth turn 3. I'm thinking the greatest assassination threat to Kreoss in the coming Minion turn might be the Croak Hunter, so I send a couple of Flameguard over to lock him down. I set him on fire.
The two remaining Daughters on the field finish off Wrong Eye. Snapjaw leaves the table.
In the center, I play purely for attrition. The Horror goes down, and Wrastler takes a ton of damage. His mind and spirit are out.
Minion turn 4. The Spitter frenzies. Barnabas goes first to heal the Wrastler. Wrastler throws the Vanquisher at Kreoss, doing respectable damage. Elliot is starting to run out of time on his Death Clock.
Menoth turn 4. More beat down. A Reckoner starts laying into Barnabas. Transfers take down the Spitter. Wrastler gets pushed to the edge of elimination by a Reckoner...then the Redeemer moves in and kills the Minion heavy with his mace.
Minion turn 5. Barnabas gets out Iron Flesh, disengages from melee, and scores two control points by running over to the far flag and dominating it.
Menoth turn 5. I'll have none of that. I load up the closest Reckoner and Assault/Charge into Barnabas. Boosted hit with the cannon, kill Barnabas...he toughs...follow up swing with the mace, failed tough check. Game over. Thanks for the game, Elliot. Fun as always.
Off to Lock and Load in two weeks, WhooHooooooo!
'Til next time.
