New caster tryout

Played a heavily proxied game against always delightful Jay using none other than the Vice-Scurtator Vindictus. I had written off Vindictus at first glance but with some post-game analysis at SoCal Smackdown, I was convinced to give him another try.

Building a list for this caster was a challenge. He requires so many elements to function that it's difficult to fit them all in, even at 50pts. After spending a fair amount of time on Forward Kommander I did the unthinkable and abandoned my heavies, and was able to settle on this:

Vice Scrutator Vindictus

 - Repenter

 - Repenter

 - Hierophant

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Exemplar Cinerators (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts)

 - Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer

Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

The Covenant of Menoth

The Wrack (3 wracks)

Vassal of Menoth

Jay brought:

Dawnlord Vyros

 - Griffon

 - Griffon

 - Manticore

 - Manticore

Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts)

 - Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard

 - Soulless Escort

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Arcanist

Arcanist

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen

House Shyeel Artificer

Mage Hunter Assassin

Mage Hunter Assassin

Note that this is 51pts and that Jay is a cheater (Or did you only bring one Arcanist? I think I remember two power boosts, but I'm not really sure)

We rolled for scenario and got Destruction. As this was the last scenario that Jay had played and one I had played frequently, we decided to roll again. This time the dice decided we would play Diversion. Crap. A radial scenario. Deploying this many infantry is always a challenge. Having to squeeze them all into a radial deployment is something I hadn't considered at all. I was also expecting Jay to take Ravyn or Ossy, so I was going into this rather blind. Yay. 

I win the roll off and decide to go first. Deployment looks like:

- Vindi front and center

- Hierophant at his side

- Zealots ready to run at the starting line

- A full unit of KE on each side of Vindi behind the Zealots.

- Cinnerators lining up next

- Monks tucked in between Cinnerators and KE.

- In the next row, Covenant center, Repenters on the flanks

- finally choir and Vassal

Turn 1

- Decide I don't need to pull from the wracks or run the Jacks.

- Hierophant gives harmonious exaltation to Vindictus

- Vindictus moves up and to the side in order to grab the zone next turn, casts Defender's Ward on the Zealots, and True Path. Sits on 2 focus.

- Zealots run up middle, 14" or so with Truth Path. Cinnerators behind.

- KEs take flanks.

- Eiryss and Gorman on one side, A&H and a Monk on the other, one Monk in the middle.

Turn 2

- Sents up front a few inches outside of the zone

- Eiryss, A&H, and MHA move to deal with Gorman. Dragoon

- Heavies in the center, lights take flanks. Manticore laydown covering fire.

- Vyros and support in the rear

Turn 3

- Forget to pull from the Wracks, drop DW, none to the Jacks.

- Hiero HEs.

- Vindi touches the flag, casts DW on the Cinnies, and True Path.

- Zealots pop minifeat and run through the covering fire, to the other side of the zone, engaging as much as Jay's stuff as possible. Lockdown in place.

- Cinnies and KE move up to deal with the Jacks when they come trampling through to contest the zone.

Turn 4

 - Eiryss, A&H, and MHA all kill themselves some KE.

- Jacks go trampling through to contest the zone, killing a KE.

- Sents kill a KE

- Griffon fully loaded on focus goes after Aiyanna hiding behind some crates, can't score the 11 to hit.

Turn 5

- Forget to pull from the Wracks, forget to upkeep DW, none to the Jacks.

- Hiero HEs.

- Vindi touches the flag, casts DW on the Cinnies, and True Path.

- deja vu

- Flanking monk charges and kills two Sents to free up...

- Lady A swings around within the reach of the Griffon to engage a Manticore and kisses it.

- KE are mad as hell. P+S 14, effectively 16 with kiss. First one puts 15 points on the Manticore. Second does another heavy hit.

- Cinnerators charge in to finish off the kissed heavy and put serious damage on the other. Rolling fire.

- Gorman looks around confused, he should have rust bombed a heavy.

- Eiryss takes a shot at remaining heavy. Engaged but an easy shot with its movement busted, she puts four points on it.

- Center Monk charges in to finish off the second Manticore.

- With the Zealots and second unit of KE left to activate, Jay concedes.

Color me impressed. I was absolutely astonished by the damage output of the KE. They hit harder than warjacks, for half the price. The Cinnerators were less impressive but still, I can see their worth. Zealots worked perfectly to lock out the scenario. It was brutal.

Can't wait to try the list against a more standard Ret list in a less favorable scenario, like killbox, to see how I fare. Also want to try him out against Cryx. If he pans out, he'll replace eFeora and allow me to make some changes to my Harbinger list to better deal with armor.

-next day-

Thinking of some changes to make to the list. I really do want to include a heavy to make the list more well rounded. A unit of Daughters would work amazingly well with Defender's Ward and True Path, so I definitely want to include them.

Thinking more on the Cinnerators, it seems like they were the biggest point block that brought the least to my army. Their medium bases and lack of reach prevented me from getting them in where I wanted them to in the sea of small base models. While it worked out okay with my string of lucky rolls, I can't rely on that. Dropping the Cinnerators for a Reckoner would be a straight swap that solves the heavy problem, gives more a more concentrated and higher damage melee output, and a ranged attack with debuff. Cinnerators have better anti-infantry abilities and can stop tramples but I don't think those are abilities that will come up too often with how jammy the list is.

Dropping the second Repenter frees up 4 of the 5 points needed for the Daughters. Hiro is basically the same thing as the wracks I forgot all game, so I can drop him to gain +1 overall with no change in effectiveness. As I already have wracks, I can max out the Choir for more free focus or take a mechanic to repair any shooting damage the jacks have taken on the way up. I think I'll go with Choir. Alternatively, I could try to free up a point somewhere else to get the Daughter's UA, the Piper. DEF is delicious but may be putting too many eggs in one basket. Think I'll wait to see how this list does first. All in all I have:

Vice Scrutator Vindictus

 - Repenter

 - Reckoner

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer

Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

The Covenant of Menoth

The Wrack (3 wracks)

Vassal of Menoth

Hmm. That looks much nicer than last night's list. AD on the Daughters and losing the big, slow Cinnerators and the wants-to-activate-first  Hierophant should really clean up deployment and reduce the number of times I block my own charges. Digging it.

Comicquest Wrath event

Comicquest held their Wrath Release Event yesterday. A bit after the release of Wrath but I suspect they wanted to wait for most of the models to be out. Rather than a tournament, this was a semi-structured free-play type deal. There was an impressive turnout with some eighteen players. I was able to get in four games.

The event followed most of the rules laid out for the Wrath Release Event (pdf). Summary for the lazy,

The event: Players accumulated points for playing games against players and factions they haven't faced before, and for winning each game. Once per tournament they can score for a caster kill, scenario win, having a fully painted army, playing a tier list, playing five different casters over the course of the event, having your entire army on the other side of the board, clearing the enemies from your side of the board, playing a Wrath caster, bringing a fully modeled and painted trench to the event, bringing two character jacks, bringing only a battlegroup, and probably a few others. If a player plays five games, they can earn up to 34 points, I think.

The scenario: Each player was given a 5x8" command trench and ten standard trenches. For those unfamiliar with trench rules; they grant cover and immunity to blasts originating from outside of the trench to those completely within the walls. The command trench was place 4" up from the back edge of your deployment zone in the center. The remaining trenches were placed anywhere by the players, in alternating order. A player wins if they have more scoring models(as per standard rules) in the zone than their opponent. All games were played under this scenario.

Additionally, all games were to be atleast 35pts. With everything being what it was, I wasn't much interested in the event as practice for Socal Smackdown. Just a good chance to nab a faction coin and see some new stuff.

First thought, that's a hell of alot of blast damage negating, cover granting terrain. Second, there is no other terrain on the board. No forests to block LOS, no walls/linear obstacles to block most charges, absolutely nothing. In short, melee heaven. With this in mind, I took out the Errants from all of my list ideas(Still have nothing set for 35pts) and instead included Daughters of the Flame with the Piper as my infantry core. Third thought hit immediately after and prompted a question to our local Press Ganger, Anthony, "How many points do you need to win"? He explained just one was needed and I was baffled. Did they really overlook something so big? More on that in a bit.

First game was against another Menoth player. Seeing another Menoth player meant that I was going to have to try and win the faction coin, rather than just autowinning it. Beating him would give me a good head start with 3 event points to his 2, so I sent eFeora to it.

Feora, Protector of the Flame

 - Redeemer (Bond)

 - Repenter

 - Reckoner

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Anastasia di Bray

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

The Covenant of Menoth

The Wrack (3 wracks)

Vassal of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

I made the mistake of setting my army out before my opponent settled on a list, and he counterpicked with:

Grand Exemplar Kreoss

 - Fire of Salvation

Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Exemplar Errants (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer

Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Exemplar Errant Seneschal

Knight Exemplar Seneschal

Tier 4 eKreoss. Extra 2" of deployment, advance move on the knights, and a free 3pt Seneschal. This is a quality tournament list and I dare say better than anything I field at 35pts. It hurts my list in particular because Kreoss makes all of his knights--the entire army sans FoS--immune to continues effects, and his feat allows autohitting. Autohitting > Daughters, Weapon Master Spam > Jack Spam, Continuous Effect immunity > 10pts of fire generators and a fire-based feat, ridiculous amounts cover > ranged battlegroup. I would be in quite the bind if I had not designed my list around the scenario!


We go over our lists in detail and then roll for initiative. Kreoss wins and opts to go first. For terrain, we spread the trenches randomly out all over the middle of the board, covering pretty much the whole thing.


Kreoss deploys, wide, as best as one can with that many models, with Kreoss off to my left side. I bricked on that left side.


Turn 1 runs. Because of the extra deployment zone, and advance deploy, and advance move, he's pretty damn far up the board.


Turn 2 I bunker down to draw him out, lobbing AoEs that do nothing because of aegis. Piper hits the Daughters with +1 DEF to bait a feat and I run two into the Errants, Leaders 8" away from both, and rest outside of the Errant's charge range. Eiryss runs off to the side. Goreman blinds 3 Knights Exemplar. Reckoner pops one KE sitting outside of cover(There were too many of them to all fit completely within!). Repenter spray does something or other, or not, I dunno.

Turn 3 Errants charge the Daughters and slaughters the two of them. The bastions run up their full 8" and I got nervous as this is what I had been waiting for: Now everything is too far to run back into the CT in a single turn. Errant Seneschal kills Gorman, Eiryss gets attacked by the KES but he fails to hit with both swings. Some other stuff probably died.

Turn 4 Anastasia ambushes the right board edge, directly across from Kreoss' Command Trench. She bolts 14" for it and ends up 2" outside. I kill and engage some stuff with other stuff, nothing too important. Just aiming to keep Feora and Ana safe.


Turn 5 I explain that the game is going to end next turn if my opponent's army can't deal with Ana this turn. He scrambles for it but everything is too far away.


Turn 6 I walk Ana 3", end the turn and game.



Game two is against Cygnar. Normally I'd be inclined to run eFeora against Cygnar but wanting to get the 5 caster point, and not too happy with all of the cover, I went with the Harbinger instead. She naturally takes Anastasia and I swapped out my normal Reckoner for two Repenters to better handle the cover. I'm a little fuzzy on which set of minor solos I ran:

Harbinger of Menoth

 - Repenter

 - Repenter

 - Reckoner

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Exemplar Errants (Leader and 5 Grunts)

 - Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

The Covenant of Menoth

The Wrack (3 wracks)

Vassal of Menoth

My opponent ran something to the effect of:

Captain Allister Caine

 - Defender

 - Stormclad

 - Squire

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)

 - Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer

Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)

 - Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

 - 1 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner
Journeyman Warcaster

Note that this is 1pt too much if I'm remembering everything correctly. Still, that's one Jack too many for eCaine to be running so not too bad


eCaine wins the roll off and goes first. His deployment is all over the place. I brick up in the CT, Errants squared up with ATGM, Daughters with Stormblades. Gameplan is the same here as it was last time: Bait his army out too far for him to recover and send in Ana. This would mean purposefully ignoring my feat to let him gain more ground, and not being as aggressive with the Daughters as I could be. This will also be much harder against eCaine with his extreme threat ranges, ability to see through Stealth, and RAT.


Turn 1 he runs and turn 2 I kite. Turn 3 ATGM roll ridiculously well with sniped shots and wax too many Errants to count. Everything moves up as expected. Turn 4 Ana goes and I engage nearly everything. Repenters spray at Caine, boost and miss. T5 Caine kills Ana. T6 Avatar kills Caine.


Game three is another Menoth player. Still going for the five casters, I put together a pSevvy list:

Grand Scrutator Severius

Blessing of Vengeance

Avatar of Menoth

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Exemplar Errants (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer

Anastasia di Bray

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Vassal of Menoth


My opponent ran:

Feora, Priestess of the Flame

 - Fire of Salvation 

 - Scourge of Heresy

Deliverers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Flameguard Cleansers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts)

 - Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard

High Paladin Dartan Vilmon

Paladin of the Order of the Wall

Paladin of the Order of the Wall

Not to be outdone by my last opponent, this one takes two extra points. I'm guessing he didn't mean to max the TFG or take a second Paladin, but he did. Again it's not too bad as his list has one too many jacks than it should and needs a good deal of tuning.


Feora wins the roll and goes first. He kept the Deliverers and Cleansers back in his deployment zone. I'm assuming he grasped what Anastasia could do as I explained her to him, unlike my other opponents. Avatar destroys FoS and then I run into a string of bad luck. I tie the SoH up for two turns and the Avatar has charges on him for both, but he gets 2 focus both times. Sevvy barely misses a Paladin with an arced Ashes to Ashes on one turn, failed to kill on another(Needed a 6 on 3d6). He's presses in with everything, feats on most of my army save Sevvy who ran for the door. BoV gets 3 focus and walks up to Feora with ARM 17. Dice -2 with 4 hits, she's left on one. Avatar is forced to gaze and run to prevent my CT from being over run. I roll super lucky on fire(Yayfor bad dice) Unable to escape the gaze, my opponent concedes.


Game four is against a new Trolls player. Anthony announces there's an hour left and I give up on playing five casters and go for the win instead. Harbinger, this time:

Harbinger of Menoth

 - Reckoner

Avatar of Menoth

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & 2 Honor Guard

Anastasia di Bray

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

The Covenant of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

My oppenent ran:

Borka Kegslayer

 - Dire Troll Blitzer

 - Earthborn Dire Troll

Trollkin Champions (Leader and 4 Grunts)

 - Skaldi Bonehammer

Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter

Fell Caller Hero

Trollkin Champion Hero

Borka wins the roll and goes first. Ana's too busy winning me games to give me good reconnaissance, I guess. Not familiar enough with Trolls to comment on the effectiveness of this list.


T1 advance. T2 Reckoner pop Champ Hero with a double boosted Assault from 20" away, Daughters kite around the champs, and stuff runs up. T3 stuff runs up some more and Blitzer activates enliven on the Reckoner and he moves to threaten the Earthborn. T4 Ana comes in, Avatar kills Blizter, sets Fell Caller on fire, and locks down Ashley, Reckoner does a bit of damage to the Earthborn. One of the company men charges and takes out a Champ. Daughters run in to prevent things from moving back. It works. He claws through the Daughters but is unable to gain ground, much less stop my spy.


The winner of the event (Khador) had 33pts, all but one possible after playing five games. Second place (Cygnar) had 23pts and I believe went 3-2. I had 20 and I believe the only other undefeated player, taking the Menoth coin. There was another person with 20pts (Cryx) but not as good a win record.


Overall I'm not putting too much weight in the results of this. The scenario designers really didn't take into account Ambush. I wasn't the only one to pick up on this and one player was running a full unit Ambushing Swordknights, although they had to leave early. I'm not sure if the surprise element Ana makes her better than the SKs, easier to forget about a solo The list building format is also very different and allowed for some faction specific tailoring, like leaving out Rhoven and Company when not facing factions known for their stealth or cloud effects. This made building 35pt lists manageable, but at the same time allowed for the same countermeasures to be taken by a savvy opponent.

Can't wait for a real tournament.

Lists and timers and batreps. Oh my!

Lost to Mike last night. Twice, in fact. It's becoming a trend! What went wrong? In the first game I was utterly decimating Mike's Winterguard and Assassins with my bonded Redeemer and Vanquisher barrage. Daughters, Eiryss, and Anastasia slowed the Assassins on their approach while the Avatar threatened the WGI. I was getting amazing fire rolls, and it was beautiful. I made a mistake leaving my zone open but Mike didn't realize it until his turn was almost finished. Everything was going right until the Avatar charges Beast 0-9. 3mm short. With a charge lane open to an ARM 18 Feora, gg Mike.

Second game Mike was much more aggressive but forgot about Anatastia and I went for a second turn Assassination. Daughters charge Sorcha, two-man CMA on the charge misses, second attack hits and plinks 1. Vanquisher and Choir run up. Should have activated Choir first. Should always activate Choir first. Feora charges up, misses an Assassin, pops feat to collect two focus, firesteps towards Sorcha and kills the Assassin. Ana advances through the forest on the edge of the killbox Sorcha is hiding in and lets the Vanquisher and Daughters go again. Feora is out, Choir is out. One Daughter goes for Eiryss, another Gorman, and the rest pile on Sorcha. All miss. Vanquisher misses a Daughter, scatters into nothing. With a charge lane open to an ARM 18 Feora, gg Mike.

So, that was pretty bad. I couldn't deal with two high ARM, high POW jacks that can charge 11" without a decent infantry screen. Gaze+Run+Enliven is risky with the masses of stupid infantry on the board that can trap for the previously mentioned Jacks. I also need to be using the Vassals to AA the Vanquishers and Redeemer to be taking out as much as that massed infantry as fast as possible. I need a Reckoner. The Reckoner can take advantage of Escort as part of Feora's battle group and has a 12" threat. There are threats faster than that but it's much harder to infantry trap from that far away.

Vanquisher for a Reckoner is a straight swap and would give me a very balanced list, but that's not what I'm going for with this list. I want to be able to decimate low ARM infantry, and the Reckoner doesn't let me do that. The Redeemer+a solo would work, but I think the continuous fire at RNG 16 will be critical in forcing movement in certain matchups. That leaves the Avatar. Not the best option to lose but I'll still have three heavies, two of which are perfectly suited for counter charging. It's going to hurt not having gaze and the free focus. I'm also going to have to make use of Ignite in more cases, costing even more focus.

Anastasia also isn't working out as well as I would want in this list. The nature of the army is very standoffish. Trying to squeeze in as many shots as it can before clashing with the half-charred remains of a mostly incinerated mess. Using Anna when the opportunity presents itself usually requires a very dramatic, unsustainable lunge. Waiting for good chance is dependent on my opponent advancing. Given who eFeora wants to be fighting, I don't think that's a good use of 2pts.

So that leaves me with 5. With the Reckoner in the list, picking up Rhoven seems obvious. This secures the list a spot as an anticryx list, which in turn might free up those points in Harbie's list. Really do like A&H with the big H. The remaining point for a Mechanic seems good with the number of Jacks I'm running. I'd consider using Wracks if I had any, but I don't.

Finally, I've been working on a timer for Warmachine on Android Phones called Timermachine. It has since turned into a comprehensive timing solution for any turn based game that requires multiple timers. It keeps track of and automatically manages game time, secret random game time, variable turn times with multiple warnings, extensions, extension option time. It is mostly finished, working on the polish and adding more features.

Lost to Mike tonight. Made some pretttty big mistakes. What did I do wrong?

Deployed counter to Winterguard but with Desperate Pace, they ended up being faster than the Assassins I was trying to bait. Need to deploy against the Assassins next time.

Winterguard mow through both Daughters and Errants. Going to need to deal with them using Fear of God and the Avatar. Daughters behind the Avatar to clear out chaff while benefiting from Awe. They need to come at the WGI in waves of 2 until Joe is gone as DEF 16(from Piper) isn't enough.

Need to be more aggressive with Harbie.

Errants did very well against the Assassins, and would have been fine there if things had gone well on the other sides of the battle.

Forgot to run the Reckoner on turn two. This pervented me from getting him into a position where I could counter charge with him.

Overestimated the Avatar's charge range by 0.75", failed the charge, lost him. That hurt. Called it as the Assassins blocked off my Enliven lanes.

Forgot about Anna and Eiyrss. Anna could have come in and backstruck Mike's Eiryss while mine could have run across the field to disrupt, at the very least, the Spriggin that the Avatar failed to charge.

Hopefully I can get in two games next week, Mike. I need to fix my 0-2 record against your eSorcha :)

Got in three games tonight, so just the overviews and I'm pretty fuzzy on lists.

First game had eFeora against eCaine. Redeemer sets Caine on fire turn two with a decent deviation. Fire doesn't go out and he takes 7 damage. Ouch. Feeling pressured by the fire, he advances closer looking for a quick victory. Too close. Avatar and Vanquisher clear out a path through some Stormknights to give the Reckoner a clear Assault lane. Menoth wins by assassination.

Second game pitted Harbinger against eSkarre. DJ gets within 11" of the Avatar and dies. Daughters and Errants with Guided Hand run riot on Raiders and Bloodwitches. Feat pins everything but Skarre and a Seether who have no choice but to feat and run up to contest objectives. Gorman splashes the feated Seether with blackoil, Errants surround Skarre, Covenant and Avatar lock her down. Menoth wins by concession.

Third game saw Harbie versus Terminus. Daughters and Errants push up hard, securing the zone early. Terminus retaliates. He and his army kill alot of shit but it served to effectively jam things up. Nine souls but Terminus has no one contesting the middle zone. Menoth wins by scenario.

Very happy with how the lists are running. At no point did I ever feel stretched for time. Even with the mistakes that my opponents made, I feel like I could have dealt with the right choices. Another solid month of playing and maybe I'll be ready for SoCal Smackdown.

Set of 35 and 50pt lists

35pt tournament at Comicquest on Saturday. Completely forgot about it. Have thrown together this two lists for it:

 

Harbinger of Menoth

- Reckoner

Avatar of Menoth

 

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Exemplar Errants (Leader and 5 Grunts)

 - Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer

Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & 2 Honor Guard

 

Anastasia di Bray

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

The Covenant of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

Feora, Protector of the Flame

 - Redeemer (Bonded)

 - Reckoner

Avatar of Menoth

 

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & 2 Honor Guard

 

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

The Covenant of Menoth

Vassal Mechanik

Vassal of Menoth

The Harbie list is a straight rip of dicegod's. The Feora is something new. Pretty confident about both. Finished hastily putting together the Harbinger and reassembling the Avatar. Should be getting the Repenter and Ana from Jay tomorrow. Will need to stop by Brookhurst to get Rhoven & Co to finish both lists.


Revisions to my 50pt lists after much reading and a few games:

Harbinger of Menoth

 - Reckoner

Avatar of Menoth

 

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Exemplar Errants (Leader and 5 Grunts)

 - Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & 2 Honor Guard

 

Anastasia di Bray

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

The Covenant of Menoth

Vassal Mechanik

Vassal of Menoth

Feora, Protector of the Flame

 - Redeemer

 - Repenter

 - Reckoner

 - Vanquisher

Avatar of Menoth

 

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & 2 Honor Guard

 

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

The Covenant of Menoth

Vassal Mechanik

Vassal of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

Trying hard to fit in A&H in the 50pt Harbie list. Hope they're worth taking the min unit of Errants for. Would really like to have a Exemplar Senny as well but no idea where I'd get the 3pts from. eFeora is an extended version of the 35pt list, with a good selection of jacks to deal with the things Harbie doesn't want to. Will have both finished once I get everything for the 35s tomorrow. Good stuff.

Harbinger 50pts v1 vs Steve's pIrusk

Kommandant Irusk

 - Beast-09

 - Devastator

 - War dog

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 5 Grunts)

 - Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard

Man-o-war Demolition Corps (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts)

 - Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Highlights

- A&H took out the Great Bears. DEF 17 with Awe makes them amazing.
-Eiyrss distracted a full unit of Winterguard and Joe, taking them out of the game for two or three turns. Should keep her back for DEF 19...
- Forge Guard got lucky and took out Beast 0-9's Ice Axe but with Murderous he still slowly killed them all. They failed to damage the ARM 25 shield jack. Lady A and/or Gorman would have made a big difference here. Need to remember that they're DEF 12/14 because of the debuffs.
- Reckoner missed a charge into a forest to get Beast, bad pre-measurement on my part. He didn't kill much with tramples and the free strikes weren't worth it.

- Devestator is Steve's MVP without doubt. ARM 25 and bulldoze is very hard to deal with.

Thoughts

- E'rybody needs to stay together.
- I almost/maybe kinda won after failing a charge with a heavy against another heavy. That's pretty badass.

50pt Harbinger list and discussion

Harbinger of Menoth

 - Reckoner

 - Vanquisher

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Exemplar Vengers (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts)

 - Attendant Priest

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

The Covenant of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

 Discussion here.

pSevvy 35pts v1 vs Chad's Scavvy

Got in a game with Chad tonight. My first game against Scaverous and Chad's second time running him, first at 35pts. After a little reviewing of the new caster, I felt pretty confident that my eFeora would not be strong enough to deal with the Lich Lord and pulled out my old favorite, Severius. Our armies:

Scaverous

 - Deathripper/Nightwretch (Can't remember which arc it was)

 - Erberus

 - Deathjack

Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)

The Withershadow Combine

Pistol Wraith

Machine Wraith

Warwitch Siren

Grand Scrutator Severius

 - Blessing of Vengeance

Avatar of Menoth

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts)

 - Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

The Covenant of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

Sevvy wins the roll off and goes first. Jacks line up on either side of him in the middle of the 10" line, support immediately behind. In the AD phase, Errants go on the center-left and Daughters on the right.

Scavvy mirrored Sevvy on the other side; front and center with Jacks at his side. The Withershadow Combine formed a second rank followed by bile thralls in the rear, which I thought was an interesting choice. Both Wraiths went left and the Warwitch stuck with the Jacks. Deathjack creeped up on the field across from the Errants.

Daughters run up to a far forest and some rock outcropping some 12" across the field, spread up as much as they could with their CMD 8. Errants are much more conservative with their movement and bound up to the outer edge of a forest just outside of the advanced deployment zone. Sevvy swaggers forward 5" with confidence and puts Eye of Menoth, giving everyone within his generous 16" Control radius +1 to all attack and damage rolls, on himself; Vision, allowing a single model to ignore damage the first time its hit, on the Avatar; and Defender's Ward, giving an entire unit +2 to DEF and ARM, on the Errants. Gorman zips to some nearby rock outcroppings, Jack and the Covenant wall off Sevvy.

Deathjack put Death Ward on himself, bumping ARM to 21 and letting him pick the damage column, is tempted by some Errants sitting at the edge of his threat range and swoops in. Wide placement just barely prevents him from getting more than a single dude. Once again, Deathjack bemoans his lack of Reach. Arcnode runs up the field with reckless abandon as does the Machine Wraith. Pistol Wraith chills in the woods with the Daughters. Erberus comes up to block LOS for his master who follows up behind. Scavvy arcs an Excarnate to one of the Daughters. DEF 17 from concealment falls to a boosted FOC 7 and she's instantly torn asunder by the POW 13. Worst of all, when Excarnate kills a living model, it allows Scavvy to create an undead grunt three inches from himself to strengthen one of his remaining units; which he gave to his bile thralls. It became instantly apparent why he had positioned them the way he did as Chad placed the Thrall on the table almost 7" ahead of the yet unactivated unit! They activate and the Daughter-turned-Abomination moves up to purge on an Errant while the rest of the Bile Thralls lumber their 5" forward. Combine move towards DJ.

Errants activate. Four charge DJ, one charges one of the Combine, a few run up to engage things  in front, a few hang back in forest, as far away from Bile-fication as they can. On Combine hit and kill, Quick Work grants me a ranged attack which hits Abby of the Combine for 1. Once again, Errants bemoan their POW 10 bows. Against DJ two of the MAT 8 after Eye of Menoth Errants, needing 5s to hit, miss, while the other two POW 10 Weapon Master charges barely plink his ARM 21. Daughters run to engage the Thralls, the node, and Caster. Fearing the telekinesis next turn and at a lack of melee targets, Choir leapfrogs up ahead of the Jacks and sings Shielding, preventing my Jacks from being targeted by spells. Avatar charges the Machine Wraith dead and traps the node with its gaze, forcing it to move torwards it if it moves. Vassal gives the Blessing of Vengeance Enliven, allowing it to advance after being damaged, and it runs up close to the Combine. Gorman weaves back around to the left to be in position of both Jacks. Covenant walks up and almost invokes the Lawgiver's Creed to blunt the incoming feat but then realize that Sevvy is well within 21" of Scavvy. They prevent Knockdowns by reading Powers of Faith instead. Sevvy walks up behind the Covenant and Gorman and pops feat. Divine Might prevents the enemy warcaster from receiving focus during their next turn and prevents spell casting while within it. It's a royal fuck you to Scavvy whose feat is based on casting spells and spending focus. To follow up, he arcs Ashes to Ashes through the Blessing into the back of the Errant who killed one of the Combine. A2A is an interesting spell in that if it hits a target, it goes on to hit the nearest d6 enemy models within 5" of the original target. It's base POW of 10 is unimpressive but easily increased to 13 with Eye of Menoth and Severius' affinity with BoV granting him +2 damage on the first arced spell. With a COST of 4 focus, its expensive and the purely random nature of d6 make it unreliable but with a high roll, it has the potentinal to be one of the best offensive spells in the game. I rolled a 6. It kills the two remaining WSC members, a single Bile Thrall, and pings Scavvy for 6. DJ and Erberus were both also tagged with minimal damage.

Scavvy starts his turn with no focus and not alot of options. Pistol Wraith comes out and death chills the Avatar, forcing it to sacrifice its movement or its activation. This is significantly more powerful than Knockdown as it can't be shaken off with focus nor is it preventable if it hits. Warwitch Siren seduces the sole Daughter engaging the Thralls and forces her to move away and take a swing at a fellow Daughter. Kinky. She misses but disengaging the Bile Thralls is pretty big. They activate and purge the remaining Daughters, I think one Errant, and his own poor arcnode for an amazing 10 boxes of damage. Deathjack upkeeps Death Ward on himself and kills the four DEF 14 ARM 18 Errants engaging himself without breaking a sweat, collecting four souls in the process. Erberus moves up to engage the Bless of Vengeance, preventing a charge the next turn.

Deathjack has four souls and will get six focus next turn. If I don't stop him, I'm screwed. I know BoV isn't up to the task of taking on ARM 21 and the Avatar is locked down by the Pistol Wraith. Focus allocation sees Defender's Ward dropped, 3 focus to the Blessing, 4 on Sevvy. The plan to neutralize Deathjack commences. One of the remaining Errants runs inbetween the two Helljacks to engage the Lich Lord and another positions himself careful just over half an inch away from the Death Jack as to not engage it. The rest run around like ninnies. Gorman walks up as close as he can to the Errant staring down the Deathjack, 3"(~4.5 from DJ) and attempt to peg him(My own Errant) in the back. DEF 12 -2 from Backstrike leaves Gorman needing only a 5 to hit. He rolls a 4. It missed but will still deviate onto DJ 33+change% of the time. It scatters away in the direction of Erberus but falls short due minimum deviation distance. First time that's ever worked against me. That miss signals the end of the game. Either I win now or Scavvy does next turn. Looking desperately for an  assassination vector, Sevvy sees an opening. Choir sing their hymn of Battle, giving the Blessing of Vengeance and the Avatar +2 to their attack and damage rolls. This brings BoVs MAT up to 10(12 on the charge!) and POW 15. Covenant runs up past Scavvy, giving Sevvy a good charge target. Sevvy charges and then attempts to get Death Sentence onto Scavvy, allowing me to reroll misses. A lack of foresight with the Errant's movement earlier gave Scavvy an extra +4 DEF for being engaged, bringing him up to 18. Sevvy needs an 9 to hit, boosts, and misses. Oh well. Now the tricks. Vassal activates and grants the Blessing of Vengeance an Ancillary Attack, allowing it to make an immediate attack with the weapon of its choice. BoV taps Erberus with his repulsor shield, pushing him 1" away, and freeing up the charge lane. With three focus, hitting on 4s, and doing dice-1 damage, the Blessing was able to dispatch the Lich with his Halberd. Game Menoth.

Thoughts later.