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.