A friendly game of AOS3!

All my games of AOS3 so far have been tournament games, so it was great to have the opportunity to play a one off game against Reece from the NWA and his lovely Seraphon. Thanks to NWA for hosting us – a great venue and a great group.

Gargants army (Taker Tribe)

• Kraken Eater (General)
  • Amulet of Destiny
  • Kraken-Skin Sandals (Very Acquisitive)
• Warstomper
• Gargant Mob
• 3 x Gargants

Seraphon army (Thunder Lizards)

• Kroak
• Skink on Palaquin
• Skink Priest
• Astrolith Banner Bearer
• Skink Priest
• Old Blood on Carnosaur
• 5 Saurus Guard
• 3 x 5 Cold One Riders

Tectonic Interference

Mission was randomly rolled and we got Tectonic Interference. This is three objectives in the middle of the board with a random one being worth 2, and the others 1. As they are all primary objectives, we couldn’t destroy one in turn 3 either.

The Battle

Having deployed first, and making sure I was out of range of Kroak’s spells where possible, I gave the first turn to Reece. In my recent tournament I mostly took first turn, but this is one of the benefits of friendly games… you can try new things.

Kroak chipped a few wounds of most of my units, the Cold One’s took all the objectives and the Carnosaur advanced on my right clipping that objective for Monstrous Takeover. The Bastiladons then opened fire, killing a Mancrusher and putting wounds on the Warstomper. A good start for Seraphon with 7 points.

The Gargants then advanced, the mob taking the left, the Kraken the centre and Warstomper headed to the right. The Warstomper failed his charge into the Cold Ones meaning I couldn’t get the objective, but the Kraken charged the Cold Ones in the centre, and the Mob failed a long charge after their Cold Ones had redeployed. The Kraken only killed 3 Cold Ones, and took a few wounds in return, but I had completed my battle tactic.

Fortunately I won the priority and was able to chase the Seraphon into turn 2. The Kraken killed the Cold Ones with shooting, and charged the Skink on Palanquin, killing him. The Warstomper charged the Cold Ones and killed them, and the Mob charged a Bastiladon and did some wounds.

The Seraphon then chose to kill the Warstomper, so I used ‘Finest Hour’ to increase his survivability. Kroak chipped more wounds, and crucially destroyed the Amulet of Destiny on my Kraken (oh dear!), and the Bastiladon and Carnosaur charged the Warstomper. The Carnosaur roared at the Warstomper so I couldn’t use all out defense – as it turned out this was critical and the Warstomper fell after the Carnosaur didn’t get any of the six bites through!

I won priority again, and charged the Kraken at the Bastiladon on the right… although I did a few mortal wounds on the charge, the Thunder Lizards reduced the damage by 1 and I didn’t bracket the monster… when he attacked the Kraken Eater did 1 damage! Oh dear. On the left the Mob finished off their Bastiladon.

Reece then counterattacked with the Carnosaur into the Kraken Eater killing him. Meanwhile the Saurus Guard killed the last of the Mob, and I was left with 2 Gargants.

Reece then won priority turn 4, killed my fifth Mancrusher and moved towards the last one. I failed a charge on the Saurus Guard, and so fell behind.

Reece won priority turn 5, and with only one Mancrusher left, in range of the Carnosaur I conceeded.

Round	Priority	Declan (BT)	Reece (BT)	Points
1	D/R	Conquer (Y)	M.Takeover (Y)	5-7
2	D/D	Broken Ranks (Y)	Bring it Down (Y)	12-12
3	D/D	M.Takeover (Y)	Conquer (Y)	19-18
4	R/R	Spearhead (N)	Spearhead (Y)	21-23
5	R/R	Concede —		21-30
END		Hold the Line (N)	Beast Master (Y)	21-33

A great game, and thanks to Reece for the fun evening! Thanks also to NWA for hosting and Paul Hayley for organising us. It’s a great location.

Conclusion

Although giving away the first turn made the double turn possible, it did mean I didn’t do Ferocious Advance (run three models) which has been my normal start in other games… this meant I was struggling for Battle Tactics later in the game. I also should have charged the Carnosaur (first with the Warstomper turn 2 when the charge had the distance, and then with the Kraken). Although it did a lot of damage it is easier to kill than the Bastiladon and does more damage than the Cold One’s.

Other than that, it was great to play against Kroak. Unlike some of the other ‘God’ characters I wasn’t too concerned about him. Sure, he gives out a lot of damage but it was the Bastiladon’s and the Carnosaur that won the game.

Cheers to Reece!