Following on from Aaron’s article last week on Big Waaagh stacks, this week, his gaze shifts to the Man-skewers of the Kruleboyz.
Kruleboyz, and more specifically Man-Skewer Bolt-Boyz, have had a critical weakness since launch.
Man-Skewers feature two shooting profiles on their warscroll, Aimed shot and Hasty shot. Aimed shot has a range of 24″, but unfortunately cannot be used if the unit has moved. What’s a Bolt-Boy to do if the opponent simply hangs out 24.1″ away? Cry? No, a true Swampboss is never bothered by nonsense like “playing fair” and “good and honest fighting”. Instead we are going to abuse poorly worded terrain rules in a proper Mork-y way.
Hopping in
Defensible terrain, also known as Garrisons, allows you to enter instead of a move action if you’re wholly within 6″ of the terrain. What’s important about this is that it does not count as moving. That means you still get to shoot a full 24″. Additionally, your range can be drawn from any point of the terrain piece, so all 9 of those big yellers bolt Boyz can draw from a 1mm point on the corner of a building. If the building is 6″ long, counting the hop in, you have extended your range by 10-12″ farther than your opponent expected.
Hopping out
Even better, hopping out doesn’t count as a move action either. When you leave a garrison, you only have to be within 6″, not wholly, meaning your range is further extended by 7″. Opponents hoping to hang outside your range can find themselves under heavy fire they didn’t expect and too far away to punish it.
This technique is excellent for sniping away supporting characters. The aimed shot is not exactly high damage, but it’s accurate and consistent, making it the perfect tool to pop 5-6 wound wizards and buff pieces. It’s also a great way to have your Bolt Boyz manoeuvre to contest objectives without giving up entire turns of shooting.
Finally, there is another big advantage to holding up in a den of destro sneakyness. Unleash hell can be drawn from any point setting up disgustingly powerful anti charge fire, and your Boyz are -1 to hit and +1 save while in that garrison. On top of that, you can exit a garrison even if tagged in combat and still shoot as it was neither a retreat nor a move. This really makes aggression into your juicy bits a lot less rewarding and much more heavily punished than it otherwise would be.
So get out there and pretend it’s 2006, flip some houses and rain green death on your enemies.
Following on from last week’s article, I asked our resident pro AoS players how they approached their games against Soulblight Gravelords.
Nico Cavada 🇵🇭 (Maggotkin of Nurgle): I’d say the dragon, but being unrendable and it healing is insane. I guess if you can reliably do Mortal Wounds at a safe range I’d go for that first.
Justin Clark 🇦🇺 (Blades of Khorne): Yeah don’t bother grinding out against the big vamps, unfortunately. Drop them in 1 or chaff them up.
Fabien Barbusse 🇺🇲 (Blades of Khorne): Giving advice against SBGL is tricky because there are 3 subfactions that are performing very well and play quite differently:
Legion of Blood: more elite build with 3+ ethereal and a lot of heal for the monsters
Vyrkos: bodies spam with 5+ ward, just sitting on objectives
Legion of Night: teleport and counter charge shenanigans, usually with a lot of bodies as well
Raymond Lane 🇺🇲 (Maggotkin of Nurgle): Kill their heroes. Dent their movement and bile ins with bile piper or blight krieg. Plague claw and stench/geminids are amazing counters. Drones are the best demon choice into them.
Colin Klären 🇩🇪 (Nighthaunt/Nurgle/Sylvaneth): So, for me, I’ve played 5 Times against really good players with Soulblight and won all of them with Nurgle Glottkin, Belakor, Beasts of Nurgle spam and Sylvaneth Alarielle Winterleaf. I‘m playing armies which like to go against close combat armies because of abilities like no pile in, no retreat, counter charge, and so on, which is not only good against Soulblight. In my opinion, our whole meta shifts more to a combat meta with Soulblight, Khorne, OBR, FEC. Maybe there will be a change with Cities in November, but who knows 🤷🏽♂️.
Jeremy Lefebvre 🇺🇲 (Cities/Slaanesh): Kill the killable heros, and try to screen them out of objectives. Try not to get stuck in a grinding combat that is not on an objective, so if they want to stay on the objective, they have to stay in combat and risk losing the objective in the combat phase.
Lance Martin Tan 🇵🇭(Ironjawz): The match-up for ironjawz isn’t great, but you can collapse on their deathrattle skeletons with the hunt and crush pile-in after to mitigate models from returning next combat phase.
Joshua Bennett 🇺🇲 (Slaanesh): For slaanesh it’s a fantastic matchup. Slaanesh has the speed and dps to be able to deal with the problems.
Keegan Graves 🇺🇲 (Skaven): For me, as a skaven player, I have the body count to contest the objectives against them. I use my guns and ranged mortal wounds to take out the heroes. That’s always the first priority. The second target is grave guard if possible. Clanrats and zombies will just slap each other on the objectives forever, and clanrats usually come out on top. The match-up usually just comes down to proper positioning and being ready to deal with the tricks SBGL brings.
Dalton Kahle 🇺🇲 (Gloomspite/Tzeentch): Goblins have the ability to outmaneuver them and still sit on objectives, I think Troggs will struggle slightly due to less speed, but they also have the damage output to put down a unit a turn of the small stuff, the dragon is where Troggs would struggle.
Aaron Newbom 🇺🇲 (Idoneth/Kruleboyz): I would say the most important thing to understand in terms of fighting SBGL is that they are, at heart, a board control army. They’re seeking to outscore you while you’re trying to grind through legions of dead dudes.
You have to play accordingly. You must be scoring points early. Playing too scared will lose you the game but so will being too aggressive
You’re almost definitely not going to kill enough of them to shut them down. Going super aggro will make it hard for you to stop them from stealing your objectives and steadily beating you on points. Playing too far back does much the same.
Play according to the knowledge that they want to hold board space over you.
There’s no one single trick, and every army is going to have to take that idea and apply it differently, but it’s a good place to start.
Jon Anderson 🇺🇲 (Idoneth/Lumineth): Pretty easy, play Lumineth. Bows? Wrong. Teclis? Straight to jail.
Luis Mendoza 🇲🇽 (Stormcast): Don’t charge to the zombies 😂.
Brett Martin 🇦🇺 (Woehammer Writer): For SCE, it’s Everblaze and/or Longstrikes to deal with long-range mortals. Judicators and Vigilors let everything get a little close. Holy command is as effective as ever. You can use it to reposition a unit away from their slower units. Knight Incantors can blunt their magic quite a bit, and lists with at least 2 should be pretty common.
Luis Mendoza 🇲🇽 (Stormcast): Also, resistant units combined with a solid ward are a good mix to face the inevitable combat with zombies. Position to block the graves is a good start.
Raymond Lane 🇺🇲 (Maggotkin of Nurgle): If you roll enough 5ups you’ll beat anyone and remember grandfather loves you
Walter Brock 🇺🇲 (Ossiarch Bonereapers): For OBR, they have a couple of nice things in their toolbelt. Arkhan casting a 12-inch bubble of no reserves or summons lets him lock down one objective for a bit of time. Arkhan, being good at spells, lets him do a good job of shutting down Soulblight spells. The Soulstealer carrion can stop zombies from contesting objectives when near it. The large amount of recursion lets them pretty much be immune to their zombie damage.
The hard part is when OBR fight them on a 4 or more objective mission. SBGL can play to places that OBR aren’t while being able to strongarm themselves onto objectives with bodies to get the points they need. It’s an uphill walk in the snow both ways, but they have the tools to get there with smart play and a bit of luck.
Peter Holland 🇬🇧 (Woeful Writer):There we have it! Want to ask our pros a question? Perhaps you want to ask a particular pro a question about their faction? Drop them in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to answer them.
Big Waaagh is an army that relies on building stacks of Waaagh Points, which slowly applies stacking buffs until every unit in your army becomes Big Green Murder Machines. There are many ways to generate Waaagh Points, from landing charges to heroic actions, and especially by having units stuck in at the end of combat.
That last method is what has created the technique known as Waaagh Stacks.
A Waaagh Stack is when several units (typically a screen and several heroes) are tightly confined near each other so that when you engage with one, you engage with them all. In most situations, this would do more harm than good—a single unit tying up multiple units (restricting their movement)—so what’s the benefit in doing this?
Two characters, less than 3″ from an Arboyz screen
The answer lies in Waaagh points and how critical they are to your army! For each of those units stuck at the end of the combat, you get an additional WP. Even if they can’t do damage (shamans, wurrgogs, etc.), they’re still stacking buffs for the rest of your army. The difference of 2-3 WP early game is huge, often reaching your powerful buffs a whole turn earlier, allowing you to take control of the game much sooner than your opponent might have expected.
Even outside of the early game, an early WAAAGH can be detrimental to your opponent. This technique has allowed me to hit full stacks, twice, in multiple combat-heavy games. Getting +1 to charge, cast, and hit at the top of round 2 instead of round 3 has cascading results as your army chops your opponent down instead of dawdling and trying to accumulate resources.
Many of the risks from the Waaagh Stack technique are mitigated by natural functions of the army. For example, Orruk characters tend to be pretty tough and fighty, so a few stray hits reaching over your screen are very unlikely to actually kill your units.
Additionally, mechanics like the Wurrgog stare and teleports from the Big Green Hand of Mork can get you unstuck and ready to fight on your own terms. This prevents your opponent from gaining a strategic advantage off of their plays while you reap the rewards.
Every small edge matters in a game of Age of Sigmar, so remember, Stay Stacked or Get Clapped.
I’m currently in the early stages of developing a series of articles that do deep dives on individual warscrolls, in a very similar vein to some I did last year, but with more detail.
While doing some of the mathhammer behind these warscrolls I began to develop a couple of terms that I wanted to explain in detail.
Army Points Required (APR)
No, not that APR….
In this case we’re talking about the amount of points you would need to spend in the list creation stage to give yourself the ability to pull off certain synergies during the game.
For example, you may be wanting to create a Kruleboyz army which focusses on buffing the Venom-Encrusted Weapon ability of your Man-Skewers and Gutrippaz units. You’ve made the decision that you want two reinforced units of Skewers being buffed by a couple of Shamans so that instead of causing mortals on 6+ they cause them on 5+. For this the army points required would be:
Reinforced Man-Skewer unit (240)
Reinforced Man-Skewer unit (240)
Swampcalla Shaman (100)
Swampcalla Shaman (100)
That’s a total of 680 points you’re including in your list to pull of those synergies. This 680 points would be referred to as Army Points Required (APC)
Army Points Committed (APC)
No, not that APC…
There’s a limit of five turns in Age of Sigmar, where each turn your units may be doing different tasks. You may want your Shaman to buff some Man-Skewers with its poison ability to fire on some Endrinriggers in turn one . But turn two you may want that poison on your Gurippaz instead when they charge some Arkonauts?
Here’s where the difference comes in, each turn you’re committing a fifth of that units points value (Five turns in AoS) to completing its individual goal, in this case buffing either the Gutrippaz or the Skewers. In turn those units are committing their points value in carrying out their own goal.
Example
Turn 1, you decide you’ll use the Shaman’s Poison ability to give the Man-Skewers the chance to cause mortal wounds on 5+ instead of 6+. By doing so, you’re committing 20 points of your Shaman to do so (100/5 =20). The Man-Skewers fire at the Endrinriggers, in turn committing their points to do so (120/5=24). A total of 44 points have then been committed to destroying those 3 Endrinriggers worth 120 APR. You’re lucky and pluck 2 out of the air. That’s 80 points of Endrinriggers destroyed for a commitment of 44 points, not bad!
Turn 2, and you decide instead of buffing the Man-Skewers again. You’ll buff the Gutrippaz who’re going to charge some reinforced Arkonauts. So again, you’re committing a fifth of your shaman to the task (20 points) and a fifth of the Gutippaz points cost (150/5=30 points). Your APC is therefore going to be 50 points to try and whittle down the 200-point Arkonaut unit. You manage to kill a perfectly average 8 Arkonauts. You’ve removed 80 points by committing 50. It was not as good a trade as the Skewers earlier, but it was still positive.
I recently asked Baz Norman Jr if he’d care to comment on his list from Blood in the Snow on 14th and 15th of January. I also asked him if he’d like to give a run-down of his games as part of that.
As always Baz’s response blew me away, and I thought it deserved an article in it’s own right. So thank you once again Baz!
Peter! Thank you once again for having me on the site. I attended Mark Ward’s Blood in the Snow at Hull’s Angels Gaming Club on the 14th and 15th January 2023. This was my second two day event already of 2023.
Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine – Subfaction: Khailebron – Grand Strategy: Bloodthirsty Zealots – Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS Melusai Ironscale (115)* – General – Command Traits: Zealous Orator – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Mindrazor – Bonding: Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur Morathi-Khaine (680)* The Shadow Queen (680)*
BATTLELINE Witch Aelves (115)* – Hag – Death Pennant Bearer – Hornblower – Paired Sciansá Witch Aelves (115)* – Hag – Death Pennant Bearer – Hornblower – Paired Sciansá Blood Sisters (420)* – Gorgai
BEHEMOTH Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur (480)*
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS 1 x Horrorghast (40)
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 1965/2000
I have hit the competitive scene a lot, running Daughters of Khaine (DoK) over the last year so running them again at this event was no surprise to anyone, but what might be a surprise was that it isn’t my usual list.
The list above is a slight variation to the DoK list I ran last weekend on the 7th and 8th January, where I had the absolute pleasure of playing alongside the legends that are Team England at Brotherhood III at Firestorm Games in Cardiff, on Team England’s South team.
So let’s delve into it…
SUB-FACTION – I love my manoeuvrability. I’ve said on previous posts that movement is king, and I wholeheartedly stand by this. Being able to get into positions to threaten enemy units, objectives and push for future turns is huge, so Khailebron was a staple.
GRAND STRATEGY – This list revolves around being in combat, so Bloodthirsty Zealots matched perfectly.
TRIUMPH – At 1,965pts, +1 to wound when I wanted to hit hard just worked.
LEADERS Melusai Ironscale– Having Khailebron as the sub faction doesn’t make Blood Sisters battleline, and knowing I wanted to run 15 of them meant that it would have to be the Melusai Ironscale as general. The Command Trait was a given at Zealous Orator. Who doesn’t love a 4+ rally? My Artefact of power being Arcane Tome and knowing the spell, Mind Razor. The bonding to the Krondspine provides a +1 to cast within domination range.
Morathi – because its Morathi.
BATTLELINE Witch Aelves – Two units of 10. These give a decent screen, but also with the run and charge, reroll failed battleshock test, and buckets of attacks, they can still threaten wounded units or chip wounds off when needed. Not to mention being objective grabbers whilst the rest of the army is doing the heavy lifting.
Blood Sisters – One unit of 15. Yes they’ve only got a 5+ save and the DoK 6+ ward save, but that’s where the negatives stop in my opinion. Three attacks base (+1 for the Gorgai), 3’s to hit, 3’s to wound, -1 rend, damage 1, and then the turned to crystal effect after the unit has fought for the first time in a phase. This attack profile alone is spicy, 46 attacks base from this unit. Now we add in and start tuning this unit to another level. Factor in the blood rites table, run and charge from the Ironscale, all out slaughter, mind razor and Fury of the Shadow Queen ability, this unit can suddenly end up having 61 attacks, 2’s to hit with exploding 6’s, 2’s to wound, -2 rend, and 2 damage a piece, then the crystal touch on top… not much can come away from this to be honest.
BEHEMOTH Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur – You’ve probably all heard about it, 480 pts that can’t be auto killed, doesn’t allow retreats, is good, but not broken as there are some easy ways around it, but is still strong, especially coupled with the units above.
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS Horrorghast – I had points left over, easy to cast, can certainly help finish off units if you’ve fluffed a couple dice rolls and left a few models alive.
CORE BATTALION Battle Regiment – Works for this list, as I normally govern who takes 1st turn.
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Game 1 vs Kruleboyz / Mike Chadderton and Head-on Collision.
Army Faction: Orruk Warclans – Army Type: Kruleboyz – Army Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades – Grand Strategy: Waaagh! – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (150) 1 x Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (150) 1 x Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (220)* – General – Command Traits: Master of Magic – Artefacts: Arcane Tome – Mount Traits: Fast ’Un – Spells: Nasty Hex 1 x Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (290)** 1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)** – Spells: Choking Mist 1 x Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)** – Spells: Sneaky Miasma
BATTLELINE 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)* 10 x Hobgrot Slittaz (80)* 10 x Gutrippaz (160)** – Wicked Hacka 10 x Gutrippaz (160)** – Wicked Hacka
OTHER 6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)** 3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)** 3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (120)**
Mike (of Goonhammer fame – Peter) is a great player, we regularly converse over Twitter and I’ve had the pleasure of playing Mike before at Sheffield Slaughter 2022; one of my first bigger events. The result ended in his favour before, so he had that psychological benefit.
I deployed just over 24” away, and being a gentleman, I gave Mike turn 1.
Mike made a few little movement wiggles, buffed up his units with elixirs from the Swampcalla Shamans ready to receive the DoK threat.
My turn 1, and I moved my whole army up to threaten his position and to give him too many threats to deal with all at once if Mike got the priority for turn 2.
Turn 2 dice off. I won priority.
Taking the turn, I knew this was the opportunity I needed to hit his army hard, so I prepped for it. Mind Razored the Shadow Queen, withered key units, Black horrored a Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof, cast the Horrorghast and then at the end of the movement phase, teleported the 15 Blood Sisters 9” away from his Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha and a unit of Gutrippaz.
The shooting phase came and went, with a couple more wounds going onto the already wounded Gnashtoof. Big charge phase inbound. Started with Morathi who was 4” away; into the 2 Gnashtoofs. Krondspine going into a unit of Gutrippaz. 9” long bomb charge required for the Blood Sisters, needed 8 on the dice, due to the Blood Rites table, rolled a 9. Big charge phase ticked off.
The combat phase followed, having Morathi curb stomp the already wounded Gnashtoof, killing it, and making room for her to pile round into some tasty Boltboyz. I started the combat phase with the Blood Sisters to ensure maximum damage. The unit was split between the Vulcha and a unit of Gutrippaz, a couple of Blood Sisters went into the Vulcha, chipping 5 wounds off it, whilst the rest went into the Gutrippaz. Turned to Crystal, which is what I was wanting, all went into the Vulcha, killing it. I did take some damage from other units piling in, and with the misplay of the Horrorghast, 12” is huge! I lost 5 Blood Sisters to battleshock…. lesson here for sure lol
The dust settled from that turn and Mike calculated just over 1000pts lifted in one turn. Solid turn for me.
Being pinned in by Morathi, Krondspine and the Blood Sisters and losing all those units made it really hard for Mike to come back so he played for points and got what could. With me winning turn 3 priority again, the nail in the coffin. We ended the game 32-5 to DoK. So that’s 1 game a piece now Mike….until next time! 😉
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Game 2 vs Sons of Behemat / Rob Anderson and Battlelines Drawn.
Army Faction: Sons of Behemat – Army Type: Breaker Tribe – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumphs: Inspired
LEADER 1 x Gatebreaker (520)* – Artefacts: Amberbone Totem 1 x Gatebreaker (520)* – General – Command Traits: Monstrously Tough – Artefacts: Vial of Manticore Venom 1 x Warstomper (450)** 1 x Warstomper (450)** – Artefacts: Glowy Shield of Protectiness
CORE BATTALIONS: *Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent **Bosses of the Stomp – Magnificent
TOTAL POINTS: (1940/2000)
So no “remove from battlefield and set up again”, but I was playing into the Sons of Behemat; an army that just wants to get in your face and ‘Triple H Pedigree’ slam enemies, which, I am weirdly okay with. I screened out with Morathi-Khaine, the Shadow Queen and the Krondspine. And with the Witch Aelves on the flanks, I gave turn 1 away as before.
Rob moved his 4 big boys up to capture objectives (table quarters in this mission), capped the centre terrain piece with Desecrate and charged one of his Warstompers into a unit of Witch Aelves I had on the flank. He rightfully killed them and chipped 3 wounds off Morathi-Khaine.
My turn 1, I chose Gaining Momentum and committed to lifting the giant that had just slapped Morathi-Khaine and the Witch Aelves. Turn 1 finished, and I had lifted 2 giants.
Turn 2 priority was won by Rob, where he continued with the points increase and reducing Morathi to 6 wounds, and did enough damage to reduce the Krondspine to level 1. Another 5 points for Rob. Seeing the work that happened from the DoK turn 1, turn 2 was no different.
Game 2 finished 26-10 to DoK.
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Game 3 vs Skaven / Duncan Woods and Turf War.
Army Faction: Skaven – Grand Strategy: No Place for the Weak – Triumph: Inspired
Duncan is a loyal member of the GAF gaming group and has been to several of our events run by the Warrior Lodge, and every interaction with Duncs is….how can I describe it….erm….lets just say that he is a character and a gentleman to boot, so I knew this game would be laugh regardless.
Skaven is an army that I’ve not played a lot of to be honest, and with him rocking up with two Warp Lightning Cannons and 6 Stormfiends, I knew I had to be on him asap.
No surprises here when I gave Duncs turn 1 and with me deploying out side of his shooting range, he moved some units up to cap objectives. I was surprised that he didn’t go through the Gnawholes with his 6 Stormfiends and try to shoot off the Blood Sisters turn one….maybe he knew something I didn’t…? My turn 1 was simple, move up, and prep for later turns.
Turn 2 priority went in my favour, meaning that Morathi and the Krondspine could get into position for a charge. I also teleported the Blood Sisters for a supportive charge. Dice rolls went back and forth. Duncs killing his own general and bombardier through Skaven antics finished the game 28-9 to DoK.
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Game 4 vs Hedonites of Slaanesh / James Mackenzie and The Silksteel Nests.
Allegiance: Slaanesh – Host: Lurid Haze Invaders Host (Host of Chaos) – Mortal Realm: Ghur – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders The Contorted Epitome (245)* – General – Command Trait: Feverish Anticipation – Artefact: Oil of Exultation – Lore of Slaanesh: Hysterical Frenzy Sigvald, Prince of Slaanesh (205)* Glutos Orscollion, Lord of Gluttony (440)* – Lore of Pain and Pleasure: Battle Rapture
Battleline 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)** – Reinforced x 1 22 x Blissbarb Archers (280)** – Reinforced x 1 5 x Hellstriders with Hellscourges (135)*
Units 5 x Blissbarb Seekers (220)* 5 x Centigors (85)* 5 x Centigors (85)*
Endless Spells & Invocations The Burning Head (20)
Having not played Hedonites of Slaanesh before, meant I had had to do some homework the previous evening. High manoeuvrability, lots of units, a lot of shots, buffs from Glutos, the hindrance that Sigvald can bring meant this would be new to me, not to mention the 8 available objectives.
I set up so that each of my 4 objectives, had models touching it and gave James turn 1. He was on me straight away, his Blissbarb Archers being screened by the Centigors lifted both units of Witch Aelves that were on either flank. I had to play super aggressive and hit his key units right from the get go, as I was behind on points. Morathi moved up to just behind a building, being 9” from Glutos and the Krondspine moved up ready to ‘eat’ from Centigors. Charges were made and the Warrior Lodge dice rolled well, meaning that my turn 1, Glutos was dead, the Krondspine was in combat doing its thing.
Turn 2 priority was won by James and he played big for points scoring 7 points his turn 2. Bottom of turn 2 the score was 9 to me, 12 to James…
Turn 3 priority was again won by James and he kept on racking up the points, although he was behind with model count, if he could keep scoring points though, that could see him win overall. Turn 3 finished 15 to me and 18 to James.
Turn 4 priority was won by….James again…I must have used up all my priority rolls on day 1! Again more points racking up in James’s favour finishing turn 4 on 20 to me, 24 to James.
Turn 5 priority came and went….finally in my favour. I managed to get into positions in the previous turns to eventually pin him in and lift the pesky Hedonites which were so quick. Game 4 finished 29-24 to DoK. Phew.
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Game 5 vs Sylvaneth / Peter Twigg on Won’t Back Down.
Army Faction: Sylvaneth – Subfaction: Harvestboon – Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs – Triumph: Indomitable
LEADERS Warsong Revenant (305)* – General – Command Traits: Spellsinger – Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome – Spells: Treesong, Verdant Blessing Celestant-Prime (325)*
BATTLELINE Tree-Revenants (110)* Tree-Revenants (110)* Revenant Seekers (705)** – Revenant Soulwarden – 3 x Seeker Banner Bearer – 3 x Seeker Hornblower Spiterider Lancers (420)** – Spiterider Scion – 2 x Spiterider Standard Bearer – 2 x Spiterider Hornblower
CORE BATTALIONS *Battle Regiment **Bounty Hunters
TOTAL POINTS: 1975/2000
A little birdy had mentioned to me that Pete wanted revenge from our last meeting from across the table where we were both on table 1, game 5. That last game was also played over Won’t Back Down so things felt similar, even if our lists were different.
Sylvaneth have historically been a challenging match up for me as they’re really nimble and I struggle to pin them down, so knew this match up would be tough, not to mention the fact that Pete had 9 Revenant Seekers and 6 Spiterider Lancers…oh and the Prime!
I did my thing with deployment ensuring that the Witch Aelves were snaked (pun intended!) round the Blood Sisters at 3” just in case the Prime was to come down turn 1, and gave Pete turn 1.
Against the Odds was chosen and he moved units up to threaten, but also to take objectives for a solid 5 VP round.
My turn 1, I did some hero phase shenanigans as usual and ran the buffed Blood Sisters up so they were 5” away from the 9 Revenant Seekers and their pool of 45 wounds. There was no redeploy which I was expecting, even though I had explained the abilities at the start. Charge phase started and the Blood Sisters failed their 5” charge. CP reroll… then I rolled a 8. Here we go! Spending a CP for all out attack and burning my triumph for +1 to wound saw them lift the Revenant Seekers to the wound, nothing more nothing less…. a big dent made.
Turn 2 I got the double turn, which allowed me to move up into position again ready for another charge. The Shadow Queen failed her charge, but the Blood Sisters got another charge off, this time into the 6 Spiterider Lancers but without the Mind Razor buff. Lifting 4 of them meant that Pete could retaliate and then in his turn nip through the woods far away…. Far, far away to the other end of the board…. i.e., my deployment zone lol.
I slowly managed to take the lead with a couple of points difference but at the cost of Morathi dying and we shook hands finishing the game 26-21 to DoK.
Peter: What a result. Thanks again to Baz for sharing his tournament review. Hopefully we can get him on again in the future.
