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| Stone and Wood... thicker than water. |
Friday
Immovable Object vs... Immovable Object
(Baldur 2) Baldur the Stonesoul [+30]
- Woldwrath [37]
- Ghetorix [21]
- Feral Warpwolf [18]
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max) [15]
- Warpborn Skinwalker Alpha [4]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Opponent was playing Skorne's new battlebox caster, Beast Master Xekaar. With Enrage and Maltreatment, this guy gave me flashbacks to many games against Master Tormentor Morghoul - except Xekaar has some brutal debuffing capabilities to go along with it.
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| Xekaar's signature debuff. |
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| Xekaar's game-changing feat. |
(Xekaar 1) Beast Master Xekaar [+31]
- Tiberion [22]
- Titan Cannoneer [17]
- Agonizer [7]
- Aptimus Marketh [6]
Cataphract Cetrati (max) [20]
- Tyrant Vorkesh [6]
Venator Reivers (max) [15]
- Venator Reiver Officer & Standard [4]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer [6]
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| Scenario was #8 from the Steamroller Packet, Recon. |
Xekaar went first and ran up as far as he could, keeping the Cetrati in the middle and the pathfinding Reivers in a forest to my far right. My turn 1 was similar, although the Woldwrath's shiny new AOE 5 gun was able to kill a Reiver or two on the right flank. Skinwalkers and Sentry Stone/Mannikins moved up into the zone, staying just out of the Cetrati's charge threat range. Warpwolves lurked in the second line behind the Skinnies and Stones. Baldur put down Roots on a few key targets.
On Xekaar's turn two, he advanced his Cetrati frontline in shield wall with the Agonizer debuff active, killed a few mannikins and a stone with Reivers, and used his FEAT.
Offensive potential on Baldur's turn two wasn't looking great due to the feat and the general hardiness of Cetrati in Shield Wall. So instead, I took the opportunity to "counter-jam", running a few Skinwalkers directly into his Cetrati to screw with his order of activations, the rest of the unit + warpwolves trailing behind in relative safety. Woldwrath continued forward on the right flank, killing a bigger chunk of Reivers this time. Baldur decided to FEAT in an attempt to keep some of the Skinwalkers alive.
On my opponent's turn two, he was able to land Mortality on the Skinwalkers. Tiberion and Cetrati followed up, killing all but two even under Baldur's feat. The Cannoneer took some shots at Baldur but didn't do much.
On my turn, it was time to retaliate. Remaining Skinwalkers and a primal'd Feral killed the majority of Cetrati, and Ghetorix put serious hurt on Tiberon, although critically was not able to finish the job.
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| The middle of our attrition-fest. |
From here, we took turns sanding each other into nubs. Eventually, this left Xekaar + two titans vs. Baldur and a full-health Woldwrath. The deciding factor was my opponent maneuvering Xekaar to dominate the left flag and control the zone while jamming my Woldwrath outside of the zone with his two titans, getting to 5 before I could contest.
Retrospective
I think this game highlighted Baldur2's strengths and weaknesses very well. The game finished with Baldur ahead on attrition, but his army's low model count made it tough to keep a scenario presence across the board, allowing too many "free" points to the Skorne opponent. Much of this blame, of course, goes on the author :)
Saturday
Wurmy Goodness
I took what I thought was a "silly" Wurmwood list to a local shop. I was trying to come up with a Circle gunline list, or a "wooden-projectile-and-howl-in-your-general-direction-line" to be more accurate.
The objective of this list was similar to ranged lists in other factions - attack first due to superior threat range, use Wurmwood's feat to prevent retaliation and keep the opponent in place, then take a second round of ranged attacks to hopefully put Wurmwood far ahead on attrition/scenario.
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| Wurmwood's feat. |
(Wurmwood 1) Wurmwood, Tree of Fate [+27]
- Cassius the Oathkeeper
- Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
- Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
- Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
- Wild Argus [7]
Gallows Grove [2]
Gallows Grove [2]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [3]
Shifting Stones [3]
Reeves of Orboros (max) [16]
- Reeve of Orboros Chieftain & Standard [4]
War Wolf [2]
War Wolf [2]
My first opponent was playing the following list:
(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25]
- Stormclad [18]
- Lancer [10]
- Squire [5]
- Centurion [17]
Journeyman Warcaster [4]
- Charger [9]
Stormblade Infantry [10]
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard [5]
- Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (1) [2]
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages [11]
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer [4]
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord [4]
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| Initial deployment. Scenario was "Close Quarters" from the Prime rulebook, not Steamroller. |
My opponent took the opportunity to go first, and ran.
On my first turn, I knew I needed to get everything where I wanted it for two turns, due to Haley's feat which was assuredly on it's way next turn. With the help of advance deploy and pre-measuring, I positioned my Purebloods and Sentry Stones just short of mid-board, and Reeves on the far left flank. Wurmwood Dark Path'd over to the right flag and dropped his FEAT, enveloping the majority of my army (and some of my opponent's) in a thick 14" radius forest. The Reeves, being too far on the left flank, used their Dig In mini-feat for some protection from the ATGM they were matched against.
On my opponent's turn, their offense was effectively stymied due to being stuck in the woods. He walked his Stormblades forward and used their new +3 ARM mini-feat, took some ineffectual shots with ATGM, positioned Haley behind a wall, and popped FEAT + Deflection.
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| My opponent operating under Wurmwood's forest (marked by the yellow tokens.) |
On Wurmwood's turn two, the forest faded away. My goals for the turn, under Haley's feat, were to sacrifice movement and put as much hurt on his front-line as possible, while clearing the right flag so I could score. With Pureblood and Mannikin sprays, I was able to clear out a big chunk of Stormblades, even under their mini-feat + Deflection which made them armor 20. Boosted sprays are great. The Reeves were able to take out a few Gunmages, while the War Wolves walked to a safe spot in preparation for the next strike. A Pureblood captured the flag and I scored one.
On Haley's next turn, the remaining Stormblades and Centurion were able to do good work on the frontline, killing both Sentry Stones. Sniping and aiming Gunmages killed a few Reeves, although to be honest, they rolled horribly and should have hurt me much more than they did. Haley advanced past her wall to get Deflection onto the remaining Stormblades, leaving herself on no camp after Deflection + allocation and Temporal Acceleration on the Centurion.
On my turn, I noticed Haley was on no camp, and decided to go for the throat. I ran the War Wolves into Sic' Em position, and the Reeves, no longer under Haley's feat and not jammed, advanced and fired two CRAs into Haley, which at dice + 2 did the job on their own.
Retrospective
That's all I've got time for today. One more battle report in the hopper though, against Retribution's battlebox caster, Helynna. It features a Doppler Bark-ing tree!
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| Myrmidons and elves! |
