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AoS Heat 3 Tournament Report Part 2

Discussion in 'Battle Reports' started by darren watson, Jul 11, 2017.

  1. darren watson
    Kroxigor

    darren watson Well-Known Member

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    Game 2:Escalation Kroak VS Pirate Themed Undead

    Next game was against Simon and his Pirate Themed Undead. He'd even gone to the trouble of building a giant Pirate ship for his army which we used as Damned terrain in the game, which was pretty cool.

    Escalation is the worst scenery for my list, as the savvy player will quickly realise the scoring power of my army is in my small units of skinks and glasshammer rippers. I was also playing an Undead army and I have had only one game against them before in the entire time I've played AOS over the last year..

    SImon Ran:

    General Vamp Lord on Zombie Dragon with cloak of Mists and Shadows and the buff to the Undead save.
    Necromancer
    Haunter Courtier
    Wight King with Banner

    20 Zombies x 3

    6 Spirit Hosts
    6 Crypt Horrors
    Mortis Engine
    Corpse Cart

    60 points for summoning a Cairn Wraith or more Zombies.

    There was a few bits of Mystical scenery on one side and in the middle of the board with a couple of Damned pieces of scenery on the other side. Simon won the roll and elected to stay put reasoning his larger army would be taking a risk near the Mystical terrain on the other side in the early game. Fair play. His Zombies were deployed with 2 units 9" away from the central objective and another unit 9" away from the objective closest to his board edge on his left. Behind the central Zombies were his Necromancer, Corpse Cart and and Wight King with the Spirit Hosts placed further along to his right next to some Damned scenery. Behind the unit of Zombies on his left were the Crypt Horrors and their Hero and finally he placed his Zombie Dragon and Mortis Engine behind his Spirit Hosts right at the back as they were monsters. I was really happy to see this, his Lord was completely unscreened from the rippers and despite going into detail about how they deploy and the carnage they can cause I had a first turn charge on his Lord, happy days, or so I thought..

    My 2 units of Shadowstrike skinks were placed far up on my right to face off against the unit of Zombies looking at the furthest objective from my side of the table. I was hoping the Mystical terrain would work in my favour, I needed to whittle these guys down quickly and without a great deal of support to boot. The last unit of skinks was on the other side ready to take my closest objective early on as well. The Starpriest was placed centrally, using his Shadowstrike move, I could quickly get a point from the central objective before it was overrun by 40 Zombies. Kroak was popped down in the exact centre to maximise my chances of hitting all of Simon's army with his spells, with the Starseer and Astrolith in woods slightly to his right. The Basti was deployed behind and to the side of Kroak to take the centre back from the 40 Zombies later on in the game. that was the plan, take out the Lord early on, kill all the supporting characters in a couple of turn and go 3-1 up early on and build from there. With everything set I took my first turn...

    The skink units both pass their Mystical terrain rolls, lovely. The rippers toad is placed in front of the Vamp Lord. Kroak get's a couple of rerolls and again I get 6 from the Starseer ability, 8 rerolls in total, great start. Planting the standard and with the help of Curse of Fate from the Starseer, Kroak gets up on his vortex no fuss, he's now safe for the rest of the game. Using a couple of rerolls I manage to roll 17 for the distance his big spell can go off. He could hit everything within 50" everything on the table, marvellous. With his other spells he heavily wounds the Necromancer, Wightking and Courtier. Directing 3d3 mortal wounds against the Lord (all 3 damaging spells) and even using rerolls for the damage and forcing Simon to reroll successful saves, The Lord takes one wound.. These successful death saves become a running theme throughout the game.. a few Zombies are taken off and the Mortis Engine, Crypt Horrors and Corpse Cart are lightly wounded. Skink priest gets Mystic shield and -1 to hit him in case of a freak charge or a priority loss, as he was making an early break for the centre.
    All the skinks and the priest move within 6" of the 3 objectives as far away from the enemy as poss. the Basti runs past Kroak to the left making a break for the centre but only rolls a 1 even with a rerolls, sad times, he won't be impacting the game until turn 2, but I was hoping for a charge attempt in that turn as well. The rippers are placed within 3" of the Lord behind him, much to Simon's surprise. I mention I explained these guys earlier, which he then goes on to say he wasn't paying attention.. (I bloody love rippers).
    Shooting is decent with another 5 Zombies dying to the skinks using the Starpriest's Shadowstrike stare and rerolling wounds from the terrain.
    I rub my hands and charge in the rippers, they roll a 3.. thank goodness for their ridiculous deployment rules.. they inflict a mighty 45 wounds on the Vampire Lord. the bugger survives with a single wound!! I have 1 reroll left, I ask him to reroll and successful death save.. He looks sad and promptly rolls a 5, he now looks happy again. Bugger. The Dragon and Lord in return kill a ripper. With that he passes all his battle shock tests and starts his turn.

    The Dragon starts the turn off with regaining 4 wounds from his one use potion. the Mortis Engine goes super Nova, killing one ripper and giving the Lord back another 2 wounds, he's back up to 7. Livid. the Lord uses his command ability to reroll the hits for the Spirit Hosts, who are further buffed by taking a wound from the Damned terrain they are near. They now mortal wound on 5's to hit rerolling misses. Ouch. The Lord jumps 12" away from the rippers using his cloak and casts Mystic shield on himself. In the centre the 2 Zombie units converge after returning 2d6 Zombies to the themselves and the Necromancer brings a Cairn Wraith to unlife 9" from the Starpriest. On the left the other unit undoes all my hard work returning 6 Zombies to itself. A sinking feeling is already manifesting itself in my gut.

    Everything runs towards the objectives except the Lord and Spirit Hosts. They and the Cairn Wraith attempt charges, the Dragon on the skinks on my left objective, the Wraith on the Priest with and Spirits on the rippers, with only the Spirits making it. They Mortal wound them off the table, poor buggers. with that the turn ends 3-1 to me.

    I win the priority and start a very disappointing hero phase. I roll no rerolls for Kroak. I chicken out with the Starseer and decide to roll the dice to decide the number rather than choose the number. I roll a 4, Simon reveals his dice, it's a 4.. I'll not be doing that again. Kroak does finish off all the characters in the centre, focusing on the Crypt Horror Hero so he can't bring any Crypt Horrors back later as one has now died. The Lord continues to avoid damage with more death saves and my eyes start to twitch. The Starpriest casts -1 to hit on the Dragon hoping to keep the skinks facing off against him alive for the inevitable charge they are facing from him and the Mortis Engine. The skinks also got a Mystic shield on them.
    The Starpriest now way too close to 40 zombies ran away towards the Astrolith in the woods with all the skinks staying within 6" of their objectives as far away from any Undead as poss. Basti moved up to get some shots off against the Zombie who were now devoid of death saves. Damage 2 should start to make a dent in them.
    Shooting was sadly uneventful. Making me reroll how many shots my Basti got off, only 2 Zombies were felled, with a couple more felled by the skinks on my right. the single unit of skinks themselves managed to get a wound against the Dragon, so not a total loss. my turn ended with me 5-1 up.

    The Dragon Lord gave himself Mystic Shield and reroll hits in combat in the hero phase, with the Zombies getting back up to normal numbers more or less. Moving was swift as there was very little to think about. On both flanks the left over Zombies moved up to charge the skinks there with the Crypt Horrors moving up for a possible charge as well. The Dragon and Mortis Engine on the other flank did the same. With no shooting wounds inflicted (Dragon fails to wound with it's auto hitting breath attack) all the units of skinks were engaged. Thanks to the -1 to hit even with rerolls and the 5+ save only 4 skinks die to the Dragons attacks. The Survivers then promptly step back, catching Simon by surprise and contesting the objective this turn. The Zombie hit on the other flank, failing to kill a skink. One unit of skinks stays to fight killing a Zombie (important, there's now 20 skinks and 19 Zombies by the objective and the second unit disengages hoping for a more favourable position next turn near the objective still. Game turn ends 5-2, we are still in this but we need the next priority to stand a chance..

    We don't get it.

    Simon has kept back a reroll and uses this to improve his 2 to a 4 beating my 3. Oh dear. His turn is a carbon copy of the trun before but with the addition of the Crypt Horrors being able to engage in combat. He's learnt a little more about skinks now and charges them in a way which it is difficult to escape, or if they do they have to flee away from the objectives. Clever Simon. Turn ends with the skinks near the Dragon wiped out by the combined attacks of the Dragon, it's breath and the Mortis Enigine. On the other flank another skink unit is dead thanks to the Crypt Horrors (they attacked first, couldn't flee the skinks engaged with the Dragon as they were backed into the corner). With the second unit of skinks fleeing to take some shots later (I was still hopeful, so soldiered on). His turn ends 5-5

    My turn 3 sees another 2 Crypt Horrors drop and the Dragon is reduced back down to 6 wounds (he's gotten 2 wounds back from eating skinks in 2 rounds). Even though the Basti kills a decent amount of Zombies from shooting and combat. they're is still 25 left, with the flanks a no go area now turn 3 end 5-5.

    Simon wins the next priority roll and the game slips from my grasp.. We play on and I eventually kill his Lord and Zombies, in the next 2 turns so despite the major loss, still take 1500 odd points with me.

    If I was to play this again, I think I'd accept one of the objectives would be beyond me. Driving the Basti up the middle and attempting to take all three objectives from an opponent with superior numbers and healing cost me the game (that and the cowardly decision to roll the dice for the Starseer's ability turn 2), poor deployment and a poor initial plan. Even though we didn't understand each others armies, Simon had a better understanding of how his army works and I was out played in the end. I'll be a lot more confident up against an Undead army in the future though, I feel I learnt some good lessons in this game.

    Again sorry for the spelling and grammar. If you've gotten this far, much appreciated, let me know if it's of any use. These take bloody ages to write (and remember) so I'll continue with game 3 tomorrow.

    Cheers
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2017
  2. Nefertem
    Temple Guard

    Nefertem Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for sharing! Really appreciate the time and effort you made to keep track of all things while in a battle (and getting bogged down).
     
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  3. Seraphage
    Stegadon

    Seraphage Well-Known Member

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    I know it sounds like I am exaggerating but you really kept me hanging again ! I LOVE your battle reports man ! Thank you so much for the insight on the aftercomments. Looking forward to the next one !
     
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  4. Aginor
    Slann

    Aginor Fifth Spawning Staff Member

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    Great job! Fun and interesting to read. :)
     
  5. Killer Angel
    Slann

    Killer Angel Prophet of the Stars Staff Member

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    That was a really fun game!

    Must be said that when i play Death, my ward saves are not at the same lucky level of Simon's rolls...
     
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  6. darren watson
    Kroxigor

    darren watson Well-Known Member

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    I'm so sorry I never got to complete this tournament report. Life got carried away with stag do's and weddings and I completely forgot I'd started these.. happy to finish these off if there was still any interest.. Though maybe redundant given GHB2 being released next week eek.
     
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  7. Seraphage
    Stegadon

    Seraphage Well-Known Member

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    No, no, go for it ! Always exciting to read a report
     
  8. Aginor
    Slann

    Aginor Fifth Spawning Staff Member

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    Sure! Finish it, I would love to read it. :)
     
  9. Xasto
    Terradon

    Xasto Well-Known Member

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    Please do, well written battle reports are always a blast to read!
     
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  10. darren watson
    Kroxigor

    darren watson Well-Known Member

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    Cool beans. I am going to the Waterlooville club tonight and will be playing my first GHB2esk game with what we currently know against an Undead army with 3 full units of 40 skellies! Eek. So will likely be able to pop something up tomorrow, as I'm free in the morning and evening.
     
  11. Kadanga
    Saurus

    Kadanga Active Member

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    I'm looking forward to it! I never knew how powerful Kroak was before reading your batreps, it's great stuff!
     
  12. Xasto
    Terradon

    Xasto Well-Known Member

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    I used Kroak for the first time this weekend and he was the MVP vs my friend's Slaves to Darkness. The amount of mortal wounds he dished out is just insane. And he's getting a point reduction! Can't wait :)
     
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  13. darren watson
    Kroxigor

    darren watson Well-Known Member

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    Sorry 4th stag do of the year this weekend and GOT tonight. . Almost finished next one
     
  14. Seraphage
    Stegadon

    Seraphage Well-Known Member

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    Still looking forward to it ! :p
     
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  15. darren watson
    Kroxigor

    darren watson Well-Known Member

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    haha right getting it done!
     
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  16. darren watson
    Kroxigor

    darren watson Well-Known Member

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