Hi fellow lovers of the scaled ones.. I attended GW's Heat 3 recently and took an all Seraphon list tweaked after we managed 4th at the SCGT. Although we only managed 7th this time I felt the list was much improved. I've had a few messages to ask how I got on and now I'm fully recovered (went out to Rock City on the Friday night before the tournament, forgetting I was 35... ) I thought I'd try a little tournament report. First attempt at one of these, so be kind ha! After a few practice games I settled with this list: General Kroak Astrolith Bearer-Phoenix Stone Starseer-Phoenix Stone Starpriest 10 Skinks with boltspitters, shields and Alphas x 3 6 Ripperdactyls with an Alpha Bastilodon with a Solarbeam Shadowstrike formation 100 points to summon a Balewind Vortex (I'd like to write so I could also summon 100 points of stuff and pretend I'm not relying on a one trick pony, but that isn't true, it's only ever the Vortex that gets summoned and as soon as possible.. with all the kunnin' rukks and skyfire spam out there I do not feel bad about this at all lol). Game one: Three Points of Power Kroak VS Rotbringers My first opponent was a super nice chap Called Jim. He has brought to the event a list I had never seen or played and I was quite surprised by how tough an all Nurgle army can be, especially the characters. He Ran: General Harbinger with Talisman of Chaos and Destroyer thing for combat buffs Gutspume Festus Nurgle Wizard Nurgle Lord with Talisman of Chaos 15 Blightkings 15 Blightkings 5 Blightkings Blightking formation (allows healing from units) Lots of wounds, lots of armour and lots of saves (Harbingers command ability gives an extra 5+ save against all wounds to Nurgle units within 7", Chaos Talisman is another 5+ saves against order for the General and his mate). Jim's army was a 1 drop and he won the roll to decide sides. Nothing note worthy scenery wise was on either side, so he started as he went on being a gent and staying where he was. He deployed all his characters centrally with a unit each of the 15 Blightkings stretching out to the flanks, with the 3rd smaller unit behind the Characters. All very close the general and his excellent command ability. Confident Jim wasn't going to be able to shot or cast spells at me too early on, I deployed aggressively. The Bastilodon went front and centre, I thought I could potentially buff him right up and whack him in the middle of Jim's army, keeping those large units and more importantly those characters pinned away from the flanks and their objectives. Kroak was placed right behind him so his Vortex would push him forward helping make up for his 5" move (this will sometimes catch people out, improving your Bastilodons threat range from 25" to 28-29" in the first turn). He would also be in the best place for his spells to reach Jim's army. Shadowstrike skinks were deployed to either side to be a general nuisance and try to finish off any characters Kroak's spells hadn't nuked. The Astrolith was deployed in some cover next to the Basti and more forward then usual, there wasn't a great deal of rend in Jim's army, was confident he could take a punch, especailly with Mystic shield on him later if they chewed through the Basti. This way he would be able to help the Basti and skinks out with rerolling their hits after he was planted. On the right the last unit of skinks was placed and the Starpriest was placed on the extreme left. He was going to win the game for me. His Shadowstrike move would ensure he could get a point in the first turn, I'd play for a double turn with my reolls and move him away to safety, denying the left objective for the rest of the game. The Basti would prevent Jim scoring in the middle by engaging asap and I would concentrate my skinks and Kroak on any characters making their way to right objective. The Rippers were flying high (I bloody love rippers and how they deploy). The game played out exactly as above, Jim's only real error was moving straight forward with his entire army so all his characters were exposed, my Basti, after Kroak's vortex push was able to charge his Harbinger and pin the rest of his army in the centre above the middle objective. After a couple of turns of Kroak going nuclear with is spells, the skinks and Basti all shooting the characters with rerolls there was only the Nurgle lord left and he was out of position and not scoring. Even with 5+ saves and double 5+ saves for two of the characters, they couldn't deal with Kroaks mortal wound out put (I did make him reroll a lot of his saves, I reasoned I'd need to and chose 6 for my Starseer's ability turn 1, luckily he chose a 4..). Game at one point did look a little scary when the rippers came down and despite causing 35 wounds on a unit of Blightkings only killed 1 and a half guys.. I couldn't get through the Blightkings high wounds but did kill all the characters, game ended 1-0 to me, major win with 700 points odd scored. I have just spent the last couple of hours writing the rest of this report, literally got to the last game and my PC crashed ha! I will write up the rest of the games 1 a day now, as I am knackered and as you can imagine, wanting to kick my TV off it's stand.. Thanks for reading so far, first time I've wrote one of these (hence the mistake of not saving as I went). I am no English teacher, so please excuse the the terrible grammar etc. Cheers
Man ! You 've only just started and I 'm already TOO EXCITED ! Sounds like an AWESOME game. One of those you 'd expect to see to such a huge tournament ! Thank you so much for doing this for us ! We really do appreciate it ! P.S. : About the delete.. been there done that.. there are some blows that although are not life threatening, cannot be forgotten.. I feel for you.
Cheers Cheers pal! I was so upset last night, I wanted to cry haha! I will try and get games 2 and 3 done today and finish up tomorrow ☺
Yay for your report! Fun fact: I wrote a battle report once about a game I played. And it got lost as well, some Browser hiccup while posting and it was gone. I didn't write it again because it was damn long and I was so angry about me because I should have known better. Anyway, sounds like I will have to buy a Kroak model and a Starseer after all, just to try your list myself. Granted, it does sound a bit cheesy, but that's what you want for tournaments I guess. One question though: Isn't that Starseer mind game thing a huge risk in a tournament? I'd be in constant fear of giving those rerolls to my opponent and he'd kill all my magic rolls or saves that way.
I completely understand your pain! If it wasn't for the love I've been shown I wouldn't be bothering again lol. Yup it's a big risk and it's costs me before. It is however the most exciting part of the game and I love it ha. I normally choose a 1 as no one chooses a one unless I'm up against it and I need a big turn. I am considering dropping him for another Astrolith, as he is mainly there to get kroak up on his vortex. It's just a little too cheesy for me..
Two Astroliths? For redundancy I guess? Because they surely don't stack do they? If they do MUAHAHAHA I HAVE TO GET ONE!!!
Well I'm not entirely sure truth be told. I have read conflicting battle reports. the whole list may need to change given the meta shifting towards Overlords and their deepstriking Ironclads. I will either run 2 of them or 2 Eternity Wardens, practice games need to be played