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AoS Week Two of a Four-Week Escalation League

Discussion in 'Battle Reports' started by Christopher, Apr 27, 2018.

  1. Christopher
    Terradon

    Christopher Well-Known Member

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    On Thursday, 26th April, I played the second, or Week Two battle in my local GW shop’s ongoing Spring Age of Sigmar Escalation League. Week Two called for 1000 point armies.

    Shop house rules are that measurements are taken base to base and whoever goes first in the first round goes first in all subsequent rounds, so no “double turns.”

    Games in our League use random draws from three subdecks of the Open War deck to establish the Deployment, the Objective, and a Twist. Every game played each week by all players uses the same cards, which are drawn the day before the week’s games begin (cards already used in League games are discarded so we don’t repeat ourselves).

    The cards drawn for the game I played were as follows.

    Deployment: The battlefield was, as is standard for Open War games, 4’x6’. Unusually, the table was split along the short dimension instead of the long dimension, with each player controlling a 4’x3’ section. In other words, we would be standing on the “short” sides of the table (though that didn’t quite work out, as my opponent stood at my right hand throughout the battle). Deployment rules for Open War games state simply that units be set up in their own territory, at least 3” from enemy units.

    Objective: Kill the Messenger. At the start of the first battle round, before determining who has the first turn, each player lets their opponent know which model in their army is their messenger. The model cannot be the army’s general, and must already be set up on the battlefield. The first player to slay the opponent’s messenger wins the battle.

    Twist: Battle Frenzy. Add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of all melee weapons used in this battle.

    Here’s the army I took.

    Allegiance: Seraphon (of course!)
    Allegiance Ability: Lords of Space and Time
    Skink Priest
    —General
    —Leader
    —Command Trait: Master of Star Rituals
    Skink Starpriest
    —Leader
    Saurus Eternity Warden
    —Leader
    —Artefact: Coronal Shield
    5 Saurus Guard
    —Battleline
    40 Skinks
    —Battleline
    Troglodon
    —Behemoth
    Razordon
    —Artillery
    Salamander
    —Artillery
    3 Ripperdactyl Riders

    Total Points: 1000
    Leaders: 3 of 4
    Artillery: 2 of 2
    Behemoths: 1 of 2

    My opponent was a friendly man named Casey. He had a well-painted army of Ironjawz, and I was immediately intimidated because not only were most of the models quite large (including one enormous one), he unpacked just eleven models to my fifty-four!

    Here’s his roster.

    Orruk Weirdnob Shaman
    —General
    —Leader
    3 Orruk Gore-Gruntas
    —Battleline
    3 Orruk Gore-Gruntas
    —Battleline
    3 more Orruk Gore-Gruntas
    —Battleline
    Megaboss on Maw-Krusha
    —Behemoth
    —Leader

    Total Points: 1000

    I don’t know much about Ironjawz, but I loaded their warscrolls onto my tablet and gave them a quick look. The army seemed to be a lot more mobile than I thought they would be, but had little in the way of ranged threats. The Megaboss was terrifying.

    We deployed our units as is shown in the picture below, and it immediately became clear that we both had a plan, and that our plans were quite different from one another. I was holding back, he was charging in with everything. After set-up, we nominated our Messengers, per the Objective card. I chose one of my Skinks, having already checked with the shop manager to see if the usual rules for removal of models wounded in multi-models units held (which they did). My idea was that Skinks might be easy to kill, but when there are forty of them, you have to get through a lot of wounds before I’m going to remove my Messenger. Casey went the opposite route, and chose his Megaboss on Maw-Krusha as his Messenger.

    IMG_2845.JPG

    Since I finished set-up last (I always do, seems like, why do I always have so many more units than my opponents?), he went first. He had lined up everything right on the border between our two territories, all on the side of the battlefield where my Skinks were deployed in the back corner, their backs to infinity. I had deployed my Razordon right in front of his three units of Orruk Gore-Gruntas, planning to draw a charge and hopefully utilize its Instinctive Defense ability. Fate would conspire against me on that one, as you’ll see.

    Casey began the round by having his Orruk Weirdnob Shaman successfully cast Mystic Shield on his Messenger, which would prove crucial when it came to be my turn. Then he more or less charged with everything he had, including his Megaboss on Maw-Krusha. Luckily the Megaboss didn’t make its charge, and was kind of tied up behind its allies and some scenery. Casey didn’t have much in the way of shooting, as has been said, so it looked like it was going to be a slugfest. One of his units charged my Razordon, and I didn’t make the roll for Instinctive Defense. It quickly fell. His other two units of Orruk Gore-Gruntas rounded some scenery and made for my Skinks, who were being screened by my Saurus Eternity Warden and his Saurus Guard pals. They didn’t quite make it there, and Casey’s turn ended.

    On my turn, I made an assassination attempt. First, I placed my Blot Toad right next to the Megaboss. I failed the rolls to use Celestial Rites and Mystic Shield on my Ripperdactyl Riders, but rolled a 6 on Lords of Space and Time and teleported the unit to 9” behind the Megaboss. The Weirdnob Shaman had moved up a bit, so they were back there all by their lonesome. In the Movement Phase, I moved my Skink Priest and Troglodon within shooting range of some of his forward units, as well as my Salamander. Behind his lines, I moved the Rippers to within 3” of my target, the enemy Messenger, the enormous model with 15 wounds and, considering the Mystic Shield active on it, a 2+ Save characteristic. I declared Swooping Dive at the end of movement, then rolled for the Charge, easily making it. I was going for it.

    It was a tall order, given the number of wounds needed, and that insane Save the Megaboss had going. But I had a lot of attacks, and, given the synergies between Swooping Dive, Voracious Appetite, Toad Rage, and the game’s Twist card granting one extra attack for each Melee Weapon, this was what I rolled for:

    7 Moonstone War-spear attacks at 4+/4+, rerolling missed hits and wounds.
    12 Slashing Claws attacks at 3+/3+, rerolling missed hits and wounds.
    12 Vicious Beak attacks at 4+/3+, rolling additional hits on each successful hit (but keeping in mind the Rule of One), and rerolling missed hits and wounds.

    Friends, a lot of wounds got through for him to save against, over twenty. But he had that 2+ save. Eight wounds scored, taking the Messenger down to seven. Alas, the Ripperdactyls, having made their attempt, did not survive the counterattacks from their target.

    In the front of the battle, I took out one of the Gore-Gruntas with some good shooting from my Troglodon and Salamander.

    Round Two, and Casey got into the mix. His Weirdnob Shaman didn’t get the Mystic Shield off this time, which was too bad, because I was all ready to surprise him with an Unbinding attempt from the Skink Oracle and his Divining Rod. Casey’s turn would be all about melee in the back corner of the battlefield. He had crowded all his remaining Gore-Gruntas up against the three units I had deployed back there: the Saurus Eternity Warden, the Saurus Guard, and the massive unit of Skinks. Onlookers were starting to gather now, even the shop manager pulled up a stool to watch, something she rarely does. Somebody remarked, “It’s funny how there’s this whole big table set up, and everything’s coming down to this one corner.” Yeah, I thought, funny.

    It was a scrum. But things didn’t go as well for him as he obviously hoped. He took out one of my Saurus Guard, put three wounds into the Saurus Eternity Warden, and killed six Skinks in the various rounds of close combat we engaged in. I had some incredible luck with my dice rolling and killed another Gore-Grunta with my Skinks (though admittedly, it was already carrying some wounds)!

    Battleshock tests were successfully made by Casey for his units. With various synergies and rules in play, my Saurus Guard and Skinks’ Bravery was so high they didn’t have to make the rolls.

    It was the bottom half of Round Two. My turn. My Skinks and Saurus Guard and Eternity Warden were tied up in the corner of the table by his Gore-Gruntas. The Megaboss and the Weirdnob were on their way, and my other units were either destroyed or out of position to block them, or even give aid. What could I do?

    You know what I did, don’t you?

    In mechanical terms, what I did was roll a dice to make a test against my army’s Allegiance Battle Trait, Lords of Space and Time.

    What I rolled was a 5.

    What I said aloud was, “Poof.”

    Then I set up the remaining 34 Skinks in the opposite corner of the battlefield.

    Nobody at this shop plays Seraphon but me. Despite the fact I’d already used the ability once this game to teleport my assassin cadre of Ripperdactyls, everybody was surprised, especially Casey. Actually, dismayed might be more of a descriptive word for him.

    After a couple of buffs, I had my Skink Starpriest get in on the action and fire an Arcane Bolt at the Megaboss. The Weirdnob was out of position for Unbinding, and I made the roll. Two mortal wounds, taking him down to five.

    In the Movement phase, I moved my Troglodon and Salamander within easy charging range of the Megaboss. Then came shooting. The Salamander went first, hitting and wounding for four damage with -2 Rend. You’ll recall that the Weirdnob hadn’t made its roll to apply Mystic Shield this round, so the Megaboss was saving at 4+. He rolled a 3. Down to one wound now, and I had my Troglodon and Skink Priest yet to shoot.

    Casey looked at the wound counter on his Megaboss. He looked at the Skinks nearly six long feet from any of his models.

    He offered me his hand, conceding the game partway through the Shooting Phase of Round Two.

    I had scored my second ever victory in an Age of Sigmar game. The points awarded by the League include one for fielding a fully-painted army, which I had, so I scored the full four possible points. At the end of Week Two, I have accumulated eight points.

    Next week, a 1500 point game! I hope I can get my models painted!

    (And here are a couple of pictures of Casey's army, which I thought looked great.)

    IMG_2847.JPG
    IMG_2848.JPG
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2018
  2. Xasto
    Terradon

    Xasto Well-Known Member

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    Nice battle report! You will quickly turn into ''the guy to beat'' in your local meta :p

    Just to be sure, in your army list, you write: Allegiance ability: Lords of Space and Time.

    Just wanted to make sure that you know that you don't have to choose between our two allegiance abilities, being allegiance Seraphon you automatically get both!

    Maybe it's just the way you write it down and you already know all that, but wanted to make sure :)
     
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  3. Christopher
    Terradon

    Christopher Well-Known Member

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    Thanks Xasto! I was just cribbing from my Pitched Battles Army Profile sheet, on which I'd noted the Battle Trait. Since I didn't have any Slann Wizards in this army, Masters of Order wasn't going to come into play so I hadn't written it down on the sheet I showed my opponent.
     
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  4. Lord-Marcus
    Slann

    Lord-Marcus Sixth Spawning

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    Awesome job.you are going to be nicknamed the lizard magician. Good show mate! Congratulations!
     
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  5. Aginor
    Slann

    Aginor Fifth Spawning Staff Member

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    Good job!
     
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  6. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

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    :D Nice. Great looking army, and great looking orc adversaries!
     
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