AoS Stürmer's Battle Reports

I think that's one of my "this would make sense" complaints. We have numerous attack profiles that logically rend should be on. How to teeth and claws not cause rend?

 

Right, surprises me that with 2 losses (minor as they may be) you still got a shared 2nd place, but a bonus objective sounds more sensible.

 

I would have had both my bonuses had I not been a dimwit and doubled the damage of the Carnosaur's jaw attack that went through on the Cauldron.

 

Escalation League
500 MPP in Aqshy, Game 1
Seraphon vs Flesh Eater Courts​

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Spoiler: Seraphon

Allegiance: Seraphon
Mortal Realm: Ulgu

Leaders
Skink Starpriest (80)
- General
- Trait: Master of Star Rituals
Saurus Scar-Veteran on Cold One (100)
- Artefact: Betrayer's Crown

Battleline
10 x Saurus Knights (180)
- Blades
10 x Skinks (60)
- Boltspitters & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (60)
- Boltspitters & Star Bucklers

Endless Spells
Soulsnare Shackles (20)

Total: 500 / 500
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 200
Wounds: 51

Spoiler: Flesh Eater Courts

Allegiance: Flesh Eater Courts
- Grand Court: Morgaunt

Leaders
Abhorrant Archregent (200)
- General
- Trait: Savage Chivalry
- Artefact: Decrepit Coronet
- Lore of Madness: Spectral Host
Varghulf Courtier (160) - SUMMONED

Battleline
20 x Crypt Ghouls (200)
10 x Crypt Ghouls (100)

Total: 660 / 500
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 45

This is the first of 7 battles in a local escalation league. I’m once again playing against my friend Gwendar, but this time he’s bringing his newly assembled and painted Flesh Eater Courts. In fact, this is his first time playing this army. He had 3 drops to my 5 and choose me to go first.

T1 Seraphon: I knew I wouldn’t be able to teleport anything of my army into his back line to do anything, so I mainly just shuffled Skinks around and failed my one cast.

T1 FEC: His wizard has two casts and was successful on both. The unit of 20 Ghouls now had 2 additional attacks and +1 damage from Inferno Blades. He summons in the Varghulf Courtier. Everything moves forward. I win the priority roll.


T2 Seraphon: The Knights get Celestial Rites and Serpent Staff, but I fail my cast again. I am able to get 16x Skinks in range of shooting and manage to kill 2 Ghouls. Knights are moved up to close the gap for a charge in T3.

T2 FEC: 20x Ghouls move into charge range. The other 10x Ghouls are behind terrain and the two Heroes are behind for support. The unit of 20x Ghouls fail their charge. We roll for priority and tie on a 3.


T3 Seraphon: I used a CP for the ScarVet’s CA, buffing the Knights. The Knights also got Serpent Staff and Celestial Rites.I rolled a 5 on LoSaT and teleported the ScarVet to charge the right edge of the 20x Ghouls, fully intending to move him forward and charge him, utilizing the Betrayer’s Crown. Unfortunately, I focused too much on getting all my Knights in and moved a unit of Skinks in the way of the ScarVet and forgot to move him. The Knights did make it however. This combat was pretty great, initially. I rolled several 6s to wound on both lances and Jaw attacks, majorly reducing the unit down to two models. Unfortunately, this was pretty well the end of my spotlight. I had unintentionally brought the unit of 10x Ghouls into combat and with feeding frenzy, they managed to take out 2 Knights. His army doesn’t take Battleshock and I can’t fail it.


T3 FEC: The Courtier brings back 6 models and they are buffed with 2 extra attacks and +1 damage, again. They inflict 20 damage and destroy the rest of the Knights. The Courtier was able to get close enough to my ScarVet, made a successful charge, and inflicted 6 wounds. In my strike back, I did manage 3 on it. I once again win the priority roll.

T4 Seraphon: I buffed the ScarVet and LoSaT him to behind the unit of 10x Ghouls, hopeful I can at least get off Betrayer’s Crown before he dies. The charge fails though and I don’t have a CP to re-roll it. I inflict one more wound on the Courtier with Skinks Blowpipes. I considered conceding but wanted Gwendar to complete his T4 and have a good victory.

T4 FEC: Not surprisingly, his unit of 10x Ghouls and the Archregent surrounded my ScarVet and made quick work of him. The Courtier was able to charge the Starpriest, inflicted 3 damage and then Feeding Frenzied and killed him. At this point, all I had was the two units of 10x Skinks. We called it with a major victory for FEC.

Post Battle Analysis:​

While I definitely made a mistake not getting my ScarVet into the unit of 20 Ghouls, I’m not sure how much it would have affected the game. I would likely have killed the unit, but FEC can bring a unit fully back on a 4+. Feeding Frenzy, the spell to add D3 attacks, and the Courtier’s ability to roll 6D6 and return a model on each 2+ makes for an insanely hard hitting and hard-to-kill opponent. There was another list I considered, provided by @LizardWizard in my Tactics thread, but the Oldblood on Carno isn’t great at horde killing, and likely would have just been a target for Feeding Frenzy. FEC is a rough opponent and by all statistics, very over-powered. That’s not to say they can’t be defeated, even by Seraphon, but I don’t think I have the skill or units to do it. I'm open to input however, as I will likely be facing Gwendar's FEC army again in the future.

 

meh, I don't think you could've done much better. We're kind of terrible at such low points as we cannot really field enough for synergies and we lack efficient units that can do more than 1 thing (e.g. his archregent is both a decent fighter in his own right and has some decent support abilities as well, in contrast your priest is only a decent support but utterly useless in combat).

Only thing I can think of to do differently would be bringing some more multiwound units like our flyers kroxigor or razordons/salamanders instead of the skinks if possible as they're vastly better offensively. Though even then I'd doubt it'd get you very far.

 

I'm not surprised you were defeated seeing as he had 160 more points than you (and 160 points over the limit).

 

That Varghoul Courier was summoned in, so not over the limit.

 

This was my thinking, but at 500 MPP, you still have to bring 2x battle line units. That's 200 MPP of ineffectual damage. I could slip in 6x Rippers after that and maybe that would have been enough to kill the Ghouls, but as I stated, he can bring them back on a 4+ and I don't recall if that requires a Hero or not.

 

I'm sorry, but how does summoning work then? Surely there must be some limit as to how much you can take in terms of summoning units, otherwise things can start getting ridiculous.

 

I don't think this is a thing. There is a Command Trait that allows for the Summoning Command Ability to be used for free, which is what the throne terrain piece does as well.

 

The limitations are either a hard limitation to the amount of times a unit can use a certain ability or uses some sort of summoning point scheme which you generate in certain ways depending on the faction (e.g. we generate points by having our slann not cast, tzeentch gets a point for every spell that is cast (friend or foe) that sorta thing). It's no longer reinforcement point based like in 40K. In exchange an armies point values are altered for how good they are at summoning (e.g. if an army on average summons 200 point of stuff in a game, every model is say 10 points more expensive than they would be if they couldn't summon).

I do think the current limitations are much better compared to reinforcement points as they are more genuinely summoning-like instead of just a glorified form of reinforcements. But it has 1 major downside; some of the point generating mechanics scale reaaaaally well with game size, some don't scale at all. Which can lead to weird situations like summoning a 160 extra points in a 500 point game.

 

Escalation League
750 MPP in Ghur, Game 1
Seraphon vs Nurgle​

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Spoiler: Seraphon

Allegiance: Seraphon
Mortal Realm: Ghur

Leaders
Skink Starpriest (80)
- General
- Trait: Master of Star Rituals
- Artefact: Gryph-feather Charm

Battleline
5 x Saurus Knights (90)
- Lances
10 x Skinks (60)
- Boltspitters & Star Bucklers

Units
4 x Razordons (160)
6 x Ripperdactyl Riders (280)
2 x Salamanders (80)

Total: 750 / 750
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 200
Wounds: 60

Spoiler: Nurgle

Allegiance: Nurgle

Leaders
Lord of Blights (140)
- General

Battleline
5 x Putrid Blightkings (160)
5 x Putrid Blightkings (160)

Units
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (220)
10 x Plague Monks (70)
- Foetid Blades

Total: 750 / 750
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 200
Wounds: 71

This is my third battle in the local escalation league, and it was against an opponent and army I’ve never played; exciting! I’m going to attempt a Narrative Battle Report, as I’m trying to get additional points in the league, since I can’t play as many games as I like. However, if story-mode isn’t your thing, there is a TL;DR version at the bottom.

On an unnamed canyon system in the Mortal Realm of Ghur, a detachment of Seraphon search for any who would oppose their desired control of intersecting leylines of power. This unit’s Slann had divined the objectives location and passed the information to an honored Skink Starpriest, who gathered battle hardened units of Saurus Knights, Ripperdactyl Riders, Razordons, Salamanders, and Skinks to fulfill their Slann master’s will. Upon finding the leylines, the Skink Starpriest was imbued with additional casting power (+1 cast and unbind from a Twist Card). This prize could serve the Seraphon wizards well, if it could be protected.

As the Seraphon units formed ranks for a potential battle, the hum and stench of pestilence creeped into the senses of each Skink, Saurus, and beast. Nurgle! They too had been drawn to the region, hoping to secure the magical vortices for one or more of their wizards. As the enemy came into sight, the Skink Starpriest General could make out a Lord of Blights leading two units of Blightkings. Accompanying this infantry were two hulking Pusgoyle Blightlords, riding their plague-ridden insect-like mounts. The Skink Starpriest pass the command to all Seraphon units to make ready to defend and secure any loci of magic, of which two more had become evident to his magical senses due to the connection the Starpriest now had with the land.

The Lord of Blights recognized his opponents from across the battlefield and rushed his units into battle (Nurgle finishes deployment first). The gap is too wide between their armies, however and the Blightkings are not able to engage the enemy, while the Blightlords mounts are unable to muster the enery needed to fly into combat (failed charge).

Seraphon units sieze upon the opportunity to advance! The Starpriest raises his hands to the heavens and the Ripperdactyl Riders dematerialize in a shower of star dust, only to reappear in the vicinity of the unseen, but felt magical locus behind a towering plateau. Once the Riders regain corporeal form, it becomes evident that Nurgle has a surprise! A unit of Skaven Plague Monks are within view, surrounding the locus and challenging any who would seek its power.

The empowered Starpriest successfully adorns the Saurus Kinghts with the spell Summon Starlight and grants them Celestial Rites, bolstering their resilience. To aid in their attacks, he levels his Seprent’s Staff and empowers the jaws of both rider and mount. The Saurus Knights, Skinks, Razordons, and Salamanders all advance to close the gap and attempt volleys of ranged attacks. Only four Skinks are able to use their blowpipes and aim for the hearty Blightkings, but the enemy’s armor easily deflected the darts. The Razordons would now attempt their Volley of Spikes, loosening the ever growing, razor-sharp spines with rapid muscle contractions and then launching them with mighty tail and spinal flails. The spikes speed towards the Blightkings, but without their Handlers, the Razordons aim is wild. Even so, a few found their mark, wounding one of the resilient plague bearers.

Ripperdactyl Riders eyed the Pestilence Rats with eagerness for battle, but their mounts seemed unwilling to advance (failed charge). The Saurus Knights now took their que, as their would be no more ranged attacks and charged the same Blightlords. Lances, shields, and jaws tore into the Blightlords with minimal effect, as these resilient horrors shrugged off much of the attacks. The Blightlords retaliated against the charging Knights, felling one of the five.

The Lord of Blights laughed heartily as he commanded his units to strike back (Nurgle wins T2 priority) and joined the Blightlords to battle the pesky Knights. Blightkings advanced on Skinks and Razordons, intent to spread the Gifts of the Greatfather. The unit of Blightkings charging the Razordons enraged the beasts into Instinctive Defense, losing a blistering barrage of spikes that impaled three of the five-man unit. The remaining Blightkings simply swung back gleefully and dispatched a beast, leaving three still entangled. The Skinks were not as fortunate, as the Blightkings that charged them were able to wipe away nine of the ten in the unit. Terror griped the remaining Skink and he vanished away into the Cosmos. One Blightking managed to gain combat with the Starpriest, but his Gryph-feather Charm Artefact, found at the beginning of the battle, shielded him from the pestilent attacks. The Salamanders that had supported the Skinks trudge forward to battle the victorious Blightkings, but their jaws are unable to penetrate the armor and plagued flesh. The cacophony of battle proves to much for the Blightlords as they are completely unable to field any attacks against the stalwart Knights. The Lord of Blights, however, assures them their time will come and swings happily into the Knights, felling another Knight.

The Starpriest knows now is time for a tactical retreat, but once again lends his boons, this time to the Salamanders, and also calls down Starlight on the Knights. As he retreats to the relative safety of the Razordons, the Seraphon are once again able to bend Space and Time to their will and the Salamanders are behind the Lord of Blights in an instant. The teleportation takes a toll and the Salamanders are unable to rally themselves for their acidic ranged attack.

Ripperdactyls are now ready to carry their Riders to combat and swoop down into the gully the Skaven Plague Monks are skulking in. As they descend, the pheromones of a nigh indistinguishable Blot Toad enrage the Ripperdactyls, whose Vicious Beaks tear apart the Monks, leaving none left. In their death throws, however, two Monks corpses disgustingly inflate and explode, dealing vile damage to a Ripperdactyl and its Rider.

Knights remain locked in fierce combat with Blightlords and the Nurgle General. Their attacks strike true once again and a hulking Blightlord and mount reel from the onslaught, dropping to the bloodied ground. This is where these Knights valiant defence ends, however, as the returning blows from the General and remaining Blightlord rend the last three Knights from the battle.

The Starpriest lets out a shriek heard the battlefield over (Seraphon double turn) and signifies to the remaining units the loss of yet more of their brethren. Razordons have held up the Blightkings long enough and are teleported through Space and Time by the will of the Slann to guard the leyline locus nearby, discovered by the Starpriest. The Starpriest then joins the beasts to help ward off any encroaching Nurgle units, though the remaining Blightkings are now distant and confused as to where their adversaries have vanished to.

The Starpriests battle cry infuriates the Ripperdactyl Riders, who quickly descend upon the remaining Blightlord and Lord of Blights, revenge and savagery at the forefront of their minds. The Swooping Dive tenaciously shreds the last Blightlord and the toothy grin that has adorned the Lord of Blights throughout the battle wanes ever so slightly. He continues the Greatfather’s command and dispatches one Ripperdactyl Rider, if only to prolong his inevitable demise.

The battle has swung decidedly in the Seraphon’s favor and perhaps noticing this, the Nurgle General sounds the retreat, not wishing for a complete route of his army. Greatfather Nurgle will be understanding, he assures himself, as he looks back upon the magical land, rippling with energy, now wholly controlled by the Skink Starpriest and his cohorts.

TL ; DR ​

Battle Cards are used: Twist grants +1 to cast/unbind, but doubles are a MW and double 1s are D3 MW. Deployment card is the simple 12” from the board edge for each army. Objective card place one in the center and allowed each player to set up one in their territory, more then 6” away from the board edge. Realmscape feature was Hungering Animus (which never went off). Last card was for me, as I had less wounds. I don’t recall what this was called, but before the first round, it allowed me to pick up to 3 units and remove them from the board and set them back up again more than 12” away from enemy units and not in the enemy territory. I opted to not utilize this, as I would be going second, and I didn’t want to make it easier for my opponent to charge me.

Nurgle T1: Lord of Blights, Blightkings, and Blightlords move up to control the middle objective. Blightlords fail a charge and the subsequent Command Point re-roll.


Seraphon T1: Blot Toad is placed next to the unit of Plague Monks guarding Nurgle’s objective. Summon Starlight and Celestial Rites (granted by Master of Star Rituals) go off on the Knights, who are also buffed with Serpent’s Staff. Lords of Space and Time (LoSaT) gets a 3, bamfing the Rippers to the rear left corner of the map to contest Nurgles objective. Skinks make 2 wound rolls on Blowpipes, but both are saved. Razordons manage 2 wounds into one unit of Blightkings. Rippers fail their charge and the re-roll for it. Knights fail their charge as well, but Celestial Rites gets barely gets them in and they manage one 6 in each Jaws attack profile, inflicting 2 or 3 wounds on the Blightlords. One Knight dies in retaliation.


Nurgle T2: I didn’t pull Blightkings into Combat with the Knights, so he advances one unit towards the Skinks and Salamanders and another towards the Razordons. The Lord of Blight charges into the Knights, and both Blightking units charge. I get a 4 for Instinctive Defense and get 35 wound rolls, of which 17 are 4+, and 10 made it through, reducing the unit to 2 models. His retaliation kills one Razordon. Skinks lose 9 and the 10th runs in Battleshock. One of the Blightkings in this unit attacks my Starpriest, but I save the one wound he succeeds on. My Sallys pile in, but don’t manage any wounds. His Blightlords fail all their attacks, but the Lord of Blight is able to kill one Knight.




Seraphon T2: Knights are only in range for Summon Starlight, which goes off. Serpent Staff and Celestial Rites go on the Salamanders, as they are the only unit in range. LoSaT is a 4, so I am able to remove the Sallys from combat and set them up behind the Lord of Blight. Can’t move though, so they can’t shoot. Starpriest runs 14” to be next to the Razordons. Shooting from the Razordons is much less effective this time, only inflicting 2 wounds, and they take 2 back. Knights manage to dispatch one Blightlord, but retaliation wiped the unit. Rippers move up and successfully complete their charge, though only 4 can get into 1” melee. The Blot Toad and exploding hits wipe the unit of Plague Monks, but they manage two MW as they die off.


Seraphon T3 (Double Turn!): I fail Celestial Rites but buff the Razordons with Summon Starlight and Serpent Staff. The spell cast was a double 5, so the Starpriest suffered a MW from the Twist card. I LoSat the Razordons to my objective and again run the Starpriest to be next to them. Rippers move their 14” and the Sallys move to within 8” and then promptly fail their ranged attacks. I fail the Rippers first charge, but the Command point re-roll gets them in and with pile-in, they completely surround the remaining Blightlord and two are on either side of the Lord of Blights. 4 Rippers are able to kill the Blightlord and the other two inflict 3 wounds on the General. His retaliation manages 2 wounds, killing one Ripper.

At this point, I control all three objectives. My opponent concedes as he has another engagement in 20 minutes and is fairly certain that hi remaining 7 Blight kings would not be able to wrest control from me in the remaining rounds. Seraphon wins!

Post Game Analysis
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Honestly, without patting myself on the back too much, I think this is the best game I have played to date. I really only made two mistakes: I forgot to re-roll the Spear attacks on the Rippers on their first Swooping Dive and I miscalculated the number of wound rolls I gained from Instinctive Defense, in my favor . Otherwise, I think I played well. I knew I would need to gain Nurgle's objective and while I failed the Rippers first charge attempt, he didn't bring the Plague Monks out from their terrain to fight, allowing me unfettered access to them on my next turn. The Knights performed VERY well, both on inflicted damage and managing to survive as long as they did (thank you Summon Starlight and Celestial Rites). The Skinks shielded my Sallys well, though they really under performed in this battle, with no wounds inflicted. Even though we didn't make it to T4, it's highly likely I would have dispatched his General and then would have had free reign to attack the remaining Blightkings, tying them up, if not killing them and preventing him from gaining control of any objectives.

 

Escalation League
750 MPP in Shyish, Game 2
Seraphon vs Flesh Eater Courts
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I waited to long to post this and don't recall the battle details. I also recall not being in the best frame of mind. Regardless, FEC won.

 

Very well played, excellent job on the wins.

 

Aren't you supposed to keep building the same army with an escelation league? It seems rather different than the previous few armies.

Also, your skinks didn't underperform. 10 Skinks failing to do any damage over 3 turns is perfectly normal

 

I asked the organizer the same thing and while he initially planned to do that, he didn't make it a requirement of the league.

Fair point on the Skinks