The druid woman chanted and green, circular, jagged runes revolved around her outstretched hand before the ground under Kaelyssa split open and erupted in a thick, wild tangle of vines and plant growth tipped with long, razor-sharp thorns. Without her power field to protect her, Kaelyssa leapt out of the way, but not before she found herself bleeding from over a dozen wounds. As her feet hit the ground and she staggered, the wood-and-stone form of the druid construct, ablaze from the flame of the Phoenix's cannon, rushed forward. The inscribed runes on its stone surfaces glowed with an arcane wash of green energy that it drew directly from a ley-line of Orboros before unleashing it in a blast of primal power. In its wake, plant life exploded in a rush of verdant growth. The elemental energy caught Kaelyssa with all the force of a giant's fist, and as she fell, the last thing she remembered was the sensation of being ensnared within a wild tangle of grasses and sharp-thorned vines...
The Lists (35 points):
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Initial Thoughts:
Initially this was supposed to be a 50 pt. game against Tim, so I had made my list earlier in the day - a Baldur list I was looking forward to trying out. Unfortunately, Tim was already engaged in what was meant to be a short 15-pt. game that ran much longer than anticipated by the time I arrived at the store. Since I still wanted to get a game in, we settled for a 35-pt game to see if we could get that done. This meant having to come up with a new list on the spot. Deciding that I wanted to run something different, and because I've only tried Morvahna a handful of times, I pulled her out as my caster of choice and opted to run a mostly infantry-heavy list with only a few warbeasts (1 heavy and 2 light... a definite change from my usual choices) to go for less fury management.
((Apologies - Sorry, again, had no camera with me to take pics))
Deployment:
Tim won the roll, then opted to give me the first setup. Terrain was sparse. A hill on the left of my deployment zone, some ruins between the hill and Tim's deployment zone, and a forest on the right side between the two deployment areas.
Morvahna went in the center, with the Pureblood on her left, the Gorax on the right. To the far right, I set up my Wolves in a tight "brick" formation, just behind the Swamp Gobbers who would cover them. Morraig set up on their right-hand flank. On my left, I set up my Skinwalkers in a line formation.
For my AD, the Bloodtrackers set up on my left, just next to the hill and within 6 inches of Morvahna and far enough away from the Skinwalkers. The Woldwatcher deployed to the center and a tad to my right, to provide some cover.
For Tim's set-up, he placed Kaelyssa slightly off-center to my left, between his Phoenix and Griffon. Nayl and Eiryss went just ahead of her. The Stormfall archers set up to the rear on my left, with the Mage Hunter Strike Force and Assassin in front of them, just within a couple inches of the ruins. On my right, Narn and both Ghost Hunter Snipers set up just behind the woods.
- I declared the Mage Hunter Strike Force as the Bloodtrackers' prey.
Round 1:
I started by activating Morvahna. She cast Restoration on the Skinwalkers to give them the armor buff, cast Regrowth on the Bloodtrackers, held onto her last fury and advanced. The Pureblood and Gorax each ran slightly forward ahead of her on either side and each riled for an additional fury point. The Woldwatcher advanced more towards Morvahna and slightly ahead, but staying within 2" of her, then activated its Earth Blessing animus on itself to stay rooted in place and taking on its Stone Form for 21 armor.
The Swamp gobbers advanced on a diagonal towards the center of the board and laid down a 5" AOE cloud of swamp gas. The Wolves of Orboros ran up behind the cloud to use it for cover, while Morraig rushed up past them and into the forward edge of the cloud to gain Stealth, thanks to his and his wolf mount's Prowl ability.
The Bloodtrackers ran forward to place the ruins as cover between themselves and the Mage Hunter Strike Force, while the Skinwalkers then rushed up alongside, but out of melee range (to avoid terrifying my own unit).
Tim went. The Mage Hunter Strike Force advanced, partially using the ruins to cover a third of his force. With the Mage Hunter Commander leading them, however, I'd forgotten the whole unit had Phantom Seeker, which meant the ruins covering my bloodtrackers effectively didn't exist as their crossbow bolts fired right through the walls. The majority targeted the bloodtrackers while three targeted the skinwalkers. Bolts flew... in the end, every shot missed my bloodtrackers except for one killing shot, while the three fired at the skinwalkers missed or couldn't penetrate their heavy armor. (Tim had some terrible rolls here).
The Stormfall archers advanced, but kept back and didn't fire, likely because they either couldn't draw a bead on my forces or were out of range. The Mage Hunter Assassin darted around the ruins to the far left, trying to come about in a flanking maneuver.
Eiryss and Nayl advanced somewhat up the center of the board and towards my right in a cautious advance. Eiryss put a Phantom Bolt into the Pureblood Warpwolf for an automatic 3 pts. of damage, something which put him in a foul mood.
Kaelyssa activated, casting Phantom Hunter on her Phoenix (to allow for more targeting without LOS shenanigans) and advancing slightly behind Nayl and Eiryss, holding onto her Focus to keep her Power Field running for the armor boost. The Griffon and Phoenix advanced on a course towards my warbeasts, but couldn't get into range.
On the far right, Narn and a Ghost Sniper took up positions in the forest, getting ready to target Morraig and the Wolves while the second Sniper managed a run and rushed Morraig to bog him down.
Round 2:
Morvahna leached fury, upkept her two spells and regrew the dead bloodtracker, bringing the unit back up to full strength.
The Pureblood Warpwolf activated first. Realizing from our previous game that Tim was trying to get Nayl into range of Morvahna, and that such a move would almost certainly kill me if she lost her fury, I was determined to stop that from happening. Nayl's stealth meant he was too far away to target with the Pureblood's death howl... but Eiryss wasn't, and Nayl was in a perfect diagonal line away from her. A quick check of Morvahna's control range indicated I could get within sight of Eiryss to target her... the Pureblood regenerated a point of damage and then loped forward before letting out a flesh rending howl. The spray caught both Eiryss and Nayl as intended, two boosts apiece meant both were hit, and the howl warped both to shreds. At that point, Tim realized my maneuver had crippled him far more than I'd initially intended... Kaelyssa was within 8" of Nayl, which meant that when the soulless elf died, he stripped her of all her focus, instead!
Now came the matter of how to free up Morraig. Thinking it over for a little bit, I charged the Gorax at the Sniper keeping Morraig tied up. The initial charge missed, but the follow up caught the elf and dashed him to pieces. With the enemy model no longer engaging the wolf lord, Morraig charged the Ghost Sniper and Narn. Morraig's blade killed the Sniper and then cleaved Narn in twain (whereupon I forgot that I could've moved Morraig another 5" afterwards thanks to his Light Calvary rules) leaving the Wolves free and clear to advance on that side of the table, which they promptly did, still under the cover of the swamp gobbers' gas bellows.
Morvahna then activated and popped her feat, Seeds of Destruction, while moving up to place the bloodtrackers and several of the mage hunter strike force in range. She ditched two fury, leaving her at one, and stayed close to the woldwatcher. The watcher moved forward to close any charge lanes towards my caster, then used its animus and stone form yet again.
Now the warpborn skinwalkers ran forward to put themselves into melee range of the Mage Hunter Strike Force (and to hopefully block the Griffon's advance by giving Tim a potential target) which had the advantage of striking terror into the unit as they failed their command check. With the Mage Hunter unit now fleeing in terror, the Bloodtrackers charged the targets they could see while one charged the Mage Hunter Assassin to stop (or at least bog down) her flank - she failed to connect. Two Mage Hunters died to the bloodtrackers, whereupon they each immediately exploded in a tangle of vicious vegetation that took out several more adjacent Mage Hunters, thanks to Morvahna's feat, and provided forests that now blocked a good number of my forces from the Stormfall Archers' LOS.
Tim then activated, still smarting from his loss of focus for the turn, which meant he had nothing to allocate to his warjacks and couldn't upkeep the phantom hunter spell. Deciding as he usually does in such situations to go for a make-it-or-break-it maneuver, he set to his activations. I had thankfully prepared myself for the possibility he would try something like that.
His first action was to charge several of the Stormfall Archers at the Warpborn Skinwalkers. While they passed the command check to enter melee, they were unable to do any damage to the now Armor 20 heavy infantry. The rest moved up and positioned themselves to attack when they could once the forests disappeared next round. The Mage Hunters activated, but failed to rally.
Tim advanced the Griffon up to engage the Pureblood Warpwolf and connected with its shield, doing minimal damage to the warbeast. The Phoenix then activated and advanced to the side to get LOS on Morvahna, then fired its Halo Cannon at her. The attack connected, whereupon the Woldwatcher used its Shield Guard ability to leap in front of her and take the shot, suffering only minimal damage but catching fire by the blast. Not to be dissuaded Kaelyssa moved up slightly and fired her runespear cannon at Morvahna and connected, whereupon Morv transferred the damage to the Gorax in her stead and activating its Pain Response. With that, Tim's actions were over.
Round 3:
Morvahna again leached fury, but I had too much. Rather than leave one point on the woldwatcher, I left a point on the Pureblood, reasoning it was likely to pass the threshold check. That would go against me as the Pureblood frenzied, whereupon it launched itself against the Griffon and proceeded to batter against its shield for little effect. I upkept Morvahna's spells and considered what to do next.
With the Pureblood therefore "out of commission" this turn, I considered my options before activating. See an opening for an assassination run, I took it since I wasn't likely to get a better shot at Kaelyssa with her power field down and in range before her 'jack came after me next turn.
Morvahna advanced to put Kaelyssa within range, then cast Eruption of Life at the elf. I boosted to hit (and good thing I did, too), then debated whether to boost the damage before doing so. It was a gambit, as it would leave Morvahna without fury. The damage did a fair amount to Kaelyssa, but the Elf was still standing, and now I was within a good charge lane for the Phoenix and Griffon. With nothing else to lose, the woldwatcher, still ablaze, advanced to close the charge lane, then targeted Kaelyssa with its Elemental Blast. Again I boosted to hit, just making the roll, before boosting the damage.
Kaelyssa went down.
Conclusion:
Something of a bitter irony for Tim, having fallen victim to the exact ploy he had meant to use against me - and not even something I had known would occur. I had thought his own models were immune to Nayl's Arcane Annihilation death throe, but evidently not according to the wording of the effect. I'll admit that between that and the poor die rolls he got, the game turned against him pretty quickly. It just wasn't his game this night. I'm pretty sure from now on I'll never see Nayl anywhere near his caster again.
On my end, I'm very happy with just about all the models I fielded, even if the Wolves of Orboros did nothing this game besides advance in ranks. I've finally seemed to get the hang of the Warpborn Skinwalker, having now learned the hard way how to use them as intended, to tarpit enemy models rather than to really destroy them. Getting to use their Terror ability was an unexpected treat, though. The bloodtrackers are even more fun when I can run them with little fear, knowing I can usually regrow the unit, regardless of how many get shot down.
Looking back, I also realize the Swamp Gobbers probably weren't that great a choice for this game, since Retribution, like many Cygnar gun-line lists, can gleefully ignore concealment effects and go right for the covered units, anyways. But for one measly point, they didn't ruin my list, either.
This game marks the first time I actually remembered the woldwatcher's Shield Guard ability, and planned on using it from the get-go. However, I'm a bit annoyed with myself for somehow all this time having overlooked the fact that Morvahna has Sacrifical Pawn. D'oh! Next time, I plan on trying to get her into the thick of things and see if I can have her cut loose with her Harvest spell.
I think I may try running Morvahna a little more often to get a better hang of her, though I'm bound to come across an anti-upkeep list that'll make short work of my forces soon enough. Still, she makes for one nasty caster...
