Monday, January 24, 2011

Battle Report: Rhyas vs. pVlad

Wow, long time hiatus! Life has been busier than I'd hoped, but I scraped together time to play a small game last week and thought I'd post the results! Right now, I'm trying to decide between buying a Scythean or a Ravagore, so I played a small 21 point game (all the models my opponent had with him) to help figure out how each work through proxies. Here was my list:

Rhyas +6
Scythean 9
Nephilim Soldier 5
Full Warmongers 8
Warchief 3
Forsaken 2

Been a while since I brought out Rhyas, though I'm interested to see how the Scythean does under her feat, Rapport, and Massacre.

My opponent was playing the following Khador list:

pVlad +5
Juggernaut 7
Destroyer 9
Berserker 6
Widowmakers 4

I won the roll and elected to go first.

Terrain
There was a small hill on his side, as well as a small forest on mine, but the main feature was a large hill in the center with ruins on top. We decided to play king of the hill: from the end of the 2nd round onward, if your opponent had models on the center hill and you didn't, you lose. This could be a tough match with all his jacks, but if I could let him take the hill first I could do a bunch of damage with the counter attack.

Deployment
I deployed my forces in the center, with the Ogrun on the left and Rhyas, my Forsaken, and the Warbests to their right. My opponent put Vlad just behind his jacks, all in the middle. The Widowmakers advance deployed on the small hill on his side.

Legion Turn 1
Since his Widowmakers were perched on a hill to my left, I had Rhyas put Occultation on the Warmongers to keep them from taking extra damage, then cast Dash and had her move her full speed up. Everyone else ran forward, the Nephilim screening Rhyas but the rest trying to get in range to charge anything on the hill.

Khador Turn 1
My opponent obliged me by activating Vlad and using his feat, then moving up. All his jacks ran forward, the Berserker and the Destroyer each taking one side of the hill while the Juggernaut waited just behind it. The Widowmakers tried to get a shot, but the only thing in range were my occulted Warmongers.

Legion Turn 2
With his forces in range, it seemed like as good a time as any to use my feat. Rhyas went first, dropping occultation and putting Massacre on the Nephilim. She then cast Rapport on the Scythean and popped her feat, moving a bit to the right in case the Widowmakers decided to move up for an opportunistic shot. The Warmongers then charged the Destroyer, and despite the massive number of attacks, only managed to do 17 damage (I calculated later, and the average should've been closer to 27!). Still, its cortex was damaged, so at least they would be a little safe from retaliation. The Nephilim and Warchief went after the Berserker, doing a decent amount of damage but most importantly using their reach to force him to take a free strike if he wanted to go after either one of them. The Scythean hung back, putting itself between Rhyas and the enemies, waiting for the Juggernaut to come forward. The Forsaken hung back in the edge of the forest, close enough to help grab some fury if needed.

Khador Turn 2
He nose was bloodied, but my opponent still had all his guys standing. Vlad cast saved enough Focus for Blood of Kings and gave the rest to the Juggernaut, then opted to stay back to stay out of the Scythean's range. The Juggernaut and Destroyer teamed up to carve 3 Warmongers apart, but the Berserker didn't fare so well - the free strike he took from the Warchief crippled one of his axes, and with the miss the other axe wasn't enough to take out any of the Nephilim's aspects. The Widowmakers took shots at the Warmongers, dealing a bit of damage to them with some lucky hit rolls.

Legion Turn 3
With only 2 wounded Ogrun holding the hill for me, it was do or die time. The Nephilim threw everything they had at the Berserker, but some bad rolls on damage meant I only took out his movement. The Forsaken moved up to pull the fury off it while the Scythean then charged into the other 2 jacks,. In a flurry of blows it managed to take down the Destroyer and take out the Juggernaut's open fist. The remaining Warmongers and Warchief then charged it, but did a grand total of 3 damage. Concerned that it was going to knock out my Scythean, I sent Rhyas in with full fury to try to take it out. Thankfully, my damage rolls turned around and she managed to finish the metal monstrosity with just the charge attack! Then she sprinted back off the hill to safety, wary of what Vlad could do.

Khador Turn 3
The loss of his 2 biggest jacks was a serious blow, but my opponent hoped he could recover by sending Vlad in. First the Berserker used 3 focus to finish off my Nephilim, then luckily avoided blowing up. Vlad then cast BLood of Kings and entered the fray. With the help of the Widowmakers took out all my remaining Ogrun and took about half my Scythean's life!

Legion Turn 4
I was down to 3 models, and didn't like the odds of Rhyas beating Vlad head to head. I healed up the Scythean's body, and sent him in boosting attack rolls to help get around Vlad's sky-high defense. Thanks to Rapport, I managed to land enough blows to take him out and win!

Aftermath
That was too close for comfort! I haven't played much at lower point levels, and one solid attack can cripple a huge amount of your force! I was surprised my opponent blew his feat so early - I was expecting him to wait behind the hill for the 1st turn, then use it to charge me when I was forced onto it in the 2nd. The small number of models also prevented me from using the Scythean-Tide of Blood-Massacre combo, since there was nothing close enough to his Warlock. Still getting the hang of playing Rhyas; I put Rapport on the Scythean on feat turn, but ended up keeping him back. Luckily it ended up helping me later when he went after the Destoryer and Juggernaut! One cool thing I figured out about her was the power of Sprint. While other guys like the harrier use it to take out solos and retreat, Rhyas hits hard enough to take out lighter jacks (or heavier ones with a little help). I could see her hanging right behind the front line, moving through units to take out a jack then Sprinting back to safety. Will have to try that out more. Overall a really fun game - objectives definitely change up the game a lot.

Life looks to be a bit busy at least through the first half of February, so I may not be posting much. I'll try to get in at least once a week, battle reports when possible, otherwise general army thoughts.

No comments:

Post a Comment