Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Battle Report: Saeryn vs. Prime Sorscha

Hey guys, another battle report, this time bringing Saeryn agains Prime Sorscha. This was a Shattered Grounds game, so my opponent was bringing the special Kayazy underboss. Since I didn’t really know what he did, I went with what is quickly becoming my take-all-comers list:

Saeryn
-Carnivean
-Scythean
-2 Shredders
Striders + UA
Blackfrost Shard
2 Spell Martyrs

The Blackfrost Shard is a new addition, taking the place of the Nephilim Soldier, who never seems to do as much as I’d like. We’ll see if the blighted brothers can perform better.

Prime Sorscha
-Destroyer
-Spriggan
Great Bears
Full Kayazy + UA (Special league UA)
Widowmakers
Koldun Lord

I’m a bit worried about his Kayazy, but at least they don’t have the minifeat. I’ve also never gone up against a Spriggan, so I’m wary of that.

Terrain
So last time, I said I'd try to take pictures, but completely forgot. So I thought instead I'd put together a diagram of the map in the greatest of all picture editing softwares: Paint.



Wow, that's much easier and clearer than trying to explain it. I think I'll do this if I forget pictures again!

Khador Setup
Sorscha, the Koldun Lord and the jacks set up in the middle-left, the Kayazy go on the far left, and the Great Bears deploy on the right.

Legion Setup
I decide I want to take advantage of the forest, so I deploy my whole force on the right side. This also means his Kayazy will have a long way to go to get to me. I go with my standard beasts-in-front setup, forming a line with the heavies in the middle and the Shredders on either side. Saeryn and the Spell Martyrs set up behind them, and the Blackfrost Shard sets up on the far right, hoping to come in after battle has been engaged.

Khador AD
Widowmakers deploy forward on the right, near the obstacle in front of the Great Bears.

Legion AD
Since the Widowmakers have neither have nor can see Stealth, I decide they’re a good target for my Striders, so I set them up as far forward as I can on the right, across from the Widowmakers.

Khador 1
Afraid of the Striders, the Widowmakers run back behind the wall in front of my opponent’s deployment zone. Koldun moves up behind the wall as well and gives Destroyer 1 focus. The jacks run diagonal-right, trying to get close enough to the action to protect the squisier parts of the army. The Great Bears run up behind obstacle in front of them, staying in base-to-base for the armor bonus. Kayazy run forward-right, as my opponent has also realized it will take them some time to get into the action. Realizing he has more coins than he will probably be able to use, the underboss gives them tough. Lastly, Sorscha moves up behind jacks and casts Fog of War.

Legion 1
The heavies move up behind forest, and the Carnivean gives himself Spiny Growth, while the Scythean riles for 2. Striders move up, and deciding they don’t have a good enough shot at the bears, do 1 large CRA on the Spriggan for 4, then scatter with their reform move. The Shredders walk around the forest and the one to the left gives himself tenacity, while the Spell Martyrs follow them, staying back to avoid getting sniped. Saeryn moves up and put spiny growth on the Scythean and Respawn on the Carnivean. The Blackfrost Shard decide they’ll probably be safe without stealth this turn and opt to run forward.

Khador 2
The Kayazy run forward, three engaging the leftmost strider, and two more engaging two more Striders who reformed too close to them. Once more the UA buys tough. Spriggan moves up and uses his flares to make 2 Striders on the right visible, allowing the Widowmakers to move up and shoot at them. Luckily, DEF 15 prevails and they all miss. The Koldun Lord moves up and gives Destoryer focus, and he uses it to step up and boost the hit on his shot at the revealed Striders. This time they aren’t so lucky, and both are caught in the blast and killed. Great Bears run back and left, staying behind the Widowmakers in case they need to counter-charge. At this point my opponent’s jacks have formed a nice wall with the obstacle on the right, so Sorscha Wind Rushes up behind them for the DEF bonus and upkeeps Fog of War.

Legion 2
There’s a small space between the Spriggan and the obstacle through which I can see Sorscha, and I take a minute to debate trying to use the Blackfrost Shard and Striders for an assassination. I decide I can’t get enough models line of sight, so instead the left Shredder goes rabid and runs around the Kayazy, followed by a Spell Martyr. Saeryn then arcs Blightbringer onto 6 Kayazy, including the UA. 3 are tough, but the UA dies. While the assassins will still have tough for this round, at least one of the Striders is no longer engaged. They step back and through 1 is killed by a free strike, they take out 2 Kayazy in return in spite of tough. Carnivean and Scythean move up a bit, Carnivean giving Saeryn Spiny Growth. The Blackfrost Shard moves up, getting stealth, putting Kiss of Lyliss on the Spriggan, and taking an Ice Bolt shot to do 3 more damage. The other Shredder moves up behind them and gives himself Tenacity, while the remaining Spell Martyr moves up and right, near the edge of the board.

Khador 3
The Spriggan moves up and tries to shoot the Striders with his blast, poor deviation keeps him from hitting. Sorscha then moves up and casts Twister on the Scythean catching the Carnivean, and Saeryn as well. This is bad - I didn’t realize Sorscha had a knockdown spell. The Scythean and Saeryn each take 1, and all 3 are knocked down. Sorscha then activates her feat, freezing most of the Striders, Scythean, and Saeryn. While the Blackfrost Shard are in range, they’re immune to frost, and one is close enough to Sorcha to block line of sight to the Spell Martyr. She shoots Saeryn for 5. Widowmakers move up but cant get LOS to Saeryn, but gleefully go after the Striders that have been tormenting them, killing 2, including the commander. One takes a shot and the spell martyr but is barely short. The Kayazy charge and finish off the 3 Striders on the left, and one manages to engage Rhyliss (the BFS member with Kiss of Lyliss), but misses his attack. The Koldun moves up and gives Destroyer 1 focus, who shoots Saeryn and boosts the damage. The 12 damage would kill her, but I transfer to the shredder who I Blightbringer’d, dropping him to 1. Great Bears run up, forming a line in front of the Windowmakers in preparation for the counter attack.

Legion 3
Wow, brutal turn - not only are my Striders all but gone, my Warlock and heavies are all knocked down and/or frozen. There is one bright side - to get so much of my army in range, Sorscha has left herself pretty exposed. The bad part: there’s only enough space for one heavy beast, who’ll have to trample through some infantry to get there. And the worst part: there’s a frozen Strider nearby who may end up blocking me. I’m not great at gauging distances, and if there isn’t space for a large base then the assassination attempt will turn into my death sentance. I think for a second, then decide its now or never. Saeryn shakes freeze, Carnivean shakes knockdown, and Scythean shakes both. Spell Martyr weaves between the Striders and Shard, and Saeryn stands before using it to arc Breath Stealer onto Sorscha, boosting to hit. She then activates her feat - its the one shot I have of surviving if this fails, and will keep me from losing critical branches to free strikes. She ends her turn with 3 fury, and the Blackfrost Shard activates. Though Rhyliss is engaged, he can move enough to get line of sight and Ice Bolt the Strider that could block my trample path. Meanwhile his brothers both put Ice Cage on Sorscha, hitting thanks to Breathstealer and dropping her DEF to 10. The Carnivean then charges Bears, lining up the assault to hit Scorscha and doding the free strike from the kayazy thanks to feat. I boost the hit and damage rolls on Sorscha to drop her to 6 hp, then tear apart the one Bear in range. With everything set up, the Scythean tramples Rhyliss and the Kayazy, to get into range of Sorscha. He buys an attack with his last point of fury, and thanks to Breathstealer, the Ice Cages, and his own awesome power, squishes the enemy Warcaster.

Aftermath
I’m so relieved the assassination at the end worked out. I was doing well for most of the game, thinning out his infantry with the Striders and Blightbringer, but her feat hit pretty hard. The Blackfrost Shard really were the MVPs this game, avoiding the feat, taking out the blocking Strider, and helping bring Sorscha defense down to a point where the Scythean could hit without boosting. While I love the Nephilim Soldier model, he’s never worked as well as these guys did, so it looks like they’re going to be staying in this list!

No comments:

Post a Comment