What's a "whole mess of Shredders"? Try 10 of them on for size. In total, eThagrosh is going to be running 12 beasts (adding in a Harrier and Typhon's BFF Typhon). In the List Analysis portion of this article, we'll try to explain just how the big man can run so many beasts. Then in the fight itself, we'll try to see if it really works that way in reality.
Rask is going to be his opponent. He's got a great set of tools at his disposal and has single-handedly made Gators much more competitive. Minions probably isn't winning any big tournaments any time soon, but Rask is certainly showing that faction potential to do so if they get another good piece of two.
We'll be using VASSAL to display this battle. Feel free to click on any picture to make it larger.
Gators versus Dragonswawn. Let's get it on!
Thagrosh the Messiah
The List
Thagrosh the Messiah (eThagrosh) (50+3)
Harrier
Shredder
Shredder
Captain Farilor & Standard
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Gatorman Witch Doctor
3 Spell Martyrs
Lastly, there are three Spell Martyrs. For those unfamiliar with them, they are SPD 6 solos who allow a warlock to channel a spell through them. Once that happens, they are removed from play. Thagrosh has some nice offensive spells like Scourge and Flesh Eater that can utilize these one-shot arc nodes effectively.
Rask (50+6)
Another quick and easy VASSAL map. As usual, we have two hills, one on each side. We have a wall of debris on the left side in the middle, along with two clumps of trees north and south of that wall. On the right, we have a pile of rocks that's going to act as impassible terrain.
Fire Support is the scenario. Kill Box is in effect.
Two flags and two objectives are placed on the board. The objectives are "Artillery Emplacements". The objective closest to each player is a friendly Faction model. At the end of each player's turn, starting with the second player's second turn, scoring takes place:
Fire Mission - While a warcaster/warlock dominates this objective friendly models within 2" of this model with Light Artillery gain boosted damage rolls.
This scenario has two Tactical Tips in the 2013 SR Handout. The first is that enemy objectives contest flags within 4". The second is that only the active player scores when multiple players dominate the same zone, flag, or objective. I always forget that warcasters/warlocks can't contest, so I'm glad this tactical tip reminded me.
Note: Even though the circles are bigger along the centerline, those are the flags. The objectives are the smaller circles closer to each player. VASSAL has it backwards, it appears.
Use the Croak Hunter to target those Shepherds, potentially taking away some of his virtual control area. Wrong Eye and Snapjaw will take the left side of the board all to themselves.
Note: All references to left and right are referenced from the diagrams, not from any player perspective.
Thagrosh the Messiah Turn One
It can't hurt to state this fact again: the enemy has no true shooting of any kind. eThagrosh will rapidly move his beasts up on the right, making sure he can manage fury this turn. He'll be more cautious on the left where he's got the obvious advantage. The plan is to force Rask into having to use a turn one feat, which might allow the gators first blood, but minimize the losses for a counter-feat afterwards.
On the right, four Shredders runs up, followed by the two Shepherds. They aren't fast enough to keep up so there's not going to be any fury mitigation going on. The Spell Martyrs run up and get positioned for next turn as well.
Two more Shredders run out, more towards the middle of the field. Since Typhon is going to want to run as well, that's going to be the most beasts that can be forced unless Legion wants to risk early threshold checks.
The last Spell Martyr to act runs up past the Harrier. Then the Legionnaires run, leaving one member within 6" of Thagrosh so it can be targeted with Dragon's Blood. The Witch Doctor walks behind, granting Zombify (although there's zero chance that they'll need it). The pot is just going to trail after the Legionnaires. It can only advance 1" for each Grunt in the unit within 2" of it at the beginning of the unit's activation. It's not speedy and since it is a minimum unit it's only moving 4. It can recycle living models destroyed within 8" (4 + 1" per Grunt) so it has to be close, but not exceptionally so.
Thagrosh is last to act. He doesn't want/need to keep any of that fury. He starts by casting Dragon's Blood on that Legionnaire standard bearer who stayed behind just for that purpose.
Dragon's Blood: COST 2, RNG 6, Upkeep: Target friendly non-warlock Faction model/unit gains +2 ARM. When an affected model is disabled by a melee attack, roll a d6/ On a roll of 5 or 6, the attacker suffers 1 damage point.
He moves up 5 and then he then tosses Unnatural Aggression on Typhon.
Unnatural Aggression: COST 2, RNG 6, Upkeep: If target friendly non-trooper Faction model suffered damage during your opponent's last turn, during your next Maintenance Phase it can make a full advance. During this movement, it must move towards the nearest enemy model.
And that's the turn.
Rask Turn One
The entire turn comes down to feat versus non-feat and that comes down to properly assessing exactly how much threat Legion can bring to bear.
We talked about the various threat ranges of the Shredders before:
One of the Bull Snappers will go first. It will use it's animus on one of the gatormen in the right posse. Then he will move up the board. Rask activates next. He moves 5" up the board, turns slightly, and throws out Spiny Growth on two members of the left posse.
Spiny Growth: COST 2, RNG 6: Target friendly Faction model gains +2 ARM. If a warjack or warbeast hits the affected model with a melee attack, the attacking model suffers d3 damage points immediately after the attack has been resolved unless the affected model was destroyed or removed from play by the attack. Spiny Growth lasts for one round.
He then uses his last 2 fury to cast Admonition on himself. The choice comes down to saving 2 for transfers or using it for Admonition, and Admonition is an upkeep that really needs to get out early.
The left posse runs up next, trying to make sure the two gatormen with Spiny Growth are the front line. They use the Dirge of Mists prayer, granting them +1 DEF and Terror. The Witch Doctor moves up behind them, making them Undead and Tough with his Zombify ability.
The other Bull Snapper walks up behind the left posse and grants yet another one of the gatormen Spiny Growth.
The right Gator Posse runs up as well, but clearly with the intent of forming the counter-charge unit rather than the front-line ablative unit. They use the Dirge of Mists prayer as well.
The Blackhide Wrastlers finish up the Gatorman turn by just moving into spots behind the lines.
Thagrosh the Messiah Turn Two
Thagrosh grabs his fury back and then uses one to upkeep Dragon's Blood.
Rask didn't feat, but honestly he wasn't in a position where he had to. He positioned his gatormen well and used Spiny Growth to make that front line extremely tough to crack. Charging isn't always the best thing for Shredders anyway since they can move 8" with Rabid and get boosted attack and damage when they do so. Being forced to charge fills them up on fury and really only gets them another 3" of movement.
Still, by not feating, it forces Thagrosh to use his feat to at least get some shots in this turn. The other option is to move back, stall a turn, and let the gators come to him. Taking the fight to the other side of the table though turns this into more of a scenario game rather than a straight attrition fight.
The hard part is going to be getting Thagrosh up the field far enough so that Manifest Destiny affects all his beasts. He isn't going to have enough fury to throw out any offensive spells, so he'll be using Manifest Destiny and one or two Tenacities.
So the easy stuff needs to take place first. The Legionnaires run up on the left side of the board. Wrong Eye and Snapjaw can come after them next turn, but it's not going to be a good match-up for them.
The pot goes ahead and shuffles up slowly behind the pack. The Witch Doctor comes up beside them, targeting the Standard Bearer (who once again has been hanging back just so he can act as a target for friendly spells and abilities) with Zombify.
The left Spell Martyr parks itself behind the Legionnaires. The center Spell Martyr moves up, trying to get itself in a position for turn three and also get out of the way of the oncoming rush of shredders.
Now it's time to get those shredders in place for the feat. There is just going to be a crapload of fury on the board at the end of all this stuff. Each gatorman that gets hit needs to die. We saw the math earlier and a single shredder can't do it (especially with Spiny Growth up as well). There's going to need to be 2 shredders per target, minimum.
Four of the shredders on the left side hill go Rabid and run. The other shredders don't need to run so they just get forced to go Rabid and use Tenacity.
The Shepherds move up and use Condition to remove Fury points from two of the Shredders. The far right Spell Martyr runs and makes sure he/she/it touches the flag on that side of the board.
There's really no reason for Typhon to expose himself too much so he just moves 6" up the board.
And this is the point where Thagrosh realizes he has a problem. Unless Thagrosh charges, he's not going to have enough reach with Manifest Destiny to affect all his beasts. But, as I understand it, his feat is a "pulse" style of effect. When the feat is used, that's when you see which members of his battlegroup qualify for the extra movement and attack. If he fails a charge, he won't be able to use the feat and this whole turn would have been ridiculously pointless.
He should have used his feat early in the turn, cast Manifest Destiny, and then failed a charge on something across the board. He didn't though because he wanted to see where the shredders were going to end up after all their moves. Whoops!
The answer though is easy to spot: the poor Harrier. Sorry, little guy, but you just became expendable.
The Harrier moves 14" and positions himself so that Thagrosh won't fail a charge (8" charge + 2" reach on his weapon). The Harrier turns itself such that Thagrosh won't get the back strike bonus. Maybe, just maybe, he can live through this.
Thagrosh has a MAT of 7. He rolls a (1,4) and the Harrier is safe, for now. Thagrosh then pops his feat. All of the shredders, Typhon, and the lucky Harrier will benefit. He casts Manifest Destiny for 3 of his fury. Then he casts Tenacity on himself and Typhon, leaving himself with 1 fury remaining for transfers.
That is the end of normal activations. Time for the feat to kick in. The leftmost shredder takes his special activation first and goes after the un-spiny gatorman on the far left. This will be a good test for how successful or ineffective this feat turn is going to be. The Shredders are going to be MAT 5 (with 4 dice drop the low) versus DEF 13 (because of Dirge of Mists). If they hit, it's P+S 10 (again with 4 dice dropping the low) versus ARM 18 or 20.
The first shredders throws (5,6,6,6) for his four dice to hit. The damage is (1,3,4,6) so 5 gets in. Not enough, but it's a good start.
The rest of the shredders move up and attack as well. The second shredders takes out the first gator. The third and fourth do 7 to the second gator, but Spiny Growth keeps him alive. That means a third shredder has to be tasked to finishing him off. What makes it worse for Legion is that the third one does enough damage, but he makes his Tough roll.
Shredders 6 and 7 also do just 7 to a different gator, and there's not enough room for a third shredder to get in on him to try to get the finishing blow. Shredders 8 and 9 finish off another gator and the Tough roll fails.
The last shredder hits his target but fails to roll enough to do damage. Because he hit, however, he still gets to take Spiny Growth damage.
Last, the Harrier and Typhon get to move, but they just advance a little and can't get in a position to throw any attacks. That's turn, and it didn't go well for Legion. Just two dead gators. However, the line of engagement is on that side of the board and the objectives and flags are currently in friendly territory.
Rask Turn Two
Thagrosh actually did a great job at removing Rask's feat from the early game. If it wasn't for Spiny Growth everywhere, this could be a much worse situation for the gators. As it stands, the gatormen can hopefully clear out some shredders and let the warbeasts move up the board and threaten Thagrosh.
The left side of the board, however, sucks. There's nothing else that can be said about it.
Rask grabs his fury and upkeeps Admonition.
The three remaining members of the left posse activate first. One obviously has to sacrifice his movement to stand. The second is happy where he is, and the third moves up to engage the three middle shredders. They use the Cold Blood prayer:
Cold Blood - Affected models can reroll missed attack rolls against living models this turn. Each roll can be rerolled only once as a result of Cold Blood.
When they are done with their attacks, each of the three posse members had taken out a shredder, but it had required both of their attacks to do so. The remaining shredders have really jammed the lines and it's going to be tough to get the gators through. So it's time to forget the plan to get the warbeasts up the field and just take advantage of attrition.
To help with this, Rask activates. He pops his feat. It didn't hurt the shredder spam but it can still bug the heck out of Thagrosh and Typhon next turn. He then casts Fury on the right posse:
Fury: COST 2, RNG 6, Upkeep: Target friendly model/unit gains +3 to melee damage rolls but suffers -1 DEF.
He moves up slightly and takes a shot on the Harrier, boosting to hit and using the Energy Siphon ammo type. He hits, stealing the fury and immediately using it to boost damage. The Harrier takes 13 damage, one-shotting it. He camps 2 fury and ends his turn. The movement also takes him into the zone and gets rid of the Kill Box problem.
The right posse activates and chooses to charge/run. They also use the Cold Blood prayer. One gatorman manages to charge a Shepherd. One charges a shredder the leader of the unit was engaging. Another gatorman charges a shredder on the left that was engaging the other posse. The last gatorman just runs up the field.
The Shepherd dies instantly to a bite attack. The secondary initial using the reach weapon eliminated the Spell Martyr. The green shredder on the far right follows soon after. Fury makes these gators P+S 16 and that means that the posse splat low armor targets. That means the Cyan shredder in the middle of the screen doesn't stand a chance either against the posse member's bite and he uses his Reach weapon to do 10 more damage to the yellow shredder.
The Witch Doctor shuffles over and puts Zombify on the right posse this turn.
The left Bull Snapper moves over to the left to shore up that flank. He gives himself Spiny Growth. The other Bull Snapper moves to be prepared for next turn and gives Spiny Growth to Rask. The two Wrastlers also move up, with one swinging wide to the left to potentially help out on that side of the board.
The Croak Hunter is last on the right side of the board. Nothing is going to be in his range so he just runs up around the rock.
Wrong Eye and Snapjaw have some decisions to make. That wall is in the way of making a proper charge into the mass of Legionnaires since Snapjaw has no way to get Pathfinder. He can't really charge that "bait" Legionnaire because there's the wall and the objective (remember it's got a smaller base than it should). He can't get over the wall. If Snapjaw gets too exposed, he could get munched by a swarm of corrupted elves with Combined Melee Attack.
So Snapjaw needs to position himself to attack that one dude while using the wall and the objective to keep the number of Legionnaires attacking him next turn to a minimum. Wrong Eye needs to move back away, making sure that running Legionnaires can't lock him into melee.
Snapjaw moves up, throws a reach attack on the closest Legionnaire. With his position, Legion will have troubles getting too many guys attacking him, even with reach. He boosts his to-hit with his tail and crushes the elf. The Tough roll fails. Dragon's Blood doesn't cause damage either. Wrong Eye drops a point of fury and then runs behind the woods, staying safe.
That should be the turn.
Snapjaw ends up within 4" of the flag on the left side so all the flags are contested. No objectives have been destroyed (and, in fact, this was the first player's turn that an objective could be damaged). It's zero to zero.
Thagrosh the Messiah Turn Three
Thagrosh grabs 2 fury from one of the shredders, filling him up. He doesn't upkeep Dragon's Blood.
Note: I forgot the Legionnaires had Vengeance. That would have changed things up considerably!
It's going to be a fun turn for threshold checks. The red shredder on the left fails his check. He advances towards the model to get it into melee range and makes his attack. He probably wouldn't do a lot of damage to the Blackhide Wrastler anyway, but a roll of (1,2,1) means he doesn't even hit.
The yellow shredder next in the line in the graphic above is the one that Thagrosh stole the fury from, so he's fine. Thagrosh choose to check the green shredder on the right first. Another failed threshold check results in an attack on the gatorman to the right of him with 7 damage already on him. He's DEF 12 and the shredder hits, getting some damage through. That's one more dead gator.
The other green shredder checks threshold and fails. He then attacks the other gator with 7 damage on it. There's another hit and a dead gator. The last threshold check to make is on the right yellow shredder who only has his Spirit left. He fails the check, but also fails his attack roll. The only shredder that will activate normally this turn is the left yellow one.
It's worth re-reading Rask's feat at this point:
Feat: Dark Waters: While in Rask's control area, friendly Faction models cannot be targeted by attacks or charges made by models more than 5" away from them. Dark Waters lasts for one round.
The first time I went through the last turn of the game, I forgot the right posse had Fury. Without Fury, Thagrosh is still alive and kicking. Of course Rask still had the Bull Snapper and the Blackhide Wrastler on the right side of the board left to go, but neither could reach Thagrosh. The plan at that point was for the Wrastler to pick up and two-hand throw the Bull Snapper at Thagrosh to try to get that last bit of damage in.
It's easy to go back and say Thagrosh shouldn't have wasted 3 fury on Flesh Eater on turn 3. He could have camped more fury and been much safer. It was a little paranoid on his part to cast it when Typhon still had his actions. Flesh Eater honestly isn't a good spell and throwing it out at a gatorman was probably the worst move of the game, but there was some logic behind it.
Forgetting Vengeance may have hurt Legion on turn three, but it's hard to see how they could have taken out both the objective and Snapjaw regardless of positioning. Snapjaw just has so much health.
The Spawning Vessel did absolutely nothing. There were two problems: 1) a minimum unit of 4 guys can't move it fast enough, and 2) no one died on that side of the board anyway. It was far too slow to make a shift over to the middle or right side of the board.
Another Battle Report finished and, as usual, I hope you enjoyed. Questions or comments? Throw them out there. I've been told the Comments option doesn't work, but I'm not sure why that would be. It's definitely enabled, etc.
Thanks for reading!
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Typhon
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (Leader and 9 Grunts)Captain Farilor & Standard
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Gatorman Witch Doctor
3 Spell Martyrs
The Analysis
Look at all the beasts. How in the world is Thagrosh going to be able to run all those Shredders and still manage his fury? The quick answer is "he probably isn't". This list is all about a big feat turn and chances are you're just going to let the little guys get mad and run rampant.
The reason this list works are the following abilities:
Rabid (Shredder Trait): This model can be forced during it's activation to get +2 SPD, Pathfinder, and boosted attack and damage rolls for one turn.
The important part there is "for one turn". Then you have eThagrosh's spell:
Manifest Destiny: COST 3, RNG SELF, AOE CTRL: While in this model's control area, models in its battlegroup gain an additional die on melee attack and melee damage rolls this turn. Discard the lowest die of each roll.
And then, on the feat turn:
Feat: Dragon Storm: After all friendly models have completed their activations this turn, each warbeast in Thagrosh's battlegroup that is in his control area can make a full advance following by one normal melee attack. Completely resolve each model's movement and attack before moving on to the next model.
So a Shredder normally has a SPD of 6. Rabid makes that an 8. Thagrosh activates early, pops the feat and casts Manifest Destiny. The little guys can use Rabid and run, moving 16". When everyone is done activating, they get another 8" move and a single attack. The attack and damage rolls are both 4 dice drop the low. Or they can charge 11", get an attack, and then get another attack after activations. Or they can sit in place, get two attacks, and then the bonus.
EDIT: thag-rush of the PP forums pointed out that Shredders can also move 8" (from Rabid), attack, buy an attack, and then get feat movement and attack. I think I mention that a shredder must sit still to get the three attacks but that's inaccurate. If you spot it, ignore it!
EDIT: thag-rush of the PP forums pointed out that Shredders can also move 8" (from Rabid), attack, buy an attack, and then get feat movement and attack. I think I mention that a shredder must sit still to get the three attacks but that's inaccurate. If you spot it, ignore it!
He's also bringing a Harrier to the table. Thanks to Flight and True Strike, the Harrier is great at taking out solos or support staff. He's SPD 7 which means he can run 14" to get into a spot to benefit from the feat (although Flight doesn't ignore free strikes, so we have to be wary here).
Typhon is just Typhon. Clocking in at 12 points, he's expensive, but he can take on targets the lesser warbeasts can't. His Blight Breath sprays excel at taking out infantry or he can chomp down in melee with P+S 17 bites. He also benefits eThagrosh because of his Affinity.
Affinity (Thagrosh): When Typhon is forced to use Regeneration in Thagrosh's control area, instead of rolling to determine how many damage points Typhon heals, Typhon and Thagrosh each heal up to 3 damage points.
The Blighted Nyss Legionnaires and Captain Farilor are cheap and can hold a zone thanks to the good Captain's mini-feat Iron Zeal. Defensive Line + Iron Zeal puts the Legionnaires up to ARM 20 with Vengeance and Tactics: Set Defense. If Thagrosh puts the Dragon's Blood upkeep on them instead of Typhon or another 'beast, they'll be ARM 22 in that situation. If that's not good enough, the Witch Doctor is there to Zombify the unit, making them Tough and Undead (in case the enemy has anything to target living models).
The Spawning Vessel is going to hang out behind the wall of Shredders and Legionnaires, spawning new lessers as things die off.
The Shepherds provide fury mitigation (although with that many beasts, it's obviously limited), and Beast Master, which greatly increases the distance at which the Shredders can operate.
Beast Master: This model can force friendly Faction warbeasts in its command range as if it were their controlling warlock.
The Plan
The plan? Use the Legionnaires to take and hold an objective (depending on the scenario). Overwhelm the enemy with 20 points of rabid Shredders. Typhon acts as a floater looking for targets the Shredders don't want to take on. Keep Thagrosh and his large base protected as much as possible while at the same time putting him in a spot where Manifest Destiny can turn the Shredders into killing machines.Rask
The List
Rask (50+6)
Bull Snapper
Bull Snapper
Blackhide Wrastler
Blackhide Wrastler
Gatorman Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Gatorman Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Croak Hunter
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw
So if the list isn't worthy of a real Analysis, what makes Rask so good? His spell list is very solid:
And then you have his feat:
Feat: Dark Waters: While in Rask's control area, friendly Faction models cannot be targeted by attacks or charges made by models more than 5" away from them. Dark Waters lasts for one round.
Of course trying to gauge when to use that feat during this game is NOT going to be easy, but it can certainly put the Charge of the Shredder Brigade on hold if used at the right time.
Some people run Rask with Bog Trogs because of Call to Sacrifice, but I'm in the camp that says they're not necessary. They make a little more survivable, but they only work when he's out of health and they're within his paltry 5" CMD bubble.
What else does Rask have? Let's check out the phenomenal Trident Cannon and it's three Ammo Types:
The downside? ROF 1. Imagine the fun using that kind of firepower more than once a turn.
Two Bull Snappers are there for handing out random Spiny Growth (+2 ARM and warjacks/warbeasts take d3 if they hit) and as transfer targets. They can do other things depending on the situation, but they're 3 point models and you should keep your expectations realistic for what these guys can do.
The Blackhide Wrastlers are where it's at. Three initial attacks, Death Roll, and DEF 12/ARM 19 make these heavies quality. If they get to be the beneficiaries of Spiny Growth, they're up to ARM 21.
But the heavy lifting of the list is done by the best heavy infantry in the game: the Gatorman Posse. For 9 points, you get 5 of these guys and they are worth every point. Two initial attacks (one with Reach), Fearless, Blood Thirst, and prayers that can grant rerolls against living models -or- +1 DEF and Terror -or- Pathfinder. In addition, they get ARM 18 when in melee with 8 health boxes each. One of the units is going to have a Gatorman Witch Doctor babysitting as well, giving out Tough and Undead.
The Croak Hunter? A basic solo to hunt enemy support staff or solos. He's only 2 points and has Advanced Deployment, Stealth, and Pathfinder. He's often ignored in favor of other scarier targets and an opponent can pay for underestimating him... or at least that's what an optimist would say. Most likely he's going to get killed by being too aggressive early in the game.
Wrong Eye and Snapjaw are the last part of this force. For 9 points, they're replacing a third Gatorman Posse in the list and I think a more competitive list would drop them in favor of that third posse. They can normally both use Snapjaw's Submerge animus to keep safe while moving up the board and ideally threaten a flank.
Submerge: COST 2, RNG SELF: This model cannot be targeted by ranged or magic attacks and does not block LOS. Submerge lasts for one round.
Of course Submerge isn't going to do much good against a melee-heavy list like eThagrosh is fielding.
Bull Snapper
Blackhide Wrastler
Blackhide Wrastler
Gatorman Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Gatorman Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Croak Hunter
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw
The Analysis
This is a really basic Rask list. Nothing flashy. No gimmicks. No weird skew-type of list. Apply Gatorman Posse to the enemy and profit.So if the list isn't worthy of a real Analysis, what makes Rask so good? His spell list is very solid:
- Admonition
- Boundless Charge
- Fury
- Inhospitable Ground
And then you have his feat:
Feat: Dark Waters: While in Rask's control area, friendly Faction models cannot be targeted by attacks or charges made by models more than 5" away from them. Dark Waters lasts for one round.
Of course trying to gauge when to use that feat during this game is NOT going to be easy, but it can certainly put the Charge of the Shredder Brigade on hold if used at the right time.
Some people run Rask with Bog Trogs because of Call to Sacrifice, but I'm in the camp that says they're not necessary. They make a little more survivable, but they only work when he's out of health and they're within his paltry 5" CMD bubble.
What else does Rask have? Let's check out the phenomenal Trident Cannon and it's three Ammo Types:
- Arcane Interference - When this model hits another model with an attack, upkeep spells and animi on the model hit expire and it loses the focus points on it. When this model hits a warjack with an attack, that warjack suffers Disruption.
- Energy Siphon - When this attack hits an enemy model with 1 or more focus or fury points on it, that model loses 1 focus or fury point and this model gains 1 fury point.
- Paralysis - A living model hit by this weapon has its base DEF reduced to 7 and cannot run or charge. Paralysis lasts for one round.
The downside? ROF 1. Imagine the fun using that kind of firepower more than once a turn.
Two Bull Snappers are there for handing out random Spiny Growth (+2 ARM and warjacks/warbeasts take d3 if they hit) and as transfer targets. They can do other things depending on the situation, but they're 3 point models and you should keep your expectations realistic for what these guys can do.
The Blackhide Wrastlers are where it's at. Three initial attacks, Death Roll, and DEF 12/ARM 19 make these heavies quality. If they get to be the beneficiaries of Spiny Growth, they're up to ARM 21.
But the heavy lifting of the list is done by the best heavy infantry in the game: the Gatorman Posse. For 9 points, you get 5 of these guys and they are worth every point. Two initial attacks (one with Reach), Fearless, Blood Thirst, and prayers that can grant rerolls against living models -or- +1 DEF and Terror -or- Pathfinder. In addition, they get ARM 18 when in melee with 8 health boxes each. One of the units is going to have a Gatorman Witch Doctor babysitting as well, giving out Tough and Undead.
The Croak Hunter? A basic solo to hunt enemy support staff or solos. He's only 2 points and has Advanced Deployment, Stealth, and Pathfinder. He's often ignored in favor of other scarier targets and an opponent can pay for underestimating him... or at least that's what an optimist would say. Most likely he's going to get killed by being too aggressive early in the game.
Wrong Eye and Snapjaw are the last part of this force. For 9 points, they're replacing a third Gatorman Posse in the list and I think a more competitive list would drop them in favor of that third posse. They can normally both use Snapjaw's Submerge animus to keep safe while moving up the board and ideally threaten a flank.
Submerge: COST 2, RNG SELF: This model cannot be targeted by ranged or magic attacks and does not block LOS. Submerge lasts for one round.
Of course Submerge isn't going to do much good against a melee-heavy list like eThagrosh is fielding.
The Plan
It'll depend on the scenario, but the Posse gets out front and takes the brunt of the enemy's initial attacks, relying on good ARM, a lot of wounds, and potential Tough rolls to remain in play. The two Wrastlers remain focused on either scenario goals or the enemy caster. Rask uses his trident gun wherever it can do the most good, feats early to prevent a massive alpha strike, and tries to stay safe against shredders that can attack from way downtown.The Map and Scenario
Another quick and easy VASSAL map. As usual, we have two hills, one on each side. We have a wall of debris on the left side in the middle, along with two clumps of trees north and south of that wall. On the right, we have a pile of rocks that's going to act as impassible terrain.
Fire Support is the scenario. Kill Box is in effect.
Two flags and two objectives are placed on the board. The objectives are "Artillery Emplacements". The objective closest to each player is a friendly Faction model. At the end of each player's turn, starting with the second player's second turn, scoring takes place:
- Flag: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP
- Enemy Objective Destroyed = 1 CP
Fire Mission - While a warcaster/warlock dominates this objective friendly models within 2" of this model with Light Artillery gain boosted damage rolls.
This scenario has two Tactical Tips in the 2013 SR Handout. The first is that enemy objectives contest flags within 4". The second is that only the active player scores when multiple players dominate the same zone, flag, or objective. I always forget that warcasters/warlocks can't contest, so I'm glad this tactical tip reminded me.
Note: Even though the circles are bigger along the centerline, those are the flags. The objectives are the smaller circles closer to each player. VASSAL has it backwards, it appears.
Deployment
eThagrosh wins the roll for deciding first turn. While it would be nice to be able to see where Rask sets up, it's going to be important to get up the board. Rask's feat is powerful and it seems like it will be more useful (for the Gators) if Rask goes first and then feats at the top of turn two. Thagrosh will go first and Rask gets the bottom of the board.
Thagrosh the Messiah Deployment
The first thing to remember about eThagrosh is that he has Abomination. Obviously the warbeasts are immune to this and (surprisingly?) so are the Legionnaires. The Shepherds aren't, and neither is the Spawning Vessel's crew.
It's not like the enemy has an real ranged stuff (the Croak Hunter and Rask is it) which means Thagrosh can be more aggressive than normal. He'll go after a domination of the left flag using the Legionnaires as a screen. His beasts will move up and then choose targets of opportunity on turns two and three. Shepherds are out wide to the right to provide the ability to force beasts out that way.
Rask Deployment
That's a lot of warm bodies on the opposite side of the field. The idea is going to be to set up solid on one side of the board (the right side) and focus on trying to make the shredders come in piecemeal. There's 10 shredders and 10 members of the gatormen posses. That seems like a relatively fair fight. Take and hold the right side of the field, save the feat (if possible) for turn two, and then get charges off rather than being charged. Still have to watch out for Kill Box though, since it's part of this scenario.Thagrosh the Messiah Deployment
The first thing to remember about eThagrosh is that he has Abomination. Obviously the warbeasts are immune to this and (surprisingly?) so are the Legionnaires. The Shepherds aren't, and neither is the Spawning Vessel's crew.
It's not like the enemy has an real ranged stuff (the Croak Hunter and Rask is it) which means Thagrosh can be more aggressive than normal. He'll go after a domination of the left flag using the Legionnaires as a screen. His beasts will move up and then choose targets of opportunity on turns two and three. Shepherds are out wide to the right to provide the ability to force beasts out that way.
Rask Deployment
Use the Croak Hunter to target those Shepherds, potentially taking away some of his virtual control area. Wrong Eye and Snapjaw will take the left side of the board all to themselves.
Thagrosh the Messiah Turn One
It can't hurt to state this fact again: the enemy has no true shooting of any kind. eThagrosh will rapidly move his beasts up on the right, making sure he can manage fury this turn. He'll be more cautious on the left where he's got the obvious advantage. The plan is to force Rask into having to use a turn one feat, which might allow the gators first blood, but minimize the losses for a counter-feat afterwards.
On the right, four Shredders runs up, followed by the two Shepherds. They aren't fast enough to keep up so there's not going to be any fury mitigation going on. The Spell Martyrs run up and get positioned for next turn as well.
Two more Shredders run out, more towards the middle of the field. Since Typhon is going to want to run as well, that's going to be the most beasts that can be forced unless Legion wants to risk early threshold checks.
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| Taste the Rainbow! (Used for damage tracking purposes) |
Thagrosh is last to act. He doesn't want/need to keep any of that fury. He starts by casting Dragon's Blood on that Legionnaire standard bearer who stayed behind just for that purpose.
Dragon's Blood: COST 2, RNG 6, Upkeep: Target friendly non-warlock Faction model/unit gains +2 ARM. When an affected model is disabled by a melee attack, roll a d6/ On a roll of 5 or 6, the attacker suffers 1 damage point.
He moves up 5 and then he then tosses Unnatural Aggression on Typhon.
Unnatural Aggression: COST 2, RNG 6, Upkeep: If target friendly non-trooper Faction model suffered damage during your opponent's last turn, during your next Maintenance Phase it can make a full advance. During this movement, it must move towards the nearest enemy model.
And that's the turn.
The entire turn comes down to feat versus non-feat and that comes down to properly assessing exactly how much threat Legion can bring to bear.
We talked about the various threat ranges of the Shredders before:
- No movement and two or three attacks depending on the use of Rabid.
- 11" charge (with Rabid) with 1 attack
- 16" run with no attacks.
Then the feat gives 6" or 8" more movement and another free attack that can benefit from Rabid being used during the original activation.
When they do attack, assuming Manifest Destiny is up they are doing roughly 23 damage. Good, but not enough to take out a posse member with one attack. It's time to roll the dice and play for an early game piece trade.
The Croak Hunter runs up the right side of the board. Again, his purpose is to threaten those Shepherds, starting next turn. Wrong Eye and Snapjaw run up the left side. They are tasked with throwing up some token resistance for the flag and more serious protection for the objective.
One of the Bull Snappers will go first. It will use it's animus on one of the gatormen in the right posse. Then he will move up the board. Rask activates next. He moves 5" up the board, turns slightly, and throws out Spiny Growth on two members of the left posse.
Spiny Growth: COST 2, RNG 6: Target friendly Faction model gains +2 ARM. If a warjack or warbeast hits the affected model with a melee attack, the attacking model suffers d3 damage points immediately after the attack has been resolved unless the affected model was destroyed or removed from play by the attack. Spiny Growth lasts for one round.
He then uses his last 2 fury to cast Admonition on himself. The choice comes down to saving 2 for transfers or using it for Admonition, and Admonition is an upkeep that really needs to get out early.
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| Green indicates Spiny Growth targets |
The other Bull Snapper walks up behind the left posse and grants yet another one of the gatormen Spiny Growth.
The right Gator Posse runs up as well, but clearly with the intent of forming the counter-charge unit rather than the front-line ablative unit. They use the Dirge of Mists prayer as well.
The Blackhide Wrastlers finish up the Gatorman turn by just moving into spots behind the lines.
Thagrosh the Messiah Turn Two
Thagrosh grabs his fury back and then uses one to upkeep Dragon's Blood.
Rask didn't feat, but honestly he wasn't in a position where he had to. He positioned his gatormen well and used Spiny Growth to make that front line extremely tough to crack. Charging isn't always the best thing for Shredders anyway since they can move 8" with Rabid and get boosted attack and damage when they do so. Being forced to charge fills them up on fury and really only gets them another 3" of movement.
Still, by not feating, it forces Thagrosh to use his feat to at least get some shots in this turn. The other option is to move back, stall a turn, and let the gators come to him. Taking the fight to the other side of the table though turns this into more of a scenario game rather than a straight attrition fight.
The hard part is going to be getting Thagrosh up the field far enough so that Manifest Destiny affects all his beasts. He isn't going to have enough fury to throw out any offensive spells, so he'll be using Manifest Destiny and one or two Tenacities.
So the easy stuff needs to take place first. The Legionnaires run up on the left side of the board. Wrong Eye and Snapjaw can come after them next turn, but it's not going to be a good match-up for them.
The pot goes ahead and shuffles up slowly behind the pack. The Witch Doctor comes up beside them, targeting the Standard Bearer (who once again has been hanging back just so he can act as a target for friendly spells and abilities) with Zombify.
The left Spell Martyr parks itself behind the Legionnaires. The center Spell Martyr moves up, trying to get itself in a position for turn three and also get out of the way of the oncoming rush of shredders.
Now it's time to get those shredders in place for the feat. There is just going to be a crapload of fury on the board at the end of all this stuff. Each gatorman that gets hit needs to die. We saw the math earlier and a single shredder can't do it (especially with Spiny Growth up as well). There's going to need to be 2 shredders per target, minimum.
Four of the shredders on the left side hill go Rabid and run. The other shredders don't need to run so they just get forced to go Rabid and use Tenacity.
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| Those Shredders with "1"s should have "2"s because of Tenacity and Rapid |
There's really no reason for Typhon to expose himself too much so he just moves 6" up the board.
And this is the point where Thagrosh realizes he has a problem. Unless Thagrosh charges, he's not going to have enough reach with Manifest Destiny to affect all his beasts. But, as I understand it, his feat is a "pulse" style of effect. When the feat is used, that's when you see which members of his battlegroup qualify for the extra movement and attack. If he fails a charge, he won't be able to use the feat and this whole turn would have been ridiculously pointless.
He should have used his feat early in the turn, cast Manifest Destiny, and then failed a charge on something across the board. He didn't though because he wanted to see where the shredders were going to end up after all their moves. Whoops!
The answer though is easy to spot: the poor Harrier. Sorry, little guy, but you just became expendable.
The Harrier moves 14" and positions himself so that Thagrosh won't fail a charge (8" charge + 2" reach on his weapon). The Harrier turns itself such that Thagrosh won't get the back strike bonus. Maybe, just maybe, he can live through this.
Thagrosh has a MAT of 7. He rolls a (1,4) and the Harrier is safe, for now. Thagrosh then pops his feat. All of the shredders, Typhon, and the lucky Harrier will benefit. He casts Manifest Destiny for 3 of his fury. Then he casts Tenacity on himself and Typhon, leaving himself with 1 fury remaining for transfers.
That is the end of normal activations. Time for the feat to kick in. The leftmost shredder takes his special activation first and goes after the un-spiny gatorman on the far left. This will be a good test for how successful or ineffective this feat turn is going to be. The Shredders are going to be MAT 5 (with 4 dice drop the low) versus DEF 13 (because of Dirge of Mists). If they hit, it's P+S 10 (again with 4 dice dropping the low) versus ARM 18 or 20.
The first shredders throws (5,6,6,6) for his four dice to hit. The damage is (1,3,4,6) so 5 gets in. Not enough, but it's a good start.
The rest of the shredders move up and attack as well. The second shredders takes out the first gator. The third and fourth do 7 to the second gator, but Spiny Growth keeps him alive. That means a third shredder has to be tasked to finishing him off. What makes it worse for Legion is that the third one does enough damage, but he makes his Tough roll.
Shredders 6 and 7 also do just 7 to a different gator, and there's not enough room for a third shredder to get in on him to try to get the finishing blow. Shredders 8 and 9 finish off another gator and the Tough roll fails.
The last shredder hits his target but fails to roll enough to do damage. Because he hit, however, he still gets to take Spiny Growth damage.
Last, the Harrier and Typhon get to move, but they just advance a little and can't get in a position to throw any attacks. That's turn, and it didn't go well for Legion. Just two dead gators. However, the line of engagement is on that side of the board and the objectives and flags are currently in friendly territory.
Rask Turn Two
Thagrosh actually did a great job at removing Rask's feat from the early game. If it wasn't for Spiny Growth everywhere, this could be a much worse situation for the gators. As it stands, the gatormen can hopefully clear out some shredders and let the warbeasts move up the board and threaten Thagrosh.
The left side of the board, however, sucks. There's nothing else that can be said about it.
Rask grabs his fury and upkeeps Admonition.
The three remaining members of the left posse activate first. One obviously has to sacrifice his movement to stand. The second is happy where he is, and the third moves up to engage the three middle shredders. They use the Cold Blood prayer:
Cold Blood - Affected models can reroll missed attack rolls against living models this turn. Each roll can be rerolled only once as a result of Cold Blood.
When they are done with their attacks, each of the three posse members had taken out a shredder, but it had required both of their attacks to do so. The remaining shredders have really jammed the lines and it's going to be tough to get the gators through. So it's time to forget the plan to get the warbeasts up the field and just take advantage of attrition.
To help with this, Rask activates. He pops his feat. It didn't hurt the shredder spam but it can still bug the heck out of Thagrosh and Typhon next turn. He then casts Fury on the right posse:
Fury: COST 2, RNG 6, Upkeep: Target friendly model/unit gains +3 to melee damage rolls but suffers -1 DEF.
He moves up slightly and takes a shot on the Harrier, boosting to hit and using the Energy Siphon ammo type. He hits, stealing the fury and immediately using it to boost damage. The Harrier takes 13 damage, one-shotting it. He camps 2 fury and ends his turn. The movement also takes him into the zone and gets rid of the Kill Box problem.
The right posse activates and chooses to charge/run. They also use the Cold Blood prayer. One gatorman manages to charge a Shepherd. One charges a shredder the leader of the unit was engaging. Another gatorman charges a shredder on the left that was engaging the other posse. The last gatorman just runs up the field.
The Shepherd dies instantly to a bite attack. The secondary initial using the reach weapon eliminated the Spell Martyr. The green shredder on the far right follows soon after. Fury makes these gators P+S 16 and that means that the posse splat low armor targets. That means the Cyan shredder in the middle of the screen doesn't stand a chance either against the posse member's bite and he uses his Reach weapon to do 10 more damage to the yellow shredder.
The Witch Doctor shuffles over and puts Zombify on the right posse this turn.
The left Bull Snapper moves over to the left to shore up that flank. He gives himself Spiny Growth. The other Bull Snapper moves to be prepared for next turn and gives Spiny Growth to Rask. The two Wrastlers also move up, with one swinging wide to the left to potentially help out on that side of the board.
The Croak Hunter is last on the right side of the board. Nothing is going to be in his range so he just runs up around the rock.
Wrong Eye and Snapjaw have some decisions to make. That wall is in the way of making a proper charge into the mass of Legionnaires since Snapjaw has no way to get Pathfinder. He can't really charge that "bait" Legionnaire because there's the wall and the objective (remember it's got a smaller base than it should). He can't get over the wall. If Snapjaw gets too exposed, he could get munched by a swarm of corrupted elves with Combined Melee Attack.
So Snapjaw needs to position himself to attack that one dude while using the wall and the objective to keep the number of Legionnaires attacking him next turn to a minimum. Wrong Eye needs to move back away, making sure that running Legionnaires can't lock him into melee.
Snapjaw moves up, throws a reach attack on the closest Legionnaire. With his position, Legion will have troubles getting too many guys attacking him, even with reach. He boosts his to-hit with his tail and crushes the elf. The Tough roll fails. Dragon's Blood doesn't cause damage either. Wrong Eye drops a point of fury and then runs behind the woods, staying safe.
That should be the turn.
Snapjaw ends up within 4" of the flag on the left side so all the flags are contested. No objectives have been destroyed (and, in fact, this was the first player's turn that an objective could be damaged). It's zero to zero.
Thagrosh the Messiah Turn Three
Thagrosh grabs 2 fury from one of the shredders, filling him up. He doesn't upkeep Dragon's Blood.
Note: I forgot the Legionnaires had Vengeance. That would have changed things up considerably!
It's going to be a fun turn for threshold checks. The red shredder on the left fails his check. He advances towards the model to get it into melee range and makes his attack. He probably wouldn't do a lot of damage to the Blackhide Wrastler anyway, but a roll of (1,2,1) means he doesn't even hit.
The yellow shredder next in the line in the graphic above is the one that Thagrosh stole the fury from, so he's fine. Thagrosh choose to check the green shredder on the right first. Another failed threshold check results in an attack on the gatorman to the right of him with 7 damage already on him. He's DEF 12 and the shredder hits, getting some damage through. That's one more dead gator.
The other green shredder checks threshold and fails. He then attacks the other gator with 7 damage on it. There's another hit and a dead gator. The last threshold check to make is on the right yellow shredder who only has his Spirit left. He fails the check, but also fails his attack roll. The only shredder that will activate normally this turn is the left yellow one.
It's worth re-reading Rask's feat at this point:
Feat: Dark Waters: While in Rask's control area, friendly Faction models cannot be targeted by attacks or charges made by models more than 5" away from them. Dark Waters lasts for one round.
You have to read this one carefully when it comes to things like arc nodes and channeling. It doesn't matter if the arc node (or Spell Martyr) is within 5" of the target. The attacker is still the warcaster/warlock and thus they can't channel spells unless they are also within 5" of the target. So much for the idea of a well-placed Scourge causing knockdown in that mess of gators.
It's time to play for scenario, like we planned. The remaining Shepherd goes first, moving up to touch the flag. She uses Medicate to heal the far right shredder 1 point of damage.
Thagrosh activates next, declaring a charge on that same Shepherd. He can't charge the bad guys but he can still charge his own stuff. He's got Flight and a charge range of 8". He makes sure he ends up base-to-base with the flag. The Shepherd has made sure to turn herself so that she won't take backstrikes, just like the Harrier did earlier.
He rolls a (4,1) to hit so the Shepherd's clever facing saved her. Thagrosh uses a point of fury to buy a melee attack on the gatorman in his reach. He'll be down to DEF 11 because of Fury. Thagrosh decides not to boost and gets extremely lucky, rolling a (2,2). His weapon is P+S 18 which equals the ARM of that gator. Thagrosh boosts damage and rolls a sad (1,2,1). He has to buy another attack. He hits again, doesn't boost damage the second time, and rolls a (6,4). The gator doesn't get a Tough roll because Rapture, Thagrosh's weapon, removes from play after making a 3" AOE cloud effect.
EDIT: Wrong! thag-rush from the PP forums pointed out that Eruption of Ash does not override Tough. EoA triggers on boxed. Tough triggers on disabled.
EDIT: Wrong! thag-rush from the PP forums pointed out that Eruption of Ash does not override Tough. EoA triggers on boxed. Tough triggers on disabled.
He has 4 fury left and two gators close enough to contest the flag. It's risky, but he uses 3 of that 4 to cast Flesh Eater on the top gatorman. It hits but only does 2 damage thanks to a rather poor roll.
Next to go is Typhon, who advances up the right flank as far as he can with his 6" of movement. He really needs to get both gators within 5" because of the feat and he does so.
With a RAT of 5, he'll need 6s to hit. He wants to save as much fury as possible to boost damage. Getting a 6 on 2d6 happens about 72% of the time, according to math. His first two attack rolls are (4,3) and (3,5) - both hits. The closest gator is ARM 18 because he's engaged with Typhon. Typhon boosts damage and gets 6 past his ARM, exactly what was needed. The Tough roll granted by the Witch Doctor fails and one of the two contesting gators is gone. Typhon boosts damage on the second gatorman as well. This one only has ARM 16. With a roll of (5,5,3) and a POW 14 weapon, the gator becomes fried gator. Tough roll fails again.
It would be great to fire off two more sprays, but even Eyeless Sight can't get around Rask's feat. Typhon settles for using his animus to fill up on fury.
Excessive Healing: COST 2, RNG SELF: When this model is damaged by an enemy attack, immediately after resolving the attack this model heals d3 damage points. Excessive Healing lasts for one round.
So Thagrosh has assured himself of getting 2 points this turn by dominating that flag, but how is he going to survive next round? It's definitely not going to be easy. The Spell Martyr in the middle of the board runs over, just trying to act as a speed bump.
And now to deal with Snapjaw, who is just inside the 4" necessary to contest that other flag. There's actually zero chance the Legionnaires can do enough damage to knock Snapjaw out. They might be able to take out the objective though, which is another victory point. With ARM 18 and 15 hit boxes, it would take 5 charging Legionnaires attacking individually to do enough damage on average. They'll charge it with 6 to somewhat mitigate negative dice spikes (and one of them is Captain Farilor who is a Weapon Master).
The Legionnaires start swinging on the objective, going in a circle from right to left. The fourth Legionnaire gets in the blow that destroys it. Another victory point to Legion. This also means the other two who charged the objective are free to swing on Snapjaw instead. When the four attackers are done, Snapjaw has taken 9 damage. He has a surprisingly (to me, at least) high number of hit boxes on his card so, while he felt it, he's still fully functional. The Legionnaires end things by using their mini-feat: Iron Zeal. They'll be +4 ARM and can't become stationary or knocked down.
The Pot and it's handlers move up. The Witch Doctor moves up as well, making the Legionnaires zombies again. Iron Zeal, Tough zombie Legionnaires are a very good tarpit, as Snapjaw is going to find out next turn.
Just before the turn is turned over, Thagrosh remembers that one little yellow shredder who didn't have to make a threshold check. He still hasn't activated yet! He goes Rabid for extra movement, moves 8" closer to Thagrosh, and hits the big man with Tenacity.
Rask Turn Three
Well, that wasn't a great turn (3 victory points for the corrupted elves) but it could have been worse. It shouldn't be too hard to clear out some shredders, prevent any more victory points from getting scored, and go after Thagrosh.
Rask starts to take back his fury and realizes "Hey, wait a second! I have one too many fury left on the board." He obviously shouldn't have "wasted" one by running that Wrastler over to the left, although he does really need to be there to put some pressure on that left flag. Rask grabs fury from the Bull Snappers, leaving one on the Wrastler. A (2,1) roll means the warbeast passes his threshold check. Rask upkeeps Fury on the right posse and Admonition on himself, just in case.
Rask starts by measuring his control range to find out how far away Thagrosh is. Turns out, the big man is just less than 9.5" away. Rask knows he wants to shoot Thagrosh, but which ammo to use? Arcane Interference would drop Tenacity off. Energy Siphon would steal that fury and leave him without the ability to use transfers. Paralysis would make him base DEF 7 and unable to run or charge next turn.
The "correct" answer based on this board state? Energy Siphon. Take that fury away to prevent a transfer, hit him with a POW 12 attack (boosted), and then hopefully apply two gatormen to Thagrosh's face.
If this is really going to be _THE_ turn for the gators, Rask doesn't want to miss. He aims and boosts his to-hit roll. Thagrosh is DEF 14 because of Tenacity and Rask will be RAT 9. He hits and nabs the fury. He boosts damage, making it POW 12 versus ARM 18. A (5,1,1) roll results in only 1 damage, but it's at least something.
With 3 fury left, Rask gives Boundless Charge to the right Wrastler, leaving him with 1 remaining. He'll save it.
We need to clear that Spell Martyr out of the way so the remainder of the right posse can attack Thagrosh. The last member of the left posse is tasked with that.
The Gator uses Cold Blood as his prayer for this turn. A hit kills the Spell Martyr. The gator follows that attack up with a bite against the shredder. That shredder was barely hanging onto life anyway so it's a trivial matter for the gator to eliminate him, freeing up a lot of room.
The left Bull Snapper activates, moving to engage both of the green shredders. There definitely wasn't enough space for him to charge, so he settles for just walking over. He tries to bite the right shredder, boosting his attack roll. He hits, and boosts damage. He leaves the Shredder with one hit box remaining. He really wants that shredder out of the way so he buys another attack on that same target. It misses badly.
The two gatormen remaining in the right posse declare charges on Thagrosh. They choose to use Cold Blood. They make sure they position themselves so that the bite attacks have targets as well.
Thagrosh is still DEF 14, ARM 18. The gatormen are MAT 7, P+S 16 (with Fury), and can re-roll missed attack rolls against living targets (which everything is).
The first gatorman rolls a (2,2) for his attack. Thanks to Cold Blood he gets to re-roll and barely hits Thagrosh with a (3,4). It's three dice minus two for damage and there's no transfers. A (1,2,4) is not what the gators were hoping to see. Thagrosh has 15 hit boxes remaining.
That same gator goes after the Shepherd with his bite attack. It hits and there's another dead Shepherd off the board.
The second gatorman attacks. He hits Thagrosh for 12 damage. 3 boxes are left. He then bites Typhon for 3 damage.
Note: Thagrosh could have used his ability to spawn a lesser warbeast when he takes damage here, but he doesn't.
The gators have one trick left to get the assassination this turn: the Witch Doctor and his Sacrificial Strike *Action:
Sacrificial Strike (*Action) - RNG CMD. Target a model in this model's LOS. If that model is in range, remove one friendly Faction trooper model within 1" of this model from play. The target model suffers a magical damage roll with POW equal to the base ARM of the removed model.
This is a Special Action and not a Special Attack. There is nothing in the description that says any kind of Attack Roll is needed. This confused the heck out of me at first, but this ability is going to allow the Witch Doctor to auto-hit Thagrosh.
The Witch Doctor moves up in front of the last left posse member (the one that was highlighted in red) and uses him to fuel the Sacrificial Strike. It will be a POW 16 damage roll against ARM 18. A (3,3) roll puts 4 more damage onto Thagrosh... and that ends it!
Note: And this is why I didn't worry so much about spawning the lesser warbeast when he took damage earlier.
Post Game Analysis
This was a tough match-up for Shredder Spam. 10 Shredders costs 20 points. 10 Gatormen cost 18 points. Even with a Witch Doctor, that brings the cost of the Gators to 21 points and they're arguably much more effective and easy to use. It's easy to see that the initial "alpha strike" of the shredders didn't do nearly enough damage. If they had managed to take out one or two more gatormen, it could have swung the game.Well, that wasn't a great turn (3 victory points for the corrupted elves) but it could have been worse. It shouldn't be too hard to clear out some shredders, prevent any more victory points from getting scored, and go after Thagrosh.
Rask starts to take back his fury and realizes "Hey, wait a second! I have one too many fury left on the board." He obviously shouldn't have "wasted" one by running that Wrastler over to the left, although he does really need to be there to put some pressure on that left flag. Rask grabs fury from the Bull Snappers, leaving one on the Wrastler. A (2,1) roll means the warbeast passes his threshold check. Rask upkeeps Fury on the right posse and Admonition on himself, just in case.
Rask starts by measuring his control range to find out how far away Thagrosh is. Turns out, the big man is just less than 9.5" away. Rask knows he wants to shoot Thagrosh, but which ammo to use? Arcane Interference would drop Tenacity off. Energy Siphon would steal that fury and leave him without the ability to use transfers. Paralysis would make him base DEF 7 and unable to run or charge next turn.
The "correct" answer based on this board state? Energy Siphon. Take that fury away to prevent a transfer, hit him with a POW 12 attack (boosted), and then hopefully apply two gatormen to Thagrosh's face.
If this is really going to be _THE_ turn for the gators, Rask doesn't want to miss. He aims and boosts his to-hit roll. Thagrosh is DEF 14 because of Tenacity and Rask will be RAT 9. He hits and nabs the fury. He boosts damage, making it POW 12 versus ARM 18. A (5,1,1) roll results in only 1 damage, but it's at least something.
With 3 fury left, Rask gives Boundless Charge to the right Wrastler, leaving him with 1 remaining. He'll save it.
We need to clear that Spell Martyr out of the way so the remainder of the right posse can attack Thagrosh. The last member of the left posse is tasked with that.
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| Red Gator versus Red Spell Martyr (also note that Thagrosh is actually on 0 fury) |
The left Bull Snapper activates, moving to engage both of the green shredders. There definitely wasn't enough space for him to charge, so he settles for just walking over. He tries to bite the right shredder, boosting his attack roll. He hits, and boosts damage. He leaves the Shredder with one hit box remaining. He really wants that shredder out of the way so he buys another attack on that same target. It misses badly.
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| Note: Thagrosh is still at 0 fury! |
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| Look who finally remembered he was at 0 and not 1 for remaining fury points. |
The first gatorman rolls a (2,2) for his attack. Thanks to Cold Blood he gets to re-roll and barely hits Thagrosh with a (3,4). It's three dice minus two for damage and there's no transfers. A (1,2,4) is not what the gators were hoping to see. Thagrosh has 15 hit boxes remaining.
That same gator goes after the Shepherd with his bite attack. It hits and there's another dead Shepherd off the board.
The second gatorman attacks. He hits Thagrosh for 12 damage. 3 boxes are left. He then bites Typhon for 3 damage.
Note: Thagrosh could have used his ability to spawn a lesser warbeast when he takes damage here, but he doesn't.
The gators have one trick left to get the assassination this turn: the Witch Doctor and his Sacrificial Strike *Action:
Sacrificial Strike (*Action) - RNG CMD. Target a model in this model's LOS. If that model is in range, remove one friendly Faction trooper model within 1" of this model from play. The target model suffers a magical damage roll with POW equal to the base ARM of the removed model.
This is a Special Action and not a Special Attack. There is nothing in the description that says any kind of Attack Roll is needed. This confused the heck out of me at first, but this ability is going to allow the Witch Doctor to auto-hit Thagrosh.
The Witch Doctor moves up in front of the last left posse member (the one that was highlighted in red) and uses him to fuel the Sacrificial Strike. It will be a POW 16 damage roll against ARM 18. A (3,3) roll puts 4 more damage onto Thagrosh... and that ends it!
Note: And this is why I didn't worry so much about spawning the lesser warbeast when he took damage earlier.
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| MVPs - The Witch Doctor and the red gator |
Post Game Analysis
The first time I went through the last turn of the game, I forgot the right posse had Fury. Without Fury, Thagrosh is still alive and kicking. Of course Rask still had the Bull Snapper and the Blackhide Wrastler on the right side of the board left to go, but neither could reach Thagrosh. The plan at that point was for the Wrastler to pick up and two-hand throw the Bull Snapper at Thagrosh to try to get that last bit of damage in.
It's easy to go back and say Thagrosh shouldn't have wasted 3 fury on Flesh Eater on turn 3. He could have camped more fury and been much safer. It was a little paranoid on his part to cast it when Typhon still had his actions. Flesh Eater honestly isn't a good spell and throwing it out at a gatorman was probably the worst move of the game, but there was some logic behind it.
The Spawning Vessel did absolutely nothing. There were two problems: 1) a minimum unit of 4 guys can't move it fast enough, and 2) no one died on that side of the board anyway. It was far too slow to make a shift over to the middle or right side of the board.
Another Battle Report finished and, as usual, I hope you enjoyed. Questions or comments? Throw them out there. I've been told the Comments option doesn't work, but I'm not sure why that would be. It's definitely enabled, etc.
Thanks for reading!
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