Aggressive play

I have mentioned before that I am a pretty conservative player.  I don’t always play like “I have a pair.”  This week I resolved to throw all caution to the wind and get into my opponents face as fast as I could.  The idea was if I know how the game feels when playing it safe, and I then learn how the game feels when I play aggressively I can find my happy middle.  Experienced players know their play style.  My play style is still malleable.

Having decided to just focus on that one goal above all else this week made the games so much fun.  It did not matter if I won or lost, as a matter of fact I may have giggled when the mage hunter strike forge took out my jacks.

Game 1  - DEATH VIA SUSTAINED CANNON ATTACK!

35pt Cryx v. Talion Charter
Bane Knights ran up to greet his infantry.  They did a great job of debuffing but I could have staggered them more.  Most of them died before they could do anything.  If I just held a rank of them back I could have counter charged and it would have been beautiful, sweet carnage.

Nightmare put prey up on the first thing he could reach and charged up the middle.  He chewed through the unit, but not without taking enough damage that he didn’t serve his full potential.  Next game I vowed to use nightmare to chew through some jacks.

Slayer and deathripper went to the right and took a cannon to the face knocking them down.  I need to give two focus to them then so they can stand up and keep running.  This was the one case where I could have been even more aggressive.

Game 2  - DEATH VIA ARC NODE CASTRATION!

35pt Cryx v. Retribution
I knew going in what the Mage Hunter Strike Force was going to do.  Regardless, the goal of the week was to push the movement of my models to their extremes.  Turn one, each jack got a focus to run and Nightmare used ghost walk to push through an obstruction.  My Retribution opponent went second and bam, jack after jack fell to his Strike Force.  It was spectacular and awesome to see how deadly they were to my jacks.  I am glad I did it though because it prepared me for game 3.

Nightmare, still pushing strong, went and ate through his three jacks in the next two turns.  I can’t wait to try out Death Jack!  The last two rounds all I had left were Deneghra, my Bane Thrall Officer and Nightmare without arms.  But don’t count me out yet, Denny went on the offensive and venom spammed two full units down to two models.  Eventually the game did go to him, but man was it a fun way to lose.

Game 3 – DEATH VIA MY OWN HAND!

35pt Cryx v. Skorne
This one was probably over before it began.  I was up against Baron McFats (Rasheth), two agonizers, 2 Gladiators, a full unit of Gatorman posse, Bronzeback Titan, a task master and a unit of Beast Handlers.  It was a tier 4 theme list.  So my Ret game prepared me for this because I once again could not use arc nodes.  Not because he destroyed them, but because Castigate + the agonizers just locked me down.

So, the jacks just went into the melee with the bane thralls, nightmare and everything else.  The goal was to kill the agonizers, but the gatorman posse and the gladiators did an excellent job screening and I could not kill them fast enough.  I knew at turn two that the game was over, so I pulled a hail mary.  I needed to move Dene or she was dead, but a full advance wasn’t going to cut it and a run would mean I could not feat leading to my destruction next turn.  So I did what any self respecting Cryx player would do and I charged into the back arc of my own deathripper (taking him from full to scrapped in one hit) and then feated.

Conclusion:  If you haven’t ever done it, take a few games and push your models as far as they will go.  Cheer on your opponents as they mow you down.  Be aggressive, next week now I know how far I can push to really make my opponents play on MY TERMS!

I have my notebook now so reviewing these games after the fact is so much easier.  Experienced and Novice players alike, try this out.  Play a few games just to push, not to win and record your results.  I was feeling pretty comfortable with this list and thought I knew most of it, but placing myself in these situations forced me to be creative, and to use abilities in new ways.

I finally finished painting Rasheth and his Agonizer buddies.  I also touched up and finished sanding my Paingivers.  Next up is a Bronzeback, followed by a Gladiator.  I hope to have the Bronzeback done by Sunday, but I may miss that target depending on how busy things get this weekend.

More images on Sunday, and I will be posting updates on the Bodger Bowl league that started last Wednesday at our FLGS.

Game 1: Protectorate (Thyra) vs. Circle (Kromac)

My only loss on the day, this was a fairly straight-forward game.  My list was infantry-heavy, and he brought three heavies to my one.  He pulled off an easy caster kill after a few turns.

Result: Circle wins by assassination

Game 2: Protectorate (eFeora) vs. Legion (eThagrosh)

I mentioned that I was playing Legion in the Journeyman League starting tomorrow, and my opponent graciously offered to play any warlock I’d like to see save Lylyth.  Since I’m pretty sure I want to bring eThagrosh once the fourth week rolls around, I asked him for that.  He brought Typhon, a Scythean, and a couple of Shredders along with a full unit of Legionnaires and two solos I didn’t recognize.  The highlight here was a lucky feat turn for me turning into an assassination run that came just short of killing Thagrosh… until he burnt to a crisp on his control phase the next turn.  Blighted or not, heretics still burn.

Result: Protectorate wins by assassination

Game 3: Protectorate (Thyra) vs. Trollbloods (pDoomshaper)

I wasn’t getting any benefit from bringing different casters, so I decided to give Thyra a chance at redemption.  He brought a beast-only army, which when compared with my list of Blood of Martyrs, a Revenger, a Redeemer, two units of Daughters, Nicia, and support seemed to be destined for face smashing.  However, I managed a lucky series of charges from both units that tied up all but one of his beasts and even dinged Hoarluk for a couple of points.  He popped feat, which put me in a bit of a bind, but I mustered my strength and went for the assassination anyway.  Nicia and two Daughters were up in Hoarluk’s face, so I ran the Revenger up behind them and arced Silence of Death onto Nicia.  I probably should’ve cast Carnage as well, but I was worried about facing an additional 3d6 damage for really not much gain.  Anyway, Daughters went, did their stabs, and finally Nicia took her two swipes to finish him off.  Two wins in a row… I was on to something!

Result: Protectorate wins by assassination

Game 4: Protectorate (eKreoss) vs. Circle (Kromac)

Same opponent as game one, so we decided to each mix it up a bit.  He went for the battlegroup-only point for the event, and I decided to bring Exemplar infantry spam.  Fire of Salvation and a Crusader, with the appropriate support block, rounded out the list.  I stepped on my own toes more than once here, with so many models trying to fit between the mountain walls for the scenario.  This worked to my advantage; he managed to bring Fire of Salvation down to two boxes but wasn’t able to get at my Crusader behind him, so when my turn came around I fixed up Fire with a Vassal Mechanik, got him functional again, and then decided to beat face with an untouched Crusader.  He managed to get one scenario point, and had a Gnarlhorn Satyr across the line for his second at the end of my turn.  I could not allow this to happen, so I brought in a charging unit of Knights Exemplar — four charging Weapon Masters with open lanes — and brought the Crusader over to beat some more face.  With his beasts finished off, I turned my attention to Kromac himself.  I forgot to mention that Kromac had managed to knock himself down attacking a second unit of Exemplars (Sacrosanct is a fun spell to have in your back pocket), so when that unit and Fire of Salvation came to town it was a second turn of auto-hitting melee attacks from more Weapon Masters.  Another assassination win, and one of my first with Kreoss.

Result: Protectorate win by assassination

Game 5: Protectorate (eFeora) vs. Skorne (Dominar Rasheth)

Jabba came to town in my last game of the evening.  I’ve played this particular opponent before and knew to expect heavy armor, so I didn’t try bringing Thyra or Kreoss.  I figured I’d go for a scenario win this time around, add another point to my sheet.  He figured he’d add five points, what with this being his fifth warlock, an all-battlegroup list, his fifth opponent, and his fifth opposing faction.  Anyway, I brought the Avatar, a Crusader, and a bonded Redeemer to try to counter his heavies, with lots of support to try to pump them up even more.  Our front lines met just on his side of the center line, so I got my first point right away.  I ran my Redeemer up and way off to the left inside his half, hopefully out of range of his army to score that second point while the Avatar and Crusader held the line.  This was going to be tough; he was the only opponent so far to remember that the boulders could be slammed and was doing so to great effect.  I was all set for a nail-biting wait for him to put his dice down and call it a game, when all of a sudden the TO announced that the store was closing and we had to end our games.  We called it a draw and agreed to a rematch later.  Personally I think I could have withstood his attempts to barrel across the center line and counter my Redeemer’s point, but it would have been a close win either way.

Result: Draw

As a whole the event was a great success, with the money raised from entry fees going to buy digital chess clocks for the store.  I did well for myself, earning myself three wins and a draw to only one loss.  Four points for games played, three for new opponents, three points for new factions, and three for wins; add in the point for an assassination victory and the point for ending a game with no opposing models in my half and I ended with 14 points for the event.  (The winner had 30 points compared to 29 for second place)

In the end all that matters is that I had a ton of fun and I can’t wait to get going with the Journeyman League this Tuesday.  I’d like to thank especially Michael Pokorny of Bad Dad Gaming (and this awesome Storm Strider mod) for helping me get my Carnivean pinned and ready to play.  Onward!

The second last chapter had me in tears… the last chapter made me curse the intervening months or possibly even year between this and the next book. I’m going to take a quick peek to see if there’s a date. Cold Days has no release date unfortunately, but DAMN am I ever excited for that.

Anywho, to get to why you’re all here…

A while ago I played a game versus my good buddy Protagonist that required some Battle Reportin’. You will now benefit from the haphazard memories of that game.

Vayl, Disciple of Everblight (*6pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Angelius (9pts)
* Ravagore (10pts)
* Typhon (12pts)
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)

 Looks like I was one point short in my 35pt list… I must have planned for a Spell Martyr and forgotten to take him out of the case.

Protagonist played Rasheth, with something like this:

Dominar Rasheth (*5pts)
* Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Agonizer (2pts)

 I’m not sure about the Beast Handlers, as there was something tagging along behind the Posse buffing them… I don’t know Skorne so I have no idea what it was, but there seems to be five Beast Handlers… which doesn’t match up with the points; there must be a two point solo in there that I’m confused with. Who knows, anywho, it’s something similar to this.

This was our deployment. I lost the roll and setup second. Protagonist placed the terrain before we’d picked our armies. We were playing some sort of Grid control scenario, but as usual, we forgot all about it pretty quickly.

You’ll notice that the Gators are already in the Forest. That’s because I didn’t think to snap a picture until we’d started.

Short update: turns out Protagonist was running “Chain Gang Tier 2” which basically means he got a free Paingiver Task Master.

This was our terrain designation.

As you can see, pizza arrived. Mmm, mmm: Panago. Dinner of champions and no-holds-barred Beast-on-Beast adrenaline-fueled carnage.

So the first turns were pretty simple. He moved up and did some Skorney stuff. I moved up and cast some Animi, also putting Chiller up on the Legionnaires. You’ll also notice that my Spell Martyr has appeared magically behind the Legionnaires. I really should have looked through these pictures before starting this up… onward and forward!

The Ravagore took a shot at the Nihilators and boxed one of them leaving a Scather in play.

Here the pizza has mysteriously disappeared, and yet none has taken its place.

As you can see here, that horrible Rasheth put Blood Mark up on Vayl, unfortunate, making her even squishier than usual. The Nihilators charged an angry three-headed dragon. Two ran to engage my Ravagore and successfully tied him up for the rest of the game… hindsight thy name is Trample.

The Gators killed some Legionnaires which triggered Vengeance which killed a Gator. Whoo-ee!

Here’s where the fun began. Some Legionnaires attacked some Gators, plinking and doing nothing spectacular. The Angelius, however, repulsed a Gator and flew over to the Gladiator to do some Om Nom. Friendly Shepherd cleared that nasty fury. Vayl was nice enough to clear out one of those naughty Nihilators, allowing Typhon the Charge to finish the Gladiator. The Shredder, ever so helpful, tied up the other Nihilator, while the Spell Martyr danced a table-edge jig and the Ravagore whiffed like some old MAT deficient Grandma. Incite was so awesome right here; I know, I know, it took two heavies to take down that one… but it had so much armour!

Here we have the final piece of the game. My Legionnaires were wiped out by a tide of green-skinned heavy infantry while an Agonizer ran up to be a nuisance and my ‘Lock was charged by angry Nihilators! Fear! Goodness Gracious me! Good thing I can Dark Sentinel that scary Dragon right over in the way! Responding to the Agonizer, Typhon broke up the charge lanes and sprayed the Agonizer to death, dropping some hurt on Rasheth.

When the charging Nihilators couldn’t successfully finish Vayl (one box remaining) the only thing to do is have your giant elephant thing pick up the fat guy on the table and throw him at the stupid willowy winter Nyss!

That plan didn’t work out… Rasheth flew majestically through the air and fell short of impacting my ‘Lock. The collateral was enough to lay him low.

All in all, an excellent game. In the future I’ll remember not to let Rasheth get anywhere near spellcasting range on my Warlock. Secondly, fear heavy infantry! Those Gators are sick… one of the reasons that I’m considering some Gators… I mean, I love Witch Doctors, and Swamp Hoodoo, and stuff.

Hope you enjoyed!