Saturday at Maelstrom Games

So this Saturday me and my good friend Kenny went down to Maelstrom Games, to build and paint some models, purchase a few things and play a game.

We got our selves some few things, for me it was the tyrant commander and standard bearer and a second ancestral guardian. Also I bought my self some more bases (I have ordered some, which were 25mm and not 30mm and 35mm and not 40mm..... EPIC FAIL).

After assembling the models (which have to be pinned... and getting green stuff everywhere...) we had a drink and decided to play a 50 point game.

My list:
Hexeris
Drake
Razor Worm
Cyclops Savage
Cyclops Shaman
Titan Gladiator
Rhinodon
Marketh
Min Swordsmen  + UA
Min Swordsmen
Min Beast Handlers
Agonizer
Ancestral Guardian
Ancestral Guardian

This is a tier 3 list, giving the swordsmen advanced deploy and the ancestral guardians advanced move

Kenny ran:

eSkarre

Cankerworm

Malice

Leviathan

Skarlock

Max Satyxis Raider with UA

Min Satyxis Blood Witches with UA

Withershadow Combine

Satyxis Raider Captain

Satyxis Raider Captain

Warwitch Siren

We decided not to play a scenario and just go for an assassination game 

I won the roll off and went first:

My turn 1.

I placed the Agonizer central and the 2 ancestral guardians to the left and the right with about 12 inches between em. The Battlegroup went in these slots and hexeris next to the Agonizer. 

My Swordsmen were then add infront of each AG and then those moved up to give them defense with defensive strike. The razor worm went wide to the right. 

t1 benefit upkeeps. Swordsmen with Ua had death march, razor worm had soulslave and hexeris had psychic vampire.

My Turn 1

I started the game, ran the swords men 8inches followed up each AG and then rushed the rhinodon between em and followed up with most of the warbeasts and hexeris who dumped 5 fury into the agonizer. 

Kenny turn 1.

Kenny activated his army, and decided to bring the pain. First using his Scarlock use black spot on my swordsmen without ua, and then proceded to use his leviathan to kill 5 of them. This gave Marketh 2 souls and the Ancestral Guardian on the Left 3 Souls. He then moved the cankerworm near my razor worm, and the proceeded to desperate pace + powerswell on his raiders and charged. His charge nearly killed the rhinodon, killed 4 swordsmen ( including the ua leader... my bad placement to blame) and removed the cyclops savages body and spirit. Luckily my AG defensive striked his unit leader and the field promotion helped, to save me from loosing more. The rest just advanced.

My turn 2.

So i had 8 souls on 2 ag and marketh. So i used the 2 souls on marketh to upkeep death march and soulslave,  and leeched my fury. Next my swordsmen used vengance and remove 3 raiders. I then started by activating the first AG and charged the cankerworm and failed to kill it (2 fully boosted damage rolls at -3 to damage and i put 7 points on the worm...who would prove to be a thorn in my eye for the remainder of the game) Next the swordsmen proceeded to use there now mat 8 and side step to kill all but 2 of the raiders, and the AG used one soul to become faster and cleared some of the others. The rhinodon rushed up towards skarre and the satyxis witches and was out by an inch to get more than 1, which he smashed. The paingivers healed my beasts, and the razorworm ran towards the withershadow. I then activated hexeris and cast obliteration to kill the withershadow, however the razorworm was half an inch out, for steath, hence going for the aoe, which deviated just to much to only clip one of them and the leviathan. I fluffed my roll vs the withershadow and the jack took 3 points of damage...(if only I had rolled that good on tremelus...) not seeing much else to do I slammed the titan gladiator who had rushed himself to get more of an edge. I used the drake to block any charge lanes from the canker worm to hexeris and the savage killed 2 more raiders, only the UA was left, however i had to much fury on the board, and new that if it came to it either my shaman or savage could frenzy. 

Kenny turn 2.

Using the satyxis ua first she failed her attack, he then proceeded to use is black ogryn to CRA my savage, luckily i hadnt killed the ua, and the cra missed thanks to being engaged. The cankerworm proceeded to punish the AG for failing to kill him and trashed him, thanks to powerbooster from the siren. The leviathan took a shoot at my drake and half killed it, and then malice decided to drag the drake and place himself too reap a few souls. Next the bloodwitches charged, and killed the 1 swordsmen and 1 other of the main unit. they also killed the rhinodon and used his strength to finish the razorworm. then they put some hurt on the titan. Finally Skarre activated and popped her feat, protecting herself, malice, the satyxis ua, a raidercaptain and stopping my drake from spraying her or the withershadow.

My Turn 3. 

After seeing all that damage, I upkept death march and leeched my fury leaving 1 on the shaman and 3 on the savage, having had to reave the fury on the razor worm. The savage proceed to frenzy and killed a swordsmen, which lead them to flee... Bad start... I then proceeded to mesure my control area, and activated hexeris first and popped his feat. He charged the nearest bloodwitch and killed her easily, she then killed another chaining for 3 other victims. Hexeris, bought a second attack which remove the rest of the unit, bar the ua. The using a spell he shot and removed the skarlock, whos mat 3 proved useless for the feat. Next went the shaman who shot the other raider captain, who killed the ua, and the ua in return did nothing. I used the ancestral guardian to give himself speed 6 again, who then charged the black ogryn, killing one, who killed a second, but he didn't kill the last one. Marketh killed the siren with a spell, who couldn't hit the cankerworm. After that i just moved the beast handlers into better positions and removed some excess fury. I placed the gladiator to protect hexeris using rush and slams, and then hoped, that he wouldn't have much to answer. 

Kenny turn 3. 

He looked at the board and said he was please he used his feat. First he tried to use the remaining black ogryn to smash the AG, and only put 5 points of damage onto me. The he activated skarre and put admonition onto malice. the cankerworm came out and killed the drake, and the leviathan took 2 shoots at the gladiator doing about 6 damage. next he moved malice up and shoot my titan gladiator, and damage him. Then using drag brought him close, however he couldn't drag him through some obstructions, so he used his admonition move to get into melee. He then bought an attack which did another 8 damage to the gladiator, but couldn't do much else. The Withershadow blasted the shaman and marketh, kill marketh and putting 12 damage on the shaman, who wouldn't make it much longer.

My turn 4.

I let everything expire, and by magic the swordsmen rallied and came back up the board. Then the shaman tried to shoot the cankerworm doing 9 points of damage, however not enough to cripple him. The AG then failed to kill the black ogryn. Next i activated hexeris, spent one fury to get the savages animus, using his movement to get to the satyxis witch, then killed her. Using beatback he got next to malice, who i then got 5 attacks on, knocking him back quite a bit. The remaining paingivers healed a few beasts and enraged the savage and the titan. the gladiator then slammed malice, and proceeded to follow up. after his 4 fury was spent malice was left with 4 boxes, which thanks to Death Ward had been his claw and some cortex. The savage then charged the remaining raider captain, and killed her. Not having much left i thought i could win the game next turn.

Kenny turn 4.

He directly measured his control area and knew he couldnt quite reach hexeris. He allocated focus to malice the cankerworm and the leviathan and then shoot with perdition hexeris for 5 damage which I took and moved the leviathan up. He then tryd for an attack of malice which missed. The cankerworm then killed my shaman and the withershadow made sure that one swordsmen was also not coming back. The leviathan then charged the titan and put a good amount of hurt on it, however not removing it from the game. 

My turn 5.

I knew there werent may options, but nothing i could really do. I used hexeris to kill malice, and the AG finally killed the black ogryn. My swordsmen, now back charged the cankerworm, in a tag team with an enraged cyclops savage to remove the beast... one swordsmen reached the withershadow, but he happened to be a standard bearer(how i wish he would have a knife... ) The titan then tried to kill the leviathan, but didnt quite manage, as no enrage and bad dice. It still had some boxes in movement, but no greater threat. 

Kenny turn 5.

He couldn't quite reach hexeris, who was just outside his treat, so he moved skarre back a bit and shot hexeris for 9 damage, which he took like a man. The leviathan missed its attack, and the withershadow mopped up all but the savage and his beasthandler.

My turn 6.

I charged the AG into the leviathan, and rolled awesome dice and removed it (6 6 5). I then enraged the savage again and killed 2 withershadows. Now all i had left was hexeris and the titan. Skarre was on 4 focus... not easy and about 12 inches away. Hexeris was also trapped between to wreck markers... The titan couldnt do much and turned around. I then used hexeris walked up and cast soulfire. I need to hit twice with 2 boosted damage rolls really to have a good shot. I used the savage animus on my self just to have a bit more risk. I needed 9s to hit i rolled a 7 on two dice, I boosted and rolled a one... missed... i cast the spell again, knowing that i had lost, I rolled 2 dice and rolled a ten, and boosted the damage, i did a power 25 hit, leaving Skarre on 4 health... I shook kennys hand and called the game, after 6 spectacular turns I knew i had lost.

Overall we both had a fantastic game, it was really enjoyable...and possibly one of the closes games we have fought.

Later on we went for drinks and had a small 25 pointer in the morning, where pMakeda proved to be a master assassin with carnage from marketh, who was outside the lamentation area of venethrax and the tyrant commanders +2" giving me a nice 13 inch walk and 4 inch sidestep into the back on Venethrax, who then was made quick work of. 

I really enjoyed both game, particularly the first 50 pointer at Maelstrom Games who have an amazing facility in Mansfield. However i think my list really needs tweaking, possibly dropping the drake for something else, maybe even maxing out the unit of swordmen, and an exotoller... but i'm not sure yet

Next time there will be pictures!

I hope you've all had fun

Greetz

PS: Any tips or criticism is very welcome