Ant came over and we got in a couple of games. We bumped the size to 25 points and Ant was trying out a new caster – Kromac the Ravenous. I decided to stick with Dr. Arkadius. I was also timing my turns again.
The circle list was:
Kromac, gorax, pureblood warpwolf, warpwolf stalker, blackclad wayfarer, lord of the feast
The farrow were running tier 2 Dr. A:
Dr. Arkadius, 2 war hogs, 2 gun boars, targ, razorback, 4 bonegrinders
Game 1:
This game was short. I advanced up and tried to play a bit cautious. I decided to be clever and work up the right flank away from the building and the forest (that is what the blank footprint is).
Ant advanced everything also cautiously but swinging way out with the lord of the feast.
I knew that the lord of the feast could hit with his bird and then teleport up so I moved my bone grinders out very cleverly more than 1″ away from the good doctor so I would be out of his reach range. I also advanced the warhog to get nice and close so I would be within 5″ to get off a primal shock at him. I hit with the boost and boosted damage but had HORRIBLE rolls and didn’t even do a wound to the lord of the feast.
Strangely, it never even crossed my mind that he might base to base the REAR of the bonegrinder he hit. Game over, super fast kill and a lesson learned – ALWAYS hang on to 1 fury, even if you don’t think you will need it. I offered up a quick handshake and concession so we could reset and play a second game.
Game 2:
Same lists and just a quick reset. This game I was resolved to not make the same mistakes. I advanced a bit slower and held more fury in reserve.
Ant decided to swing around hard from behind the building using it as cover to get closer to me.
In return I ran the razorbacks into melee with the lord of the feast to try and lock it down for a turn. Not surprisingly the lord of the feast killed them both in his turn, but it did stick him in place more or less setting up the following turn.
The warpwolf stalker hung back in the woods to take advantage of his stealth as I advanced. The gorax put his animus on the stalker and then the stalker burst from cover and basically flew across the entire battlefield in warping speed and laid a serious hurt into one of my warhogs killing it completely while the gorax and pureblood followed up in position as a second line.
I was reeling from this attack and felt that the game was pretty much over (pic was from before the charge but you can see it coming). I kept my cool though and looked over Dr. A’s card seeking that magic trick that would keep me in the game. I saw my chance though it was pretty shenanigan-laden and order of activation would be very important.
The warhog had pretty good facing as it was and I was undecided on what I wanted him to do. The bonegrinders gave Dr Arkadius an extra 2″ range which was necessary to put crippling grasp on the pureblood.
I decided to get aggressive with Dr. A and he advanced on the stalker that had just completely demolished one of my warhogs. He walked up and boosted with his needle and missed with the first one! Well, at this point he was commited so I bought a second attack, boosted again got the hit. Whew. I did a point to him and had him turn around and go hit the pureblood. He got the hit and thanks to the gorax’s animus and rolling something insane he knocked out 2 both the spirit and the body.
Dr. Arkadius then maltreated a gunboar and popped his feat. The gunboar charged the lord of the feast and totally smashed it.
My original plan had been to just leave the stalker alone and the mandatory frenzy from gorax’s animus would hopefully finish off the pureblood. However, with the damage from the stalker, I decided to take a risk. The warhog frenzied into the rear of the stalker. I got a crit knockdown with my charge attack and then just did what warhogs do best and completely destroy the stalker.
The gunboar activated next and advanced on the black clad and killed it with its meaty fists. It also, critically, blocked kromac and made him have to go around him somewhat to get his full movement in before his leap.
The last turn had completely switched our fortunes! Ant was now in a desperate position but after spending a lot of time eyeballing the distance though that he had the run on Dr. Arkadius if he could just deal with the gunboar. Kromac raged out and went beastform.
The wounded pureblood had to advance and attack without benefit of those 2 spirals since he couldn’t heal him until Kromac’s activation. Luckily for me the missing spiral saved the gunboar.
Ant thought he still had the advance on Dr. Arkadius. He moved up to and around the gunboar and then leapt that final 5″. He was 2 1/8″ away from Dr. Arkadius! We measured several times and he was just short by 1/8″ from attacking him. WHEW! The gorax charged the warhog and did some pretty good damage to him.
Though I wasn’t in great shape myself and this had to be ended now. On my turn I activated Dr. Arkadius popped psychosurgery and advanced into melee. I missed with my first attack again, but the second one hit and made Kromac stationary and did 1 point of damage. The gunboar then advanced into combat with and pushed the gorax out of combat with the warhog which freed him up. The warhog charged into his rear and unleashed on him. I had to use all 4 points of fury to finish him off though!
That game had it all, deep lows and super highs! Desperate aggression on the part of the the mad scientist who usually stays WAY back from combat.
Based on this game, I am definitely going to start playing him a bit more aggressively. Basically him advancing and attacking twice during that game completely saved the day.
Dr. Arkadius is an absolute blast to play! He has great buffs and debuffs. He has a deceptively long magic shooting attack. His feat is tricky but is probably one of the best in the game once you start planning for it – an extra 7-8″ movement or a free fully boosted attack is amazing – AND you get to activate the beast either before or after it. His mind control drug is fun and making things stationary is just plain mean.
