Continuing to hone our killer instincts for this game Shawn and I decided to try out 15 point games with different casters. I went ahead and decided to try out a couple of new small units as well – a min unit of brigands and a razorback, to be precise. Shawn was happy to see one of the warhogs stay in the bag so it was really a win/win proposition.
Here is a look at the army I brought – Lord Carver, min brigands, razorback, gunboar, and warhog.
Facing this Shawn brought Ravyn, a Phoenix, a Manticore, and a mage hunter assassin.
Since I am going to want to do tourney play I went ahead and started timing my turns. I went with an extremely generous 10 minutes per turn (which is what they have at a 50 pointer) and managed to actually keep track and take some pictures.
I won the roll to go first and activated Lord Carver, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction, Esquire, the Third first and he cast mobility and put quagmire on the brigands and advanced. Everyone else ran forward with the brigands calling pathfinder. This turn took 4 minutes.
The Retribution also advanced everything though not quite so aggressively.
Turn 2
Carver upkept quagmire and recast mobility and then everything advanced again. This time the brigands called Heroic and ran to surround Carver and protect him from and assassin shenanigans. The razorback shot hoping for a lucky drift but didn’t get it. Everything else just drove forward with an appropriate amount of aggression (that is to say, a lot). All in all, I thought way too much this turn and spent 8 minutes on what should have been a pretty straightforward kind of turn.
At this point Shawn noticed that I had set him up a nice little bowling alley and slammed the warhog with his manticore a mighty 6″ which blasted through 3 of the brigands and Carver himself! The phoenix advanced and burst into flames filling the air with the delightful aroma of cooking pork.
Here is the view from his side of the table -
Ravyn dropped back a bit to safety and put a veil of mists up to block LOS.
On my turn most of the fires went out (though the warhog continued to burn) and one model died but made his tough roll (we weren’t sure the order of things dropping off so we used the flow chart and had it fall of at the end of maintenance phase. We know that is wrong now) but was still knocked down. Carver and the warhog both shook the knockdown but at a cost of a third of his focus. He dropped quagmire too.
Carver himself felt the rage building at being treated like a bowling pin and there was only one thing left to do. He feated! He then cast batten down the hatches and then charged the manticore, holding on to his last fury for a transfer if things went bad. This is where I really felt the effect of blowing 2 fury during the maintenance phase. He did a lot of damage to the manticore but didn’t destroy it. I wasn’t quite willing to risk that last fury to finish the manticore.
The brigands went hogwild and dealt with the assassin and the warhog charged the phoenix but didn’t destroy but did wreck several systems including field generator and cortex.
My turn 3 ended up taking 15 minutes but didn’t really feel like it. I need to play much faster.
Shawn had taken a pretty serious beating but was still in the game. Both of his jacks were seriously damaged but also still pretty scary – especially when Ravyn popped her own feat offsetting somewhat the diminished capabilities of the destroyed systems.
They caused some decent damage but Batten Down The Hatches mitigated most of it. Ravyn again brought forth a veil of mists to protect herself.
It was time to go for the kill on my turn 4. Carver cast mobility and then put quagmire on the gunboar. Carver then finished the work he had started with the manticore but couldn’t quite do the phoenix but the warhog finished it off in his activation. The gunboar ran through the mists to get base to base with Ravyn and locked her in place thanks to quagmire. This turn took 4 minutes and I was pretty happy with the pacing.
This is where we learned that Shawn was treating Ravyn far too timidly. Since the warboar was locking him in place he just killed it. Then he shot at Carver and almost killed him, even with the transfer he had available! This is what the battlefield looked like – Ravyn had upkept the veil of mists.
And this is what Carver looked like -
I was suddenly not feeling quite so positive about my chances…
The game had to end and it had to end now for it to have a happy piggie ending. The brigands activated first and went around the mists and did a CRA on Ravyn damaging her. With a bit of desperation I activated Carver and he advanced into the mists as far as he could. It was out of range of the Hand of God, even with reach. There was only one chance and he fired with both barrels. His boost just managed to finish her off!
Whew, that was way too close for comfort!
After action review -
Warlock – Carver did great! It is nice to play a bit more of a beatstick than Dr. Arkadius. Carver does support his battlegroup by boosting their speed or making them even harder to kill. His bonuses to the farrow brigands are nice making them both fearless and giving them CRA.
Ravyn does a frightening amount of damage for an elf. Shawn was playing her too much like Kaelyssa. I think next time I face her she will be a bit more aggressive.
Units – I totally misplayed the razorback. I overestimated both their range and their threat priority. I should have run them for two turns and then probably not even wasted the combat action to dig in.
The brigands did great for their first appearance. I am looking forward to using them more. They are a great toolbox unit.
Warbeasts – Again, both farrow beasts did everything I asked of them and then some.
There is a game day at my FLGS coming up and I am hoping to bring them along to eat some new faces. Thanks for taking the time to read this!
