Wargames Workshop January Steamroller - Part 2

Hello all, this is the second half of the Wargames Workshop Steamroller I attended in January. After the first two games we broke for lunch and I got to catch up with some old friends in the break period before setting straight back into the games. I apologise now as I was not as diligent in taking photos for these second two games so I hope this still makes sense from the reader's perspective!

Game 3 – Fyanna2 vs Rask

Following on from two great games with Thagrosh1 I drew against an old nemesis of mine, Mark playing his Minions. He had a Rask and either Barnabas or Calaban (can’t remember which, didn’t matter as he played Rask anyway) so I decided to drop Fyanna. Hellmouths are great into denial feats like Rask’s and Raptors would have a target rich environment. Mark’s list was as follows:

Rask (Will Work For Food)
 - Targ
 - Blackhide Wrastler
 - Ironback Spitter
 - Ironback Spitter
Wrongeye and Snapjaw
Dahlia and Skarath
Rorsh and Brine
 - Battle Boar
Alten Ashley
Orin Midwinter
Mist Speaker
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

The scenario was Standoff and I won the roll, electing to go first to limit the ridiculous speed and threat ranges of the Minion beasts. I ambushed the Grotesques as the Spitter shots have Corrosion which gets around the Stealth/Iron Flesh combo nicely. Fyanna and the Neraphs went centrally flanked by Raptors and a Raek on each side. The Hellmouths deployed out with one in the forest on the right and the other toeing just into my rectangular zone. Minions deployed centrally with Rask and friends, with Skarath on the left and Wrongeye on the right.

Legion Turn 1 had Fyanna put out Iron Flesh on the left side Hellmouth, Admonition on the right hand Raek and Fury on the right side Raptors. The rest of the force ran up aggressively to threaten the zones.

Minions Turn 1 had Rask put Admonition up on the right hand Spitter and Fury on Brine before moving up and feating. The rest of the army ran up into position putting up Counterblast on Skarath and the Spitters but being careful not to end up within Hellmouth or Grotesque range. Alten moved up and put some damage into one of the Neraphs before repositioning back behind the objective.

Starting Legion Turn 2 I was surprised that Rask feated so early  so backed up out of threat range of most of the beasts, though a particularly aggressive tentacle got counterblasted by Skarath. I was concerned about Brine getting in on Fyanna so I blocked a path to her with the Neraphs and the objective.

For Minions Turn 2 Mark saw an opportunity to get a lot of work done with Brine applying Fury, Primal and Boundless Charge to enable a huge smokebomb/charge across the board into the damaged Neraph. At Pow 20 and with Overtake Brine killed both Neraphs, the Objective, an Assassin and knocked some damage into the Hellmouth. Ouch… The Spitters and Skarath started shooting down Raptors and Snapjaw toed the zone just out of threat of the right Hellmouth. The score went to 0-1 to Minions due to the destroyed objective.

Legion Turn 3 was looking rough to start already taking casualties and the ICBM (InterContinental Brine Missile) having taken out both heavies wasn’t ideal. Fyanna moved up and feated, swinging at Brine for some reasonable damage but not pitching him into the Hellmouth as planned. The Grotesques came on the back right corner to start pressuring the back lines whilst the raptors put some shots in on the Spitter and Skarath. The leftside Rake moved up to jam the Spitter out of the zone whilst the central Raek bounded up and killed Ashlen. Having cleared the left side zone the score was set at 1-1.

For Minions Turn 3 Brine frenzied into the Hellmouth for negligible damage whilst Skarath advanced and Paralyzed the central Raek thanks to an additional die to hit from Dahlia, then quickly finishing him off. The left Spitter walked into the zone and shot another Raptor whilst Orion, Wrongeye and the right spitter laid about into the Grotesques killing most of them. Rask backed up out of threat of the remaining Raek and Minions controlled their own zone putting the score at 1-2 to Minions.

Rapidly running out of attrition game my best chance was to try and force a scenario win by collapsing the flanks with the Raptors and pressurising Rask. Legion Turn 4 had the leftside Hellmouth pulled in the Spitter out of control of Rask whilst the right side Raptors charged Snapjaw and killed him. At this point Mark reminded me that having killed the character heavies I hadn’t scored any victory points yet, which was mildly frustrating! Fyanna went in hard on Brine and finally managed to take him out with the Hellmouth whilst the right side Raptors put some shots into Skarath again with little effect. The Grotesques charged in on Orin and took him out but I didn’t bring anyone in to contest the back zone. I controlled the two outside zones here and Minions controlled their own zone pushing the score to 3-3.

Minions Turn 4 was turning into a sweep up operation with the Spitter and Wrastler taking out most of the right side Raptors and the remaining Grotesques, whilst Skarath finished the last of the left side Raptors with a spray. The Gobbers ran in to score the right zone and the dragged in Spitter took out the Hellmouth’s last box. A spell Martyr had stepped into the Legion zone to prevent the Spitter from holding it and the score shifted to 5-3 to Minions.

With little time on my clock Legion Turn 5 involved some planning involving Gallows and Critical Pitch to clear some zones and score but I clocked out during Fyanna’s activation, leading to a Minions Victory by Deathclock!

This was always going to be an uphill slog, Mark is an excellent player and knows his Rask list very well. Some early mistakes like not deploying the right Hellmouth to threaten the entire zone and letting Brine come in so hard set me off on the back foot. The Fyanna list wants to pull things out of position and jump on them, but I fed in my army piecemeal on both flanks which were easily dealt with without pushing ahead on scenario. I learnt a lot this game and would definitely play differently the next time around so from a development perspective this was probably my best game of the event.

Game 4 – Fyanna2 vs Absylonia2

For the final game of the event I drew against David, the TO for the event and a fellow blighted player! He had only brought his Absylonia2 list so it seemed rude not to try Fyanna2 again. His list was as follows:

Absylonia, Daughter of Everblight (Oracles of Annihilation)
 - Succubus
 - Proteus
 - Carnivean
 - Ravagore
 - Ravagore
 - Seraph
 - Naga
Sorceress on Helion
Sorceress on Helion
Forsaken
Spell Martyr

The scenario was the Pit 2 and I won the roll off, choosing to go first again. I decided to try the Grotesques on the table as normal with the battlegroup and Raptors deployed evenly on each flank and the Hellmouths up forward, one behind a forest. My opponent deployed slightly favouring the left side to avoid the forest with a Helion on each flank.

Friendly Legion Turn 1 had Fyanna put Iron Flesh on the Grotesques and advance up aggressively with Admonition on the right Raek but no Fury as I planned to switch it onto the Grotesques in future. The rest of the army ran forward with the Hellmouth tentacles being wary of Hex Bolt to trigger Alpha Hunter.

In response Enemy Legion Turn 1 had Absylonia keep Bracer on Proteus for free and move up somewhat cautiously behind the wall, then Proteus and the Carnivean moving to block Line of Sight. The Ravagores got slipstreamed up and dropped a shot at the Grotesques, killing one but not inflicting damage on the others thanks to Iron Flesh. The second however rolled double 6 for damage on the left Hellmouth and one shotted it! The Helions moved up on each flank taking cover in a trench on the right and putting up Wind Ravager.

In Friendly Legion Turn 2 there was nothing in charge range so the Grotesques simply ran forward to engage the brick Absylonia was behind and protect the more valuable pieces behind from being engaged. The left Raptors shot down the Helion and moved to threaten the zone whilst the right Raptors took some shots into the Seraph and backed up.

For Enemy Legion Turn 2 Absylonia moved up and killed a Grotesque to trigger Alpha Hunter before Proteus and a Ravagore devoured most of the Grotesques. The Seraph shot up the tentacles from the right Hellmouth and the Sorceress put up Wind Ravager again. The Carneavean and Ravagore shot down a Raptor each whilst toeing the zone. No points were scored this turn.

After the Grotesques had gloriously given their lives for the cause, Friendly Legion Turn 3 had Fyanna feat and cast Fury on the right Raptors through the Spell Martyr. The Neraph took out the Helion and sprinted back into the woods allowing the Raptors to move up and puts some hefty damage into the Seraph and kill the Spell Martyr and Forsaken with shots. The Raeks both moved up to continue the Jam whilst the black Raptors came in and took out the Naga. No points were scored here either!

In Enemy Legion Turn 3 Fyanna used her feat to charge a Raptor under feat and killed it, repositioning behind the wall and activating Alpha Hunter. Proteus went after the Raek but with Admonition and Dodging he couldn’t pin it down. The Carnivean had better luck however and successfully killed the other Raek as the Ravagore killed another Raptor out of feat range. Importantly Absylonia forgot to cast Spiny Growth this turn leaving her on two fury after Psychosurgery.

An assassination vector had nicely opened up on Absylonia here so Friendly Legion Turn 4 had the dodging Raek walk up and bound behind Absylonia, boosting a headbut in the rear and knocking her down as well as scratching a little damage. Both units of Raptors walked up and shot her, finishing her with Fyanna still in charge range as a final resort leading to a Friendly Legion Victory by Assassination!

This game felt much closer to how the Fyanna list wants to play, sniping out the key pieces and support then delivering an assassination or strong attrition swing using the feat to protect key pieces. Had Abby cast Spiny Growth the assassination may still have been on with a Furied Fyanna charging but I would have probably looked to kill off the heavies and play a longer game by slowly closing the jaws. The Grotesques didn’t have much of a role this game by just charging in sadly, my feeling is that they may be generally better as ambushers just to force the opponent into a narrow box from the Hellmouths and Grotesques threat ranges. Nonetheless it was a fun game and kinda cool to see the feat/Raek/assassinate scheme work out as intended.

Concluding thoughts

So overall I went 2-2 at the event which is under what my aim was (hoping for 3-1) but the games I played were high quality and excellent learning. Chain Attack did a recent podcast about developing and I learnt the most from the games that I lost against Denny and Rask. Both lists still need tweaking to reach their full potential and will get a lot out of ADR. I definitely rate this pairing in these themes as it stands, but it remains to be seen whether the CID changes will be sufficient to mix things up a little. At the moment the only change the CID brings is another Shepherd to Thagrosh with the Carnivean drop in points, but if Primal Terrors comes up strong there might be a Fyanna Oracles and Thagrosh Primal Terrors pair that punches hard.

Anyway thanks for reading these reports, I hope they were informative and I would like to say thank you once again to all four of my opponents for great games. It will be a while before I can get some more games in so the next post will likely be something more abstract.

Jamie