Crushed by the Copycat...

This Thursday I went up against another Skorne Player. Another, PURPLE Skorne player.
I'm glad that I managed to retroactively inspire my fellows before I even arrived in this meta. It's a proud moment to know that my genius ripples across the universe to my local store. It even inspired him to kick my ass! It's a noble, proud time to know that I can inspire indirectly so, so well.

This round was a list of mistakes, and realization on the value of some of my models. I forgot some of my own lessons because I showed up really late to game night, and it had been a week, but I also made some legitimate issues. I hadn't screened my heavy properly, misused and misactivated some pieces, and made poor use of Morghoul again in a similar way to what happened against Circle. Also, I did Pop feat this game, it just didn't make any use due to Caster Cowardice, as I'm now calling it. It's when you keep your caster out of the fray to the detriment of the caster's utility. It also made me realize that there is greater utility in a different 1pt Minions piece that can cover my major issues, which I'll cover in my post game thoughts.

My Skorne: 20pts
pMorghoul (-7)
Titan Gladiator
Cyclops Savage
Cyclops Savage
Basilisk Krea

Min. Handlers
Swamp Gobbers
Agonizer


EEEEEVIL (but incredibly similar) Skorne

Xerxis
Tiberion
Bronzeback

Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Max. Handlers


Deployment

He won the roll and went first. My first thought during set up was realizing that I was outclassed in terms of damage potential in that he was packing two incredibly durable heavies with a specialized beast for holding center ground and manipulating the field.I also quickly realized that none of my anti-shooting defenses would work. The Cloud could only really block LOS, but otherwise the Krea's animus would have no value this game. I realized to win I'd have to get the most work out of my heavies, tying up key pieces, and trying to out position him.



That didn't happen. At all.





First Turn:

Simple first turn. He ran. I ran. He tossed Defender's Ward onto Tiberion, and ran everything forward.
I tossed Admonition onto the Gladiator, tossed 3 fury into the Agonizer, and walked Morghoul up 7", ran the Gladiator up 8", walked the krea and riled it for 1, and did the stupid thing of running both of my Cyclopes to opposite ends of the field pretty much to try and draw multiple angles. This left my Gladiator exposed which made the second turn almost as painful as being assassinated this early on would be...



Second Turn:

He ran everything up again. Upkept the same spells. The joy of SPD 4, it makes two turns feel like a really long single turn!

 Knowing I'm not in range to Alpha Strike him, and any steps forward I make would leave me in charge range, I just inch forward equal to my Speed. What I should have done in hind sight was Abuse and Rush him, drop Admonition and just wail on Tiberion as much as I could. However I didn't, and had him walk 4" and upkept Admonition. Morghoul ducked to the lower side near the cloud, out of Caster Cowardice.



Third  Turn:

Countercharge... I'm playing Skorne, as a Skorne Player, and I forgot about Counter Charge. He puts up Inhospitable Ground and killed my ONLY source of Pathfinder. This is going to be a long, slow game...
I spent my turn, run Morghoul up to the left (just like my game against Circle), abandoning one of my Savages who is enraged, and makes the one charge attack. My Agonizer uses the -2 Warbeast Damage Scream, and the Gobbers stay where they are and pop cloud, as they have no use due to Trample attacks being a thing. The Krea moved and tried to shoot Tiberion and hit so he can't run or charge.
We had a rules discrepancy on how Enrage mixes with Paralysis, so if anyone could answer that in the comments it'd be helpful. Morghoul pops feat and puts Admonition on himself.



Fourth Turn:

The Cyclops Died. No surprise. Inhospitable Ground was cast again by Xerxis, and he bunched up in the back corner.

The Beast Handlers whipped the Bronzeback to try to over pump my opponent's Fury Management. The Cyclops was Abused and tossed at Tiberion to try and get some damage in on it, but he was out of Morghoul's control area and couldn't be forced for more attacks. the Agonizer walked over and used the -2 Damage scream which did nothing this game. the Gobbers walk over slightly and pop cloud again.




Turn 5 + 6:

The Bronzeback killed a lot of Beast Handlers. Tiberion kills the Krea and a Gobber. Xerxis kills the Cyclops. Inhospitable Ground I believe was dropped.

Morghoul cuts for 4, and upkeeps Admonition and charges, making mince meat of some of his Handlers, and I clock in a hit or two for a total of 4 damage on Xerxis before I Sprint up the field.

I fell for the following trick before, and it got me again.
He moves his Mortitheurge up in front of Morghoul, I didn't Admonition away. Tiberion slams it into me. Knocks down Morghoul, Xerxis feats, and One hit kills me on 4 dice at P+S 20.





Graveyard Photos and Thoughts:


The way I lost was particularly painful. It was incredibly frustrating to lose at the Attrition game so poorly. It felt like I forgot everything that I learned. I would have just replayed this game from the beginning rather than fix any particular Tactical missteps.The Cyclopes should have been screening my Gladiator by running at a slight angle. Then I should have Abused/Rushed them and charged up to hold off Tiberion and the Bronzeback for a turn.

The big debate I'd have is whether to have them try to focus down and double team a particular heavy or to each hold off one.
I'd be screening Morghoul with the Krea. Then the target not engaged by the conceivably Enraged and Abused Gladiator next turn would be shot by an Aiming Krea to keep it from moving too far. Most importantly out of all this MORGHOUL WOULD SIT IN THE MIDDLE. He'd be screened, but still.
He has a very small control area, so he needs to be well screened, and able to consistently be involved in what's going on to well, he is squishy but he is not Issyria or the Harbinger.
He has no control area and wants to be up next to his beasts. He cannot hide despite his frame as an Assassin caster.
Don't let his squishiness keep you from giving him the placement so he can use his Control area.

 Most of my support pieces didn't really help. The Gobbers were USELESS. I did some research and realized that as 1pt. filler I'd be better suited by a Feralgeist to get more mileage out of my beasts.

Further, I've realized that I am running just too many light beasts for higher points values and need to pick up some of the Skorne staple heavies for the purpose of having the necessary pushing power.

I suffered from ridiculously poor positioning, and being out board controlled by my opponent. It was a bad, bad game from the first second and shows that I still have a lot to learn, in the departments of list building, and more importantly tactics.

If I could have redone this game, I'd have had the Cyclopes run at less of an angle, shield Morghoul with the Krea, and set Admonition on one of the Cyclopes instead, used that as a way to bait around the Bronzeback, or as a way to keep the Gladiator safer. Then, I would have had both of the Cyclopes charge at both of them, and then having the Gladiator smash the Bronzeback before it can smash back.
Then, I'll have the Krea and the Gladiator be able to focus on Tiberion. Morghoul would have been better positioned by being closer to the middle to take advantage of the feat far better than it had been used.
Even then, beyond getting a unit of Infantry soon, I plan on investing in a Bronzeback so I can run a bigger heavy punch than I've been able to with support oriented lights and a single heavy.

This match was an eye opener on the capacities that Skorne has for someone who owns few of the models at this point, but also was a good way to show what I lacked when faced with such massive armor skew.
For any new players, or new Skorne players, realize that if you don't have at least one game that makes you reevaluate what you have, and any problems you have in the game, then you won't be able to get better.

Soviet Replacement Battle #28791

Given that I missed game night last week due to work, I’ve decided to post up my Khador Report, some of the details may be missing due to the age of the story, but this one is a lesson on positioning, and how quickly the game can change so quickly based on one bad move. I still didn’t pop feat, which I have decided to change very VERY soon.

This is also the Largest points game I’ve played, setting everything I own down onto the table, and with a 4^th of my army being support pieces I was very nervous, but this managed to work out beautifully. Mostly due to the forest that was on my edge of the table. If that forest was not there, this match would have gone TERRIBLY. This also, was a match where Bricking up managed to work very well for me, and while I had issues moving it around, it managed to work out. Also, I got to really let Morghoul stretch his claws and sever a beautiful amount of arteries, which made me glad, because it allowed me to learn how to answer a very big question of board control with a surprising ease.

20pts. of Khador vs. Skorne

Khador:

pScorscha

Spriggan

Widow Makers

Widow Maker Solo

Ironfan Pikemen + UA + Kovnik

20pts of Skorne

pMorghoul

    Titan Gladiator

    2 Cyclops Savages

    Basilisk Krea

     Min. Pain Giver Beast Handlers

     Swap Gobbers

     Agonizer

The Khador player won the roll to go first. I took the picture a little late so that individual Ironfang on the far right should not be where it is. I did my best to brick up and put the important Support Pieces where they should. I had the Gobbers take front position, learning from the game where they accomplished nothing. The Paingivers stayed in the back but in range of each of the Beasts, and let the savages team up on the left flank to deal with the Widowmakers as need be. The Gladiator took point and I planned on having him ram head on into the Spriggan. This first turn I really planned on just trying to avoid/tarpit the Pikemen, as I knew that if they accomplished much or tied me I’d be spending my turns making out fury to tear through High Armor Infantry.

Turn 1:

Everyone runs. I got the picture here a little late so he was already starting his turn 2.

He just lets everyone run up, and maintains the same position on everything. Tosses down Fog of War with Scorscha.

I shift the brick to more of an ellipse, and do my best to keep everything safe from his Widowmakers and the Spriggan’s Lance Gun. I put Admonition on the Gladiator who is hiding in the Forest, to gain the benefits of Cover due to terrain. 

The Savages take flank on the left and right due to not having space in the beginning of the forest. The Krea pops animus keeping my Agonizer, and Savages and Gladiator safe. I use the Krea to screen my Caster, who is toeing the Gobber cloud, with the Beast Handlers hanging in the back as mild expendables. I forgot to put Fury into the Agonizer, to my Chagrin, but I had to use a lot of Fury this turn due to castings of Abuse to make my Gladiator hoof it fast enough.I twisted it around to keep my support pieces safer and less spread out so that the Widowmakers are as purely useless as possible. My opponent’s poor rolls this game honestly don’t help.

Turn 2:

The Khador player Upkeeps Fog of War and starts trying to take some shots at my stuff. He misses a lot with his Widow Makers, but manages to take down one of my Beast Handlers. The Spriggan fires at my Gladiator but doesn’t do anything particularly spectacular due to the buff stacking given by the Krea and the Forest, and shitty rolls. The Pikemen advance further.

My turn: Admonition is put onto Morghoul, and he puts Abuse onto the Gladiator. The Gladiator puts Rush on himself and slams the Spriggan, unfortunately moving outside of Morghoul’s tiny control area. I also send out one of the Cyclopes to deal with the Widowmakers and engage 2 of them, preventing them from firing on anything in particular. One Widow Maker dies, and two of them are engaged. 

Everyone else scoots over to the right, hiding in the forest, and benefitting from the Krea’s fantastic animus. I’m mostly scared of the Iron Fang Pikemen at this point because I hadn’t really figured out what to do with them this turn, other than a vague and fatalistic notion of tossing Morghoul at them since Pikemen are 1 Box infantry, and he can ricochet off them and deal with this tarpit with his bare claws. The Gladiator Slams the Spriggan just a little too far out of Morghoul’s Control Area after he put Rush on himself. I’m too prone to using Slam attacks rather than charges due to wanting to save Focus, but due to Morghoul’s small control area it’s not the wisest idea. I just need to soak that One Focus so that my Threat Ranges don’t extend past my caster. I forgot to pop smoke with my Gobbers. The Agonizer has been outpaced, becoming nothing more than 8 boxes of nothing due to no Arc Nodes being anywhere. The Agonizer is pretty useless against Khador. It doesn’t start getting useful anytime soon.

Turn 3:

The Ironfang pikemen charge in. This Triggers Admonition. I have Morghoul run backward, which was completely unnecessary and didn’t help Morghoul at all, as it caused issues for him trying to establish a ricochet charge. Fortunately, one of my Gobbers dies so it isn’t really a problem. Scorscha Dashes off to the side behind the wall. The Widowmakers try to toss out some shots, but are completely ineffective. 

My turn: The Gladiator fails it’s Frenzy check. It wiffs miserably on hitting the Spriggan. The Savage, to be useful, charges up and kills the Spriggan. The Paingivers Enrage the Krea and the Savage. Morghoul charges in and bounces around, dealing 1 point of damage to each of the Pikemen, accidentally dealing 1 damage to a multibox Kovnik rather than to the more useful targets. He clears the unit of single point infantry. He then sprints through the forest popping out on the other side. This one move cost me the game. The remaining Savage and Krea play clean up on the one or two models in the Pikemen unit, expertly removing them all in a single turn. This was my proudest and Stupidest moment in the entire game.

 I had it. I had cleared out the tarpit unit. I had let Morghoul show off the sheer levels of badass that Warlocks can attain, and had just been able to feel a rush of balls to the walls power tearing down an ENTIRE UNIT in ONE TURN. IN MELEE. It felt really good. But I messed up on running Morghoul to his limits and ran him too far through that forest. Leaving him totally exposed.

Turn 4:

Scorscha Casts Cyclone, then Advances, and fills my exposed Morghoul with Spammed Razor Wind. Killing him.

Kill Shot: 

Discounting casters I've decided to include a new point in my reports called "Kill Counts", where to clarify what happens in the rounds I post pictures of removed models at the end of the match for both sides. 

Thoughts:

Wow. That was a really rapid end. It was a series of badass one turn executions. Whether they be Ironfangs or ‘Locks. I got what I wanted out of this round on a visceral, simplistic level by managing to run Morghoul hot and buy a ridiculous amount of attacks. On a play level, I feel as if I had managed to play my brick pretty well, but if I didn’t have that forest than I would be by far worse off. Not to mention I have to give a very honorable mention to my local Khador player getting Terrible Rolls this game. Everything he fired missed horribly. It kept half his army from being really useful, which made my time A LOT easier.

I need to learn the importance of the Control Area, as I slam instinctively, due to it being the Gladiator’s shtick, always leaving him in a place where I can’t give him any maintenance. I haven’t had much experience with the Beast Handlers, so I need to plan ahead more on if the charge is at all as helpful at times as it otherwise would be. It’s about balancing out for that strange mixture of risk and preparing for failed die rolls. 

However, I got pompous with Morghoul about how far he could move, and just lost all sense in the power rush. I should have stayed in the forest.

I also lost my Gladiator BY AN INCH, pretty much consigning him to uselessness due to sitting on 4 Fury that he would never be getting rid of due to terrible positioning.

This battle really showed how important my positioning is round by round, and that a good brick for some casters works better than others.  

Argus and Kaya and Ferals, Oh My!

This week, I finally managed to take up a round against Circle of Orboros. Oh God, was I unprepared to face Circle. I resorted to my standard brick strategy of Clumsy Frontwards Elephant, Flanking Cyclops in the second line, and a nougat filling of Krea and Morghoul.

This is NOT what you do beginning Skorne players. This is NOT THE GOOD GAME PLAN.

In my frantic state I missed the deployment picture, and due to circle being more an army of Roadrunners than Wile E. Coyotes like I expected, I may forgot some of the details in the rounds.

15pts of Circle Orboros vs. Skorne
Lists:
Me:
pMorghoul (-7)
Titan Gladiator (+8)
Basilisk Krea  (+4)
Cyclops Savage (+5)
Cyclops Savage (+5)

Opponent:
eKaya + Lyas
Winter Argus
Winter Argus
Feral Warpwalker

Deployment:

The Circle player won the roll to go first.

He set up Kaya on the Hill, the Warpwolf to my left, Laris to next to her, and flanked by the Winter Argi on the far left.

Turn 1:

He’s Gotta Go fast. And Runs all his stuff at tremendous speeds that I am not AT ALL used to. Going up against Trolls and Khador since I started this blog made me soft. Frantically, to keep myself from being boxed in in open terrain, and knowing pretty much all of Circle’s models have Pathfinder, I shift and slightly unpack the brick, moving it to the left. I put Admonition on the Gladiator. I Abused the Krea so it could walk. I ran up the Cyclopes and kept Morghoul in the back.

Turn 2:

Kaya activates and puts Muzzle on the Gladiator. So, he can only move left to right. She then pops feat. Here is where I made the biggest blunder. One of her Argi ran up and triggers Admonition. 

I don’t act on it thinking there’ scarier stuff that’ll be close I should move away from. He crits on the spray, leaving my Gladiator stationary. He then suffers an unmerciful beating from all of his beasts, leaving it a quick one turn yo-yo of death leaving me demoralized, frantic, and confused.

My turn. I’m freaking out, and as always forgot to pop feat. Though given where Morghoul really could have moved, this was probably one of the safer places to keep him.

Morghoul kept Admonition on himself, and I did my best to survive, knowing that most of his High Def models were out of my hitting capacity, and as most of them have been heavily/moderately damaged by spray attacks.

Turn 3:

He kills the two Cyclopes pretty handidly. enough times, and the other with the Argus near near the bottom. He walks the Winter Argus in range of admonition, which allows me to scoot up to use him as a screen from the Warpwolf  next turn, and Laris runs up to my side of the field.

My turn: I really don’t do anything this turn, once again forgetting to feat, and spending all my fury that I had on attacks rather than saving for transfers.

Turn 4:

Lyas runs up and Kaya pops Lyra’s animus, and shoots Morghoul to death.

Thoughts:

In all of my battle reports or games, I have NEVER feated. This is my First and most noobish problem. I guess I’m too busy looking at his spell card to remember, and probably due to me not knowing the extent of my opponent’s models, that I feel hesitant. For instance, Kaya has a spell that allows for no forcing to be required for run/charge actions. But she has to spend fury to use it. Regardless, I would have survived had she not been able to spend fury the turn prior. 

       

      My positioning in relation to the Orboros alpha strike was terrible and I need to really learn how to screen against someone who has such a strong upperhand in the threat range department. The Titan Gladiator is my bread and butter, so I have to ensure that it is able to do it’s job with ease. Talking with my opponent afterward, I’ll be more considerate of my opponent’s speed and depending send the Cyclops Savages to an early grave in the front lines.   

      

     When set in a situation you can’t understand, you have to also stay cool headed, or otherwise you’ll make absent minded mistakes, like I made plenty of. Also, you always have to feat.

Skorne has the capacity to take a good alpha strike to the nose and keep on fighting, so we need to exploit that as well as we can.

       

      Positioning wise I pushed for cover thinking that would keep me safe from the sprays but that was more my own ignorance of the rules. I should have marched up the middle into the “forest” templates we had near the front to make it safer for me.  Further, if there is any chance to avoid the brunt of an assault, always take the out.

This battle was a series of displays of ignorance and poor judgment, always friends in losing battles.

If you play against circle, you’ll have to be careful, fellow Skorne player, and put more emphasis on our tough capacities than our speed buffs. 

Bringing Knives to a Gunfight

My weekly night of gaming ended with a rifle pressed against my temple. Nothing nice about it. They knew what I didn’t have, and took advantage of it. I was strapped in for the long, agonizing ride with an abrupt, wanton threat of immolation. Doing my best to keep cool, I fought through the fire and flames and went back to the classic methods of steady advance. In frustration, I was given liberal applications of all natural, homegrown, battery acid. Tonight wasn’t pretty. Nothing nice about it. Tonight, everybody brought guns to the party, and I wasn’t invite.

The reason I’m talking about guns today is because everyone I played Thursday, brought a lot of guns. As an ex-40k player, and used to playing close combat oriented forces, I was scared out of my mind every time I saw more than one model with a gun across from me. That lasted the entire evening. With guns and ranged attacks, this night was also a good lesson on positioning, and getting the most out of your models. Fortunately it was a night filled with Trollbloods and Khador, so I wasn’t getting outmaneuvered any time soon.

First Match:

15pts Trollbloods vs. Skorne

Trolls:

    Calandra

-                     Earthborn Dire Troll

-                     Pyre Troll

-                     Impaler

Skorne:

    pMorghoul

-                       Titan Gladiator

-                        Cyclops Savage

-                        Cyclops Savage

-                         Basilisk Krea

              Swamp Gobbers

-                         

The Trolls player got first turn.

First Turn:

The Trollblood player ran everything up and set up Bullet Dodger on the Earthborn.

Standard first turn, everyone ran up, and I put Admonition on my Gladiator.

Top of Second Turn:

Trolls:
Troll Impaler rolls a Crit. Smite on the Cyclops into Morghoul. Dealt some good damage due to POW 12’s on ARM 13. Knocked down both.

Earthborn triggered Admonition

Skorne:
Krea activates and walks up, misssing Calandra with Withering Gaze

Cyclops on the far left charges the Pyro Troll
the Second Cyclops walks around the Krea and tries to hit the Earthborn and fails

Morghoul walks toward the wall, and the Gobins walk next to him and pop smoke. 

Bottom of 2 - 3

Trolls: He let Bullet Dodger Drop. Cast Forceblow and killed Morghoul.

Got taken down by the Impaler, because I was just too far away 

Thoughts:

I forgot effects and modifiers, which might have saved Morghoul near the end.  

          I started off this game wanting to run up fast, and shut down the viability of his shooting attacks. My positioning wasn’t that well done causing the Krea’s 2” safety bubble animus to be functionally useless. The speedy and small based Goblins were jammed up by slower units, so they didn’t have a chance to actually have the cloud go anywhere useful. Morghoul was poorly positioned at the end, when He could have retreated behind something big, and out of conceivably threat ranges due to having screened Morghoul from impact. It was also a game where my rolls didn’t come to help me much either. Several key rolls failed by a sliver, and lead to my downfall by not allowing me to really redefine the boardstate much. Not to mention he was locked into a position he intended to be at first, so I couldn’t force a positioning based disadvantage. And oh yeah, I FORGOT TO FEAT. AGAIN.

          Beyond my plays, this was my first time against a gun heavy list, and I was acting frenetically. I needed to calm down and keep my answer pieces to where they can do the most work AND be well protected. Focusing on their own safety should go as far as a screening unit and clever positioning.  Unpacking my brick was also particularly awkward due to poor order of activation. It left the Krea able to do little, and I found myself in the odd position of trying to use the Krea to make Calandra an easier target, a high defense model, with a ranged attack. The krea missed this crucial roll on Boosted to Hit rolls. 

         Then the Slam happened. And I boosted to hit. Went below the statistical average by ONE PIP.  Always do your best to have a backup plan in case a key dice roll fails or the dice are against you, like they were for me. If you don’t have a good back up plan, make sure that you move and activate that prevents as much retaliation on failure as possible. It all fell apart once I ran Morghoul leftwards rather than right, and into the LoS of Calandra without any thought, due to clinging for that wall until I was just a millimeter too far away to gain the benefit. ­I was looking for raw numerical safety rather than the safety of a base blockade. This game was a mixture of paranoia, bad positioning, and bad luck that tallied up another notch of loss on my bedpost of learning.

          As a Skorne player, I could really start to see the utility of the Krea and how useful those low range guns can get, and this one didn’t even do damage!  Normally of skeptical of anything less than range 10 – 12 but this made me see their utility. Also, if you set everything up nicely, you can make her feat work really well for you. Unfortunately, I really felt the constraint of Morghoul’s lack of good field interactions by himself, as Calandra tossed down a good deal of Buffs AND Debuffs with a line of Solid beasts. However, my Fury management could have been better, so I won't be trading up to eHexeris just yet. Not to mention, I keep forgetting Morghoul's feat, due to his small control area and risk of being killed by moving into good places to use his feat.
       
        Regardless, my advice to a budding Skorne player is to learn how to unpack a clump of units, as we enjoy bricking in Skorne. The most subtle, devious trick we have is Admonition. We don’t have many tricksy advantages like Legion… or Cryx… or Menoth… or Circle… or Cyg- Oh you get the idea. We need to make every piece we have hold it’s own and do it’s job before it’s sent to the howling void, so if you’re ever in doubt of something working well, you can always try to maneuver things or drop a Cyclopses animus on it to make sure that the attacks are more likely to stick. However, sometimes the dice just screw you over and all the preparation in the world can't fix that. Roll with the punches, so your opponent can't roll with yours.

P.S. I typically try to post these on Friday but events came up this weekend that delayed it.
P.P.S. I planned on giving a report on my match with Khador, but didn't want to add too much to the article, so I'll see what I can do with it later. 

My journey into Skorne: Robot Rumble

As a fledgling Hordes player dead set on Skorne, I've decided to whip together a blog to both record my games, and to provide advice and discussion for others still trying to feel comfortable in Cataphract armor. We will be discussing everything and anything as long as Skorne can get it's bloody fingers into it. Now, some of my story and lessons are lost as I started this two weeks after I really started playing against other people. However, there is a story to tell here of my first real win, and one that serves well to give an understanding the game's fundamental principles, and the principles of what Skorne is good at.

Me: Skorne Battlebox

pMorghoul (-7)

2 x Cyclops Savages (+5)

Titan Gladiator (+8)

Opponent: Convergence of Cyriss

Father Lucant (-5)

Max. Unit Reciprocators (+9)

Conservator  (+7)

He had way more board control potential in the form of a screening unit and everything in there is particularly beefy. Due to Morghoul's low Fury, I can't expect to have everyone push themselves ridiculously and to be able to maintain any control against all of those heavy infantry. I had recently played a 15 pt. game against someone playing Max. Gatorman Posse, Bokur, and Rask. Given that I got tabled and most of my support units (read: a third of my list) got locked in and mulched down by gatorman spears, I was very hesitant and nervous about Shieldwall infantry with Reach. With that in mind, I knew I had to strike at an angle and avoid half of what he had. Especially with the Conservator advancing and getting free hits even if I would manage to kill some of his models. 

He got first turn, and positioned everything so that Father Lucant was in the middle, in the exact middle of the Reciprocators and the Conservator was within 5 inches of them on my left. 

I decided to deploy in a tightly packed brick toward his right flank, looking to let my speed 6 lights and speed buffs with Rush and Abuse carry me through and get positioning that his speed 4 models couldn't. 

Turn 1:

He runs everything forward, puts up Watcher, and Positive Charge. 

I have the Cyclopses run 8 inches up the board, because I don't want him to get the drop on me in anyway. 

Morghoul walks up 7 and puts Admonition on the Gladiator. 

It's at this point, I realize I'm in purification range. Of course, he wants to keep Watcher up so he doesn't bother, as becomes apparent next round.

Turn 2:

My Opponent walks everything up, and has his Reciprocators take more of a hemisphere shape, but otherwise maintains the same course of relentless advance of ARM 20's. He upkeeps Watcher Positive Charge.

My turn. Upkeep Admonition on the Gladiator. I start by having the Savages charge into his Reciprocators, which causes Watcher to take a swing at one of my Savages. Giving him a decent chunk of damage.  One of them actually is able to reach through the shield wall and clip Lucant for 3 damage. 

Morghoul Abuses the Gladiator, flushes out the rest of his fury, and runs up to the far right keeping everyone in his control area. The Gladiator puts Rush on himself and Slams the Reciprocator at the far right
The Reciproactor dies due to boosted POW 17, and I choose not to follow through, keeping him just barely in Morghoul's control area. However, he's 75% into the left Reciprocators back arc and is close to Lucant.

Unfortunately, here I didn't regulate my fury well leaving 6 on the table when I should have used Maltreatment on one of the Cyclopses... Cyclopeses...Cyclopes maybe... 

Turn 3: 

With everyone compacted in tightly, movement wasn't an issue anymore so my Opponent dropped Watcher, and upkept Polarizing Charge. All the Medium based Infantry of his can't maneuver around, being blocked by the Conservator, so they swing what they can at one of the savages nearly killing it.

During my turn, I reave fury, leaving 2 on one of the Cyclo-... the Savages, and he rages out, killing an unsuspecting Reciprocator. Triggering of course, Hand of Vengeance. Which triggers my angry Cyclops to die. This movement triggered Admonition, which allowed me to maneuver next to Lucant by swinging around the base of a lone Reciprocator.

At this point, I have only one chance of winning this. I take all the fury Morghoul has, and I spam Abuse. I end up cutting for one to allow for a total of 3 castings of Abuse.

He has 18 Boxes left, and I'm operating at S 18, all my damage rolls at +1 or +2.
I swing and max out his fury, boosting damage, and after missing the 3rd attack, I manage to swing in a last attack for the final 2 damage, securing me a Skorne victory.




Thoughts on the match and Lessons to be learned:
Fury is a hassle, and a hassle that needs to be mastered. The game makes you pay for the adaptability every step of the way by making you have to think ahead ridiculously on your turns. This is a dice game where the designers hand you the tools to curb the impact of random chance, and every time you can stop chance from interfering with your turn, then you have made a better play than you otherwise would have.

Further, if you're out numbered, try to take advantage of any positioning issues they might have, and focus on the fewest but most key pieces that they have.

The only reason I won was because my opponent wanted to keep Positive Charge going, and thus had forgone casting Purification. If he had dropped that, I would have been swarmed by theoretically Pow 16 heavy infantry. Due to Morghoul not being able to pose any problems to my opponent other than a large heavy, I had less control beyond brute force in this game. This forced me to look to the classic Skorne strategy of Bricking up and moving out. However, it made me more jaded to Morghoul. While a good Beast caster that can stay safely out of harms way, I feel that the lack of variety in what he can do makes him less viable in higher points play. I'lll be investigating p/eHexeris after another week, and look to start getting some infantry together, to play to most of Skorne's supposed strengths.