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.