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 4th 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.
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.
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