Game 287: Goreshade4 vs Zerkova1

Game 287 – Vs Rob McCormick – Khador – 2/12/18

My list:

Lord Ghyrrshyld, the Forgiven (Defenders of Ios)

-Chimera

-Harpy

-Harpy

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen

Ghost Sniper

Ghost Sniper

Heavy Rifle Team

Heavy Rifle Team

Min Houseguard Halberdiers

-Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Ryssovass Defenders

-Soulless Escort

Max Ryssovass Defenders

-Soulless Escort

His List:

Koldun Kommander Alexsandra Zerkova (Armoured Corps)

-Marauder

-Spriggan

Man-O-War Kovnik

Ragman

Kayazy Eliminators

Max Man-O-War Bombadiers

-Man-O-War Bombadier Officer

Max Man-O-War Demolition Corps

Max Man-O-War Shocktroopers

- Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer

Max Man-O-War Shocktroopers

- Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer

Second Steamroller of the weekend sees my second final, which means I must be doing something right despite my lists hardly being an optimal pair. This time I was up against Rob McCormick and his incessant puns. He writes a blog himself and his thoughts on the event and our game can be found HERE. I didn’t feel like I had a great answer to his Man-o-War list, but Goreshade had brought me this far through the event so off we go! I won the first turn and we got moving.

Its another super-live scenario so I just need to get up the table as quickly as possible. Dauntless Resolve goes on the max unit of Halberdiers.

Rob runs up all his forces, with Zerkova moving up and beginning a “cloud wall battle”. Some of my min unit of Halberdiers are shot off by the Bombadiers.

I am able to sneak Eiryss around the building and through the clouds, landing a Disruptor Bolt on Zerkova (needing an 8 to hit). It takes both Rob and I by surprise and to be honest I don’t really know how to best capitalise on the situation. I put some shots into the Khador troops but don’t achieve too much. Goreshade Feats.

With no focus Zerkova’s options are fairly limited, and a large part of Rob’s turn is spent making sure she survives the next turn. She Feats, significantly limiting my options and the Khador army removes a portion of my army. Rob doesn’t want to kill too much and give me a huge stack of focus, and instead concentrates on the scenario game, scoring his own zone and contesting mine to move 1-0 ahead.

None of my pictures show this well, because of an unfortunate building in the way, but I have a pretty decent assassination run on Zerkova. I can fire off 3 Light of Dawns at models next to her, catching her with blast damage at dice -8, before putting in a Mini-Feated 4 man CMA form the Halberdiers (48% according to Oddsmachine after the event). After the first 2 spells I had done no damage and so abandoned the whole plan. Instead I did what damage I could, and scored my zone and flag to level at 2-2.

In response, Rob killed a lot of stuff, and pushed really deep into my army, killing a lot and pushing the line of battle a long way up the table. He only scored 1 more point, but I knew the game had gone, and conceded.

DEFEAT

It is strange what writing these reports does sometimes. I don’t like to make excuses in them at all, but I was very tired during this game. 9 tough games and a lot of driving over the weekend had really taken it out of me and as a result I did not play this well. Even looking at it now I realise that the game was far from over. I had enough on the right flank to take that next turn and with Eiryss could have at least postponed the issue of the Spriggan in the centre, pushing it out of the zone to keep scoring myself. I think I would have lost on scenario in the end, but still had a lot of fight left in the game. I think part of my reasoning in going for the assassination was that I was tired and had the opportunity to end the game quickly. I finished the event in 2^nd, which is still something to be pleased with in an extremely strong field. More importantly, I have found a list that I am really enjoying playing. My issue is that it doesn’t pair with Vyros, but I’ve been wanting to drop him for a long time. So now the new search begins for a Goreshade pair, and it will probably involve Tridents. Thanks for reading.