Game 296: Goreshade4 vs Vlad2

Game 296 – Vs Jonny Jennings – Khador – 12/01/19

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:

Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion (Armoured Corps)

-Devastator

-Kodiak

Man-O-War Kovnik

Man-O-War Strike Tanker

Man-O-War Strike Tanker

Man-O-War Suppression Tanker

Man-O-War Suppression Tanker

Kayazy Eliminators

Kommandant Atanas Arconovich & Standard

Max Man-O-War Demolition Corps

-Sergeant Dragos Dragadovich

Max Man-O-War Shorctroopers

-Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer

Man-O-War Siege Chariot

The final round of day 1 is agains Jonny's Khador. In terms of qualifying for the top pod of day 2, 2 2-1 players would make it, so at 2-0 I was in a good position. I didn't think my D&C was going to be strong though, so this did feel like a must win game. It was an onvious Goreshade4 drop for me, despite getting destroyed by Rob's Man-O-War list a month ago. I learnt a lot from that game and was confident I could take this down. Jonny wins the first turn and we get moving.

With 8 Advance Move units on the table its a fair while until we even get to turn 1, and the lines are already closing pretty quickly. For Jonny's part, he runs everything up, putting Assail on the Devastator and Hand of Fate on the Shocktroopers.

I can get use out of clouds this game, but with Vlad having Wind Blast I have to be clever with their placement and use them essentially as a defence buff for my troops. I place 2 down, making sure they can't be removed by a single spell, and put Dauntless Resolve on the Max Halberdiers. I get up the table, staying out of threat of all but the guns and Chariot.

Jonny makes an ill considered charge with his Chariot into my Halberdiers, forgetting about Set Defence and thus only killing one. IT is compounded by bad luck as he fails to hit my Harpy with the cannon. Everything else continues it's slow trudge up the board, with the Suppression Tankers putting down Covering Fire to protect from my Ryssovass.

It is Feat turn for Goreshade4 as I definitely want to Feat first in this matchup. I plan how to get an Alpha and spot that I can get a few guns onto one of the Suppression Tankers. I take it out, put Hand of Ice on the Shock Troopers, and charge the Ryssovass and Halberdiers into them and the Chariot. I don't roll superbly on the Men-O-War, but take 3 out and damage others, but the Chariot goes down with a bit of help from the Ryssovass on the right. I walk Goreshade to the flag to start scoring at 1-0.

Jonny has a tough decision to make this turn. He has some bits on the left flank that he can kill without being effected by my Feat, but little in the centre or right. He does opt to Feat defensively, and runs both Eliminators up into Goreshade to threaten next turn and give an awkward DEF20 to worry about. I tough quite well on the Ryssovass, preventing him from scoring his flag. I stay 1-0 up.

I have the opportunity for a second alpha here, but the Feat makes some targets extremely difficult to deal with. I get lucky on the Eliminators, hitting a boosted 13 from Goreshade on one, and an unboosted 7 from Halberdier CMA on the other. I switch Hand of Ice onto the Kodiak, and remove it and the Strike Tanker on the right in melee, with my guns taking out the final Suppression Tanker. Some good dice in this turn for sure. I score my flag again to lead 2-0, and my attrition lead is growing nicely.

Jonny feels that the attiriton game has completely gone, and he has lost all real ways of contesting the right flag and zone. He kills what he can but can't even clear his flag (Ryssovass have been so good this game) allowing me to move further into a 3-0 lead.

I nudge Goreshade into the zone to score 2 and win 5-0.

VICTORY

It was difficult to sum up in the report but I can't understate how good the Sniper package was in this game. Their constant damage was great to finish off damaged Men-O-War and along with the Harpies and Rifle Teams provided the constant damage the list needed to swing the attrition. At 3-0 I qualified for the top pod on day 2, which also contained my Cygnar opponent from today along with Circle and Cryx.

Game 292: Goreshade4 vs Madrak1

Game 292 – Vs Nick Hancox – Trollbloods – 30/12/18

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:

Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain (Band of Heroes)

-Trollkin Runebearer

-Glacier King

Fell Caller Hero

Max Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes

-Stone Scribe Elder

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Max Trollkin Champions (proxied as Warders)

-Skaldi Bonehammer

-Trollkin Sorcerer

Max Trollkin Champions

Max Trollkin Fennblades

-Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer

The final game of the year is a nice friendly game against Nick. I had done mean Issyria things to him a week before, and so he didn’t want to face that again, so the deal was that he wouldn’t drop a Storm of the North list. Thus, we arrived at Goreshade4 vs Madrak1. I win the first turn and we get moving.

Standard first turn. Dauntless Resolve on the max Halberdiers and everything runs up the table.

Nic feels that he needs to Feat this turn in order to get enough table presence to not lose too quickly on scenario. He does so, and Madrak puts up Even Ground to further increase the defence skew of his list.

With the Feat up I cant charge into anything, but without the instant heal in Madrak’s pocket it means that any chip damage I can do to the Champions is worthwhile. I focus on Skaldi’s unit, as they will be immune to my Feat in coming turns, and roll well to reduce them all to one box each. I put up clouds to avoid Feating.

When in doubt, especially on a live scenario like this, run and jam. Unfortunately Nick doesn’t have a solo in place to get to his flag, but does score his own zone for a 1-0 lead.

I don’t have the most successful turn. I take out half of the left Champion unit, half the unit that ran into my lines, and a reasonable handful of Fennblades. I score twice to take a 2-1 lead and Goreshade Feats.

Nic continues an attrition game that he is slowly losing, taking out some more of my infantry, and finishing off a Harpy. However he has lost the ability to contest my zone and flag, so whilst he had a decent turn, I still more further ahead to 4-2.

From here it all about keeping Goreshade safe and seeing out the game. I finish off the Champions and all but one of the Fennblades before putting a decent chunk of damage into the Glacier King. I score 2 more to lead 6-2.

Nick plays out a bit of his turn, but still can’t contest my zone and eventually loses 8-2.

VICTORY

If I assume that the pairing I’m looking at is Issy/Goreshade I think Trolls may prove to be an issue. I will have to try playing Issyria into something like Kolgrimma, but with how easily Sentinels can go down against her I think it might be tricky. That’s a problem for “future Ben” to worry about though. Right now I have 2 lists I’m really enjoying, and that hasn’t really been the case since my Kaelyssa list stopped working. I really should look at her again.

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.

Game 286: Goreshade4 vs Maelok

Game 286 – Vs Andrew Howarth – Minions – 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:

Maelok the Dreadbound (The Blindwater Congregation)

-Gatorman Soul Slave

-Blackhide Wrastler

-Boneswarm

-Bull Snapper

Thrullg

Underchief Mire

-Boneswarm

Boil Master & Spirit Cauldron

Min Gatorman Posse

Min Gatorman Posse

Min Gatorman Posse

Max Gatorman Posse

Max Gatorman Posse

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Round 3 of the Sherwood Steamroller and a rare competitive game against Minions. Andrew was playing a pair of Maelok and Rask, and both of those seemed to be pretty obvious Goreshade drops. I won the first turn and we got moving.

We are playing Spread the Net, and with limited shooting on Andrew’s side there is really no reason for me not to just get up the table as fast as possible. I put out Dauntless Resolve on the max unit of Halberdiers, and made sure to keep them out of threat of Thrullg hiding behind the central building.

Maelok puts up Death Pact and Soul Harvester onto one of the max Posse before everything runs up the table. Andrew is slightly hampered by the central building, forcing him to split his force in half.

There are a decent number of Gators in threat range so, with Andrew having chosen not to use his Feat, I decide to commit pretty heavily. I take out around 4 Gators on each flank, with the Ghost Snipers proving invaluable in taking out any models that toughed and were knocked down. I hold a unit of Halberdiers back in the centre, with the plan to use them and their mini-feat to take out the Wrastler later on. Goreshade Feats.

Andrew does Feat this turn, largely due to a need to contest my zones. A Gator runs through on each flank to contest both my flag and zone. He kills a decent number of infantry, the Posse not being too bothered about being made stationary, but is unable to score mainly due to my Soulless Escort contesting the left zone in an extremely difficult position to remove. 0-0

With Maelok’s Feat and Death Pact raising the Posse’s armour to ridiculous values it really is just a matter of killing what I can this turn. I do clear both my flag and my zone to score twice, but only manage to take down a couple more Gators, mainly again thanks to the reliable damage from the Snipers. 2-0 to me.

Andrew realises that with the attrition game going against him and me having started scoring before him, he needs to make a big play to try and turn the game. He clears out what infantry he can with his dwindling numbers before pushing forward with the Wrastler, Snapper and one of the Bone Swarms. He is unable to contest my zone however, so I move to a 3-0 lead.

I am relieved that I don’t really have to solve the puzzle that Andrew has set me with the beasts, as he only has 2 damaged Gators contesting his flag. I take them out and run my Arcanist up to score 2 and win 5-0.

VICTORY

Looking back a few of weeks later (I am very behind on battle reports) I think this is the game where I understood Goreshade4. The Legions list just didn’t suit me, but this one, with the advanced board position and useful shooting elements in the Rifle Teams and Snipers is a list I really enjoy. I rolled pretty well in this game, and Andrew didn’t have the best luck with tough rolls, but the constant attrition push of the list is a great feeling. I do wonder how this game would have played out had Andrew pushed the beasts a turn earlier under his Feat, as it would probably have been quite difficult to clear them out. On to the final against fairly regular opponent and fellow England WTC player Rob.

Game 285: Goreshade4 vs Kaya3

Game 285 – Vs Karl Morgan – Circle – 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:

Kaya the Wildheart (Call of the Wild)

-Druid Wilder

-Feral Warpwolf

-Feral Warpwolf

-Pureblood Warpwolf

-Wild Argus

-Wild Argus

Una the Falconer

-Storm Raptor

Shifting Stones

Shifting Stones

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

There were a lot of Circle players in this event, most of them proudly showing off their shiny new Storm Raptors. I didn’t really have a great drop into it with either Elara or Goreshade, as this event was really all about finding a pair for Vyros2. I decided to drop Goreshade and hope for the best. I won first turn, which was a good start, and we got moving.

I don’t really know how to play this game out but whatever I do I need to get up the table. Dauntless Resolve is cast on the Halberdiers on the right as Tough is my best defence against the Raptor. Everything runs.

Karl moves up the table, putting up Fog of War to protect his beasts against my shooting. The Storm Raptor moves over towards the right to avoid getting swamped.

I can afford to hold back for another turn, so I keep out of threat of everything except the Storm Raptor’s main gun. There isn’t a lot to contest the left zone, so in preparation I start shooting at the Stones, taking out one and dealing 3 points to another.

The Storm Raptor moves up and destroys my objective in a move I frankly didn’t see coming. The rest of the Circle beasts move up the table, still under Fog. 1-0 to Karl.

There isn’t much contesting the zones so I think I can score all 3 and take a big scenario lead. My sniper package finishes off the Stones on the left. The Harpies push the Argii out of the central zone and take out the objective. Charges on the right clear out the right zone. Goreshade Feats and puts out a couple of clouds. I lead 4-1.

If any Circle players have stumbled across this blog, they will be salivating at the thought of the Storm Raptor pulse that is about to take place. It almost looks like I had set it up deliberately. Which I sort of had. I was pretty certain that Karl wasn’t going to score any points this turn, and so I would need to score 2 CPs to win next turn. This would mean clearing the left and central zones. I was pretty confident that I could deal with whatever he contested with, but would need souls on Goreshade to do so. Lots of them. The pulse went off, and as planned, I got a lot of souls. As planned, Karl didn’t score any CPs. Not as planned, Karl contested really well, in awkward spots, with 3 Warpwolves (1 stationary) and an Argus. 4-1 to me.

I don’t remember how much Focus I had this turn, but I think it was something like 7,000. Either way, enough to Ghost Walk Goreshade (not my finest bit of positioning), charge the Warpwolf in front, Armour debuff it, cast Light of Dawn on the beasts in the left zone, and cripple both beasts in the centre to such an extent that my shooting and Halberdiers could trivially remove them. There was then the very dicey issue of Halberiers taking out the Argus (pretty safe) and Ryssovass taking out the Feral (bit dodgy). Thankfully, both units did their jobs and I was able to win 6-1 on scenario.

VICTORY

Bit of a strange one this, but I was pleased with how I played it. I wasn’t predicting Karl contesting with anywhere near as much as he did, nor him using the building to make my life even more difficult. The Storm Raptor is such a problem for infantry builds, but with a more balanced pair than mine I’m sure I could have dealt with it. Onto game 3 with a 2-0 record so far.