Anyway, I played against one of the highest ranked players in the country, better known to the internet as VaulSC, former Starcraft enthusiast and fellow D3 hater.
Rask
Swamp Horror
Blackhide Wrastler
2x Full Gatormans
Min. Bog Trog Ambushers
Croctor
Totem Hunter
Swamp Gobbers
Wrong Eye + Snapjaw
Running a list first time ever without a Bull Snapper. Intense stuff.
Cassius
Megalith
Woldwrath
2x Shifting Stones (one with UA)
Min Ravagers + UA (I think it was a min unit)
Full Wolfriders
1x Gallows Grove
Swamp Gobbers
Scenario was Close Quarters, aka. 'mostly non-scenario which just forces you to not gunline'. Deployment was a bit like this high definition map:
[Cassius] [Megalith] [Woldwrath]
[Wolf Riders][Grove][Stones] [Tharn]
*
---------------------------centerline------------------------------
*
[Blue Posse] [WE+SJ] [Beasts] [TH] [Red Posse]
[Croctor] [Rask and friends]
Stuff in italics is AD, the asterix are the scenario flags. There was a large forest on the left side near the centerline, and two perpendicular linear obstacles dead center, right next to an annoying rock. My two Posses are distinguished by tribal warpainting on their models and bases:
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| Some red, some blue... |
The Wolf Riders were set up opposing the Blue Posse and Preyed them, the Tharn set up opposite the Red Posse and were in turn Preyed by the Totem Hunter. Let's go down to the field and ask our competitors what went on.
Cassius: "............... Orboros speaks through me. He loves me, and I him. His roots go deep, and we are truly one when he creeps into my..."
Rask: "Aaaaaughibbrgubugbugrguburgle!"
Thanks guys. Better get a translator for that second guy....
Turn 1
Cassius: "Onwards, scions of nature. "Rask: "Looking out at this horde of hairy warm blooded scum running towards me simply made me want to kill them, as a joke. I instilled my Blackhide Wrastler with an unnatural wariness for his environment and instructed him to slowly move up, followed by my Swamp Horror. After riling up a nearby Gator Posse with a sense of righteous fury (they are so easy to manipulate), I call upon the powers of the bogs to hide my forces in thick black mist. Some Gatormen to my far left were left unprotected, but they can go to hell."
Turn 2
Cassius: He shuffles Ravagers to the center, moving a chunk of them outside Red Gator threat range. The Grove teleports up to deny tough and the Wolf Riders start flinging spears at Blue Gators, killing a couple. Cassius feats.Rask: Upkeep both spells. Send the Red Gators with pathfinder to kill some Tharn (easy with Fury), then cycle Fury onto the Totem Hunter who manages to kill the Stone UA and Ravager UA before running off behind the annoying rock. The Blue Gators get Zombified and Dirge of Mists and run into the Wolfriders, who pass their terror check. Snapjaw manages to kill a Gallows Grove, RFPing and denying Wurmwood a soul (woo!).
Turn 3
Cassius: Megalith moves up near the Wrastler, and I use Admonition to move him an inch or two forward so he is 3/4" away from Megalith and b2b with a Red Posse member, thus blocking LoS to the rest of the Posse unit and Rask. Whether this was clever or stupid, we will never know. Megalith then proceeds to Stranglehold my Wrastler, and kill the Gatorman. So the Wrastler seems pretty boned at this point.Cassius casts Curse of Shadows on the Red Posse, allowing the remaining Ravagers to charge in and kill a few, and Woldwrath to do the same. The Wolf Riders finish off the Blue Posse, switch Prey to Snapjaw, and move up to surround the gator beast.
Rask: At this point, I have come up with what I thought was a BRILLIANT TACTICAL MANOEUVRE. I activate Rask, back up, put Fury on the Wrastler, and shoot a Ravager. The Swamp Horror then moves up behind the Wrastler, gives it Elasticity and throws it directly behind Megalith. Naturally, it contacts Megalith after 3/4" and gets knocked down. The Wrastler however is unaffected by KD, so chooses to sacrifice his movement for Stranglehold (not getting up) and makes a heap of attacks against Megalith and the last Ravager behind it. Megalith is left on few boxes thanks to some shocking attack rolls, but is finished off by the last Red Posse member.
The Totem Hunter then switches his Prey to Wolf Riders, jumps halfway across the board to kill two of them, and Sprints off to engage the other two. Wrong Eye then kills a Wolfrider and Submerges, while Snapjaw charges up to grab the enemy point.
Now that I think about it, this was probably an illegal move since the Wrastler would still have to sacrifice his movement or action due to being knocked down in its own turn. If it has used its animus, then it would be ok, but I'd have an attack less (assuming it's the attack I missed needing 4). I'd have to check. Intuitive rules interpretations have no place in wargames.... alternatively, I could have just given him reach and not thrown him, but then I wouldn't have been able to switch Prey. It would have been safer to just use reach, and have the Gatorman who killed Megalith kill the last Ravager.
EDIT: It was a legit tactic - all that happens is the Wrastler cannot stand up during the turn it was KD (unless it uses its animus). It doesn't have to sacrifice either movement or action.
Turn 4
Cassius: Cassius is now very sad to have lost Megalith. He responds by having some Stones teleport around, and then throws a monster Hellmouth in the center of the table, catching Snapjaw, the Wrastler, a bunch of his own stones, and the last Red Gator. Nothing really takes much damage, but the Woldwrath comes in and monkeystomps the Wrastler. Fortunately for me Snapjaw is just outside his reach and KD threat.The Tharn on the left do nothing to the Totem Hunter, since Prey is everything.
Rask: This was a momentous moment in my Blindwater career. I actually managed to kill a full health Woldwrath with a Fury + Boundless Charged Horror and Snapjaw. Yay Fury! I also learned that the Crit Catastrophic Damage on the Horror's bite is INSANE vs Gargantuans. Sadly I only rolled one crit here, and it was on a branch that was pretty much gone, hence I only did 2 pts of damage out of a potential 14 or so. Sadface.
Totem Hunter finishes off the Wolf Riders and Preys Cassius.
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| Sorry, Wurmwood. |
Turn 5
Cassius: He concedes, since I have two heavies, Wrong Eye and Rask with 6 sacrificial targets, and he has Cassius, some Swamp Gobbers, and some Shifting Stones.Conclusions?
- Unlike my last test game with Rask vs Khador, Inhospitable Ground did absolutely NOTHING here, so I never used it. It's one of those spells.
- Fury is amazing. Like an answer to Blindwater prayers. Much like the Razorboar was an answer to Thornfall prayers.
- I thought I would really miss the Snapper, but I didn't. In fact, I was swimming in fury half the game and nothing to do with it. In two games, no-one has attempted an assassination at Rask nor have I had him take a single point of damage.
- Having Ambushers not ambush seems like a massive points sink. They are so bad when they don't ambush, and literally do nothing except stay within 5" of Rask the whole game. Gimme Shamblers please.
- Hellmouth is a hell of a spell.
More on Rask after I've played a bunch more games (ie. about a month)
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