Battle Report #2, Wurmwood vs Irusk1

Wurmwood vs Kommandant Irusk

Yesterday, we had a fun 0-points battlegroup format tournament. After it, we decided to play a full 75-points game to seal the day. I had only my anti-Legion Wurmwood list in Call of the Wild with me, so that's my only drop for today. My opponent, a Khador player, took Irusk1 to test his strengths in Wolves of Winter. Here, I'll tell you how it went down:

Circle Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Call of the Wild
(Wurmwood 1) Wurmwood, Tree of Fate [+27]
 - Feral Warpwolf [18]
 - Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
 - Warpwolf Stalker [19]
 - Warpwolf Stalker [19]
 - Wild Argus [7]
Blackclad Wayfarer [0(4)]
Blackclad Wayfarer [0(4)]
Gallows Grove [2]
Gallows Grove [2]
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress [4]
Lord of the Feast [0(6)]
Farrow Bone Grinders (max) [8] - proxy out of shamblers
Shifting Stones [3]
Shifting Stones [3]

Khador Army - 74 / 75 points

[Theme] Wolves of Winter

(Irusk 1) Kommandant Irusk [+27]

- Marauder [10]

- Marauder [10]

- Marauder [10]

- Spriggan [19]

- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker [4]

Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]

Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]

Battle Mechaniks (min) [3]

Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]

- Greylord Escort [3]

Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]

- Greylord Escort [3]

Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]

pre-game thougths:

I need to remove as much Doom Reavers (Spell Ward) as I potentially can and manouver out the jacks - both with Hellmouth and sprays. Scenario is not really alive until we attrition down so it is my main focus.

starting roll:

I lost the roll and my opponent chose the side.

scenario, Breakdown:

deployment:

Wurmwood, turn I:

I run everything up outside of 13" Doom Reaver threat. I port up Wurmwood with Dark Path into the forest and cast a Strange Growth to widen it. Bone Grinders tried to kill themselves to give souls but I roll poorly and I get only 2 out of 3 I wanted.

Irusk1, turn I:

He jammed me out in the middle and positioned the rest of the army. Irusk FEATs, puts Inhospitable Ground, Superiority on a Spriggan and Iron Flesh onto himself.

Wurmwood, turn II:

I do not upkeep the forest (we didn't remove it not to affect the game state). I start with Blackclad charges. I position them so I can use Battle Wizard and spray out some Doom Reavers targeting the jacks (I couldn't target any Doom Reavers because of the Spell Ward). Next, I move Lord of the Feast up the table and shoot a Doomreaver to place me b2b with him. I kill him and use the corpse  token to kill another guy. After that, I send my Stalkers to kill more dudes and fill up the tree with souls. I sprint back to safety leaving one wolf in the left zone to contest. Stones ports up to be the target of a Hellmouth. Gallows Grove ports in range for a Hellmouth. Wurmwood casts it, pushing the Spriggan closer and killing two Doom Reavers. I put a Primal on a Feral and cast Dark Path. Lanyssa puts up Hunters Mark. Feral warps speed (because of Inhospitable Ground) and he charges the Spriggan leaving him on 6 boxes. Pureblood has to finish the job and succeeds. Rest of the army position on the board.

Irusk1, turn II:

Power ups + allocations (both Marauders in charge range of my Warpwolves receives one focus point). He upkeeps IF on an Irusk. Black Marauder receives a Superiority and Irusk advances left. Forge Seers walk up feeding jacks with focus. Next, a Marauder charges the Pureblood and kills it with a little help of Doom Reavers. Graylord Escort tried to spray Lanyssa to score a point in the zone but misses. Another Marauder charges thw Feral but fails to kill it (I was b2b with an obstruction and received a +2 DEF bonus out of it). Doom Reavers on the left kill my Blackclad and fail to kill the LotF.

0:0

Wurmwood, turn III:

I replace souls with fury and proceed. Feral frenzies (under the effect of a Primal) into the Shifting Stone and kills it. I port both Gallows Groves up the zone. Stalkers kill dudes and Sprint back with warped Prowl. Bone Grinders fill Wurmwood with souls killing each other. LotF kills a Doom Reaver leaving only one in the zone left alive. Cassius walks up where I need Wurmwood to be for the FEAT. I activate warlock, throw a boosted Hellmouth into black Marauder with Superiority to block him with another jack (that way he can't activate it first to take advantage of the upkeep) and kill some Doom Reavers around it. Feral was just out of 3" from it. I FEAT to put up a giant forest around which covers both his jacks.

0:0

Irusk1, turn III:

Power ups + allocations (both Marauders receives a focus). He upkeeps all his spells. The last standing Doom Reaver in the left zone tries to kill LotF but fails again. Black Marauder wants to activate but the painted one blocks his distance to the Feral. He than puts Superiority onto the painted one with Irusk (which he eventually realized was a mistake) and walks up to the Feral taking out his body. The black Marauder without a Superiority was out of 3" (it's why the Feral couldn't been push by Hellmouth) so with SPD4 and 1" reach he wasn't able to get into the melee with my Wolf (forest was blocking his LOS for a charge). He walks up to the Gallows Grove which channeled the Hellmouth into him (lol), kills it and concedes the game. There is no way he could swing back the attrition game on his favor.

0:0

a victory for the Circle Orboros!

post-game thougths:

It was a hard matchup for my opponent, no doubt about that. We were a bit in hurry to finish the game before they close the LGSC, so there were some unfortunate mistakes out of that. Anyway, good game and some new experience!

Battle Report #1, Una1 vs Child1

Una the Skyhunter vs The Child

... a week ago there were some groundbreaking news for the Circle Orboros community around the world. The same time I was lucky to win the Steamhorn Wars 2 Masters in Poland a guy named Gord Weppler, also a Circle Orboros player, was able to win Blood and Gears Master in Canada. Definitely a successful weekend for our faction, the stars were right! 

   I've checked his lists and one especially brought my attention - Una2 with two max unit of Mist Riders, built in The Secret Masters. This was a 3-lists event which makes you create more "specialized" armies, so, it could not translate well into a regular 2-lists format where you need to cover more with less... but heck, I really wanted to try it out, it looks sooo fun!

   I realize the list was meant to play on wide scenarios with circular zones on the sides (think Outlast, Breakdown or Standoff). It helps Una to play wider and flank your opponent with an anti-infantry unit. Scarsfell Griffon are not very good at clearing infantry themselves due to 0,5" reach, so it makes a lot of sense to combine them together. Secret Masters let's you start the game with your upkeeps which is neat for them. You can take advantage of the apparition move and flip Hand of Fate from turn one! 

That day I was playing against Grymkin in Dark Menagerie on a Recon II scenario which makes for a very sub-optimal circumstances for this particular built. Nonetheless, I was so hyped for it I decided to give it a try. Without further ado, lets move on to the lists:

Circle Army - 75 / 75 points

[Theme] Secret Masters

(Una 2) Una the Skyhunter [+29]

 - Gorax Rager [7]

 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]

 - Scarsfell Griffon [8] 

 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]

 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]

 - Scarsfell Griffon [8] 

 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]

 - Druid Wilder [0(4)]

Blackclad Wayfarer [0(4)]

Blackclad Wayfarer [4]

Druid Mist Riders (max) [20]

Druid Mist Riders (max) [20] - proxy, 50mm bases and Morvhana2 as a leader

Shifting Stones [3]

Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew [2]

Grymkin Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Dark Menagerie

(Child 1) The Child [+29]
- Cage Rager [14]

- Cage Rager [14]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Crabbits (2) [7]
- Gorehound [6]
- Gorehound [6]

- Skin & Moans [15]
- Skin & Moans [15]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)] - proxy, 40mm base
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)] - proxy, 40mm base
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)] - proxy, 40mm base
Gremlin Swarm [3] - proxy, 40mm base
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Dread Rots (min) [7]
Death Knell [13]
Arcanas: Wrath, Labirynth and Sacrifice

pre-game thougths:

I have crazy long threat ranges and I wanted to take advantage of that to push my opponent out of the scenario. I need to kill his support pieces as quickly as I can so he won't trigger Sacrifice out of the Crabbit late game which always sucks. Also, those support pieces can contest zones and flags later in the game and we don't want that.

starting roll:

I won the roll and decided to go first.

scenario, Recon II:

deployment:

Una2, turn I:

The left unit starts the game with Mirrage, second one with Hand of Fate. I pretty much run everything up the board to take as much space as possible.

Child1, turn I:

He position everything up outside of Griffons threat range. He puts up Tantrum on The Child and channel Force Hammer from the Cage Rager onto the left bird to slam it into the Blacklad Wayfarer. He hits it taking out the bird's body with the damage but he fails on the slam distance roll (he needed a 4). Sneaky move there!

Una2, turn II:

I upkeep my spells and proceed with the game. I charge his Dread Rots and the Skin and Moans with my HoF'd right Mist Riders. It triggers the Labirynth arcana. I kill some dudes and use Battle Wizard to kill some more and reposition to make it difficult for my opponent to enter the right zone. Una goes up the board but into the stones to project her command range up the board. She flip Hand of Fate onto the second unit, puts a Mirrage on the bird and kill a Gremlin Swarm with her gun. Left Mist Riders move a bit up and shoot a Cage Rager to leap into some more support pieces. I do very little except for almost killing a Gorehound and reposition back into the forest. At this point Death Kneel is full of corpses. Griffin charge a Dread Rot and sprints back, others just position on the board and put up Elusive. Stones port Una a bit back, Gobbers put up the Cloud, Druid Wilder go for the flag. Blacklad Wayfarers position where they are safe (at least they thing so) but relevant for the future turn.

Child1, turn II:

He upkeeps Tantrum and makes an attack with the Skin and Moans, killing a Mist Rider. Because of Tantrum Skin and Moans had the distance to the Griffon near my flag. The Child puts another Force Hammer to a Mist Rider in the forrest. He hits on a 10 and rolls a 6 for the slam distance which was the minimum distance that could reach the Blacklad (because of the push rules forest halves the distance). Later he gather all his forces around the Death Kneel like Grymkins like to do. Battle Engine fills up Skinny with corpses to make it more survivable before his trip into the griffin's kingdom. Second Cage Rager with a little help from others easily kill all the Mist Riders there to make room for Skinny to charge my bird. He did it and luckily killed the Griffon with his second initial (one missed attack and the bird could got out off melee with Dodge). Half-dead Gorehound go into the left zone to contest. No points.

0:0

Una2, turn III:

I upkeep Hand of Fate on Mist Riders and they start the turn by advancing and killing the Gorehound, one left a cloud. Blacklad Wayfarer moves in the flag direction close to the stones and use Phase Jump to get on the left flag. Gorax puts Primal on the gray Scarsfell than he charges Skin and Moans. Next is Una - she FEATs, puts a Mirrage on the left bird, HoF on the ginger bird, Primal on another and she kills a Gremlin Swarm with her gun. The ginger bird joins the gray one, kills Skin and Moans and sprints into melee with Cage Rager to give a flank bonus to the next one. Another Griffon charges the Cage Rager but fails to kill it so I commit one more. It should keep my opponent busy where he is while I score. Cage Rager death triggers the Wrath arcana. The last bird with Mirrage is left in the zone alone for a later use. Stones ports to the right zone. Druid Wilder stay on a flag and that's a turn I score two flags and the left zone.

3:0

Child1, turn III:

He drops the Tantrum. The Child starts by advancing into melee with my birds killing all of them (gosh, I miss a free Elusive from CotW). He puts Abuse on a Gorehound and uses his last fury to sprint a bit back. Cage Rager charges the gray bird and he easily kills it. Crabbit jumps and kills a stone. Gorehound advances thru the burning earth (putting himself on fire), kills a stone and sprints into the back of a Druid Wilder. Death Kneel goes up a bit and fill Skin and Moans with corpses. Crabbit is sent to the left zone to contest and Skin and Moans is used as a bodyguard for The Child to take out assassination hopes away. He scores the right zone.

3:1

Una2, turn IV:

I upkeep Mirrage and do the apparition. I see my opponents clock and decide to throw my models away to contest and burn his clock killing them. Blacklad kills the Crabbit and stay on the flag. Una walks up and give Hand of Fate to the cavalry and casts Mirrage on the Gorax. Mist Riders charge the Skin and Moans to make his life difficult getting out of there. The last bird runs into the right zone to contest. Gorax runs into the left zone to score a point there. Wilder moves a bit, Gobbers enter the right zone and spread. I score the left zone and the left flag. 

5:1

Child1, turn IV:

The Child puts Abuse on a Skin and Moans to give him the speed needed to get to the left zone. He also murder a Mist Rider and a Bird and sprints. Death Kneel walks up and tries to kill a Mist Rider. Skin and Moans runs into the left zone but dies out of free strikes. Gorehound kills the Wilder and a Gobber. Gremlin Swarm walks up to the flag to score. Crabbit kills another Gobber and Cage Rager kills a stone. We both score 2 points. At this point my opponent is not able to win. He has few seconds on the clock and if I can contest his zone and flag the next turn (easily with a Mist Rider) I go to 9:3


scenario victory for the Circle Orboros!

post-game thougths:

I really like that list but it was definitely not an optimal setup nor an easy win. If my opponent manage his clock better and made sure he has something to contest the left zone, he would attrition me down the next turn and start making up on control points. I wish to explore the list further, it's really fun to play. Hopefully I will put together the second unit of Mist Riders by the time I do another battle report, I don't like to proxy things. Thanks for reading and see you next time!