Tom and I got another Vassal game in tonight, as we keep practicing with some of the new casters.
Vlad3 (+5)
-Drago (8)
Max Nyss Hunters (10)
-Valachev (2)
Min Greylord Outriders (6)
Doom Reavers (6)
eEiryss (3)
Gaspy 3 (+4)
-Vociferon (Free!)
-Deathripper (4)
Gorman di Wulfe (2)
min Bile Thralls (5)
min Satyxis Blood Witches (4)
-Blood Witch UA (2)
min Bane Thralls (5)
-Bane Thrall UA (3)
Full Bane Knights (10)
Tartarus (4)
We faced off in an abandoned lumber yard, and played Scenario 2 – a 12” zone in the middle of the table, and one objective for each of us to try and blow up. I took first turn, and blitzed up the table! Nyss run 16”, as fast as cavalry with Dash… really cool. Anyways, I move my whole army up to sit just behind the center line – Nyss of my right, Doom Reavers on my left, with Drago/Vlad/cavalry mushed up in the middle behind me. Vlad puts Hand of Fate on the Nyss and Infernal Machine on Drago. Tom moves up a bit more cautiously, keeping his important stuff out of reach but baiting me with chaff. He makes his blood witches, on my right, incorporeal which will lock up the Nyss pretty badly. Gaspy puts Ashen Veil on his Bane Knights, to make it harder for me to kill them.
My turn 2, I try to shift my magical models around to deal with the incorporeal witches… priority numero uno is dropping the Bane Thralls, who will mess up my Nyss otherwise. Vlad toes into the zone, puts hand of fate onto the Outriders. They slink up, kill a few witches but not as many as I had hoped. My Doom Reavers charge blindly into the mass of Bane Thralls/Knights in front of them… I was short of slaying Gorman by half an inch! I killed a few Banes, but missed out on good berserk kills and didn’t kill as many knights as I had hoped, thanks to Ashen Veil. The Nyss activate, and do work – I skirt right outside of melee ranges, and shoot down the entire Bile Thrall unit! Valachev sprays down two more Satyxis. I got a decent amount of kills, but are definitely not prepared for next turn’s retaliation.
Tom vengeances his Bane Knights (Which I had forgotten!!!), but fails to kill anything (4 attacks, needing 7’s to hit… all of them missed
). His Witches move up, and the three remaining members manage to kill 4 Nyss (including Cylena… Tom rolled box cars on a death strike attack which flat out erased her from the board). Tartarus moves up to thresher half of my Doom Reavers, but stumbles into counter charge range! With a fell cleave from his great axe, the Drakhun banishes the Bane Lord and saves his comrades from imminent death (and the potential for three new banes to be spawned!). Gorman seizes the opportunity though, and slinks up to black oil the Drakhun and the Doom Reaver nearby… that’ll shut them down for a turn, and limit my ability to kill stuff on my left flank. Gaspy moves up, cuts down a Doom Reaver, and uses blood boon to buff up his Bane Knights. Finally, Gaspy pops his feat – he gains a soul and heals anytime I cast a spell within his control zone. His Bane Thralls kill most of my Doom Reavers, leaving one standing, and dismount the Drakhun on the left flank. His Bane Knights charge and engage the bulk of my army, but critically fail to kill anything – Tom missed a bunch of attacks that only needed 5’s, which left me with all of my Outriders still alive and plenty of Nyss to go crazy with.
I got very lucky last turn, and was prepared to capitalize on it. Learning my lesson, I kept Vlad back and cast Dash again. The Nyss walked out of combat and killed a few scrubs, one of them engaging Vociferon to shut down his arc node. Valachev sprays like a boss and kills four Bane Knights. Eiryss fails to strip Ashen Veil off the Bane Thralls. My two surviving Doom Reavers jink around, one swings at Gorman but misses and the other kills the Bane Thrall standard (which grants them tough… very lucky!). The Outriders move into prime spraying position, and kill another 6-7 Bane dudes between the three of them. They light cav move away, two screening Vlad and the third engaging the last Satyxis Witch. I had almost cleared the zone, but two Banes had survived… Drago charged the objective and slaughtered it (along with the last witch), netting me one capture point! Lots of bloodshed here, and it should have been way worse for me… I should have only had one Outrider alive, and there should have been more Banes to kill. That would have forced Vlad to get his hands dirty, which might have presented Tom with a better assassination vector.
Tom is down on his luck… he only has a bonejack, one bane knight, 4 bane thralls, and Gorman left. He kills the dismounted Drakhun. Gaspy slays a Doom Reaver and throws some spells around, though nothing too critical. Banes charge, killing an Outrider (which frees up a charge lane to Vlad for the last Bane Knight!). Gorman tries to shank the last Doom Reaver and comes up one point of damage short! The Bane Knight charges, and does 5 damage to Vlad somewhat impressively.
My turn 4, and it’s getting late… I go for the goofy caster kill instead of playing it safe and winning the scenario handily. I use Vlad to clear out the zone and pop feat – Vlad toes in, trying to hide as far away as possible so that I don’t die again
Nyss move up and get some awesome pot shots on Gaspy, plinking him for 5 damage. Drago can’t quite make the assassination vector that I was hoping for, so runs to engage a Bane Thrall and Gorman… I try to blow him up, but fail. I engage everything else, to lock Tom out of the zone. Vlad is dominating the zone (dominating is a new mechanic in SR2013… you score one point for controlling a zone/flag, but if your warcaster/warlock is controlling it then you get a bonus point for dominating it. This rewards forward playing casters like Vlad, which is cool. On the flip side, casters can no longer contest on their own so invincible casters like Terminus or Butcher can’t hold a zone down by themselves) so I score 2 more CP (3 total). If Tom can’t contest on his turn, I’ll win.
Tom only has two Banes, a bonejack, and Gorman left
one Bane hits Drago for impressive damage. The other tries to charge the Doom Reaver engaging Gaspy, but is killed by Eiryss’ free strike. The bonejack kills an outrider, but doesn’t step into the zone like he needed to. Gaspy is loaded up on 11 focus thanks to souls… he charges away from a Doom Reaver (who, at dice -15, managed to do 5 damage with a free strike!), and into the Nyss screening Vlad. Kills a Nyss, gets LoS to Vlad and slings a spell from Blood Boon… and rolls amazing damage, knocking Vlad to 1 health left (despite the fact I’ve been specifically leaving Vlad a mile away from the action so that he doesn’t die this game). Tom has 7 focus left… cast spell, boost to hit… miss. Whew. Has enough focus for one more spell, boost to hit… hits. Dammit. Boost damage… 7 damage, which is the exact amount needed to kill Vlad.
So, what have we learned? It doesn’t matter if your consistently dice suck the entire game; because if you’re Tom you’ll consistently roll the perfect amount needed to kill Vlad three games in a row
he won’t take credit for the win, because we kind of goofed off at the end… instead of sending Drago on the hail mary attack, I would have had Vlad camp more focus and committed entirely to the scenario instead of the wacky assassination win. Other things we’ve learned – Nyss are amazing, and I really dig them with Vlad3. Dash is stupid – I must have walked out of 30 free strikes all game, with no care in the world. It let me position my sprays/berserking doom reavers exactly where I needed them to maximize damage, as well as letting the Nyss walk out of melee and shoot. I like the Outriders for fast sprays, though they don’t synergize particularly well with Vlad like I thought – I don’t get a ton of use out of the cavalry feat, and they’re so fast that Dash seems unnecessary. Drago is cool because he’s so focus efficient, but I’m tempted to try Behemoth instead – Big B has the same threat range, stronger melee, and gets me some more ranged firepower (AoE’s aren’t as great as sprays for crowd control, but they have a longer range). Eiryss hasn’t done much, so she’s going to have to step it up if she wants to earn her keep. Doom Reavers are great… granted, Tom doesn’t have lots of shooting which is usually what ruins their day, but they’ve done tons of work each game I’ve played so far. I’m also trying to save money, and don’t want to buy Drago and the Outriders. So, here’s the next idea I’m looking at:
Vlad3 (+5)
-Behemoth (13)
-War Dog (1)
Max Nyss (10)
-Valachev (2)
Doom Reavers (6)
eEiryss (3)
MoW Drakhun w/Dismount
Bar Nyss, I own all of this which is a nice plus. And it gets me a War Dog to keep Vlad from dying every damn game
Tom and I did some talking… I loved his list, but think it might run better with a stronger infantry caster (like pSkarre, or eDenny). Gaspy3 is okay, but not as jaw drop good as other Cryx casters – he can’t sling spells like Scaverous, buff his infantry like Skarre, debuff his enemies like Deneghra, and his feat only really helps him get more focus for himself… which doesn’t matter when his spells aren’t that crazy. I think I need a bit of a perspective shift – I’m focusing on winning by scenario/wiping out my enemy’s army. I’m not really looking for opportunities to caster kill, or ways to make that happen. Vlad isn’t great at attrition (he doesn’t make his army any tougher/harder to hit), and is only okay at scenario play (I can get everything into the midfield very quickly, and have lots of movement shenanigans to lock down zones and dominate them). However, his speed/shenanigans make him a premier assassination caster and that’s what I should be focusing on – immune to free strikes, side steps/sprint on feat turn, and extra movement from Dash/IM all give me a chance to get something mean into melee with the enemy caster. Even at range, this can be threatening – Behemoth’s two bombards can never be ignored, and the Nyss can walk themselves out of melee to shoot as well.
Hope you guys enjoy all the battle reports. Should I try to take pictures of each turn? Give a clearer description of what’s going on? Use a better format. I’m open to suggestions!