Order of Illumination Vigilants (max) [10]

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Skorne

[Theme] Masters of War

[Makeda 3] Makeda & the Exalted Court [+25]

– Archidon [10]

– Basilisk Krea [7]

– Cyclops Brute [8]

– Cyclops Brute [8]

Extoller Soulward [0(3)]

Extoller Soulward [0(3)]

Immortal Vessel [3]

Mortitheurge Willbreaker [0(4)]

Void Archon [8]

Praetorian Ferox (max) [20]

Praetorian Swordsmen (max) [13]

– Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard [4]

Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer [0(6)]

Supreme Guardian [16]

Deployment

We have a dilemma where I know that I need to play Flames to have game into Exalted while my opponent feels that the Thamarite archons will deny too much of his soul economy. He ends up dropping Makeda3 MoW with a bunch of shield guards.

My opponents wins the roll to go first and I choose the worse side on purpose because I don’t want to move my models.

I misdeploy my Field mechanics on the left side, but I know that he will push the cats up to take over that side. The mechanics should be over on the right side to eventually score it.

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Turn 1A

Bulwark up and everything runs. Important pieces are bubble wrapped with Swordsmen and other chaff to avoid Befuddle plays.

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Turn 1B

Most of his army are out of reach of any cute 1st turn plays, so I run up and take position starting to skew towards my right in order to stay away from the Ferox. I do take the opportunity to get out a Curse of Veils on his Surpreme Guardian.

I take some pot shots with the Charger at the Ferox in cover, but forget to allocate. It is unlikely to kill the Ferox since he has a shield guard, but there was no reason for Fiona to camp the last Focus.

Some of my movements here are a bit over the top conservative, but I don’t want to get blown out by the Ferox. I figure my archons and heavies can easily tank one or two cats, but I would need to worry about Incite and the Void archon too, so I decide to play it safe and save some clock. All in all I think my army is fast enough to justify this approach. Only exception may be Ragman and the Green Thamarite archon

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Turn 2A and

It looks like I forgot to take a picture of my opponent’s turn, but it is pretty simple. TyCom grabs the zone on my left and he creates a fortress in the corner behind the rock. There is one or two Swordsmen in the right hand circular zone.

Turn 2B

I run up the Toro and the blue Morrowan archon into his zone with their backs to the rock. Due to my mistake with the Field Mechanics I need to choose between having them within feat and scoring my right zone with Fiona. I make the incorrect choice and go for the point (she gets pathfinder from Throne). The Vigilants could probably have made it to the zone if they ran, but I ended up needing to spend their ranged attacks to clear the zone due to some horrible D3s and to hit rolls with the Thamarite Archons and Soulfire from Fiona.

The blue archon and Toro are in the single worst spot they can be, but more on that next turn.

Score 1-0

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Turn 3A

My opponent goes for the Toro and Morrowan archon in the left zone. It turns out he can get the Void (fully loaded from a SG thresher) and three Ferox into the Toro. Two additional Ferox get their spear attacks. I am also in a perfect spot where he can trigger Incite without being in danger. He ends up killing the Toro and leaving the archon on 3 boxes.

I am lucky that he doesn’t kill my archon and score the zone, but my positioning is absolutely horrible. One thing is not having them in feat, but Incite and allowing the Void archon to advance and attack with death shroud by far outweighs the denied back arcs. To add insult to injury my opponent even finds a way to attack the Toro in the back arc despite my attempts to hide it.

Score 1-0

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Turn 3B

I clear out the Ferox with blue archon, Acosta, Throne and the Charger. I Befuddle the SG and kill it with Gallant and two Vigilants. Thamarite archons and the remaining Vigilants clear and score the left zone.

It is difficult to call the facing of the blue archon an error, but this ends up costing me a lot more than expected. First is that it allows the Void archon to charge Gabriel Throne without taking a free strike. Second it gives back arc (and no shield) vs the Soulward which is going to shoot me through the rock.

Score 2-0

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Turn 4A

My opponent finds a sweet spot for the Void archon as mentioned, and ends up taking Throne down to 2 boxes. The spray hits a bunch of models and he one shots Alexia2 with a 12 for damage. I did consider Hermitting the shot, but I wanted to save it for the blue archon. That also ended up being wasted since the soulward got the rolls he needed to kill it. This disastrous turn is ended by Makeda blood booning the objective off Gallant killing Acosta and Thone with blast damage and sprinting back. The objective is left with 3 boxes.

Score 2-1

We discussed a bit after the game if I should have tried to kill the Void archon last turn instead of taking out the Ferox. But I think going for the cats was correct in that situation since the Archon would have had cover. I could maybe have dropped Roth’s mercy and boosted a Befuddle, but it still feels worse than just killing the Ferox. I think there could have been a line of play where I use the yellow archon to clear the last Ferox and then maybe I could have gotten a charge off on the Void with the blue Morrowan.

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Turn 4B

Fortunately none of this mattered because my opponent is camping 0 and didn’t sprint away far enough to avoid my Thamarite archons. I misplay a couple of steps such as not measuring Charger range before allocating (he was just out), and charging the arc node with the Morrowan archon and not killing it when I needed an arc node. But luckily the dice are with me and I Befuddle the Arhchidon away from B2B and finish off Makeda with the Thamarites (I believe he had cut for a couple of damage the previous turn too).

Victory for the Mercenaries!