Today was the gaming day for the next week of our AoS getting started League. The store has been calling it 'path to glory', but it's nothing like that rules set.
The new addition this time, was a Hero. So, I added a greater daemon. The Verminlord Warpseer. This guy was a bit misaligned in AoS1, as his command ability cost reinforment points to use, so it was terrible. Now it only costs a command point, so it's really good. His spell and abilities are also very nice too. Here is a link to his warscroll, from the GW site, so you can see what he can do. It's pretty obnoxious.
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/Downloads//Warpseer-ENG.pdfI couldn't get everything painted in time, mostly as yesterday instead of painting, I got swept up in
AoS Champions fever, and spent hours playing that game. It's really, really fun.
Actually, I'll breifly recap two games I played for last weeks P2G, which I played durring the week for folks who missed out last sunday. Remember, the mission we played for that week was 'Gift from the Heavens', from the Core AoS book.
One was agaisnt Khorne, where he had a Bloodsecrator, unit of Bloodcrushers, unit of Bloodreavers, and a Khorgotroth.
Briefly, he moved up fast with the Khorgoroth, and Bloodcrshers. Soulsnare Shackles slowed down the Khorgoroth, but not the Bloodcrushers, who slammed into my Stormfiends, and killed a whole rat in one round of combat (which is a feat).
The biggest issue for me, is my comet came in on my far right flank, but his bloodcrushers blocked me from getting there, so I missed out on two turns of scoring, which put me behind by 5pts. Warplighting cannon one-shotted his Bloodsecrator T4, which enabled me to kill off all his Bloodreavers with combined shooting, melee and battleshock, allowing me to claim his objective and rake up double the points for a (admitibly), close win.
I though in turn 2, that the game was over, but in AoS, some missions you can really pull ahead T4/T5 if you commit and play to the mission, which I really enjoy. My army isn't a bully list, so I find early game objective grabbing really difficult, so I'm more of a late-game player.
Game 2, was agasint the store manager.
He had Stormcast, with a Stardrake, two units of Secutors, Lord-Arcanum, and his endless spell was the Everblaze Comet.
He went first, and between the Comet coming in, and the stardrake summoning metiors, he basically crippled my small force, and killed all my acolytes. The warp Lighting Cannon two shotted his Lord-Arcanum, which was fun, but the game was over pretty quickly. Although, my Arch Warlork surprisingly held his own agasint the stardrake for a couple of rounds of combat.
So, onto today's games. The mission this week is 'Battle for the Pass', from Generals Handbook 2018 and 2017. Last week playing on a 4x4.
This is a pretty simple mission. 4 objectives, one in each players territory, and two on the middle line in no-mans-land. Score at the end of your turn. Middle objectives are worth 2vp each, yours is worth 1vp, and your opponents is worth 4vps.
Round 1, was agaisnt Khorne.
He had two Slaughterpriests, A Juggernaught Lord, a unit of 20 BloodWarriors, and a unit of 9 Mighty Skullcrushers.
So, having played Khorne myself in the past, I knew the Blood Warriors, and Skullcrushers don't really have terribly great offensive power, but they are great bully units. They have multiple wounds, and a 4+ save, so they are very hard to budge.
My biggest concern, would be he'd just run across the table at me, clog 3/4 objectives and get so many points, that by the time I broke out, he'd be so far ahead I couldn't catch up. It was up to my new Verminlord to prove his worth.
T1
Khorne
He was surprisingly caustious. Worried about the cannon, he moved his characters up behind the ruin. Blood Warriors ran towards the objective on my right. but, he only scored the western objective with his heros.
Skyre
The Verminlord summoned a unit of 8 Giant Rats, I used to screen my force on my right flank. I fired a pot shot from the Warp-lighting Cannon at the Bloodwarriors, and the Verminlord cast his spell at them as well. The Arch Warlock cast the Soulsnare Shackles. My new rats captured the eastern objective.
Skyre 3vp Khorne 3vp
T2
Khorne
He creeped forwards a bit more. Juggernaughts behind the ruins with his heros. The Soulsnare shackles, and a bad prayer killed off one of the Slaughterpriests (lol). His bloodwarriors tried to charge my Rats, but his charge distance was havled (from my spell), so they failed.
Skyre
Summoned a unit of 11 Rats to contest the Western objective.
The Stormfiends and Verminlord went after the Bloodwarriors. The BloodWarriors killed one of the Stormfiends, but I started really doing telling damage to his unit, but not enough to take him off the objective.
Skyre 6vp Khorne 8vp
T3
Khorne
His Juggernaughts became slowed by the Shackles, so couldn't really go anywhere. His Juggernaught Lord charged the Giant Rats, and killed all but one. His blood Warriors dropped the last Stormfiend to one wound.
Skyre
I (sadly), failed to cast any spells. The last stormfiend dies from an overdose, and I summon a unit of 15 rats near the northern objective (which would be awesome to capture).
Warp-lighting Cannon shoots, and killed the Juggernaught lord (6 mortal wounds!). Acolytes grenades, Arch Warlock, and the Verminlord kill off the last of the Blood Warriors.
Skyre 9 Khorne 11
T4
Khorne
Using his blood Tithe, he summons a unit of Flesh Hounds, to go after my rats in his back line. Skullcrushers charge my Verminlord, Arch Warlock and Acolytes. They take a couple of wounds off my Verimlord, and kill a single Acolyte. I think I killed one Skullcrusher. His Slaughterpriest goes after my lone Giant Rat, and fails to kill it (ha ha). Also, the Flesh Hounds fail their charge.
Skyre
So, I summon more giant rats to block off the Skullcrushers from going after my home objective. Verminlod and Archwarlock retreat from combat. The Skullcrushers are spread out almost in a line across the table, so when he does go to attack the acolytes, only 2/8 would be able to attack, and would just tie him up a turn.
Warplighting Cannon finishes off the Slaughterpriest, and the lone rat captures the western objective. The rats who avoided the Fleshhounds capture my opponnents home objective.
Skyre 16 Khorne 14
Turn 5
Khorne
Giant Rats are charged, and crushed by the flesh hounds, and the Skullcrushers are forced to pile in and attack the Acolytes.
Skyre
I just keep holding onto the western objective and my home objective.
Final Score
Skyre 19 Khorne 17
Thoughts.
This game played out like the one I played agasint Khorne the previous week. Take the hit early on, and try to catch up in a later turn. I knew I had to capture his home objective for at least one turn to win this game.
The MVP this game was the Giant Rats. They didn't do a single wound the whole game, but blocked board space, and captured objectives. The ability to summon 3D6 rats anywhere with 13" of my verminlord for a CP is just insane value.
The warp lighting cannon did well too. It killed off two heros, and a score of Blood Warriors.
Game 2 vs Stormcast.
He had 300pts more than me, which was a bit nuts for p2g leauge play, so I took a couple extra CP and the Quicksilver swords to balance the game out.
He had
Stardrake, Lord Celestant on Dracoth, Tempestors, unit of 10 Vanguard, and a unit of 20 Liberators.
So, this would be a tough game.
T1
Stormcast
He advanced up his whole force. Vanguard popped right in my face, and shot a few shots into my Cannon.
Skyre
Well, I had a bunch of command points, so time to summon rats.
I summoned a unit of rats infront of the vanguard, and two units in rows to protect my right flank, using all my CP, but I recovered one with my Hysh artifact.
I summoned the Soulsnare Shackles in the middle of the board, toching his Stardrake, liberators and Vanguard. Verminlord Warpgaled his stardrake, doing 3 mortal wounds, and preventing it from flying.
In the rest of my turn, I just castled and shot up the Vanguard. I also charged the Giant Rats into them, and used my last CP to prevent them from running.
Skyre 1vp Stormcast 5vp
T2
Stormcast
His stardrake was grabbed by the shackles, taking 3 more mortal wounds. Meaning (with the spell), it was half move, can't run, half charge and can't fly (ha ha). Vanguard got stung by the shackles too.
His liberators and Dracoth riders slammed into my first row of giant rats (with obvious results). the Vanguard kill the rats they were fighting.
Skyre
Verminlord summons a unit of rats on my far right flank, ideally to sneak behind the stormcast and claim the eastern objective. Acolytes and arch warlock finish off the Vanguard (along with the Quicksilver swords), while the Warp Lighting Cannon gouges 6 wounds off the stardrake.
Verminlord and Stormfiends begin the fight agaisnt the liberators, which will be one hell of a slogg.
Skyre 1, Stormcast 9
T3
Stormcast
His stardrake is shackled again, meaning it can only move 4", so can't really do much. My opponent is exreamly frustrated his expensive dracoth units cannot charge my stormfiends, as another line of Giant Rats block them ha ha.
Skyre
Quicksilverswords and Soulsnare Shackles kill off the stardrake. I summon more rats into my opponents territory to capture his home objective. My acolytes and cannons support the combat with some shooting. The Giant Rats I summoned last turn swarm the eastern objective.
Skyre 11 Stormcast 13
T4
stormcast
my opponent is basically just stuck in combat, and being worn down, while my giant rats swarm the objectives.
Skyre
Though a variety of spells, shooting, and combat, I kill off the rest of the Stormcast Eternals.
Skyre 20 Stormcast 13
Thoughts.
This game really couldn't have gone better for me. The fact his Stardrake was Immobolized the 2nd and 3rd turn of the game kept it out of the fight. Also, getting my Verminlord into the middle of the board, meant he could summon giant rats onto any of the objectives. My opponents 'all or nothing' approach to his list meant early game pressure, but he compleatly abandoned his home objective, and had no way to disengade and deal with my Giant Rats.
Again, the Warp Lighting Cannon was an all-star and the Soulsnare Shackles were a game winner for me.
I'm also at the point now, where I've committed to brining my Skyre to a tournament in Ottawa on the 18th, so I have to finish painting 40 giant rats, my verminlord, crew for my second warplighting cannon, two warplock engineers, a motar team, 3 stormfiends and the quicksilver swords in two weeks