- Baldur
- Woldwarden
- Warpwolf
- 2 Argus
Legion:
- Thagrosh
- Carnivean
- Seraph
- 4 Shredders
Special Rules:
Three Wardstone markers approximately 2" in diameter (We used unadorned medium bases for this.) are placed in a triagular pattern 10" from the centre of the table. The stones have ARM 20 and 10 damage points.
While within 2" of a Wardstone, Circle models gain +1 ARM and +1 MAT.
If Baldur is destroyed, the Circle Warbeasts do not become wild and are activated normally.
The Legion player wins when the last Wardstone is destroyed.
Set Up:
Defenstrator set up the table with 6 terrain features (rocks and trees). No piece of terrain could be placed within 6" of a wardstone, within 3" of any other feature or in the Legion deployment zone (6" aloong one long table edge). This formed a circle of terrain around the Wardsones with a single rock formation in the centre of the table.
Beginning:
Circle sets up first, deploying models within 2" of the Warstones.
Legion then deploys and takes the first turn.
Victory Conditions:
Legion wins when all Wardstones have been destroyed.
Circle wins with Thagrosh is destroyed.
The Battle:
I've had too many battles lately where I've lost one of my heavies close to the beginning because of poor placement so I was mindful of that when I clustered the army around the stone at the back. In an arc around the back stone I placed an Argus, Woldwarden, Warpwolf and the second Argus. Baldur fell in behind.
Defenstrator placed the Carnivean, Seraph and Thagrosh on the right of his deployment zone and all four Shredders on his left.
Legion Turn 1
Thagrosh activated first and cast Draconic Blessing on the Carnivean and then turned his attention to the Wardstone. He moved forward into charge range of the stone and cast Obliteration on it managing to damage it for 3 points.
The first three Shredders went Rabid and charged the stone on their side of the field doing 6 points total.
The Carnivean charged towards the stone and managed to get close enough to do his breath attack for 1 point and the Seraph did another 3 points through shooting. All that was left was to move the last Shredder forward to keep up with the group.
Circle Turn 1
I was pretty sure I was going to lose both the stones on the other side of the field the next turn so my best bet was to try and thin out the Shredders so I could get a better position on Thagrosh.
Argus #1 moved up the field and Baldur ran behind it, I just burnt 2 Fury off his total to let the beasts do some damage this turn while still having the ability to have full Fury resources next turn as well.The Woldwarden moved up and used his Spell Strike ability to cast Baldur's Earth Spikes at the Shredders. With boosting I did a good amount of damage, 8 to one and 7 to the other caught in the blast.
The Warpwolf moved up to use the rock in the centre of the table as cover and the second Argus moved up to join him.
Legion Turn 2
Defenstrator decided to upkeep Draconic Blessing on the Carnivean and then activated Thagrosh who cast Death Shroud and used the Shredders' animus to put Tenacity on the Carnivean and on the Seraph. He charged the Wardstone and destroyed it.
The first two Shredders had to shimmy around the stone to stay in Thagrosh's control range so that they could still boost their attacks but between the damage they'd taken and some bad luck did nothing to the stone. The third Shredder didn't have that problem and with the Pack Mentality in effect did 7 points to the Wardstone destroying it.
The Seraph took a shot at the Warpwolf and got 2 additional shots. Only the first one counted for 6 points while the extra shots missed.
The last Shredder and the Carnivean had no targets this turn so they just moved forward into a better position.
Circle Turn 2
I miscalculated how much Fury I was going to use in the first turn and ended up having to leave one on the Woldwarden. I wasn't worrying about him frenzying (because he can't) but it would have been nice for him to have a full Fury pool.
Baldur moved up again and cast Earth Spikes on the Shredders. He missed. Those Shredders were proving harder to kill than I gave them credit. He then cast Stone Skin on himself.
The Woldwarden cast Earth Spikes on the Shredders again, finally killing one of them but doing nothing to the second.
Now the Argus could try their luck. The first walked up and barked at the wounded Shredder but missed by 1! The second Argus was able to paralyze him. Nearly my entire army had a go at the Shredders and all they managed to do was kill one and paralyze the other. That could have gone better.
The Warpwolf felt it was in his best interest to retreat so he pulled back a bit to get out of the line of fire.
Legion Turn 3
Thagrosh continues to upkeep Draconic Blessing. The fist activation is the Carnivean who charged the Woldwarden and just got him with the breath weapon for 4 points of damage. The Argus using the Woldwarden for cover didn't even get singed.
This is where Defenstrator's run of getting lots of extra shots from the Seraph began. He took aim at the Woldwarden and shot off the original attack plus 5 more! He did nothing with two of those attacks but managed to really hurt the Woldwarden with 15 damage.
Thagrosh moved up between the Carnivean and 
the Seraph and cast Obliteration on the Woldwarden and caught the Argus for just a bit of damage. One of the Shredders had to move in for the kill but the big guy finally fell.
That left just the two other Shredders to move around to reposition themselves.
Circle Turn 3
Baldur dropped Stone Skin from himself because he ws going to need all the movement he could get this turn.
The first Argus engaged a Shredder and killed it, then the Warpwolf engaged a different Shredder and ripped it to pieces. The second Argus tried to bark at the Carnivean but missed.
Baldur pulled back a bit more, cast Stone Skin on the Warpwolf, healed him for 3 points of damage (making him nearly unscathed) and then used his Broken Earth feat to make sure nothing could come any closer.
Legion Turn 4
Thagrosh continued to upkeep Draconic Blessing and then much discussion occured about what Baldur's feat actually meant. Much measuring was done and multiple measuring tapes were employed to make sure that no one was getting closer than they should be. Except by Slipstream.
The Seraph circled around Baldur, Slipstreamed Thagrosh into Baldur's control range, and shot the nearest Argus. Once again Defenstrator rolled 5 extra shots, again only failing to damage with 2 of them.
The Shredder cast Tenacity on the Seraph and just stayed put while both Thagrosh and the Carnivean ran in a curve around the outside of their distance from Baldur to get closer to the third and final Wardstone.
Circle Turn 4
No upkeep spells for Baldur this turn either.
This turn was about positioning for me. The next turn had to make it or break it. If I could get in a good spot to kill Thagrosh next turn I could win this game. If not, well, unless Defenstrator decided to kill my army rather than his objective I might still have a chance. So with that in mind I moved the Warpwolf around so that he could easily get into combat with either the Carnivean or Thagrosh if they moved closed to the Warpstone. I had one Argus move between the Carnivean and the Warpstone. I was hoping I could get it to engage but didn't have quite enough movement, the second Argus moved around from behind his rock near the centre of the table to maybe have the chance to throw into whatever melee combat happened next turn.
Baldur then cast Stone Skin on the Warpwolf to protect him right out in the open and then cast Earth Spikes at the Carnivean. He only managed to do a little damage but I got lucky and rolled a critical for knockdown.
I declared my turn over and then, just as Defenstrator started moving models, I noticed my mistake. I'd forgotten to rile up the beasts so I'd be able to reave some Fury for the next turn. My big plan of taking out the win was going to be in jeopardy because Baldur was only going to have 2 Fury to work with!
Legion Turn 5
After upkeeping Draconic Blessing Defenstrator had some frenzy checks to make. He'd left Fury on the Seraph, Carnivean and the last of his Shredders. Only the Shredder frenzied and he charged the nearest model, which happened to be my heavily damaged Argus. Luckily for me he missed.
The Seraph shot at the same Argus and once again got 5 extra hits, however, with all the extra Fury sitting on him, he only connected once since he couldn't boost.
Thagrosh Slipstreamed the prone Carnivean towards the Warpstone, attacked the Argus and then cast Death Shroud.
The Carnivean stood up, got Spiny Growth going and moved towards the Warpwolf, attempting to cut it off from Thagrosh.
Circle Turn 5
Baldur dropped Stone Skin, with only 2 Fury for the turn he'd need every bit he could get.
One of the Argus attacked Thagrosh and did some damage that he opted to keep rather than to spend his lasy Fury to heal. The Warpwolf warped to get the +2 SPD and gingerly walked around the Carnivean to attack Thagrosh. He did great with the first hit but then missed the next two.
Baldur used his two Fury to heal the other Argus who then attempted to run in and attack Thagrosh as well. This left him open to free strikes from the Shredder and by the time he got to Thagrosh he'd lost a combat die from losing the Body spoke of the wheel. He gave it a good try but missed with both attacks. My turn was over and Thagrosh had only 3 points of damage left.
Legion Turn 6
For the last time Thagrosh maintained Draconic Blessing on the Carnivean who then calmly walked up to the Wardstone and pounded it into the ground. That ended the game with a win for the Legion
Wrap Up
Myantek: I liked this scenario. It felt pretty well balanced and lent itself well to maneuvering and really getting around the table rather than just blundering forward into one another. This was only the second time that I'd used Baldur and I think a did a better job with thim that I had before. I like all his spells but when you're fighting against models that have Pathfinder and Eyeless Sight in the majority the creating of forests doesn't matter as much. As for what I would have done differently, well, I would have remembered to make sure that Baldur was going to have all the Fury he needed for the turn that I needed to win the game. Otherwise, I probably should have attempted to head butt Thagrosh with the Argus so the Warpworth didn't have to waste Fury boosting to hit, just do the damage and extra attacks. I think I need to read through the special attacks section again.
Defenstrator: I thought I was going into this game with a big disadvantage. After all, I'm spending my time hitting the stones while Baldur is trying to kill my warlock. Setting up second and going first helps a great deal though. The Circle player doesn't dare set up at the forward stones for fear of losing half his army in the first turn, or at least enough to cripple him. Even their counter attack would only be so effective. With Thagrosh's feat Legion can afford to play the attrition game. My biggest mistake was not bothering to measure how far away I was from the Seraph and Shredder on the turn Thagrosh ran. I didn't get rid of fury as I assumed I had run out of control range. As it was it turned out they were both in range so I had to make those fury test because of my own stupidity. Still, my end run at the objective paid off in the end. An exciting game all around we plan to play a rematch to see what we learned.
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