I'll warn you now; there are alot of unpainted minis on the board. We've been playing but not blogging and while it may seem like all we've been doing is painting because of all the painting updates I thought it was time to try something new. So on to Baldur...
Circle:
Baldur the Stonecleaver
Woldwarden
Woldwarden
Woldwatcher
5 Tharn Ravagers + Beastlord
Shifting Stones
Legion:
Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight
Carnivean
Seraph
Nephilim Soldier
Harrier
Shredder
7 Blighted Swordsmen + Vassal
Forsaken
Shepherd
Swamp Gobbers
Set Up
On the far left of the board a small hill was placed with trees at the mid point and another hill on the near side. The middle of the board had a small ruin and the right side of the board was a large hill flanked by two barricades.Circle began placing
models with Woldwarden 1 on the right, Baldur in the middle and the second Woldwarden on the hill. The Ravagers filled in the space between Baldur and the hill. When the advance deployment phase came the Woldwatcher was placed on the hill with the Woldwarden and the Shifting Stones by the barricade close to Woldwarden 2.On the Legion side the Shepherd and the Seraph were placed on the far left with the Swordmen
forming a block in front of them. The Swamp Gobbers and Rhyas were in the middle of the board with the Shredder behind them and the Nephilim and Carnivean were on the far right of the board with a Harrier and the Forsaken behind them.Scenario
We played the Process of Elimination Scenario from the Steamroller 4.0 tournament rules. There are 4 12" wide territories running north to south on the battlefield. Control of these territories or death of the warlock are the conditions to winning the game.
Circle Turn 1
Baldur began by casting Rapid Growth on the area beside the ruin and then moved forward. Woldwarden 2 moved forward on the hill and riled for 1 Fury and Woldwarden 1 moved into the ring of Stones and riled for 1 Fury as well. The Ravagers ran forward into the new forest and the Stones teleported Woldwarden 1 onto the hill. The Woldwatcher then moved forward with Woldwarden 2.Legion Turn 1
The Shepherd ran forward off the hill and the Seraph moved to join her. The Swordsmen ran
toward the with the Swamp Gobbers close behind. They then threw smoke over the lead Swordsmen. Rhyas cast Rapport on the Carnivean and then cast Dash to move into the cloud around the Swordsmen. The Shredder used Tenacity and moved to join Rhyas. The Nepilim and Carnivean (who used Spiny Growth) both ran up the hill toward Woldwarden 1. The Forsaken moved forward to take 3 Fury off the Carnivean and the Harrier simply ran forward.Circle Turn 2
Baldur leached all Fury and upkept the Rapid Growth forest for the Ravagers. He then moved forward and cast Earth Spikes at the Swordsmen. It missed, deviated 1" and did no damage.Woldwarden 2 shuffled into the zone on the far left and used Undergrowth (keeping just inside Baldur's control area). On the far right Woldwarden 2 did the same thing. The Woldwatcher moved forward and used Vigilance on itself. The Ravagers consolidated within the mystical forest and the Stones shifted between the hill and the ruin.
With just the Woldwardens in the outermost control zones I collected 2 points towards a scenario win.
Legion Turn 2
Rhyas leached all the Fury and upkept Rapport.
The Seraph aimed at Woldwarden 2 and, with a boost to hit, managed to get an extra 3 shots. Luckily for me the Woldwarden is a tough nut to crack and only 4 points of damage were done to the construct. The Harrier moved beside the ruin.
Rhyas cast Slipstream and Dash then moved toward the hill. The Carnivean was the target of Slipstream and inched along the hill.
The Shredder moved in behind Rhyas and used Tenacity on her. The Nephilim moved off the hill to join them and put Massacre on the Carnivean. The Carnivean charged Woldwarden 1 and (thanks to Rapport) manages to destroy it. Baldur reaved the Fury because he was going to need it later. The Forsaken moved in behind Rhyas and removed 2 Fury from the Nephilim. The Forsaken was now holding as much Fury as it could.
The Swordsmen charged Baldur and the Ravagers (some of them simply ran to maintain unit coherancy). They missed attacking attacking Baldur but managed to do 3 points of damage to one of the Ravagers.
The Shepherd ran towards the ruin and the Swamp Gobbers moved up to place smoke in front of the Swordsmen.
Circle Turn 3
Baldur leached all the Fury he could but had to leave one on the Woldwatcher. He chose to drop the forest this turn.The remaining Woldwarden moved out of the trees and cast Earth Spikes on the Swordsmen. It missed and deviated harmlessly away. Taking advantage of Baldur's affinity with constructs, the Woldwatcher charged the Swordsmen. It killed one of them with its second attack.
Baldur engaged 2 Swordsmen and killed them both leaving him one Fury that he chose to keep. He then used his Broken Earth feat to save himself for a turn.
The Ravagers charged the Swordsmen and killed the only one they could reach. The Stones shifted in behind the Ravagers.
Legion Turn 3
Rhyas leached all the Fury she could (using the Shepherd to collect Fury from the out of range Seraph) but had to leave some on the Carnivean. She chose to continue upkeeping Rapport. The Carnivean chose this moment to Frenzy. Luckily for Defenstrator, the configuration of the hill prevented the beast from doing more than moving toward the closest models.The Seraph shot at the Woldwatcher and once again got 3 extra hits. Unlike the shot at the Woldwarden all 4 shots hit and do a total of 16 points of damage to the smaller construct. Not quite enough to destroy it.
The Swordmen couldn't get any closer to Baldur so backed up around the Seraph instead.
Rhyas cast Dash and Slipstream and moved behind the ruins. The Shepherd ran back toward the hill and the Forsaken moved behind the Nephilim. It used Blight Shroud to remove all the Fury it had accumulated but it did nothing as there were no enemy models in range.
The Swamp Gobbers moved towards Rhyas and continued to lay down smoke and the Harrier benefited from Slip Stream to shift around the ruins. The Shredder and Nehilim continued to move with Rhyas.
Circle Turn 4
Baldur leached all the Fury he could and cast Rapid Growth and Undergrowth as he moved into the midst of the Ravagers.The Woldwatcher moved into the trees and shot at the Seraph doing only 2 points of damage. The Woldwarden followed and cast Earth Spikes at the Seraph for a further 5 points.
The Ravagers charged the Swordsmen and killed another 2 of them and the Stones teleported in front of Baldur trying to block any possible charge lanes.
Legion Turn 4
Rhyas leached all the Fury from the Seraph but left 1 Fury on the Carnivean. She decided to drop Rapport. The Carnivean then frenzied again. Being actually in range of something he charged and killed the Forsaken. Rhyas then charged the Ravagers and brought forth the Tide of Blood. She managed to kill 3 Ravagers immediately by decapitation and then turned invisible.The Nephilim charged the Ravagers and killed just one. The Seraph aimed and shot at the Woldwatcher but with only 1 extra hit managed to do just 1 point of damage.
The Shepherd charged the Ravagers and managed to kill the Beast Lord and then moved on to attack the remaining Ravager.
It took a Rabid Shredder to finish off the last Ravager and then it moved onto the Woldwatcher doing another 2 points to it. Finally, a Swordsman managed to kill this construct (Baldur reaved the Fury left on it).
The Swamp Gobbers moved up behind the Nephilim and put smoke on Rhyas, the Shredder and the Shepherd while the Harrier moved through the ruins.
Circle Turn 5
Baldur leached all the Fury available to him and upkept Rapid Growth.
The Woldwarden moved up to Rhyas, used Undergrowth, and attacked. Unsurprisingly, it missed.
Baldur attacked Rhyas and did 14 points (which was enough to kill the Harrier). His next attack did 10 points directly to her, leaving her alive.
Legion Turn 5
Rhyas leached all the Fury she could but the Shredder still Frenzied, doing 4 points to one of the Shifting Stones. The Carnivean still had Fury on it but did not Frenzy this turn.Rhyas pulled out her sword and attacked Baldur. The first attack missed but the second attack decapitated him (19 points of damage on the critical) and won the game.
Afterword
Myantek
So, apparently Baldur is a bit of a beatstick... I hadn't really realized how potent he could be in melee. I still lost but I had a plan that was sort of working, I just ran out of models. And Fury. I was really in a Fury pinch and now I know why people say an all-construct army doesn't work. It just doesn't produce enough Fury. I guess the trade-off for not Frenzying is not producing as much. I've got some ideas to play around with to tweak this army while I'm painting it but I'm thinking Evolution really opened some doors to a Baldur army.
As for the actual scenario, I don't know if this is one of the ones that were tweaked (I need to find the latest Steamroller rules) but I think it should be. Not being able to claim points from a zone more than once means that, at some point, there's a huge pile in the middle. I got two points relatively easily but for me to get any more I would have had to be killing alot of models. I think it's one of the scenarios that's won by 'lock kill more often than by winning scenario points
Defenstrator
It's been a while since I played Rhyas and I was a bit trepedatious when I found I was going to be up against Baldur. His board control abilities are tough for Rhyas to deal with. Fortunately the damage wasn't too bad on Baldur's feat turn, and Rhyas came through with the Tide of Blood to kill off the Ravagers and Wold Watcher. That was the point where the game turned firmly in my favor, although Bladur almost pulled it off in the end when Myantek rolled a 10+ to hit Rhyas twice in a row.
The game started in a promising way when the Carnivean killed off the first Wold Warden. Unfortunately I didn't get much advantage out of that as the Carnivean frenzied for the next two turns and ended up eating the Forsaken. It basically felt like we had just traded points even though I still had the Carnivean on the table. The biggest advantage killing the Wold Warden gave to me was make it impossible for Baldur to leach more than five fury. As for my own fury problems I have a hard time trying to figure out which beast I would get rid of.
