Brice and I got a 50 point game of Hordes in on Monday. We played some Skorne v Trolls, in the radial scenario Command and Control. There is a zone in the middle of the board and four equidistant flags on the center lines of the four sides of the board. To score the warlock must be contesting a flag (be within 4") and you must control the zone.
I won the roll and went first. Brice brought some of Charlie's Skorne for me to play. Which was sweet. My list was:
Naaresh
Marketh of the Pillow Pants
Titan Gladiator
Tiberion
Archidon
Cyclops Brute
Immodium Pu-36 Explosive Space Nihilators (full)
2 min Paingiver Beast Whippers
Swamp Goblins
Agonizer
Saxon Orrik
Skorine Midwinter
Tyrant Commander and Standard
I deployed in a hot mess at the center of my deployment zone. The plan was to push the Nihilators out to feed the trolls. Then my caster can kill some infantry and hide behind a wall of beef.
Brice played:
Grim Angus, who Shot First
Dire Troll Mauler
Axer
Impaler
Full Champs
Full Burrowers
Full Kriel Warriors w UA and a Caber Tosser
Min Krielstone with Elder
Fell Caller
Champ Hero
Swamp Goblins
Brice deployed in a wider arc. The extra 3" is a big deal in radial scenarios.
Turn 1 I ran most everything and put Iron Flesh on the Nihilators. My stuff was still packed up pretty serious.
Brice Burrowed his burrowers. Then everything else advanced. The Champs hid behind a building.
I had a decision to make: throw the Nihilators into the meat grinder past the burrowing marker, or keep them in front of the marker and only offer a few to Brice. The first option played more to scenario. The second was riskier as Brice would have an opportunity to score if he killed the few I offered him, and he had a pile of possible attacks.
I decided to go with option 2. Iron Flesh Nihilators have a chance to live, and I'd placed them in such a way that one was screened by two others with their reach blades, so Brice would have to use Grim and/or the Impaler to finish him.
Brice isn't happy with his choices. He unburrowed his Pygs and then ran them out of the way, laterally 12". So then they were flanking my force. His Fell Caller moved up to spray a Nihilator (needing a 10 to hit; this move cost him big) but misses. Then Grim put a bullet in my hard-to-reach Nihilator but I made the tough check. The impaler finished him off unfortunately.
The Kriels smash into the Nihilators and kill 3 more, but the Caber misses his 7 crucially and one survives the attack in the zone, meaning my gambit has worked. I don't lose a point and Brice shuffles the Krielstone and Champs for the next round.
I drop Iron Flesh so my Nihilators can charge. They Manage to kill a couple Kriel Warriors but they miss the burrowers. I punch Brice hard this turn. My warlock gets 2" of movement from the Tyrant Commander and whipped by his beast handlers for +4 strength. The Archidon casts Lightning Strike on Naaresh as well. Then the Archidon kills two burrowers.
Naaresh is as buffed as he's going to get. I have him advance to two Kriel Warriors and he killed them but one made a tough check. I killed it again with a Fury. Then I cast Cyclone and moved to some other screening troops and kill them. I then cast Bleed and managed to hurt the Fell Caller but don't kill it. Naaresh then Sprinted away. I looked at the table and I realized that now Tiberion may be able to walk up to the Fell Caller and squish him with the war club. But it needed rush from the Gladiator. I have the Gladiator cast rush and the Brute put Safeguard on Naaresh to give him knockdown immunity. Then the beast handlers whip off most of my excess fury but can't get to the Archidon.
Tiberion walked 6" and had about a quarter of a inch distance for his reach club. He mushed the Fell Caller into paste. This was a bad spot for Brice. Then Tiberion tried to crit slam a Kriel Warrior but didn't get the crit. With his last fury he murdered a burrower and they'd lost enough dudes for a command check, which they failed.
I had also killed 5 Kriel Warriors, so killing 2 more would force a command check from them and Brice was having some epic dice fail so I thought i should go for that. Marketh had 4 souls from deceased Nihilators and charged a Kriel Warrior, missing it. Then he bought an attack and killed it. Then he bought another attack and killed another. They failed their command check.
Which was super bad for Brice.
He killed another couple Nihilators and my support solos with Champs. I had left Tiberion hanging a bit and he got the Mauler to him, but first he had to run the Krielstone up to tarpit and the Kriel warriors away to make room. The Mauler rolled poorly and did not kill Tiberion. Marketh died as well this turn.
Again Brice doesn't score because I have a tough Nihilator who stayed in the zone.
I decided that it's my feat turn and played accordingly. I spent a bunch of my turn killing the Krielstone to remove the armor buff. It took a LOT but I get it done. The Archidon becomes enraged by beast handlers and I kill the Mauler with a Fury to spare (rolled crazy talk). Then Tiberion is free to charge the Axerq who is screening Grim. However, in my zeal to kill the mauler and Krielstone I forgot to heal Tiberion at all and his aspects are mugged. He only has spirit. So he charged but did minimal damage.
I had the Gladiator with a big Strength buff Slam the hell out of a Champ and kill it. The collateral didn't kill the other though. The Brute kills another Champ.
On Brice's turn Grim feated and his stuff killed Tiberion, wounded the Gladiator, hit the Archidon a bit and killed another Nihilator. The Agonizer got killed by Grim.
I don't have a lot of movement options on Grim's feat so the Archidon runs away. The Brute and Gladiator kill the remaining champs. The game has gotten ugly. It's down to Grim and his battlegroup with a Champ Hero vs Naaresh with a heavily damaged battlegroup and a bunch of paingivers.
He kills the Gladiator but the Brute takes a lot of abuse without dropping. The Achidon kills the Axer and the Brute hurts the impaler. I put Naaresh in harm's way and he goes for a long shot assassination but falls way short and concedes.
It turned into a serious grind at the end but it was fun playing 50 pts of Skorne.
Brice said that my army was odd because of my weird Synergies whipping my own caster and beasts for fun and profit. But hey, it worked out for me in the end.
-Merlin out.
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