Hordes Battle Report - Circle Orboros vs. Skorne - 35 pts
Yet another battle report is in the books, with this one showcasing Hordes on Hordes, with Jamar's Skorne taking on Beau's Circle Orboros. Jamar's List:
- PHexeris
- Titan Bronzeback
- Titan Cannoneer
- Basilisk Drake x 2
- Max. Gatorman Posse
- Paingiver Task Master
- Thrullg
Beau's List:
- Grayle
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Pureblood
- Max. Warpborn Skinwalkers
- Tharn Bloodweavers
- Lord of the Feast
- Tharn Ravager Whitemane
- Blackclad Wayfarer
Deployment: Beau won the roll and opted to deploy and go first. From top to bottom he deployed: Skinwalkers, Stalker, Grayle, Wayfarer, Pureblood, Bloodweavers, Whitemane and the Lord of the Feast advanced deployed. From top to bottom, Jamar deployed: Bronzeback, AD'd Thrullg, Drake, Hexeris, Cannoneer, Drake, Gatormen and the Task Master. The only odd bit about Jamar's Skorne list was that he had mostly beasts and no Paingiver Beast Handlers, but they were unfinished and Jamar vehemently INSISTED on using fully painted models exclusively.
Circle turn1: Grayle activated first, advancing and casting Storm Rager (+2 MAT, STR and ARM) on the the Lord of the Feast. Everything else ran forward, with the Stalker warping Ghostly to move through the rocky obstacle and the Pureblood warping spellward.
Skorne turn 1: The Cannoneer advanced and shot at the Bloodweavers, of course missing due to their Stealth (and being out of range), but it deviated towards them and killed one. The Cannoneer then used it's animus Diminish (enemy models suffer -2 STR while within 2" of it). The Gatorman Posse used the Dirge of Mists prayer (+1 DEF and Terror) and ran around the forest, the Task Master hanging back and giving them Tough. One of the Drakes ran into the nearby forest, Hexeris activated and cast Soul Slave on it (mainly allowing him to channel spells through it) and then through it cast Death March on the Gatormen. The other Drake advanced, the Bronzeback ran and the Thrullg ran somewhat towards the tower.
A Cirlce perspective.
A Skorne perspective.
Circle turn 2: Grayle upkept Storm Rager and the Lord of the Feast advanced and used his Raven ranged attack (if it hits he is placed base-to-base with the target) at the rear most Gatorman in the hopes of being able to attack the Task Master and Drake as well, but needed a 6 to hit due to Dirge of Mists and rolled a 5. The Bloodreavers repositioned slightly and the Whitemane ran up to the fence. The Skinwalkers ran forward centrally and the Stalker warped +2 STR and advanced behind the fence. Grayle advanced and, as he had excess fury, cast Windblast in the off chance a Drake or the Cannoneer would be shooting in the AOE (enemies suffer -3 RAT). The Pureblood warped Spellward, riled for two and ran up behind the Skinwalkers and lastly the Wayfarer ran up near Grayle.
Skorne turn 2: Hexeris upkept Soul Slave and Death March. First the central Drake advanced to the edge of the Wind Blast AOE and sprayed 3 Skinwalkers and the Pureblood. It only boosted to hit the Pureblood (and missed), but rolled quite well for damage on the Skinwalkers, doing 6 to the first, 4 to the second and killing the third outright. The other Drake moved slowly through the forest and sprayed another Skinwalker, bringing it down to 1 health. The Gatormen then did the Dirge of Mist prayer again and charged, one on a Bloodreaver (killing her, but who made the CMD check from Terror), one on the Skinwalker with one health remaining (killing it) and 3 on the Lord of the Feast (taking him out as well). Next the Cannoneer fired at the Pureblood with a fully boosted shot, doing only 4 damage to it, but boosted the blast damage on a nearby Skinwalker and rolled great, doing 6 damage. Hexeris activated next and cast Soulfire at the same Skinwalker, killing it. The Bronzeback ran to hide behind Hexeris and the Cannoneer, the Task Master advanced, giving the Gators Tough and the Thrullg ran to engage the Pureblood.
Circle turn 3: First the Blackclad Wayfarer advanced and hit the Cannoneer with Hunter's Mark (giving models +2 movement when charging target model as well as allowing them to charge for free). Grayle cast Lightning Strike (the Stalker's animus that lets a friendly faction model make a full advance at the end of it's activation if it killed something in melee) on the Pureblood, Storm Rager on the Whitemane, advanced and used his feat (giving friendly models in his CTRL Stealth and allowing a friendly model in his CTRL to move 3" if another friendly kills something, a la Warpath). The last Skinwalker then charged the Thrullg, doing 4 damage, then the Whitemane charged the Gatorman Bokur for 4 damage as well. The Stalker warped +2 STR, cast it's animus on itself, advanced, missed the central Gatorman with it's fist, but killed the Drake with 3 sword attacks (allowing the last Skinwalker to move/change facing from the feat) and maneuvered a couple inches towards the fence, staying in the Gatorman's reach. Next the Bloodreavers charged, one on the Bokur (missing), two individually charged the Gators around the Whitemane (one missing and the other hitting and dispelling Death March, but doing no damage) and two charged the central Gator (with Gang, one missing the other killing it with Bloodspiller for an additional die of damage, allowing the Stalker to move back behind the fence). Lastly, the Pureblood warped +2 STR and charged the Cannoneer (taking 5 damage from the Thrullg's free strike) using all it's fury to buy extra attacks (as it charged for free from Hunter's Mark) and hitting with every attack, but rolling quite poorly on damage and leaving the Titan with 6 health remaining.
Skorne turn 3: Hexeris upkept Soul Slave on the Drake, advanced somewhat behind the rock, cast Diminish, healed one damage on the Cannoneer and attacked the Pureblood, using his remaining 3 fury to barely kill it. Thanks to Vampiric Reaving (allowing him reave fury from destroyed beasts if he's closer than whoever else would reave it) he took the 4 fury from the Pureblood, healed two more from the Cannoneer and used his feat (when a non-construct enemy model dies, he can have it move 3" and make a melee attack). The Cannoneer went next, advanced, cast Diminish, missed a Bloodreaver with it's cannon, but killed it in the blast and via the feat used her to kill the Bloodreaver next to her. The Thrullg attacked the Skinwalker, hitting with only one claw and doing 2 damage. The Drake advanced almost out of the woods and killed the Wayfarer with it's spray, who by way of the feat moved and hit Grayle, but did no damage. The Task Master advanced and gave the Gatormen +2 STR and they charged, killing the remaining Bloodreavers and the Whitemane. Lastly, the Bronzeback moved slightly into position and riled for 1.
Circle turn 4: Grayle activated first, casting Lightning Strike on the Stalker, Storm Rager on himself (realizing after the fact that he took 2 damage thanks to the Thrullg's Arcane Consumption ability) and charged the Thrullg, killing it and side-stepping behind the nearby fence. The Skinwalker then charged the Cannoneer, but missed. Lastly, the Stalker warped STR (essentially canceled out by the Diminish) and also charged the Cannoneer, but also unfortunately missed it's charge attack. It proceeded to miss it's second purchased attack, hit with the third (for only 1 damage) and hit with the last one (for 6 damage), leaving the VERY lucky Cannoneer with 2 health remaining.
Skorne turn 4: Hexeris upkept Soul Slave. First the remaining Drake sprayed the Skinwalker, missed and the Stalker (fully boosted) for a bit of damage. The Cannoneer advanced (making room for the Bronzeback to charge) and killed the Skinwalker with it's club, followed by the Bronzeback charging the Stalker and crushing it, Hexeris stealing the fury again. The Gatormen Posse ran up and the Task Master gave them Tough. Lastly, Hexeris used all but 1 fury to heal the Cannoneer.
Circle turn 5: At this point Beau had a plan to potentially take out Hexeris, but unlike the rest of the game so far, his dice would need to start rolling in his favor. First Grayle cut himself for 4 damage to get to full fury and upkept Storm Rager on himself, making him MAT 9 and POW 12, on top of being a weapon master. He then charged the Cannoneer, killing it with his first initial attack and Hexeris taking the fury, now sitting on 3. He then hit the Bronzeback with his second initial attack and side-stepped over to Hexeris.
He bought an attack, hitting for 7 damage. He attacked again for another 8 damage, bringing Hexeris down to 2 health. His next attack...........................missed, as did the one following it. His last attack hit, but Hexeris just transferred it to the Drake. Since at this point Grayle's death was practically assured and as he destroyed a model in melee this activation, he sprinted away, taking a free strike from Hexeris that left him with 1 health.
Skorne turn 5: Hexeris didn't upkeep anything, walked over to Grayle and put him out of his misery with a fully boosted attack.
Aftermath: Jamar won this one and thus, as is the nature of the game, Beau lost. Ultimately both had sound strategies, only Beau's dice betrayed him on several crucial occasions. While having the Lord of the Feast hit with his Raven attack or having the Whitemane do at least average damage would have helped things, the real back breaker(s) was when his beasts just couldn't seal the deal and then move out of harm's way due to Lightning Strike. First the Pureblood, then the Stalker; both had the odds in their favor when going for the kill and both came teasingly close. In the end, if Grayle had hit with every attack (thus getting two untransferable POW 12 weapon master hits on Hexeris) he would have had a good chance of winning the day, but again it simply wasn't in the cards. As we all know, there's no accounting for dice. That and really lucky elephants.