Hey all, two weeks ago I had the pleasure of playing in the Sherwood Team Tournament. This three person event was ran by the fantastic Simon, internationally famed for his legendary buffets and his bizarre 3D terrain. I can’t talk about this event without crediting him for setting up and coordinating a highly demanding event!
I teamed up with my two friends Chris and Chris (playing Skorne and Cryx respectively) under the team “Spooky Elephant Dragon”, a subtle blend of our factions. They brought Zaal2 and Xerxes1, and Deneghra1 and Scaverous respectively. They may well write up their own thoughts of the event so I won’t go into details of their lists and matches!
I brought Bethayne1 and Kallus1. The Kallus list is the same Primal Terrors one I played into Sylvestro previously, and the Bethayne list is similar to the previous reports. I didn’t feel that I was getting value from the Virtue Champions relative to their points cost, so I swapped them for a Spawning Vessel, Hermit of Hengehold and a third Spell Martyr.
Bethayne1 – Oracles of Annihilation
– Belphagor
– Archangel
– Naga Nightlurker
Thagrosh0
– Typhon
Hermit of Hengehold
Yssylla
Spell Martyr x3
Hex Hunters (min)
– Bayal
Blackfrost Shard
Spawning Vessel
Ice Witches
Kallus1 – Primal Terrors
– Ammok
– Blightbringer
Thagrosh0
– Golab
Hermit of Hengehold
Forsaken
Warmongers
– Gorag
Warmongers
Rotwings x2
As a heads up I won’t be doing full battle reports here. The time pressure of an event means I often forget photos and frankly it would just take too long to write up! I will talk about each game in terms of matchup, loosely how it played out and any thoughts on the game.
Game 1 – Bethayne1 vs Blaize
In our first round we drew Team Willy Wonker and the Oompa Loompas, with Cygnar, Legion and Mercs. I drew Andy playing Cygnar with Blaize Flames in the Darkness and Haley3 Storm Division. I was a little concerned of Storm Division to drop Kallus, as electroleaps do not trigger Incubi spawns so I played Bethayne. Expecting this Andy dropped Blaize due to the sheer amount of spell immunity in his list, shown below:
Constance Blaize, Knight of the Prophet – WJ: +29
– Gallant – PC: 17
– Centurion – PC: 16
– Defender – PC: 14
Morrowan Archon – PC: 8
Morrowan Archon
Grand Master Gabriel Throne – PC: 7
Alexia, The Undying – PC: 0
– Thrall Warrior
Savio Montero Acosta – PC: 6
Precursor Knights – Leader & 9 Grunts: 14
– Precursor Knight Officer & Standard – Officer & Standard: 0
Precursor Knights – Leader & 9 Grunts: 14
– Precursor Knight Officer & Standard – Officer & Standard: 0
We played King of the Hill and in short, it was a monstrous grind. Andy went first and stormed up the board whilst I was wary of triggering Vengeance and advanced cautiously. He feated and jammed hard, contesting my zone with a Centurion. Between my feat, the Blackfrost Shard and Typhon I managed to shoot down the Centurion whilst the Archangel cleared up most of a unit of Precursors using Shatterstorm.
We traded scenario points as Andy made a great push to score the centre zone, flag and take my objective. This forced me to commit the Archangel to the centre and the Naga/Hermit to contest his zone, which stalled him out long enough for me to pull ahead. He had to commit Gallant to finish off the objective which Typhon handily took out leaving me up on attrition too.
By the start of my Turn 5 I only had about a minute left (a very long feat turn on my side). I had the option of putting three Archangel shots into a disintegrated Blaize, but wasn’t confident I could resolve the assassination in time. So instead I just contested zones and basically did nothing for Turns 6 and 7, hoping not to get caught on Scenario. My gambit payed off as we finished on Turn 7 with a Legion Victory by Scenario 11-10!
I felt pretty confident into the match initially with access to Shatterstorm to block souls and plenty of infantry clearing. I did underestimate the value of Sacred Ward on the Precursors though as my Hex Hunters did very little. I should have made decisions quicker and not put myself under the clock pressure I did. I probably should have gone for the assassination too, I did great damage with the Disintegrate spell and the Archangel could have probably finished her off comfortably. We won this round 2-1 and proceeded!
Game 2 – Kallus1 vs Vlad2
Our second game was against Team Leeds with Cryx, Khador and Retribution. I ended up playing against Thom’s Khador, which was less than ideal. He had a Vlad2 Wolves of Winter and Vlad3 Warriors of the Old Faith pair, and I particularly didn’t feel I had a good answer to Vlad2. I picked Kallus1 as I thought his feat might buy me time by mitigating Berzerk, and Thom naturally picked Vlad2.
Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Champion – WJ: +27
– Ruin – PC: 17
– Marauder – PC: 11
Koldun Lord – PC: 0
Koldun Lord – PC: 03
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire – PC: 6
– Thrall Warrior
Void Archon – PC: 9
Greylord Ternion – Leader & 2 Grunts: 0
Greylord Ternion – Leader & 2 Grunts: 0
Doom Reaver Swordsmen – Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
– Greylord Escort – PC: 3
Doom Reaver Swordsmen – Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
– Greylord Escort – PC: 3
Doom Reaver Swordsmen – Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
Doom Reaver Swordsmen – Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
Doom Reaver Swordsmen – Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
To make things worse we were playing Invasion, a slow scenario that’s very difficult to pull ahead on. Khador went first but respected the Hellmouth threats, including one behind a key forest on the right side. I pushed up without giving him good feat vectors and screened with the Tentacles, which he killed off a couple of and stayed out of threat ranges still. I pressed in aggressively under feat with Dark Guidance tentacles and the Blight Bringer shooting picking off more Reavers.
Credit to Thom here, he recognised that my feat would be a timewalk to his response so mitigated what I could get at and didn’t kill anything that would give me any Incubi. This did let me get a pretty punishing counter afterwards including taking out Ruin with a Blightbringer shot and a swarm of Rotwings to nearly score the centre zone. The Khadorian response was potent and took down a lot of the left flank but the Hellmouth with Unyielding and the Blightbringer aura was too much to get through. Importantly though the Greylords started using Bonds of Woe to recur Doom Reavers from Rotwings…
The turn counter was creeping up and I was confident now the feat was gone that I could hold the flanks with the Hellmouth. Between Gorag’s unit, the Blightbringer, Rotwings and some good dice I managed to take out the Marauder and objective to score the centre zone. Ultimately Khador was unable to chew through the Hellmouths on either flank and not able to score any CPs back, eventually clocking to a Legion Victory by Timeout!
To be honest I thought I was doomed setting up for this one. There is incredible infantry clearing from this list and the boosts from Vlad ensure the Reavers trade up effectively. Even little things like using Eruption to create hazards wouldn’t work due to Vlad’s Wind Blast. That being said, my feat was critical to buying time and the Blightbringer’s shooting consistently did work. Golab did some good work along the way too and I once again enjoying having that package with Thagrosh in the list. I’m amazed that Kallus’ Unyielding is now Control Area, it almost guarantees the Hellmouths have Unyielding rather than having to pick one side and makes them super oppressive to deal with. Overall we won all three games here and proceeded to the quarter finals.
Game 3 – Bethayne1 vs Lukas
Our third game was against the legendary Team Fishcord, running Trolls, Crucible Guard and Legion. I ended up against Ryan’s Crucible Guard running Baldwin and Lukas. I was expecting Baldwin because his feat is so strong into Kallus and I ignore Lukas’s clouds and dropped Bethayne. Ryan actually dropped Lukas, in part because I think he’d played two games of Baldwin already and wanted to change! His list was as follows:
Aurum Legate Lukas di Morray – WJ: +26
– Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc – PC: 0
– Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc (Big Alyce)
– Liberator – PC: 10
– Vindicator – PC: 15
– Toro – PC: 13
Railless Interceptor – PC: 16
Railless Interceptor – PC: 16
Ascendant Mentalist – PC: 0
Ascendant Mentalist – PC: 0
Crucible Guard Mechanik – PC: 1
Crucible Guard Mechanik – PC: 1
Princess Delores Graciela – PC: 6
Thamarite Archon – PC: 9
Failed Experiments – Leader & 4 Grunts: 14
We were playing Bunkers and CG went first. As one side of the board had two huge obstuctions which really limited the movement of the Interceptors, I picked the side to force them both together down one flank. On Turn 1 he pressed up aggressively with Iron Flesh on the Experiments and the Railless down the centre, with the Liberator moving to contest the flag from behind the obstruction. I lined up to get two blessed Archangel shots onto the lead Experiments for some early kills, but blocked up my landing zone with the Blackfrost Shard and ended up with some bad drifting AoEs instead. I also ended up packing in too tightly with Typhon right at the back of my force rather than further ahead.
The Vindicator got TK’d and scattered a shot onto Vysarr (the Kiss of Lilyss guy) so I used the Hermit to block the damage, but a Railless hit the boosted 12 to get him despite cover and took him out, taking away a key damage buff threatening the trains. The Thamarite cleared up some Hex Hunters and he pressed up with the Experiments and Toro. With Typhon being so far back I only had the Archangel able to meaningfully contribute and had to pick between going after the Railless or the Experiments and Toro. I decided to go after the Toro as I wasn’t convinced I could get the Railless, plus I killed Delores with blast damage which was nice. I tried to use Shadowbind from the remaining Hex Hunters to lock down the Experiments but I killed the Leader model I was trying to lock down.
In response the Toro killed my objective and the Thamarite took the left flag, letting Ryan score up to 3 on Turn 2. With no way to contest his zone I managed to kill the Thamarite with spells and the Toro with Typhon as well. My plan hinged on killing the contesting Railless with the Archangel and a Crit Shadowbind from the Naga to prevent the second Railless contesting next turn, but I failed to kill the first one and couldn’t score that flag. We both scored to make the score 4-1 but it was trivial for Ryan to contest my zone and take a flag to score up to 6 and give a Crucible Guard Scenario Victory!
This one was totally on me, I couldn’t afford to have Typhon so far back and not contributing every turn and I messed up a few key decision points. With a TK caster on such a live scenario you can’t give them the opportunity to go so far up on CPs. I could have probably been more aggressive with the Archangel on the right side as without a Vindicator shot I don’t think both Railless Interceptors can kill an Archangel under Deceleration, even with Disintegrate. I should have also taken the Anchor Objective and used Typhon to lock down the left Flag on my Turn 2. Great learning game and Ryan is a fantastic player. Sadly we lost this round 1-2 so we were out of the finals, but one more to go.
Game 4 – Bethayne1 vs Lylyth2
The final game was against our fellow clubmates from Team Owlface. I ended up with the mirror into Dan, a long time Legion player running his Lylyth2 and Saeryn1 pairing. We knew the matchup would be Bethayne1 vs Lylyth2 with his list as follows:
Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight [+28]
– Nephilim Bolt Thrower [9]
– Ravagore [14]
– Ravagore [14]
– Ravagore [14]
Blight Archon [9]
– Naga Nightlurker [7]
– Seraph [13]
Thagrosh Hellborne [0(5)]
– Typhon [18]
The Forsaken [0(4)]
The Forsaken [0(4)]
Ice Witches [5]
We were playing Split Decision and I won the rolloff. I decided to go first to let me shoot first although Dan said he would have been happy going second to take the central Obstruction. I pushed up the Archangel and Hex Hunters on the right, hoping to use the forest to apparate through later with Typhon taking the right to protect the objective. Dan moved up and Between Lylyth and two scattering Ravagores managed to kill a bunch of Hex Hunters. He also thunder bolted Typhon back with a Bolt Thrower and moved up Typhon behind the obstruction.
I really wanted to kill Typhon, but had no way to ignore the cover and wasn’t confident I could shoot him down. with just feat and the Archangel’s guns. Instead I opted to take a Ravagore off with the Archangel and run Typhon into cover by my objective, taking care to keep Bethayne protected from any shooting. Critically, I boosted the damage of the Disintegrated arced into the Ravagore which left me unable to cast Deceleration afterwards.
In response Lylyth feated and applied Pincushion to the Archangel then began shooting with both her shots, the Ravagore and then Typhon’s sprays. Despite using the Hermit to protect one shot, this still the Archangel down. The Bolt Thrower got the critical knockdown on Typhon in cover (who had ran to the cover instead of using his ainimus) which let him and the second Ravagore put loads more damage in and leave him on six boxes, critically taking out his spirit.
Having basically lost both of my working models I made a decent fight back, using Beth’s feat, an Ice Witch, Ysylla and Thagrosh’s Blight Burst to take down Typhon as well as putting a lot of damage onto the right side Ravagore with the Blackfrost Shard and spawned lessers. There wasn’t much Typhon could do except heal from Thagrosh and hope to survive another turn.
Over the following turns Dan swept up the remaining forces, once Typhon went down there wasn’t much I could do although the Spawning Vessel on the right kept me in the game for a while. I merged briefly with Belphagor to protect from shooting and even managed to take down the Blight Archon to send the Seraph and Naga wild. Ultimately Dan would win by assasination with only Bethayne and a couple of Ice Witches left, leading to a opposing Legion Victory by Assassination!
This was always going to be an uphill battle, as even getting if I get the first strike Lylyth2 is very effective at taking down a huge base. Not casting Deceleration or Excessive Healing were big mistakes. Even though Wraithbane could ignore Decel it would have increased the complexity of the turn and forced harder decisions with fury management. It may have meant the Bolt Thrower would be needed to kill the Archangel, which could have left Typhon in a more functional position. If Typhon was able to effectively respond and take out the Bolt Thrower, along with my response taking his Typhon there would have still be an effective game to be played. I could have also considered going after Typhon in cover and seeing if I got lucky, or at least repositioning so I wouldn’t get the Ravagore’s counterfire.
Hard to articulate in brief here, but this also showed off Dan’s Legion experience. He knew how my list worked and what I was trying to do, and very adeptly played around that fact. We also lost this round 1-2, but with a great SoS our team placed 6/16, the top in our Wins/Losses bracket.
Final thoughts
Almost done now, bear with me! A few final thoughts from me about the event as a whole:
– I’m pretty happy with my casters but I do need to change up the list for Bethayne. A single Shield Guard would have been huge in the last two matches and given I want her to handle gunlines, the Hermit just isn’t enough damage catching.
– Despite my reservations in list dojo, the Naga was a great piece. Wraithbane is situational, but it is game changing when its available to you. Definitely one per pairing is my suggestion.
– Clock is a very viable win condition. Whether its a lack of practice after the pandemic or the game being bigger due to the points reductions, but a lot of people were running out of time in these games.
– Team events are probably my favourite way to play tournaments. The camaraderie adds so much to the experience and the nature of the pairing process brings you together to think about matchups and problems. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to go and play at an event with friends!
Thanks very much for reading, I hope this was a good insight into the games. Any feedback on this format is appreciated. This doesn’t feel like the best way to talk about the games I’ve played, but full battle reports feel too long. Please let me know what you’d like to read/see!