Tyrant Xerxes (Masters of War)
- Tyrant Xerxes
- Titan Gladiator
- Basilisk Krea
- Razor Wurm
- Extoller Soulward
- Extoller Soulward
- The Wastelander
- Praetorian Swordsmen (max)
- Praetorian Swordsmen Officer & Standard
- Praetorian Keltarii (max) (unpainted)
- Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
Crucible Guard (Prima Materia)
- Aurum Adeptus Syvestro
- Vindicator
- Vindicator
- Liberator
- Prospero
- Suppressor
- Trancer
- Trancer
- Trancer
Deployment
The scenario was Invasion, which introduced an imbalance given that Skorne had Xerxes's unit-heavy army and Crucible Guard had a unit-less list.
I won the roll and chose to go first. My opponent picked the side with the wrecked train to hide behind.
Skorne Turn 1
Skorne runs forward, toeing all the zones. Keltari get defenders' ward, the bellows crew gets tactical supremacy, and the battlegroup energizers forward.
Crucible Guard Turn 1
Crucible Guard runs forward. A trancer flanks around the hill, and Syvestro hides behind the train.
Skorne Turn 2
A soulward takes a shot and rolls very well, taking out a trancer. The bellows crew blows smoke. The keltari run to jam, engaging the liberator and vindicator at the far zone. The Praetorian swordsmen toe the zone, afraid to go further forward. The razor wurm runs across the center into the smoke, heading to attack the trancers.
Crucible Guard Turn 2
Syvestro feats and casts purification, removing the keltaris' defenders ward, the krea's force aura, and the bellows crew's tactical supremacy. The liberator and vindicator destroy half the unit of keltari. The suppressor sprays, killing the razor wurm with an amazing damage roll, and also taking out and both members of the bellows crew, and damaging the gladiator. A vindicator shot kills a few swordsmen.
No points are scored because the two Skorne units aren't completely in their zones.
(Crucible Guard 0, Skorne 0)
Skorne Turn 3
Skorne sees an opportunity to score a lot of points this turn. The two contesting trancers are the biggest problem. Xerxes activates and gives the swordsmen defenders ward and energizers the titan forward. Then, the swordsmen go to work removing the trancers. One hits the trancer in the center, not killing it, then sidesteps away. Then the officer kills that trancer and it blows up. Whoops. This takes out four of the officer's five boxes and kills the soulward who'd been hiding behind the house. Other swordsmen kill the other trancer, but the resulting explosion kills two of them.
The keltari use parry to back up into their zone, spreading themselves thin. Now the two circle zones are all Skorne's.
The gladiator charges the objective, killing it, and also puts some damage on the suppressor. The krea positions to give his force aura to the titan, the wastelander, and also Xerxes.
Skorne scores one point for the objective, and one each for the three zones, going up to four.
(Crucible Guard 0, Skorne 4)
Crucible Guard Turn 3
Syvestro needs to go for an assassination. The biggest obstacle is the titan that still has 20 health left standing in the way. In the end, the suppressor is able to take out the titan and heavily damage the krea with sprays, and the vindicator charges in. The charge damage is partially transferred to the krea, killing it, and the remaining attacks injure but do not kill Xerxes.
Prospero and the liberator run into the circle zone to contest, staving off a skorne victory.
(Crucible Guard 0, Skorne 4)
Skorne Turn 4
Xerxes goes first, gives the swordsmen +2 damage, and feats. He then beats on the ARM 19 liberator with every last point of fury, but does not kill it.
The four remaining swordsmen charge. Two go to the liberator, one onto Syvestro, and the Praetorian Swordsmen leader, whom I call Hangy McFlag, spends roughly a minute trying to decide which of the two to charge. In the end, he charges the liberator. The first two swordsmen kill the liberator, leaving Hangy hanging. Now it's all up to the single swordsmen who charged an undamaged Prospero. His charge hits, but the POW11 five dice attack does not kill Prospero. It takes that second sword to do the job. Zone cleared.
(Skorne Victory!)
Final Thoughts
- The scenario was a big deal - my opponent had no units at all. And I was playing an infantry-heavy caster.
- I feel that my turn 2 had a lot of mistakes. I kept the swordsmen way back, and they likely would have taken losses no worse had I run them forward and actually spaced out. Also, after carefully positioning my models behind the cloud, I ran the razor wurm right into it, giving the suppressor a beautiful spray target to spray all the models behind the cloud. Lastly, If I'd finished my turn with all the swordsmen or all the keltari in their zones, that could have been an additional point or two, granting victory a turn sooner.
- I really don't know whether holding Xerxes feat for as long as I did was a good decision or not. It ended up working, but if I'd been able to apply the feat when I had more than four models to do it with, it may have been better.
- The biggest inflection point was that decision on turn 3 to go for points rather than try to take out two Crucible Guard heavies.
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