Battle at Lund: Road to Invitationals #2 (#128): Haley3 vs Scaverous

:: Prologue ::

Back in November I had my first (and thus far only) encounter with Deneghra3. I realized during that game that she is probably way more dangerous in a competitive setting than people give her credit for. Assuming she isn't threatened at a distance she can be absolutely lethal. On Friday I observed one of the Danes who attended the Battle at Lund, Laurents, battling it out on a table next to me with Deneghra3 against Haley3. So when I draw Laurents for my second game on Saturday and I don't see Deneghra at all, I ask him what his lists are and why he's not playing Deneghra. The answer is quite simply that he wants to play something else, something a bit more... unique. I figure that this is a good shot at having a relaxed game and maybe not stress so much with performing so I simply ask him what he wants to play against and what he wants to play himself. He chooses Haley3 into Scaverous. We then roll for sides, he wins and takes first turn. The scenario is Incursion and I don't really care what happens, I just want to practice some with Haley3 and take a break from the tense gaming so I roll a dice to determine what side to play. We grab a couple of beers and start playing what turns out to be the most hilarious game I've ever played.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Prime Victoria Haley - WJ: +3
- Squire
- Charger - PC: 4
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Haley Future - PC: 0
Haley Past - PC: 0
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 2
Captain Maxwell Finn - PC: 3
Ragman - PC: 2
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire - PC: 4
Viktor Pendrake - PC: 2
Savio Montero Acosta - PC: 3
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Trencher Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
Horgenhold Forge Guard - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
- Captain Jonas Murdoch - Murdoch 2

Opponent:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous - WJ: +5
- Skarlock Thrall
- Deathripper - PC: 4
- Stalker - PC: 4
Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius - PC: 3
- Reaper - PC: 7
Wrong Eye - PC: 9
- Snapjaw
Warwitch Siren - PC: 2
Saxon Orrik - PC: 2
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters - Cylena & 9 Grunts: 10
The Withershadow Combine - Malevolus, Admonia, & Tremulus: 5
Mechanithralls - Leader & 5 Grunts: 3
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls - Necrosurgeon & 3 Grunts: 2

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

I don't know Scaverous, Stalker, Reaper, Wrong Eye or Snapjaw as I've never played any of them. Laurents explains it's a trick-list, i.e. one with many angles. I'm always eager to learn about new things so I'm excited for this game even if it's more relaxed than my previous ones have been. Case in question: There's an achievement award (i.e. you get to choose a small blister prize) if Saxon Orrik kills Viktor Pendrake or vice versa, so we decide to have these 2 fight it out near a building on the left flank while our forces clash in the middle.

I deploy Alexia with Storm Lances on the flank opposite his Nyss. The idea is to roll like a God, e-leap off of Arcane Shielded Alexia and get souls for Recursion. My plan, as per usual, is to win by attrition.

:: Game ::

Cryx run up, including the Nyss on the right side. I don't think anything else of importance happens.

In my eagerness to get the ball rolling on the right side I forget about junior and rush Alexia up. No Arcane Shield? No problem, imma e-leap those Nyss regardless! I just have to make the 8s to hit her and then roll super low to avoid hurting her. I declare my plan and Laurents says "go for it". Lo and behold, the dice gods love my plan as the first 3 Lances all hit their attacks and kill 3 Nyss with Alexia taking... 0 boxes! We laugh and shake our heads. I then move the rest of my forces and realize as I clock over to Laurents that I've probably been a bit too brave with Prime. For some reason she is in the open instead of behind cover, just 1" to her right. Clouds of invincibility?

Scaverous goes for the assassination run, naturally. Arc node runs in. Gorman throws black oil but misses. Laurents blames himself for forgetting Puppetmaster. Scaverous activates and feats. Icy grip on Haley. Miss. Icy grip on Haley. Hit. TK on Haley. Miss. TK on Haley. Miss. Laurents blames himself for forgetting Puppetmaster. TK on Haley. Hit! TK on Gorman to get him away. TK on Snapjaw to get him closer. Reaper activates, moves into clouds, boosts a shot on Haley with Drag. Miss. Laurents blames himself for forgetting Puppetmaster. Stalker tries to get an angle on Haley. Can't, because TK'd Gorman is in the way. THE WITHERSHADOW COMBINE ACTIVATES AND PUPPETMASTER IS CAST ON AIAKOS. Aiakos activates, moves into the clouds and shoots Haley. Snake eyes. Puppet Master re-roll. Miss. So with the dice gods loving me beyond belief, I am still alive.

Viktor takes his shot at Saxon and misses. Alexia and Lances start clearing things on the right flank. Haley runs for cover, thankful she got out alive (she certainly isn't thanking me for putting her in that spot). I jam the Forge Guard through the center and use Past to start clearing stuff out with them. Too bad 4 of them are black oiled following Gorman's fail-shot. I figure it'll be fun sending them to their doom so they move up as well.

Snapjaw tries for Murdoch but ends up being too far away. Withershadow try for the Charger only to realize he's in a trench and thus DEF17. Forge Guard get slaughtered.

I'm winning the right flank but middle is becoming desperate. I think I feat this turn and bring back Forge Guard to take out Wrongeye or something. I leave the Charger in place because I want to see if Laurents can make a Cryx jack out of him, plus he's contesting a flag (given my lead and control on the right though I largely consider the game to be over at this point in time so it's largely to give the Withershadow a juicy target). I kill Cryx in the middle but leave Scaverous alone. He needs souls I've been told.

Scaverous moves up and starts threshering Dwarfs left, right and center. Withershadow charge the Charger and realize that +4 DEF from trench doesn't work against melee attacks. They are very happy as they bring him down to ~10 boxes. Saxon Orrik holds his ground, happy he took care of Pendrake.

Laurents was so happy he'd set a new record for souls on Scaverous but was sure I'd kill him for his troubles. I had no such intentions. Time to run for the hills! Prime ditches Past + Future, pulls off of the Squire and runs to the right flag with Arcane Shield for ARM26. No more assassinations! Her trusty army forms up a protective layer in front of her and I move to 4-0.

Withershadow kill the Charger and suddenly there's a Stalker on the table again. We laugh, Laurents kills things in the middle with his infinite soul-focus and I move to 5 CP on my flag.

Victory to the Dice Gods!

:: Evaluation ::

I don't know if there's much to say about this game from a serious perspective. Obviously putting Haley in the open was a stupid move but apart from that there's not a whole lot that happened in this game that wasn't done on purpose to create crazy situations. When Scaverous spends his entire feat and half his army on a failed assassination run he is so massively down that it hardly matters what I do as long as it's semi-sensible and with the huge start against the Nyss on the right I could score early and easily to secure a win. Throughout the game though we did manage to have more than a good share of fun. 

Laurents runs his own blog/website over at www.overseer.dk. He's already written up a summary of his experiences from Battle at Lund and you can read them here if you're interested: link. Rumor has it he spent the Saxon Orrik kills Pendrake achievement to get a Squire and he is now starting Cygnar! Great success :)