#scaverous

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Battle Report - Cryx Vs Skorne

I got to try out my 35p experimental Scaverous list against a Skorne list the other week. It was my first time playing against a Skorne list (besides the battlebox) and was an eye-opening experience. The lists were as follows:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous (*5pts) * Ripjaw (5pts) * Ripjaw (5pts) * Erebus (8pts) * Skarlock Thrall (2pts) Croe's Cutthroats (Croe and 9 Grunts) (10pts) Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts) Warwitch Siren (2pts)

And the Skorne (As best as I can remember):

Supreme Aptimus Zaal & Kovaas (*5pts) * Cyclops Brute (5pts) * Molik Karn (11pts) * Titan Gladiator (8pts) Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts) Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts) Agonizer (2pts) Hakaar the Destroyer (4pts)

The board was relatively clean, with an open field in the middle, a pond of shallow water to the right and some forests to the left. My opponent won the roll and chose to deploy first, staying in the middle of the board with his infantry leading the way with Molik Karn to the right. I deployed with pistol wraiths and Croes on my left to take advantage of the forests whilst the rest of my force were grouped more to the right. Putting the pistol wraiths so far away was my first mistake as they were too far away to do much. At the end of his first turn he had ran everything up the middle of the field.

End of Skornes first turn. (Just like he performed in game, Erebus was 'armless)

I assigned a focus to a Rip-Jaw and ran him up to start arcing some spells. It would end up a suicide-run, but if I could cripple his infantry and  kill Molik Karn it would be well worth it. Scaverous activated and cast Telekinesis to make Molik assume the position. It hit, and the cyclops was turned around to present his finer side to the Cutthroats. Scaverous then cast Icy grip on the Nihilators to prevent them from charging. I only needed a 6 to hit but had excess focus and was a pretty critical spell so I decided to boost. I rolled a 5, giving me less 'six' than a slow Kiwi and fast sheep.

I ignored the looming nihilator threat and moved 4 of Croes men out of the forest to get within range of Molik. With backstab and poison they would roll 4 dice each and only needed 6's to hit. Again I rolled 5's. Two of the cuthroats hit andall but killed Molik. If just one more had hit, he would have been history. The warwitch siren moved up and attempted to finish Molik off with venom and failed and Gorman tried and failed to deviate an acid bomb on him. The rest of the force moved up, the skarlock put death ward on Erebus and I waited to see how much I would lose.

End of Cryx first turn.

Skorne put out a lot of damage this turn, which cooincided with me learning that Nihilators have berserk, and that Zaal's spell Last Stand gives them an additional dice for attack and damage rolls. I've read a lot about other factions and always thought I had a decent grasp on what each was capable of - not in this case. I did learn an important lesson (after the game) though - If you don't know your opponent well, READ THE DAMN CARDS. Molik turned around and started whacking at the Ripjaw closest to it. He chunked it pretty well despite having a crippled body leaving it with two boxes. The Nihilators would charge next, with one finishing the job on the Ripjaw. One went for the croes that had taken shots at Molik and another managed to get within range of the siren and Gorman with reach. With Last Stand active they didn't have a chance. Finally the Agoniser ran up and used the effect which prevented casting and arcing inside it's aura. I was in trouble.

End of Skorne turn 2. Ouch.

Reeling from the losses I needed to kill something to regain some moral. To this end my remaining Ripjaw charged Molik but missed. Erebus walked up and beat the Agoniser down putting an end to the no-spells business. Without an arc-node, Scaerous advanced and popped his feat and shot at Molik with excarnate, hitting and finally killing the beast. With the arc-node now free I again cast Excarnate at a Nihilator, but he made a tough roll (They have tough? READ THE DAMN CARDS). My final focus went to casting icy grip on the Nihilators again, and against all odds I managed to hit the 6 on 3 dice. The pistol wraiths advanced and figured they could take some souls. They killed 3 Nihilators between them (a fourth made tough), but couldn't claim any souls due to Zaals ability to determine where they go (They went to Hakaar). READ THE DAMN CARDS. I attempted to regroup Croes by moving them behind Scaverous.

At this point my opponent felt sorry for me and pointed out that Hakaar the Destoyer had Righteous Vengence and could advance because I killed the Nihiliators. I panicked, and successfully blocked him from charging the Wraiths by moving the Skarlock up and Telekinesing a Nihilator in front of him. All I succedeed in doing though was opening up a charge lane for Hakaar to an un-camped Scaverous.

End of Cryx turn 2 and the beginning of the end

Hakaar took his vengeance move and lined himself up to charge Scaverous. Zaal advanced and popped his feat, which let him use an ancestral spirit token (he got one for each warrior model that died) to boost and models attack or damage. Hakaar then charged, using the combination of his three soul tokens and the numerous ancestral spirits to put out 5 fully boosted attacks on Scaverous. As tanky as the Scav-Man is there was no way short of extremely poor dice he was going to make it out of that one.

Victory Skorne.

It was an enjoyable game as always, and in case I didn't mention it before, I learned a valuable lesson: READ THE DAMN CARDS. I need to experiment more with the Scaverous list but I have a core:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous (*5pts) * Arc-nodes (8-10pts) * Skarlock Thrall (2pts) Croe's Cutthroats (Croe and 9 Grunts) (10pts) Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts)

This gives me 10-12 points to play with with some options I have been considering:

Helldiver (3pts) Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (9pts)

Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts) * Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts) Warwitch Siren (2pts)

I do like the Erebus and death ward combo giving Cryx Khador level armor and it (along with a siren) can mow through infantry. Wrong Eye gives me a heavy that won't drain Scaverous for focus and adds an extra assasination threat with the helldiver (burrow behind the enemy caster to set up a slam and knockdown). Bane thralls help me deal with armor and with Death Ward up gives me ARM 17 stealthy models with tough and Scaverous can put out 3 excarnates on feat turn to bring them back. Guess I just need to play around a bit more and see which suits me.

READ THE DAMN CARDS!

Steve-O

[whoredmachine-blog]

25p Scaverous Initial Thoughts + Battle Report

I got my first game with Scaverous in on the weekend. It was only a single 25 point game, so I can't write too much about him - but I really like his kit. I ran:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous (*5pts) * Ripjaw (5pts) Croe's Cutthroats (Croe and 9 Grunts) (10pts) Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (5pts) Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls (2pts) Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts)

It wasn't really optimised but gave me an insight to how Scaverous works and how powerful Telekinesis is. I was playing against an experimental Legion team led by eThagrosh. By memory he had something like this:

Thagrosh, the Messiah (*3pts) * Shredder (2pts) * Shredder (2pts) * Teraph (5pts) Throne of Everblight (9pts) Blighted Nyss Archers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts) * Blighted Nyss Archers Officer & Standard (2pts)

First turn he moved everything up with his Teraph further up-field due to advance move. It was also in cover from digging in. I assigned one focus to the Ripjaw and he ran within range of the Teraph. Scaverous then cast TK at the Teraph arcing through the Ripjaw. It took two boosted casts to hit, but I did, pulling it out of cover and turning it around to assume the position.

The rest of my force ran up and it was his turn. I thought that after how Croes had their way with the rear of his Teraph he would pack it in. I was wrong. His archers, with their UA were able to fire twice each at the Mechanithralls. With the aiming bonus, they were rolling 4's to hit and anything bar snake-eyes to kill. He got half-way through them and was only up to his 4th archer, so rather than roll each time, we just agreed that the thralls would make like the Teraph and go seek some counselling. The shredders and throne advanced and eThagrosh hung back.

My turn, and the first pistol wraith moved up and targeted the Throne. He hit all his shots, including the death chill and the throne had to sacrifice his movement or action. Gorman followed, lobbing a black oil which easily hit taking out the other side of the Throne's action. The Throne would do nothing on the next turn. The other pistol wraith took a shot at a shredder and did some damage, but missed his chill attack. The Ripjaw advanced towards the archers.

Scaverous stepped up and had to do something about the archers. So he popped his feat and went to town slinging spells. Icy Grip was cast first for 1 focus (cheaper because of his feat) to lower their defence. It hit, and he was free to cast two feast-of-worms. The archers were clustered so they could take the maximum amount of shots at the thralls and the 4 inch AOE's wiped out 3 quarters of the force. Croes moved up and took out the shredders. It was looking grim for eThagrosh.

The rest of the match was pretty uneventful. eThagrosh accepted defeat and humbly moved himself forward to assume the position. Scaverous TK'd and cast feast of worms to lower his armor. The remaining Croes who missed out on the Teraph charged and rolled 5 dice for damage. Ouch.

TK is possibly the best spell in the Warmachine game that I've encountered so far. Not only does it add to threat ranges, but can be treated as a -2 DEF debuff as well. Extra utility comes from denying the enemy - facing the wrong way not only prevents charges but forces ranged enemy's to give up their aiming bonus. The synergy with Croes is great too - It basically gives you RAT 7 Weapon Masters. One thing that was lacking was infantry clear - I managed it with Scaverous, but I really needed one or two Warwitch Sirens to spray boosted venom on his feat turn.