Yesterday was the second Intermountain Cup held for the Utah/Idaho meta! Here is a rundown of my games and my opponents. This is as accurate as I can remember but I'm pretty sure I missed a few things.
First up as promised in my last post are my lists.
Vice Scrutator Vindictus
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
-Hierophant
Knights Exemplar Errants (Max)
-Errant Officer and Standard Bearer
Knights Exemplar Errants (Max)
-Errant Officer and Standard Bearer
Holy Zelots (Max)
-Monolith Bearer
Choir of Menoth (Min
Knight Exemplar Errant Seneschal
The Tier bonuses are great!
Tier 1: All models gain Pathfinder
Tier 2: A second Knights Exemplar Errant UA for free!
Tier 3: +1 to Starting roll
Tier 4: Heavy jacks in battlegroup Advance Deploy
This is great as the only models who have normal deployment are Vindictus, Choir, Zealots and the Hierophant. Having this much AD with a caster that boost speed means my army is sitting on objectives turn 1! Also the pathfinder to my heavy jacks means I get them where they need to be on the first turn no problem!
Also of important note is the spell denial aspect of the list. If I want I can make everything but Vindictus, the Choir and the Seneschal immune to spells on a turn.
Harbinger of Menoth
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
-Hierophant
Vessel of Judgement
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanik
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance
Choir of Menoth (Min)
Knights Exemplar Errants (Max)
-Errant Officer and Standard Bearer
Knights Exemplar
This list is great against hordes. With a giant Purification radius and a feat that outright kills most infantry if they advance it has a lot of denial. Also the Ashen Veil stacks with Awe so living models are at minus 4 to hit if engaging a Reckoner! Lots of beasts can’t deal with that! The Vessel of Judement is an amazing scenario piece as one of the miracles just pushes things out of zones like no one’s buisness. Also the POW 15 boostable gun is nothing to sneeze at either. Combined with the Reckoners and Vassals I can get 3 POW 15 fully boosted shots and 2 POW 15 non-boosted shots plus the D3 POW 10 bounces that can be boosted as well. All with only 4 focus invested from my caster! This list can play havoc on a slow army. I’ve taken Heavies off the table in a round of shooting with this list!
In my last post I know I was talking about a ton of casters for my 3rd choice but I finally settle on this one
Grand Scrutator Severius
-Blessing of Veangence
-Reckoner
-Hierophant
Avatar of Menoth
Vessel of Judgement
The Covenant of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanik
Vassal Mechanik
Choir of Menoth (Min)
Knights Exemplar Errants (Max)
-Errant Officer and Standard Bearer
Wracks
I felt like I had the necessary pieces with this list but I just wasn’t sure about it. I really wanted to try the Avatar with Defender’s Ward and all the other pieces were amazing with Eye of Menoth. Also being able to cast Ashes to Ashes twice a turn is a pretty good infantry clearer along with the Vessel of Judgement. This was definitely my weakest list as far as my ability to play and I think that will come into effect later.
Onto the games!
Game 1
Opponent: Jacob Faction:Ret Store: ?(Provo) Scenario: Guantlet
So I’m a little sketchy on everything being brought so bear with me if I’m wrong. His three casters were Vyros, Kaelyssa and Rhan. He ended up choosing Kaelyssa.
Kaelyssa
-Banshee
-Discordia
-Sphynx
Dawnguard Sentinels
-Sential Officer and Standard
Houseguard Halberdiers
-Halberdier Officer and Standard
Arcanist
Arcanist
Eiryss, Angel of the Retribution
I chose Vindictus as he is really strong against Vyros and Kaelyssa with the reliance on troops he had and would just plain shut Rhan down with the anti spells available to the list.
He wins first turn and moves his troops up my left side with Halberdiers moving fast and getting ready for a possible 2 turn charge with the Sentinels moving slowly up the middle. All 3 jacks move up my right side with focus and power booster from the Arcanists and Eiryss doing an extreme flanking maneuver to my right into a forest.
I deploy each unit of Errants on a wing with my Jacks in the middle to move where I need to put them to counter his. Everything else is pretty much just behind all this. I put a focus onto each Reckoner and cast Sac Lamb on a Zealot to bring all jacks up to 2 focus and Defenders Ward onto the Errants opposing the Houseguard and pop feat. I end up shooting the Pheonix(?) setting it on fire with a crit twice and Discordia once. The Errants on the left end up moving up and shooting the front rank of the Halberdiers and just 1 or 2 sentinels triggering Veangence next turn which I don’t mind since I have the feat up.
Next turn he uses his Veangence move and gets into position to charge, rolls a bit of fire damage onto his Pheonix. He charges 2 Sentinals into one of the Reckoners and does good amount of damage with the first. I inform him he takes a damage from the feat which kills that model and declines to make further attacks. He then moves his Halberdiers up to engage the Errants on the left. Eiryss stays in the forest while his jacks move up and start shooting doing decent damage on 2 Reckoners and a spray from Discordia which kills 3 Errants on the right. He walks the Pheonix up and hits one of the Reckoners a couple of times doing enough damage to take out a Cortex and movement and doing enough damage to itself to take out its field boxes.
I give Reckoners some focus and sit back. The Errants on the left start manhandling the Housegaurd. The Errants on my right charge and bring Discordia down to 6-7 boxes and Eiryss but fails to hit.. I walk one of my Reckoners to engage both his other heavies and proceed to smack the Phoeonix but roll small on damage and don’t wreck it but do enough to take out the generator this time. I send the Seneschal in to do some damage but he misses the assault and the charge.
He digs in with the Sentinals and takes out a few Errants but the Seneschal keeps sacking the hits from his Banshee to other Errants. Discordia kills one Errant and and Eiryss hits with both initials but doesn’t damage. Kaelyssa shoots an Errant and hangs back.
This turn the Zealots move up and bomb the Sentinal Standard bearer since he has no weapon and cannot be engaged. It takes 3 ti finally clear them out but it does free up the Seneschall to Assault forward and kill the lone Arcanist left in the back of the Zone and the Reckoners move up and smash the Banshee and Pheonix while the Errants on the right finish off Eiryss and Discordia. I score a CP.
Kaelyssa and Wyshnailer are the last 2 models left and move into the zone to prevent another point.
I charge the Errants and Seneschal into his caster and end the game.
Win
Game 2
Opponent: Jay Larsen Faction: Cryx Store: Gameopolis (IF) Scenario: Destruction
This round my opponent was Jay Larsen of Chain Attack fame! His 3 lists are eSkarre, pSkarre and eGaspy. Even though I played Vindictus last round I felt that this would be my best list as I have seen Jay play eSkarre on this scenario every time he was able to Since I figured my non-targetable by spells army would prevent too many Perdition shenanigans. Guess what? He chose eSkarre.
Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast
-Deathjack
-Nightmare
-Arcnode(does it really matter which one?)
Satyxis Raiders
-Sea Witch
Pistol Wraith
Satyxis Raider Captain
Rorch and Brine (AKA Baby Bacon and Ninja Pig)
Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls
Warwitch Siren
Ragman
Jay goes first.
Sets up with the Raiders on my left with the Capain, Nightmare and Arcnode next to them. Skarre in the middle next to Ninja pig and Deathjack to the right with the Pistol Wraith on the far right. Nightmare’s prey is the Errants on the left.
I set up very similar to my last game with the Reckoners mostly to the right to protect my objective.
Jay moves the Deathjack up a few inches, extreme flanking maneuver with the Pistol Wraith. Moves laterlaly with the Satyxis but still with bob and weave. Nightmare moves up behind a wall as does the Arcnode and Skare who casts some armor buff on the Deathjack. I feel he is making sure he gets into range to perdition 1 or 2 jacks into the midsts of my guys.
I give each Reckoner a focus and move up cast Defeders Ward onto the Errants opposing the Raiders and pop Feat. I move up the Errants with DW to about 13 inches out from the Nightmare and shoot 1-2 shots into the Raiders but miss. Choir does Hymn of Battle on the jacks and thanks to AD they all get boosted shots on the Deathjack! The first goes and does about 5 damage and I’m feeling good. The second rolls all 1s! the last goes and does about 4 damage. The Errants on the right move up and jam around my jacks and objective and one takes a pop shot at the Pistol Wraith hiding in the forest.
Jay takes a few minutes and realizes I’ve forgotten to block complete line of sight through the masses of spell immune troops to my caster! He power boosts the Arcnode which runs all the way up in front of my line. He has Skarre cast Perdition into Vindictus and misses but boosts after the fact and hits, does about 4 damage and moves the Deathjack up, pops feat and picks his objective, Skarre, Ninja Pig and Baby Bacon and the Deathjack. Deathjack moves into combat with 2 of my Reckoners. He rolls fire and takes out my Cortex on the first one and does a lot on the second one, he swings at an Errant but keeps Self Sacrificing to prevent a soul tokens and healing. The pistol Wraith moves up Shoots one Errant which kills and is short on the next. Baby Bacon performs diversionary tactics and they move up and Ninja Pig charges into the Third Reckoner and Does decent damage. I remember all damage from feat except on the Deathjack so he doesn’t take nearly enough damage from all the swings he does.
I honestly don’t remember what I do this turn other than killing the Pistol Wraith and jam move around the objective. I might have shot at a few Raiders. Oh, I did the no spells on my jacks but am 1/2” short on 1.
Ninja Pig Frenzies and takes out the Reckoner he is engaged withs beat stick.This turn the Deathjack moves up and beats more on my Reckoners and brings 1 down to just a single Cortex box left and goes through enough Errants to get 1 soul token and heal 6 boxes! He also casts the Feedback spell on the Reckoner without a cortex. Baby Bacon shoots and misses twice on Errants. The Raiders finally charge and lucky for me he only gets 2 over the wall the Reckoner with feedback on him, he actually misses quite a few of the attacks due to Ashen Veil and the wall so I feel pretty good but he did do about 6 points of damage due to double feedbacks. He kills about 3 more Errants with the rest of the Raiders.
This turn I drop Defenders Ward and recast on Vindictus and give 2 focus to the Reckoner with just the cortex and use the Choir for Hymn. That Reckoner proceeds to Headbutt with boosted hit on the Deathjack. I then charge the Errants in on the right and get about 4 on him and 2 on Rorch. Both miss on Rorch and the rest do decent damage onto the Deathjack. The Reckoner without a cortex smaks the Deathjack and leaves him with 1 box on his Cortex! The raiders are stuck in and kill a few with the Errants. The Officer and Senechal both charge Ninja Pig and both miss. But on one of the charges that kills a Satyxis I get a lucky shot on the Sea Witch and kill her! The Zealots pop Great Destiny move up and lob bombs after lots of bad damage roll one finally kills the Deathjack and I kill 1 or 2 more Satyxis.
The Seawitch moves up and gets a good spray onto a non errant gets about 3 kills with this. The other Raiders still plink at the Reckoner but are only doing damage about every 3 hits. Skarre moves up and casts Perdition on a Zealot and uses this to move up Nightmare to finish off the Errants on the right who were it’s prey. He switches prey to the Zealots.
I kill Ragman with some Errants and heal Vindictus up a bit and move as far as I can to my right since Jay is down to about 2 minutes on time and hope its enough. I move the Zealots to try and bomb the Nightmare but forget about Perdition and he moves to engage. I end up killing one of my own Zealots and do minimal if any damage to the Nightmare.
Skarre loads up the Nightmare with focus and uses spells to free him up from combat with a Perdition and has the Nightmare go over to indictus and take him down in 2 shots
Loss
Game 3
Opponent: Mike O’Donnal Faction: Cryx Store: Heebee Geebees(Logan) Scenario: Process of Elimination
I apologize, I honestly don’t remember what his other lists were. I just remember that eGaspy hadn’t been chosen yet so I figured it would be him. I figured Severius could handle this.
Lichlord Aspyhxious
-Slayer
-Arcnode
-Cankerworm
Skarlock
Bane Thralls (Min)
-Bane Thrall Officer and Standard
Bane Knights (Min)
Bile Thralls (Min)
Banelord Tartarus
Pistol Wraith
Gorman DiWolfe, Rogue Alchemist
Darragh Wraithe
I go first and put out Eye of Menoth on Sevi, Vision on the Blessing and Defenders Ward on the Avatar. Everybody then runs up to the zones.
Mike moves everybody up with the node and pistol wraith going to my right around a forest with the banes up the middle with the big jack and the Knights up my left with the Cankerworm. Asyphxious cast Hellbound and some clouds.
I give my Reckoner 2 focus and have the Blessing move up close to his Arcnode. I cast Ashes to Ashes on his node and get 3 additional bounces and do about 8 damage to his node, kill the Pistol Wraith and 2 Bile Thralls. I have the Errants move up through the forest and get shots on 3 Biles and kill but leave 1 left alive while I curse myself for this. The Avatar moves up and Gazes behind a wall at the Bane Thralls. He also gets Enlivened. Here is where I screw up. I look at the Vessel and choose to have it sit where it’s at and shoot, I have the option to go after Bane Thralls or Knights and choose Thralls... who have Stealth... it misses and ends its activation. The Reckoner hits his arcnode and does decent damage but leaves it with its arcnode intact. I have the Vassal give Ancillary attack and the Reckoner kills it.
The Biles end up Purging and kill most of the Errants. The Warwith Siren moves up and engages but fails to kill an Errant. Daragh moves up and cast Deathride. Tartarus goes up and curses and hits the Avatar doing a little damage. The Bane Thralls move up and get 2 charges on the Avatar who walks Away from first from Enliven. The Knights move up and beat on my Vessel and has the Cankerworm finish him off. Asyphxious moves up and hides behind some clouds.
I drop Vision and cast Ashes to Ashes twice but only get 3 additiona hits in total, not a happy camper. Avatar moves over and kills his Slayer and Tartarus. My Mechanik heals him a bit. The Errants kill a few banes. The Covenant moves over and starts performing it’s No Magic Action.
Mike moves Asyphyxious up and tries to get his Thralls a line on the Avatar but still only gets 2 on him and does enough to take his sword out but he enlivens away next to my Mechanik. Cankerworm gets ready for possible charges next turn.
I get the Avatar healed up a bit. Cast Ashes to Ashes once and again get 1 additional. I forget to cast again and move away as I’m trying desperately to figure out how to kill more things. The Avatar kills a few more thralls but they make quite a few tough checks. The Covenant moves over and doe no magic. Asyphxious moves up and pops feat but can’t teleport away but still gets enough weapon masters to put Severius into the dirt.
Loss
Game 4
Opponent: Bryan Faction: Trollbloods Store: Heebee Geebees(Logan) Scenario:?
His lists are Grim Angus, eDoomshaper, and pMadrack(?)
He hasn’t used his Grim Angus list so he chooses that while I take the Harbinger since I also hadn’t taken her and thought she was my best list against Hordes.
Grim Angus
-Blitzer Dire Troll
-Rok
-Impaler
-Earthborne Dire Troll
Whelps
Scattergunners
Thumper Cannon and Crew
Sons of Bragg
Fell Caller
I go first with with the Vessel of Judgement to the far right of my deployment zone my Reckoners next to him and the Harby next to the jacks. All the support is behing this wall with my Knights Exemplar on my left. The Errants and Nicia are right on the edge of my deployment zone to the far right so that they can run into the zone turn 1 and contest for the rest of the game. Essentially everything runs forward and pop feat.
Bryan has his most of his units skirt the edge of my control radius and has the Scattergunners move up onto a hill and get Dirge of Mists.
I move up into my scoring Zone and have Nicia go up, kill a Scattergunner and spint back. Vilmon moves up into the zone and Impervious Walls. (This is what he does for the rest of the game)
Bryan moves up and shoots at my Reckoners and doesn’t deal much damage. He gets lots of his models ready for a good alpha or countercharge next turn. I score a control point.
I move up and have my Reckoners pop 1 of the Sons of Bragg and have the Vessel shoot down some Scattergunnes with help from Nicia and the Errants. The Scattergunners fail a command check and flee. I score another point.
Bryan has Rok charge and kill 2 Errants with his spray and does decent damage onto the Vessel. The Sons of Bragg charge into the Errants and kill a few. The Scattergunners fail to rally. The Earthborne moves up and kills a few Errants. The Blitzer moves up and kills does some damage onto one of the Reckoners. He gets a whelp into the control zone but decides to call it as there is no way for me to not win at this point.
I think Bryan played well but was just unfamiliar with his list and played overcautiously because of it. I think with more practice time and scenario play he will improve drastically.
Win
Game 5, final round and last chance to match my previous record of 3-2
Opponent: Spencer Faction: Trollbloods Store: Heebee Geebees(Logan) Scenario: Restoration
Again my memory fails me and I don’t remember his other lists. He ends up taking Calandra and I take the Harbinger again.
Calandra, Oracle of the Glimmerwood
-Dire Troll Bomber
-Dire Troll Bomber
Fennblades (Max)
-Fennblade Officer and Drummer
Kriel Warriars (Max)
-Kriel Standard Bearer and Piper
-3 X Caber Tossers
Jannissa Stonetide
Fell Caller Hero
I get to go first. I have my Errants and Nicia run up behind a wall in the middle of the zone with a Reckoner flanking each side. The Vessel of Judgement runs up on the right side just behind the zone and the Knight Exemplar run up the my left behind a wall. Harby runs up and Feats!
Spencer plays conservatively and has his models fan out at the edge of my control zone and I only kill 1 model with the Feat.
I give each Reckoner 2 focus and between this and Vassals I destroy the objective. Everything else just waits for the pain filled charge this turn. Vilmon gets into the zone and Impervious Walls.
Kriels charge in and kill 1 Exemplar, the Fennblades charge in and kill an Errant. I use the Vessel to have him Zombie kill one of the Fennblades. Awe really saved my bacon this turn. Everything else moves up cautiously. Big thing is Calandra cast Star Crossed
This turn I have the Harbinger cast Guided Hand on the Errants. With Guided Hand essentially crossing out Star Crossed, Errants start killing Kriels and Fennblades. They actually do more damage by shooting than in melee stangely enough. I’m able to kill a Caber off. Vilmon impervious walls and kills a Fennblade. Nicia kills one of the Sons of Bragg. The Vessel uses a miralce to get clear of Melee and kill some Fennblades. I clear the zone and score my first point.
This turn Spencer makes a come back! Calandra Feats! He gets more bodies into the zone to contest. the Sons of Bragg move up and kill some Errants. The Fennblades continue to work on the Errants and the Vessel of Judgement. He befuddles one of my Reckoners out and has him turned around and destroys it.
I give one of my Reckoners 3 focus. Vilmon again Impervious walls and kills 1 Troll. The Vessel backs out and takes 2 free strikes and attempts to shoot a Fennblade to clear that side of the zone and even with boosted shots misses and ends up killing Vilmon! Nicea does some work and kill one of the Sons of Bragg and hides behind the wall again. The Knights Exemplar can’t kill the Kriel Warriors on the left part of the Zone because of tough! The Reckoner moves out to kill as many stray trolls as he can. I still can’t clear the zone! I charge a Mechanik in and he misses his attack! Harby drops a Cataclysm onto the Kriels and only kills 1 instead of 2, she camps the rest and flees!
The Calandra moves up and Befuddles my other Reckoner. Instead of charging in, the Bombers both shoot down my Reckoner and the tarpit of Menoth Vs Trolls starts going in Spencers Favor! Key notes for me thought: no Star Crossed this turn and no heavies in the zone!
No jacks mean Harby gets all her focus to herself. I decide with no star crossed up I can afford to use Cataclysm twice and boost twice on damage if necessary. The Vessel of Judgement moves up and uses the push miracle to free my get 2 Fennblades out of the zone and the Fell Caller hero off of my Errant Officer. He then shoots the Fell Caller and boosts and gets 1 additional bounce, I boost all damage rolls and kill the Fell Caller and make the last Son of Bragg take a tough check which he passes! I send my Errant Officer and the other last Errant over and kill the Son of Bragg on the ground. The Knights Exemplar have to kill 2 Kriel Warriors to clear the zone for my last control point to win by scenario. Because of the wreck marker from one of my own Reckoners I can only engage one of the important Kriels. I kill him. I have 2 models left to activate that have a decent chance of killing the Kriels, Nicia and Harby. I decided to have Nicia go first since she has essentially 3 chances to kill this last Krielwarrior. He only needs 1 hit and fails his tough check. I take a pot shot at Jannissa to try and get some extra points but leave her alive with 2 health. I end the turn, gain my last control point and end the game.
Win
Final Score 3-2
Placement: ? will update when the full results are out
I won best painted army!
Thoughts on the Tournament:
My best and worst games were both the ones I lost. Best was against Jay and my worst was against Mike. I’m not saying Mike didn’t soundly beat me but I just didn’t seem to have my head in the game and made some mistakes that Mike made sure I won’t do again in the future! lol
Nicia was my all star in the Harby list. With a possible 3 attacks and sprinting back to Awe protection she was usually DEF 18 against melee which made most people ignore her. The Vindictus Tier list is legite and makes running him very different. I don’t think I cast True Path more than 1 and never really felt like I needed to. Having so many models so far up the board before I begin makes this list ridiculously fast. I think I need to pick a different 3rd caster or play pSeverius a whole lot more, little mistakes with him are game ending!
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it. If facts are wrong its because I’m dumb and forgot, not because of any malice, so please correct me if I’m wrong.
Regards
Happypanda!
