By Wild

Wild here again, and I’ve got us another battle report in preparation for Crucible. For this tournament Rhyas’ full Rearguard theme list was in, as was Thagrosh the Messiah with the Archangel. The tournament was also notable for us as being the final event before we go to Crucible, and several of us were preparing, including two of my opponents. Once again, I forgot to take pictures, but luckily for my 2nd round, Anthony from Frozen Kommander was my opponent and took pictures of the end of each turn starting from his 1st turn. Check out his youtube channel here. That out of the way, time to go over the two lists I’m running.

List One: Rearguard theme force, Tier 4

• Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight

• Succubus

• Nephilim Soldier

• Typhon

• Shredder

• Blighted Nyss Swordsmen 10-man

• Swordsmen Abbot and Champion

• Blighted Ogrun Warspears 5-man

• Blighted Warspear Chieftan

• Blighted Ogrun Warspears 5-man

• Blighted Warspear Chieftan

• Blighted Nyss Shpeard

• Warmonger War Chief

• Warmonger War Chief

Coming in at 50 points, Rearguard acts as not only my infantry list, but also my “Hold the Line” list. There are 3 major points to this tier. The first is at Tier 1, Stealth for the entire army turn 1. This alone wouldn’t sound so bad if Tier 4 didnt exist: All Blighted Ogrun models gain Advance Deployment. That’s 14 models 13-16” already in from the board edge….and stealthed. Heavy Infantry no less. Tier 3 is the icing on the cake, allowing Rhyas to place her Upkeep spells Occultation and Rapport for free before deployment. Standing in at FURY 5, this allows her to have both spells out and cast Dash out on Turn 1, allowing with proper placement her entire infantry army a SPD Buff. Her warbeasts don’t benefit, but since Typhon and the others are acting as a second line along with the Swordsmen, this is not an issue. Now the other list:

List Two: Thagrosh the Messiah

• Thagrosh the Messiah

• Archangel

• Succubus

• Carnivean

• Shredder

• Shredder

• Shredder

• Spawning Vessel

• Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters

• Bayal, Hound of Everblight

And here is my secondary, the beast heavy Thagrosh list. With the inclusion of the Archangel and the Carnivean, Thagrosh has the Hex Hunters as advance forces, though it does have skornergy in that Thagrosh is an Abomination, and the Hex Hunters + the Succubus are not. It’s a dangerous combination. Their job is to break through and assassinate the target, especially with Rabid + Manifest Destiny.

With three rounds, my opponents were Trolls, Khador, and Trolls again. Sadly I did not get a chance to get the list for my first round, but I’ll go over and fill in as much as I can. On to round 1.

Round 1: Scenario – Incursion

An old favorite, this scenario changed from last year. The middle flag no longer disappears, though it doesn’t score as much, whether you dominate it or not it’s still the same. The outer flag if you dominate it is worth 2 points. As for the opponent’s list, in advance I must apologize, as I am missing about 8 points, working completely from memory. Also all the pictures for round 1 will be through vassal, so they’re approximations.

• Grissel Bloodsong, Marshal of the Kriels

• Troll Axer

• Troll Impaler

• Dire Troll Mauler

• Trollkin Runebearer

• Krielstone Bearer and Stonescribes

• Krielstone Elder

• Trollkin Warders 5-man

• Trollkin Warders 5-man

• Janissa Stonetide

• Stone Scribe Chronicler

Opting to go first, my Rhyas list is selected against this matchup. With Rhyas in the middle, my Swordsmen took the right while my Ogrun AD into the left and right flanks, with the War Chiefs directly in front of Rhyas. Swordsmen get their stealth and Typhon maintains his Rapport. His force mirrors my own with Grissel staying in the middle along with the Bearer unit behind and to the right, while the Warders stay on the flanks. The units directly opposing my own are their prey. Aside from one forest, terrain never came up.

End of turn 1 comes up and he has popped his feat in anticipation of the Warspears coming in.

Round 2 begins, and the left flag disappears, leaving only the right flag. The Warspears are fully walking into a wall against their prey, it was just a matter of could they break the brick. The combination of Assault, Charge Attacks, Prey and the number that could see the War Chiefs….resulted in the right flank holding their line, while the left flank lost more hitboxes and at least one death. The presence of the feat, their battle-driven, and the Krielstone made sure they weren’t breaking or losing anyone. The feat was also in play, and the combination of attacks ate away at my deathclock, leaving me with 30 minutes left. This was in direct opposition to my opponent’s, who had still 50 minutes. Also at all times, Janissa placed a wall in the way, I’m just being lazy to show it but it is there as an influence. I did however end my turn with the Nephilim Soldier basing the flag, forcing a response from my opponent and controlling the tempo of the game.

On his turn, the War Chiefs are quickly dispatched of and the Swordsmen fall under attack by Grissel. Grissel also lands attacks by Rhyas, not hitting her directly however. The Shepard and Succubus both fall quickly in the blasts. The Mauler is the only one capable of responding to the Soldier in the end, and is forced to deal with the light, and kill it. It was also the only warbeast in dangerous distance of Grissel. Janissa prevents a potential assassination with her wall.

Round 3 begins, and Typhon quickly deals a lot of damage but not killing the Mauler. Rhyas sees to that and steals the precious fury. Sprinting back to base to base with the flag, she makes a nearly critical mistake of keeping Occultation on her Swordsmen, though with other targets and priority its unknown which was the wiser move. The left flank forces the side to fold up more, but they’re keeping the body count even. The right flank however slowly with their heavily damaged side keeps dwindling the Wardens, thanks to the arrival of the Swordsmen. However the aura prevents a total collapse of the right flank. I do score a point for dominating the flag. Legion 1-0

Back to the Trollbloods, and with a combination of transfers and shots, force Rhyas to transfer to Typhon, and Typhon is eventually killed along with the Shredder. The Warspears on the left lose more, down to two men. The Axer and Krielstone bearers are in the fray now, tearing and jamming it up. Note by now most of the Swordsmen are dead, how many actually survived, I do not remember. But the Prey is kept as the Warspears who did not take the brunt on the right side barely get damaged. Of special note is an AOE that did not hit Rhyas but did create a patch of rough terrain at a point between herself and Typhon before he died. I am no longer in control of the point, but nothing is in base to base.

Round 4, and endgame is upon us. My force is no longer capable of taking out the caster. However, my front line did do something, prevent the Trolls from advancing to the flags. The right flag is unmolested, and while unable to be reached by Dash, is capable of a full sprint from Rhyas to get there. Knowing that my army can last for one more turn and is much faster, I put it into motion. Of EXTREME Special note is the time at the start of this round: 10 minutes left. Only critical movements were done, as the last Swordsmen fought and killed Krielstone Bearers. The Axer is the only thing capable of contesting it at this point, and is not a heavy warbeast.

His turn consists of killing the last few swordsmen left in the way of the Axer, and running the Axer to get close to Rhyas, preventing the Final 2 points as I dominated and scored for 3-0 on my turn.

The final round, and with only 5 minutes left Rhyas cuts herself for her 5, and kills the Axer. The sprint caps the objective and ends the game. Time left: 3 minutes on my clock, about 17 left on his.

The second round coming soon….