Welcome back readers. Another Thursday night, another exciting game for the Skorne Empire. Lets get right to it!

This week I was matched up against Walter. He’s a fellow Cygnar player most of the time, but lately he’s been doing a bit of palette cleansing with the Convergence of Cyriss. Last time I played against his CoC was back in March, and his army of robots rolled over my trenchers pretty hard. So now its time for Skorne to get me some payback. I still don’t have a second list ready to drop on the table, so once again I’m rolling with my Morghoul 2 Disciples list. I’m enjoying it quite a lot, though I still wish I could create enough extra points to change the Farrow Bonegrinders into Valkyries.

Walter was playing in the Clockwork Legions theme, with Father Lucant leading his forces. Here is his list:

Father Lucant, The Divinity Architect (+28)

– Corollary (6)

– Inverter (15)

– Inverter (15)

Enigma Foundry (4/0)

Enigma Foundry (4/0)

Enigma Foundry (4/0)

Enigma Foundry (4)

Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex (2)

Clockwork Angels (5)

Clockwork Angels (5)

Clockwork Angels (5)

Obstructors (11)

Reciprocators (18)

Reductors (13)

Optifex Directive (4)

We rolled a random scenario and came up with Standoff. This scenario features two rectangular zones, horizontally aligned, each with a friendly objective in the center of it. There are also two circular zones outside of the central rectangle zones. We both chose the Stockpile objective for healing. Terrain was laid out and we rolled to start. Walter won the roll and chose to go first. He deployed his Obstructors off-center to my left and Lucant and his battle group off center to my right. His Reciprocators went to my far right. The Reductors backed up the Obstructors and the Enigma Foundries were spaced evenly between all of his units.

I countered with my Brigands opposite the Obstructors/Reductors. Then I had my Brute and Sentry flanking Morghoul, then the Shaman, Gladiator, and Blindwalker going out to the right. My Paingiver Taskmasters were spaced out behind the beast, and the Battle Boar was behind the Gladiator to the right. I put my Swamp Gobber chef behind the Brigands and the Bone Grinders behind Morghoul.

Walter advance deployed his Clockwork Angels to my far left, outside the obstructors. I countered with my Bloodrunner Master Tormentor opposite them, anticipating her meeting the ambushing Bloodrunners in the middle of a pile of dead Angels. Clockwork Legions grants advance move to all units with Shield Wall, which is a phenomenal benefit, so Walter walked his Obstructors and Reciprocators forward into shield wall, and the game was on. I almost forgot, but at the last minute I remembered to choose a prey target for my Brigands, and selected the Obstructors as my prey.

Turn 1A:

Walter started off by running. The Angels spread out, one unit going hard to the left flank, another going into the center, and the third going back behind his army to save for later. Obstructors walked forward into shield wall, Reductors moved up to counter attack anything that got into the Obstructors. The battle group moved forward just behind the zone. Lucant walked behind them and cast Discontinuity and Watcher. The Reciprocators configured for Set Defense and advanced into shield wall and the Enigma Foundries spread out to collect corpses.

Turn 1B:

Ok, so I’m not gonna kill as many of those Angels as I wanted. I think Walter forgot initially that I had an ambush unit. But, I still think its worth bringing them on and removing one unit at least. I apparition the Master Tormentor towards the Angels. Morghoul takes his apparition move straight forward as well. I ambush the Bloodrunners so that I can charge two onto each Angel, as I’ll need their gang bonus to hit the high def Clockwork ladies. Morghoul put Shadow play onto the Sentry and moved over into the rubble. Everything else ran forward. I sent the Battle Boar out to the right, as I was going to want Primal to take down the Reciprocators. The master tormentor ran towards the left so that all of the Bloodrunners would be in her +1 to hit CMD. Then, the Bloodrunners came out and scrapped the Clockwork Angels. They repositioned back to keep as many of them as possible out of charge range of the Obstructors.

Turn 2A:

Walter upkept both spells to start his turn. He sent the Obstructors forward and was able to get onto two Bloodrunners and kill them. The Reductors moved up to support them. One unit of Angels flew into the central forest. Both of his heavies moved to the right of his objective and moved base to base. Lucant walked up behind them and cast Deceleration, then popped his feat. This brings his army to +4 armor in melee, and +6 against Ranged and magic. Balls. The Reciprocators walked into the right zone, staying configured for set defense and receiving the shield wall order.

Turn 2B:

Ok, this is gonna be tough. His army is armor ridiculous at this point. He’s also kept his Obstructors far enough away that I can’t Hog Wild into him with the Brigands, they’re going to have to settle for just shooting. I’m debating just being cautious here and just holding back, but then I decide to go big or go home. I conceive a plan that’s either going to win me the game in the long term, or get me assassinated this turn. Normally, I don’t make this play. But, I’m learning, and I thought to myself, why the hell not? After taking my apparition moves and upkeeping Shadow play, I start with my Bone grinders. They give Morghoul craft talisman, for +2 range on a spell. Then, the Cyclops shaman moves forward and shoots down one of the Angels in the forest. Morghoul activates, casts a mortality onto the Obstructors, and hits. He then charges the left most Angel and murders her. With most of Walter’s army in my control area and LOS, I pop feat and end Morghoul’s activation camping 2 fury. Next, I trample my Titan Sentry forward to Morghoul’s right flank, protecting him from Inverters. I buy one attack with the Titan and splatter the blinded Angel. The Cyclops Brute then runs up to hold Morghoul’s left flank. I move my Blindwalker and Gladiator forward so that they’ll score my rectangular zone, and the Battle Boar nudges into the back of the right hand circle, denying a point for Walter. The Brigands move forward, and put as many shots as they can into the Obstructors, and kill a few before repositioning back. The Obstructors are armor 24 against shooting this turn (14 + 4 + 4 + 2). I’ve knocked two off of that with Mortality, and my Prey gives me another +2, but that leaves me needing a 9 on the dice to kill. I send the Master Tormentor in, and she threshers and kills two Obstructors, but unfortunately not the one right next to her, and she is unable to sprint back. The Bloodrunners charge into the Reductors and kill a few of them, though they’ll just come back next turn. .Finally, I shuffle my Beast Handlers around to manage fury and position themselves for free charges and enrage next turn. I score 1 here and manage to deny Walter scoring anywhere.

Turn 3A:

Walter shakes Blind on both Inverters, upkeeps Discontinuity, and drops watcher. The enigma foundries build more robots, replacing the Obstructors and Reductors I had killed. He activates the Obstructors and they take the shield wall order, but unfortunately for him (and fortunately for me) they are unable to kill my Master Tormentor. That model has been my MVP in multiple games now. I really owe her a great paint job. The redactors kill off two of the four remaining Bloodrunners. The Corollary moves up and does Corollary things. The first inverter shakes Blind and charges the Sentry. Thanks to the Titan being steady, the mighty Macro-pummeler is unable to be knocked down and survives the first heavy vector. The second Inverter comes in, and tries to use his macro-pummeler to knock down the Brute, but I’m able to force him to re-roll twice and he misses. He then finished off the Sentry and took the Brute down to about 4 boxes. Lucant backed up to the backside of his zone to keep safe. Walter is unable to score his zones, and unable to prevent me from scoring mine, so I go to 2-0 up.

Turn 3B:

Ok, I’m up 2-0 here. I can probably get that to 4-0 this turn, which should put me in a pretty good spot. I take my apparition moves, moving Morghoul back to safety, and the Bloodrunners back to charge range. Morghoul activates, heals the Brute’s body for 1, then casts a Mortality on the Obstructors, and hits. He then walks back into my zone and camps 2. The master Tormentor thresher, kills three Obstructors, and sprints back. The Brigands walk forward, and finish off their prey target, which then shifts to the Reductors. I’m unable to get the entire unit into the zone, but fortunately I’m able to move the two remaining Bloodrunners back and they give me a scoring unit for the left hand circle. The Gladiator activates next, and casts Rush on the Blindwalker. The Beast Handlers then activate and enrage the Blindwalker and the Battleboar, and pull Fury off of the Gladiator. The Blindwalker then charges the Inverter and does a ton of damage, though he fails to kill the Vector. The Brute then walks over, and manages to finish it off and put a few points onto the other heavy. Unfortunately, the Blindwalker falls off his fancy water/dock base during this. Even more unfortunately, I realize after the fact that in moving my Brute to get the kill, I have given Walter the ability to score his rectangle zone. Crud. On the right side, I run the Battle Boar into the Reciprocators to keep them in place. I score 2 points, Walter scores 1, and I pass turn.

Turn 4A:

Walter is against the ropes here and he knows it. Father Lucant walks forward and puts a hurting on the Blindwalker, then his Inverter finishes the gator off before turning his attention to the Brute and pummeling him into the dirt. He sends his Reductors forward into the left hand zone and they easily kill off the Bloodrunners and the Master Tormentor. The Enigma foundries walk forward and replenish the Reductors. The Reciprocators shift around but fail to kill the Battle Boar, thankfully saving me from giving up a point on the right side. Walter passes turn back to me.

The picture I took for this round is unfortunately unusable. I at least remembered to take a picture for every turn this time so that’s a moral victory at least.

Skorne 5/CoC 2

Turn 4B:

Ok, I need to score two points and contest his rectangular zone to win. I’ve got this. There are 5 Reductors and one Enigma Foundry in my way. Morghoul apparitions forward and boosts a Mortality onto the Reductors. The Paingiver Task Master gives the Brigands +2 strength, and they receive their Hog Wild order. They pick off a few Reductors with their shots, and then charge in and finish off the unit. My last dice roll finishes off the Enigma Foundry. That was a very nerve racking dice roll. I reposition the back row of Brigands into the zone and am set to score that. My Shaman runs across the board to toe into the far rectangle zone, and I end the game. Victory to Skorne with a final score of 7-2.

So, I’ve made the mistake of being too cautious several times in the past. In this game I debated for quite some time about making the move with Morghoul on turn 2. Ill say this now though, if I hadn’t done that, I don’t know that I would win this game. Walter wasn’t going to give me a chance to get a heavy on Lucant, and sadly the Titans have a static and predictable threat range. I think I made the correct target choice for my prey, which has been an issue in the past for me. Another questionable decision was to ambush the Bloodrunners after I no longer had as many targets. The Bloodrunners are 9 points vs the 5 points of one unit of Angels. I still believe this was the right choice, as the Bloodrunners lived on for several more turns and did more than enough work to justify their 9 points this turn.

All in all, I feel pretty good about this game. I’m taking the lesson of going for the big move with me going forward, and it felt really good to use Morghoul 2’s feat on such a large swath of the army. I’m riding a 3 game winning streak with this list, and I plan to continue practicing with it, and hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be able to drop the Zaadesh list I’ve been planning as its tournament pair. I still need to assemble a few more models and get them based up.

As always thanks for reading. Until next time!