Tuesday 26 March 2019

Ultramates - Game 2


Game 2: Take and Hold - Hysh


Game 2 was Take & Hold and we were against team FTG - From the Grave. As you may glean from this name, there was a theme to these lists:

Matthew Jones: Legions of Nagash


Vampire Lord (General)
- Lord of Nagashizzar (Command Trait)
- Terrorgheist Mantle (Artefact)
- Spell: Vile Transference

Necromancer
- Spell: Soul Harvest

Wight King

30 Grave Guard

20 Skeleton Warriors

1 Extra Command Point


Matt is a guy a have played a few times since I got into AoS and something that is immediately apparent that he loves his Grave Guard. This love can be seen in this list, where the whole list is geared towards buffing up the Grave Guard and sending them hurtling into the enemy.

Samuel Ahola: Nighthaunt


Lady Olynder
- Spell: Spectral Tether

Guardian of Souls
- Spell: Lifestealer
- Artefact: Beacon of Nagashizzar

30 Chainrasp Horde

20 Chainrasp Horde

Warscroll Battalion: Chainguard

2 Extra Command Points

I've seen Sam around but haven't ever played against him. This list was the defensive list of the two, and had a lot of regeneration in the Chainrasp hordes. Other than knowing that they have ethereal saves, I haven't had much experience playing against Nighthaunt.

Initial Strategy & Deployment


I had never played Take & Hold but I felt like our lists were suited to this scenario; we had elements that could defend our objective and elements that could fight/flood their objective. While setting up, I was only really on the look out for the Grave Guard; they were the only unit that was going to be able to break through 30 Plaguebearers. However I had completely forgotten that they could be deployed in the Grave! We ended up splitting our force into three parts - the Monks with swords went on our left flank with the Great Unclean One and Feculent Gnarlmaw, the 30 Plaguebearers went in the middle on the objective, and the Monks with staves went on the right with the Corruptor and the Plague Furnace. Matt and Sam set up 20 Chainrasps on the left with the Guardian of Souls, the Skeletons and Legion characters went in the middle and Lady Olynder and her 30 Chainrasps went on the right.

Our general strategy was to send the sword monks off to break one flank and possibly swing around in the centre. The Plaguebearers would hold our objective, and the stave monks would be flexible but with a view to taking out the Grave Guard. The Corruptor's job was to reduce the size of the enemy units with his own spell (roll a dice for every model in the target - each 4+ deals a mortal wound). Finally, if we saw a chance to kill the Vampire Lord then that was a high priority.

Matt and Sam finished deploying first and they chose to take the first turn.

The Game


In Matt & Sam's turn one, each block of Nighthaunt moved forward and the Grave Guard were summoned in the middle of the board, 9' away from the front of the Plaguebearer unit. Some spells were cast but they were essentially moving out to zone us out of their back field and to set up the Grave Guard making a play on the Plaguebearers. In our turn one, the Plaguebearers stayed where they were, but the Plague Monks on the left received +1 attack from the Plague Furnace and went straight into the 20 Chainrasp in front of them. On the right, the Verminlord got Spellportal and Dreaded Plague off and killed 9 Chainrasp from the 30 man unit. We otherwise played cagey with the 40 Monks with staves and screened them with the Plague Furnace. The sword Monks that went into the 20 Chainrasp handily took them off but unfortunately left the Guardian on a couple of wounds.

Matt and Sam then won priority going into turn 2.

After seeing the mortal wounds from the Corruptor and losing a unit to the sword monks, Sam decided to turn his remaining Chainrasps around and head back to their objective. Matt continued on and charged in a Grave Guard Units with 5 attacks each and Vanhels Danse Macabre connecting with both the Plaguebearers and the Plague Furnace. Interestingly, the first pile in didn't wipe out the Plaguebearers or the Furnace, but the second one certainly did. In our turn two, the Plaguemonks with staves were all set to go into the Grave Guard, and the Corruptor positioned in a way to provide them with re-roll hits from his Command Ability. The sword Monks on the left went after the 20 Skeletons holding their objective and the Lord of Afflictions saw an opportunity to take on the Vampire Lord. After summoning an Feculent Gnarlmaw behind the sword Monks and Lord of Afflictions, everything made their charges on combat was on!

We started with the Grave Guard; if they attacked, they still had all their buffs on and could have wiped the stave Monks which was could not afford. After rolling a huge amount of dice, but before we started on the staves, the Plague Monks had wiped out the Grave Guard. This was an example of how powerful re-rolling 3's to hit and 2's to wound was - there was very few attacks that didn't go through to dealing damage.

Matt then activated his skeletons and killed some sword Monks. The combat with the Vampire Lord was what was really nerve wracking for me though! I was very concerned about the Grave Guard coming back for a command point, and knew that if we didn't kill the General then we could face that. Despite this, I forgot to use the Rustfang and after attacking he was left on 1 wound!

Unfortunately we didn't have time to play and finish Round 3. In discussing it with Matt and Sam the outcome of the game was still up in the air; if the Grave Guard managed to charge the Plague Monks they might be able to take our objective, however if they couldn't deal with the sword Monks then we may take theirs. Ultimately we decided to calculate Kill Points at the end of Round 2. This left Sam and I up and we ended up with the minor win!

Thoughts


I think we made some mistakes that could have had some bigger significance if they game had continued longer. Firstly I had set up 10 Plaguebearers to screen the flank of the sword Monks while they pushed up the left flank. However it may have been better to place these in front of the 30 Plaguebearers to take the initial charge of the Grave Guard. I also used the Plague Furnace to screen the stave Monks from the Grave Guard, but it may have been possible to avoid the charge without losing the Furnace. Ultimately it was imperative that the stave monks didn't get charged and that goal was achieved.

Overall though, I think the game plan was appropriate and other than user error it was the best way to approach the situation. We had unexpectedly won both of our first two games and after lunch we were in to game three!

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