Krueger Vs Thaggy, 35 pts.

So I managed to recruit Swifty into playing (or at least trying) some games of Hordes. After he looked through the armies and trying my Legion army irl, he decided that he wanted to have a go with Circle. We've played a few tooth and claw games already, but this was the first big (ie 35 pt) game he's played. So without further ado...

The Lists:

IronTwitch (Jonconcarne) - Legion

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight

Harrier

Raek

Angelius

Carnivean

Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Incubus

Forsaken

SwiftyPowers - Circle

Krueger
Gorax
Woldwyrd
Feral Warpwolf
Gnarlhorn Satyr
Pureblood Warpwolf
Tharn Bloodweavers (Leader and 5 grunts)

We used the updated versions (12-23-09 update) from the field test for everything except pThags, cause I wanted to test some changes that had been suggested on the forums. The changes to pThags used were the following:

• Feat: Dark Revival: You may remove all damage on a warbeast that is part of this model's battlegroup or return one destroyed warbeast that was part of this model's battlegroup to play anywhere completely within 3' of Thagrosh. The warbeast brought back to play must forfeit its action this turn. Warbeast effected by Dark Revival gain +2 ARM for a Turn.
• Increase CMD to 10 (this helps Death Shroud out), and its Thagrosh.. Avatar of Everblight.
• Athanc - After leaching, this model gains 1 fury point if it has fewer fury points than its FURY, or May heal 1 damage point.
• Swap out Obliteration for Rift.

After setting up the terrain, Swifty rolled and won for deployment, so he chose the bottom side.
DeploymentA - SwiftyPowers
DeploymentB: IronTwitch
After checking out his cards, I decided that I didn't want my Legionnaires to be anywhere near his bloodweavers. So they ended up across from all the beasts towards the big ol' forest, even though that wasn't my ideal placement. I tried to line my beasts up to be able to take advantage of the extra LOS given from the hill and possibly get some good charges off with them.
Turn1: SwiftyPowers
Running everything up to get as far forwards as possible.

Turn2: IronTwitch
I didn't think he'd manage to take control of that much of the board, so I decided to inch my way in towards him. I also split up my legionnaires so that if he manages to charge the front half, the back half of the group can vengeance move/attack, and then make regular attacks to finish off his beast. I tried to potshot his woldwyrd with my angel, but it missed due to extra def from the hill. Since I wanted to actually try using the angel's animus, I had him cast it on himself. I then moved my Harrier forward in an attempt to run for that stupid woldwyrd next turn. The raek/shepherd moved into the forest, and the raek threw shadowstalk onto the pureblood in hopes of getting extra movement. At some point in this muck, Thaggy threw out rift at the woldwarden, missing, but putting rough terrain right in front of the feral due to lucky deviation rolls.
Turn3: SwiftyPowers
The Woldwyrd took a shot at the harrier and gave it two damage, while the bloodweavers ran to the otherside of the field in order to get into the fray against my legionnaires. Then Krueger popped his feat in an attempt to wipe out my legionnaires, but only 1 died as they were Arm 17 in their defensive line. Since they were still a little far from the fray, I elected not to put in a marker for an incubus. Minimal dmg was deal to the carni and angel, but the harrier was killed. The white box at the back are all my destroyed models (I like to keep track of how much I've lost during a game), and the black box at the back is just the incubi waiting to spawn from the Legionnaires corpses. The Feral WW was sitting on the other side of the rocks (which we had declared to be an impassable except to ghostly/flyers), trying to get in a good position to take a bite out of Thaggy.


Turn 4: IronTwitch
During my upkeep, I moved the legionnaires their 3", trying to get as many thru the gap in Krueger's electrical storm. First things first, I charged my angel at his woldwyrd, and missed the AP attack by 1. On the 2nd attack that I bought, I boosted the dmg and got a (6,5,6), one-shotting the woldwyrd. The Carni advanced and put Spiny Growth on the Angel to protect him from the inevitable backlash. Thaggy then ran away from the Feral and around to support the rest of his beasts. The Legionnaires then charged the Gorax, getting 6 into melee with him while the last 4 ran to stay in formation. The 6 in melee with the Gorax managed to take him down to 2 life left, but didn't kill him. On the other hand, 3 of them were engaging Krueger, so that was quite handy. Other than that, my Raek ran from the pureblood in an attempt to get at bigger game (ie Krueger), with the shepherd following suit. The Raek also threw shadowstalk on the bloodweavers with the idea of running away (towards Krueger) when they ran at him.

Turn5: SwiftyPowers
First of all, Krueger backs away from the fistfight, and takes 3 freestrikes. 2 of which hit him and deal significant dmg that he transfers to his beasts. He then does some spells, but I really forget what. After healing up the Gorax, he went to town (casting primal on himself and buying another attack. Between the Gorax and the bloodweavers, only one Legionnaire is left standing. However, there are 5 incubi markers waiting to expel their deadly packages. The Feral charges the Angel and does some dmg, but not a huge amount. The Gnarlhorn then attempts to slam the Angel, but misses on his 2 dice.

Turn6: IronTwitch
Incubi spawn, the forsaken blightbombs for 5 fury, and the picture tells the rest. Kevin conceded at this point, additionally cause it was past 1 am.
My Final Thoughts:
This is my second game with pThagrosh at 35 points, and I have to say that I do like him, even though he's not always doing a whole lot. The extra changes didn't seem to make a big play, but I was also trying to keep him away from the Feral whenever possible, cause I've seen the dmg output that thing has. Anyways, further testing is required, but I definitely think Rift is a good change over Obliteration. The other ones may not be needed, but they do provide interesting options that could make pThags a very competitive caster.

In regards to the gameplay, if Kevin had held off his beast attacks while he repositioned his bloodweavers, I think that the game would have panned out far differently. As it is, I was able to pick his army apart bit by bit. Still an interesting game. I like the way that the bloodweavers interact with Krueger. Seems like a fun combo there. As always, I hate the way that the Feral can just be a monster in melee, but that's how it is. It's def a cool model with lots of ability to lay the smack down. It presents many difficult choices, but still fun to play against, regardless.

Swifty's Final Thoughts:
The game moved pretty slow, mostly because I am inexperienced and take a long time making decisions when faced with an unfamiliar army, worse when it is a bad match-up for the lists I have been using. I think the key is to kill thag, but Jon is very protective of his warlocks. I could have engaged his beasts effectively by consolidating animi, risking relatively little damage to my beasts, but his feat would be used to reanimate either of the big ones, making it a useless exercise. I could have resigned myself to the fact that he would get it off, and planned around it. But he kept his heavies next to each other the whole time so I would need to engage both and be prepared for them and thag even after my assault. what truly caught me off guard was the effectiveness of his warriors. They moved in fast despite Krueger's lightning storm, even helped by it as the dodged the storm to charge my Gorax. This put their reach in range of my warlock, forcing me to take free attacks to get out to cast. Perhaps I should have tried to kill those within range in melee first, but i didn't want to miss the change to counterattack wasting fury in melee. (I guess I didn't realize Swifty didn't know that you can cast while engaged, but now he does.) Even when mine came in lightning charged and wiped most of them out, the legionnaires simply spawned Incubi who went after by caster.

The game ends with all my beasts dead except one pureblood, and a bloodweaver. Krueger is beset by incubi and my last frail beasts are positioned as mere roadblocks with no hope of doing any damage, certainly not enough for a victory.

Mistakes? Moving into the forest with the pureblood, wasting it's mutation just trying to get to things. Some of my turns I activated things in the wrong order, forcing my units to move around a few extra inches and get stuck, vulenerable, in the middle. Underestimating the Legionnaires and accidentally assisting them in their blitz. Playing too conservatively: get the first strike.