pKrueger Vs. PThags+: Round 2

So everything was mostly the same, but here's a recap of the initial conditions.

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 again won the deployment. This time he opted to take the North side.

Deploy1: SwiftyPowers
Swifty's beasts and Krueger lined up to make a run at the river ford while the bloodweavers with pathfinder prepped to run through lots of terrain. The Woldwyrd was with the bloodweavers, I assume to make running up and spelling them a bad idea. Regardless. I still don't like the little guy very much.
Deploy2: IronTwitch
My goal here was to get some shots off at his beasts as they run up by putting angel on the hill and my center force (i.e. Thags and the Carni) to draw in the charge so my angel can either keep doing his thing with shooting or the AP charge/countercharge. The legionnaires really didn't have much choice, and they were relegated to sentry duty on the river.
Turn1: SwiftyPowers

The Feral takes the +2 Spd warp and runs up the board for 16 FREAKING INCHES! Needless to say. I always forget how fast that guy can be. The other heavies each run up the board for 12", while the woldwyrd and bloodweavers run up for 14" through the forest. Krueger casts his Skyborne and Deflection (or whatever gives +2 arm to warrior models in his ctl).
Turn2: IronTwitch
The goal this turn is not to let his whole army charge mine. To help with this, I spread the legionnaires out into 3 groups. I wanted to leave the back row just outside reach range, in case his bloodweavers make it there with Lightning Tendrils on them. The angel moves up the hill and takes a potshot at the Feral, managing a modest 2 dmg points for 2 fury. The Shepherd then comes up and wipes those two fury off. The Harrier runs up to the edge of the hill,
and the Raek moves 7" forward/left. Since the Raek is in such close proximity to all of Swifty's beasts, I forced to cast Shadowstalk onto the Feral. The Carni then advances 2" forward and casts Spiny Growth on the Raek in case he gets charged since he's so close. Thaggy moves up to chill behind the Legionnaires and spends 2 fury to put Spiny Growth on the Carni, camping 5 fury for transfers and stuffz. No point in putting out upkeeps with the stupid woldwyrd sitting there.
Turn3: SwiftyPowers
Sadly for me, Swifty moved his Feral last, so my Raek didn't get to do what I'd hoped. First of all, Swifty cast Skyborne on Krueger and advanced him, then popped his feat to drop the 3 lightning AOE's on me. The leftmost one on the Raek did no dmg, while Thaggy took no dmg from the middle AOE. The middle AOE killed one Legionnaire while the right AOE killed 2. I opted to place 2 Incubi markers at this point. He also cast Lightning Tendrils onto the Bloodweavers, to give them the reach that they needed to charge my Legionnaires. The Gorax advanced and cast his animus (Primal) onto the Feral, while the Gnarlhorn did the same (Bounding?). The Pureblood then charged my Harrier, but missed his attacks. Next, the Woldwyrd advanced and took some shots at the Legionnaires, managing to kill 1 more (while I then put down another Incubi marker). Last of all, his Feral took the +2 spd warp and charged at Thaggy, managing to deal quite a bit of dmg, but it was all transferred to the Carni. After he moved his Feral, I hopped my Raek over to in front of the Gnarlhorn and the Woldwyrd, forgetting that the Gnarlhorn has the counterslam ability. Lucky for me, Swifty forgot too.
Turn4: IronTwitch
I had to do several things in my maintenance phase this turn. First of all was leeching with Thaggy, leaving me with...not much fury due to all the (3) transfers last turn. Since Thags didn't take any dmg last turn, I leeched the 2 fury from my beasts and got 1 from the athanc for a total of 5 fury. Not a lot to work with this turn, but it could have been worse. Second thing to do was my Vengeance move with the Legionnaires. Between the Legionnaires Vengeance move/atk, regular atk, I was able to kill 1 Bloodweaver this turn. I also then placed Incubi, one of which attacked bloodweavers, one attempted and failed to charge the woldwyrd due to death by freestrikes, and the third helped finish off the Feral. As to starting the attack on the Feral, I first had to move the Shepherd out of the way so that the Forsaken could walk around the Carni to Blightbomb the crap outta that full fury beast. With the shepherd outta the way, the Forsaken got in b2b with the Feral, spent 1 fury for Blightbomb and 1 fury to boost the dmg roll. This gave a pow 8 + 7d6 vs his arm 16. With a roll of 27, he took19 dmg, leaving him with a 4 dmg boxes left. The Incubus that spawned in his back arc got back strike bonuses, hitting with both attacks. With only 4 dmg left, I was sure to kill it with just the Incubus, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. 3 dmg from the first claw and 0 from the second. So the last dmg point came from the Legionnaire who had him in his reach range. Thankfully he got back strikes too, or he would have missed. That left me with the Pureblood as another dangerous threat to deal with. To start, my angel charged his pureblood, boosted the atk roll, and missed with his AP attack... for shame. He then buys another attack and manages to hit without the boost. Boosting the dmg, rolled (6,5,6)!!! Not quite enough to box him, but the Harrier finished him off with a True-Striked boosted pow 10. The Carni then forces to heal 3 dmg and backs off, while Thaggy follows, casts Spiny Growth on the Carni, and heals the Carni for 2. I saved my feat here in case I needed it to boost up the Angel for an assassination run or something. Plus with the Forsaken in the way, I figured the Carni/Thaggy would be relatively safe from the Gnarlhorn...relatively. My Raek advances into b2b with the Gorax/Woldwyrd, then "jumps" to behind Krueger and takes a few potshots with boosts, which all miss thanks to his extra defense from Skyborne.
Turn5:SwiftyPowers
The game is winding down at this point as Swifty is running out of heavy hitters. Krueger advances again and tries to wipe out the Angel and Harrier with spells and lightning; he kills the harrie but doesn't knock any aspects off the Angel. The gnarlhorn charges/kills the Forsaken while the Gorax goes Primal and kills the Raek The bloodweavers manage to kill the rest of the Legionnaires, unleashing my last 2 Incubi.


Turn6: IronTwitch:
Cleanup time. Incubi placed, fury leeched, and frenzies! The Harrier frenzies, but missed his atk on the angel. The Angel charges Krueger and misses his boosted AP atk....again! He buys a 2nd boosted atk and manages to hit, but not enough to end the game. The Carni then charges and wipes out the Gnarlhorn. Thaggy charges the Bloodweavers and kills one directly, while the Eruption of Ash kills the other.

Swifty concedes at this point having 2 light beasts left compared to my 2 heavies, a light, some solos, and Thaggy being safe from dmg with his feat left to safeguard another beast.
Final Thoughts:
Personally, the extra pip of CMD is really helpful. It saved my Legionnaires from a few of the Bloodweaver attacks, and it also helped balance out the crazy dmg output of the Feral, though not a lot. The more I look at the proposed changes I'm testing for Thaggy, the more I see that they work by intimidation just as much as actual use. Although that could just be me wanting to use the feat for the extra armor on a beast. *shrug* In all, I think that the proposed changes do go a long way to making Thaggy a more competitive caster. Although he didn't use his spells a whole lot in fear of the Woldwyrd, I still think I'm finally getting a feel for him.