Battle Report: 35 point pThags+ vs. eGaspy

Yet another vassal game that I'm posting a battle report for. This one is slightly more documented than any other game I've played, but it helps that I played against myself. I was again testing out the new version of pThaggy suggested by Warcaster Kirin Folkenon the PPforums.

pThaggy+:

1) 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. The warbeast affected by Dark Revival gains +2 ARM for a turn.

2) Increase CMD to 10 (this helps Death Shroud out), and its Thagrosh.. Avatar of Everblight.
3) Athanc - After leaching, this model gains 1 fury point if it has fewer fury points than its FURY, or May heal 1 damage point.
4) Swap out Obliteration for Rift

pThags⁺ Vs. eGaspy

The Lists:

LoB:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight -5

Shredder +2

Angelius +9

Carnivean +11

Legionnaires (10) +6

Warmongers (3) +6

Blighted Nyss Shepherd +1

Incubus +5

Cryx:

Lich Lord Ashpyxious -6

Deathripper +4

Defiler +5

Deathjack +12

Bane Knights (10) +10

Bile Thralls (6) +5

Bane Lord Tartarus +4

Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall +1

Roll for Deployment: LoB (1), Cryx (2)

Deploy1: Cryx

Cryx choose to go first and deploys on the North Side as shown below.

The intent here is to make whatever Legion uses to counter the BK’s have to travel through the forest first turn, hopefully limiting their movement/LOS enough that they cannot charge me back in the first turn. My models that are affected by terrain and LOS will then get to play in the middle with whatever LoB brings through.

Deploy2: LoB

Well, seeing the BK position, and knowing that they can decimate whatever I put in front of them, I opt to have the Legionnaires cover that half of the board and spawn incubi to help kill off the pesky BK’s. Also, the Angel deploys against them due to eyeless sight/wings allowing for him to either pick of BLT or get a charge off on the BK’s and overtake/buy atks thru them. The Carni, Warmongers, and Thaggy are set to face off against the DJ and bile thralls, especially nice for the multiwound mongers to face the corrosion sacks. The Shepherd is following the Angel in case he gets out of Thaggy’s ctl area.

Turn1: Cryx

The Defailer runs up in preparation to arc spells at the tasty conglomeration of blighted meat while the Banes and Tartarus run towards the forest. The rest of the army follows as fast as space/SPD stats allow. Gaspy then drops down 3 clouds to protect his army from any ranged or magic attacks this turn.

.

Turn2: LoB

There are two things to keep in mind this turn. Everything will be in spell rng of Gaspy’s first node by next turn, and probably spray range of the Defailer as well. This is important for my formations this turn because DeathKnell will absolutely ruin the Legionnaires. Excarnate can take out one easily enough as well to help swell the Cryxian ranks of Banes or Biles. Additionally, if BLT can see it, chances are the BK’s will be able to charge it. This means that I want to put my Angel to keep at least 3.5" of forest between him and the BK’s. Also, any attempts at using Mutagenesis and laying waste to infantry can only be done if there is LOS blocking charges from Gaspy/DJ as either of those will ruin Thaggy's day.

Warmongers and Legionnaires both advance and spread out to avoid the AOE goodness that comes from Gaspy. Thaggy bolsters the Legionnaires with a Draconic Blessing as well as shrouding his army with a Fog of War. The Angel carefully advances through the forest to shoot at Tartarus, but to no avail as he is just outside of range. Beastly animi abound this turn as well.

Turn3: Cryx

Hopefully I can keep my front "sacrificial node" safe for one more round to get some use out of it against the bulk of the Legion army. Other than that, it's just time for some typical Cryxian goodness (ie attempting to get a good Bile purge + setting up to get either the charge/vengeance moves out of the Banes).

The Defailer walks up on top of the hill to get a better view of things, and while he's up there, decides to spray some sludge at the lead Legionnaires. The surviving front Legionnaires are finished off by the ever popular Bile Thrall Purge, almost reminiscent of a high school girl's bathroom. The Banes just advance this turn as they wait for their chance to unleash hell. The DJ and Gaspy bring up the rear of the column, with more smoke being dropped to hide the Cryxian advance.

Turn 4: LoB

Thoughts: Another turn without LOS to his arcnode or army is annoying, plus those clouds blocking where my Legionnaires can move with their Vengeance move is annoying. With how far the Banes have moved up, I can probably charge them with both the Angel and the Legionnaires after they have their Vengeance move. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll be able to take out most of the Banes and Tartarus this turn.

The Angel charges the Banes and is able to take out 3 Banes, but only 3 Legionnaires are able to get LOS and charge. Thaggy is unsure at this point what is the best idea to do, but he casts Fog of War again just for kicks.

Turn 5: Cryx

Well, I get Vengeance moves out of my Banes, so they can really lay the hurt onto the Angel and Legionnaires, but then there will be Incubi to deal with. Legionnaires are just outside of Abomination range from the DJ, so no terror checks this turn. The best idea is to lay Gaspy’s Soul Reaper template on the Legionnaires and gather as many souls as possible. Also, Gaspy needs to move as far forward as is safe, and camp some focus to survive the inevitable Incubi. The Angel needs to be killed also to protect Gaspy for the turn. Probably something that can be done with BK’s and the DJ, especially since BK’s get their Vengeance move.

The Vengeance move/attacks from the Banes do some sizable damage to the Legionnaires, but Gaspy hasn't activated so he doesn't get these souls. The Biles move forward in a ring to prevent/reduce any direct charges to Gaspy from the Incubi. When he does activate, Gaspy drops his Soul Reaper template on the remaining Legionnaires before Tartarus charges to create 4 more Banes. Gaspy also remembers to protect his lonely little arc node this turn too. The DJ charges the Angelius to eat him alive, but alas, there was no soul to be found. The Banes surrounded the Incubi spawns in order to minimize that damage and also provide some good feat fodder. Some Banes make it down to Warmonger territory and put down

Turn6: LoB
Things are getting interesting now... It doesn't seem like there is a great chance for Legion to win this game unless pThags can get in Gaspy's face with fury leftover, or if the soon to be resurrected Angel can survive the retaliation to do what Angel's do best.

Since Thaggy leeched off all the Angel's fury, that leave the Carni with 1. Of course this is the perfect time to roll a 9...guuuuuhhhhreat. Guess Thaggy doesn't have a shot at breaking thru to Gaspy this turn, so attrition it is.

The Shredder makes a valiant sacrifice and walks up into the Carni's loving arms. In response to this kind gesture, the Carni does what the Carni does best....Suhwing and a miss! At least the Incubi kill BLT this turn, the Mongers kill some Banes, and even the Shepherd gets a piece of the action.

Thaggy backs up towards the Carni to help protect him with Spiny Growth, then pops his feat to return the Angel and give him Spiny Growth as well. Thinking about the total armor on these two beasts (Carni = 22 effective ARM in melee and the Angel at 23 effective ARM in melee), I actually feel relatively confident that one will survive, but the question remains on whether Thaggy will survive to watch over them.

Turn 7: Cryx
Here comes the big money. With Tartarus and plenty of Banes killed, there is a big fat check of extra Incorporeal dmg just waiting to be cashed in on. Considering the high armor of the Legion beasties, the DJ is probably the only thing that will be able to lay down any significant hurt on them. Plus Gaspy's feat is supposed to be a game ender, so going for the throat is a good idea, especially with all the extra focus flying around this turn. So much focus is in the cards this game that the DJ gets 5 focus and Gaspy still has 8 for himself...

The Biles move up out of Gaspy's way, and 2 of them find room to purge on and kill the Warmongers and Shredder, opening up room for the assination by Feat! Gaspy walks forward and throws Parasite on Thags to help counter that stupid -2 str aura. While he could teleport to safety, 4 focus is another boosted dmg spell which should help seal the deal to prevent the need for running away. So Gaspy drops a nice boosted Excarnate on Thaggy's face, which he meekly accepts in order to save his fury for Gaspy's feat. Speaking of which, Gaspy revives Tartarus and 9 of his favorite Banes to throw a "you know you want to be undead more than blighted" party for Thaggy. He wanted none of that though, surviving their beating without an extra pip of dmg done to him. The DJ has something he wants to say about that though. He may not have enough room to charge into the fray, but he does have 5 focus and Necromancy. Plus there is a metric crapton of models camping around Thags. The DJ then walks forward and drops down Death Knell on the Angel's head, for a whopping Pow 18 spell!

Now here is where the issue comes up, I think I've been playing this spell wrong all along, but only the model directly hit would take the Pow 18 dmg roll, the others in this case would take a pow 9.

Here's the text for thought:

Death Knell 4 8 4 10 No Yes
Before dealing damage, count the number of models in the AOE. Add the result to each Death Knell damage roll.

Anyways, I played it out both ways. If full dmg to Thaggy, he dies and Gaspy doesn't, but I don't think Gaspy is that lucky. With the Pow 9 dmg roll, Thaggy lives.
Turn 8: LoB

Well, still alive, so time to heal up and kill that undead lich.

Thaggy leaches off all the fury from the Angel and takes an extra from his Athanc. The Angel then forces to heal one body circle, charges Gaspy overtop of the Defailer (who utterly failed to do any dmg on the free strike, but it was with a bash attack, so it's understandable), and knocked the crap outta Gaspy with the boosted DMG AP attack. The 2nd bought attack actually hit, and the Angel kills of Gaspy by himself...sort of.
I'll post thoughts about pThags later, but I have to say that playing with myself was better than I thought it would be. There were a few spots where I think things could have gone better overall, but I definitely think that I played my Cryx army better and that pThags just kinda got lucky.

*shrug* It's late, and I don't really think I can be coherent for too much longer. Any suggestions/insights on how to play Thaggy better would be much appreciated from any other Legion players out there.

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.

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.