Warmachine & Hordes Battle report 50 points - Epic Thagrosh vs. Prime Haley

Hello everyone,

Today I am bringing a battle report with the newly built and painted leader of the Legion, Thagrosh the Messiah! I am taking a list that Ben Leeper ran at the WTC as I think it is brilliant and would like to see how it plays. So here is my list:

eThagrosh
Scythean
Scythean
Raek
Raek
Seraph
Succubus
Max Legionnaires with UA
Max Spawning Vessel
Shepherd
Forsaken
Spell Martyr

My opponent today was playing his Cygnar and his favorite caster in faction, pHaley. Now if I would ever in a tournament and saw my opponent brought pHaley, I don't think eThags would ever be my drop. Really, he struggles with a lot of what Cygnar brings to the table with their long range shooting that can often ignore defensive tech like concealment and stealth. But I really wanted to bring the big boss man out so he was going to be used no matter what. Plus, it never hurts to practice playing into the difficult matchups in case a scenario comes up where you get locked into the match!

So here is my opponents list:

pHaley
Stormwall
Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
eEiryss
Guns Mages with UA
Max Tempest Blazers
Black 13th
Aiyanna and Holt
Gorman Di Wulf

A Haley list at its finest. A metric shit ton of shooting that get cranked up even further on feat turn. It was going to be a brutal list to face, but hopefully my overall high ARM can give her some fits.

The mission was the SR 2014 one with a friendly and enemy rectangular zone and an objective right in the center on each side.

I deployed with a Scythean on each side of Thagrosh and a Seraph on the left and both Raeks on the right. The legionnaires were all intermingled in between beasts in the battle group. The Spawning Vessel went behind. The solos went where needed.

My opponent had the Stormwall dead center with his Gun mages and Aiyanna and Holt on the left and his Tempest Blazers on the right. Haley, squire and the B13 were right next to the Stormwall on the right. eEiryss was placed in front and to the right of Stormwall (Big mistake).

I spent my first turn running and Slipstreaming everything forward and killing legionnaires to pop out a Shredder. He countered by running most everything forward but the Blazers, who advanced to just touch the enemy zone. eEiryss moved up behind his objective, and the Stormwall moved just to the left of the objective, so he was unable to allocate it focus the next turn. Haley cast temporal barrier and arcane shield on the Stormwall and moved up behind it. The journeyman put up arcane shield on the Tempest Blazers.

My opponent moved the Stormwall up too far and even though it was affected by Temporal Barrier, I had a Scythean within Slipstream walking range. I start off moving the Swamp Gobbers forward and put up a big cloud right in the middle of the table. My legionnaires were outside of Temporal Barrier range so they all ran forward and mini feat. Most the unit went into my friendly zone while one went in front of my objective and a few went behind. Thagrosh cast Slipstream and charged my Legionnaire, exploding him with ease. I now had clouds protecting Thagrosh from the right. My Scythean moved forward two inches. I cast Manifest Destiny and put Tenacity on both my Scytheans. I pop feat. My Shredder and Succubus put Tenacity on both Raeks on the right. The Seraph flies into the middle of the Legionnaires and tries to take a shot at Aiyanna, but fell short by about an inch. My Scythean activates and walks up to the Stormwall and engages a Blazer as well. Full stack of fury later, and I leave the left side with like six boxes. Other Scythean walks behind some legionnaires and the cloud the Gobbers made. One Raek moves forward and leaps to engage eEiryss, a Blazer, and all B13 members. It kills Ryan and misses the rest of its attacks. The other Raek leaps into two of the other Blazers and misses. With feat attack, the Scythean leaves the left side of the Stormwall on 2 boxes. Raek shifts forward and engages Haley, hitting her for like 4 or 5 damage. Other Raek is outside of control so no attacks. Seraph moves back behind the Legionnaires.

My opponent is flustered by not being able to allocate to Stormwall, but as we find out, he hardly needs it. Haley, B13, and eEiryss go first all taking shots at my Raek after putting up Temporal Barrier and feating. He has to activate the Tempest Blazers to finish off that Raek, and he fails to kill the other, leaving it with around 6 boxes. Stormwall goes, punching my Scythean and leaving it on about 10 boxes. The Gun Mages go and shoot Crit Knockdown shots at the Legionnaires and injured Scythean, pushing them back a way and knocking down my Scythean. Now Aiyanna and Holt go, Harming the Scythean and leaving him on like 4 boxes. He should have started with Aiyanna and Holt and my Scythean would have stood no chance. Live and learn though! Oh I forgot I had a Spell Martyr up behind a building on the far right and he moves the only Tempest Blazer around and picks the poor guy off...

So I have a lot more beasts around than I would have expected after a Haley feat turn. And having both Scythean's is bad news for my opponent. My Legionnaires vengeance forward into the Gun Mages and whiff. The Gobbers go up to a forest near the enemy zone and drop a cloud, creating a nice large area of no line of sight. Legionnaires go and kill a couple gun mages. One Legionnaire runs over near the forest in the enemy zone. The Seraph casts slipstream and flies into the middle of the board and kills a Blazer and damages the objective. I slipstream Thagrosh back a hair and within 2 inches of my undamaged Scythean. I moved him back to get out of Temporal Barrier range. Shredders activates and charges the Tempest Blazer than killed my Spell Martyr and was sitting in the enemy zone. He does 3 points of damage. Darn! I wanted to clear the zone to dominate. Thagrosh activates and heals both systems on the Scythean and one system on the Raek. He casts manifest destiny and slipstream and charges my Legionnaire by the forest, exploding him into a could. Thags is on zero camp but has about a 5 inch line in front of him that my opponent can't see through. My undamaged Scythean moves forward 2 inches from Slipstream. The two Scytheans put the Stormwall down. The Raek kills a Tempest Blazer. The Succubus puts Tenacity on Thags.

My opponent is completely on the ropes now. He goes for an unlikely assassination with the eEiryss knocking off Tenacity first, then all Tempest Blazers moving up and taking a shot at Thagrosh, doing about 7 points and spawning a Harrier. At this point my opponent concedes.

Thoughts on the game: Thagrosh has a lot of defensive tech that can keep him quite well protected. Even against the heavy shooting capability of Cygnar. Although a Naga would have been extremely valuable in this scenario, I don't think I would ever drop Thagrosh against Cygnar if I have the option. That much shooting and their caster control abilities are just not easy for him to deal with. And besides Cygnar, there aren't a lot of other armies with a lot of defensive buffs that need to be ignored. Overall I think I played the matchup well and capitalized on my opponents mistakes. I need to work on my deployment and keep the Spell Martyr in a more threatening position and more well protected. I look forward to playing the boss man some more!

Epic Thagrosh, the Messiah, in all his gory. I mean glory

I finally got my order for Thagrosh the Messiah in and had to paint him up right away. He is easily my favorite legion model and I'm excited to use and abuse with him in the coming months

No more messing around now. The legion is out for blood

I'm repainting all my legion so the look much meaner. I'm adding gore from the games workshop technical blood paint. The stuff is nasty and really works nicely

Some legion models!

Here are some legion models I painted up as an additional commission. I really like his paint scheme and I think they turned out well

Some mercs/cygnar

Here are some mercs and cygnar models I finished up painting for a commission. Unfortunately, I don't have the final product, but these are close to done!

Andy

Legion of everblight Angelius

Here is a shot of my third angelius I finished up recently. Nothing special, but I like how they look!

50 pt Steamroller tournament Battle Report - eVayl vs. MacBain

MacBain

Galleon

eEiryss

Gorman

Orin Midwinter

Ragman

Rhupert

Alexia and Risen

Max Greygore Boomhowlers

Max Kayazy Assassins w/ UA

Kayazy Eliminators

Mission is incursion. I chose eVayl because I felt more comfortable with her facing off against a caster I have never faced. In hindsight, eAbby may have been a bit better against MacBain, but she doesn’t much care for Incursion with her limited control area and small army. Anyways, I lose the roll off and my opponent chooses the side. There were two houses to his left and right outside of his deployment zone, and a decent sized forest right in the center of his table half. He said he wanted that side so that I couldn’t hide Vayl within the forest. In reality, with occultation, I wasn’t very worried about any assassination attempts against this list. On my side I had a house dead center, with a hill on my left and a wall on my right. I did not realize houses are infinitely tall, so I can’t fly over them. This would come back to bite me in this game. He deploys his Galleon right in the middle. I deploy Vayl to the left of my center house. To her left go two Ravagores and an Angelius. The other two Angelius go to her right with one being placed on the right side of the house. The Hex Hunters and the Spawning Vessel deploy to my right side with the wall about 9 inches in front of them. From my point of view, MacBain goes to the left of the Galleon with Gorman, Orin, and Rhupert kind of crowded around the colossal. Greygore and his Boomhowlers go to the far left and Alexia and the Risen go to the left behind the house. On the right goes the Kayazy. The Eliminators were deployed somewhere by the Boomhowlers and Alexia. I place my Spell Martyr in front of my Hex Hunters and the Shepherds in front of my Ravagores. eEiryss is then deployed near his house on my right. And with that, Turn 1 Legion!

Turn 1 – Legion

Vayl starts off, putting Refuge and Admonition on two Angelius and Occultation on herself, then she charges ahead to end up to the left side of the house. All three Angels run forward, not going the full distance but getting out in front of Vayl and the far right one getting in front of the house. Both Ravagores run forward onto the hill. The Shepherds run up behind. The Hex Hunters run up and spread out. The Spawning Vessel walks forward. The Spell Martyr runs forward behind the wall.

Turn 1 – Mercenaries

1 focus goes to the Galleon. MacBain goes first, putting Failsafe on the Galleon and Countermeasures on the Eliminators (which I should have really read closer when looking at his cards). I think that was it, then he walked up behind the left house. Boomhowler cries for 4+ tough and runs forward on the left. The Eliminators run forward, getting up close to engaging some of my stuff. Alexia and her Risen run up behind the Boomhowlers. Rhupert gives the Kayazy pathfinder and they all run forward spreading out. eEiryss moves forward and kills my Spell Martyr (DAMN!). The Galleon runs forward and gets most of the way through the forest. Ragman moves up behind. Orin says no spells. Gorman moves up by MacBain behind the house. We roll for flags and the one on my left disappears… Damn….

Turn 2 – Legion

With losing the left flag, I’m in a very bad spot. I only have Hex Hunters and a Spawning Vessel trying to hold the right side flag, which really isn’t enough. In hindsight, I should have spent this turn running to crowd the right side of the field. I am faster than my opponent, and if I brought my whole battlegroup to the right side, I would have really put my opponent into a bad position for scenario. Ah well, live and learn. Instead, I try to cut the heads off of the two units to my left (Boomie and Alexia). I succeed in neither…. I start off by upkeeping spells. I move my Refuge angel forward and find a lane to take a shot at Alexia. That’s when I discover I can’t shoot when near a model with Countermeasure… Great… That is an Angelius activation wasted. Next I activate Vayl and cast Refuge on the other Angelius. She shoots the Angel that wasted its activation in the back and arcs an Icy Grip onto the Boomhowlers. Then the Angelius charges the Galleon and puts some decent damage into its right side. It then uses its refuge move to fall back onto the edge of the hill. The last Angelius also charges the Galleon and misses its armor piercing attack with a triple 1… Ugh… Both Ravagores take some shots at the front few Boomhowlers, putting scathers in front of them and preventing charges into my beasts. The Hex Hunters move forward and put a few Hex Blasts into some Kayazy. One gets into combat with eEiryss and misses. The Spawning Vessel moves forward. Shepherds wipe Fury, over to Mercs!

Turn 2 – Mercenaries

My opponent upkeeps both spells and allocates 3 to the Galleon. The Galleon goes first and spends its activation pummeling my Angelius, but with some bad dice my opponent misses all but one or two attacks and my Angelius still stands. MacBain goes and pops feat, protecting Gorman, Alexia, Boomhowler, Ragman, Orin, and a Boomhowler because Rhupert is out of his control area. He does a Jackhammer with Galleon and misses my Angelius. Gorman moves forward and tries to Black Oil my Angelius, but misses. He moved close enough that he can’t scatter off my Angelius, but he catches the Galleon as well. The Eliminators run forward, one engaging my two Ravagores and the other engaging an Angelius. The Boomhowlers shuffle around a bit but can’t do much of anything, but Boomhowler does the howl where I get -2 to attack rolls. They do manage to engage an Angelius. Alexia and her Risen run forward and she makes a Thrall Warrior, which charges and puts some decent damage on a Ravagore. Rhupert gives the Kayazy Dirge of Mists. The Kayazy get a run charge and several Hex Hunters die. Eiryss swings at my Hex Hunter engaging her and kills him (Doh!). Ragman and Orin move behind the Galleon.

Legion – Turn 3

I pay to upkeep Refuge and drop everything else. The Refuge Angel activates and kills the Eliminator engaging it. The other passes command. The Angel Refuges in front of Vayl. Vayl goes and pops feat, casts purify, puts occultation on herself, Refuge on another Angel, Admonition on one of the Ravagores, casts Icy Grip on the Boomhowlers again, and throws an Obliteration at one of the Boomhowlers, knocking it down. She then casts another Obliteration and has to pay one extra I think for it because of Alexia being nearby. She kills a Boomie. The Spawning Vessel goes and spawns a Harrier, which I fail and place out of my control area, so it can’t cast its animus… It goes and tries to hit the UA and whiffs. The Hex Hunters get a run charge and kill several Kayazy between charge attacks and Hex Blasts. Not enough to stop them from likely destroying my unit next turn. My Angelius engaging the Galleon goes and cripples the right side with its Armor Pierce. My other Angelius tries to attack Boomhowler, as he is engaging it and doesn’t do enough to knock him down. I should have just repulsed and flew over to the Galleon and put an Armor Piercing attack into it and bought a boosted attack against Gorman. Really would have made a huge difference in this game, but again, Hindsight is 20/20. My Shepherds both charge the Thrall Warrior to get him off my Ravagore, but both whiff their attacks needing a 6. The Ravagores both walk and take some free strikes, trying to disengage themselves. One Ravagore gets its spirit crippled. Both shoot some Boomhowlers and kill two.

Mercenaries – Turn 3

1 goes to Galleon. The last Eliminator goes and runs up by my Angelius engaging the Galleon and turns towards Gorman. Gorman goes and Black Oils the Eliminator, catching the Angelius. MacBain activates and Jackhammers the Angelius until it is dead. The Galleon moves up and touches the center flag and tries to shoot my Angelius near Vayl. It misses. Boomhowler and his buddy take some swings at my Angelius for some solid damage. The Kayazy clear off my Hex Hunters and Harrier and the Underboss charges my Spawning Vessel and rolls crazy high, one hitting it. That leaves that objective completely open. Eiryss moves over to control it. Ragman and Orin move further forward in the forest. Alexia can’t get to my beasts due to the scathers so she crafts another Thrall. The Thralls kill off my Shepherds. Score goes to 2-0.

Legion – Turn 4

The details of the last turn or two are a bit fuzzy here. One Ravagore aims and boosts a shot into the Boomhowler engaging the Angelius. I kill it but can’t quite knockdown Greygore. The other Ravagore one hits Alexia. The engaged Angelius can’t afford a free strike, so spends its activation killing Boomhowler. The other Angelius kills the Galleon and Refuges onto the center flag. Vayl moves up near the center flag and tries to shoot Ragman, who is contesting the flag. Unfortunately, he gets cover from the Galleon wreck and I can’t kill him. My opponent scores a point and goes to 3-0.

Mercenaries – Turn 4

My opponent moves some Risen forward. Most are out of command now. Everything else just kind of shuffles around aimlessly as most of his hard hitters are out of the game now. He scores another point and goes to 4-0

Legion – Turn 5

I have to try to stop the Kayazy and Eiryss from scoring again. Both Ravagores walk over and I hope I have range for a shot on some Kayazy, but I fall short and both shots scatter in the wrong direction and do nothing. My Angelius can’t run far enough to engage. I accept I can’t win and shake. Victory Mercenaries!

Post-Game Thoughts

Well, that was just a very poorly played game on my part. I played my Angelii terribly. The left flag disappearing really hurt me. My opponent deserved his win, he played very well. But had I played smarter, I feel like I would have won that game. As for the tournament as a whole, I certainly can’t be upset! This was my first “real” tournament, as my only other experience was in a beginners journeyman tournament. I ended up taking third due to tiebreakers from strength of schedule. Overall, I think I played well until that last game. Vayl can play through a lot, whether it be poor matchups or new casters that an inexperienced player has never faced. I hope you enjoyed my reports, and there will be more to come!