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

Andy's first Warmahordes tournament

Now that the Journeyman League had come to an end, it was time for a small 35-point 2-caster steamroller tournament. I was not entirely prepared for a 2-caster event, as I had largely been playing pThagrosh and I hadn’t played Warmahordes in an entire month. Bethayne and Belphagor had intrigued me near the end of the league, so I had those models on hand. I decided to go with B&B and prime Thagrosh as my two casters for the event.

pThagrosh +5

Carnivean – 11

Scythean – 9

Ravagore – 10

Max Hex Hunters – 8

Shepherd – 1

Feralgiest – 1

Bethayne +3

Belphagor – 0

Scythean – 9

Ravagore – 10

Raek – 4

Max Hex Hunters – 8

Forsaken – 2

3 x Spell Martyrs – 3

Strider Deathstalker – 2

I stuck with my pThagrosh list from the Journeyman League as I was comfortable with it and it had worked well for me. My B&B list, however, was just a hodge podge of models I threw together with no knowledge of how they would work with her as I had never played her. I knew she liked Hex Hunters and Spell Martyrs, so they went into it first. From there it was just random pick and choose. I intended for my Thagrosh list to be my brick list that can crack armor, while Bethayne will be my anti-infantry list.

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Game 1: Bethanye vs. pButcher

Game 1 set me against a seasoned veteran that helped me learn the game quite a bit. He brought his Khador with him (Which is an army I had not beaten up until this point). I was nervous and knew very little about most of the units in both his armies, but I knew that Khador generally favors infantry so I tried out Bethayne. My opponent chose pButcher. This game went by in an agonizing blur, so many of the details are hazy.

So I won first turn. I ran my whole force forward as far as I could. My opponent did the same. I made a charge order with my Hex Hunters and a few engage his widowmakers and kill a few. I move my Scythean into the zone. I move a Spell Martyr up and get counter charged by Man O’ War Drakhun. A little piece of advice, look at cards for models you don’t know about before a battle. B&B are just outside the zone. My opponent is now in charge range of my Scythean with his Drakhun and charges and mauls my heavy. A Marauder charges the Scythean and slams him back into my objective, killing my Scythean. He moves a Demolisher into the zone. His Shocktroopers kill a bunch of Hex Hunters but they hold. My turn comes around and I pop feat and try to kill some stuff off but I have lost my most heavy hitter in the Scythean so things aren’t looking good. I try to block Bethayne from his Demolisher with my Feralgiest, only to find that everything can move through incorporeal models with no penalty. Needless to say, Bethayne didn’t live very long after this.

I was pretty discouraged after that thrashing. I didn’t feel like I could go back to Bethayne after that. I just didn’t know her spells well enough. Lucky for me, I didn’t need to.

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Game 2: pThagrosh vs. pLylyth

My second game was against another new Warmahordes player. She only had her battle box along with a few additions. I felt confidence in this matchup, as I actually knew what it was I was facing, and I knew pLylyth pretty well. My opponent won the roll-off and took first turn.

Her first turn saw her simply run everything forward. She had Raptors on one flank, Striders in the center by a wall, and pLylyth on the other flank with some Shredders and her Carnivean. Lylyth and her battle group were in a nice little forest. My turn I did the same. I didn’t run the Hex Hunters all the way forward, as she did not yet have the Strider UA for hunter. My beasts just followed behind the little wall of infantry. My opponent tried to stand behind the wall and shoot with the striders, but with stealth was unable. The raptors took some shots at beasts, but unfortunately she didn’t roll too well and did minimal damage. Shredders shot out in front of her force. Now it was my turn and everything was well within range of charges. My Hex Hunters went into the striders and caught two raptors as well. I did minimal damage to both. My Carnivean and Scythean charged into the striders and killed a couple. The Ravagore took a shot at Lylyth and missed. Lylyth tries aid her striders. Her Carnivean charges in and kills my Scythean. Nothing else major. I now think my Carnivean is within walking range of Lylyth. I take two free strikes from striders, not even scratching me. I make it to Lylyth and munch her. Legion (mine) victory!

Although this match was against a new player with a minimal collection of models to choose from, I still felt good that I was actually able to win a game.

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Game 3: pThagrosh vs. eThagrosh

Game 3 was another Legion on Legion match, this time against a veteran player. I was feeling good after getting a win under my belt. But I was worried as he had the Archangel (I had never faced a colossal/gargantuan up to this point). My opponent won first turn.

First turn he runs everything forward aggressively. The AA is dead center by eThags, with a Scythean nearby. He has some Shredders nearby, as well as a Raek off on a flank. I deploy my brick center with Hex Hunters on the flank opposite the Raek. My brick advances slowly as I was worried what he may be able to do if I move into charge range. My Hex Hunters run up the flank to a flag. My opponent manages to charge my Scythean with the Archangel and annihilates it. It is also close enough to be engaging my Carnivean. The Raek advances. The Scythean runs into reach melee range with my Carnivean. Now I’m on my back foot and not sure how to save my poor Carnivean. I decide to buff my Ravagore and charge it into the Scythean. I leave the Scythean on one box. I charge my shepherd in and finish off the Scythean. My Hex Hunters run and engage eThagrosh and a few shepherds and a shredder. My Carnivean beats on the Archangel some. The Archangel then proceeds to end the Carnivean. eThagrosh kills a bunch of Hex Hunters. Then his shepherd fails its abomination check for being by eThagrosh. Whoops! The Raek leaps and engages pThagrosh and pokes him a bit. pThagrosh then proceeds to cut the Raek to pieces. I pop feat and bring back the Carnivean and it moves to engage the AA and eThagrosh. My Ravagore charges the Archangel and kills it. At this point my opponent has only a few minutes and deathclocks. Legion (mine) victory!

Another really fun game. Although my opponent deathclocked, I am pretty confident I would have assassinated eThagrosh in my next turn with either my Carnivean or Ravagore or even my swarm of Hex Hunters.

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Game 4: pThagrosh vs. Syntherion

My last game was against a caster that I actually had a bit of experience playing. Unfortunately, my opponent brought a list with two Prime Axiom colossals. Although they were pretty intimidating, I felt pThagrosh was the guy to take them down. My opponent gets first turn.

My opponent runs Axiom’s forward, one to a wall and one to the edge of a small hill. Syntherion moves up and casts Hot Shot (I think that’s what it’s called) on the Axiom to my right. The shield guard solo moves up next to him. I have my Hex Hunters deployed center with my Scythean, Carnivean, and Thagrosh direcly behind them. The Feralgiest is to my far right and Ravagore with shepherd to my far left. I run the Hex Hunters straight forward. My Feralgiest runs towards the flag on my right. The Ravagore runs towards the flag on my left. Thagrosh casts Fog of War, free spiny growth on himself, and Draconic Blessing on the Scythean, then charges a Hex Hunter and fails. My Carnivean runs forwards. My Scythean runs forward and a bit right towards that Prime Axiom. My opponent starts his turn by passing out focus to his right Prime Axiom. He stands and shoots the right Prime Axiom at a Hex Hunter, forgot about stealth and missed. It then used its other shot to shoot the Carnivean for minor damage. The other Prime Axiom activated with some convectioned focus, tried to shoot a Hex Hunter and auto-missed because of stealth.  It then tried to shoot the Ravagore and missed a fair number of shots due to Fog of War. He then remembered to spawn his little mine thingy, which charged a Hex Hunter and killed it. Syntherion and his shield guard just chill a bit back. I upkeep all spells. I activate the Hex Hunters and run charge, mostly bringing the unit to the left Prime Axiom, not doing any damage. My Carnivean charges the right Prime Axiom and manages to engage. It does a fair bit of damage. My Scythean then charges and engages the Axiom and the enemy objective contesting the right flag. The Scythean trashes both the Axiom and the objective. I then run the Feralgiest to capture that flag. My Ravagore shoots and kills the shield guard thing. Thagrosh just wanders towards the right flag. I score two points. My opponent starts by activating Syntherion and gives Hot Shot to the left Prime Axiom, along with focus. The Prime Axiom activates and tramples over my Hex Hunters. It shoots at Thagrosh with all of its right side shots, hitting every one and doing major damage. Thagrosh is down to about 8 health. He then tries shooting with his left side and misses every shot! Lucky, lucky Thagrosh. He passes turn and I see that the Prime Axiom did not get close enough to contest my left flag, so I move my Ravagore to capture it, move Thagrosh to dominate the enemy flag and end turn, scoring 3 to win the game. Victory Legion!

I got a bit lucky that Thagrosh survived all those shots from the Axiom. He also had some hot dice for the first 3 shots, so it kind of balanced out. I also got lucky my opponent really didn’t pay attention to scenario, and would have struggled regardless with only two models to really contest. I still felt like I had the game from the start with my heavy melee beasties.

So with that the tournament ended. Wins and losses were tallied and I was tied with another player for second. We went to points destroyed for the tie-breaker and I had a total of 96 points destroyed, netting me second place! For my first tournament, I was pretty dang excited. I had to thank pThagrosh for the victories, without him I would not have stood a chance.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Andy

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight

Hello all, Andy here with my first Legion of Everblight warlock article! Today I am going to talk about my early experiences with Hordes and my boy Thagrosh1. Although I technically started with the Legion battlebox and pLylyth, I consider pThagrosh as my true first warlock. I used him throughout my first month-long Journeyman League with the alternate battlebox, followed by a local 35-point steamroller tournament. I have had a lot of success with Legion’s main man at a variety of point levels. Here are a few of the lists I’ve used.

pThagrosh +5

Ravagore – 10

Nephilim Soldier – 5

Harrier – 2

Shepherd – 1

Forsaken – 2

This was my 15-point list I used for the early portion of the Journeyman League and experience with Hordes as a whole. There was very little creativity to this list, as the alternate battle box required a Ravagore, Harrier, and Soldier. I knew little of the benefits of many solos in Legion, but was advised to add some fury management. Enter the Forsaken and Shepherd. Looking back now, there was no reason to include both a Forsaken and Shepherd as pThags can easily handle 3 little beasties on his own. However, these two models are great and should be some of the first purchases for any Legion player.

As for how the list plays, it did well in most match-ups as pThags feat is crazy at low point levels. A potential 10-point swing is huge when playing with only 15 points. The Ravagore won many games just by its assassination threat with its Dragon Fire animus. With few models, most opponents struggled to hide their casters. The list struggled when facing armies with high ARM. pStryker and pSorcha battle boxes were tough matchups. The list lacks greatly for armor cracking ability. But that is the nature of battlebox games.

pThagrosh +5

Carnivean – 11

Ravagore – 10

Nephilim Soldier – 5

Harrier – 2

Shepherd – 1

Feralgiest – 1

Next up is the 25 point list I used. I needed to add some armor cracking ability to my list so I added a Carnivean. It is a versatile beast that can trash a heavy in one round with little effort. I also enjoy having spiny growth the throw around on key models. With Death Shroud from pThags and spiny growth, legion heavies can reach a respectable armor 22 in melee. It made my army going from having difficulty cracking high armor, to being that high armor force that others had difficulty cracking. I also added a Feralgiest, because it has a neat ability that I have not once remembered to use. But mostly I added it because it was the only other 1 point model I owned at the time.

The list dealt with most foes quite well and I never came across an opponent I really struggled with at this point in the league.

pThagrosh +5

Carnivean – 11

Ravagore – 10

Scythean – 9

Max Hex Hunters – 8

Shepherd – 1

Feralgiest – 1

So here we are at 35 points (I was unable to play the second to last week, so I now have no model restrictions). I can finally drop some of the models I didn’t care for (Nephilim Soldier) and include more of the awesome heavies Legion has to offer. I chose to include one of each of the “normal” heavies for Legion. They each have something different to offer from their brothers, so I like having one of each. The Carnivean for its animus and a 10” spray, the Scythean for reach and no tough, and the Ravagore for long ranged firepower. I also added my first unit I owned and played, the Hex Hunters. These guys just looked awesome to me and at the time their rules seemed sweet so I picked up a box. Although pThags doesn’t really bring much to them in the way of buffs, they are a nice little jamming unit that can be quite irritating to deal with. With stealth, spd 7, and pathfinder, they can easily find their way across the board and into the enemies units. From there they try to get a kill and hex bolt a nearby heavy, preventing tramples or special attacks. Even if they didn’t kill anything, they often took opponents several turns just to remove.

While playing this list, I only ever struggled with some scenarios, as my army mostly moved in a tight clump around pThags. The Feralgiest is actually very helpful for this as a flag capturer or contester as an incorporeal model. A lot of armies don’t have any way of dealing with that.

Well there you have it, my relatively noobie opinions of Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight. Keep your eyes out for a write up of my first Warmahordes tournament and further warlock articles!

-Andy