They Can't All Be Batreps: Learning Lessons & Making The Most Out Of "Bad" Plays

Note: I first started typing this up in early May, but life got very hectic for us between family, work, and training. We managed to get a few games in over the last month, but I've struggled to find time to write. Once things slowed down, I fought with the "how to I get back into this after dropping the ball..." mental fog / bs, but finally made myself sit down and finish writing this out. Sorry that's it's not my normal batrep, but as the title says....they can't all be batreps...and this was a fun exploration for me. 

I record a static-cam video of all of our plays of Brawlmachine & Company Of Iron, as well as taking plenty of photos. The goal is to have plenty of games backlogged for my batreps.

Unfortunately, not all plays are worthy of a batrep. Every now and then, a game will have a wild swing early on in round 2 or 3 because one of us made a drastic tactical mistake; making for an abrupt, early, anti-climatic end. And once in a blue moon, we'll have a particularly bad play after a long day, when we were both tired, distracted by something else, etc.

Last month, there was a combo of those last 3. Our granddaughter, Everlee, was planning to come over the spend the night. We were scheduled to pick her up from our son & daughter-in-law as soon as we wrapped up our game early Saturday evening. On top of that, we were both pretty burned out from a hectic few days at work leading up to the weekend.

Despite all of this, we didn't want to miss out on our regular Saturday afternoon / evening game. Overall, it was a fun play with both of us pulling off some solid attacks; even in the face of some bad rolls at times.

The game ended by assassination in round 5 with Circle winning. As I picked up our models & terrain, Donna went to get Ev. We ate dinner, played Barbies, and read a few books before bed. It was a great evening all around.

However, as I laid down to go to bed that night, the game started to replay in my mind. It hit me that we'd made 2 massive rules mistakes that ended up being critical in how the game played out. The thing is that the mistakes we made were things we already knew / understood. They were things we've encountered in dozens of games over the last 11 months. The combination of being tired & rushing to wrap up the last few rounds so that we could get Ev before it got too late meant that we were distracted mentally & completely lost sight of basic rules we knew well.

I verified it the next day as I watched the videos from that Saturday's game. Sure enough, we made 2 glaring mistakes that tainted the end of the game and made it no good to use for a batrep. 

First, Hexeris popped his feat and cast "Obliteration" on a Warpborn Skinwalker in round 3. I needed a 5 for the spell to succeed, but rolled double 2s. "Agh! Damn it! I really needed that to weaken those Skinwalkers bunched up right there", I lamented as I immediately went on to the next activation. 

Of course, being an AOE 5 magic attack, we should have rolled for deviation. Being in the rushed, tired mental state we were in, both of us completely lost sight of that and neither of us caught the mistake. What followed was a series of attacks on those Skinwalkers that triggered a combination of Hexeris taking over some of them as they were destroyed to perform follow-up attacks on other nearby Circle models.

With how the Skinwalkers were bunched up along with the War Wolf & Winter Argus being nearby, even if the AOE deviated a full 6" to any direction, it was all but guaranteed that at least 2 of them would have been hit by blast damage and this could have greatly impacted how well the attacks from Hexeris' feat went to follow. This was especially important since Hexeris had just cast "Parasite" onto the Skinwalkers reducing their ARM by -3 before popping his feat. 

By the time my next turn was over, the Skinwalkers were completely wiped out and all Donna had left was Kaya, an Argus Moonhound, a weakened Winter Argus, & a severely injured Pureblood Warpwolf. Had we caught the forgotten AOE deviation, the situation would have more likely been much different. The Winter Argus would have most likely not survived another round.

The second glaring mistake we made in our rushed, tired state was losing sight of the fact that the Pureblood Warpwolf's mind & spirit were both crippled going into the last round. The assassination came from the Warpwolf attacking Hexeris. Not only did these attacks include the normal 2d6 the model would get if its mind were not crippled, but she also forced it to boost both the attack & damage rolls. All of this was illegal of course, but we completely missed it.

It's not often that Everlee spends the night on our game days (Tuesdays & Saturdays). I think the idea that we needed to wrap up in time to get her before it got too late clouded our judgement. Of course, I'm not complaining. As much fun as the game was, an evening playing with our granddaughter is priceless.

That said, realizing we'd made those mistakes afterwards got me thinking more about how I was using / misusing my current Skorne list. It motivated me to put some time looking into my list this week to see where I am missing potential strategies and synergies in it. Of course, this is all compared / contrasted against the current Circle list that Donna's running that has some really strong points to it.

I know the usual answer in WMH is "fix the list" where you'll get suggestions of which models / units aren't so good with a specific caster / warlock or how certain other models / units link up better with a particular list. 

That's all well & good, but as I mentioned in the past, a big part of the draw to me for WMH is finding ways to make something good out of what I've got. Sure I can buy model X or unit Y, but in the meantime, I want to try to max out the best I can do with what I currently have. As it is, I have a box full of Skorne that I still need to build / paint. Tons of opportunities to beef up my current list, but before I do that, I want to dig deeper into my current list.

With that in mind, I realized how badly I was neglecting some offensive aspects of my current list, as well as how I was using certain models for strategies they weren't suited for with a list like this.

Skorne - Masters of War

Lord Tyrant Hexeris

- Titan Gladiator

- Cyclops Raider

- Cyclops Savage

- Razor Worm

Hakaar the Destroyer

Ancestral Guardian (req option)

Extoller Novitiate

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Paingiver Beast Handlers (full unit)

One of the biggest mistakes I've made was focusing solely on Hexeris from the standpoint of a couple of spells to buff / debuff, his feat, & his melee attack threat with "Beat Back". If I'm being honest, the melee threat with "Beat Back" focus was pretty much because I'd never played with a model that had that ability & I just wanted to mess around with it. I've used it a few times since to knock models away from scoring positions. So, it was fun and worked to do what I wanted, but it usually put Hexeris in a dangerous spot for the turn to follow.

Additionally, I was splitting my forces into at least 2 "beat stick" squads with 2 primary targets: her Warpborn Skinwalker Alpha & her Pureblood Warpwolf. I'd deploy Hakaar & Ancestral Guardian to square off against one of those targets and deploy the Titan Gladiator & Cyclops Savage against the other. Razor Worm was used more as a nuisance / forward distraction to allow me (hopefully) to isolate whichever target was across from it on the battlefield until one of my beat stick groups could get to it. 

I'd use "Death March" on the Beast Handlers knowing that at least one of them was going to get killed. Again, this was more because I haven't had too much experience getting to play around with "Vengeance" and I wanted to have some fun with it. Hakaar has it as an innate ability, but because of how I was deploying him, typically with only the Ancestral Guardian nearby and the Novitiate safely behind in support, he rarely got to use it. 

Paingiver Beast Handlers just don't hit hard enough to make "Death March" a very beneficial spell for them. I was able to make the most out of it * WHEN * they were in range of an enemy beast, because I could enjoy some fury shenanigans to take away or add fury to them. I've had the chance to do both; once taking away 2 fury so that when Donna leeched next turn, she was shorthanded and again on another turn to add some so that her beasts were maxed out. That lead to 2 of them frenzying; which resulted in one of her beasts charging the other.

With "Death March" being a 3 fury cost & upkeep spell, it's just not at all worth it to cast on a support unit like Beast Handlers. 

Another wasted spell in how I've been running the list was casting "Soul Slave" on the Titan Gladiator. My thought was that I could use him as an arc node because he's got more staying power, but I'd usually only get at most one good spell out of him before she'd swarm him BECAUSE he was such a threat. Staying power doesn't matter if he's engaged with 3+ enemies and can't channel anything.

I'd also been ignoring Hexeris' offensive spells like "Obliteration" & "Sunder Spirit". I didn't appreciate just how powerful they were. The 4 fury cost of "Obliteration' turned me off when I first saw it, but I've come to appreciate just how devastating it can be. Skinwalkers are base ARM 16, but with Unyielding they go up to ARM 18 against melee damage rolls. Having the chance to hit one of them (especially the Alpha) with a POW 15 magic attack while catching others in a 5" AOE can absolutely be worth 4 fury. 

So, I sat with my notebook and worked through the cards for my current list to see what I was doing that was wasteful / not so great, what I wasn't doing that I wanted to try out, and what combos / synergies I could work out.

I was able to work some of the strategies I'd mapped out in a more recent game since that "bad" play and they led me to my first win against her Circle list in months. I'll go over them here, but wanted to note that there is a slight tweak to how I work it out based on whether I'm going 1st or 2nd. That can dictate whether I channel "Obliteration" or "Sunder Spirit" first out of the gate.

I should note that a BIG part of what's given me success in executing any of the changes has been taking advantage of terrain. Every time we play, I'm impressed even more at how much things can change by good / bad decisions in deployment and later movement in considering the terrain you put or avoid between you and key targets.

One of the first changes is to use "Soul Slave" on the Razor Worm. Advance Deployment means that I can get the Worm into range to get a spell off before he's engaged; not something that's easy to pull off with the slow-moving Gladiator who is deployed back in line with everyone else. Also, because I tend to use Razor Worm more as a nuisance than a primary melee threat, if the situation dictates it, I can move him back to where he's not in range of being engaged and get more channeling goodness out of him in later rounds.

The first offensive spell that I cast in the first round is "Parasite" channeled through the Worm onto the Skinwalkers. Reducing their ARM is critical to being able to get work done against them & the +1 ARM boost to Hexeris isn't much, but it gives him a little more staying power when he gets into the mix.

I'm constantly dropping "Obliteration" onto the Skinwalkers weakened by "Parasite". In a perfect world, I'm able to get a direct hit on the Alpha. Taking him out so that the unit loses Gang is huge in swinging things in my favor. Depending on whether or not I'm first or second player, I wait to pop Hexeris' feat until right when the melee gets heavy which is between rounds 2 & 3 depending on how the terrain may have slowed us down in getting into range. 

With his feat in place & the Skinwalkers already somewhat injured from a couple rounds of "Obliteration", I'll have one of my heavy hitters go after a Skinwalker in range. My new favorite go-to here is slamming with the Titan Gladiator.

In the past, I tended to charge him in; wanting to get the extra initial melee attacks. I've since come to appreciate all the benefits that the Gladiator gets when he slams including "Follow Up", "Grand Slam", & "Hard Head". Being able to slam without being forced, slam the target back +2", close the distance to buy additional attacks after, and add the Tusks' POW to it are all too good to pass up.

Slamming a Skinwalker into one or more of his buddies really helps when trying to get the most out of Hexeris' feat. Using the fury I saved on not having to force the slam, I can boost to hit to ensure I get the ball rolling in a chain of "free" attacks. As soon as 1 Skinwalker dies in Hexeris' control range, I take control of that "zombie" to attack the Skinwalker nearest it that is damaged the most. If it works out, this will trigger another immediate "free" feat attack, but if not, it usually does enough damage to make my next attack finish them off.

I've had success in a few games since where I was able to take out all of her Skinwalkers on 1 occasion & reduce them to just 2-3 models left in other games. Of course, it's not all done with just the Titan's slam. Whatever doesn't get done after his attack(s), I charge the Cyclops Savage in to another Skinwalker, have the Cyclops Raider take a shot from a distance, etc.

While this is going on, I'm usually able to hold off her Pureblood Warpwolf with my Exalted solos. In some cases, I'm able to severely cripple her heavy before he gets in to mess with my beasts. In other cases, I'm at least able to tie him up until my Gladiator & Savage can deal with him.

Being able to stall out her Warpwolf and decimate her Skinwalkers takes time though and my beasts and solos do take a beating in return. The benefit I've found is in playing smart with early scoring opportunities to get just enough of a lead while all the nonsense above is playing out. Then, even if it looks close or in her favor as far as attrition goes, I keep Hexeris just far enough away to keep him alive while casting what spells he can to keep him alive and eke out a scenario win.

Doing that is like a knife in my Hoksune heart, but it's gotten me a few hard fought wins against a very tough Circle list.

Since the time that I first started writing this, I've gotten my Gatorman Posse painted up, as well as getting Donna's Druid Wilder and Gorax Rager painted. I'm currently working on Agata & Viktor Pendrake for her and after that I'm painting up a Paingiver Task Master to support my Gatormen. It was a fun experiment to try to find a way to max out my "weaker" Skorne list against her powerhouse Circle list, but now I'm excited to start mixing in some new models / units into both of our lists to see what we can explore and discover along the way.