The Necrotechs Workshop – A Brief Tournament Report

 

On Feb 4th, I played in my first tournament of the year, and I was stoked going into it. I’d not played in a competitive environment since around December, and I was looking forward to putting Scaverous on the table for the first time. I’d paired him with Skarre 2, because I knew a friend of mine was not going to be at the tournament, so the chances of a lethal Kara Sloan list was pretty low. It was a quick three rounder. Each rounds recap after the break! 

Pairing

First up,  I want to set out my pairings, giving a little bit of thought behind them. Hopefully I won’t run on too long. 

First, because its my Tour de Cryx Caster, I brought along Scaverous. I’ve been talking about my lists, and what I was going to bring for a while, but I’ll still put the list up. 

Lord Exumator Scaverous
-Erebus
-Deathripper
-Deathripper
-The Withershadow Combine
Wrong Eye
-Snapjaw
Soul Trapper
Warwitch Siren
Cephalyx Overlords
Satyxis Raiders (x10)
-Satyxis Raiders Sea Witch
Croe’s Cut Throats (x10)

This was to be my generalist list. I thought it could do well into multiple factions with multiple solutions to pretty much everything. Hopefully I’d be able to trade my Stayxis for a jam while picking off targets of opportunity with the Croe’s until it came to be assassination time, or scenario time. 

I paired it with

Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast
-The Withershadow Combine
-Barathrum
-Deathripper
-Nightwretch
Satyxis Captain
Gorman di Wolfe
Ragman
Satyxis Raiders (x10)
-Satyxis Raiders Sea Witch
Satyxis Raiders (x10)
-Satyxis Raiders Sea Witch
Satyxis Gunslinger
Satyxis Gunslinger

My other list, Feedbackapalooza, was simply an armor spam solution with a lot of troop killing potential. Overtake with two attacks and Black Spot can be devastating to a troop swarm, especially at up to MAT 10. With Backlash on a Jack, I have enough feedback to only need some 8 or 8 damage rolls to sink in to kill a caster. I liked the plan because we have a pretty solid Khador contingent, and I didn’t really want to have to try to chew through all those jacks. Additionally, I’d played Skarre 2 Twice before, so I figured taking her out for a few more spins couldn’t hurt. 

The field at the start of the tournament was remarkably thin. Two Cygnar, two Khador, two Circle, Skorne, Protectorate, Ret, and myself. I don’t know that I was disappointed by the mix, but I sure wasn’t happy. 

Round 1

Round 1 was extraction, and I was paired against a friend of mine that I play fairly often. He was paired up with Una 2 and Baldur 2, a pretty expected list set, honestly. He was trying Tharn with Una in the day old Theme List, just to see how it felt. Knowing that he would likely play Una into me, he’d beaten me the last two times we played, I picked Scaverous, my Una answer, what with a bajillion magic and ranged attacks in the list. Unsurprisingly, he did pick Una 2. He took first turn, I took the side with the building. 

This is the end of my first turn. I’d sacrificed the arc node on the right to tag down a Shifting Stone and to drop Icy Grip on the Wolf Riders – I knew Croe would need all the help he could picking them off. His turn two was pretty standard and he engaged along the front line and popped his feat. (Editors note: Pre-errata feat) He sunk some damage into Snap Jaw, though it was less than expected due to Star Crossed, which also saved a number of Satyxis from the initial wave. He did manage to kill the Arc node, as I’d positioned Wrong Eye exactly where I wanted him, but didn’t figure on the Deathripper really surviving. If I had positioned a little better, I may have been able to save him.  Their Def. drop to 14 really hurts. 

Completely jammed up, with Tharn and Griffons engaging the entirety, I knew I was going to have to try and do as much damage with my counter-feat as possible. I allocated two to Erebus and almost immediately activated Scaverous. I popped the feat and first things first, tossed Soul Harvester on the Satyxis. I then spend 4 boosted TK’s to move the three griffons engaging me around backwards and out of engagement. Sadly, I wasn’t able to clear the lane I wanted to with Erebus, blocking him in from where I needed him to be to accomplish the task I set out for him. 

Next up was the spray Party. The Warwitch Siren and all three of the Overlords had their eyes on the griffons. I was able to get Three with one spray, and two with the remaining 3. As fortune would have it, however, the Siren missed all her attacks (boosted 6’s), and the overlords managed to kill one and do 4 damage to a second.I pulled in the Withershadow to try and sink in damage, and none of them were really able to, and at this point the side was kinda sunk. I had managed to get the griffon that Erebus needed out of his way, but it didn’t matter. I killed a few Tharn Ravagers and moved over to the other side. Thankfully, here I did a bit better, clearing out a significant chunk of the Blood Weavers and slaying a few more Tharn, as well as killing of a single Wolf Rider. Croe’s, due to a lack of targets and an inability to aim to shoot, kinda puttered around, trying to wait it out. I passed the turn with 6 souls on Scaverous and two more on the Soul Trapper. Unable to get a model into his zone, he scored the first point. It did not look well. 

It was too late, though, and on my opponents turn, he re-alphed. One of the Griffons on my Left frenzied and ate an overlord, the other one failed to frenzy, and stood at three fury. More Tharn charged Erebus, but between Starcrossed and Def 14, he proved elusive. I really like that combo. Snapjaw was unable to live through three birds, and died like a champ defending Wrong Eye. The Wolfriders, though engaged, managed to start pulling that far flank apart, killing almost everything in the zone, including the objective. The Blood Weavers and their Night Witch closed in and slew all of the Satyxis remaining, chopping through more than their fair share. My zone was severely contested, and I only held on by a single model. His zone was empty except for Una, which scored him his second point. He was up 3-0 and I didn’t really have a lot I could do. 

With what little of my force remained, I did have some 13 focus. Two on Erebus, Upkeep Icy Grip for free. I do all sorts of premeasuring to see if my little bone jack can get within 10″ of Una2, and I can do it. 

And then it happens. I got tunnel vision, and though that I could take her out. There was no way, and I should have known better.  I run the Deathripper to within 10″ and activate Scaverous. I mentally go to shoot off a TK at Una and remember, in my head, that Its only 8″, and I think to myself, that’s it, that is game. I do shoot a boosted feast of worms at her, connecting, and then an Excarnate, also connecting. I did a ton of damage to the Gorax and to an already injured Griffon, but I don’t do enough. I spend the rest of the turn desperately trying to get models to the zone, and miss getting Erebus, at DEF 14 ARM 18, into the zone by 1/32″ I stuff as many models into my zone as possible, pop Starcrossed and hope my luck would hold me through. I even manage to get a single Satyxis into Una’s zone, nobly sacrificing herself to avoid a victory point. 

My luck fails to hold, though. Under Starcrossed the Bloodweavers and the Night Witch easily clear out one side of my zone jamming models, and the wolf riders clear the second. The Gorax simply turns around and eats the one contesting Satyxis, bringing him up to 5. 

Conclusion

That game was my first with Scaverous, and I feel my noob was showing. Doing only 4 damage to a model with a series of dice -1 damage rolls was weak, but happens. I’m not going to judge the list on a single game, though. I think had I more practice with the list, I would have been able to be much more effective. I don’t know that taking down the shifting stone and popping Icy Grip was really worth it instead of getting out my buffs (Death Ward, Soul Harvester), but I’ve lost more games to those stupid Shifting Stones than I care to admit. It felt worth it at the time. I will definitely be playing this list again. 

Round 2

Circle, Circle, Khador, Skorne and Cygnar advanced, Leaving me with Khador, Protectorate, Cygnar and Ret as possible opponents. My luck holding strong, I get paired against a solid Cygnar player. Wonderful. Cryx’s favorite matchup! It was even Recon, so I was going to be funneled into the center of the board. 

He was playing Stryker 2 and Nemo 1, though my brain shit its pants and I thought it was Nemo 3. Either way, I saw a pile of jacks in both lists, and knowing it was likely going to be a three round tournament, I picked Skarre to avoid being locked into her in the final game. Seeing that the battlegroup in both lists was small, he shied away from Nemo 1 and put down Stryker 2. I was pleased. Three Jacks, Junior, and a shield wall unit were all juicy targets, though the Stormlances would likely be a problem. 

Once again, my opponent won first turn, and I picked the Cowards Board Edge

He comes barreling down the board turn 1,  rolling up the Precoursers and the Stormlances almost as far as they can go, keeping them out of charge range, or even run to engage. God I miss AD Satyxis! My first turn wasn’t particularly impressive, as I set Barathrum forward, the left flank ran to within their charge range, but out of the Precoursers, and the right flank tried best they could to provide a problem to the Stormlances, with the second line being 4.5″ behind the first, forcing impact attacks to get through to the charge target or a stop at the front line for countercharge. Everyone else advanced towards the zone and tried to make sure that I could take it as soon as possible. Admonition and Death Ward went out, and Skarre hid int he divot between the forest and the smoke cloud from her Objective. Man do I love Fuel Cache. 

His second turn was solid, and capitalized on a dumb mistake I made, again. Not playing in a competitive setting for so long really put some rust on me. I left exactly one Satyxis within 16″ of Stryker and out in the open. It was immediately tagged with Rebuke from Strkyer, who then went on to cast Deceleration. Damn it. Then the Stormlances crashed in. They did pretty much exactly what I wanted them to, crashing into the front wave and stopping shy. only 4 of five made a charge, one failed, and the other three got to two targets. I did get the front wave of models just torn up, but that was to be expected. I was upset, though, because of the Rubuke the plan I had to try and take them down was untenable. The Precourser Knights marched up to face down the Satyxis, with Gallant to the far flank. the Sentinel parked on one side of the lake and took some weak pot shots at the Satyxis. Ol Rowdy Parked on the other side of the Stormlances, prepared to take down Barathrum if I countercharged in.

My next turn was good on one flank, and right shit on the other. I charged in half the unit of Satyxis and butchered the precoursers, while setting the other half up for good charges into Gallant. Behind them were the Gunslingers, who were pretty much relegated to trash status with deflection making many models in the army ARM 20+ v. shooting. Pow 10’s just ain’t cutting it at this point. The Satyxis walked up and tried to knock down as many of the Stormlances as possible, but only managed to get one, who I then shot at with the gunslingers and fared very poorly. the Withershadow and Ragman were just out of useful range,  Barathrum and Skarre simply scooted about to get better positions denying the zone to the enemy while I still drew breath. 

his next turn was attempting to regroup. He had started to lose his right flank, my left, and was trying to regain ground, while push deep with his stormlances. Gallant killed a few Satyxis, as did the remaining few Precourser Knights. Stryker took an aggressive position in the middle of my right flank, bringing Ol Rowdy with him to move up into position just outside of my threat range. He then triggered countercharge from Barathrum on one of the Storm Lances, who I failed to kill. The rest of the Stormlances, though, continued to fry that flank, pushing deeper into the support and trying to get around to my rear. I don’t see how I was going to stop him. the sentinel continued to fire away ineffectively, though it was holding down the scenario. That lake was a pain! 

My turn came sooner than I’d though, but Stryker had started to swing wide and was aggressively placed to take the flag on that side of the board. Well, I was just going to have to take it and get him later. My left flank continued its battery of his right. Gorman moved and got Gallant with the Rust Bomb, dropping its arm to 16 after the loss of the buckler to the lacerators. The Raiders charged into the remaining Precoursers and Gallant, scraping Gallant in 5 attacks, and killing all but 2 of the Precoursers. Man, what I would not have given to be playing Scaverous right now! I didn’t want to give up Barathrum just yet, so I pulled him back, and sent everything I could possibly get into the Stormlances. Sadly, not a single kill was achieved until the Withershadow sighed a heavy sigh and charged in. Admonia killed the one who engaged Barathrum, freeing him up to possibly charge Ol Rowdy. After looking at the angles and measuring it out, I wasn’t in charge range through the lake, so I backed up into the zone. I then moved Skarre up and popped my feat. Tagging Ol Rowdy, Skarre, Stryker, The Sentinal and my Arc Node. I wasn’t having any of his shenanigans. 

On his turn, he pushed forward with Stryker, tagging the flag, and then popped his feat. Having taken 5 damage earlier, he then moved up Harrison gibs and all the soliders feasted on Cat. The Stormlances continued their barrage of my flank, destroying almost all the remaining defenders, and one moved to engage Barathrum.  Ol Rowdy moved into position. Strykers feat proc’d then, and ol rowdy moved up and took a nasty swing at Barathrum, doing some 7 damage. Damn it! Glad I had that Deathward up. The stormlances then finished off the rest of the defenders, and left me with an engaged Barathrum and an Ol Rowdy in the way. 

Sadly, making another mistake, I completely forgot how admonition worked, and charged Skarre into Ol’ Rowdy after having filled Barathrum up. I really wanted to get backlash up and try and kill Stryker. No such luck, as backlash missed. I figured I’d go for a Great Rack attack and knock him down. Again, no dice.  Well, at least I could kill Jr. by charging the Sentinel and doing 5 feedback damage, right?, and that would peel Arcane Shield off of Ol’ Rowdy. Well, not if only 4 models can get the charge off. Barathrum would at least do some damage, right? Mat 8 is good. Well, not this day. I missed twice out of 6 attacks, and failed to do any appreciable damage. With the rest of my army activated and on its way into the zone, I felt comfortable and switched the clock over. 

Only then did I bother to double-check admonition.

Advance and End movement. 

A single attack from Ol Rowdy later, and I was shaking hands. Not the way I wanted to go, but a lesson learned. 

Conclusion

Read your rules, especially if you’d not read them for a long time. I was pretty sure I could have won that game, given enough time. I could have shredded Ol’ Rowdy with Satyxis attacks, held the center with Barathrum, and capped the flag on the far side, maybe even taking out his objective. I also think I should have ran into engage with Barathrum under the feat, and not doing so was folly, the only problem being that Ol Rowdy and Stryker could team up to burn him down, even with the +10 defense, with Boosted to hit and damage rolls. The big wrench to my head, though, was those damned Stormlances. They just rolled over my infantry and I couldn’t do anything to them. Sometimes it happens, but I don’t know that any gameplan I had could deal with the four remaining models. Maybe Barathrum can get to two, but that means I die to Ol Rowdy, later on. It was a good game I was glad to have played!

Round 3

Heading to defend the bottom of the barrel, I was paired against the Ret Player. Sweet! He brought Rhan  and Vyros 2, so I knew I was going to have to drop Skarre 2 again, sadly. there was no way that Scaverous can power through the Griffons Vyros had. However, I forgot that my opponent also has to take into account my lists, and was never, ever going to drop Vyros 2 and all jacks into Skarre 2. It was the pefect opportunity to play Scaverous, but I missed it. 

This time I won the roll, picked to go first, and deployed my army at the 7″ mark. We were playing extraction, and this edition, the could helps!

Going first, I powered forward with my whole army, daring him to try and shoot down my Satyxis. Both had Whipping wind up, so I felt pretty safe. He took a portion of the bait, and his Mage Hunter Assassins were fishing for 10’s. The Battle Mage units run into position, as do the arc nodes and the Jacks. He goes to toss out a Sylyas amped up Chain Blast, but all the Satyxis are immune so he thinks better of it. Positioned well, he passes the turn. 

Both units of Satyxis have charge targets, and I dig into them. The left flank sends two Satyxis at the Chimera, and a pair at the battle mages in front of the Sphinx, with the rest hanging back, prepared for the assault. The right flank goes all in on the Mage Hunters, taking three down with a Blood Rain, and many more in a hail of melee attacks, leaving only 3 left in the unit at the end of the turn. I do get out backlash, as well, onto the threatening Sphinx, and move Barathrum to the far flag. Everyone else prepares to be the second wave. 

He moves forward and retaliates, dropping many of the Satyxis, leaving about 5 in each unit, including the UA. The Sphinx takes down a couple, as do the battle mages. Seeing an opportunity to get a chain blast off on the left Satyxis, now very vulnerable to blasts, he does so, chewing them up. 

He does, however, leave the Sphinx in charge range of the Raider Captain and some 5 Satxyis, with Backlash up on it, while also being within range of 5 of my Gunslingers and all three Withershadow. Additionally, there is a Chimera within 6″ of Barathrum. I feel confident. I send in the Captain first, doing 2 damage to Rhan and knocking him down. I then send the first three Satyxis in, and do 6 more damage. at this point, I move Ragman up and drop his ARM, and start shooting with the Gunslingers, plinking here and there for damage. The final pair of Satyxis go in and have an easier time with ARM 17, doing even more damage, but leaving both the Sphinx and Rhan alive, but on 8 and 3 respectively. Finally, I activate the Withershadow and toss two Blackfires into him to finally drop him. I emerge triumphant! 

Conclusion

This is how I want my list to work, and it so rarely does. Saturating the army  with so many feedback attacks just creates so many vectors for assassination that I have to be careful not to jump to soon. It was a good game, and the first win of the tournament, so I will take it!

Well, thats enough for me. More thoughts on Scaverous later on, hopefully after more games!