Game 3 and my coalition of chaos faces an Ironjawz army.
Specifically, it's my Ironjawz army, so how could I go wrong?
My next opponent is Yalfrezi (Yalfrezi Major, as we're accommodating two generations this WoffBoot), who traditionally doesn't do too well in WoffBoots ... unless he's playing against me.
The scenario is Escalation, so we'll come onto the board piecemeal to fight for objectives across the diagonal.
This scenario seems to be a good one for Ironjawz: battleline units have to come on first (and his are a lot better than mine), and Ironjawz seem well-suited to sitting immovably on objectives.
On the other hand, Yalfrezi has never played this army (or Age of Sigmar) before, so hopefully I sneak a win under the low edge of the learning curev.
Leaders
With pace on my side, I'm reasonably confident I can isolate and destroy the Ironjawz in a regular fight, but the Escalation deployment is going to cause me some problems. Both my Gor and Tzaangor need their respective leaders nearby for maximum effectiveness.
Also my vaunted Chimera is going to be cooing his heels until the second turn at least. The Chaos Warriors are a reasonably robust and independent battleline, but they're slow.
So my plan is to make an early dash for the centre, overwhelm one flank and hang on to win on points.
The other unit of Brutes move to secure the bottom-left objective, while the Gore-Gruntas charge into the large unit of Gor. Between their charging bonus and overall power, they make a right mess of my unit: half get wiped out, and most of the rest go to battleshock.
It's my turn to respond. I have to bring on the Tzaangor, and I'm torn between bringing on the Ogroid or the Chimera. Having seen the carnage suffered by one of my units without any buffs, I plump for the Ogroid. I could use a general on the field about now.
I throw all three units - Chaos Warriors, Tzaangor and Ogroid - into the top-right unit of Brutes. As you'd expect, I do rather well and take out four of them - but the Boss stays put and refuses to budge! (fortunately, in this scenario, objectives are claimed by majority of models, not exclusive models)
Back in the centre, the Gore-Gruntas finish off their snack of twenty Gor, having only lost a single wound. I need to do something about that - I'm already being outscored on objectives, so I'll need to hold at least two of them.
In a lucky break, I win the initiative for the third turn. The Beastlord comes on, and wonders what happened to his herd of Gor (again!). More importantly, the Chimera takes the field!
I waste no time in swooping him towards the Gore-Gruntas. He blasts them with his fiery breath, then charges straight in. For once, all the attacks of his many heads strike home, and he chews through the 14 wounds of the Gore-Gruntas without breaking sweat. The piggies are gone!
On the top-right objective, I decide that knocking off the last Brute is within the capabilities of the Chaos Warriors, so pull the Ogroid and Tzaangor off towards the now-unoccupied centre.
In Yalfrezi's third turn, the two Orruk leaders come on - both on the top-corner, to support the lone Boss who's tanking away against the Chaos Warriors.
He then parks the Ardboyz squarely on his bottom-left objective (I'm never getting that), then marches the remaining unit of Brutes towards the centre.
In the charge phase, he sends the Megaboss towards the Tzaangor and then, following some spectacularly bad advice from me, throws the Shaman in there too.
The Megaboss goes first in combat, and proceeds to miss with almost everything, only racking up two kills. When the Tzaangor strike back, I show just exactly how bad my advice was by killing the Shaman (sorry!).
Over on the top-right objective, the Chaos Warriors finally pull their act together to kill the last Brute Boss.
We've now traded a couple of units by now, and though I'm behind on objective points, I'm feeling a bit of momentum with me.
In the clash of leaders, my pair do pretty well against the Megaboss, whacking him down to two remaining wounds for very little damage in return. However, it's going to be a sideshow if I can't claim the centre objective (I currently have a numerical superiority of one Tzaangor).
In Yalfrezi's turn, he sensibly withdraws his Megaboss from the action (brutal cunning is just as important as cunning brutality) and charges into the Tzaangor with the Brutes.
Neither side do particularly well in the combat - I fall one short of killing a Brute, he only takes off two Tzaangor - but with the Megaboss adding to their numbers, the Ironjawz have a 5:4 superiority at the centre objective and claim the points.
With only one turn remaining, there aren't enough points left for me to make up my shortfall, even if I was miraculously able to shift the Ironjawz in the centre.
Major victory to the Ironjawz!
Despite the scenario making things hard for me, I am a big fan of playing them. I think this made for a much better battle than just lining our guys opposite each other and bashing away.
The Chaos Warriors got their first taste of combat in the tournament, and didn't impress, as they struggled to take down the Brute Boss. With no buffs or special abilities, they do struggle to inflict some damage, even if they are resilient.
The poor Chimera - he was already polishing his MVP medal as he cost me the game. In fairness, he was lucky against the Gore-Gruntas and unlucky against the Brutes, so it evens out. I should maybe have supported his attack with the Tzaangor, but I still needed bodies on the field to claim the objective (damn you, scenario rules - where's my big scrum in the centre?)
I was also impressed with the Ironjawz - even when I was building the army, I had it written off as a one-trick smash-em-up pony, but they seem very suited to working the scenario rules: each unit is reasonably good at dishing out, and taking damage. They can also operate autonomously with effectiveness. Maybe I loaned out the wrong army to the WoffBoot!
Still, congratulations to Yalfrezi (who went on to win a personal best of three victories), I have to pick myself up, patch the Chimera back together, and face another Stormcast army.
Specifically, it's my Ironjawz army, so how could I go wrong?
My next opponent is Yalfrezi (Yalfrezi Major, as we're accommodating two generations this WoffBoot), who traditionally doesn't do too well in WoffBoots ... unless he's playing against me.
The scenario is Escalation, so we'll come onto the board piecemeal to fight for objectives across the diagonal.
Da Pickle Haube: Ironjawz
Leaders
- Orruk Megaboss - General
- Orruk Weirdnob Shaman
Units
- 10 x Orruk Ardboys - Orruk Banner, (2) Orruk-forged Shields, (5) Orruk-forged Smashas, (3) Orruk-forged Big Choppa
- 5 x Orruk Brutes - (3) Two Brute Choppas, (1) Gore-choppa, (1) Boss Choppa
- 5 x Orruk Brutes - (3) Jagged Gore-hackas, (1) Gore-choppa, (1) Boss Klaw
- 3 x Orruk Gore Gruntas - Pig-iron Choppa
On the other hand, Yalfrezi has never played this army (or Age of Sigmar) before, so hopefully I sneak a win under the low edge of the learning curev.
Coalition of Chaos: Disciples of Tzeentch/Brayherd/Monsters of Chaos
Leaders- Ogroid Thaumaturge - General
- Beastlord - Man-render Great Axe
Units
- 20 x Gors - Two Gor-Blades
- 10 x Tzaangors - Pair of Savage Blades (4), Savage Greatblade (3), Savage Blade & Arcanite Shield (3)
- 10 x Chaos Warriors - Hand Weapon & Shield - Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Behemoths
- Chimera
With pace on my side, I'm reasonably confident I can isolate and destroy the Ironjawz in a regular fight, but the Escalation deployment is going to cause me some problems. Both my Gor and Tzaangor need their respective leaders nearby for maximum effectiveness.
Also my vaunted Chimera is going to be cooing his heels until the second turn at least. The Chaos Warriors are a reasonably robust and independent battleline, but they're slow.
So my plan is to make an early dash for the centre, overwhelm one flank and hang on to win on points.
Game 3: Escalation
Yalfrezi deploys first with a unit of Brutes, who move towards the bottom-left objective, and the Gore-Gruntas, who position themselves between the other two objectives.
I bring on my Gor, who race towards the centre objective, and the Chaos Warriors who lumber towards the top-right objective.
Yalfrezi wins the second turn and brings on his second unit of Brutes, just above the top-right objective, and the Ardboyz, right in front of the bottom-left objective. I'm already feeling the iron jaws close shut over this battlefield.
The other unit of Brutes move to secure the bottom-left objective, while the Gore-Gruntas charge into the large unit of Gor. Between their charging bonus and overall power, they make a right mess of my unit: half get wiped out, and most of the rest go to battleshock.
It's my turn to respond. I have to bring on the Tzaangor, and I'm torn between bringing on the Ogroid or the Chimera. Having seen the carnage suffered by one of my units without any buffs, I plump for the Ogroid. I could use a general on the field about now.
I throw all three units - Chaos Warriors, Tzaangor and Ogroid - into the top-right unit of Brutes. As you'd expect, I do rather well and take out four of them - but the Boss stays put and refuses to budge! (fortunately, in this scenario, objectives are claimed by majority of models, not exclusive models)
Back in the centre, the Gore-Gruntas finish off their snack of twenty Gor, having only lost a single wound. I need to do something about that - I'm already being outscored on objectives, so I'll need to hold at least two of them.
 |
| Not pictured: twenty Gor. |
In a lucky break, I win the initiative for the third turn. The Beastlord comes on, and wonders what happened to his herd of Gor (again!). More importantly, the Chimera takes the field!
I waste no time in swooping him towards the Gore-Gruntas. He blasts them with his fiery breath, then charges straight in. For once, all the attacks of his many heads strike home, and he chews through the 14 wounds of the Gore-Gruntas without breaking sweat. The piggies are gone!
On the top-right objective, I decide that knocking off the last Brute is within the capabilities of the Chaos Warriors, so pull the Ogroid and Tzaangor off towards the now-unoccupied centre.
In Yalfrezi's third turn, the two Orruk leaders come on - both on the top-corner, to support the lone Boss who's tanking away against the Chaos Warriors.
He then parks the Ardboyz squarely on his bottom-left objective (I'm never getting that), then marches the remaining unit of Brutes towards the centre.
In the charge phase, he sends the Megaboss towards the Tzaangor and then, following some spectacularly bad advice from me, throws the Shaman in there too.
The Megaboss goes first in combat, and proceeds to miss with almost everything, only racking up two kills. When the Tzaangor strike back, I show just exactly how bad my advice was by killing the Shaman (sorry!).
Over on the top-right objective, the Chaos Warriors finally pull their act together to kill the last Brute Boss.
We've now traded a couple of units by now, and though I'm behind on objective points, I'm feeling a bit of momentum with me.
This momentum carries on as I win the initiative for the fourth turn. Rather than trade blows with a Megaboss (who I sense is about to find his swing), I pull the Tzaangor back to contest the centre objective and charge in with both Ogroid and Beastlord to hold him up.
The Chimera flies in to deal with the advancing mob of Brutes. They've got the same number of wounds as the unit I just ate, so removing them should secure me the centre.
My fiery breath only takes off one wound, and after rolling so well in the last combat phase, the law of averages catches up with me quickly as I miss most of my attacks. I just about manage to tear down one Brute, but I'm no facing a counterattack from the remaining four - who I now remember are particularly handy at tearing down monsters.
They tear down the monster.
In the clash of leaders, my pair do pretty well against the Megaboss, whacking him down to two remaining wounds for very little damage in return. However, it's going to be a sideshow if I can't claim the centre objective (I currently have a numerical superiority of one Tzaangor).
In Yalfrezi's turn, he sensibly withdraws his Megaboss from the action (brutal cunning is just as important as cunning brutality) and charges into the Tzaangor with the Brutes.
Neither side do particularly well in the combat - I fall one short of killing a Brute, he only takes off two Tzaangor - but with the Megaboss adding to their numbers, the Ironjawz have a 5:4 superiority at the centre objective and claim the points.
With only one turn remaining, there aren't enough points left for me to make up my shortfall, even if I was miraculously able to shift the Ironjawz in the centre.
Major victory to the Ironjawz!
Post-match thoughts
So that breaks my winning streak (although I lost to an army I painted, so in a way, I still won), and very enjoyable it was too.Despite the scenario making things hard for me, I am a big fan of playing them. I think this made for a much better battle than just lining our guys opposite each other and bashing away.
The Chaos Warriors got their first taste of combat in the tournament, and didn't impress, as they struggled to take down the Brute Boss. With no buffs or special abilities, they do struggle to inflict some damage, even if they are resilient.
The poor Chimera - he was already polishing his MVP medal as he cost me the game. In fairness, he was lucky against the Gore-Gruntas and unlucky against the Brutes, so it evens out. I should maybe have supported his attack with the Tzaangor, but I still needed bodies on the field to claim the objective (damn you, scenario rules - where's my big scrum in the centre?)
I was also impressed with the Ironjawz - even when I was building the army, I had it written off as a one-trick smash-em-up pony, but they seem very suited to working the scenario rules: each unit is reasonably good at dishing out, and taking damage. They can also operate autonomously with effectiveness. Maybe I loaned out the wrong army to the WoffBoot!
Still, congratulations to Yalfrezi (who went on to win a personal best of three victories), I have to pick myself up, patch the Chimera back together, and face another Stormcast army.
No comments:
Post a Comment