We returned to the Beastgrave and the Direchasm this weekend to try out one of my NEW warbands: Morgok's Krushas! Amanda played her usual Murder Elves: Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven!
I won the first roll-off and made her pick boards first. I didn't want to give her the opportunity to set the boards up end-to-end again. She picked Menhirs of Binding board - which was a bit surprising, but she didn't spend all that much time looking and found the first one that didn't have any Lethal Hexes and picked that (had she looked a LITTLE longer, she would have realized the OTHER board had one side with no Lethal Hexes and TWO on the other side that she could bury! I, of course, picked that one with two lethal hexes - the Ambertrap Nest - and set it up with Lethal Hexes as close to HER territory as possible.
My initial draw of objectives wasn't great... but it wasn't the WORST, so I kept it.
The initial draw of Power Cards was pretty ideal - it included TWO of the four cards that could give me bonus Waaagh! Tokens! The Krushas normally gain Waaagh! Tokens after an activation when they make an attack action. Their inspire ability is to have two Waaagh! Tokens on their cards.
Amanda won the roll to determine who sets up their warband first, and she had me set up first. I set up as close as possible to enemy territory - fully intending on taking the fight to her!
ROUND ONE
I won the roll-off, but let her go first. Kyrae Charged onto Objective #1 and took a shot at Thugg... missing.
I played Brutal Attack in that first Power Step, which gave me +1 Dice to the first Attack action made by a friendly fighter in the next activation AND after that Attack action, I could place one Waaagh! counter on that fighter's fighter card! Which would effectively give me TWO in one activation!
Morgok Charged Khamyss and took her out! +1 Glory for me!
Boom! Morgok inspired! I also upgraded 'Ardskull with Savage Speed. I had a couple of "Savage X" cards in my deck - they grant a pretty cool bonus, in this case +1 move, but at a cost of reducing armour by one - to a minimum of 1. As the Krushas only ever have 1, even when inspired, they seemed a no brainer.
Morgwaeth charged onto Objective #4 and slashed at Morgok - missing! Whew! She was the one serious danger to the Orruks as she starts with a Cleave weapon - which meant the only result on their solitary defence die that would help them was a Crit! She did score Hidden Purpose (for holding two objectives) and used the 1 glory point gained to upgrade Kyrssa with Great Fortitude. She also played Regal Vision - a gambit that allowed her to inspire Morgwaeth (because she was standing on an Objective).
I used Side Step to push Morgwaeth into the Lethal Hex.
I realized, as I was writing this, that Side Step only allows you to select a Friendly Fighter - I'd confused it with Distraction - a card that Amanda currently has in HER deck. In all honesty, I made the mistake when I was building the deck and put it in thinking it was the same card she had, with the intention of using it to do exactly what I did - push an enemy OFF of an objective. It was just a bonus that there happened to be a Lethal Hex there as well...
'Ardskull used his Savage Speed to go screaming across the table and attempt to wallop Lethyr with his MASSIVE Gore-Basha. He missed. I did get to play Brawling, which allowed me to place a Waaagh! Token on a friendly fighter adjacent to an enemy fighter. As he'd just earned one for attacking Lethyr, that made two and 'Ardskull was inspired.
Amanda had Kyrassa hop onto Objective #5. In the following Power Step I played Confusion, which allowed me to have 'Ardskull and Lethyr switch places...
That brought her close enough that Thugg was able to charge Lethyr and bash her into pulp with his Smashas! +1 Glory for me and Thugg gained a Waaagh! Token.
With only three fighters left - all of whom had moved - Amanda didn't have much she COULD do, so she just drew a power card.
In teh same boat, I also drew a power card, but that Power card happened to be Eager Advance - which I played in the power step after my activation. It allowed me to choose one friendly fighter, push them 1 hex, then place one Waaagh! token on the chosen fighter's fighter card.
Boom! All three fighters inspired at the end of Round One!
ROUND ONE - END PHASE
I was only able to play Aggressive Display (+1 glory for two or more enemy fighters out of action) I discarded one of the remaining Objective Cards (Brute Force - it didn't seem like there'd be a situation where one of my fighters would be fighting THREE enemy at this point) and drew two new ones (Got It, Boss and Now Wot?).
Amanda wasn't able to score any of her cards.
ROUND TWO
Amanda started things off again by having Kyrae charge into my territory and capture Objective #2. she took a shot at 'Ardskull and missed, but was able to score Swift Capture - a dual surge objective Surge, Dual: Scored after an activation if her warband holds one or more objectives in friendly territory AND one or more objectives in enemy territory. +1 Glory for her. She used that to Upgrade Kyrssa with Rapturous Defence.
Then Amanda played Headlong Fury to have Morgwaeth scarper out of there as well - taking a move action, but not gaining a move token!
For my first activation, Morgok used his special action - expending one Waagh! Token to push each Friendly Fighter two hexes. This put Morgok and Thugg onto Objectives and allowed me to score BOTH surge objectives that I'd just picked up one for holding two objectives, one for holding an objective in Enemy Territory. Woo! I used those to upgrade Morgok with Brute Charge and 'Ardskull with Vessel of Waagh (not sure I'd ever USE the latter, at this point, but I had it, so, why not?)
Morgwaeth then moved onto Objective #3!
'Ardskull charged Kyrssa and... for all those upgrades - Great Fortitude and Rapturous Defence - none of it helped her one bit... 'Ardskll smashed her to bits (+1 Glory for me!)
Amanda drew a power card. She only had Kyrae and Morgwaeth left. Kyrae had already charge. Morgwaeth had moved, but there were no actions she could take, so... power card. It didn't help.
Thugg charged Kyrae and missed.
Amanda drew another Power Card - Forward Planning - she WAS able to use that to upgrade Morgwaeth with Survival Instincts.
Morgok then charged in. When you want a job done right, sometimes you just have to do it yourself! That was the end of Kyrae. I scored one Glory for taking her our and a second for Fateful Strike - for taking an enemy out of action that had a defence of 2.
ROUND TWO - END PHASE
I finally scored Proppa Rumble (+1 Glory - Scored in an end phase if four or more fighters are out of action and/or have wound tokens) and Good Day's Work (+2 Glory - Scored in an end phase if there are more enemy fighters out of action than surviving enemy fighters!)
Once again, Amanda had no cards she could score...
She would have called it at this point, but knew I wanted to see how it played out... I mean, those ARE the rules!?
I guess I could have said - "sure, let's call it..." But it was the first time I was playing these and I was genuinely curious to see how it would all roll out. It wasn't about rubbing her nose in the defeat. If I'd played this match up before and it had gone this poorly, for sure I'd have said, "Yup, I think we know how this it going... so..." But it wasn't. So I didn't.
ROUND THREE
Amanda went first and was originally planning to have Morgwaeth run off as far as she could, hoping I wouldn't be able to follow her... I did point out that my guys all had a move of four now, and with Morgok's special action I could spend a turn to push them once, and then they'd both totally be able to catch her... so she decided to stand and fight... hoping to get multiple attack action and maybe take one down with her.
So for her first activation she discarded and drew a new Objective Card.
Thugg started off the violence by just moving up... but then I played Brutal Kunnin' - A reaction played after a friendly fighter's Move allowing them to make an Attack action. (basically turning the move into a charge... but without a charge token being put on - just a move token - meaning they COULD attack again later in the turn.
Thugg's attack tied Morgwaeth's defence, so he pushed her off the Objective. I'm not sure why...? I think I was thinking it would make her have to CHARGE to fight back... but that's absurd, because she had a range of two with her attack... AND it put her one hex away - so Thugg wouldn't be able to support when Morgok ultimately make HIS move...
Apparently that ruined Amanda's plan, though, because on her next activation she moved right back onto the objective and then used Jealous defence in the power step to attack Thugg. She hit and did three damage! Ouch!
I had the Power of Waagh! gambit handy and played that... but was only able to heal ONE of those wounds... he still had two, and if Morgwaeth hit him again, he'd be a goner...
Morgok Charged! Of the three attack dice I rolled a Crit, a hit and miss.... Amanda had two defence dice and rolled a Crit and a success! DAMMIT! Luckily, when Inspired, Morgok got to re-roll one attack die - I jsut needed one succes - with a supporting fighter it was 50-50....
He missed...
GAH!? That failed dice rolled lost me SEVEN GLORY - one for taking her out, one for Savage Exemplar (+1 Glory for a leader taking an enemy out of action) and FIVE for Brute Triumph (for taking all enemy out of action!)
Morgwaeth attacked Thugg a second time and killed him off. She was able to score Blood Rite (Scored when a fighter holding an objective makes an Attack action that takes an enemy fighter out of action - for one bonus Glory). She upgraded Morgwaeth with Great Strength and a Formless Key.... but then didn't bother attacking Morgok with her final action - there was no point as she couldn't take him out with one attack, so she discarded and drew another Objective - hoping for something she could score. Whatever it was, it didn't help
As it was I still won by a lot... We'd counted it up as 10-5... but later I realized I should have gained the Primacy token EVERY round - and that would have been an additional three... (so... would have been TWENTY if that one roll had gone the other way)
Wow.
Just, WOW!
Morgok's Krushas can be BRUTAL! I mean, I kind of expected they would be nasty... but wow...
At the end of the game Amanda was feeling a little like she'd just had some "bad luck" and "terrible dice rolls". I think that was not-so-much the case as she just didn't have the ABSURDLY GREAT LUCK AND INSANELY GOOD DICE ROLLS she's gotten used to over our last ten games or so...
I will admit, my dice rolls weren't as awful as they usually are (I'd hardly call them exceptionally "lucky" or anything, though) and I was pretty fortunate in my first Power Card draw and for something fairly quickly put together without a LOT of resources... the deck I put together was pretty okay.
She did some post game analyzing and even decided on some cards she might like to get rid of an ideas about what she might like to replace them with. In particular, the ones that required holding two specific numbered hexes.
I'm curious to see how they do if I DON'T pull all those cards that gave them extra Waaagh Tokens. I'm not sure them being inspired was all THAT big of a deal... but maybe...
I'm not sure how to deal with them, otherwise. I guess you HAVE to play a little more aggressively and try to start whittling them down earlier on...? If Amanda has chosen the board layout and she'd placed them end-to-end and just hid in the back of her territory, it might have played out QUITE a bit differently. With only three move, it would have the Krushas alll of Round One just to get to a place where they could get to the enemy in the SECOND Round...
Tomorrow (or rather "later today", at this point) we're planning on playing a Battle Royale - a three player game between me, Amanda and Finnegan. I am curious to see how that turns out. I'm not sure what warband to play. I was initially thinking I'd play with Morgok's Krushas again... but now I'm thinking I might like to try out one of the Stormcast Eternal warbands... maybe Stormsire's Curesbreakers? I am curious to see what a warband with THREE wizards might get up to!? Even if two of them are only Level One wizards. It thought I might PACK the deck with spells. Like ONLY spells for all their gambits!? We shall see how early I'm able to drag my ass out of bed and when the gang feels like playing!
Stay tuned for THAT battle report in a day or so!
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