AoS My Path of Glory

[Stuart Glasson]

Hi all,

New to AoS and the forums, just wanted to throw this in, mostly to help me remember what I've done

The local GW shop is hosting a path to glory campaign over a longer period of time to build community (and possibly sell some models). I use it as a chance to jump in, given that I haven't played before, I thought this would be an easy start.

My Warband is a Slann Starmaster, 10 Saurus Warriors and 5 Saurus Knights - as you can imagine it's the start collecting box. First note to self - trying to paint so many models in a short time was not fun. I had a 2 week deadline to get them painted and have a battle in store and normally I enjoy the painting but this time it was just not fun.

Game 1 - My seraphon vs Stormcast Eternals.
This game was 3 weeks ago so the details are pretty unfresh. I don't remember the name of the battleplan but it had 4 objectives and the winning condition was whoever has most objectives held after round 3 (roll a dice to see if the game ends).

Stormcast eternals were -
Lord-Celestant on Dracoth
3 x Prosecutors with hammers (2 wounds, 2 long and hard shooting attacks, 2 melee attacks)
2 units x 5 Liberators (2 wounds, 2 attacks, average profile)

First Turn
Setup on my side was conservatively around one of the objective markers. I won first move and camped with my Slann & warriors. The knights moved off to the centre to look for trouble. I banked all my spells and ended with 9 conjuring points.
The Stormcast eternals were setup evenly along their territory towards the rear and started moving forward. The Celestant went to the centre of the board and his Prosecuors moved within 18" which is their shooting range. Shooting may or may not have been successful and I may or may not have lost a few warriors. Whatever it was, it wasn't serious and I was happy my Slann was untouched.

Second turn
Got first turn again and banked all my spells giving 18 conjuring points to be used imminently. Saurus warriors started moving up to engage the Prosecutors but were either too far to charge or failed the roll. The knights moved to charge distance from the enemy general. The slann fell back a little - still on the objective but ensuring out of range of the hammers. Then he summoned a Troglodon about 4" from the Prosecutors* The troglodon missed with 2 shots of spit and waited with his full attack profile to have a go.
In combat, the knights charged and were lucky with 1 exploding lance (whatever that's called) and did 2 or 3 wounds to the Celestant. The Troglodon did better and took out a prosecutor. Prosecutors missed their attacks and the Celestand took out a single knight.
The Stormcast Eternals turn started and spent a CP on an ability which gives them immunity to battleshock tests. The dracoth used a fiery breath ability and missed. The liberators (both units of 5) were still camped on an objective and didn't contribute. In combat, the Troglodon took a single or possibly 2 wounds but was still on the top of his performance table. Another Prosecutor fell and I don't recall what happened with the knights and the celestant.
*Mea culpa. I made a mistake and summoned the Troglodon out of range and neither of us noticed. I summoned it about 20" away and in a position that meant the prosecutors and the troglodon were both competing for the objective.


Third turn
Stormcast went first, and the turn followed the same as the first. The dracoth may or may not have taken out another knight with the breath and possibly the Celestant caused a little damage. My knights decided to have a cup of tea that round and did a bit fat nothing. The Liberators started rethinking their approach to camping but it was too late to do anything.
In my turn, the Slaan cast Arcane Bolt through the Troglodon's Skink (this was also wrong and out of range! sorry!) causing a mortal wound to the remaining prosecutor. Once combat started though the final Prosecutor never stood a chance and was destroyed by the mighty Troglodon.

At this point we called the game - 3 turns and I had 2 objectives, he had 1. SERAPHON WIN!

Path to glory reward was a new ability for my General - essentially he now always has Vast Intellect and is able to cast Curse of fates & Summon Starlight as well.

Conclusions & Learnings
Despite screwing up the summoning of the Troglodon out of range, that thing was a beast and I felt bad for using it.
Stormcast eternals have poor mobility except for their angel-dudes which have astounding mobility.
I forgot all my command points & abilities.
Saurus knights are crappy unless they are charging with a few models a unit of 3 stuck in combat is pretty meh.
While the Slann is meant to be kept back and safe, in Path to glory, the seraphon have so few units in this warband. He should have accompanied the knights to take on something and then Lords of Space and time back to claim an objective.
Holding 4 objectives with only 3 units on the table was hard.
I often forget to do the shield and jaws attack. I've since watched a youtube video where a player starts with these attacks so he doesn't forget. Good tip!

If you made it this far - thanks for reading. Please tell me what else I did wrong and should think of for next time. I was really hoping to get a new unit in the rewards ... oh well.

 

[Stuart Glasson]

Second Battle - Seraphon Vs Tzeentch

Played second battle today against another guy in the group. We agreed on "The Monolith" battleplan (someone is building a monolith - you build 1d6 + a few, points per turn aiming to get to 20 points. The other players job is to knock down your monolith)

Zeentch Army
Guy on a flying disc
3 x Flamers (2 wounds, fast, good shooters, poor melee)
3 x Screamers (3 wounds, 16" move, FLY!, average melee)
10 x Brimstone horrors (1 wound, chaff)
10 x Blue horrors (1 wound, poor shooting, medium poor melee)
10 x Pink horrors (1 wound, good shooting, average melee)

For those that don't know - 1 pink horror, on death, will split into 2 blue horrors. Blue horrors, on death split into 2 brimstone horrors. So a single pink is worth a lot more wounds and models than it suggests.

EVEN SO, look at the model count - 37 models vs my 16. On wounds count its even worse! Moving right along...

On setup, I won the roll and despite my preference to attack, I was concerned that 37 (plus splits) models just wouldn't let me get close to the goal to push it over and I elected to defend. Originally I'd hoped to use the Gift from the Heavens ability to fly my guys over the defenders and push the brick over I set my guys up all around the objective and hid my slaan behind it for cover.
Tzeentech setup broadly across the middle of the board (6" back) and kept the general and flamers on one side and the screamers on the other flank. Throughout the game, the flamers and general are on one side of a pincer attack (keeping his general in range to buff his pinks and his flamers) and the screamers are on the other side, leaping forward at lightspeed.

Turn one
I won the roll and after rolling a 6+1 for general within 3" and +1 for having a unit with 10 or more guys close = 8 "Monolith building points - 8 out of 20), I started losing. In my last battle I summoned a troglodon and felt it was wildly overpowered and had planned to summon smaller stuff instead to 'keep the game fair'. MISTAKE I cast Summon Starlight on my warriors for fun and then sat back doing nothing for the rest of the turn except banking 6 conjuration points.
Tzeentch guys moved forward their infinitesimally small moves, avoiding running where possible so they could shoot. Flamers managed to get within range and with support from their dude on a disc, wiped out my saurus knights. Both the Screamers and the Flamers have good moves (Screamers - 16"! SIXTEEN!!) but nothing was in range for combat.

Turn two.
We both rolled twos so the turn order is same as last time - me first. I roll a 3 for monolith points and along with the +2, I'm up to 13. The enemy is feeling nervous because with another good roll, I could finish off next turn. I cast Summon Starlight on the Screamers because they are getting closer and they look nasty. I roll a 4. At least the enemy doesn't get any points for that spell because it failed I bank the other 2 spells for a total of 12 Conjuration Points.
In movement, I move my slann to support the warriors. Somewhat protected but still able to use his 3" range 6 attacks if anything comes close. But what I don't pay attention to is that I've now moved him more than 3" from the monolith and even if I roll a 6, I won't be able to finish next turn.
At the end of movement, I summon all my saurus knights back right back where they were standing last time, just in time for:
Tzeentch inches his 10x pink horrors, 10x blue horrors and 10x brimstone horrors forward another few millimeters. Unfortunately now both the pink horrors, his general AND his flamers are now in range to hit at the Saurus knights. Between spells and shooting, 4 Saurus Knights evaporate. Something hits the saurus warriors too and 5 of those disappear. My Slann takes 2 damage and if I wasn't crying over moving off the objective, I'm crying because I now have 7 models on the table vs his 37. I haven't scratched a single one of his guys.
I think it was at this time that I noticed my opponent hadn't used any of his Destiny Dice (Tzeentch can roll 9 dice before the game and keep them on the side, they then get to use those dice values during the game - awesome) He thanked me and we laughed over what noobs we are
The Screamers try to fly over the Slann and Warriors to get within range to push over the monolith but can't make it far enough as my warriors are covering the ground. Instead they stop 3" away and ...
Charge, scratching a few more wounds off my Slann. Enraged, my Slaan strikes back and kills one. FINALLY, an enemy model off the table.
In my turn, I charge my knight into his flamers and kill one - my mount does one damage and the lance hits. TWO dead enemy!

Turn three
He gets first turn and continues to nail into my coffin. Some kind of nasty spell goes off and obliterates the remaining Saurus warriors. Straight into melee and my Slann takes a couple more wounds - 3 to go.
In my turn, I roll something not good enough to build the monolith - I think I'm up to 17 now. I fall back and start praying I can somehow survive enough to get the rock built. I fire off a successful Starlight spell and put 2 wounds on a 3 wound Screamer.

Many apologies for doing this but ... honestly I don't remember if we made a turn 4 that he started or if I'm mis-remembering and actually he had stuff in range and he took me down in combat. Either way it doesn't matter ... at some point my Slann was facing saving against 3 wounds of d3 each and I missed all the saves.

TZEENTCH WIN

Path to glory reward: I won a follower ability to let a unit attack a second time in combat if within 6" of my general. As the knights are likely to be out on the prowl, I gave it to the Saurus Warriors.

Conclusions & Thoughts
* I should have banked more spells and got that Troglodon.
* I shouldn't have been scared by so many models. While Seraphon are hardly hordey, I should have trusted the ability to punch through a defensive wall.
* This game was, not boring, but not that fun. Sitting on an objective, getting shot at without being able to do anything, may have been tactical, but wasn't 'fun'.
* Silly mistake to move off the objective. If I'd stayed there and gotten luckier with a roll, I could have won!
* Engaging cautiously in combat with the Slann was smart. 6 attacks at 4/3 was smart.
* I got wiped, totally wiped. Playing a much lower unit count than the enemy and then losing a whole unit is psychologically hard to come back from
* Tzeentech have good ranged (spells and ranged) abilities. Take the fight to them. Each model down is a lot fewer attacks.


My next game, I think I'll go on the attack more. Get to 18 Conjuration Points by end of the hero phase in turn 2 and then drop a troglodon. Turn three I can buff, debuff something - either starlight or curse of fates and then pull in a unit of 10 skinks. I'm not sure I would have won todays game with this strategy, but I would have done better.

And to be honest, I have no idea how I should have played to win this one today. Obviously not making mistakes is a big one, but how should I have taken on a demon army with 37 models (including 7 non trivial models)?

Thanks!

 

[ILKAIN]

I would like to point out that you are short changing yourself one Conjuration point each turn. you get 3 points per spell you "sacrifice", then if your general is a Slann and still on the board at the end of your Hero phase you get one additional point. Enjoy your PTG competition, they can be very fun, but difficult for Seraphon, as our load out options are not the best. takes several units to get our synergies online, and unless im mistaken you cannot take any battalions in a PTG game.

 

[Stuart Glasson]

Thanks ILKAIN

i knew about the CP, but forgot it in my report. Thanks for pointing it out though. Ultimately as I won't get an Astrolith Bearer, I don't think the extra point is going to ever count.

I also agree with you that Seraphon don't look strong in PTG. Even in a match where there are multiple objectives, I can't teleport stuff around because I just don't have enough stuff. And if I go to combat, I miss some of those force multipliers from things like the Astrolith Bearer.

But the models look cool. And the other guy does look like he wets his pants as soon as you drop a big dinosaur on the table I would love to be able to bring a Bastiladon and laser shoot the enemy general, loaded with curse of fates and mystic shield

 

[Wilhelm Stürmer]

Thanks ILKAIN i knew about the CP, but forgot it in my report. Thanks for pointing it out though. Ultimately as I won't get an Astrolith Bearer, I don't think the extra point is going to ever count.

Nope, take all the CCP you can. It's 10 per turn if you don't cast. Get that Trog, as you pointed out.

Another note: For Tzeentch, while the Horror splitting is nasty, if you take out a Tzeentch army's Hero(s), they can't summon. Which means when Horrors dies, they stay dead.

 

[Stuart Glasson]

Third Battle - Seraphon vs Daemons of Khorne

Daemons of Khorne, or as I come to think of them as "Bugger, that's a lot of models. A lot of angry looking models"

The dice chose the battleplan Altars of the Gods. If you don't know it, there are 4 altars on the table, each gives a combat related buff (reroll 1's, autokill bastiladons if you're playing khorne, that kind of thing). During the game we managed to forget about the abilities of the altars so you can ignore them and just note there are 4 objectives to capture. Capturing an objective means having a model there and no enemy models within 3" at the end of a/your turn.

Seraphon List - has been upgraded a few times since last match.
Slann Starmaster
10 Saurus Warriors
5 Saurus Knights
1 Bastiladon
1 Astrolith Bearer
summoned in game: Trogladon, 10 skinks, 1 Saurus Sunblood

I was feeling good. I was feeling tanky and spanky and knew my laser was going to nuke some daemon butt.

Then I saw what he was bringing.

Khorne
1x Slaughterpriest //just from the name I know he isn't fun to have at a party
10 x Blood reavers //I took his word for it that I shouldn't be too scared about these guys
10 x Blood warriors //I took his word for it that these are nasty
1 x Bloodsecrator //I glossed over. I mean, how useful can a banner bearer be?
Korghos Khul //So this guy has a magic axe that kills you with 33% chance if it ever hits. wha?
10 x Bloodletters //They looked much like a saurus warrior equivalent. Meh.
3 x Blood Crushers //Aw crap. These look nasty.
3 x Mightly Skull Crushers //if you think the above is nasty, these are the real brown underpants deal!
Summoned in game: 5x flesh hounds

900 points/41 wounds for Seraphon, 1000 points/85(ish) wounds for Khorne.
if you add the summons then the wounds count goes to 72 vs 95

Deployment was pretty simple. In our case I setup in Red and he was in blue and our model count was sufficient enough that we pretty much filled all our setup area. I had most things in front of the Slann and the knights on the right, ready to take an altar.

Turn 1
I gave him first turn in the hope that he would pull his models forward and I could hit them with ranged.

Khorne
He proceeded to advance his models into my range and I prepared to shoot He moved his slaughterpriest to take the altar on his right (Rage) and his bloodletters to take altar (Resiliance). He ensured his banner bearer with its massive aura covered everything. Korghos Khul led the way with the banner bearer and the unit of Blood Warriors. His 2 nasty cavalry came down flanking them on the sides.

Seraphon
I roll Ascendant Constellation: The Great Drake (reroll 1's) which is the one I've been after since forever but with the Astrolith bearer now feels a bit redundant. I bank all spells and roll a 2 for the bearer. 12 CP.

Confronted by what looks like a massive wave moving slowly, I'm at a loss of what to target. Bastiladon warms up and fires on what turns out to not be daemon cavalry. 2 hits go through but those things have 5 wounds and I don't drop one. Nothing else is in range and I'm really counting on summoning before attacking so I pass the rest.

Turn 2
He wills the roll. Khorne.

Khorne
He moves his units maximum distance, which for Khorne foot units feels like about 1½ inches. I feel a bit sorry for him. In reality, he's now at or near the midpoint on the table. Still not within charging for the foot units.

He charges and eliminates (or as good as eliminates) the Saurus Warriors. He changes and takes out 3(ish) knights. Turns out his cavalry all have really sharp toenails. Special abilities exist like "roll a dice, ignore the result and then do as many mortal wounds as you like to your opponent" (roll a dice per model that charged, on a 2+, do a mortal wound damage)

Seraphon
Bank all spells and rolled something from the bearer. Now have 25 points. I Lords of Space and Time teleport my slaan here and then summon a Troglodon, leaving me with 7 points.

For shooting my bastiladon pulls his weight. Only 6 shots with the laser but with the help of the astrolith bearer, all hit, 5 wound and most saves are failed. One of his cavalry units disappears. The troglodon is jealous of the good rolls and also rolls well, spitting and hitting. Some is saved but the single slaughterpriest guarding the altar of rage looks very lonely.

For combat, the Bastiladon tail swipes more and I can't remember if it's this round or next, but between the basti and the knights, the enemy cavalry is almost gone. At the same time, my saurus knights are elimiated and while I feel good with lots of big dinos on the table, I don't have many units to hold objectives.

Turn 3
He wins the roll for turn 3 and comments that this is like Warhammer where it's always alternating turns.

Khorne earns points for summoning when entire units are destroyed - regardless of whose allegiance. Enough stuff is dead and he summons 5 flesh hounds. These things have 7 attacks each and 2 wounds. I try to say something about how summoning is unfair if it isn't me that does it but that doesn't sound like something he's going to respect. It begins to dawn on me that the vile number of attacks he's getting is stemming from the aforementioned banner bearer.

I don't remember precisely what happened here. I think he moved and then failed a bunch of chages so there wasn't any new combat.

Seraphon
Bank more points and summon. Skinks to try to block the flesh hounds and a poorly positioned Sunblood that I'm itching to get fighting but he's too far away.

The troglodon misses with his shooting and needs a 9 to succeed the charge - which he makes! Good rolling with the 6 jaws attacks destroys the slaughterpriest.

For once, my bastiladon fails - 3 attacks, only 1 hits with the laser. Wounds and is saved. Thanks for not so much. The skinks shoot a toothpick and I think that's what takes out the last cavary.

It feels like I'm getting through him, yet ... he has so many models left. 10 of the 2 wound nasty fighters, 10 of the chaff and 10 daemons that havent moved and just sit on the objective. And his big nasty dude with the axe of insta-death is now within guaranteed charge range.

Turn 4 and 5

The unit of chaff warriors (blood reavers) turns around and heads back to fight the troglodon. The trog gets a good spit in and rips up the unit nicely. 4 or 5 die and then another 5 or 4 flee to battleshock. But not before they wail on him and cause 7 damage. At the same time, his blood warriors also move back and are fresh for the fight meaning in turn 5 the poor trog goes down.

In turn 5 I try to summon my Astrolith and Basti to my slaan and begin a new assault from the rear. I roll a 1 and a 4. The basti shoots but manages to take down only a single blood warrior. His guys are all over the objective.

Earlier at my original front line, his flesh hounds chase my skinks (I use wary fighter but they were still close enough for him to pile in) and despite being able to bring my sunblood around, the sunblood, astrolith bearer and token skinks are clearly not enough for whats bearing down on them. At the same time, something else of his is only inches away from altar (doom).

His axe guy hits my basti before I teleport him away and I save both wounds. I try to act like he was ridiculous for even thinking about targeting it

I conceed. He has a good 2/3 of his original force (I've really only killed his cavalry and slaughterpriest) and he's as-good-as-got control of all objectives. I have 0 CP and no chance to take my closest objective, let alone any of the others. I can still teleport around but the 6th round is almost upon us and it's clear I can't do it.

Well played Khorne.

KHORNE WIN!

Conclusion/what did I do wrong?
On reflection, I could have LoSaT my knights to the second altar he held (was being held by 10 little daemons) and then tried harassment rather than waiting for him to come to me, but I don't think it would have changed the game much.
I definitely should have nuked his standard bearer. That thing gave multiple free attacks to multiple units and it was in range from turn 1 (or if not, I should have made it in range by flying my basti up)

But if I did those things, his elite cavalry would have mown me down nastily.

He had so many units. I felt like path to glory giving me a Slann + 2 units and him his axe murderer and 5 units felt unfair, but when I did the points count, I was surprised to see we were so close (1000 vs 900). He was way ahead in total wounds which is also how the game felt - I felt like I spat out some good damage but he had a lot he could soak.

Teleporting the troglodon to an objective worked really well. I was happy to watch that he left that isolated and with space around for me to land more than 9" away.

The Astrolith Bearer is awesome. Rerolling hits increases the volume of hits so much (yes this is obvious but when you see it in a game, and when you see the other layer doesn't have that and you are hitting with 75% of your shots and he's hitting with 45% of his shots, it's a huge margin)

I'm now at 1 win, 2 losses. Next month we add a new model and I'm thinking an EotG although with the hordes I'm facing, I've been considering terradons with fire bolas.

Will let you know how it goes!

 

[Schwaaah]

If you are struggling with hordes, would rippers be a better fit than Terradons? As I understand it, terradons allow you to effectively attack up to 3 different units in 3 different phases, whereas rippers tend to be better at mass murdering 1 specific thing in cc. Would this maybe make the rippers better at eliminating large blobs of guys?

 

[Stuart Glasson]

If you are struggling with hordes, would rippers be a better fit than Terradons? As I understand it, terradons allow you to effectively attack up to 3 different units in 3 different phases, whereas rippers tend to be better at mass murdering 1 specific thing in cc. Would this maybe make the rippers better at eliminating large blobs of guys?

I know ripperdactyls have a better damage output than terradons, but I believe it assumes a blot toad will exist on the board nearby. If I’m summoning them then there won’t be toads. That, plus the horde thing made me think about terradons with the sun leach bolas - hit once and roll a d6 for how many wounds to roll for. Plus the stony balls that can be dropped

 

[Wilhelm Stürmer]

@Stuart Glasson Rippers will still rip through enemies (assuming they don'e have re-roll saves). Remember that Swooping Dive give you re-rolls to ALL failed hit and wound rolls. Which means you will still get a good return on Voracious Appetite. The Blot Toad magnifies that by giving Vicious Beak attacks, instead of one, but I've used the Rippers with success away from the Blot Toad.