AoS Reports from a Quarantine tournament

[Avatar of Mork]

Hi, like in many other places our tournaments in Sweden got cancelled or postponed due to co-vid 19. In my hometown the TO made a replacement tournament were you and your opponent decides the time and place for the game. There is still swiss pairings and each game needs to be reported to the TO within 2 weeks.

I am attending with my fangs of Sotek skink list and will make battlereports in this thread.

 

[Avatar of Mork]

This is my list:

Starborn: Fangs of Sotek

Kroak (Stellar tempest)
Starseer (general, master of star rituals, hand of glory)
Starpriest x 2 (celestial harmony, tide of serpents)
Skink priest
Terradon chief (dagger of Sotek)
40 skinks (Blowpipes, shield)
40 skinks (blowpipes, club)
10 skinks (blowpipes, shield)
9 terradon (bolas)
12 salamander hunting pack
Bound geminidis,
Balewind vortex

 

[Avatar of Mork]

The first game was starstrike and my opponent a good idoneth player (the first part this text was originally posted in the tactics forum).

This list; leviadon, Eidolon of the sea, soulscryer, 10 thralls, 10 reavers, 3x2 defens eels, 6 attack eels, Voltournos.

I deployed the whole army except 10 skinks behind a double screen of 40×2 skinks. The skink units were placed so that he could only fight the first unit unless it got wiped. He also couldn't fit for charging or piling in between the units.

He decided to go first. Afterwards explaining that he tried to get board presence and also tried to strike before my buffs were activated (I also lacked starting cp). He managed to hit my lines first turn with 6 attack eels, 3 defense eels, leviadon and Volturnous. The 40 first skinks were wiped out but only one from the second row fell. In my turn I managed to kill all those units eccept half defense unit. Two succesfull kroak spells and geminidis hit them all. Volturnous was killers by terradon rocks and the salamanders and skinks shoot and hacked the remains.

In his second turn he teleported his Eidolon to my right side and charged the salamander at a bad angle (The unit were streched out and only one salamander could hit back). At the other side but åt the middle of the table, his thralls killed my 10 skinks. At the center his other defencive eels charged the terradons but whiffed their attacks. His bowmen shoots the terradons and kills only one thanks to armour buff. In my turn 2 I killed the rest of the defense eels and some thralls mostly with magic and shooting. The Eidolon stood firm after activating his cloak and being untouchable in the shooting phase. He almost killed the salamanders in melee.

He won the roll of (again) but had not much left. His thralls turned and failed a charge against a starpriest that had teleported to the realmshaper (that was in his territory). The leviadon was dispelled when trying to teleport again and the archers couldnt penetrate the remaining salamanders armour. The Eidolon failed to kill the last sally in melee. In my turn I cleaned up. The thralls died to bs after magic, shooting and realmshaper had brought them down to 1 man. The archers got peppered by the skinks and the Eidolon got killed by kroak and combined fire from Sally and wizards.

In the end the comet objectives had no real inpact. I won by 19-1 in tournament points (20 being max). He got a point for completing one of 2 hidden agendas). Unit evaluation in my next post.

 

[Avatar of Mork]

Unit evaluation:

Kroak: He is a total beast with the area of effect spell. But the cp generating is equally importent.

Starseer: the save manipulation was needed against defense eels. But this guy wasnt lucky with his spellcast falling 2/3 spells.

Starpriests: very, very good with poison. Failed most spells but provided some rend in the shooting phase. Good as vassals.

Starpriest: the 1+ tp hit command were importent. Added rend shooting.

Terradon chief: secured that terradons killed volturnous. I didnt send him in against the Eidolon with the dagger.

Skinks: Took the blow and returned fire. 2 big units was handy.

Terradons, killed the hard-to-kill volturnous. Also killed some in melee and with bolas. Good tool in the toolbox. Fast but needed some thought.

Salamanders: killed a lot in both shooting phase and melee turn one. Almost got killed but that was my bad placement.

Geminidis: only Good turn 1.
Balewind: not that importent when u have vasalls.

 

[Lambs and Lions]

Thank you for the battle report but more importantly thank you for the unit breakdown. It seems like everything worked out really well. Do you think there is anything you would change about your list? Balewind seems less and less important as I read reports. I am torn on the starseer, his spell is very powerful but the skink priest and skink starpriest seem more important.

Personally I think this is going to be one of the more common lists. I like the mix of both terradons and salamanders because the upfront damage of the terradons is really good.

 

[Avatar of Mork]

Thanks Lambs to Lions. I will try to continue with unit breakdown and analyzis as the tournament proceeds. Next game will be this following week or the next one.

I certainly feel that the starpriest and skink Priest are more importent than the starseer. But when being the general the starseer not only provides a good spell but also generates d3 summoning points. Together with kroak thats 2d3 points and hopefully at least one skink unit turn 2.

I like the utility that the terradons brings. I've seen some players going for another hunting pack instead but I think the terradons brings something else to the table. In my last game the could comfortably kill volturnous who is a though nut to crack having 3+ (often 2+) save and a 3+ ignore spells ability. Terradon also have great mobility. Another alternative would be a bastilodon for some tankyness that my list lacks.

 

[Grotpunter]

Geminidis: only Good turn 1.
Balewind: not that importent when u have vasalls.

How come Geminids is only good turn 1?

Even with Arcane Vassal, isnt it kinda rough to get a caster within 10" of the enemy units for Celestial Deliverance? I would think it'd be OK with at least an Astrolith, but having no range increase seems rough. I would still rate the extra cast quite highly on paper, since it would allow you to cast 3x CD, Comet's Call and Stellar Tempest for maximum MW output. It is only 40 points, so seems like a worthwhile investment.

Your other points line up with my expectations.

 

[Avatar of Mork]

Grotpunter: I am sure geminidis will prove useful in the long run. I put i rather close to my own troops to hit his aggressors. After the initial turn I had wiped them of and had no targets nerby. The balewind is still useful but a bit less so when u got vassals. I still dont regret including it.

 

[Avatar of Mork]

Time for game 2: Mirrormatchup! I'm up against another fangs of Sotek army. Scenario: total commitment.

His list:

Kroak
Starseer
Skink priest
Stegadon chief
Astrolith bearer
20 charm skinks
3x10 skinks
2x 12 salamander hunting packs
Balewind

This will be interesting. He lacks the bodies but got more punch. I need to land my terradon nuke succesfully.

 

[Avatar of Mork]

As we both had 11 drops the deployment roll-off was a thriller. Not being able to choose turn order would effect deployment and call for a defensive setup. Thus, I had really prepaired and thought through how to deploy with defence in mind.

But I won the roll of and therefor deployed with the intention of going first and really weaken his hard hitters before he would have the chance so strike. I was hoping for some slight mistake or at least an opening in the defence from the less experienced opponent. But there were none. He suprised me by making a perfect defence setup with his two sallie units and Kroak deep into deployment out of reach for my archery with plenty of screens. That made me change my battleplan. I let him go first. He teleported his charmeleons forward in the open and killed of my star seer that I had put in a bad position because of my intention to take the first turn. Eccept that he casted defence spells and abilities only moving the screens a bit forward and summoning a new 10 man skink screen.

In my turn I took out the charmeleons with Magic and shooting and teleported 40 skinks to threaten his objective in my right. The charged the screens and took the objective. The terradons flyed forward but the los of the seer ment that no extra long charges could be made. I charged 2 screens dropping stones on one and eating the other. I held all objectives. I also got the double turn. I charged the terradons into salamanders trying to reach the skink Priest. Everything moved forward eccept Kroak and the 10 man unit guarding the home objectives. To understand my offensive strategy one must understand the tournament pack. We dont play with a win-loss system but instead the difference in victory points are importent. I was feeling the taste of victory and went for the big win. Despite massfire and terradon melee his salamanders stood firm in cover with buffs on (sorry wrong target). But his stegadon fell to the darts. Magic did nothing and I my eager to win most of my troops had run away from the support heroes. I continued to hold all objectives putting me far ahead in points.

But the fortunes of war now turned. In his turn and in the following double turn his Kroak went mad. Casting 5 spells a turn on top of the balewind he massacred my support heroes and depleted my units. My Kroak was nuked by a salamander pack. I still held half of the objectives but my army was shattered. In the following turnes I took out one salamander pack but lost one in return. I tried to keep the objectives but lost one by one.

In the end I only had two severly diminished skink units left in the board. It was a tie in vp but he managed two hidden agendas to my one and I lost 9-11.

 

[Avatar of Mork]

What I learned from game 2:

- Make a plan for more outcomes than one.
- Never create a plan that includes mistakes to be made by your opponent.
- Dont get greedy, settle with a small win instead of making a gamble.
- Don't let your buff heroes be left behind.

Unit performance:
Kroak: Well, his one was good. Sadly I thought we would trade kroaks but me sniped mine and I failed to get his.

Star priest: Sweet, sweet poison
Skink priest: failed all players.
Star seer: Got sniped turn 1
Terradon chief: failed to kill some skinks but its movement were handy when reaching objectives.

Skinks: The only survivors. Very tanky even against kroaks spellcasting.
Terradons: 9 are to many! Hard to use effectivly with chief and seldom all of them may drop their Stones
Salamanders: Killed one of his salamander packs, died to his other. Still made their points back.