AoS The mirrormatchup: How would you handle it?

[Avatar of Mork]

As I have said earlier, l'm currently attending a quarantine tournament with one game every two weeks. Four games in I have already meet seraphon twice. Before the forth game we were 3 seraphon players at top 3 (forth and fifth place holded by OBR).

When the top contenders are likely to contain some seraphon players that raises the question of how to handle ourselves.

I will provide my list and my opponents and ask you about your approach to it.

DISCLAIMER the game is played and I will tell you my thoughts as well as the outcome after some replies. We played Places of arcane power and had to choose 2 out of attrition, secret mission, defend and retake as hidden agendas.

My list: starborne, fangs of sotek
Kroak, starpriestx2, star seer (general), skink Priest, terradon chief (with dagger), 40x2 skinks, 10 skinks, 3 salamanders, 9 terradons, balewind, bound geminidis.

His list: coaleced, thunderquake
Kroak, skink Priest, astrolith bearer, star seer, engine of the gods, 2 Bastilodon, 3 salamanders, 3/4x10 skinks, balewind, battalion (thunderquake tempelhost)

 

[Tav]

As I have said earlier, l'm currently attending a quarantine tournament with one game every two weeks. Four games in I have already meet seraphon twice. Before the forth game we were 3 seraphon players at top 3 (forth and fifth place holded by OBR).

When the top contenders are likely to contain some seraphon players that raises the question of how to handle ourselves.

I will provide my list and my opponents and ask you about your approach to it.

DISCLAIMER the game is played and I will tell you my thoughts as well as the outcome after some replies. We played Places of arcane power and had to choose 2 out of attrition, secret mission, defend and retake as hidden agendas.

My list: starborne, fangs of sotek
Kroak, starpriestx2, star seer (general), skink Priest, terradon chief (with dagger), 40x2 skinks, 10 skinks, 3 salamanders, 9 terradons, balewind, bound geminidis.

His list: coaleced, thunderquake
Kroak, skink Priest, astrolith bearer, star seer, engine of the gods, 2 Bastilodon, 3 salamanders, 3/4x10 skinks, balewind, battalion (thunderquake tempelhost)

From the looks of the lists alone the only units I would consider a potential problem are the bastiladons. For their defence at least but you have enough endless spells and even the terradons to mortal wound them out of their top bracket.

lists focused around mortals should beat coalesced a lot of the time, the range of the bastiladons isn’t even much of a problem since you can teleport. I would be surprised to hear that you were beaten soundly in that matchup.

p.s please tell us the dagger killed something big

 

[Erta Wanderer]

you out body him by a lot play to objectives and kill the nonslann support heroes you will do fine.
you shouldn't be worried about the bastiladons but if you are then one volley with a snake buffed 40 man skink groop should knock him down to his bottom bracket or out right kill it if you hit the one they didn't cast shield on

 

[Nart]

Yes, our army is centered around support heroes, so take them our first. Killing small skink units is also a good idea, since Coalesced cannot return them. He will be denied bodies to keep on objectives. Bastiladons are weak to mortal wounds, and you have plenty. I'd just ignore kroak until later stages of the game. It is easier to kill astrolith instead to shrink the range of Celestial Deliverence. It will take some time for salamanders to reach you, so I wouldn't worry much about them until turn 2. EotG can be dangerous, since it is a good hero sniper with 2d3 MW possible.

Take out aetherquartz broock ASAP, if your opponent has one. Without it TQTL will start to CP-starve.

 

[Avatar of Mork]

Thanks for the comments. When the matchup were revealed I must admit I got a bit frightened. My opponent had 3 solid victories in a row with his Bastilodons double shooting wreaking havok. On top of the double tapping the can run and shoot for an effective 35" threat range. My skinks only got a 27". He got the upper hand in the magic departement too with 6" longer spell Range and 1+ extra to cast.

Going Into deployment my plan was to deploy most out of range but baiting him some units to make him go first and expose his army to my counter punch. To me deploying my terradons last to put them in the right position were key.

He took the bait and went for first turn. I had put my small screen and a starpriest (inside realmshaper) within his range. A slightly misplaced terradon chief was also spotted by a basti using the fly command ability. I had also but one 40 block somewhat in range (he would need a good run roll.

He killed the terradon chief (sorry no dagger fun Tav) and the importent skink Priest (engine+comet) but failed to kill the star priest needing 6s to hit. He also fell short of shooting my 40 block due to bad run roll. His engine took the center objective flanked by bastis. Thankefully he failed to generate extra commands and used his 2 without getting them back.

Going Into my turn my main targets were support heroes and bastilodons. Unfortunatley the support heroes were deployed further back with screens protecting against deepstrike. But the bastis were in the open. I teleported 40 buffed skinks in position to hit one. The terradons managed a mighty 15" charge (3d6) and some could drop stones into a bastilodon while charging the engine. The basti died and the engine were badly hurt from darts and terradon attacks. I then won turn 2 roll of and killed the astrolith bearer and skink priest with engine and Comet (2 rounds). The engine fell and the starseer also died. A lucky stellar tempest made his salamanders run to battleshock (no cp). Going into his turn 2 he hade kroak, 1 Bastilodon and some screens left. Despite a glorious kroak charge into 40 skinks and a double turn the battle were over. In my turn 3 i tabled him. End result 19-1.

Conclusion: Luck is never wrong. His low cp and my double turn were key. My deployment helped to force him to choose between getting hit or to take the bait and open up for double turn.

Mistakes: giving him free shoots against the terradon chief, putting a lot of units near terrain that got hit by shaper.

 

[Putzfrau]

Nice win!