My List:
Borka Kegslayer, Shaman of Dhunia
- Keggy (Timmy)
- Mauler
- Impaler
- Pyre
max Posse
max Fenns + UA
max Burrowers
min Stone + UA
Fell Caller Hero
Fennblade Kithkar
Stone Scribe Chronicler
His List:
Xerxis, Fury of Halaak
-Marketh
-Archidon (Bonded)
-Gladiator
-KAAAAAAARN!
-Drake
-Krea
max Reivers + UA
Willbreaker, I think?
2x min Handlers
Might be a solo or a small unit missing, but I think this is it. He had a few proxies, so I'm trying to keep them separate in my brainbox.
Terrain:
From my perspective: Forest on the far right, on his side of his zone. Small house/obstruction central, hill on the right side, slightly closer to me than his zone. Hill on the closest side of my zone to him. Maybe a small forest on my side, but had no game effect.
Scenario:
Rectangular scenarios oriented long ways across the board, central objectives on either side. Can't remember the name.
Match Assessment:
Oof. I felt like there's a lot of beef to chew through. I like the speed of my list, and the fact that I go first feels huge for getting board positioning. However, the Reivers are a solid enough counter to my infantry swarm, the Drake can spray them, and Karn can rocket around a lot. That combo is fairly nervewracking.
That said, Iron Flesh and Tale of Mists put my guys at anywhere from DEF 14-18 depending on stacking, meaning that his Reivers will struggle somewhat, and Tough is always nice when it hits. Karn can chew apart guys, but lack of reach elsewhere means that with good spread, I might be able to limit his ability to get multiple targets with some beasts.
I really like the fact that my ability to self-buff with Pyre and Mauler means that my Fenns or Dygmies can get a lot of work done on any of his beasts, though. This means that those guys can get some beast-killing work done.
Deployment:
I throw Borka central with Keggy next to him, Gators to eat up space in my zone, Fenns to the right, and the beasts trailing a hair behind with the support staff. Burrowers end up centrally AD.
He puts Xerxis center, Molik on his zone, Gladiator central also, Archidon on the left, Reivers on the left. Support staff coming in behind. Krea goes rightish of center, Drake a bit to the left.
Game Time!
Thankfully, I won to go first, which means I can top off the stone easily. I burrowed the Dygmies (mistake), ran the Gators their 10, and ran the Fenns their 12, trying to get a wide spread on my units to protect them. Iron Flesh on the Gators and top off the Stone, while my Impaler and Pyre move left to get ready to shoot into the Reivers. Borka stays central, moving up towards the obstruction.
He runs forward his Reivers to stay out of Gator range, with his Archidon behind them. Xerxis advances forward and a little towards his zone to get Mobility up. Gladiator stays central, near his objective, while Karn hides behind the forest on the right side (fantastic move by my opponent). Krea puts up Aura and parks near Xerxis, while the Drake advances a bit forward. Karn was able to ping pong throughout the game from this point due to Mobility; it was very intelligent and heads up combo and positioning on his part that was consistently troublesome.
The Dygmies came out, and I decided to make a few aggressive moves. The Gators charged/ran (one charged, shorting by 1/2" or so) on a Reiver, while Borka feated and the Dygmies charged up. Borka + the Pyre failed to catch anything in deviations shooting at the Reivers, sadly. The Dygmies did their best on the Drake, needing 7's to hit, but left him with a single HP left with 3 of them getting him. One got the Glad, but whiffed both (Fell Called, btw). The Fenns spread heavily, with one or two engaging Karn to annoy him, and the rest spreading wildly to prevent Karn from getting too many good targets. The Kithkar toed his zone, my near left corner, and I made a mistake with IF on the Gators. It was an OK target, but not really optimal; Dygmies or Fenns might've been better.
He feated to help himself out and started shooting. He took a bunch of single wound off, reducing the Dygmies to about 3ish models left. The Fenns lost about 4-5 all told, I believe. One Gator was reduced to 2 HP, but that was about it. He didn't shift much positioning, so the Reivers were contesting my zone, the Archidon was threatening my zone but out of my range, the Drake was fairly central with the Glad, and Xerxis was fairly far back (no killbox) on 0 camp. Karn behind a forest.
The Fenns vengeance set up charge angles on Karn, as did Righteous. After 2 Fenns and a Raged Kithkar, Karn lost about... Maybe 8-10 boxes at most? At D-2, my Kithkar did 4 damage on 2 attacks. Diiiiice. But I kept a good spread (12" Fenn Command, woot!) that minimized his ability to remove too many. The Gators cleared about half the Reivers, while the Pyre Troll finished the Drake from range. Not much else, just holding firm and not giving too much. I brought Borka centrally to get him more involved, because Borka gives no fucks.
He killed off a Gator, brought the Dygmies to 1 guy left, and killed a few Fenns. Paralyzed the officer to prevent charges. The remaining Dygmy toughed twice to cancel the Archidon's sprint (woot woot).
At this point, I decided to engage Borka is a Beast mode and he destroyed the crap out of the Gladiator. Rage + Stone Strength is rough on Borka. At straight dice, rolled 16 on the charge, then 2 more killed him. Iron Fleshed myself, and fortuitously whacked the Krea, causing Brain Damage and disabling his ability to cast animi for a turn. The Gators chomped hard, not quite killing the Archidon, but close.
Because of my aggressive Borka play, he realized he needed to kill Borka quickly or it was going to roll downhill fast. Borka was getting less killable very, very quickly. He clogged up Borka, and cleared some lanes. Xerxis did some work on Borka, forcing one transfer on the charge, and Karn forced the other transfer, but only left Borka on 2 damage, with about 14 or so transferred onto the Mauler (from 2 transfers). Borka decided to show Xerxis what hitting hard means, and finished what Grayle started.
Post-Game:
Lining up against Xerxis2 for the first time, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I've faced Reivers enough to be wary, knowing that they can do some serious damage from shooting. I probably brought a few Fennblades too far over towards the Reivers, letting him do more work shooting them than I liked, but it wasn't too bad.
I was able to get a lot of board control because of the speed of my guys. That worked to my advantage, giving me the ability to push the battle well across the middle of the board. Had I played it, I could have put a lot of scenario pressure from dominating my friendly zone. I was able to effectively stall him out on his scenario zone, giving me time to take my own. However, to test Borka out a bit, I made a more conscious decision to play aggressively, putting Borka more central into my 3rd and 4th turns, because I need to know how far I can push him.
I was extremely happy with my ability to stall for time on Karn. I know I'm going to lose a few guys a turn to Karn, that's just life. However, I was able to space Karn out to needing 3-4 turns to clear my Fenns, buying me plenty of time to clear up the left flank if need be, or to bring Borka out to exert a lot of pressure. It's a little startling to realize exactly how brutal Borka's board presence can be once the number of answers to the big guy himself start shrinking.
I made life harder on my end, however, by burrowing Turn 1. Sure, it let me lock up and kill the drake, but I could probably have Turn 1 ran (just a few inches) with Iron Flesh and Tale of Mist, then Turn 2 burrow and shred his lines. It took a lot of pressure off of the Gators, however, so it may have still been the better play. A turn 2 burrow is nearly impossible for the opponent to avoid, though, so it's worth testing further. The Reivers would have had a very hard time, though, trying to hit DEF 18 (Iron Flesh + ToMist), making it a relatively safe play.
My opponent played very tightly, using Karn very effectively, but a couple of timely tough rolls and Borka's emergence to exert an influence on the board put him in a bind. He played Karn very well, using him to scalpel out at low risk. He took good shots with the Reivers and did some very good work there, as well. Sprint coming onto Karn over and over from Xerxis gave him a lot of good mobility and the ability to preserve Karn.
Mostly, this game ended up coming down to Borka's ability to exert an influence once he becomes active. With Rage, Stone Strength, and the Fell Caller he removes most models from the board, while being nigh unkillable himself.
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