A new journeyman league has started up at Drawbridge Games in Castle Shannon. I’ve started up Skorne army and will be playing Beast Master Xekaar throughout the league.
My list for Week One: Skorne Battlebox
Xeekar1
- Cyclops Raider
- Cyclops Savage
- Titan Gladiator
We’re using the journeyman rules with only two minor variations. The first is that you get a free “Do Over”. Namely if you add something that it turns out you hate you can replace it the next week. Secondly we allowed a caster swap at week 1 so that player who wished to keep adding to their faction of choice could have a little variety.
In regards to scenario we played the mangled metal which is required for weeks one and two. The downside to this scenario is that it lacks board objectives and some matches devolve into who wants to hide behind a forest or obstruction the entire game. Personally I just go all in when a match goes to this point so that I can move onto a more interesting match.
Game #1 - Skorne(Xekaar) Vs Circle (Tanith - Kevin)
Skorne Victory
My first journey match was against a semi-regular player Kevin. Kevin normally plays Legion but decided to expand into Circle for the league. He showed up with an excellently painted Tanith box is a desert scheme.
The main turning point of the match came when Kevin committed his Pureblood Warpwolf into destroying my Savage. When it came to my turn I retaliated by having my Gladiator kill the Warpwolf while taking pot shots at his Gorax. I then forgot to feat and left Xekaar on zero fury. Luckily Kevin forged attempting a caster assassination with his feat turn and instead focused on destroying my Gladiator. Unfortunately for Kevin the gladiator survived with only 1 box left even without the benefit of Xekaars feat. The following turn I destroyed the remaining light warbeasts for a scenario victory.
Game #2 - Skorne(Xekaar) Vs Skorne (Zaadesh2 - Brad)
Skorne Victory (just not mine)
In my second game I played Brad whose main faction is Skorne. Brad brought in Lord Tyrant Zaadesh in replacement for Xekaar. The main problem with facing Zaadesh in weeks 1 and 2 is that his kit strikes me as a bit broken. We’ll have to see how he plays out in later weeks but his spell lists and abilities in a battlegroup only format are quite viscious.
The early trades went in my favor where I was able to exchange my Gladiator for his Savage and Gladiator. My problems began when Brad realized he could effectively kit my remaining forces by firing with his Raider and then placing a cloud wall to block LOS. Faced with a slow death by a thousand cuts I heavily committed towards his units. I healed my beasts with all my focus and hoped he had poor rolls on his counter charge with Zaadesh the next turn. Alas it was not to be as MAT 7 and Flank quickly helped him level my two remaining beasts.
I feel I made a game of it but this match convinced me to add a Cyclops Shaman for week 2 instead of an Agonizer. An extra ranged model who can ignore LOS will at the very least make me feel like I can do something tactically instead of a plan that revolves around “hoping for the best”.
Game #3 - Skorne(Xekaar) Vs Khador (Kozlov - Ian)
Khador Victory
My third game was a player who rolled up with a mk1 Khador box and was looking to get back into the swing of things. I played it as a teaching game and made sure to give recommendations and warning about possible mistakes a plenty.
On the downside I accidentally cheated and still flubbed an an assassination run. On the second turn Koslov was well forward and in position for a charge from my Gladiator. I can’t remember accurately but I believed I failed to cast psycho surgery to heal up the Gladiators spirit spiral so that it could actually be forced. Either what occurred was Xekaar throwing mortality on Koslov and the Gladiator charged in. I then rolled poorly and left Kozlove with about two health. Long story short it two another two turns to finish the game up but Xekaar wound up dead to a giant buzz saw hitting him for about 20 damage.
Game #4 - Skorne(Xekaar) Vs Khador (Kozlov - Andy)
Khador Victory
Game four found me playing with my buddy Andy and his newly painted Khador. Andy normally plays minions or Legion but does have a case of faction identity crisis and owns a bit of everything.
Game play wise this battle was rather straight forward. I heavily committed the second turn to destroying his Juggernaut with my Gladiator and Savage. They got the job done but I lost the Gladiator and my Savage was heavily damaged in exchange. By my third turn I was faced with a feated Koslov with only a banged up Savage and a Raider who could barely scratch any of the armor I had to contend with. In the end Koslov worked his way through my light beasts for a Khador victory.
Game #5 - Skorne(Xekaar) Vs Cygnar (Maddox - Andy)
Khador Victory
My last journeyman game of the evening was against another of our newer players, Scott. Scott and be swapping between Cryx and Cygnar since he got into the game and with a journeyman finally here, he dived into the Cygnar side.
Game #5 - Skorne Vs Cygnar - Madox - Scott - Win
Scott rushed to engage early. I moved my forces up to tempt the assault but feat’d to keep the damage low. Scott forced the engagement under my feat and did minor damage. In retaliation I destroyed his Ironclad and severly damaged his firefly. Some bad dice left Madox unable to kill my savage. The next turn the savage finished off te firefly while the gladiator obliterated the lancer.
Game #6 - Cryx(Gaspy1) Vs Trollbloods (Jarl - Andrew) Steamroller/Incursion
Trollblood Victory
I also played a 75 point steamroller practice match with my buddy Andrew in preparation for an upcoming steamroller tournament in Latrobe PA. Andrew was testing out a new Jarl list and I brought in an infantry heavy Gaspy1 list for him to face. In the last two games where I’ve had Gaspy1 facing a gun line list he’s fared poorly. On turn three I mis-allocated to many focus to Barathrum in a misguided attempted to get him into the fray. Instead Barry killed a whelp and Dragged Below back to his previous position in preparation for my next turn.
Unfortunately this left Gaspy with one focus. Against a gun line where he was in range of most of the army. It didn’t go well.
I hate playing into gun lines with Cryx. Tired of fragile warcasters, I’ll be giving Terminus another shot as the second list for my pairing.
My list for Week One: Skorne Battlebox
Xeekar1
- Cyclops Raider
- Cyclops Savage
- Titan Gladiator
We’re using the journeyman rules with only two minor variations. The first is that you get a free “Do Over”. Namely if you add something that it turns out you hate you can replace it the next week. Secondly we allowed a caster swap at week 1 so that player who wished to keep adding to their faction of choice could have a little variety.
In regards to scenario we played the mangled metal which is required for weeks one and two. The downside to this scenario is that it lacks board objectives and some matches devolve into who wants to hide behind a forest or obstruction the entire game. Personally I just go all in when a match goes to this point so that I can move onto a more interesting match.
Game #1 - Skorne(Xekaar) Vs Circle (Tanith - Kevin)
Skorne Victory
My first journey match was against a semi-regular player Kevin. Kevin normally plays Legion but decided to expand into Circle for the league. He showed up with an excellently painted Tanith box is a desert scheme.
The main turning point of the match came when Kevin committed his Pureblood Warpwolf into destroying my Savage. When it came to my turn I retaliated by having my Gladiator kill the Warpwolf while taking pot shots at his Gorax. I then forgot to feat and left Xekaar on zero fury. Luckily Kevin forged attempting a caster assassination with his feat turn and instead focused on destroying my Gladiator. Unfortunately for Kevin the gladiator survived with only 1 box left even without the benefit of Xekaars feat. The following turn I destroyed the remaining light warbeasts for a scenario victory.
Game #2 - Skorne(Xekaar) Vs Skorne (Zaadesh2 - Brad)
Skorne Victory (just not mine)
In my second game I played Brad whose main faction is Skorne. Brad brought in Lord Tyrant Zaadesh in replacement for Xekaar. The main problem with facing Zaadesh in weeks 1 and 2 is that his kit strikes me as a bit broken. We’ll have to see how he plays out in later weeks but his spell lists and abilities in a battlegroup only format are quite viscious.
The early trades went in my favor where I was able to exchange my Gladiator for his Savage and Gladiator. My problems began when Brad realized he could effectively kit my remaining forces by firing with his Raider and then placing a cloud wall to block LOS. Faced with a slow death by a thousand cuts I heavily committed towards his units. I healed my beasts with all my focus and hoped he had poor rolls on his counter charge with Zaadesh the next turn. Alas it was not to be as MAT 7 and Flank quickly helped him level my two remaining beasts.
I feel I made a game of it but this match convinced me to add a Cyclops Shaman for week 2 instead of an Agonizer. An extra ranged model who can ignore LOS will at the very least make me feel like I can do something tactically instead of a plan that revolves around “hoping for the best”.
Game #3 - Skorne(Xekaar) Vs Khador (Kozlov - Ian)
Khador Victory
My third game was a player who rolled up with a mk1 Khador box and was looking to get back into the swing of things. I played it as a teaching game and made sure to give recommendations and warning about possible mistakes a plenty.
On the downside I accidentally cheated and still flubbed an an assassination run. On the second turn Koslov was well forward and in position for a charge from my Gladiator. I can’t remember accurately but I believed I failed to cast psycho surgery to heal up the Gladiators spirit spiral so that it could actually be forced. Either what occurred was Xekaar throwing mortality on Koslov and the Gladiator charged in. I then rolled poorly and left Kozlove with about two health. Long story short it two another two turns to finish the game up but Xekaar wound up dead to a giant buzz saw hitting him for about 20 damage.
Game #4 - Skorne(Xekaar) Vs Khador (Kozlov - Andy)
Khador Victory
Game four found me playing with my buddy Andy and his newly painted Khador. Andy normally plays minions or Legion but does have a case of faction identity crisis and owns a bit of everything.
Game play wise this battle was rather straight forward. I heavily committed the second turn to destroying his Juggernaut with my Gladiator and Savage. They got the job done but I lost the Gladiator and my Savage was heavily damaged in exchange. By my third turn I was faced with a feated Koslov with only a banged up Savage and a Raider who could barely scratch any of the armor I had to contend with. In the end Koslov worked his way through my light beasts for a Khador victory.
Game #5 - Skorne(Xekaar) Vs Cygnar (Maddox - Andy)
Khador Victory
My last journeyman game of the evening was against another of our newer players, Scott. Scott and be swapping between Cryx and Cygnar since he got into the game and with a journeyman finally here, he dived into the Cygnar side.
Game #5 - Skorne Vs Cygnar - Madox - Scott - Win
Scott rushed to engage early. I moved my forces up to tempt the assault but feat’d to keep the damage low. Scott forced the engagement under my feat and did minor damage. In retaliation I destroyed his Ironclad and severly damaged his firefly. Some bad dice left Madox unable to kill my savage. The next turn the savage finished off te firefly while the gladiator obliterated the lancer.
Game #6 - Cryx(Gaspy1) Vs Trollbloods (Jarl - Andrew) Steamroller/Incursion
Trollblood Victory
I also played a 75 point steamroller practice match with my buddy Andrew in preparation for an upcoming steamroller tournament in Latrobe PA. Andrew was testing out a new Jarl list and I brought in an infantry heavy Gaspy1 list for him to face. In the last two games where I’ve had Gaspy1 facing a gun line list he’s fared poorly. On turn three I mis-allocated to many focus to Barathrum in a misguided attempted to get him into the fray. Instead Barry killed a whelp and Dragged Below back to his previous position in preparation for my next turn.
Unfortunately this left Gaspy with one focus. Against a gun line where he was in range of most of the army. It didn’t go well.
I hate playing into gun lines with Cryx. Tired of fragile warcasters, I’ll be giving Terminus another shot as the second list for my pairing.
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