Round 4 of the Ocho. See the previous post for an event introduction and my list, link below.
This round we were matched against the UK team, and for the second time I paired myself against WoDG, this time Adam Jones with a more aggressive list than the usual herald/MSU lust warriors/Elders.
830 - Sorcerer, Veil Walker, Battleshrine, Wizard Master, Evocation, Plate Armour (Alchemist's Alloy), Magical Heirloom
600 - Chosen Lord, General, War Dais, Shield, Hell Forged Armour, Hand Weapon (Burning Portent), Talisman of Shielding, Lucky Charm, Pride
560 - Chosen Lord, War Dais, Shield, Hell Forged Armour (Death Cheater), Great Weapon, Rod of Battle, Pride
575 - 20 Warriors, Standard Bearer (Banner of Speed), Musician, Champion 235 - 10 Warriors, Musician
119 - 8 Warhounds
740 - 6 Feldraks, Great Weapon, Musician
740 - 6 Feldraks, Great Weapon, Musician
95 - 5 Warhounds
4494
Deployment was Frontline and Breakthrough. I'm on the same map as last time which is kind of annoying. It has a big ruin in the middle which will restrict my chariots, and the water is in the bottom corner and poorly placed for druidism. Adam wins the roll for table side and takes the top, I drop for first on the bottom.
General strategy:
I deploy everything directly opposite the hill with the dogs 8x1 in front. If he deploys on the hill, I can easily pen in his units with the dogs vanguard, then isolate and attack units T2. More likely, he will corner deploy in the top left. So I leave one unit of centaurs as light troops in that corner to slow him down, while the middle can run forwards around the ruin.
The secondary is relatively easy for me, especially if he drops in the left corner. The game then becomes more trying to stall his advance on the left, rather than trying to score myself. I think this is manageable as there's a useful building on the left which will cause a traffic jam, and allow me to hide behind but threaten counter charges.
As with most WoDG, his magic advantage is huuuuuge. Just a single hellfire or gravecalls will delete any unit in my army, and I can only stop one per turn. Left alone, his 800pt sorcerer can easily earn back half his points every single round. More specifically, warriors are pretty f*cking broken... having better fighting/magic/leadership/armour than everyone else. I want a new BH book to match warriors/demons/ID!
That means I need to close the gap as fast as possible and trust in primal fury/great weapons and a stoneskin to win fights. I have the chaff advantage so picking fights shouldn't be a problem but the feldraks are very, very tough to chew through.
He deploys in the top left which was a smart move. We were discussing it later, and he was definitely aware of how quickly BH can swarm you if they get first turn! This means I now need to focus on stalling with the centaurs on the left, while the rest of the army moves up past the ruin in the middle. I hate that ruin...
The last game (round 3) against WoDG was pretty rough for primal fury and I passed 7 out of 20+ tests. In particular, the centaurs failed nearly all theirs and died horrible, early deaths because of it. During this game, I will be tracking centaur primal fury rolls with happy Bojacks and sad Bojacks. Remember, centaurs like to play out of the bubble, so they're testing on 7/8's for 50-60% general chance of passing so it can be very risky... and their poor centaur lives depend on it!
BH T1
Sober centaurs move back to stay out magic range. The rest of the army moves up past the ruin. The wildhorns fill the gap between building and ruin. The chariots and characters separate, and the chariots zone him from pushing up with the dogs on the right.
WoDG T1
I didn't realize his characters were movement 6, meaning my sober centaurs were actually in range! The shrine and both lords moved up alone for magic. Fortunately, his T1 magic fizzled... avoiding an early loss due to a "gotcha." The feldraks on the left push into the space made by the characters, and the rest of the army shuffled backwards to limit access to ambushers.
BH T2
Both ambushers come in, which is too early! There's no safe space near his line as he can easily turn his wizard backwards and zap them. I drop them on the far right simply to score, but they will have no impact this game. The dogs push up to chaff the Feldraks on the right while both units of centaurs get ready for charges. The left centaurs hide behind their building.
WoDG T2
The character unit faces in to the middle of the board. Both units of dogs block, my dogs on the right and the wildhorns on the left. Magic is unlucky again, but puts 3 wounds on the left centaurs.
BH T3
The centaur chieftan on the right charges his dogs, kills them, then over-runs to chaff the feldraks. His unit moves up behind on the hill. The lance centaurs also move up for a double charge. The wildhorns don't charge his dogs yet, and instead shuffle behind them for safety. Magic heals the left centaurs back to full strength.
WoDG T3
The feldraks on the right charge the chieftain. The two lords split up, one to the middle and one to the left and start to zone as only a 1+/5+ combat beast with multi-wounds can! The one on the left is hugging the building to limit centaurs in B2B if they charge. He now pushes on the left side with all 3 scoring units. Magic is decisive as a single hellfire kills 8 of 10 lance centaurs.
In combat, the centaur chieftain fails his primal fury and does 1 wound before being pulverized. The dogs behind him run and bounce over the centaurs. The feldraks pivot, being too far away for an over-run.
BH T4
The right centaurs on the hill charge the feldraks. I would have liked to also charge the lance centaurs, but after losing 8/10, I think they will just die easily and then I lose a scoring unit. Instead, they run over the hill to safety. I'm confident the GW centaurs have a reasonable chance alone as they will have magic support, whereas the feldraks do not. The dogs rally on a 5. I consider charging his left lord with the left centaurs as even with the building I would have 3 in B2B for 10 Str7 swings (chieftain is on the far side and would just decline the challenge) plus 3 static CR. However, I preferred to hold back this phase to ensure I concentrate magic on the unit on the right instead.
The wildhorns flank charge the blocking dogs, but just barely miss the over-run into his lord by a fraction of a millimeter after the dogs align to them. This wasn't planned, just an unlucky coincidence! They instead pivot to face the shrine.
In magic, distracting is dispelled but entangling vines is cast, letting the centaurs hit the feldraks on 3's. They need it, as they fail their primal fury. They still win combat handily, but the feldraks pass their break test (needing 7's).
WoDG T4
The shrine charges the wildhorns and starts to grind them down but they pass their steadfast (on rr 8's). He sneaks out another hellfire out of combat, killing 5 more centaurs. His left lord now joins with the feldraks on the left side and his two warrior units join a traffic jam behind.
In combat, the centaurs fail their primal fury again. Despite this, they still win handily but are reduced to the last model. The feldraks pass their break (needing 7's, again).
BH T5
This is now looking disastrous! My right centaurs are clearly going to die. Fortunately the dogs rallying means I can keep my 3 scoring units safe, but it means I likely won't win secondary myself as I may have missed my opportunity to zone him out. The feldraks are in the deployment zone, but the two warriors are not. There is a risky opportunity to lock down his warriors out of the DZ with a flank charge from my chieftain. On averages, he only lasts 2 combat rounds attacking their flank if they turn to face for the second, but if I have some luck and he lasts 3 (for example, if they fail to combat reform)... then I can keep the warriors out (post combat reform on the last turn loses scoring). I am also helped out by the feldraks who are too close and prevent him from turning to face in 5 ranks. If he moves them forward to create space, I may have another charge opportunity as well.
The chieftain goes for the charge, fails primal fury and kills 1 warrior and takes a wound in return. Fortunately the sad Bojack passes his break test...
The gargoyles chaff his lord in the middle. The chariots move up to try to threaten his feldraks after they kill my centaurs.
The wildhorns have a weird burst of luck and do 2 wound to the shrine, but he passes his break test (needing 7's).
In magic, I heal the centaurs back up to three, leaving only 2 in B2B with his 1 feldrak. I think there is another chance! I have 5 Str6 attacks versus 3 Str7. If only they would pass a primal fury! Unfortunately, they fail their primal fury (for the third time) and lose 2, leaving just the champ, drawing the combat this time.
WoDG T5
The middle lord charges and kills the gargoyles in front of him but has no over-runs. The shrine continues to grind the wildhorns but draws combat. Magic puts ancestral aid on the left feldraks + lord.
In combat, the remaining chieftain falls to the laws of averages and takes 2 wounds and dies. Before he goes he passes his primal fury and does a mighty 4 wounds! Because the warriors had turned to a 4-wide formation, if the chieftain hadn't died there would have been an interesting break test. Unfortunately, this is not that sort of game.
The shrine grinds at the wildhorns again, doing maximum attacks this phase (probably angry about nearly breaking last turn). The wildhorns pass steadfast.
And finally, the feldraks on the top finish the last centaur champion who bizarrely passes primal fury before he goes, at least taking the feldraks below half (some consolation prize!).
BH T6
Unfortunately this is now looking pretty dire. After 4 hours of playing, I definitely had a brain fart and didn't give my chariots an arc of sight to the shrine... not sure what I was thinking there. Probably the ruin in the middle confused me. Stupid ruin. We're tied on secondary and I'm down on points.
After a quick check of the score, I say f*ck it and charge in with general and the centaurs against his feldraks and lord (with ancestral aid). Odds are good I'll lose the centaurs and maybe 50/50 I'll lose the general. However, I think there's a similar 50/50 I take his lord with me, and if I just lose the centaurs then the score doesn't really change much (8-12 to 7-13). But if I can pass a primal fury and break steadfast on his feldraks... then there's a big point swing for secondary. This is slim odds because of the hellfire on T4 killing one rank, but 'ere we go!
The mongrels pass a key march test and block his middle lord. I'm out of range to help the centaur fight, so I buff the wildhorns with stoneskin.
In combat... the general challenges his lord and blocks 2 feldraks from swinging. The razorchariot chooses a poor time for a "1" on impact hits, and the two characters exchange 2 wounds each. The centaurs... pass their primal fury (with lord and BSB help)! And are clearly so over-whelmed at their new responsibility they whiff. 16 attacks does 8 wounds to the feldraks, who have 12 attacks and do 8 wounds back. I will count this as a happy BoJack as they passed the primal fury, but I wasn't happy about it... The feldraks still have steadfast and stick.
The wildhorns are long past remembering how to wound the shrine, but fortunately their newfound R6 keeps them safe and they draw combat (phew!). I made a mistake here and left a potential charge on my BSB from his shrine if I lost combat here but the wildhorns held the line.
WoDG T6
The remaining feldrak charges in against the wildhorns and his shrine continues to grind them, but they pass a third steadfast (rr 7 this time as they had whispers on them).
In the key fight in the middle, the centaurs decide this responsibility is too much... and fail their primal fury (with general and BSB) and die horribly. The general has a great up-swing of luck and with his fatal folly bump, puts 4 wounds on his lord! The lord then passes three of the four 5+ aegis and does 2 back... and my general forgets he even brings his 5+ aegis. Both characters now award half points.
The final centaur primal fury score.... Unfortunately the "passes" were on irrelevant fights whereas the failures were on all the key ones!
Final result was 7 - 13 as we tied secondary, but the warriors were up on points.
Closing thoughts:
That's now two games in a row where the centaurs have just been horrible. Without primal fury, they're just over-priced, unarmored squishy great weapons. It's a frustrating process because to take advantage of the beast unit count and speed, you want to play outside the bubble. When you do that, the fearless helps with panic but the primal fury can just go sideways. And without primal fury, beast troops actually aren't great fighters but have zero ranged/magic presence. In general, many times my BH games feel like the outcome is decided by how often I can roll primal fury... which doesn't feel fun. Once again, it feels like I'm being shoe-horned into playing with gortachs (which I don't want to do anymore) because at least with LD9 they can pass the primal rolls outside the bubble.
In particular, the lance centaurs are just a waste of a unit. They are definitely cut from my list after this tournament. The GW centaurs work (when they roll primal fury) but the chieftain is key to their performance. It's hard to choose when to chaff, and when to stick in the unit for the combat help. For example, on T4 when I charged out against the warrior unit flank I think that was an interesting (but possibly too risky) play to try to pin his unit and it definitely hampered my ability to charge, and cause damage, later on T6.
I think my luck was pretty decent throughout with no failed charges, rallying the dogs (on 5), passing the march test on the raiders for a T6 chaff, passing 3 steadfast rolls for the wildhorns and etc. The warriors passed all 3 of their break-tests (on 7's) which was crucial but that may balance out. However, the primal fury roll is the engine that runs the BH machine and when it doesn't work... what do you do. I'd love to take the crown of horns, but inherently most of the play is outside the general's range.
That said, Adam was an excellent player and left zero openings to exploit. In hindsight, I should have taken the charge against his left lord on T3 as there was a decent chance to kill/break him and that was my best chance to keep him off the left flank before hellfire weakened me too much. However, it could have backfired just as easily as they had no support (and likely no magic, as it was helping the other fight). Ah hindsight...
As well, Adam really zoned the middle of the board well with his characters. I did have a good prediction he was going to deploy top left corner, so I think my deployment could have been better if it slanted that way, at least with the slow to re-deploy chariot characters to exert some pressure where I put the wildhorns. Now, the ruin obviously would have been a pain, as well as gravecalls, but I definitely over-estimated the ability of the left sober centaurs to zone. They were one easy panic check away from running to a hellfire.
As predicted at the start, hellfire was key. The WoDG ability to just delete my units with a single cast is rough. He destroyed the lancers, which prevented me from supporting in the feldrak charge. And later he killed a full rank of the GW centaurs on the left which was key to preventing me breaking steadfast on the YOLO T6 charge. The threat of the hellfire + gravecalls definitely put me on the defensive on the left and I conceded ground too quickly. The same goes for my ambushers. I would have liked them to help with the feldrak fight on the top, but when they both showed up too early I was worried about a hellfire so kept them safe on the right.
Overall a disappointing result for breakthrough, especially when I paired against this army. The other army in that same pairing step resulted in our HBE vs OK who also fared poorly so our team did not do well from this. Fhis was far from the greatest game I've played, for example there was the mistake on the chariot facing T6 and poor zoning on left flank with the centaurs right from the start. I had a pretty good suspicion he wasn't going to sit on the hill, but didn't have a flexible enough deployment to counter the top left corner with my slow chariot characters. I think the centaur chieftain charge on the bottom may have been a mistake, but there was enough upside to justify a desperate play at that stage of the game. The secondary, which is normally so advantageous for BH, wasn't enough to scrape together a win when the primal fury dice didn't cooperate.
A surprising take-away is the wildhorn unit with shields and legion banner. They were MVP last game (killing a herald) and they did well this game as well, holding his shrine in place and having one great opportunity to break it (on a 7). The shrine is normally a hard counter to them with grind attacks but they had enough bodies to last it out for several rounds.