Unfortunately, I hadn't played him in over a year - so never in a theme. I did manage to get one game in via Vassal (Thanks to The Unholy Potato in WMH Discord for the game!), and while I got myself killed it made me feel pretty good about my decisions. I'll be going over my games from Saturday, but first... the lists!
Lists
https://conflictchamber.com/#c9201b_-0I4r4x6S4C4C6N6u6u6v6v6H5Qft5Rft5Rft5U___-0kju6U6U6U6U4x6N6v6vgg5U6q6q6p6FhV
Skorne Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Exalted
(Zaal 1) Supreme Aptimus Zaal [+26]
- Basilisk Krea [7]
- Cyclops Raider [9]
- Cyclops Shaman [8]
- Cyclops Shaman [8]
- Aptimus Marketh [0(5)]
Ancestral Guardian [5]
Ancestral Guardian [5]
Extoller Soulward [0(3)]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Hakaar the Destroyer [0(7)]
Immortals (min) [9]
- Extoller Advocate [4]
Immortals (max) [15]
- Extoller Advocate [4]
Immortals (max) [15]
- Extoller Advocate [4]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]
Skorne Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Winds of Death
(Jalaam 1) Primus Jalaam [+28]
- Archidon [10]
- Archidon [10]
- Archidon [10]
- Archidon [10]
- Basilisk Krea [7]
- Aptimus Marketh [0(5)]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Venator Dakar [4]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]
Venator Catapult Crew [0(5)]
Venator Catapult Crew [5]
Venator Reivers (max) [15]
- Venator Reiver Officer & Standard [4]
Siege Animantarax [17]
Zaal1-
At some point in time I realized that playing Zaal1 in Exalted gave you an oddly high number of ghost shot guns. I then wanted to make that even worse... And the above came to be. I like the volume of assassination pressure this list can exert without needing LOS, between the shaman guns, Zaal's gun, spells, extollers... It gets a little bit over the top. I tacked on a krea because, well, I've always felt that Immortals feel lackluster without one - arm 17 isn't quite high enough to shrug off military rifles - and having a possible 4 bubbles of the krea animus makes it pretty easy to apply universally. Most of the immortals should be sitting at armor 19 vs guns, possibly defense 15 if you grave mist as well for the concealment bonus.
On top of that, double extollers for eyeless sight if you're shooting someone with shamans or Zaal, and they also get to dump souls out round 1. I tend to just fill up Marketh, to take some of the burden of upkeeping off Zaal's stack. Hakaar and the AG's are there as support, and to trade up via feat turn and last stand shenanigans. Plus, who doesn't love trading a 5 point solo for a heavy or two, only to have it turn into a Kovaas?
Jalaam-
I'm not entirely sure how to build this man, but I feel like this list managed to do what I wanted it to do. Archidons with access to a krea, theme wall, artifice etc can become all but immune to attacks on his feat turn, and their long leash lets them jam with the best of 'em. But, to truly take advantage of all their speed, you have to trigger that Warpath! In come the reivers, sporting a max unit + UA and two catapult units - all lead by a Dakar. Tack on the turtle, and there are a lot of 20"+ ranged threats present here. Why single turtle instead of double, you ask - you narrative construct you! I wanted this list to have some decent play into massed infantry, and deadeye'd reivers can at least pretend like I have volume of attacks here.
The biggest concerns I had going in were dealing with actual armor with this list. I can't drop this into Cryx, e.g., because black industries is a thing that exists. Probably don't do anything to Khador with it... The overall theme, though, was that I don't think I can really drop this into serious jack spam from a warmachine faction. Into Hordes I'm fortunate enough to have the Soulwards as backup armor crackers - even if they do always manage to miss for me. All things considered I feel good dropping this list into most of hordes (maybe not Trolls), Cygnar, and Warmachine pairings that lack any threatening armor bricks. Spoilers- Both the extollers and the catapults proved to be money at dishing out damage into beasts.
The Games!
My team included a Legion player running Abby1 and... hmm.. And a PoM player running out of theme Vindictus' little ponies plus Durant and a bunch of indictors and shit.
The way this tournament works:
Each team puts a player down on different tables (we referred to this person as our grenade for that round), face down. The teams then switch tables, and flip their opponents list to see who was set down. They then put a player into that matchup, and the remaining players go into the center table.
Game 1
Our opponents had Cygnar, running Sloane and... Kraye? Khador, and Mercs. Our Legion player didn't feel super confident into any of the matches, so we dropped him as our grenade this round. Checking our opponents drop, we found some mercs. The PoM player felt good into it, so we set him down and tossed me into the middle.
Games - Sloan vs Abby, Vindictus vs a dwarf with a toilet, Zaal1 vs Harkevich
My opponent pops mobility and slams jacks in my face. He has a Behemoth, so I'm expecting to take some fire, and I can't really out threat his Kodiaks. So... I move up my immortals, throw IR out on one unit, last stand on another, pop krea bubbles and use terrain to get my immortals to def lulwut. One unit moves into the left circle, where Yuri is hanging out. A shaman walks up, snipes, and double boosts into Yuri and doesn't kill... oops.
In retaliation, Yuri kills all but the advocate in that unit.
Behemoth lobs some shots, a pair of kodiaks charge in, and Harkevich pops feat.
Vengeance on the last standed unit puts a little damage into the kodiak that charged them, but more importantly it gives them LOS through the cloud it popped to his heavies in the back. They go incorp and whip out to cripple a juggernaut, dropping the Cortex and some other stuff, and the few that couldn't charge put some damage into the Kodiak. I get a few other charges from incorp immortals into Behemoth, as well, and bog him down. Last stand goes on an AG who proceeds to wreck a... marauder maybe? Shaman finishes off Yuri.
My immortals that got last stand pop, and a kovaas shows up, Zaal sits with 1 camp in a krea bubble.
My opponent clears off a lane for his kodiak to trample, and unjams Behemoth. Kodiak tramples up and puts some damage onto Zaal. Behemoth proceeds to lob shots at the Kodiak. Blast is off 9, and... he leaves me on 1 box. Fuckkk that hurt. Hark comes up and tries to deviate a spell onto me, but fails. He covers his ass with heavies and passes the turn.
Hakaar makes a righteous vengeance move. I drop the spells I have out.
Zaal goes and pops feat, tossing Last Stand onto the Kovaas who is in range of Hark. He also throws a hex blast at the Marauder standing in front of Harky, putting some damage in with a boost. Marketh does the same. Some immortals that are hanging out near Behemoth go incorp and charge the same marauder. Hakaar goes, and puts... 2 attacks into it and wrecks it. I have an AG break a heavy jamming my shaman, who then pops a ghost shot at Harkevich and misses, despite aiming and boosting.
Kovaas goes and puts 2 attacks into Harkevich, dirt napping him readily.
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Vindictus clocks, despite having wrecked his opponents army and taking a scenario lead. Abby kills Sloan with some help from Proteus.
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| Proteus hugging Sloan |
Game 2
Circle (Tuna with Griffon spam), Skorne (X1 MoW and Zaadesh2 IWH), Cygnar (This one definitely had Kraye).
I feel pretty good all around, though bird spam might be hard for me. Top it off the Circle player is really solid and rocking a ball busting list. We throw me out as the grenade.
Flipping it we see Circle, and we throw PoM at it.
Flipping it we see Circle, and we throw PoM at it.
Games- Vindictus vs Tuna, Jalaam vs X1, Abby1 vs Kraye
Not dropping Zaal1 into Masters of War, I go with Jalaam. Worst thing I'm going to see is IWH, and at least I out threaten it... ignoring clouds. Jalaam's feat might be able to shut down defensive strikes, though, which is handy.
Instead, X1 vs Jalaam! Recon
My opponent had Arcuarii, swordsmen + UA, Keltarii, a gladiator and Rhino... legends and a krea? I toss prey onto the Legends.
Defenders ward went up on the keltarii, who ran balls out at my reivers. Krea covers the legends, and X hangs out behind the arcuarii.
I go and deadeye the reivers and minifeat, lobbing shots at the Keltarii and hoping. I think I kill 2?
Turtle moves up the right flank towards my opponents arcuarii and legends. Catapults lob a shot at the swordsmen and I think kill 2? I mostly stay out of threat ranges, except for an archidon I throw too far forward that is in range of a gladiator.
My opponent had Arcuarii, swordsmen + UA, Keltarii, a gladiator and Rhino... legends and a krea? I toss prey onto the Legends.
Defenders ward went up on the keltarii, who ran balls out at my reivers. Krea covers the legends, and X hangs out behind the arcuarii.
I go and deadeye the reivers and minifeat, lobbing shots at the Keltarii and hoping. I think I kill 2?
Turtle moves up the right flank towards my opponents arcuarii and legends. Catapults lob a shot at the swordsmen and I think kill 2? I mostly stay out of threat ranges, except for an archidon I throw too far forward that is in range of a gladiator.
My opponent goes and jams the hell out of my reivers and pushes me away from his flag, hard. He moves up on the other side and pops some shots with his Arcuarii. Gladiator goes and wrecks my archidon.
Well. I can't really do too much about what's happening with my reivers... or can I? I pop feat and take some shots into the gladiator. Reivers go and walk out of combat, then proceed to... shoot at some keltarii again. Not much happens. Catapults back up and lob shots into swordsmen, taking a few out. Turtle goes and shoots the gladiator. Extoller shoots it, and it pops. I get an Archidon to move up into range on the Rhindon thanks to Warpath. It goes, and pitches the Rhino into the objective, then beats it to death. Other archidons go, one fails to hit the Legends of Halaak, another kills 2 arcuarii then sprints to jam them up more. I pull a point out of my flag.
Opponent goes and proceeds to.. well he actually puts quite a bit of damage into my Archidons with Xerxis1 and Arcuari. Legends hit the turtle up a bit. Opponent snags the flag to score, 2-1 my favor.
Well. I can't really do too much about what's happening with my reivers... or can I? I pop feat and take some shots into the gladiator. Reivers go and walk out of combat, then proceed to... shoot at some keltarii again. Not much happens. Catapults back up and lob shots into swordsmen, taking a few out. Turtle goes and shoots the gladiator. Extoller shoots it, and it pops. I get an Archidon to move up into range on the Rhindon thanks to Warpath. It goes, and pitches the Rhino into the objective, then beats it to death. Other archidons go, one fails to hit the Legends of Halaak, another kills 2 arcuarii then sprints to jam them up more. I pull a point out of my flag.
Opponent goes and proceeds to.. well he actually puts quite a bit of damage into my Archidons with Xerxis1 and Arcuari. Legends hit the turtle up a bit. Opponent snags the flag to score, 2-1 my favor.
My turn starts with 2 archidon frenzies. Turtle then kills the legends of Halaak and shoots down the remaining Arcuarii. Non-crazy Archidon kills a swordsmen. Woo - I had been hoping to get a sprint over to contest his flag, but fail. Jalaam stabs a few Keltarii after swapping prey to them. Turtle gets some healing.
I lose my archidons, and some more reivers pop. Xerxis is kind of swinging in the breeze, though, next to the turtle. Turtle smacks him around a bit, knocks him down. He has some health left over that a handy extoller strips away.
Abby1 takes down scenario vs Kraye. Vindictus struggle buses into Una (Okay, he messed up positioning by a tiny bit (mm or less) and got hit with an assassination run when he had the game in hand).
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| My Table! |
Game 3, Spread the net
So our final round was into a team from Canada, consisting of Bubba (Cryx), Charles Soong(Mercs), and David Beauchamp(Grymkin). We get a little bit of time to discuss strategy, and decide that I'm going to be our grenade this time. I don't think anyone really wants to deal with Cryx, and our PoM player wants a rematch into Mercs.
We flip their list, which they apparently blind dropped, and it's mercs. We drop PoM into it. I get Grymkin, leaving Cryx vs Legion
Games- Jalaam vs OW, Vindictus vs a short guy, Abby1 vs Gaspy3
At list selection I just tell my opponent I feel like playing Jalaam, so he tosses out some OW. He wins the roll to go first, and... kinda gets screwed by a huge obstruction in the middle of his side.
He's running 3x min dreads, min hollowmen, 2x ponies, 2x ragers, a glimmer imp, 2x trappers and longfellow, probably a few more things I'm forgetting (Okay, rattler for sure).
He goes and runs down field, keeping mostly out of reiver fire range, except for a handful of models. He spaces out to avoid catapults pretty well, but puts a glimmer imp between 2 dreadrots.
Guidance goes up on a catapult. Deadeye on the catapult. Desperate pace. It goes and hits the 12 to hit the imp, kills him and some dread rots. I lob another catapult shot that does... nothing I think? Archidons spread out and take cover behind some walls and a forest. Marketh throws deadeye onto my reivers, who walk up and shoot 3 ponybros, some dreadrots, and I think a hollowman or 2? I move my turtle too far into the center zone...
Opponent pops feat, boundless charges a few models, throws up windstorm, curse of shadows on the turtle, and camps one (in threat range of one archidon). Trapperkin and slayers charge the turtle and leave it on 7 boxes. Longfellow spikes and does 7 damage to it in one shot (he gets wraithbane as well to ignore the krea).
This is going to be feat turn, so I run an extoller to my flag. Jalaam pops feat, aims, shoots a trapperkin and slayer, warpathing some archidons towards OW and her zones. Catapults lob some shots, one directly hitting a rattler (with splash damage killing a neigh slayer). Marketh throws deadeye on the reivers again. I fling my birds out, putting some damage into cage ragers, killing some infantry, and putting 2 heavies into his far zone. Reivers go and clear my rectangle and pop longfellow, the only solo near his flag. I score 2.
Opponent's turn. He jams up my rectangle and contests my flag. OW throws out rerolls, and kicks the archidon jamming nearest to her. Cage rager kicks him a few times, too, killing him. Rattler tries to drop the other one, with the help of some slayers and dread rots, but they fail (rots need 8s in the front). Some other stuff happens, but it's all but over.
An Archidon goes and kills a dread rot in the circular zone, then sprints and leaves combat with 2 more that are contesting. He dies to freestrikes. Reivers shoot the guys contesting my rectangle, and I screw up - I put 3 reivers out of command by not moving my flag. One survives in my zone after making a tough check, other reivers pop the guys in the circular zone. I activate an extoller who walks up to 8" of the knocked down dreadrot. She has one soul on her, and I think about boosting damage. Check his strength, will be a POW 13. I boost to hit. 1, 1, 2. Pops him. Paingivers run into the circular zone, someone shoots the infantry contesting my flag (Jalaam? A Dakaar?), and I score 3, going to 5-0.
He's running 3x min dreads, min hollowmen, 2x ponies, 2x ragers, a glimmer imp, 2x trappers and longfellow, probably a few more things I'm forgetting (Okay, rattler for sure).
He goes and runs down field, keeping mostly out of reiver fire range, except for a handful of models. He spaces out to avoid catapults pretty well, but puts a glimmer imp between 2 dreadrots.
Guidance goes up on a catapult. Deadeye on the catapult. Desperate pace. It goes and hits the 12 to hit the imp, kills him and some dread rots. I lob another catapult shot that does... nothing I think? Archidons spread out and take cover behind some walls and a forest. Marketh throws deadeye onto my reivers, who walk up and shoot 3 ponybros, some dreadrots, and I think a hollowman or 2? I move my turtle too far into the center zone...
Opponent pops feat, boundless charges a few models, throws up windstorm, curse of shadows on the turtle, and camps one (in threat range of one archidon). Trapperkin and slayers charge the turtle and leave it on 7 boxes. Longfellow spikes and does 7 damage to it in one shot (he gets wraithbane as well to ignore the krea).
This is going to be feat turn, so I run an extoller to my flag. Jalaam pops feat, aims, shoots a trapperkin and slayer, warpathing some archidons towards OW and her zones. Catapults lob some shots, one directly hitting a rattler (with splash damage killing a neigh slayer). Marketh throws deadeye on the reivers again. I fling my birds out, putting some damage into cage ragers, killing some infantry, and putting 2 heavies into his far zone. Reivers go and clear my rectangle and pop longfellow, the only solo near his flag. I score 2.
Opponent's turn. He jams up my rectangle and contests my flag. OW throws out rerolls, and kicks the archidon jamming nearest to her. Cage rager kicks him a few times, too, killing him. Rattler tries to drop the other one, with the help of some slayers and dread rots, but they fail (rots need 8s in the front). Some other stuff happens, but it's all but over.
An Archidon goes and kills a dread rot in the circular zone, then sprints and leaves combat with 2 more that are contesting. He dies to freestrikes. Reivers shoot the guys contesting my rectangle, and I screw up - I put 3 reivers out of command by not moving my flag. One survives in my zone after making a tough check, other reivers pop the guys in the circular zone. I activate an extoller who walks up to 8" of the knocked down dreadrot. She has one soul on her, and I think about boosting damage. Check his strength, will be a POW 13. I boost to hit. 1, 1, 2. Pops him. Paingivers run into the circular zone, someone shoots the infantry contesting my flag (Jalaam? A Dakaar?), and I score 3, going to 5-0.
My team, unfortunately, scrubs out on me. 1-2 round 3, but I finish out the day 3-0, and we take second place.
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| Crime™ |
Afterthoughts
I had really been hoping to get more games in with Zaal, because... seriously he's confusing to play some times. Somewhere around top of 3 I had lost 20 some models, while only crippling a few heavies, and I was sitting there thinking "This is probably fine?". His playstyle is just so self-destructive that I have trouble really knowing wtf is going on.
I'm pretty happy with how Jalaam played out. It's a bit of a niche list, I think, but it definitely gets work done. I get the feeling that he wants to play in a theme that doesn't exist, but winds of death feels okay for him. I've seen some really nice beast only builds in IWH that people have been teching, and those definitely seem to have some real potential. As is, though, I think this list will be making it to the SOO with me. Zaadesh2 is probably the more powerful all-around caster on our ADR, but I think in Champions Zaal1/Jalaam will work out pretty well while also having more of an underdog advantage.
Hoping I can get some more practice in before I head out there, but I like where things are at for me, currently.
I'm pretty happy with how Jalaam played out. It's a bit of a niche list, I think, but it definitely gets work done. I get the feeling that he wants to play in a theme that doesn't exist, but winds of death feels okay for him. I've seen some really nice beast only builds in IWH that people have been teching, and those definitely seem to have some real potential. As is, though, I think this list will be making it to the SOO with me. Zaadesh2 is probably the more powerful all-around caster on our ADR, but I think in Champions Zaal1/Jalaam will work out pretty well while also having more of an underdog advantage.
Hoping I can get some more practice in before I head out there, but I like where things are at for me, currently.
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