Prepare for trouble…

Introduction

I know it’s been quiet for a while, but I promise to make it up to you. Because this week, I don’t have one, but two event reports for you. I had 2 Steamrollers planned for last weekend, so I will spread those out over 2 posts of which this one is the first.

Unfortunately, not many people showed up for the first one, so we just played a Round-Robin format. I still got 3 interesting games out of the day, so I couldn’t complain.

This time I left my Banes at home, in favour of trying out a version of Skarre 1 in Black Industries.

Cryx
[Theme] Black Industries
[Skarre 1] Pirate Queen Skarre [+28]
– Ripjaw [7]
– Stalker [8]
– Stalker [8]
– Stalker [8]
– Skarlock Thrall [0(4)]
Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius [0(4)]
– Stalker [8]
– Stalker [8]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Scrap Thrall (3) [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Cephalyx Overlords [8]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]
Wraith Engine [15]
Wraith Engine [15]

So, the benefits of the list are:

• lots of Stalkers
• Aiakos making 2 of the aforementioned Stalkers faster
• an arc node for some spot removal with Hellfire
• free Ritual Sacrifice
• 2 Wraith Engines
• Darragh being able to get the battle engines to threaten 13″ and being an extra detriment to living models
• Ambush!

I wasn’t a 100% sure if I prefer this list over my Dark Host version, but there was only way to find out, hence why I took it for a spin.
The pair is still my trusty Skarre 3 list.

Round 1

Skarre 1 BI vs Grim 1 SotN (/Kolgrimma)
Anarchy

I was doubtful if Skarre 1 was the right drop here as I expected to see Grim 1 indeed, but I wanted to try it. I didn’t see a lot of Incorporeal counters in his lists, so I thought it was worth a shot, then again, I always forget that Grim 1 has Marked for Death…
On my side of the table, there are some clouds around my objective. The rest of the terrain isn’t really note worthy. This means there isn’t much to hide Skarre except basically behind my objective, which is a great anchor to put down AoE’s and/or sprays…
Skarre needs to spend her focus to Hellfire the 2 Fire Eaters that are contesting my flag, so the Soul Trapper can go score. The Wraith Engines try to stay far enough away to not eat a Marked for Death.
I try to bait a feat and succeed, but I lose every one of Skarre’s Stalkers. I counter ambush his bears and take out 1 of them as well as the Handler. My opponent succeeds into getting a big chunk of damage onto Skarre by way of Grim’s gun.
The Hooch Hauler gets ever closer while my Wraith Engine on that flank is trying to tie down the zone.
On my feat turn I can take out the Mountain King by charging it with a Wraith Engine (yet missing the charge attack), then walking in the Ripjaw and rolling the crit on four dice, after which a Stalker jumps onto Grim 1, who spends all 4 of his camp to transfer, killing the big oaf and still taking some damage. The Wraith Engine turns Valka into a Machine Wraith, as there was no good landing zone to get it onto the Hooch Hauler.
Grim is starting to feel the heat and tries to get a Man Trap off on Skarre, which succeeds and he does a lot of damage even through my ARM 20.
The Hooch Hauler moves in to try to finish it off, but he clocks himself while resolving the Oil shot.
I got a bit lucky there, though the game was almost surely over if Skarre hadn’t died, as there was nothing left to protect Grim, who was engaged by a Stalker.

Round 2

Skarre 3 SotBC vs Kreoss 2 EI (/High Reclaimer)
Invasion

I had first turn with my Bloodgorgers in the middle, Kraken on the left, Marauders on the right next to Skarre. Cinerators are opposite the Marauders, Errants in the middle with the Judicator and Knight Examplars opposite the Kraken.
The shooting of the Marauders won’t do anything against the fire immune Cinerators, but with Draconic Blessing, and Chain Weapon letting them ignore Shield Wall, they at least have a hope of making a dent in melee.
The Kraken succeeds at sniping out the Knight Exemplar Officer and the next turn my ambush, together with some Bloodgorgers, takes out the rest of the Examplars to clear the zone. The Marauders and Cinerators brawl a bit on the other side.
The main thing in this game was that the Judicator was often blocked by his troops and objective, so that I had some time before I had to worry about the flame throwers. This meant that I didn’t have to put Draconic Blessing on the Bloodgorgers, meaning my Marauders could actually put up a fight against the Cinerators. This also meant though, that the Bloodgorgers had trouble chewing through the Errants under Inviolable Resolve.
Jussika was an excellent counter against Sacrosanct and I was able to keep her relatively safe because of the obstruction in the middle of the table.
My opponent eventually gets too eager on his feat turn and charges Kreoss forward to take out a Bloodgorger. This wasn’t necessarily bad, but he failed to screen sufficiently and Skarre could then put Draconic Blessing on the Kraken, Ragman could move into position with Death Field and the Iron Mongers could curse the poor Grand Exemplar. A Bloodgorger that came back from Reinforcements behind the Errants could provide Gang Fighter. At effective MAT 10, P+S 26 (1 corpse token), he didn’t stand much of a chance.

Round 3

Skarre 1 BI vs Krueger 2 BoO (/Baldur 1)
King of the Hill

Not really looking forward to this matchup, but neither was my opponent, so that’s something. We both have a relatively low model count and high threat ranges, but he’s better at blunting a possible alpha from me and general shenanigans. King of the Hill is a still a great scenario for Stalkers and Wraith Engines though, so I have a shot. I also elect to take the Dugout objective so the Anchor effect can counter his feat.
I got the first turn and move up as aggressively as possible, keeping my Stalkers out of 14″ of the well and trying not to get my Wraith Engines charged. Also not allowing too many Mannikins to get angles onto the Stalkers, because boosted sprays hurt. So essentially, I don’t go very far at all… He does something similar and sprays off movement from one of the Stalkers, and turns around my Wraith Engines.
I Anchor 1 of my Wraith Engines who goes to contest the middle zone, in the left zone there is a Stalker hugging the table edge so he will be unaffected by the feat, also out of range of TK. My zone still has my objective and a Stalker a bit further. Skarre is slightly behind a wall in the middle, so he can’t TK me over and/or drag me too far.
He indeed feats, but then misses the Hunter’s Mark on the Wraith Engine in the middle zone, so he can’t get a heavy onto it, meaning I get the keep contesting. He kills my objective and scores that zone, also killing the Stalker there, as well as the flag in the middle to go to 0-3.
I counter feat because I can get a Wraith Engine onto his objective. With the Mannikins that are in that zone out of command, they don’t contest and I can get the Stalker on that side onto a Wold Warden. Stalker on the other side can get to the Wold Wyrd that is scoring the zone and is the only contesting model. I can’t afford Dark Guidance because I need to Hellfire the Shifting Stone that is blocking the charge lane of the other Wraith Engine to get to another Wold Warden. I run up the arc node and indeed manage to kill the stone. The rest of my turn goes rather horrendous as the Stalker on the left does nothing but chip damage on the Warden and the other one misses 2 out of 4 of his attacks. Even with Dark Shroud from the Wraith Engine, that did kill the other Warden, he doesn’t manage to actually kill the contesting Wyrd. Another Stalker goes into the center zone to attempt to clear some contesting models, but can’t get all of them. A feated Darragh manages to get onto the flag, but there were still contesters and the score goes to 2-3.
Note that I didn’t Ambush because there were forests on both sides and I wouldn’t really get a good angle onto anything.

My opponent then proceeds to teleport a Gallow’s Grove exactly 5″, to behind the Stalker in the middle, which is exactly 8″ from Skarre, so he can get a Telekinesis off. He hits the boosted 9 to put me further away from the wall so the Gallows could work, then hit the boosted 7 on Gallows and drags me 6″. Gallows also deals 4 damage through my feat, which I decide not to spend 1 of my 2 remaining focus on. A shot from somewhere, maybe the Well, deals 3, putting me at 1 hp, which I again don’t overboost. The Wayfarer then hits the 7 he needs for Hunter’s Mark and Megalith kills her after receiving + 2 strength from a Stone Shaper.
The matchup wasn’t too bad and I think I handled it well for the most part, but too many things went wrong at the wrong time. I guess the assassination wasn’t impossible, but if that Stalker had been 2 mm further back, the tree couldn’t be placed behind it and it would’ve been entirely off the table.

Summary

I’m not really feeling the Black Industries build compared to my regular Dark Host. The problem is basically the same as it was when I played her in the old BI, namely that there aren’t a lot of models and if your opponent can blunt your alpha, or has a better one, it can really put you on the back foot and you start losing models fast.
Having the Skarlock available to cast Ritual Sacrifice was nice, but not required. Something similar goes for the Ripjaw. He did allow me to arc some key Hellfires, but I don’t feel like he did more than an extra Stalker would’ve accomplished.

I really miss having the expendable, yet durable bodies available of the Bane Knights. While the ambush is (very) nice, my other list already ambushes and there’s not always a good opportunity to do it. Besides that, on tables where terrain is more sparse, the free clouds from Dark Host really help Skarre to stay safe.

I had a good day, with interesting games and even that last one was pretty close, so I’m quite happy with this one.