Of pigeons and pirates (feat. Hellbringer and Helljacks)

Introduction

Played in a Steamroller on Sunday and decided to take the Deneghra 3 list for another spin. I paired it with Asphyxious 3 because I feel that, in the current meta, the only things that really grind through Ghost Fleet are Wurmwood and Retribution (read: Tridents)

In the end, the latter was mostly a footnote as I ironmanned Deneghra on her sad excuse for a dragon the whole day, but the pair was as follows.

[Theme] Black Industries
[Asphyxious 3] Asphyxious the Hellbringer [+24]
– Barathrum [15]
– Cankerworm [9]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
Hellslinger Phantom [0(7)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Swamp Gobber River Raider [1]
Carrion Thralls (max) [10]
Cephalyx Overlords [8]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]

[Theme] The Ghost Fleet
[Deneghra 3] Deneghra, the Soul Weaver [+27]
– Barathrum [15]
– Deathripper [6]
– Deathripper [6]
Agrimony, Crone of the Dying Strands [4]
Captain Rengrave [5]
Hellslinger Phantom [0(7)]
Hermit of Henge Hold [5]
Machine Wraith [2]
Machine Wraith [2]
Misery Cage [2]
Press Gangers (min) [7]
Revenant Crew of the Atramentous (min) [9]
– Revenant Crew Rifleman (3) [0(6)]
Revenant Crew of the Atramentous (min) [9]
– Revenant Crew Rifleman (3) [0(6)]
Revenant Crew of the Atramentous (min) [9]
– Revenant Crew Rifleman (3) [6]
Wraith Engine [15]

Again, I need to apologize as I didn’t have time to take pictures between rounds. Grindy games that last the full 2 hours can do that for you.

Round 1

Deneghra 3 vs Zerkova 2 WoW (/Vlad 1)
Anarachy

I lost the roll and went first. I have a big patch of burning earth in front of me, he has a big forest. I know how theoretically dangerous Zerkova’s assassination is in a list like this, but have never played against it first hand. I cast Grave Wind on myself and move to just in front my my deployment zone after also casting Ghost Walk for one of the Revenant Crew unit. All the Revenant units make sure to keep at least 1 member outside the max threat range of Outrider sprays, which is actually ridiculously long.
The first turn, not much else happens, one unit of Outriders gets Banishing Ward and another one gets Telgesh Mark.
I take some potshots with Riflemen at Outriders, killing 1 and doing a couple of points to a second.
I actually made the mistake of moving Deneghra close to my objective, because I blanked on the fact that Victor has a Flare shot, though I was still camping 3 after casting some Ghost Walks. My opponent decides to go for it, drops Banishing Ward, and basically runs his whole army into my face, most of them into the giant patch of Burning Earth, setting all of his Outriders on fire. He also charges a Void Archon at a pirate and jumps next to Deneghra, foregoing his other attacks, as to not get pushed back.
The problem is that he actually misjudged the distance on his one Koldun Lord, as it’s just outside 22″ of Deneghra, which means he can’t get Bitter Frost on me, even with the feat. Victor shoots his Flare shot at my objective, catching my caster in the effect.
The other Void Archon teleports and sprays at Deneghra, but doesn’t do a lot. Then it begins and Zerkova casts Occult Whispers, so there is no difficulty hitting, then feats so all his models can make a magic attack. He first lets one of the Ternion cast Ice Cage to put my DEF down to 13, which is more than manageable for all those boosted attack rolls, I’m feeling the heat and am now effectively 13/16 (DEF 15 + Grave Wind – Flare – Ice Cage, ARM 16 + Unhallowed – Dark Shroud) with a 3-camp. In total I get 2 Hoarfrosts, of which I Mad Visions 1, 2 Bonds of Woe and 7 Frost Bites, plus the Victor blast and the Archon spray directed at me. I survive on 1 hp…

I ambush in the Pressgangers to score the left zone, which is the side with Victor.
I feat and cast Mortality on as many things as possible, starting with the 2 Void Archons. I allocated 1 to Barathrum so he can kill at least 4 Outriders. I also put Ghost Walk on myself and go as far away as possible while upkeeping Grave Wind and still remaining in the killbox. Void Archons die, I kill the Ternion and all but 1 of the Outriders, also leaving 3 Doomreavers. So, I think this is a job for the noble Hellslinger Phantom, who can now actually collect some souls. Needing 5’s, he rolls 2 4’s in a row, which means I need to commit my Wraith Engine to kill the remaining models.
I know the Outriders were on fire, but I didn’t want to take the risk.

My opponent now has 2 Koldun Lords, 1 Ternion unit, Zerkova, 2 Doomreavers and the Adjunct left, whereas I have most/all of my army. He tries a desperate play where Zerkova needs to charge my Wraith Engine and kill it to draw line of sight to a Koldun Lord to cast Telgesh Mark and hopefully finish me off. The Swordsmen kill that plan by spiking and killing the Wraith Engine, so he just takes a fully boosted Victor shot with Puppet Master, but misses the 13.

I just start racking up points and he tries once more with Victor, this time hitting, but I’m back on 6 hp and he doesn’t kill. I could’ve died to fire, but he can’t stop me from winning scenario at the end of his turn.

So, I really lucked out in this game, next time I will at least know what to expect from Zerkova’s assassination I guess.

Round 2

Deneghra 3 vs Krueger 2 BoO (/think Kromac 1)
Spread the Net

I win the roll and go second, because Krueger has way too much fun when he can score first on a scenario like this. Our first turn is just us shuffling up a bit, and I keep everything out of range of the Well, because I don’t like getting removed from play. His second turn he pulls up my Hermit through Gallows and kills him with the Wold Wyrds. A Woldwarden also charges into my zone, killing some pirates. This turn has him feating and casting Windstorm, to push me back as far as possible and hopefully crawl back on scenario later. He’s hiding behind a Woldwarden near the middle of the table.

On my bottom of 2, I think I can Ambush all of my Pressgangers on the Well, while putting a Mortality and boosted Scourge into it. I would feat, because there was also a Wold Warden in my face. I drop Grave Wind, because I don’t care much for shrimps shooting in my face. I can also contest his flag by simply walking some Revenants through a house, possibly charging the Sentry stone there.
Because he had moved up so aggressively to feat, camping only 2, I start to wonder if there isn’t a different path to victory. I check and can get a Scourge on the Warden, boost blast damage, spray with Denny, move out of the way, get an assaulting Rengrave on him and 5-6 Rifles; I can walk a few within 9″ and the couple that come back with Deathbound aren’t affected by the feat. The sixth is if I kill the Woldwarden that is blocking one of the Riflemen from moving close enough.
So, I do the stupid thing and decide to go for it, Ambushing on the right instead, so I can contest the flag. Nothing goes as planned and I low roll a bit after feating to get Ghost Walk and Mortality where I want it so. I kill the heavy with the Wraith Engine, because I need that sixth shot if I’m going to make it at all, but of course, that gives him more fury to transfer, which was the massive hole in my plan… It doesn’t happen, but I do score 2-0 at the end of my turn, and he puts 2 heavies on Denny, as well as some shrimp shots. He also rolls below average, but eventually Krueger shoots her to death.
I could’ve easily won this on scenario, especially after killing the Well of Orboros with my Ambush, which was his only RFP, but I just had to go for it…

Round 3

Deneghra 3 vs Amon FM (/Vlad 3 WotOF)
Invasion

He wins the roll and I go second, because he wants to take more board space with his relatively slow army. Grave Wind goes on Barathrum so he can lead the charge. We both just try to take as much board space as possible.
He uses 2 heavies to bait Barathrum; he runs 1, with Enliven, in Counter Charge range and then has another as backup to charge him. Except it wasn’t really a trap; both heavies had 1 focus and the first 1 ran, so I get a free charge, dealing a good chunk of damage and he doesn’t Enliven, because he would just eat a free strike. He then charges the second heavy and of course misses, getting pushed away.
I move up the Hermit to put up Whispers at the Gate so Barathrum, some Revenants and the Wraith Engine take out both heavies. I need some Ghost Walk so the pirates don’t trip over the trees. The other side of the board had me Ambush in the Pressgangers, because the Hellslinger, with some aiming Rifles in range of Veteran Leader, should be able to take out 6 Idrians cowering in the forest. Except, I leave 1 alive and don’t score after all.
Next turn he sends in 2 Dervishes that take out the Wraith Engine and a bunch of Pirates, with the help of Synergy. A Crusader destroys my objective and he goes 1 ahead.
I feat, cast a bunch of Mortalities on all the things that I can, since he used Hymn of Shielding on the side where he didn’t need Battle. Denny kills a Dervish and repositions back, pirates take out another, Barathrum kills another heavy with the help of Mortality, this time a Santifier and Master of Ruin enables Rengrave to do some serious damage on the objective killer, whom I spawned a pirate in melee with. The Hellslinger died to the surviving Skirmishers at some point, and the aiming rifles still can’t kill 2 Idrians, so I still don’t score on that side, but I do score the zone that until recently had a bunch of jacks on my left.
He more heavily contests the right zone so it’s never going to happen, though the Idrians do eventually die. I kill more of his stuff, I lose Barathrum to the Devout, but do score the left zone one more time and jam him out.
Each zone now has an Incorporeal model, and he lost his Sanctifier, and no models that can get a magic attack from the objective can move around the house or forest to reliably take out said contesting models. The middle zone also has the Hermit. I have only 49 second left on my clock when he starts his turn 6, but he will never score and I just need to fly Deneghra away, so I will win 2-1 at the bottom of 7. He realizes this and offers me his hand.

Even though this particular matchup barely had any counters to my list, the flimsiness of my models and the fact that there are only a few heavy hitters, that I need to leverage as much as I can, really did a number on my clock, so it was still a rough game to play out. I wonder what would’ve happened if Amon hadn’t given me two of his Crusaders early on.

Round 4

Deneghra 3 vs Morghoul 3 MoW (/Zaadesh E)
Bunkers

I think a long, hard, time about what to play, because I’m not sure on Asphyxious’s ability to tank his Zaadesh Exalted, and to be honest, neither about the Morghoul 3 Masters of War; the Supreme Guardian and Cetrati can kind of lay on the hurt. I also completely blank on the fact that the latter has takedown, though in hindsight I think it was still the right choice to drop Denny 3 anyway, because the only models that will actually reach me are the Cetrati and I just need to control them. I also have more mobile solos in that list, to score the flags and I don’t want to have to sacrifice Slayers to contest his zone.
I win the rolloff and want to go second, so I can score first. The first turn we dance outside each others threat ranges a bit, but I stupidly lose my Misery Cage, which was in range to contest the flag, to Arcuari because I took the corpse off of it. His Soldier has Mirage and Barathrum has Grave Wind.
Bottom of 2, if I sacrifice Barathrum to kill a single Legend, do a lot of Mortalities and roll high to clear the Soldier and Archidon with some charging infantry and shoot 3 Arcuari, I can score 4 and possibly contest his zone. This is of course a bad plan, that can never work, and I also need to somewhat expose Denny to get Ghost Walk onto Barathrum, because my arc node needs to run to Mortality the Archidon, though I was planning to kill that Soldier anyway. Why didn’t I think this through? I honestly don’t know, because I also could’ve just played safe.
My Pressgangers Ambush near the Archidon, though in the end, only 2 get there, because of a wall that was in the way. I feat and cast all the spells I need, repositioning Deneghra back, but still dangerously close to the Soldier.
Of course nothing goes as planned, except that I do manage to take out 3 Arcuari that are contesting the left flag, but the heavy survives and I decide not to sacrifice Barathrum because it wasn’t going to matter. I wasted my feat and a lot of spells.
Marketh blinds Deneghra because he collected the souls from the Cataphract. Morghoul’s unit kills the blocking Revenants and the Soldier apparates from behind the building and knocks Deneghra off her mount. I got too greedy and paid the ultimate price.

Summary

I ended at 2-2 which isn’t bad per sé, but I’m not happy with myself as I made huge mistakes in 3 out of 4 games. In 2 of those they rightly cost me the game and in the other, my first game, it should’ve.

So, in the end, I didn’t even play the Asphyxious list, even though I could’ve against Skorne. I hadn’t played this particular version yet and wasn’t quite certain of its abilities.

Honestly, I’m really digging the Deneghra 3 list, but I fear that the current meta vacuum, of having so little in the way of RFP, isn’t going to last much longer. Hence it’s probably better not to start maining this list. As such I don’t think I will be taking this to the WTC next year, for one, but it’s fun while it lasts.

Not to mention I will have to step up my game if I actually want to get selected. Since last year, we’ve been using a merit system based on tournament results and I’ve gone 50/50 at 2 tournaments so far. Plenty of time to go and rack up some points though, so it’ll be fine.
Problem is that I can’t keep taking new casters to tournaments if I actually want to do well, it seems. After all, learning a caster at the event makes you lose rounds to personal stupidity, case in point above somewhere.

So, what should I take to the next tournament?