As I’ve mentioned before, there is an upcoming doubles tournament in my area and my buddy Dan and I are entering as a team. We’ve been playing through various potential scenarios from Steamroller rulesets to get a sense/reminder of them. I’m still on the fence between fielding my Skorne, or making a go of it with my in-progress but woefully under-painted Trollbloods.

Because of that indecision, for the latest practice games I decided to break out my Legion of Everblight. Dan was trying a new Waraster for his Retribution force–Adeptis Rahn–so it was a nice variation for both sides. We settled on small points games to try out two missions in the evening: Outflank with its large circular zones and Fire Support with its flags plus objectives layout. My list was pretty simple: Absylonia accompanied by a Carnivean, a Ravagore, a Scythean, a Shredder, and the Throne of Everblight. His list featured two heavy myrmidons (a Banshee and the character jack Discordia) accompanied by two groups of Battle Mages, two Mage Hunter Assassins, and the Mercenary unit Lady Aiyana and Master Holt. We ended up calling the first game after the top of turn two for a couple of reasons. First up, Outflank is probably the most obvious of the missions from the Steamroller sets in recent years. Nothing special, no surprises, just vie for control. Second, because one of his units got too close to the deadly extra reach of the Throne of Everblight and got wiped by an impressive bout of tentacle attacks and an utterly devastating Battle Wizard ability-enabled casting of Spine Burst. That, coupled by the Scythean wrecking a warjack in its alpha strike, made us recognize that it was only going to proceed like this–and not teach us anything about the scenario. For the second scenario, I swapped warcasters to Lylyth, Herald of Everblight. I’m trying out a ranged-focused caster for another force, so this was a means of giving him a conceptual go without putting him on the table. The Nyss fielded the same force as before. This time the battle was much closer, but I was able to position to a point where it was a forgone conclusion. The sheer amount of infantry-clearing elements that I was able to put out with this group was stunning. I’m always worried with my Everblight, because I go so beast heavy and run hot all the time leaving fury everywhere, but they still manage to do well. When it came to infantry-clearing, I was able to lay down two shots and an Eruption of Spines from Lylyth before she backed away with Bushwhack, the Ravagore’s AoE shot, the Carnivean’s spray thanks to Assault on a charge, and the Throne’s Spine Bursts spell to pile on just a bit more devastation. Having been playing Skorne for a while now consistently, it was a pleasant reminder of just which faction is the shooting faction in Hordes: Everblight can make it utterly rough.

Given that the first of the two games was so quickly and clearly aborted by both of us, I’m only counting the second–which was much closer and had Lylyth seriously sweating from the attacks and pressure on her. A bit more practice on objectives always helps, and I know that both Dan and I are looking forward to the event.

And for no real good reason, here’s BB-8 on patrol near my display case with Legion in the background. 

Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Total 2015: 23 (Win/Loss: 19/4/0)

Skorne:
11 Wins (Fiona, Sorscha, Morvahna2, Ossrum, Borka, Kaelyssa, Stryker, Venethrax, and Butcher, Thagrosh)   /   2 Losses (Kromac, Kaelyssa, Kaya)

Trollbloods:

0 Wins   /   1 Loss (Kaelyssa)

Protectorate of Menoth:
3 Wins (Morvahna2, Kaelyssa)   /   0 Losses

Legion of Everblight:
5 Wins (Caine2, Kaya, Sorscha, Rahn)   /   1 Loss (Fiona)

• Warmachine/Hordes