Well, the Summer 2016 Journeyman League I’ve been running has finally ended its Week 6, and the results are in: you can check them out here if you’re inclined to see shots of all the armies and the final standings from the various games. It’s been a bumpy road, and choosing Xerxis2 as my caster for weeks 4-6 didn’t help any. That said, I finally think I’m starting to get a sense of what he can do and cannot do–though that latter category is much larger, sadly.
But as always, painting progress first:
I finished up a Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew, which was passed on to me by my buddy Enrico. These plus a unit of Paingiver Bloodrunners were my additions for Week 6 of the League.
I also did up an Extoller Soulward solo for my force (actually for the Champions format Steamroller featured in my last post, but I forgot to take a photo). The benefit of forgetting was getting a great shot of the model on this terrain piece that my buddy Roger built brick-by-brick from plaster molds and painted.
This week I managed to play three games spanning Saturday to Thursday, and got a victory in each one of them. Two were against Ryan’s Cryx army led by Terminus–we often play because we have matching flexible schedules it seems. And the other was against Roger’s Circle Orboros force.
The first match against Terminus this week I realized that I couldn’t go heads-up against his force or him, so I had to carefully attrition the army. It managed to work out, thanks to the deep threat provided by Rorsh and Brine headed toward his deep objective. By pulling just enough of the force in two directions, I was able to piecemeal it. He had to take a shot with Terminus, which failed, allowing Xerxis2 and a Titan Gladiator to combine together to finally take him out via assassination.
On Tuesday, I ran down to my buddy Roger’s for another League game. We played on his great fall-themed terrain table. This time, luck was on Xerxis2’s side. Tanith’s gun-and-spell assassination run on her feat turn came up short in killing him, leaving him able to ride over and finish her off.
Then on Thursday, after testing out the new Rumble Rules (not a huge fan), Ryan and I happened to be paired up for the first Journeyman game of the evening–having each played someone else in the interim, it worked out. I wasn’t looking forward to facing Terminus yet again (don’t get me wrong, Ryan is a fun player–just the Frankenstein’s Monster of a Xerxis2 list I was running as a result of Journeyman was ill-suited to take on Terminus). This time, my attrition attempts were clearly not working. So I had to take a desperate move and sprint forward, having a few beasts follow for fury purposes while the rest of my force jammed. That left Xerxis2 in his deployment zone behind a forest. I had to weather a turn of Arc Node spells before I charged the objective… and then came up one damage point shy of destroying it. With no Fury left. Yet luck was with Xerxis2 again, and the spells from the Withershadow, spells from Terminus himself, and attacks from two Soulhunters all failed to finish him off (thanks mostly to a splendid run of 3’s and 4’s rolled by Ryan in the process). I stole some Fury off the lone Basilisk Krea that still survived, and smashed the objective for a victory. An epic conclusion to a pretty epic league.
500 Points Challenge Progress (2016):
325/500
Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Totals 2016: 84 (Win/Loss: 50/34/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)
Protectorate of Menoth:
11 Wins (Agathia x3, Tanith x2, Helynna, Lord Carver, Terminus, Beth Maddox x2, Ragnor) / 2 Losses (Agathia, Haley, Terminus)
Skorne:
23 Wins (Butcher x2, Deneghra, Shae, Sorscha2, Feora2, Severius, Skarre x2, Kreoss2, Borka, Kaya2, Stryker x2, Ragnor x2, Agathia, Malekus, Durgen, Kozlov, Bart, Terminus x2, Tanith)/ 16 Losses (Rask, Xerxis, Butcher3, Thagrosh, Zerkova2, Stryker x2, Magnus2, Terminus x2, Tanith, Vlad x2, Rahn, Arkadius)
Trollbloods:
11 Wins (Karchev x2, Vayl2 x3, Lylyth x2, Kaya, Skarre, Thagrosh, Asphyxious3) / 11 Losses (Adeptis Rahn, Kromac, Caine2, Borka2, Kaya, Rhyas, Ashlynn x2, Twins Saeryn and Rhyas, Butcher3, Thagrosh, Vayl2)
Cryx:
4 Wins (Caine, Karchev, Skarre, Vlad) / 4 Losses (Asphyxious, Lylyth2, Goreshade3, Stryker)