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)
A Feralgeist and two more Void Spirits added 5 points to my painting total, taking me to 127/366 for my one-point-per-day painting challenge. 
The one wrinkle about this tournament was that each round expanded the number of points. The first round was 15, second 25, third 35, and fourth 50. The above is a picture of my full 50 points list. At 15 it was Mordikaar, four Scarab Packs, and the two free Void Spirits that came with it. Going up I added the additional Void Spirits, Feralgeist, and a Cyclops Brute to hit 25, the Bronzeback for 35, and the rest at 50. 
To say I didn’t play so well would be a fair assessment. That said, I also think the list didn’t help. Even with 10 boxes each, the Scarabs fold under almost anything trying to attack them. And in return, they cannot muster the hitting strength to do much. In a later game, I had all four packs go all out–and they managed to only kill six Doom Reavers. And that was maybe their most productive round across all four games. 
I faced (in order) Larry’s Skorne, Matt’s Khador, Andy’s Legion, and Scott’s Khador. The only game I was remotely close in was against Andy, but I couldn’t keep enough pressure up on the flag that Thagrosh was dominating to be able to win myself (the game ended with him clearing the center zone, and going up 6-5 on control points). My force simply didn’t have any staying power beyond the Bronzeback–and that’s not enough in a Legion match-up.
They’re for a mad scheme I have for a Mordikaar theme list, and they’re a fun little unit (that is horribly fury-inefficient). But completing them adds 15 more points to my total. That means I’m up to 112/366 points for 2016, and closing in on 1/3 of the way to the goal!
Dan’s deployment of his Circle. The Warbeasts get advanced deploy because of the tier, and the Skinwalkers got an advance move. His Warlock is Kaya2, run pretty strong side on beasts–a Feral, a Stalker, and a Riphorn led the charge, with support from a Gorax, Druids of Orboros, Skinwalkers with Alpha, and Shifting Stones. 
My force also had a fair amount of advanced deploy. I haven’t completed everything for the Mordikaar tier experiment yet, so I decided to see how the Scarab Packs did without any support–hence, more experimenting with Naaresh. The list is Naaresh, four Scarab Packs, a Gladiator, a Bronzeback, the Company of Iron Platoon components, and some Paingiver Beast Handlers. 
The Paingiver Bloodrunners got into the action fast as they could. The Stalker had reached out and struck down some Scarabs before lightning strike carried him away, so these two brave Bloodrunners sacrificed their lives to close lanes and block. 
More Bloodrunner shenanigans. Their Shadow Play ability is really amusing, and lets me set up some ugly positioning and activation problems for my opponents. The Bloodrunners don’t ever really shine themselves, but their annoyance factor cannot be understated when they can get Shadow Play to trigger. 
It got pretty touch and go in the battle, as I was not afraid to stand Naaresh up close (nor afraid to damage him with my Beast Handlers’ whips). Kaya2 brought herself and a lot of her forces up and into the fight with the crazy rapid strike she can manage. Dan’s forces would have finished me off, but the Feral Warpwolf missed its headbutt attack on Naaresh (which he had a pretty decent chance of getting). Even with the blood tokens from his Pain Monger ability would not have let him live through the following assault if he happened to be knocked down. Once he had committed, it was a matter of finishing off Kaya2’s beasts and threat vectors to win the game via assassination. 
The Trollbloods deployment. The list was Borka with Rok and a Glacier King, plus a max unit of Fennblades with UA, a Fell Caller Hero, and the platoon elements (Stone Scribe Chronicler, Scouts, and min unit of Pyg Bushwhackers). He positioned them ready to leap into the trench. 
My force was the first outing for Master Ascetic Naaresh under my command. His feat seems to translate well for hitty warbeasts even though he’s a bit of a generalist, so I went for a mostly general battlegroup: a Bronzeback, a Gladiator, a Aradus Sentinel, a Cyclops Brute, a Cyclops Shaman, and my new Scarab Pack hitting the table for the first time themselves. That combined with some Paingiver Beast Handlers and the elements of the platoon to complete the list: a Mortitheurge Willbreaker, a Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor, a unit of Paingiver Bloodrunners, and two Void Spirits. I rushed up the board in the rough block in the picture above (this is after movement), doing my best to use the two linear obstacles that were provided. 
And I needed that cover because of the shooting onslaught. The Glacier King’s deadly shots, plus the spell of the Sorcerer, were directed my way time and again. Luckily the cover, the high defense on some of the models, and the additional armor bonus on the Aradus Sentinel blunted the threat considerably. 
The mission makes the attacker (me) win by getting their Warcaster or Warlock into the enemy trench, and then start their following maintenance phase inside. I had a moment of opportunity when the Fennblades panicked from the nearby Void Spirit, so I took my shot. The Paingiver Bloodrunners cleared a model inside the trench then used their ability to draw the model that hit him out of the way. I ran the Cyclops Brute up for protection, and then managed to get Naaresh into the trench with his Cyclone spell. With Iron Flesh upkept upon himself, some damage tokens boosting his armor from a friendly whipping, and the Safeguard Animus from the Brute, he was going to be hard to shift out of place. 
That didn’t stop Tony from trying. He had the Fennblades flee away, and basically had a shot from Rok (who got into the trench, so had a chance to hit even my high defense) and then melee from Borka to try and finish Naaresh off. Borka got really close, but not close enough. I took some damage, and had to transfer twice. But in the end Naaresh was still standing in the trench at the start of my Maintenance phase which won me the game.
Master Ascetic Naaresh completed. This model was a pain (haw haw), as his skin is all broken up by the bladed piercings that litter his body. I like the look overall, but felt that the skin was somewhat too busy to pull the model together well. Dunno. He does add three points to my painting total (warcasters get points for their base size).
I also finally finished another part of my platoon: the Paingiver Bloodrunners unit. These murderous assassins are pretty fun to play, as their Shadow Play ability can let some really wacky things happen. They also net me five more points for painting progress. 
The second unit I got done: a Skorne Scarab Swarm. Sorry for the bad picture, I’ll take more when they hit the field for the first time. But hey, five more points to the painting totals. 
This is the one I’m really proud of. I finally finished the big boy: my Siege Animantarax. Not only is he a great model, but he adds nine more points to my progress. I managed to finish it on March 31st, which brought me to 31/31 for the March painting challenge. And leaves me at a crazy 97/366 for 2016. Just over 25% of the way done–which is exactly right given that I’ve done three months of “paint a point a day” progress. 
My line of battle for the big game versus Menoth. Mordikaar is the Warlock I’m riding pretty heavily in the league–he’s the one in the fluff of the Platoon that they are working for, and he’s a good match for the units included. It was a pretty heavy melee and beast list, with a Titan Cannoneer included to help thin a bit of infantry on the advance. 
And oh, what infantry there was. Terry’s force was led by Kreoss2, and in addition to the Platoon there were two other units of troops (not even including the max Choir). Mordikaar had his work cut out for him. 
Especially because Kreoss2’s feat completely denied my feat. I looked at his card and everything before the game, but somehow I missed the “attacks automatically hit” and saw only the additional attack portion. I should have known, as I’ve faced Kreoss2 plenty of times in the past. So of course my not remembering led me to near-complete disaster: I rushed my jammers and relatively higher defense beasts right into a bad spot and hoped that +3 Defense and Poltergeist would minimize the damage. I was so wrong. 
Kreoss2 did all this safely from behind a warjack screen, and I simply did not have the leverage to fair-fight my way to possession of the flag on that side. So it was time for what Mordikaar does best: a last minute assassination attempt. 
My Cyclops Shaman got a shot off on Kreoss2 as he got close to the flag–ignoring line of sight problems and landing a few points of damage. The the Bronzeback got rush put on him (from the Cyclops Shaman) and dashed forward with a charge. After the first swing, a bit of beat-back allowed him to drive more deeply into the enemy forces toward Kreoss. I parked an “insurance” Bloodrunner behind him just in case, had my Willbreaker put Puppet Master onto my Warlock, and then activated Mordikaar. Another Essence Blast assassination vector off a warbeast did the trick. The hit comes at such HUGE strength off a Bronzeback, that it blasted away the last of Kreoss2’s hitboxes with relative ease. 
Game two of week three started with a flying stop, as my Skorne Platoon simply crumbled against Brandon’s Cygnar platoon as they attempted to escort a military officer to the safe house. It didn’t help that the Bloodrunners managed to be just a little too close to the gunmages, so their stealth didn’t protect them. My mistake in placement, which compounded by failing the command check afterward. 
I blame Victoria Haley. She was the Officer model that Brandon was fielding for the mission. And I have yet to win a game against her in my entire span of playing this game (dating back to my brutal Khador-gap warjacks in 2003). This one was no exception, even if she was just the stand-in for the Officer. I rallied the Bloodrunners and they got up to her, and simply failed to seal the deal. The missed her attack, so the Poltergeist effect for the platoon starting promotion triggered–leaving her out of melee range, and letting the Gun Mages mow down the last of my Skorne troops. 
Week Four of the event I only managed to squeeze in a single platoon clash–largely because there was great turn-out and everyone was getting games in. My Platoon faced off against Colton’s Khador again, this time with me protecting the objective in the center that he was attempting to sabotage. Above, you see the abysmal failed charge of my Void Spirit at his Widowmaker Marksman. Lack of Incorporeal (and thus caring about the movement penalty of the stream) strikes again. 
I mounted a pretty solid defense against his models, with the Bloodrunners doing great work cutting through the Doom Reavers and the Bloodrunner Master Tormentor being a thorn in the side of the Widowmakers thanks to the nice combination of Stealth to protect the approach, Reach, Thresher, and Sprint. However, I couldn’t stop the Manhunter from reaching the objective obelisk and setting the charge. The remaining Doom Reavers moved away, and the Widowmaker advanced and died from the free strike. And just like the last game against Colton’s Khador where I got a lucky explosion on the first attempt, he got one here and won the game. 
The Dark Muse 