Escalation League - Jan/Feb 2024

[Dominoris]

The first week's games are at 250 points.

Today I played against Drukhari.  I had a Canoness and two BSS, one with flamers and one with melta.  My opponent had a Succubus, a squad of Wytches and Talos.

 

I won with 2 models left on the board after 3 rounds.  

 

What I learned:

- Ministorm Flamers rock the Casbah with Overwatch!
- Melta weapons still have punch.  The range for multi-meltas went down but so did the size of the table.  All in all I was happy with their performance.

- Rejoice the Fallen made for a nice extra shooting attack for the flamer/heav flamer squad.

 

Other comments:  My Canoness' unit failed their Battle Shock test 2 turns in a row preventing her from using Divine Intervention.  Fortunately I did not need it since my Canoness finished the game with 1 wound.

 

 

==========================

 

Next week is 500 points which must include this week's army.  I am debating on taking a unit of Paragon Warsuits in anticipation of adding Morvenn Vahl  in two weeks.  Either that or adding an Exorcist and some arcos for next week.  We'll see

 

[Dominoris]

I forgot I had this here.

500 points was against Legend of Voltron.  Leagues of Votann.

 

My List:

Palalogus

2 X BSS

Exorcist

Pengine

 

LoV had:

Ûthar the Destined 

5 Einhyr Hearthguard (dorf termies)
Hekaton Land Fortress

 

 

My oponent went first and took out the Exo first thing with his Land Forterss.  It was an uphill climb from there.  The mission was 4 rounds long and Iost the game by 5 points.  If it would have continued for the 5th turn it would have been worse because I was tabled in my fight phase on turn 4 while my opponent still had Uthar (with 3 wounds) and a pristine Land Fortress.

 

Apparently it was bring your FU list weekend because people were breaking out the high point models for 500 point games.  With the new points adjustments I will probably drop the Exo for a Cassie if the organizers let me.

[Focslain]

I apologize on behalf of all decent LoV players. That was was a crap list you had to face. At low points like this you really need to either be doing Combat Patrol proper or at least requiring a battleline unit to hopefully curtail that behavior. That is on the organizer.

 

Good to see it was at least a close lose and not a full on curb stomp. Guessing the Pen engine also got taken out by the fortress later.

[ThePenitentOne]

Looks like your army was built for objective play, and his was built to kill things and endure punishment. I signed up for an escalation league myself, but I've been home sick for two weeks. I'll be interested to hear more.

 

When is your next game, and how much do you escalate?

 

[Dominoris]

Next game is Saturday.  We go up 250 points a week so this week's game will be 750 points and we have to keep all of the previous units, too.
I have to keep the Exorcist and just make up the points.  I will be adding nundams (without Morvenn) and another engine, which maybe a mortie instead.  
We really don't get all our tools to start synergizing until at least 1250 points.  1500 will be even better.

 

Edited February 2 by Dominoris

[ThePenitentOne]

Cool. I've gotta try and set up my first game for the end of the week.

 

Then Kill Team the following week, though my KT isn't Sisters/ Hereticus.

[Dominoris]

750 points was against Astra Militarum.  Not sure how he brought a Stormsword but it could not maneuver at all.  It was good about deleting anything it had LOS to, though.  I forget the points now but I smoked him on objectives.  Something like 70 to 30.

 

Grenades are nasty, especially from weakened units.  It doesn't matter if it is a super heavy tank, , 6D6 attacks causing mortal wounds on a 4+  even from a 2 model BSS unit.

1000 points next week and I can build a new list finally.   I don't *have* to take the same units.  I will stay close to what I have, though.

 

[Dominoris]

We got to change up the list this week for the 1000 point game.

 

Morven and the nundams

10 Arcos in a rhino

Palatine with BSS squad with melta in a rhino

2X 5 serapham with hand flamers

Castigator

 

Played vs demons who had:

Daemon prince with mark of Slaneesh

2X squads of bloodletters, one with a bloodmaster

Blood crushers

Hounds with Karanak

Hellflayer

Seeker chariot

Skull cannon

 

 

It was a fun game with lots of wild dice rolling on both our parts.  Like, I fired all the Paragons' multi-melta into his Hellflayer at like 3" range and rolled six 1's.  Wiff!
In the end I tabled him at the end of the 5th round but could not catch up on the points.

 

By the way, these are narrative games so no Leviathan secondaries or anything.   Dawn of War, three objectives in no-mans land, 5 VP per objective held at the end of your turn.  My opponent went first and moved onto all three objectives scoring 15 points right away.  I just could not keep him off the objectives long enough catch up.  Battleshock tests in the shadow of chaos was one issue, but my own absent mindedness was also a hurdle.   (I shot the last bloodletter off on an objective and couldn't charge to get in range -- the forgetful part was that it was a seraphim that did it and should have just shoot-and-scooted onto the marker.  Oh well. 

 

Anyway, I had a blast.  Definitely  want a rematch.  Tanner (my opponent) was a great guy to play against.  Next week is 1250.

 

There are other things the organizer is tracking like warlord and monster kills.  I have no idea what my standing overall is but it's OK.  I'm learning my army.

 

[ThePenitentOne]

It sounds like you're having fun, so you're doing something right.

 

Did you find Miracle Dice to be a big factor in your game? I was wondering if it felt like you had enough with only one BSS?

 

 

[Dominoris]

On 2/14/2024 at 10:21 PM, ThePenitentOne said:

Did you find Miracle Dice to be a big factor in your game? I was wondering if it felt like you had enough with only one BSS?

At these point levels, not too bad of a pinch.  There is not as much to spend them on and no more unlimited usage anyway..  I am also very frugal with the Dice while I have 3 or less in the pool for Divine Intervention but that's always.

 

[Dominoris]

My 1250 list for this weekend:

 

==========================

Morven and paragons

Daemonifuge 

 

BSS with melta

10 strong Arcos

Rets with melta in a melta Immy

 

2 X Exos.

==========================

 

I made an anti-tank list so of course I will wind up against a ton of Necron Immortals or something like that. lol

Anyway, Stern and the elf are taking the spot Seraphim would go.  She doesn't have the flamers but she can do the job my seraphim have been doing plus she has her own tricks.  Like being able to come back with DI.  But who am I kidding.  It's a fluff choice; not a tactical one.

 

Rets in an Immy are still my favorite KO punch.  50% of the time it works every time.  

 

Exos over Cassies for this list, too.  Indirect fire for one thing.  Also we are playing on small tables at the WH store.  36" range from my rear corners can still cover virtually the whole table while they hide out of LoS.  

[Dominoris]

Well, Deathguard went down today.  I had the above, he had something like ...

 

Mortarion

Typhus

Putrifier

Plaguecaster

10 X Plague marines

5 X Termmies

2 X Crawlers

 

Morty and Morvann slugged it out with Morvann and company coming out on top.  He had one plague crawler left on the board at the end of the game.  I lost ... the Arcos, the BSS, Immy and Rets, 2 nundams and Ephrael Stern.  Morvenn did not have wound one on her.  It was a weird little narrative scenario where you had to roll a 4+ to see if your Stratagem actually works.  I did not roll a 4+ all game.  No grenades, no tank shock, no suffering, no Divine Intervention(!), no nothing.  All failed and it still cost a command point to try.  Thankfully I didn't have to roll for Miracle Dice usage.

 

Anyway, was happy with the performance for the most part.  Arcos didn't do much damage but they did hold the marines back for a couple of turns.  Running without a Palatine makes for some extra squishy Battle Sisters.

 

Next game is 1500 points in two weeks because the organizer will not be available next week.

 

 

[Progenitor]

1250 points and someone brings Mortarion! Grats on the win! 

[MoshJason]

How are you feeling about your exorcists? I love the model, but I Just can't grow to love their performance.

[Dominoris]

6 hours ago, Progenitor said:

1250 points and someone brings Mortarion! Grats on the win! 

I could tell people were going to bring more of the big dogs so I went equipped to handle them.  No chaff or seraphim to score secondaries because we weren't using them so it was all damage type units.  

 

 

 

5 hours ago, MoshJason said:

How are you feeling about your exorcists? I love the model, but I Just can't grow to love their performance.

I am one of those who still love the exorcists.  It's the Castigator I'm still trying to get a handle on.

There's a reason they went up in points; it's because they're worth it!   Just my opinion.  Indirect fire is very nice indeed.

 

Edited February 19 by Dominoris

[Dominoris]

1500 points vs orks was a slaughter.  I made a couple of mistakes and paid for it.  Chief among them was underestimating his Waagh.  My dice didn't help much either.  Palatine on the charge caused 1 single wound and then fell to the reprisal  as 20 nobz just washed her squad away.  I also had a giant killer list and he didn't care one bit how much melta I had on the table.  When rolling 30 to 50 dice or more at a time for saves, a single miracle die doesn't do much.  Yay, I saved this one.  The rest of the dice, however,  wipe out full units of arcos with plenty to spare.

 

It was a weird scenario where the battlefield was covered with warp fog.  Everyone got stealth and lone operative.  We had to roll a 4+ to use a stratagem and finally, at the end of each turn we rolled a die for each unit on the table.  On a 4+ it took D3 mortal wounds.  On a 6 it took D6 mortal wounds.  All of this on a 44" X 60" board with a Hammer and Anvil deployment.  I lost 2 paragons to these warp storms alone while crossing the board before they even fired a shot.  

 

In short, it was a suck game all around.  

[NKirkham24]

Doesn’t sound great, but I’m enjoying following your progress in this