Post by Fadril Adren on Dec 3, 2016 11:30:20 GMT -5
Blood & Glory – The Winner
As we continue our follow-up coverage from Blood & Glory – an independent Warhammer Age of Sigmar matched play event held in Derby, UK last weekend – we got in touch with event-winner Ben Johnson to get a closer look at his army of Stormcast Eternals.
Ben:
“First, let’s take a look at the list I used.
* 2x Knights-Azyros, both with Quicksilver Potions, which allows them to fight first in the turn when they are needed. One of them acts as the general and so also has the Command Trait: Reckless, allowing units within 10″ to re-roll their charges (more on this later).
* 3x five-man units of Liberators, served as my army’s objective grabbers, and they really are ideal for this task. If I can get them into cover while they’re on an objective, they are even harder to shift off it.
* 2x five-man units of Judicators armed with Skybolt Bows that acted as the army’s long-range support. They are great at taking out the last stragglers in a weakened unit, freeing up the combat troops (two different types of Paladins) to charge again.
* 1x unit of six Prosecutors with Celestial Hammers, two of which wielded Grandaxes. These turned out to be the stars of the show at the weekend. They managed a little bit of shooting, and their 3D6 charge combined with the general’s Reckless Command Trait allowed them to reach unexpected places when they assaulted.
* 1x unit of 10 Retributors, two of whiched wield Starsoul Maces. This unit can fight the anything the enemy can throw at them, especially when they get to hit first. They are equally effective vs hordes of troops or armoured Heroes, making them indispensable in attack and defence.
* 1x unit of ten Protectors, four of which wielded Starsoul Maces. Though similar to the Retributor squad, these guys had a different role to play, as their Stormstrike Glaive’s 3″ reach means they have a smaller footprint – with Maces at the front and Glaives fighting over the top.
All of these units make up a Warrior Brotherhood Warscroll Battalion that can deploy as a single drop, which – in almost every game – gave me control of the turn order. This meant I had the chance at a double turn before my opponent was able to react or counter-attack. The Warrior Brotherhood also deploys from off the table (in the Celestial Realm) and can be brought down in any of my Movement phases.
The Knights-Azyros have an ability that allows any unit that Lightning Strikes into battle to do so as close as 3″ from the enemy (instead of the normal 9″) so long as they are also within 5″ of the Knight-Azyros. This lets the Paladins have a 3″ charge with a re-roll when they Lightning Strike along with the General.
The main tactic that I used at the weekend was to play the waiting game, dropping units onto objectives when necessary, and then using the hard hitting Paladins to break my opponent’s lines. I did this whenever I had the opportunity to win a double turn and the chance to charge for a second time. The strength of the list comes from almost unlimited movement flexibility, getting units where they need to be when they need to be there – whether for a charge or to claim an objective. This ability has been key to every good list in all the editions of Warhammer I have ever played, and the Warrior Brotherhood excels at it.
For all the strengths this army has on offer, I still didn’t make it out of the weekend unscathed, having lost Game 1. In it, I was drawn to play Graham’s beautiful Destruction army while on camera for Warhammer TV’s Twitch live-stream, so no pressure there… I went into it thinking it’d be great to redeem myself after having lost to Ben Curry on the Warlords live-stream. My redemption will have to wait, unfortunately.
Graham’s army was a mixed Destruction army with lots of Heroes, a necessary requirement when playing the Three Places of Power Battleplan, in which only Hero models can score points. I deployed first and decided to let Graham take the first turn of the Battleround. This, in hindsight was where the game was lost. Graham surged forward scoring on all three objectives. My Stormcasts came out of the heavens en masse, but there were just too many to clear, and with only two Heroes, I couldn’t score quickly enough to catch up.
This was made even more difficult by the loss of a Knight-Azyros to a Doom Diver in Graham’s second Shooting phase, and by the time the Troll Hag dissolved the second with her Copious Vomit, I was 6-2 down and the game was over.
If I could play the game again, I’d take the first turn myself and land my army in a defensive position on the objectives. Then I’d be well placed to try to take out a few of Graham’s Heroes before he had a chance to score any points, giving me the advantage and early points on the board.