Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Goreshade the Cursed

Nik is basically the first one to the store who's ready to play a game when I got there, and he's brought Cryx he tells me.  I didn't have my Krueger list with me because Una was being worked on for painting and I did want to get in a couple more games with Bradigus if I could.  I wanted to see how I could play against Cryx since I feel "traditional" Cryx is probably not the ideal matchup for him, but until you play it you have no idea.  Anyway on to lists!

Lists

Woldwar - Tier 4
Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver (*6pts)
* Woldwatcher (0pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
* Woldwarden (9pts)
* Woldwarden (9pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)

Heresy of Shadows - Tiers 2
Goreshade the Cursed (*5pts)
* Kraken (19pts)
Bane Riders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (0pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts)
Bane Lord Tartarus (4pts)
3 Scrap Thrall (1pts)
3 Scrap Thrall (1pts)
3 Scrap Thrall (1pts)

Scenario

Outflank

Special Rules

Mark two zones (12 inch-diameter circle) in accordance with the diagram below. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:
Zone: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game.

If time runs out before a player has won the game via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie as outlined on the Scenario Reference Sheet. For the 3rd tiebreaker, double the army points within each zone.

Game

We rolled off, and I lost the roll.  Nik opted to go first, and I took the side of the table that I was on primarily because my stuff was on that side.

Round 1

I wouldn't say anything too surprising happens out of Nik's first turn.  Most of his army runs or at least advances.  Sudden Death goes on Bane Lord Tartarus.  Phantom Seeker goes onto the Kraken and Occultation goes up on the Bane Riders.

My turn 1 I basically went with my typical game plan where I used forests to block LOS to my army.  In hindsight I'm less sure if that was a good idea, but I'll discuss that later.  I did try to do my best not to bunch up the mannikins so that the Phantom Hunter shot wouldn't be too bad for them.  I move up my Shifting Stones to threaten a lot of potential teleport shenanigans.  I had the list balanced across with positioning.  Bradigus puts up Flesh of Clay and Synergy and I see what Nik has for me on turn 2.

Round 2

So, now we'll start to see what Cryx might try to do here.  I made a mistake on my positioning of one of my Mannikins which allowed for a charge from a Bane Rider.  The Kraken was able to get a shot off, which I shield guarded to a Woldwatcher.  After that the rest of the army basically ran at me, which I think based on my turn 1 play was the best move.  If that hadn't happened I think I'd move up and cover my whole army with forests again.

Ok, so now on my turn.  The first thing that I do is that I look across the table and try to decide if I can get the Kraken dead.  I think that I have a shot at it with the Guardian, so I set up some triple teleport shenanigans to get one of the Guardian's over there.  After that its time to crank up the Synergy.  My Woldwatchers get a couple of guys dead.  My Wardens get a couple of guys dead too, both geomancy a Rift out there, one came within 1 point of killing another Bane Rider which is quite unfortunate.  Bradigus charges to kill a model, feats so he can get the hell out of there afterward, so he feated for 0" and Nik's table edge.  The guardian goes to town and does about 2/3 of the Kraken, which was 5 damage less because I was about 1/8" short on a charge from the Guardian on my right.  Mannikins get a little bit of work done too where they can.

Round 3

Now that my feat is gone, and I don't really have the option of the forest wall to hide behind, I'm faces with an army of Banes that love the idea of charging things that are easy to hit.  Goreshade will also feat this turn which is enough to get Dark Shroud on basically every model that needs to have it.  He cranks a couple of damage rolls on my Woldwarden on the left, and will eventually kill it with Tartarus.  The Kraken gets 3 focus and takes out the Woldguardian that came in on it.  Other banes take out some Shifting Stones and get in on my other 2 heavy wolds, doing some significant damage to them.

On my turn things aren't looking too stellar, my Wolds are pretty banged up, but all of the feats are off the table.  Big thing I realize is that I can't quite teleport anyone onto Goreshade because I'm not far enough forward with my Guardian, and Bradigus needed to be back about 1/2" or less or I think he can get on Goreshade himself in melee probably.  So I go to work, I forget about Sudden Death which ruins a plan where a Mannikin was going to clear stuff off of Bradigus.  Instead I kill a bane or 2 with it.  Bradigus kills about 4 Banes in melee himself.  Guardian remaining takes out 3 Bane Riders.

Round 4

So, Nik is looking at my force being pretty tattered, and is just going to keep going with the attrition.  He moves the Kraken and Goreshade into the zone, uses the wolds to kill I think everything but one of my lights and a bunch of Stones.  All of the units of Shifting Stones are broken at this point too.

On my turn I'm just looking for anything that I might be able to do to get out of it.  I think that I can maybe start scoring on scenario in the zone on the right and I can contest with stones on the other side.  So what I need to do is Battering Ram the Bane in front of me, so I can charge Tartarus.  Problem is that I miss with the first Battering Ram.  I go for it again, hit, kill.  Charge Tartarus, boost to hit ... leave him at 1, which pretty much means this plan is over.  I go ahead and buy an attack on him that misses I believe.

Round 5

Nik takes his turn.  Run banes into the zone, kills all the stones that matters and I'm pretty screwed looking.  I check to see if there is even a chance with my ranges attacks that I can get a way to kill Goreshade, I can't so we go ahead and call it.  Nik wins!

Analysis

So I was glad to play this game as I wanted to get an idea of where my bad matches might be.  Cryx is definitely not something I would say that was a bad matchup, but in hindsight I think that there were things I could have done that might have potentially allowed for me to win.

First, I think that the forests may not have done enough in this particular matchup for me.  The Kraken was always going to be able to shoot me because of Phantom Seeker and the only other pieces in the army fast enough to tie me up were the Bane Riders, which I'd prefer not to have hit me, but I think I can survive their attacks and then I have more fury on my Sentry Stones for me to boost some attacks with some Mannikins.

Another place that I don't think was a great choice was going in on the Kraken.  It would have allowed me to kill off more models I think with my wolds because I could get some better teleports.  I might not have even needed the feat, or possibly could have used it in other ways.  I should have known the math (even with the 1 more Synergy that I missed) made it an unlikely attempt unless I can get a 2nd heavy there.

Looking back at the pictures now too, I might have been able to play a stronger game for the zone on my left if I had pushed into it harder, sooner.  Not completely sure there, but maybe.

One thing that worked for my favor though was that Goreshade really wants to see living models to make more Banes out of and to get Corpses for the Kraken, and I had only Bradigus who was living, so that did slow things down some there at least.

Anyway, was a good game and Nik played it well.