AoS Blog 5: The MegaBlog

We’re rapidly moving through June and therefore time for Round 5 to be completed, and following a visit from Papa Nurgle himself I’ve been out of action for 5 days.

So today ladies and gents (and lesser daemons) we have the first ever MegaBlog, which is basically my way of saying I can’t be bothered to do a separate round up and predictions blog this month.

Let’s go straight to a bitesize recap of round 4, the mission for which was the Jaws Of Gallet (pronunciation pending) which I think was generally well received as it offered genuinely different deployment and tactics to some of the earlier rounds.

Callum vs Alden

Prediction: Alden wins 40-34

Result: 42:20

Verdict: I predicted a close win for Alden in this one, the result was not that.

Kyle vs Joe

Prediction: Kyle wins 38-36.

Result: Joe wins 40-28

Verdict: Kyle had a strong start then Joe did his signature move of a Glotkin countercharge to send himself to the win.

Aid vs Pete 

Me vs Leo

(Me vs Pete double bye game)

Prediction: I win 42-38

Result: I win 34-26

Verdict: This one went essentially as well as I could have hoped, though was much lower scoring than expected, with only 4 battle tactics scored between us the whole game. The Fyreslayers did not enjoy this deployment plan.

Lauren vs Dickie

Prediction: Lauren wins 42-34

Result: Dickie wins 44-40

Verdict: Very high scoring game this one, Dickie defying my prediction to take the win.

Chris vs Mike

Prediction: Chris wins 42-36

Result: Chris wins 42-34

Verdict: My prediction was nearly spot on, despite Chris taking some severe early casualties and Mike having a double turn, the trees managed to score heavily for the win.

Tom vs Billie

Prediction: Tom wins 36-32

Result: Tom wins 46-34

Verdict: Tom scored very highly and so did Billie, with a close game right up until the end, with Billie’s primary letting her down turns 4 and 5.

Matt vs Jake

Prediction: Matt wins 42-38

Result: Matt wins 34-30

Verdict: In a nutshell, Ushoran, filled with lead. Jake, sad. I suspect Matt managed his underdog status well in this game.

Right, to predictions!

This month it’s Shifting Objectives, in which there are only 3 objectives in the mid board, with a primary objective changing every battle round which is worth extra points.

Deployment zones are very cramped and most of the board is open space, Pete is already crying at how small his territory is because his army rule is going to be pretty defunct in this scenario.

We’ve had one round played already between Dickie and Billie, with Dickie’s menagerie taking the win 35-33 in an extremely tight game, despite Billie getting 2 double turns, good effort both!

Alden vs Tom

Could this be the occasion that the Teclis menace is finally stopped? Tom has no infantry for Alden’s cavalry to smash repeatedly with mortals and otherwise all 3+ saves, plus some mean damage. Alden of course still has the magical superiority and the power of paint on his models to fall back on.

A mid table brawl might suit Tom a little more here, with Alden’s mobility perhaps not having anyone to run rings around. However, being clustered up may also lean into Alden’s access to dishing out mortals the traditional way via spells.

This could be the closest Alden gets taken due to the mission this month, but I think he has enough bases covered with this army at this stage.

Prediction: Alden wins 36-32

Callum vs Matt

More of the 3 wins gang here, and I can’t help but feel like sitting in the centre of the board and asking your opponent to shift you could not be a more perfect mission for the trolls. So many wounds, so many wards, so much healing, and no need to be traipsing around the board sounds the ideal scenario.

However, Matt has lots of armour and lots of guns to soften those trolls up with, so could be a drawn out fight in the mid table unless some rolls start spiking one way or the other (see Jake’s Ushoran last round).

I could see Callum smothering primary but not scoring that many battle tactics, but just enough to edge Matt here.

Prediction: Callum wins 34-32

Joe vs Me

Joe and I have played his mission before and it did not go well for me, the Flesh chompers don’t really want to just sit and face the Maggotkin, being unable to heal well and run away from their slow moving units isn’t great for us.

That said, I do have some scary units to unleash forward and let’s not forget the GOAT, the WALL! This little lovely can spell doom for units with slow movement and might enable me to place a little healthy distance between us for a bit of the game. I’m looking forward to seeing what a Terrorgheist can do to the Glotkin or Bloab, if those mortals can spike it will make a huge difference when my rend is so bad.

Prediction: Joe wins 40-32

Leo vs Kyle

Leo has dropped from the league, so gun to my head I’d have to plump for Kyle here.

Mike vs Aid

Aid won’t be able to attend his game either, might I suggest a bye game between Kyle and Mike? You’ll both get a 40-10 minimum score.

Lauren vs Pete

Short stumpy guys fighting well, stumps? As alluded to already, this deployment negates Pete’s army rule almost entirely so not a lot of extra saves to be found for Pete here, but he absolutely does have the manpower to smother the middle of the table here.

It’ll be interesting to see how our Sylvaneth players go about their business in a mission like this because for primary purposes all their lovely movement isn’t going to be doing very much this round.

Prediction: Pete wins 34-30

Chris vs Jake

Similar story here for Chris, though his list is a little more smashy than Lauren’s and Jake will face more 3+ saves than he would ideally like. 

That said, the Ushoran/Terrorgheist combination is a potent one and is more than capable of beating up anything in the game.

This might come down to whoever can place their roots (geddit?) mid board first, and just not move for the remainder of the game. 

Ushoran will not like this match up, with 6s needed to make stuff have fight last, so he will be more vulnerable than in other games, that alone might be enough to see Chris through.

Prediction: Chris wins