Battle Report: Mordikaar v. Deneghra

Recently, I’ve been able to sneak a couple games in here and there by getting to the store early on D&D nights and grabbing a player in the League to get a game in. A few weeks ago it was Trolls, the Protectorate, and this week, it was Cryx.

Now, I don’t get to sit across the table from Cryx all to often, and it was an unfamiliar feeling knowing that he was going to make all of my stats worthless and attempt to crush my army in good form. I brought along Mordikaar because he was recently painted, and that was it. I also brought along my Ancestral Guardian League model, who I wish was either Marketh or Tyrant Commander.

My list was a bit of first-attempt Mordikaar that I’d been stewing over for a bit. I discussed with a couple other Skorne players, and one was all gung-ho for it while the other was skeptical.

Mordikaar
-Cyclops Shaman
-Cyclops Raider
-Despoiler
Cataphract Cetratii (6)
-Vorkesh
Slingers (10)
Nihlitors (10)
Beast Handlers (4)
Agonizer
Ancestral Guardian

He brought along his Skarre list and just plugged in Nightmare and Deneghra 1. Sadly, that means that Deneghra 1 probably has an under-optimized list. Unfortunately, that means that the list is still amazing, because everything she takes is awesome.

Deneghra 1
-Nightwretch
-Nighmare
Blackbanes Ghost Raiders (10)
Satyxis Bloodwitches (10)
-Blood Hag
Bloodgorgers (10)
Gerlak Slaughterborn
Warwitch Siren
Warwitch Siren
Scarlock
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith

From a fellow Cryx player approach, I can see what this does. Its a heavy denial list that hits accurately, but not to hard. This is a pretty essential task given our meta, where there is at least one everpresent Khadoran who runs the Butcher 1 High Defense list all the time.

We rolled up the scenario: Close Quarters.

He won the roll of, choosing to go first. I picked the side of the board with a wall about 20″ up in it, just to make it so I had somewhere safe to be while up the board. It was pretty cluttered with Terrian in all the right spots. A building, two forests, a hill and a pair of walls, all clustered around the center 24″ of the board. These are the tables I love.

Round 1

Turn 1 He ran everything. Blackbanes into the forest on my Left, with nightmare and a Pistolwraith following behind. Blood Witches mini-feat and the Nightwretch up the center, Bloodgorgers to my right with a Pistol Wraith and a Warwitch siren. Gerlak, the Scarlock, the second siren and Deneghra all stuck a little behind the front lines.

I took an aggressive stance and bum rushed the enemy, preparing for the feat. Slingers run up as far as they good, sitting 2″ from the center-line. Cetratii ran up behind them. The Nihilators on the left pilled into the small area between a wall and a forest maybe 4 abreast, clumping up in preparation for the charge next turn. The shaman and the Raider advanced up alongside the forest on my right and took pot shots, taking down a Bloodwitch. Despoiler ran behind the wall, with he AG angling behind the Nihlators. Mordikaar popped feat, dropped hollow on the slingers and spellward on himself, and called it an evening.

Round 2

Seeing his options were limited, needing 7’s or greater on everything he had, He simply attempted to jam me out of the zone. The Blackbanes ran to engage as many Nihilators as possible, also catching some Slingers, The Bloodwitches ran-charged, with the one charge failing, the rest just engaged. Nightmare pushed deep into the forest, the Warwitche, Scarlock and Gerlak getting into position. Scourge killed a slinger, and another model slew one as well. the rest of the models jockeyed around for superior solos position in order to best deal with next turn. I has a single model pushed b a poltergeist. It was sad for me. 2 souls from hollow and a slightly mitigated feat, and I am back on my heels.

On my turn my feat drops and I upkeep banishing ward on myself for free, upkeep hollow on the slingers, and start going to town. The slingers manage to roll beautifully and slag a pair of blood witches as well as blowing out the Arc Node on the Nightwretch. the Cetratii free up Vorkesh to take out two blackbanes. The AG removes a third while also engaging the Pistolwraith. The Raider pops snipe on himself and aims, ignoring stealth to blow out the Blood Hag. Mordikaar gives the Shaman Far Strike, moves sideways and backwards to get LOS to the Pistol Wraith engaged by the AG, and takes a snipped AOE shot at it, which fails to kill. I then cast Ghost walk on the Nihliators to get the three that are engaged with the Blackbanes out of the way. Nihlators charge/run and drop some damage into nightmare, and take out a few Bloodwitches, The Shaman Stands still, aims and Evil Eyes Blackbane off the board. As it turns out, 14″ is a significant amount of the board. Despoiler attempts to trample over the wall, fails and stands there looking like a moron. Because instead of casting Ghost walk on myself, I took a sniped, boosted to hit shot at a def 14 model in combat. Finally I run the Agnoizer to within 4″ of the engaged Nightmare, screaming no allocation.

I ended up killboxing myself on accident, and gave Justin 2 points then and there.

Round 3

My opponent decides to capitalize on the vulnerability that I have placed myself in, and jams deeper and harder. He managed to kill off the entire unit of Nihliators, 2 more slingers, and engaged the Shaman with a Warwitch after Death Chilling the raider. He surrounded Mordikaar, in the killbox, with the 6 remaining Ghost Raiders, and the Cetratii were bottled up by the Blood Gorgers and Blood Witches. Nightmare was pinned in place due to the nightmare, but I was under the gun. He also popped his feat that turn, reducing my already diminished capacity to push into the zones. He grabbed another point with Deneghra on her own flag, and called it a day, having blown apart a large portion of my contingency plan.

Unable to act effiently, I simply contested with as many of my models into the zones as possible. Despoiler popped his animus and moved within 10″ of Deneghra, Agonizer continued to deny allocation. and the Cetratii slowly ground forward, killing a number of models along the way, as did the Slingers. The Raider killed his offending Pistol Wraith, and the Shaman, unwisely, tried to charge to the aid of Mordikaar, but was stopped short by the Shadow Bind free strike. Mordikaar, left with no other options, strode through the incorporeal models (PS, more on this to come), and blew them up with his death blast. 3 remained, but that was the end of the turn. Contesting all zones, I gave him a run for his money.

Round 4

Though It took a lot of work, he eventually cleared the flag on my side of the board. The Bloodwitches, Bloodgorgers, and Warwitch Siren did their job, with the Siren seducing the last Cetratii out of the zone. We ended the game prior to that, with 45 seconds on his clock, due to spellward stopping targeted spells, but as it turns out, seduction does not target. Lesson Learned!

Thinking about it now, Mordikaar cannot walk through Incorp models. Recently, they overturned their rulings on Incorporeal models turning corporeal as they are walked through that make free strikes. The only way I could have made it out was by casting Ghost Walk on myself. I had three extra fury, so it could have happened, but I have to be more careful.

Overall, the game was a ton of fun, and I wish I had more time to get in games, especially against Cryx. I just don’t get to play against them often enough! I feel like I constantly blather on about how much fun these games are, but I rarely have a bad game. All of my opponents, even the salty ones, are good opponents that teach me something about the game, and I like that.

Mistakes, I’ve Made a Few

Lemme Just bullet point them out, in no particular order

• I left Hollow on the Slingers, instead of moving it over the turn the Nihlitors were all slaughtered.
• I didn’t cast Ghost Walk on Despoiler.
• I cast Ghost walk on the Nihlitors. I should have either taken all three freestrikes under hollow, or found another way to kill it.
• I killboxed myself to try and kill the Pistol Wraith
• I didn’t remember the AOE on Mordikaars gun when shooting it at the Pistol Wraith, that could have killed him.
• I engaged the Pistol Wraith at .5″ with a Nihilator. Engaging him at reach with defensive strike means he’s pretty much dead in the wind.
• Despoiler was on the right (to deal with Nightmare) instead of the center. I had 0 Void Spirits.
• The Ghostwalk/Killbox Debacle
• I should have simply killed the Warwitch with the Shamans spear. It would have just been better overall.

Those are just the ones I remember!

However, the largest mistake I think I made was the slingers. I had thoughts with them originally, that they would be a great trap unit with hollow. You don’t want to kill them, because they are hollow, and being so easy to kill will provide mordikaar a bevy of souls, and you wouldn’t want to not kill them either, because then they can aim and shoot pots. But, the answer is much, much worse for the Mordikaar player. Jam. Slingers are Mat 5 and Pow 8, struggling to hit anything more agile than a wall of rocks. They are completely nullified once engaged, and the opponent can eliminate them slowly and methodically to limit souls.

Instead, What I think is needed is the Keltarii. Bloodrunners are amazing, yes, but being able to be immune to free strikes, Def 17 against shooting with the feat and CMA to get the same amount of attacks as a bloodrunner unit, I think its a very solid play. I have to do some tweaking to the list to get them in, but I think its going to be fantastic.

God, I wish there was a use for slingers. They just don’t seem to cut it.

I’ve really gotta think about my matchup, here!