WaaaghPaca 2014: Round #2 (The Ruins Bruins)

After my devastating loss in Round 1 to Ryan Nicol, I was paired up against Kevin "Ruins" Bruins (@RuinsBruins on twitter) of Skullbrosawesome fame. Ruins was a great opponent and garnered my favorite opponent vote of the weekend (and ended up as Best Sportsman of the tournament with all five favorite opponent votes). He took this game really well despite (spoiler alert) blowing up a large portion of his army on the first turn.

I am convinced that this man is nothing but smiles and rainbows.

Ruins, this guy here on the left who was having way too much fun before we even began deployment, was playing a beautifully converted Beastman army. (pics at the bottom)










His list for the tournament was a little more unorthodox than the standard Beastman builds I see at tournaments. This might have been because at 2000 points, its hard to fit all the normal tricks in the army like the Herdstone, multiple shamans, and Doombull. But, I like to think that it was because Ruins knew his army so well, he didn't need all the super powerful units to win his games.

His list for the tournament was:

• Great Bray-Shaman (General, Gold Sigil Sword, Hagtree Fetish, Talisman of Preservation, The Other Trickster's Shard, Level 4, Lore of Beasts)
• Wargor (Battle Standard Bearer, Gnarled Hide, Standard of Discipline)
• Gorebull (Arabyan Carpet)
• Gor Herd (37 models, full command)
• 2 Tuskgor Chariots
• Ungor Herd (10 models with musician and standard bearer)
• Ungor Raiders (5 models)
• Centigor (5 models with musician and standard)
• Harpies (5 models)
• 2 Razorgors
• Razorgor Chariot
• Ghorgon

A Ghorgon! Ruins brought a Ghorgon to battle. This was the biggest thing in his army that I feared as it would have a field day with my own monsters. It strikes before the hydras and has enough attacks to kill the Kharybdis without being killed in return (as it has 6 wounds). I love this thing, I just think looking at all the current monster prices, it is about 50-75 points overpriced.

Deployment:

This round, we were playing Da Second Scenario. As Ruins was the younger player, he chose table sides (or halves as we were playing Meeting Engagement) so he had to deploy his whole army first. However, it also meant that he would get to go first as well. Ruins rolled for his units, and luckily, a razorgor, the razorgor chariot, centigors, and the flying gorebull all started off the board in reserves. Ruins then deployed his army right along the edge of his deployment zone, hoping to make contact as quickly as possible (perhaps even on the first turn if I deployed close enough). 

As I got to choose his MOI unit for the game, I chose the small unit of raiders as I knew I would be able to kill them quickly at any point during the game. Ruins, in turn, chose one of my Dark Rider units. 

Starting from the left side of the table (as can be seen below) Ruins deployed the Ghorgon (pretty much holding a flank all his own), then the raiders (as I had deployed them right on the line), the ungor herd, the gor herd (with characters), both tuskgor chariots, and finally a razorgor. In support he deployed his harpies right behind his large gor herd. 

That is one solid line of Beastmen!

I deployed to attempt to counter Ruins' placement as I knew he would get the first turn. Right across from the large gor herd I deployed all three monsters (both hydras and the Kharybdis) in the same line so that Ruins couldn't charge just one monster. I also deployed two units of Dark Riders to take advantage of any holes in Ruins' line along with one unit of the warlocks. Finally, I deployed the medusa deep (as none of my characters started on the board) and didn't want to frenzy charge a Ghorgon or something silly like that on the first turn.

I then used my vanguard move to move the MOI Dark Riders (DR4 in the pictures) behind my lines and away from the Ghorgon. Note: the above deployment picture is post vanguard moves. Starting in reserve this game was another unit of Dark Riders, the other warlock unit, the BSB, and my general. So starting the game, I had no characters on the board, no leadership bubble, and no re-rolls!

A sexy picture of all three monsters sitting in a line. K-i-s-s-i-n-g?

Turn #1: Beastmen
Opting to move his units into better positions, and set himself up for solid multi-unit charges on Turn 2, Ruins carefully moved his army forward. The gor herd moved up a little, while the Ghorgon swung around to allow for a decent Turn 2 charge on the nearest hydra.

I see this trap! I'm not as blind as everyone says.
















The harpies flew directly in front of all three monsters to prevent them from charging the gor herd on mu turn (what assholes!).

Seriously, look at these little guys. Like I said before, harpies are assholes. They just hanging out all up in my business.










The chariots moved to see the Dark Riders. Finally, the rest of the reserves moved on from the long board edge. The only unit to move backward was the raiders with the MOI who turned tail and to hide themselves.

And forward, men. Or beastmen. Whatever.

In the magic phase, Ruins began what I thought was going to be a series of devastating buffs between Wyssan's Wildform and Savage Beasts. Instead, Ruins started off with a fairly simple Flock of Doom on the MOI unit of Dark Riders. Chanting to the heavens, the Great Bray-Shaman unleashed his built up magical energy and a wave of birds appeared from the shaman's outstretched hands, racing towards the Dark Elves. Luckily, only a single elf was killed from the onslaught so no panic check was necessary. Unfortunately for the shaman, the build up of magical energy opened up a dimensional cascade at his feet, sucking him into the void. The resultant magical backlash also managed to kill a rank of gor.

It was at this point that I knew Ruins was going to be a great opponent because he just looked at his shaman, laughed a little, put him back on his display board and told me straight to my face that those harpies were still going to pass the upcoming Terror tests on their own crappy leadership.

With no shooting or combat on his side, he passed the turn to me.

Turn #1: Dark Elves
Well, Turn 1 had gone fairly well for me. I was staring at a unit of harpies blocking at least one, and maybe two of my monsters. But I knew that even if they held, I would be able to get at least one monster into the gor herd (with no magical back-up) and hopefully kill the BSB, significantly dropping the unit's combat effectiveness. Thus, I started off the turn charging the left-most hydra into the harpies. The harpies failed their terror test (twice) and fled behind the gor herd. The hydra then failed to re-direct (stupid lack of leadership). The other two monsters, however, charged and easily made contact with the gor herd.

Charge ho, monsters. Do your best!












My reserves then came on and I placed most of them on the left flank to maximize shooting at the Ghorgon, as well as setting up my own Turn 2 multi-charge between my BSB and Manticore. Meanwhile, my right flank shifted to try and take apart the chariots one at a time while the medusa ran towards the gorebull, completely sure in her ability to kill the minotaur with her shooting attacks.

In the magic phase, I rolled a decent 9 dice phase and channeled another dice. I started with a Doombolt into the closest tuskgor chariot from the warlocks on the right and managed to roll triples!!! With no wizard, Ruins was unable to dispel the spell and the tuskgor chariot exploded into a pile of splinters. The remaining chariots, seeing how easily they could be destroyed, both fled towards the board edge.

On the left flank, the Warlocks cast a boosted Doombolt at the Ghorgon with Irresistible Power (and thereby doubles). The warlocks lost one of their own in the casting attempt, but the Ghorgon was deprived of all 6 of his wounds (I rolled something like 26 hits between both the strength 1 and strength 5 missiles). I would count Turn 1's combined magic phases as being the most destructive part of this game, costing Ruins well over 700 points!

In shooting, the Dark Riders on the right no longer had any good targets and the units on the left only managed to kill a few ungor from the small unit.

Cccccombo-breaker

In combat, the two monsters accounted for another two ranks worth of gor (including the hydra's breath weapon). The Kharybdis himself killed the BSB with his strength 7 attacks, even though he took two wounds form the unit for his troubles. Despite all the damage the monsters did, however, the gor were still steadfast and stayed in the combat for another round. They even managed to reform to add an additional rank going into the next turn.





Turn #2: Beastmen
With things not going exactly as he expected, Ruins still cheerfully continued the game, doing his best to gain points where he could. His MOI unit continued to run towards the corner of the board in an attempt to deprive me of the bonus objective. The gorebull moved over to see several of my units while the razorgors continued their advance on my right flank. The razorgor chariot also managed to rally and turn around. Unfortunately, neither the harpies nor the other tuskgor chariot rallied and they both continued to flee towards the board edge. The tuskgor chariot rolled long and fled off the board to find easier man-things to pick on.

With no magic or shooting, we moved to combat where the monsters wiped the remaining gor off the table.

Turn #2: Dark Elves
With the largest threats of Ruins' army already off the table, the game quickly moved into mop-up phase. On the Right flank, the medusa failed its frenzy check and charged the nearest razorgor (uh, oh). On the left flank, a unit of Dark Riders and a hydra charged the small ungor unit on the left while the rest of the army moved forward to see the remaining Beastmen units. The warlocks on the right stayed within 18" of the minotaur looking for a decent magic phase.

The Dark Elves begin to swarm the battle field.

In magic, the warlocks attempted a Doombolt on the minotaur, but failed to cast the spell. Shooting saw a few dark riders fail to hit the ungor raiders moving towards the board edge. Finally, in combat, the frenzied medusa struck at the speed of lightning hitting the razorgor four times. Rolling to wound, I was pleasantly surprised to see a roll of "5", "6", "6", and "6." The medusa had killed the razorgor in a single turn before the beast had a chance to strike back. I was beginning to think that the medusa was well worth her 90 points.

Turns #3-4: Mop Up
With very few units left on the board, the game moved quickly. Ruins charged the minotaur into the warlocks who held (but were ultimately killed by the creature after some bad attack and ward save rolls). In turn, the minotaur was killed by the Beastmaster and his Manticore in a single round of vicious combat.

On the left flank, the harpies continued their flight off the board while the ungor raiders were eventually caught and killed by the massed Dark Elf shooting. Meanwhile, on the right flank, the remaining razorgor charged and killed the medusa (but not before taking a few wounds) and was subsequently killed by a few Dark Riders.

Finally, in the center of the board, the last chariot was charged and demolished by the Pegasus rider's lance, leaving no Beastmen models on the battlefield.

Despite the one sided nature of this game, (based significantly on the first turn's magic phases) I really enjoyed this round. Ruins was a fantastic opponent and continued to play aggressively even when the dice failed him. And they failed him, repeatedly! However, the game ended with a true massacre to the Dark Elves and I even managed to get the bonus objective for this round.

The Army:
I mentioned previously that Ruins came to play with an amazingly converted army. I just wanted to take this little bit of space to show off his army and his conversions. Take a look.

The army on display board.

The evil Ghorgon baby-like thing. This just looks terrifying. Imagine waking up and seeing one of these crawling toward you across the covers. Yikes!

Part of the large Gor Herd

Ungor raider mutants. I especially like the one with the alienesque head on the end.

One of the razorgors.