Game 25 - Bradigus vs. Thagrosh 1 (SR)

Round 3 of our SR was into Ralph playing Legion. His pair was Thagrosh 1 in Primal Terrors and Abby 2 in Oracles, I believe.

Scenario was Recon 2.

Even though I wanted to drop the tharn to test that list, I went with Brad. What's one more game of smashing stuff with rocks?

He decided to go with Thags 1 and said he wanted to get more practice with the new updates.

Being a small semi-casual steam roller he had a couple proxies as you will see in the pictures. 

The red skorne savage was a war spear chieftain and the blue cygnar Maddox is a feralgeist.

My list again was:

Circle Orboros - Bradley Bones

Theme: The Bones of Orboros
3 / 3 Free Cards     75 / 75 Army

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver - WB: +27
-    Wold Guardian - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 16)
-    Wold Guardian - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 11)
-    Woldwatcher - PC: 8
-    Woldwatcher - PC: 8
-    Woldwatcher - PC: 8
-    Wold Wight - PC: 5
-    Wold Wight - PC: 5
-    Woldwarden - PC: 14

Blackclad Stoneshaper - PC: 3
Blackclad Stoneshaper - PC: 0
Blackclad Stoneshaper - PC: 0
Blackclad Wayfarer - PC: 0
Swamp Gobber Chef - PC: 1

Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
-    Stone Keeper - PC: 2

His list was:

Thags 1 - Primal Terrors

2 / 2 Free Cards     75 / 75 Army

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight - WB: +28
-    Ammok the Truthbearer - PC: 4
-    Typhon - PC: 20
-    Blightbringer - PC: 32 (Battlegroup Points Used: 28)

Spell Martyr - PC: 1
Feralgeist - PC: 2
The Forsaken - PC: 4

Blighted Ogrun Warspears - Leader & 4 Grunts: 15
-    Warspear Chieftain - PC: 5
Blighted Ogrun Warspears - Leader & 4 Grunts: 15
-    Warspear Chieftain - PC: 5
Hellmouth - Hellmouth & 3 Tentacles: 0
Hellmouth - Hellmouth & 3 Tentacles: 0

I won the roll to go first and decided to go first to claim table presence.  I wasn't sure what to expect going into this match-up, except for the grind.  I knew this was a list that would grind to turn 7 if you let it. 

Turn 1 - Circle 

I decided to really try get up the table and take some space. My manikins jammed the Hell Mouths to keep their tentacles back. Watchers all put up Earth's blessing to prevent the drag and basically everything moved up behind them. Brad put up mystic wards and synergy.

Turn 1 - Legion

Hell mouth on the right killed mannikins. Blightbringer moved up and fired blighted breath at the left hell mouth and mannikin pile to try and clear them up. He killed the mannikins and the tentacle that was directly hit. Warspears moved up behind the hellmouth and part way into the template left by the blightbringer to buff them. Everything else sorta moved up behind the Hellmouth screens. 

Turn 2 - Circle 

I had an open lane to the blight bringer with my guardian and could open a lane for the warden. I thought it might be a great chance to take out that key piece. Turns out he was just out of range for feat charge or port feat. My wayfarer was slightly behind as well and couldn't reach for the hunters mark. 

I ended up trying to kill hell mouths with watchers. Not a great option..but they stoneform and get in the way.  Mannikin on the right attempted to spray the spell martyr on the hill but missed. The left unit stupidly decided to spray into the warspears forgetting about vengeance. Managed to do 1 damage to the Chieftain. Perfect! 

Everybody else moved up into counter punch range and set up to stop drags from the hellmouth. 

Turn 2 - Legion

Vengeance triggers and they stab some watchers. The spears on the left attempt to kill watchers and fail. The right warspears assault the warden and watcher. The warden in wild growth (unable to move) apparently is dodgy and they miss all 3 attacks on him. They do minimal damage to the watcher. Tentacles on the right hit the watcher and do nothing. Blightbringer moves in closer and uses blighted breath to shoot the watcher creating an aura for the spears. Typhon charges the watcher and with poor dice is barely able to kill him. Arm 21 lights are a thing.  Thags spends all his stack and ends up next to the objective. Ending his turn I score my flag with the chef and he fails to place a solo on his flag. 

Score Circle 1 - Legion 0

Turn 3 - Circle

With a quick measure I determine I can port the guardian over the house and feat to push him into Thags. 

I do my maintenance phase. Synergy up to 3 and do just that. Guardian 2 shots him. 

Win for Circle.

I'm still not sure how to approach this game in the future. I think Brad has enough hitting power to grind thru the slog but I need to get my heavies in their sooner. Blightbringer and Typhon are the only real threat to the guardians.  I also need to remember to keep a watcher alive to RFP Typhon and remove his feat. 

Another option would be to push heavy to one side and force the scenario victory. Utilize high arm to contest his zones.

Last game for the Steamroller. We only had 6 people... I end in 3rd place. Learned alot about Brad and am most likely going to be testing out the Krueger 2 / Brad pair for a bit. Listening to Tomasz M. talk about it on The Meta podcast, he gives a pretty convincing argument for the pair. 

My favorite list has been Una 2 in devourers host but I felt she was constantly running into  disadvantaged matches. Even tho I feel she has game into a large spread, the coming CID for tharn makes one want to wait for that before putting Tharn on the table again.