A close friend and I wanted to play a fun variant and try something a little different. To that end we each constructed the Worst List we could manage out of the models we owned. There were some list construction rules.
- 35 points plus Jack/Beast points; Steamroller legal (it could come in up to 2 points short)
- Included at least 1 Faction Heavy
- Included at least 1 Faction Solo
- Included at least 1 Faction Unit (either min or max)
- Could not include a Colossal or Gargantuan
- No Proxies, you have to own the model
- You had to be prepared to explain how to run the list and if any synergy existed because…
We had to play the other person's list. I waffled back and forth on various builds until I discovered I somehow owned four Revengers. Here is the steaming pile I handed over to fight against:
High Reclaimer
- Scourge of Heresy
Tristan Durant
- Revenger
- Revenger
- Revenger
- Revenger
Exemplar Cinerators (min)
I felt compelled to point out that I was giving my friend one of our more popular tournament casters along with two of the three models that have not seen action in any 2014 Master's list. In my mind that means this list was really special. I explained how the feat worked and where he could stick the four potential souls. I pointed out Tristan's powerful nuking spell and that to hit and do appreciable damage he would need to boost, but that was ok because he had all four focus required. I told him how cool Fortify was and pointed out he had four arc nodes and four reach jacks. I even told him about the flameburst ability on his non-reach, speed 4 infantry. Infantry with multiple wound boxes ...
This is what I got in return.
Kommander Strakhov
- Juggernaut
Manhunter
Assault Kommandos (min)
Kossite Woodsmen (min)
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (min)
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (min)
Winter Guard Infantry (min)
My friend pointed out that he didn't have a deep well of sub-par models, but this list wasn't so great. I was ok with having an ambush unit and six guys with eight boxes. Also, the Manhunter had two axes, pathfinder, and stealth. Plus my caster had a focus for every spell on his card!
DEPLOYMENT:
The scenario was Supply and Demand. I won initiative and elected to go second. I grabbed the side opposite where I wanted to ambush my Woodsman. I set the Woodsman aside and ignored even looking at them for the next turn. Everything else got lined up in the center of the table. Across the way were a horde of jacks on one side and a set of medium base warriors on the other.
TURN 1:
Everyone runs. He allocates all the focus Tristan has to his jacks and they run forward. Tristan moves up behind them. The Cinerators run eight inches and the High Reclaimer follows behind. On my end, I run everything forward, I put Sentry on one Shocktrooper and Superiority on the Juggernaut. The Manhunter runs to the end of the forest.
TURN 2 (MENOTH):
Tristan allocates a focus, HR allocates a focus. Three Revengers advance. Tristan drops Fortify on the outside Revenger and it runs. The Cinerators run, as does the Scourge. HR moves up and starts dropping clouds. The Revengers are base to base screening HR and Tristan.
TURN 2 (KHADOR):
The Woodsman ambush! They advance and shoot at Tristan but juuuust miss. They forget to reform forward! (facepalm). The AKs attempt to charge the Fortified Revenger and meet with little success. The Shocktroopers do some damage on their charge/run. In the middle, the center Shocktroopers shield wall and advance. Sentry and Superiority are both upkept. The Winterguard advance into the clouds and start shooting … they do a little damage to the Cinterators! The Juggernaut shifts to the side and waits for an opening. The Manhunter runs forward, begging Tristan to stay put.
TURN 3 (MENOTH) [picture missing]:
The Cinerators charge! One is shot dead by Sentry! The second one jams into the Shield Walled Shocktroopers while the third kills a Winterguard. Fire goes everywhere. The High Reclaimer now has 25% of the available souls in his army and lives inside an active soulstorm! Tristan hotfoots it toward the center. His jacks attack some Shocktroopers but fail to kill them. The lead Revenger kills some AKs. HR feats the dead Cinerator back into existence and hides behind a linear obstacle and puts out a pair of clouds. Scourge moves into the zone, blocking LOS to Tristan.
TURN 3 (KHADOR):
Strakhov upkeeps Superiority. Two fires go out! One WGI dies to fire! The goal this turn is to drop Tristan but the lane isn't clear. There is a Cinerator in the way and the Scourge is also preventing access. Fortunately Strakhov has an out. The Winterguard push and shove out of the way and manage to kill a Cinerator somehow (including one firing his weapon into melee and hitting) - the soul goes to the HR. The Shocktroopers jostle around and clear a lane for Strakhov to move behind the lines, while those that successfully engaged the Cinterator turn him into paste. High Reclaimer gets another soul. Then Strakhov slides across the field, feats, and casts Battering Ram (seriously … six spells on his card.) He boosts because the spell has to hit and pushes the Scourge out of the way. Then the Superiority Juggernaut charges Tristan and turns him into jelly. The Woodsman run at the HR (who has four souls now). The red troops lock in around Strakhov and hope an Ashes to Ashes isn't going to ruin anyone's day. The AK's flail at the Revenger and the Man Hunter charges the Objective. With 27 points of his army now dead/inactive … my friend is less than pleased with me.
TURN 4 (MENOTH):
The writing is on the wall, but the HR never says die! (he can't … he took an oath of silence). This turn HR has nine focus. The Scourge gets some of it and the rest gets dumped into murdering Woodsman. Unfortunately the Woodsman don't break under the duress of losing all their friends. The Scourge charges the back of the Juggernaut … who has Superiority up … which is an upkeep … which means the Scourge does 16 points of damage to it on the first swing. Then hits with the second initial. Then buys and attack and scraps the Juggernaut from full in one activation. Why isn't this jack in every tournament list!!??! The third model with an activation is the last Cinerator (he passed his command check). He kills a WGI and lights another on fire.
(this was a recreated pic, the Manhunter should be by the Objective)
TURN 4 (KHADOR):
The Shocktroopers charge the objective and obliterate it (Khador scores a point). The Manhunter charges the High Reclaimer and kills him in two swings. But hey … at least it wasn't the Woodsman, right?
VICTORY OF KHADOR (but actually Menoth)!
Thoughts on the game:
This was ridiculous, but we both had a ton of fun. I got to drive around a big stompy robot and he got to put out annoying clouds. The ambush put up a ton of pressure on the weakest link in the list. Once Tristan is down, 24 points of metal goes with him. Designing a terrible list isn't that difficult. However, the real challenge is wondering what garbage you are going to be given to deal with it.
If anyone is interested in reading the thread where I started talking about this in the Menoth forums, it is right here.
Thanks for reading!!
