June has proved to be an interesting month. At first I had thought it would be slow month, but I managed to get in 30 games of warmachine, including 2 tournaments (one of them being Diecon) I have spent some time trying a variety of Dominar Rasheth lists out as well. I really enjoy Rasheth and feel he is a top hordes warlock. This month I also wanted to discuss my thoughts on Skorne Support models and the challenges of bringing the right balance of support models in an army.
Summary of June Games
In June I managed to play a good amount of games. Part of my focus was to try to get more practice games with Dominar Rasheth. Of my 30 games 8 of them managed to be with Rasheth. I was using some wildly different lists with him. I’ll talk about him more in detail shortly.
- Supreme Aptimus Zaal – 15 Games (13 in tournaments)
- Dominar Rasheth – 8 games (1 in a tournament)
- Master Tormenter Morghoul (4 games, all tournament games)
- Supreme Archdomina Makeda ( 1 game)
- Archdomina Makeda (1 game)
- Master Ascetic Naaresh (1 game)
My overall win Percentage is June was 73% What is interesting about June, is I had played a lot more practice games with a variety of lists, and specifically called out bad matches, so I could prepare myself for some tournament games. I don’t normally break down my win % in tournaments vs Friendly games, but this month I will mainly to show display the impact good practice can have.
In friendly games I only won 58% of my games. These test games involved calling out E Haley with stormwall lists, and playing Rasheth with all sorts of odd combinations. In tournament games I won 83% of my games, which included going 12-1 with Zaal.
Tournament Reports
I attended two tournaments in June. The first was a 25/25/50/75 Escalation event held locally. The event has 21 players attend. The second event I attended was DieCon. I already recapped my Hardcore Victory. That was an amazing event.
Escalation Event – This was a fun local event, that had a good turnout of 21 players. This event went 5 rounds, and itwas a 1 list format. (that expanding every round) - I used Supreme Aptimus Zaal for the event. I specifically did not use Marketh, as I am told again and again by people, that Zaal does not need him. While I did win the event, and sort of does show Marketh isn’t required, many of my games would have been more manageable with him around, and I doubt I’ll ever leave zaal without him again.
Summary of games - I have mentioned this in the past, but I am not great at doing a full report of games. This will be a mild summary of some of my games
Round 1 - 25pts - BYE - I rarely get a bye in an events, but we had 21 players and I managed the bye. At least its 25pts and the round will be fat
Round 2 -35pts vs P Butcher - This was a pretty close game. Like all P Butcher lists, the army itself is able to deal out as much damage as mine, and even faster. We were very close on wiping each other out, and as the khador army was slowly getting ahead on model count I was able to kill Butcher with the common combo of Zaals Feat + last stand.
Round 3 - 50 pts vs E Baldur - This was a pretty good game for me. The baulder list was tons of Construct beasts, and while the list was good, it was just a really good matchup for me. Epic baulder likes to rely on his Higher ARM to help keep the army alive, but my army doesn’t care about high ARM. I was just able to wear down the army, and get a bronzeback on Baldur. The game did go on for a while, as the Baldur player was doing a good job trying to find an opening thru my army.
Round 4 - 75pts Vs Calandra - This was a very crazy game. I play so few 75pt games I’m just not ready for the insane amount of models that are on the field. This was a radial scenario which made the battle a more bizarre feel. Its one of the few games I didn’t win via caster kill, but won via scenario. I was up 1 CP to zero, and I scored the winning control point in the last-minute or so of the game. I was able to kill a bomber early game with Hakaar, which did help me keep the ranged game from killing me.
Round 5 - 50pts vs P Doomshaper (due to time, there would only be one 75pt game, so we went down to 50pts for the final round) I am extremely tired at this point. I was playing against PG_majortusk, who has a lot of practice with P doomshaper.
I won the game I believe on the bottom of Turn 2, and I did this thru P doomshaper feat. This was a bit challenging, but I was looking at the board setup, and knew I could get Hakaar onto P doomshaper, and possibly a tyrant commander. ( P doomshaper was behind a wall camping 2 fury) – What helped me, is Mulg was blocked too far back from allowing protective fit from triggering.
I ended up spending all 7 fury from Zaal, (which was a bit insane, but I lived with 3 HP) I was able to Hex Blast the earthborn animus off Doomshaper, and Last stand Hakaar. (I also popped my feat)
Hakaar was able to make Doomshaper blow thru his 2 transfers, but he managed to live with around 9hps.. The tyrant commander was short on the charge by .5 inches.
I had to use an extoller and a Cyclops Raider to shoot Doomshaper in combat behind a wall. I managed to hit him, and deal out enough damage to force the tough check, which he failed. It was fairly crazy. I had some amazing “hit rolls” on my last turn, but a few of my attacks had very subpar damage rolls (including hakaar). It was really extreme good luck/bad luck dice craziness, that ended up just falling on my favor.
I didn’t have to attempt that caster kill attempt, but I knew my other option was a crazy long game that probably would have went to dice down and been anyones game.
Thoughts on Dominar Rasheth
Dominar Rasheth is a another warlock I have been trying to focus on this year. In June I was I expanding the types of lists I used with him, and was playing more games with lists that were not theme force lists.
I am embracing the idea of Titan Power with him in most of my lists. He is also one of the two warlocks in skorne I find some value with the Siege Animantarax.
In general I use Rasheth vs Hordes. I have continued to try him against warmachine lists, but I am not as successful vs warmachine with him.
In my March Recap I first starting talking about Rasheth and the list I used for the first few months of the year. I managed to do very well whenever I fielded the list mentioned in that report. I have since been trying different variants of the list, mostly to try to find other lists that work as well.
General Rasheth Thoughts
- The model is amazing. While this has no game rules to impact its value. I must admit, that Rasheth is such a cool looking model.
- Crazy mix of good/bad stats. Amazingly good Fury stat, with the WORST DEF/ARM of any warlock in the game. I will say I’ve only had him die once in a game, and that was because the game fell apart on my caster kill attempt failed, and he was in a spot I didn’t think mattered because the game should have been done.
- Spell list is Great.
- Blood Mark – Good Debuff spell, with the ability to transfer damage to target is nice
- Breath of Corruption – Great cryx spell, and ability to drop a cloud on the table and do some decent damage in always good.
- Carnivore – a bonus to hit is good (although being only vs living makes me a little sad)- still a decent spell
- Castigate – A spell that either is never cast, or something that really can mess with an opponent. Mostly useful against warmachine, and oddly enough I like Rasheth vs E Haley, and this spell is really great then.
- Influence – I don’t cast this spell often, but it can catch an opponent off guard now and then.
- Sunder Spirit – sometimes I can spam this spell against a wounded model to finish it off, and taking out the spirit of a warbeast is never bad.
- Impervious flesh is a helpful ability. I have often taken a lot of ranged shots into Rasheth, that he was able to outlast due to this ability.
- Ability to arc 1 spell a turn is good. if he could do this more then once a turn, he would become amazing.
- Feat - This feat is helpful against Hordes army, and with the combination of agonizers, it makes enemy beasts unable to do enough damage to my Titan Herd. – against warmachine, it can sometimes help vs infantry models, but warjacks simply don’t care.
Ranged Lists with Rasheth (designed more for fun/casual games)
The idea of using ranged game always is appealing. Maybe its faction envy, but I see many benefits of being able to fire across the table, as you advance on an opponent. The army with guns is often able to set the pace of the game.
All lists are at 50pts
Rasheth & Battle Engine
Dominar Rasheth +5
- 2x Titan Cannoneer
- Bronzeback Titan
- cyclops Raider
- 2x Extollers
- 6 paingiver beast handlers
- Seige Animantarax
- 10 Venator Slingers
The idea is simple. Enough firepower to force opponent into the army, where the bronzeback can deal with the first big threat. Against living armies, Rasheth has enough debuffs to work thru ARM from range fairly well.
This list does not like take the middle type scenarios, and only really does well against hordes armies, and even then, Circle construct armies, or troll Infantry spam armies could give it some headaches.
It’s mostly my “fun excuse to play the ranged game”. I am tempted to try 3 cannoneers, and drop the Battle Engine as well. Because it’s for “fun” though I like a reason to put the battle engine on the table.
Rasheth – Double Bronzeback (tournament list)
This list has proven very effective and I have used it in tournament play. It is another variant of the T4 lists
Dominar Rasheth +5 Tier 4
- Basilisk Krea
- 2x Bronzeback titans
- Titan Gladiator
- Titan Sentry
- 2x Agonizer
- 5 gatorman Posse
- 6 paingiver Beast Handlers
- Paingiver task Master
List has proven effective. 4 titans going down the field with krea’s animus keeps them safe from almost all shooting. List can move fairly aggressively down the field as well.
I will be trying a Non theme force variant of this with 2x bronzebacks and Tiberion soon. I will drop the sentry/1 agonizer to help make up the cost difference.
HE IS COMING!
July 11th is Tiberion Day. Like many skorne players I am very excited for this model.
I am very excited to put him on the table with Rasheth flanked on both sides with a bronzeback titan. That just seems very amusing to me. Probably not the best use of him though. I imagine I will get him in lists with many different list builds over the next month.
Having a model that cannot be moved/placed and has base ARM21 makes me very happy. He will often be ARM23 from ranged games and I am fairly certain that should keep him alive most of the time.
I imagine next month or two I will have many more thoughts on him. I hope to have him setup and painted within a week of buying him, but I’ve been in a very lazy mode in regards to painting right now.
