Shroud of the Reaper - Pirates of the Mytalein - Tournament Report

[daveyrand]

I had the good fortune to play in a real-life tournament last Saturday. Shroud of the Reaper - Pirates of the Mytalein, was my second ever tournament. It was fantastically run and I had a great time. As I actually managed to stay composed enough to take some photos. Here are some of those photos with some rambling.

I hadn’t played at all at anything above 1,500 pts before, so my expectations were muted. That said, I had hoped to beat my first tournament performance of one draw and three loses. I therefore set my target at one win, or two draws.

I was rather surprised and amused to discover that my list had been featured in a pre-match review of round one lineups (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M46bvQBlok). One of the pundits (Barry) guessed correctly that my army looked like it was a typical Goblin army brought over from the old game, with some extra bits I’d decided to build added on. I’ll admit that my list, which is er, listed below, is a bit “one of everything”.

With regards to my match one lineup against Matt Gee’s Ogres with Night Stalker allies, the voting unsurprisingly went 4-1 in favour of Matt. The only dissenting voice was Bob, who remarked that my boys were the “Supermarket choice” Goblins. I rather liked that description, so I’ve borrowed the term as a bit of an unofficial nickname for the Pink Moon Clan.

MY LIST

2x Sharpstick Hordes
1x Rabble Regiment
1x Spitters Regiment
1x Troll Horde
- Chalice of Wrath
2x Fleabag Riders Regiments
- Sir Jesse’s Boots of Striding & Mawpup
- Maccwar’s Potion of the Caterpillar & Mawpup
1x Big Rocks Thrower
1x Sharpstick Thrower
1x Mawpup Launcher
1x Mincer
1x Goblin Slasher
2x Biggits
- Crystal Pendant of Retribution & Mounted on Fleabag
- Lute of Insatiable Darkness
1x Wiz
- Inspiring Talisman, Bane Chant (2) & Mounted of Fleabag
1x Troll Bruiser
- Staying Stone

Yes I know my list is crap, this is all the models I have. Fight me (or don’t actually, because my list is rubbish).

As I’m not a veteran player, I don’t really have a preferred way of playing yet. As such I’ve tried to go with combined forces approach, with a mix of melee and ranged infantry, monsters, war machines, support and combat characters. As I had a few points left over even after using all my models, I also bought a few artefacts and upgrades where they seemed obvious, plus the crystal pendant as a bit of a gotcha.

[daveyrand]

ROUND ONE - MATT GEE - OGRES WITH NIGHT STALKER ALLIES

Picture 1 - A shot of the board after first turn movement was complete. The heavy deployment on the left was a bluff, and I’d put my two point bluff counter on the right which I’d hope to grind up with a horde of Sharpsticks and the troll units. The plan for the centre was to soften up the ogres with war machines, and then hope to delete enough survivors with unhindered cavalry charges.

Picture 2 - Matt flies his Shade on my side of the blocking skull terrain. He’d spend the rest of the game there being tickled for one point of damage per turn by my mounted Biggit with the crystal pendant.

Picture 3 - The Ogre King on turtle (do Ogres have Kings? Leader, I don’t know) slams into the Sharpstick horde. At this point I’d got rather excited, I’d actually be able to use the Phalanx ability for once! Until Matt reminded me that he had crushing strength two, so he didn’t actually need the thunderous charge at all. Cue face palm.

Picture 4 - My left flank spent the whole game changing facing and spectacularly failing to get in any charges in against Matt’s two characters on that flank (Kuzlo and Madfall, and the tournament special Reaper living legend character). Luckily, all of the counters on that side turned out to be zero points, so it didn’t matter hugely.

Picture 5 - More detail of Matt dancing around my melee units in order to mess up my shooters. Actually, the spitters until this point had been over rolling, but this was countered by my forgetting that K&M has regen 4+.

Picture 6 - The King of the Ogres disengaged from the Sharpesticks in order to deal with the Trolls, which eventually spelled his doom. The absolutely gorgeous giant crab model represents a chariot horde. So I got to use Phalanx after all! Spoiler: it didn’t help.

Picture 7 - Oh the Reaper has jumped behind all my units now, lovely. Cloak of Death you say? Marvellous. Luckily none of this ended up mattering except for kill points, but it was a fantastic lesson in what fast nimble characters can do to a battle line. Bonus points: the Rabble getting rear charged.

Picture 8 - The Trolls battle on against the fishy Ogres. The Bruiser puts in a valiant charge against the crab monster, while his bodyguard give the Ogre leader a good pummelling. Both of these combats would go as you might expect. The Trolls win the day, and miraculously even survive a charge from a traitorous Red Goblin Blaster. However, they are unable to take both two point objectives by themselves. Two points to the Goblins here.

Picture 9 - Having failed to remove either of the Big Shield armed Siegebreakers from the battle despite a, a forlorn Slasher eyes greedily at the wounded but unbroken Ogre battle line. The Ogres ended the battle holding all three central one-point objectives, and go on to win the battle 3-2.

[daveyrand]

ROUND TWO - GRANT ALEXANDER - TWILIGHT KIN

Picture 1 - Initial deployment. I’ve done this all wrong. I was experimenting with a strength-in-depth in the centre which didn’t pay off at all. I may as well as not have deployed anything on the left at all, given that it’s all outclassed even by Grant’s rather modest deployment on his right. The Trolls on my right ended up doing what I wanted them to do, which was to hold the objective on the right and threaten flanks, but it’s a rather expensive and inefficient way of achieving that given I could have used my pathfinder cavalry for that purpose.

Picture 2 - Look at these guys, aren’t they pretty! Don’t be fooled however, they are also VERY EVIL INDEED.

Picture 3 - I know enough about this game to know that Abyssal Horsemen are one of the best mounted units in the game. As I watch them galloping confidently towards my main line I think of Ralph Wigam. “. I’m in danger!”.

Picture 4 - The only thing worse than a regiment of Abyssal Horsemen? Abyssal Horsemen with the Brew of Sharpness. Hold fast you useless bastards!

Picture 5 - The most suprising thing about this shot is that there is only ONE naughty elf cavalry regiment. The other did predictably manage to one shot one of my Fleabag regiments, before being one shotted in return by their pluky comrades! The mawpup and bane chant did help, but some rather naughty nerve rolls were required too.

Picture 6 - Trolls moodily hanging around in a graveyard, like a bunch of gothy teenagers. They took the objective in front of them, but the Gobos are powerless to stop the knife ears from grabbing four of the remaining ones. 4-1 to the Twilight Kin.

[daveyrand]

ROUND THREE - DOMINIC STAVACRE - GOBLINS

Picture 1 - Goblin civil war! My opponent’s list was a bit of a novelty. It mainly consisted of six Troll Hordes and six Spitter regiments for chaff and plinky shooting, with some war trombones and characters thrown in for good measure. I forgot to take any photos of the early battle, and this is a few turns in. By this points the Pink Moon Clan flanks are holding well, but the centre is under some serious pressure from two of the hordes.

Picture 2 - At this point I remembered that you actually play against humans in this game! This one is called Dom. Hi Dom! (Great action shot of dice rolling too).

Picture 3 - This pic best shows the centre collapsing. I didn’t actually get a shot of my favourite moment of the tournament, when I managed to pop three units in quick succession and claim the right flank in one turn. It was glorious.

Picture 4 - The Goblin Slasher, my flagship unit, got held up for the entire game by Dom’s Reaper. It was an inspired move as it prevented the slasher from moving round to the left flank where he was badly needed. Ensnare and -/15 nerve are hell of a combo.

Picture 5 - The chaos of battle. Another defeat, but a tight one. Dom held a two point loot counter and a single one point counter. I’d taken the two pointer on the right flank. As far as I can recall, the other two one pointers were unclaimed. 3-2 victory to the (more) Trolly Goblins.

[daveyrand]

ROUND FOUR - GAVIN DOWNEY - NIGHT STALKERS

Picture 1 - This is the left flank of the final battle, where my killier units and some really hot rolling was able to see off the butchers and weird, crawling, night stalker cavalry thingies (I don’t know sue me). I FINALLY worked out how to effectively use my Reaper too, mounting up quite a bit of cloak of death damage and getting in a nasty rear charge on a horde of Scarecrows.

Picture 2 - Not before said Scarecrows were able to flank charge one of my Sharpstick hordes. I figured the hinder would blunt them a bit, but 60 attacks is 60 attacks. The spear gobos went pop and I learnt a lesson. The rest of the battle actually went quite well. I was able to tickle the Mind Screech enough with my war machines (even with the stealthy penalty) to keep his healing Banshee busy. The right flank was also secured fairly cheaply, and I was then able to pincer the centre.

Picture 3 - A sniff of a first tournament victory and I forgot to take any interesting pictures, so we’ll have to end on this one. Fleabag Riders hindered charging a regiment of Butchers, before a horde of Sharpsticks is able to flank them to see them off. The scenario was control, and I was able to hold on to three of the zones including the opposite for four points. Two more zones were unclaimed, and the last was contested by Gavin’s Portal of Despair which I’d completely forgotten about, but wouldn’t have been able to reach any way. 4-0 to the Supermarket Goblins!

[Cyberactivity]

Great report.

Here are the results for the tournament:

As one of your opponents and co-host of the event; really hope you enjoyed your second tournament.

You one-shotting the Knights was big blow, so was glad to have bought it back. The trolls were a pain as could not really get at them. Was tempted to bait them out but it wasn’t worth it in the end as the infantry kept them where they were which was good enough for me.

Two of your losses were really close games to finish 3-2 each time. Think a bit of refinement on the list (and maybe painting up a couple extra choices) would really help. As always, happy to dojo some list ideas.

We maybe holding another tournament before Christmas, so keep your eyes peeled for the details.

[Nav]

Nice battle reports. I’m curious why you don’t use the Mawpups on all the available regiments as i find the 6 hit on 4s with CS1 usually does as much damage, if not more, than the goblins do themselves, espescially as you opted for a Mawpup Launcher to recharge the units. i have a similar Supermarket Choice Goblins list with old Battle of Skull pass nightgoblins and spider riders as my core units

[daveyrand]

Great question! My concern was that that the slower units might get routed before they could get an attack in, which would be a waste of 10 points. It felt that the Fleabag Riders were more immune to get given their higher speed, but in reality that wasn’t always the case. I remember at least two cases of a Fleabag Rider regiments getting shot off or broken by a better placed cavalry unit before it could do its job.

The really cool thing about the Mawpup Launcher is that it can fire into friendly units in combat, so you can wait to see which units survive the initial charge, and then give them a mawpup situationally. However I found myself needing the launcher to fire at enemies rather than supplying mawpups this way, especially to put harm on lower defence units, which it’s pretty good at given it’s high attack count without piercing.

I think in future however I would almost certainly put them on any and all rabble/sharpstick hordes. They almost always get a counter charge in given their relatively high nerve. As you say a mawpup is a really useful guaranteed way at getting a few points of extra wounds on. They’re also really useful counters to units with ensare, or for making hindered charges.

[Nav]

i field a legion of Sharpsticks with a Mawpup, (bolstered by a Flaggit and Wiz for Bane Chant, but i saw the Inspiring token being used on the Wiz, which i think is clever and gets rid of the useless Flaggit, A regiment of Rabble, which i’d probably increase to at least a horde if i had the models, and one of Luggits, which are pretty effective. I also go full horde of Fleabag riders with the potion of the caterpillar on it, as well as a regiment of fleabag rider sniffs for mobile archers and a regimrent of spitters to loiter at the back and offer protection to my artillery, and hold objectives, but are otherwise useless. They both pack a punch and give the army some speed and flexibility. I take a Rock lobber and Sharpstick thrower. The Rock lobber really needs an eye in the sky Winggit, which is on my wish list, and i proxied in my last battle to field test, its worth the investment. IMHO. and a goblin Slasher for its mobile artillery and close combat toughness, oh and a giant… Also a King on a Chariot, because i have the model and he gives Inspiring prescence to my mobile flanking units . I’ve not fielded them in competative games yet, so i’m far from expert with them.

[daveyrand]

It sounds like we’re in a very similar place with our Goblins!

As well as having the bane chanting Wiz with the Inspiring Talisman I also have the Biggit with the Lute of Insatiable Darkness. It’s essentially the opposite way of achieving the same thing; an inspiring bubble that can bane-chant. The Wiz can lightening bolt a bit, and the Biggit can melee a bit.

My thinking on the Biggit is that you can almost expect it to get one damage in on the late game and perhaps force an all important nerve roll on a heavily damaged unit. I can’t recall that ever coming up though, and have considered replacing it with a Flaggit to shave some points off.

I too play a regiment of Rabble as I don’t have the models for a horde and currently need to make up the points when playing at ~2000 pts. I’ve got the new two player starter set on order though, so I’m planning on making a Rabble Horde out of the new Goblins that come with it. Maybe people wouldn’t mind if I proxy the Rabble regiment I currently have as Luggits…

I’ve also considered playing the Fleabag Riders as a horde. That would make it a real threat. However the regiments I have use two very different models type and would look weird together. Maybe one day I’ll get some more Mantic Fleabag Riders so I could play them as a horde without worrying about that .

Exactly the same with the artillery. I have one of each just because I wanted to collect the models. It didn’t really click with me that all three have the lobber keyword, so will benefit from the Winggit. In fact, I’ve got that on order too! Maybe to be competitive I should get some more war machines to go with it, but I don’t know if I want to win that badly.

I have a Goblin Slasher too. I really like how it can add to the artillery barrage, but smash anything that gets too close, or run off and claim a token in the late game. I don’t have a Giant, maybe one day.

I really like the idea about getting a King on Chariot. I don’t feel like my army has a clear general at the moment. I know that’s not a thing rules-wise, but it feels thematic. I have to mount at least one of my inspiring units to have a mobile inspiring bubble otherwise.

[Nav]

As you say, we seem in a similar mindset. i have a squig hopping axe weielding goblin for either a King on Fleabag or a mounted Biggit, but have too many HQ choices to field them all.
i’m the same in that i have the new starter on order, and had to proxy my last two games (with dwarfs as Luggits and Ice Naiads to represent my rabble) until i can replace with the rest of my goblins. I can field a horde of trolls too, but usually go with just a regiment, depending on what points i’m playing. but i’d prefer a goblin heavy army