The Wrath of the Green Lady – A Masters Tournament Blog (Part Five)

This article is part of an ongoing series. If you haven’t read the previous entries, you can do so by clicking on the links below:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Reflection

My final record (W/L/D) at the end of the event was 2/3/1, with a total of 55 Tournament Points (out of a possible 126). This landed me in 42nd place for Battle and 18th place for Paragon (thank you, soft scores).

This means I fell just short of my goal of earning three wins. However, I came very close in multiple games to clinching that third win and, barring my “Mind Fog” incident in round six, I am proud of how I played. You might even say that my list surpassed expectations because all of the games felt within my reach. Before the event, if you showed me all of my opponents’ lists, I would have said I had next to no chance to win some of the games.

Things that Worked

Unsurprisingly, the main battle line in my army proved very effective. The Horde of Earth Elementals, Greater Earth Elemental, Tree Herder, and Druid provided a line that was difficult to break. The combination of Defence 6, Fearless, Radiance of Life and Heal (5) was reliable and fantastic. Moreover, they posed a serious offensive threat. With his 75mm square base, I was able to Surge the Greater Earth Elemental into the flank and/or rear in multiple games. The Tree Herder, with Me 3, 9 Att, and Crushing Strength (3) was able to dish out the punishment with front charges. The Horde of Earth Elementals continued to reinforce my belief that Me 4 is extremely fickle, but the addition of Brutal made a noticeable difference.

Another element of the list that performed admirably was the chaff with Scout. Time and time again, the Hunters of the Wild and Forest Shamblers enabled me to get into advantageous combats, often as early as the second turn. They also proved capable of shrugging off several charges throughout the weekend thanks to De 5, and have just enough melee prowess to win one-on-one fights with enemy chaff units. An unexpected advantage afforded by these units was the ability to control hills. With the preset terrain, there would frequently be one or two hills in between the deployment zones. I often used Scout to get both my chaff and my hammer units on a hill, and then would benefit from the Thunderous Charge (1) when charging off of the hill.

Speaking of hammers, the Horde of Molochs and the Abyssal Fiend worked well. The combination of Fearless and Fury allowed them to survive long enough to finish their job, although they often did not survive to the end of the battle. Their lack of Pathfinder, and the 150mm wide base on the Horde of Molochs, meant I had to be very selective in where they deployed. However, I was able to rely on them to Rout whichever enemy units I targeted in each of my games. Even the Regiment of Centaur Bray Striders did a decent job of dishing out the pain with the Frenzied Otter making their damage output more consistent.

Things that were Inconsistent

In rounds two through five, my general strategy involved winning one of the flanks, holding the center, and delaying my opponent on the other flank. Looking just at these four games, I went 1/2/1. In other words, my strategy didn’t consistently work. The issue was never about holding the center. I was always able to do that. Instead, it was about one of the flanks taking too long to win or the other flank collapsing too early. This was usually a combination of poor planning and/or spikes in dice rolls. Of course, with better planning, you can mitigate the impact of spikes in dice rolls.

The biggest culprits of this issue were the “problem solvers,” the Seductress and the Naiad Wyrmrider Centurion. I still love these units, and in a few games (especially during round four against Brad), they were clutch. At best, they hold up problem units long enough for the rest of the army to avoid or deal with them. Unfortunately, their Nerve is too low, 11/13 on the Seductress and 13/15 on the Naiad Wyrmrider Centurion, to survive the spikes in dice rolls. My game plan often relied on these units surviving for a certain number of turns, and when bad luck caused them to Rout early, my entire game plan fell apart. Sometimes I could recover, and sometimes I could not. Either way, I need to form a more reliable plan!

Things that Didn’t Work

For those of you keeping score at home, you probably already know which unit I’m going to mention. Indeed, it’s the only unit I’ve yet to mention – the Regiment of Salamander Primes. Let’s take a moment of silence to honor these brave lizards, who, despite taking me over one-hundred hours to paint, failed to accomplish anything meaningful during the tournament.

They almost had their moment in the sun during round two against Mark when they were carrying the Loot Tokens in Push, but the loss of Pathfinder prevented them from getting across the board in time, thus costing me the game. This unit is almost worth the 135 points. It just needs something to bring it in line. The return of Pathfinder, a boost to 15/17 Nerve, access to the Frenzied Otter… something.

Next Steps

For the sake of argument, let’s pretend that I could tweak my list and have another go at the Masters. Based on what I’ve learned, here are the changes I would make:

1. Drop the Regiment of Salamander Primes and one Troop of Hunters of the Wild. This frees up 240 points to add a Horde of Naiad Ensnarers (with 10 points to spare). It will hurt to lose one of the chaff units, but to get access to the Horde of Naiad Ensnarers it is well worth it. This change actually evens out in Unit Strength and gives me another edge in scenario play. The unit is just so hard to Rout!
2. Drop the Naiad Wyrmrider Centurion with Chalice of Wrath. This frees up 175 points to add a Unicorn with Lightning Bolt (5) and Wings (with 10 points to spare). This is another even exchange in terms of Unit Strength but doubles the amount of Heal in the list from five to ten. It also gives me a lot more flexibility with Fly, Lightning Bolt (5) for threatening chaff or finishing off units late game, and the option to do some respectable damage in Melee if a flank or rear opens up. It still leaves me with the Seductress to solve problems.

That being said, I don’t plan on playing at 2300 points again anytime soon. The next few tournaments on the horizon (assuming they don’t get canceled) are at 1995 points, with the exception of Orctown, at which I am obviously fielding my Goblins with Orc Allies. Regardless, I have made a promise to myself that I will not add anything else to this army until I finish the Horde of Naiad Ensnarers. It is going to be a massive endeavor, but I really need to buckle down and get it down.

Here is a sneak preview at what I am currently planning to field at Unplugged GT:

In this iteration, I tried to preserve as many of the crucial elements as possible. May is way too close to finish a Horde of Naiad Ensnarers, so the Regiment of Salamander Primes will stay in the list. I am toying with the idea of fielding a Regiment of Hunters of the Wild or a Horde of Forest Shamblers in order to get another unlock, but… I’m not convinced that it’s a smart investment. I also tried to merge the Naiad Wyrmrider Centurion and Seductress into the Naiad Stalker with Wings of the Honeymaze. This Hero combines elements from the two others in a way that makes her more flexible, but less specialized. She has a load of rules, so I’ll just post the screenshot rather than list them all. We’ll see how she works out.

Thank you to everybody who has read this blog, and especially those who have offered feedback. I hope you enjoyed following my exploits and were able to pick up a few learning points, or laughs, along the way. If you’re interested in more of this style of blog, please let me or the other -/28 writers know!