Time for another casual gamenight, and this time I brought two warbands and decks I haven't played before.
Because after all, this is what these (almost) weekly get together's are about: playing in a low pressure environment to try thing out.
So I brought the Dread Pageant with the Rimewyrm Bite Nemesis combination, because Slaanesh keeps hitting a soft spot with me (pun intended). But I also brought back my first warband I actively played, even at my first (not so succesfull) tournament outing in 2020: Zarbag's Gitz. Now that I have the Rivals box, it is time to bring out the largest of warbands once again.
As it was only Wouter and myself this evening, we played no less then 3 games, allowing me to field each one of them.
First up, I put Zarbag's Gitz with their Rivals deck against his Thricefold Discord, who had a Nemesis deck with Toxic Terrors blended in.
Of course, he was finsihed first setting up, and so the game began.
Bonekrakka happily hopped up to Vashtiss, biting her in the buttocks for 2 damage. But as Gorbaluk tried to do the same and failed, Lascivyr appeared out of the shadows and took the little squig down.
Not happy at all for seeing his charge being taken down, Drizgit charged up and he took out the Slaaneshi sorceress.
It became a real melee on that flank, as the huge lumbering Vexmor wobbled in, but failed to hit the ferocious squig.
The Gitz "Shoota squad" had lined up in the meantime, and poured a volley after volley into the assassin, only managing to wounding him twice though and leaving him barely standing, as Vexmor again failed to take down Gorbaluk, pushing him back. The first round ended on 4-4 for both of the forces.
With the use of a Gruesome Visage, Drizgit was bought another round in which he could hopefully do some damage on Vexmor, as he was now equipped with the grievous 1 upgrade as well.
Unable to attack the Herder, Vexmor struck down the other squig instead, and one must say, at last, before being hit and pushed back by brave Drizgit. Quite an amazing feat of how the diminutive little git manages to push the hulking brute away though...
Enough of the little guy's shenannigans, Vexmor decides to pound brave little Drizgit knee-deep into the ground.
The gits firing squad finally succeeds in shooting down the Slaaneshi assassin as another hail of arrows falls onto him.
Leaving a lightly wounded Vexmor on the table, the gitz now prepare for the third round, with an 11-11 score on the tables. Unfortunatly, my objective draw for that final round was a disaster, getting the cards to take someone out with a squig, with my fanatic that had been held back to protect my own territory and for taking out the biggest on the board, aka Vexmor.
This meant I had to try desperate measures, and while a Jealous Hex did lower Vexmor's wound stat, making it so I would only need to do three more wounds, my archers went after him. The fanatic also used his sneaky upgrade to get to the other side, but Vexmor ran off.
Dodging eldritch bolts and arrows, he escaped and with the gitz unable to score themselves, Vexmor grabbed the points and secured an 11-16 victory for the Thricefold Discord.
So that means it is time to move to the second game of the evening, and the The Dread Pageant bringing a Nemesis deck with Rimewyrm Bite in it faced off against the Thricefold Discord. And with Slaanesh versus Slaanesh, you can imagine the love and debauchery being wished upon each other, as can be seen on the very first roll off from this game...
The bands deployed, the demons taking a rather aggressive stance against their mortal counterparts.
The first strike goes to the Discord, as while Hadzu had managed to wound one of them, he is swiftly despatched by Lascivyr who pounces forward.
The demons hit Vasillac with a critical hit, but the elegant warrior critically dodges the attack himself.
Glissete had snuck around the sides of the demons, and wounded Vexmor before being pushed away herself. Yet, this resulted in 6 wounds being spread along the table, and the Dread Pageant inspired as a result. The first round never the less ended with a 3-4 lead for the Thricefold Discord.
Going into round two, Vasillac brought down Vexmor with a mighty swipe of his spear, piercing the demon and banishing it back to the Chaos Realms.
Following up with the The Right Bait, he then took down the last wound of the assassin, not bad for a first activation of the turn.
This left only the sorceress to deal with, and even while she fled, she was caught by Slakeslash who took her out. So that is activation 2 of round 2, and the Thricefold Discord had been wiped out.
Now firmly 9-5 in the lead, the final round would contain a lot of card cycling to see what could still be scored.
And that included the Pageant running into lethal hexes and such shennenigans to make sure everyone had wounds and such. This allowed for some more scores and even Glissete still being taken down, and a 15-7 victory for the The Dread Pageant.
As it was only 21.30 by that time, we went for the revenge match, as Vexmor and Vasillac would faces of again and see who really, really earned the favor of the Dark Prince.
The Discord deployed deeper this time, and Hanzu went in, shot Vexmor, wounded him, pushed him onto an objective and then pinged him for an extra damage for holding an objective. Nice start from what is becoming the sacrificial lamb of the warband. His upgrade card will be removed from the deck for a universal one I think.
Because moments later the assassin appeared, and just like in the first game takes the archer down swiftly...
Glissete moves up the board to attack the sorceress, reducing her to two wounds, but all her defensive skills can't save her and she also falls quickly.
Vasillac now charges Vexmor, and wounding him the Dread Pageant inspire as there are again 6 wounds on the table. The score after the first round now comes to 4-4.
In the second round, Vasillac is pushed into a lethal hex but survives the attack of Vexmor thanks to his perfume, leaving him on a single wound. Knowing his time has come, he uses his Thunderstomp, and the chain takes the enemy leader out, pinging off the final wound of the brute.
But as expected, he was magicked down by Vashtiss moments later, but not after The Right Bait"ing the assassin for a wound first as well. Something he survived (I thought both got damage, ironically this now has been FAQ'd but more on that later), thanks to his Boots of Warding.
Seeing his leader taken down, Slakeslash charges up the field, but in his blind rage fails to hit the demon in front of him.
And is taken down himself moments later. Activation 2 of round 2, and this time it is the Dread Pageant wiped out, just like what happened with the Discord in the previous game. Those Slaaneshi sure spank each other with no holds barred. Cards where cycled, and the Discord would go into the last turn with an 8-11 lead and no opponents.
But remember, I'm not out for the count yet, as the Rimewyrm Bite deck makes the actual battlefield a damage dealing source as well. Drawing cards, I actually saw I might still have a chance if I got lucky.
During those activations, I played Puncturing Ice Shards, taking out the Assassin and forcing Wouter to wound his sorceress. Now, the FAQ came out actually while we where playing, so as I type this the day later, this wouldn't happen again. Then I would have pinged the sorceress and left both at 1 point left.
Because then I played Engulfing Swallow, and the chain took down the last wound of the sorceress. In post FAQ, I would have started the chain one hex to the left, and with a hammer to crit path would have ended behind the demons, and have pinged both for 1, resulting in the same: two dead demons, just another sequence of damage dealt.
So that was a gamble with that last card, as chains can go either your way or screw it all up, but it fell the way of the Dread Pageant. I managed to score objectives and took down the demons, with as a result a... 13-11 victory for the Dread Pageant, who weren't even present for half of the game!
In hindsight, these are a serious contender to the Paths of Prophecy vampires to see which will be my next tournament warband, as they score very solidly. There is only a single objective (a two vs one card, not so easy with only 4 fighters of which 2 are very fragile) and a single upgrade (Hadzu's volley like card) that I might change, but this plays really well.
We'll see in the coming weeks, when I'll be taking both of the bands along before finally deciding near the end of september.
