I have been playing quite a bit of Reznik2 recently as I absolutely love the model and as much as I dislike Wartable’s way of handling movement (don’t get me wrong, I salute the guys who designed it and they kept the community going during these dark times), it actually makes handling a huge-based caster easier than in real life.
The list has lots of old favourites, like Scourge of Heresy and Fort Reznik with Madeline Corbeau sitting behind Reznik and making him immune to warrior melee attacks and the Devout hugging him to be immune to spells, and Idrians being Idrians. Those old favourites are supplemented by the new kids such as the Archons and Champions.
The basic plan is to clear out screens with Idrians and the feat, leverage multiple Vengeance effects to get more attacks and movements per round and finish out the game with either Reznik or Scourge of Heresy, both of which would stay in the second line and threaten, while using Boundless Charge and Lamentation to impact the board.
Here is the list:
Servath Reznik, Wrath of Ages – WJ: +29
- Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan – PC: 4
- Devout – PC: 9 (Battlegroup Points Used: 9)
- Scourge of Heresy – PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 16)
- Crusader – PC: 10 (Battlegroup Points Used: 4)
Menite Archon – PC: 8
Menite Archon – PC: 8
Hand of Silence – PC: 7
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon – PC: 0
Champion of the Order of the Wall – PC: 8
Champion of the Order of the Wall – PC: 8
Wrack – PC: 1
Vassal Mechanik – PC: 1
Choir of Menoth – Leader & 3 Grunts: 4
Initiates of the Wall – Leader & Grunts: 0
Initiates of the Wall – Leader & Grunts: 0
Idrian Skirmishers – Leader & 9 Grunts: 15. Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide – Chieftain & Guide: 5
(Faithful Masses)
I had a bit of a conundrum selectin the list to go against Reznik, as I had plenty of lists I wanted to play, but all of them had little to no way of killing Madeline, so once their warjacks were gone, Reznik could have run the table. So I had to do something battlegroup-heavy and as I had recently finished my Infernals and not yet played Zaateroth, it looked like a golden opportunity to play her.
My Zaateroth list might be a bit less traditional, as I wanted to avoid the ‘decide if you want 3 or 4 Tormentors and add Foreboders accordingly’ school of Infernal battlegroups. As the used lot I picked up to begin my Infernal collection had some Grievers I had never used before (using ‘never’ for 5 games, shocking!) and I had seen them in a few lists to trigger Rites of Torment, I wanted to include them too. The rest is pretty standard.
NOTE: I played this game the day after the big Dynamic Update, so Tormentors will be MAT 6 only and Hauke’s Tactician only affects Warrior models.
Here is the list:
Zaateroth, The Weaver of Shadows – WJ: +26
- Foreboder – PC: 4 (Battlegroup Points Used: 4)
- Tormentor – PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Tormentor – PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
- Soul Stalker – PC: 13
Infernal Gate – PC: 12
Lord Roget d’Vyaros – PC: 4
The Wretch – PC: 4
Alain Runewood, Lord of Ash – PC: 5
Valin Hauke, The Fallen Knight – PC: 7
Hermit of Henge Hold – PC: 0
Great Princess Regna Gravnoy – PC: 0
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist – PC: 0
Cultist Band – Leader & 5 Grunts: 7 Master Preceptor Orin Midwinter – PC: 4
Cultist Band – Leader & 5 Grunts: 7 Dark Sentinel – PC: 2 Griever Swarm – Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
(Dark Legacy)
DEPLOYMENT
With Dark Legacy getting +1 to the starting roll, I predictably roll a 1 and then a 5 for the Menite forces. Given the table, Menoth Me gave the first turn to Infernal Me to pick sides and have room for Reznik’s big butt.
The Infernals deploy rather centrally, making sure they can get around the Gate now it is no longer possible to walk through it with Hauke.
Fort Reznik assembles, with a Champion and an Archon on each flank to swing into the centre.
View from the top. I was actually standing on a chair for this one. That´s just the guy I am, endangering my life for my faithful readers.
ROUND 1
The Infernals begin the game by having a Wretch run forward.
Zaateroth turns him into a Desolator. She also casts Rites of Torment on herself thanks to Harmonious Exaltation and then Scything Touch on the newly summoned Desolator.
Regna summons a Shrieker.
Overall, the Infernals run forward to take space. The Gate gets two Souls, so it teleports the rightmost Tormentor and the Shrieker forward.
In a shocking turn of events, the Menites mainly walk up. Reznik casts Lamentation and Death March on the Idrians.
The Idrians take a few potshots, hitting the Soul Stalker once for three damage and killing a Griever.
ROUND 2
This turn gets rather technical, so bear with me.
The Grievers shoot a few Idrians to trigger Rites of Torments. The Gate brings the dead one back at the beginning of the turn.
One of the triggers pulls a Tormentor forward.
It tries to kill the leftmost Archon, but leaves it on two boxes and decides not to use the last Essence to avoid exploding at the end of the turn.
Zaateroth puts Black Spot on the Idrians through the Arc Node and then kills a few Idrians with his gun, but the Archon protects their souls.
She then feats.
Then turns Roget into a Tormentor.
The Gate then teleports her backwards.
The Shrieker tries to wipe out the Idrians by boosting a shot into them (and hoping for a second one with Black Spot)…
… but Dartan Vilmon heroically intercepts the shot to avoid losing the unit. He promptly eats triple sixes and dies.
On the right, the Soul Stalker tries to kill off the other Archon, but misses with its charge attack and thus doesn´t have automatic hits, which means that it bounces off the Archon.
At the end of the turn, the Infernals present a solid wall with high DEF scores.
Reznik feats, upkeeps his spells, then charges the Foreboder and Curses the Shrieker. The boosted charge attack hits the Foreboder and literally explodes it, so Reznik buys an attack into the now wounded Shrieker and kills it too, which in turn injures the Tormentor. Scourge of Heresy advances thanks to her bond.
The rightmost Initiates run up to deny the Tormentor the ability to Countercharge and contest the flag Regna is on. The Archon, the Crusader and the Champion have to use all their attacks to put down the Tormentor.
Thanks to their Vengeance move, some Idrians can aim and shoot into the Cultists. Two connect and kill two Cultists, which kill the Sentinel and Runewood when they explode.
The Champion, Archon and Hand of Silence all try whaling onto the Soul Stalker, but fail to kill it due to it being DEF 16 on Zaateroth´s feat.
Scourge of Heresy charges into a Griever, then kills the Desolator thanks to having Purgation on his sword. It explodes and deals a bit of damage to Hauke and one point to the Hermit.
At the end of round 2, the Protectorate score one point for their square zone.
Reznik 1 – Zaateroth 0
ROUND 3
The Soul Stalker dies in the Maintenance Phase.
Regna charges an Initiate and cranks the damage roll to kill it, then only does 4 damage to his friend with the free Hellfire she gets from Blood Boon.
So the Infernal Gate has to kill the Initiate with a boosted damage roll.
Valin Hauke kills the last Initiate on the left flank.
Orin Midwinter Annihilates his whole unit for rerolls.
Zaateroth activates, turns Hauke into a Tormentor and puts Ghost Walk on the Tormentor on the right. The Hermit moves up and uses Whispers of the Gate for a -2 ARM debuff. If I can kill the Devout, the right Tormentor might be able to kill Reznik2.
Unfortunately the right Tormentor is one inch out, so instead it murders Scourge of Heresy, then gets refuelled by the Cultists.
The Tormentor on the left kills the Archon, but misses once on an eight that would have hit before the Dynamic Update.
At the end of the turn, the Menite forces score one point, but the Champion contests Regna´s flag, so no points there.
Reznik 1 – Zaateroth 0
The Initiates wade into Cultists and kill them.
The Idrians deal a lot of damage to the Tormentor that killed Scourge of Heresy, then the Archon kills it.
Two Choirboys sing Hymn of Battle and then the third one kills the one that sang to the Devout to give Hand of Silence a Soul. Thanks to the Hermit debuff, Hymn of Battle and Hand of Vengeance, the Crusader kills the new Tormentor and does a ton of damage to the other one, despite rolling a double one for one attack.
The Champion rides down Regna, then repositions onto the flag to score it.
Hand of Silence rides over, sprays over the Tormentor and Hermit before he gives the Soul Token as a focus to the Devout. The Devout then kills the Tormentor and drops the Hermit to two boxes, though crucially missing him with a 3.
Reznik kills the Hermit with his initial and a bought attack, then repositions backwards. Madeline thinks that now is a good moment to begin negotiations and uses Parlay.
The Champion on the Menite left unpacks his lunch and starts digging into his sandwich. It is probably something char-grilled. The Infernals score no scenario elements, but the Menite forces hold both flags and a square zone.
Reznik 4 – Zaateroth 1
ROUND 4
I guess it is assassinate or die now for the Infernals.
Turns out that they choose the ´or die´ option as both Grievers either miss or fail to damage, even with rerolls from Orin. Zaateroth then tries her best, but doesn´t do enough damage as Reznik2 survives on 11 boxes without even needing his Shield Guard Devout.
At the end of the turn, the Menites score another three points.
Reznik 7 – Zaateroth 1
AFTERTHOUGHTS
I haven´t really played Zaateroth before, which probably showed at some points. Still, I can see the power she brings and the feat is a real timewalk.
Hauke losing Tactician for the Gate and Horrors was ok, as he still kept the support stuff from falling over their feet. It felt a lot less harsh having to sacrifice him to summon a Horror in Round 3.
The Tormentors missed one attack that they would have otherwise made against average DEF values, so it remains to be seen how they would deal with lists that really try to skew DEF.
The puntastic wargamer 