who would win, round 3

this week's rounds started a little bit late. Real life (work) suddenly got very busy, and I haven't had time to blog much. so no hobby update this week, and this week's two rounds of the contest might be on back to back days. I was hoping to space things out a bit more, but when your project team goes from 3 guys to 1 guy overnight, there's only so much you can do.

Today's matchup is pretty even. we have Cryx's bane thralls taking on the Retribution's Sentinels. the two units have very similar stat lines, including weaponmaster on their attacks. the Dawnguard have the advantage for first turn by having reach weapons, and will have a nice boost in the combat with vengeance from the UA. the Banes make up for it with Tough from the UA and free standing up when tough knocks them down. with 2 weapon master units going at it, the first roll is going to be critical. the winner of that roll has a very good chance of winning the match.

let's get to it


First Turn Roll-off

retribution gets +1 to this roll. in the end it makes a huge difference, as each side rolled a 4. Retribution gets the charge!

Turn 1

the sentinels charge in. both sides have the same number of models, so each sentinel is in range of one enemy model. the UAs square off since they are the last ones to be placed in this format. each sentinel needs a 5 to hit, and with 4 dice on damage will automatically disable a bane if they hit.

the sentinels roll well, only missing a single bane thrall. 2 grunts make their tough rolls, and the officer makes his roll.

the banes stand back up and take their turn. Dark Shroud is cancelled out by defensive line, so they will be using their normal stats for their attacks. Banes have a lower MAT, so will need 6s to hit. 3 grutns plus 2 swings from the officer ends up taking out 2 sentinels and putting 3 damage on the UA. even with weapon master they couldn't quite take him down.

Turn 2

not taking down the UA was huge. now the sentinels get to make a vengeance move. with their vengeance attacks, the sentinels hit with 4 attacks, each one wounding a bane. the banner made his tough roll, the others (including the officer) die.

during their activation, the sentinals line up so that 3 can hit the standing bane and 2 can hit the knocked down banner. the first attack against the grunt hit and easily disabled him (needed triple 1s to not kill him) but he made his tough roll. he made a second tough roll against the next auto-hitting attack. and finally failed to survive a third sword to the face. the banner failed its first tough roll against an auto-hitting attack

Victory goes to the Retribution!

that was the quickest round yet. the dawnguard sentinels have a nice mix of abilities that will really shine in this format. vengeane mixed with weapon master and a higher than average MAT will really put the hurt on some enemies. the low model count in the unit may hurt them if they don't get the charge, but any unit they charge will be in for some serious trouble.

Next time they will be taking on the protectorate flameguard. can shield wall and set defense overcome the raw hitting power of the Dawnguard? we'll come back to these guys in a few weeks.

Next up (hopefully this week) will be Skorne taking on the pirates of the Talion Charter. go cast your votes today, so far no one has voted for either one of these armies.

until next time