Best of three: Chosen Axes vs Steelheart's Champions 04.01.18

My first best of three and first post using the Chosen Axes. I absolutely love the models for these guys and must confess that I had a couple of games with them that I never wrote up as I got totally battered by aggro warbands! I was up against my mate Nick again with his aggro Steelheart's and I did a little better this time. These games all took place in Bugman's Bar at Warhammer World in Nottingham which is always an awesome place to play if you get the chance and does some pretty epic burgers these days.

It was MUCH busier than this on Friday lunchtime!

Game one

Nick deploys very aggressively, clearly aiming to start launching into my territory from the off. His first action is to charge Steelheart himself and kill Vol which scored me martyred. There was a tense moment here where Nick upgraded Steelheart with great fortitude and used ready for action to swing at the adjacent Maegrim as well but thankfully missed! Losing half my fighters to the first activation of the game would have been pretty rough! I manage to keep the rest of my fighters out of the way, inspiring Tefk and Maegrim and using Fjul to score me extreme flank and get into a good position.

Steelheart almost kills two fighters at the very start of game one. Ouch.

At the start of turn two I charge Oberyn with Maegrim doing two damage and pushing him into Fjul threat range (I am trying to score ferocious charge and scion of grimnir here) but Nick distracts Fjul away. He then swings on Maegrim but misses. I respond by charging Tefk in who crits to trigger cleave and kills Oberyn to score me ferocious charge. I get faneway crystal onto Fjul and teleport him deep into Nick's territory with a tonne of upgrades on and immediately inspire him with regal vision. This scores me unstoppable advance. Nick kills my other two fighters though so it is Fjul vs Steelheart and Angharad (both inspired) going in to the final round. 

I win the turn and charge Angharad from five hexes away, kill her and score scion of grimnir. I use the glory to upgrade Fjul with activated runes followed by ready for action to attack Steelheart... and miss! Oathsworn to the rescue I swing again and get three (!) crits. This pushes Steelheart into no mans land and leaves him on one wound. Theres no way Nick can kill Fjul with his upgrades so we start to cycle objectives and I get lucky with shining example and singled out appearing at a great time. The game ends in an 11-9 victory to the Chosen Axes!

Fjul's ended off the game on this - note to self overhead lights and card sleeves do not mix well

Game two

I learn my lesson and set up out of charge range with as many fighters as possible and use the first activation advantage to get Maegrim out of danger too. Nick sidesteps back into threat and I earth shakes him back out again. We mill around a bit and I use spoils of battle, fighter's ferocity and ready for action to move Fjul onto an objective. Nick promptly peal of thunders me off! Dammit. This stops me using regal vision so I can't score shining example as I stupidly put another fighter on the only objective Fjul can reach. Nick scores some objectives including bold advance and I just score catching up.  

Angharad charges Fjul and kills him using incredible strength and twist the knife. Oh dear. Maegrim manages to kill Angharad but Oberyn kills Tefk with the help of trap. I use as many pushes as I can to get Maegrim deep into Nick's territory and await my inevitable doom. This scores me unstopppable advance. In the final turn I give Nick first activation and he moves Oberyn away and into my territory. I get Maegrim as far away as possible and start cycling objectives managing to get singled out and escalation for piling upgrades on him. Nick gets a couple of territory based objectives including conquest to end the game as a 10-7 win to Nick. Considering how badly my dudes got mauled here I was pleased with the result and it was a really tactical thinking game. 

Game three

So it is super tight going in to the deciding match. Spoiler alert - I get my ass handed to me. As with game two I am cautious and the first turn is mainly lots of moving and a couple of pushes. Nick gets bold advance and I get nothing. Nick wins the roll and charges in Steelheart, killing Maegrim. He upgrades him with incredible strength and ready for actions to kill Fjul (who I treasure lusted next to him in order to inspire and start some killing). From here it was basically game over for me. Nick clinically kills my remaining fighters as I fail to roll any successes and I have no models left at the end of round two! The game ends 12-0 to him with denial, conquest and consecrated ground all scoring in his third end phase

Fjul ended game three on this - full credit to Nick for his classy gloating via groupchat :)

Thoughts

After this I really think best of threes are the way to play the game. Knowing some of your opponent's tricks and objectives is really interesting and can add a bluffing element that doesn't exist in just one game - am I going for extreme flank or just trying to get you to burn your push ploys? I really like the Chosen Axes but still think they are tough to play especially against aggro warbands with four wound fighters who can do three damage with no support. I am pretty sure I will be using Cursebreakers for my first event this weekend mainly because I have them painted and feel they are more flexible. I will be doing a write up of the event so watch this space 👍