On the weekend I was hoping to demo a game for a player that's interested in Latari, so I had them packed rather than Daqan. Figured I may as well get a game in!
My list: Latari Elves . Somewhat restricted by the dials I own, I knew I wanted to try out the Archers with Maegan that I'd seen at nationals, and Impact 3 Leonx is too cool not to test.
My opponent: Waiqar . He finally got around to testing the Lancer star! Plus his Reanimates are painted, so in they went.
Deployment: Battle Lines
Objective: Confluence of Magic, initial Runes 4 Unstable, 2 Natural, 1 Stable
Deployment:
I won the bid, so got to deploy two pieces of terrain. I knew the Smoldering Forest would be great for his 6-tray units, so I banished it off to the side. He stuck me with the Dimoran Fissure, and I put spikes to break up the approach.
Turn one, I start moving my Archers on the left flank up into firing position (tough, with the Dimoran Fissure) and move the central Archers and Scions up to start firing. The Leonx bank left, Lay of the Land and their excellent dial letting them reposition quite well. My opponent Rallies with his worms and one unit of Reanimates, and the right flank starts to collapse forward
Start of turn 2:
Left flank of Elves continues to advance into position while the center fires. The Deepwoods are out of range, but the Scions manage to drop a tray of Reanimates. Meanwhile, the Leonx cut back, hoping to catch the Death Knights overextended. Carrion Lancers reform slightly, and Reanimates shift forward. The right flank of undead continues to collapse forward, starting to pin the Leonx.
Middle of turn 3:
In this picture, the Latari Deepwoods and Scions have already activated, closing in and firing some shots into armored-up Reanimates. Minimal casualties, but a nice pair of stun tokens. The Carrion Lancers swing forward, setting up a juicy flank on the 6-tray Deepwoods. The Leonx dance backwards, hoping to funnel the Undead into smaller engagement confines, and the Reanimates fall just short of their charge, passing by the Death Knights that shifted out of the way. The lone Carrion Lancer spits a blight.
Start of turn 4:
With Waiqar having initiative, the Lancers rally and move three into the Deepwoods before the Latari have a chance to intercept, locking them in combat. The single Scion moves up behind them while the 2x1 kill another tray of Reanimates, and the leftmost Deepwoods finally get a chance to fire, killing one worm. The larger Deepwood Archer unit tries to ready its upgrades with a Rally and shift away, but a morale test from firing into combat landed them a stun and locks them in combat. The Leonx charge the Reanimates, but with two blight don't do much damage. They do, however, pull a flee in terror, and send the Reanimates off toward some spikes (the unit geometry didn't allow them to go directly backwards and jam their allies) which they then charge, having dialed it in to ensure combat with the Leonx. With this unexpected positioning, the solo Carrion Lancer jams up the Death Knights a bit.
Start of turn 5:
The dreaded Carrion star gets to attack! 15 damage later, the Deepwoods are holding onto threat 3 with a single model, though they do manage to escape the combat (just barely, another stun keeps them from creating more distance). The 2x2 Archers with Maegan continue to put down solid damage into the Carrion Lancers, who are also being seared by the Dimoran Fissure and charge in the back by the solo Scion. The 2x1 Scions charge the Reanimates, counting on the extra die to knock their threat down, but take a counterattack and lose a figure. While the spiked Reanimates reform to get back in the fray, the Leonx Riders charge at the solo Lancer, and just miss it with their front rank, forming up sideways. Ineffective attack. Fortunately, there's no room for the Death Knights to do anything.
Turn 6:
I forgot to get a picture here, but not a whole lot happened. The Maegan archers kept shooting the Lancers who quickly dispatched the Scion jamming them, the freed-up Deepwoods put some arrows into the dwindling unit of Reanimates, and the Leonx riders disengaged, now firmly boxed in.
Start of turn 7:
The Carrion Lancers are not as healthy here as they appear, since we were leaving casualties on the board for simplicity's sake. I believe the entire back rank was dead at this point, and the Meagan archers put another volley into them - they flee out of range. The unit with the Frontline Scion scoots up to stay out of charge range of the remaining Lancers, and the last remaining Scion manages to knock out a tray of Reanimates AND make them reform with a morale test. The Leonx, finally well and truly cornered, charge the Reanimates to inflict what damage they could, while taking a charge in the back from the Lancer and the flank from the Death Knights.
Start of turn 8:
Wrapping things up, the Frontline Scion Deepwood unit somewhere along the line takes a Loss of Faith result, killing the final Archer in that third tray, and the Leonx are destroyed utterly. With everything else battered and scattered, the game ends. The final tally yields 99 points of Latari killed to 117 points of undead, for a scant 6-5!
Post-game observations:
For my part, I was very impressed with Lay of the Land, though I now realize I forgot to use it at least once on the 3x2 Deepwoods. With it, the Leonx were incredibly mobile - shifting twice and reforming is an amazing option. The stuns from Frontline Scion were quite cool, though at least in this game I would likely have been better off shifting with the Support option. The Maegan archers put out amazing damage when you have 4 unstable runes, and Scions are good blockers, if vulnerable at only 2 defense.
My opponent enjoyed the Carrion star, but more as a novelty than a mainstay. Latari in particular have excellent tools to neuter it, so although it was deadly, it only got to attack twice. In retrospect he regretted placing the Dimoran Fissure where the Lancers wanted to be, and felt that three units 3-wide would be a liability in serious play (the very next game he played Careful Approach, and his opponent deployed terrain VERY restrictively).
Overall, a very close game with plenty of tight moments that could have sent it the other way.
Edited by Bhelliom