u/JoshFect

Been collecting and painting up this army since Christmas but didn't get a chance to really use them till this weekend. Played 4 games of SoG. Were mostly 40k players and we're still learning AoS.

1. vs daughters of khaine: Got my ass whooped. Was the first mission in SoG. Still learning the army and how they play. Forgot half my abilities and we were only running like 980 points. We werent doing battle tactics until we learned more(that actually hurt my slow moving army). Only could fit 5 blunderbuss and a flyer managed to tie them up by like turn 2. Couldnt bring my daemonsmith. Didnt get to leave my deployment zone.
2. vs bonereapers: Better but still lost. I moved some things around to fit the daemonsmith but I screwed myself. I called the malevolent maelstrom and due to poor placement and a reinforced deathrider charge with crit 2 hit, a +1 to hit and wound, the bomb blew up in my face by the end of the turn -.- The dominator engine with maces kicks ass but I learned he really needs all out attack. 4 to hit really sucks. Still forgot my ashen elder had the gauntlets of punishment and the smith had eye for weakness.
3. bonereapers again: This time I won(we started using battle tactics and that made it easier for me to score VP). We were both learning our armies and we decided to bump the points up to 1200ish so we could use more units. I was able to fit the SoG war despot and reinforce the blunderbuss. I tried something different and sent my hobgrots to contest the neutral objective my opponent wasnt going for. They survived all game and managed to desolate more terrain. I had like 8 points by the end. 3 DPP on blunderbuss kicks ass! My friend charged in a reinforced deathriders unit into my infernal cohort with spears and wiped them. The dominator engine counter charged but missed all but 2 of his attacks and he blocked one of them. The rockets and blunderbuss wiped the unit. The SoG Despot really helps the early game by giving everyone around him 1 DPP. My deamonsmith rolled an 11 on molten metal and managed to one shot his Leige-Kavalos to score Cut off the Head. He was a little upset about that spell. I told him the better the save, the stronger the spell gets. I also remembered to use eye for weakness, the gauntlet of punishment and the command point that gives 2 DPP to a unit if I have less than 3. Remembering everything I can do really helped.
4. bonereapers one last time. We tied at 40-40 points. My friend did some things different. He ran 2 units of 5xdeathriders and used them to grab his natural. He was using his reinforced Immortal Guard for that but this time he used the horses so they could move up the middle to get on the front line. My friend just figured out his horses can charge in, do D3 mortals and then move out. Like I said, we're still learning our armies. 3 times he interrupted my manifestations with an 11 -.- He summoned his faction manifestation the shrieker and both times it soaked up a full barrage from my blunderbuss because he was the closest target. It didnt get to do anything but it tanked a lot of shots. His Immortal guard and my hobgrots were blocking the middle while my bull grabbed my natural objective. I shouldnt have sent him to do that. The Immortal Guard have a rule where(assuming were reading it right) if you charge into them you dont get to fight except for companions. My bull couldnt charge into them and fight, so I had him go all around and counter-charge some horses. Both my 10 infernal guard with spears and blades are gone., my hob grots are down to like 6, my bull has like 3 wounds left and too far from my daemonsmith to heal him. I finally managed to summon the purple sun of shyish. Blunderbuss and rockets kill 1 group of 5x horses and 2 of the 6xImmortal guard. The purple sun charges, gets behind the immortal guard and kills his only wizard. This wiped out the 2 manifestions he had summoned and his only spell caster. Next turn, due to 3 DPP and the -1 save from the purple sun, the blunderbuss shoot right through the immortal guard and do 16 wounds, his ward only blocked 1 and wiped the unit. I thought I had won by this point but my friend turned it around. He retreated from the bull with his 3 horses, took some dmg and lost one. Then those 2 horses and his Liege-Kavalos charged into my blunderbuss and rocket on my home objective. Covering fire only killed 1 horse. With crit 2 hits from his war formation, a +1 to wound with relentless discipline, the liege-kavolos wiped the reinforced unit of blunderbuss and he took my home objective, scoring his battle tactic and tying up my rocket. Final turn, Im up by 5, It's impossible for me to score any battle tactics cause Im too slow and he's about to score 5 from primary and another 5 from his battle tactic daring resurgence. I move as far away from him as possible to prevent him from getting resurgence. I even used redeploy to make his 3 inch charge a 6 inch charge. Luckily his failed his charge even with a reroll and he only scored 5 for holding his natural expansion, the game ended in a tie.

What we took from it.

• at first he felt the 10 blunderbuss were OP but when he charged in his Kavalos and wiped the unit, I think he lightened up when he realized how fragile they are. My entire front line exists to hold him off so the range units can shoot him.
• Except for my dominator engine with maces, my melee sucks because I have no bull centaurs yet. (Seriously, Ive been checking stores in 3 states since Christmas and no one seems to have them in stock)
• while on the topic of the dominator engine with maces, he is very inconsistent. Or maybe the dice gods just werent in my favor. He either hits like hell or misses all but 1.
• My friend felt I had too much stuff to do in my hero phase. Between my wizard casting a spell, my ashen elder doing a prayer, using eye of weakness from my heroic trait. Then he said "Whats a heroic trait?" It turns out when he was building his lists, for 3 games he didnt know about heroic traits or artifacts of power. He was playing slightly handicapped. Now we know :P
• Manifestations are cool but I really need to get Urak painted up so I can summon them reliably.
• I probably should reinforce my infernal cohort so they can survive. Once his 10 horses charged in, with all the buffs he can give them, they wiped the unit frequently. I started using my hob grots to block the center so it took more wounds to clear the line but that left my bull to grab my natural.