Durgen vs Gaspy2 (battle report)

Hello all. I am going to try out something new today and see if it is something I'd like to do more often on the blog. I found an app which is suppose to help with battle report so I figured I'd give it a go today at the FLGS. I have been wanting to try Durgen out for a while now and almost brought him to the Dark Omen LCQ instead of Ossrum. I met Tim at the store today and he is getting back into Cryx after a couple years away from the dragonfather. I'm pretty sure I haven't used the app optimally so far and this may be a little clunky for a first go so apologies in advance. Any feed back appreciated. Onto the lists for today's game: 

Nog:

Mercinaries: Highborn Covenant

Durgen Madhammer (*6pts)
* Ghordson Earthbreaker (19pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Herne & Jonne (3pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Tactical Arcanist Corps (4pts)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios (3pts)
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile (2pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Taryn di la Rovissi (2pts)
Thor Steinhammer (2pts)

Tim:

Lich Lord Asphyxious (*6pts)

* Helldiver (3pts)
* Helldiver (3pts)
* Nightwretch (4pts)
Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts)
Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Satyxis Blood Hag (2pts)
Bane Lord Tartarus (4pts)
Darragh Wrathe (4pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)

The scenario was randomly generated using the website www.SR20x.com and after randomization came out to be scenario #7 incoming.

Table prior to dice roll for first turn and deployment. There are two obstructions that are tall enough to block line of site to a colossal on a hill, one hill, a linear obstacle, and shallow water. Tim won the roll and elected to go first and I selected the side of the table with the hill.

Tim's deployment. Blood witches to my left and lots of banes on my right.

I decided to deploy my steelheads across from the bane package and the nyss hunters and Herne and Jonne across from the blood witches.

Turn 1 Cryx: Stuff ran, hell divers burrowed, clouds were put up.

Turn 1 Mercs: I poorly planned my deployment with some of the solos due to not playing this list before and forgetting about the clouds. Durgen redlined the earthbreaker and put primed on the steelheads. He then walked forward and did a carpet bomb hoping for some good drifts. I had decent drifts but sub par damage rolls killing one bile thrall and the three bane thralls hit with blast either failed to exceed arm or passed tough checks. The nightwretch too three points of damage. The combination of H&J, Nyss, and Eiryss took half of the unit of blood witches off the table whi then failed their command check. Due to clouds and the obstruction the earthbreaker walked forward and scattered a few rough terrain templates hoping to slow down the thralls if possible. Thor repaired the redline dmg, TAC dropped clouds, and last parts of the army repositioned. 

Turn 2 Cryx: Helldivers popped up and re-burrowed. Vengeance moves and some charges/advances from knights and thralls killed a couple steelheads. Asphyxious cast excarnate on a steelhead which brought back a bile thrall luckily for me not in a great location to threaten too many models. He then cast caustic mist and teleported into his little bunker of cloud and obstruction.  

Turn 2 Mercs: Primed was upkept and redline was allowed to drop. Steelheads charges bane thralls and knights trying to induce freestrikes for multiple kills via primed. Aiyana gave the Nyss magical weapons so they could continue to shoot down the blood witches. Reinhold tmoved into position to reload Durgen who then moved towards the left zone. Durgen took a case cracker *attack on the nightwretch and the reload shot at a bile thrall killing the bile thrall and a warwitch siren with blast dmg. The Nyss killed the remaining blood witches except for the hag and then took a CMA into the nightwretch with the remaining Nyss. After the turn a total of 10 bane knights/thralls (just the right number, for cryx) were dead and the nightwretch was scrapped. (Photo was taken partway into Tim's maintenance phase)

Cryx turn 3: Helldivers popped up as seen in the turn two merc pic. Asphyxious activated, moved up excarnated, and feated back the 10 banes I had killed. The bile thrall purged kill Eiryss clearing a line to Durgen. The helldiver slammed Durgen into the obstruction and then the liberal application of feated banes put the little guy into the ground. 

No es bueno Durgen!

All in all this was a fun game. Despite the loss I have to say I really enjoyed Durgen and plan to make him one of my go to merc 'casters going forward. This wasn't a perfectly played game on either side as we both made positioning mistakes at set up and throughout the game due to rust/lask of experience. On the bottom of two I thought there was an assassination attempt against Gaspy but I elected to skip it due to what I felt was a low probability. Hindsight being 20/20 I probably could have made this work and in looking over the photos I see some other opportunities I missed as well. I was pretty happy with the Durgen list I brought with me but would like to try out press gangers in the spot of the steelheads to get that primed unit stuck in sooner due to advance deploy. Hopefully this first attempt at a battle report wasn't too clunky and you were able to follow along ok. Any feedback greatly appreciated.