Both games were against nearly identical lists, although both times I decided to bring very different ones myself. Unfortunately, both games ended in defeat, although I really got too cocky in the first game and it should have been mine to win.
Here was my opponent's list:
pSkarre (+6)
- Seether (9)
- Harrower (10)
- Cankerworm (5)
- Helldiver (3)
Skarlock Thrall (2)
Bane Thralls (full, 8)
Bane Lord Tartarus (4)
The second time he switched out the Helldiver for a Pistol Wraith, but otherwise the lists were the same. A 'jack heavy pSkarre list made it very difficult to kill his warjacks and I needed to get the alpha strike both times in order to deal the most damage. pSkarre's feat is notoriously powerful and the paltry 5 points of damage is just too small of a price to pay for +5 STR and +5 ARM.
I decided to bring my Circle for the first game and I wanted to bring along the Woldwrath but forgot his cards (D'OH!) and I don't have the models I need for my Cassius list yet, so I was stuck playing with Mohsar. A somewhat bad match-up, since my feat was basically useless, but I decided to give it a try anyway:
Mohsar (+5)- Gnarlhorn (8)
- Gnarlhorn (8)
- Shadowhorn (7)
- Gorax (4)
Druids (7)
Shifting Stones (2)
Wilder (2)
Gallows Grove (1)
Gallows Grove (1)
I wanted to take photos but the tripod I have really didn't balance well on the felt that the club uses to cover its game tables. It will balance at home when I'm taking photos of my models, but I have hard surfaces for my tables.
Anyway, to quickly summarize the game: I got cocky. I did a lot of killing, moving things around, got great placement with the Gnarlhorns to get some counter-charges and generally just wreck almost everything my opponent had. Even the Banes were relatively easy to deal with since I was able to use the Gallows Groves to get inside their Stealth bubble and kill a bunch with the sprays. Pillars of Salt were able to keep the rest of them at bay while I disassembled the warjacks.
I suffered defeat, however, when I forgot about the Helldiver. I had killed almost all of his warjacks and put myself in a corner and blew through most of my fury (only one left) to kill off other important threats (Banes) and left a pocket and charge lane open for the Helldiver. Three focus and Skarre's feat later and Mohsar was mush. Very unfortunate. I hate Skarre.
The second game I played with the following list:
pNemo (+6)- Stormclad (10)
- Lancer (6)
- Squire (2)
Sword Knights (full, 6)
- Officer and Standard (2)
Alexia and Risen (5)
Rhupert (2)
Runewood (3)
Journeyman (3)
Strangeways (2)
This was my first time playing with pNemo and it was mostly an experiment. I was not expecting to win, especially considering that the Banes have Stealth and most of my anti-infantry capability is magical. Also, I didn't bring all of the models I really wanted to play with and so if I were to play this list again I would drop the UA from the Sword Knights and replace it with Ragman for some extra hurty and magic for power tokens.
I lost this game as well but mostly because there was a forest in my deployment zone that forced me to spread myself out more than I would have liked. Oh, and Skarre's feat is SO powerful. I need to find an answer for it somehow! Granted, the Stormclad was a monster and trashed the Seether with almost no difficulty and I'm confident that he'll be a solid answer to any Colossals/Gargantuans I come across. With P+S 21 with Disruption Field on him, a 13" threat range with Locomotion, and the fact that he can receive up to 5 focus from Nemo makes him an incredible heavy-hitter. If I'm able to get Death Shroud from Ragman onto the target, the Stormclad could deal an average of 67 points of damage to Conquest! Sure, it's a huge focus investment, but totally worth it.
Anyway, I will spare you the details of the game but I will say that the Risen make excellent speedbumps for elite infantry like Bane Thralls and Sword Knights have a hard time dealing damage without their flank bonus. I've gone back and forth about it but I think I've decided that the Sword Knights need to go behind the Risen unit because they can always Reform back thanks to Runewood and the Risen are far more expendable. Also, Risen with Tough from Rhupert is pretty hilarious. Additionally, the Lancer was never near where I wanted him but has some serious potential with Arcane Shield from the Journeyman and receiving Evasive from Strangeways (so he can't just be engaged by models to prevent me from using his arc node).
I generally found myself really comfortable with Nemo being far back and still being able to support my army, but that forest really messed with me and I should have just used my pathfinder-granting abilities to move through it so I could just stay clumped up instead of splitting my forces. In the end, even though I felt like my feat was used prematurely, I still had fun with the list and with pNemo and while I see why people think he's bad on paper, I think he's better in practice than people give him credit. Sure, I lost with him, but it was my first game using him (as well as Alexia's unit) and I was playing against Skarre.