eMorv vs eXerxis

This was a really...really strange list to play against



Circle
eMorv (proxied Pureblood)
-Stalker (proxied Woldguardian)
-Ghetorix (proxied Woldwarden)

Gallows Grove
Druids with UA
Bloodtrackers with UA
Skinwalkers with UA
Shifting stones with UA

Skorne
eXerxis
-Gladiator
-Archidon (bonded)
-Scarab
-Scarab
-Scarab
-Scarab
-Scarab
-Scarab
-Scarab
-Krea
-Aptimus Marketh

Swamp Gobbers
Paingivers

So...that's at least 280 hp RIGHT there on the table with the 7 packs of scarabs. I was like WTF when I was looking through my opponents list, mostly because I was wondering how I was going to get through that many scarabs. But apparently, it's a lot less threatening then it seems. We play Two Fronts and he goes first. 

Turn 1
-My opponent activates, casts mobility and walks eXerxis up. Then he runs the scarabs towards me. Spd 7, pathfinder, AD scarabs are insanely FAST. They're basically way over the middle of the board by the first turn. A bit too fast though because that just means they're within my threat range. 
+Well, easy things first. I don't want to damage his scarabs because then they can snack and RFP my models which prevents me from feating to bring them back.  So preferably, I want to kill whatever I can and leave the rest untouched even if it means they will attack me. My bloodtrackers go first and because he's so damn fast, their prey target is within 10" of some of them, meaning they can move 2" more. They walk up, and then proceed to shoot their prey unit of scarabs to death. It's literally one shot one kill at this stage and my dice are rolling hot. I then proceed to prey another unit and decimate it, leaving 1 alive due to less hot dice rolls. But that's 2/3 units of scarabs on that front gone so that's not too bad. The other side has the druids walk up in a double lined formation, with the druids at the back shooting the scarabs, trying to push/pull them together. The overseer lobs an AOE at a scarab and kills it and then the rest smoke so that there is no way they can engage any of my models (including the back who shot) without being in the smoke. Luckily my foe has no AOEs. Gallows grove ports and then Morv arc nodes a deathknell through it into scarabs, killing 2. I'm dry on fury but hopefully that won't matter too much this first turn. I arrange the stones so that it can port either Morv, the stalker or Ghetorix the next turn. 

Turn 2
-So I've killed 10 scarabs out of 28 which isn't bad for a first turn but my opponent still has 18 more to throw at me. Xerxis walks up, casts mobility again and ignite on the archidon. Gladiator casts rush on it and then the Aptimus casts lightning strike on it. 2 Scarabs charge my tree but fail to kill it somehow. Other scarabs run to engage my druids. Then the unit of 3 scarabs charges skinwalkers but only one can make a successfull charge so the rest run. The Skinwalker lives. Scarabs apparently have really crappy P+S. The preyed scarab then runs away. Like way away. Archidon charges and finishes off the injured Skinwalker and then blitzes away. 
+At first I'm thinking if I should try and spell-ssinate Xerxis but then I find out he's armor 19 which is not great odds for me. Especially since he still has 1 focus. My skinwalkers walk up and kill some scarabs. I really should have cast carnivore on them first as they actually miss twice. Stalker is ported forward by the stones into a bunch of scarabs but he only has reach to two sadly. He chooses berserk and then lightning sprints himself and kills both before blitzing backwards. The druids then do the same schtick as just now except now that he's engaging me, I push his scarabs into a little circle and then bomb them with the oversee. This pretty much finishes off another pack since they were all damaged previously from the pushing. Bloodtrackers finish off the objective and I score 1 CP. 

Turn 3
-He upkeeps ignire. eXerxis feats, walks up and casts mobility and camps my zone. Scarabs charge the druids and kill the ones contesting the zones thanks to the feat + boosting. Archidon kills the objective but forgets to lightning strike backwards. He then scores 3CP and ends his turn. However, due to him needing to rush off, we call the game then. 

Thoughts on game
The scarabs are surprisingly easy to kill. They're almost kind of like little 1 wound models that may require 2 people to shoot at one to kill instead of having 1 person kill 1. Crappy defense stats plus really low armor don't help either. My opponent could have tried to dig in but considering I can purify, I'm not sure that helps. 

If this game had continued, I probably would have won since I was dominating in terms of attrition and all my opponent had at this point were 2.5 packs of scarabs and 2 warbeasts. But since the Archidon was out in the open, I would have used my warpwolf to kill it off and then blitz backwards and then use my druids to jam any possible charge lane from Xerxis to the warpwolf while the 2 contested. The skinwalkers may possibly have gone into the zone as well. If Xerxis tried to kill the warpwolf then Ghetorix would have finished him off with a counter-attack. Bloodtrackers would probably have engaged his gladiator and tried to pins and needles him to death. If I was too low on troops, then I would feat. 

Otoh, that's all just theory depending on what my opponent does. It might be that he might have very well chosen to go over to his own zone and dominate there instead.