Commander Geriatrix v. Grim

The scenario is Grind, which is an awesome little basketball-esque scenario where players try to move the objective (the "grind-ball"), into a scoring zone on the opponent's side of the table. Doing enough damage to the ball throws it 4-6 inches in the direction of a player's choice. It can also be thrown by warjacks and warbeasts with open fists.

In actual play, the players can largely ignore the scenario and concentrate on mugging the opponent's force and/or 'caster. Great scenario idea, that in practice makes for boring or perhaps "standard" games.

Army Name: Nemo
Cygnar
35+6 points, 16 models

Commander Adept Nemo +6 points
* Cyclone 9 points
* Lancer 6 points
* Stormclad 10 points
* Squire 2 points

Journeyman Warcaster 3 points

Captain Arlan Strangewayes 2 points
Stormblades 5 points
* Stormblade Officer & Standard 3 points
Stormsmith Stormcaller 1 point

Nemo won the roll and decided to go first. He took the side of the table with the water to deny Grim's Earthborn dire troll animus shenanigans. He deployed centrally, with the Stormblades and Stormclad on the left flank and Cyclone and Stormsmith more on the right.

Army Name: Grim Angus
Trollbloods
35+6 points, 21 models

Grim Angus +6 points
* Earthborn Dire Troll 10 points
* Troll Axer 6 points
* Troll Impaler 5 points

Dannon Blythe & Bull 4 points
Fell Caller Hero 3 points
Janissa Stonetide 3 points
10 Pyg Burrowers 6 points
Trollkin Runeshapers 4 points

Grim counterdeployed with his beasts and Janissa on the flank opposite the Stormteam, and the Runeshapers and Blythe and Bull across from the Cyclone. The Burrowers ADed in the center of the formation.



Nemo ran most of his stuff and put Disruption Field on the Stormclad. I felt like this was a Jack Bullet battle: the SC with Nemo has over a 12" threat and Grim's Earthborn Dire Troll is even more impressive if it starts its turn near rough terrain, has the Axer animus, and Grim has shot the target already.

Grim had the Pygs tunnel, and then moved everything up cautiously. Grim himself did 9 damage to the Lancer on a good damage roll. The Runeshapers' deviations went nowhere. Janissa put up a rock wall and the EDT gave Grim Transmute.



Nemo moved up his force and considered charging the SC in. He was close to 13" away from Grim, but because of the rock wall granting Grim an 18 DEF from melee and 20 from ranged and magic, Nemo decided to spend his focus throwing lightning around.

The Lancer and Stormblades advanced, with two blades hitting the objective and moving it 5" toward the EDT. The SC might have been able to score a point but instead took a shot that missed.

Nemo advanced and fired chain lightning at Bull, who was hit. The arc hit the EDT, Janissa, Grim, and the Fell Caller. With another CL they might have died, but none of those models took enough damage to go down.

The Cyclone got a focus from Arlan and moved up, rolling average metal storm attacks and killing two Runeshapers. The Stormsmith failed his stormcall.

JR recast Arcane Shield on the old man and Nemo ended his turn at def 14 arm 19 with a couple focus on him.



Grim had a decent chance at getting the EDT over to Nemo and ending the game, but a lot had to happen. The burrowers popped up and spread out to charge at the 'blades and SC, with a few going for back arc attacks on the Lancer. I left a gap for Grim to see through to shoot at Nemo.

Grim activated and cast the Impaler animus to improve his own range, then he cast the Axer animus on the EDT to give it +2" of move. Then he moved up and feated, catching everything on his side with the net, including Nemo. Then he shot Nemo and hit, boosting damage and doing 4 points. This also gave an extra 2" to any beasts who wanted to charge Nemo.

I activated the Fell Caller and he gave the Burrowers even more accuracy and tried to hurt the Lancer, whiffing his charge attack but doing fair damage with the second sword. The burrowers failed to hurt the Stormblades and Stormclad much, but managed to wreck the Lancer (no shield bonus from behind).

Then I had to kill some Burrowers to clear the lane for the EDT. Blythe and Bull killed the one really in the way, but he made his Tough check. While knocked down the Runeshaper remaining rock hammered him and he died. The Impaler killed another Pyg that might have been a concern and the EDT went for it, using Pathfinder and his +6" move (started near a forest for rough terrain bonus) to charge 14" and end in Nemo's grill. Using the pow of Nemo's weapon his fists went up to P+S 19, straight dice on the old man. With Grim's feat up he needed 5s to hit. Only took two shots to end Nemo.



It was a stretch, but it paid off.

Game MVP: EDT, the thing is super flexible and lots of fun to play.

Lessons learned: keep Nemo way way back. The EDT could have scrapped the SC instead, but the Stormblade countercharge would have probably ended the troll, and the Cyclone is actually dangerous if the heavies are off the table.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Poor Bodgers Tourney

I got up the the Gamer's Sanctuary in Flint for a 15 point mini tournament on Monday. I fully expected to do poorly, as I wanted play Constance Blaize and she's not highly regarded in online forums.

I brought two lists, one for Blaize as Cygnar and one for her as a mercenary. She's unique as an "ally" warcaster, so she can either be run as a faction Cygnar queenpin, or in a mercenary contract that accepts mercs who will work for Cygnar (currently, the only such contract is the Highborn Covenant, which can -only- include mercs who will work for Cygnar). I asked Ray whether I should go merc or Cyg and he suggested merc.



So that's what I did.

Blaize 6 'jack points
Gallant 9 Pts
Cylena and her Nyss Hunters 10 Pts
Harlan Versh, the Illuminated One 2 Pts

Everything in the list is a mercenary (either straight up or because of the "ally" rule), so Blaize's "friendly faction" buffs and feat affect the whole force.

The idea is to give the Nyss banishing ward to protect them from spells on the approach, then have them alpha strike with Crusader's Call from 12" away with the feat up. I'll lose a bunch of Nyss to the counterstroke but with the feat up it should make Blaize tough as nails the next turn. Harlan shoots buffed units like a cannon, and Gallant is a good basic beater.

Game 1 was against Cygnar Constance Blaize. Hilarious.

My opponent won the roll and asked me to go first. He had

Blaize
Gallant
6 Precusor Knights with Battle Chaplain and Standard
Black 13th Gun Mage strike team
Stormsmith Stormcaller

I had seen him prepping for the tournament, and he had a different list during prep. Instead of the B13 and Stormcaller he had Reinholdt the Gobber Speculator and 6 Sword Knights.

I thought that wasn't bad, but I offered to loan him a Stormcaller because they are better for Constance than Reinholdt for 1-point filler.

He may have also overheard me lamenting the loss of the B13 in my own list by playing Highborn instead of Cygnar. Either way, I thought the list he actually played looked strong.

I set up the Nyss to take the hill on my side of the board with a first turn run. Gallant, Blaize, and Harlan went up the center-left near a building. Blaize put Banishing Ward on the Nyss to stop Sunburst attacks and Transference on herself.

He moved his PKs up in shield wall, and his Blaize and Gallant mirrored mine, though he played more conservatively back. The B13 got Banishing Ward (drat!) and he also cast Transference. B13 hid behind the PKs and the Stormsmith (who terrified me) hid behind a wall.

I decided to play the next round conservatively, and almost lost the game because of it. I moved the Nyss up a bit and had them do combined ranged attacks, which were moderately successful, killing two PKs. Gallant and Constance hung back, and Harlan moved behind my troops.

I did NOT use my feat. I thought my Nyss with Banishing Ward could survive mostly intact for the next round. I thought I might lose 3, maybe four.

My opponent popped his feat, and cast Crusader's Call for the bonus to charges. I had deliberately kept my Gallant 12.5 inches away from his in an attempt to goad him into failing a charge (Gallant under Crusdar's Call can charge 10" and has 2" Reach on his magic beatstick). I had measured the range for a bowshot from one of my Nyss (12" range), so I was certain if he went for the bait I'd come out ahead.

He didn't take the bait. Instead, after getting her Call in Blaize stayed back. Then his Gallant charged a Nyss, and using Purgation for an extra die on attacks he killed two. Then the PKs charged in and killed two more with boosts from Transference.

This is all according to plan; I was expecting as much. I wasn't expecting the Black 13th to kill 4 more Nyss, including Cylena. I had feared them, and rightly so. I knew he was going to use his Stormsmith to disrupt Gallant and end his turn. . . But he didn't. The SS dropped a lightning strike on Blaize instead, doing no damage.

I was back in, because I knew if I could kill the PK officer and Gallant my next turn then I still had a beatstick and my foe would have trouble with Gallant.

I gave Gallant two focus and dropped all upkeeps. I moved Harlan up and took a shot at a PK, but missed. Gallant charged Gallant and hit him a bit. With the buckler attack Gallant squished the PK Battle chaplain (mission one accomplished). Then Gallant beat on Gallant with his sword twice more, missing once and hitting for a bunch with the second.

The Nyss killed a PK between them.

Constance activated last, and utilizing flank with her Gallant managed to wreck (barely) the other Gallant. She popped her feat with no focus, standing at midfield near a wreck marker.

My opponent moved the B13 first and shot at Blaize, doing about 5 damage with a good brutal damage shot and 4 from Ryan's Mage storm (which targeted Gallant because Blaize had cover even after Ryan had moved). The PKs got the run order (not charge, for some reason) so that one could rush to my backfield and engage Harlan.

Constance moved up and hit Constance (his hit mine) with a boosted Sunfire, doing a few more damage. I should have had gallant eat the shot from Watts earlier. Meh. I was down to 5 wounds and desperate.

The Stormsmith moved up. . .and did two more damage to my Blaize with a stormcall. Again, disrupting my gallant would have been better.

I looked at the table and decided I had a shot at a hail Mary assassination run. Gallant gained his free focus and ran to his Constance, just to engage her and enable my flank bonuses.

Then my Blaize activated. With 7 focus (feat was largely lame) I cast sunburst at Ryan, who was blocking my path to the other Blaize. I hit on the boost, and the damage killed her. Then Blaize charged through the gap and stabbed her counterpart, boosting the hit roll. I hit and did 8 damage. I spent another focus to flashing blade, and killed Watts and other Blaize with a good roll (she was sitting on 2 focus so dice -5 on three dice for damage). That was game.

My opponent said he should have won, and that he made a few mistakes. He was about to tell me about it when I told him I was terrified of his Stormsmith all game, and was surprised when he didn't disrupt Gallant.

He was not happy about that.

Game MVP: Blaize. Flank will bring some pain. Wrecked an ARM 19 heavy with flank.

Game 2 vs. Rhyas of the Legion of Everblight

The scenario is Killbox, which means kill the other casterlock before they kill you, and if your casterlock leaves the center of the board after two turn, you automatically lose.

My opponent lost the roll and I choose to go first after examining his army stats. He was running:
Rhyas
4 Shredder light warbeasts
1 Stinger light warbeast
Full 10-dude unit of Blighted Nyss Swordsmen with the Unit Attachment (2 more dudes for 12 total).

I looked at it, and saw no offensive spells. So no need for Banishing Ward. It was a fast list, but didn't have many ranged attacks. Only the Stinger had a short-ranged spray attack. When I went first I ran my whole force. My Nyss were as fast as his. Blaize, Gallant, and Harlan went to meet the Swordsmen head-on while my Nyss went for a flanking strike.

He counter-ran with his force, pushing two Shredders halfway down the field, and keeping his other beasts and Rhyas behind the Swordsmen's advance. He put Occultation on the Swordsmen, which gives a unit stealth (ranged attacks from more than 5" away automiss).

I walked Harlan to within 2" of the lead swordsman and blew him away with Mallus, Harlan's magical quadiron gun. Mallus works like this: Harlan is only RAT 6, so he's not terribly accurate, but the quadiron allows an extra attack up to four (it's a four-barreled magic revolver) as long as Harlan keeps hitting. RAT 6 isn't so good against the Swordsmen's 14 defense. On average rolls Harlan will miss. But Harlan is a witch hunter. His weapons are Blessed, so they ignore defensive buffs from spells, and they have Purgation, so he rolls an extra attack and damage die if his target has an upkeep spell on them (like Occultation). Harlan killed 3 Swordsmen.

I activated Blaize and moved her left a bit, popped her feat and cast Crusader's Call. Gallant did a similar conservative shimmy. My Nyss Hunters charged into the fray, killing two more Swordsmen and annihilating the two shredders that had run forward.

My opponent didn't seem concerned. He activated the Stinger first and killed two of my Nyss with its fire-spray attack(+2 souls). The blighted Swordsmen activated and did some attacking shenanigans to get extra attacks, but the whole unit only managed to kill Harlan and 2 more of my Nyss (+3 souls).

What really floored me is this: my opponent then activated his warlock, Rhyas, and charged her ninja ass up into a Nyss Hunter something like 11 inches with her movement buff spell, using acrobatics to hop over a few other targets on the way.

And she missed her attack. She needed a 7 to hit, and didn't get it. I thought for sure my foe would spend one of her remaining two Fury to buy another attack and murder the spiteful elf in front of her, as Rhyas also has Sprint. Sprint allows her to move a full advance away if she's killed a model after her activation.

But he didn't. Instead he ended his turn by running his remaining shredders into the backfield.

So I started my turn with +5 focus on Blaize, less than 8" from my opponent's warlock. To top it off, Gallant was also less than 10" from Rhyas. So my goal was to go for the throat and finish the game quickly.

There was a Nyss hunter in my way. I had to figure out how to either move or kill it to clear my attack lane. I allocated 2 focus to Gallant, and activated him first. He gained another focus from his Morrowan Accumulator ability (to his max of 3) and slammed the intervening Nyss, boosting the to-hit because he still needed an 8 (that Nyss defense!). I hit, however, slamming the poor elf into Rhyas and doing a strength-based (power 11) collateral damage roll to both of them. The Nyss didn't make it. Rhyas took a damage or two.

So now Rhyas was knocked down, reducing her defense from 17 (with the Tenacity animus from the shredders) to melee attacks auto-hit. Gallant bought an extra sword attack and stabbed the hell out of her. she transfered the damage, blowing up a shredder instead.

The remaining Nyss Hunters activated, most of them missing the Swordsmen they were engaged with, but Cylena and one pal were free and able to charge the downed Rhyas. They did a lot of damage, but one hit was transfered to the last shredder, killing it.

Blaize didn't have a clear charge lane to Rhyas and needed the extra movement from the charge to engage her to buy extra attacks. But Blaize could see Cylena just fine, and poor Cylena was standing next to Rhyas. Blaize charged and killed Cylena, and then she was standing over the prone enemy warlock with Gallant in range for a flank bonus and nine focus left for stabs.

Game over for Rhyas.

Game MVP: Blaize again, getting it done herself.

I'm seeing a pattern here.

Game 3 vs. Prime Deneghra of Cryx

The scenario is Process of Elimination, which has two large squares in the center of the table, which extend well into both players' sides of the table.

Deneghra's list was spell-assassination heavy:

Deneghra
4 Deathripper bonejacks
Skarlock Thrall
Captain Rengrave

It's a tough list to play against, but I had a hard counter in the form of Blaize's spell Banishing Ward, which makes it impossible to target a model/unit with spells. Deneghra's list is 4 arc nodes (the deathrippers) to fire spells through, a Skarlock 'caster attachment who casts a spell for free each turn, and Rengrave, who is a decent solo.

I decided to park the Nyss in the woods turn one with Banishing Ward, and use Harlan to flank and Gallant to protect Blaize. I won the roll but made my opponent go first. The table was littered with terrain, with woods on either side and a river that ran all over the board.

Denny ran her whole force through the rivers and woods first turn. I did the same from my side but cast Transference and Banishing Ward on the Nyss.

Denny spent the next turn positioning arc nodes weirdly to aim Venom sprays near the Nyss without actually targeting the Nyss, to get around Banishing Ward. He wound up hurting and corroding a deathripper and killing one Nyss. The node he ran over to shoot at Blaize with was an inch out of Denny's control range, so he couldn't spray my caster. Rengrave took an ineffective shot.

I upkept Transference and gave Gallant some focus. Gallant tore the node off the deathripper that had run by Blaize. Blaize cast Crusader's Call and parked in the back of the forest to evade spell assassination. She also popped her feat. The Nyss charged the arc nodes in the midfield and mostly missed. They used two of Blaize's focus to boost attacks and mugged two of the deathrippers, ruining their cortexes but leaving the arc nodes intact.

Denny used her feat to counteract my own (hers, and fired a Scourge at my now-weaker Nyss. Somehow she managed to miss and the deviation flew away to little effect. Her deathrippers, engaged and/or cortex-crippled, swung at the Nyss ineffectively. Rengrave killed a Nyss.

My troops were now also -2 to their melee attack, so they were gonna have trouble hitting the arc nodes without Transference and I had had to drop that spell.

The thing was, the deathrippers and Nyss Hunters were squared off in a struggle, and they're both defense 15 and Melee attack 6, needing 9s on two dice to hit. We fought for the center for several turns. Gallant scrapped an arc node. I decided that the only safe play was to put Banishing Ward on Blaize, and it sat on her the rest of the game.

Eventually, I cleared a lane for Gallant to charge near Denny with Crusader's Call up for +2 inches on the charge. Denny took some beats and tried to retreat. Gallant charged again the next turn, and that was game.

Took a long time, but I pulled it out.

Game MVP: Gallant, who was pretty badass.

Harlan didn't do much in most of the third game, though he did manage some hurt on the back arc of an arc node with three shots hitting in a single turn.

I was 3-0 but the other 3-0 player won the event with a stronger play record. I came in third, actually, though I'm not sure how the 2-1 guy came in second in front of me.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Caine v. Ashlynn

The scenario is Capture the Flag, which is essentially "assassinate!"

I used an iPhone app to randomly determine which 'casters would be playing this scenario. From Cygnar it landed on Caine, and from the mercenary 'casters I own it dropped on Ashlynn.

Ashlynn is pretty amazing, but ranged armies can give her fits. I had to proxy a lot because of duplications this match.

Army Name: That Caine has Character
Cygnar
35+6 points, 19 models

Lieutenant Allister Caine +6 points
* Ol' Rowdy 9 points
* Squire 2 points (Caine loves the focus from the Squire, and Rowdy is a great, focus-efficient 'jack)

Journeyman Warcaster 3 points (Arcane Shield on Caine is a must)

Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team 4 points (rarely disappoint)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes 2 points (meh)
Dannon Blythe & Bull 4 points
* Captain Jonas Murdoch 2 points (I've been thinking of running this combo a lot. Murdoch gives the bounty hunters once-per game dig in, and access to the assault order [doubling their attacks, essentially]. Blythe gives Murdoch prey with the rest of the unit for a hit and damage buff against their chosen target. Caine can further boost their accuracy and threat with Deadeye and Snipe)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution 3 points
Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist 2 points
Harlan Versh, Illuminated One 2 points
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt 4 points
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator 1 point
Stormsmith Stormcaller 1 point
Viktor Pendrake 2 points

The basic idea behind this list is that Caine is a badass infantry killer on his own. So he doesn't need a lot of basic infantry. Instead I opt for many cool units, most of which are multi-wound models, which increases their survivability. I should probably drop Arlan for something else: a Gun Mage Captain maybe? There are a lot of options at two points. Maybe also drop the Stormsmith and add Runewood for pathfinder and charge bonuses?

Army Name: Ashlyn's Paperthin Armor Brigade
Highborn Covenant
35+6 points, 25 models

Ashlynn D'Elyse +6 points
* Nomad 6 points
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker 2 points

I wanted to try Sylas. He's awesome.

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages 6 points
* Gun Mage Officer 2 points
** Mule 8 points
Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist 2 points
Harlan Versh, Illuminated One 2 points
10 Nyss Hunters 10 points
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator 1 point
Taryn di la Rovissi 2 points

This is an interesting list, but area-of effect attacks will pick it apart fast. Most of the models here are high-defense, low armor. Luckily Caine's list had little access to aoes.

Caine won the roll and took the side of the board with the hill. He deployed with most of his stuff looking to get on the hill, though he and Rowdy (and their entourages: goblin, r2d2, Arlan) went more left of center.

Ashlynn put the Mule and ATGMs on her left flank across from the hill. The Nyss deployed to take the right flank forest, with Ashlynn, her Nomad and entourage up the middle.

Dannon and Bull opted for the Mule as prey. I was hoping to stack Aiyana's harm effect (kiss of Lyliss; +2 damage on all subsequent attacks) with the prey bonus for a net +4 and dice -2 against the Mule's armor.

The AD solos went near the middle. Caine moved up with Blur on the B13 and Snipe on B&b&m. Ashlynn moved up as well with admonition on herself and Quicken on the Nyss.

Caine's second turn was money. Eiryss tried to shoot Quicken off the Nyss, but missed. Harlan activated and managed to kill 3 Nyss with his purgation-havin' quadiron. The B13 moved up and Lynch's Fire Beacon missed but deviated nicely, ao that Watts and Ryan could kill 3 more Nyss and Gorman Di Wolfe. Rowdy moved up cautiously. Caine himself feated but didn't kill much other than Ashlynn's Harlan and Taryn the Gunjugs, and three ATGMs. He teleported back to safety. Aiyana and Holt moved up but most everything was out of range by now. B&B&M did several damage to the Mule and Bull pushed it back 3 inches, moving up himself.

Ashlynn responded with her feat, which made her troops' already-awesome defense even better. She also used Sylas to cast Gallows and move Rowdy up, which put him in charge LOS for the loaded Nomad. The Nomad mauled Rowdy and the remaining two Nyss nearby finished him. The last Nyss engaged Eiryss but missed.

The gunmages killed Bull,'but he was Tough. The
Mule, shooting at Murdoch on a hill, needed an 11 to hit. He got it, but not with a crit. Murdoch and Aiyana and Holt died from the shot, but Murdoch is Tough as well.

Ashlynn's force was decimated, but she'd taken out Caine's only heavy and had two of her own. He feat also made counter-attacking rough.

However, Caine himself was out of the feat, but within range to Thunderstrike the Nomad, and with enough movement he could slam it back into Ashlynn, knocking her down. After taking some basic attacks that is precisely what Caine did, and he managed to get enough slam distance to knock her down. The B13 then shot her to death.



Sad. Thunder Strike is very much a cointoss. If Caine had missed (not likely, but he needed to boost to hit the nomad near Rowdy's wreck and had to use the Squire reroll) he'd have had a tough fight ahead. Also, if he hadn't rolled the 3 on slam distance he wouldn't have gotten far enough to knock Ashlynn down. However, those are rolls and chances Caine has to take, and when he hits them it is game.

Game MVP: the Black 13th strike team. They rarely disappoint.

Lessons learned: don't let Ash get slammed. Even quickened Nyss in a forest will get picked off by Harlan Versh. Caine's feat is unreliable against high-defense models (maybe Rangers?). Rowdy gets scrapped too easy without AS. The B13 still rock. Blythe and Bull with Murdoch was hard to use, and they rolled poorly for damage. However, having some Tough guys around is nice.

WarmaHordes Team Tournament

Ray called me on Tuesday and said that there was a WH Team tourney on Saturday. He also asked if I'd team up with him, as he had theorymachined a bunch of Cryx/Cygnar villainy. I managed to find some family support and got to play, and the villainy commenced.

We played:
Army Name: Shootethrax 2.0
Cryx
50+6 points, 46 models

Lich Lord Venethrax +6 points
* Malice 9 points
* Skarlock Thrall 2 points

5 Black Ogrun Boarding Party 6 points
10 Bloodgorgers 8 points
10 Croe's Cutthroats 10 points
General Gerlak Slaughterborn 3 points
Necrotech 1 point
Satyxis Raider Captain 2 points
10 Satyxis Raiders 8 points
* Satyxis Sea Witch 2 points
Withershadow Combine 5 points
1 Scrap Thrall

and

Army Name: Stupid Caine Tricks
Cygnar
50+6 points, 30 models

Lieutenant Allister Caine +6 points
* Ol' Rowdy 9 points
* Squire 2 points

Journeyman Warcaster 3 points

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages 6 points
* Gun Mage Officer 2 points
** 2x Hunter 6 points each
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team 4 points
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution 3 points
10 Nyss Hunters 10 points
* Captain Jonas Murdoch 2 points
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator 1 point
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord 2 points

The basic idea was that Caine's ranged buff spells Deadeye and Snipe make the units Ray was taking (Ogrun and Cutthroats) awesome, as generally speaking Cryx doesn't have access to ranged buffs and Cygnar doesn't have access to the dirty-tricks shooting of the more evil factions. It worked okay. Further, giving Snipe to Malice, so that he can harpoon a jack from like 18 inches away and drag them into your lines to get mauled, is gross.

 In fact, the Black Ogrun also have drag, so the list was very "GET OVER HERE!" with Snipe and Deadeye to pull stuff in. We didn't get to do too much of that, but what there was was nasty.

Round 1 vs Constance Blaize (Cygnar) and Baldur (Circle)

Baldur was running a unit of bloodtrackers, a tricked out ravagers unit, two woldwardens and the Megalith, and the shifting stones with ua. Constance had a min Precursor Knights with ua, Gallant, a Charger, Jr with a Hunter, Squire, Strangeways, a min unit of Trenchers and a max unit of Sword Knights with UA. And a Stormsmith. Someone had Swamp Gobbers as well.

We won the roll, set up first, and deployed our mess of infantry all over the map. Caine gave Blur to the raiders and Snipe to Malice, and Rupert gave the raiders Tough. The raiders ran to engage the Trenchers (like an 18 inch run, ridiculous). pretty much evverything else ran. Venethrax cast Lamentation and upkept it all game. Soul Harvester is a hard counter to Blaize's feat.





Deployment photo!

The Circle moved up and Baldur feated, giving his entire army cover and making it difficult to fight them. We made some mistakes because of the feat. I had never played against it so I wasn't sure how it worked, and Ray misremembered it. Everything moved up, with the bloodtrackers (Prey= Satyxis) engaging some Nyss with a run. Nothing much happened otherwise; the Trenchers killed two or three Raiders with help from Transference, but it was expensive. Baldur had Solid Ground up and Constance had Transference up.

Ray and I realized we'd kept Caine too far back to feat this turn, so we just went our way. Caine dropped Blur but left Malice with Snipe, then the Satyxis Raiders murdered a bunch of Trenchers with Soul Harvester on them (Venethrax gets a pile of souls). Also got the Stormsmith. Venethrax feated, and the Nyss assaulted the bloodtrackers, killing a couple and making clouds. The sword knights on the far flank were engaged by a Nyss and a Raider.

The gunmages and Hunters managed to kill a Ravager and hurt another. Cutthroats engaged the other Ravagers in Baldur's control area and feat, and the trolls and ogres hung back a bit. Gerlak set up for a ridiculous turn. B13 did nothing.

The counterstrike was rough, with several Earth Spikes from Geomancy killing four gunmages and quite a few cutthroats. The ravagers killed more cutthroats in the woods (though they had some trouble due to Tough from the piper). The bloodtrackers killed a couple Nyss (poof! clouds!), and the Sword Knights killed the stuff engaging them. Constance managed to get a bunch of Raiders dead, but we were controlling the middle zone at this point, with only one Trencher and one Sword Knight contesting it.





Poof! Clouds!

Ray did something awesome and terrible, with Gerlak getting soul harvester and a reroll from the withershadow combine, and proceeding to kill the Trencher, the entire 12-man unit of Sword Knights, and a blood tracker with his berserker fury. Constance's feat was up as well, so all those tasty souls went to the Lich Lord instead of the Knight of the Prophet. It was amazing to watch. The Nyss killed all but 3 bloodtrackers and their ua. The remaining gunmages, B13, and Hunters killed another Ravager and put some damage on a woldwarden. The bloodgorgers charged up and wrecked the Hunter and engaged the other woldwarden. Malice and Rowdy didn't do a lot this game, but this turn they moved up to cover Venethrax's soul-gorged, ARM 30 advance.

Caine feated and killed 3 Percursors and put a bunch of shots into Megalith, doing 8 or so damage (without boosting, weirdly). Then he teleported behind the Ogrun. The last Raider ran away to deny the bloodtrackers a new prey target.

At this point we were winning the attrition war but our clock was running down. We were talking out a lot of strategy and we had a ton of models with a ton of attacks. We also had gained a control point.

The next counterstrike was pillowfisted. The woldwarden on the gunmage-flank charged up and failed to hurt them, then dropped earth spikes all over the place but didn't do much. Megalith did similar, also using his defense-debuffing animus. He killed two of the B13. The remaining Earth Spikes hit Malice, but didn't do much damage and he never got the crit knockdown.

The Ravagers finished Croe's but couldn't hit the gunmages. The bloodtrackers had trouble with the Nyss. The Precursors charged up, killing two trolls but getting countercharged by Rowdy in the process (splat). The gunmages moved up to contest the zone again and shot at the withershadow, killing one.

We had 20 minutes left. Venethrax used up like 12 of his 20 focus (SOULS!) killing Constance with Soulfire spells. That took some time. The Hunters killed the woldwarden on their flank. We tried to kill the lone precursor to survive the counterattack in the zone but he survived. only 1 control point. We hit the chess clock with 5 seconds left on it.

Now, here's the thing: we were playing death clock, which means that when the clock runs out you lose. We didn't realize that any work done up to that point was wasted. So Ray's caster-kill, and our control point advantage, and our huge army-attrition differences, meant nothing. The other team had like 30 minutes to mosey through their depleted-army turn, and when they hit the clock, we would lose.

Ray had trouble with the chess clock early, and it wasn't running during our first turn. He'd docked us like 20 minutes for it, but it was probably too much. Had we had 10 more minutes we may have been able to hail-mary Venethrax over to Baldur and win the game (or kill the 3 gunmages left in their control zone and win that way; they'd been ignoring the scenario).

So we lost.

Round 2: Vs Strahkov (Khador) and epic Goreshade (Cryx)

Strahkov had a Spriggan, Torch, Beast09, a min unit of Assault Kommandoes, a min unit of Kayazy Assassins with Underboss, the Great Bears, and a unit of Doom Reavers. Goreshade was a tier 4 theme list chock full of Banes: 2 full units of Bane Thralls with all the trimmin's, a full unit of Bane Knights with Tarterus to back them up, the withershadow, Skarlock, and a bunch of scrap thralls to feat into new Banes.

Strahkov had a bad game. We won the roll and went first again, deploying things better to move Caine forward turn one. We gave the Raiders tough and fearless and Blur, and they moved up a bit, we moved things up more conservatively against Goreshade's special ability "If a BaneNoun kills a living dude, it becomes a new BaneNoun!". We really just advanced up little more than a walk.

Again Venethrax upkept Lamentation all game, and again Malice got Snipe.

They moved up all their stuff conservatively as well, though the Doom Reavers charged up to the Raiders and killed one. Goreshade put Occultation on himself to gain stealth, and Strahkov could have done the same (he has the spell), but instead decided to put Superiority on Beast09 and run all his slow 'jacks up the middle.

Ray looked at me after their turn and said "let's kill Beast09 and Strahkov." I thought it would give us an early advantage, so I said hell to the yes. The Raiders killed most of the doom reavers. Malice activated with some focus for boosts and walked up, using Snipe for a better threat range on Beast09 to harpoon him and drag him into our lines. Then he pummeled him with his fist a bit, and possessed Beast09 to present his back arc to the rest of our forces. Rowdy hit Beast good and solid, and the withershadow combine finished him and used their dark industries to make him into a fresh heavy warjack for Ray to use, a Harrower.

The Khador player was not happy. It got worse. Caine moved up and cast Deadeye and Snipe on Croe's Cutthroats, and Deadeye on the gunmages as well. Using the extra die on ranged attacks from Deadeye, and the incredible range of Snipe, and the extra die of Poison damage from Croe's poisoned weapons, the cutthroats advanced and managed about 6 attacks on Strahkov. One of them rolled high and it was enough to finish him (even on average rolls they'd hit 3-4 times for 5-6 damage, enough to kill the warcaster). They had a shot left over and killed a Great Bear.

I had the piper give pathfinder to the B13, who walked through some woods to get a clear shot at the Kayazy on the far flank. Lynch's fire beacon was outside the range of attack, so it deviated. . .right onto the middle of the kayazy, negating their stealth. The rest of the B13 killed 2 assassins and the Nyss killed 2 more with CRAs.

They failed their command check for massive casualties. So they were out of the fight a bit. Khador was having a rough go of it. With Strahkov gone his other two 'jacks went inert, and with the Kayazy fleeing he was left with two Great Bears and a unit of Assault Kommandos.

The gunmages shot at some Banes who were out of range. The hunters hit two but failed to penetrate their armor. The trolls and ogrun prepared for a charge next turn.

The Banes just advanced, though the Knights killed most of the cutthroats ad a pair of Nyss, and Tarterus actually made several new Knights in the process. The Great Bears managed to kill a cutthroat as well. We were down to two.

The Nyss countercharged the Bane Knights and killed 5 of them and another Kayazy (who'd failed their command check again to rally). The Harrower tried to clear out a shooting lane for the B13 to get to Tarterus, but missed the attack and the blast did nothing except kill another cutthroat (down to just Croe). I maneuvered Rowdy into the woods to get Caine line-of-sight to kill a Bane Knight in the way, but I failed to kill it with him as well.

I moved the B13 around to try and get shots at Tarterus, but Ryan couldn't get line of sight, so I had to Fire Beacon with Lynch, stick it, and hope to put some hurt on him with Watts. The Fire Beacon hit, then Watts rolled fire on his Brutal Damage shot (17 on three dice), one-shotting the Bane Lord. That let Ryan see past to some Bane behind, and she killed three with her Mage Storm.

Venethrax moved a bit and popped his feat. The Bloodgorgers moved up and killed a few banes, using their overtake move to escape the clouds (from V's feat) and counter-attack. The gunmages tried to help, and the Raiders managed to kill a bunch of Kommandos and they failed their command check for massive casualties (thanks for playing, dude, holy crap what a bad game for Khador, I think the doom reavers killed a Raider and then he only got to roll command checks the rest of the game).

The Bane Knights (down to three from 12) killed two Nyss with Vengeance and then their activation attacks. The Kayazy rallied but did nothing. Goreshade moved up and popped his feat, splooging Bane Thralls all over our mid-lines, and a few charged the Bloodgorgers on the far left flank, spewing yet more banes (MOAR BANES!).

The Nyss murdered everything on the right flank with assault. We had killed everything on one side of the board, but our objective was on the other side. The Raiders moved up and killed most of the Banes on the objective, and the Bloodgorgers and Ogrun killed the rest (and a bunch of the spawned Banes. The gunmages and Hunters mostly failed to hit things (cover from a wreck marker and engaged by Raiders made it rough even with Deadeye). Venethrax moved up a bit. Caine did as well.

Now we had a control point. The Banes countercharged again, killing a few Bloodgorgers, but Ray made a few too many Tough rolls, and the Ogrun crew have 8 wounds each, which made it tougher to kill them. Only three more Banes joined the force, and they were mostly on the far flank. After Goreshade's last turn, we had ten minutes to clear a Skarlock, a Scrap Thrall, and four Bane Thralls from the objective. We did so with 42 second to spare. Venethrax himself killed three of the Banes.

So we won. Third place. Of four teams. :p

Somehow I managed to forget to snap a pic of the bane thrall madness (MOAR BANES!) in the second game. My bad.

-Merlin out

Cygnar Blaize v. Doomshaper

Army Name: Constance as a Swan
Cygnar
25+6 points, 19 models

Constance Blaize +6 points
* Gallant 9 points
* Lancer 6 points (limp noodle)

Archduke Alain Runewood 3 points
Captain Arlan Strangewayes 2 points (better as a Squire)
6 Precursor Knights 5 points
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard 2 points
6 Sword Knights 4 points


Army Name: Doomshaper's Irregulars
Trollbloods
25+7 points, 14 models

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls +7 points
* Earthborn Dire Troll 10 points
* Troll Axer 6 points (not as good against DEF 13 stuff)

Janissa Stonetide 3 points
6 Nyss Hunters 7 points
Trollkin Runeshapers 4 points
Viktor Pendrake 2 points


Blaize again won the die roll and chose to go first. In hindsight this may have been a mistake. She set up her Precursors to use the forest as cover and backed them up with Runewood (for pathfinder) and Gallant (for the focus). The building in the center of the board made life difficult, as she'd have to split her forces to contest both zones. She ran the Lancer, Arlan, and the SKs on the right side for that reason.

Constance herself had trouble with the forest, it slowed her down a lot. She cast Banishing Warr on the SKs and Transference, both of which she upkept for the 2nd turn. Her whole force ran to get in position.

Doomy moved up his forces conservatively, setting the Nyss on the right to fight the PKs and using the EDT and Runeshapers centrally. The Axer was deployed left with Doomy and Pendrake to handle the Lancer and SKs. Janissa backed up Doomshaper with a rock wall of course. Doomy put his own Banishing Ward on the Nyss to keep the Sunburst off, and put Fortune on the Runeshapers to help stick aoes (assuming they could find non-spell warded targets).

Constance decided not to charge across the field, as she herself couldn't fit all her troops into her CTRL range for the feat and Transference. The PKs moved into shield wall and the SKs and Lancer moved into a chargeworthy spot. Runewood gave pathfinder to Blaize to help her through the woods. Gallant again backed up the PKs but was in rough terrain.

So Doomy got to make the alpha strike. His first order of business was to fire some aoes at the troop spam and try to kill some doodz. The Runeshapers moved up, splitting to see both sides of the board (center building was rough), and tossed out spells at Constance's jacks. Nothing else they could see was targetable by spells. Amazingly, Gallant was actually just in range of the Runeshapers on the right and the first one got boxcars on the attack roll, knocking down Gallant, Blaize, Runewood, and the PK officer. Gallant also took a few damage. The other two aoes scattered, managing to kill one Sword Knight and one Precursor Knight with blast damage.

That done, Pendrake moved up in an attempt to bola the Lancer down, but after advancing I checked the range with Doomy's control area and just shot the bow instead. No damage. The EDT moved up and put his animus on Doomy and the Axer. The Axer, now quickened by the rough terrain nearby, charged 10" at the Lancer and a couple SKs. He missed the (boosted!) charge attack and managed only a little damage on the next swing.

Doomshaper moved up and used his feat, which punches any model in the nuts if they use focus for a d6 per point. It's rude. I made sure Blaize, Gallant, and the Lancer were all in the area of effect. Then Doomshaper put Fortune on the Nyss to improve their accuracy. They activated and shot a lot of PKs, but shield wall saved all but one. Constance had managed to weather the storm well, only 3 warrior models down. The Nyss probably should have charged instead.

Blaize did not upkeep Banishing Ward, and took a couple points to upkeep Transference. Runewood activated and stood up the fallen with Battle Plans, then missed a handcannon shot at a Nyss. The PKs charged into the Nyss and a Runeshaper, killing the 'shaper but mostly missing the Nyss. They got one, but not being able to use Transference because of Doomshaper's feat was difficult. Gallant moved up and killed another Nyss. Four left. Constance had nowhere to go to keep all her troops in her control except directly behind a building. She hid there and used her feat.

The Lancer got a focus from Arlan and took 3 damage for stabbing the Axer for a couple points with the spear. Then the Sword Knights attacked, rushing and killing Viktor Pendrake and charging the Axer. The Axer took like 3 damage from poor damage rolls.

So now Doomy still had most everything he'd had before, but had a bunch of troops in his face. He was hot on fury, so he left one on the Earthborn, who barely made his threshold check. The Axer activated and used thresher, but managed to only kill one Sword Knight (+1 Soul) with his several attacks. Then he pumped Fury into whacking the Lancer, but missed once and hit for middling damage with the second attack. Sad.

The Runeshapers fired their magical attacks at the Sword Knights in front of the Earthborn in an attempt to clear a path, blasting them both to bits (+2 Souls).

Then the Nyss went, using Fortune to hit and kill a bunch of PKs (+3 souls, including the battle chaplain). The Earthborn cast his animus on Doomy and then charged over to the SKs, killing and eating two of them. Because he ate them, they provided no souls to Blaize. Which is odd.

So Blaize was down to a couple PKs, a Sword Knight, and her 'jacks and solos after feat turn. She had 12 focus. If she were not behind a building she might have been able to win this one, as there wasn't many models in one control zone and if she had line of sight to the Nyss she could have killed them all herself with Flashing Blade. Alas, it was not to be. She moved out to see the Nyss and managed to kill two with a Sunburst, getting a 14 to hit (needed a 13). However, she missed the blast damage on one. The PK left fighting the Nyss failed to hit it even boosting with Transference, and Gallant failed to kill Cylena with three attacks, two of them boosted. Sad. The Trolls still had a Nyss contesting the zone after all that. Runewood tried to move up and shoot the Nyss, but needed boxcars and missed.

The Lancer, Arlan and SK were dead in the water at this point, but they beat up the Axer a bit. if Constance could have killed that last Nyss (should have boosted blast damage on the Sunburst) then she might have won this one.

Doomshaper went and the Nyss murdered the last fighting PK and Cylena pinched Gallant for no damage. The Axer hit the Lancer a bit and killed the last SK, and then the Earthborn wrecked the Lancer. It was then forced to Goad and moved to Arlan and killed him as well. Then it was forced again to moved toward the edge of the zone and get in the way of anything trying to contest. The Runeshapers moved back into the zone Blaize almost had and fired aoes at Runewood, killing him and sealing Blaize's fate (without pathfinder she couldn't get to Doomy, who was camping in rough terrain).

Doomy cast defensively and put up the EDT animus, and Janissa gave him a rock wall. He got a control point. Constance activated and killed the last Nyss with a Sunburst, then charged at Doomy but was short a half inch. She'd powered Gallant and he charged Doomy as well but was again short a tiny bit. Needed another model to kill that Nyss so Blaize could Crusader's Call. That would have made things interesting.

The PK standard bearer ran to the other control zone to contest them both, but Doomy beat him up for a scenario win.

Game MVP: Doomy with Fortune.

Lessons learned: Fortune is better than I thought it was, as it really helps the attrition game. Hotswapping it was amazing. Snacking hurts Blaize's feat. Blaize played more defensively than "troopjam lolz" is pretty good. Terrain can hurt her, and a Squire would have been HUGE for her here. She wants one more than Arlan for Evasive shenanigans, for sure.

-Merlin out

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