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
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