pButcher vs pNemo

Khador vs Cygnar @ 35 points.  Ben is my Warmachine buddy and tonight played in his second game bringing pNemo to the table.  He was running:

pNemo
Thunderhead
Hunter
Thorn
Charger
Junior Warcaster
Arlan Strangeways
Black 13th
Squire

I was running Khador with:

pButcher
Juggernaut
Marauder
Kodiak
Wardog
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Kayazy Assassins (max)
Kayazy Assassins Underboss
Battle Mechaniks (6)

I won the roll and chose to go second so I could react to Ben's deployment.

Ben contemplating his deployment

He put the Thunderhead on the front line along with the Thorn all set to arc node and the Charger.  On the back line, Arlan and the Hunter were on the left, Nemo, the Squire and JR in the middle with the B13 on the right. 

I put my three 'jacks in the center with mechaniks behind them.  Bears, Butcher, and the Dog are behind the Mechaniks and the Assassins on the right. 

My plan is to run the Assassins forward to tarpit and engage the Cygnar front while my big hitters run up behind as a second wave.   

Deployment

Turn 1 the B13 move to the wall and get Arcane Shield from Junior.  Thunderhead and the front Light 'Jacks move up.  Disruption Field goes on the Thunderhead.  Electrify goes on the Hunter as it runs up to the palm tree. 

Khador responds by running like mad.  Assassins take the center with Iron Flesh.

End of Turn 1

Ben gets his AOEs ready and the B13 leap over the wall and shoot the Fire Beacon at the Kayazy hoping to expose their stealth but miss!  It lands right in front of them.  Ryan (of B13) shoots Mage Storm which also misses and scatters in front of the Kayazy right next to the Fire Beacon.

The rest of Ben's forces move up but he forgets to attack with his Thunderhead!

Mage Storm vanishes and the Kayazy run forward.  Three manage to engage the Hunter, Thorn, and the Charger.  The rest of the Khador force runs up behind.

End of Turn 2

With the Khador tide getting closer to his lines, Ben sets up a devestating attack.  Arlan uses his special to pull the Thorn out of melee, freeing up Nemo's arc node and allowing him to conjure up Chain Lightning on an Assassin.  It misses!  Needing to roll 10s he goes for another Chain Lightning and rolls a hit!  A bolt strikes an Assassin and arcs to two more killing all of them.  Nemo follows up casting Locomotion on the Hunter moving him back 1 inch, avoiding free strikes with parry.

B13 take aim and strike with Mage Storm and kill A LOT OF DUDES.  Another B13 snipes an Assassin.  The last shoots at another Assassin but it misses and hits the Charger but luckily does no damage.

Ben sensing that the Thunderhead was in danger backs it up to safety and blasts the Juggernaut as the Assassins charge.

One charges into the Hunter and cripples his melee arm.  Another runs behind the Juggernaut and reaches Ryan (of Mage Storm fame) but wiffs on his attack.  The Kodiak runs up to help and ties up Ryan in melee.

Great Bears run forward.  Butcher gets Iron Flesh going to 19 DEF and the Marauder runs up with Mechaniks behind after making a lot of repairs on the Juggernaut.     

At this point I'm getting ready charge with my second wave.  I'm pretty surprised that I have Assassins left.  One thing that I've got going for me is I have all of my heavy hitters left-- 3 'jacks, Great Bears, and Butcher sitting with Iron Flesh and Focus and the Dog.  Just gotta reach his line!

End of Turn 3

This is the big turn 4.  B13 abandon Ryan for dead and retreat but not before taking a shot at the Kodiak.  It takes some light damage followed by Mage Storm from Ryan.  The blast doesn't penetrate the Kodiak's armor but it kills the Assassin. 

Meanwhile on the left flank, Arlan repairs the Hunter as the Charger lights up the Juggernaut crippling his left arm and his movement.

Thorn falls back and Butcher sees the Thunderhead advancing right into their formation.  "Here it comes!!"  The Thunderhead attacks with his Pulse Special killing the rest of the assassins.  The Juggernaut crumbles to the ground as the shockwave hits the Great Bears.  Kolsk takes a hit and TOUGHS!  Volkov braces against the impact, stumbles, and TOUGHS!  He turns to see Yarovich hit by the mighty blast.  TOUGHS!!!  Ben eyes go wide and immediately darts back, "That's Bull $#!7!!!!"

Butcher senses that this is the time for a little Blood Frenzy!  And now with fire in their eyes the Great Bears charge!!!  Kolsk reaches the Hunter and misses his first swing.  He comes around again for a second hit and nails the Hunter for crippling damage.  Volkov and Yarovich hit the Thunderhead HARD crippling first the Thunderhead's cortex then it's movement.

The Marauder charges into the Thunderhead, eyeing the Hunter behind him.  Rolling with Full Throttle, the Marauder hits his Combo Smite and smashes the Thunderhead back, wrecking it completely.  It lands just shy of colliding with the Hunter.

The Kodiak looks down and sees Ryan, her gun still smoking from her last Mage Storm shot.  He swings with his fist and finally takes her down.

 

End of Turn 4

Still with a lot of fight Ben activates the B13.  They take a shot at Kolsk on the left.  He toughs!  Ben responds quickly with another, "That's Bull$#!7!!!"  Lynch takes a shot at Yarovich and this time, Yarovich falls.

Arlan quickly repairs the Hunter getting its gun back online.  The Hunter parries away from the annoying Kolsk and shoots Butcher with a boosted attack.  Misses.  Damn.  Dice -12.  Ben says, "It's over Prime..."  (Megatron quote)

Charger charges forward and hits the two Bears in the middle taking out both Yarovich and Volkov.

But then things start to unravel for Ben.  His Junior Warcaster with Rat 4 misses Kolsk.  Nemo Feats and misses the attack on the Marauder.  He Chain Lightning attacks the Wardog hoping to bring down Butchers DEF but at dice -4, rolls a 4 for no damage.  And with that, Ben concedes the game.  GG Ben!!

Position at End of Game

After 5 hours of playing, our epic match finally game to an end.  Afterwards, we both said that the turning point was the tough rolls made by the Great Bears.  Oh they are legendary.  It allowed them to stay alive and charge the Thunderhead on the next turn.  Without that, we weren't sure if the Marauder would have been able to finish the Thunderhead off.

This is the first time that I've seen the greatness of the Bears and wow, if you can get them into melee, they can wreck a lot of face.  You can't really count on the tough rolls but when the dice are on your side it can turn the tide of the game.

In the initial turns, it looked really grim for Khador with two huge AOEs being put down not to mention the threat of the Thunderhead's Pulse Attack.

But the Juggernaut, for some reason, soaked up a ton of damage and the Assassins did what they were supposed to do and allowed everyone behind them to clash with the Cygnar line.  Butcher was also able to enter the End Game relatively untouched and ready to do what he does best-- be crazy scary.

We both had a blast with this game and we'll both be tweaking our lists for the eventual rematch.  Some things I learned from this game:

-Feels like 3 Jacks might be too much.  Besides the big Combo Smite, the Marauder and Kodiak didn't do too much.  I might need just one of them.  Instead of the Marauder, I'm thinking of brining in Yuri, a Manhunter, and Widowmakers.  That'll give me some fast flankers to go along with my slow advance; Yuri and the Manhunter hopefully being able to hunt solos and be a distraction.  The widowmakers will also give me some range and more options to hit solos.  I could also bring in a calvary solo instead of the Widowmakers which sounds like fun.  But I do feel I need something fast along the flanks to give me more tactical options.  Right now all I can do is pretty much slow advance-- Assassins in front, Heavies behind.      

-My Mechaniks always get left behind after a repair.  I might have to stagger them up the field, to prepare for future repairs. 

-Combo Smite is REALLY POWERFUL.  The Marauder's basic attacks aren't too bad either hitting at P+S 16s.  Haven't really used the Kodiak's throw but right now I'm leaning to the Marauder. 

-Juggernaut always takes concentrated fire as the army advances.  Just before he reaches the lines, he gets destroyed.  Phillip says he gets attacked because he's the only one painted lol. 

-Kayazy Assassins.  Love this unit and can see myself using them for a while.  So many things they can do from tarpiting, being monsters in melee, hard to hit, and they also have assassination possibilities with Kill Stroke. 

My next list might be this:

pButcher
Juggernaut
Marauder
Wardog
Great Bears
min Mechaniks
Widowmakers
Yuri the Axe
Man Hunter