Played Jim a few weeks ago pitting pIrusk against Mortenebra.
Khador
pIrusk
Dog
Assault Kommandos (max + 2 Flamethrowers)
Kayazy Assassins (min + UA)
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Gorman
Cryx
Mortenebra
DeathJack
Harrower
Seether
Slayer
Slayer
2 Sirens (can't recall if that's their names)
Deployment
My center has AKs with Gorman (their unofficial UA), Sprigg, and the Bears. Irusk and the Dog at the back. For this game I used for the first time a min unit of Assassins. Feels so weird! Being smaller, my plan is to use them as a flanking force. In the pick I've deployed them pretty wide. Widowmaker group on the opposite side. My feeling as the game started was I have no idea if my center will hold. AKs don't seem like they can withstand all those 'Jacks. So if memory serves me, I will buy time and let my flankers go around and hopefully get a caster kill. Definitely want Sprigg and Bears lined up with DJ.
Jim deploys in football formation with all his guys packed in the center. He told me afterwards that his plan here is to rush straight towards Irusk and not get distracted or slowed down by flankers.
(pic above) I think I went first. I move up real slow like. Assassins not used to the flank go REALLY wide. So wide that I can't even get Iron Flesh on them! First lesson of the day. So Iron Flesh goes on the Kommandos who may have had Shield Wall. Check out Bears in the open on the left! Gorman is being played by the Mechanik today. Sprigg also doesn't have any tarpit in front of him... Widowmakers stay back and I believe the marksmen went up the flank.
Jim gets the Harrower (the one with the Harpoon) next to the building and DJ in some cover. Morty stays back and one of the slayers is calling out Khador, "Bring it on!!" (the one with his arms wide)
Hmmm, maybe I went second... The Harrower harpoons one of the Bears and kills him. DJ and the rest of the 'Jacks advance all the while using a combination of Overrun and Terminal Velocity. It's scary stuff. AKs are dying in the center. Poor Spriggan. First time using him. Forgot to use grenades and I let him get attacked by DJ. He goes down quick.
I'm STILL sending the Assassins wide. My thought was... lol I don't even remember. I know I didn't want them to get charged but man are they out in right field. Should have just ran them around the building and start putting on some pressure.
(pic above ) Gorman runs over to the group of three 'Jacks and Jim finds out the hard way what happens when you bunch 'Jacks with Gorman nearby. Black Oil goes on all three! Feat by Irusk who puts Battle Lust on the Bears. Inhospitable ground to make it EXTREMELY difficult for those 'Jacks to move. Bears charge DJ and rolling sweet damage dice but it isn't enough-- nearly kill him bringing down his movement and cortex. Barely got his arms hanging on. Widows take some shots too. At this point I send in my flankers trying to set up as many threats as I can next round. Assassins on the right, the Marksman up top. Widowmakers with lanes on the left. I'm even thinking of running Kommandos around the center. All I've got to do is survive...
Jim responds by spraying a few assassins with his Sirens. DJ eats the Bears, a Kommando and his healing like there's no tomorrow. Three Helljacks advance really close to Irusk.
With Jim's army finally breaking through, this is my last shot. I go for the assassination. Assassins run in but only one manages to engage Morty. Marksman advances closer and takes a shot but with -4 for cover misses. On the left 3 widowmakers move up to shoot and do a fair bit of damage on Morty. She's still not down. Then I see that Irusk has a lane!! First I activate my AKs and one manages to get a gas grenade off bringing Morty's DEF down by 2. Irusk activate and raises his gun ready for two boosted shots! The range is tight so I make sure that I'm right on Irusk and let Jim check Morty. All I need is 10"! I glance up to see Phillip's eyes go wide and mouth drop. Irusk drops his gun too when he realizes he's less than a 1/4 inch short!!! Wow. /Knock Out Wind. After all the damage done by the Widows, we both guessed that Irusk's shots would have been enough. His gun is fairly good at POW 13.
Jim sends in the Helljacks to finish the job. Irusk still can't take his eyes off of Morty and the shot that fell by inches.
Of note is my assassin leader standing in the middle of nowhere who got "seduced" by one of the sirens. tsk. tsk. tsk.
Game to Cryx and an unbelievable game at that! So things that I learned:
-Need a plan for my troops. I had no plan for the Assault Kommandos and didn't think about the role they would play. They can't really crack 'Jack armor so they have to tarpit; but not just slow the Helljacks down but prevent my hard hitters from being charged/attacked themselves. There was no one in front of Bears and Spriggan and they took it pretty hard. Should have had the Kommandos in front of them to take a charge and counter charge with Bears/Spriggan.
-Flanked too wide. Assassins arrived a turn late. Had I had them closer they would have hit on time and been in range to receive Iron Flesh, a buff they really needed against the Siren Spray. Having a Min unit is okay but I miss the full unit. You can do a lot more with them and if you take casualties you can still bring the pain.
-first time using Gorman and saw what Black Oil can do. He's gotta get close but has stealth to protect him until then. In later games I used him with AKs to help debuff their targets. He's also immune to their fire. Great to use with them.
-Irusk was out of position to buff his army. I should have had him on the right of the AKs so he could buff the Assassins. Need to keep him in the center of the formation more, especially so more guys can benefit from his feat.
I'm liking this Irusk army and AKs are really hard to use but I enjoy learning with them. Will probably try to get Irusk, Sprigg, and the Kommandos painted next. Assassins will take a while to convert.
Army tweak I've done is bring Assassins back to full strength and take out the Marksmen and the Dog. @ 50 pts :D lots more I can add... and have to buy :(
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