SoCal SmackDown wrapped up yesterday and I was there from Friday to Sunday getting in a lot of games and taking part in the 50pt SteamRoller and the 35 Hardcore. It was a blast meeting other gamers and hanging out between rounds. Here is my summary of my games:
50pt SteamRoller Day 1 (sat)
We made two lists but in all of my games I played eSorscha, Winterguard + Joe, Max Kayazy, Great Bears, A&H, Gorman, Saxon, eEiryss, Jugg, Spriggan, min Mechaniks.
Game 1
First game I went against Matt from Arizona (Jason Flanzer and his friends all drove in from AZ). Was going against Vayl (?) and a bunch of heavies. Scenario was Sacrifice, radial deployment. I send most of my army to battle the zone leaving the Assassins to handle the flag and sacrfice themselves. The Assassins faced off against a Carnivean, Forsaken, and a DeathStalker. OMG Moment is when Kayazy fail their command check for terror, Forsaken gets to ignore free strikes and then blows up with 4 Fury the ENTIRE unit of Assassins. kk. So I learned what the Forsaken can do.
Over in the zone, Winterguard make a bazillion Tough rolls which makes Matt send in another Heavy. Sorscha feats, Spriggan bulldozes one of the Heavies out but got within 6" of Vayl who got to move another Heavy in. Spriggan gets attacked and knocked down but Bears charge in and manage to clear the zone. Saxon over on the right runs to the flag and makes the ultimate sacrifice taking a magical POW 20 and dies. 1 point for Khador!
At that point it was a matter of keeping Sorscha alive and flooding the zone with Winterguard. Just before "dice down" Matt manages to jump a Raek over to Sorscha but fails to hit her twice. So I won on Scenario with the point I scored.
Game 2
Against Patrick! :P So Patrick and I have been playing a billion games recently and knew each others lists pretty well. Before we saw our lists I basically said, "so eSorscha vs Harbringer?" He said with a smile, "yep." Scenario was Demolition? You blow up a flag and then another one appears on the other flank. Flags you had to get where in the opponents side of the board.
Summary is basically Errants annihilated the Winterguard like never before lol. I also had the Assassins on the opposite flank and the two big infantry units weren't really able to help each other. Assassins were taken apart by Patrick's Gorman, some Daughters, and can't remember what else. Also lost my two 'Jacks really early. Patrick destroyed his first flag and scored a point and with no way of destroying mine I offered the handshake and conceded. 1-1 at this point and Patrick at 2-0.
Game 3
Played against Matt from Sacramento. Scenario was Killbox and he brought out Siege with Precursors, Arlan, B13, Squire, Harlan Versh, Journeyman Warcaster, Old Rowdy, Cyclone. This was pretty cool as I've faced Ben and his Cygnar lists a lot and was familiar with most of those units. Precursors were a little new.
I advance into the Killbox with Jacks in the center. Assassins on the left and Winterguard storming down the right side. Assassins take a Ground Pounder (from Seige) and I lost quite a few. Over on the right B13 decide to snipe and try to take out my WG Officer but don't get her at DEF 17. Ryan Mage Storms killing a few. Then Harlan Versh steps up and unloads at least 3 shots into my Winterguard! Thinking at least one Toughed. Cyclone lays two suppressing fire templates in front of the Assassins who sigh. Precursors run up.
I respond by taking out Ryan and Watts. Versh also gets taken out. Feeling really good to get Ryan. Can't remember what I did with the Assassins.
More Ground Pounder on them and Rowdy charges Spriggan and takes him out. Precursors advance in two massive Shield Walls in Pyramid formations.
I feat and Jugg (probably Bears) take out Rowdy. Winterguard advance and I get massive sprays across the Precursors but with Shield Wall I only manage to take out two. Got it. Will be CRA'ing next.
Little hazy with what happened next but I do end up wiping out the Precursor unit. At one point I'm planning to CRA Siege with Winterguard. I free up a lane in front of Eiryss. She steps up and needs 5 to hit (you know where this is going). She rolls a 4. Not going to crack Siege's armor this turn. At this point I've only lost a few Winterguard and they are dominating the right flank forcing Siege to camp focus and shift to the woods on the left. I still have Bears and Jugg. But Dice Down is called and tie breaker is scoring units in Kill Box. Most of my Winterguard are out of the box and a bunch of my solos are out too. I lose by tie breaker.
In this game I felt my army was winning the attrition war and would have eventually reached Siege. Gotta say though that Matt was very sporting, very friendly, and even let me get back into the Killbox once lol. So I'm glad that he got the win. Precursors were pretty cool as they have Blessed (ignore upkeeps) and have a mini feat for additional die on melee attacks. Also Spell Ward. I like 'em. So with that I'm 1-3 and I think Patrick is 2-1. Time for the Hardcore tourney!
35pt Hardcore (a few hours later)
So I brought my pButcher "I like to get shot a lot before engaging you" list. Has most of the first models I collected and was glad to have them in the list. I ran pButcher, Jugg, Sprigg, Marauder!, Dog, Great Bears, and Kayazy Assassins.
Game 1
Faced off against eKaya with 3-4 Heavies and Skinwalkers (like Forest Man-O-Wars). Played against Jaqueline who plays at Brookhurst. All games were caster kill.
She straight up had no answer for the Assassins. With time clicking away as she fathomed how she would hit DEF 19 in melee she stopped attacking them.
Assassins got Fury and Ganged most of the Skinwalkers and took the unit out quick. My Heavies and Bears were making quick work out of her army too.
Can't remember how she responded but on my next turn I feated with Butcher and the 3 Fury'd Assassins charged Kaya. They do really good damage and then she transfers the damage to her pet Wolf that blows up. Oh yea~~ that's what Warlocks can do. First ever game of Hardcore and the rounds are intense!! So many things to do and you don't have time to do everything. Only Spriggan activated from my Jacks and attacked one of the Wolves. Got a little greedy trying to catch everything in Butcher's Feat.
Next turn one of the wolves advances down through the woods to my right and Dog counter charges it for no damage. Wolf Heavy then throws Spriggan into Butcher. Both are knocked down and Butcher takes a lot of damage. The other Heavy tramples through my Assassins and then slaps Butcher for the win.
In this game, similar to the game against Siege, I felt my army was winning on the field. There was no answer for the Assassins and I still had two Heavies and the Great Bears. But as always, I leave Butcher exposed and he pays the price. I'll take this lesson with me though in the next games.
Game 2
So if you've watched SteamPoweredTV on Youtube you've probably seen Steve play against his good friend Tom. He was my opponent for game 2. Tom brought Harbringer along with a Reckoner, Avatar, and a Guardian (?) He also brought That Guy that can't be hurt by non magical attacks-- oh crap. Can't remember what his infantry was.
Game had him commit his Avatar against the Spriggan. Avatar failed to kill it so he had to commit That Guy who finished him. Now usually when I see the Avatar charge (Patrick's) it's decisive and I have no easy way to retaliate (unless Patrick misjudges the charge range :P). Tom gets Gaze on the Avatar and Assassins who were off to the side manage to run over and block his back escape routes. I then was able to charge my Heavies in and finish him off.
Harby uses Cataclysm at close range to take out a handful of Assassins but with the ones that are left I have a plan. Butcher charges a Great Bear and kills him but now is close enough to the Assassins to put Fury on them. With Parry (oh I love Parry!) they walk over to Harby who is sitting on 1 or 2 focus. Assassins are swinging at P+S 15 with Fury and Gang. All three hit and are able to get the win. At this point I am LOVING Fury+Gang; my new favorite combo.
Game 3
This game was against a fellow Khadoran player Dave, from Brookhurst. He brought Karchev with Jugg, Spriggan, Berserker, Great Bears, along with eEiryss, Kell, and the Dog. Steve is probably shaking his head. Yep, it was over from the beginning. Oh! But funny part was when he trampled the Berserker into the center of my Assassins. Can you guess what happened next? He attacked twice (of course misses) and then proceeded to blow up and take almost all the Assassins with him. Rest of the game was Karchev towing everything maneuvering for the alpha strike. Eiryss blows off Butcher's Focus and Karchev Feats sending the Spriggan to finish Butcher off.
Game 4
Joe from Arizona and a little delirious from lack of sleep played Reznik on this one. Brought Errants, Dervish, Avatar, Reckoner, Guardian. Joe goes first and sends his Errants into some woods while his 'Jacks take center.
I run up the Assassins as usual in front of my Jacks who are in a wall. Great Bears nearby.
Errants charge the Assassins and aren't able to hit anything. I counter by Killstroking most of them through to his back rank, Underboss and the Bears trailing and hitting the first wave Errants. Gang+Fury again making quick work out of everything.
I have to survive Resnik's feat turn for one round; Butcher without Focus and next round can't cast any spells. Dervish charges into Juggernaut who is on the left of the 'Jack wall and side steps into Butcher! He does 10 damage on the first attack and then thinks about the next one-- he's at dice-3 on 3 dice for damage and Butcher has 10 boxes left. He goes for it and rolls a 7 for damage. Butcher lives! Assassins do what they do and advance into Reznik. Two Bears charge him, one surviving a free strike from the Reckoner with Tough (was bad play on my part) and they bring Reznik down.
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So I ended up going 2-2 in Hard Core and having a ton of fun in the tourney despite the very short time limit. It's very exciting as you have to think quick and prioritize. The good players can do everything that they want to do but for me and a few others, I know we had to choose which attacks were worth doing. By the 3rd and 4th game though I was getting into a flow with activations in the early turns and trying to get the Fury+Gang combo off.
There were a ton of medals handed out in Hardcore for different things and I was able to bring home the one for best painted army which was very nice y^^y Flanzer got the one for fastest caster kill and Dave from Brookhurst got the one for most army points destroyed. Go Khador!
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50pt Steamroller Day 2 (Sun)
Game 4
Starting at 10 a.m. the Steamroller Tourney resumed play and I faced off against another player from Arizona, Josh. He took a look at both my lists and saw high DEF, low ARM infantry and brought pKrueger (maybe epic) with two Scarloc-type Heavies. One of them was Megalith. I was about to enter the school of Chain Lightning. Scenario was three flags, one disappears. I'm not sure what disappeared first, the flag or my infantry. I have Assassins facing off against a unit of infantry (Wolves of Orboros?), Winterguard on the right against his Heavies and some artifact-looking things that shoot lasers.
So :D Winterguard run up and then get Chain Lightning to the face. Most of my WG get blown up BUT, the one model that was the initial target for the Chain Lightning attacks made 4 Tough rolls in a row! Josh having some fun decided to send his Totem Hunter over just to make sure to kill that guy, and he did. Now I'm motivated to paint up that WG dude and make it so he looks like he's all charred and fried from the lightning.
Over on the left, Krueger feats and pops down 3, 3 inch AOEs of... wait for it... Lightning. I lose maybe half my Assassins as they just wear t-shirts for armor. I split up my Jacks (very good idea!) Sprigg goes left around a Forest. Jugg goes right (it's not a good idea). Jugg takes a charge and dies.
Sprigg does fire some grenades and with boosted attacks kills two of the Wolves of Oboros. And...then more Chain Lightning. An Assassin gets hit with a boosted shot and then it arcs to 6 other targets in a perfect ring back to him taking out Underboss and Eiryss along the way.
So basically I've lost my entire infantry units lol. Josh was a great player and very friendly so the game was quite enjoyable despite being annihilated. He preyed Joe with the Totem Hunter who took out A&H but Joe and the Standard with boosted attacks killed him. Oh and Gorman Acid Bombed him lol. I advanced Sorcha up and then Cycloned to a Heavy Beast; didn't kill him. I was basically going all out because that's all I could do. Sorscha soon fell afterwards.
Then me and Josh chatted for quite a bit afterward about the awesomeness of the Drakhun and how I might make a second list for SteamRoller to compliment my first. More on that later.
Game 5
Last one! So I might have been at the bottom table for this one :P I faced off against Jacqueline who I lost to in HardCore. She basically brings the same list but this time has Druids, shifting stones, and some other stuff. Scenarios had two 6" x 8" zones vertically in the center. Score in the farthest one for a point.
She goes first and advances everything up. I do likewise and like before Killstroke the Assassins past her Heavies on the front line and hit the Druids in the back. They take out a few but without Fury, Assassins aren't doing nearly as well as with Butcher (still good though). The game had them battling the Druids who kept using spells against them that pushed them out of melee but the hit usually killed them. Assassins spent most of the game in the back ranks of Circle while the rest of my army was facing the front rank. That was pretty neat. At one point the Assassins charge the Skinwalkers IN THE BACK earning the legendary Back Stab which gives them an additional die for melee damage. Too bad they failed their CMD check for terror ><; Druids continue to hammer at them with that spell and they all got taken out except one. Earlier I had the Underboss and another Assassin charge the Shifting Stones lol who were the only things guarding my scoring zone but a Gnarlhorn took care of them, Underboss failing to make his third Tough roll :P
In the Front, Winterguard and the Bears battled the Skinwalkers who were suprisingly resilient. After getting charged by the Skinwalkers and surviving, the WG stepped out of melee with DEF 17 and 4/5 survived the free strikes. The rest moved up to CRA the Skinwalkers and took ONE out but heavily damaging the rest. Bears took care of another one.
Heavies mainly battled in my defending zone, Spriggan getting thrown again, this time into Juggernaut. Jugg lived but Spriggan was destroyed.
Game was getting long so I ran Eiryss into my scoring zone. When Dice Down was called it went to tie breaker because none of us scored a control point. Eiryss was the only one scoring for me with 3pts. Circle had no one in their scoring zone who could earn points. There were two Skinwalkers in the zone but the third was tied up in melee with a Bear outside. If Jacqueline had gotten that Skinwalker in the zone she would have had more than half the unit in and would have won. So I got the win on the rematch which was cool. :D
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So ends the major gaming for the weekend, phew. Had a really great time. I ended up going 2-4 for the SteamRoller and 2-2 for the Hardcore. Definitely learned a lot in all my games.
I saw how powerful Assassins with Fury+Gang can be under pButcher. It's just ridiculous as they can parry out of melee and have free reign about who they want to engage. They're so much fun once they get into melee. Definitely shows me that they can have the same power with pIrusk and Battle Lust. Oh man that's gotta be sweet. You miss pButcher's feat turn and that added die but Battle Lusted Assassins-- yep I'll take a few of those.
I also saw what Chain Lighting can do to my high DEF infantry army. Talked with Josh and Jason about that and they suggested bring more armor for my second list. Something like pButcher and 'Jacks, which got me talking about pButcher tactics and what range support to give him. Lots of people, including Dave from Brookhurst recommended Rifle Corp because they have a 20" threat range and with Joe and pButcher's feat will get boosted attack and damage rolls. really really nice.
I learned that not only Chain Lighting but Ashes to Ashes (from a casual game), Berserkers, and the Forsaken can really make Assassins cry. Will be watching for that in the future.
50pt SteamRoller Day 1 (sat)
We made two lists but in all of my games I played eSorscha, Winterguard + Joe, Max Kayazy, Great Bears, A&H, Gorman, Saxon, eEiryss, Jugg, Spriggan, min Mechaniks.
Game 1
First game I went against Matt from Arizona (Jason Flanzer and his friends all drove in from AZ). Was going against Vayl (?) and a bunch of heavies. Scenario was Sacrifice, radial deployment. I send most of my army to battle the zone leaving the Assassins to handle the flag and sacrfice themselves. The Assassins faced off against a Carnivean, Forsaken, and a DeathStalker. OMG Moment is when Kayazy fail their command check for terror, Forsaken gets to ignore free strikes and then blows up with 4 Fury the ENTIRE unit of Assassins. kk. So I learned what the Forsaken can do.
Over in the zone, Winterguard make a bazillion Tough rolls which makes Matt send in another Heavy. Sorscha feats, Spriggan bulldozes one of the Heavies out but got within 6" of Vayl who got to move another Heavy in. Spriggan gets attacked and knocked down but Bears charge in and manage to clear the zone. Saxon over on the right runs to the flag and makes the ultimate sacrifice taking a magical POW 20 and dies. 1 point for Khador!
At that point it was a matter of keeping Sorscha alive and flooding the zone with Winterguard. Just before "dice down" Matt manages to jump a Raek over to Sorscha but fails to hit her twice. So I won on Scenario with the point I scored.
Game 2
Against Patrick! :P So Patrick and I have been playing a billion games recently and knew each others lists pretty well. Before we saw our lists I basically said, "so eSorscha vs Harbringer?" He said with a smile, "yep." Scenario was Demolition? You blow up a flag and then another one appears on the other flank. Flags you had to get where in the opponents side of the board.
Summary is basically Errants annihilated the Winterguard like never before lol. I also had the Assassins on the opposite flank and the two big infantry units weren't really able to help each other. Assassins were taken apart by Patrick's Gorman, some Daughters, and can't remember what else. Also lost my two 'Jacks really early. Patrick destroyed his first flag and scored a point and with no way of destroying mine I offered the handshake and conceded. 1-1 at this point and Patrick at 2-0.
Game 3
Played against Matt from Sacramento. Scenario was Killbox and he brought out Siege with Precursors, Arlan, B13, Squire, Harlan Versh, Journeyman Warcaster, Old Rowdy, Cyclone. This was pretty cool as I've faced Ben and his Cygnar lists a lot and was familiar with most of those units. Precursors were a little new.
I advance into the Killbox with Jacks in the center. Assassins on the left and Winterguard storming down the right side. Assassins take a Ground Pounder (from Seige) and I lost quite a few. Over on the right B13 decide to snipe and try to take out my WG Officer but don't get her at DEF 17. Ryan Mage Storms killing a few. Then Harlan Versh steps up and unloads at least 3 shots into my Winterguard! Thinking at least one Toughed. Cyclone lays two suppressing fire templates in front of the Assassins who sigh. Precursors run up.
I respond by taking out Ryan and Watts. Versh also gets taken out. Feeling really good to get Ryan. Can't remember what I did with the Assassins.
More Ground Pounder on them and Rowdy charges Spriggan and takes him out. Precursors advance in two massive Shield Walls in Pyramid formations.
I feat and Jugg (probably Bears) take out Rowdy. Winterguard advance and I get massive sprays across the Precursors but with Shield Wall I only manage to take out two. Got it. Will be CRA'ing next.
Little hazy with what happened next but I do end up wiping out the Precursor unit. At one point I'm planning to CRA Siege with Winterguard. I free up a lane in front of Eiryss. She steps up and needs 5 to hit (you know where this is going). She rolls a 4. Not going to crack Siege's armor this turn. At this point I've only lost a few Winterguard and they are dominating the right flank forcing Siege to camp focus and shift to the woods on the left. I still have Bears and Jugg. But Dice Down is called and tie breaker is scoring units in Kill Box. Most of my Winterguard are out of the box and a bunch of my solos are out too. I lose by tie breaker.
In this game I felt my army was winning the attrition war and would have eventually reached Siege. Gotta say though that Matt was very sporting, very friendly, and even let me get back into the Killbox once lol. So I'm glad that he got the win. Precursors were pretty cool as they have Blessed (ignore upkeeps) and have a mini feat for additional die on melee attacks. Also Spell Ward. I like 'em. So with that I'm 1-3 and I think Patrick is 2-1. Time for the Hardcore tourney!
35pt Hardcore (a few hours later)
So I brought my pButcher "I like to get shot a lot before engaging you" list. Has most of the first models I collected and was glad to have them in the list. I ran pButcher, Jugg, Sprigg, Marauder!, Dog, Great Bears, and Kayazy Assassins.
Game 1
Faced off against eKaya with 3-4 Heavies and Skinwalkers (like Forest Man-O-Wars). Played against Jaqueline who plays at Brookhurst. All games were caster kill.
She straight up had no answer for the Assassins. With time clicking away as she fathomed how she would hit DEF 19 in melee she stopped attacking them.
Assassins got Fury and Ganged most of the Skinwalkers and took the unit out quick. My Heavies and Bears were making quick work out of her army too.
Can't remember how she responded but on my next turn I feated with Butcher and the 3 Fury'd Assassins charged Kaya. They do really good damage and then she transfers the damage to her pet Wolf that blows up. Oh yea~~ that's what Warlocks can do. First ever game of Hardcore and the rounds are intense!! So many things to do and you don't have time to do everything. Only Spriggan activated from my Jacks and attacked one of the Wolves. Got a little greedy trying to catch everything in Butcher's Feat.
Next turn one of the wolves advances down through the woods to my right and Dog counter charges it for no damage. Wolf Heavy then throws Spriggan into Butcher. Both are knocked down and Butcher takes a lot of damage. The other Heavy tramples through my Assassins and then slaps Butcher for the win.
In this game, similar to the game against Siege, I felt my army was winning on the field. There was no answer for the Assassins and I still had two Heavies and the Great Bears. But as always, I leave Butcher exposed and he pays the price. I'll take this lesson with me though in the next games.
Game 2
So if you've watched SteamPoweredTV on Youtube you've probably seen Steve play against his good friend Tom. He was my opponent for game 2. Tom brought Harbringer along with a Reckoner, Avatar, and a Guardian (?) He also brought That Guy that can't be hurt by non magical attacks-- oh crap. Can't remember what his infantry was.
Game had him commit his Avatar against the Spriggan. Avatar failed to kill it so he had to commit That Guy who finished him. Now usually when I see the Avatar charge (Patrick's) it's decisive and I have no easy way to retaliate (unless Patrick misjudges the charge range :P). Tom gets Gaze on the Avatar and Assassins who were off to the side manage to run over and block his back escape routes. I then was able to charge my Heavies in and finish him off.
Harby uses Cataclysm at close range to take out a handful of Assassins but with the ones that are left I have a plan. Butcher charges a Great Bear and kills him but now is close enough to the Assassins to put Fury on them. With Parry (oh I love Parry!) they walk over to Harby who is sitting on 1 or 2 focus. Assassins are swinging at P+S 15 with Fury and Gang. All three hit and are able to get the win. At this point I am LOVING Fury+Gang; my new favorite combo.
Game 3
This game was against a fellow Khadoran player Dave, from Brookhurst. He brought Karchev with Jugg, Spriggan, Berserker, Great Bears, along with eEiryss, Kell, and the Dog. Steve is probably shaking his head. Yep, it was over from the beginning. Oh! But funny part was when he trampled the Berserker into the center of my Assassins. Can you guess what happened next? He attacked twice (of course misses) and then proceeded to blow up and take almost all the Assassins with him. Rest of the game was Karchev towing everything maneuvering for the alpha strike. Eiryss blows off Butcher's Focus and Karchev Feats sending the Spriggan to finish Butcher off.
Game 4
Joe from Arizona and a little delirious from lack of sleep played Reznik on this one. Brought Errants, Dervish, Avatar, Reckoner, Guardian. Joe goes first and sends his Errants into some woods while his 'Jacks take center.
I run up the Assassins as usual in front of my Jacks who are in a wall. Great Bears nearby.
Errants charge the Assassins and aren't able to hit anything. I counter by Killstroking most of them through to his back rank, Underboss and the Bears trailing and hitting the first wave Errants. Gang+Fury again making quick work out of everything.
I have to survive Resnik's feat turn for one round; Butcher without Focus and next round can't cast any spells. Dervish charges into Juggernaut who is on the left of the 'Jack wall and side steps into Butcher! He does 10 damage on the first attack and then thinks about the next one-- he's at dice-3 on 3 dice for damage and Butcher has 10 boxes left. He goes for it and rolls a 7 for damage. Butcher lives! Assassins do what they do and advance into Reznik. Two Bears charge him, one surviving a free strike from the Reckoner with Tough (was bad play on my part) and they bring Reznik down.
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So I ended up going 2-2 in Hard Core and having a ton of fun in the tourney despite the very short time limit. It's very exciting as you have to think quick and prioritize. The good players can do everything that they want to do but for me and a few others, I know we had to choose which attacks were worth doing. By the 3rd and 4th game though I was getting into a flow with activations in the early turns and trying to get the Fury+Gang combo off.
There were a ton of medals handed out in Hardcore for different things and I was able to bring home the one for best painted army which was very nice y^^y Flanzer got the one for fastest caster kill and Dave from Brookhurst got the one for most army points destroyed. Go Khador!
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50pt Steamroller Day 2 (Sun)
Game 4
Starting at 10 a.m. the Steamroller Tourney resumed play and I faced off against another player from Arizona, Josh. He took a look at both my lists and saw high DEF, low ARM infantry and brought pKrueger (maybe epic) with two Scarloc-type Heavies. One of them was Megalith. I was about to enter the school of Chain Lightning. Scenario was three flags, one disappears. I'm not sure what disappeared first, the flag or my infantry. I have Assassins facing off against a unit of infantry (Wolves of Orboros?), Winterguard on the right against his Heavies and some artifact-looking things that shoot lasers.
So :D Winterguard run up and then get Chain Lightning to the face. Most of my WG get blown up BUT, the one model that was the initial target for the Chain Lightning attacks made 4 Tough rolls in a row! Josh having some fun decided to send his Totem Hunter over just to make sure to kill that guy, and he did. Now I'm motivated to paint up that WG dude and make it so he looks like he's all charred and fried from the lightning.
Over on the left, Krueger feats and pops down 3, 3 inch AOEs of... wait for it... Lightning. I lose maybe half my Assassins as they just wear t-shirts for armor. I split up my Jacks (very good idea!) Sprigg goes left around a Forest. Jugg goes right (it's not a good idea). Jugg takes a charge and dies.
Sprigg does fire some grenades and with boosted attacks kills two of the Wolves of Oboros. And...then more Chain Lightning. An Assassin gets hit with a boosted shot and then it arcs to 6 other targets in a perfect ring back to him taking out Underboss and Eiryss along the way.
So basically I've lost my entire infantry units lol. Josh was a great player and very friendly so the game was quite enjoyable despite being annihilated. He preyed Joe with the Totem Hunter who took out A&H but Joe and the Standard with boosted attacks killed him. Oh and Gorman Acid Bombed him lol. I advanced Sorcha up and then Cycloned to a Heavy Beast; didn't kill him. I was basically going all out because that's all I could do. Sorscha soon fell afterwards.
Then me and Josh chatted for quite a bit afterward about the awesomeness of the Drakhun and how I might make a second list for SteamRoller to compliment my first. More on that later.
Game 5
Last one! So I might have been at the bottom table for this one :P I faced off against Jacqueline who I lost to in HardCore. She basically brings the same list but this time has Druids, shifting stones, and some other stuff. Scenarios had two 6" x 8" zones vertically in the center. Score in the farthest one for a point.
She goes first and advances everything up. I do likewise and like before Killstroke the Assassins past her Heavies on the front line and hit the Druids in the back. They take out a few but without Fury, Assassins aren't doing nearly as well as with Butcher (still good though). The game had them battling the Druids who kept using spells against them that pushed them out of melee but the hit usually killed them. Assassins spent most of the game in the back ranks of Circle while the rest of my army was facing the front rank. That was pretty neat. At one point the Assassins charge the Skinwalkers IN THE BACK earning the legendary Back Stab which gives them an additional die for melee damage. Too bad they failed their CMD check for terror ><; Druids continue to hammer at them with that spell and they all got taken out except one. Earlier I had the Underboss and another Assassin charge the Shifting Stones lol who were the only things guarding my scoring zone but a Gnarlhorn took care of them, Underboss failing to make his third Tough roll :P
In the Front, Winterguard and the Bears battled the Skinwalkers who were suprisingly resilient. After getting charged by the Skinwalkers and surviving, the WG stepped out of melee with DEF 17 and 4/5 survived the free strikes. The rest moved up to CRA the Skinwalkers and took ONE out but heavily damaging the rest. Bears took care of another one.
Heavies mainly battled in my defending zone, Spriggan getting thrown again, this time into Juggernaut. Jugg lived but Spriggan was destroyed.
Game was getting long so I ran Eiryss into my scoring zone. When Dice Down was called it went to tie breaker because none of us scored a control point. Eiryss was the only one scoring for me with 3pts. Circle had no one in their scoring zone who could earn points. There were two Skinwalkers in the zone but the third was tied up in melee with a Bear outside. If Jacqueline had gotten that Skinwalker in the zone she would have had more than half the unit in and would have won. So I got the win on the rematch which was cool. :D
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So ends the major gaming for the weekend, phew. Had a really great time. I ended up going 2-4 for the SteamRoller and 2-2 for the Hardcore. Definitely learned a lot in all my games.
I saw how powerful Assassins with Fury+Gang can be under pButcher. It's just ridiculous as they can parry out of melee and have free reign about who they want to engage. They're so much fun once they get into melee. Definitely shows me that they can have the same power with pIrusk and Battle Lust. Oh man that's gotta be sweet. You miss pButcher's feat turn and that added die but Battle Lusted Assassins-- yep I'll take a few of those.
I also saw what Chain Lighting can do to my high DEF infantry army. Talked with Josh and Jason about that and they suggested bring more armor for my second list. Something like pButcher and 'Jacks, which got me talking about pButcher tactics and what range support to give him. Lots of people, including Dave from Brookhurst recommended Rifle Corp because they have a 20" threat range and with Joe and pButcher's feat will get boosted attack and damage rolls. really really nice.
I learned that not only Chain Lighting but Ashes to Ashes (from a casual game), Berserkers, and the Forsaken can really make Assassins cry. Will be watching for that in the future.
Hey this is Dave, of exploding Berzerker fame. It was great to get to talk Khador with another new player. The Motherland really was represented there.
ReplyDeleteIt was an honor to get to play against such a beautifully painted army. It really looks great on the table. Congrats on the Master Craftsman, you really deserve it.
hey Dave! was great meeting you as well. I've told the Berserker story many times to my friends since our game; poor Assassins :P
ReplyDeleteCongrats to you as well on your medal. Khador did really good in HardCore.
Oh! I ended up buying the Drakhun and the Rifle Corp. Really looking forward to testing them out. I'm gonna try to go to Brookhurst tonight and get some games in; maybe run pButcher with the Rifle Corp.