Had a blast today at our club tourney-- 35pt Steamroller, 2 lists. We had about 11 for the tourney, somewhere around that number and got to make some new gaming buddies today which was really cool. I had a pButcher list but ended up playing eSorscha the whole day as I had a little more experience with that list recently. Here's the list:
eSorscha
Spriggan
Great Bears
Max Kayazy + Underboss
Max Wingerguard + UA + Joe
Gorman
Aiyanna and Holt
eSorscha I find is just a good all around caster. This army has the Winterguard sprays to take care of infantry and anti armor duties fall to the Great Bears, Spriggan, and also use of Sorscha's feat which doubles damage over armor. A&H and Gorman are there to help the units do even more damage on feat turn. Sorscha also helps the Winterguard a lot by giving them +2 movement and rerolls on failed CRAs which is awesome (forgot about that one in games). Here's some batreps.
Game 1
Faced off against Max who brought out eNemo with Thunderhead, Stormclad, Ironclad, two Stormsmiths, Arlan, Squire, and a min unit of Stormblades. Scenario was Destruction.
Max was unlucky in deployment because he got some deep water near his deployment zone which is bad because if infantry step in it they take a wound and 'Jacks will go inert. So he had to split his force a little with the Ironclad off to one flank; also because he didn't want it taking damage from the Thunderhead's Pulse.
My infantry advanced and I had Winterguard on the right against the Ironclad, a Stormsmith and Arlan. Kayazy was opposite the Thunderhead with the Blades protecting his front.
Key moment of the match was when I was able to get a Winterguard out of melee with the Ironclad with DEF 17 and do a boosted spray down the entire line of Stormblades, wiping out the unit. Max forgot to add +2 to the free strike hit which would have hit the Winterguard; I didn't catch that either. After that the Thunderhead Pulsed a group of my Winteguard and then Sorscha feated and Juggernaut (forgot to put Spriggan in), the Bears, and Winteguard CRAs wrecked Max's heavies. With the main army taken out Max conceded after that.
It was the first time that I got to play Max and he is a lot of fun to play against; great opponent. Hope to get more games with him in the future.
I've faced the Thunderhead Ball before with Thunderhead and Stormblades in front of him (Ben's Cygnar) but this was the first time I was able to use the Winterguard. My strategy with the Winterguard was to "try" and stay out of Pulse range and hopefully do a lot of two man CRAs at POW 14 and dice-4. Hopefully that would chip away at heavy 'Jack armor.
Strat for the Assassins was basically stay the heck away from the Thunderhead. Pulse will auto kill Assassins and running to engage the Ball was not an option because I would get Pulsed. Charging would get me some kills but I would still get Pulsed. Actually, I don't know what I was going to do with the Assassins but I tried to keep them out of charge range of the Blades and let the Winterguard slowly pick away at the army.
Game2
This was against Glorious, another Cygnar player and he brought out Kraye with Cyclone, Defender, Stormclad (?), Gun Mages + UA, Arlan, Squire, and at least one Stormsmith. This scenario had two flags in the center. Someone had to score on flag #1 before flag #2 could be scored against.
Glorious had ATGM behind a wall on the left next to the Defender and Stormclad. Cyclone off to the right with the Stormsmith.
I advanced the Winterguard with Desperate Pace and Iron Flesh to go after the first flag on the left and hopefully reach the ATGMs. With their high DEF they were able to survive their gunfire from eventually reach them with boosted sprays and blunderbuss shots taking out more than half the unit.
In the middle, Glorious' Defender had its way with my Spriggan with it's sick range and POW 15 gun. But Glorious had a dilemma as the ATGMs couldn't really take the flag so the burden fell to the 'Jacks. The Defender eventually walked up to contest it and my Spriggan was able to charge it and wreck it.
Over on the right his Cyclone faced off against the Assassins and laid down some suppressive fire templates to block the Assassins.
Eventually, Glorious pulled both his 'Jacks to the left to fight the Spriggan; the Stormclad bringing it down. But then Sorscha feated and got the two remaining Cygnar Heavies in her control. The Assassins swarmed the Cyclone and a Bear charged the Stormclad and also the Cyclone. Both were wrecked. With his 'Heavies gone, ATGMs below half strength and no way for Kraye to reach Sorscha, Glorious resigned.
One thing I thought that Glorious could have done was maybe hold the Defender back and have it just pound away at the Spriggan. It would take me a while to get to him and in my experience, anything the Defender focuses on will go down, especially Khador Heavies. And then the Stormclad could contest the flag.
Glorious was another great guy to play against. First time we played against each other.
With round 2 over I was 2-0 and would go against another 2-0 player, Steven. Getting a little sleepy so I'll continue that and the next game tomorrow :D
Showing posts with label Cygnar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cygnar. Show all posts
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Warmachine Batrep: pButcher vs pNemo
A week ago, Ben and I squared off for another match of Khador vs Cygnar. Ben had a new strategy taking what he learned from our first game and created a "Death Ball" of Electricity with the Thunderhead and his Stormblades. I usually write down what happens on a piece of paper but I lost it so this will be from memory. His list was something like this:
pNemo
Thunderhead
Hunter
Squire
Arlan Strangeways
Arcane Tempest Gunmages + UA
Stormblades + UA
Stormtower + Grunt
I was trying something different proxying Beast-09 and taking some Manhunters to go along with Yuri. Not the usual "Strong Center" I usually have with 2+ 'Jacks but I wanted to get some experience with flankers. My list:
pButcher
Beast-09
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Mechaniks (4)
Great Bears
Kayazy Assassins (max + UA)
Yuri
Manhunter x2
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I won the roll and deployed first putting the Widowmakers behind the wall and Yuri and friends near that forest. My plan was to get them in the trees where hopefully they could counter attack the center when Ben pushed forward. Beast and the Mechaniks were front and center with Butcher and the Great Bears behind them. On the right I had my Assassins.
Ben got his guys into a formation that he devised-- Thunderhead in the center with Stormblades in front to protect it. He advanced deployed his hunter behind the house on the left and had his ATGM on the right with the Stormtower just behind his wall.
Turn 1
Everyone runs for Khador-- Widowmakers hop over the wall to get some shooting lanes on the center. Yuri and friends push and shove each other as they try to fit in the forest. Everyone else moves up slowly and I shift the Great Bears behind the Assassins.
Ben moves everyone forward and puts Disruption Field on the Thunderhead and Electrify on the Stormblades-- if I hit them, I'll take a hit myself and get pushed back.
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Turn 2
My forces head for the center. Widowmakers take down one or two Stormblades. Ben counters with his Hunter who shoot two of my Widowmakers. The forest on the right proves to be too small and Yuri gets shot to pieces while the two manhunters flee the trees heading back to the main Khador force. Not sure but Beast could have taken some damage. He's going to get shot up on the way to the Cygnar line.
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Turn 3
From the look of the pics, it appears I went second. Ben kills the remaining widowmakers leaving just the Marksman left. At this point, I'm trying to figure out how to deal with the Thunderhead Ball of Doom. If I charge it and attack the Stormblades, I'll get electrified and pushed back. Then on the next turn Ben will Pulse with the Thunderhead and I'll lose all my infantry. I decide to send a handful of Assassins forward as a sacrifice while I get my other forces in position to charge next turn. I use Killstroke to get the Assassins deep into the Cygnar forces.
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Turn 4
Ben takes care of my Assassins with his Stormblades and clears out the center with a Pulse from the Thunderhead. Beast-09 goes down without contributing too much to the fight. I also forgot to advance him after he took ranged hits TT. Ben sends his ATGM all down my right flank and we've got a familiar sight-- the Khador force being slowly surrounded!
I counter with everything that I have and leave just two Stormblades left. Things look grim as I know that Ben is going to walk his Thunderhead down and pulse all of my infantry. It isn't going to be pretty.
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Turn 5
But wait!! Ben decides to go for the jugular and sends his Thunderhead to charge Butcher! Sitting on 5 focus he boosts his "to hit" rolls and boosts for damage. By some miracle Butcher lives to fight on taking minimal damage. With full focus camped Butcher was sitting at Armor 24. Ben and I had to double check multiple times because that just didn't seem right. In hindsight Ben said that he should have parried his Hunter out of melee with the Assassins and taken some armor piercing shots at the Butcher before the Thunderhead charged. That would have been good.
I lose all my infantry in the center taking shots from the ATGM and the rest of the Cygnar army.
On my turn I feat and Butcher rips apart the Thunderhead. Over on the left near the house, two Assassins charge the Hunter and take it down while another Assassin charges Arlan.
All I have left now is the three Assassins, the Widowmaker Marksman, and Butcher. Will it be enough?
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Turn 6
I lose all my Assassins to gunfire and the ATGM move towards the center. Ben moves his Stormtower closer ready to attack next turn. Nemo moves over to the right flank to safety.
At this point I'm considering putting Iron Flesh on Butcher to up his defense but I felt there wasn't time and he might take shots from the ATGM; better to have sick armor. So I decide to go for broke and in glorious fashion run Butcher into the fray backed up by the Marksman.
The Marksman takes a shot at the Stormtower taking out the operator; just one more shot needed next round to take that thing down.
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Turn 7
I never imagined I would be alive this long.
Ben moves his ATGM more towards the center while the Marksman takes down the Stormtower. One threat neutralized. Meanwhile Ben has been taking shots at Butcher and needed to roll insanity with dice -14 for damage from his Gun Mages. Holy Moly! Slowly we both realize that nothing can penetrate Butcher's armor. I run him right into the thick of the ATGM getting into melee and thinking that if he shoots at Butcher, he'll have to risk possibly shooting his own men!
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Turn 8
Ben takes down the Marksman and proceeds to surround Butcher and take shots at him. Nothing is working and in the past few rounds have only taken 3 or 4 damage. Ben runs Nemo behind a wall but leaves a charge lane for Butcher. With reach he is able to attack and with 6 focus is able to clobber Nemo and win a suprising game for Khador.
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Ben had the game won. For me, it was one of those agonizing games where you know you're just going to lose. Ben strategy of the Thunderhead Ball was really strong. I had no easy was of assaulting it as whatever I sent at it would get Pulsed in the next round.
Ben cleared out the center of my formation and could have easily Pulsed the remainder of it but instead decided to go for the win with the charge against Butcher with the Thunderhead. It looked good actually as the Thunderhead had 5 focus but wow, armor 24 is hard to beat!
The lesson I see in our game is knowing what to do when you have an advantage-- you don't have to take risks. In fact, the other player is the one that has to take some risks (like an assassination run) because they're the one that's playing from behind. What I think Ben should have done was Pulse what was left of my infantry and then go into the End Game with both the Thunderhead and the Hunter.
What we learned was that those two 'Jacks were the only things that could really threaten Butcher. Nothing else could penetrate his armor easily. So here's the strategy:
In this particular matchup, Khador wants to eliminate those things that can hurt Butcher in the end-- the Thunderhead and the Hunter. Then, after the majority of the Cygnar forces are taken care of, he can come out and dominate the field.
Cygnar on the other hand, wants to keep his anti-armor alive to threaten Butcher while they slowly pick apart the Khador force using their guns and tactics with the Thunderhead's Pulse.
Ben will probably run this list again as we both feel it's really strong and next time I'm going to have to figure out a way to win and tackle the Thunderhead Ball. GG Ben!
pNemo
Thunderhead
Hunter
Squire
Arlan Strangeways
Arcane Tempest Gunmages + UA
Stormblades + UA
Stormtower + Grunt
I was trying something different proxying Beast-09 and taking some Manhunters to go along with Yuri. Not the usual "Strong Center" I usually have with 2+ 'Jacks but I wanted to get some experience with flankers. My list:
pButcher
Beast-09
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Mechaniks (4)
Great Bears
Kayazy Assassins (max + UA)
Yuri
Manhunter x2
Ben got his guys into a formation that he devised-- Thunderhead in the center with Stormblades in front to protect it. He advanced deployed his hunter behind the house on the left and had his ATGM on the right with the Stormtower just behind his wall.
Turn 1
Everyone runs for Khador-- Widowmakers hop over the wall to get some shooting lanes on the center. Yuri and friends push and shove each other as they try to fit in the forest. Everyone else moves up slowly and I shift the Great Bears behind the Assassins.
Ben moves everyone forward and puts Disruption Field on the Thunderhead and Electrify on the Stormblades-- if I hit them, I'll take a hit myself and get pushed back.
My forces head for the center. Widowmakers take down one or two Stormblades. Ben counters with his Hunter who shoot two of my Widowmakers. The forest on the right proves to be too small and Yuri gets shot to pieces while the two manhunters flee the trees heading back to the main Khador force. Not sure but Beast could have taken some damage. He's going to get shot up on the way to the Cygnar line.
From the look of the pics, it appears I went second. Ben kills the remaining widowmakers leaving just the Marksman left. At this point, I'm trying to figure out how to deal with the Thunderhead Ball of Doom. If I charge it and attack the Stormblades, I'll get electrified and pushed back. Then on the next turn Ben will Pulse with the Thunderhead and I'll lose all my infantry. I decide to send a handful of Assassins forward as a sacrifice while I get my other forces in position to charge next turn. I use Killstroke to get the Assassins deep into the Cygnar forces.
Ben takes care of my Assassins with his Stormblades and clears out the center with a Pulse from the Thunderhead. Beast-09 goes down without contributing too much to the fight. I also forgot to advance him after he took ranged hits TT. Ben sends his ATGM all down my right flank and we've got a familiar sight-- the Khador force being slowly surrounded!
I counter with everything that I have and leave just two Stormblades left. Things look grim as I know that Ben is going to walk his Thunderhead down and pulse all of my infantry. It isn't going to be pretty.
But wait!! Ben decides to go for the jugular and sends his Thunderhead to charge Butcher! Sitting on 5 focus he boosts his "to hit" rolls and boosts for damage. By some miracle Butcher lives to fight on taking minimal damage. With full focus camped Butcher was sitting at Armor 24. Ben and I had to double check multiple times because that just didn't seem right. In hindsight Ben said that he should have parried his Hunter out of melee with the Assassins and taken some armor piercing shots at the Butcher before the Thunderhead charged. That would have been good.
I lose all my infantry in the center taking shots from the ATGM and the rest of the Cygnar army.
On my turn I feat and Butcher rips apart the Thunderhead. Over on the left near the house, two Assassins charge the Hunter and take it down while another Assassin charges Arlan.
All I have left now is the three Assassins, the Widowmaker Marksman, and Butcher. Will it be enough?
Turn 6
I lose all my Assassins to gunfire and the ATGM move towards the center. Ben moves his Stormtower closer ready to attack next turn. Nemo moves over to the right flank to safety.
At this point I'm considering putting Iron Flesh on Butcher to up his defense but I felt there wasn't time and he might take shots from the ATGM; better to have sick armor. So I decide to go for broke and in glorious fashion run Butcher into the fray backed up by the Marksman.
The Marksman takes a shot at the Stormtower taking out the operator; just one more shot needed next round to take that thing down.
I never imagined I would be alive this long.
Ben moves his ATGM more towards the center while the Marksman takes down the Stormtower. One threat neutralized. Meanwhile Ben has been taking shots at Butcher and needed to roll insanity with dice -14 for damage from his Gun Mages. Holy Moly! Slowly we both realize that nothing can penetrate Butcher's armor. I run him right into the thick of the ATGM getting into melee and thinking that if he shoots at Butcher, he'll have to risk possibly shooting his own men!
Turn 8
Ben takes down the Marksman and proceeds to surround Butcher and take shots at him. Nothing is working and in the past few rounds have only taken 3 or 4 damage. Ben runs Nemo behind a wall but leaves a charge lane for Butcher. With reach he is able to attack and with 6 focus is able to clobber Nemo and win a suprising game for Khador.
Ben had the game won. For me, it was one of those agonizing games where you know you're just going to lose. Ben strategy of the Thunderhead Ball was really strong. I had no easy was of assaulting it as whatever I sent at it would get Pulsed in the next round.
Ben cleared out the center of my formation and could have easily Pulsed the remainder of it but instead decided to go for the win with the charge against Butcher with the Thunderhead. It looked good actually as the Thunderhead had 5 focus but wow, armor 24 is hard to beat!
The lesson I see in our game is knowing what to do when you have an advantage-- you don't have to take risks. In fact, the other player is the one that has to take some risks (like an assassination run) because they're the one that's playing from behind. What I think Ben should have done was Pulse what was left of my infantry and then go into the End Game with both the Thunderhead and the Hunter.
What we learned was that those two 'Jacks were the only things that could really threaten Butcher. Nothing else could penetrate his armor easily. So here's the strategy:
In this particular matchup, Khador wants to eliminate those things that can hurt Butcher in the end-- the Thunderhead and the Hunter. Then, after the majority of the Cygnar forces are taken care of, he can come out and dominate the field.
Ben will probably run this list again as we both feel it's really strong and next time I'm going to have to figure out a way to win and tackle the Thunderhead Ball. GG Ben!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 $#!7!!!!"
Butcher senses that this is the time for a little Blood Frenzy! And now with fire in their eyes the Great Bears charge!!! Kolsk reaches the Hunter and misses his first swing. He comes around again for a second hit and nails the Hunter for crippling damage. Volkov and Yarovich hit the Thunderhead HARD crippling first the Thunderhead's cortex then it's movement.
The Marauder charges into the Thunderhead, eyeing the Hunter behind him. Rolling with Full Throttle, the Marauder hits his Combo Smite and smashes the Thunderhead back, wrecking it completely. It lands just shy of colliding with the Hunter.
The Kodiak looks down and sees Ryan, her gun still smoking from her last Mage Storm shot. He swings with his fist and finally takes her down.
Still with a lot of fight Ben activates the B13. They take a shot at Kolsk on the left. He toughs! Ben responds quickly with another, "That's Bull$#!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!!
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
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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
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