2012: The Year of Weekly BRs

[Andross]

Okay, so this year I've resolved to get myself back to my Mk1 level of play as my current play time has been cut down and I've found myself stumbling on things that I haven't had trouble with since I started the game back in the dark days of black and white copies of Prime that could sometimes change from one printing run to the next. To assist in this endeavor, I've decided to post one to three battle reports a week at the 35-50 point level. Hopefully the BR thread will keep me from back sliding. Anyway, enough back ground story, here's the first BP from last night. I apologize for the pictures, it's a new camera that I got for X-mas, and I realized at the end of the game that it was set for close range pictures, so most of them are fairly blurry. However they're really just there to give you an idea of what happened. Future posts should have improved images.

Menoth vs Cygnar

Lists:
Menoth:
Thyra, Flame of Sorrow
Blood of Martyrs
Dervish
Dervish
Hierophant

Min Choir
Daughters of the Flame
Daughters of the Flame
Idrian Skirmishers (10)
Idrian Skirmishers Chieftan and Guide
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Covenant of Menoth
Wracks
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

List Theme:
Jam a number of highly mobile moderate to high defense models down the board while the warjacks move up as quickly as possible. Once an assassination lane is open via Side Step, Feat, Acrobatics (on Thyra) or just plain attrition take it. This is not a list meant to deal with high armor although it can deal with a few targets due to Prey, Combo-strike (On the Dervish) and the Blood of Martyr's fury triggers stacking with hymn of battle.

Cygnar:
Commander Coleman Stryker
Ironclad
Stormclad
Journeyman Warcaster
Cyclone
Storm Strider
Stormblade Infantry
Stormblade Officer and Standard Bearer
Stormblade Storm Gunner (2)
Sword Knights (10)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes

Scenario:
Killbox

Terrain:
Four Hills, one with a forest in the corners of the Killbox
Simple and easy as it was the first outing for each player's list, terrain will probably be abit more complex later, but I showed up late tonight and we wanted to get the game moving so we could finish before the store closed.

Set Up:
I lost the roll for turn one but my opponent elected to allow me to go first anyway and then placed his Stormstrider in the center of the table following the Battle Engine pre-deployment rules.

I then proceeded to deploy my battle group and support models just to the left of center, with the warjacks leading the way. The rest of my army is advance deploy, something that set the Cygnar player slightly off balance when he realized I would be dropping 25 models down on my AD phase.

He then deployed his army in a wide line across the board, Knights on his right, jacks in the center (Ironclad to the right of the Strider, Cyclone to the left, with the Stormclad hanging out near the Stormblades for Accumulator) and blades on his left. His casters and support tucked in behind the Strider's huge base.

I then placed my daughters on either flank, Eyriss across from the Stormclad with the Idrians set up across the board from the Strider, with Prey on the Cyclone. The Wracks were set up slightly back from the cloud of infantry to give Thyra options later in the game.




Turn One: (Menoth)
Everything runs.
Daughters on the Right (brown and yellow) get occulation
Idrians pop Go to Ground.
Jacks get Passage.
Book prevents knock down.
Rear-most wrack survives having focused ripped off, which is used to provide a buffer against a possible chain lightning jump from the strider from hurting as much.


Turn Two: (Cygnar)
Sword Knights Advance.
Sniper on the Strider.
Arcane Shield on the Knights and Blades.
Strider takes two shots at the Daughters on my left (Brown and Green), missing the first, but picking up three with the second shot. (Note to self, they are FOUR inch jumps.) They pass command.
Blades move up.
Cyclone lays down two covering fire templates in front of the Blades.
Stormclad moves up and looks threatening.


Turn Three: (Menoth)
Drop Occulation.
Idrians Assault & Battery.
5 man CRA on the Strider for a few points of damage.
4 man CRA on the Cyclone for moderate damage. (Lucky Roll.)
3 individual shots at some knights for no effect.
Melee attacks scrap Cyclone.
Prey moves to the Strider.
Melee attack pings Strider, placement prevents repulse. (What, I play revengers, I know how to stop that stuff!)
Melee attacks kill a few knights.
Daughters charge Stormblades after the covering fire templates are removed with the Cyclone.
Anatomical Precision bypasses armor, kills four out of six attack targets.
Daughters charge Sword Knights.
Anatomical Precision bypasses armor, kill three out of four attack targets.
Sword Knights fail leadership check.
Warjacks and support shuffle foward.
Warjacks gain Passage.
Enliven on BoM and one Dervish, just in case.
Hierophant uses Harmonious Exaltation.
Thyra rips focus from a wrack and casts Occulation on self, camping 6 focus.
Wrack survives.
Eyriss shots the Stormblade officer, removing Arcane Shield, but failing to deal any damage.


Turn Four: (Cygnar)
Drops Arcane Shields.
Upkeep Snipe.
Repairs Strider.
Strider fries four Idrians.
Strider free from melee, fires at my Vassal that was just inside range. (Note to self: Huge base + snipe = HUGE LOS & Range.)
-Fries: Two Choir, one Vassal, and my Hierophant!
-Choir passes command check.
-Reclaimer Gains Three Souls.
-Blood of Martyr's Fury triggers.
Stormclad swings four times at a single Idrian, however misses all four attacks. (Go that guy!)
Ironclad moves up into position to block attacks on the Strider and misses w/ Tremor attack.
Sword Knights flee into better defensive line positions and rally.
Stormblades attack Daughters.
-Four Daughters hit, despite needing an 8+.
-Daughters pass command check.
Stryker moves to place Strider between himself and the attacking forces.


Turn Five: (Menoth.)
Thyra Upkeeps Occulation on self.
Thyra gives three focus to a dervish.
Choir gives warjacks Hymn of Battle.
Reclaimer moves up to catch more models inside command, gives three focus to Blood of Martyrs.
Daughters attack Sword Knights.
-Kill two.
Daughters attack Stormblades.
-Kill Four, including the standard bearer.
Idrians attack Strider, Ironclad, and Stormclad.
-Strider killed. Prey to Stryker.
-Stormclad loses a few boxes.
-Ironclad suffers moderate damage.
Dervish charges Stormclad.
-Combo strike removes cortex.
-Follow up attacks miss and then fail to damage.
Blood of Martyrs charges Ironclad.
-Scraps in two hits. (Note to self: MAT 10/Pow 20 w/ two initials may not require full focus investment to kill enemy heavies.)
Thyra Rips focus from a wrack as insurance.
Wrack Survives.


Turn Six: (Cygnar)
Concede due to late hour (store closed in twenty minutes) and lack of options. He had forgotten to pop his feat the turn before, and really all he could do was toss Arcane Shield on himself, Camp focus and prolong the game. Particularly since Blood of Martyrs was inside charge range, as were a dervish and Thyra.

Thoughts:
I dealt better with the high armor (for this list) targets that he had better than I thought I would. With three heavy jacks and a battle engine, I was abit worried at the start that I would just hit him and bounce off while he used his Chain Lightning shots from the Strider, Stormclad and Stormblades to fry my low armor list and then move onto the kill. Fortunately, between Anatomical Precision, and the sheer number of targets I managed to jam up his list and bog him down in melee before he could bring the ranged elements to play. The big turn in the game though came right after he had forgotten to pop his feat, and I think that would have saved his Strider and his Stormclad, and possibly the Ironclad if my dice had gone cold. I also think he made a serious mistake trying to buff up the armor on his infantry with his two arcane shield spells as the anatomical precision on the Daughters completely ignores all the armor buffs you want to place on single wound living models, which is something he commented on right after I moved into him and started just saying, "Hit, AP deals one damage, model dead." However, that was fortunate for me as that meant I didn't have to face armor 21-22 Cygnar heavies, with only one heavy on my side of the board. Granted, BoM can get up to POW 20, and if I can find a way to squeeze in Gorman, I can use rust bomb to help out, however this isn't a list I plan on bringing against high armor lists, rather it will be used against other swarm lists that only have a few hard, crunchy targets.

Problems:
High Defense may clog me up, Thyra does have Carnage for +2 on the attack, but that still only puts the Daughters at MAT 8 and even with CMA that mean things like WGI and Kayazy (or however you spell it) with Iron Flesh will give me fits as they'll have more attacks to kill my models than I will his. I think Prey + Carnage w/ CMA & CRA on the Idrians may balance this out though. One good assault and battery charge ought to at least gut a WGI death star, the stealth on the assassins will be more problematic, and I may have to commit BoM there, but that seems a last option scenario.

[nolasuperman]

Thoughts from the Cygnar prospective:

You pretty much summed up the core idea behind that Stryker1 list: use arm 18/19 to take a hit so the battle engine can fry things from a distance. With that in mind, it faced a pretty horrible match-up against so many high defense models that had anatomical precision, acrobatics, and couldn't be knocked down thanks to the book. The Idrians with go-to-ground and assault and battery weren't that fun either. As we discussed after the game, it might be better for me to drop the ironclad for a shooty unit that could have helped whittle down that problem from a distance, like rangers or gun mages. I could also see dropping the sword knights down to a minimum to free up another two points and take min trencher commandos+3 WAs as the sprays would have helped against the Idrians while the grenades helped with the daughters. The strider was my MVP, but it just wasn't clearing those daughters fast enough and I couldn't hope to hit those Idrians when they were dug-in.

Also, not sure if got my text this morning, but I did double check. You were correct in that you can CRA under "assault and battery" because you are making a normal ranged attack before charging. However, you have to remember to do it before moving, as the rules forum say once you move into melee you can't make the range attack as per the normal rules. I mention it not to be an ***, but just to help you remember so you don't do it in a tournament. I think you caught yourself, but seeing you move then shoot is what tripped me up and made me think it worked just like the trenchers. The trenchers under "assault" get to make a range attack at the target they are charging so they can't CRA.

Also, even if you don't play me next week, get me to take a look at your camera before you start taking pics.

[Buster]

Can't help but think more electro leaps could have helped more. Stormguard and Fireflys witht the Strider would have cleared out the high defense Idrians by bouncing the leaps off of friendly models.

[SevenSins]

nice rep, and a harsh matchup for the stormguard

[nolasuperman]

While I do like my stormguard, I have to agree that they wouldn’t have been as effective here. I, personally, get the best use out of them when using them as an infantry clearing tarpit I can shoot through. Since I limited my shooting in this list, my sword knights were trying to fill the tarpit roll at a cheaper cost. I ran the sword knights up 12 inches on turn one to try and tie up his Idrians, but they didn’t quite get close enough to reach his Idrians. If the guard had been in this list for their tarpit roll, they would have only been able to run up 10 inches.

At that point, Andrew would have charged or ran his daughters using acrobatics to get up into the middle of my unit – like he does – to make their eleaps not matter since it jumps to the nearest model. Either method would have nerfed their set defense ability and put them in the same spot my storm blades were in on the other side of the table, which was Def 12 and armor doesn’t matter. Buster, I’m pretty sure you are thinking about that time your Kayazy Assassins went up against them, but I was rolling amazingly hot that night to hit Def 16 to generate so many eleaps and they also had tough from the Piper. Honestly, what I just described with Andrew’s daughters is what I worried you would pull off with the underboss’ mini-feat, but I think you might have been holding that back to get to the blades, or even my caster. Instead, you charged the front rank and put me in a position where their eleaps would work really well. You never asked, and I still wasn’t confident enough in my ability to point it out to you after the game. Now you know. Have fun ripping me a new one when you get back to mercs.

Getting back to this battle report, what Buster suggests is a good tactic for pulling off any chain lighting attack against a model you can’t hope to hit or target. However, I find it is much better pulled off with a stormsmith that can be ran up 14 inches as needed. I normally like to bring at least one smith with my strider, but I just didn’t this time. I honestly thought about trying it with my blades or even my stormclad, but I was playing too conservatively for my own good. When I realized how many of Andrew’s models had anatomical precision, I realized how bad of a matchup I faced and I let that play with my head too much. If I drop the ironclad for the rangers, I’ll probably use the last two points for two smiths just for that purpose.

I definitely think this Striker1 list needed more shooting. He’s Cygnar’s jack-of-all-trades caster and I think tweaks to make this a more combined arms list would make it much more viable. Really, I need to focus on making this my All Comers List, while my eCaine list handles infantry swarm (Andrew already said that list would have tore up what he placed on the table), and my Siege list as my Anti-Armor. Some of the tweaks I’m considering have even given me an idea for a Haley1 list that could be a monster to face, but I’ll leave that for another time.

[Andross]

No pictures this time, I goofed up and forgot to make sure that I had put the SD card back into the camera after putting them onto my computer last week. Showed up with a camera without film, so to speak. >.<

Mercs vs Menoth

Lists:
Menoth:
Testament of Menoth
-Guardian
-Hierophant
Idrian Skirmishers w/ UA (12)
Choir of Menoth (4)
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
Paladin of the Wall (2)
Vassal of Menoth
Covenant of Menoth
Wracks (3)
Eiryss, Angel of Ret.

Mercs:
Fiona
-Nomad
Thor
-Avalandcher
Gun Mages w/ UA
-Mule
Boomhowlers (6)
Dougal McNaile

Set Up:
Two hills, in each player's left corner w/ a Forest
One hill out in the middle, Merc Side
One forest, Middle Left
One Hill out on the right, Menoth Side

Deployment:

I won the roll to go first, and put the Battle group and support down in the middle of my board edge, with the Testament leading next to the Guardian to try and extend his small control area as far as possible for the following turns. Vilmon in the center for Commander with the Paladins on the flanks, my Idrians end up deployed across the middle and Prey Boomhowler, with Eiryss out on the far left in the forest.

Mercs are deployed in a long line, gun mages in the back, Boomhowlers up front and the Nomad anchoring the right and the mule on the left. The Avalancher ended up in the middle, slightly off set to the Merc's right, with Fiona and Dougal in the center back.

Turn 1:
One Focus on the Guardian to run up, Idrians advance six, and everyone else follows up, putting Passage, Enliven, and Hallowed Avenger on the Guardian with Ashen Veil on the Idrians (bringing them up to Def. 17 vs shooting on anything but...gun mages. Of course.) Paladins move up to the second wave mark and enter Stone and Mortar to cut down on early sniping opportunities by the gun mages.

Turn 2:
All the trolls move up abit and get 4+ tough and Roth's Mercy, Gun Mages hang back for some reason and get the upkeep that lets them ignore LOS. Mule moves up, he forgets to call a rune shot, but the deviation kills a random Idrian anyway, triggering Hallowed Avenger (which I should not have charged with, but I did anyway) and gives the Testament a soul. Nomad shuffles forward and anchors the trolls right flank. Avalancher gets Tune Up and Pronto, and then is also hit with Artillerist, using that stack of buffs he proceeds to wipe Eiryss off the table without trouble even though stealth forces and auto miss. Perfect deviation on the first try.

Turn 3:
I upkeen Ashen Veil and Teleport forward, and get Harmonius Exaltation to put revive at focus 2. Support walks up, and get enliven on the Guardian, but I should have ran the choir so that the Guardian could be buffed next turn, but I decided not to. My mistake. Covenant puts up no Knock-Down. Idrian Chieftan was right out in front which gives me a huge area to revive into. I rip a focus from a wrack which doesn't explode and revive the killed Idrian right at the edge for the 9" formation bubble. Idrians activate and get the Prey bonus movement for having a model w/in 10" of their prey target bumping their charge range up to 11". Assault and Battery puts a six man CRA into the Nomad for decent damage and kills one troll with a lucky shot. I get three models into melee range with the trolls and kill two targets and put six points onto Boomhowler himself despite 4+ tough and Roth's Mercy. Other Idrians run and engage everything they can that has a gun.
Vilmon and the Paladins move up to continue their counter assault threat.

Turn 4:
All upkeeps stay up, and the gun mages sweep most of the Idrians off the important models. They take all three off the mule, and the one guy that was on the Avalancher. However, the four in the middle playing road block all remain. Trolls fail to swing, however they almost force the Idrians to flee with one of their fell calls thankfully Vilmon caught them inside his 10" commander bubble. They do hit the Guardian with -2 MAT though. The Avalancher slides up and boosts a shot into the Chieftain's face, picking up him and the guide inside the AoE. Mule hits the Guardian for 8, and knocks him back, however he lands inside the Covenant's radius of no Knock Down, and enliven kicks in, moving him forward 4" for the 3" knock back. Fiona pops her feat.

Turn 5:
Upkeep Veil, Revive Idrians (and Guide). Hunker Down because with minus one attack die on all my models, I'm not going to hit anything. The Idrians tried on the trolls and missed every swing despite needing a 4 or higher to hit on 1d6, even a CMA needing a 2+ failed.

Turn 6:
Realize that by sliding back during her feat turn, Fiona had exited the Kill box. (We decide to see how the die would fall and continue the game, however I chalk it up to a win by scenario. I hemmed him in on his side of the box and forced him to walk out to get breathing room for the caster, which is sort of the point of kill box. No breathing room if you lose control of the tempo of the battle.) Several models take shots at the Testament via elevation (which I forgot about, curses) putting 8 points of damage on him and kills all but four Idrians, with the AoEs on the Testament killing my Hierophant and two choir members giving me a boat load of soul tokens.

Turn 7:
Teleport forward with a soul token. Run the Book up. Rip a focus from the Wrack, charge the book. Revive Four Idrians including the Guide and place prey on Fiona after popping my feat. Charge Fiona with Five Idrians putting 12 points of damage on her due to a low charge damage roll, although I think the first roll was slightly above average so I suppose they balance out. Everything else charges stuff.

Turn 8:
Avalancher moves up (He forgot to use Tune Up, but I said it was okay to assume it went off) and manages to hit Testament for precisely what he needed to kill.

Thoughts:
The list works fairly well as long as I can continue to revive Idrians, so I need to stay close to my wracks and my Heirophant. Also, the Ashen Veil is only useful against things that can't ignore Cover/Concealment/Camouflage because their 13/12 defensive stats are just abysmal for something that expensive. I also probably over extended by charging in the Idrians so early, popping Go To Ground that turn would probably have been better, however the opponent said that they were a major reason he didn't push as hard as I expected him to during the game so perhaps not. Next time I'm going to try and get Six models into the enemy caster too, that or Vilmon I was definently feeling the Pow 10 swords on the Idrians on just Armor 18. (Even with Prey and CMA, it was only power 15 & 14 for the two swings I got in, just not enough.) Perhaps I'll turn the Guardian into a Reckoner too for Flare and Mid-Game pot shots on the caster, that way the Idrians aren't trying to carry the entire game themselves. That frees up a point for a max choir for extra souls too.

[Andross]

Yep! I got two games in this time!

Khador vs Menoth, 50 points.

Lists:
Menoth:
Thyra, Flame of Sorrow
-Blood of Martyrs
-Dervish
-Dervish
-Hierophant
Min Choir
Daughters of the Flame
Daughters of the Flame
Idrian Skirmishers (10)
Idrian Skirmishers Chieftan and Guide
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Covenant of Menoth
Wracks
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Khador:
Butcher
-Berzerker
-Berzerker
-Wardog
Shocktroopers (5)
Shocktroopers (5)
Demo Corps (5)
Kayazaya Assassins w/UA (11)
Widowmakers (4)
Widowmaker Marksman

Set Up: Same Board as Before.

Deployment:
I won the roll to go first again (yay!..I think). Once again the Battle Group and Support go in the Center and the AD ends up with the Daughters on the flanks and Idrians in the middle, Eiryss off to the left in the forest.

Khador deploys this huge brick of Man-O-Wars in the middle of the board, with the Assassins in a skirmishing screen in front. Berzerkers are anchoring the flanks with the Widowmakers in the forest on the far left looking at some daughters. Butcher is right in the middle of the board behind his huge brick. Yep, this is going to be a slugging match.

Turn 1:
Choir throws up passage on the Blood of Martyrs and two Dervishes. Idrians shuffle foward abit. Right hand unit of Daughters run up field at the Widowmakers. Book slides forward and puts up No Knock Down. Enliven goes on BoM and the left dervish. Thyra shuffles forward and puts Occulation on the Idrians.

Turn 2:
Widowmakers hit 4 out of 6 daughters (stupid RAT 9 models!) but they pass command. Berzerkers run forward for free. Butcher inches into the niche left in the back of his brick and puts up Iron Flesh on the Kayazy and fury on the right hand Shocktroopers. Kayazy run forward and stick to the middle of the board, facing off with the Idrians. Shocktroopers move up in shield wall behind the Kayazy. Demo Corps and war dog slot into the brick.

Turn 3:
This game I remember that Daughters with Thyra get vengence! Right hand daughters slip forward three inches, and I drop Occulation from the Idrians. Right hand Daughters charge and Kill the Marksman, and one Widowmaker (poor placement on my part, I could have picked up two more Widowmakers if I had remembered that I had two attacks per Daughter.) Idrians Assault and Battery, CRA'ing a Berzerker because Assassins have innate stealth. I ding the Berzerker for 4 damage. Idrians then charge into the kayazy, and due to a misunderstanding on my part I find out they have Iron Flesh. (For some reason I thought the IF token infront of them was a marker to tell the two Berzerker's apart, so I didn't move Eiryss up for Upkeep removal before the charge.) All the Idrians on the Kayazy miss except for a two man CMA on the underboss, which kills him. Three of the Idrians only had charge range to the Berzerker, and they ding him for another 9 points of damage. I move my left hand unit of daughters up behind the Idrians for Acrobatics shennanigans. Jacks move up, support runs up (not too worried about guns this turn, which is a mistake on the reclaimer, as we'll see.) Thyra moves up into the middle of the field and hits the right hand Berzerker with Pursuit. Eiryss, having missed her chance to help kill Kayazy now runs up into some cover in the Khador deployment zone.

Turn 4:
Left Side shock troopers put up shield wall and slide forward. The two that have reach on the daughters holding the Widowmakers in place roll 9+ to hit and remove them. (Argh! What is it with people rolling high only on the models I need to keep around?) They also pick up one Idrian. Right hand Shocktroopers run, one of them engaging Eiryss over the wall she is behind, the other ones moving up to threaten my left flank, and engage one daughter in the left hand unit. Widowmakers, now free from melee, shuffle up and shoot into my flank. They pick up one of the daughters from the remaining unit (triggering vengeance next turn!) and hitting the reclaimer (with full souls!) for exactly enough damage to kill him. Highly annoying. Butcher moves further up towards the front lines and casts Full Throttle (leaving him with one focus). Pursuited Berzerker charges my Dervish on that flank allowing me to move BoM foward 5". He does moderate damage to the Dervish but fails to remove a system, and the Covenant keeps him from being knocked down. The engaged Berzerker kills two of the Idrians engaging it, and then the Kayazy move up, engage BoM and kill all of the front line Idrians, leaving three. Demo Corps shifts to the left and advance to the middle, and wardog moves up abit.

Turn 5:
Allocate three to BoM, it's game time!
Left side daughters put slight damage on one Shocktrooper and miss an assassin with Vengeance.
Idrians Assault and Battery and miss. Charge Attacks Miss. Daughters activate and charge the Butcher and Wardog. Wardog kills one with counter charge, and then goes down under a flurry of knives. Butcher ends up taking moderate damage (5). Eiyrss dodges a free strike but misses her shot at the assassins by one. (Should have done this earlier, but as it missed it doesn't matter anyway.) Choir gives the warjacks Hymn of Battle. Thyra rips a focus from a wrack and charges the Shocktrooper standing between BoM and the Butcher. I hit and deal moderate damage and then pop my feat and take my second attack from his back arc, by passing shield wall and killing him. (Should have done this on the slight pause that happens between the charge and the attack during Mk2. but I still have some habits from Mk1. that I need to break which is the point of these reports.) I use my overtake move to clear the zone and get into range of the Butcher and make a flurry of attacks on him, missing several (!) but still managing to land one attack for 6 damage. Martyr activates, teleports two inches forward and then tramples forward into melee with the Butcher. I buy two attacks, the first landing for an abysmal five damage on Dice +1, but the second lands for 11, more than killing him.

Thoughts:
Again I was worried about the high armor, and this time it was on multi-wound models that Anatomical Precision would not help against much. However, with Acrobatics, and the feat I was able to ignore most of the high armor models (I left both warjacks alone other than opportunity hits, and the same with all but one Shocktrooper (the one Thyra killed)) and just go straight for the Butcher when I saw the option. I was right about the Kayazy, Def 19 is simply too high to deal with reliably, and I really don't want to get close enough to affect them with Carnage while the Underboss is still alive, as that seems to be asking for death, so I may just have to bog them down with Idrians and use the Daughters to snipe out the Underboss, and then just ignore them for the most part.

[SevenSins]

nice reps yet again, I think you dealt with the IF'ed Kayazy in the right way, kill the underboss and ignore.

[Andross]

The only problem I'm seeing with that is if they're used to hold an objective, I must kill at least 50% of the unit or so to keep them from being able to take a control point, which means that I'm going to have to take shots with the Idrians from fewer than 5" or get enough attacks on them to hit Def 19. Now, Prey and Carnage can get the Idrians up to effective MAT 10, but that's still a 9 to hit unless I use two man CMA's and that's still only MAT 12 on 6 targets in the Best Case Scenario, meaning I'm probably only going to be able to pick up three or four tops in most actually "on table" conditions.

[Buster]

I made way to many mistakes in our game. It was a good learning experience though. Also, the avalancher didn't get the kill at the end and Thor was dead before then for the tune up. It was the gun mages using arcane inferno for the kill. Of course it was still a lose since I can't seem to remember scenarios. Oh well.

[nolasuperman]

We so need to play more scenarios. During my game with Andrew last week, he pointed out when he would have scored a point had we been playing pretty much anything other than killbox. I just don't think of those things unless I see it on the table.

[Andross]

Last Week:
Only played one game against a returning Skorne player, at 50pts. As neither of us were familiar with his army (he thought it would be easier to start back up than it turned out to be) the game took several hours and ended up having to be called due to lack of time at the store before they closed. We had reached the point where he felt that he didn't have any way to reliably kill my caster (Thyra) with his 'lock (Raseth) however, dice could have swung the game either way even though he decided to give me the game after we talked out what his options were. I did learn that daughters have a frustratingly low command though, as he used a unit of gator men to lock down one of my units of daughters for the whole game. (Five consecutive failed command checks!) So for this reason I have been contemplating some list changes.

This Week:
Got one game in against my buddy who plays Trolls and Cygnar at his apartment, 50pts. He wanted to test out a new Jarl list that went as follows:
Jarl
-Dire Troll Mauler
-Troll Impaler
Kreil Warriors with UA and Cabers
Champions
Champions
Kriel Stone Bearer
Fell Caller
Champion

My list:
Thyra, Flame of Sorrow
-Blood of Martyrs
-Hierophant
Choir of Menoth (min)
Daughters of the Flame
Daughters of the Flame
Idrian Skirmishers
-Chieftain and Guide
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance
Reclaimer
Covenant of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanik
Vessel of Judgement

Board was a forest map, with three forests in a vague L shape down my right side of the table, then across to my left, with one small forest in the center of the table. (Kind of like the pips on a five, with the bottom left pip removed) and we had a few walls put in to break up the longer charge lanes.

Vessel pre-deploys in the center of my zone.
He deploys in a large brick (Surprise!) with his beasts on my right and the champions, both units, on my left. The Warriors led the pack slightly, with the Stone and Jarl tucked in behind them.
I put the Daughters out on my flanks (both a good and bad thing in retrospec) with the Idrians holding down the center and putting prey on the Warriors. My battle group deploys next to my Vessel of Judgement and Wracks go down in between the normal line and the AD line to provide decent focus options.

Turn One: He advances his Warriors all the way up and puts Quicken on them, while the Champions move up more slowly, one of them getting Martial Discipline, and the two beasts move up and rile.

Turn Two: I check prey distance and notice that his warriors are close enough to give me the 11" charge. At this point I get greedy (and forget to ask him about the stats on the Warriors as the only time I'm used to seeing them is when they're buffed through the roof with Grissel) and call out Assault and Battery after moving Thrya up and tossing out Silence of Death to them and Occultation onto her. I horribly miss all the ranged shots, however I get a decent number if troopers into melee primed for some CMAs only to discover that I could easily hit each troll with a single attack, leaving almost half the charging Idrians with no targets at the end of their run. To recover, I move the Daughters up both flanks into prime counter charge position, and plant the reclaimer in a forest with easy reach to at least five Idrians to load up on souls. The Vessel slides up slightly but is out of range of everything worth shooting at the moment. Blood of Martyrs gets Passage and Enliven and then moves up to counter charge range. Nicia then charges in and misses both of her attacks needing 5's to hit. Covenant moves up and prevents knock down as I don't want something strange to happen with Cabers and an Impaler on the board.

Turn Three: Leeches from his beasts, and up keeps Discipline while allowing Quicken to drop. He slaughters a decent number of Idrians with his Warriors, loading up my reclaimer. Nicia looks like she's going to get the MVP for the game as she dodges several Warrior attacks, and avoids being knocked down by a flying Idrian thanks to the Covenant. However, Jarl moves up and uses his feat to hand out five clouds in a large arc across his lines (blocking the LOS to anything important for all of my second line troopers and big hitters EXCEPT for Nicia. He then proceeds to miss Nicia twice, even though we had decided that the clouds did not provide concealment, so she was "only" defense 16. At this point I decided things were looking up as getting Silence of Death and Carnage up on Nicia and Jarl would be fairly easy, so I was looking for a nice charge lane for Nicia. He then activates his Champions and charges Nicia with three champions, missing with every attack except for the final one, however P+S 11 weapon masters don't have much trouble with armor 13 models, even if they have five boxes, so I activate Doors of Judgement with the Vessel and move Nicia up to at least do a little damage to Jarl, but I roll a 4 on the attack roll so that doesn't happen. 3 Damage to the Vessel for nothing, I was slightly underwhelmed. (I had elected not to use it on the Idrians, which was perhaps a mistake given that I could have removed close to one Warrior per Idrian killed, but at the expense of massive damage to the Vessel.)The remaining two champions in the unit kill four Idrians. The second unit of Champions activates and charges, using the clouds to ignore the line of Warriors in the way and kill the last two Idrians on my left flank, leaving me with only the Chieftain and Guide alive. The last three champions of that unit run up and block in the Vessel, with one of them basing Martyrs to tie him down. The Mauler then runs into charge range of Martyrs for next round.

Turn Four: Things are looking down here, as I up keep Occulation and drop Silence of Death. My Idrians are effectively gone, and both units of Daughters are stopped from their real targets by the clouds across the center of the board. I aim with the Vessel and boost a shot into a Champion, putting six damage on the leader, and a few points to my three extra jump targets thanks to some hot dice. My choir moves up and one trooper provokes a free strike, which kills him. They then chant Battle onto Blood of Martyrs. My daughters charge in, one of them killing the troll whelp that was blocking my charge lane at the Mauler, while the rest use CMA and Anatomical Precision to sweep up four or five warriors. Thyra charges in and removes the Champion blocking in Martyrs and uses overtake to move out of the charge lane, while my reclaimer walks over and dumps three focus onto him. Blood of Martyrs then charges in and beats the Dire Troll Mauler to death removing one of the few reliable threats to Thyra on my side of the table. However, he gets pinned in by whelps (I had not realized they also spawn off damage to the Mauler before charging) so I end up using Ancillary attack to bisect a Champion instead of enliven. Daughters on my left charge in and murder a champion and ping a few others.

Turn Five: Champions charge Blood of Martyr's and scrap him in four hits. (Huzzah for only one attack doing fewer than six points of damage, including one set of triple sixes!) Warriors move around, and kill three daughters on the right flank, as the form up into a wall on either side of the center forest. Kriel stone moves up to block off all passage through the forest, creating a wall of medium based trolls all the way across the center of the board. Champions move up and kill all but two of the Daughters on my left flank. Jarl slides around his army, away from the Daughters and Thyra on my right flank. He then uses magic bullet to finish wiping out the unit of Daughters on my left. Impaler moves up and finishes blocking on conventional LOS to Jarl.

Turn Six: Play like you've got a pair time. I drop Occulation, and hold onto all six. Right flank Daughters kill off the two more Warriors with Vengeance. Hierophant brings up Harmonious Exaltation and Thyra rips a focus from a wrack. I then look at my options. Jarl is about thirteen or so inches away, which is slightly too far for a charge and feat to get me to him, plus his Warrior is standing where I need to be. Then I remember Overtake, which allows me to move and inch after killing something in melee. So I bring up Silence of Death charge in, hit the warrior (who makes two tough checks, draining me of my two initials and a focus as I promptly forget that Silence of Death stops tough checks too, not just transfers.) and pop feat after taking my overtake advance, putting me just inside melee range of Jarl. I buy an attack, boost to hit, boost damage, and then buy another boosted attack to leave him with two health. Right hand Daughters place 2" forward and then charge in for a three woman CMA to deal six more wounds than Jarl has.

Thoughts:
Trolls are annoying, and Jarl is a good match-up for Thyra. They're both focused on mobility and allow their armies to move much faster than is normal for their factions. His range emphasis is neatly countered by Thyra's ability to toss out stealth and after that it just comes down to grinding away at the other guy. Forgetting Silence of Death prevents tough was silly and could have cost me the game if I had missed with the Daughters, and not realized it before it was too late. I also feel like I don't have enough high power solos or troopers to make the Vessel of Judgement a worthwhile addition to my force, and will be dropping it to try out some mercs and a few in house solos to enhance my mobility in rough terrain and solve my leadership issues. Additionally I need to work on using my tar pit units in waves rather than one massive rush occasionally, that way I don't lose all my Idrians to opposing tar pits in a single round.

[Andross]

Been awhile since I updated this but non-gaming life has been hell for awhile but I finally got time to put some Pewter on the table tonight to test out the new casters using some spoilers from a friend of mine who managed to make it to L&L. So here's how they went.



Got in two proxy games with Intercessor Kreoss at the shop tonight, one at 50 and one at 35.

Game One:
Lord Arcanist Ossyan vs Intercessor Kreoss (50 points)

PoM:
Intercessor Kreoss
-Fire of Salvation
-Reckoner
-Revenger
-Hierophant
Exemplar Errants (10)
-Officer and Standard
Exemplar Errant Seneschal
Exemplar Vengers (3)
High Exemplar Gravus
Choir of Menoth (4)
Vassal of Menoth (2)

RoS:
Ossyan
-Hypnos
-Phoenix
-Sylys the Unpronounceable
Mage Hunter Strike Force
-Officer
Houseguard Riflemen (10)
-Officer and Standard
Dawnguard Riflemen (Forget their actual name, but the shooting guys)
-Officer and Standard
Prime Eyriss

Synopsis: I did fairly well, but made the mistake of feeding my Vengers into the mage hunters and Houseguard early. The divine inspiration on them is *amazing* though, and I am going to rework the list to get a full unit of Vengers onto the table because of how well it made them perform. I ended up winning with a Hail Menoth drive up the center, using Righteous Vengeance, Warpath, Crevasse, a charge from Kreoss and two jabs from my Revenger to barely clear a lane for Fire of Salvation to land a charge attack on Ossyan. The ability to upkeep Ignite on Kreoss charge in pop feat and cycle Ignite to FoS while also casting a 0 cost Death Sentence on Ossyan was golden.

Scenario:
None, standard 10" deployment on each side. Just a test run for the caster so no fancy stuff. Kill the other guy.

Terrain:
Hill in the right corners of each side, about four or so inches outside basic deployment lines.
Forest in the same relative location on the left side.
Clear band diagonally across the board from one hill to the other.

Deployment:
I lost the role and ended up having to go first. I put the Vengers on the left, Gravus next to them, the three jacks in the center and Kreoss and the jack support behind them.
His army deployed in a line, Houseguard behind the hill, Dawnguard in the center and Ossyan behind them. His jacks went on either end of the Dawnguards.

Advanced Deployment:
I put my Errants and their Seneschal lined up across from his Woods in the hopes of baiting his Magehunters into an attrition game, but he double checked my cards to make sure they had Hunter like he thought they did and declined the offer. His Magehunters and Eyriss went on his hill.

First Turn:
Focus for running goes out. Holy Ward on the Errants, Warpath on Kreoss, Kreoss moves up. Jacks get Passage and run up to mid-field. Vengers move up the left flank and look angry at the elves who look back...angrily. Errants move into the forest and make faces at the Phoenix. Gravus moves up to put Kreoss inside his command and to pick up a few Errants for possible soul generation.

Mage Hunters move up and start shooting the Vengers, doing four damage to one. Houseguard move up and kill the wounded Venger and put four damage on a second one. Eyriss runs into the forest out of LOS of my army. Dawnguard move up use mini-feat and shoot four Errants giving me three souls and provoking Righteous Vengeance from FoS. Phoenix moves up and glares at the Errants in the trees, missing his blade blast. Ossyan puts Quicken on the Mage Hunters.

Second Turn:
I forget to Allocate Focus. I forget to cast Ignite. I forget to attack Eyriss. (This was clearly a blow the rust off game!) Kreoss moves up and discovers the Hypnos has spell ward. Vengers charge and wipe out all but 4 Mage Hunters. Errants charge and land four hits on the Phoenix, stopping one short of wiping out his field generator. We added 8 damage to his card to see how it would have worked and I was quite saddened to note that I had almost scrapped the 'jack if I had put Ignite on. Choir gives the 'jacks passage. Reckoner takes a pot shot at something and misses.

Ossyan moves up and pops feat. Hypnos throws wounded Venger into Reckoner, killing the Venger and knocking the Reckoner down. Mage hunters move up and their dice explode leaving the Reckoner with only column 4. Eyriss moves up and MISSES disruption shot on Kreoss. Dawnguard move up and shoot the hell out of Kreoss, bringing him down to six life. Phoenix combusts, returning three life to Kreoss for a total of nine. Houseguard moves up and shoot the Reckoner leaving him with three boxes. The shoot Kreoss too, but leave him with two or four health.

Third Turn:
Three Focus on FoS. Righteous Vengeance goes off and he moves up and squishes a Dawnguard. Choir moves up and Infuses with Battle Chant. Reckoner stands and manages to land a flare shot on a Dawnguard, despite his missing arm. Fails to kill. Revenger slides over and stabs a Dawnguard hitting thanks to flare. FoS moves up thanks to War Path. Kreoss charges in, and pops feat putting Ignite on FoS, landing Death Sentence on Ossyan and hitting three or four Houseguard, including the officer, with Crevasse. Kills the remaining Dawnguard between FoS and Ossyan. FoS charges Ossyan and puts him down.

Thoughts:
I think Errants should be dropped in favor of Daughters, Rhupert, and regular Knights. Also considering dropping the Reckoner for maxed out Vengers and possibly Saxon or something else. The Heirophant is assuredly getting swapped for Wracks, he's just not fast enough to keep up with a mobile Kreoss and keeping Kreoss close enough caused some serious problems.

Game Two:
Carver versus Intercessor Kreoss (35pts)

PoM:
Intercessor Kreoss
-FoS
-Revenger
Vengers (3)
Errants (6)
-Officer and Standard Bearer
Errant Seneschal
Choir (4)
Vassal

Bacon:
Carver
-Warpig (2)
-Shooting Pig
-Targ
Brigands (max)
Slaughterhousers
Artillery Piece

Synopsis: This game wasn't really all that informative, actually. The dice went completely crazy this game and tossed the Bell Curve out the window. My first turn saw Crevasse fail to kill a Brigand due to two consecutive tough checks, only to be followed up by all 7 attacking Errants hit and kill two pigs each. Perfect melee charge followed up by perfect crossbow shots. He responded by wrecking FoS with only the initial attacks off a single Warpig. The rest of the game continued in a similar vein, with Menoth winning the attrition/piece trade. By the end of the game total carnage was assured though, even a choir boy landed a hit on a Slaughterhouser and when Carver went down the only models on the board were Kreoss, the pig artillery, and a Revenger and Errant officer. Oh, and the choir boys standing over the dead slaughter pig.

Not going to detail this game. It was thrown off by the crazy dice and all I learned is that Pigs lose the attrition game versus an attrition faction, not surprising.