Anyway, first up was Jack (shaggy) with this ugly bastard(!):
I was continuing my practise with Kae, while Jack was just returning to the game, so second game in, we'll take it relatively easy with 35pts a side and having a go with SR2015 rules (albeit casually, didn't bother with the auto-chosen objectives' buffs) etc. So, I rolled Two Fronts, Jack won the roll off and I chose a side with two staggered walls on the left, forest on the right. He had a hill and some rough terrain while a small building was smack in the middle of the board.
So, accompanying Kae was Sylys, a Banshee and a Chimera, also bringing along max DG Sentinels with UA, Lady Aiyanna & Master Holt, an Arcanist, Narn (Mage Hunter of Ios) & the Pain Knight. Jack deployed, from his left to right, Advance Deployed Kell Bailoch, a full WGDS (Winter Guard Death Star, comprising Winter Guard infantry, three Rocketeers, UA and Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich, affectionately known as Kovnik Joe), Juggernaut, Man-O-War Kovnik, max Man-O-War Shocktroopers and Advance deployed Widowmakers and a (Lady) Manhunter. The Butcher and his Puppy were behind the main line. Jack was oddly surprised by my somewhat lower model count (also from left to right, Narn, Pain Knight, the Sentinels, Banshee, Kae and Chimera on the far right with A&H/Sylys/Arcanist just tucked in behind the Banshee and Sentinels)... he'd be even more surprised when he viewed deployment for the next game.
Anyway, Jack opened proceedings by legging everything forwards (surprise surprise) while Joe made a grand speech about having the Courage of the Forefathers (Fearless/Tough blech-ness). Lesson number one, though... super-solos like the Manhunter (Lady vesion) are no good pushed upfield so quickly, and she was promptly charged by Narn, who Sprinted in and amongst the Widowmakers. The Sentinels tramped up, as did the Banshee and A&H, while Kae popped feat and threw a Rift at the WGDS and knocked out a couple. Turn two saw the WGDS scratch the Chimera, while the Men-O-War (Kovnik aside) and Juggernaut moved up to contest and boss the middle of the board (that annoying building... not for me, though, 'cos Phantom Hunter! Heheh! ... notwithstanding). A couple more Rifts saw the WGDS whittled down a little, while a yoyo-ing Narn darted back and forth, swiping at the Shocktroopers and the Sentinels started to pull their weight, Vengeance attacks and charges doing a number on the 'harmed' Juggernaut (thanks to Aiyana's Kiss of Lyliss) and cutting down a few of the Shocktroopers, also thanks to the Pain Knight. The WGDS then spied an opportunity, but order of activation issues aside, it was well conceived, though risky given Kae's position, largely covered by the Banshee in front of her. A speculative assassination attempt thus passed and the Butcher shrugged his shoulders and barrelled in, cleaving Skeryth into four and slicing apart a few Sentinels, accompanied by the Wardog. Vengeance downed the puppy and wrecked the Juggernaut, but the canine Tough'd it. My final turn saw the Sentinels 'charge' (no charge bonuses anywhere, though, pretty much) and finally kill the dog so that smacking the Butcher might be viable now and he was taken to eight hitboxes by four attacking Dawnguard. That was... OK, I guess, considering he was sitting on ARM22... -_- But Narn to the rescue, as he charged Butcher in the back, negated the FOC overboosting (yay for Arcane Assassin!) and dealt 10 damage, securing the assassination.
And thus the battlefield ended:
An educational game, more for Jack than me, as our post-mortem chat said, but at least now I know what the WGDS is like... seems AOE/Corrision to death is the best option there. Still, having played a few games with them, I'm really starting to appreciate Aiyana & Holt, as the numerous spells at the elf's disposal made Khador's high ARM and their own survivability manageable. And, as though it didn't need stressing enough... Kae needs to have something... anything (but preferably large and belligerent) between her and the gun-muzzles/pointy end of stabbing implements. Hopefully, Jack will be a regular fixture at Tanelorn again and we can have some 50pt games soon. :)
With that and a genial chat done, during which... yes, Iberia will be worked on at long last... *ahem*... -.- Ed S (or EpicEd as PaulO refers to him as... I'm PrimeEd... which I'll take as a compliment) had some random Cryx spam in his case, so we left the terrain/board as it was and patched together 50pt lists. He had this bitch... -_-
So, game two was pSkarre with Bane spam galore (2 x max Knights, 1 x max Thralls + UA), along with two Bonejacks, the Ghost Raiders, Orin Midwinter, Scrap Thralls and Skarlock. I had no real 50pt list on me, so just threw out Mittens with Rahn (first time since the Shield Tournie a couple months ago), Banshee/Phoenix, the Sentinels, A&H, eEiryss and Narn. I was easily outnumbered at least 5:3, and the game started with me running up, him running in return, then a grind-fest for the rest of the battle.
In turn two, I remained cautious and made sure the Sentinels couldn't be charged (Polarity Field) while Mittens ambled along behind them. The Phoenix facilitated knocking out some of the Knights/Ghost Raiders thanks to its gun and Rahn arc-ing. Vengeance made little difference for the Knights as MAT 6 on Narn did little. Skarre then feated and got in the face of my line. It didn't seem to make much of an impact as while EdS got rid of my Phoenix and some Mittens on the right, the Sentinels were largely untouched. Even so, Vengeance and another round of Great Sword smashing cleared out a few more Knights & Thralls. Rahn feated back, helping out while Eiryss and Narn slowly picked off Knights on the left with some help from the Mittens in the vicinity. He pegged me back a little next turn with Dark Guidance helping out with the average MAT, but there were insufficient attacks to dent my advance on the left and my rather thin right flank remained obstinate at the base of his control zone. Over to me and his right was completely cleaned out and with my control zone clear, I should've kept Rahn there to tick off some CP (EdS was winning 1-0 thanks to smacking my objective), especially considering his quickly dwindling model count. A few magic attacks and charges by Narn and he was suddenly down to less than ten models and the remaining Sentinels (6 of them) sweeping towards his centre. Skarre, on the corner of Ed's control zone went for it and thanks to sacrificing a Scrap Thrall to get 6 Focus for this turn, spelled Rahn to death, getting 12 to-hit and 8 and 13 on the damage rolls.
Here, knowing Skarre was on the backfoot, I should've remained cautious and had Rahn kept behind the building and in my control zone as Ed's army was down to Skarre, three Scrap Thralls, the Skarlock, one Bane Thrall and its Standard Bearer, a Bonejack and that was literally it! Aside from my Phoenix, I hadn't lost anything in its entirety, one unit of Mittens was still alive and kicking, and the Banshee had just been repaired to full (pretty much). Trying to clear out Ed's control zone was too ambitious, perhaps, and trying too hard was the mistake. This was a good example of when I should have just kept to the basics, keep Rahn safe, use this late game period to occupy what remained of Ed's offensive pieces, and keep the attrition battle going, I was blatantly winning it and should have won were it not for naive and rather wilful ambition.
Still, even so, a most productive afternoon. Don't think I've been so heartened by defeat!
Bubi
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