eKaya and a pack slapped eVlad about, while pKaya and two Warpwolves yoyo'd their way to Anthony's frustration, poor guy (after he smacked out the Rotterhorn & Gorax, the Feral one-rounded the Dire Troll Mauler and I spent the rest of the game shuffling around, charging and Spirit Door-ing... -_- ).
Anyway, on to today's event... as usual shaggy had his Khador to run through their paces and he opted to try out Kommandant Irusk for the first time, an infantry caster that he plumped for despite me saying I'd field Krueger, the Stormwrath... also for the first time:
So this guy:
With lots of bodies on the ground, lots of casualties were guaranteed:
Krueger, the Stormwrath (+5)
Druid Wilder (2)
Feral Warpwolf (9)
Warpwolf Stalker (10)
Woldwarden (9)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2)
Gallows Grove (1)
Shifting Stones (2)
Tharn Bloodweavers (5)
The pieces should be fairly straightforward... the Wolves were ARM crackers with the Stalker helping out with crowd control, the Warden could Geomancy Chain Lightning with the Wilder there for Fury maintenance and chucking Sprint about if she needed to. The Stones were always the Stones, and the Bloodweavers would be a prime target for Lightning Tendrils, cue creepy cackle!
And shaggy had:
Kommandant Irusk (+6)
War Dog (1)
Spriggan (10)
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (2)
Reinholt, Gobber Speculator (1)
Iron Fang Pikemen, max + UA (10)
Widowmakers (4)
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew (2)
Winter Guard Infantry, max + UA & 3 Rocketeers (8 + 3)
I rolled Destruction on the SR2015 scenarios and chose Fuel Cache as my objective, while Jack chose Stockpile. As it turns out, neither of us could really take advantage of our objective bonuses, but no matter. I got first turn, and we deployed as below... *le sigh* more painting needs to be done... by both of us, but more me, I guess... *ahem*
And off we went. Everything Circle zoomed forwards... or in the Grove's case, de-rooted itself and popped up forwards, while Krueger cast Deflection for early game protection, Lightning Tendrils for later mischief on the Bloodweavers and ambled forwards. Jack did likewise, racing his Pikemen forward (charging through the forest, thanks to Relentless Charge) and popping Defensive Formation (Advance & Shield Wall... because he really needed his little bit of cheese, too! The rest was all mine!!) which meant he was already bossing the control zone by the end of the first round. The Snipers forgot the Bloodweavers had Stealth and couldn't do much but shrug, while everything raced forwards as best they could (Joe giving the Winter Guard Tough and Irusk giving them some extra DEF from Iron Flesh).
Second turn saw the Bloodweavers charge the Widowmakers and Winter Guard, killing a handful of them, mostly from Electro Leap. The real infantry munching was kicked off by the Blackclad, who sidled around the Circle objective and sprayed the Pikemen, killing a couple. The Stones phased away to hold up the Winter Guard and because of their high defense, Krueger shot the Stones with Chain Lightning to electrocute a few more of them. Then, Lightning Tendrils was cycled to the Feral Warpwolf who killed continued the Pikemen killing. A Geomancied Chain Lightning didn't have much of an impression on same Pikemen, so up came the Stalker who Berserk'd his way through a few of them as well. Though they took some casualties, they held. Back to Jack and his Winter Guard responded, killing half the Bloodweavers (who failed their command check), chopping the Grove down and scratching the Stones while also dealing some damage to the objective. Jack wasn't too pleased though and he would lose more to the dice than anything else. Even so, he feated for 4+ Tough across the board, and charged the Spriggan up which speared the Feral and slapped aside one of the Stones, preventing any further Teleportation tricks.
On the third turn, the Bloodweavers recovered, but could do little else, before the Feral and Stalker ganged up and made a wreck of the Spriggan while the Woldwarden made a hash of knocking out the Khador objective meaning he couldn't take a swipe at the Pikeman UA who was one of the few Khador models left in the zone. A few zaps of Lightning later and another spray from the Blackclad, Krueger feated, splatting three electrical storms right on top of the largely knocked down Winter Guard. While he made most of his Tough rolls, the amount of infantry hate poured on the footsloggers saw them whittled down quite severely. Here's where I buggered up, though... Krueger was out in the open and he almost paid for it. With only one transfer, the Warden absorbed one hit, but two boosted misses needing 9's to hit from Irusk (one from Reinholt's Reload) meant Krueger survived... with one... ONE... ONE!! hitbox. -_-
The counter-assassination run from the Feral settled the game, though I could have dominated for the win.
I snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, simply. As with all things in this game, mistakes can be capitalised upon mercilessly. As can bad luck. The attrition game was all mine and both of us knew it. All three heavy warbeasts were doing well and dishing out the damage while shaggy's force was reduced from 39 to only 10 at the end (while Krueger's army started with a modest 16 models... but suffered only 5 casualties). There was absolutely no need for Krueger to go into a dangerous place as he was, when he could just hide behind the objective and still feat from there. And since all the Winter Guard would be knocked down from the electrical damage, they would have to leave the feat AOE's to not die, but be unable to shoot. Therefore, lesson of the day... is the same as the first lesson: protect the caster/lock. Uh-duh! *ick*
For Jack, this was an unfortunate match-up since pKrueger is known for being thoroughly anti-infantry and more specifically, anti-single-wound infantry. Bad luck on the assassination attempt aside, pIrusk is not the best caster to drop against pKrueger and he acknowledged it in out customary post-game discussion. Maybe Butcher1 could have done better to deal with the Wolves... we might see this Thursday. -.-
Anyway, I seem to be Circling away and Circling pretty hard, so let's see where this all goes... like... shall I get myself a full unit of Tharn Wolf Riders for cheap?! Phil should've never offered, damn him and his ability to take my money off me!
Still, I'll probably put my thoughts down about the Kayas, since I've played with her(plural) a little and finally understand her various tricks, for both incarnations, even though it doesn't lessen the list-building headache much.
Bye for now.
B.
