Journeymen Warcasters Grow Up So Fast...

After finding Harkevich a little boring to play, I decided to try someone more interesting: Kommander Andrei Malakov. It seems like only yesterday that he was but a junior, doesn't it? I tried not to make too many changes to my previous list, but I did take out Aiyanna & Holt so I could fit some Eliminators. This allowed me to swap Valachev over to the Nyss Hunters; overall the changes gave me some good targets for Andrei's battle plans.
Malakov 2
- Beast 09
- Decimator
- Wardog
Widowmaker Marksman
Kayazy Eliminators
Alexia & the Risen
Nyss Hunters
- Valachev

This was Blondie's second game with Stryker 2; this time he brought his Gunmages:
Stryker 2
- Old Rowdy
- Defender
Journeyman Warcaster
- Defender
Gunmages
Gunmage Captain Adept
Arcane Tempest Rifleman
Harrison Gibbs


Pre-Game:
We picked a 2017 scenario with... a whole lot of scoring real-estate. I won the roll and chose to go second, picking the side of the table with a forest in the middle.


Deployment:
Blondie put his Gunmages on my right, and his battlegroups a little to my left. I decided to focus my forces on his weak flank, so I deployed almost everything on my right, with only the Eliminators facing the left zone and the Widowmaker on the left side, in the forest.

Round 1:
Blondie activated the Journeman and cast Arcane Shield on Old Rowdy... then forgot to advance the solo. His battlegroup clustered around the trench. The Gunmages ran forwards.

I got a little careless here and advanced the Nyss Hunters too far up. They clustered around so that Andrei could drop a cloud over them. I also gave them Reposition, while Andrei put up Escort. The warjacks moved up and formed a wall with most of my models behind them. The Eliminators stood on a hill. The Marksman pinged one of the Defenders for three boxes.

Round 2:
Since I had walked my Nyss within 14" of the Gunmages, Blondie was able to aim and kill 4 grunts. His Defenders put some damage on the Decimator, but since the Journeman's defender started the turn out of control he didn't get focus to boost damage with so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The GMCA killed my Widowmaker. Rowdy ran into a position to contest two zones.

I made sure all my Nyss Hunters were in the right zone; they killed a few Gunmages but rolled quite cold and didn't do as much as they could have. The Decimator walked into the square zone and Bulldozed Rowdy out. Beast 09 moved up the right flank, threatening the Gunmages (I didn't really know what I wanted to do with him, but I figured drawing a bit of fire away from the Nyss Hunters might not be a bad idea). Andrei put a cloud in front of the Decimator, meaning it would be a little bit inconvenient for the Defenders to shoot at him. Some Risen walked up to shield the Nyss Hunters, while Alexia created a Thrall who ran up to engage some Gunmages. The Eliminators both toed the zone - I figured this way he would only be able to kill one of them with the GMCA. At the end of the turn I scored two points.

Round 3:
The GMCA did kill one Eliminator. Stryker feated (did you know his feat was a pulse?), cast Positive Charge on a Defender, then went over and killed the other Eliminator using Velocity. The jacks started running up. The Gunmages killed the Thrall and pushed the Decimator but couldn't get him out of the zone. The Rifleman pinged Beast 09; I took advantage of this to move him farther away from Blondie's jacks. Because of this he wasn't able to get two of them into Beast with the Feat moves and had to put two into the Decimator instead, making sure that the arcane-shielded Rowdy was touching both zones. The Decimator lost his movement and left arm. I think Beast 09 had only one cortex box left but didn't loose any systems. Blondie scored a point for the left zone.

After a great deal of deliberation, I decided on a plan. Andrei let all his upkeeps slip and filled up both jacks. Beast 09 walked around to be engaging both the Defender and Rowdy; after his initial Thresher he bought attacks into Rowdy. Because Blondie had unnecessarily turned Rowdy to face the Decimator directly, he wasn't able to make a Retaliatory Strike. Before I rolled every attack I prayed for a crit; on the second to last attack my prayers were answered.

The Decimator focused on the Destroyer, doing a lot of damage but not managing to finish him off. Andrei then cast Open Fire, allowing Beast 09 to put one more attack into Rowdy, and put Throat Cutter on the Nyss Hunters. The Risen shuffled around while Alexia sent a Thrall to contest the far zone. Finally the Nyss Hunters charged Rowdy. At one point Rowdy had one box left so I tried to finish him off with Valachev (this would have triggered Battle Wizard and allowed me to cast Zephyr), but he just failed to break ARM. Overall I was rolling hot though and they killed Rowdy with attacks to spare.

However I had moved the Nyss out of the zone and not thought to move Andrei into it, so I did not score (I don't remember if solos scored the round zones so I don't know if I should have scored a point with the Wardog).

Round 4:
Stryker killed the Thrall and cast Deflection. A Defender and/or the Rifleman finished off Beast's cortex. Gibbs killed a couple of Nyss Hunters with a grenade. Gunmages killed more Nyss Hunters and pushed both my jacks out of the square zone, knocking down Beast 09. However even the GMCA was not able to kill the one Nyss Hunter who was engaged by the Defender, so Blondie only scored one point for the left zone.

I was planning on standing Beast up and walking up to enage the Defender so Andrei could cast Open Fire for one attack, but I screwed up my order of activations. Instead Beast just walked around to try to engage the Gunmages along with the Defender. Andrei cast Reposition on the Decimator, walked into the zone, and whiffed a boosted shot at something. The Decimator finished off the other Defender and repositioned as far away from Stryker as he could while still toeing the zone. Valachev tried to kill the Journeyman with a spray which also touched two Gunmages; his failed to roll all three 7s. Cylena then also failed to roll a seven. The last Nyss Hunter aimed and finally managed to kill a Gunmage. Alexia positioned herself to potentially be in Stryker's back arc if he tried to charge the Decimator, and sent a Thrall at Stryker himself. I scored two points this turn.

Round 5:
Stryker killed the Thrall and toed both zones. The Gunmages pushed the Decimator out of the square zone, knocking him down, and killed all the contesting infantry. The Defender killed Beast 09 and toed the right zone. Blondie scored two points. We where now both at 4.

After some consideration, Andrei cast Veil on some Risen in his path, charged the Defender and knocked him down with a boosted Fighting Dirty charge attack. This allowed the Decimator to stand up and land a boosted shot from his crippled cannon, pushing the Defender out of the zone and allowing me to score my fifth point for the win.

Post-mortem:
That was a fun game. Both of us were playing a little differently from usual. Blondie's gamble with the feat did not pay off, although it might not have been a bad idea seeing as Beast 09 out-threats his jacks. Running his jacks out of his control range was a mistake. To be fair though he was a little distracted during the game. Also, we were both a little vague on the exact rules for Steamroller 2017 as we've only played 2016 before (even though SR 2018 has been out for ages).

I had some positioning and order of activation errors. I gave away a bunch of Nyss for no reason at the start. I didn't get to use my feat either; I probably should have played my jacks more agressively using the feat to keep them alive (although now that I come to think about it Stryker's feat counters mine to some extent: he can get two attacks in with each jack if we both feat, and with Positive Charge and damage boosts that can mean a fair bit of damage.

Neither of us contested as aggressively as we should have; I think a lot less points would have been scored if we had.

The Decimator was surprisingly useful this game, but he wouldn't have been as effective if Blondie had thought to block the pushes. I'm thinking of swapping him for a Destroyer or Kodiak.

I thought the Wardog would be cool for charging in to deliver Fighting Dirty then Return again, but I was too scared of him getting shot to death and ended up saving him for late game. As a result he basically didn't do anything all game. Still, due to the target limitations on Andrei's battle plans it doesn't hurt to have a fast FF warrior model hanging around for when you need him.

The GMCA and Arcane Tempest Rifleman did quite a lot of work this game. I should probably try to prioritize killing them, but for some reason it tends to feel difficult because of their long range.

Andrei is interesting. He feels very focus starved. His battle plans are cool but the short range and target restrictions are a bit of an issue. Throat Cutter seems rather hard to use effectively. Fighting Dirty is nice, especially as he can use it on himself. I want to like Open Fire, but it's just very situational unless you build for it (i.e. Victor), plus it's expensive to cast and there's order of activation issues. Veil seems very powerful, but I think it's going to take a lot of skill to make the most of it.

Turns Out Saving HTML Is Easier Than I Thought

I just randomly stumbled onto a short article about saving text files in Javascript. I tried it and it worked. Huh. Why couldn't I find this before? I've done some crazy things trying to make it possible to save the output from my card creator, and it turns out it's not really that hard. OK, you need HTML 5, but that's shouldn't be a problem for most users.

So yeah, I've updated my card creator to make it easier to save the cards. I've also added some new faction icons, and reduced the size of some existing icons to reduce the overall file size. Enjoy.

P+S 28 Is A Thing

No changes to my list since last time:
Harkevich
- Beast 09
- Decimator
Nyss Hunters
Alexia & the Risen
Aiyana & Holt
- Valachev
Widowmaker Marksman

I believe this was Blondie's first time playing a caster other than Stryker 1:
Stryker 2
- Old Rowdy
- Centurion
- Lancer
- Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
- Firefly
Gunmages
Gunmage Captain Adept


Pre-game:
Rulebook scenario with two zones. I won the roll and chose to go second, picking the side with a useful forest.


Deployment:
Blondie put his battlegroups on my left, except the Lancer who was positioned centrally, with the Gunmages on my right.

The Nyss went behind the right forest to shoot into the zone. Harkevich was behind the central forest where he would be able to move up in relative safety; Beast 09 stayed close to him while the Decimator was positioned to toe the zone. Alexia went near a trench where she could enjoy some safety from ranged attacks while slowly feeding Risen into the zone. A&H&V were positioned relatively centrally, but a bit farther away from the Stealth-ignoring Gunmage Captain. The Marksman was in the forest where he would still benefit from concealment even if the Gunmage Captain tried to get to him.

Round 1:
The Gunmages ran onto the hill, getting into the right zone early. The Firefly entered the other zone. Stryker hid behind his heavies, making sure there was no gap this time. Junior cast Arcane Shield on Stryker.

My Nyss Hunters ran into the forest. The Decimator took up a spot in the left zone where he could aim and shoot anything in the zone next turn. Harkevich kept the forest between him and Stryker, with Beast 09 getting in front (in base contact). The Risen spread out to minimize the effect of electroleaps. Alexia created a Thrall who ran onto a hill close to the GMCA and Firefly. A&H advanced and Stealthed.

Round 2:
The Firefly (who had no focus as he was out of the Junior's control range) tried to shoot down the Thrall and whiffed.

I think it was the Junior Warcaster who ended up killing the Thrall. The GMCA started to reposition towards my right; I think she took a shot at the Decimator and failed to break armour. The Centurion entered the zone and activated his Polarity Field. Five Gunmages had LOS to Nyss Hunters; they needed 7s to hit and proceeded to roll five hits. Sigh. The Lancer walked behind the forest.

I loaded up Beast 09, cast Mobility, and walked him up into axe range of the lancer. I figured losing two cortex boxes was worth it to make two boosted damage rolls with the axe, then I could reposition back behind the forest. Unfortunately I carelessly entered Rowdy's counter-charge range. The attack just took off Beast's axe.

Beast 09 did what he could to Rowdy with his fist, earning a Retaliatory Strike. I could have left him there, but decided to risk a free strike to reposition out of the forest; this would mean at least one jack would need to come right through the forest to finish him, which would make him easier to deal with, but also it would leave Rowdy unengaged: this would allow my Marksman to cripple his movement, which would be a problem for him in a forest. Sadly the free strike hurt:

And then of course this happened:

Nice going Marksman. Sigh. I'm pretty sure it's statistically unlikely how often she whiffs the easy rolls. Anyway, the Decimator did some damage to the Centurion and pushed him backwards, but the GMCA stopped him from being pushed completely out of the zone. Not that it mattered. Alexia created another Thrall who charged the Firefly and whiffed his attack roll. The remaining four Nyss grunts walked up and did a single CRA into a Gunmage, and missed. Holt aimed and Zephyred into range, gunning two down at last. Aiyana just kept them stealthed.

Blondie scored a point for the right zone.

Round 3:
The Gunmages fired into the Nyss again, but fortunately their rolls were not as hot this time and they only killed the one. Someone killed the Thrall; it might have been the Junior again. The Lancer walked around the forest and finished off Beast 09. Rowdy ran as close to Harkevich as he could, while the Centurion ran towards the Decimator. I don't remember the Firefly shooting anything?

Stryker then popped his feat. The Centurion and Firefly shuffled forwards and attacked the Decimator. Rowdy was just out of range of Harkevich so he walked over to the zone instead. The Lancer killed Holt. Blondie scored a second point for the right zone.

Harkevich held on to his focus. Alexia charged the Firefly and managed to kill it with one Risen to spare. The Marksman finally crippled Rowdy's movement, allowing Aiyana to easily land Kiss before Harkevich to charged in. Both Alexia and Harkevich were rolling hot; Rowdy fell to Hark's second blow. I popped feat for protection. The Decimator charged the Centurion sideways, taking off it's shield and repositioning into base contact with Hark for the defensive buff. The Nyss Hunter took two aiming CRAs into the Gunmages, killing two. Blondie was up to three points now.

Round 4:
The Centurion softened up the Decimator as best he could with no allocated focus. The GMCA landed a Flare on Harkevich, dropping his DEF. Stryker Overloaded for three dice, rolling a 13 to bring his to P+S up to 28. He used Velocity for two focus, then charged the Decimator and took him out easily, leaving him in range of a DEF 12 Harkevich. I believe his second attack left Hark on something like -10 damage, and he had Focus left over.

Post-mortem:
Damn but Stryker hits crazy hard! MAT 7 is an issue, but the Gunmage Captain actually helps a lot with that. Blondie's been thinking about trying Stryker 2 for a while, but I suggested he hold off for a while as supposedly Stryker 1 is a good caster to learn the game with. Well, I'd say he's definitely gotten the hang of the game at this point. Although he did run the Firefly out of the Journeyman's control range right from the start... I think he should probably stick to a Hunter on the Journeyman.

Effectively losing Beast 09 to the counter-charge put me in a really bad spot. You would think I'd be used to working around it by now, but nope, I always forget to take it into account.

Holt FINALLY did something this game. Technically he did as much work as my entire 19 point Nyss Hunter unit in fact. I really should have picked the other side of the table; that hill kept Blondie's Gunmages alive and scoring, while the forest wouldn't have - not with the Nyss Hunters having Hunter.

I had the same problem this game as I often do with my Marksman: I can't decide what to focus fire on, plus of course the whiffing of important rolls. High RAT and 3 damage to the column of my choice makes her shot useful against pretty much any target. Shame the Marksman is only FA 1.

It was fun taking out a warjack with Alexia, but I'm not sure keeping her out of corpse-collection range of the Nyss was worth it - if she had been on the other side she could have jammed that zone, maybe jammed the Gunmages, or possibly gone in on the Lancer (much better than risking the cortex on an 18 point warjack at any rate). I either need to bring more infantry to be able to contest two zones at once, or some cheaper jacks, or just tougher jacks (i.e. clamjacks). Although against Positive Charge I'm not sure even clamjacks would last long.

If I want to make use of Harkevich I really need to leverage Reposition and his Feat better. I'm not exactly sure how though. Even then he seems boring. I'm probably going to switch to someone who actually does stuff soon; Strakhov 2 is quite tempting, and I've been talking about running Karchev to increase my armour cracking.

Custom Template Holder

By which I mean a custom holder for templates, not a holder for custom templates. Ah-hem. Anyway, I've been trying to minimize the number of individual transport receptacles that I have to carry with me when I go to games. This meant re-organising my gaming equipment a little bit. I found that safely storing multiple large acrylic templates can be a bit annoying, so I designed and 3D printed this template holder.

It holds up to four each of the old Advanced Deployment 3", 4" and 5" rings. I don't know if it will work with the newer Privateer Press ring templates, but I could always print a new one if this one doesn't fit.

It also has room for a few 40mm flag markers (it just about holds three 40mm flat-top bases) and 50mm objectives.

And finally you can top it all off with a standard PP blast template.

It didn't take too long to design, but the actual print took almost 6 hours at low quality. Also it seems I didn't quite get it right as the smaller templates are a tight fit; I might try to sand this one down a bit or print a new one that's a bit more generous.

I did consider trying to make it hold a spray template as well, but I felt that was overcomplicating it. I might try to design a "stackable" piece that hold MuseOnMinis' magnetized collapsing spray template, that could work. This one will do for now though.

Harkevich Only Has One Spell

I managed to meet up with Dru for another game at last. I was running the same 50 point list as my last game, but with Harkevich subbed in for Strakhov:
Harkevich
- Beast 09
- Decimator
Nyss Hunters
Alexia & the Risen
Aiyana & Holt
- Valachev
Widowmaker Marksman

Gru brought:
Maelok the Dreadbound
- Blindwalker
- Ironback Spitter
- Targ
Gobber Chef
Bellow Crew
Gatorman Posse x2
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Croak Raiders


Pre-game:
Gru hadn't had a game since the start of MkIII - in fact he probably only played once or twice in this edition - so we decided to play without a scenario. After two ties Gru finally won the roll and chose to go second.


Deployment:
I deployed my battlegroup centrally, the Risen on my left where there wasn't any terrain to deal with, and the Nyss on my right where the forest wouldn't be a problem.

Gru deployed his battlegroup opposite mine, a unit of gators on each side, and his Raiders in the forest in front.

Round 1:
Hark cast Mobility and fail-charged forwards. Everything else ran up. I tried to keep Alexia behind a wall of Risen.

Gru advanced his Croak Raider aggressively. One Posse got bogged down by the forest, while the other moved outwards towards the hill.

Round 2:
Hark cast Mobility and walked forwards. The Decimator moved in front of him. My Risen ran to engage the Raiders. A few got a charge off and managed to kill one who was close enough for Alexia to get a corpse. Beast 09 ran into the forest, managing to engage a Raider. The Nyss Hunters advanced cautiously; a hot roll on a four-man CRA took out a Gatorman.

Gru killed some Risen with the Raiders. One Posse ran/charged my Nyss (I don't remember if any charged without running, but either way they didn't kill any Nyss). Maelok moved up and cast Mortality on Beast 09, then the Blindwalker ran in front of him. The Spitter put two shots into Beast thanks to Ancillary; I think he did about a column and a half of damage.

Round 3:
Harkevich cast Mobility and feated, then walked around the Decimator to stand just behind the forest. Alexia sent a few more Risen into the Raiders, doing nothing, and created a Thrall who charged the Raider blocking Beast's path but missed the attack. Valachev used his spray spell on Beast, doing no damage as Beast is immune to cold but managing to kill the offending Raider. Then Aiyanna used Kiss on the Blindwalker, while Holt did nothing. Finally Beast 09 charged in and managed to take out the Blindwalker (it was close). He then repositioned forward into base contact with Maelok. My Nyss Hunters all landed their melee attacks but did no damage to the ARM 20 Posse, except one who rolled hot and one-shot a Gatorman. I had originally planned to use the Decimator to block LOS to Hark, but I forgot and ran him forwards into the forest instead.

Gru popped his feat and walked Maelok away from Beast. He couldn't make line of sight to Harkevich so he cast Mortality on Beast again. Targ used Ancillary Attack on the Spitter to allow it to shoot the corrosion-immune Raiders in the back and kill an engaging Risen, allowing them to aim and shoot at Harkevich, leaving him on three boxes. A Gatorman was able to walk into the forest and take a swing as well, but missed his attack.

Another Gator killed Aiyana while a third killed Cylena. The Gobbers charged the Decimator but couldn't do any damage. The Spitter went in on Beast 09 and took out his movement and left arm.

Round 4:
Harkevich cast Mobility and missed an attack against the Gatorman. Beast 09 shuffled over to Maelok and started swinging. His first attack scored the crit, and his last left Maelok on one damage box (he was against ARM 21 after all). The Decimator then walked up and finished the job. I had another Decimator shot, a charge lane with the Thrall, and Alexia was ready to Dominator a Gatorman and have him take a swing too.

Post-mortem:
If you were paying attention you might have noticed a pattern to how my turns went... yeah, Harkevich cast Mobility every turn and... that was all he did. It's pretty much the only real spell on his card. While he does bring more to the game, he's not really very active himself. He's basically a buff-bot, but one that doesn't even need too make decisions about who to buff.

With only slightly better dice Gru would have killed Harkevich. If his list had been better built to take advantage, possibly by bringing some faster melee models, then he probably would have won. I actually really think his list needs a bit of tweaking: he doesn't really have any armour cracking, and he should probably bring Saxon for Pathfinder (one of his Posse spent the whole game bogged down in a forest). The Feralgeist didn't get to do much this game as we weren't playing a scenario so he couldn't contest (plus I did have Aiyanna and a few native magic attacks), and Maelok makes his warbeasts Undead so he couldn't be used to reanimate them.

The Gatormen Posse have been nerfed quite a bit; 5 boxes is one thing, but MAT 6? On expensive heavy infantry? What the hell PP? Yeah, they get much better in one theme, but still, they level to which they've been nerfed seems frustrating. I think Gru might be best off playing in theme since he's always been fond of his gators and has at least three units of them.

One Does Not Simply Ignore Beast 09

After the last two games went on for too long, we decided to try playing at 50 points in order to speed things up a little. I had some difficulty settling on a 50 point list, especially since I didn't want to make too many changes - that's something that I'm trying to avoid right now. I ended up with this:
Strakhov 1
- Beast 09
- Decimator
Cylena & the Nyss Hunters 
Alexia & the Risen
Aiyana & the Holt
- Valachev
Widowmaker Marksman

Blondie also ran a similar loadout to last time:
Stryker 1
- Old Rowdy
- Defender
- Avenger
- Squire
Gunmages
Sword Knights (full)


Pre-game:
This time we picked a scenario from the book with two flags. We used two light warjacks as proxies as we didn't have any blank bases (I keep forgetting to bring anything suitable). I feel like we might need to start playing Steamroller soon. Anyway, I (eventually) won the roll-off and chose to go first.


Deployment:
I put Strakhov behind the forest, closest to my flag. My infantry was positioned to contest his flag. The jacks were in the middle, with A&H behind them.

Blondie positioned his battlegroup centrally, with the Sword Knights split up to cover each side. For some reason he put his Gunmages behind the forest, which he came to regret later.

I put my marksman close to Strakhov and near the flag, facing off against Rowdy.

Round 1:
Sentry went on the Marksman, Superiority on the Decimator; both ran forwards to be in range to shoot next turn. I originally meant to put Occultation on A&H, but I forgot to arrange it from the start, so I couldn't before moving because Strakhov was facing the wrong way, and I couldn't after moving because he was too far away. Oh well, I just had them walk up and had Aiyana use her Stealth ability instead (I should probably mark that with a token in the future). The Risen ran forwards and formed a wall to block LOS to the Nyss Hunters. Alexia stood back in the trench for a little added protection from sniped Defender shots. The Nyss Hunters advanced behind the Risen.

Blondie likewise formed a wall with this Sword Knights. His Gunmages ran around the forest. Arcane Shield went on Rowdy, and the Avenger got Snipe. The shooting jacks set up a little bunker in the trench and starting focusing on my Decimator; the Defender rolled pretty hot and did 9 damage, then the Avenger rolled pretty cold and did 1. Still, the Decimator was already looking a bit worse for wear.

Round 2:
This turn I was torn between the desire to start killing his Sword Knights, and the desire to simply jam them but leave them in place to block line of sight. What made this even worse was that after I ran my Risen at them I realised that Alexia was blocked in by my Nyss Hunters and wouldn't be able to keep most of them in command. I probably should have just held her back seeing as most of them were going to die anyway, but instead I ran her around and left her in a crappy position where she was vulnerable. I tried to block LOS to her with Nyss Hunters, but I screwed up again and chose to walk them instead of running; I only took about two shots with them and killed maybe one model anyway, so I should have just run them.

Worried about the Decimator, I swapped Superiority with Occultation. The Marksman put 6 damage into Rowdy's column 4, moving a little to be just out of engagement range of the Sword Knights. The Decimator walked up to base the flag and spent three focus shooting at Rowdy; the first shot actually managed to do another 4 damage I believe to his column 5, leaving his cortex perilously exposed. I was careful to make sure the Decimator was close to the limit of his 10" range, and I pushed Rowdy back with the second shot, leaving him almost 11 inches away.

Beast 09 ran to the left to try to block LOS to Alexia. Aiyana and Holt advanced; Aiyana kept them stealthed and Holt whiffed hard against Sword Knights. Meanwhile Valachev just struck a cool pose on a nearby hill.

Seeing that Rowdy would lose his cortex next turn if he didn't do something about it, Blondie considered running Rowdy to engage the Decimator in order to give his Sword Knights flank, but due to the flag blocking the direct path he didn't have range, and so he elected to reposition away from the Marksman instead. Two Sword Knights charged the Decimator and another three ran to just gum up my flag; the others started on the business of killing Risen. Blondie elected to take the auto points of damage with the two charges, taking out two cortex boxes.

The Gunmages killed Alexia and some Risen and Nyss. The Defender shot at Beast 09, which allowed him to advance forwards; I was hoping to be able to engage the Sword Knights in order to make him harder to hit, but that would have involved walking into charge range of the Avenger, who hadn't activated yet, so I stopped short. Still, this at least took Beast 09 out of Avenger AOE range of the closest Nyss Hunters.

Instead the Avenger dropped his AOE on four Risen; he killed three but in retrospect it should have been four as he spent focus boosting the damage on the one who was directly hit; if we had remembered that it was at full power for him then Blondie would have spent the focus boosting damage on the one who actually survived instead. Anyway. Stryker killed another Risen with a gunshot, leaving only the one who cheated death basing the flag.

Round 3:
After a lot of measuring and planning, I finally settled upon a plan. Strakhov would cast Overrun on the Decimator and Superiority on Beast 09. He would then slide past the Sword Knight and along with the Marksman (and possibly Holt if neccessary) try to shoot the two Sword Knights blocking Beast's charge. Any shots left would go into trying to take out one Sword Knight from the group around the Decimator in order to leave one without the DEF bonus from being in base contact.

Beast 09 would then charge the Avenger; I wanted to charge at Stryker himself but that would force Beast to leave Old Rowdy in his back arc, who could then counter-charge him and possibly cripple a system. By charging the Avenger Rowdy would only be able to use Retaliatory Strike, doing less damage. Beast would then wail on Stryker, hoping to leave him Stationary (MAT 10 with three attack dice meant a pretty good shot of triggering the crit).

Now the Decimator would have two chances to trigger Overrun, allowing Beast 09 to shuffle to the side and open up line of sight to the stationary Stryker. This would allow the Nyss Hunters and possibly Holt to try to finish him off.


With the plan carefully thought out to avoid any order-of-activation mistakes and make sure I didn't do my usual nonsense and block my own lines, I began. The Marksman killed one of the blocking Sword Knights with his Sentry shot. I then let Sentry expire for the focus (we checked the rules and that is how it works). Strakhov loaded up Beast, snuck past the Sword Knight (not that a free strike would have been too big a deal really), cast Superiority, then rolled 3 shots. First I tossed his Cinder Bomb at the Decimator; it missed but still covered the two closest Sword Knights with the scatter. I only killed one; the perfect result as the Decimator would have the easiest time triggering Overrun now. His first gun shot killed the second Sword Knight in Beast's path, and the other two shots missed the one closest to the Marksman.

Beast 09 charged in, put a hurting on the three jacks and left Stryker stationary with his first attack, burning through Stryker's only point of Focus. The third attack killed him easily.

Post-mortem:
The forums always talk about how good an assassin the Grolar is with Strakhov, but I've always figured Beast 09 should be pretty good too thanks to Murderous, while bringing more anti-infantry game (especially with Overrun making it less risky). Blondie should not have simply ignored him when he got close; if he had popped his feat I would not have gone for the assassination. Blondie said later that he forgot that Beast had a 2" range on his axe, which is completely fair (and partly my fault) as I've been using my mini-Juggernaut as a proxy.

I probably should have used Strakhov's feat there for the free charge, as the extra attack would have significantly increased the chance of triggering the crit, but I'm not sure the Avenger was actually in Strakhov's control area; I had originally considered charging the Sword Knight in order to be able to Sprint closer, but with no Focus on Strakhov himself I would have been betting a lot on one attack against DEF 15. About the only thing I think is "wrong" with Strakhov now is that he's not good at triggering his own Sprint without Focus; since he often wants to trigger Overrun and Sprint, having Powerful Charge instead of Brutal Charge and/or some way of making more than one melee attack without spending Focus would be nice. I mean, a damage buff would be even nicer, but that's probably asking too much so I won't do it (although... Silence of Death... think about it PP!).

Aiyana & Holt & Valachev were 12 points that did LITERALLY NOTHING AT ALL that game. The original idea was that Aiyana would put Kiss on whichever jack the Decimator was shooting at then Zephyr back to safety in the early turns. Later I would Kiss whatever I wanted to charge, and possibly kill Valachev so I could Kiss things for Alexia or the Nyss to work on as well. But I didn't get her up far enough in the first couple of turns, and after that the game ended. I still think they have value, but I'm wondering if bringing a Rager for Shield Guard and another potential assassin could actually be more valuable. Although perhaps two 5 point shield guards would be even more valuable? The other module I've been thinking of spending those 12 points on is a Forge Seer with a Berserker, but I don't think it's worth it without a way of handing out free charges (which Strakhov's feat only does for his battlegroup). Maybe with a Sorscha.

Have You Ever Wished Your Own Warcaster Would Just Die Already?

Unfortunately I didn't have time to write this game up for a few weeks so my memory of the details is pretty hazy. Also I was very tired from work when we played so I think I made even more mistakes than usual.

I ran the same list as my previous game, however due to the CID changes to the costs of Beast 09 and Berserkers I had 4 more points to spend on a Widowmaker Marksman:
Strakhov 1
- Beast 09
- Black Ivan
- Berserker
- Sylyss
Andrei 1
- Kodiak
Cylena & the Nyss Hunters
Alexia & the Risen
- Valachev
Widowmaker Marksman

Blondie played:
Stryker 1
- Old Rowdy
- Defender
- Avenger
- Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
- Hunter
Gunmages
- UA
Sword Knights (min) x2
Lanyssa


Pre-Game:
We picked the rulebook scenario with a simple central zone. Terrain was placed with some degree of randomness by throwing the pieces vaguely towards empty spaces on the table, resulting in the overlapping forests (which we were treating as two separate forests even though that was bit confusing). Blondie won the roll and chose to go second, picking the side of the table with forests.


Deployment:
I positioned Strakhov to head for the protection of the forest on the left. Andrei went on the other side. The jacks were all pretty central. The Nyss Hunters joined Strakhov in aiming for the forest. The Risen clustered around the jacks.

Blondie spaced out his jacks and sword knights. The Gunmages faced off against the Nyss. He kept his casters well back.

Finally I put the Marksman near Strakhov in order to receive Sentry.

Round 1:
Superiority on the Berserker, Sentry on the Marksman, Occultation on the Risen. I held my Nyss mostly behind the forest, Strakhov hid in the shallow water, while the Marksman moved up to be able to take shots next turn. Andrei made sure to keep some ablative wounds - I mean Risen - in Sucker range.

The Sword Knights moved up and formed a wall. Stryker and the Journeman again stayed as far back as possible, while the Gunmages advanced (and whiffed the few shots they had LOS for). The Hunter ran up ahead. Rowdy faced off against the Kodiak. I think the Journeman's Arcane Shield went on the Avenger while Stryker's went on Rowdy. I think he put Snipe onto the Defender.

Round 2:
First of all, the Marksman took his Sentry shot against the Defender. He needed a four to hit.

Sigh. Alexia sent a Thrall into the Hunter (which I'm not sure she should have been able to do as she should have been out of formation... oops), which missed his attack. The Nyss Hunters killed some Gunmages, a few Risen moved up to contest the zone, and the Berserker overextended. Because I'm stupid.

Rowdy killed the Berserker. The Sword Knights ran up to jam my lines. The Hunter moved up and tried to melee stuff. Stryker popped feat.

Round 3:
I put another Thrall into the Hunter; this one managed to connect, but...

I was very stupid here and neglected to put Superiority on Beast; instead I had him Thresher to kill a bunch of Sword Knights then Overrun backwards, but he didn't exactly get that far back. Black Ivan killed Lanyssa I believe. The Kodiak did nothing. The rest of my models just killed a few Sword Knights and Gunmages.

Rowdy charged in and killed Beast 09 (with the help of the Defender I believe). The Hunter, Sword Knights and remaining Gunmages killed a few Nyss Hunters. Stryker switched Snipe onto himself and disrupted Black Ivan.

Round 4:
With Stryker on 0 camp and the Feat over I thought it might be a good time to go for an assassination now. I came up with a plan that involved the Kodiak throwing the Avenger at Stryker (in retrospect I think throwing at the Defender would have had the desired effect with less chance of failure as I would have been rolling against DEF 12 instead of DEF 16) and then putting some shooting and a Thrall into him. After some thought I decided that I needed one focus to boost the throw against Stryker, and then one to boost the damage, so I with only one focus to boost attacks rolls against the Defender I would boost the chain attack - that way if either initial missed and I didn't get the chain attack I could switch to just buying more attacks to do damage with. Well, the initials landed but when I went to boost the chain attack...

So that was it, plan over. The Kodiak did what he could to the Avenger. I tried to put some damage onto Rowdy with Alexia (who need to roll high to do anything, which she didn't seem inclined to do) and a Nyss Hunter or two, even going so far as to feat just so that Black Ivan could reach him. Luckily Ivan rolled hot on the charge attack so it wasn't a complete waste.

Without focus Rowdy couldn't do too much damage, but apparently he could do enough to kill Alexia. The Avenger wailed on the Kodiak and knocked him down, then Stryker and the Defender castled up around him. I think the Hunter melee-ed some more Nyss.

Round 5:
There was some confusion when it came to Rowdy; initially I thought I had crippled his buckler and was doing one extra damage, but I keep forgetting he's a lefty so I might actually have crippled his hammer? Anyway, at the end of the day I managed to take him down. I think that's about all I did this turn.

Blondie finished off the Kodiak and started focusing down Black Ivan. Even the Journeyman Warcaster decided to leave his trench and pitch in:

For some reason I decided to use Black Ivan's Evasive ability to move up with each shot he took.

Round 6:
The Marksman landed his Sentry shot into the hunter and I decided to roll damage, which turned out to be a good decision:

Not sure why I rolled the column dice as the Widowmaker can choose. I could have crippled it's movement if I chose the right column, but decided to bet on crippling the cortex or left arm with the following Nyss charges instead. Both charges missed because of it's high DEF, leaving the Hunter fully operational. If I hadn't been so stupid I probably would have destroyed it this turn. I focussed Strakhov, Ivan, Andrei, and the Marksman's shooting into Stryker himself, landing a few good shots and knocking him down to about four boxes left.

The Avenger (and maybe some other shooting) finished Ivan, knocking down Strakhov as well. The Defender went in on Strakhov but I don't think he'd allocated it much focus; I don't really remember, but the point is Strakhov survived. Stryker switched Arcane Shield to himself.

Round 7:
I'm pretty sure I conceded this turn (or maybe it was last turn), but Blondie said we might as well play it out - we both figured it wouldn't be much longer anyway. Anyway, I think I put some more shooting into Stryker, with Strakhov ramming the Defender away in order to aim and take some more shots, but clearly it wasn't enough.

Again, I think I screwed up the stats here for some reason; I'm pretty sure I said the jacks hit on 10s when in fact they hit on 9s, which I think is the only reason Strakhov survived on one box when the jacks went in.

Oh, the Hunter and Hunters continued their slapfight, and Stryker ran back to the trench.

Round 8:
I tried again to put some shooting into Stryker but with the trench, Arcane Shield and focus I did nothing at all. Strakhov tried to Ram the jacks away but whiffed (even with help from Sylyss) and decided to camp his focus. I did kill the Squire though, which left the Cygnar jacks out of control.

Without focus the jacks couldn't hit Strakhov.

Round 9:
I finally manged to ram the jacks away, then put some shooting into the Defender, doing some damage. I killed the Journeyman at last, taking away Arcane Shield. I think Andrei aimed and tried to shoot Stryker, to no avail.

I believe it was the Avenger who finally managed to roll a 9 and finish off Strakhov.


Post-mortem:
The game went on FOREVER! Partly because we chose to play it out, and I'm pretty sure partly because I kept getting stats mixed up meaning Strakhov survived far longer than he should have.

The Avenger made an excellent bodyguard for Stryker because he the Stationary effect on his 2" melee weapon would shut down any Overrun assassination attempt cold. I mean, it's not Crit Stationary, it's JUST Stationary. And it's not limited to his activation the way the Grolar's Knockdown is.

I made really poor use of my upkeeps; I never recast Superiority after the Berserker died, and at one point I let Sentry drop, only to recast it later.

I basically gave the Berserker away for free. No excuse for that.

If I had been more focused with the Marksman's shooting he could have done a lot more work that game.

As much as I love Alexia, I'm not getting much done with her lately. She doesn't crack Arcane Shielded armour (not without Valachev and a Butcher), her Risen haven't done any work lately, and even her Thralls did almost nothing this game. Sigh; I miss MkII Alexia and Madelyne Corbeau. I think I should drop Valachev and just user her as a 10 point tarpit; force the opponent to spend attacks on Risen rather than Nyss Hunters. Either that or go Morrowan.

In retrospect I should have sent Andrei in to attack Stryker in melee, but I didn't expect things to last long enough for him to reach and I was trying to aim instead.

I actually think I could have won the game if the Kodiak hadn't whiffed his attack roll; although the fact that I was planning to aim the Avenger at Stryker meant it was still far from guaranteed. I was a little hazy on the throw rules; having re-read them since then I believe that I could have aimed at the Defender and still knocked Stryker down, which would have been far more reliable.