You can lead a horse to Butcher but you can't make him win

So I finally bowed to peer pressure and played a 35 point game with the Butcher (who I was given as a gift). Also new is the Frontline Gaming mat, which is great... as long as you aren't just playing with unpainted models that are primed white...
Butcher I
-Destroyer
-Devastator
-Juggernaut
-Berserker
Nyss Hunters

My opponent was running:
Xerxis I
-Tiberius
-Gladiator
-Basilisk Krea
-Aptimus Marketh
Paingiver Beast Handlers
Paingiver Task Master
Gatorman Posse
Swamp Gobber Bellow Crew

So it turns out Xerxis is pretty much a mirror image of the Butcher? Interesting. Kinda jealous that he has an arm buff and can give out pathfinder.

Pre-game:
We rolled scenario 9: Incursion, and he opted to go first, so I chose the side of the table with a hill (for the Destroyer) and a wall (for the Butcher).


Deployment:
He deployed in a brick with his heavies on my right and gators on my left.

I put the Destroyer on the right, opposite his heavies and Marketh, the Devastator on the left in case I needed it to contest the flag, and the rest of the battlegroup in the middle. I decided to try something different with the Nyss and deployed them behind the jacks.

I forgot to take the guns off the Devastator...

Turn 1:
Whole lot a runnin'. Fury went on the Berserker. The left flag disappeared, leaving the Devastator with a house between him and the action.

Turn 2:
He threatened the right flag with his heavies, while the Gobber's smoke hid Marketh and Xerxis from the Destroyer. His Gators moved up to the middle flag, just in my charge range.

I forgot that I was running the Devastator and not the Demolisher, and gave him two focus for shooting with. When I remembered (read: was reminded by my opponent, who clearly knows my army better than I do) I just ran him up. I wasn't going to do anything else with that focus anyway. The Destroyer took a fully boosted shot against Tiberion, but I forgot he had Defender's Ward on him. At dice-11, I didn't break armour. The Berserker charged a Gator, connecting with his second attack but failing to kill it even with Fury. The Juggernaut, on the other hand, put one of the large lizards down without trouble.

At this point I see an opportunity; I move the Nyss forwards and take CRAs against the Beast Handlers, killing the three that are in range. The unit passes it's command check though. The rest of the shots go into gators (and the back of the Berserker), doing very little.

Turn 3:
Xerxis gave the last Beast Handler Pathfinder, allowing him to make it across to Enrage Tiberion, who then surprised me by charging the Juggernaut. I don't think I need to tell you the outcome of that little kerfuffle. The Gladiator ran over to grab the right flag. I think the Krea tried to shoot a Nyss but missed. The Gators then charged up and killed a few Nyss. He scored a point for the right flag.

At this point I'm worried about Tiberion's proximity to Butcher. I could almost certainly take him out with the Butcher, but that would leave him to be charged by Xerxis. I can move him away, but that would leave the Destroyer too far away to benefit from Full Throttle and the Feat, and I just cant resist the temptation to charge the Gladiator. So I decide to take my chances and leave him where he is.

I drop Fury and give the Destroyer three focus. Butcher feats, casts Full Throttle, and kills a Gator over the Nyss' heads. The Destroyer charges the Gladiator and rolls well, killing it with a focus to spare. The Devastator kills a couple of Gators, and the Berserker kills the last one. I issue a run/charge order with the Nyss, with the two in front of Tiberion "charging" for a total of one damage, and the rest running up to try to block trample lanes. My mind kind of blanked here and I spent ages nudging them around to try to find the best way to make sure there was nowhere for Tiberion to go. I score a point with the Destroyer.

Turn 4:
The Krea manages to paralyze Butcher. Marketh comes up and tries to kill a Nyss Hunter with soul-boosted attack rolls, but misses. So Xerxis gives himself Pathfinder and charges up to the Nyss, managing to single-handedly kill three of them and clear out Tiberion's path. An Enraged Tiberion then puts Butcher (and two Nyss - he had to do something with the shield and tusks) into the dirt.

Postmortem:
It was an interesting game. Full Throttle is much more useful than I would have expected, but Butcher's lack of Pathfinder and speed buffs really hurts. I think I need to try the Kodiak with him, although the Grolar would probably be even better. You know, when it comes out.

I feel like Butcher is generally going to let the opponent get the charge and then try to kill him with what's left of your army, which I guess is practically and thematically appropriate when playing jack-heavy? Not sure I'm comfortable with "let opponent hit you" as a game plan though.

The dice were pretty tame overall, although my opponent did have a couple of spots of bad luck; he didn't pass a single tough roll with those Gators, if even one had survived it would have severely hampered my ability to move my Nyss over to protect Butcher (I think the Task Master stops them from getting knocked down).

At this point my Destroyer has probably killed more heavies than my Juggernaut. This is kinda why I want the Decimator to work so much: I can contribute with it while holding it back... in theory. Those extra few inches of range just seem to make such a big difference for the Destroyer though, plus of course arcing fire.

I'm not sure spreading my jacks out was such a good idea. At least keeping the Demolisher in the center and sending the Berserker towards the flag might have been wiser.

In hindsight, if I had left the Gladiator alone for another round it's possible I might have been able to kill Tiberion with the Butcher and then used the Nyss to screen him from Xerxis, perhaps even camping focus instead of using Full Throttle (although that would have left a lot of Gators alive). Eh, woulda shoulda coulda, right?

Sticking with Strakhov

Game 1
Strakhov
-Torch
-Juggernaut
-Berserker
MOW Kovnik
-Devastator
Thor
-Blaster
-Blaster
Nyss
Widowmaker Marksman
Kell Bailoch

OK, looking at my list now, It seems I was a point over. That's what happens when you throw a list together in a hurry without a pencil and paper. Anyway, I don't have many options at 50 points (the only other models I could have used were swapping in slightly more expensive jacks, the war dog, and my mechanics - Sylyss and the Koldun Lord are currently on the painting table).

My opponent's list (more or less, I think I've missed a few bits):
Venethrax
-Slayer
Satyxis Raiders
Satyxis Witches
Bane Knights
Gerlak Slaughterborn
Bloodgorgers


Pre-game:
The table is already set up for Scenario 8: Rally Point (two zones, two objectives), we just leave it like that. He loses the roll-off and chooses to go first, so I chose the side of the table with the wall. My main plan is to try to blow up the Berserker to thin out his infantry. That's pretty much the only thing I can think of to deal with all that infantry. Most of my forces will concentrate on clearing out my zone, while the Devastator stands around in his, and maybe opens up if he bunches up his models enough.


Deployment:
He put his Banes on my left, Witches on my right, the Bloodgorgers and his Caster in the middle. 

I put Strakhov on my left, Thor in the middle with the Nyss, and the Kovnik on the right.

He Advance Deployed the Raiders opposite Strakhov's module. I put Kell in the center and the Marksman on my far left.

The Marksman is out of frame on the left.

Turn 1:
He runs everything up.

That line of Raiders backed up by a second wave of Banes is really worrying me. I decide that I need to take out the raiders ASAP, which means blowing up my Berserker in their face, so he gets 3 focus. Problem is that even if I put Superiority on him, he still won't be able to make it into combat, which he needs to do in order to use that focus. I decide to use my Feat for the singular purpose of blowing up my own warjack. Happy times.

The two snipers activate first. Standing still to aim, they get a total of three RAT 10 shots. Which all miss. Strakhov Feats, casts Superiority on the Juggernaut, stands still for the aiming bonus, and kills a Raider with his gun. The Berserker then charges at a knot of Raiders. I boost his initial attacks and, at MAT 5, kill two raiders. Then I buy an extra attack, which kills the third Raider without boosting. He then fails to explode.

Wait, what just happened? Everything is going backwards! Well, so much for those plans. The Juggernaut charges up and kills another Raider. I can't reach the other Raider nearby because I positioned him so that he's hidden from all the Banes by the forest (without actually touching it). Torch tries to walk up and flame another Raider but can't reach. Thor uses Pronto to position his Blasters and uses tune-up for no reason at all. The Basters stand still and shoot at the two Raiders facing them, but one misses the boosted RAT 8 shot. The Devastator and Kovnik run up.

Turn 2:
Four Raiders charge Strakhov and roll 17 damage on their first CMA.

Postmortem:
... I'm not very good at this game.

I didn't realise Raiders had CMA, and I figured Strakhov could survive two or three if they managed to reach him. Looking back, there was no real reason not to hide him behind something - killing a raider or two was not worth leaving him exposed.


Game 2
Strakhov
-Marauder
-Juggernaut
MOW Kovnik
-Devastator
-Destroyer
Thor
-Blaster
-Blaster
Nyss
Widowmaker Marksman
Kell Bailoch

I've been meaning to give the Marauder a go, so this was my chance. My opponent was running:
Mordikaar
-Bronzeback Titan
-Gladiator Titan
-Basilisk Drake
-Basilisk Drake
-Basilisk Krea
Nihilators
Cataphract Incindiarii
Paingiver Beast Handlers
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer
Agonizer
Extoller Soulward
Void Spirit


Pre-game:
We stuck with the same scenario. I won the roll-off and chose to go second, and stayed on the same side of the table. I was quite tired and made a lot of mistakes in this game.


Deployment:
Hi put his heavies on my right, the Incindiarii on my left, Nihilators in the middle.

I put the Kovnik's module on the right, Strakhov in the middle with Thor, and the Nyss on the left. The Marksman was Advance Deployed on the far right, and Kell in the center. I think I had some vague idea of sending Strakhov's heavies after his, the Devastator to hold the the right zone, and the Nyss and Blasters after his infantry.


Turn 1:
He moves everything up.

I give a point of focus to the Marauder. I make a mistake here and cast Superiority on the Juggernaut - I had been planning to put it on the Marauder and send him up first. I also wanted to put Sentry on the Destroyer but I very intelligently left it too far away, so I have to walk towards it first instead of... I don't actually know what I would have done with him otherwise.

Everything moves up except Kell, who I decide is best of staying where he is. The Destroyer takes a speculative shot which I think scatters over and kills a Nihilator.

Turn 2:
His infantry attack my Nyss and kill a few. A few Nihilators run to engage Kell, Thor, and the Bashers. He toes the zone with a couple of warbeasts. It seems he intended to feat this turn but forgot when he was activating his Warlock. I activate Sentry and the Destroyer shoots at the Drake but misses and scatters harmlessly.

I really should have run the Destroyer up so it would be in a position to try to do something about the Agonizer. I know it won't do much, but I consider to trying to slam the Drake over it with the Marauder. I decide putting some damage on the Broneback is the better play. Of course that means he needs Superiority and Overrun, leaving me with only one focus to allocate to the Marauder. Strakhov moves Superiority around (I don't even think to move the Juggernaut first to take advantage of the extra speed), casts Overrun, then takes an aimed shot at the Nihilator... who I forgot was engaged and toeing the forest. Strakhov missed. I have to fall back to my original plan and charge the Drake, slamming it a mighty 2 inches. It is however left with only three boxes.

The Juggernaut and Devastator run up. I position the Kovnik behind the Devastator thinking that will stop him from being slammed out of the zone (I need to re-read those rules). The Destroyer walks up shoots something for little effect. Thor uses Tune-up and Pronto on the Blasters to position them out of melee - they take a tiny bit of damage from free strikes. They then kill the Nihilators and leave another knocked down, who Kell finishes off. The Marksman kills a Paingiver, and the Nyss charge and kill some infantry. At this point I've killed most of his Nihilators.

Turn 3:
So Mordikaar has been collecting souls from his Nihilators, and he starts this turn with something like 14 fury. He brings back a bunch of Nihilators, who then - with the help of the Incidiarii - cut the Nyss down to a single man. Who fails his command check. They also kill Kell. Thor dies to a Drake's spray. The Krea and Bronzeback kill the Marauder. The Agonizer does it's thing. Oh, and he also used his Feat, giving his whole army +3 DEF (and if I miss an attack I get pushed back d3 inches).

It's really late at this point and I have to go, so I decide to play one last quick turn for fun before conceding. At this point my dice explode.

For some reason I use Strakhov to kill a Nihilator to trigger Overrun, then I realise that I don't need overrun, so I end up just leaving him in the middle of nowhere camping two focus after popping his Feat. The Juggernaut charges the Agonizer and splatters it with his axe, then finishes off the wounded Drake with his fist. This is despite needing 10s to hit on both unboosted attacks.

The Devastator gets between the Juggernaut and the Bronzeback and pushed it away with Bulldoze (if I hadn't been planning to concede this would have helped keep the juggernaut alive next turn). Then, with a firm admonition to "not let me down this time", I charged the Bronzeback with the Kovnik, doing a ridiculous 14 damage with one hit! He also uses his Drive on the Destroyer, which follows his lead and does a solid 13 damage with it's charge attack. Buying another attack, I get the 9 I need to hit and the Destroyer finishes off the Bronzeback.

Flush with this little victory, I concede.


Postmortem:
I was not thinking straight in that game. Having said that, if I had been playing on and therefore paid attention to where I put Strakhov that last round, I think I would have been in a decent position. After all, I had three untouched heavies and he was down to just one, the Blasters were almost untouched and could still contest and do a bit of damage. I was going to start losing points very quickly on the left zone and the forest would make it hard for me to get my Jacks over to contest it, but I think I had a chance - in fact, in retrospect I could have pushed the Krea out of the zone and started scoring in that last round.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, the Kovnik did good work and I'm considering running him with two jacks more often - at least if I know I'm going to be facing an Agoniser.

Back in Black Ops

I've decided to give an older Warcaster a second chance:
Strakhov
-Juggernaut
-Decimator
-War Dog
Man-O-War Kovnik
-Demolisher
Nyss
Kell Bailoch

The general idea was to use the Juggernaut as a cheap jack bullet, and the Decimator to take shots earlier on then do work after the Juggernaut dies. I considered swapping out the Decimator but decided to stick with him for a little longer. I wanted a clam-jack to hold zones, but that was too many jacks for Strakhov to fuel, so it would have to be marshalled. I decided I wanted to bring out the MOW Kovnik, hoping to get a charge under Strakhov's feat, along with the Demolisher. The Nyss are there because they are still my only infantry unit. I had three points left, so I added the dog and a solo. I considered the mechanics, but decided Kell would probably do more good. I figured the dog would help if Strakhov had to get his hands dirty.


My opponent was running:
Makeda 1
-Bronzeback
-Gladiator
-Basilisk Krea
-Aptimus Marketh
Paingiver Beast Handlers
Cataphract Cetrati
Agonizer


Pregame:
We rolled up Scenario 11 (in to the breach). I won the roll-off and chose the side with two forests (one of which was partly in the zone) because of Kell, the Nyss, and also because I thought it would give me a good place to set Strakhov if I wanted him in the zone.

I was hoping to take out his Gladiator early with my Juggernaut in order to deny him Pathfinder, but without any easy-to-kill infantry for triggering Overrun, it didn't seem likely. I didn't think the Nyss or Kell would be all that useful this game either, which left me without much of a plan other than to try to get the jump on his heavies. His army didn't have any shooting, so Occultation wasn't going to do much.


Deployment:
He set up in a big block in the center of his deployment zone.

I put the Demolisher in the center, with Strakhov and the dog behind it. The Decimator was on his right, ready to toe the zone, and the Juggernaut on his left, more-or-less facing the Bronzeback. The Nyss were on the far right where they could run through the forest into the zone. The Kovnik was next to the Juggernaut for reasons that shall soon become clear. Kell Advance Deployed into the forest on the right.


Turn 1:
He moved everything up. His Cetrati moved 10 inches in Shield Wall, then he cycled Defenders Ward onto them thanks to Marketh, leaving them at Def 14 Arm 22.

One focus to the Decimator. I ran the Demolisher and Decimator up. Strakhov cast Superiority on the Juggernaut and Sentry on the Decimator (eh, why not, his cannon was one of my only weapons against the Cetrati). The Juggernaut, bereft of focus, walked forwards six inches. Then the Kovnik slammed it forwards another three inches (hits on 3s, and a damage roll of dice minus 11, and the Juggernaut can't be knocked down thanks to Superiority), helping to make up for the lack of a run move.

I decided that Kell needed to get around the Cetrati in order to do anything useful, so I ran him off to the far right. I figured even if he sent some Cetrati after him, that would at least draw them away and split his forces a bit. The Nyss ran up to toe the zone.

Turn 2:
Marketh misses Kell with a spell, so he casts Savagery on the Cetrati with Makeda sends two off to do the job instead. The rest toe the zone, and the Agonizer hides behind them. I consider taking the Sentry shot with the Decimator, but I don't think anything is in range. His other models shuffle around.

Because he activated Marketh before casting Savagery with Makeda, the Cetrati do not have Defender's Ward on them this turn. I guess that's worth the loss of Kell. Four Nyss charge the two Cetrati on the right, the rest flank. Very little damage is dealt. The Decimator takes his shots but doesn't manage to kill any Cetrati. Since it looks like the flag is going to be ignored this game, I put the Juggernaut where he can't be charged by the Bronzeback but can potentially charge towards the flag or into the zone, and the Demolisher runs up to protect it from the Gladiator. Strakhov moves up and tosses a cinder bomb, hoping the cloud will settle somewhere useful. The Kovnik runs up.

Turn 3:
So I forgot about Savagery. The Bronzeback walks nine inches to reach the Juggernaut. Luckily this meant he couldn't be Enraged or he wouldn't be able to walk around the obstruction, so he was only at P&S 17. He used the Bronzeback's animus to push the Juggernaut up to the Demolisher, so that he could use the chain attack to throw the Juggernaut into him and still be in range to keep swinging. While the Demolisher was knocked down, Superiority kept the Juggernaut on his feet. Thanks to some low rolling however, the Juggernaut was left with all his systems!

The Cetrati moved up to where one was engaging the Demolisher but was out of his melee range. The others killed three of the engaging Nyss. The baby elephant started to cry, but was only left with one fury on him. The Paingivers took some fury off the Bronzeback. Oh, Makeda had feated this turn, and at some point I took the Sentry shot with the Decimator. I think it missed.

The Juggernaut was too close to the Agonizer to receive focus, but luckily the Decimator was clear and was given three. Superiority was upkept. We couldn't remember if the Jack Marshal advantage could be used to shake, but we didn't think so, so the Demolisher stayed down. If I wanted to do anything with it this turn, and I did, I would need to kill the Cetrati engaging him. My best bet to do that would be to kill the unit leader, who was already damaged. So Strakhov aimed, rolled two shots on Rapid Fire, boosted the attack roll for the first and then boosted the damage roll to finish off the unit leader. The second shot hit the engaging Cetrati and did some damage. He also used the feat.

Next the Kovnik used his Drive successfully, and charged the Bronzeback. Finally, a chance to get off that epic P&S 15 Weaponmaster charge! I had been looking forward to this for a long time! At Mat 8, the attack hit. I eagerly picked up the full complement of damage dice and sent them spinning across the table.

(Re-enactment of actual events)

Sigh. Oh well, I forgive him, it happens to the best of us after all. Luckily the Decimator put on a better show, finally felling the mighty beast with his last attack. The Juggernaut the walked over and killed a couple of Cetrati, freeing the Demolisher to stand up and take a couple of boosted shots. Fantastic rolls on the first took out the Agonizer, while the second did some respectable damage to the Krea.

The Nyss engaging the Cetrati did nothing. Four of the others took a CRA on Marketh but rolled poorly against his soul-fueled armour, leaving him with two or three boxes. If only I'd activated them first. The last two combined their efforts against a Cetrati, also doing nothing at all.

Turn 4:
Thanks to Makeda's feat, the dead Cetrati were restored. Combining their efforts, they... did not manage to finish off the Juggernaut! Sadly the Krea did. The Gladiator meanwhile murdered the poor defenseless Arm 17 Demolisher. The Nyss mostly died to some Cetrati and Makeda, the rest broke.

The Demolisher's wreck marker was a problem; I would need to cast Superiority just to reach the Gladiator. I allocated three focus to the Decimator, then Strakhov cast Superiority on it before moving to the relative safety of the forest. He rolled three shots, two missed needing sixes, but the other killed off a returned Cetrati. Looking at the photos now, I'm not sure that he was close enough to the edge of the forest to take those shots - for some reason I keep thinking he can see through forests. Oh well. The dog charged another and actually did some damage before returning to the forest.

I didn't think the Kovnik was in range to charge or even take an aimed shot at anything, so I moved him up to the wall and shot at the Gladiator. He missed. Sigh. The Decimator charged in but with only three attacks, was unable to finish it off. I hate having to pay to charge. The Nyss failed to rally.

Turn 5:
More poor dice saw the Decimator survive the Gladiator and even the Krea, but not the Cetrati. Who then went on to kill the dog. I conceded.

Postmortem:
After revisiting Strakhov in this game, I feel that Harkevich is a lot more forgiving. Pathfinder and Escort makes the positioning of his battlegroup much less critical. Jump-start helps you recover from bad situations. TheArm buff means you don't have to perfectly judge threat ranges, you can just walk up and let them take their best shot. His feat gives you extra attacks in addition to the free charge. If you really need a specific solo dead, or to apply more force in a specific area, Broadsides can help. And while Fortune isn't the most powerful offensive buff, it's reasonably versatile.

In contrast Strakhov's only offensive buff is Superiority. It's a great spell, but that's just one jack, and the high casting cost further limits it's use. Occultation is nice but situational, and Sentry is hard to get much use out of (even if you have a model worth casting it on, you end up needing to stay close in order to keep re-casting it). Strakhov brings a lot of mobility to his army, but you have to be good at positioning and judging distances to really take advantage of it.

In other words Harkevich can help you recover from mistakes, which is useful if you're going to make a lot of them, while Strakhov can help you to out-maneuver your opponent... if you know what you're doing. I still don't.


It was an interesting and enjoyable game with some great moments, such as the the Juggernaut surviving a Bronzeback attack. Some thoughts:

I got very lucky with my opponent forgetting to put Fury on the Agonizer.

The Nyss didn't do very much more than serve as a distraction; in this game I'm not sure if that was really my fault though.

I kinda threw Kell away early; I really need to stop doing that.

I didn't have clear charge lanes at first, and after that it was too late to get an alpha charge off of Strakhov's feat. I don't see too many times where I could have done much with Overrun either.

Marshalled jacks are very vulnerable to Knockdown and Stationary.

I missed having a Destroyer. I really want the Decimator's shooting to be worth it, but it just isn't happening. He still hit's pretty hard, but he just gets so few attacks that perhaps it's worth investing in Torch instead - plus he can get Pathfinder. Or Behemoth.

If the Decimator had managed to kill the Gladiator I actually would have been in a good place.