Sunday, May 31, 2015

Cloudy with a chance of DEATH!

Hey, you try coming up with pithy post titles OK? Anyway, I played a 25 point game the other day against a new player. I think this was about his third game. He's playing with a friend's army, who put together a list for him:
High Reclaimer
-Reckoner
-Dervish (funny guy)
Choir of Menoth
Daughters of the Flame
Exemplar Bastions
Darton Vilmon
3 Wracks

I threw together a Strakhov list on the spot. I was trying to use as many of my actual painted models as possible. Turns out I can't use all my painted models at the same time as the Wardog and Sylyss are mutually exclusive.
The Hoff
-Juggernaut
-Berserker
-Wardog
Alexia and the Risen
Koldun Lord
Kell Bailoch

I think this is the most painted models I've ever put on the table at one time before!

Deployment:
I went first. He chose the side with the forests (that's a forest in the center of the field). I put Strakhov in the middle, the Risen on my right, and the Dwarves - with their greater mobility (never thought I'd say that) - opposite the house as I figured they could hide behind it then flank around. Kell also lined up with the house. He deployed centrally, with the Wracks spread out a little and the Sisters leaning towards the Risen.


Turn 1:
I put Superiority on the Berseker and Sentry on Strakhov himself. Everything ran forwards.

He advanced and threw out a bunch of clouds. Strakhov missed his Sentry shot at a Sister.


Turn 2:
Strakhov laughs at your clouds! Strak walked up, missed two gun shots at the Sisters, then cast a Rift. It missed but the scatter was very fortunate and it killed three Sisters, allowing Strakhov to Overrun to safety. The Risen charged the Sisters and managed to kill one. The Blasters advanced, with one walking into a cloud and blasting the Bastions for reasonable damage, also killing a Choir member. The Berserker hid behind the Blaster.

His Basitons charged the Blaster and Berserker, killing the former and damaging the latter, which the Reckoner then finished off (with two focus to spare). The Sisters ignored the Risen and went right for Alexia, doing enough damage to wipe out the Risen and leave her with a single damage box. Finally he threw up some more clouds to protect his models.


Turn 3:
Alexia stepped away from one of the Daughters, dying to a freestrike, leaving one newly-minted Risen in one of the Sister's back arcs. He failed to kill her. Strakhov then killed the unengaged Sister with an aimed boosted shot that allowed the Juggernaut to Overrun partway into the forest, finally I popped the feat. The Juggernaut could now charge and "reck" the Reckoner. Luckily I got back-strike bonuses as I couldn't afford to cast Superiority again! The dog (who has Hunter but not Pathfinder?) took advantage of the feat to charge Vilmon. Sadly my opponent had not used any of the Paladin's stances and Vilmon bit the dust. Finally the Koldun Lord killed the last Sister (with the useless skeleton), and Kell ran around the forest (I didn't actually put him in the forest though).

He put (almost) everything he had left into the Juggernaut, finally managing to finish it off with his Warcaster.


Turn 4:
Strakhov put a bunch of damage on the Bastions but he shuffled it around so I couldn't use Overrun to move to safety. The rest of my models piled in and left his Bastions with a single damage box.

Using his feat, he brought back the four dead Bastions... in Strakhov's back arc! With four MAT 7 Weaponmasters in Strak's back arc, I don't think it would surprise anyone that Strakhov SURVIVED WITH TWO BOXES LEFT! Ouch! The Dervish killed Thor and the Dog but couldn't quite reach Strak, which bought me another turn. He also feated a Choir member onto Kell, but couldn't kill him.


Turn 5:
Strakhov pretty much couldn't move without dying, so all I did was put a double-boosted Battering Ram into his caster (who, in a wreck marker, was currently at DEF 18 ARM 21). It did about 4 damage and pushed him out of the wreck. I spent Strakhov's attacks putting small dents into the Dervish. Kell took a couple of damage from a free-strike in order to put a point of damage on the High Reclaimer, and finally the Koldun Lord charged in... and bounced off.

At last, the Dervish finally finished off the Hoff.


Post-mortem:
Well that was fun. The Blaster module was very useful this game. Strakhov himself got to contribute very early on. Overrun was huge this game. Superiority is just too expensive to re-cast, which is a problem when I do stupid things like putting it on cheap models so they can run up and start the piece trade. I need to learn how to use Alexia properly (and I need to learn to respect models with Acrobatics). He made great use of his feat, holding it until I had nothing left to deal with a unit of Bastions.

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