MacBain!!!!
-Mangler
-Sylyss
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Alexia & the Risen
Kayazy Eliminators
Maddie
Reinholdt
Blondie was trying his Sword Knights for the first time. Also, as Rowdy and the Squire were on the painting table, he put together a list without them.
Stryker I
-Centurion
Journeyman Warcaster
-Defender
Gunmages
-UA
Sword Knights (max)
Sword Knights (max)
Pre-Game:
Turns out a white and grey gaming mat covered with white and grey primed models is not very visually interesting... my camera doesn't seem to photograph it very well either. Because I had forgotten to bring terrain or objectives or anything with me, we picked the simplest scenario with just the two medium bases as flags. He won the roll and chose to go first.
Deployment:
Blondie lined up his Sword Knights, with the Gunmages to my left. I put Alexia in the middle for best soul collection, Maddie next to her to increase her collection range, and MacBain!!!! facing my flag. The Cutthroats faced off against the Gunmages, with one in spell range of MacBain!!!!.
Round 1:
Blondie ran his Knights forwards in base contact. The Gunmages moved behind them. Stryker put Snipe on the Defender and Arcane Shield on the Gunmages, while Junior put Arcane Shield on the Centurion. The Defender took an optimistic shot at my army, but even RNG 20 wasn't quite enough yet.
I put Countermeasures on the Cutthroats and spent the rest of my focus to run and Energize my battlegroup forwards. Everything ran.
Round 2:
The Defender put 6 damage on my Mangler. He Sword Knights charged my front lines, with one group putting another 6 damage on the Mangler and the other unit taking a bunch of Cutthroats. His Gunmages then shot through the gaps to take out some more Cutthroats and some Nyss Hunters. The Centurion charged a Nyss Hunter but missed all it's attacks. Stryker popped his feat.
My plan this turn was to clear my flag and start scoring. Alexia put down a bunch of Risen behind his Sword Knights. The Mangler killed a couple of the Knights engaging it with a Thresher. Reinholdt gave MacBain!!!! Lucky Charms. MacBain!!!! then took an aimed shot at one Knight but missed (I was saving the charms for the damage roll as it was in the feat). Jackhammer on the Mangler killed the remaining Knights engaging the jack. I put Fortune on the Nyss at last. The Cutthroats only killed a single model I think. A 5-man CRA from the Nyss killed one more Knight. I think I moved the Risen but forgot to make their attacks for some reason. In the end there was one knight left contesting my flag.
Round 3:
The Centurion finished off the Mangler. The Defender shot Alexia and forced her to sacrifice a whole bunch of Risen. The Sword Knights took out more Cutthroats, leaving only Croe. The Gunmages killed off Alexia, some Nyss, and all but one Risen. Stryker moved towards the flag.
Well, my army was almost completely gone, so all I could do now was go for assassination. MacBain!!!! used Intrigue to move forwards a bit, passing through the flag. Maddie seduced a Knight to get him out of the way; he walked over and missed a swing at a Gunmage. Croe killed a Knight because why not. One Nyss Hunter ran over to engage Stryker, while the rest killed a couple of Knights. Reinholdt gave MacBain!!!! Lucky Charms. MacBain!!!! cast Fortune on himself and charged Stryker, surviving a freestrike from the Centurion. With the Gang bonus from the Nyss, he managed to pull it off.
Postmortem:
Wow, I was getting murdered! My plan to use Countermeasures backfired, as I was never able to reach the Gunmages so my Cutthroats just ran forwards to get themselves slaughtered. Meanwhile my completely unnecessary use of Energizer just meant that I couldn't afford to get Fortune out; in hindsight it would have been more useful to put that on the Cutthroats then swap it to the Nyss. Plus, you know, I completely forgot to feat. I kept saying "I should feat this turn", then forget until two activations after MacBain!!!!.
I underestimated the range on the Defender; he could have been putting boosted POW 15s on MacBain!!!! from the second round as I actually left line of sight, but he probably forgot that the flag doesn't block sight and focused on the Mangler instead.
In previous games Blondie would always use his feat a turn later than I thought he should, I think he picked the timing better this game as I suddenly found myself engaged by ARM 21 Knights, and an ARM 29 Centurion! My Nyss Hunter was at dice -20 on the damage roll on the jack!
I guess he still needs to work on his threat-range estimation and remember to protect his caster, though that's a skill that takes time to learn; I myself left MacBain!!!! pretty exposed this whole game. Plus Macbain!!!! has a slightly longer threat range than you might expect, especially with Maddie. The Gang bonus and ability to cast Fortune on himself also makes him a bit more dangerous than the average Warcaster.
I forgot to take the Eliminators out of the box again. I don't know why I keep forgetting those two, though they are stealthy ninjas after all. I don't think that they would have made that much of a difference to the game though.
I guess Maddie won me the match, as I wouldn't have had enough focus left for the kill if I'd had to use Energiser to make the distance.
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