Enter the MACBAIN!!!!

Well, I was finally ready to give MacBain!!!! a try. I had a 35 point Four Star list ready for him, but as Beanpole was preparing for a tournament I borrowed some of his models so we could play at 50.
MacBain!!!!
-Mangler
-Sylyss
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Alexia & the Risen
Kayazy Eliminators
Aiyana & Holt (borrowed)
Saxon Orrick (borrowed)
Kell Bailoch
Madelyne Corbeau
Thor
-Blaster (2)

Beanpole was running:
Makeda I
-Tiberion
-Molik Karn
-Gladiator
-Krea
-Aptimus Marketh
Nihilators
Incendiarii (4)
Paingivers (4)
Agonizer (hereby known as "He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named")


Pre-Game:
This is was my first game playing a true Mercs army, however most of the units were of course familiar to me. I wasn't sure what to do with MacBain!!!!, but I'd been thinking about it over the week and had come up with some strategies:
1. Juggle Fortune between the Cutthroats and Nyss.
2. Use a full Energizer on the first turn to get the Mangler up the board quickly; other upkeeps could be cast in the second turn.
3. Start shooting early with the Cutthroats, but then use Bushwack to run them to safety and charge him with feated-on Nyss.
4. Keep MacBain!!!! near enough to the Mangler for Jackhammer.
5. Be ready to use Energizer for hit-and-run attacks with the Mangler.
6. Potentially use the Mangler as bait to draw heavies away, so that...
7. ... Maddy, who would stay safely behind MacBain!!!! all game, could give him the Intrigue move, which along with...
8. ... the Eliminators, who would also stay well back all game, would run forwards through his whole army to engage his warlock at the end, meaning that...
9. ... MacBain!!!! could get to the warlock with Gang and possibly Fortune, closing out the game by himself thanks to Undertaker blocking transfers.

We rolled a mission with two zones, two objectives, and Killbox (which I think we both forgot about?). I won the roll; since I wasn't too worried about terrain I chose to go first and Beanpole chose the side with less terrain in the way. We both picked the Arcane Wonder. Beanpole played with a deathclock as preparation, but I was not prepared to use a deathclock on my first game with a new(ish) faction, so I just ignored it. I think I went at least a half-hour over the deathclock time.


Deployment:
Well, the Nyss had to go in the middle on account of the rough terrain (of course I could have put Alexia there and used Saxon...). I tried to spread the rest of my forces around them. My support models and Eliminators stayed in the back.

Beanpole put his Nihilators on my left with Karn, and the Incendiarii on the right with the Titans.

I then put the Cutthroats in the middle, with Kell and Saxon on the left (I figured they would do better shooting at Incendiarii than at Titans).

Round 1:
So before I even moved anything I realised I had made my first mistake: MacBain!!!! was not going to be able to advance aggressively because of the Cutthroats, and I wasn't sure I would be able to reach them with Fortune if they ran first. Clearly there was no hurry, I could have just kept a Cutthroat back a little, but instead I cast Fortune first then moved MacBain!!!! over to the left with Energizer in order to go around them, moving him away from the Mangler. It was my first activation and already things were falling apart...

Everything else ran forwards, with the Eliminators hanging back and the Nyss finding themselves boxed in and unable to spread out (I didn't want to move them too far forwards yet because Incendiarii). Kell started flanking around the forest. The Mangler ran to toe the zone, but I think I ran him out of my control area. I wasn't able to move the Blasters as far forwards as I had wanted to because Thor was behind them, so I could activate him first but after they ran they were out of his command range so I couldn't use Pronto. Sigh.

Beanpole ran up, engaging a couple of Cutthroats with Nihilators. Defenders Ward went on Tiberion as he was already in the Mangler's charge range.

Round 2:
So I had been planning to pull my Cutthroats to the right with a Bushwack (I have yet to actually use that rule with them...), but because two of them were engaged I stupidly decided to basically shuffle around and shoot stuff. So they did, as did the Nyss, killing a few models including an Incendiarii, but not really doing as much as I wanted due to my opponent doing a good job of protecting things with cover and the Krea's animus. At one point I put a six-man Nyss CRA into one Incendiarii, but Tiberion took the hit with Shield Guard.

I wasn't ready to charge Tiberion yet as I wasn't sure Aiyana could tag him and I was too far for Jackhammer, meaning my chances of killing him would be slim at best. In retrospect I don't think I could have allocated focus anyway, but it didn't matter since I never even tried. Instead I shuffled the Mangler back a couple of millimetres, to the very corner of the zone. MacBain!!!! advanced into my zone and put some damage on the Krea with his handcannon.

Kell continued to flank while Saxon stayed back to hand out Pathfinder. Alexia ran up to be ready to collect next turn. A few Risen moved up to make nuisances of themselves. One Blaster moved way out in front to keep the Titans busy, but Thor failed to pronto the other.

Nihlators under Carnage killed most of my front line. The Gladiator killed the Blaster. I think Beanpole was planning to kill the other with Tiberion, but he forgot to Rush him meaning he wouldn't have made it over the first Blaster's corpse. Karn and a Nihilator contested my zone, meaning I couldn't score. He also feated this turn.

Round 3:
Well, I wanted to start scoring, and that meant killing Karn. Plus he was basically offering me his gladiator, it would have been rude to refuse. So Sylyss upkept Fortune on the Cutthroats and the Mangler got three focus. Thor used Tune Up to boost the Blaster's damage rolls, and Pronto to move it into position so it could aim and spray the objective, catching the two Titans and the nearby Incendiarii. He did decent damage to the objective, but Tiberion shield-guarded the shot on the Incendiarii.

Aiyana Kissed the Gladiator, someone cleared a Nihilator who was threatening free-strikes (Holt maybe?), then the last of the Cutthroats charged, doing a surprisingly large amount of damage. Finally the Mangler charged in and finished the Gladiator off.

Next the Nyss killed the Nihilator in front of Karn and I think did some damage to the cyclops himself, as well as finally killing that damned Incendiarii behind the well as Tibbers had already used up his shield-guard. Saxon charged Karn and did very respectable damage, adding a point of fury with his skinning knife to reduce the number of times Karn could force a reroll. MacBain!!!! cast Fortune on Alexia for a single focus thanks to the Arcane Wonder, then used his last two points of focus to cast Energizer and try to pull the Mangler to safety.

Finally Aiyana charged Karn. Well, actually, she charged the Krea. Seeing as Karn had already lost a number of boxes I figured that Aiyana should be able to handle him and might be able to get the Krea as well, so I moved her to engage both. But then it occured to me that in that position she was turning her back to the rest of the Skorne, so by charging the Krea instead she would end up with a better facing. This was not the smartest thing I've ever done; by the time she'd spent her last Risen, Karn still had a single box left.

I still had one last attack I could put into him however; Kell. I walked Kell into the forest and fired into the scrum. With the backstrike bonus, but firing into melee, I needed a seven. Which I got, landing the sniper point of damage needed for the kill! That was a relief I can tell you! I ran Sylyss in front of MacBain!!!! under the vague theory that would make him a little safer, and ran the Eliminators to try to stop Tibbers from being able to reach the Mangler (clearly I've never heard of something called a "trample"), but they couldn't really get far forward enough.  I scored a point for dominating the zone.

Beanpole brought back a bunch of infantry thanks to Makeda's feat and killed off some more of my infantry including the last of the Cutthroats, Saxon, Alexia, Sylys, and one of the ninja twins. Predictably, Tiberion mangled the Mangler. One Eliminator and Kell survived on one or two boxes each thanks to poor damage rolls. I couldn't score this turn thanks to reanimated models and the Krea in my zone. (It seems I also forgot to take a photo).


Round 4:
Well, I didn't have enough left to kill a Defender's Warded Tiberion, so the plan this turn was to clear my zone, destroy his objective, and spread my models out in his zone to make them hard for him to kill. I would keep enough models safe to contest his zone for another turn or two, while trying to score in my zone.

Kell missed a swing against an engaging Thor failed to Pronto the Blaster then missed a shot against a Nihilator. The Blaster, unable to run, walked as far as it could towards the far corner of the zone. Aiyana and Holt backed off and Kissed then shot at the objective, then the Nyss finished it off, killing or knocking down a few Nihilators too. Cylena failed to clear the Nihilator in front of MacBain!!!!, so he finally feated on all my models in my control area (I actually could have protected one more model than I had), cast Fortune on himself, killed the offending Nihilator with Jackhammer, then charged and one-shot the Krea to clear the zone. At this point I considered using Energizer to back away from Tiberion, as I was just in his threat range, but I carelessly decided that the forest would be enough to keep him away and I would be better camping to protect me from all the Nihilators and Incendiarii staring at me. I went up to three points.

As it happened, there was tons of room for Tiberium to pass between the well and the forest, allowing him to walk up and start swinging away. By some cruel twist of fate however, terrible dice kept MacBain!!!! alive! By the time Beanpole ran out of activations MacBain!!!! had a single damage box left!

Round 5:
I saw two option now. Run away from Tiberion - using Maddie and Nyss to shield MacBain!!!! from the freestrike - and try to get into the other zone to dominate for five points, or go all in on Makeda. Eyeballing it, I wasn't sure MacBain!!!! could reach the other zone around the forest, though I had forgotten to account for Maddy's Intrigue move; in retrospect I'm pretty sure he could have made it with the extra three inches. Torn, I asked myself: "What would MacBain!!!! do?". The answer was obvious.

So I upkept Fortune, used Intrigue to walk as far as I could around Tiberion without taking a freestrike, then tried to use the Nyss to gun down a blocking Paingiver who I had very intelligently just engaged with MacBain!!!!.

Sigh. None of the Nyss could land the 11 needed to hit. Actually their dice were pretty cold all of a sudden; even when I landed hits on Nihilators I kept failing to break ARM 13...

Finally I gave up. Maddy ran over to block Tiberion's view of MacBain!!!!, protecting him from the freestrike. MacBain!!!! killed the Paingiver with Jackhammer, then charged Makeda. I really should have been boosting attack rolls, instead I put my hopes on Fortune, but only landed a couple of attacks and left her on about 7 boxes.

Then I suddenly remembered the nearby Eliminator! DOH! If I had even just run her to engage before I would have had the Gang bonus, which would have been more than enough to finish Makeda (I'd rolled a whole lot of 7s and 8s when fishing for 9s...). But there was still a chance; the Eliminator charged Makeda. Makeda couldn't transfer because she had been hit with Undertaker; with the backstrike bonus and using a Combo-Smite, I had a chance... the attack hit and did 6 damage, leaving Makeda on one box.

Makeda killed MacBain!!!! with her first attack.


Postmortem:
Holy crap, that was a close game! MacBain!!!! on one box, Makeda on one box, it was crazy! I made so many mistakes and forgot practically all my plans, but good dice kept me in the game despite my stupidity. I mean, even when I should have known Tiberion could reach my caster and just let it happen. The number of times one of my models would survive on a single box was crazy.

In fact I was extremely careless at the end; I forgot to activate the Eliminator, costing me the Gang bonus. I didn't even think to try to Kiss her with Aiyana first (I don't know if was in range or not, I didn't even consider it). After I knocked Makeda down to one box, I actually might have still been able to finish her with Holt or Kell - unlikely, but possible; I had nothing to lose by trying, but didn't even think to.

Having said that, Beanpole's dice weren't bad at all. He finally started making tough rolls this game too! The fact that only he was playing against the clock was obviously a big advantage for me; in fact he had less than three minutes left on the clock when the game ended.


Thinking about MacBain!!!!, he doesn't really seem that scary. No Freezing Grip, no Iron Flesh, no double-damage-feat. But his spells and abilities, while not exactly powerfule, are versatile and useful and can solve problems.

Fortune is not the most powerful buff around, but it's very versatile as just about any model or unit would benefit. It's no coincidence that MacBain!!!! had it on himself at the end; I wanted it on him the turn before because I knew I might need to go for the assassination soon. I love Jackhammer, it gives his jacks some much-needed extra hitting power while getting around things like disruption, but because models can use it to attack before moving they can clear their own charge lanes. There's some synergy with Fortune there, as MacBain!!!! proved a couple of times that game. Energizer is expensive but those few inches of out-of-activation movement can be a big deal, and using it at the start to get jacks further up feels good to a Khador player like myself. I'm still not sure how much use I personally will be able to get out of the feat, but I can see some applications for it; I think it would have pretty useful that game if I'd used it earlier on, I just kept forgetting about it. And Grievous Wounds? That's a reason to take him right there!

The rest of the army worked quite well. I didn't get as much use out of the Cutthroats as I would have liked; partly because I overextended them a bit as usual, and partly because Beanpole does a pretty good job of protecting his models with cover, the Krea's animus, and even Tibber's shield-guard. I didn't do that much damage with the Nyss either, but I have to admit it was kinda crazy the way they just stood back and shot through the forest like it wasn't even there. Aiyana was a huge enabler, and Holt wasn't bad either. I might not have been terribly smart with Alexia, but her (mostly) taking down Karn was huge, that guy is trouble and getting rid of him removes a lot of pressure.

Anyway, I will probably be swapping between Sorscha and MacBain!!!! for a while depending on my mood and what models I want to use. In the meantime I'm hoping to get some warcasters painted, but where's the time, amirite?

Primer and Bare Metal

Game 1:
I swapped the Decimator for a Demolisher; the idea is that it's a durable piece that the opponent can't ignore for risk of being frozen, and with the bond and eSorscha's feat it should hit hard enough if needed.
Sorscha II
-Demolisher
Doomreavers
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Alexia & the Risen
Reinholdt

Beanpole threw something together:
Mordikaar
-Gladiator
-Bronzeback
-Krea
Nihilators
Incendiarii (4)
Paingivers (4)
Saxon Orrick


Pre-Game:
We played a simple mission with two flags. I won the roll and chose to go first. As our games tend to take a rather long time, we decided to play ten minute timed turns for a change.


Deployment:
I aimed the Demolisher at Beanpole's flag and Sorscha at my own. Alexia went in the center with the Risen positioned to run up ahead for a change. Nyss went on the left.

Beanpole put the Bronzeback and Incendiarii on my right, with the Gladiator and Nihilators on my left.

I decided I would rather the Cutthroats face off against the Incendiarii than the Doomreavers, so they went on my right and the Doomreavers on the left.

Saxon went on my right, so he could help the Incendiarii through a patch of rough terrain.


Round 1:
I ran stuff up. Cutthroats got Iron Flesh, the Demolisher used Boundless Charge for the extra inch, Sorscha used Cyclone to move up farther. The Nyss caught up with the Doomreavers but passed their leadership check.

Beanpole advanced agressively and feated, giving his army +3 DEF and Poltergeist. The Nihilators got Hollow.

Round 2:
I dropped Iron Flesh for the focus and so I could declare a charge with the Cutthroats, but then remembered the feat and decided to just run and jam. I made sure to engage the Bronzeback with my first move. I had very intelligently put Risen in front of Reinholdt, meaning he couldn't reach Sorscha to use Lucky Charms. Sorscha moved over to hide behind the well and froze the Nihilators. The Demolisher ran up to cover Sorscha. The Nyss killed a bunch of Nihilators, but several survived thanks to tough rolls. The Doomreavers killed a couple more, leaving just the one survivor. I ended up using my extension this turn.

That is a big pile of souls...

Mordikaar now had something like 16 Fury. He brought back a couple of Nihilators, then between Mordikaar, the Paingivers, and the Incendiarii, Beanpole cleared enough Cutthroats for the Bronzeback to charge and Beat-Back it's way to Sorscha. Result: dead Sorscha.

Game 2:
The last time I played Gru I was impressed by his fully painted army, so I put together a list that used as many of my painted Warmachine models as I could. The only one missing is the wardog, who it seems can't be in the same list as Sylyss. Perhaps the elf is alergic? I went for the Kodiak for the free run, and Destroyers and the Demolisher so I wasn't trying to charge my entire army into melee in one go. I threw the Kovnik in there at the last minute for a laugh, but didn't think to actually put a warjack on him, which I really should have done; the Demolisher wouldn't have been a bad choice. We decided to go ahead and play at 50 points.
Strakhov
-Black Ivan
-Destroyer
-Demolisher
-Kodiak
-Berserker
-Sylyss
Alexia & the Risen
MOW Kovnik
Koldun Lord
Widowmaker Marksman

Gru just brought lots of gators, but for some reason brought the Spitter instead of the Wrassler. Perhaps he was anticipating my usual infantry horde when he wrote the list.
Barnabus
-Ironback Spitter
-Bull Snapper (2)
Gatormen Posse (5)
Gatormen Posse (5)
Gatormen Posse (3)
Gobber Bellows Crew
Witch Doctor (2)
Croak Hunter (2)
Thrullg


Pre-Game:
We left the table as it was. I won the roll, and decided that I had better pick the side with less rough terrain in my way, so I chose sides and Gru chose to go first. No timed turns this game.


Deployment:
Gru put his whole army on my left, facing his flag. I think he may have deployed his advanced deployment models in his regular deployment step?

Strakhov aimed for the flag. I put the Kodiak behind the forest on my left as it was the only other model that could run through it. I put the Kovnik behind the house as I was scared of the Croak Hunters' poisoned weapons - in retrospect I should have put him near Strakhov so I could give him Occultation (assuming I could ever spare the focus). The rest of my jacks went in the middle, with everything else on the right or behind the jacks.

The largest number of painted Warmachine models I've ever put on the table! Sad huh?

Round 1:
Gru put Iron Flesh on the three-gator Posse and ran everything up. The Croak Hunters hid in the trench.

I put Superiority on the Berserker with the intention of sending it in as a "first wave". Everything ran. Alexia starting accumulating Thralls.

And even more painted models thanks to the Thrall!

Round 2:
Gru advanced cautiously and hid the bulk of his army behind swamps and clouds (well, OK, one of each), casting Spiny Growth one each of the three Iron Fleshed Gators.

I realised at this point that I had stupidly positioned my "first wave" where it couldn't attack because of the well. So I hatched a Cunning Plan^TM! Strakhov gave the Berserker three focus and kept three for himself, then he advanced to shoot at the Gobbers in order to use Overrun to reposition the Berserker. Unfortunately they were too far away, so he threw a cinder bomb and a Rift instead on the off-chance that they provided some protection or something. The Berserker simply ran around the house instead, while the rest of the jacks ran or walked and shot, doing very little.

The Marksman then walked forwards and fired at the rightmost Gator. He landed the shot and rolled an amazing double 6 to perfectly one-shot the big lizard! What a champ! Alexia advanced and summoned a second Thrall.

Round 3:
One Bullsnapper frenzied, and took a big chunk out of the other, knocking out an aspect. Barnabus triggered his feat, knocking down several of my models. The nearest Posse charged the Kodiak, but only a few manage to reach. The Croak Hunters put a few boxes of damage on the Kovnik. The Gobbers moved up and put a cloud in front of my Berserker. He put Spiny Growth on a couple of the Iron-Fleshed unit. The rest of his army mostly just held it's ground.

I realised that my Kodiak was out of my control area and thus I wouldn't be able to shake, meaning he wouldn't be able to do anything useful this round. Neither would the Kovnik. So I hatched a Cunning Plan^TM to get some use out of them.

The Berserker got three focus, the Destroyer two, then they both shook. The Kodiak and Kovnik both sacrificed their actions to stand, and moved into position. The the Destroyer slammed the Kovnik, hoping to send him over the Croak Hunters. Sadly the slam distance was an inch short. I wanted to slam the Kodiak as well, but I realised that the Destroyer was in the way, plus I probably wouldn't have range anyway. So the Demolisher just ran forwards.

The Berserker trampled over the Gobbers, boosting his attack rolls and killing them both. Hang on, the maths doesn't add up; did I forget to pay for the trample? Perhaps I used Strakhov's feat but forgot that it doesn't give free tramples, only charges and slams? Either way I guess I screwed up somewhere. Anyway, the Berseker promptly exploded and put a few boxes of damage on the min unit of Gatormen.

Black Ivan did very little with his bombard. The Marksman shot another Gatorman but did not manage a repeat performance, only doing a few boxes of damage this time. Alexia summoned a third Thrall (proxied by Reinholdt). Strakhov based the flag to score a point.

Round 4:
One unit of Gators charged and killed the Marksman. Revenge! The Croak Hunters finished off the fallen Kovnik. The Gators swarmed around my jacks, slowly chipping away at the Kodiak. I scored a second point.

With the Berserker dead I would be wanting to re-cast Superiority. But who would get it? Well, with the Demolisher engaged, he would pretty much have to open up now, so perhaps a couple of extra points of defense would help keep him alive. However, he was too far away from Strakhov. So I hatched a Cunning Plan^TM (are you seeing a pattern yet?). Strakhov kept all his focus, moved up to cast Superiority on the Demolisher, then cast Overrun on himself and tried to gun down a Gator in order to be able to move back onto the flag. I rolled three shots, but the only unit in range had Iron Flesh so I missed them all, even with the boost.

Alexia created a fourth Thrall (proxied by a Nihilator). A pair of Thralls charged an Iron Fleshed gator and missed, while the newborn charged a regular Gator and also missed. The rest of my army then stood about flailing ineffectually.

Round 5:
Barnabus finally based his flag, but didn't score as my jacks were contesting. The Ironback Spitter nailed Alexia with a double-boosted loogie. If I'd had one more Risen (or the one Risen that was also in the AOE was a little farther away so I could pass damage off to it) she could have traded them to survive it, but Gru had rolled the exact damage needed to kill her, so I let her die and hung on to the Risen. The Croak Hunters hit the Koldun Lord, landing him with Corrosion, but poor damage rolls meant he survived the attack.The Gators killed three of my Thralls and kept chipping away at the jacks. I think this was the turn that the other Bullsnapper frenzied, taking a big chunk out of Barnabus.

Strakhov handed out three focus to the Destroyer and kept three. The Destroyer, using all three focus, finally managed to kill a single Gator. My flag was starting to look like a dangerous place to be, so I decided to focus on killing stuff with Strakhov. I wanted to charge him into the two Croak Hunters, but due to poor positioning I didn't have a line on the far one, so I charged the near one, killed it and Overrun into the second, but whiffed my attack. Finally Strakhov sprinted away, taking some damage from a free-strike.

The Risen simply regrouped (did you know they have CMD 3?). Ivan moved in to melee since he wasn't having much luck with his gun. The Koldun Lord lost another damage box to Corrosion.

Round 6:
The Gators finally managed to finish off the Kodiak. The Spitter moved in and, with the help of a couple of Gators, knocked out the open Demolisher's arms and cortex. The rightmost posse killed all but one Risen. The Thrullg disrupted Ivan.

Well, I really didn't want to move Strakhov over to my flag now. The Destroyer was the only jack left that I could allocate to; I couldn't even use the Koldun Lord to try to give Ivan focus as he died to Corrosion at the start of the turn. It occurred to me however that Barnabus was injured and on zero camp; perhaps I could put some damage on him this turn. The idea was to move Strak up, kill a gator, cast Ram at Barnabus, then sprint to a position of relative safety. It was a risky play, but the alternative was just to continue chipping away at Gators and lose the game from attrition / him scoring on my flag. So I went for it.

First I tried to free up Strakhov with the Demolisher, but a freestrike killed him. It's a shame, but at least he was out of the way. Strakhov then charged one of the Iron-Fleshed Gators (the freestrike from the Croak Hunter missed) and boosted the attack roll. The attack missed. This was a problem; I couldn't afford to just stand there, I had to try to reposition to somewhere a little safer with the sprint, so I spent the rest of Strakhov's focus trying to kill the Gator, but failed.

Sylyss ran to engage the Croak Hunter. The Destroyer killed another croc. Black Ivan took a swing and missed. The sole remaining Risen charged a Gator and missed.

Round 7:
Two Gators killed Strakhov. If they hadn't managed to finish it the Ironback would have.



Postmortem:
It's a completely different experience when you're on the clock. I would say it was exciting, but also somewhat stressful of course. The added pressure meant that I didn't play very smart and made stupid mistakes, like moving Sorscha into range of the Bronzeback. I think it might be worth playing with timed turns every once in a while, but probably not with the infantry spam lists I'm currently playing, and probably with a slightly more generous time limits to start off with.

It was fun to run jack-heavy again; in fact I think this is the jack-heaviest I've ever done. Strakhov is clearly not the right caster for it though. I love using Overrun for janky little plays, and I spent all game trying and failing to pull that kind of thing. I guess the Hoff really likes easy to kill targets for triggers, and Gators are not exactly easy to kill; I think I only took out three of them the whole game.

The terrain was part of the problem; it funneled us into a rather narrow skirmish line where we couldn't get enough of our larger-based models into engagement, drawing out the game a little. Iron Flesh didn't exactly help; DEF 16 is obviously not as bad as DEF 18, but it was still enough to give me trouble.

Actually, I think both our dice were pretty poor overall. I had some good rolls early on, then he had a few at the end when he killed Strakhov (whole bunch of 8s for his attack rolls...), but for most of the match I think we were generally rolling below average (my attacks kept missing, his kept failing to do damage).

That Marksman though! Man of the match! I should have used Swift-Hunter to move him back to maximum range after his first attack though, I just forgot how fast Gators can be when charging living models.

Looking at the photos, I think Gru could have gotten that posse around the right flank a lot sooner if he'd been more agressive; with the forest in the way they could have flanked without much risk of my jacks catching them, then put pressure on my flag sooner. In hindsight, knowing now how much trouble my jacks had with his Gators, I would say that if he'd moved the main complement of Gators up faster he could have jammed me off his flag and started scoring fairly early on.

Yes, But Is He Lucky?*

As much as I love the Spriggan, I had played like three games now without changing my list, and my GADD (Gamer's Attention Deficit Disorder) was kicking in. I wasn't ready to change anything else in my list, so out he went. Instead I took a Decimator and Reinholdt. The Decimator lacks Reach, but he hits as hard as the Spriggan with less accuracy issues, and I figured I could keep him back longer before committing, while still getting use out of him. Plus he's just one of those models that I just really want to work. Reinholdt of course would help Sorscha freeze stuff.
Sorscha II
-Decimator
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Alexia & the Risen
Doomreavers
Reinholdt

Beanpole was running a list that seemed rather unfocussed to me, but it did have two of the things that scare me most in Skorne: Tiberion and Ashes to Ashes.
Hexeris II
-Tiberion
-Savage (bonded)
-Drake
-Reptile hound (3)
Paingiver beast handlers
Nihilators
Void spirit
Saxon Orrick


Deployment:
Two neutral zones. I won the roll and chose to go first. I randomly chose to put Sorscha on my left. The Decimator went in the middle so he could threaten either zone. Alexia was in the center for corpse collection, the Nyss went on the right, where they could potentially abuse the forest.

Beanpole put the reptile hounds on my left, while Tibbers and the Savage went on the right.

In my advanced deployment phase, I put the Doomreavers on my right; not only were they facing his harder targets, he couldn't target them with Ashes to Ashes, hopefully minimizing the threat of his arc node Savage. The Cutthroats then took the other side - I spread them out in the hope that would limit the number that could be killed by Ashes.

Beanpole put Orrick a little ahead of his Nihilators.

Round 1:
I advanced and spread out my forces. Iron Flesh went on the Cutthroats. One if the ideas I'd had before for dealing with Ashes to Ashes was to pad the front line with Risen to absorb the hits, but I'd forgotten about that and left all my Risen far in the rear. So instead I created a Thrall and ran him up. Which was stupid because he presented a low DEF target that, unlike the rest of my front-line infantry, didn't have Spell Ward or Stealth. Sigh.

Beanpole put Ashen Veil on the Nihilators and arced Ashes through the Savage, easily hitting the Thrall. He rolled for the number of additional models, and got... a 1. To add insult to injury he failed to break armour on the Thrall itself. Final death toll: 1 Cutthroat. Who donated his corpse to Alexia. Well, at least Saxon came through, gunning down a Doomreaver.

Round 2:
I considered going for the big freeze this turn, but the Nihilators looked less threatening than the Savage at this point, so I decided to focus on gunning it down. Using 4 focus, the Decimator put some decent damage on the beast (maybe 10 points?), then I charged three Doomreavers into it. The first one finished the Savage off with his first attack. Unsatisfied, he turned and cut down the unit leader with his Berserk attack. Well, that's something I'm going to have to learn to deal with. The third Doomreaver swung on the nearby Nihilator but missed, in part due to Ashen Veil.

The Nyss walked up a bit and tried to the CRA the offending Nihilator, but then Beanpole reminded me that you can't CRA into melee. Someday, in the distant future, I might learn to remember that rule and stop basing my battle plans around illegal CRAs. Anyway, not wanting to kill my Doomreaver and with no other targets in range, they just stood there trying to look cool (they didn't fool anyone).

Sorcha, the Cutthroats, and a couple of Thralls killed a couple of Nihilators and put some damage on the dog.

The Nihilators, Reptile Hounds, Saxon, and Tibbers killed some Cutthroats and most of the Doomreavers. The last Doomreaver survived thanks to a Nihilator Berserking onto the unit leader, with the promoted leader being too far and leaving the last Nihilator out of command range before his attack. It was an unlucky order of activation. I believe Hexeris cast Ashes to Ashes again this turn, but rolled another 1 for the number of extra hits, killing a Thrall and a Cutthroat. At least he cleared a path for one Nihilator to charge Alexia, but it missed.

Round 3:
Sorscha toed the zone, froze the Nihilators (despite being at -4 to land it due to Ashen Veil; thanks Reinholdt!), then gunned three of them down. The Cutthroats tried to clear the zone, but couldn't finish off the last Hound. The Decimator tried to finish it off, but without focus for boosting I decided that aiming and hoping I was in range was better than moving and missing. He was a quarter of an inch out.

The last Doomreaver (would be a great name for a band) killed a Nihilator then Berserked onto Tiberion, doing respectable damage. A Thrall joined him, rolling pretty high as well, knocking out Tibber's body aspect. I think the Nyss had done some damage with a CRA first?

The Paingivers, Hound, Drake, and Tiberion killed some more models. Sadly the Drake's spray missed everything that wasn't a Risen. With the Doomreavers and their magical weapons gone, the Void Spirit ran out to engage my Nyss.

Round 4:
Tiberion looked like he might be in charge range of the Decimator, but I wasn't sure and I didn't want to risk it, so I put 4 focus on the Decimator and used it to one-round the Drake with crazy damage rolls from the Dozer, using Beat-Back to move a bit further away from Tibbers. I then filled the space between the two with Risen.

However, being a genius, I placed one Risen grunt within 2" of Tiberion. So when I tried to put a 9 man CRA into him, I couldn't because he was engaged. Every. Damned. Time. The Nyss were left with no choice but to stand around and continue pretending that "they meant to do that".

Sorscha and the Cutthroats once again failed to clear the zone.

Hexeris himself finally came out to play, charging the Nyss and hitting them with Ashes to Ashes. This time he rolled a more reasonable 4, killing half the unit. Tibbers and the Void Spirit killed a few more, leaving only two who were outside the zone. Luckily for me they passed their command check. The last Nihilator then cleaned up, taking out 4 Risen by himself. Beanpole scored 2 for dominating the zone. Saxon, now enjoying Ashen Veil,

Round 5:
The pressure was on now. Neither the Decimator nor Alexia could charge Tiberion due to the well, so instead I spent three focus shooting Tibbers in the back, doing decent damage and using the Bulldoze moves to reposition for a potential charge next turn. A newborn Thrall poked him for a few more, while a shamble of Risen (that is the correct term for a group of undead, right?) took out the last Nihilator. One Nyss aimed and shot down the Void Spirit, while the other positioned himself somewhere easy for Tibbers to kill, instead of forcing him to chose whether to go for the Nyss or the Thrall. Because I'm smart.

Meanwhile, the Cutthroats totally failed to do anything. Sorscha spent three focus on trying to put down Saxon, but left him on one box. At least the Thrall finally killed the last Reptile Hound.

Saxon killed a couple of Cutthroats. Hexeris walked up and Threshered 5 Risen in one go, while Tiberion killed the Thrall and Nyss hunter who were contesting. Tiberion and Hexeris both put up Bump, and Beanpole scored two more points. Well, at least my last Nyss passed his command check.

Round 6:
I needed to contest the right zone this turn. However, to contest with anything that had any chance of survival, I would need to kill Tiberion. Despite my chipping away at him all game, Beanpole had kept healing him with Paingivers and Hexeris passive battlegroup healing ability, meaning he still had maybe around half his health left (maybe a little less). Also he had Bump up. So Sorscha gave the Decimator 4 focus, walked over to catch Tiberion with her feat, cast Boundless Charge on the Decimator, and missed a shot at a Paingiver. The last Nyss charged Tiberion in the back, managing to land a single point of damage on him (which of course was doubled); this was enough to trigger Bump, meaning I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. Then Alexia went in. Thanks to the feat and decent damage rolls, she took the big guy down!

MORAL! VICTORY!

Sadly the Decimator wasn't going to be able to do much with his focus since I needed him to run or charge to get into the zone, and I couldn't reach Hexeris on account of having put my Risen in the way (probably a good thing as he had Bump on him, which might have pushed the Decimator out of the zone; I could probably have killed him if I'd planned it by positioning Risen to stop the push from Bump, but I didn't think that far ahead; last time Alexia went for Tiberion she'd done like 2 damage total). So instead the Decimator just killed a Paingiver.

The rest of the Cutthroats and the Thrall in my left zone all completely whiffed on Saxon again.

Hexeris cut for fury. I realised at this point that I had gotten too focused on getting into the zone and left Sorscha completely open and vulnerable on 0 camp. Apparently however Beanpole thought scoring the last point he needed to win in the left zone was the safer bet, so he charged the Thrall with Hexeris and cast Ashes to Ashes. He only rolled a two though, killing two Cutthroats and failing to break the Thrall's ARM. The charge attack finished off the Thrall, but this left Saxon with the job of killing Croe and Reinholdt.

Did you know Reinholdt has DEF 16? I don't think I ever noticed that before. Hexeris threw a boosted Black Spot at him to try to drop his DEF, but missed. Then Saxon sidled around Croe and... missed Reinholdt with both attacks. Ouch.

Round 7:
Even from behind, the Decimator and last Nyss Hunter missed their shots at Hexeris, so Sorscha went in and just managed to kill him with her last attack. Then everyone hoisted Reinholdt on their shoulders and carried him off the field in triumph as the crowd went wild.

PostMortem:
OH MY GOD! Reinholdt won me the game! Reinholdt! How crazy is that? Well, to be fair, what really won me the game was Beanpole's abysmal dice. Seriously, he really should have won that, but his dice completely let him down with terrible Ashes rolls, I think he passed one Tough roll the whole game, and of course he completely whiffed on the plucky little gobber at the end. Meanwhile my damage rolls were pretty consistently great; the Decimator even one-rounded the Drake with his gun! Hell, my Doomreavers hit so hard they killed the Savage too quickly and had to turn on each other.

I feel as if Beanpole should have killed the Thrall first then cast Ashes into a Cutthroat in his final push, but I guess he was afraid of missing (kinda understandable given his dice) and decided to play it safe by targeting the DEF 11 Thrall with the backstrike bonus. Well, I guess if he realized Reinholdt's DEF was as high as Sorscha's (higher with the hill), he probably would have just gone for her instead; pretty sure that would have won him the game.

I'm kinda sad I missed the opportunity to put the Decimator into Hexeris, but I didn't even consider Alexia finishing off Tibbers on her own, and just didn't plan that far ahead. Plus of course I just left Sorscha open there too. I feel like being able to see those opportunities without the kind of tunnel vision I get is the level of skill I'd like to learn. Something to think about.

Well, Saxon did good work that game. He pretty much killed at least one of my models every turn except the last. Since my infantry are mostly 1 point each, he paid for himself pretty quickly. Then he just stood there and tanked everything I could get to him. I need to get me one of those!

I really did not get much done with the Nyss this game. I had been saving them for contesting and late-game stabbing, there wasn't much infantry on that side for them to shoot at and I kept losing out on chances to CRA. I probably should have spread them out farther through the zone, but I think I was subconsciously keeping them back out of fear of Ashes.

Going in, I had wanted to focus on playing a "sharper" game than usual; I need to start remembering to check charge distances and so on. I think I did better than I have been recently. I still made plenty of mistakes, but they were more "honest" ones (poor target priority, playing too defensively at times, that sort of thing), rather than being down to carelessness or forgetting rules. Well, except for my continual attempts to shoot into melee that is.

So did the Decimator work out as well as/better than the Spriggan? Well, having Reinholdt WON ME THE DAMNED GAME, so there is that. If I had the Spriggan I probably would have commit him to combat sooner, which may have worked out to my advantage in this game as Tiberion was about the only thing that could take down jack by that point, but I'm not really sure. On the flip side, the temptation to pour focus into the Decimator's gun did limit Sorscha's own actions at times, which might have contributed to my inability to clear her zone. I suppose more playtesting is needed.


*Said to be what Napoleon asked of his new generals.

A Good Start

My list is pretty stable right now because there's basically nothing that I'm willing to take out; I can't lose the Nyss, it's too early to take out the Doomreavers, I can't live without Alexia, and I like the Cutthroats. I've considered downgrading the Spriggan in order to add Sylyss and Reinholdt or Eliminators, but I'm afraid that without Reach a Juggernaut just won't have enough threat range.
Sorscha II
-Spriggan
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Doomreavers
Alexia & the Risen

Beanpole was trying a beast-heavy list:
Makeda II
-Bronzeback
-Gladiator
-Archidon
-Savage
-Krea
Paingiver Beast Handlers (6)
Gobber bellows crew
Mortithurge Willbreaker


Game 1:
Pre-Game:
We ended up with the classic two zones and two objectives, and we both picked Fuel Cache. He won the roll to go first and I picked the side with the forest and trenches (mainly so he couldn't have the trenches, but with Cutthroats and Nyss forests can be useful to me).

Deployment:
He deployed in a central brick. I put Sorscha a little on my right, so she could easily get to my zone. The Nyss went in the center. I put Alexia a little to the left, so she would be between the Nyss and where I wanted the Cutthroats. The Risen were scattered in the back where they wouldn't get in the way. I don't remember why I put the Spriggan where I did. Finally the Cutthroats went on the left, and the Doomreavers on the right.

Round 1:
After handing out all the speed buffs, his beasts got reasonably far up the board.

So I made my first mistake of the game when I deployed Sorscha too far from the Cutthroats, who I had been planning to give Iron Flesh. So I had to move her over to the left in order to get close enough. The Doomreavers ran and spread out, but it looked like the Cutthroats might be in range to shoot already, plus I didn't think they needed to be too far forwards yet since I wasn't planning on try to take his zone, only contest it, so they simply advanced and shot. I think they might have put a bit of damage on the Gladiator.

Round 2:
Using the Archidon's Sprint animus, Beanpole was able to kill a couple of Doomreavers and a Cutthroat and sprint back to safety. I think he was wary of my army crashing into him under Sorscha's feat. He made sure to toe his zone though to stop me from scoring.

Looking at the table here, I had an idea. It looked like I might be able to kill both the Gladiator and the Archidon this turn, though it would cost me my Spriggan. The thing was, with those two dead he would find it very hard to get across the big chunk of rough terrain in his zone, making it a very safe place for Sorscha to potentially dominate! So Sorscha filled up the Spriggan, gave him Boundless Charge, and feated to catch the two warbeasts. The Archidon went down to some ridiculous damage rolls from Croe and a Thrall. Meanwhile the Spriggan decided to roll tripple sixes on his charge; by the time he put it down he had enough focus left to buy a boosted attack and kill a Gobber. The other one survived though, denying me a point. Oh, and the Doomreavers moved up and whiffed.

Round 3:
Under Makeda's feat, the Bronzeback killed my Spriggan and the Savage took out most of my Doomreavers.

I noticed that the Bronzeback seemed to be in range of a Boundless Charge from Alexia. However, while setting it up he actually triggered Hyper-Aggressive off the Cutthroats and ended up close enough that I didn't need the Boundless Charge. So Alexia went in and burned all her Risen, but couldn't finish the job - I think the Bronzeback had about six boxes left by the end. Meanwhile the Doomreavers and Nyss Hunters charged the Savage and Krea, but missed most of their attacks. At this point the left zone didn't seem like such a good bet anymore, so I moved Sorscha over to my zone instead using Cyclone, and put Iron Flesh on the Nyss. I might have put a boosted shot into something (I wasn't too scared of hitting my own Nyss considering they were engaged and Iron Fleshed), but I guess she missed. Oh, and I think this was the turn that a Cutthroat killed the last Gobber, and Croe actually managed to tag Makeda with his Silencer... mwahahahahaaa! Ah, hem. Sorry.

Round 4:
Between the Bronzeback, Makeda and some Paingivers, I was knocked down to just Croe on the left. The Savage took out the last Doomreaver but no-one seemed to be able to hit the elusive Nyss. Some healing took place.

Croe charged the Bronzeback hoping for a super high damage roll to finish it off, but whiffed. The Nyss finally killed the Savage but couldn't kill the Krea. I'd dropped Iron Flesh in order to charge a couple of Nyss into the Bronzeback, but they both died to freestrikes from a Paingiver. Cylena tried to kill it but whiffed. One Nyss just ran to contest the enemy zone (which was kinda stupid since I didn't need to yet). Sorscha recast Iron Flesh on the Nyss, killed the Willbreaker with her quad-iron, and shuffled a little but further away from the Bronzeback. I finally scored a point.

Round 5:
Makeda cleared the zone. The Bronzeback charged Cylena but didn't make distance thanks to the Spriggan's wreckage. We both scored a point.

I was planning to put a CRA into the Bronzeback, but before that I moved one Nyss to engage a Paingiver in case I didn't need him to kill the Krea, but this allowed the Bronzeback to counter-charge and engage the Nyss, meaning I could no longer CRA him. Cylena whiffed again and the best that the rest could do was kill a Paingiver. Sorscha might have tried some shooting but I don't think anything came of it, so I moved her a bit farther back again. We both scored again.

Round 6:
The Bronzeback charged into my zone and killed a Nyss Hunter. Makeda left her zone to kill Cylena for some reason. No points this turn.

By now the Bronzeback had healed back up to something like 12 boxes. I wasn't sure if I could kill him without committing Sorscha, but doing that would put my in range of Makeda. So I hatched a desperate plan: Sorscha used Cyclone then charged a Paingiver in the enemy zone, only just making distance (I didn't want to use Boundless Charge because I needed the focus). A boosted attack roll killed the Paingiver, and Beanpole wisely opted not to keep him alive with Makeda as he figured I could easily kill it with another attack, but the other Paingiver would be harder for me to kill. I tried a boosted Razor Wind but missed.

So now it all came down to my few remaining Nyss. The unengaged ones couldn't see because of the Bronzeback, so I started to spread them out to get them line of sight. However, this allowed the Bronzeback to counter-charge, killing one (I had dropped Iron Flesh to give Sorscha as much focus as possible) and engaging another. With only three Nyss left, I had no choice but to risk multiple free strikes with the two engaged models. Luckily one was able to break free. I had two shots and they both needed to land... which they did, killing the last contesting model. I dominated for two points, bringing my up to the five needed to win.

Game 2:
Pre-Game:
We rolled a new scenario with two simple flags. This time I finally won the roll to go first, and I took it. Beanpole chose the side with the trenches.

Deployment:
Sorscha went directly behind my flag. The Spriggan was to her right. The Nyss and Alexia were in the center again.

Beanpole deployed a little to the left, closer to his flag.

I then advanced-deployed the Cutthroats in a line, ready to run in front of my flag. The Doomreavers then deployed on the far, far left; I was planning to use them to contest his flag one model at a time.

Round 1:
The Cutthroats ran forwards as planned. Sorscha followed, giving them Iron Flesh. Because of the wall I ended up moving the Spriggan over to the left. The Nyss and Risen moved up cautiously, and the Doom Reavers advanced a little but spread out as far as they could.

Beanpole moved his forces up.

Round 2:
I sent a Cutthroat towards the Bronzeback just to be annoying, while the advanced slightly and spread out, killing the Paingiver behind the trench. A Doomreaver charged a Paingiver, hoping to Berserk onto the Savage, but Makeda kept the Paingiver alive, halting the Berserk. A Thrall charged directly towards the Savage, doing a few boxes. Some Nyss moved up and put a 5-man CRA into the Paingiver that was in the trench, killing him easily. Sorscha based the flag, and the Spriggan joined her.

The Archidon and Bronzeback killed the two nearest Cutthroats and the Sentry killed the Doomreaver and Thrall. I scored my first point.

Round 3:
While the plan had been to play super-cagey, after how much trouble it had caused last game I decided that I had to take the chance to try to kill the Bronzeback. I dropped Iron Flesh, then the very first move was to engage the Bronzeback with Croe to make sure Counter-Charge wasn't going to foil my plans somehow. One Cutthroat engaged the Gladiator, one charged alongside Croe, and the rest just wandered around aimlessly. Croe and his buddy failed to put any damage on the beast before the Spriggan went in with four focus and Boundless Charge. Unfortunately the Titan survived with four damage boxes. A Thrallpedo took out three more, but now I had nothing left to try to knock off the last box.

I had made a mistake last turn and put a Nyss Hunter in front of the Spriggan, meaning I had to activate them before the Spriggan could charge. This left a big hole that I feared the Archidon could possibly use to reach Sorscha, so I moved Alexia to block and hoped that would be enough. Another Doomreaver was fed to the Sentry and I scored another point.

So here's where things got... interesting. The Bronzeback had been left with one Fury on it because I had killed the two Paingivers who might have been able to whip it off. Rolling 11 on the frenzy check, it immediately lashed out against Croe. However, because of it's crippled aspects, it missed the attack. We checked the rules here and it seems that a frenzy is an activation, meaning it was then frozen due to Sorscha's bond. However, frenzies happen before shaking, so he was able to immediately shake the effect.

Now Beanpole needed to kill two Cutthroats in order to clear a charge lane to the Spriggan if he wanted to be able to Enrage the Gladiator, but he needed to do it without blocking charge lanes himself. Makeda was able to kill one and sprint back, while the Mortithurge used Ancilliary Attack on the (now healed) Bronzeback to kill the other.

Finally the Gladiator, enraged and with the Bronzeback's animus, charged the Spriggan... and promptly rolled snake-eyes on his attack dice. More poor rolls saw the Spriggan survive with all his systems. I didn't help that Beanpole had tried to kill another Cutthroat in order to create a landing zone for the Archidon so it could chip in, but missed that attack, then promptly rolled another snake eyes on his final attack roll, leaving it frozen.

The Archidon killed Croe and sprinted back a little. The Savage killed the Doomreaver in front of it, then the Gobbers put up a cloud to protect it from any more charges. I scored another point.

Round 4:
Sorscha feated, catching the three heavy warbeasts, and put Iron Flesh back on the Cutthroats, who put a respectable amount of damage on the Gladiator. The Spriggan then used Bulldoze to engage the Archidon before finishing off the two Titans; sadly several missed attacks meant that he didn't actually do anything to the Archidon. A couple of Nyss Hunters had a go, but had difficulty with it's high DEF, then a Thrall tried to charge in but couldn't make it through the gap. Meanwhile a Doomreaver charged the Krea and another just ran up to make a nuisance of itself, and the rest of my infantry moved over to better protect Sorscha. I scored my fourth point.

Makeda popped her feat and used Engine of Destruction to finish off the Spriggan. Thanks to the feat the Archidon was able to fly past my army without suffering any free strikes, allowing it to contest my flag and kill three Cutthroats with the free attack boosts. BUT THIS WAS ALL PART OF MY PLAN! This allowed me to swap Croe into Makeda's back arc! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA! Uh... ignore the maniacal laughter please. The Sentry killed another couple of Doomreavers and hid behind a cloud again.

Round 5:
I once dropped Iron Flesh and froze the Archidon with a boosted Freezing Grip, before putting my diabolical plan into action. Croe charged Makeda in the back! 5 damage dice baby! Except he wiffed his (effectively MAT 9) attack roll and did nothing. Meanwhile, another Cutthroat who obviously has his eye on Croe's position managed the hard 9 to hit and put six damage on her. Then Alexia killed the Archidon and I won.

Postmortem:
The first game really came down to the wire! Despite gaining an early advantage by killing two of his beasts, I was surprised by the end to find myself left with just a few infantry models. That Bronzeback just wouldn't die, and it's ability to counter-charge was surprisingly useful just for re-positioning during my turn and screwing up my plans. Luckily for me the last few dice rolls came down in my favour, or else it would have been all over.

The second game was a lot more one-sided, which was partly down to the advantage going first gave me on that scenario and partly due to some terrible dice on Beanpole's side. When you think about it, the Bronzeback surviving then frenzying was the worst possible thing that could have happened: if it had died then he could have put the Archidon into the Spriggan, which would have been guaranteed to kill it. Of course if it hadn't frenzied then he would have been in a pretty advantageous position; killing just those two Paingivers just completely changed the outcome of the whole game. It really was an insanely lucky outcome for me.

I'm still very careless at times. What I realised this time was that I've gotten too used to not bothering to measure distances when it's dramatically obvious that an enemy is in my charge/shooting range, but this means I keep neglecting to check that I've made the minimum distance for a charge. If I was playing against myself I'd probably get pretty annoyed with me (if that makes sense). In my defense I'm already a really slow player, so it feels like speeding things up a bit where there's no cost (like not measuring things that you don't need to measure) sounds fair for these casual games, if only I could remember when it is and is not needed.

I guess I haven't been making the most of the Doomreavers, but they are doing well as an advanced-deployment jamming unit. Perhaps a cheaper unit would work too, but no-one wants to take a freestrike from a Doomreaver (plus of course they have Reach), which makes them better at holding the enemy off with just one or two models. Perhaps I would be able to make better use of them offensively if I used the fearless Risen to screen them? Might be something to consider in the right scenario.

I'm wondering if I spent Alexia too early in the first game. I should have paid more attention to how many Risen she had left, maybe even tried to do some quick maths to figure out her odds of actually taking down the Bronzeback before committing. The thing is though that I had counted on the Croes helping out a bit, but that was before I realised that the Bronzeback had Hyper-Agressive. Seriously, that guy has so many rules and movement tricks for a non-character model! Also I had been expecting to kill the two light beasts earlier, which would have allowed me to bring more force to bear on the Bronzeback even if she failed.

I might have been too cagey with Sorscha; I almost moved her too far from the enemy zone in the first game (although technically I still could have gone further with Boundless Charge, I just didn't want to spend the focus). It's partly because I can't seem to keep track of what a Skorne beast's threat range is; between multiple different sources of movement buffs (including Beat-Back) and different speeds and melee ranges, I tend to just give up and assume that they can reach me wherever I am.

I'm not sure, but I feel as if the Archidon could have reached Sorscha the turn that I sent the Spriggan in, at least if he'd given it Beat-Back and feated; he probably would have had to position Makeda a little far forwards to keep it in her control range though, but I suspect it would have been do-able. Even taking into account Alexia's ability to sac Risen to cost him an extra attack or two, I think it was his best shot of winning that game - OK, things would have been different if he had managed to kill the Spriggan before losing the Titans, but I still would have had enough infantry to hold him off for a bit, and Sorscha still had her feat at that point, so... I dunno.