Game 1
Another intro game against one of our 40K regulars. I shall refer to him as Saint. I pulled out the same lists as the last demo game:
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Kodiak
- Sylyss
Winter Guard Infantry
Butcher 1
- Juggernaut
- Demolisher
- Wardog
Assault Kommandos
Pre-Game:
No scenario. Saint won the roll and chose to go first.
Deployment:
Our infantry faced off on my left, our battlegroups on my right.
Round 1:
I explained the basics of movement, running, and casting spells.
Round 2:
I explained ranged attacks, including aiming. Saint's Assault Kommando shooting took down a lot of my Winter Guard. He ran his Juggernaut right up to my Kodiak.
I demonstrated spending focus to boost attack rolls, and gave a taste of power attacks by throwing his Juggernaut into his Demolisher. My Juggernaut then charged in and finished off his. The Winter Guard charged his AKs, to little effect.
Round 3:
Butcher moved up, feated, and wailed on my Kodiak. The Demolisher did the same to my Juggernaut. One of my jacks survived with a few boxes left (I don't actually remember which one it was right now), but some hot damage rolls on AK shooting under Butcher's feet finished it off, leaving me with no battle group left - and no Winter Guard either!
Sylyss charged the Wardog and actually managed to take it out. Strakhov went in on Butcher, but cold dice meant I only did a little bit of damage
Round 4:
The Demolisher and Butcher took down the Hoff.
Game 2
Speedy's Menoth had just arrived and he was eager to get them on the table, so we played at 50 points. I didn't want to start swapping models around yet so I just added some stuff to my previous list.
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Destroyer
- Berserker
Nyss Hunters
Kell Bailoch
Alexia & the Risen
Widowmaker Marksman
Koldun Lord
Speedy decided to stick with Kreoss 1 for another game, but swapped out the Vanquisher. It seems he quite liked how the Repenter worked last game, so he doubled-down on them this time.
Kreoss 1
- Crusader
- Reckoner
- Repenter x3 (one proxied by MOW)
Cinerators
Choir (min)
Errants (min)
Pre-Game:
We rolled the main rulebook scenario with the single simple circular zone in the center (I think it's the first scenario). I chose the side with the forests and he chose to go second.
Deployment:
Not having any pathfinder on my jacks, I lined up my battlegroup with the gap in between the forests. My Nyss were positioned to my right, with the Risen behind them.
Speedy concentrated the bulk of his forces to my left.
I placed Kell towards my left, but then realised the Marksman would need to be closer to Strakhov to get Sentry.
The Errants deployed behind the forest on their side of the table.
Round 1:
Strakhov put Sentry on the Marksman, Superiority on the Berserker, and Occultation on himself. I then decided I didn't need to charge forwards and just walked, which of course meant that the Marksman didn't need to be that close to Strakhov. I walked the Marksman to the left, but messed up my positioning and ended up out of range of the errants. Nyss Hunters spread out through the forest and trench. The Risen just shuffled forwards, with Alexia creating one Thrall who ran over to my left, hiding behind a swell in the forest. The Berserker ran towards the zone, while the other two jacks ran to keep up.
Defender's Ward went on the Cinerators and Lamentation on Kreoss. The Cinerators advanced, with the jacks behind them with Passage. The Errants consolidated behind the forest defensively.
Round 2:
This round I focussed on taking down the Cinerators. My snipers took out one each, and the Destroyer took down another. I think the Nyss took down a fourth with a 5-man CRA. Alexia created another thrall (proxied by the Wardog) who set up on the hill on my right. His older brother just ran to the center of the zone to be a nuisance.
Kreoss switched Defender's Ward over to the Errants. A Repenter went after my snipers but only killed one, so another Repenter had to move in to take out the other. The Reckoner put damage on my Berserker, lighting him up with Flare. Repenter and Errant shooting killed some Nyss and the Thralldog. I'm not sure what killed the other thrall.
Round 3:
I spent a while planning this round, trying to get into the old Strakhov swing of things. I put Overrun on the Berserker, who walked into the last Cinerator's back arc. Because I was careless he took a free strike from the Cinerator and lost his cortex. Still, he killed the Cinerator and triggered Overrun to walk into the Reckoner. He then Berserked and used his second initial, but I don't remember which jack I put his attacks into.
Strakhov and the Destroyer chipped away at the Crusader with some boosted shooting, then the Juggernaut charged in and finished it off. My Nyss Hunters took a pair of 4-man CRAs into the Errants and whiffed both. A newborn Risen walked in to distract them, while a new Thrall charged into a Reckoner to keep it busy.
Speedy popped Kreoss' feat and did what he could to counter-punch, but somehow my knockdown-immune DEF 13 Berserker survived (with only it's movement intact).
Round 4:
I made a couple of mistakes this round. I dropped Superiority from the Berkserker because I wanted to switch it to the Juggernaut, but there was no reason not to leave it until after the Berserker's activation since it's free for Strakhov to upkeep. I also spent focus on the Juggernaut to shake, even though he didn't move during his activation and I believe casting Superiority on him would have stood him back up anyway.
Regardless, the Berserker flailed ineffectually at the Reckoner with his crippled arms. The Juggernaut got Overrun and Superiority, killed a Revengers and I think an Errant then walked back to safety. The Destroyer stood up and took a shot at the Errants, hitting and killing one thanks to a boosted attack roll.
Alexia popped up some Risen in Errant back arcs, but even a 3-man CRA into the back arc missed. She then converted one into a Thrall, who I believe succeeded in finally taking down the Errant. The Koldun Lord finally got into things by taking out an Errant himself with Brittle Frost.
Last turn I completely forgot to keep something suriveable in the zone, so Speedy set about clearing it. The Reckoner finished of the Berserker, and Errants and Revengers easily the killed the small handful of undead that still contested, earning Speedy a victory point.
Round 5:
With the board now clear enough for me to move around, I loaded up my jacks, popped feat, and put Overrun on the Destroyer. He started off by taking out one of the remaining Repenters (and he actually benefitted from a crit this time, doing an additional 4 damage on one attack - I believe it's the first time this has actually happened to me!) and Overruning into the other, clearing the lane for the Juggernaut.
The Koldun Lord cast Brittle Frost on the Reckoner, then Juggernaut charged in for the kill. A 4-man Risen back-strike CRA once again failed to do anything, and my Nyss Hunters embarrassed themselves as well.
Speedy tried to free up the Errants with Kreoss so they could try to get to Strakhov, but he didn't have enough models left.
Round 6:
My Destroyer took a free strike walking away from the Repenter in order to take a boosted shot and clear off a Choirboy. This opened the path for the Juggernaut to get to Kreoss; with the accuracy buff from Superiority he was able to finish off the old priest.
Post-Mortem:
Saint picked up the rules quite quickly, and appeared to be enjoying himself. He seemed to like the fact that Butcher was a proper beatstick, and played him more aggressively than expected. He commented to the effect that he liked the system well enough, but was not too fond of the model aesthetics. I can see that, a lot of the models have a style that won't work for everyone.
I wonder if I'm playing Strakhov wrong, because I always feel disadvantaged at the start of a game and only start to feel comfortable later when things have cleared out a bit, because that's when I start to feel like I can leverage Strakhov's mobility buffs to take out the models that scare me.
Which is why I feel like Speedy would have been better off throwing his army into me as quickly as possible, rather than keeping his distance and allowing me take his heavies without retaliation. Of course part of that was down to my Berserker doing an unusually good job as a roadblock - Speedy's dice were a little bit cold this game, whereas mine gave me the numbers I needed when I needed them (with the exception of the Nyss activations of course).
This was my first time running the Koldun Lord since the Wolves of Winter CID (actually probably since MkII). Early on I felt he was very vulnerable so I tried to keep him back, by late game I felt comfortable bringing him forwards. In this game I don't think he made much difference and a Warcaster attachment might have made my life easier instead, but landing Brittle Frost on the Reckoner meant my Juggernaut's chances of taking him out went from "pretty good" to "practically guaranteed", so maybe I'll keep him. He'll certainly come in handy if I start facing ARM-buffed heavies again.
Speedy was right to take out my snipers as quickly as possible, because those two would do a lot of work over the course of a game if they were allowed to run free - taking out a Defender's Warded Cinerator each is nothing to sneer at. I screwed up with the Marksman as usual, putting him too close to Kell and letting him die too easily.
His lights didn't do as much work this game - they were on the wrong side of the table to try to kill my infantry, and they don't really hit hard enough to be a problem for my jacks. I think that if he'd focussed them on my infantry (possibly with a much more agressive feat from Kreoss) that might have freed up his Errants to do some work on my jacks - charging weaponmasters are not to be taken lightly. Alternately if he had been more agressive with his heavies he could have used his lights to protect them from my heavies' alpha, trading the lights to get his heavies into mine.
Well, it was a fun game, but a bit of a long one. Speedy was talking about playing at 75 points, but I think after this he might reconsider and stick to 50 just for the convenience.
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