Expect the Unexpected: pButcher vs eStryker

You already know what their chief weapons are.

The lead-up to today's game begins last night.  (Bad form to start with the parenthesis so soon, but it happens.  Standard time caveat applies: today is relative to when I'm writing [Thursday] and not necessarily when this gets posted, which might be a few days.)  Wednesday night is the traditional "I need to figure out what I'm playing tomorrow" time, when I become enamored with some particular combination that can pull of some wacky trick that needs just the right situation and even then may not work right.  This is when I come up with half-baked Harkevich lists that are based around having a Marauder knock something over.  These are great flights of fancy that never realize their potential.  Last night I decided to go the other way and build a list that was no trickery and all ass-kickery.  The poster boy for this approach is good ole' Orsus, who has been waiting patiently for a shot at the table since he's been painted, and no sane man denies the Butcher his desires.  After some wrangling I came up with the following list:



35+6 points, 23 models

The Butcher of Khardov  +6 points
* Black Ivan  10 points
* Kodiak  8 points
* War Dog  1 point

Koldun Lord  2 points
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich  2 points
3 Man-O-War Bombardiers  7 points
Manhunter  2 points
10 Winter Guard Infantry  6 points
* Winter Guard Officer & Standard  2 points
* 1 Winter Guard Rocketeer  1 point


Despite what I said above, there is a bit of a "trick" to this list, if you can call Full Throttle a trick.  Since all of the Kodiak's attacks are melee attacks, even throws, Full Throttle will boost them all.  The idea was to use this to throw something into something else, then shoot those things up with the Bombardiers and/or charge/shoot with Black Ivan.  The melee Black Ivan is extra intriguing because of the claw, which gives an extra damage die on a crit.  I don't have the number handy, but I could reasonably expect 4 attacks to crit 1-2 times, and those crits would be "boosted" for free.  The rest of the list is WGI, and we all know what they do by now (though I did have a special trick in mind for them).  Originally I had the MoW Kovnik in the list, but I had taken the model out of my case to make room for the Butcher himself so I had to improvise.  (More on model storage in a future post.)  It was an easy fix: out goes the Kovnik, in comes the Manhuntress and a Rocketeer.  I wanted to bring the Doomies since they're painted, but I also wanted to give the Bombardiers one more shot at redemption before I relegated them to "Nice, but not as good as the alternatives" pile. 

EV fielded basically the same list as the last game, except he swapped the last light out for a Hunter.  Here's the list because I'm feeling generous:

35+6 points, 22 models

Lord Commander Stryker  +6 points
* Stormclad  10 points
* Squire  2 points

Journeyman Warcaster  3 points
* Hunter  6 points

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages  6 points
* Gun Mage Officer  2 points
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios  3 points
Stormblades  5 points
* Stormblade Officer & Standard  3 points
Stormsmith Stormcaller  1 point


I've played against the Hunter before and not liked it, so I was expecting more of the same.  Speaking of more of the same, I still haven't found a good answer to the super armored Stormblades, short of using a jack or a big CRA or some other huge hammer that should be pointed at a harder target.  On the flip side, EV seems to have come to terms with the Iron Fleshed Winter Guard, so in the battle of rock units I'm looking at an uphill climb.


Normally I glaze right over terrain setup, but this time it gets a little more love.  I've detailed the process EV and I use before, so if this is a repeat then apologies, but it's especially relevant for this game.  We dice off and the winner starts.  This has been a "will there be a center forest" roll in the past, but EV has moved away from planting trees in the middle and I have no particular love for it.  This time I won the roll and put a building dead center.  EV put the hill that I hate to the right of the building, still on the center line, to which I responded with a center feature, to which EV responded in kind.  I called it there, and EV exercised his option for a final piece on his side of the table.  Out battle field ended up like this:

Fat Tire?  Not equal to the hype, but then I'm not a beer guy.

Though I didn't think about it at the time, this is really a great setup.  Terrain on my half of the table mostly gets in the way and funnels my approach in a predictable manner, so having a wide open avenue towards EV's forces is a boon.  During the post-game we talked about it a bit and came to the conclusion that the only terrain that matters in 95% of our games is within ~6" of the center, which is where the magic happens.

(I stalled out at this point a few days ago, so from here on the tone of the post is probably going to change)

I won the roll to go first and took the opportunity.  Deferring first player hasn't worked so well for me lately, so I thought I'd try the other side and see how it went.  I used my favorite deployment method of the refused flank.  This isn't as powerful of a technique when setting up first, since you can't cut off your opponent's flank units when they haven't been deployed, but I like keeping things pulled in close and figured I'd be able to make this happen even going first.  Since I was going for a straight-forward list, I deployed in the same vein.  Winter Guard up front to tie things down, heavy hitters behind to clean up the remains.  I put the Kodiak in the middle since it has Pathfinder, but since the hill isn't rough terrain it didn't really matter.  EV put his Storm Smith Zone Holder way out on the flank, but otherwise went to the middle.  I considered sending the Manhuntress after the Storm Smith, but I figured we'd both be in the zone so having the one guy alone on the flank wouldn't matter.  If I had to worry about getting him clear of the zone I'd probably already cleared out EV's army anyway.

Deployment.

Turn 1

My first turn was standard running.  Iron Flesh went on the WGI.  EV took a shot at Ivan but didn't do any damage.

Hit, but no damage.

EV also put up Arcane Shield and Deflection. 

Turn one.

Turn 2

With most of EV's army hiding behind the hill, I decided to do damage to the only thing in range: the Hunter.  First up was the Winter Guard, who did a decent job with a CRA.  Next Black Ivan piled in and landed a Bombard shot.

Piling on.

The result?  One fairly damaged Hunter.  The gun was still working, which was unfortunate, but I'd taken out the cortex, so at least EV couldn't boost damage against my easy-to-hit jacks.

Not bad for two attacks.

That was about it for me.  I tried to hide the Manhuntress from Eiryss, who was sniffing around the building, as best I could. As usual I'd forgotten to activate Joe before the Winter Guard, so they were Tough instead of boosting.

Khador turn two.

Turns out I didn't hide her well enough as Eiryss popped around the corner and settled the score from the previous game when the Manhuntress cut her down.

Not hidden well enough.  Next time elf...

Next the Gun Mages dropped their CRA AoE on the Winter Guard and Tough came in handy.  This was another case of EV pointing out an ability, me reading the card, and then promptly forgetting about it.  As I would find out over the course of this game, the combination of CRA and an AoE template is a nasty thing, especially when your infantry rely on not getting hit instead of soaking up damage.  Fortunately only one Winter Guard was hurt by this first assault, and he passed his Tough check.

Sometimes forgetting to use Joe before the WGI works out.

In a puzzling move, EV popped his feat.  To be fair he jammed himself up a bit by not moving the Stormclad out of the way, but I don't know that it mattered too much.  What made his feat turn so effective last game was that the Storm Blades got to charge, attack, advance, and attack again.  The pain was large.  This time around the Storm Blades ran, then advanced (from the feat), then got the odd attack where they made contact.  The Winter Guard on his ass from his Tough check was killed, but that was the only casualty.  It would have been a different story had the Stormclad made it in, but I don't think it would have been that different.

A not-so-intimidating charge.

That was about all of EV's units.  The Hunter took a shot at Orsus, who was fairly hanging out in the breeze, but didn't make a dent.  After the reaming I took on Stryker's feat turn last game, I felt pretty good after his feat this game.  I also started formulating a crazy plan for retribution.

Cygnar turn two.

Turn 3

I started my turn by letting Iron Flesh expire.  Why on earth would I do this?  A couple reasons.  First, I had read up on orders and discovered that I couldn't use Bob & Weave (an order) on the same turn I charged (also an order).  This doesn't really matter in this situation as I couldn't charge with the Winter Guard because of the movement penalty from Iron Flesh, but it does matter because when I learned about the orders interaction I started looking at my options.  One of these options is Fury, which when combined with Bear's Strength (from Kovnik Joe) and pButcher's feat means the Winter Guard are P+S 15 (I believe) with 3 dice for damage, four if you charge.  And they can CMA.  Needless to say I was taken by this idea, so when I saw a (bad) opportunity to use it I sprung my trap.

The only problem was that I sprayed every single WGI out of melee with my first attack with the unit (a spray from the standard bearer).  I ended up clearing out almost the entire unit, so I guess I can't be too cross, but considering I took down Iron Flesh and put up the DEF-decreasing Fury so that the WGI would be melee beasts and then did nothing but shoot with them wasn't great.  Plus it made them DEF 13 instead of 17.  Nice idea though.

Right results, wrong reasons.

The Bombardiers split up to join the fray.  One got real close to Eiryss and got her with an AoE.  Another charged a Storm Blade and cut him up.  The final one shot at the Gun Mages, missed, then deviated further into the unit and hit more models as a result.  Good turn for the otherwise disappointing Bombardiers.

Bombs away!

And that was that.  I moved the Kodiak way to the flank for some reason, perhaps to finish off the Hunter, or more likely to block LoS to the Butcher.  Despite botching my own feat turn in response to EV botching his feat turn, I was in a good position.  The Storm Blades were down to a single member, the Gun Mages had taken heavy losses, Eiryss was dead, and the Hunter was still very damaged.  In return I'd lost a Winter Guard and the Manhuntress.  A good position to be in.

Khador turn three.

EV got started by sending Stryker in to cut some guys up.  With the WGI defenses down I figured I'd lose the guys easily, and I did, but Stryker ended up with no Focus, which was an unexpected bonus.  Of course he had Deflection and Arcane Shield up, which made him a plenty tough nut, but one that I felt capable of dealing with.

Stryker....strikes.

The Stormclad joined the fight and killed a Bombardier.

Big robot kills little guy-who-looks-like-a-robot.

Then there was more AoE.  I really got to not like these guys by the end of the game.  I can only imagine what the Black 13th is like.  Judging by how much complaining I see about them, I don't want to find out.

Who decided an AoE CRA was a good idea?

So that good position I was in?  Not so much now.  The WGI were mostly dead, my jacks were off on the flank not doing much of anything, and my line was strung out across the board.  When EV moved his remaining Storm Blade, I started in on another plan...

Cygnar turn three.

Turn 4

With the Storm Blade hanging out right next to Stryker, I fired up Full Throttle and sent in the Kodiak.  Unfortunately I had to forgo attacking the Storm Blade so it would be alive to throw at Stryker.  I landed the throw, double handed of course, on the Storm Blade and promptly missed Stryker.  So much for my plan.

Strike one.

The Winter Guard pushed on with their assignment of pumping a CRA into Stryker.  They hit just fine, but did only 6 damage despite having four members contributing.  Those stacking ARM buffs are a pain.

Plink plink plink.

The Rocketeer was more successful, blowing up a pair of Gun Mages with his shot.

Go go Rocketeer!

Curious about the Bombardier's melee abilities, I charged them into the Stormclad.  One got off a critical, so they ended up with three hits total, though only two were charge attacks.  The results were satisfactory considering the Stormclad was pristine before the charge.

Rev those chainsaws.

With the Kodiak blocking his charge lane, Ivan had little choice beyond shooting Stryker, so he did.  Orsus also shot his Blunderbuss to no effect.  I thought he had a Hand Cannon, but alas this was not so.  Joe had also shot his Hand Cannon earlier.  The end result was that I did some good damage to Stryker, but he lived on.

Close but no cigar.

In retrospect I don't think I put Full Throttle up, not that it mattered anyway.  In further retrospect I should have Slammed the Storm Blade and taken my chances with the dice on distance instead of doing the Throw and flubbing the roll to hit Stryker.  Coleman was perilously close to Orsus, but I had a couple of layers between the two and wasn't too worried about it.  It was definitely crunch time though.

Khador turn four.

One of those lines of defense, the Winter Guard, got gunned down by yet another ATGM CRA AoE (yay acronyms).  I really should have seen that one coming.

Hate those Gun Mages.

I still had the War Dog though, plus a number of incidental bodies waiting to throw free strikes should Stryker charge.  That's exactly what happened, but the route didn't give me any free strikes.  The War Dog failed me twice here.  I thought it was positioned to keep Stryker out of combat with Orsus, which wasn't the case.  I also thought I'd be able to counter-charge Stryker when he used Velocity to line up his charge and, hopefully, tie him up away from Orsus.  Turns out when you don't use Velocity you don't move twice, so the War Dog got to attack Stryker when he finished his charge, which was also when he was within (Reach) melee range of the Butcher.  The Dog didn't kill Stryker.

Before all this happened, EV used Stryker's ability to boost his strength.  He went with two dice of boosting and ended up with a P+S of 26(!).  This meant he would take two dice of damage, unmodified by armor and the like.  Since Stryker was on 8 boxes, this could have been the game, and an 8 is close enough to expected value on two dice to be interesting.  (Of course I need a 9 to hit Stryker with the thrown Storm Blade on three dice, just below expected value, and got nothing, so expected the unexpected).  EV rolled something low, two or three perhaps, well short of eight, and the charge was on.  Orsus was factory-fresh, but against a P+S 26 on the charge it didn't matter.

The Butcher gets chopped.

This was another game that I thought I had in the bag, only to lose it all in a rather unexpected way.  I did learn a couple good lessons though.  First was the War Dog: don't keep it too close to your caster.  If I'd had a little more room between Orsus and the pup things might have worked out for me.  Second is that Gun Mages suck.  That CRA AoE seems tailored to taking out Iron Fleshed Winter Guard.  Finally, I learned that Stryker is a bad, bad man.  I've been having issues getting through his thick armor field lately, so to get past it only to get smacked down with ease was disheartening.  I knew he could be a big nasty beatstick, but didn't think he'd be able to deal with the Butcher as easily as he did.

Despite my intentions to keep things simple, I got my feet tangled and tripped myself at a crucial moment.  While the idea of the melee monster WGI is appealing, there's a time and a place for it.  Neither was right when I engaged that tactic.  I also didn't get any use out of Full Throttle, which was the one trick I was looking to use in this game.  My jacks were disorganized throughout and while I got boned on dice with the Throw (9 on 3 dice should be a slam dunk), I should have gone with the better option (Slam) instead.

On the plus side the Bombardiers did well this time out, killing Eiryss and some Gun Mages plus putting a big hurt on the Stormclad.  Their overall value is still questionable though.  At 7 points for three, they're awful expensive and fiddly.  They had a bit of a best case scenario in this game where they could shoot at low ARM targets and use their chainsaws on a jack that can take a hit and potentially survive for another crit-induced attack.  In the end they just don't seem like difference makers, and for 7 points I can have the Doomies with a point left over.  I really want to like Man-o-Wars, and perhaps I will when I get the Shock Troopers together, but for now the Bombardiers are a prime candidate for sending to the painted booth.  The new Paint the Target should be up in the next day or two, so the final call will wait until then, but considering that I want to paint some heavy infantry and that I won't really miss the Bombardiers on the table I may end up painting them regardless of what this month's Target is.

Camoflague is not neccesarily on the card: Harkevich vs eStryker

Peek-a-boo dog is playing with you.

Gaming got moved up a couple days to accommodate the arrival of a new furnace here on Thursday, so EV and I had a shorter gap than usual between matches.  I ran the same list as last time, except in this game I only fielded what was in my list and made sure to double check what I had on the table against what I had on my phone.  Because EV generally has his army, cards, dice, various ephemera, and the table ready to go when I arrive I don't get around to making a copy of his list for later use until he's taking his first turn.  Such was the case today, and it avoided another math issue when we found that he was a couple points over.  Fortunately a) we figured this out before the game was over, and b) it was during his first movement phase and thus easily corrected.  His list was as follows:



35+6 points, 22 models

Lord Commander Stryker  +6 points
* Lancer  6 points
* Stormclad  10 points
* Squire  2 points

Journeyman Warcaster  3 points

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages  6 points
* Gun Mage Officer  2 points
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios  3 points
Stormblades  5 points
* Stormblade Officer & Standard  3 points
Stormsmith Stormcaller  1 point

For the super-curious the extra points were Gorman and another Stormcaller.  This is basically the same list he ran last time, but with a new caster and some different solos.  I knew the Stormblades could be nasty and wanted to give them a wide berth.  My first game against eStryker left me unimpressed, but apparently pIrusk is his kryptonite so I don't think I got an accurate picture of what he does.  What I knew about him (before the game) was that EV has a huge man-crush on Stryker and that he can wreak face in melee, plus he has the resources to get into melee real quick.  Fortunately I had the trusty War Dog as a dedicated charge lane blocker and general best friend so I wasn't so concerned about getting surprised by a charge from way down town.

We rolled up the first scenario, Break the Line.  This is not No-Man's Land as I originally thought (and deployed for), but instead the scenario that has six zones to control.  Win conditions: kill the caster or hold two of your own zones, plus one enemy zone, at the end of your opponent's turn starting on turn three.  I won the terrain roll and opted for the Horrible Hill I Don't Like to take the center, mostly because I feel bad that we never use it.  I also won the roll to be the first player but deferred to EV with an eye towards setting up shots in turn one and charges in turn two.  EV stuck most of his stuff in the center, with units flanking jacks.  I opted for a strong center with the jacks and Bombardiers, with solos on the left and the Winter Guard on the right.  My plan was more or less the same as last game: let the Winter Guard do their thing, smash face with everything else.  The Manhuntress was on Eiryss hunting duty, while the Kovnik would try and Slam something.

Deployment.

Turn 1

First turns are predictabel: run, cast upkeeps.  EV did just that, putting Arcane Shield on the Stormblades (via Junior) and casting Deflection (I think) with Coleman.  I have a bad habit of not paying super close attention during these first turns, and my opponent's turn in general, while I figure out what I'm going to be doing.  Thus while EV told me about both of the spells (I'm familiar with Arcane Shield, not so much with Deflection), I didn't really register exactly what they would mean when stacked atop the base ARM 15 Stormblades.  I'd figure it out soon enough though.

Cygnar turn one.

While making up EV's list I wasn't watching where everything went, so when my turn began I scouted around for Eiryss.  I found her hiding in a building, snuggled up against a window.  The Manhuntress appeared to have a charge lane to her, but I wasn't sure if it would work or not.  At the end of my turn I figured I'd give it a shot and found that I did have a lane to exploit.  In goes the Manhuntress and...double whiff.  The slap fight, put on hold since the last game, had resumed.

Not-so-Mortal Kombat!!!!11!1!!!oneoneone!!

Not much other than that.  Escort on Harkevich, Fortune on the Bombardiers, run run run.  I shot at the Stormclad with Ivan but was perhaps an inch short on range and scattered off to nothingness.  Had I activated Harkevich before Ivan I would have had Escort up and Ivan would have had another 2" to move, which would have put him in range, but that's not how it happened. 

Khador turn one.

Turn 2

We started with the headliners in the second turn.  A pair of misses later, the pair of misses continued to slap away.

Swing and a miss.

Moving on to effective combatants, the Gun Mages moved up and blazed away at the Kovnik.  EV used the Brutal something-or-other shots with them and fired them all individually, doing a single point of damage.  After the fusillade he commented that he should have CRAd them.  I agreed, though I was glad he didn't.

It's super effective!

Stryker arced a stays-in-play AoE onto the Kovnik, but did no damage with it.  Fortunately it was in an area where I wouldn't have to worry about it during my turn.

The Kovnik still lives.

That was about it.  Deflection went back up as the Stormblades crested the hill.  I was worried about the Kovnik as he was facing a full unit and a light jack, but anticipated rolling up the Stormblades with a mixture of AoEs and CRAs, so it was more of a concern that he might not get to do anything again than a full-on worry about the outcome of the game, despite the potential loss of zone on my half of the table.

Cygnar turn two.

Where else to start but the fight to end all fights?  Another pair of misses.  The two elite fighters sure were sucking wind.

Maybe the Manhuntress will do better when I glue her arm back on.

The Kovnik though, he did me proud.  I just had range to charge the Charger, so in ran the Kovnik and smacked that jack good.  17 points worth of good.  Charging POW 15 Weapon Masters hurt.  A lot.

The Kovnik finally does something.

In the center I dropped the hammer on the Stormblades.  Four CRAs, two Bombardier shots (the third went to the Stormclad), and Ivan's Bombard went into the unit.  I killed two of them (via CRAs).  Turns out the Stormblades are ARM 20(!) with Arcane Shield and Deflection, plus they get a DEF boost from being on a hill.  While I hit with all the template weapons my dice decided to roll damage equal to, but not in excess of, their ARM.  The blast damage was meaningless as I couldn't scratch ARM 20 with POW 7 damage.  So instead of sweeping the hill clear, or at least thinning the herd considerably, I was faced with a lot of pissed off Stormblades well within charge range of my Winter Guard.  Not cool.

Khador turn two.

Turn 3

For reasons I didn't understand then, and don't understand now either, EV decided to move Eiryss out of combat.  The +2 bonus for a free strike was enough for the Manhuntress to finally land a blow.  The four dice for damage was enough to slay the elf, which I believe is my first time killing her.  Hopefully it won't be the last.

Finally, a winner is decided.

After his charge, I had written the Kovnik off.  He didn't get to Slam anything, but he did do a big whack of damage.  I expected the blow to fall from the Charger, but instead EV sent in the Stormclad and finished off the Kovnik easily.

At least he lived long enough to swing his axe.  Once.

(Fair warning, I stopped writing at this point to go to a hockey game.  The Caps won their fifth straight to remain undefeated this year.  As a result I'm a little amped up and there may be more than the usual amount of hyperbole/sass/whathaveyou from here on.  You have been warned.)

Around this time EV started cursing up a storm and declaring the game over.  He forgot to shoot with his Gun Mages, who should have killed the Manhuntress, which he said ruined his entire plan and probably the universe as well.  I suggested we keep playing anyway, so he charged the Charger in and killed the Manhuntress.  Universe: saved.

She made her points back, and then some, before she went.

Back in the middle, Stryker unleashed his feat and all hell broke loose.  Silly me had looked at Stryker's stats and spells, but neglected his feat entirely.  The preceding turn I had bunched my WGI up for ease of CRAing since I didn't have to worry about getting the ole pie plate.  Turns out I should have been worried about a crazy charge/move/attack again combo which made a pretty mess of my Winter Guard.  To make matters worse I forgot to send the dog in when the opportunity presented itself, though it would have taken a super-canine effort to get past ARM 20.

Ouch.  Just ouch.

And just like that I'm in the hole.  With that one charge from the Stormblades I went from feeling good about my position to wondering what just hit me.  Not only did I lose a bunch of troops on my right, which really wouldn't have been so bad on it's own considering the amount of stuff I had to retaliate with, I was also in a precarious position.  EV held one of his zones with Stryker and the Squire, another with Junior, and one of my zones with the Gun Mages.  If this persisted through the end of my turn the game would be over.  Obviously this couldn't stand.  I singled Junior out for punishment as the softest, closest target and started planning my miraculous comeback.

Cygnar turn three.

I learned a valuable lesson in my part of this turn: Winter Guard sprays don't do much against ARM 18 when they hit, and they hit at a much slower rate without Joe backing them up.  Thus the single Winter Guard that I sent to spray down the line of Stormblades didn't clear them out as expected, but instead failed to do anything to them.  Fortunately the CRA took out Junior, saving the day temporarily.

At least the CRAs still work like I think they should.

In the rest of my turn I set about doing as much damage as possible.  Having seen the Bombardiers fail to dent the Stormclad I had them shoot the Stormblades instead.  This did cause a regrettable loss of Khadoran life, but all sons and daughters of the Motherland are born so that they may give their life for the Empire should the need arise.  Ivan blew some Gun Mages up good, including the officer.  Not fully realizing that I had blown the legs off the Charger and what that meant for it's DEF, I had the Koldun Ice Cage the light jack.  While this had the laughable effect of reducing its mighty DEF 7 to a more manageable DEF 4, there wasn't a lot of good that the Bad Santa would have done elsewhere.  Harkevich capitalized on the easier to hit jack by shooting it with his Hand Cannon and hitting it with a Razor Wind(!) in the hopes of finishing off it's few remaining columns, but in the end it still stood with two unmarked boxes.

Khador turn three.

Turn 4

EV started off by telling me the game was over.

Wait, what?  How does that work?  I killed Junior, so he didn't hold two of his zones.  That was when he pointed out the Stormcaller.  Did you notice him?  Take a closer look.

The arrow shows the movement of the tree.

When I was confused as to how I had lost, EV moved a tree to reveal the cheeky bastard having a picnic in the woods.  I saw him during deployment but must have lost track of him while I was fiddling with my phone making up EV's list.  While a bit of a tricksy play, there was nothing underhanded at work here.  I came around the table a couple times to look at cards and didn't notice the model, nor did I not it's lack of activation during EV's turns.  Just like back in the good old days of Necromunda and multi-leveled terrain, a crafty opponent hid a model and I promptly forgot about it.

Even without the Stormcaller I was probably boned.  I would have had to race at least one of Harkevich, Ivan, and/or the Wardog into my left zone to contest it against the Gun Mages, which would have left the door wide open for a glorious Stryker charge and coup de grace.  I had a stranglehold on the right half of the table, but little on the left half.  In the post-game thinking, it was my approach that did me in.  I simply didn't get up the field fast enough.  Part of that was due to me passing first player on to EV, but mostly it was just not moving with a sense of urgency.  I also neglected the left zones entirely, aside from the Kovnik and Manhuntress who were never going to hold the zone by themselves against a full unit, a pair of jacks, and a caster.  While I was left with my mouth flopping about like a fish out of water at the time, looking at it from a more removed position shows me that EV played this one well.  He exploited a weakness on my left with an eye towards the scenario and took the victory as a result.  I got a bit carried away with smashing things, or lining up things to smash, and lost sight of the finish line.

Like all good losses, or bad depending on your perspective, I learned a number of things from this game.  Foremost was to keep the scenario in mind at all times, but just slightly behind was that ARM 20 infantry sucks to play against.  While I can lay plenty of that frustration down to failing to kill a single model with three POW 14 shots, I also should have realized exactly what I was up against while EV was layering up the spells.  Fortunately this has also spurred me on to build up some Shock Troopers tomorrow.  If I hated flailing ineffectually at ARM 20 infantry, I can only imagine how bad it will be to see ARM 21 infantry with 8 boxes across the table.  With the Butcher behind them.

Second was to read cards completely.  I neglected Stryker's feat and it took a big chunk out of my army when I learned about it the hard way.  I also glazed over Deflection and didn't realize how tough it would make things when combined with Arcane Shield.  This is extra galling coming after the near miss I had last game with the Stormsmith nearly frying my Manhuntress after EV pointed out how it worked.  If I ever want to play in tournaments and not embarrass myself, which I do, then I need to pay attention to details like this.

Lots of other numbers.  I need to get the Doomies back into action sooner rather than later.  They would have been the perfect unit to run run run into EV's half of the table and probably would have made a mess of the Stormblades, ARM 20 or not.  Though the Manhuntress hasn't done a great job of killing Eiryss these past two games, all it takes is one good whack to take her out.  The key is getting an attack to hit.  There's no good reason to take WGI without Joe.  If/when I run this list again, I'll make two points worth of room for the good Kovnik Joe.  Speaking of Kovniks, the Man-O-War Kovnik is a nice idea, but not so practical.  At 3 points he's an expensive beatstick with a single attack, though when that attack hits on the charge it is spectacular.  In retrospect I would have rather upgraded the Juggernaut to a Kodiak and taken Joe.

I seem to have run out of steam here, so let's call it a night.

Backlog part 1: Warmachine Battle Report

Played a 35 pointer against EV on Friday, pIrusk vs. eStryker.  I knew a little bit about Stryker going in, and EV is very enthusiastic about him in general, so I figured I'd be in for a tough fight.  I was trying out Irusk for the first time.  He is a different sort of caster than I've used before, more of a lead from the rear type.  While I run Sorscha like that, she poses a very real assassination threat that Irusk doesn't.  I run Sorscha as a support caster because I can, whereas I ran Irusk as a support caster because I had to.  What a support caster though.  His feat is impressive, as is his spell list.  I had been meaning to try him out for a while, but having finally gotten the mini earlier in the week, I figured it was time to see what he was about.  Unfortunately I have yet to assemble this new addition, but fortunately EV has a pIrusk that I was able to use.

One of Irusk's spells, Superiority, threw a bit of a wrench in my list building.  I wanted to take a Destroyer with Irusk, but most of Superiority would have been wasted on a ranged jack, so I went with a Juggernaut instead.  WGI were a must, as they're the only "core" infantry unit I have.  I had picked up another Rocketeer when I got Irusk, but didn't have that model assembled either, so I ran just the one Rocketeer.  My basic idea was to sit the WGI in the middle, then have the Doomies on one flank and the Juggernaut on the other, with Mortars and Widowmakers for support.  My list:

pIrusk + 6
Juggernaut - 7
War Dog - 1
Doom Reavers - 6
DR UA - 2
Widowmakers = 4
Full WGI - 6
WGI UA and Rocketeer - 3
2 Mortars - 6
Kovnik Joe - 2
Manhuntress - 2
Widowmaker Marksman - 2
35 total

From his discussion of eStryker, I had expected a full-on melee list from EV.  While it was mostly melee, there was some shooting in it.  He ran:

eStryker + 6
Centurion - 9
Lancer - 6
Squire - 2
Stormblade Infantry - 5
Full Sword Knights - 6
Full Trenchers - 10
3 Stormsmith Stormcallers - 3
35 total

This was a different situation, with EV running more jacks than I did.  Normally he's the one running a single heavy, or maybe a couple lights, while I pack in 2-3 heavy jacks.  For deployment, I stuck the Widowmakers and their solo in the central woods, backed up by the WGI and Irusk.  The mortars sat on either side of the woods to try and cover as many shooting lanes as possible.  The Juggy was going to go up my left flank and wrap into the Cygnar line.  The Doomies and Manhuntress went on my right flank to try and advance under cover so that something survived to apply some axe to mouth.

EV set his Trenchers in the woods in his deployment zone, then massed the rest of his forces on my right flank.  I wasn't happy that the Trenchers would completely ignore my mortars, but I did like how everything else was in a compact little group.  Setup:

Since my Widowmakers couldn't see anything else, they started firing on the Trenchers.  Between cover and being dug in, it took some doing to hit them, but I still managed to off a pair.

That was all the action in the first turn.  I put Iron Flesh on the WGI and Superiority on the Juggernaut.  I tried for a lucky deviation with the northern mortar into the cluster of Cygnarans, but no luck.  As is usual for first turns, this one was about advancing more than action.  My southern mortar ran to get a better field of fire, and my Doomies and Manhuntress advanced into the buildings on the northern flank.  End of turn 1.

EV's Stormblades come a little too close to the Doomies, and get charged for their troubles.  I wanted to charge further into their formation, and some of the Stormsmiths as well, but I couldn't make it work without taking a bunch of free strikes.  The charge went well, and the Doomies took out 3 Stormblades.

In the middle, the Widowmakers continued to thin out the Trenchers, killing another off.  My Juggernaut doesn't have anything else to do, so it starts to move over to the Trenchers.

That big block of Sword Knights taunts me, still out of range of my mortars.  I decide my WGI are going to stay put in the woods until the Swans get a bit closer.  This effectively strands the Doomies and Manhuntress on the flank, but such is life for them.  End of turn 2.

The Stormblade counter-charge comes, and is less than effective.  One DR would have died, but I passed the first of many Tough checks, so I lost no psychotic criminals.

In my turn, I send the Juggernaut Trampling through the Trenchers, to great effect.  They put a CRA into the Juggy during their turn, and did some decent damage, but it's still a very effective killing machine.

The Widowmakers continue to work on the Trenchers, killing another.

I didn't get a shot of it, but the Doomies massacred the Stormblades in the north.  Despite my best efforts, EV managed to snipe my Manhuntress while she was deep in a building with one of his Stormsmiths.  One day a Manhunter will do something other than die.  In looking at this shot, I also not a distinct lack of Sword Knights.  EV had moved them to where the lone survivor is in the shot below, and would have moved them further upfield, but he ran into Inhospitable Ground, which is just amazing.  My mortars finally got their chance and cleared out most of the squad, as well as putting a bit of damage on the Lancer.  At the end of turn 3 I already feel like I have things sewn up.  My flanking force has taken out a squad and drawn Stryker away from where he was going so that he could deal with them.  The Trenchers are basically finished, as are the Sword Knights.  I've cleared out most of EV's infantry, and I may have lost a single DR in return, though it may have been just the Manhuntress.  My heavy hitters, the Juggy and WGI, are more or less untouched and just waiting for targets to come into range.  Things look real good.  End of turn 3.

Action shots disappear after this, so I'm down to end of turn shots.  There really isn't much going on.  My Juggy trampled some more Trenchers, the Widowmakers and mortars put some small damage on the Cygnar jacks, and Stryker attempts to deal with the Doomies in the north.  I manage to pass 4-5 Tough checks in a row to keep the squad alive, and Stryker pinned down for another turn.  I still haven't taken many casualties, maybe 3 DRs and the Manhuntress.  End of turn 4.

Here in turn 5 Stryker finishes off the DRs and what's left of the Cygnar force heads towards my still pristine WGI.  The southern mortar runs again to cover the corridor between the northern terrain.  My Juggernaut gets hit by some disruption effect, so it walks away from the remaining Trencher to finally engage with something of its own size.  I've shuffled the WGI to the edge of the woods and opened lanes for them to exit through when the time comes.  Throughout all this, Irusk just watches.  He maintains his two upkeeps, and the "upkeep" on Inhospitable Ground, but does little other than that.  End of turn 5.

Turn 6 is a lot like turn 1.  It features plenty of movement, but not a lot of action.  Stryker begins to move towards the Khadoran center, as do the Cygnar jacks.  I start dropping mortars on the heavy, which I can reliably hit even with the mortar's RAT of 3, which is awfully nice.  The damage is starting to add up on the Cygnaran jacks.  I position my Juggernaut so that it can charge when the Cygnar jacks break cover.  End of turn 6.

Here the Cygnar jacks break cover, and get mown down for their troubles.  I forget exactly what finished the heavy, though I think it was a WGI CRA.  Despite trying to hide my Juggernaut from those damnable Stormsmiths, I still get disrupted and am unable to charge again.  End of turn 7.

Stryker joins the party, at long last.  I keep hearing about his super armor and how he can wreck shop, but EV decides against it when he charges my Juggernaut.  As such, I don't lose the jack as I had anticipated.  This also means Stryker is hanging around with his ass in the wind, so my boys (and girls) move in for the kill.  The Widowmakers shuffle out to make way for the WGI, and put a few points on Stryker in the process.  Then the WGI comes out and puts another CRA into Stryker and that's the game.  Endgame:

This one was really over in the second or third turn.  When my DRs carved up the Stormblades, then the Sword Knights got hammered by mortars, that put EV in a huge hole.  After that it was a waiting game for me.  I plunked away with my mortars and Widowmakers, while the Juggernaut literally ran rough-shod over the Trenchers, all the while killing time until the Cygnaran big boys made their way to my woods.  This was a much easier game than I had expected, coming into it with a new caster that I wasn't terribly familiar with and a list that I didn't work on as much as I normally would have.  eStryker is arguably EV's favorite caster, or at least the one he talks about the most, so I was expecting to have my ass handed to me.  But then the dice kicked in, as they so often do, and the tables turned quickly.

EV has been getting hammered a lot lately, and there seems to be little I can do about it.  I don't let people win, and I don't handicap myself to give them an overwhelming advantage either.  In this game I took a caster I had never used and built a list that wasn't as sharp as I normally would have made, but I still ended up winning by a mile.  I've entertained thoughts of using Zerkova, who is reportedly Khador's worst caster, but that falls under "excessive handicap."  It may be as simple as me having hot dice while EV has ice cold dice, but there's nothing I can do about that either.  I hate to be party to ruining a friend's fun, especially when I'm not trying to.  EV has been talking about Malifaux a lot lately, which I don't think uses dice at all, so maybe we'll give that a go, though I'm not thrilled about system hopping through the wargaming landscape.  Maybe we'll come to some resolution that works for everyone.