The Man Who Would Be King

Ages ago I picked up the Leto and Vinter IKRPG miniatures just because I liked them. So when PP made them playable in Warmahordes, I was interested. Vinter's rules are... very strange. While he's very survivable and pretty good beatstick, he does so little for his army - he even starts with no warjack points! Still, one advantage of that is that you don't actually need any Cygnar jacks, or indeed any other Cygnar models at all, to play a "Cygnar" list. So that's what I decided to do.
Vinter -1
Journeyman Warcaster
- Sentinel
Nyss Hunters
Alexia & the Risen
Lanyssa
Falk

The idea here was to make the most of Vinter's own combat prowess. Lanyssa buffs his threat range, Falk buffs his damage, the Journeyman casts Arcane Shield on him and then hangs well back. The Sentinal runs alongside Vinter to be a sac-pawn target. Alexia and the Nyss basically just body-block as needed. Alexia herself can also benefit from Falk's buff to do some work.

Blondie was back to Stryker 2:
Stryker 2
- Old Rowdy
- Ironclad
Sword Knights
Gunmages
GMCA x2


Pre-Game:
We picked a 2017 scenario with two zones and two flags. Blondie won the roll and chose to go second.


Deployment:
For some reason that I no longer fully remember I focussed my forces on the zone on my left. I think I didn't want to have to deal with the forest on my right since only the Nyss Hunters had Pathfinder, and I wanted them on the left to shoot stuff hiding behind the wall.

Blondie spread out his forces, with his infantry to my left and his jacks a little to my right.

Round 1:
I ran everything up. Alexia and Cylena sat on the hill for a defensive bonus. I didn't know what to do with Falk so I just ran him to the trench; I think I was considering putting him in the forest to benefit from Prowl.

Blondie advanced and shot down a some of my infantry.

Round 2:
Vinter killed a bunch of Sword Knights, with the Sentinel running between him and Rowdy. Nyss Hunters killed some Gunmages. Alexia crafted a Thrall who charged the Ironclad in the right zone, but Rowdy counter-charged and killed it. I ran Falk to toe the right zone while hiding in the forest.

Blondie pulled back his GMCAs a bit, while his remaining infantry took out a few more Nyss Hunters and Risen. The Hunter walked to within 5" of Falk and gunned him down. The Ironclad ran toward my flag. Stryker ran into the right zone and based Rowdy, allowing him to score a point this turn. I don't remember how, but my Sentinel's gun arm was crippled this turn (probably from the GMCAs).


Round 3:
Vinter danced around murdering infantry; by the time he was done there was only a gunmage or two left in range for the Nyss Hunters to kill. The Journeyman took a boosted shot at the Ironclad, doing respectable damage. Lanyssa then hit it with Ice Bolt, doing nothing. Finally Alexia charged in and burned all her Risen, leaving the Ironclad on about 3 boxes (his right arm and cortex were fine). I believe we both scored a point this turn.

The Ironclad killed Alexia. Rowdy positioned up aggressively. I think the Hunter crippled the Sentinel's cortex. Stryker cast Deceleration. Again we both scored; I think it was 3-2 to Blondie.

Round 4:
My Journeyman Warcaster took another boosted shot at the Ironclad, doing exactly the three damage needed to destroy it... or so we thought at the time. We remembered later that Deceleration was up and so he should only have done one point of damage. Well, it didn't really matter. Anyway, Lanyssa cast Hunter's Mark on Rowdy, allowing the Sentinel to charge him for no effect. Vinter then charged in and did some damage, but not enough to cripple anything - ARM 23 is a thing after all. On his final hit he slammed Rowdy away and walked back behind the Sentinel. Lanyssa scored the flag and Stryker scored the zone, bringing us to 4-3 to Blondie.

The Hunter killed my Journeyman, taking Arcane Shield off Vinter. Rowdy scrapped the Sentinel, leaving Vinter vulnerable to shooting. The first GMCA, who I had carelessly left in Vinter's back arc, landed a Flare shot. This freed up the second to roll hot on a Brutal Damage shot:

By the time Blondie's Journeyman had landed his shot, Vinter was left with only four boxes. Finally Stryker Overloaded for two dice, rolling a 10, and charged up to casually slice Vinter in half with a single P+S 25 swing.

Post-Mortem:
This was a very fun game. Perhaps it's because everything was dying so quickly? Sometimes games can drag on a bit. Whether it's because our lists where both a bit fragile or because we where both playing a bit less cagey than usual, stuff died quickly this game. Which it turns out is fun I guess.

The scenario never felt like a realistic win condition during this game. I wonder if that has something to do with us playing at a lower points level? Or maybe neither of us was aggressive enough in contesting?

I did enjoy running up ahead of my army and basically just killing all of Blondie's infantry with Vinter, but I don't think he's really a very competitive caster. He can be very survivable as long as you spend resources on it (targets for sac pawn etc), but he's extremely strapped for resources due to his lack of WJPs. He does very little for your army and doesn't even have a feat. While I built my list around him to a certain extent (Junior and Sentinel for Arcane Shield and a sac-pawn, Falk, Lanyssa) I still couldn't fit in everything I wanted (I had to choose between Lanyssa and Piper for Pathfinder), and I didn't even have a good target for Desperate Pace (which seems a little hard to use since it's an action so Vinter himself is not doing anything if you use it). Losing Falk hurt since I wasn't going to be able to break through Arcane Shield without that damage buff, but I didn't have much else to contest with. In retrospect I should have swapped his place with Lanyssa (or just not tried to contest that zone at all, or done so with a unit...). Speaking of, I found positioning both of them to be difficult since they are both short-ranged yet need to target the enemy to do their job meaning they need to quite close to the front lines (and both were important for my strategy of "kill everything with Vinter").

I would like to upgrade the Sentinel to a tough heavy, but points are so tight in this list. Perhaps if I swap Alexia and the Nyss for, say, Gallant and some Cygnar infantry. Sword Knights for cheap bodies, or Precursors (Vinter can actually buff them a little after all) for extra focus on Gallant.

I realised days later that I forgot to make a Tough roll with Vinter...

He'll Slit Your Throat From 'Ear To 'Ear...

For my second game with Andrei "MacGruber" Malakov I made only very minor alterations to my list:
Andy 2
- Beast 09
- Destroyer
- Sylyss
Alexia & the Risen
- Valachev
Cylena & the Nyss Hunters
Kayazy Eliminators
Widowmaker Marksman

Blondie had decided to revisit the original Stryker:
Stryker 1
- Old Rowdy
- Avenger
- Lancer
- Squire
Sword Knights x2
Archduke Alain Runewood


Pre-Game:
We went back to the rulebook for a basic two-zone "first to five points" scenario. I won the roll and chose the side with the forests.


Deployment:
Blondie deployed his two units of Sword Knights in waves, interspersed with his battlegroup. His forces were a little more concentrated on my right.

I decided to focus my forces on the right zone, so I deployed my infantry on my right. Andrei was pretty much in the center with his jacks to his left. The Eliminators faced the left zone, with the Marksman joining them in Advanced Deployment.

Round 1:
Blondie ran around the watery terrain to converge on the right zone. The front unit of Sword Knights got Blur and Rowdy got Arcane Shield. He originally intended to put Snipe on the Avenger but mixed up his activations and couldn't get it out.

My infantry spread out. Andrei cast Escort and advanced onto the hill. The Marksman got Reposition; coupled with Swift Hunter it allowed him to still move five inches into the rear of the left zone after popping a Sword Knight. Beast 09 ran in front of Andrei. The Destroyer took a shot at something and missed, scattering harmlessly. Alexia sent a Thrall running to engage the Lancer, to try to complicate his activations.

Round 2:
Blondie killed the Thrall and pushed his Sword Knights into the zone, then ran Rowdy right up to my lines, and feated. He also arced an Earthquake onto a Risen, knocking down Andy, Beast, Alexia, and some Risen.

An ARM 28 Rowdy right in front of my lines is a scary thing. I needed to create some space. So pretty much the first thing that I did was to slam Rowdy back with the Destroyer. He landed on top of four Sword Knights, displacing them out of base contact, which meant they could be knocked down. Two died to collateral damage. Beast 09 shook and ran into the left zone. The Marksman took three boxes off the Avenger and headed towards the far left of the left zone. The Eliminator flanked around the zone, heading to wards Blondie's back line. Andrei sacrificed his action, walked over to the left, feated, and dropped a Veil just touching Beast 09. The Nyss Hunters took two big CRAs: one killed a Sword Knight, the second - taken off  Cyelena - whiffed hard on damage and failed to kill a second Knight. Once again the Nyss Miss disappoints me! Risen just jammed forwards. Alexia sacrificed movement to kill a knocked down Sword Knight with her handcannon. I think I dropped Reposition this turn.

Round 3:
My (rather obvious) plan had been to bait the Avenger into swinging on Beast 09 so I could walk closer to Stryker, but of course that didn't work because the Avenger's sword causes warjacks to go Stationary. For some reason I was mis-remembering it as causing Distruption. Anyway, the Avenger crippled Beast 09's axe and left him on a handful of boxes.

Old Rowdy rolled snake-eyes on his charge attack on the Destroyer. He took ten boxes total by the end; I didn't advance away because he would get to counter-charge, instead I walked around him to try to get into his back arc while engaging him. Turns out 4 inches of movement isn't enough to do that though.

The Sword Knights and Lancer cleared the right zone, allowing Blondie to score a point. Blondie dropped Blur this turn, apparently figuring that he wouldn't need it now that the lines had met.

Andrei put Fighting Dirty on Alexia, charged and killed a Sword Knight in the left zone, then cast Reposition on himself and walked futher into the left zone. Sylyss chased after him to body-block. Beast 09 flailed helplessly at the the Avenger; I rolled very low and did pretty much nothing despite having a full focus load.

Alexia walked up to Old Rowdy and boosted the attack roll to be sure of knocking him down. Valachev himself walked up and took a long spray across Blondie's lines, killing something like four Sword Knights. Nyss shooting killed a few more.

This meant that the Destroyer would not take a free strike or be counter-charged when he walked up to attack the Avenger. Looking at the photos now I suspect that I might have forgotten that with Escort gone he could only walk 4 inches. Oh well, I think things would have turned out exactly the same if he had charged instead.

Out of four attacks, my Destroyer rolled crits on two! On the first crit he rolled a ten, for eight damage... which exactly took out columns six and one, so the crit was useless...

And on the second he rolled snake eyes... at dice minus two, meaning he didn't mark any damage on any columns, meaning the crit did nothing...

It's kind of amazing really. I don't believe I've EVER gotten any use out of a Destroyer's crit! Anyway, the Eliminators finished the Avenger off and the Marksman got started on Rowdy's cortex column. With the left zone cleared I scored a point.

Round 4:
With his forces suddenly depleted, things weren't looking too good for Blondie. He sent Old Rowdy into the Destroyer, scrapping it, and even taking out an Eliminator while he was at it. Blondie made sure to have Rowdy toe the zone so I couldn't score. Meanwhile Runewood, the Lancer, and the rest of his Sword Knights tried to take out Alexia and Valachev, but thanks to a succession of poor dice rolls they both survived with minimal damage!

I had an opportunity here: in order to both take out the Destroyer and contest the zone, Rowdy had turned his back to me. This gave me an idea. Andrei put Throat Cutter on the Eliminator before charging Runewood and a Sword Knight who were engaging Alexia. It took four focus, but eventually he killed them. I used his remaining focus to cast Open Fire on Beast, swinging with his axe (I believe he was too far away to use his fist). I needed a 2 on one die and rolled a 1. Sigh. Finally Andrei repositioned slightly to be a bit safer.

Beast 09 then activated and used a one-handed throw to chuck Rowdy out of the zone. This made it easy for the Marksman to put another shot into his column four. Finally the Eliminator charged Rowdy in the back, delivering a four-dice Combo Smite and cranking the damage roll to do a full ten damage:

As fun as that was, it still didn't cripple any systems. Oh well, at this point one more Widowmaker shot would be enough to cripple his cortex. But more importantly, this turn Alexia had been able to return seven Risen to the table. After the Nyss Hunters cleared the way and took out the last of the Sword Knights, Alexia was able to walk into the Lancer's back arc and start swinging away. By the time I was down to two Risen left, the Lancer was on his last box. For some stupid reason I left the last two Risen and instead took a swing with Valachev. Luckily he landed the hit and cranked the damage roll, taking out the Lancer and triggering Battle Wizard. This allowed me to Zephyr into a more defensive position. At the end of the turn I scored both zones, bringing me to three points.

Round 5:
Stryker killed the front Risen with an Arcane Blast, then charged in and killed Alexia and Valachev himself. Oldy Rowdy and the Squire ran up to cover him. Since my Nyss Hunters had been hanging back all game I didn't have anything else contesting and Blondie scored a point, bringing him to two. Meanwhile I scored a point for the left zone, bringing me to four.

I simply ended my turn to win the game 5-3.


Post-Mortem:
Honestly, if Blondie hadn't dropped Blur it would have been a different game, seeing as I killed most of his Sword Knights using ranged and magic attacks. Plus the dice really went my way on the last couple of turns, with Alexia surviving a ton of attacks and rolling consistently average-to-high against the Lancer.

We both had a lot of trouble with facing this game. I guess that's because of the way that the lines met and merged, with models getting into each other's back arcs and so on.

Discussing things afterwards, Blondie was saying that he should have split his Sword Knights into left and right groups and sent one to each zone rather than having two lines that headed to the same zone. He's probably right; they didn't get to do too much work, at least partly because they were jamming each other up. We also figured that two units were too much in a 50 point game; Sword Knights take buffs well, but you can only really buff one unit at a time. Plus I reckon at the end of the day they are mostly just there to keep your opponent busy while the rest of your army does the real work.

I think Blondie made better use of Stryker in some ways this game than before; the way he used his feat was good, and might even have been better if he jammed me clean out of the zone (he didn't advance as far as he could have because he was worried about moving Stryker too far forwards; probably a legacy of playing against Strakhov so much). Plus engaging Nyss Hunters would have put them at a big disadvantage due to Sword Knights good DEF when in melee under Defensive Line, and of course their MAT is higher under Runewood than the Nyss Hunters'.

Blondie was experimenting with Arcing spells this game, but unfortunately he was also trying to use his Lancer to support his Sword Knights by giving them Flank. Which means getting his Lancer engaged. Which prevents it from Arcing...

I always have trouble dealing with Rowdy with Arcane Shield. This game I focused on controlling him with knockdown, slams and throws - I didn't really know what else to do. In retrospect I've realised that I could have put Alexia with Throat Cutter into Rowdy instead of the Lancer. That probably would have let me finished him, though it would have been at the cost of me scoring in the other zone. Alternately I could have just charged Andrei himself into Rowdy and Repo'ed away afterwards even if I didn't finish him since I was in his back arc anyway (and Beast could have still thrown him afterwards). Ah well, I didn't think of it at the time and things worked out in the end; hindsight and all that.

I do feel like Throat Cutter is an important piece of kit of Andy, but it's not at all easy to use. Alexia with Valachev might be one of the best units for leveraging it though: Zephyr makes it easier for her to get into back arcs than it is for most models, she can stack it with boosted attack rolls even without charging, she can place Risen directly into back arcs (possibly even far enough to charge in for boosted damage as well). Plus of course cheap Sucker! targets.


Anyway, it was a fun and educational game for us both. I'm enjoying Andrei, but he is a bit of strange caster by Khador standards, not bringing much in the way of straight stat buffs. I like that he has abilities that benefit both jacks and infantry, and his own survivability is actually pretty good if you make an effort to keep him safe, I just feel like I can't quite figure out how to make the most out of his abilities. Perhaps running more jacks to leverage Escort and the Feat would work better, or maybe I should take multi-wound infantry (which I don't really have) to get more benefit from his feat?

Journeymen Warcasters Grow Up So Fast...

After finding Harkevich a little boring to play, I decided to try someone more interesting: Kommander Andrei Malakov. It seems like only yesterday that he was but a junior, doesn't it? I tried not to make too many changes to my previous list, but I did take out Aiyanna & Holt so I could fit some Eliminators. This allowed me to swap Valachev over to the Nyss Hunters; overall the changes gave me some good targets for Andrei's battle plans.
Malakov 2
- Beast 09
- Decimator
- Wardog
Widowmaker Marksman
Kayazy Eliminators
Alexia & the Risen
Nyss Hunters
- Valachev

This was Blondie's second game with Stryker 2; this time he brought his Gunmages:
Stryker 2
- Old Rowdy
- Defender
Journeyman Warcaster
- Defender
Gunmages
Gunmage Captain Adept
Arcane Tempest Rifleman
Harrison Gibbs


Pre-Game:
We picked a 2017 scenario with... a whole lot of scoring real-estate. I won the roll and chose to go second, picking the side of the table with a forest in the middle.


Deployment:
Blondie put his Gunmages on my right, and his battlegroups a little to my left. I decided to focus my forces on his weak flank, so I deployed almost everything on my right, with only the Eliminators facing the left zone and the Widowmaker on the left side, in the forest.

Round 1:
Blondie activated the Journeman and cast Arcane Shield on Old Rowdy... then forgot to advance the solo. His battlegroup clustered around the trench. The Gunmages ran forwards.

I got a little careless here and advanced the Nyss Hunters too far up. They clustered around so that Andrei could drop a cloud over them. I also gave them Reposition, while Andrei put up Escort. The warjacks moved up and formed a wall with most of my models behind them. The Eliminators stood on a hill. The Marksman pinged one of the Defenders for three boxes.

Round 2:
Since I had walked my Nyss within 14" of the Gunmages, Blondie was able to aim and kill 4 grunts. His Defenders put some damage on the Decimator, but since the Journeman's defender started the turn out of control he didn't get focus to boost damage with so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The GMCA killed my Widowmaker. Rowdy ran into a position to contest two zones.

I made sure all my Nyss Hunters were in the right zone; they killed a few Gunmages but rolled quite cold and didn't do as much as they could have. The Decimator walked into the square zone and Bulldozed Rowdy out. Beast 09 moved up the right flank, threatening the Gunmages (I didn't really know what I wanted to do with him, but I figured drawing a bit of fire away from the Nyss Hunters might not be a bad idea). Andrei put a cloud in front of the Decimator, meaning it would be a little bit inconvenient for the Defenders to shoot at him. Some Risen walked up to shield the Nyss Hunters, while Alexia created a Thrall who ran up to engage some Gunmages. The Eliminators both toed the zone - I figured this way he would only be able to kill one of them with the GMCA. At the end of the turn I scored two points.

Round 3:
The GMCA did kill one Eliminator. Stryker feated (did you know his feat was a pulse?), cast Positive Charge on a Defender, then went over and killed the other Eliminator using Velocity. The jacks started running up. The Gunmages killed the Thrall and pushed the Decimator but couldn't get him out of the zone. The Rifleman pinged Beast 09; I took advantage of this to move him farther away from Blondie's jacks. Because of this he wasn't able to get two of them into Beast with the Feat moves and had to put two into the Decimator instead, making sure that the arcane-shielded Rowdy was touching both zones. The Decimator lost his movement and left arm. I think Beast 09 had only one cortex box left but didn't loose any systems. Blondie scored a point for the left zone.

After a great deal of deliberation, I decided on a plan. Andrei let all his upkeeps slip and filled up both jacks. Beast 09 walked around to be engaging both the Defender and Rowdy; after his initial Thresher he bought attacks into Rowdy. Because Blondie had unnecessarily turned Rowdy to face the Decimator directly, he wasn't able to make a Retaliatory Strike. Before I rolled every attack I prayed for a crit; on the second to last attack my prayers were answered.

The Decimator focused on the Destroyer, doing a lot of damage but not managing to finish him off. Andrei then cast Open Fire, allowing Beast 09 to put one more attack into Rowdy, and put Throat Cutter on the Nyss Hunters. The Risen shuffled around while Alexia sent a Thrall to contest the far zone. Finally the Nyss Hunters charged Rowdy. At one point Rowdy had one box left so I tried to finish him off with Valachev (this would have triggered Battle Wizard and allowed me to cast Zephyr), but he just failed to break ARM. Overall I was rolling hot though and they killed Rowdy with attacks to spare.

However I had moved the Nyss out of the zone and not thought to move Andrei into it, so I did not score (I don't remember if solos scored the round zones so I don't know if I should have scored a point with the Wardog).

Round 4:
Stryker killed the Thrall and cast Deflection. A Defender and/or the Rifleman finished off Beast's cortex. Gibbs killed a couple of Nyss Hunters with a grenade. Gunmages killed more Nyss Hunters and pushed both my jacks out of the square zone, knocking down Beast 09. However even the GMCA was not able to kill the one Nyss Hunter who was engaged by the Defender, so Blondie only scored one point for the left zone.

I was planning on standing Beast up and walking up to enage the Defender so Andrei could cast Open Fire for one attack, but I screwed up my order of activations. Instead Beast just walked around to try to engage the Gunmages along with the Defender. Andrei cast Reposition on the Decimator, walked into the zone, and whiffed a boosted shot at something. The Decimator finished off the other Defender and repositioned as far away from Stryker as he could while still toeing the zone. Valachev tried to kill the Journeyman with a spray which also touched two Gunmages; his failed to roll all three 7s. Cylena then also failed to roll a seven. The last Nyss Hunter aimed and finally managed to kill a Gunmage. Alexia positioned herself to potentially be in Stryker's back arc if he tried to charge the Decimator, and sent a Thrall at Stryker himself. I scored two points this turn.

Round 5:
Stryker killed the Thrall and toed both zones. The Gunmages pushed the Decimator out of the square zone, knocking him down, and killed all the contesting infantry. The Defender killed Beast 09 and toed the right zone. Blondie scored two points. We where now both at 4.

After some consideration, Andrei cast Veil on some Risen in his path, charged the Defender and knocked him down with a boosted Fighting Dirty charge attack. This allowed the Decimator to stand up and land a boosted shot from his crippled cannon, pushing the Defender out of the zone and allowing me to score my fifth point for the win.

Post-mortem:
That was a fun game. Both of us were playing a little differently from usual. Blondie's gamble with the feat did not pay off, although it might not have been a bad idea seeing as Beast 09 out-threats his jacks. Running his jacks out of his control range was a mistake. To be fair though he was a little distracted during the game. Also, we were both a little vague on the exact rules for Steamroller 2017 as we've only played 2016 before (even though SR 2018 has been out for ages).

I had some positioning and order of activation errors. I gave away a bunch of Nyss for no reason at the start. I didn't get to use my feat either; I probably should have played my jacks more agressively using the feat to keep them alive (although now that I come to think about it Stryker's feat counters mine to some extent: he can get two attacks in with each jack if we both feat, and with Positive Charge and damage boosts that can mean a fair bit of damage.

Neither of us contested as aggressively as we should have; I think a lot less points would have been scored if we had.

The Decimator was surprisingly useful this game, but he wouldn't have been as effective if Blondie had thought to block the pushes. I'm thinking of swapping him for a Destroyer or Kodiak.

I thought the Wardog would be cool for charging in to deliver Fighting Dirty then Return again, but I was too scared of him getting shot to death and ended up saving him for late game. As a result he basically didn't do anything all game. Still, due to the target limitations on Andrei's battle plans it doesn't hurt to have a fast FF warrior model hanging around for when you need him.

The GMCA and Arcane Tempest Rifleman did quite a lot of work this game. I should probably try to prioritize killing them, but for some reason it tends to feel difficult because of their long range.

Andrei is interesting. He feels very focus starved. His battle plans are cool but the short range and target restrictions are a bit of an issue. Throat Cutter seems rather hard to use effectively. Fighting Dirty is nice, especially as he can use it on himself. I want to like Open Fire, but it's just very situational unless you build for it (i.e. Victor), plus it's expensive to cast and there's order of activation issues. Veil seems very powerful, but I think it's going to take a lot of skill to make the most of it.

P+S 28 Is A Thing

No changes to my list since last time:
Harkevich
- Beast 09
- Decimator
Nyss Hunters
Alexia & the Risen
Aiyana & Holt
- Valachev
Widowmaker Marksman

I believe this was Blondie's first time playing a caster other than Stryker 1:
Stryker 2
- Old Rowdy
- Centurion
- Lancer
- Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
- Firefly
Gunmages
Gunmage Captain Adept


Pre-game:
Rulebook scenario with two zones. I won the roll and chose to go second, picking the side with a useful forest.


Deployment:
Blondie put his battlegroups on my left, except the Lancer who was positioned centrally, with the Gunmages on my right.

The Nyss went behind the right forest to shoot into the zone. Harkevich was behind the central forest where he would be able to move up in relative safety; Beast 09 stayed close to him while the Decimator was positioned to toe the zone. Alexia went near a trench where she could enjoy some safety from ranged attacks while slowly feeding Risen into the zone. A&H&V were positioned relatively centrally, but a bit farther away from the Stealth-ignoring Gunmage Captain. The Marksman was in the forest where he would still benefit from concealment even if the Gunmage Captain tried to get to him.

Round 1:
The Gunmages ran onto the hill, getting into the right zone early. The Firefly entered the other zone. Stryker hid behind his heavies, making sure there was no gap this time. Junior cast Arcane Shield on Stryker.

My Nyss Hunters ran into the forest. The Decimator took up a spot in the left zone where he could aim and shoot anything in the zone next turn. Harkevich kept the forest between him and Stryker, with Beast 09 getting in front (in base contact). The Risen spread out to minimize the effect of electroleaps. Alexia created a Thrall who ran onto a hill close to the GMCA and Firefly. A&H advanced and Stealthed.

Round 2:
The Firefly (who had no focus as he was out of the Junior's control range) tried to shoot down the Thrall and whiffed.

I think it was the Junior Warcaster who ended up killing the Thrall. The GMCA started to reposition towards my right; I think she took a shot at the Decimator and failed to break armour. The Centurion entered the zone and activated his Polarity Field. Five Gunmages had LOS to Nyss Hunters; they needed 7s to hit and proceeded to roll five hits. Sigh. The Lancer walked behind the forest.

I loaded up Beast 09, cast Mobility, and walked him up into axe range of the lancer. I figured losing two cortex boxes was worth it to make two boosted damage rolls with the axe, then I could reposition back behind the forest. Unfortunately I carelessly entered Rowdy's counter-charge range. The attack just took off Beast's axe.

Beast 09 did what he could to Rowdy with his fist, earning a Retaliatory Strike. I could have left him there, but decided to risk a free strike to reposition out of the forest; this would mean at least one jack would need to come right through the forest to finish him, which would make him easier to deal with, but also it would leave Rowdy unengaged: this would allow my Marksman to cripple his movement, which would be a problem for him in a forest. Sadly the free strike hurt:

And then of course this happened:

Nice going Marksman. Sigh. I'm pretty sure it's statistically unlikely how often she whiffs the easy rolls. Anyway, the Decimator did some damage to the Centurion and pushed him backwards, but the GMCA stopped him from being pushed completely out of the zone. Not that it mattered. Alexia created another Thrall who charged the Firefly and whiffed his attack roll. The remaining four Nyss grunts walked up and did a single CRA into a Gunmage, and missed. Holt aimed and Zephyred into range, gunning two down at last. Aiyana just kept them stealthed.

Blondie scored a point for the right zone.

Round 3:
The Gunmages fired into the Nyss again, but fortunately their rolls were not as hot this time and they only killed the one. Someone killed the Thrall; it might have been the Junior again. The Lancer walked around the forest and finished off Beast 09. Rowdy ran as close to Harkevich as he could, while the Centurion ran towards the Decimator. I don't remember the Firefly shooting anything?

Stryker then popped his feat. The Centurion and Firefly shuffled forwards and attacked the Decimator. Rowdy was just out of range of Harkevich so he walked over to the zone instead. The Lancer killed Holt. Blondie scored a second point for the right zone.

Harkevich held on to his focus. Alexia charged the Firefly and managed to kill it with one Risen to spare. The Marksman finally crippled Rowdy's movement, allowing Aiyana to easily land Kiss before Harkevich to charged in. Both Alexia and Harkevich were rolling hot; Rowdy fell to Hark's second blow. I popped feat for protection. The Decimator charged the Centurion sideways, taking off it's shield and repositioning into base contact with Hark for the defensive buff. The Nyss Hunter took two aiming CRAs into the Gunmages, killing two. Blondie was up to three points now.

Round 4:
The Centurion softened up the Decimator as best he could with no allocated focus. The GMCA landed a Flare on Harkevich, dropping his DEF. Stryker Overloaded for three dice, rolling a 13 to bring his to P+S up to 28. He used Velocity for two focus, then charged the Decimator and took him out easily, leaving him in range of a DEF 12 Harkevich. I believe his second attack left Hark on something like -10 damage, and he had Focus left over.

Post-mortem:
Damn but Stryker hits crazy hard! MAT 7 is an issue, but the Gunmage Captain actually helps a lot with that. Blondie's been thinking about trying Stryker 2 for a while, but I suggested he hold off for a while as supposedly Stryker 1 is a good caster to learn the game with. Well, I'd say he's definitely gotten the hang of the game at this point. Although he did run the Firefly out of the Journeyman's control range right from the start... I think he should probably stick to a Hunter on the Journeyman.

Effectively losing Beast 09 to the counter-charge put me in a really bad spot. You would think I'd be used to working around it by now, but nope, I always forget to take it into account.

Holt FINALLY did something this game. Technically he did as much work as my entire 19 point Nyss Hunter unit in fact. I really should have picked the other side of the table; that hill kept Blondie's Gunmages alive and scoring, while the forest wouldn't have - not with the Nyss Hunters having Hunter.

I had the same problem this game as I often do with my Marksman: I can't decide what to focus fire on, plus of course the whiffing of important rolls. High RAT and 3 damage to the column of my choice makes her shot useful against pretty much any target. Shame the Marksman is only FA 1.

It was fun taking out a warjack with Alexia, but I'm not sure keeping her out of corpse-collection range of the Nyss was worth it - if she had been on the other side she could have jammed that zone, maybe jammed the Gunmages, or possibly gone in on the Lancer (much better than risking the cortex on an 18 point warjack at any rate). I either need to bring more infantry to be able to contest two zones at once, or some cheaper jacks, or just tougher jacks (i.e. clamjacks). Although against Positive Charge I'm not sure even clamjacks would last long.

If I want to make use of Harkevich I really need to leverage Reposition and his Feat better. I'm not exactly sure how though. Even then he seems boring. I'm probably going to switch to someone who actually does stuff soon; Strakhov 2 is quite tempting, and I've been talking about running Karchev to increase my armour cracking.

One Does Not Simply Ignore Beast 09

After the last two games went on for too long, we decided to try playing at 50 points in order to speed things up a little. I had some difficulty settling on a 50 point list, especially since I didn't want to make too many changes - that's something that I'm trying to avoid right now. I ended up with this:
Strakhov 1
- Beast 09
- Decimator
Cylena & the Nyss Hunters 
Alexia & the Risen
Aiyana & the Holt
- Valachev
Widowmaker Marksman

Blondie also ran a similar loadout to last time:
Stryker 1
- Old Rowdy
- Defender
- Avenger
- Squire
Gunmages
Sword Knights (full)


Pre-game:
This time we picked a scenario from the book with two flags. We used two light warjacks as proxies as we didn't have any blank bases (I keep forgetting to bring anything suitable). I feel like we might need to start playing Steamroller soon. Anyway, I (eventually) won the roll-off and chose to go first.


Deployment:
I put Strakhov behind the forest, closest to my flag. My infantry was positioned to contest his flag. The jacks were in the middle, with A&H behind them.

Blondie positioned his battlegroup centrally, with the Sword Knights split up to cover each side. For some reason he put his Gunmages behind the forest, which he came to regret later.

I put my marksman close to Strakhov and near the flag, facing off against Rowdy.

Round 1:
Sentry went on the Marksman, Superiority on the Decimator; both ran forwards to be in range to shoot next turn. I originally meant to put Occultation on A&H, but I forgot to arrange it from the start, so I couldn't before moving because Strakhov was facing the wrong way, and I couldn't after moving because he was too far away. Oh well, I just had them walk up and had Aiyana use her Stealth ability instead (I should probably mark that with a token in the future). The Risen ran forwards and formed a wall to block LOS to the Nyss Hunters. Alexia stood back in the trench for a little added protection from sniped Defender shots. The Nyss Hunters advanced behind the Risen.

Blondie likewise formed a wall with this Sword Knights. His Gunmages ran around the forest. Arcane Shield went on Rowdy, and the Avenger got Snipe. The shooting jacks set up a little bunker in the trench and starting focusing on my Decimator; the Defender rolled pretty hot and did 9 damage, then the Avenger rolled pretty cold and did 1. Still, the Decimator was already looking a bit worse for wear.

Round 2:
This turn I was torn between the desire to start killing his Sword Knights, and the desire to simply jam them but leave them in place to block line of sight. What made this even worse was that after I ran my Risen at them I realised that Alexia was blocked in by my Nyss Hunters and wouldn't be able to keep most of them in command. I probably should have just held her back seeing as most of them were going to die anyway, but instead I ran her around and left her in a crappy position where she was vulnerable. I tried to block LOS to her with Nyss Hunters, but I screwed up again and chose to walk them instead of running; I only took about two shots with them and killed maybe one model anyway, so I should have just run them.

Worried about the Decimator, I swapped Superiority with Occultation. The Marksman put 6 damage into Rowdy's column 4, moving a little to be just out of engagement range of the Sword Knights. The Decimator walked up to base the flag and spent three focus shooting at Rowdy; the first shot actually managed to do another 4 damage I believe to his column 5, leaving his cortex perilously exposed. I was careful to make sure the Decimator was close to the limit of his 10" range, and I pushed Rowdy back with the second shot, leaving him almost 11 inches away.

Beast 09 ran to the left to try to block LOS to Alexia. Aiyana and Holt advanced; Aiyana kept them stealthed and Holt whiffed hard against Sword Knights. Meanwhile Valachev just struck a cool pose on a nearby hill.

Seeing that Rowdy would lose his cortex next turn if he didn't do something about it, Blondie considered running Rowdy to engage the Decimator in order to give his Sword Knights flank, but due to the flag blocking the direct path he didn't have range, and so he elected to reposition away from the Marksman instead. Two Sword Knights charged the Decimator and another three ran to just gum up my flag; the others started on the business of killing Risen. Blondie elected to take the auto points of damage with the two charges, taking out two cortex boxes.

The Gunmages killed Alexia and some Risen and Nyss. The Defender shot at Beast 09, which allowed him to advance forwards; I was hoping to be able to engage the Sword Knights in order to make him harder to hit, but that would have involved walking into charge range of the Avenger, who hadn't activated yet, so I stopped short. Still, this at least took Beast 09 out of Avenger AOE range of the closest Nyss Hunters.

Instead the Avenger dropped his AOE on four Risen; he killed three but in retrospect it should have been four as he spent focus boosting the damage on the one who was directly hit; if we had remembered that it was at full power for him then Blondie would have spent the focus boosting damage on the one who actually survived instead. Anyway. Stryker killed another Risen with a gunshot, leaving only the one who cheated death basing the flag.

Round 3:
After a lot of measuring and planning, I finally settled upon a plan. Strakhov would cast Overrun on the Decimator and Superiority on Beast 09. He would then slide past the Sword Knight and along with the Marksman (and possibly Holt if neccessary) try to shoot the two Sword Knights blocking Beast's charge. Any shots left would go into trying to take out one Sword Knight from the group around the Decimator in order to leave one without the DEF bonus from being in base contact.

Beast 09 would then charge the Avenger; I wanted to charge at Stryker himself but that would force Beast to leave Old Rowdy in his back arc, who could then counter-charge him and possibly cripple a system. By charging the Avenger Rowdy would only be able to use Retaliatory Strike, doing less damage. Beast would then wail on Stryker, hoping to leave him Stationary (MAT 10 with three attack dice meant a pretty good shot of triggering the crit).

Now the Decimator would have two chances to trigger Overrun, allowing Beast 09 to shuffle to the side and open up line of sight to the stationary Stryker. This would allow the Nyss Hunters and possibly Holt to try to finish him off.


With the plan carefully thought out to avoid any order-of-activation mistakes and make sure I didn't do my usual nonsense and block my own lines, I began. The Marksman killed one of the blocking Sword Knights with his Sentry shot. I then let Sentry expire for the focus (we checked the rules and that is how it works). Strakhov loaded up Beast, snuck past the Sword Knight (not that a free strike would have been too big a deal really), cast Superiority, then rolled 3 shots. First I tossed his Cinder Bomb at the Decimator; it missed but still covered the two closest Sword Knights with the scatter. I only killed one; the perfect result as the Decimator would have the easiest time triggering Overrun now. His first gun shot killed the second Sword Knight in Beast's path, and the other two shots missed the one closest to the Marksman.

Beast 09 charged in, put a hurting on the three jacks and left Stryker stationary with his first attack, burning through Stryker's only point of Focus. The third attack killed him easily.

Post-mortem:
The forums always talk about how good an assassin the Grolar is with Strakhov, but I've always figured Beast 09 should be pretty good too thanks to Murderous, while bringing more anti-infantry game (especially with Overrun making it less risky). Blondie should not have simply ignored him when he got close; if he had popped his feat I would not have gone for the assassination. Blondie said later that he forgot that Beast had a 2" range on his axe, which is completely fair (and partly my fault) as I've been using my mini-Juggernaut as a proxy.

I probably should have used Strakhov's feat there for the free charge, as the extra attack would have significantly increased the chance of triggering the crit, but I'm not sure the Avenger was actually in Strakhov's control area; I had originally considered charging the Sword Knight in order to be able to Sprint closer, but with no Focus on Strakhov himself I would have been betting a lot on one attack against DEF 15. About the only thing I think is "wrong" with Strakhov now is that he's not good at triggering his own Sprint without Focus; since he often wants to trigger Overrun and Sprint, having Powerful Charge instead of Brutal Charge and/or some way of making more than one melee attack without spending Focus would be nice. I mean, a damage buff would be even nicer, but that's probably asking too much so I won't do it (although... Silence of Death... think about it PP!).

Aiyana & Holt & Valachev were 12 points that did LITERALLY NOTHING AT ALL that game. The original idea was that Aiyana would put Kiss on whichever jack the Decimator was shooting at then Zephyr back to safety in the early turns. Later I would Kiss whatever I wanted to charge, and possibly kill Valachev so I could Kiss things for Alexia or the Nyss to work on as well. But I didn't get her up far enough in the first couple of turns, and after that the game ended. I still think they have value, but I'm wondering if bringing a Rager for Shield Guard and another potential assassin could actually be more valuable. Although perhaps two 5 point shield guards would be even more valuable? The other module I've been thinking of spending those 12 points on is a Forge Seer with a Berserker, but I don't think it's worth it without a way of handing out free charges (which Strakhov's feat only does for his battlegroup). Maybe with a Sorscha.