Saturday 7 March 2009

Return of the Traitor

I was supposed to play Sebastien today with his Khador army (of DOOM) but he'd forgotten and instead went to his driving lesson - the bastard. Instead I watched Dermot with his Trollbloods play Penguin (real name... er... Dan?) and his Legion of Everblight. Dermot's entire army was multi-wound models - Champions, Hero, Long Riders, few warbeasts and Penguin's army was... hmm, lacking really. I couldn't see the core of Penguin's army. Anyway, Dermot's Trollbloods dominated everything.

I also got two games against Sean Murchie using his Skorne, the first game was very fast, only two turns each before Ashlynn bit the dust.

Sean's First List:
Lord Tyrant Hexeris

Basilisk Drake
Basilisk Krea
Cyclops Savage (I think, I keep getting confused between the Brute and the Savage)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (4)
Praetorian Ferox (3)
Venators (8)
Ancestral Guardian

I was using my Ashlynn list and made good progress in the first and second turns since Sean probably didn't realise just how far I could charge with my Steelhead Halberdiers (17" threat range including the Reach). I decimated his Venators but had Ashlynn quite far forward with a smoke cloud blocking line of sight to her. Unfortunately I forgot that Sean could just move something in front of her and slam it over her and so poor Ashlynn died horribly to Ferox - though it took two to kill her since the first did no damage. Sean had to clear out a whole bunch of my Steelheads to make the slam lane, but he got it done. The game didn't last very long so we decided to have another one.

Sean's Second List:
Lord Tyrant Hexeris

Basilisk Krea
Cyclops Brute
Cyclops Savage
Paingiver Beast Handlers (4)
Praetorian Ferox (4)
Praetorian Swordsmen (8)
Ancestral Guardian

Against this list I opted to pull Magnus out of the case since he hasn't seen action in a while.

My List:
Magnus the Traitor

Nomad
Renegade
Renegade
Stannis Brocker, Steelhead Commander
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (3)
Steelhead Halberdiers (9)
Rupert Carvolo

This game went much better for me and was mostly carnage everywhere.

Deployment:
We were playing on the desert map at GUGs with a large plateau on either side of the board - we both ignored of the plateaus - and a nice big open area in the middle, which we immediately rushed into and began killing everything. I had my two Renegades on the right with Magnus immediately to their left next to a gigantic rock. On the other side of the rock was the Nomad and then a line of Steelhead Halberdiers with the cavalry and Stannis Brocker behind them.
Sean put his Praetorians on my left next to the plateau, then a wall of beasts with Hexeris in the middle and finally the Ferox on my right with the Paingivers behind them.

Turn One
I won the first turn and so ran everything forward, I put Frenzy on the Nomad and... that was it really.
Sean put Death March on the Swordsmen, activated the Krea's aura and ran forward too. I believe Sean used one of the Cyclops animi on Hexeris to make me reroll hits, just in case I had some Renegade sneakiness to exploit on my turn.
As you can see it was very exciting stuff this turn.

Turn Two
The first turn of utter carnage.
Stannis Brocker activated, gave the Furious Charge to the Halberdiers and then took a pot shot at a Swordsman with his Hand Cannon. It missed and he was done. Then the Halberdiers charged the Swordsmen and one Ferox who had got too close to the middle area. The Ferox was pasted by three of the Halberdiers and a whole bunch of Swordsmen died, fuelled the Ancestral Guardian almost to full and their Death March attacks killed a couple of Halberdiers in return. My cavalry couldn't get into melee range so I moved them up and only managed to shoot a single free Praetorian with their Blunderbusses. I then moved the Piper forward and used his +1 DEF and Terror thing on the Halberdiers.
I moved the Nomad forward, hoping to be in a position to charge next turn and bunched the Renegades together behind it. I then realised I had 4 focus on Magnus and nothing to do with it so I just ran him left to behind the Steelheads.

Sean activates Hexeris, uses his feat and fires Deathbringer at his Krea, blowing up a bunch of Steelheads who then kill some other Steelheads. This clears the way for his Enrage enhanced Cyclops to charge my Nomad and puts some damage on it, thankfully not all that much. I thought my Nomad had gotten off pretty well until the Ferox charged in and destroyed both the cortex and right arm - the important arm! He then attempts to kill more Steelheads with his Swordsmen but it's a rather pitiful showing. Some Praetorians die to Forfend followed by Death Marched Praetorians killing some more Halberdiers. At this point there's three Halberdiers left compared to four Praetorian Swordsmen. Just to add injury to insult he uses the Krea's Animus on Stannis Brocker - who is standing right in the middle of my army.

Turn Three
More carnage.
Stannis activates first, field promotes a Halberdier and then moves back so the rest of my army isn't caught in the slowing field he's currently generating. Stannis tries to shoot a Swordsman with his Hand Cannon and once again misses. I then activate a Renegade and attempt to shoot my badly damaged Nomad in the back with an Obliterator Rocket. Due to the align of stars and global warming I managed to miss but still knocked down both Cyclops and caught two Ferox in the blast. The blast damage did a total of one damage to a Ferox. Not my best Obliterator Rocket I have to say.
My Halberdiers then activate and the sergeant moves to engage both Cyclops. The sergeant manages a respectable charge against the Cyclops with the shield and the other two CMA a Swordsman who kills another Halberdier with Death March.
Now the Piper activates and uses March on the Steelhead Heavy Cavalry who charge both Cyclops and manage to turn both the Skorne warbeasts to bloody mush.
I had given a focus to Renegade A (the one that still had a rocket) but realised I had nothing to do with it now that both Cyclops were dead and my own cavalry were in the way so I just ran it over to the left instead. Magnus followed fairly closely behind since I couldn't figure out where to put him without him getting charged by the Ancestral Guardian. I totally forgot to use Hit and Run, casting Temper Metal on Renegade A instead since I thought Sean would try to kill it with the Ancestral Guardian. Sean saw the opportunity for assassination and asked if I'd like to go back and use Magnus' feat, I declined since I'd already done all Magnus' other stuff, it's my own fault if I screw up.

Sean moves his Swordsmen past the two Halbderdiers engaging them and I promptly kill all the remaining Swordsmen with a combination of free strikes and Forfend. He uses Death March to kill one of Halberdiers and a cavalryman. His Ferox move around and attack my Steelhead Heavy Cavalry and while they're there one eats the Halberdier sergeant. Another of the cavalry dies and I fail the command check.
The Moment of Truth arrives when Sean activates the fully fuelled Ancestral Guardian and burns two soul tokens to move four inches and then charge Magnus. Luckily the charge attack misses. The Ancestral Guardian still manages to put nine damage on Magnus in a single hit even though Magnus was camping ARM 20 at the time. Unfortunately for Sean the rest of the attacks miss or do no damage to good old Magnus.
The Krea activates and uses its Paralytic Field to hopefully save Hexeris from horrible, horrible death.

Turn Four
DIE BIZNITCH time.
It's getting late and I can see something that resembles a very unreliable assassination run. There's also an angry looking Ancestral Guardian glaring at Magnus. My last surviving cavalryman does his fleeing movement and dies to free strikes after we debate what he'll actually do (since he could actually move somewhere, despite being surrounded by Ferox, he died). This turned out to be rather useful to me since the damaged Nomad was still in the way of my planned assassination attempt.
I allocate two focus to Renegade A (one with rocket) and one to Renegade B. Magnus activates, I declare use of my feat and then decide that's a waste of time, we're going to get kicked out of the QMU after this turn anyway. He casts Temper Metal on Renegade B (without rocket, still on the right side of the board behind the Nomad) and I consider killing the Ancestral Guardian using Magnus, but with only a single focus point on him he's get minced by the retaliation if it didn't die. I opt to see if my assassination run pays off rather than risk dying on my own turn.
Renegade A moves to within five inches of Hexeris and actually manages to hit with the Obliterator Rocket despite Hexeris benefiting from the Krea's aura. I then do a comfortable 9 damage which Sean transfers with his last fury.
Just because I don't like the Ancestral Guardian and I no longer have any units left I opt to charge the Ancestral Guardian in the back with the Piper of Ord, reducing the damned thing to a single health. Curses!
The Nomad activates, moves out of the way of Renegade B's charge lane to the knocked down Hexeris and attempts to swipe at a Ferox with its open hand. It fails miserably, no surprise since it couldn't boost attacks. Renegade B then charges Hexeris, taking a free strike from the Ferox in front of the Nomad. Thankfully Temper Metal saves me from taking enough damage to lose an arm. Renegade B goes to work on Hexeris, killing him with three Shredder attacks.
Victory for Magnus!

Overall a much more enjoyable game with a nail biting finish - if Renegade B had rolled low damage at any point I would have been screwed but the Renegades pulled it out for me nicely. I still enjoy Ashlynn a lot more since she makes my army so very fast, but it's nice having a tough warcaster who can take the punishment.

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