Monday 16 March 2009

Utter Skorne

Once again Saturday was upon us and once again Sebastien had to cancel our game. Luckily for me GUGS was invaded by numerous Warmachine and Hordes players so instead I got another game against Sean Murchie and his Skorne. I like playing against Sean, or at least when he's playing his Skorne, our armies are actually very similar - we're both melee retaliation type armies. I use Forfend and he uses Death March. When he charges my army it takes a long time to sort out all the out-of-activation attacks we both get, but at least there's massive amounts of casualties on both sides.

Sean's List: Skorne 499/500
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
Basilisk Krea
Cyclops Brute
Cyclops Savage
Immortals (6)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (4)
Praetorian Swordsmen (9)
Ancestral Guardian
Ancestral Guardian

Andy's List: Highborne Covenant 497/500
Ashlynn d'Elyse
*Mule
Anastasia di Bray
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier
Ogrun Bokur
Rupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Stannis Brocker, Steelhead Commander
Steelhead Halberdiers (8)
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (3)

Deployment:
There's part of a forest and a big rock in my deployment zone, though Sean has a similar set up. Just ahead of the giant rock in my deployment zone is a fence that was really annoying during the actual game. I win deployment thanks to Anastasia and place the majority of my forces between the forest and the giant rock, though I put the cavalry on the far side of the rock in an effort to let them get out and about quickly. Stannis and the Bokur deploy just ahead of the giant rock so that my Steelheads will benefit from his various abilities immediately.
Sean divides his forces to be on either side of the forest in his deployment zone. I immediately see that I can split his forces and go after each half pretty much separately since my army is so much faster.

Turn One:
Everything runs forward, Ashlynn puts Feint on herself and Quicken on the Halberdiers. Stannis once again demonstrates his incompetence with a Hand Cannon and misses a Praetorian Swordsman.
Sean's army advances, he uses Death Bringer to blow up Anastasia almost immediately - there doesn't seem to be somewhere I can leave her without Death Bringer bring a total pain. Hexeris gives the Praetorian Swordsmen Death March.

Turn Two:
The magic starts to happen.
I give the Mule a single focus so that it should get a critical hit. I activate Ashlynn first and use Roulette, she advances and kills an Immortal with her Hand Cannon. Stannis Brocker activates, gives the Halberdiers the Furious Charge order and manages to kill a Praetorian with his Hand Cannon, luckily the Praetorian is too far away to Death March up to my Halberdiers. The Bokur runs towards my left flank in an effort to get out of the Halberdiers' way.
The Mule fires and crits the Cyclops Savage, throwing it a few inches to the right. Rupert Carvolo uses March on the Halberdiers to give them additional movement and four of the Halberdiers charge the knocked down Savage, Hexeris and a couple of Immortals. The remaining Halberdiers move to screen the Praetorians, the Brute and the second Ancestral Guardian from assisting Hexeris.
Finally my Steelhead cavalry advance and take some pot shots at the Praetorians, managing to kill only one despite Roulette.

Sean's turn heralded a flurry of out-of-activation actions. The Cyclops Savage stands up and moves into the middle of the four attacking Halberdiers, taking three free strikes and a Forfend. This leaves it on a measly two health on its life spiral. Then Sean activates Hexeris, uses his feat and then Death Bringers his own Savage, killing all four Halberdiers and the Savage. The dead Halberdiers then move and take swings at my Mule and the remaining Halberdiers, however Roulette and high ARM saves me from any more losses.
The Praetorians advance into the remaining Halberdiers, taking Forfends all over the place and then Death Marching forward to attempt to kill more Halberdiers. At the end of it all I'm left with two Halberdiers and Sean has four Praetorians left. Both his Ancestral Guardians are looking awfully full on souls at this point. The two Steelheads that died both attack my Bokur, dropping the Ogrun down to four health.
The Ancestral Guardian on my left uses two souls to move and then charge my Mule. The animated statue manages to take out the Mule's movement but nothing else despite putting damage all over the place.

Turn Three:
I allocate a single focus to the Mule as I have a Cunning Plan to get it to shoot more things. Stannis activates first promotes a Halberdier, gives Furious Charge to Steelhead Cavalry. The Halberdiers then charge the Ancestral Guardian on the right, I really didn't want that thing to massacre something important since it was almost full on souls. The two Halberdiers manage to drop the Ancestral Guardian to about half its health. I lament their impending deaths. Lord Rockbottom sets fire to a pair of Immortals and I get to chuckle happily.
The Steelhead Heavy Cavalry charge the Cyclop Brute since there's no room to attack the Ancestral Guardian. The Brute dies to their many, many attacks with Flank.
Ashlynn advances to the other Ancestral Guardian since the Mule is in the way and prevents her from charging. She kills it after two attacks, but is perilously close to the Mule, I can sense the incoming Death Bringers already.
My freed up Mule fires at the Krea and gets another critical hit. The Krea, an Immortal and Hexeris are thrown around. The Krea even lands on a Paingiver. Gorman blinds an Immortal by accident after he discovers that Hexeris was just out of Black Oil range.

Sean drops Death March and attempts to assassinate Ashlynn with a couple of Death Bringers at the Mule next to her. First one does no damage, second one deals her 7 damage. The Krea stands up and uses its animus on my Mule. The surviving Paingivers charge Ashlynn and Gorman. Gorman takes a little damage but survives and Ashlynn kills the Paingiver attacking her with a Riposte attack.
The Ancestral Guardian fighting the remnants of my Halberdiers on the right decides it has had enough of this foolishness and ends them. The remaining Praetorians advance out from behind the Ancestral Guardian.

Turn Four:
Hexeris is blatantly within assassination range of Ashlynn. My only problem is that there's a whole load of things blocking my charge lane or generating a movement penalty on her.
I give the Mule a single focus and opt to move it away from Ashlynn. It fires at the Immortal immediately in front of Hexeris and the Krea and once again scores a critical hit. More throwing ensues and luckily Hexeris doesn't end up six inches further away. However now MORE Immortals are in the way of my charge lane. The Piper of Ord gives March to my remaining cavalryman and then moves to block the Ancestral Guardian on the right just in case I somehow fail to kill Hexeris.
Stannis Brocker then activates and takes a pot shot at a Praetorian Swordsman, missing yet again.
Time for my assassination run. My remaining cavalryman activates and advances into the melee with the two Immortals blocking Ashlynn's charge lane. Between his three attacks he manages to kill both of them. Gorman dies to a free strike from the Paingiver as he attempts to advance and throw a Black Oil on Hexeris. Ashlynn then charges Hexeris and demonstrates the superiority of a Hand Cannon with Weapon Master.

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