Khador vs. Cryx

I played a 50-point game against a friend last week. Last time I wrote that I was going to start a new habit to make sure I got pictures of the battle.

That didn't happen.

Now, with the confession out of the way, here is a quick recap of the battle.

I played a 50-point Tier 4 pSorscha list. He played a Tier 4 Mortenebra list.

The game was acutally over very quickly -- my friend made a mistake and forgot what kind of terrain we had agreed on in a certain placement on the board. He accidentally placed Mortenebra in feat range of Sorscha and threat range of a pack of Widowmakers, so once she was stationary, the Widowmakers shot her up and the game was over.

All told, it wasn't a great victory for the Motherland -- just a simple error that led to a basic assassination run. But there were a couple of fun highlights:


-- Deathjack vs. Beast-09 showdown. Deathjack is really, really deadly. I'm just amazed at how much damage he can lay down in a turn
-- pSorscha's feat is just really really amazing. I think it's still my best tool in the toolkit.
-- I love Khador Mortar Teams. At range 20 with POW 16, they hit hard from far -- when they hit. If I manage to boost the roll (usually with Kovnik Grigorovich), they can really pop something. Otherwise, the 4-inch POW 8 blast is still good at clearing out infantry.
--Battle Mechaniks are actually cool and I need to get better at including them in my army.

pSorscha has a good Tier 4 list. NQ43 also published an excellent eSorscha tier list -- it requires at least one Conquest and raises the FA on the Mortar Teams. It has lots and lots of distant shelling, which pleases me.

Looking forward to the next game, and hopefully the start of the new habit...

Battle Highlights

I played a 35 point game against a friend on Tuesday.

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures. Time for a new habit.


He played Legion:

pVayl
Spell Martyr
Succubus
Forsaken
Shepherd
Ravagore
Typhon
Scythean
Shredder
Strider Deathstalker


I played Trolls:

pMadrak
Fell Caller Hero
Troll Whelps x 2 (10 whelps total)
Fennblades + UA
Dire Troll Mauler
Axer
Impaler
Swamp Troll



Here's a summary of the action:

Legion went first.

Deathstalker flew towards me. Solos moved in an around the beasts, who formed a wall in front of Vayl. Because of her 8 FURY, lots of crazy spells come flying.

Troll cook ahead. Fennblades are set up spread out super-wide. Officer is in the middle with a 12" command, so they are literally spread over 20". Trolls are near Madrak; they advance and screen him. The Spell Martyr was just a bit too far forward, so the Impaler gets Rush on Madrak's activation, makes a 7" advances, casts Far Strike on himself, and manages to run a spear through the Spell Martyr before it causes trouble. Fennblades run forward to try to tarpit everything.

Legion's turn. The beasts lay down a bunch of hurt on the Fennblades. Some are tough, some are not. Death Stalker is getting closer. Vayl tries to arc through some Fennblades, but she manages to kill or knock down the Troll she's attacking.

Trolls go again. Fennblades get a charge on the front line. With reach, they are able to get into fiddly spots. All of the solos fall in this wave of attacks, but Legion is left with three heavy and one lesser warbeast, and an 8 FURY caster who is doing fine. Implaer takes a shot at Vayl, and learns about reflected damage.

Legion goes, and mops up more of the Fennblades. A good number are making tough rolls, but they are getting cleared out. Whelps are popping out of many Trolls. Shredder moves to the edge of the board to try to flank.

Finally, it's GO TIME! Trolls go. Axer, Impaler, and DTM all charge the Scythean. Something like 8 out 11 attacks miss. Very, very bad rolling. At the end of the turn, all three of the charging beasts are at maximum fury, and the Scythean is still standing, not to mention the other two heavies that were hanging back a bit. The shredder is in range of the swamp troll, and the swamp troll attacks it. Swamp Troll get a crit on it and *eats* it (with Critical Consume). Just like that. Very cool when that works.

Legion goes. Scythean strikes back and wipes out all of my beasts except the swamp troll. FCH gets knocked down. It's looking grim,  but they are having trouble hitting Madrak.

Legion tries to go balls-out to attack Madrak, but little sticks.

Trolls turn. Madrak has a charge lane to Vayl. After the charge, Typhon tries to attack Madrak because of Dark Sentinel. Typhon hits Madrak, and... Scroll of Grindar's Perseverance prevents the damage roll. Madrak makes boosted attacks against Vayl, and it's over quickly.


Some thoughts:

-- Vayl is a very, very cool caster. Lots of flexibility
-- My army probably needs another heavy warbeast
-- I don't need 2 groups of whelps.
-- Fennblades are OK tarpit, but they really are squishy. Maybe a krielstone setup in the army in the future.
-- Swamp Troll was MVP, nominated by both players, for his excellent performance at EATING ANOTHER WARBEAST. Om Nom.

Overall, a very exciting game that swung quite a lot between Trolls and Legion, and wasn't decided until the last roll.