So, last week I held my fourth skirmish against my good friend Susan, a quick, enjoyable 26 pointer on some really interesting terrain. I tried to use my phone to capture the truly epic scale of the battles and ended up taking blurry shots not very frequently.
Such was only one of the myriad errors that plagued this particular battle.
The Lists:
What I tend to love about Cygnar is that our 'jacks tend to cost much less than Khador 'jacks (because we actually have light warjacks), so we can field more while keeping to a decently low point system.
For initiative, I ended up rolling lower, and was told to go first, possibly because of the advantage I had going second in our previous battle. We arranged armies, set up our advance groups, and began our first turn.
Cygnar Turn 1:
Stryker allocated 3 focus to the Minuteman, spent 2 to cast Arcane Shield on the Minuteman, and kept one for himself. I didn't pull any focus from the Squire on turn 1, as it didn't seem like Stryker needed any extra focus in the first turn for either extra spellcasting or buffing his 'jacks.
The Minuteman moved his six inches toward the Widowmakers in concealment, intending to get as close as possible before firing off two shots from his slug guns. He leapt across the river magnificently, but, sadly, Stryker totally forgot that Snipe would have been of so much goddamn use on the Minuteman for Turn 1, and so the two extra focus on the Minuteman went to utter waste, and he was left standing on the far side of the river with nothing to do but grind his gears.
The Ironclad, Lancer, and Charger advanced their regular move speed, being sure to remain on the Cygnar side of the disputed river, and Stryker and the Squire moved up behind the Ironclad to benefit from blocked LOS from the Widowmakers while preventing the Destroyer from using Arcing Fire to circumvent the Ironclad's cover.
The Arcane Tempest Gun Mages moved into firing position across the river from the Doom Reavers and prepared for their inevitable charge. Thus concluded Cygnar's turn.
Khador Turn 1:
Sorcha, in Khador's first mistake of the game, cast
Boundless Charge on her Doom Reavers, forgetting that they can't be the direct target of spells, whether friendly or hostile. This can be seen as a continuation of Khador's misuse of the Doom Reavers, as The Butcher had cast
Iron Flesh on them in our previous battle. She then cast
Wind Rush and double advanced forward onto the bridge, gnashing her teeth at her inability to use her feat.
The Doom Reavers ran (i.e. did not charge) and totally forgot that Boundless Charge's bonuses only work on a charge. They splashed into the shallows on the Cygnar side of the river- probably a creek, actually- and ended their activation.
The Destroyer and Marauder advanced forward, but were unable to keep up with Sorcha, while the War Dog was able to run and heel to his mistress. The Destroyer fired on the Minuteman, missed, but the AOE was still in the vicinity of connection, but a 1/2 POW roll couldn't penetrate through the Minuteman's buffed armor. Khador then prematurely ended its turn without activating the Widowmakers.
Cygnar Turn 2:
Stryker, now potentially threatened by all those Widowmakers on his side of the river, took an extra focus from his squire, again allocated three focus to the Minuteman, gave three to the Charger, and one to his Lancer. Allowing Arcane Shield to expire, he then turned tail and fled into the forested cover to his left, the Squire following in his footsteps, and popped his feat, Invincibility.
The Minuteman, flush with focus and in wonderful range of his hated enemies the Widowmakers, advanced 4" towards them, then spent a focus to leap into their midst, landing b2b with three of them, and setting off his Flak Field, killing the Marksman and two vanilla Widowmakers. His extended Flak Field range was not enough to kill the closest Widowmaker to him, and so he fired on both remaining Widowmakers, killing the closest to him but missing outright with his second shot. The remaining Widowmaker made its command check, however, and stayed in the fight.
The Arcane Tempest Gun Mages made their command check to stand firm and fired volley after volley into the Doom Reavers, managing to kill three out of six of the main troopers, as well as their Greylord Escort. The Charger killed another, and the remaining two were knocked down but made their Tough rolls. In a last-ditch effort, the Lancer charged one of the knocked-down Reavers but still couldn't manage a kill. After that, the Ironclad stomped into position near the knocked-down reavers, blocking any access they may have had to Stryker.
I'm still not 100% sure if Gun Mages could use their Rune Shot abilities against Doom Reavers...as they're not really spell attacks per se, just spell effects...So not sure if that was a fuck up or not. Thus concluded Cygnar Turn 2.
Khador Turn 2
Sorcha began her turn by advancing to the end of the bridge and firing at Stryker with her gun and a Razor Wind attack. Luckily, both missed. The Destroyer moved forward again and tried a shot at Stryker, but again concealment was his friend and caused the shot to deviate to a point where it couldn't hit anything.
The War Dog moved up to heel with Sorcha, and the Doom Reavers stood and attacked the units adjacent to them, dealing little damage when hitting. The remaining Widowmaker moved adjacent to the Destroyer and fired at the Minuteman, missing. The Marauder ambled up closer to Sorcha, but still couldn't match his mistress for speed.
Sorcha concluded Khador's turn without using her feat, Icy Gaze.
Cygnar Turn 3
Stryker began his turn taking another focus from his Squire, and preparing an assassination run, throwing a focus on his Lancer, and two on his Charger. He then cast Earthquare on Sorcha, boosting the attack roll to ensure a hit. Luckily he didn't need to use the Squire's re-roll ability, hitting the Khadoran warcaster on his first try. The AOE of Earthquare knocked down Sorcha, the War Dog, and the Cygnar army's Lancer. Finally, he took a shot at Sorcha, dealing a little bit of damage.
Next, the Minuteman moved adjacent to the final Widowmaker and used Flak Field to kill it outright, wiping out the sniper unit entirely.
The Gun Mages continued firing on the Doom Reavers, killing one and knocking down the other with a tough roll, freeing up the Lancer and Ironclad for an assassination run on Sorcha. The final Gun Mages took a few more shots at Sorcha, hitting, but dealing little damage. The Charger fired both barrels at the knocked-down Sorcha, getting her HP to the red and, finally, the Ironclad stomped over to her and administered the coup de grâce, ending the battle.
It looks like my previous tactic of matching Stormblades against Doom Reavers was ill-advised, as a good group of ranged units had a much more successful career against them. The Minuteman again proved to be amazing decimating the Widowmaker unit, though sometime soon my opponent will figure out a tactic to counter that strategy.
I suppose it's also time for me to invest in another Cygnar warcaster to see how strategies change between different army leaders. I'm really enjoying the shootiness of Cygnar, so perhaps Allister Caine will be my next investment, though warjacks are a hell of a lot of fun, so perhaps Jeremiah Kraye is also a good choice. We'll have to wait and see.
Lastly, this is my fourth victory as Cygnar; my third against my nemesis Susan's Khador. I can't wait for the next rematch.
