Game 129 - Loss - MacBain! vs eGoreshade

Result: Loss
79 - 49 - 1

50 Points
League but no special effects from it.
Incursion!

MacBain - Galleon, Kayazy Assassins (Max) + UA, Boomhowlers (Min), Aiyanna + Holt, pAlexia + Risen, Eiryss, Saxon, Ragman, Orin, Sylyss
eGoreshade - Kraken, Bane KNights, Bane Thralls + UA, Warwitch Siren, Desecrator, Tartarus, Necrotch + Scrapthrall, 3 more Scrapthralls

Game:

Cryx Deployment, Cryx won the dice roll.

Mercenary Deployment, I later regret not placing the Galleon centrally.

Cryx turn 1: Running running running!There's a Warwitch Siren hidden behind the most forward ruin (Walls were taken as linears for the sake of sanity).

Mercenary turn 1: Fail Safe on the Galleon, Countermeasure on the Kayazy, everything runs up. Gorman clouds. Left Flag goes away.

Cryx turn : Kraken charges, killing a pair of Boomhowlers, Quick Shot is stopped by a Kayazy being within 5". The Heavy lobs a shot, leaving some corrosive terrain in front of the Galleon.Warwitch influences a Kayazy to no mans land where he is killed.

Mercenary turn 2: Kayazy get Pathfinder off Saxon, mini-feat, charge and wipe out the Bane Knights. Boomhowlers kill a Bane blocking the Galleon charging.  Aiyanna kisses the Kraken, Eiryss shoots off an irrelevant upkeep for it. Alexia moves up, pops a thrall that damages the Kraken a little bit. Ragman uses Dark Shroud. Gorman attempts a Rust bomb but falls half an inch short. Galleon charges, hurts the Kraken but in general rolls low on the damage dice. MacBain! casts Jackhammer twice, toasting the Kraken.

Cryx turn 3: Necrotech makes scrap thralls from Wreck marker, Kayazy get exploded all over. Bane Thralls charge Galleon, taking off about a third of its health, impeded by terrain and placement. Desecrator moves in to block Goreshade from being dragged in by the Galleon. Banes unable to score off the right flag.

The Kayazy were to far away for me to feat on the previous turn, I should have sacrificed a Risen to charge MacBain! up for the extra distance, or at lest considered the possibility.

Mercenary turn 3: Alexia kills Tartarus, Aiyanna and Eiryss kill/focus remove Goreshade. Boomhowlers dawdle around. Few remaining Kayazy fail to do much. Galleon fires shots into the Desecrator, I roll a single shot on each port, end up Harpooning it in. MacBain! feats, getting the various important solos. Jackhammer used to kill the Desecrator.

I forget to activate Alexias Thrall that had a clear charge on Goreshade.

Instead of trying to shoot down Goreshade, I should have debuffed the Desecrator, trampled the Galleon forward. Most of the Banes would have died, and even if I can't engage Goreshade the Galleon will be near him after buying attacks to cripple the Desecrator. The rest of the army, now mostly a solo horde, could have likely killed off what Banes remained. 

Cryx turn 4: Necrotech eats the Desecrator's base, creates a line of Scrapthralls who all one by one walk up to the Galleon and explode on it. Goreshade Feats to resurrect some Banes who then wreck the Galleon, a Scrapthrall runs to the right flag.

Cryx go to 1 CP.

Mercenary turn 4: Moshpit in the middle, I dominate the middle flag.

In a rule error, I thought the central flag was Dominate for 2, so I thought CP's were equal at this point.

Cryx: 2
Mercs: 1 (Thought was 2)

Cryx turn 5: Thralls jam in while Goreshade hides, Flags stays controlled while a Thrall just ekes within 4" of the centre.

Cryx: 3
Mercs: 1

Mercenary turn 5: I clear out the Thralls and run the Underboss in. I thought I had the game at this point, thinking we were four all with him being unable to stop me from holding my flag.

Cryx: 3
Mercs: 2 (Thought was 3)

Cryx turn 6: Scenario corrected, Goreshade kills the Underboss in order to domiante and get to 6 CP's to my

Cryx: 5
Mercs: 3 (Doh!)

Recount: Switching to the Chain Attack Player Grading System.

Gotcha! moments:

• Warwitch Sirens exist. They have Stealth, Parry and a Magic Spray which cares not about Countermeasure.
• Incursion gives a Domination score bonus on the SIDE objective, not the Centre one.

Time Management: 5, no clocks but I activated in reasonable time for the most part. Will have to start using timed turns as a regular practice.
Scenario Awareness: 3, only tangentially aware of the scenario to begin with, didn't move enough on the side flags. Galleon should have been more central.
Spacing & Placement: 5. Galleon on the heavies had to happen, and Kayazy taking out the Knights was nice, but nothing could move over to the right side quickly enough.
Target Priority: 7, in general picked out some good matchups and devoted/had on standby the necessary materials to take them down.
Effectiveness: 6, made several appropiate matchcups, but could have done better with the Galleon on an important turn.
Grade: C (24, scraped in)

Feels about right, jumping in with a 50 point MacBain! list with so many unique models and a plethora of independent rules caused issues, in particular having not used Alexia before; her unit was mostly a battery that couldn't move in.

Games 127 & 128 - Wins - eMagnus vs Old Witch, pMagnus vs Kromac

Results: Two Wins
79 - 48 - 1

Game 1
35 Point Halfaug League
Region rules: When declaring a charge, slam or run, a D3 is rolled, model is then either knocked down (1), as normal (2) or gain +2 Movement (3).

Region made Mobility much more relevant, probably worked out better for me as I had less infantry to be slowed down.

Scenario: Process of Elimination (Two neutral zones/objectives)

eMagnus Tier 4 Bad Seeds - Defender, Nomad (Bonded), Renegade, Talon, Rangers, Kell (Free), Saxon, Orin, Sword Knights (Max)
Old Witch + Scrapjack - Behemoth, WGI (Max), Joe, eEiryss, Alexia + Risen, Great Bears

 Mercenary Deployment: Sword Knights and Saxon in ambush.

Retrospect: At 35 points the Ambush from Tier 4 possibly isn't always ideal. In this instance Old Witch needed to pop feat for them to really get stuck in, but that is problematic when it is mainly high armour pieces that don't really entice unboosted power 14's.

 Khador deployment.

 Mercenary turn 1: Magnus casts Mobility and Bullet Dodger on himself. Everything moves up, the Heavies trample to avoid the Region effects.

Matchup errors: Outside of some odd Gallows plays, Behemoth is only going to move 7" safely each turn, the heavies should have moves to the right, ready to sacrifice one to draw it forward and have the other kill it with the aid of Calamity. The Talon should have moved up to the left, effectively trading with the Nomad as the sacrifice piece.

 Khador turn 1: Everything advances. Eiryss shoots and disrupts the Nomad. Alexia pops a Thrall.

 Mercenary turn 2: Everything moves up, Orin lightnings the Nomad to kill Eiryss but fails, gets a pair of WGI. Objective also killed, illegal move in hindsight.

Play error: Objective couldn't be killed. It's placement would have also stopped the Orin Lightning trick. In any case should have moved the Talon there from the previous error.

 Khador turn 2: Pic is after I placed my ambush units in my next turn. Great Bears charge and kill the Nomad. Everything else moves up, bombards do little. Eiryss disrupts the Defender.

 Mercenary turn 3: Renegade sacs move to aim, shoots the Risen mob, hits and kills all but one Risen and Alexia. Mobility happens as usual, Magnus moves up and feats, catching two of the Great Bears, Behemoth, Scrappy and last of the Risen. Talon moves up, Defender moves to other zone. Rangers try and fail to kill even one of the Great Bears, likewise to Kell. Orin lightning also does little. Saxon gives Pathfinder to the Swords knights who run in, two get knocked down by the scenario, one gets an attack on Scrappy but misses.

Tactical Error: Rangers and Kell mostly missed, but they were targeting the wrong Great Bear in any case. Had the middle one died to the Rangers, then the others would be only armour 14, get lightning from Orin and Kell can snipe/damage roll them off.

 Khador turn 3: Rangers and Kell sprayed by WGI. One Ranger lives, and fails the command check. Old Witch moves over, feats, puts Murder of Crows on a number of the Sword Knights. Scrappy kills the two Sword Knights on him, Behemoth kills the Sword Knight on him then Bombards three to death. The Risen charges the Renegade pointlessly. The Great Bears move forward, one of them getting to the Talon and hurting it somewhat.

 Mercenary turn 4: Two focus to the Defender, Bullet Dodger dropped. Talon moves over, kills the Risen and misses the Great Bear. Renegade moves up, survives free strike from Great Bear and Old Witch feat damage. Magnus casts a fully boosted Convection at Old Witch, does fourteen damage. Defender aims, hits and kills on base damage.

Had the Assassination not panned out: I would have very little. Sword Knights are trapped for the turn, Orin can only lightning and pray, with a Gallows move up the Behemoth can get in range of either Magnus or more likely the Defender, once the Defender is down that is pretty much it. Multiple assassination avenues as well (Teleporting Old Witch, Behemoth charges and/or Bombards, Great Bears have potential with the extra distance from the Region).

Recount: 6. On a tactical/strategic level I lost badly, I needed to re-order my advance in my opening turn. I was entranced by the idea of the Talon running and giving Flank to the Sword Knights, even when the Nomad could have done it and been vastly better in the Talons opening positions.

Note: Numbers are always to high, need to change up how it is measured (Out of 5 maybe)

Game 2
35 Points
Balance of Power (Neutral zone, Aligned flags, can dominate the friendly to reduce CP's)

pMagnus - 2x Nomad, Renegade, Orin, Kayazy Assassins (Max) + UA, eEiyrss, Silly Wishnailer, Aiyanna + Holt, Gorman
Kromac - Warpwolf Stalker, Pureblood Warpwolf, Lord of the Feast, Stones, Tharn Ravager Whitemane, Tharn Ravagers (Max) + Shaman

Mercenary Deployment: Lost the die roll, given first turn. Eiryss not in pic, placed five inches in front of Renegade.

Circle Deployment: Stones and Lord of the Feat end up ADing to the right on the edge of the forest.

Mercenary turn 1: Snipe goes on Eiryss, Temper Metal on the right Nomad, everything runs up except the Renegade.

Circle turn 1: Pic Missed, everything moves up, Ravagers get Inviolable Resolve.

Mercenary turn 2: Eiryss removes Inviolable Resolve. Kayazy jam in hard. Tempered Nomad runs up and engages the Lord of the Feast. Orin zaps said Nomad with Lightning, does little. Aiyanna and Holt kill a stone. Gorman clouds, other Jacks move up behind. Magnus casts Blur on himself.

Tactical Error: Blur was pointless, minimal ranged models on other side and Iron Aggression would have later been quite good on the other Nomad.

Note: I didn't realise how badly the Lord of the Feast suffered from being engaged, as it severely messes with his teleport.

Circle turn 2: Ravagers kill several Kayazy, get Inviolable Resolve again. Warpwolves both trample forward, killing more Kayazy. Feast misses a Kayazy, jams against the Nomad, Stones go to blocking positions. Whitemane charges between the heavies and misses.

Mercenary turn 3: Nomads get fully loaded. Kayazy mini-feat and charge through, killing Lord of the Feast and a Ravager. Renegade sacs movement to aim, hits Whitemane, killing him and knocking the Warpwolves down. Gorman moves up, Black Oils the Stalker. Left Nomad walks over, knocks Pureblood down to five health (Poor dice rolls). Right Nomad tramples over, hits Stalker for small damage.

Circle turn 3: Pic missed, Warpwolves do medium damage to Nomad, takes out left arm. Ravagers finish off Kayazy.

Mercenary turn 4: Gorman Black Oils three of the Ravagers. Nomads get full Focus, boost to hit and between them kill both heavies. Opponent concedes.

Good odds from here. Kromac has to get involved, odds are decent one Nomad survives and Gorman gets gakked. Aiyanna then kisses the Unit, Magnus Spray, Orin Lighning and fully loaded Renegade can then finish the unit off or get Kromac if he has moved up enough.

Recount: 9. Threatened Scenario domination early, more Kayazy got munched then expected but it all worked out.

Game 126 - Win - Midas vs pMorghoul

Result: Win
77 - 48 - 1

Game 1
25 Points - Halfaug League Scenario 1
Zone in centre, can be controlled for one VP, four VP to win. Forests are destroyable, upon destruction 6 inch sprays spew forth, one for each opponent, inflicting an automatic damage point.

Midas tier 4 - War Hog, Dead War Hog, 2x Road Hog, 6x RaBo's, Bone Grinders (Max), Targ, 2x Slaughterhousers
pMorghoul - Bronzeback, 2x Gladiator, Sentry, Aptimus Marketh, 2x Paingivers (Max), Krea, Agoniser, Archidon


Recount:

Farrow deployment, lost dice roll and given first turn.

Skorne Deployment, one unit subbing in for the Paingivers.

Front rank Heavies from left to right: Gladiator, Sentry, Bronzeback, Gladiator.

Farrow turn one: Right Road Hog gets Advance Move directly forward. Warhog charges left forest and destroys it, takes a damage. Right Road Hog charges the other forest and kills it. Midas heals them, Grinder casts Massacre on one of the RaBo's, everything moves up.

Skorne turn one: Left Paingivers move back to escape Forest spray, Forest is then killed by the Sentry. Stuff moves up, Fury gets mismanaged. Admonition goes on the right Gladiator.

Farrow turn two: RaBo runs to engage the Bronzeback to stop potential Countercharges. Road Hogs both charge up and throw out flames, getting the Krea, Bronzeback, Sentry and hitting Morghoul down to three points. Targ used Ancillary attack for a few more flames. Slaughterhousers run up, Midas curses the left unit, charges the front guy, casts Bad Blood on the Sentry. RaBo's run up to get in the way.War Hog walks up in reserve.

Skorne turn two: Most of the fire remains, Morghoul transfers the flames on him. Left Gladiator kills blocking Rabo, Archidon gets various buffs then charges and kills the left Road Hog. Right Gladiator kills blocking RaBo, Bronzeback tramples over a Rabo, gets to the Road Hog and hurts it badly but fails to kill them. Paingivers on the right move up and remove stacks of Fury. Morghoul casts Admonition on himself and camps none.

Farrow turn three: RaBo in the middle of the Skorne frenzies, kills a paingiver. Midas drops Bad Blood off the Sentry. Road Hog passes threshold check, charges Morghoul, fails it due to the Bronzeback, boosts to hit and kills Morghoul.

Play error: Forgot the damaged Mind aspect on the Road Hog, though would've been easily fixed by Targ.

Had play continued:
1 - Midas gives Battle Lust to the front Slaughterhousers, casts a boosted/cursed Calamity on Archidon, camps two and moves to back edge of Zone.
2 - RaBo moves to the side of the Sentry out of the way of the Slaughterhousers.
3 - Slaughterhousers charge, three on Archidon, three on the right Gladiator (Both already damaged). Should kill them.
4 - Rear RaBo/War Hog move in front of Midas in case of the attempted assassination, riling as necessary (Forward Rabo/Road Hog will surely die or have Paingivers screw with their fury at a minimum).
5 - Left Slaughterhousers and Grinders move in to threaten the length of the zone as required.

Archidon/Gladiator will either be extremely hurt or dead, next Farrow turn would be pop feat to kill remaining Beasts or Morghoul if he has got into the mix. Archidon has all the Fury which the Slaughterhousers would remove from play and Morghoul has insufficient health to cut for more than two, so effectiveness should be muted.

Note: Morghoul could still leach from the Agonizer, though that isn't a terrible thing.

Slaughterhouser dice mat:

Archidon: 4's to hit (Calamity, Powerful Charge), 5 dice for damage -2 (Calamity 15 armour?). Each hit averaging 15 damage or so.
Gladiator: 4's to hit (Defence 12?), 5 dice of damage -8 (Armour 19). Each hit averaging 9 damage.

Archidon extremely likely to die, Gladiator might have lived with some heavy damage.

Aftermath: 9. Morghoul just didn't camp enough to stop the flamethrower assault. Almost lived the Slaughterhouser dream, but instead got it for the Road Hogs.

Games 124 & 125 - Losses - Arkadius vs uButcher, Sturm und Drang vs pStryker

Results: Two Losses
76 - 48 - 1

Game 1
25 Points - Halfaug League Scenario 1
Zone in centre, can be controlled for one VP, four VP to win. Forests are destroyable, upon destruction 6 inch sprays spew forth, one for each opponent, inflicting an automatic damage point.

Arkadius tier 4 - 3x War Hogs, Brigands (Min), Bone Grinders (Max), Targ
uButcher - Behemoth, Alexia and the Risen, Wardog, WGI + UA, Joe

Khador deployment: I won the roll off, elected board size to get away from the forests, do great a danger to my mind of a pair of bombards killing a forest and then removing my infantry.

Farrow deployment. Everything placed over 6" away from the forest of death.

Khador turn 1: Everything runs up, Alexia crafts a Thrall who then runs up. Behemoth damages the Right forest then  the WGI move up and finish it off.

Farrow turn 1: Warhog charges and kills the blocking forest. Everything runs up, Forced Evo goes on the middle War Hog.

Tactical Error: Middle Hog should have run further to the left, Forced Evo should have been on the back War Hog for the draw Butcher in to assassinate plan.

Khador turn 2: Alexia burns everything to kill the forest in the way of Butcher. Butcher Energizes,  charges the front War Hog, Impending dooms the middle one, flashing blades them both to death, but has to feat to do so. is camping three. War Dog, Thrall, WGRC all run up.

Farrow turn 2: Brigands move back, shoot down the Thrall and one Argus, miss War Dog. Bone Grinders clump up for an Arcane Bolt on the War Dog, hit but leave it standing on one health. Arkadius puts Massacre and Forced Evo on the War Hog. War Hog damages for strength, charges War Dog, kills it, Massacre moves to Butch, does two boosted to hit attacks and an unboosted attack that misses. Butcher left on two health.

Tactical Error: DIDN'T USE CRIPPLING GRASP ON BUTCHER. Could have changed up whether or not to feat and skip casting Massacre, but those aren't changes needed to make the War Hog charge work.

Khador turn 3: Pic missed. WGI shoot Arkadius down to four health. Butcher spends Vengeance and whole stack to kill the War Hog, charges Arkadius, Argus misses with both attacks, Butchers final attack hits and kills.


Recount: 7. Overall plan decent, failed final execution.


Game 2
35 Points - Halfaug League Scenario 1
Zone in centre, can be controlled for one VP, four VP to win. Forests are destroyable, upon destruction 6 inch sprays spew forth, one for each opponent, inflicting an automatic damage point.
Sturm and Drang tier 3 - 2x War Hog, Road Hog, Slaughterhouser, Targ, Bone Grinder (Min), Gun Boar
pStryker - 'Ol Rowdy, Stormclad, Black 13th, Storm Lancers (Max), Gorman, Reinholdt, Squire

Cygnar deployment: Same table as above, I won the die roll and picked side.

Farrow deployment. Slaughterhousers used their in tier advance move.

Cygnar/Farrow turn 1: Everything runs up, Ponies get Arcane Shield.

Cygnar turn 2: Ponies lightning some Slaughterhousers.

Game Objective Note: League seeking goals, I needed a model to be on fire and knock downed then killed in one turn, Haydes needed to win on scenario.

Farrow turn 2: Aturm moves up far enough to get both Cygnar jacks with his feat, TK's the War Hogs forward. Road Hog charges up, sets some Ponies on fire. War Hog runs up to take 'Ol Rowdy's Counter Charge. Other War Hog damages for strength, slams on fire pony, I botch the damage roll and fail on my opening attempt to get the league goal. Other stuff moves up.

Throwing a Warhog out to take the counter charge was wasteful. I feared it removing an aspect on the slamming Hog and stoping the league goal, I should have taken it on the chin and had the second War HOg in place to threat a charge if 'Ol Rowdy did his thing. Waste of a heavy.

Cygnar turn 3: War Hogs killed by the Jacks, Ponies get some Slaughterhousers and engage Road Hog. Stryker feats.

Farrow turn 3: Drang enters play. Fury screwed up, Gun Boar frenzies, stalling my last plan to get the league benefit. Road Hog charges a placed Bone Grinder to set Stryker on fire, also kills Reinholdt. Nothing else meaningful happens.

The Plan: Gun Boar plan was to move up to the Black 13th, boost to hit a throw, throw them to the left, they should survive with Stryker's feat. Road Hog then charges a placed Bone Grinder to Assault and set them on fire. If that doesn't kill them Drang charges in.

Cygnar turn 4+: Everything dies but Sturm, who gets locked into a Black Oil/Knockdown lock up until the scenario win goes through, Stryker survives fire by Arcane Shielding himself.



Recount: Urgh.