Deathclocks
Karchev - Black Ivan, Malakov + Spriggan/Juggernaught, 2x Press Gangers, Hawk, Gorman, eEiryss, Tinker, pAlexia
Game 1
Incursion (Three flags, one disappears)
eGaspy - 2x Bone Chickens, 2x Bane Knights, Bane Thralls + UA, Bile Thralls (min), Warwitch Siren, Ogrun Bokur, Withershadow Combine
Terrain: A forest sits on the left in front of my deployment zone, across from it is a piece of rough terrain similarly in front of the Cryx zone. A hill sits between the centre flag and its right compatriot. Ultimately terrain will not be a deciding factor this game.
Khador Deploy: I win the roll and go first. Standard deploy for me, Pressgangers out front, Hawk/Alexia/Battlegroups in the middle. Eiryss on the extreme right this time.
Cryx Deploy: Gaspy himself is smack in the middle, the rest of the force is an infantry blob around him, Thralls and Biles either side of the Warcaster, then a Bone Chicken between them and the Knight units on the flanks. Support pieces are all behind this wall of death.
Khador 1: Standard Redline/Tow shenanigans, everything else moves up, though not quite full pace.
Cryx 1: A warwitch Powerboosts a Chicken, which then runs forward. Gaspy moves up, casts double Excarnate on Press Gangers popping out double Bile Thralls (Danger Will Robinson! Danger). He then puts a Daemortus AoE. The Bile Thralls move up, the newly created forward most on explodes on four pirates, one dies and the other three tough.
Left flag disappears.
Khador 2: All spells upkept, Ivan gets two focus, Spriggan gets fueled up. Infantry blobs all move out of the way, on the way Alexia pops out a Thrall in a suicide position. Eiryss runs up the right edge near the Cryx deployment zone. Gorman runs to the far right. Karchev runs into position. Ivan aims and hits Gaspy, bounces to the Bokur who goes down to two health. Spriggan charges Gaspy, Bulldozing three Bane Thralls and one Chicken, gets the spear onto him, two attacks with boosted hit rolls do 18 points, game over.
Had the Assassination not flown, I'm in a lot of trouble in the long game. He wins in the infantry fight, I have no valid RFP to stop the feat and he only needs a few small bases to kill my heavies. Had the assassination not been on (i.e. had he cast Hellbound), then I would have jammed with the Pirates and tried to go for scenario but my odds are not great.
Player Grading
Time Management: 6, not a long game, but I had I gone for the long play my second turn would have been very quick and put me well ahead of Cryx time.
Scenario Awareness: 6, I had an ok scenario plan, but it wasn't relevant.
Spacing and Placement: 8, set up a good assassination line. Ideally would have got the shield in, but an unboosted lower POW attack isn't worth the likely Bulldoze screw up that would have eventuated.
Target Priority: 9, saw caster, killed caster.
Effectiveness: 6, worked out but put everything down to a pair of high risk rolls.
Cool: 8, no issues.
Grade: B (43)
Game 2
Two Fronts (Two aligned circular zones, two aligned objectives that give inspiration)
eAbby - Archangel, Carnivean, Ravagore, Naga, Succubus, Feralgeist, 2x Shepherds, 2x Deathstalkers
Terrain: A hill on the left side of the left zone, a linear between the two zones, some rough terrain between my deployment and the right zone, opposite from which is some water.
Legion deploy: Central deploy, Archangel slightly to the left of centre.
Khador deploy: I picked my side to get away from that blob of water, the Pressgangers deploy a lot more spread out than usual in case of a lucky scattering Ravagore shot. Battlegroup plonked to go to the right of the objective, Alexia to take the left. Eiryss on the extreme left this time.
Legion 1: The Stalkers run over to the left side near Eiryss, Abby puts Spiny Growth on herself and teleports up to the midline of the board behind the Linear with a pair of transfers. The Archangel and Carni are near the left zone (My friendly), the Naga and feralgeist are in the centre, the Ravagore ends up toeing the right zone with a Shepherd behind him.
I can theoretically get the Spriggan into Abby at this point, but it would fail to kill her and be a sacrifice of my heavy, so barely consider the idea.
Khador 1: Tow remains, Redline drops, Ivan gets two focus. Eiryss moves onto the hill, shoots at the forward stalker and misses. The left unit of Pressgangers jam into the Deathstalker, Abby and the Archangel, I leave a straggler to use Hawk to auto pass the terror checks. The right Pressganger splits, six go forward, four hang back to be Malakov Sucker! targets. Gorman moves up to be next to the objective. Alexia moves up a short distance, five Risen form a line to block LoS in front of her. Hawk hangs out a few inches behind Gorman. Karchev Tows everyone into the rough terrain feature. The Jugger runs in front of Karchev, the Spriggan walks backward a little bit. Malakov puts Redline back on the Spriggan. Ivan walks forward a little, boosts a shot on the Ravagore, dings him a little and boosted blast damage kills the Shepherd behind him.
Mistake: The Gorman placement was awful, for reasons about to be revealed.
Legion 2: Fortify on the Archangel hangs around. The Naga walks forward and shoots Gorman, easily kills. Abby kills the Pressganger on her, then teleports to the back edge of my zone. The Ravagore moves out of the enemy zone to fire a shot and clear out some of the Pressgangers. The Archangel and the Carnivean clear all but one Pressganger out of my zone, Abby is in a spot behind them. The Deathstalker, now freed up by the Archangel, misses Eiryss, his buddy falls back a bit. The Feralgeist toes the enemy zone.
Khador 2: Spells upkept, Spriggan gets fully loaded, Ivan gets a focus. The unit of Pressgangers on the left, now two members strong, one charges the Deathstalker, the other moves forward to get back into command, they again pass the checks because of Hawk. Eiryss moves up past the zones and kills the other Shepherd. Alexia and a few Risen run into the zone to contest, most of the risen run out of command to be in a broad semi circle around the zone, in walking distance to contest. The right unit continues to be split, the forward half moves betweent he zones, one of them charges the Naga and misses. Karchev feats, Arkantriks for movement, walks up, swings around and pops up all the Jacks behind, casts Unearthly Rage. The Spriggan charges the Ravagore and kills him, also lands a hit on the objective for eight points. Ivan charges the Feralgeist, hits and splats. the Jugger walks back as far as he can to get near Malakov, who advances to the back half of the right Pressganger unit and chills out. I Dominate the zone.
Khador go to 2 CP.
Moops didn't realize that Unearthly Rage gave Magic Weapons, otherwise he definitely would have played it differently. I was happy I got to apply the Machine Spirit lesson from the Denny game quickly, otherwsie that lousy cheap model does so much to dictate where Karchev needs to be.
Legion 3: Fortification stays up. Abby feats, kill Alexia, teleports to be in the rear right of my zone. The Naga moves up and clears out Pressgangers from between the zones. Carnivean brutally massacres the Spriggan. The Archangel gets Spiny from the Succubus who then goes into my zone. The Archangel then runs to get about an inch into the right zone. The Deathstalker did some shots into mooks.
Khador 3: Tow drops! Karchev fully loads Ivan, the Jugger gets two focus from Malakov. Eiryss moves over a bit, kills the Succubus. Risen and Pressgangers surround Abby. Hawk runs to the left side of the left zone on the hill. Of the right Pressgangers, three jam around the Naga, the back half continues to be Malakovs clingy friends, no knowing they are only being used. Karchev Arkantriks a focus, casts unearthly Rage, moves to the right of the zone. Ivan walks into the Archangel, he is in by about a mil. He crits three of his four attacks, even at dice minus 6 he puts the Archangel on 19 health. The Jugger charges in, finishes off the Archangel. Between Spiny and Redline, both Jacks are down six health each. Tinker bravely runs to be in front of Karchev in case there is a charge potential I've missed. I dominate again.
Khador go to 4 CP.
Misplay: I gave the charge/run order to the right Pressganger, this was pointless and I would have got more and better attacks on the Naga had I just walked.
If there was a turn to assassinate Abby, this was it. Killing the Archangel was a 55%, getting Abby was at best 50%.
The Assassination play: Karchev keeps the focus, Arkantriks for speed, walks past the Naga taking a freestrike. He swings the Juggernaught with him, moving a couple inches below the Naga. Abby gets spray knockdown double boosted (That's the 50% point). Eiryss then shoots off Spiny and the Jugger charges for a guaranteed kill (4x Dice + 5 and a +1 fist).
Legion 4: Abby kills a Risen and the Pressganger on her, puts Fortify and Spiny on the Carni. The Carni charges Black Ivan and engages the Jugger, he hits Black Ivan a few times, but his third or so attack misses and Ivan dodges back. Moops is unimpressed. I've got a feeling the Naga didn't activate this turn...
Khador 4: Unearthly Raged Ivan kills the Carni (Crits every attack I think), I Dominate to go to five.
Mistake: I could have won a lot easier by moving the Juggernaught away, Eiryss knocks off Fortification, slamming the Carni with Karchev then Bulldozing with Ivan (Even minimum distance on the Slam makes this work). If Eiryss is out still have Karchev + Black Ivan to kill the Carnivean.
Left clock running in pack up, estimate actually having about 17 minutes at the end of the game.
Player Grading
Time Management: 6, I was keeping pace but not pulling ahead. A time win would have been difficult.
Scenario Awareness: 8, had a solid scenario plan that was used for the win.
Spacing and Placement: 7, put Karchev were he needed to be, should have placed Gorman behind the objective and used Hawk in later turn to threaten Abby or the Naga.
Target Priority: 8, made the right targeting choices (Shepherds early on, then Ravagore>Archangel>Carnivean).
Effectiveness: 7, made the optimal choice most of the time. Point off for the Pressgangers on Naga turn.
Cool: 8, Moopstastic.
Grade: B (43)
