Hurriedly pulled out MacBain!, my current Khador drop.
The evil that is Claws of the Dragon emerged.
MacBain - Galleon, Buccaneer, Silly Wisheshewasafishmonger, Aiyanna/Holt, 2x Press Gangers(Commies/Smurfs), TAC, eAlexia, Grogspar, eEiryss, Dougal, Orin, Tinker, Kell, Rockbottom
Objective: Effigy of Valor
More than a bit filthy with myself here. Accidentally mixed up some of the ADR cards in so played five points up. Given the scenario and the opposing list, dropped models would have been Tinker and the TAC (Buccaneer/Sylyss would be a possible alternative).
pButcher (Claws Tier 4) - Doge, 2x Kodiak, 3x IFP + Black Dragon UA, 2x IFP Kovnik, Uhlans (Min)
Objective: Arcane Wonder
We talked about it a little bit while we were dragging out the figurines, this pairs with Vlad3 currently, had Kayazy been present on my side then Butcher wouldn't be the drop. I haven't given a huge deal of thought to the Kayazy effect, a side effect of having a single battle plan with the Kayazy for a specific faction drop so I'll have to mentally explore that a bit (ADR: You only think you've worked it all out because you're wrong....)
About halfway through Ed pontificated that 3Vlad would have been the better drop anyway, I think in that instance we meet in an ADR tourney I'd drop the TAC to get the Bokur (From memory the 3Vlad list was non tier, had Spray Donkeys, Uhlans, eEiryss, Great Bears, no Conquest, other stuff I don't know of).
Net ADR thoughts from this one:
1) Don't be a cheating scumbag. I'm contemplating making an ADR specific folding tray, which will have both lists sitting in sections then the specialists will go in their own named spots so I don't ever do this again and can make the swaps relatively quickly at the beginning of rounds.
2) Kayazy to go in against lists without a to hit fix. This is ameliorated by Piper being in Gorten, so no Dirge. I could change Gorten to 4*, but the Gun Mages fit with my Gorten playstyle better.
3) Against lists with High quality shots instead of quantity, the TAC sub out for the Bokor (Specifically thinking Gorman blinding the Galleon or eEiryss knocking off upkeeps/stripping Focus off MacBain)
Khador Deploy: Edezor won the roll, in spite of there being a hill on the table he picked first (This is unprecedented in our games where he wins the roll).
Merc Deploy: Kell/Eiryss/Alexia seem a natural team up to me (One wound armour vs 3 Snipe attacks for maximum soul collection). That forest was also perfect as a blocker from flanking or running to engage around my Press Gangers.
Khador Advance Move: Nearly everything shifts up, ready to terrorise.
Khador 1: The middle IFP pop Iron Zeal and surge out the front, the other two units get Shield march from the Kovniks and advance up under Shield Wall.
The Kodiaks wall up with the Objective, Butcher moves into Fort Kodiak then places Fury on the Uhlans and Iron Flesh via Khador Arc Node on the centre IFP unit.
The Uhlans ride to the left.
Merc 1: Allocation is for chumps.
MacBain! goes first; feats, places Fail Safe on the Galleon, advances and Fortunes up Eiryss. Feat targets are Alexia, Grogspar and nine Press Gangers (Including both Lass').
Alexia rides up the right to absorb some Khador Souls. Eiryss moves in next to Kell, pings one of the forward skirmish IFP unit to knock of Iron Flesh and feed one to Alexia. Kell then snipes out two of the IFP from the right Shield Walled unit.
Dougal puts Artillerist on the Galleon. Aiyanna/Holt move up, she lands Harm on the Skirmish unit and Holt shoots one down.
Galleon then moves to the left to see around the Press Gangers, shoots down a good chunk of the skirmish unit.
Both Press Gang units go in, the Commies on the left take out a Shield Wall member of the left unit, otherwise they just jam up. Grogspar jogs up after them.
TAC run up in a line in front of MacBain, Rockbottom runs up, Orin advances and pops Anti Magic, Buccaneer lumbers forward.
Khador 2: Fury Upkept.
Uhlans flank hard out to the left.
Centre IFP wiggle around but can't do much.
Kovniks Iron Shield the left and right IFP units.
Left IFP pop Iron Zeal, Shield Wall and advance a few three man pods into the left zone, knocking down two super tough Gangers outside of Grogspar shouting angrily at them range.
Right IFP don't have the same freedom of movement, they kill a few Gangers and only get a single grunt into the right zone.
Kodiak Bunker moves to the left side of the Objective, Butcher puts Iron Flesh on the left unit.
Merc 2: Failsafe/Fortune upkept. Allocation still for chumps (Galleon to far, Buccaneer near Eiryss and not worthy of Focus at this juncture anyway).
Dougal Artillerists and pops Double Powder Rations. Eiryss leaves her wall to walk into the middle of the board, hits one of the left IFP with the Fortune re-roll to knock off Iron Flesh.
Galleon walks to toe the hill, turns to face the Cav and shoots. Well, I definitely roll attack dice and slightly damage one (The Harpoon hit then I rolled the four to match armour, it was less than great).
Aiyanna and Holt move up, they Harm the left IFP and kill one with a shot.
Commies on the left finish off the last IFP from the most forward pod, the Lass seduces one to walk away from his buddies and get flailed to death by a Grunt.
Smurfs on the right flail ineffectually, Lass seduces an IFP to advance and present his side to Kell.
Alexia rides in, puts down three Thralls in the right zone.
Kell shoots two of the right IFP (Including the one who had a brief and torrid love incident). The Three Thralls charge into IFP, the one that goes for a centre unit Pikey hits and shred him, so Alexia is on three souls again.
TAC advance, two Cloud, the left most one throws an optimistic fire bomb at a Kodiak, said positive perspective is proved invalid by the lack of Crit. MacBain walks up, Energises for 1 to toe the zone, Buccaneer walks up behind him. Rockbottom runs, Orin advances and uses Anti-Magic.
Tinker sprints to try to stop the Cav murderising the Galleon.
Mercs go to 1 CP.
Khador 3: Fury Upkept.
The Uhlans charge into the Commies in the left zone, killing a few of them. The Left IFP advance into the zone, I get very lucky with my toughs, the LASS especially defies the odds.
The few IFP in the centre unit shuffle across. The Kodiaks advance up the middle and Vent Steam, shielding the Objective and Butcher. The clouds also kill a Smurf and a Central IFP.
Butcher tries to put out Iron Flesh, but is stopped by Orin's na-ah field.
The right IFP Shield Wall, two go into the zone, CMA on Alexia, crit knock her down and do two damage. They also kill a pair of Thralls and a Smurf or two, again the Lass model bumbles through life achieving great success.
Merc 3: My phone, sensing the dismal level of ability I am about to show, decides to take a crapper photo than normal. Clock was also starting to run down, so I snapped this hurriedly as Ed was finishing his turn up.
Failsafe/Fortune upkept.
Aiyanna moves up and onto the hill, she Harms the Cav. Holt shoots one dead.
Dougal Artillerists the Galleon, who advances onto the hill, shoots the Cav and the three man IFP Pod in the left zone dead.
The Commies go, three Pikies remain in the left zone. She seduces one, who goes back and kills the Kovnik, another Commies punches another to death. One IFP, the officer, remains in the left zone.
The Smurfs have their turn on the merry go round, two Pikemen are in the right zone. One is seduced away by the Lass. Two Smurfs go into the Officer in the left zone, one misses, the other hits and puts him on two boxes.
Alexia stands up, spawns Three Thralls.
Three Thralls and one TAC charge the last IFP and all miss.
Orin Lightnings one of the engaging Thralls in the back, misses, redirected shot goes to a different Thrall, misses again.
Eiryss aims, shoots. Misses. Fortune re-roll misses. Combat redirects the shot to kill the TAC member.
I contemplate the inner mysteries of life.
MacBain and the Buccaneer head to the right side of the zone.
My plans all went off the rails here. I think failing to clear one zone wouldn't have bothered me, but getting zero control points instead of an at least one threw me for a wobble.
The problem for getting rid of the last IFP from each zone is they were already engaging at the start of the turn, so the ranged attacks where getting the combat penalty anyway.
For the right one, the best move is to have Grogspar walk tot he left, walk the TAC around and have each one throw a Flameburst (After the Smurfs activate, so the Lass has seduced his buddy away already). They need 6's, if they do kill or knockdown the Lass that leave Kell free to walk up and pop him (Grogspar needs to walk to get No Sleeping On the Job away from the Lass with tough, Kell needs to walk because Alexia needed to stand up and have an action to drop Thralls). Backups after that can be Eiryss, Thralls, Orin.
I had planned on Eiryss bombing the Kodiaks, but the need to take an aimed shot knocked that possibility out of the way.
Khador 4: No Pic due to time constraints. Right Kodiak gets three focus.
Butcher falls back, casts Full Throttle.
Right Kodiak tramples, kills Thralls and Smurfs, then buys attacks to kill Eiryss.
Left Kodiak tramples, kills the Smurfs that were on the left and gets into that sides zone.
The few IFP that remain screw around but don't do to much.
Merc 4: Imagine an image, cause it ain't appearing. Failsafe upkept for free, two focus given to the Buccaneer.
Galleon goes and toes the left zone. Tinker and Commies flail a little.
Kell aims, one shots the right side Kovnik then pops an IFP.
On the right, the Buccaneer slams a pair of IFP and kills them both. Alexia spawns a load of thralls that surround the Kodiak near the right zone. Last few smurfs do very little. Aiyanna and Holt move up, don't achieve much.
A few more IFP are hacked down by TAC and Thralls.
Mercs go to 2 CP.
Khador 5: Like the beach, no picture is presently here. Right Kodiak gets a focus.
Right Kodiak tramples, killing a pair of Thralls, taking some free strikes and toes the right zone. Butcher runs up toward the same zone, the War Doge sticks behind him.
I'm out of time here, but if that wasn't a factor I think I still win on scenario from here. MacBain drops back to the corner of the right zone, Buccaneer repositions with Energizer if needed to Slam the right Kodiak away, Alexia creates Thralls to hold up said Kodiak/Butcher, Orin anti-magics, the Galleon walks backwards to drag the left Kodiak out of the other zone. Only one Kodiak can then go into Galleon without leaving minimal contesting, with Butcher feat the Khador Jack does half the Colossals health in an activation which means little with Failsafe around.
Merc 5: Down to a couple of minutes, two focus goes on the Buccaneer.
Buccaneer Assaults Butcher, free strike from the last IFP anywhere near the area crits and knocks him down.
A Thrall kills the offending model waaaay to late. Aiyanna/Holt/another Thrall damage the Objective as rote actions while I try to find a way to get relevant stuff on Butcher. Orin tries to stab a model out of desperation.
Alexia with one soul charges Butcher, I clock out.
The plan was for the Buccaneer to knock Butcher down, then MacBain charges, does three full boosted attacks at POW 15 (Gang from the warjack), then Alexia goes in with two attacks, both weaponmaster, the first a charge. The knockdown put the Buccaneer in a sufficiently bad spot that I couldn't even get both models in after it.
Better ways to do this turn:
I have to kill Butcher, my clock and low CP's nullify the chance for a scenario win.
The Thrall starts by killing the IFP model of death, destruction and my despair (I will think of him as triple-D).
The Buccaneer walks in, Headbutts for the knock down.
Aiyanna/Holt land Harm. Butcher is knockdowned, camping 5 so armour 21 under harm.
I think I can get one charging Thrall, Alexia in with one soul and MacBain with 4 focus in.
Average damage from each is 3, 7 (5 then 2), 12 (3x 4), so slightly better than a coin flip assuming the boosted eight from the headbutt works out (83%).
My belated clock on the left. This model of clock is great in that it can be near permanently set to go for an hour each, the turn buttons are obvious and if you know how they work they are incredibly simple. It is rubbish in that it doesn't sound off when it runs out and it took me a while to realise that the dots flashing between the digits is the sign that it is ticking.
For the game overall:
Galleon was wasted. MacBain! had plenty of focus on those middle turns, which should have been boosting some guns.
Spacing out the Commie Press Gangers at deployment would have given some LoS on turn 1, so I wouldn't have had to move it to the left to shoot the skirmishing IFP. Unusual for it to come up, but good to know.
List matchup wise, even minus my lame cheating points I think I have the list advantage, MacBain's feat blocks up well, Butcher doesn't really have a great use for his feat if I keep the Galleon far enough back and the threat of the Harpoon forces some limits on Butchers positioning.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
