I lucked out at this point and rolled into the Australian Warmachine Unicorn, Menoth piloted by Christastic. The internet has not prepared me for High Reclaimer and 3Kreoss, I drop MacBain so that Gorten can go into the inevitable Legion matchup afterwards.
The certainty that Chris (Who played Reclaimer in round 1 in the Menoth civil war) would also not want to be list locked was a complete failure to take the same judgements I was making in regards to his lists. Who the hell would play High Reclaimer into Legion?!
Thus we get to MacBain vs High Reclaimer. The 'tache versus the Iron Kingdom Orpheus (But better than the original, because he didn't screw it up).
I've played double Press Gangers a lot of late, so much so that only having one ten man unit in a 50 point list felt pretty bad, though it panned out well enough once it hit the table.
High Reclaimer - Devout, Idrians + UA, Gastonne, Zealots + UA, Orin, Gorman, Bastions, Vengers, Bastion Seneschal, Wracks, eEiryss
Objective: Armory
Had my ADR option been available the ideal swap is probably Eiryss out and Bokor in, though by current defaults I'd take out the TAC. I have no context for Menoth list matchups, the High Reclaimer and 3Kreoss pairing felt very different to me and makes ADR very difficult.
In hindsight against this list I don't need Eiryss or even Aiyanna/Holt and Rockbottom. The guns are so few that the right call is also to keep the double Press Gangers around and keep the Kayazy in the sideboard, Countermeasures vs Zealot fire bombs is the same with or without Stealth and I can jsut take a few casualties from the Idrians.
Menoth Deploy: I won the roll and picked sides, lumping the Menoth one with the large forest. That's Gastonne on the left of the Zealots. Eiryss, having decided carrying around a chimney block to stand on was a waste of effort is hiding behind that hedge. The Idrians Prey on Alexia.
Merc Deploy: Kell is on the extreeeeme left. I plonked Eiryss on the right out of uncertainty, she should have just been a part of the Kell/Alexia Snipe-Collect-Go team.
Menoth 1: They're coming right for us! Cloud city happens, Gastonne puts Moving Shadows on himself. Back Wrack explodes.
Merc 1: Two to Galleon. MacBain puts Counter Measures on the Kayazy and Fortune on the Galleon then walks forward. Buccaneer moves to be next to his thin controller. Alexia runs up toward the left, Kell hugs the Unicorn from behind.
TAC run up the right of the Obstruction, Aiyanna/Holt stick near MacBain, as does Orin who pops Anti-Magic out of habit. Rockbottom, Silly and Dougal all hang in the back of the centre, where the latter puts Artillerist on the Galleon and mini-feats.
The Kayazy run out and go into some weird clumps in case there is an Ashes to Ashes move I can't see on the cards.
Galleon walks forward, lines up on the enemy Eiryss, I roll max shots, I need to scatter directly forward to ping her. Six goes, each with a reroll. I fail all of them, one scatter wings a Venger to trigger Battle Driven.
I forgot to activate eEiryss, but there wasn't much she could do in that position anyway.
Menoth 2: Moving Shadows upkept on Gastonne. Idrians move forward in a spread out fashion, four of them get shots on Alexia that do nothing. Gastonne moves up, also shoots Alexia and does a damage point.
Gorman walks up and Clouds, Bastions move around the forest in the centre, Vengers do a spread out pattern so I can't kill the whole unit. Reclaimers walks up and clouds it up.
The Zealots go super conga line style and start running from the left to the right.
Merc 2: Countermeasures upkpt, I drop Fortune and put a focus on the Buccaneer. The Buccaneer runs to the left flag. MacBain feats on the TAC, Orin and seven of the Kayazy, then charges the Buccaneer and Energizes for one to touch the flag.
TAC walk up and cloud, Orin walks behind him and uses Anti Magic.
Aiyanna/Holt/Rockbottom hide behind the Obstruction and do nothing. Dougal hangs with and uses Artillerist on the Galleon.
The Galleon walks up, gets LoS from the right edge to Eiryss, rolls five shots. I again fail to scatter onto Eiryss with re-rolls (The nip guns, they do nothing!). Eiryss futilely sprints forward, but near the end is clearly out of engaging range and tries to fall back into Stealth mode.
The Kayazy charge/run, killing three Idrians with a pair trying to jam the Bastions.
Alexia, having facerolled some souls off the Idrians, rides up and pops two Thrall Warriors. One charges Gastonne and misses, he dodges but doesn't leave melee, the other hacks down the Idrian Scout. Kell then aims and pops off another pair of Idrians, Alexia is now chockers on souls.
Mercs go to 1 CP.
A few screws up for me this turn.
Fail Safe is a waste, I didn't know how much Blessed was in this mob of churchgoers, should have just recast Fortune and moved the Galleon back somewhat, in range to contest the right flag in future turns but out of Venger charge range this turn.
Menoth 3: Moving Shadows upkept.
In the centre, the Bastions edge forward and swing at the pair of jamming Kayazy, they knock one of them down. Orin, Gorman and Reclaimer all go into the forest, the first pops anti-magic, the second clouds up, lastly Reclaimer continues to be all Bespin it up in my face. Reclaimer then feats, spawning back four Idrians.
On the left, Gastonne shanks the Thrall engaging him. The Idrians charge, the Scout tries to go into MacBain and dies to a free strike from a Kayazy. A normal Idrian gets into the 'tache master, a couple go into Kayazy and the last two go into Alexia. The attempted assassin misses, the Kayazy are missed and Alexia takes no damage from a CMA.
On the right the Vengers charges, the front three go into Galleon, the back one saunters around. The Unit leader in the middle tries to charge Eiryss but fails to get the angle. Even worse, the front charges end up out of his command and do no attacks.
Something kills my Eiryss, buggered if I remember what. Menoth Eiryss tried a shot and missed.
The Zealots continue their sprint, arriving at the right sets of flag/Objective.
I'm happy with the feat being used on Idrians, MacBain wasn't going to die to that, I was expecting it to be held until I had no choice but to kill some of the Vengers. I continue to misplace the Galleon, had he walked back he could have used the unkillable TAC to not be charged by the Cavalry munchkins.
Merc 3: Countermeasures and Failsafe upkept. No allocates.
Silly runs up from his strategic planning session at the back to engage the Idrian that tried to stab MacBain. Drake pivots a little on the spot and stabs him dead, then camps four. Buccaneer scratches his ear and shuffles to keep blocking Maccy.
Alexia spawns three Thralls. Two of them kill the Idrians engaging their boss, the last charges the centre leader and kills him. The remaining Thrall spawned last turn misses Gastonne and lets him dodge away. Kell aims, hits Gastonne twice and puts him on one box.
The Kayazy run/charge, killing the last Idrian and engaging Gorman/Orin in the forest and jamming the Bastions.
In the middle, Orin anti-magics, Dougal Artillerists the Galleon. The Colossal then wriggles a bit and shoots two of the Vengers off the table. The TAC charge, two into a Bastion and one into a Zealot. The lunatic Grenadier dies and Sanguine Bond shuffles some damage around.
Mercs go to 2 CP.
Menoth 4: Pic Missed alas, but will my ancestors forgive me? No upkeeps, one allocated to the Devout.
Gastonne, all alone on the left, tries to shoot Alexia twice but fails to do any damage.
In the centre, the Bastionsslash, Gorman stabs, Orin lightnings and the Devout bops away to clear out the Kayazy jamming the infantry and to clear a space for the Reclaimer to get a bead on MacBain for the Spell kill, but he can't quite manage it.
The Zealots pop mini feat and jam on Orin and the Galleon, between them and the Vengers the TAC all die.Eiryss runs onto the hill.
Mercs go to 3 CP.
Merc 4: Countermeasures upkept for free, Galleon gets three focus.
Dougal/Galleon do their thing, Galleon tries to shoot down the opposing objective, rolls minimal shots then fails to hurt it.
One Thrall dies to kill a Wrack. Alexia starts heading to the middle, spawns another pair of Thralls who start going around the back of the Menoth chumps.
Aiyanna/Holt Harm the Bastions, Holt pings them for a little.
The Kayazy pop mini feat and run/charge, the Underboss goes in, Defensive Strike from the Devout kills him. The remaining Kayazy kill Orin and Gorman, Alexia is back to full souls.
Orin antimagics for reasons. Rockbottom makes Aiyanna/Holt tough, walks up and hits three Bastions with his flamethrower, kills the centre one and setting two on fire.
Mercs go to 4 CP.
Alexia really should have run to be next to MacBain/Buccaneer to Vortex away another spell assassination attempts.
Menoth 5: Menoth clock is down to a low amount. One of the Bastions dies to fire. Bastions, Vengers and Eiryss go into the Galleon to try to get some Army Points and fall well short when the clock pings.
Mercs finish up on 5 CP.
Mercs on the left.
