Joltness!
The plan had been to roll a dice for the list I was using at the Journeyman league this weekend and give it a quick whirl, then I was lazy and just plonked down the current Craelxperiment.
Durgen1 - Drillerx2, Blaster x2, Gunner x3, Thor, Aiyanna + Holt, Reinholdt
Objective: Bunker
First game into Treeman, with a renewal of an old nightmare:
Goreshade2 - Harrower? (Crabjack with an AoE), 2x Shooty Nodes, Bane Cav, Bane Knights, 2x Bane Warriors (Min) + UA, 9x Scrap Thralls
Three flags trots out.
Beforehand, this looked like an interesting stress test for just how many infantry models I can kill. Table is forest heavy, so wiping out units will be difficult.
I lose the roll and get given first. My table has an ok hill, shallow water near the centre and a forest irritant on the right. Opposing that the Cryx side has three forests before the mid line, with a lovely hill (I was essentially given first to deny me the juicy hill).
Basic plan is somewhat simple, Durgen holds the middle while the Crawlers activate their flanking specialty for the far out flags. Intent this time is to not drift the Drillers out of Durgens control area again....
My deployment is extremely symmetrical. Matchups pan up as Bane Cav on the left opposite one crawler, Knights, Harrower and Warriors in the centre across from Durgen/Jacks, another Bane Warrior unit across from the right Crawler.
Terrain does nothing for me here, its ghostly as far as the eye can see. Happily the Bane Warrior UA recursion isn't going to do squat.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHdJzvaD4kyUaAeV1TKS-ITYE_7qNLfDNEn-NZKwYsFPpQxlempLam53HJl8pm_tw64kJTYz2SOv_y85ukSf6f5o8RtwymsVpIedfmLVWyje72lQfu1yIIciaeZCjylM2z-uDt1Ren53I/s1600/007+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Merc 1:Force Field/Redline on a Driller, everything moves up. Skarath/Commodore Cannon serving as literal paper weights.
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Cryx 1: Banes upon Banes run forward, the Knights get Occultation, Goreshade goes behind the Jack on the hill (Happened after the pic). Two of the Bane cav stick behind the left side forest, they recieve Mirage.
The nodes divide a flank between them and also hide behind the forests.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkmcA5MGZVqTpOjIWr3N_IQt3o1Zgj2VTALz0xFjP38jZKGzJMvjdDu_vReDkj08jvRGa53yj6V0jknu0sJO05fZlpIsQZ4yMZgIoAMWHwQrwWNvqWSOie3M0TC7tltKXk_Nj-Z__JOTk/s1600/010+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Merc 2: I really want to kill the Bane Cav, but even if the Left/Snakey Crawler moves as far to the left as he can at best I leave one Cav man (Well, necromantically powered corpse man thing) alive.
It's feat turn with the goal of killing all the Bane Knights and anything that can reasonably threaten the Crawlers next turn. Feated back models can't attack, which'll leave me some tricky thinking and spray placement to clear stuff off, but if enough stuff lives Durgen should be able to turn the tide again.
The Gunner wall advances first to make space for Gorten, they ping the Harrower, doing some damage and setting him on fire.
Durgen then advances after the reload, key thing is he's the model I need to kill the trio of Knights on the far left of the unit, who are hidden from the Crawler by the forest of inconvenience. I stupidly centre it on the nearest model, him being the one in range, when I should have targeted the out of range guy behind him. In any event, I feat and my scatters are bad enough to make it irrelevant. Durgen clears off three Knights in the centre, but completely fails to get the relevant models.
I had a moment here, then decided I needed to kill as many knights and cav as possible to blunt the Cryx strike next turn.
The Drillers move up, Thor repairs the Red Lined one, one Blaster hangs back for clearing out duty, the other advances, hits a Knight but fails to kill it.
On the left, Aiyanna/Holt harm the Bane Cav and kill one, they end up hitting a slab on the hill.
The left Crawler moves to barely contest, shoots down the other two visible Cav courtesy of Durgens feats. Those AoE attacks are very reliable on Durgens feat turn. Well....on that one anyway...
The Cannon/Right side Crawler also goes to contest range, kills the two Banes Warriors in charge range, along the way Crit Staggering a Knight. I like Crit Stagger in that when it goes off, I don't generally have to care if it doesn't break the infantry's armour on the blast.
Well, it was....somewhat of a feat turn? Killed the three easily available Bane cav, the two remaining will get to go into the Crawler, my expectation is they'll take off half its health, which is fine.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtUqBWZ7yuVVyHv3IqhgB0fHhwJmggkk66qNuiXA9KnhmZyBOAWmeO1Ibn5tb7v6pQmsg_RtKRbFKtyvOOiyC4Y3kObgwm5faM1ivKWUnD56-bLsTLJb2TEl5dml4ZMshC9MLpNboXues/s1600/011+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Cryx 2: Fire knocks off the Harrowers Gun and kills a Bane Knight. Successful Field Marshalling! Only took three games!
Logajon decides to charge his Banes in, then feat pop back stuff around in engagement positions. My models squeak in fear, for with one exception they are not men.
On the right, the Warrior unit there runs forward, two engage the Cannon Crawler and that's pretty much that.
Centre wise, the Knights slam into the Gunners, they all roll well enough to take out the Cortexes of the left and right examples. The Harrower follows up behind them and goes to the flag. Behind him the Warrior Reserves march up.
Up back, Goreshade moves up, feats back the Knights, Cav and one Warrior. One Crap Thrall was out of Control and remains, meaning my feat turn resulted in a net.....two kills? Three? A necessary but lame exercise. Shademan then puts Occultation on himself and arcs Curse of Shadows at the left/hands-off Crawler, rolls to hit, gets 1.....and a 2. Damn you defence 9.
On the left, the Bane Cav then charge in and put the Snakawler on 1 box. NOT IN THE PLAN.
The Various feated back models are placed jammed well and truly around my centre block.
I wasn't to confident of doing well at this point....
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Merc 3: The priorities are simple, re-kill as many Cav and Knights as possible, score on the side flags.
If ever there was a time for Ground Zero, this was it. Except I couldn't do it without killing most of my own junk, so I was saved from that indignity.
Both Drillers get an additional focus, Redline is upkept, Force Field is dropped like a bad habit. Well, not really, most bad habits are actually hard to get rid of, addiction is a severe thing.
Easy activation first, the right Crawler Bulldozes Bane Warriors into the right spots, then opens up. One Warrior is Bulldozed behind, far enough away that he doesn't matter for contesting. I roll max shots on the Gatling Gun. I then roll awfully and kill two of the five Warriors I needed. Land Submarine fail.
The right most Gunner shuffles across, then gets thrown directly away by the Red Lined Driller. This kill three clumped up Knights and smears the Gunner across the Harrower. This then allows the forward most Blaster to move up and kill the Warriors the Crawler failed to deal with.
Aiyanna Harms the Cav, Holt goes Berserk, killing two Knights and one of the cav.
Thor shuffles around and tries a beleaguered stab for nought. The back Blaster then aims and kills two more Knights.
The Left Snakler goes, Bulldozes the engaging Bane Cav mostly on the hill and moves to the left flag, though sadly can't get in to engage the arc node sitting on the flag. It spins around, kills one of the hill Cav, does an AoE on the Cav chump in the centre forest, blowing up him and a couple other Banes in glorious fashion.
Two Bane Cav where left, one on the hill, on engaging the left Driller.
I ran Reinholdt to a specific spot south of the hill, allowing the Driller to throw the Bane Cav at his fellow without hitting Aiyanna/Holt. Neither died, but they were knocked down now.
Durgen needed to get away from the Harrower anyway, so he falls back and buys melee attacks to kill those last Bane Cav.
Mercs go to 1 CP.
I only scored once, but otherwise this was an amazing turn for me. I've lost a Gunner and have a one Box Crawler, but the Cryx army is now looking very lean.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqazflobDpqq54AJHoSFgKqckP2T-3f4t-t2TVKrl70yCOtSiblar4hvoYyO0LjOJx82HEWZpXanOqxRM6RAsUWoSxSOQxTI2NEVMicfvbfm00TNmuI6Pa81LIA814dDxhS5f_TBEVi2E/s1600/013+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Cryx 3: Fire goes out on the Harrower, sadness.
The Node on the left aims at the giant chunk of Dwarfen Metal. Represented by a bit of Card and a Snake. Hits with ease, boosts the damage roll and kills it.
The Centre Banes charge around, dinging the Red Lined Driller, killing the Gunners and taking out the forward Blasters Cortex.
The Harrower then charged into the water and easily killed the Red Lined Driller.
On the far right the last Bane Warrior on that flank walks into contesting range and does three points to the Cannawler.
Cryx levels the score at 1 CP.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifkfv_GrzjZyVKPC0CIB4D5iboyWR1Sj93svuZLuF_Gw8MmjF0lIWJ8LgmUjGMfuCkAkIRHqp2dtQOAmLwNgsBv2XCglRsgEsxTGx6SFLVCxflkjdwWqrTj9SZOaNB7Haj_otxE-Zjri4/s1600/014+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Merc 4: The path to victory is very clear, try to kill every model bar Goreshade, stay out of assassination range.
Aiyanna/Holt/Thor/back Blaster all clear out the centre Banes. Well, Thor fired his flamethrower, he misses all three aimed attacks, so lets just say he gets the participation award and not the medal.
Now freed up, the Driller with a full focus load charges the Node on the left flag and polishes it off with his.
On the right, Crawlererer Bulldozes the Bane Warrior, shoots him down then combined with the damaged Blaster cranks out the 8's to hit to knock the Arc Node system off the remaining Bone Jack.
Lastly, Durgen backs up, does two Armour Piercing Shots to kill the Harrower. Marvelous.
Mercs go to 3 CP.
I'm out of range of any spell assassination, the best Cryx can do is contest one flag and make me face roll another turn without needing to do anything, so that's game.
Few errors here in hindsight:
-Probably ran the Drillers to far forward top of 2. They were fine, but looking at it in hindsight there's a possible Cryx play of run Arc Node, do the Place Spell, send the Harrower into it.
-Straight up forgot about Reinholdt stripping Stealth. The assassination
isn't viable unless the Crawlers are in range which looks untenable, but there you go.
-I was weighing up if my feat timing was correct, going with yes. Gun fighter on the jammed up turn would have been nice, but weighed up against the Bane Cav getting more charges into the left Crawler or that sides Driller means I think I erred on the correct side
Three flags is selling me on two Crawlers, but weirdly makes having one distasteful. Will need to try the more compressed scenarios, but if I had half a pairing weak to spread out zones this wouldn't be terrible.
Contemplating a double Crawler Magnus 2 list as well, with a support battlegroup letting him just throw out Calamity on junk.
