Cyphon1 - 2x Wrecker, Warden, Subduer, 2x Agitator, 2x Mind Slavers (Max), 2x Mind Bender (Min), Dominator controlling Alexia1 and Risen "You only exist because of me" she screams
Objective: Bunker
List sure would be easier to improve if it had Brun and Lug in it.
Pick up game into one of the local sweet dudes, bringing out an oldie but goldie that hasn't mauled me for a while:
Vlad3 - Ruin, Juggernaught, MoW Stormtroopers + UA, MoW Koldun, Outriders, 2x Drakhun, War Doge, Kossites (Min)
Objective: Bunker
Scenario is Extraction. I lose the roll, as is the way I get choice of sides. I end up on the side with rubble, a wall and the slightly smaller of the Obstructions. Also a flanking cloud of woo.
Nearly smack centre there's a forest, then on the Khador side there' an Obstruction on the right and some other stuff.
This is going to be tricky. Of all the lists to be playing when Outriders get flung on the board....
Drudges will vaporize without much issue, Ruin stops Gallows plays wherever he ends up. Probably need the Wreckers to kill both Ruin and most of the Shocktroopes.
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Khador 1: Shocktroopers and Juggy move up on the left.
Drakhuns, Ruin with Infernal Machine and Outirders with Hand of Fate.
Vlad stays central.
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Merc 1: Alright, step 1: Kill the Dominator. If he lives, then later in the game an Outrider will pop him and it'll be when the Risen and Alexia need to do actual stuff.
I've deployed with this plan in mind. I'll kill the dude, the Risen will run up as the front line with everything else behind.
All three Overlords attack him in the back.
He lives.
By the power of herniating disks, this is a poor start. Was an 88% play, so it should work perfectly the next 8.8 times I attempt it. So long as we butcher the laws of math probability anyway.
The move out recovery isn't awful, though it isn't what I want. The Warden Slams early, as his movement is the most easily stuff by a poorly placed goober.
Cyphon pops Onslaught and moves up near my objective, the Drudges run up and spread around to at least force the donkeys to use some clock thinking about their many many many murder options.
Benders stay up the back.
One of the Agitators walks over to the Overlords, rolls his eyes at their incompetence and kills the Dominator, freeing Alexia and Risen to run up a short distance.
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Khador 2: The Kossites sensibly ambush from the left, as the Ponies will be unleashing murder cones on the right. I sadly played into this, as my Drudge facing was done a lot better on the right side. Oh well.
Said ambushers mostly aim with a couple advancing, they pop three of the Green Slaver Drudges, all outside of Alexia's collection bubble.
Around the left flag, the Shocktroopers run up in two triangles either side of the flag, the Koldun stays behind near the irrelevant water, the Jugger follows up behind.
On the right, Ruin goes to the right flag, one Drakhun hangs back, the other charges up and stabs the Wrecker for 10 points or so and falls back (Dash granting Parry is lame).
The murder ponies move up, sprays down half the Pink Drudges, an Agitator and a couple Risen then also pop back.
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Merc 2: Ho hum, it's looking glum.
I fumble through this turn without an overall cohesive plan, so that was bad. In particular, while I had thoughts on dealing with the Shocktroopers, Ruin and the Ponies, the Drakhun were just kinda....there....in the way...
On the left, the back Mind Bender Drudge unit sends over a couple grunts who spray down half of the Kossites.
Around the left flag the Green Drudges move around, one runs across to engage a forward Kossite, three get into the Shocktroopers, puts one on a box.
The Wrecker on this side charges into a triangle, kills two and leaves the third on 5 boxes.
On the right, the Bender unit Adrenals three of the Pink Slavers. The out of activation advance of one triggers the forward Drakhun, who kills the buffed Drudge. Doh.
Alexia spawns a thrall, who charges the back Drakhun and does sod all.
The Pink Slavers charge in, pop two of the cav, Grunt advancement forces the the left most one in the forest to be out of command.
The need to kill the Dominator means the surviving Agitator is to far back to do anything effectively.
That makes the random decision to move the Warden to attack the forward Drakhun even weirder. He tries and does sod all. The Wrecker on that side then dismounts him, as I went to max melee range he pops out at a safe spot to not die.
No reason for those Counter Charges to happen. Looking at it, I think the correct play is spawn and move Risen to stop that Drakhun sillyness, something a depressed table could manage. Adrenal Drudges then kill the two Cav. Warden and Subduer, fueled by Risen CMAing in the back then go. Cyphon feats. Warden throws the Nearest Drakhun into the Cav in the forest. Subduer moves up and drags in Ruin, who then gets killed by the Wrecker.
Adrenalled green Slaver Drudges go into the Shocktroopers, the Wrecker on that side uses the Rubble to be safe from the Jugger.
Overlords run across to combat the Kossites next turn.
Oh well, now we know.
The Khador view was that the Shocktroopers should have Shield Walled and just gone to contest range. This would work for me, I jsut skip out on them and kill Kossites/position for next turn.
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Khador 3: The remaining Kossites kill two Drudges near them.
On the left flag, the Jugger goes in and easily slaps away the Wrecker that went into the Shocktroopers. The MoW Koldun joins the Shockies, who shield wall in pairs and kill the Drudges that go into them.
Vlad kills the forward Thrall, falls back to pat the dog.
The unseated Drakhun gets out of the way as Ruin comes and splats the warden, his damage spiking lower than it should have as the Wrecker is mostly fine.
Around the right flag, the mounted Drakhun kills the forward Drudges, freeing the Cav to spray down more fellas.
Khador go to 2 CP.
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Merc 3: Attempt to recover turn! I dislike the options I have to contest. I'm forced to accept that Khador will probably get to four CP in their next turn, then it'll be a desperate gambit trying to stress out Vlad clearing while scoring the left flag and trading minute long turns.
Cyphon feats, falls back. Has to heal the arm of the right Wrecker. Feats. The Agitator advances to the Objective and Instigates.
The Overlords go, one advances out of command on the right, as his Drudge boost to hit bubble doesn't care.
The other two spray down another pair of the Kossites, though the forward most one is apparently immune to sprays. Damnable fieldcraft skills that don't translate as RAT.
Also on the left, the Subduer drags in the Juggernaught, leaves him on about three boxes.
The Benders on that side then Adrenal twice, one each single Drudge Grunt left of both their own unit after the RFPing and the Green Slaver unit.
The Adrenal Bender Drudge goes into the Jugger, fails to finish it off.
The Green Slaver "unit" goes, the Adrenal Drudge (Who I wanted to charge a damaged MoW. Alas.) kills the Jugger. The Ceph leader of the unit charges the one box Shockie, kills him with sweet anatomical precision.
Alexia meanders around with some Risen, three spawn in the back of Ruin and do nothing. Another engages the mounted Drakhun on the right flag. The one behind the dismounted Drakhun gets the Thrall Gold Pass and manages to kill the dismounted Drakhun with a high dice spike.
The Wrecker slaps Ruin into the dirt, takes all his focus.
Back to the right flag, the Ceph Slaver, missing his Drudge flunkies, charges the Outrider leader and surprisingly bins him. Sweet.
The rather reduced Bender unit Adrenals one of its own, who goes into the Drakhun and dings him a bit.
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Khador 4: The Kossite marches into the Darkness, where he will fear no evil nor magic missile. Misses a shot on an Overlord.
Around the left flag, the Koldun and MoW kill the last of the Green Slaver Drudge unit. Two of them Shield Wall up.
On the right flag, Vlad feats, kills Risen the drops back. The Outriders regroup and fall back. The Drakhun clears out the final pieces and stays with the flag.
Khador goes to 4.
Merc 4: Under the clock now, so no pic for this turn. It's the expected end game state, my early clock lead now whittled down to a position of equality as my activation count is excessively higher, though spray attacks tend to even things out.
On the left it's pretty clear. If I can kill one more Shocktrooper and the Kovnik, then there's no viable scoring element on that side, even if I don't kill them all. On the right it'll be far more about hoping for a misplay alas, it's run models in and hope something manages to contest.
Starting on the left flag, it's time for a niche power. The two in command Overlords move up and influence the back Shocktrooper to his the UA in the back. Shockies hit each other quite well, alas they only manage to put him on four boxes.
A little more desperate now, the Agitator walks across and also Influences. The damn Khadoran has a dizzy spell and does no damage. SAD!
The Thrall walks across to try to kill the right most Shocky on five boxes. Puts him on 1.
The Bender leader Adrenals his last Grunt, who walks up to try to pop the same dude, fails to break armour.
So much for the easier side...
The Subduer charges in, as I failed to kill any of the Shocktroopers I have to take a freestrike to get in melee of the Koldun. the attack takes out my Movement and ends the activation.
Well, that's enough of that.
On the right flag, Risen run up to jam spots. One dies to the War Doge Counter charging, couldn't be helped and doesn't matter a great deal as another takes his place. Alexia runs up as well.
The Wrecker charges in, kills the Drakhun.
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Khador 5: In a rush, I've not placed Alexia to contest. The Outriders target the objective to clear out the Risen, Vlad charges and eats the Wrecker.
Khador go to 5, utterly deserved.
Going second was a problem here, though not as much as the shambolic turn 2 planning.
A Wrecker should have led out on the right side of the Obstruction, sprays would just feed him and give potential Hyper Aggressive positions. Psyche is skilled enough that Hyper Aggressiving any big distance would be meaningless as it'd be a Ruin trap, though if it attracts some Drakhuns that'd be fine.
My real problem is that there is no simple adjustment to the list, as that's not how Cephalyx options work. The Subduer is having a rough go of it, though I'll put that down for the moment as the poor devil being the worst heavy to field when Counter Charge is on the models that matter.
At the moment I think it has to be a battlegroup expansion, whilst retaining enough Drudges and Alexia to keep the infantry swarmish element around. The not max Agitators is an issue, though I'm not that phased given that ultimately Cyphon's Wreckers tend to go to fast for them anyway.
