Thexus1 (Operating Theatre) - 2x Wrecker, 2x Agitator, 3x Mind Slavers + Drudges, 2x Mind Benders + Drudges, Alexia1 + Controlling dude in Latex, 2x Overlords
Objective: Bunker
There was a pair down, so essentially anyone at the Slam was a potential opponent. This is included a mix of Damiano Kingmaker evilness, Haley 3, Haley 2. Out of that lot, there was only one list I was hoping to avoid, because it was going to be a huge slog if it came up and it's self inflicted as I brought up one of Trebor's creations pre-Slam as test worthy.
Ergo, naturally, Stalingrad time:
Irusk2 (Winterguard Theme) - 2x Destroyer, 2x Mortar, Field Gun, 3x WGI (Max) + UA, 2x WGI (Max), 2x WGI (Min)
Objective: Bunker
Might have the exact unit compositions incorrectly and I'm to lazy to check. There's a ton of dudes.A two hour game it is.
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Deployment: I lose the roll and get given second. Got to appreciate the consistency.
So....yeah.....that's a lot of small bases.
There's walls scattered around the edges of the board. None of them are super relevant in a huge way.
What is relevant is both flags have a forest next to them, there's a block of clouds in the centre which both sides have the means to ignore (Eyeless vs Irusk Feat) which could have some play implications. Lastly, the reason I chose this side ultimately is that the forest/Obstruction allows Thexus to threaten scoring the right flag while staying safe from Mortar shots killing him with Fire for Effect Blast damage. LIVE IN FEAR.
Khador leans toward the left with one unit, because compressing to avoid the ambushers with that many models is haaaaaarrrrrrd.
There's a bunch of proxies (Assassins, Risen, Rifle Corp), it's all Winterguard Infantry.
Irusk, Destroyers and the weapon crews are central, two of the WGI UA's are on the left edge of the block, one on the right.
I retain the same proxies as last time, various metal blood witches as different Drudge fill outs, brown undercoated Kreuger as one of the Cephalyx Slavers.
Thexus, Wreckers, Agitators, Alexia go on the right. Overlords on each extreme flank. Drudge glob fills the space left between those elements.
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Khador 1: Begin the Imperial March! Duh duh duh du da-da du da da. OK, that doesn't really work as text.
After Advance Moves, everything runs up. Seeing my telegraphed right flag plan, a solid brick forms up on the right, binning that plan until much later in the game.
Solid Ground goes up, quite a shock. Fire for Effect pops up on the Mortar.
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Merc 1: Overlords run up on either flank, staying clear out of WGI murder range.
Thexus puts up Deflect and walks up somewhat, Wreckers go to Sac Pawn range on either side.
That's the stuff I care about, after that Risen and Drudges run forward with some spreading out. A bunch of them will die, as they should.
The cloud nearest the Khadoran side goes away.
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Khador 2:The infantry blocks advance forward, shooting down the suicide Risen out front and a Pink Slaver, while most units on the flanks run, keep themselves in the tough bubble of Irusk.
The Destroyers move into the zone, alongside the various artillery they shoot up the left Wrecker, remove most of his health but only take out his right arm.
At the end of the turn the clouds all go away, like you do. Not like my Eyeless Sight army was that concerned.
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Merc 2: Not doing super cerebral planning here, this is going to be a long game. This is feat turn to maximise sprays.
Thexus feats on most of the stuff in the centre and the right, I push one Destroyer back and the other forward into the damaged Wreckers charge range. Thexus then heals the damaged arm, casts Deflection and moves across to the right.
Left wise, I've ambushed the unit of Slavers as theirs some victims in range. Between the left Overlord unit spraying and the White Slavers (Phrasing. Awkward.) charge in and put the unit down to two models (Standard bearer is engaged and obscured by the tree). Three Drudges get created by Prep Surgery.
The Pink and Green Slaver units are in the way of the spray unit and Wrecker. Three of the Green guys get Adrenaled, as Wreckers don't seem to quite kill heavies on their own, or at least it's to dice dependent for my liking. The Green unit then charges one side of the push phalanx I constructed, two of the Adrenal Drudges ding the Destroyer for a bit. The Pink Slavers charge the other side of the WGI wedge, stab more dudes. Both units Prep Surgery multiple times (You can see the lines made quite clearly by the Drudges in the pic). The Purple unit then advances, pop forward three sprays and leave only a few of their targets alive. Finally, an Agitator moves up and Instigates, the Wrecker charges in and eats the Destroyer.
Alexia stays back behind my objective, living the dream of corpse collection.
On the right, The Overlord/Ternion unit sprays down a bunch of Winterguard on the right, though they go a bit higher on the miss/tough ratio than I'd like (i.e they each only killed 3 or 4 models).
I'd really been hoping to see how long the turn took, so naturally I bungled the photo and glared out the clock. Oh well, it felt very quick for how much I got done.
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Khador 3: He that lives by the Spray.....
The left most unit with UA got kaputted before it could participate, that leaves the two central units though, who come in and obliterate most of the Slaver Drudges that had gone into the phalanx. A few do survive, as the 6 inch range has a number of limits.
The WGI on the right do various CRA's and pop the Ternion Overlord unit, like you do.
The various Artillery bits go, manage to finish off the Wrecker that had come in.
Irusk chills out, feats, ensuring he gets my remaining Wrecker.
As the very last activation of the turn, the remaining Destroyer aims and hits Alexia. Does 10 damage, one points more than the Risen and health boxes could absorb. She fails her tough roll and stares at me in sadness as the dice marking the max corpse generation go into the box.
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Merc 3: The Monstrosity runs directly toward Irusk, getting him just in Hex Blast range. Unfortunately I have to kill at least one out of two Winterguard to free up the line of sight, I recognise to late that with the feat I lack any attack that can get in. I could ostensibly do it with two Hexblasts, ultimately I feel that I can still swing attrition my way and that having Thexus on no camp will lead to him dying to Mortar Blast damage. Ergo, Thexus ends up just chilling in Sac Pawn range with Deflection up.
Left wise, the White Slavers (Yeah.....I'm going to paint those guys a lot sooner now) mostly just stumble through the forest, fail to kill the Standard Bearer, Surgery the other member of the unit into another Drudge (They exceeded their movement size immediately, so some Blue Benders had to be roped in).
Centre wise, the Overlords move across and do a few sprays. The Pink and Green Slavers charge in, they kill some Winterguard. The Green unit recovers its numbers pretty well, the Pink unit is less successful.
The few remaining Risen just run up into the back end of the zone.
On the right, where my remaining pieces are more limited, an Agitator runs up as an expendable piece while Mind Benders move up behind him.
Khador 4: Hmm....no photos. This might be a struggle.
The few remaining centre Winterguard and Kovnik Joe free up the Drudges near the artillery.
The artillery pew pew, they clear out most of the Drudges in the centre and do a long shot down the back that kills the Purple Mind Bender Cephalyx unit leader (When Drudge Command 4 comes up it's rarely good). The Green Slaver Drudges are wiped out now.
The Destroyer, having had its path cleared, charges the Objective with max focus. Flubbs the rolls hard, leaves it alive on three boxes. The Khadoran mechaniks that assembled him were doubtless brutally killed for their failure long after the battle.
I still have various Risen, the Dominator and a couple Drudges in the zone. Accepting clearing the zone wasn't going to happen, Irusk walks back to be behind the obstruction, looking to head toward the right flag to score.
On said right flag, two WGI kill the Agitator, then it takes the next half a dozen to kill the nearest Bender Drudge.
Merc 4: The remaining Agitator moves up and Instigates. I screw up with the Monstrosity, essentially misplaying a rule I played in error on Monstrosities in the past (Thexus arcing doesn't give them focus from damage, has to be an attack or continuous effect. It's embarrassing how many times I did that.). Exulon ends up just chilling back and putting up Deflection. By dint of my screw ups, the Wrecker goes into the Destroyer minus a focus off what he should be. He slaps the Destroyer a few times, sadly fails to kill or get the cortex, so I was sad at the time. It transpires in the next turn that I crippled both arms, so that was actually quite reasonable. The Purple Mind Benders charge the Destroyer to try to kill it off, they roll poorly (Though dice -9 isn't great in any event).
The Overlords shuffle around, do a spray or two to kill the last few central WGI that aren't engaged by Risen.
White Slavers run around, kill the Standard Bearer, one goes into the Objective and does five points. A couple engage the Artillery pieces.
Far right, the Mind Benders advance and Concussion Pules twice, kill all the WGI over their bar one.
Khador 5: Kovnik Joe clears off one artillery piece, as I didn't really get many Drudges in to engage, slowed by the forest and a need to keep activation times low. Another frees itself by taking a free strike and using the Take Up rule. Silly artillery rules.
The Destroyer manages to kill the Objective, then hits the Wrecker a couple times. Artillery kills a few of the White Drudges and one of the Overlords. Irusk moves toward the right flag, alongside the last WGI they kill the remaining Blue Drudge and the Cephalyx unit leader.
Merc 5: The Wrecker gets Instigated and easily kills the Destroyer with his initials.
The remaining Pink Slavers and Purple Benders charge the Khador Objective, they spike unreasonably and easily kill it.
The White units limps onward, they kill Kovnik Joe and some of the Artillery Grunts.
The Risen Press Frward, the Dominator and a pair of them run to contest the right flag, the Ceph in the forest at the four inch mark. One Risen is stuck with the last WGI in the zone, manages to kill him, which saved some Purple Drudges having to do it.
The zone is cleared, so Thexus toes the zone.
I go to 3 CP and have one minute and four seconds left.
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Khador 6: Irusk and the last WGI kill the two Risen around the zone,they can't get to the Dominator. He Energizes to the flag anyway. Their isn't anything Khador can do to realistically pull it out now, Thexus is unkillable and I can easily clear the zone on my next turn. The Artillery do pot shots and mess up the Wrecker, nothing gets into the zone and go to 5 CP's, Khador left with 34 seconds.
So......that happened......Such infantry. Much wow?
I enjoyed that quite a bit, can't see that style of game happening very often. Will run the Drudge a few more times, optimistic on it at the moment so lets watch that slowly dissipate into the inevitable void that follows us at all times, being unstoppable and beyond comprehension.
After the game, I was initially under the impression that I didn't pursue the Hexblast plan sufficiently, in hindsight I'm content with the moves made. I don't necessarily need the Wreckers to kill opposing heavies, they just do it the most efficiently, they are still better spent doing that than arc noding in this instance where I have the necessary special rules to punch through the tough anyway.
Multiple play errors in terms of not ideal activations, that's an inevitable aspect of the list, though ideally those screw ups get saved for the expendable pieces.
