Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Battle Report: pAsphyxious v. Strakhov 35pts

I had an awesome game today at the Toy Soldier against my friend Mitch. He's been playing Warmahordes way longer than I have, so I was a bit intimidated. Among the several armies he plays, Khador is his favorite; and that's what he played today. I played with pAsphyxious and brought a fairly straightforward list with 2 nightwretches, min Bane Thralls with UA and Tartarus, and a reaper/siren/WSC combo. Gorman provided cover and the skarlock ate dick.

Mitch played Strakhov, who I'm not too familiar with despite being the first Khador caster I played against. He brought a spriggan and a devastator...gross. Winterguard Riflemen with Gregorovich, Greylords, and a wardog. He also had some nasty Iron Fang Uhlans. Those are awesome models...

I won the roll to start with a 6 and chose to deploy second. I've been trying this lately thinking I can take advantage of Cryx's speed. I really don't think its worth it. I'm gonna choose first from now on. Deployment was fairly straightforward. My reaper wasn't placed in a very useful spot but it turned out to work in my favor.

The first round was simple advancement. I got Scything Touch up on my Bane Thralls with the Skarlock and put some cloud effects out. Not much happened.

Round 2 started off with a bang, my Bane Thralls got charged by the Uhlans and one of my nightwretches was also hit by an impact attack. All in all, I didn't lose much. 2 Bane Thralls made their tough roll while another died. Commander Borscht sang songs for the Motherland and the Skarlock took 10 boosted shots to the face. Okay that's an exaggeration, he took a few and they also wrecked a Nightwretch. The Greylords moved through some forests and presented a threat next turn with their spray templates. But now I'm getting ahead of myself.

I charge the Uhlans with Bane Lord Tartarus and decide to go shithouse. My thresher hits 2 of the Uhlans and my nightwretch and one of my banes. I kill both Uhlans and the Bane, and leave the Nightwretch severely crippled. I created 2 Banes and placed them 3 inches ahead, in prime chargin' range of the Spriggan. I decided to focus boost the Nightwretch and run him into the Greylords to engage/annoy the leader.

Now, here's where I probably fucked up. Maybe not. I only really had 3 Banes in charge range of the Spriggan and didn't think I could wreck it, so I decided to use them as a front line and countercharge next turn. That's really all that happened that turn.

The Spriggan shot some grenades at my Banes and with some really lucky scatters the blast hit my standard bearer, killing him. In a total moment of noobness I hadn't left another Bane within an inch, so they all lost Tough =[  I took a lot more shots from the Winterguard, but luckily my banes/Gorman were concealed by a cloud and it took quite a few shots to kill anything. Gorman lived with 2 damage and another bane died. Tartarus also took some major beef brisket, leaving him with 2 damage left. Strakhov moved up and took 3 shots with his bullshit cannon, but luck kept tartarus alive. Next turn I would have my revenge.

This turn, and ultimately the game, probably could've ended in 1 activation. But I felt like I had to be sure. The first thing I did was harpoon the Spriggan, boosting my hit and damage rolls. I only did 2 or 3 damage with the Harpoon, but that was enough to reel him in. The Withershadow Combine was quite ready to charge in, but a Bane Thrall stood in my way. I activated the Thralls next and charged 5 at the Devastator, and 1 each at a Greylord. Good times were had on the Devastator, but genenerally mediocre rolls and the fact that I hit separate columns on each roll left him with full systems. This especially sucked because now he was ready to blow up 5 of my Thralls. Sadface. One of the Thralls managed to kill a Greylord while the other whiffed.

Now that the charge lane was cleared, I charged in the Withershadow Combine to hopefully wreck the Spriggan. P+S 13 + 4d6 is pretty nuts, not to mention I had debuffed him down to ARM 17. Admonia delivered the killing blow and I spawned my very own Seether. This left me with some interesting options as to how I could proceed.

I decided to activate Tartarus and go for it. I charged Strakhov but made contact with the dog first. Tensions were high as he took his counter-charge attack, seeing as Tartarus only had 2 damage left. The dog ended up hitting and I shit myself. Luckily for me, he rolled a 1,1,2 on the damage roll. Safe. I took a thresher attack at the dog and Strakhov. The dog took 9 damage, taking him out of the picture. Then it was Strakhov time. Luckily, he had used up all his focus last turn boosting attack and damage rolls. I barely hit him, but the hit was hard. Something like 6,6,5,4. Strakhov was reduced to a puddle of gore and Tartarus earned the name Bane Lord Awesomesauce.

Warmachine Cryx Bane Lord Tartarus
You done good.

Overall the game was awesome. I was fairly intimidated at first but in the end I had a pretty firm victory. Winterguard Riflemen are really quite nuts, and they became a huge concern for me. I think the main thing I learned is not to let people go first. Especially with Cryx. I hate having to be on the defensive, that's what I should be making my opponent deal with. No more of that. Especially considering I have a knack for start of the game rolls, it's almost always my decision and by god I'm going first.