Tuesday 25 June 2013

Journeyman Battle Report 35 Points pButcher vs pStryker

Last match for this month and I was feeling really fired up for this game, given that if I won this game I'd be well on my way to boosting up the table again. Just so you can see how the table is at the moment here it is.

Image

We're using the Privateer Press painting point guidelines and points are awarded as such: Win = 3, Draw = 2, Loss = 1. Currently I am sat 4th with a potential 28 painting points and 3 gaming points to go on, so really I wanted the win for this game. Getting back to the game, my opponent announced he was using pStryker for this match, which I wasn't greatly worried by, it just meant my opponent's army was more versatile than if he'd chosen to take eStryker (in no way am I saying eStryker is a bad caster, I got completely caught out and lost by caster kill as I forgot about Velocity, oops...).


Month 4 Scenario - Steam Roller Scenario 5: Incursion, three flags placed in the middle of the board at 12" intervals, at the end of player 2's first turn a flag is removed. Scoring begins at the end of player 2's second turn, 1 CP for controlling, 2 for Dominating, with Killbox in effect.



Khador
pButcher (+6WJPs)

Drago (8)

Man O War Shocktroopers - Max Unit (9)
Man O War Demo Corps - Min Unit (6)
Iron Fang Ulhans - Min Unit (7)
Kovnik Markov (4)
Fenris (With Dismount) (5)

I only realised after the game that I was running my list two points short, I had been planning to use the Iron Fang Kovnik, for his Shield March * action, but as he has yet to arrive in the post I didn't have the card so couldn't field him.

Cygnar

pStryker (+6WJPs)
Squire (2)
Reinholdt (1)

Ironclad (7)
Charger (4)
Lancer (6)
Hunter (6)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (6)
UA (2)
Black Thirteenth (4)
Journeyman Warcaster (3)

A rather jack heavy list at 35 points, but then again it's Cygnar and the list does have the journeyman warcaster and Gun Mages marshaling if necessary, also as I play Khador my reckoning is that any army with over 2 jacks is jack heavy.

Roll for deployment went to me, I chose to deploy second. My opponent deployed the Ironclad, Charger and the Lancer in a line with Stryker, Reinholdt and the Squire huddled behind them, the Gun mages deployed on the left flank, with the Journeyman, leaving the Black Thirteenth deployed on the right flank. I then deployed my Man O War Shocktroopers in Shield Wall, with the Demo corps spread slightly behind them. Butcher then deployed to the right of the wall with Drago just in front, The Ulhans and Markov deployed to the left of Butcher and Drago and Fenris deployed on the right of the MoW wall. My opponent then advance deployed his Hunter close to the Journeyman.

Cygnar Turn 1

Stryker allocated a point of focus to all the jacks apart from the Hunter, which got a focus from the Journeyman, then the Ironclad ran towards the objective opposite Fenris, stopping just short of a wall, the Charger stopped an inch behind the Ironclad. The Lancer then activated and ran to the other end of the wall, the Gun mages ran towards the right hand board edge, leaving the Black Thirteenth to run down over to the left side, with Stryker activating casting Snipe on the Charger and then walking behind the Ironclad, with Reinholdt and the Squire walking into base to base with them, Journeyman then walked towards Stryker casting Arcane shield on him to end the turn.

Khador Turn 2

Fenris activated and ran around a ruin so he would be potentially in charge range of anything going for the right most objective. The Shocktroopers ran forward, with the Demo corps running behind. The Ulhans activated running around a forest to postion themselves to grab the left most objective next turn, with Markov running in behind them. Drago then activated running behind the front Shocktrooper, with Butcher running just behind.

We then rolled to see which flag disappeared and the middle flag was removed, making the game blow wide open.
 
Cygnar Turn 2

The Journeyman upkept Arcane Shield and Stryker upkept Snipe, with Stryker putting 3 focus on the Charger, and the jourenyman putting his remaining 2 focus on the Hunter. The Hunter activated and walked forward towards the right objective taking a shot at Fenris, missing due to the DEF buff Fenris got from cover. The Charger then activated walking onto the right objective  taking both shots at Fenris, nearly forcing a tough roll which Fenris passed to stay mounted. The Ironclad then walked up and next to the right objective, now making it three jacks within 4" of the flag. The Gun mages walked back towards Stryker, then the Lancer activated walking further towards the left board edge, shielding the Black 13th who advanced just behind. Stryker then activated running forwards followed by Reinholdt and the Squire.

Khador Turn 2 

The Shocktroopers activated, declaring shield wall and walking into cover of a ruin, the Demo Corps walked in behind them. Fenris activated sacrificing his action to stand up and then proceeded to walk into the Charger putting him in the middle of the three jacks and contesting the flag. The Ulhans walked up the board (I was being cautious given the presence of the Black Thirteenth) with Markov sticking behind them. Drago ran onto the left flag with Butcher running into base to base with it to claim and conceed the first control points of the game (due to Killbox, as Butcher was just under 14" away from the board edge)

Khador 2 CPs Cygnar 2CPs

Cygnar Turn 3

The Gun Mages activated advancing in a line stretching to the back of the Charger, taking shots at the Shocktroopers, all hitting, but failing to get through ARM 21 (even with several Critical Brutal shots). The Charger activated swinging at Fenris, but Fenris made his tough roll, the Ironclad activated and punched at Fenris dismounting him and leaving Fenris out of range of his hammer attack. The Hunter then activated and attempted to cut Fenris down and forced a tough roll which was passed. The Black Thirteenth advanced and shot at the Ulhans taking one down to a box (without Defensive Line they'd have been dead easily), The Lancer then moved forward to shield them again. Stryker then activated walking forward to cast Earthquake on Butcher, failing to hit, then cast it again and missed (my opponents' dice rolls went drastically down hill from here, most rolls came up to 5 at best), leaving Reinholdt and the squire to walk just short of Stryker.

Khador 2 CPs Cygnar 2CPs

Khador Turn 3 - Feat Turn

Fenris activated sacrificing his movement, then measuring his reach I found the closest Gun mage was in his melee range so targetting it Fenris landed a hit killing him and granting a Beserk attack against the Charger, which took out it's hammer arm, with his second initial attack Fenris swung at the Hunter and took out it's cortex. The Ulhans then activated charging the Lancer, knocking it down with the last attack and taking it down to a few boxes, Markov then charged into the Lancer only to be stopped by two badly positioned Ulhans (I was intending to use the Warhead ability of Markov's lance to kill the Black Thirteenth). Then Butcher activated, charging Stryker and popping his feat, hitting with the first swing and dealing a total of 22 damage in the first hit.

 Well, thats the first time I've been caught out like that by Killbox, ah well. After the game I was talking to my opponent and we both said that if my opponent had popped Stryker's feat it would've saved a fair chunk of his army, though the double earthquake is really what killed him, going against pButcher you want as much ARM as you can get otherwise stay outside of the 10" area that is Butcher's charge range, as most things, aside from colossals and gargantuans that get charged by Butcher will die in an actiavation, especially if you cast Fury on him then pop his feat for P+S 19 + 5d6 of damage (averaging at 37 damage in one hit). In terms of how my opponent played, the thing that really hampered him was the middle objective dissappearing, as the list I'm running isn't as worried as I've three cavalry units/solos to run and grab objectives, whereas my opponent lacked the mobility and had his army committed to one objective which Fenris then contested brilliantly.

Two weeks until the next Journeyman month starts up, I'll try to get a post a week up, as I'm heavily into tournament painting and practice right now. However in the coming month I've had an offer from a friend who is going to do a few painting tutorials for the blog, so keep your eyes open for the new stuff, it'll be coming on as fast as I can make it. Until then happy gaming to you all, play like you've got a pair and learn from your defeats, you only get to the top of the pile by taking beatings till you learn how to avoid them.

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