Once again Saturday was upon us and once again Sebastien had to cancel our game. Luckily for me GUGS was invaded by numerous Warmachine and Hordes players so instead I got another game against Sean Murchie and his Skorne. I like playing against Sean, or at least when he's playing his Skorne, our armies are actually very similar - we're both melee retaliation type armies. I use Forfend and he uses Death March. When he charges my army it takes a long time to sort out all the out-of-activation attacks we both get, but at least there's massive amounts of casualties on both sides.
Sean's List: Skorne 499/500
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
Basilisk Krea
Cyclops Brute
Cyclops Savage
Immortals (6)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (4)
Praetorian Swordsmen (9)
Ancestral Guardian
Ancestral Guardian
Andy's List: Highborne Covenant 497/500
Ashlynn d'Elyse
*Mule
Anastasia di Bray
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier
Ogrun Bokur
Rupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Stannis Brocker, Steelhead Commander
Steelhead Halberdiers (8)
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (3)
Deployment:
There's part of a forest and a big rock in my deployment zone, though Sean has a similar set up. Just ahead of the giant rock in my deployment zone is a fence that was really annoying during the actual game. I win deployment thanks to Anastasia and place the majority of my forces between the forest and the giant rock, though I put the cavalry on the far side of the rock in an effort to let them get out and about quickly. Stannis and the Bokur deploy just ahead of the giant rock so that my Steelheads will benefit from his various abilities immediately.
Sean divides his forces to be on either side of the forest in his deployment zone. I immediately see that I can split his forces and go after each half pretty much separately since my army is so much faster.
Turn One:
Everything runs forward, Ashlynn puts Feint on herself and Quicken on the Halberdiers. Stannis once again demonstrates his incompetence with a Hand Cannon and misses a Praetorian Swordsman.
Sean's army advances, he uses Death Bringer to blow up Anastasia almost immediately - there doesn't seem to be somewhere I can leave her without Death Bringer bring a total pain. Hexeris gives the Praetorian Swordsmen Death March.
Turn Two:
The magic starts to happen.
I give the Mule a single focus so that it should get a critical hit. I activate Ashlynn first and use Roulette, she advances and kills an Immortal with her Hand Cannon. Stannis Brocker activates, gives the Halberdiers the Furious Charge order and manages to kill a Praetorian with his Hand Cannon, luckily the Praetorian is too far away to Death March up to my Halberdiers. The Bokur runs towards my left flank in an effort to get out of the Halberdiers' way.
The Mule fires and crits the Cyclops Savage, throwing it a few inches to the right. Rupert Carvolo uses March on the Halberdiers to give them additional movement and four of the Halberdiers charge the knocked down Savage, Hexeris and a couple of Immortals. The remaining Halberdiers move to screen the Praetorians, the Brute and the second Ancestral Guardian from assisting Hexeris.
Finally my Steelhead cavalry advance and take some pot shots at the Praetorians, managing to kill only one despite Roulette.
Sean's turn heralded a flurry of out-of-activation actions. The Cyclops Savage stands up and moves into the middle of the four attacking Halberdiers, taking three free strikes and a Forfend. This leaves it on a measly two health on its life spiral. Then Sean activates Hexeris, uses his feat and then Death Bringers his own Savage, killing all four Halberdiers and the Savage. The dead Halberdiers then move and take swings at my Mule and the remaining Halberdiers, however Roulette and high ARM saves me from any more losses.
The Praetorians advance into the remaining Halberdiers, taking Forfends all over the place and then Death Marching forward to attempt to kill more Halberdiers. At the end of it all I'm left with two Halberdiers and Sean has four Praetorians left. Both his Ancestral Guardians are looking awfully full on souls at this point. The two Steelheads that died both attack my Bokur, dropping the Ogrun down to four health.
The Ancestral Guardian on my left uses two souls to move and then charge my Mule. The animated statue manages to take out the Mule's movement but nothing else despite putting damage all over the place.
Turn Three:
I allocate a single focus to the Mule as I have a Cunning Plan to get it to shoot more things. Stannis activates first promotes a Halberdier, gives Furious Charge to Steelhead Cavalry. The Halberdiers then charge the Ancestral Guardian on the right, I really didn't want that thing to massacre something important since it was almost full on souls. The two Halberdiers manage to drop the Ancestral Guardian to about half its health. I lament their impending deaths. Lord Rockbottom sets fire to a pair of Immortals and I get to chuckle happily.
The Steelhead Heavy Cavalry charge the Cyclop Brute since there's no room to attack the Ancestral Guardian. The Brute dies to their many, many attacks with Flank.
Ashlynn advances to the other Ancestral Guardian since the Mule is in the way and prevents her from charging. She kills it after two attacks, but is perilously close to the Mule, I can sense the incoming Death Bringers already.
My freed up Mule fires at the Krea and gets another critical hit. The Krea, an Immortal and Hexeris are thrown around. The Krea even lands on a Paingiver. Gorman blinds an Immortal by accident after he discovers that Hexeris was just out of Black Oil range.
Sean drops Death March and attempts to assassinate Ashlynn with a couple of Death Bringers at the Mule next to her. First one does no damage, second one deals her 7 damage. The Krea stands up and uses its animus on my Mule. The surviving Paingivers charge Ashlynn and Gorman. Gorman takes a little damage but survives and Ashlynn kills the Paingiver attacking her with a Riposte attack.
The Ancestral Guardian fighting the remnants of my Halberdiers on the right decides it has had enough of this foolishness and ends them. The remaining Praetorians advance out from behind the Ancestral Guardian.
Turn Four:
Hexeris is blatantly within assassination range of Ashlynn. My only problem is that there's a whole load of things blocking my charge lane or generating a movement penalty on her.
I give the Mule a single focus and opt to move it away from Ashlynn. It fires at the Immortal immediately in front of Hexeris and the Krea and once again scores a critical hit. More throwing ensues and luckily Hexeris doesn't end up six inches further away. However now MORE Immortals are in the way of my charge lane. The Piper of Ord gives March to my remaining cavalryman and then moves to block the Ancestral Guardian on the right just in case I somehow fail to kill Hexeris.
Stannis Brocker then activates and takes a pot shot at a Praetorian Swordsman, missing yet again.
Time for my assassination run. My remaining cavalryman activates and advances into the melee with the two Immortals blocking Ashlynn's charge lane. Between his three attacks he manages to kill both of them. Gorman dies to a free strike from the Paingiver as he attempts to advance and throw a Black Oil on Hexeris. Ashlynn then charges Hexeris and demonstrates the superiority of a Hand Cannon with Weapon Master.
Showing posts with label Ashlynn d'Elyse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ashlynn d'Elyse. Show all posts
Monday, 16 March 2009
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Return of the Traitor
I was supposed to play Sebastien today with his Khador army (of DOOM) but he'd forgotten and instead went to his driving lesson - the bastard. Instead I watched Dermot with his Trollbloods play Penguin (real name... er... Dan?) and his Legion of Everblight. Dermot's entire army was multi-wound models - Champions, Hero, Long Riders, few warbeasts and Penguin's army was... hmm, lacking really. I couldn't see the core of Penguin's army. Anyway, Dermot's Trollbloods dominated everything.
I also got two games against Sean Murchie using his Skorne, the first game was very fast, only two turns each before Ashlynn bit the dust.
Sean's First List:
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
Basilisk Drake
Basilisk Krea
Cyclops Savage (I think, I keep getting confused between the Brute and the Savage)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (4)
Praetorian Ferox (3)
Venators (8)
Ancestral Guardian
I was using my Ashlynn list and made good progress in the first and second turns since Sean probably didn't realise just how far I could charge with my Steelhead Halberdiers (17" threat range including the Reach). I decimated his Venators but had Ashlynn quite far forward with a smoke cloud blocking line of sight to her. Unfortunately I forgot that Sean could just move something in front of her and slam it over her and so poor Ashlynn died horribly to Ferox - though it took two to kill her since the first did no damage. Sean had to clear out a whole bunch of my Steelheads to make the slam lane, but he got it done. The game didn't last very long so we decided to have another one.
Sean's Second List:
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
Basilisk Krea
Cyclops Brute
Cyclops Savage
Paingiver Beast Handlers (4)
Praetorian Ferox (4)
Praetorian Swordsmen (8)
Ancestral Guardian
Against this list I opted to pull Magnus out of the case since he hasn't seen action in a while.
My List:
Magnus the Traitor
Nomad
Renegade
Renegade
Stannis Brocker, Steelhead Commander
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (3)
Steelhead Halberdiers (9)
Rupert Carvolo
This game went much better for me and was mostly carnage everywhere.
Deployment:
We were playing on the desert map at GUGs with a large plateau on either side of the board - we both ignored of the plateaus - and a nice big open area in the middle, which we immediately rushed into and began killing everything. I had my two Renegades on the right with Magnus immediately to their left next to a gigantic rock. On the other side of the rock was the Nomad and then a line of Steelhead Halberdiers with the cavalry and Stannis Brocker behind them.
Sean put his Praetorians on my left next to the plateau, then a wall of beasts with Hexeris in the middle and finally the Ferox on my right with the Paingivers behind them.
Turn One
I won the first turn and so ran everything forward, I put Frenzy on the Nomad and... that was it really.
Sean put Death March on the Swordsmen, activated the Krea's aura and ran forward too. I believe Sean used one of the Cyclops animi on Hexeris to make me reroll hits, just in case I had some Renegade sneakiness to exploit on my turn.
As you can see it was very exciting stuff this turn.
Turn Two
The first turn of utter carnage.
Stannis Brocker activated, gave the Furious Charge to the Halberdiers and then took a pot shot at a Swordsman with his Hand Cannon. It missed and he was done. Then the Halberdiers charged the Swordsmen and one Ferox who had got too close to the middle area. The Ferox was pasted by three of the Halberdiers and a whole bunch of Swordsmen died, fuelled the Ancestral Guardian almost to full and their Death March attacks killed a couple of Halberdiers in return. My cavalry couldn't get into melee range so I moved them up and only managed to shoot a single free Praetorian with their Blunderbusses. I then moved the Piper forward and used his +1 DEF and Terror thing on the Halberdiers.
I moved the Nomad forward, hoping to be in a position to charge next turn and bunched the Renegades together behind it. I then realised I had 4 focus on Magnus and nothing to do with it so I just ran him left to behind the Steelheads.
Sean activates Hexeris, uses his feat and fires Deathbringer at his Krea, blowing up a bunch of Steelheads who then kill some other Steelheads. This clears the way for his Enrage enhanced Cyclops to charge my Nomad and puts some damage on it, thankfully not all that much. I thought my Nomad had gotten off pretty well until the Ferox charged in and destroyed both the cortex and right arm - the important arm! He then attempts to kill more Steelheads with his Swordsmen but it's a rather pitiful showing. Some Praetorians die to Forfend followed by Death Marched Praetorians killing some more Halberdiers. At this point there's three Halberdiers left compared to four Praetorian Swordsmen. Just to add injury to insult he uses the Krea's Animus on Stannis Brocker - who is standing right in the middle of my army.
Turn Three
More carnage.
Stannis activates first, field promotes a Halberdier and then moves back so the rest of my army isn't caught in the slowing field he's currently generating. Stannis tries to shoot a Swordsman with his Hand Cannon and once again misses. I then activate a Renegade and attempt to shoot my badly damaged Nomad in the back with an Obliterator Rocket. Due to the align of stars and global warming I managed to miss but still knocked down both Cyclops and caught two Ferox in the blast. The blast damage did a total of one damage to a Ferox. Not my best Obliterator Rocket I have to say.
My Halberdiers then activate and the sergeant moves to engage both Cyclops. The sergeant manages a respectable charge against the Cyclops with the shield and the other two CMA a Swordsman who kills another Halberdier with Death March.
Now the Piper activates and uses March on the Steelhead Heavy Cavalry who charge both Cyclops and manage to turn both the Skorne warbeasts to bloody mush.
I had given a focus to Renegade A (the one that still had a rocket) but realised I had nothing to do with it now that both Cyclops were dead and my own cavalry were in the way so I just ran it over to the left instead. Magnus followed fairly closely behind since I couldn't figure out where to put him without him getting charged by the Ancestral Guardian. I totally forgot to use Hit and Run, casting Temper Metal on Renegade A instead since I thought Sean would try to kill it with the Ancestral Guardian. Sean saw the opportunity for assassination and asked if I'd like to go back and use Magnus' feat, I declined since I'd already done all Magnus' other stuff, it's my own fault if I screw up.
Sean moves his Swordsmen past the two Halbderdiers engaging them and I promptly kill all the remaining Swordsmen with a combination of free strikes and Forfend. He uses Death March to kill one of Halberdiers and a cavalryman. His Ferox move around and attack my Steelhead Heavy Cavalry and while they're there one eats the Halberdier sergeant. Another of the cavalry dies and I fail the command check.
The Moment of Truth arrives when Sean activates the fully fuelled Ancestral Guardian and burns two soul tokens to move four inches and then charge Magnus. Luckily the charge attack misses. The Ancestral Guardian still manages to put nine damage on Magnus in a single hit even though Magnus was camping ARM 20 at the time. Unfortunately for Sean the rest of the attacks miss or do no damage to good old Magnus.
The Krea activates and uses its Paralytic Field to hopefully save Hexeris from horrible, horrible death.
Turn Four
DIE BIZNITCH time.
It's getting late and I can see something that resembles a very unreliable assassination run. There's also an angry looking Ancestral Guardian glaring at Magnus. My last surviving cavalryman does his fleeing movement and dies to free strikes after we debate what he'll actually do (since he could actually move somewhere, despite being surrounded by Ferox, he died). This turned out to be rather useful to me since the damaged Nomad was still in the way of my planned assassination attempt.
I allocate two focus to Renegade A (one with rocket) and one to Renegade B. Magnus activates, I declare use of my feat and then decide that's a waste of time, we're going to get kicked out of the QMU after this turn anyway. He casts Temper Metal on Renegade B (without rocket, still on the right side of the board behind the Nomad) and I consider killing the Ancestral Guardian using Magnus, but with only a single focus point on him he's get minced by the retaliation if it didn't die. I opt to see if my assassination run pays off rather than risk dying on my own turn.
Renegade A moves to within five inches of Hexeris and actually manages to hit with the Obliterator Rocket despite Hexeris benefiting from the Krea's aura. I then do a comfortable 9 damage which Sean transfers with his last fury.
Just because I don't like the Ancestral Guardian and I no longer have any units left I opt to charge the Ancestral Guardian in the back with the Piper of Ord, reducing the damned thing to a single health. Curses!
The Nomad activates, moves out of the way of Renegade B's charge lane to the knocked down Hexeris and attempts to swipe at a Ferox with its open hand. It fails miserably, no surprise since it couldn't boost attacks. Renegade B then charges Hexeris, taking a free strike from the Ferox in front of the Nomad. Thankfully Temper Metal saves me from taking enough damage to lose an arm. Renegade B goes to work on Hexeris, killing him with three Shredder attacks.
Victory for Magnus!
Overall a much more enjoyable game with a nail biting finish - if Renegade B had rolled low damage at any point I would have been screwed but the Renegades pulled it out for me nicely. I still enjoy Ashlynn a lot more since she makes my army so very fast, but it's nice having a tough warcaster who can take the punishment.
I also got two games against Sean Murchie using his Skorne, the first game was very fast, only two turns each before Ashlynn bit the dust.
Sean's First List:
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
Basilisk Drake
Basilisk Krea
Cyclops Savage (I think, I keep getting confused between the Brute and the Savage)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (4)
Praetorian Ferox (3)
Venators (8)
Ancestral Guardian
I was using my Ashlynn list and made good progress in the first and second turns since Sean probably didn't realise just how far I could charge with my Steelhead Halberdiers (17" threat range including the Reach). I decimated his Venators but had Ashlynn quite far forward with a smoke cloud blocking line of sight to her. Unfortunately I forgot that Sean could just move something in front of her and slam it over her and so poor Ashlynn died horribly to Ferox - though it took two to kill her since the first did no damage. Sean had to clear out a whole bunch of my Steelheads to make the slam lane, but he got it done. The game didn't last very long so we decided to have another one.
Sean's Second List:
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
Basilisk Krea
Cyclops Brute
Cyclops Savage
Paingiver Beast Handlers (4)
Praetorian Ferox (4)
Praetorian Swordsmen (8)
Ancestral Guardian
Against this list I opted to pull Magnus out of the case since he hasn't seen action in a while.
My List:
Magnus the Traitor
Nomad
Renegade
Renegade
Stannis Brocker, Steelhead Commander
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (3)
Steelhead Halberdiers (9)
Rupert Carvolo
This game went much better for me and was mostly carnage everywhere.
Deployment:
We were playing on the desert map at GUGs with a large plateau on either side of the board - we both ignored of the plateaus - and a nice big open area in the middle, which we immediately rushed into and began killing everything. I had my two Renegades on the right with Magnus immediately to their left next to a gigantic rock. On the other side of the rock was the Nomad and then a line of Steelhead Halberdiers with the cavalry and Stannis Brocker behind them.
Sean put his Praetorians on my left next to the plateau, then a wall of beasts with Hexeris in the middle and finally the Ferox on my right with the Paingivers behind them.
Turn One
I won the first turn and so ran everything forward, I put Frenzy on the Nomad and... that was it really.
Sean put Death March on the Swordsmen, activated the Krea's aura and ran forward too. I believe Sean used one of the Cyclops animi on Hexeris to make me reroll hits, just in case I had some Renegade sneakiness to exploit on my turn.
As you can see it was very exciting stuff this turn.
Turn Two
The first turn of utter carnage.
Stannis Brocker activated, gave the Furious Charge to the Halberdiers and then took a pot shot at a Swordsman with his Hand Cannon. It missed and he was done. Then the Halberdiers charged the Swordsmen and one Ferox who had got too close to the middle area. The Ferox was pasted by three of the Halberdiers and a whole bunch of Swordsmen died, fuelled the Ancestral Guardian almost to full and their Death March attacks killed a couple of Halberdiers in return. My cavalry couldn't get into melee range so I moved them up and only managed to shoot a single free Praetorian with their Blunderbusses. I then moved the Piper forward and used his +1 DEF and Terror thing on the Halberdiers.
I moved the Nomad forward, hoping to be in a position to charge next turn and bunched the Renegades together behind it. I then realised I had 4 focus on Magnus and nothing to do with it so I just ran him left to behind the Steelheads.
Sean activates Hexeris, uses his feat and fires Deathbringer at his Krea, blowing up a bunch of Steelheads who then kill some other Steelheads. This clears the way for his Enrage enhanced Cyclops to charge my Nomad and puts some damage on it, thankfully not all that much. I thought my Nomad had gotten off pretty well until the Ferox charged in and destroyed both the cortex and right arm - the important arm! He then attempts to kill more Steelheads with his Swordsmen but it's a rather pitiful showing. Some Praetorians die to Forfend followed by Death Marched Praetorians killing some more Halberdiers. At this point there's three Halberdiers left compared to four Praetorian Swordsmen. Just to add injury to insult he uses the Krea's Animus on Stannis Brocker - who is standing right in the middle of my army.
Turn Three
More carnage.
Stannis activates first, field promotes a Halberdier and then moves back so the rest of my army isn't caught in the slowing field he's currently generating. Stannis tries to shoot a Swordsman with his Hand Cannon and once again misses. I then activate a Renegade and attempt to shoot my badly damaged Nomad in the back with an Obliterator Rocket. Due to the align of stars and global warming I managed to miss but still knocked down both Cyclops and caught two Ferox in the blast. The blast damage did a total of one damage to a Ferox. Not my best Obliterator Rocket I have to say.
My Halberdiers then activate and the sergeant moves to engage both Cyclops. The sergeant manages a respectable charge against the Cyclops with the shield and the other two CMA a Swordsman who kills another Halberdier with Death March.
Now the Piper activates and uses March on the Steelhead Heavy Cavalry who charge both Cyclops and manage to turn both the Skorne warbeasts to bloody mush.
I had given a focus to Renegade A (the one that still had a rocket) but realised I had nothing to do with it now that both Cyclops were dead and my own cavalry were in the way so I just ran it over to the left instead. Magnus followed fairly closely behind since I couldn't figure out where to put him without him getting charged by the Ancestral Guardian. I totally forgot to use Hit and Run, casting Temper Metal on Renegade A instead since I thought Sean would try to kill it with the Ancestral Guardian. Sean saw the opportunity for assassination and asked if I'd like to go back and use Magnus' feat, I declined since I'd already done all Magnus' other stuff, it's my own fault if I screw up.
Sean moves his Swordsmen past the two Halbderdiers engaging them and I promptly kill all the remaining Swordsmen with a combination of free strikes and Forfend. He uses Death March to kill one of Halberdiers and a cavalryman. His Ferox move around and attack my Steelhead Heavy Cavalry and while they're there one eats the Halberdier sergeant. Another of the cavalry dies and I fail the command check.
The Moment of Truth arrives when Sean activates the fully fuelled Ancestral Guardian and burns two soul tokens to move four inches and then charge Magnus. Luckily the charge attack misses. The Ancestral Guardian still manages to put nine damage on Magnus in a single hit even though Magnus was camping ARM 20 at the time. Unfortunately for Sean the rest of the attacks miss or do no damage to good old Magnus.
The Krea activates and uses its Paralytic Field to hopefully save Hexeris from horrible, horrible death.
Turn Four
DIE BIZNITCH time.
It's getting late and I can see something that resembles a very unreliable assassination run. There's also an angry looking Ancestral Guardian glaring at Magnus. My last surviving cavalryman does his fleeing movement and dies to free strikes after we debate what he'll actually do (since he could actually move somewhere, despite being surrounded by Ferox, he died). This turned out to be rather useful to me since the damaged Nomad was still in the way of my planned assassination attempt.
I allocate two focus to Renegade A (one with rocket) and one to Renegade B. Magnus activates, I declare use of my feat and then decide that's a waste of time, we're going to get kicked out of the QMU after this turn anyway. He casts Temper Metal on Renegade B (without rocket, still on the right side of the board behind the Nomad) and I consider killing the Ancestral Guardian using Magnus, but with only a single focus point on him he's get minced by the retaliation if it didn't die. I opt to see if my assassination run pays off rather than risk dying on my own turn.
Renegade A moves to within five inches of Hexeris and actually manages to hit with the Obliterator Rocket despite Hexeris benefiting from the Krea's aura. I then do a comfortable 9 damage which Sean transfers with his last fury.
Just because I don't like the Ancestral Guardian and I no longer have any units left I opt to charge the Ancestral Guardian in the back with the Piper of Ord, reducing the damned thing to a single health. Curses!
The Nomad activates, moves out of the way of Renegade B's charge lane to the knocked down Hexeris and attempts to swipe at a Ferox with its open hand. It fails miserably, no surprise since it couldn't boost attacks. Renegade B then charges Hexeris, taking a free strike from the Ferox in front of the Nomad. Thankfully Temper Metal saves me from taking enough damage to lose an arm. Renegade B goes to work on Hexeris, killing him with three Shredder attacks.
Victory for Magnus!
Overall a much more enjoyable game with a nail biting finish - if Renegade B had rolled low damage at any point I would have been screwed but the Renegades pulled it out for me nicely. I still enjoy Ashlynn a lot more since she makes my army so very fast, but it's nice having a tough warcaster who can take the punishment.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Gaming Blog: Playing Roulette
I play-tested my new list today. It was awesome. Really, it was. It poses a much greater range of threats than my Magnus list. I played against Mark using his slightly odd Mortenebra list. This is my first foray into using Ashlynn and I have to say, I'm impressed.
Andy's List: Highborne Covenant 497/500
Ashlynn d'Elyse
*Mule
Anastasia di Bray
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier
Ogrun Bokur
Rupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Stannis Brocker, Steelhead Commander
Steelhead Halberdiers (8)
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (3)
Mark's List: Cryx 496/500
Master Necrotech Mortenebra
*Deryliss
*Nightmare
*Slayer
*Nightwretch
*Nightwretch
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Mechanithralls (9)
We played two games tonight, the first one didn't last very long since Mark forgot about half the things he should have been doing so I destroyed both his warjacks, all the Mechanithralls and was poking Mortenebra with the Ogrun Bokur before he conceded. I think I'd lost a couple of Halberdiers... Mark also made the Steelhead Halberdiers Nightmare's prey in this game, wasn't the best choice really.
The second game was much better, but I delayed using my feat. I think if I'd used it a turn earlier, my losses would have been at least halved.
Deployment:
Mark won the starting roll and opted to deploy and go first, weighting his force heavily on my right. I plonked most of my stuff in the middle and behind a hill, with Ashlynn hiding behind the Mule at the left edge of my deployment brick. Stannis was advance deployed with his Ogrun Bokur buddy, but I just put them about 4 inches ahead of my main force of Steelheads. Anastasia wouldn't get to go Invisible before Mark could get to her, so I placed her pretty much in my normal advanced deployment zone, well away from any Mechanithralls and bonejacks. This time around Mark picked Ashlynn as Nightmare's Prey (a much better choice really - I would have gone with Anastasia first myself).
Turn One:
Mark advanced up the right side of the board, I moved to occupy the middle area. Mark put Spectral Steel on the Slayer, I put Quicken on my Steelhead Halberdiers and Feint up on Ashlynn - my experiences with Jim and his bloody Seether in my deployment zone on turn 2 have made me cautious about the helljacks in Mortenebra's battle group. Other than that, not a lot happened, I think I may have shot a Mechanithrall or two. Ah yes, I gave the Halberdiers Fearless and Tough from the Piper, a decision that paid strong dividends in the next turn.
Turn Two:
This turn involved a lot of moving forward but not into melee range of the Steelhead Halberdiers by Mark's Mechanithralls. No forfending makes Andy a sad panda. =( He then cast Death Race on Mortenebra and tried to nuke a Halberdier with Doom Spiral. Luckily for me I passed both Tough rolls so the Nightmare didn't end up 5 inches closer. Instead the Slayer and the Nightmare trampled through some of my Steelheads to engage some of my cavalry before I could get a charge off, the Slayer managed to miss all three of the Steelheads it was trampling over too.
I should have used my feat this turn, if the Nightmare had moved due to the Prey ability, then that would have been fine, I had enough troops around it to bog it down with free strikes and Ashlynn would have been able to use Feint during Mark's turn if it came down to that. Since I was afraid the Nightmare was going to appear next to Ashlynn I left her until last to activate - a big mistake. This meant I missed a few attacks that would have otherwise totalled or at least disabled Nightmare and the Slayer. As it was the Slayer took some damage to its paint work from a pair of March enhanced Steelhead cavalrymen, while the Nightmare lost an arm and its movement to a combination of my Bokur, a cavalryman and a couple of Halberdiers. I haven't had more than one attack from Flying Steel yet. It's early days however. I'd hoped for a Critical Slam with the shield on the Bokur so that the Nightmare would be in trouble next turn, but it wasn't meant to be. Anastasia also moved close enough to Mortenebra to learn a secret.
Turn Three:
This was an eventful turn as Mark activated Mortenebra's feat and most of my army died. Mortenebra took down Anastasia herself. He also gave the Slayer and Nightmare full focus and watched as they ate through my cavalry, Stannis Brocker and the Bokur. The Mechanithralls chewed through the remaining Steelheads. It wasn't pretty. I also used my feat this turn. Ashlynn charged the mostly undamaged Slayer and totalled it, much to my surprise. Don't be fooled by that P+S 9 sword, she can lay the beat down when she needs to! Then I proceeded to kill all the Mechanithralls but one, Lord Rockbottom managed to spray Mortenebra with his fiery gun and also killed Deryliss. I used my remaining Steelhead Halberdier to let Gorman throw a perfectly placed Black Oil grenade onto both of Mark's bonejacks.
Turn Four:
Mark had most of the last turn but we ran out of time since everyone else had packed up and was heading home. After Mortenebra burned for a bit from Lord Rockbottom's fire, he activated Nightmare and took a couple of swings at the Piper since Ashlynn had used Feint to get the hell away from the helljack. The Piper survived oddly. Then he moved Mortenebra forward and attempted to nuke Ashlynn down with a couple of boosted Doom Spirals. One hit but didn't kill Ashlynn. There was some more stuff moved but it's irrelevant since I would have just dumped some Black Oil on Mortenebra (my Gorman being 10 inches away and had a totally clear path to Mortenebra's back) and then charged her with a full focus Ashlynn on my turn.
Thoughts on Ashlynn
Ashlynn is much more fragile than Magnus but is much easier to get up the field and into the enemy forces. Despite being so fragile she's tremendously hard to pin down directly, you really have to take specific casters or some form of reliable knockdown to stop her from just ignoring you as you charge in and she Feints away. I'll have to try playing against different types of casters, especially those with good ways of dealing with high defence targets - for some reason I'm finding Terminus with his throw to be rather intimidating . If I can figure out how to keep Ashlynn alive against those types of caster I'll be sorted.
The fact I don't need to bother with a ton of warjacks also means I can have a wider variety of things to threaten the caster kill on my opponent. Having the option to use more these extra threats is a great eye opener to the limitations of Magnus and the dual Renegades. Ashlynn definitely moves your opponent to reacting to her rather than forcing you to react to them - something I've found I end up doing against Jim, I react to what he does rather than making him play my game.
At first I thought Ashlynn's spell list was quite weak. There are spells that are pretty feeble but the value of Feint and Quicken alone is worth her weight in gold. I'm yearning for the opportunity to land Distraction on Caine or Grim Angus, denying them the ability to make ranged attacks would be too priceless.
Ashlynn is also deceptively dangerous. The low power of her sword cunningly hides the fact she's a Weapon Master. She DESTROYED a Slayer tonight, pretty much on her own and didn't even use all her focus to do it. Roulette allows you to play a very risky style of play with her, putting her in situations where you wouldn't normally put a warcaster. She's definitely a step up from Magnus for me, I just need to ignore the big scary things I *think* might hurt her but really can't until she's made stationary somehow.
Andy's List: Highborne Covenant 497/500
Ashlynn d'Elyse
*Mule
Anastasia di Bray
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier
Ogrun Bokur
Rupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Stannis Brocker, Steelhead Commander
Steelhead Halberdiers (8)
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (3)
Mark's List: Cryx 496/500
Master Necrotech Mortenebra
*Deryliss
*Nightmare
*Slayer
*Nightwretch
*Nightwretch
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Mechanithralls (9)
We played two games tonight, the first one didn't last very long since Mark forgot about half the things he should have been doing so I destroyed both his warjacks, all the Mechanithralls and was poking Mortenebra with the Ogrun Bokur before he conceded. I think I'd lost a couple of Halberdiers... Mark also made the Steelhead Halberdiers Nightmare's prey in this game, wasn't the best choice really.
The second game was much better, but I delayed using my feat. I think if I'd used it a turn earlier, my losses would have been at least halved.
Deployment:
Mark won the starting roll and opted to deploy and go first, weighting his force heavily on my right. I plonked most of my stuff in the middle and behind a hill, with Ashlynn hiding behind the Mule at the left edge of my deployment brick. Stannis was advance deployed with his Ogrun Bokur buddy, but I just put them about 4 inches ahead of my main force of Steelheads. Anastasia wouldn't get to go Invisible before Mark could get to her, so I placed her pretty much in my normal advanced deployment zone, well away from any Mechanithralls and bonejacks. This time around Mark picked Ashlynn as Nightmare's Prey (a much better choice really - I would have gone with Anastasia first myself).
Turn One:
Mark advanced up the right side of the board, I moved to occupy the middle area. Mark put Spectral Steel on the Slayer, I put Quicken on my Steelhead Halberdiers and Feint up on Ashlynn - my experiences with Jim and his bloody Seether in my deployment zone on turn 2 have made me cautious about the helljacks in Mortenebra's battle group. Other than that, not a lot happened, I think I may have shot a Mechanithrall or two. Ah yes, I gave the Halberdiers Fearless and Tough from the Piper, a decision that paid strong dividends in the next turn.
Turn Two:
This turn involved a lot of moving forward but not into melee range of the Steelhead Halberdiers by Mark's Mechanithralls. No forfending makes Andy a sad panda. =( He then cast Death Race on Mortenebra and tried to nuke a Halberdier with Doom Spiral. Luckily for me I passed both Tough rolls so the Nightmare didn't end up 5 inches closer. Instead the Slayer and the Nightmare trampled through some of my Steelheads to engage some of my cavalry before I could get a charge off, the Slayer managed to miss all three of the Steelheads it was trampling over too.
I should have used my feat this turn, if the Nightmare had moved due to the Prey ability, then that would have been fine, I had enough troops around it to bog it down with free strikes and Ashlynn would have been able to use Feint during Mark's turn if it came down to that. Since I was afraid the Nightmare was going to appear next to Ashlynn I left her until last to activate - a big mistake. This meant I missed a few attacks that would have otherwise totalled or at least disabled Nightmare and the Slayer. As it was the Slayer took some damage to its paint work from a pair of March enhanced Steelhead cavalrymen, while the Nightmare lost an arm and its movement to a combination of my Bokur, a cavalryman and a couple of Halberdiers. I haven't had more than one attack from Flying Steel yet. It's early days however. I'd hoped for a Critical Slam with the shield on the Bokur so that the Nightmare would be in trouble next turn, but it wasn't meant to be. Anastasia also moved close enough to Mortenebra to learn a secret.
Turn Three:
This was an eventful turn as Mark activated Mortenebra's feat and most of my army died. Mortenebra took down Anastasia herself. He also gave the Slayer and Nightmare full focus and watched as they ate through my cavalry, Stannis Brocker and the Bokur. The Mechanithralls chewed through the remaining Steelheads. It wasn't pretty. I also used my feat this turn. Ashlynn charged the mostly undamaged Slayer and totalled it, much to my surprise. Don't be fooled by that P+S 9 sword, she can lay the beat down when she needs to! Then I proceeded to kill all the Mechanithralls but one, Lord Rockbottom managed to spray Mortenebra with his fiery gun and also killed Deryliss. I used my remaining Steelhead Halberdier to let Gorman throw a perfectly placed Black Oil grenade onto both of Mark's bonejacks.
Turn Four:
Mark had most of the last turn but we ran out of time since everyone else had packed up and was heading home. After Mortenebra burned for a bit from Lord Rockbottom's fire, he activated Nightmare and took a couple of swings at the Piper since Ashlynn had used Feint to get the hell away from the helljack. The Piper survived oddly. Then he moved Mortenebra forward and attempted to nuke Ashlynn down with a couple of boosted Doom Spirals. One hit but didn't kill Ashlynn. There was some more stuff moved but it's irrelevant since I would have just dumped some Black Oil on Mortenebra (my Gorman being 10 inches away and had a totally clear path to Mortenebra's back) and then charged her with a full focus Ashlynn on my turn.
Thoughts on Ashlynn
Ashlynn is much more fragile than Magnus but is much easier to get up the field and into the enemy forces. Despite being so fragile she's tremendously hard to pin down directly, you really have to take specific casters or some form of reliable knockdown to stop her from just ignoring you as you charge in and she Feints away. I'll have to try playing against different types of casters, especially those with good ways of dealing with high defence targets - for some reason I'm finding Terminus with his throw to be rather intimidating . If I can figure out how to keep Ashlynn alive against those types of caster I'll be sorted.
The fact I don't need to bother with a ton of warjacks also means I can have a wider variety of things to threaten the caster kill on my opponent. Having the option to use more these extra threats is a great eye opener to the limitations of Magnus and the dual Renegades. Ashlynn definitely moves your opponent to reacting to her rather than forcing you to react to them - something I've found I end up doing against Jim, I react to what he does rather than making him play my game.
At first I thought Ashlynn's spell list was quite weak. There are spells that are pretty feeble but the value of Feint and Quicken alone is worth her weight in gold. I'm yearning for the opportunity to land Distraction on Caine or Grim Angus, denying them the ability to make ranged attacks would be too priceless.
Ashlynn is also deceptively dangerous. The low power of her sword cunningly hides the fact she's a Weapon Master. She DESTROYED a Slayer tonight, pretty much on her own and didn't even use all her focus to do it. Roulette allows you to play a very risky style of play with her, putting her in situations where you wouldn't normally put a warcaster. She's definitely a step up from Magnus for me, I just need to ignore the big scary things I *think* might hurt her but really can't until she's made stationary somehow.
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