So after lunch I was doing OK, with one win and one loss, I'd used pSevvy twice and was hoping to use my Kreoss list as well, but as I've mused previously I seem to be drawn to pSevvy every time!! The next two games are written up below:
Game 3
For this round I drew Dave Thomas with his Skorne, he won the roll off and chose to go first with his Void Seer Mordikaar list. Dave deployed a full unit of Praetorian swordsmen plus UA on my right flank, a full unit of Nihilators and Void Spirit on my left flank and the Warlock and Bronzeback in the centre. He deployed his Razorworm via AD also in the centre. I deployed the Errants opposite the Nihilators as they would deny the berserk attacks with their self sacrifice ability should I need to stop it. The Avatar took the centre to face off against the Bronzeback and the remaining forces took the centre-right.
Dave did the inevitable first turn surge forward and I reciprocated. The Errants just advanced and shot the Nihilators, but every dice roll bar one was just one short of hitting and even that failed to kill! – darn!
Dave got straight into the action on turn two knowing his Nihilators were in charge range of the Errants plus a bit more considering I had the range to shoot with several. I lost numerous Errants to that combat, but the unit was still strong. The Swordsmen ran to engage the Battlegroup, choir etc whilst the Bronzeback advanced and positioned ready to charge next turn. The Razororm charged the Errants near the centre, but a crafty self sacrifice stopped the beast from Dragging Below and repositioning. Mordikaar popped his feat this turn giving his whole army +3 DEF as well as Poltergeist. During my second turn the Avatar generated a full four focus and I could see it was in charge range of the Bronzeback, though he would take a few free strikes including one off the Razorworm on the way in. I activated the Errants first and managed to kill a couple of Nihilators, but missed a few because of the feat as well. I did however manage to take two aspects out of the Razorworm allowing the Avatar to proceed relatively free from harm; he did so with impunity as he smashed the Bronzeback to pieces and then Gazed at Mordikaar, effectively preventing the Skorne warlock from advancing away from the Avatar next turn. The Blessing, Gorman and Severius all fought the Swordsmen at close quarters and managed to kill off quite a few, but there were still a good half a dozen of them left and Sevvy really doesn't like being that close to the action...
Turn three was another explosive round and the Nihilators killed most of the Errants and the Praetorian Swordsmen managed to get into combat with Sevvy with their sidestep mini-feat , but he was unharmed. Mordikaar was unable to escape the Avatar’s Gaze and would take a charge next turn. Dave had managed to cause some damage with the Nihilators to it by getting three into combat; I’d certainly give away some free strikes should I attempt the charge. During my turn I used the Errants' Quickwork skill to kill one of the Nihilators engaging the Avatar to reduce the damage output from the freestrikes. The Avatar only had two focus this turn and opted to walk into combat. Mordikaar survived the encounter as the Avatar had insufficient attacks that turn and no Choir in range to buff him with the Battle Hymn. Sevvy and co killed the remaining Swordsmen and repositioned defensively for the Nihilators who would be coming in next turn given the Errants could no longer hold them off.
Dave felt lucky to survive the Avatar’s attack and decided not to try his luck a second time and Ghost-Walked out of combat into a wood and some relative safety. The Nihilators and Void Spirit killed off the remaining Errants plus Gorman and attacked the Avatar, Blessing and Vassal, which survived. During my turn four the Avatar was again bogged down with Nihilators and only had two focus! I opted to try a spell assassination and used the Blessing’s imprint to free itself from the engaging Nihilator and move within 8” of Mordikaar. Sevvy arced a fully boosted Immolation into Mordikar and left him on three wounds. He then arced a second unboosted Immolation, hit caused enough damage to kill the Skorne Warlock!
Game 4
The fourth game was against my good friend Andy McBirnie, whom I regularly game against. He had his stunningly painted Khador army and had his pIrusk and Harkervitch lists. Andy won the roll off and opted to go first with pIrusk. Andy deployed the battlegroup centrally; Irusk, Wardog and his Spriggan. He deployed the Winter Guard Deathstar on my right flank and the Kayazy on the left. I opted to use the pKreoss list for this game and deployed my battlegroup central, along with my supporting Vassal and Choir. The Errants advance deployed centrally too.
Andy’s turn one was a tactical surge forwards, careful not to allow the Reckoner’s too many juicy targets. I wasn’t in range to shoot with anything in my turn so I made sure just one or two Errants were in charge range of the Kayazy to get them to commit, but not enough to take significant losses. I also cast Purification and removed Iron Flesh from the Kayazy.
On Andy’s turn two he charged/ran with the Kayazy as I suspected, killing one or two and locking a few up. The Winter Guard also ran forwards and locked up some Errants, the Spriggan advanced and Irusk manoeuvred to an ideal feat position and popped his feat. On my turn I clarified Irusk’s feat and had gotten mixed up with the epic version’s feat, a bit of a revelation as pIrusk’s feat means his guys are immune to knockdown – I thought they automatically stood up should he pop it after I popped mine – d’oh! So I had to alter my plans, but as I was jammed up the only thing was to attack with the Errants and jacks causing as much damage as possible and hopefully weather the following turn enough to make my knock-down feat count. I did a fair amount of damage killing several Kayazy and Winter Guard, though Andy passed a good few 4+ tough rolls, Andy’s next turn would be the decider.
Turn three saw the Kayazy fully engage under Battlelust which was enough for them to by-pass the Errants Defender’s Ward ARM 18. The Winter Guard took Bear’s Strength from Joe and Battlelust from Irusk so their combined melee charge was going to hurt one of my Reckoner’s; it lost its cortex and the right arm remained functional by just one box! The Errants survived at effective DEF 16 as some Guardsmen were within 2” of the Reckoner and its Ashen Veil affected their ability to hit. So I’d lost at least half the Errants, but I had my feat and one fully functional jack left and the other could still fight, albeit without focus from now on. I loaded up the undamaged jack and used Kreoss first to feat and knock everything except Irusk and the Spriggan down. The Choir went next and sang Battle to the jacks and actually had an attack or two, but their ceremonial staff’s were no match for the Kayazy battle hoodies!! The Errants moved into a cheeky position where they were engaging just one Guardsman and could Quickwork a second – basically they double-tapped the remaining Winterguard and a couple of Kayazy. The loaded Reckoner killed the remaining Kayazy. Auto-hitting in melee and DEF 5 against ranged is virtually impossible to weather when troops such as Kayazy depend on their DEF to stay alive.
Turn four was the turn after the dust had settled and I was looking stronger at this point as I still had half my infantry, all my support and two jacks, though one had no cortex left of course. Andy attempted an assassination on Kreoss with the Spriggan’s guns, but the Menite armour held firm. During my turn I had to be very careful that the Spriggan couldn’t Bulldoze its way back towards Kreoss and kill him, so I opted to charge the Spriggan with the Errants and did some damage, but not a great deal, one Errant however charged the Wardog and killed it, then shot Joe dead. I was contemplating shooting the Spriggan with my intact Reckoner, but instead ran it into a place where it was wedged between Errants etc and couldn’t easily be bulldozed away. Kreoss manoeuvred to take an advantageous position where he couldn’t be charged and cast Purification again to remove the Superiority spell on the enemy jack making things more difficult. I was undecided what to do with the damaged Reckoner as Irusk was within assault range, but was hidden behind a wall and had Iron Flesh on himself!! I opted to attack him anyway but at that point dice down was called.
Conclusion
So after four great games against four great opponents I had won three and lost one and came 4th, not bad!! The overall standings can be seen in this forum thread, page 4.
I enjoyed using pSevvy as always, however in hind sight pKreoss was a really good caster and would have done as well as Sevvy. I seldom use Sevvy's feat as it does very little against Hordes and as a back line caster he has to move forwards to get more out of it, whereas Kreoss' feat can spell certain doom for hard to hit high DEF infantry as well as intervening models ceasing to block line of sight for ranged assassinations. Kreoss' feat can be used defensively also should I get under too much pressure.
Thanks for reading :-)
