Doubles write up Part II

So with the first day behind us and a total of three losses Luke and I were at the bottom of the field, bar one other team who we now faced – a battle to get the wooden spoon would no doubt be waged!

Game 4

Opponents:       Tom and James (Khador - eSorscha and Cygnar - pStryker)

Mission:            Outflank, Outfight, Outlast (dual scenario)

Photographs:     [None available]

Luke and I lost the initial dice roll and opted for a table side favourable to our casters, there was a nice piece of terrain which provided cover, this could be important when facing dual 16” range Defenders with access to Snipe!  This mission utilised the reinforcements complication, as per the first mission, so my Vengers and Lukes Shadowhorn were on the benches warming up for a second turn showdown!  Our deployment was fairly simple; I would face the Cygnar whereas Luke would face the Khador.

Our opponents did the usual first turn rapid advance and casting upkeeps, as did we.  During the second turn our opponents didn’t bring on their reinforcements and the Cygnar player just stuck a few models in the scoring zone.  I saw an opportunity and with the combined reinforcements and advancing Menoth I cleared the pit and scored an early control point.  Luke’s Tharn had engaged the Khadoran forces and were firmly in the pit, though not enough to score at this point.

Seeing our reinforcements do serious damage, our opponents reciprocated and Luke’s Circle took some heavy beating, given the additional 14 points of warjacks that entered the fray at Luke’s side of the board.  I had positioned my warjacks just out of charge range of the two Defender’s at my side of the board and continued singing the hymn of ‘no shooting’ meaning my jacks were advancing without threat, sadly this meant that Luke’s beasts were being repeatedly targeted by the Cygnarian ranged weapons!  Luke’s forces took a beating this turn with the Khadoran main force, the reinforcements and part of the Cygnar force attacking him – my stuff was pretty much unscathed however!  Our opponents almost scored a CTRL point this turn, but through inexperience of play didn’t actually control it, but rather contest.

During our third turn the Menoth warjacks engaged under the Hymn of Battle and caused massive casualties on the Cygnar forces killing everything except pStryker who ended up engaged with a pair of Vengers, of note the Avatar smoted both Defenders with terrifyingly high damage rolls.  The remaining Menoth forces flooded the pit and positioned in such a way that it would be virtually impossible for any enemy forces to get in to contest.  We scored a second CTRL point.

During our opponents fourth turn we suffered some losses, but not enough to prevent us scoring a third and final CTRL point as we had predicted.  So our first win and surge off the starting blocks!!!

Game 5

Opponents:       Conrad and Nick (Cygnar - Siege and Circle - pBaldur)

Mission:            Demolition (objective scenario)

Photographs:

Conrad's Cygnar: Seige and entourage

Rowdy and Gun Mages

Nick's Circle: pBaldur, Bloodtrackers and Wolds

Megalith (converted pose)

 Luke and I won the initial dice roll and opted for to go first, I took our left flank and would press on our objective mainly facing the Cygnar, whilst Luke would defend our control zone and try and score a cheeky CTRL point with his caster on the central objective (which only casters could score off) whilst using eKruger’s feat to give us breathing space.

Our plan was as solid as it gets and we both pressed forwards, the Tharn advancing very far into the enemy’s half of the table on the right whilst my slower Menoth pressed on their objectives.  Conrad and Nick advanced their forces, but stayed out of our charge range.  Baldur used his Solid Ground spell to protect the allied army from blast damage as well as the knockdown effect, the Druids also put up Counter Magic which would reduce potential Ashes to Ashes targets.  Siege placed a Foxhole to further protect the Cygnar Gun Mages who were out of Solid Ground protective range – so quite a defensive line, reducing the Menite’s ranged and magic attack potential.

On our second turn we pressed heavily on the objectives, the Errants took up position just outside the CTRL zone behind a wall for extra defence as well as being able to charge over it next turn, due to their Pathfinder skill.  I attempted a cheeky rouse to draw Ol’ Rowdy into counter-charging The Blessing of Vengeance, knowing full well its defensive strike would trigger first and I could push Rowdy away before he cold attack, then the Avatar on four focus would undoubtedly slag the Cygnar character heavy.  Conrad almost fell for my tactic, but then saw the cunning ploy and Rowdy stayed out of harms way!  The Vanquisher ran and I used the Ancillary Attack from the Vassal to make it shoot the Gun Mages who were in a Foxhole.  Although the Gun Mages were immune to the blast they all caught fire and subsequently died the following Maintenance Phase from the continuous fire effect.  I’m not entirely sure what our Circle forces did this turn, though I remember Luke’s Tharn engaging Bloodtrackers and some of the Cygnar infantry on our right flank.  Conrad and Nick got back into the action and Baldur feated, as well as the same two defensive tactics; Counter Magic and Solid Ground.  The feat would mainly affect Luke’s forces as my army was further away.

During our turn three the Errants charged Rowdy causing decent damage and the Vanquisher had a clear line of sight to Siege and attempted a fully boosted shot, but was sadly just short on range.  The Avatar Gazed and ran, engaging Rowdy, but behind the Errants, preventing Rowdy from hurting the Avatar - cheeky!  I believe eKruger feated to counter the pressing Baldur forces and regain the initiative for next turn.  At this point Luke was holding out on our objective and I was pressing very hard on our target zone, though no scenario points were scored yet.  I fully expected Seige to feat this turn, especially considering the Choir had sung Battle instead of anti-shooting (I was hoping to burn Seige with the Vanquisher).  Conrad however opted not to feat and conserved it for later.  Rowdy did his ‘Quake’ attack and knocked down the Errants and Avatar, a few Errants subsequently died to incoming shots, but I had most of the unit remaining.  Luke's forces were becoming strained due to taking on a significant portion of the enemy army and our objective was starting to come under threat.

On the fourth turn, things went better for us, the Errants and Avatar killed Rowdy and cleared the zone scoring a valuable control point.  Conrad feated this turn and luckily for us the Vanquisher was out of range of the Defender and the Avatar had Vision on shrugging off a fully boosted shot from Siege, saving it from significant damage.  Luke’s forces took another pummelling as eKruger’s forces continued to hold off most of the combined enemy forces; however Baldur diverted resources to try and contest our scoring zone, releasing some pressure on the dwindling Circle forces defending ours.

On our fifth turn we attempted to snatch victory, the Menoth forces completely overran our scoring zone, and the Vanquisher/Avatar destroyed a Wold Warden that had tried to contest the zone, scoring our second scenario point.  Conrad and Nick hit us hard this turn, destroying the Vanquisher, then Baldur created a forest on the central objective, then Forest Walked and scored a cheeky control point, and the enemy Circle forces managed to clear our pit and score there also bringing us level on scenario points.

With time almost over this epic game was still in the balance!  Everything went really quickly from this point so I’m a bit unsure of the exact order of things, but suffice to say in the dying minutes of the game the Blessing of Vengeance charged and killed Baldur, Sevvy feated to reduce Siege's options and the Menites surrounded the scoring zone, attempting to prevent anything getting in to contest.  The final act however was for eKruger to stand on the central objective and claim our third and final CTRL point and a scenario victory!

This was a very, very close game and went right down to the wire with either team capable of winning, but our combined forces took a second victory as well as several CTRL points.

Game 6

Opponents:       Austin and Stewart (Cygnar - eCaine and Trollbloods – Jarl Skuld)

Mission:            Command & Control (radial scenario)

Photographs:

Austin's eCaine and entourage

Precursor Knights

Stewart's Jarl Skuld

Fenblades

So the final game and our chance to make it even-stevens for wins versus losses between the two days.  We’d perfected sending the Tharn into the fray in the early stages of every game to tie up the enemy and then get munched as the Menoth slowly advanced – LOL!!!

We won the dice roll and opted for the better of the two table corners with regards to the radial set-up scenario.  We had a large linear obstacle to provide cover and block LOS if necessary, also our Circle warbeasts could go Ghostly and advance through them giving us a potential edge.  We also knew that eCaine’s feat could easily destroy a heavy jack/beast and probably two from a range of 16”.  Austin and Stewart had concocted a devilish combo of using the Impaler Trollbloods light warbeasts’ animus Snipe on eCaine giving him an awesome threat range – we’d have to be very careful indeed!

During the first turn Austin and Stewart simply ran and put up any relevant upkeep spells, as did we.  The Tharn went surging forwards and managed to charge a couple of Trollblood infantry, but didn’t manage to kill them, they did however have the effect of holding up the combined Cygnar/Troll force just on the edge of the large 12” control zone this scenario was based on.

The second turn saw more movement and positioning from Austin/Stewart and the death of most of the Tharn that managed to engage the Trolls on our previous turn.  In addition Jarl Skuld also feated placing several cloud effects shielding eCaine from any shooting reprisal and made sure other targets were hidden as well as setting up the Troll’s for a charge next turn; Austin and Stewart were cagey in their turn, careful not to place any models too close for our reasonable melee threat ranges, using the Trollbloods feat to great effect.  This worked to our advantage somewhat during our turn as eKruger feated and pushed back all of the Troll infantry allowing us to manoeuvre into the zone with a decent presence and secure a CTRL point and prevent a charge from the Trolls due to the speed penalty eKruger's causes – we had always planned to use eKruger's feat in counter to Jarl Skuld's.  At this point I expected eCain’s feat and suspected the Avatar would be targeted, so I gave him Defender’s Ward and positioned him in cover giving him ARM 23 and DEF 16, hoping that might keep it alive long enough to counter Ol Rowdy who was stalking the periphery, or possibly the Earthborn who was lurking near the back - The loss of the Avatar would be a serious blow indeed.

Turn three was a mixed turn of fate where the Avatar wasn’t targeted, but rather Austin worked out a way to kill eKruger and eCaine’s feat was unleashed to deadly effect killing eKruger and rendering the Circle beasts that survived the transfers wild.  The Menoth forces were relatively unscathed, but the Circle had taken a real blow and it was unlikely that we could win in an attrition game from this point, nor win via dual caster kill.  A potential scenario victory was all that was on the cards…

Our turn three started with the Errants, who charged some Precursor Knights, not actually contesting the zone, but I was hopeful the quickwork shots could start to thin the full  Fennblades unit currently occupying the 12” pit.  I was quite lucky and the Errants cleared out the Precursor’s and killed several Trolls.  Next the Blessing of Vengeance ran into position, followed by pSevvy casting Ashes to Ashes hitting a contesting Fennblade, killing it and five others!  This was a huge turning point as Stewart hadn’t made a single tough roll and the Fennblade's were dropping like flies.  Next the Vanquisher aimed and fired under Hymn of Battle and the cannon incinerated the Trollblood Officer and the final two Fennblade's stood at his side – again not a single tough roll!!  At this point we were two models away from victory, the Gun Mage UA who had a toe in the pit and a single ranger who had ran near to eKruger the previous turn to help eCaine during his feat (I think he was at RAT 13)!!  The Temple Flameguard all charged the Gun Mage officer and conducted a combined melee attack slaughtering the penultimate model to secure our victory.  We had numerous choices remaining to kill the Ranger including the Avatar, the Lord of the Feast and the Vassal could do something interesting, but we chose the last three Tharn Ravagers to complete the task, who did so with furious vengeance in honour of the late eKruger.  Task complete; 2-0 on CTRL points and another scenario victory, making it three for three and a decent number of CTRL points.

In retrospect we were lucky to score the second point as Austin/Stewart could have contested the pit with more models and we likely couldn't have killed them all; but they didn’t.  Also Stewart not making a single tough roll hurt them badly, though we did have numerous activations left, each capable of killing several Fennblades should we have needed it.  All in all we played well and kept our eye on the ball regards to the scenario and went all out to win!

Conclusion

With three wins and three losses we had drawn even on Tournament Points which was highly gratifying, we'd also scored lots of Control Points as our wins were all scenario based and each of our games were bloody affairs netting us numerous Battle Points.  During the final standings Luke and I came a respectable fifth out of twelve teams and our Scenario Points were only second to the overall winners which was nice to note.

Luke and I both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and every game was a great laugh and certainly hard fought.  All of our opponents were great sports and there were numerous occasions where our opponents and we allowed take back's, though I guess the greatest one was during game two where our opponents completely forgot the Kill box complication and gifted us an automatic win - LOL!! With regards to that I'm really glad we decided to ignore it and continue playing as the whole weekend was based around fun and it would have left a bitter pill for both teams should we have taken the win.

Finally thanks to Luke for being my doubles partner and for allowing my Menite forces to live longer every game by surging forwards and throwing themselves at the enemy!!  Cheers bud  :-)

Part III will simply be a collection of photographs taken of the armies on display during the Best Army judging, I will upload ASAP, so watch this space.  Thanks for reading.