Got in another league game the other night, this one a 25 point match vs. Dave's cygnar. My all-in-one box finally came in, and I was excited to finally get to play a game with beast handlers! (How I have gone without them this long I have no idea). For two points (or three in this case, because I don't have a one point filler) they bring so much utility, I can't see any reason to not bring them in a list. With the all-in-one box also came eMakeda and Molik Karn, so I decided to bring them out as well. With those three things, a gladiator and a unit of nihilators, I ended up with this list:
Supreme Archdomina Makeda (*5pts)
* Molik Karn (11pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Dave, trying to keep up his streak of a new caster every game, decided to bring out pStryker. Stryker is looking a little small and girly this game, because secretly Stryker is pKaya (that's what happens when you leave models at home!). Trying to rebuild his list by memory (and pictures!) I'm coming up with the following list:
Commander Coleman Stryker (*6pts)
* Lancer (6pts)
* Stormclad (10pts)
Silver Line Stormguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
* 1 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (1pts)
Which is actually 28 points of Cygnar. I am assuming that the Silver Line unit was actually supposed to be a minimum unit, which would bring the list down to 25 points, but he definitely had 10 of them on the table. Whoops.
Anyways, the scenario that we played was destruction, and Dave won the roll and chose to go first. I picked the side of the table with a wall on it, and it was time for Cygnar deployment.
Cygnar Deployment:
Dave deployed with the silver line stormguard in the front, and the storm blade infantry behind them. The jacks went to their right and pKaya... I mean Stryker... went and hid behind them like the girl he/she is.
Fairly simple deployment on my side. Makeda went in the middle so that she could cover the army with road to war. The nihilators deployed to her left with her warbeast to her right, and the beast handlers went in the back.
Stryker gave a focus to the lancer, and then everything ran forward. The stormclad used its free focus from the stormguard to run forward and then Stryker walked up. He cast arcane shield on the stormclad and snipe onto the stormblade infantry.
Similar to Dave's first turn (and most warmachine turn 1's) everything ran forward. Makeda cast road to war and put leash onto Molik, and moved foward. The nihilators ran up to the zone, with two of them getting into the zone thanks to road to war. The warbeasts both riled and ran, and the beast handlers just ran forward to keep up with the beasts.
Stryker upkept both spells and kept the rest of his focus. The stormguard went first and issued a charge run order. A few of them charged the front three nihilators, killing all three, and the rest just ran to get in a better position, and going base to base for their no-charging ability.
The lancer walked forward and then Stryker activated and moved forward just enough to be within the kill box. He arced an earthquake through the lancer, knocking down three of my nihilators, and then popped his feat giving his army plus 5 armor. The stormclad just moved forward, and then the stormblade infantry walked forward and took some shots, and managed to kill one more nihilator.
Makeda pulled in her fury, upkept leash, and then I activated the gladiator. He walked forward a bit and cast rush on Molik (Wasn't just if he needed it, but why not), and then the beast handlers moved forward and pulled the fury off of the gladiator. One of the handlers enraged Molik for the free charge, and then he charged one of the silver line that was not base to base. With side step and two purchased attacks, Molik killed 4 of the silver line. He ended up without any more models within his reach, so he used his animus, fatewalker, and ended his activation.
Makeda shuffled forward a little bit to get out of the kill box, and allowed Molik to use his leash movement to move 3" back towards my line. She then cast road to war for the extra movement on the nihilators and she was done. The nihilators moved forward and thanks to Stryker's feat (and the fact that three of them were knocked down) managed to kill a grand total of one stormguard. With that I ended my turn and Molik used his fatewalker move to walk back behind my line of nihilators.
Stryker again upkept both spells, and kept the rest of his focus. The lancer moved forward and killed a nihilator, and then everything charged forward. The silver line charged in, followed by the stormblades, and with some great tough rolls on my part the two units killed a total of 2 nihilators, although some of their shots also put a bit of damage onto Molik. The storm clad walked forward and shot one of the nihilators that was still alive, killing it and bringing me down to 2 still alive.
Stryker activated and walked to the right, then arced another earthquake through the lancer, this time aiming at Molik Karn, boosting to hit. He missed the shot, but the spell deviated and caught Molik anyways, knocking him down.
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| What a nice group of berserk-able models! |
Well, I was almost out of nihilators, but Stryker's feat was gone and it was time for some fun. Makeda let leash drop and Molik forced for one to stand up.
Makeda activated first, and moved forward to make sure she could cover the front of the Cygnar lines with her control area. The then used her feat, cast road to war and cast fate walker on herself.
The nihilators activated next and got ready to bring the pain. With Makeda's feat up they were immune to free strikes, which meant I could put both of them in the perfect position for berserking. They were hitting on 5's (boosted to hit from the feat) and killing on 4's, which means that with a string of average rolls I could eliminate everything that could get within reach of my nihilators. The nihilator on the right went first and started swinging, taking out four models before running out of targets. Then the second nihilator started attacking (with 6 guys within reach of his blade), hit the first model and then rolled a 3 for damage.... *sigh*... Well, that's dice for you.
With that done, the gladiator cast rush on Molik, the beast handlers pulled fury off the gladiator and enraged Molik. One of the beast handlers walked up to the stormguard sitting beside the objective, and with boosted rolls from the feat, easily hit and kill the model (thanks to anatomical precision). Finally Mr. Karn activated, and charged the Lancer. He hit thanks to the feat, and rolled a damage roll of: 6, 6, 5, 5. Doing a whopping 19 points of damage, and making up for my terrible roll earlier. Using side step, Molik shuffled over to the left in order to get closer to the infantry in the back. He took his second attack on the warjack, side stepping again and leaving it on only a few boxes. A finally bought attack put the jack into the ground, and left Molik with 3 fury left to spend. He used fate walker on himself and purchased an attack on the stormguard in the back, easily hitting and killing it.
With that done, Molik and Makeda both used fate walker to retreat back behind my lines and (hopefully) out of danger.
Cygnar Turn 4:
In hindsight, I should have moved Molik to the left side of my table (near the gladiator), because where I left him was right within assault range of the storm blades. Stryker kept his focus, and activated first. He moved over to the right side of the table and cast an arcane bolt at my un-engaged nihilator, hitting and killing it. The remaining stormguard activated next and took a swing at the nihilator in front of him, also hitting and killing, and freeing up the stormblades.
The stormblades activated next, recieving an assault order, and charged forward. Two of them assaulted the beast handlers near my objective, and the rest assaulted Molik Karn. Both of my beast handlers died, and my objective received a couple points of damage. The models charging Molik got some pretty good rolls, and managed to kill him with a couple of attacks to spare,
After writing this I am realizing that I don't remember what the stormclad did this turn, but I think that one of my nihilators made its tough roll and the stormclad had to finish the job. Either way the result is the same, but I should probably start taking notes during games to help remember everything!
Skorne Turn 4:
With all of my nihlators and Molik gone, things are starting to look pretty bleak. If I still had Molik around for fate walker I would probably get Makeda into the action at this point, but I didn't want to leave her in the charge range of Stryker or the stormclad, so I activated her fist and moved her back behind the wall on my left.
Next I had an idea, that worked a lot better in my head than it did on the table. For some reason I thought that slamming one of the storm blades would cause him to damage all of the other storm blades in his path. I forgot that he would stop moving as soon as he contacted another base of his size, so I activated the gladiator, he cast rush on himself and he used a slam on the left storm blade. It died instantly, but it only hit the model right next to him, doing light collateral damage (as it was the officer that was hit) but not killing him. So my gladiator ended up killing a grand total of one model. Not exactly what I had planned.
Next the beast handlers moved forward and cleared out the storm blades by the objective, while one went over near the gladiator and hit the officer but only did one point of damage, leaving him with a single box left.
Cygnar Turn 5:
Stryker gave 3 focus to the storm clad, and it activated first. It charged the objective, killing it, and clearing out my beast handlers with lightening leaps. The stormblades moved in to attack the gladiator, doing a fair amount of damage to the beast and killing the beast handler. Stryker ran over to the other side of the zone in order to dominate it and ended the turn.
Skorne Turn 5:
At this point I either need to kill Stryker or lose, because the storm clad will kill my gladiator and Stryker can just dominate for the win. Makeda leaches the fury off of the gladiator and activates first, moving forward and spending all of her fury to cast rush and heal the gladiator. The gladiator activates and tramples towards Stryker, hoping that after free strikes it still has its systems up to try and kill Stryker (although even with all of its systems up, I don't know that he could do it). Unfortunately the dice gods were not in my favor, and the free strikes taken by the gladiator are enough to kill it, ending the game with Stryker dominating for a Cygnar victory!
Thoughts on the game:
While I ended up losing the game, it was pretty close until I lost Molik, which was a pretty big hit to the army. If I had moved him to the left and out of the charge range of the stormblades I would have still had a pretty good shot, but it's hard to say what would have happened. I really enjoyed eMakeda, and she seems like a very strong caster for getting the alpha strike, with some insane assassination potential. Dave kept Stryker back all game, knowing the threat that Molik brings to a caster, as he has a 22" threat range under Makeda (18" without using side step). It is a crazy threat range, especially with no free strikes and boosted attack rolls from the feat, and it can very quickly end a game if your opponent makes a single positioning error.
I am looking forward to trying out Makeda again, as well as Mordikaar who I have just finished assembling. Really enjoying Skorne, and I hope you guys are enjoying the reports!
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