Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight vs Major Victoria Hayley

Hi guys and welcome to the latest battle report! This week I managed to get a game with Will who's decided that his Merc army will work a lot better if he swaps out the casters for some Cygnar. Urgh. Will's been playing the Mercs for pretty much a year, and had basically decided that after taking them to ETC this last weekend he was going to switch to the swans. He IM'd me before the game to ask if I'd be ok playing against eHayley. I know I need more practice against her and her stupid evil cheating cheatiness and so I agreed to let him bring it. I was hoping to get more practice with Saeryn but I decided that eLylyth was the more sensible match up. Even so I wasn't feeling too hopeful about my chances. Since the last tournament I decided to switch out her build a little and so I ended up with:

eLylyth +5

-Succubus -2

-Ravagore -10 

-Ravagore -10

-Ravagore -10

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Shredder -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Shepherd -1

Shepherd -1

Strider Rangers -6

Ranger UA -3

Swamp Gobbers -1

Objective - Bunker

For those who remember the previous version of the list I've dropped out the Bolt Thrower, Typhon and the Foresaken for a third Ravagore, the Strider package and the Swamp Gobbers. I feel like this is a more rounded list that can be slightly more adaptable. 

Pregame

Will's list included a Centurion, Thorn and a Squire in eHayley's Battlegroup, and a unit of Gun Mages with UA, a Journeyman Warcaster and then Gaston Crosse with Galleon, Raluk Moorclaw and Dougal MacNaile. The scenario we rolled out was Incoming. Will won the roll to go first and chose board edge, letting me take first turn. He set the Galleon up opposite his own zone. I put my Ravagores opposite the Galleon and the zone with Lylyth just off centre along with the support models. Hayley then went in an opposite off-centre deployment. Gaston and the Mercs deployed with Galleon and the Gun mages centrally. I then stuck all the Striders near my zone and its comfy forest. 

Legion Turn One

Taking first turn I had Lylyth out up Shadow Pack and then put Tenacity out on herself. The Ravagores all ran up followed by the Naga, getting my 4 Fury on the board. The Shredder and the Succubus all moved up around Lylyth and then the Gobbers came up behind and dropped a cloud over the support staff. The Shepherds ran up the flanks and the Striders ran into the zone and forest on my right flank. 

Cygnar Turn One

On the Cygnar turn Hayley put her spells out, Decelerating herself, putting Temporal Acceleration on the Centurion and Dead Eye on the Gun mages before running to the back of the board. The Journeyman put up Arcane Shield on the Centurion (upkeeping it all game) before it ran straight up the board towards my zone. The Galleon waddled up and rolled 3 shots on both sides, which with Double Powder Rations from Dougal was enough to scatter around my almost entirely stealthy list. He did manage to kill one of the Shepherds with blast along with two Striders and the Succubus, annoyingly taking out two of my key support solos. The gun mages ran up to start getting the Striders in range for their pistols next turn. Thorn hid behind the Galleon. 

Legion Turn Two

On my turn two I had to actually pay Fury to upkeep Shadow Pack on Lylyth. Ugh. I started with Lylyth who moved into B2B with the Bunker to get Girded and then feated, putting out Wraithbane on two of the Ravagores. Those Ravagores then advanced up, one getting into the zone, and took 4 boosted shots into the Galleon, taking out most of one side. The Naga moved up to the Objective too and put Wraithbane on the other Ravagore, who boosted a shot into the Galleon, not quite destroying the side. He then took a pot shot at Hayley with Dragonfire, hoping to light her up. The shot deviated away but did hit the UA for the Gun Mages so I boosted to remove their True Sight. The Deathstalkers failed to kill anyone but gummed up the zone. The Striders took a full unit CRA into the one gun mage in range and then reformed back behind the forest. The Gobber leader moved between the Naga and Lylyth B2B with the objective followed by the grunt and put out a cloud on all of them. The shepherd took the fury off the overloaded Ravagore in my zone and I passed the turn. 

Cygnar Turn Two

Gaston loaded up the Galleon who advanced up but couldn't get into the zone, rolling another double 3 for its shots. Almost all of the shots deviated off even with Artillerist up from Dougal. The one shot that did deviate well hit Lylyth and all her support. Luckily though they were all B2B with the Objective and so couldn't be damaged by blast damage, apart from the Gobber grunt who was blown off the table with boosted blast damage. The fully loaded (4 with the bond) Centurion charged the Ravagore in the zone, managing to miss two of its attacks leaving my heavy on a single point. Two of the gun mages started out of command thanks to the death of the UA meaning they couldn't attack this turn. The others advanced up and levelled their guns at the Striders before remembering that they couldn't see them any more. 

Legion: 1 Cygnar:0

Legion Turn Three

On my turn I went into the tank for a long time trying to decide what to do with my stuff to get to a point where I could win. Finally I decided not to have Lylyth heal the Ravagore on one point. Instead I had the shepherd advance up and medicate it, taking two points off it, re-establishing its lost aspects (phew). The Ravagore then moved up and got forced to double handed throw the Centurion out of the zone, putting some more distance on it. Lylyth then advanced up to the nearby wall and gave dragon fire to each of the other Ravagores. The Striders on the other flank managed to take out a couple of the Gun Mages despite poor to hit rolls and their high DEF. The two Ravagores each moved up and took shots on Gaston, trying to cripple the Galleon. The first deviated harmlessly away and the second hit Thorn and the Objective, setting them both on fire but not doing significant damage. The Naga advanced up around the objective and the Shredder ran into my zone to contest. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 0

Cygnar Turn Three

Fire on Thorn and the objective stayed on with Thorn taking no damage but the Objective taking a couple points. The Galleon advanced up into the two Ravagores beating one to about half health with its initials. The Centurion with its one focus advanced up and boosted a hit into the surviving Ravagore finishing it off easily. The Gun Mages continued to advance up but failed to kill any Striders. Thorn jogged up the table a bit more and finally Hayley advanced up and feated, catching my whole army apart from Lylyth and the Gobber. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 0

Legion Turn Four 

Being under Hayley's feat meant I got very little done this turn. The Shepherd advanced into my zone. The Striders took shots at the gun mages sacrificing move but didn't get much done. The Ravagores moved into the Galleon but couldn't attack. One Deathstalker advanced into the Centurion to hold it in place and the Shredder gave it Tenacity. Lylyth advanced up the wall and put tenacity on the two Ravagores engaging the Galleon. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 0

Cygnar Turn Four 

On the Cygnar turn Will realised that the Galleon had actually advanced just out of Gaston's control area so he couldn't allocate anything to it this turn. The Objective and Thorn stayed on fire but it didn't hurt Thorn and took a couple more points from the objective. The Galleon proceeded to take its initials and managed to kill one Ravagore and wound the other. The Centurion killed the Deathstalker engaging it. The Gun mages continued their duel with the Striders to little effect. Thorn continued to advance towards my zone. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 0

Legion Turn Five

On my turn I was looking like I was in pretty dire straights. So I hatched a plan. I had the Naga advance across the Galleon, boosting a shot into its right side, followed up by Lylyth taking her shots crippled the right side of the Galleon, crippling the free strike on the remaining Ravagore. It then advaced around the collosal, who missed the free strike, and double boosted a shot with animus into Hayley herself. I cranked both rolls, putting her down to two boxes and on fire. On the far flank the Striders all moved up to shoot Hayley, hoping to put her down, but failed to hit her high DEF even with CRAs. The game now hinged on the fire roll. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 0

Cygnar Turn Five

Will rolled for the fire on Hayley and it came up a '2' saving her from otherwise (probably) certain doom. Realising the danger of her situation he had her run away, charging the Deathstalker that had shot at her last turn, ending up behind a wall. She boosted the hit and pasted it with Echo. The Galleon turned to get the Ravagore in melee and used its attacks to kill the offending heavy. Raluk moved up and around the zone staying toe in on a forest. The Centurion advanced into the Shepherd and killed it, controlling my zone. Thorn killed one Ranger and engaged the others to save Hayley from more reprisals. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 1

Legion Turn Six

On my turn I had to switch tack again. Lylyth moved up and into the zone and boosted a shot into Gaston, killing him and shutting down the Galleon, letting me dominate the zone. Lylyth then moved back with swift hunter and shot twice at Raluk, reducing him to one box but failing to kill. Now I just needed to kill the objective, which had already been damaged by the fire earlier. The Naga boosted a shot into it, but as it was a bunker it only took a few points of damage. The Shredder went Rabid and charged it, but left it with a few boxes remaining. I hadn't managed to contest my own zone though. 

Legion: 4 Cygnar: 2

Cygnar Turn Six

On the Cygnar turn Thorn got telekinesis'd towards the zone with Lylyth in it, using the Reaction Drive to advance pretty far up. Raluk ran to get through the forest ending up B2B with Galleon. Thorn charged the Naga almost killing it and contesting the zone. The Centurion advanced towards my Objective. Meanwhile the Journeyman advanced up and took a handcannon shot into the Shredder killing it to keep the objective safer. 

Legion: 4 Cygnar: 3

Legion Turn Seven

I knew there was no way I would be able to clear an almost undamaged Thorn out of my zone and so I knew that killing the objective was the only way to win the game. The Naga moved away from Thorn to try and shoot at it but was killed by the free strike. Lylyth then advanced out of the zone and took her two shots on the objective, damaging it but not destroying it. I ran the remaining Gobber into my zone to contest. 

Legion: 4 Cygnar: 3

Cygnar Turn Seven

On this turn all Will needed was to kill the Gobber with the Centurion and run Hayley into the zone to win the game on scenario, so he did, ending the game at:

Legion: 4 Cygnar: 5 - Cygnar Victory

After game

Even though I lost this game I feel like I played one of my tightest games. I came very close to winning several times and I don't feel like there were any major issues that I should have inproved on. Having said that though there were two things I noticed in reviewing the game. Firstly on my turn three I moved both Ravagores into the zone, trying to kill Gaston. Looking at the board state, though, it would probably have been a much better idea to charge both Ravagores into the half dead collosal and destroyed it with Melee instead of going for the janky shooting. Secondly I feel like I could have utilised Pin Cushion in this game several times to great effect but I didn't. On my feat turn I could have Pin Cushioned the Galleon fairly easily to skew the numbers more and should definitely have put it on the objective on the final round. It's an easy spell for me to forget because with Lylyth's low FURY it's a pain in the ass to hit even average DEF. Objectives and Collosals do not have even average DEF, though and I could have made those damage rolls much more favourable!

I guess there's always something to learn! I don't much envy whoever gets Will next, now he's got his hand in! Hopefully next week I'll be able to report about a win and break my recent close loss streak! Regardless of that this was a really close, tense game that seemed like it was just about to end pretty much every turn after the second!

As always thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - The Harbinger of Menoth vs Captain Bartolo Montador

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest edition of Mitsuharu on Bat Reps. This week I was continuing my practice with the Harbinger using a (very) slightly different list:

The Harbinger of Menoth +5

-Heirophant -2

-Reckoner -8

-Devout -5

Minimum Choir -2

Wracks -1

Vassal of Menoth -2

Maximum Exemplar Errants with UA -10

Rhupert Carvolo -2

Covenant of Menoth -2

Minimum Holy Zealots with UA -6

Maximum Exemplar Bastions -8

Dartan Vilmon -3

Paladin of the Order of the Wall -2

Anastasia Di Bray -2

Objective: Fuel Cache

The change? I've swapped out the errant Senechal for Anastasia, primarily for the +1 to the starting roll for the game, but if she gets an espionage off then I won't complain! I realise how big a deal it is to have first turn with Harbinger and so this seemed like a solid swap. 

My opponent this week was our local Mercs player, Will. Given the top of two assassination in our last game I was a little apprehensive, but willing to preserve. He was trying out a new list that he'd only had a couple of games with that included: Captain Bartolo Montodor with a Mangler and a Galleon, along with Dougal MacNaile, a Gobber Tinker, Wrong Eye and Snapjaw (and Bull Snapper), Max Nyss Hunters and Aiyana and Holt. One of my biggest issues here was the Galleon since I don't really have a good answer for the really high ARM. 

We decided to play Recon, trying to get more breadth of experience with the 2015 scenarios. Despite including Anastasia I lost the roll to go first and so picked the table edge with the trench and less difficult terrain. Will set up with his Galleon on one flank with the Jack support, with the Nyss and Aiyana and Holt on the other. I set up with Harbinger and her battlegroup central, with the zealots screening the Bastions on my left and a paladin on each flank. I then advanced deployed my Errants centrally to move into the zone on my first turn. 

Will went first and ran his Nyss as far up the board as possible, followed by the rest of his army, the Mangler moving to just outside the zone with Snapjaw just behind him. Dougal used his mini-feat and Artillerist on the Galleon to make it more accurate and longer ranged and then it moved up to start taking pot shots at the Errants. Thanks to having a high number of shots on the guns and the rerolls from Dougal he managed to kill 4 of the Errants before I could put tough on them. On my turn everything ran up, trying to take stronger board presence since Will was covering swathes of table. I also advanced Harbinger up slight ( I was concerned about the Galleon) and Feated. 

The Nyss stood still to aim, ignoring my feat, and shot a bunch of Errants of the table. The Mangler and Galleon both moved into them and reduced the unit to 2 models in a hail of cannon fire and Threshers. Everything else shuffled forwards, trying (successfully) not to be caught in the feat. 

On my turn I fully loaded the Reckoner and prepared to charge the Mangler. Harby Purified, moving back slightly as I was scared of the Galleon's guns throughout the game, followed by the Devout. The Bastions and Zealots on my flank ran forwards to cover more ground and Anastasia ran up the board to put pressure on Bart. The Errants moved out of the Reckoner's way and he charged the mangler, failing to kill it by 5 boxes, and leaving it with just movement remaining. 

As I had put Enliven on my Reckoner Will decided to mitigate this by run/charging his Nyss around it to rob it of any way to get out. Snapjaw then charged but missed the charge Attack as well as one of his bought attacks meaning he wasn't even able to take out anything despite having Harm on it. The Galleon shot up my Bastions, only doing a small amount of damage but also managed to kill the zealots monolith bearer with blast damage, as I had placed them too close together. 

On my turn the zealots moved up and fire bombed the Galleon, actually managing to put a few damage on it as well as get the crit to set it on fire! Harbinger used Purification to clear off the Spiny Growths knocking about as well as hotshot, then threw out Crusader's call but failed to hit the Nyss with Fear of God as they were engaged. The bastions then charged the Galleon and the Mangler. Only one reached the Mangler and two on the Galleon, neither doing meaningful damage (I forgot all game that they have Blessed and so was rolling vs. Batten'ed ARM like an idiot). The Reckoner, who'd been fully loaded again, managed to kill Snapjaw with only 2 focus, taking an extra swing on the Mangler but it refused to die. Meanwhile Dartan began an extreme flanking menouver and Anna ran straight up the board towards Bart, forcing him to deal with her next turn. 

Will retaliated hard this turn. The Nyss charged into the Reckoner, Vassal and a Choir member. Killing the Reckoner despite missing the Kiss from Aiyana and forcing me to martyr the Vassal. The Galleon opted to shoot and rolled 6s on both sides with his cannon. He then proceeded to kill some zealots and take most of the boxes off the bastions, but only actually killing one of them. Holt moved into melee with Anna but missed all 4 of his attacks, forcing the Bull Snapper to move back to double boost on her to finish her off before she could get any shenanigans. 

On my turn I was rapidly running out of options, but had been presented one nice option with the Nyss clumping together. I moved Harby up slightly and then used Cataclysm to kill half a dozen of them, forcing a panic check which they passed. The Paladin in the trench killed the Nyss engaging him, the Vassal missed the Nyss engaging him and accidentally shot the Choir in the back. The zealots threw more bombs at the Galleon and the Bastions continued to thwack at the collossal too, but still couldn't do anything meaningful even with the charge (again totally forgetting Blessed on their halberd) with one of the others killing Cylena and the other still failing to kill the Mangler. Blowing up the Nyss with Harby was probably the highlight of the game for me  though. 

On Will's turn he shifted his colossal slightly freeing up a lane for the tinker before shooting the last of the zealots and one of the bastions off the table and doing two points to the Covenant to boot. The Nyss moved around the bastion on the wreck marker, but one of them left the other Bastion's arc, dying to the free strike, forcing the other to fail their panic check. The Tinker then moved up and mended the Mangler back to full functionality. The Mangler then shifted across and took a Thresher, killing the two bastions in the zone and accidentally killing his own Tinker in the process. The Bull Snapper moved up to contest the far flag since that was my best chance of scoring. Aiyana gave magical shots to Holt who moved up and shot Dartan (who'd been creeping around the back of the Colossal) off the table 

On my turn I realised I was in pretty dire straits and didn't have much of an option to win. I decided that my only real shot was to somehow control the flag to my right. I had Harby purify and then moved across into the trench along with the Devout. Rhupert moved towards the zone to contest next turn and gave the choir tough hoping to hold the zone a little longer. 

Will then had his colossal use its guns to take out the last bastion and errant as well as tow the covenant in to finish it off. The Mangler then charged my objective, hitting it twice but failing to kill it, reducing it to 2 boxes. Wrongeye moved up and put spiny Growth on the contesting Bull Snapper. Meanwhile Bart shuffled across to behind the Galleon. 

On my turn I knew I needed to clear the flag to be able to dominate in order to have any shot at winning the game. Harby gave 3 to the Devout and then cast purification and put Fear of God on the Mangler to remove thresher. The Devout charged but only did a medium amount of damage with the charge Attack. The shield did nothing and it then missed two of the bought attacks. This meant I hadn't cleared the flag and, since it was getting late, I forfeited the game. We decided that it would take a while to clear the zone but Bart would be able to dominate eventually and I would ultimately lose on scenario. 

This was a good, balanced game. As I had feared this list did not deal well with an up-armoured collosal. The game was a gruelling grind fest on both sides but Will was able to use his Galleon really well to tip the scales in his favour. We both had pretty big dice swings throughout the game, with one turn coming all 6s immediately followed by not being able to get much of anything done. I'd have liked the first turn (duh) but either way I think allowed the threat of the Galleon to really limit my play. 

A prime example of this was in turn one. I lost almost half the Errants to the Galleon, crippling my prime jamming unit because I was too scared to Martyr so early. I was too precious with Harbinger throughout the game, given that I kept her far back and also refused to martyr unless I felt I had to. This undercut the whole point of the army. Something Will exploited well. 

I think I might try out a new list next time. Or maybe not! Either way I'll be sure to tell you all about it here!

As always if you like the blog then please like it on Facebook!

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Feora, Protector of the Flame vs. Drake MacBain

Hi everyone and welcome back to the latest Bat Rep! This week was my final game before the local tournament this Sunday. I was still practicing with my eFeora list:

eFeora +6

-Bonded Judicator -18

-Reckoner -8

Vassal of Menoth -2

Wracks -1

Vassal Mechanic -1

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution -3

Knights Exemplar Seneschal -3

Saxon Orrik -2

Gorman Di Wulfe -2

Min Choir -2 

Max TFG with UA -8

Min Zealots with UA -6

My opponent was one of the few Merc players in my meta, Will, and was playing a new Highborn list he'd cooked up using Drake MacBain accompanied by Sylys Wyshnalyrr and a Galleon. The list also included a max unit of Boomhowlers, a unit of Gun Mages with UA, Alexia Mistress of the Witchfire, Anastasia di Bray, Eiyrss Mage Hunter of Ios, Madelyn Corbeau, Ogrun Bokur, Taryn di la Rovissi, a Gobber Tinker and Victor Pendrake. This list included a lot of interesting and some less common merc solos and combos. The Scenario that we were playing was Two Fronts, and I lost the roll for initiative thanks to Anastasia's Intelligence special rule. My opponent decided to take the more advantageous board side and let me take first turn. 

We each set up our Colossals in the centre of the board, and I then placed my TFG on the side nearest my zone with Orrik, and the zealots on the opposite side across from the other zone along with Gorman and the Seneschal, with Feora near the middle of the board, and the support staff surrounding the colossal. Will then deployed his gun mages opposite my TFG along with Pendrake, while the Boomhowlers surrounded MacBain on the other side of the board. All of the solos then advanced deployed right on the edge of his own zone. 

Having the first turn I ran my force forwards, placing the Zealots on the hill Directly in front of them, followed by the Judicator, Senechal, and Gorman. Orrik gave pathfinder to the TFG who then ran up close to the zone. Feora put out Escort and then moved up toward the linear obstacle on my side of the board, and the support staff all moved up, with the choir singing Passage on the Jacks. Will then ran all of his Solos into his zone, surrounding his objective which was The Stockpile, preventing knockdown (we had the details of this objective wrong. We'd been playing that it was no knockdown within 4", however this is B2B and the stand-up effect is 4"). The Gun mages moved forwards and the Boomhowlers ran across the board, with the Galleon stomping up behind them. MacBain then moved onto the hill, surrounded by Boomhowlers and used his feat, affecting the solos in the zone and himself and Boomhowler. 

In my turn Gorman stepped up and threw Black Oil at Alexia, but missed and deviated off to the wrong direction, missing everything. The Zealots then shuffled into the zone and prayed for Fervour, before ineffectually tossing bombs into the mass of solos, scratching a couple of them but not doing any real damage, and then used their minifeat to hold out. Orrik moved up again and put Pathfinder on the TFG, who moved into the zone with Shield wall and also mini Feated to turtle the zone. The Reckoner hopped over the wall into the zone, and Feora moved up behind the wall and put Ignite on the TFG. I then activated the Judicator and took a template shot at MacBain, boosting the to hit and managing to set him on fire thanks to the bond. My clock then ran out before either of the vassals could move up. In hindsight I should definitely have taken my extension this turn, and finished off my shooting and moved up my vassals, but I didn't. 

The fire did not go out on either MacBain or the Boomhowler next to him who'd also been set on fire, killing the boomie, and doing a couple of boxes on MacBain. Madelyn used her intrigue move to have MacBain shuffle forwards, considering the assassination run on Feora. The Galleon moved up and took a big chunk out of my objective. The Bokur charged through a gap in my Zealots using reach to catch the Seneschal and took him down to 0, knocking him down, waiting for the revive. Alexia then moved up and took a Hellfire shot on Gorman, being just barely within Stealth and killed him. At this point I realised how poor my Seneschal placement was, since the Greater Destiny Zealots could not die to bring him back and Gorman does not activate Restoration, since the wording is for Faction models. Moving on! Pendrake set his sights on his nemesis, Orrik, and advanced across the board towards him on the extreme flank. MacBain decided to be more cautious and jogged around to the back of his Galleon, using a couple of Jack Hammers to finish off the objective, scoring a point. The Gun mages aimed, killing a couple of the TFG despite their massive ARM, freeing up LOS for Eiryss to Disrupt the Reckoner. The Boomhowlers then charged, with two attacking the Reckoner, two on TFG and two on a zealot. One Boomhowler killed a zealot, freeing up the other to swing a couple of points damage onto the Judicator. The Boomhowlers facing the TFG failed to hit on any of their attacks thanks to Set Defence and the other one managed to deal a handful of boxes to the Reckoner. Anastasia then moved up, using espionage to get another activation on the board, but with the clock running down this achieved very little, with a couple of Boomhowlers putting a couple more boxes on the Judicator and the Reckoner. 

On my turn I gave a focus to the Judicator and upkept both of my spells. The zealots activated and instead of throwing bombs like a good Menoth player I decided to be stupid and moved into Melee to miss all my attacks vs Alexia and the Bokur. Feora moved across to shoot her spray at Anastasia, boosting the to hit roll, and still managed to miss, forcing Eiryss to finish the spy off with a quick crossbow bolt. The vassal then activated, moving up to the Judicator to use an Ancilliary attack on the flamethrower. The template covered a Boomhowler, Madelyn and Taryn. Taryn dodged the flames acrobatically, and Madelyn used Sucker! to have the Boomhowler double hit, with one of the damage rolls killing him. The Judicator then activated properly, spending a focus to pick up the Bokur and throw him at Madelyn. The throw missed Madelyn but only deviated by 1", meaning she was still hit, and both of them were killed in the resulting splatter. Saxon Orrik, having given the TFG as much guidance as necessary, moved up the board and levelled his hunting rifle at his nemesis, Victor Pendrake, grazing him with a bullet but failing to kill. The Reckoner managed to kill the Boomhowler engaging him despite being disrupted. The TFG then moved up the board but my clock ran out before I could make any attacks, and I again stupidly decided not to take my extension on the only other turn that it would have mattered. 

Will started his turn by rolling fire off MacBain who'd been taking a few boxes a turn all game from it and had Alexia use her souls to create 3 thrall warriors, who spawned in the zealots' back arcs. T wo of them killed their targets but the third managed to fail despite the bonuses to hit and the naturally low DEF. The Boomhowlers moved into the Judicator, taking a few more boxes off it. Pendrake sacrificed movement to aim at Orrik, hoping to end the feud with his lucky bow, forgetting that the sneaky Orrik has stealth, causing him to automiss. Being a coward Pendrake then had the Gun Mages shoot at Orrik to finish his job for him, but they failed to hit his high Defence. The Gun Mages did however manage to kill several of the TFG. Meanwhile Eiryss disrupted the Reckoner again. With his remaining time the Galleon advanced into a crack between 2 Boomhowlers, just getting the Judicator within reach, taking two punishing melee attacks on it. MacBain then activated and used repeated Jack Hammers and the rest of his clock to scrap my colossal. 

On my turn, somewhat disheartened by the loss of the Judicator I had the support staff run across the board towards the remaining Jack. The Reckoner used its natural Attack and an Ancilliary to kill a pair of Boomhowlers. The TFG moved up and swung at the Galleon, not harming it but setting it on fire. Orrik took more careful aim at his foe, Pendrake, and managed to get a killing blow, with Pendrake failing the tough roll. Moral Victory! Feora moved back towards the wall and firestepped into a safer location behind some human cover and the wall. The Zealots continued to do very little to clear their zone, with their combined efforts killing a single Thrall Warrior. Eyriss moved over the wall and within 5" of the Galleon to use Technological Interference to limit its effectiveness next turn. 

Taking advantage of an exposed Eiryss the Gun Mages and younger Eiryss shot her to death along with another handful of TFG. Alexia and her risen along with Taryn managed to polish off the last of the Zealots quite handily, freeing up the Boomhowlers to move across the board and victimise my support staff, with the Mechanic swiftly becoming a light snack for a Trollblood. Despite having no focus the Galleon moved into melee with the Reckoner and used its own attacks and some Jack Hammers to scrap it. 

Seeing that I was clearly losing the attrition game and with no way to clear out the Galleon I decided the best course  was to try for the assassination. I measured my control area and was pretty sure that I was around an inch out. Deciding it was still worth the try I started by having the TFG attack the Gobber Tinker and Boomhowler himself. The combined melee against the Tinker failed completely but Boomhowler was set on fire. Feora then firestepped over the wall, setting up a clear lane to MacBain. After that I remeasured my control area and found that I definitely was out of range for the assassination run. Instead I moved across into the wreck marker to get a slightly improved DEF and then feated, taking the fire from a Boomhowler and the Galleon, putting it back onto MacBain and Eiryss. Deciding that killing Eiryss was a priority she then boosted a flamethrower shot at her. And missed. Saxon Orrik then tried to make up for this with a risky charge on Eiryss but was about an inches short. The Vassal then moved into melee range of Boomhowler and used his Bolt to zap him. Unfortunately he made his Call of Defiance tough. This left me in a pretty precarious position, but Feora was DEF 19 vs ranged and camping a stack of 8 Focus. 

The fire on MacBain did another couple of points of damage but the fire on Eiryss rolled a double one. Leaving her more than alive enough to roll double 6 on her aim at Feora, hitting her squarely with a disruption bolt. The Boomhowlers and Alexia swanned across the board before Sylys ran to engage Feora, setting up a gang for MacBain on her. MacBain then charged in, boosting his charge attack. He hit and did a handful of damage. He bought and double boosted the attack again, reducing her to a few boxes. He bought a final attack and cranked the damage roll putting her in the ground. 

This was a fun game, starting off slow and then getting very serious very quick. We were both inexperienced with the lists that we were using and so there were some pretty basic mistakes on both sides. I should have placed my Seneschal on the other side of the board with the TFG instead of with the zealots who couldn't heal him. I also should have been throwing bombs instead of swinging sticks with the Zealots. I also should have used my extension on the earlier turns. 

I'm looking forward to the tournament on Sunday and I'll be sure to write it all up and give you all a look at how it goes!

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-M