A Nomad
A Mule
A Buccaneer
Rutger Shaw
Taryn di la Rovissi
The Piper or Ord
Alexia Ciannor and her Risen buddies
Cap'n Sam and the Devil Dogs
Steelhead Halberdiers
Irusk gamely fought back fielding:
The Behemoth
Kayazy and Underboss
Death Star
Kovnik Joe
War Dog Roman Abrahimovich
Battle Mechanics
Great Bears
As we were trying to use the "battle" feature of War Room I was stuck taking pictures on my phone and the quality is cruddy at best. Believe it or not these are the best of the bunch. So we played Gauntlet, I rolled highest and elected to move second. In the absence of a photo of the starting positions Jason deployed the Devil Dogs to my left with the Piper next to them and the Mule. Then came Alexia and the Risen with Ashlynn and the Nomad in the center. Steelheads,then Rutger, Taryn and the Buccaneer on the end of the line to my right.
Jason's starting positions
I deployed the Kayazy facing the Devil Dogs, the Death Star in the middle with Big B, Irusk, War Dog Roman, the Mechanics and the Bears in reserve. The terrain was ruined buildings (linear obstacles) in a circle around the center of the board so both of the control areas were in an open patch in the center of the table. I was hemmed in a bit on my right by the ruin so Jason's line extended further out to my right than mine did.
Jason started by running the Devil Dogs forward, casting Quicken on the Steelheads and running them 16 inches across the table taking the middle and leaving me the choice of either running the Guards forward and having him charge them one turn two or advancing Bobbing and Weaving and hoping that he'd either have to run or be unlikely to hit me if he did make contact. I picked the later option and advanced 6" forward and then had Irusk cast Iron Flesh on them. On the left the Kayazy ran forward looking to get into melee with the over matched Devil Dogs and keep them the heck away from the Behemoth.
See what I mean? Crappy pictures!
At the end of turn one, Jason had people in the control zone nearest him and I had no one in either control zone and no one had died. On Jasons move he advanced the Sea Dogs into shooting range of the Kayazy and managed to not hit them. His Steelheads were too far away to charge my Winter Guard so, with Quicken still up he ran them into melee range of the front rank of my guys. The Mule shot at the Kayazy and deviated off into no where and everyone else advanced as quickly as they could.
The pile up in the center.
On my turn 2 I had to get people into the near control area but first things first I gave the Behemoth two focus and charged the Kayazy into the Devil Dogs and didn't have quite enough movement to get at the Piper or Captain Sam herself. But her boys paid with 7 of them going down under the knives of the murderous Kayazy.
Last men standing? Why they're Kayazy of course!
The Winter Guard advanced, some into melee with the Steelheads, other into position to shoot at the second rank of the mercenary infantry. All in all we did ok, killing about half of what we could reach. Big B advanced into the control area, crushed a Steelhead and fired his bombards at Alexia Ciannor, getting two of her minions as well as her under the blast the first time, killing the Risen and taking her down to 1 point but only after she sucked the "life" out of two of her other undeads. The second shot deviated onto another two minions and killed both of them cutting her little unit by two thirds and nearly taking her too. Irusk activated, cast Inhospitable Ground, Feated, and moved to the left along with the Great Bears wanting to get an open charge lane on the Heavy 'Jacks that were advancing into the action.
The action at the end of my second turn
Jason knew the game was going against him, mostly from me getting to deploy second and thus being able to keep the Behemoth away from the Devil Dogs who, as it turns out, are no match for Kayazy in melee. He moved his remaining Dogs into melee to try and keep the Kayazy occupied and prevent them from sweeping into the far control area and butchering his solo's. He feated with Ashlynn and moved the Mule forward, fired it's Steam Lobber and, due entirely to being slowed down my Inhospitable Ground, came up a half inch short of the Behemoth and doing a Critical Devastation throw against him and all the other guys around him. He had to content himself with killing Winter Guard and and a Mechanic. He then charged in with the last of the Steelheads and killed more Winter Guard (my tough rolls sucked, I only made two the entire Feat turn). He also took down Superiority on the Behemoth making it easier to hit.
On my turn I gave the Behemoth three focus. The Kayazy charged more to my right, getting into melee with Alexia and the last of his Devil Dogs and the Piper (who was making them tough), we killed everyone in contact but the Piper and one Dog. In the center I finessed my way with the Winter Guard and Uncle Joe into getting a charge lane opened up for the Bears to charge his Nomad, they ran in and hit every time... but the damage rolls sucked and his Nomad had 3 boxes left at the end of their action. They did, however, end up in melee with Ashlynn which kept her in place. The Behemoth then activated, charged the Mule, and killed it in two attacks stranding two Focus unused on Big B. Irusk moved a bit more to the left behind some of the remaining Winter Guard.
Great Bears, well, nearly Great Bears
At the end of turn two, Jason had people in the closer victory location but so did I, and I didn't have anyone in the far one but neither did he. On Jason's turn he decided, rightly in my mind, that the only way for him to win was to kill Irusk. Ashlynn turned focus hog and fought her way through the Great Bears. His flanking force, which I haven't mentioned for a while was bogged down killing the occasional Guardsman and not earning their keep.
On my turn the Kayazy ran into the far victory location taking ownership of it. I did a good deal of combined ranged attacks on Ashlynn and did about 7 points to her all told. Irusk, feeling victory, lurked behind the Winter Guard with Inhospitable Ground up to keep the vengeful Ashlynn too far away to change the course of events.
At the end of turn three I had a victory point and Jason had none, to prevent an instant loss he had to move someone into the far control area and the one that was picked was Taryn di la Rovissi as she was the only one who could make it. Shooting a Kayazy on her way in she hoped to turn the tide by herself... Ashlynn moved on to attack the wall of Winter Guard covering Irusk and managed to miss them even with her MAT of 8. The game she was all but over!
Ashlynn Delyse, foiled by Khadorian Peasants
On my turn the Kayazy surrounded and killed Taryn, knowing that there was naught else to do Irusk retired to a nearby building to write a report to the Supreme Kommand and add another chapter to his memoirs!
Victory Pose!
It was a fun game, it's always fun to win, but in this game I avoided making more mistakes than I have done before. On the second to last turn I was tempted to try the assassination run on Ashlynn but was pretty sure that Irusk couldn't pull it off with the way the damage dice had been rolling. And then I remembered, I didn't have to kill her to win! Backing up and keeping Inhospitable Ground up so she had no way of catching me was a sure way to win the scenario. I didn't screw it up!
This is viewed as a milestone.
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