Black Tide Battle Report - Chapter 2: Sea Assault

Battle Report: Army of the Western Reaches vs Winter Corps

This was the second scenario in Privateer Press's Black Tide campaign: “Sea Assault”. I would be playing Skorne as the attackers, and my opponent playing Khador as defenders. The win condition was for the attacker to simultaneously control two flags before turn six.

Skorne (Army of the Western Reaches)

 

• Supreme Archdomina Makeda
• Titan Cannoneer
• Cyclops Savage
• Basilisk Krea
• Legends of Halaak
• Cataphract Cetrati
• Venator Catapult Crew

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Khador (Winter Corps)

 

• Kaptain Ekaterina Baranova
• Great Bear
• Great Bear
• Battle Mechanik
• Magziev Zariyah Volkova
• Arkanists
• Shock Trooper Pikemen
• Shock Trooper Pikemen

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The players took turns placing terrain, so the terrain ended up being a row of buildings. He mostly placed these buildings, while I placed a wall where I planned to put my catapult crew, the Khador burned-out building to hide my caster, acid to screw with his troops, and some water to make it difficult for him to use the red shipping container as cover. He then placed defenses: spike traps and two powder kegs.

I didn't realize until afterwards that I'd missed some photos.

Deployment

Khador deployed near the closer two flags, ignoring the third one near the acid. Skorne deployed with the catapult ready to head for the wall, the Legends of Halaak ready to flank around the undefended side, and all else going up the center.

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Skorne Turn 1

Skorne runs up, endeavoring to stay just outside Khador's range, and I make my first mistake when I place the cyclops just outside the range of the basilisk krea's force aura.

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Khador Turn 1

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One of the Khador jacks moves up and lets loose at my cyclops raider, and I realize at this point that the raider should actually be a savage, and I replace the model. Thankfully, it had done no shooting at this point, so we joke that it pointed its weapon at Khador and tried to pull the trigger on a sword, only then realizing that it wasn't a gun.

The cyclops loses about half its hit points to incoming Khador fire.

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Skorne Turn 2

Khador has done well to stay out of charge range of the cetrati, so they just reposition in prep for a charge next turn, confident in their DEF13 ARM19 to save them. The cyclops raider backs up and is medicated by the beast handlers. The Titan Cannoneer boosts a shot into a shock trooper, killing him. Makeda and the Legends of Halaak continue to hide.

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Khador Turn 2

The Khador barrage intensifies. The great bears' deep freezers land a crit freeze on the cetrati, freezing them and the catapult, and killing two members of the catapult crew. Makeda uses fury to stay death on cetrati who would otherwise have died.

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Skorne Turn 3

Frozen cetrati and catapult make this turn a nothingburger. But the cetrati play a card and gain stealth.

The beast handlers heal the cyclops savage to full health, and it advances to retaliate on anything that might charge the frozen cetrati, and the krea moves up to protect the savage with a force aura. The cannoneer, with no targets, edges around the other side of his structure to try to get something in range. The Legends of Halaak sprint for cover behind a building, keeping the flag in range.

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Khador Turn 3

Ekaterina feats, and a great bear moves up and wails away at a cetrati, and Makeda keeps it alive. The other great bear continues trying to freeze Skorne, but Skorne has donned their long underwear and resist the cold. Honestly, it was bad dice - the odds were that a crit freeze should have happened. The other great bear continues tromping through the water, but it's slow going.

The shock trooper pikemen move up and attack the cyclops savage, and one gets a crit with his blasting pike, doing insane damage and nearly killing the cyclops.

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Skorne Turn 4

I've kept too much fury, and the krea frenzies, running up to bite the savage in the back. The savage gets enraged by the beast handlers and lays into the pikemen, killing one and damaging another.

Due to Ekaterina's feat, the cannoneer has no targets in range. The catapult slides way over along its wall, which gets it a line of sight to the great bear standing in the water. The shot hits, and the resulting blast damage takes out the support solo standing behind the cargo container.

Cetrati charge the great bear, doing less damage than I'd hoped, but taking out its cortex. The Legends of Halaak position to charge the great bear that's standing in a lake.

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Khador Turn 4

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Khador plays Tried & True, fixing the great bear's cortex. The great bears all try to freeze things again, but Khador's dice will not cooperate.

The pikemen blast the hell out of the cyclops savage, exploding it into a million pieces.

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Skorne Turn 5

The krea paralyzes the two pikemen, then the beast handlers charge, killing one. The Legends of Halaak charge a great bear, doing minimal damage and slamming it back an inch. Even if they'd killed it or slammed it back further, the pikemen are still contesting.

This is Skorne's second-to-last turn, so there's some desperation. The cetrati use a breakout card and walk over to attack Ekaterina. They need eights to hit, so I'm hoping for one of the three to hit. Somehow, all three do, killing the caster.

(Skorne Victory!)

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Final Thoughts

• My dice were hot, especially in that assassination run. My opponent's dice were only truly bad a couple times, but those were important times, and his rolls for crits should have come up far more often than they did.
• I also inadventently cheated, since we thought Makeda was able to Stay Death out to 14 inches, whereas it should have been only ten inches.