Black Tide Battle Report - Chapter 6: Salt the Earth

Battle Report - Cygnar vs Khador

This was the 6th scenario in the Black Tide narrative campaign: Salt the Earth. In this scenario, The defenders are trying to destroy houses before the invaders can loot them. I'd be playing invader here as Cygnar, and my opponent's Khador would be the defender.

The rules for Legacy Storm Legion had just come out, so I was eager to field some of my old models. Unfortunately, the only Nemo I had access to was Nemo2, AKA worst Nemo.

My opponent ran his MK4 Prime jack-heavy list, with a lot of stuff proxying Dire Wolves.

Cygnar

• General Adept Nemo
• Centurion
• Cyclone
• Defender
• Dynamo
• Ironclad
• Ironclad
• Captain Arlan Strangewayes
• Field Mechanics
• Gobber Tinker

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Khador

• Kommander Valerii Savaryn
• Medveditsa
• Dire Wolf
• Dire Wolf
• Dire Wolf
• Dire Wolf
• Arcanists
• Arcanists
• Shock Trooper Pikemen
• Shock Trooper Pikemen

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Deployment

 

 

After the eight houses for the scenario were placed, we placed additional terrain, and ended up two forest surrounding a pond in the center, and a burned-out Khador house on the right, directly next to the Rhulic dijon rave house. A smoke cloud lies on the edge of one forest - perhaps a tree is on fire. A Khador bunker placed centrally would provide elevation, and a patch of lava abutted the Crucible Guard petrochemical plant.

I deployed with repair models lined up to loot buildings, and my opponent deployed with his models set to wreck all the buildings.

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Cygnar Turn 1

Cygnar runs forward, putting Fail Safe on the centurion, Electrify on an ironclad, and Polarity Shield on the other ironclad.

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Khador Turn 1

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Khador walks forward, as our belief is that you cannot charge buildings. A dire wolf tears down a house, and a second dire wolf and Medveditsa tear down the Crucible Guard petrochemical factory, and a second house. The shock trooper pikemen try to wreck a fourth house, but without a charge they do little.

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Cygnar Turn 2

Dynamo shoots out one pikeman, and uses the reposition command card to move back into Nemo's control area. An ironclad moves up, confident in his polarity shield to protect him. The defender puts a few damage on a dire wolf, and the centurion activates his own polarity field. The cyclone puts a few damage on a different dire wolf.

Arlan Strangewayes loots the dijon rave house, and both the gobber tinker and the gobber repair crew move into position to loot next turn.

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Khador Turn 2

A great bear advances on the house with gobber tinkers hiding behind it, and unloads with a full stack of focus, leaving the house on five boxes. The pikemen beating on the house on the opposite flank of the battle have even less luck, having done a total of only 6 damage over the two rounds of their assault. The rest of the Khador jacks retreat behind the forest and fog cloud.

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Cygnar Turn 3

The gobber tinker loots his house, and the gobber repair crew loots theirs, much to the frustration of the dire wolf who'd nearly destroyed that house. Now Cygnar has looted three buildings and Khador has destroyed three.

Dynamo puts some damage on a direwolf by edging around the forest a bit, and the cyclone rolls well and puts a good amount of damage on the dire wolf who'd failed to destroy his house.

The defender takes a shot at a dire wolf, doing more damage, and the centurion repositions slightly.

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Khador Turn 3

The pikemen furiously tear into their house and do one more point of damage. Meanwhile, three happy gobbers emerge from a house with their ill-gotten gains and are greeted by a very angry dire wolf who kills them all.

The rest of Khador runs. No attacks; they just thoughtlessly advance into Cygnar. A rock wall is created to protect some of them a bit.

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Cygnar Turn 4

Well, if this isn't Nemo's feat turn, I don't know what is.

After Arlan gives out a focus and the tinker runs back to loot the final house, Nemo slides over, casts a boosted electrical blast which disrupts a Dire Wolf, and a Galvanic Bolt which misses. If it had hit, the tractor field might have saved Nemo's life. Nemo then pulls all the focus off all his jacks (7 focus)! and feats, maxxing out all of their focus. Then he casts energizer and an inconsequential electrical blast.

The Cyclone gets five shots and blows up the damaged dire wolf who'd just slaughtered all those gobbers. The ironclad with electrify kills a dire wolf and ends up with lots of focus left over that he can't use. The other ironclad finds itself with no targets and runs around the forest towards Savaryn. The defender had wanted to get into melee, but the rock wall prevents him, so he joins Dynamo in just shooting. The centurion lays into Medveditsa and has trouble doing much to the armor 23 monster.

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Khador Turn 4

Khador is down to three heavies, and Cygnar still has six. So it's assassination run time.

A dire wolf walks up and beats on the ironclad until it's nearly dead. Three pikemen move up and finish it off, leaving just barely enough room for Medveditsa to sneak through and murder Nemo. Two initials hit and allow for the smash and grab headbutt. The POW 14 headbutt kills Nemo. Medveditsa used no focus.

(Khador Victory!)

Final Thoughts

• If I hadn't used that reposition card on Dynamo early on, I could have used it to save Nemo.
• Better yet, if Nemo had used his Energizer on turn four to move himself two inches, he could have lived. Too often, I forget that a caster is part of his own battlegroup.
• I really was doing very well right up until the moment Nemo got assassinated.
  

Black Tide Battle Report - Chapter 5: Burn the Bridges

Battle Report: Army of the Western Reaches vs Sea Raiders

This was the 5th scenario in the Black Tide narrative campaign: Burn the Bridges. The idea behind this one is that both armies are fighting in the rushing water beneath the bridge, and the defenders are trying to destroy the bridge to prevent the invaders from transporting their armies across. The tape across the table marks the edges of the water - everything between is rushing water. Not only are models in the water in rough terrain - they all lose pathfinder. This means that the Orgoth cavalry is at a distinct advantage, as they can fly, and the Skorne cavalry is at a disadvantage, as they can now only reposition one inch.

The six objective markers represent six legs supporting the bridge. The defender's goal is to destroy at least four of them. This is done by placing charges - a trooper model base to base with a bridge support can place a charge by taking an action while base to base with it and rolling 2d6. A roll of 9 or higher places the charge. On a roll of 2, the charge explodes immediately. Otherwise nothing happens and you've got to try again. An armed charge will explode at the end of the defender's next turn, giving models time to get clear, which is good because when a charge explodes, the bridge leg is destroyed, and all models within two inches are automatically destroyed. Once the defender destroys four bridge legs, he wins. If he hasn't done so by the end of his sixth turn, the invader wins.

 I would also be using my Siege Oliphaunt for the first time this game, which was exciting.

Skorne

• Supreme Archdomina Makeda
• Baslisk Krea
• Baslisk Krea
• Titan Sentry (Proxied by a Titan Cannoneer)
• Siege Oliphaunt
• Legends of Halaak
• Paingiver Beast Handlers
• Praetorian Ferox
• Praetorian Ferox
• Venator Catapult Crew

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Orgoth

• Horruskh, The Thousand Wraths
• Jackal
• Tyrant
• Siege Tarask
• Rhok Harriers
• Rhok Harriers
• Ulkor Axers
• Ulkor Barragers

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Deployment

Although each player is allowed to place 4 pieces of terrain, we didn't want to be stupid by placing houses and forests in the river. So one side got an underwater hill, and the other side got a pile of rocks that would act as a wall. Underwater rubble on one side would also grant cover.

The Orgoth deploy to send six Rhok up one side of the board, and Axers on the other. Horruskh aims for the hill. Skorne points a unit of Ferox at each set of bridge legs, and aims the Oliphaunt straight up the center.

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Skorne Turn 1

Skorne runs into the river, although the Ferox hold back a bit to avoid being shot at on turn one. The flag falls off my Makeda model, and we decided that she dropped it before heading into the river because she didn't want her flag to get wet.

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Orgoth Turn 1

Orgoth run up, the Axers getting Inviolable Resolve.

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Skorne Turn 2

The oliphaunt unloads on the Tyrant, doing some damage, and the Tyrant moves forward because of hyper-agressive.

The Ferox walk forward, the moving model stopping at the bridge support and the other two placing far enough forward to attack. The two walking ferox fail to do much damage, but the one in the back successfully plants a charge on the bridge. On the other side, Ferox do the same, and the two forward Ferox kill two rhok harriers, but the rear ferox fails to place a charge.

The catapult kills an axer, and a member of the catapult crew sets a charge on the other bridge pillar. Two down! The legends of Halaak run to the other side of the board, and the Krea put up force auras.

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Orgoth Turn 2

The tyrant unloads on the Oliphaunt, doing more than half its boxes in damage. The tarask and rhok kill two ferox, and axers on the other side kill one ferox.

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Skorne Turn 3

The oliphaunt backs up to stay out of the axers' charge range. It then heals itself with its rage tokens, shoots at the tyrant and kills a rhok. The unstoppable ferox walk away from the axers, and one is placed close enough to a pillar to try to place a charge, which fails. The other unit of ferox also tries to place a charge and fails, but does kill one rhok.

Legends of Halaak jockey for position. Makeda puts up deflection.

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Orgoth Turn 3

The tyrant lets loose with its quad bolter again, pincushioning the oliphaunt. Shield guard from the Sentry helps. The Ulkor barragers help out, but it takes the two rhok harriers to finally move in and finish off the olpihaunt. That still only counts as one!

Ulkor axers and the siege tarask take out the two Ferox who are outside of the range of Makeda's stay death, but she keeps the one on the bridge pillar alive.

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Skorne Turn 4

What I'd really like to do here is have a ferox walk to the far side of the pillar, then place another four inches away base to base with the furthest pillar so that I could try to set charges on each. However, the siege tarask is blocking me from doing that, so instead all three Ferox charge the tarask, doing decent damage and killing two Rhok.

A beast handler successfully sets a charge on a pillar, leaving only one.

The Sentry positions to block for Makeda, but I fail to use his animus. The Legends of Halaak position to charge anyone who they want next turn. Makeda casts Force Aura and Deflection. It's a costly but effective combination: +4 DEF vs ranged.

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Orgoth Turn 4

Axers charge and kill the sentry. The lone remaining rhok charges and damages one of the legends of Halaak. The barragers kill the catapult because the crew wasn't close enough to use Take Up. The one guy left has nothing but a cannonball, and he's determined to use it, but he's not yet sure how.

The tarask takes out two of the three ferox, and the jackal moves up.

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Skorne Turn 5

The last ferox walks around the tarask and makes a last-ditch attempt to place a charge, but fails.

The krea finishes off the final rhok in order to give the Legends of Halaak a charge lane. The Legends of Halaak then charge the jackal, ending with a combo smite slam that knocks it into a wall, so that charge attack actually uses five dice. Damage wasn't super high though.

Makeda backs away from the pillar that's about to explode, and the krea gives her force aura. That guy with the cannonball looks around, trying to decide who to throw it at.

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Orgoth Turn 5

The tarask mauls the last ferox, but Makeda won't let it die, using up every last fury point. The warwitches charge, but can't kill it.

Axers charge the Legends of Halaak, but can't kill them.

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Skorne Turn 6

The game ends after Skorne's 6th turn, so this is it. We realize that even if I set a charge successfully, it won't explode until after the game ends. Only rolling a 2 will cause it to explode immediately and win the game for Skorne. I roll a seven or something.

(Orgoth Victory!)

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Final Thoughts

• Early on, I did a lot of focusing on the bridge pillars rather than making attacks. My thinking is that if I could destroy the bridge and win, then it didn't matter how many models I'd lost. The issue is that setting charges is totally random and far less than 50%.
• As ever, the tyrant's ranged attacks did so much work. I hate it.
• I should probably have skipped the charge on turn 4 and had the ferox try to set a charge.
• Leaving the catapult crew too far away from the catapult was a mistake on my part.
• The Legends of Halaak spent a lot of time doing nothing.
• I wonder if I could have saved my oliphaunt with the stealth card.
• All things said, this is a really good scenario. Not competitive, but fun.