Monday, August 14, 2023

Battle Report: Cygnar Storm Legion vs Khador Winter Corps

Cygnar (Di Baro) vs Khador (Borisyuk)

Cygnar

  • Captain Athena Di Baro
  • Stryker
  • Stryker
  • Stryker (proxied by Ironclad)
  • Legionnaire Officer
  • Legionnaire Officer
  • Arcane Mechanics
  • Stormguard Legionnaires
  • Stormguard Legionnaires (proxied by stormblades)
  • Tempest Assailers



Khador

  • Kaptain Ilari Borisyuk
  • Great Bear
  • Great Bear
  • Great Bear
  • Great Bear
  • Dire Wolf
  • Dire Wolf
  • Arkanists
  • Arkanists



Deployment 


The map had a house, bunker, and forest placed centrally. One side had a lake and a building too far back to be consequential, and the other side had a hill, acid bath, a small pond, and tall grass. Cygnar won the roll, and I chose the side with the forest and bunker blocking the flag and objective, because that seemed to be a huge advantage.

Khador then placed defenses: three spike traps lined up along the center. In retrospect, I don't think you're supposed to place those close to obstructions or obstacles. Whoops.


Khador Turn 1 

Khador lumbers forward with a massive wall of warjacks.


Cygnar Turn 1 


Cygnar runs forward, a line of mechanics hiding poorly behind the forest, two strykers shielding Di Baro, a unit of stormguard sprinting into the bunker, and the tempest assailers making a wall nearby with arcane shield, bringing their armor up to 23.


Khador Turn 2 



Khador lets loose with the freeze cannons, killing one tempest assailer and one mechanic, and freezing the rest. But the stormguard remain safe, and a second unit in the bunker is waiting to come out.



Cygnar Turn 2  


The stormguard in the bunker want to attack, but a Khador heavy is up against the outside of the door, blcoking the way. An officer uses precision strike, Di Baro feats, and the outdoor unit of stormguard charges that khador heavy, wrecking it. Then the unit inside rushes out, wrecking a second Khador heavy. Another two heavys are pretty beat up. A stryker toes the zone and takes another shot.

The stryker hiding behind the bunker puts up a polarity field to prevent a charge from the Khador heavy, and hits it with an electro bombard shot.

The mechanics and tempest assailers remain frozen, but Cygnar scores the first point.

(Cygnar 1, Khador 0)



Khador Turn 3  


Khador strikes back, and despite the protection of Di Baro's feat, all ten stormguard and both tempest assailers die. At the end, two strykers, an officer, and Di Baro herself end up frozen and stationary. Cygnar scores a second point.

(Cygnar 2, Khador 0)



Cygnar Turn 3  



With only the one melee heavy, two ranged jacks, two officers, and two mechanics, it's hard to get enough done. The melee stryker goes in and beats on the undamaged closest Khador heavy, but doesn't kill it. The others take shots, and kill two arkanists. Cygnar gets a point.

(Cygnar 3, Khador 0)



Khador Turn 4  


Proving Khador superiority, the Khador heavy who just took a beating destroys the undamaged stryker who'd just tried to kill him.

The two damaged Khador heavies in the zone take shots at the ranged stryker, and on the opposite end of the field, a khador heavy runs to contest the flag, and the arkanist hides behind the wall.

(Cygnar 3, Khador 0)



Cygnar Turn 4  



The stryker backs out of the zone, then shoots the arkanist so that Khador can't score there.

On the other side, the ranged stryker beats on a Khador heavy with his shield, doing little. The mechanics help as best they can.

(Cygnar 3, Khador 0)



Khador Turn 5 



In a brilliant but risky move, Borisyuk runs forward and puts up a cloud, giving himself stealth.

The zero focus damaged Khador jack contesting the other flag doesn't do much, but Borisyuk scores both the flag and the zone.

(Cygnar 3, Khador 2)



Cygnar Turn 5 



Desperate to get rid of the contesting jack, the officer gives Di Baro reposition 3, then charges. Di Baro herself charges, then repositions onto the flag. And the Stryker whales away. But nobody can kill the Khador warjack.

The ranged stryker on the other side moves up to contest, taking shots at Borisyuk from within five inches to ignore the stealth.

(Cygnar 3, Khador 2)



Khador Turn 6  



The stryker in the zone survives a beating, and his Khador counterpart edges closer to Di Baro. No points are scored.

(Cygnar 3, Khador 2)



Cygnar Turn 6  



The stryker in the zone moves over behind the wall, giving himself better defense from Borisyuk's shots and forcing the Khador heavy to move further from Di Baro if it wants to fight.

The mob assailing the Khador warjack finally gets the job done, and scores a point.

(Cygnar 4, Khador 2)



Khador Turn 7  


Boris edges around the flag and shoots the contesting stryker to death.

The Khador jack runs to contest the other flag. Boris scores another two points for the zone and flag.

(Cygnar 4, Khador 4)



Cygnar Turn 7  



This is it. It's either assassination or take out that Khador heavy. With no breakthrough card and all my shooting troops engaged, it looks like the Khador jack has to die. So after the stryker gets focus from the mechanic and punches away with his shield, Di Baro goes all in, spending all her focus boosting damage.

However, there's nobody left to contest the Khador zone. The mechanic was too far, and the officer was too far even if he wasn't in the forest - an extra two inches from desperate pace wouldn't have sufficed. The stryker might have been able to run into the zone if I'd planned well, but it was after midnight, and I did not plan well.

(Cygnar 5, Khador 6)

(Khador Victory!)



Final Thoughts

  • This was a brutal attrition game, and easily the longest MK4 game we've ever played. Both players took over two hours - this would not have worked if we'd been on a deathclock.
  • Apparently, I cheated on turn 2, as we later found out that models cannot charge out of a structure, like I did out of the bunker.
  • My Khador opponent was kicking himself for not using beat back to get the stryker out of the zone on turn 6 - he could have had a relatively easy victory. Although if he'd gotten more points, I'd have been forced to go for the assassination, and who knows how that might have gone?
  • This was our first game using a bunker. The ability to block troops, keeping them inside, will be a real thing going forward.

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