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

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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.

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Khador Turn 1 

Khador lumbers forward with a massive wall of warjacks.

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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.

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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.

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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!)

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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.

Battle Report: Cygnar Storm Legion vs Khador Winter Korps

Cygnar (Wolfe) vs Khador (Borisyuk)

 

A Cygnar vs Khador rematch. We rolled Recon II as a scenario, and used the Discord bot I created to generate a random terrain placement pattern, which gave us ten pieces of terrain plus scatter. The left side of the field had a small hill, cloud, lake, forest, and an acid pit. The right side had a large derailed train car, a weird rectangular forest, a larger hill, and a building at the edge of the map.

Cygnar Storm Legion

• Major Anson Wolfe
• Stryker
• Stryker
• Stryker
• Alexia, Queen of the Damned (proxied by Alexia1)
• Legionnaire Officer (proxied)
• Arcane Mechanics
• Stormguard Legionnaires
• Stormguard Legionnaires (proxied by various stormblades)
• Stormguard Legionnaires (proxied by various stormblades)

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Khador Winter Korps

• Kaptain Ilari Borisyuk
• Medveditsa
• Great Bear
• Great Bear
• Dire Wolf
• Dire Wolf
• Arkanists
• Arkanists
• Battle Mechanik
• Battle Mechanik

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Deployment

Mark won the roll and chose to go first, and I picked the side with the large hill, which would aid my infantry on approach, plus I could put a barrier on top of it.

We both placed defenses - he placed a spike trap and a fire, and I placed a spike trap, powder keg, and the barrier on the hill.

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Khador Turn 1

Khador lumbers forward in an unsightly red blob.

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Cygnar Turn 1

Cygnar valiantly advances, blue armor shining, and mostly hides in the hedge. One unit of stormguard hides behind the barrier and gets stealth from a command card.

A unit of stormguard circles the far side of the building, and a stryker with snipe takes cover at the building's opposite corner.

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Khador Turn 2

Left with few targets, Khador uses sapper to remove the barrier on the hill, and a warjack with superiority advances through the forest to within five inches and blows the stormguard to smithereens. Another Khador jack hides behind a stump, and a mechanic toes the zone.

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Cygnar Turn 2

The stryker behind the building shoots out three arcanists with an AoE, and the mechanic with a power fist. Stormguard advance to protect the jack, and the officer takes the flag.

The other stryker energizes forward, aims and takes a shot at a mechanic on the flag, killing him and an arcanist. The melee stryker and stormguard run forward into the zone.

Wolfe feats, and Cygnar scores one for the flag and one for the zone.

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Khador Turn 3

Borisyuk feats, leading to the abhorrent interaction we've always got to deal with when we play these two casters. Each time Khador kills a model, we each get a free attack out of it.

As he kills Cygnar models, most of Cygnar's attacks are electrobombard shots into a stealthed Borisyuk, doing unboosted blast damage each time at dice minus four. This leads Khador to stop killing infantry, and thus some live.

Medveditsa lays into the melee stryker, failing to kill it only due to poor dice. Borisyuk heads to the forest, where its concealment grants him stealth. The Cygnar officer on the flag survives being shot.

Cygnar scores one for the flag, bringing the score to 3-0.

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Cygnar Turn 3

I know I can repair the melee stryker and do some serious damage to Medveditsa with Blessing of the gods and Positive Charge, but I only need two points to win. The flag is a gimme, but I spend time trying to figure out how to get the Khador warjack out of the zone. The best I come up with is a throw, which has a 1-in-3 shot of working, given that only a 5 or 6 inch throw will get the jack far enough out of the zone. The Stryker tromps up, throws, and rolls a 6, throwing the jack into the caster. We don't even roll damage, because the game is over, 5-0.

(Cygnar Victory!)

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Final Thoughts

• That throw only had a 1-in-3 shot, but it was a 1-in-3 shot to end the whole game, which is why I took it. I don't think I'd have had a great chance without that.
• Area of effect attacks are good against stealth models - they auto-miss and always do blast damage.

Battle Report: Cygnar Storm Legion vs Khador Winter Korps

Cygnar (Wolfe) vs Khador (Borisyuk)

After all the story campaign shenanigans, Mark and I were glad to get together for an old fashioned Steamroller. We both brought MK4 armies, which felt like a novelty at this point.

Cygnar Storm Legion

 

• Major Anson Wolfe
• Courser
• Stryker
• Stryker
• Alexia, Queen of the Damned (proxied by Alexia1)
• Legionnaire Officer (proxied)
• Sharpshooter
• Arcane Mechanics
• Stormblade Legionnaires (proxied by stormblades)
• Legionnaire Standard Bearer (proxied)
• Stormguard Legionnaires
• Stormguard Legionnaires (proxied by various stormblades)

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Khador Winter Korps

• Kaptain Ilari Borisyuk
• Medveditsa
• Great Bear
• Great Bear
• Dire Wolf
• Dire Wolf
• Arkanists
• Arkanists
• Battle Mechanik
• Battle Mechanik

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Deployment

We each placed four pieces of terrain. Mark placed three forests and a tree stump. I placed a house, lake, tall grass, and a graveyard which would act as rubble. Then I won the roll to go first, and Mark chose the side with the lake.

We both had brought defenses. Mark placed his spike trap in the zone, a barrier up against a forest, and a fire beside the building to prevent me from running through that small opening. I placed a spike trap near my flag and objective, a barrier centrally to hide behind, and a powder keg which I planned to use to get rid of the spike trap.

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Cygnar Turn 1

Cygnar runs forward, placing snipe on the courser and arcane shield on the stryker.

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Khador Turn 1

Khador runs up, one heavy taking the barrier with a mechanic, and on the other side, heavies get Iron Flesh and Superiority, and edge the zone just out of Cygnar's range.

Khador uses their Sapper card to remove Cygnar's Powder Keg, so that the Stryker can't throw it into the spike trap and remove it.

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Cygnar Turn 2

Cygnar immediately uses the sapper card to remove the Khador spike trap in the zone, then the stormblades run to engage and spread out, the intent being to jam up the Khador heavies and prevent them from getting through, and allowing for a stormguard countercharge next turn. The second unit of stormguard on the opposite flank readies to charge anyone in their range, or failing that to charge the objective.

The three Cygnar warjacks put some damage on Khador heavies, the stormblade legionnaires get tough from a True Inspiration card, and Wolfe feats.

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Khador Turn 2

Borisyuk feats, and the warjacks attack. The combination of the two feats is a beautiful mess, and queued out-of-turn activations quickly get sloppy. I'm nearly certain we got the correct number of activations, but we probably did some in the wrong order.

When the dust clears, Khador jacks have taken some damage, but all the stormblades and all but three stormguard out of the two units are dead, and Cygnar is left with no melee presence.

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Cygnar Turn 3

With no apparent way to deal with all that red metal, Cygnar is left looking for assassination angles. Borisyuk has no focus and no cover, but is fairly far away. The courser gets a lucky armor piercing shot on Borisyuk, leaving him on one box, and because none of the Strykers are in range, one Stryker takes out an arkanist, which allows for an AoE from the second Stryker to include Borisyuk. The boosted blast damage ends the game.

(Cygnar Victory!)

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Final Thoughts

• If I hadn't been able to kill Borisyuk that last turn, I'd have been done for. My warjacks were entirely ranged. This may need to change in the future.
• At the end of this match, we realized that Borisyuk can give himself stealth every turn. Future games will be different.

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

---

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

(no image)

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.

---

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 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

---

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.

---

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

(no image)

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

Khador Turn 4

(no image)

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.

---

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!)

---

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.