A Kovnik's Kommuniqué

Greetings Tovarishch,

This is an old blog of mine that was loosely associated with gaming in the first place. But now, I'm re-purposing it. After months without updates, I am going to start using this as a place to post battle reports for Khador. Many of these will be from Steamroller events that I attend. I'm hoping I'll remember to take pictures of them all, but if not, I'll try to verbalize them if possible.

They won't all be winning battle reports. In the games I lose, I'll try to report on the things I did right and wrong. Not just what got me killed, but the mistakes that I made that led up to that point.

Now, without further Ado, let's start it off with a win for the Motherland!

Kommunique No. 1: Forward Kommandor Sorcha Kratikov vs. Hoarluk Doomshaper & The Runes of War

Steamroller 2014 Scenario #6: Two Fronts

Trollbloods:

Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

(During Deployment, my opponent places the two wall templates shown in the picture below thanks to his tier benefits).

Deployment:

Khador:

Forward Kommander Sorscha (*6pts)
* Conquest (19pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts) Added from Specialists; Swapped for Widowmakers
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew (Leader and 2 Grunts) (2pts) Added from Specialists; Swapped for Koldun Kapitan Valachev
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire (4pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)

Deployment:

(Thanks to Forward Kommander for the easy to copy and paste lists!)

I won the roll and elected to go first. My opponent chose the side of the table he was already on because my he was trapped in a corner and didn't feel like moving (the terrain was rather balanced with obstacles on both sides so it really didn't matter which side I deployed on).

Khador Turn 1:

Control Phase: Sorcha Allocates 1 focus to Conquest.

Boomhowlers Run. Nyss Hunters Run. Conquest Runs. Aiyana & Holt Advance and get stealth. The Field Gun Runs to take cover behind a small house. Alexia Runs to support the Boomhowlers. Sorcha advances, to a central location, puts Iron Flesh on the Boomhowlers, and sits on the rest of her focus. Great Bears sprint up the right board edge and start yelling nasty things about Hoarluk's mother.

Trolls Turn 1:

Most everything on his side runs to take cover under the walls he's placed. The EBDT tosses out it's animus on Doomie, and charges. Doomie puts Fortune on Mulg, and Banishing Ward on himself (My opponent explains that he's afraid of eSorcha's threat range with Freezing Grip) then charges the Conquest to make it within an inch of the wall.

At the end of round one the battle lines are beginning to take shape. (I forgot to take a photo at this point. The next visual aid will come at the end of my next turn).

Khador Turn 2:

Control: Sorcha upkeeps Iron Flesh (for free), and puts 4 focus on the Bonded conquest keeping two for herself.

Boomhowlers move into position and begin shooting at the Runeshapers that are trying to take ground. eAlexia casts hellfire hoping to terrorize one of the units. The Field gun takes a shot at something. Overall, minimal casualties are suffered. on this side of the field, but Alexia does claim two souls for her trouble.

Conquest unloads on the runshapers upfield but fails to crit for the devastation like I'd wanted. Nyss hunters advance and take a few shots. Not much gets done on this side of the field either. This is starting to look like it will be a drag out attrition battle!

The sneaky Great Bears wander up behind a house to take cover from any Runeshaper spells, and still threaten a charge on the following turn.

Trolls 2:

Attrition it is. Runeshapers fight a losing battle with my Iron Fleshed trolls, but manage to contest the zone on the left. Runeshapers on the right fail to remove many of the Nyss Hunters. My opponent brings in mulg to chow down on some Nyss Hunters. He lines up a Wall in front of Mulg with Janessa in order to try protecting him from another Conquest Critical, but he leaves the back door open to a few great bears. His only protection in the form of a few Runeshapers that are giving the bears funny looks. and blocking charge lanes.

Khador 3:

Control: I consider my options on an assassination run, but decide I'm winning the attrition war and there's no reason I should risk it all on a half baked attempt to kill a well guarded troll. Sorcha loads up conquest again, and upkeeps for free. I decide that it's time these Trolls felt Winter's Chill. It's feat turn for me!

Sorcha activates early in the turn, pushing forward, popping her feat, and using Cyclone to get the heck out of dodge. She ends her activation somewhere behind the objective on my side of the board.

Boomhowlers, Alexia, and the Field Gun clean up on the left, also putting some damage on the objective. Unfortunately, the few Runeshapers on the left that were outside my feat prove difficult to kill, and I can't control the zone.

A&H Advance, Kiss Mulg, and take a few shots, but overall don't accomplish much. Conquest unloads, but fails to crit once more. Nyss hunters decide it's time to jam. They charge ahead to take advantage of weaponmaster on my feat turn, also because there's so few of them left their foot print on the board won't last much longer and I want to cause as much of a nuisance as possible. Hilariously, one of the Nyss hunters cracks the objective open for a controll point, and a second one half shots the EBDT!!! I manage to sneak two of them in next to the wall and Doomshaper and put a few points on him too. Great work, guys! The Great Bears decide they've waited long enough. Two charge Mulg (the Runeshapers that were in the way were removed by my previous activations). Thanks to double 1's on one of the charges, and some of the worst damage rolls I've ever seen them make overall, Mulg Survives. The one that ran ends up behind the obstacle near the back edge of his board. It's potentially threatening some of his important models in the coming turns.

I realize that with his increased speed from taking damage, Mulg has a possible charge on Conquest. He's lacking at least one spiral, but that's nothing Doomie can't help with. If he can disengage the great bears, I'm potentially looking at a dead colossal! I clog his charge lane with Reinholdt! Hilarious!

Score: Khador 1; Trolls 0

Trolls Turn 3:

It's a short turn for him since he's running out of models. Doomshaper upkeeps and cowers behind the wall.

Janissa decides to push the Great Bears away from Mulg. This is an ability that I didn't know she had and didn't see coming! Mulg decides to go for it. But with Reinholdt and a Nyss in the way, his only option is to trample. Despite Fortune, he can't land enough hits on Aiyana, Holt, or Reinholdt to make his way via Doomshaper's Goad to Conquest. He finally gets there on the last of his Fury, but is out of attacks.

He manages to pick of the rest of my troublesome Nyss Hunters, but can't sneak any additional models into the left zone. He's more worried about clogging up the great bears in the backfield with his Krielstone Bearers.

Khador Turn 4:

Control: Conquest gets another load of focus. 

Conquest moves to the left, in front of my Objective to make sure my opponent can't blow it up. Conquest spends the turn using it to destroy the stationary Mulg. I'd hedged my bets, so I ended up wasting two of the four focus I'd allocated to him to get it done. Still, you can never be too sure with Mulg. I wanted that tree swinging beat stick dead dead dead.

Great Bears spend the turn chopping through trolls in the back, not getting much done. A few good swings brings down Janessa, though.

Trolls and Alexia finally manage to clean up on the left and control the zone. Alexia even has some time to conjure up some thralls to harass the EBDT. But it turns out that's not going to matter. With our deathclocks getting low, I decide to cyclone Sorcha into the left zone and start really racking up points. A Domination this round brings us to... 

Score: Khador 2, Trolls 0.

Trolls 4:

Another pillowfisted turn, ending with only 16 seconds remaining on my opponent's clock. Doomie is still behind a wall, but can't dominate because Conquest has his toes in the zone. Leaving the left zone empty allows Sorcha to dominate again, bringing the score to...

Khador 3; Trolls 0

Khador Turn 5:

I've got about two and a half minutes to play. Time to apply some pressure and force my opponent's clock. Sorcha drops all upkeeps. Loads up Conquest with 3 (I'm rushing, and forget bonding allows an extra). She casts boundless charge from where she is thanks to Sylys extending the range of her spells. She sends conquest in, and he starts beating on Doomshaper. A few solid hits (all of which are transferred), I end my turn with only 16 seconds to spare on my own clock. Sorcha dominates again.

Khador 4; Trolls 0

At this point, my opponent decides to throw in the towel. Technically, it's a win by assassination as he lets his deathclock run out. As soon as that triggers, we check for control points again. Sorcha is still dominating bringing home a control point shut out for the Queen.

Decision: Khador

Score: Khador 5; Trollbloods 0

Please feel free to comment. I prefer constructive criticism, of course. Any input you have on the game, or on the report is welcome. Other than my obvious need to take more pictures, of course!

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Until next time, Komerade.