Kovnik's Kommunicae SR 2015

Kovnik Komuniqué: Tournament Summary

SR 2015

Today I played in my first Steamroller in 2015! I took first place after 4 grueling rounds. Each nearly going to time. Here's the run down:

The two lists I brought were:
List 1: Butcher3


Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed (*4pts)
* Spriggan (10pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts) (4pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt) (3pts)
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire (4pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Goblin Tinker (1pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Kell Bailoch (2pts)
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (2pts)
Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan (2pts)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2pts)

--Specialists--

Great Bears (5pts)
Ogrun Bokur (3pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)

List 2: Butcher2 Tier List: Mad Dogs of War Tier 3

Kommander Orsus Zoktavir (*6pts)
* Conquest (19pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Fenris (5pts)

--Specialists--

Greylord Escort (2pts)
Yuri The Axe (3pts)
Manhunter x2 (4pts)

My first round matchup was against a Cryx player, which I am ALWAYS excited to see...

Game 1: CryxHe was running a Goreshade3 army, and Goreshade2 tier list which he dropped on me:

Goreshade the Cursed (*5pts)
* Deathripper (4pts)
* Deathripper (4pts)
* Defiler (5pts)
* Skarlock Thrall (2pts)
Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (0pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts)
The Withershadow Combine (5pts)
Bane Lord Tartarus (4pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)
3 Scrap Thrall (1pts)
3 Scrap Thrall (1pts)

Cryx List 2:


Goreshade, Lord of Ruin (*5pts)
* Deathripper (4pts)
* Defiler (5pts)
* Harrower (10pts)
* Skarlock Thrall (2pts)
Bane Riders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Satyxis Blood Hag (2pts)
Soulhunters (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Darragh Wrathe (4pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)

He was running it opposite a Goreshade3 army, and at the risk dropping a swarm of living models (Mad Dogs of War) into Heresy of Shadows, I dropped Butcher3. Here's a match that I would have much rather had Alexia1 for. Her epic form did almost nothing for me all game, but she did effectively tie up two arcnodes thanks to her large base.

There was a GIANT forest right smack dab in the center of the board, so I swapped in Saxon Orrik from my specialists (for Kell, because most of his stuff had stealth).

The Scenario was Two Fronts. I went second. I think I killed off his objective in my second turn after some Boomhowlers gave it the business. On the other side, my Mortar Crew was mopping up banes, until Goreshade arced a Hex Blast into it, killing it. My spriggan was using targeting flares to allow my Rifle Corps to actually shoot Tartarus, which by god they succeeded at killing! Spriggan finally trampled over a bunch of banes to the back edge of his zone, (it was either let it die where it was, or let it die in the backfield). Even though he eventually turned my Spriggan into a Seether with a combination of bane thralls and the Withershadow Combine, it was still totally worth 10 points! And to add to the fun, he only had enough banes to make it happen because he popped feat to refill one of his units, so at least I didn't have to fear any crazy threat ranges after that point! Hilariously enough, after he rebuilt it into a cryx jack, it couldn't do anything because it ringed by the combine and banes. Gorman just sauntered up, hit it with Black Oil, and splashed the whole lot of them! :D

I'd popped my feat much earlier in the game. There was a round when butcher had been forced to wade into the forest to deal with the bane knight problem. I'd spent all my focus trying to kill a ton of banes while energising around, so I had popped feat then. I was worried that the six or so Bane knights left in play would be able to chop down the random infantry and 2-3 Boomhowlers I'd shoved in front of butcher almost as an afterthought with their vengence attacks, then be able to just walk right up to him (if not charge), and just tear him to shreds because they could ignore any remaining free strikes. My opponent ended up FORGETTING to vengeance that turn, and butcher didn't see a single swing come his way. But at least I was safe about it! I didn't have the time to run the numbers in my head of what they'd be capable of so I just popped feat, camped it, and hoped for the best.

Ultimately, the only control points were gained by destroying the objectives in this game. The rest of it was a damn slog fest! I barely made any tough rolls on my Boomhowlers and he was stacking up the banes like crazy. The greylords, and rifle corps were both champions in this game. I think that I chose the right list to drop on my opponent. I think I just got lucky near the end.

The game was coming down to time for BOTH of us. He tried for an assassination on Butcher with Goreshade. He connected with the charge attack, making me stationary, but couldn't quite kill butcher who was on full camp. I think it would have been very easy for him to clock me. We were both under a minute or so left, but with both zones heavily contested, I think that if Goreshade had just sat back and camped, I probably would have clocked myself. But I'm glad he didn't because this gave me the first win of the day!

Game 2: Minions: Thornfall Alliance
This might have been a tier list, but I don't know Helga or pigs that well. I do know he had:

List 1: PIGS!!!

Helga The Conquerer (*6pts)
* Gun Boar (5pts)
* Gun Boar (5pts)
* Razor Boar (2pts)
* Road Hog (9pts)
* Road Hog (9pts)
* Targ (2pts)
Farrow Brigands (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Farrow Razorback Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (3pts)
Farrow Razorback Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (3pts)
Farrow Razorback Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (3pts)
Farrow Slaughterhousers (Leader and 5 Grunt) (6pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)

I just saw pigs all over the place and called up the local butcher (3)!

Second game was against PIGS! Helga was running 3, count them, THREE razor back crew! And it was pretty effective! There's not much else to write home about in this game. Scenario was Fire Support and I felt pretty well in control of the scenario most of the game. I goofed near the end and it nearly cost me. I had spent my feat, +1 focus killing both the Road hogs, then meant to energizer an extra inch away from Helga, and be base to base with his flag to dominate it, but I FORGOT. It almost cost me the game: My opponent moved in a slaughterhouser to try to grant gang fighter to Helga when she went for the assassination on Butcher3, I counter charged with my war dog to kill it and deny her. Good thing, too. After I took a few gun boar shots (Rage Howler for Boomhowler helped keep me alive here) and some damage from the razorbacks, Helga managed to drop butcher to 2 health (I was camping 5 at the time). Gang Fighter would have allowed her to pull it off.

Game 3: Skorne

List1:
Void Seer Mordikaar (*5pts)
* Basilisk Krea (4pts)
* Despoiler (10pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Keltarii (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Praetorian Ferox (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer (3pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Tyrant Rhadiem (5pts)
Void Spirit (2pts)

List2: (not the full list, this is just what I saw on his sheet; I was pretty sure he was going to drop Mordikaar anyhow)

Archdomina Makeda (*5pts)
* Archidon (7pts)
* Molik Karn (11pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Extoler Soulward (2pts)

Third game against Skorne. I dropped Mad Dogs into Mordikaar. Scenario was Outflank. On that same damn table with the huge forest in the middle!

He jammed hard and feated bottom of turn 1. While I had some charges on him turn 2, I ultimately killed maybe 5 models. Two Ferox, and three Keltarii.
Turn3, Agonizer was crying so I couldn't allocate to Conquest. Feated with butcher2 and killed two of the Ferox (and one doom reaver) with a charge into the back side of the left zone (rolled a two for focus and sat on all of it)! My conquest charged into the forest LoS to one of my doom reavers to get reach onto the Despoiler. Cracked it good with his second initial. 7 rage tokens total. Gave conquest 3, and two each to two doom reavers that had pressed forward hard on butcher's side of the table. 3 Rage tokens and MAT 8 were enough to let the Conquest kill the Despoiler. The doom reavers with the rage tokens pressed onward and went after Mordikaar. One was just a hair away from being able to engage him. The two together were able to kill of the TyCom and Flag. Other doom reavers had cleared the zone butcher was camped in, so I dominated on turn 3. He eventually contested with a Beast handler.

Meanwhile the left zone was a MESS. The Keltarii were doing SEROIUS work against my doom reavers. Undead, Tough, Inspiration, Parry, it was a mess. My doom reavers were just wiped out over there, only managed to continue contesting because conquest was in the zone. His gladiator tore into conquest but was was unable to fill the left grid entirely (did get his arm, though). Next turn, Butcher rolls up 5 focus, puts three on conquest, boosts a blunderbuss into the Beast Handler to trigger conferred Rage. Conquest goes to town on the Gladiator killing it with his two initials (despite one arm being broken), and 3 bought attacks. Butcher dominates for a second round and I go to 4 control points.

My opponent resurrects two beast handlers, then puts an upkeep on them making the Undead and Tough, before backpeddling Mordikaar toward his own deployment zone. The Beast Handlers charge them into the zone, killing some doom reavers. Luckily, they're all within range of being butchered! With seconds left on my clock, butcher rolls up about 4 focus, wades in, and just dices up all three of them. It took two bought attacks to get through the tough rolls, but I dominated once again for the win.

Game 4: vs Legion
He ran:

Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight (*5pts) (Lylyth3)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Zuriel (10pts)
* Scythean (9pts)
* Typhon (12pts)
Blackfrost Shard (5pts)
Blighted Nyss Striders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Blighted Nyss Striders Officer & Musician (3pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)
Succubus (2pts)
The Forsaken (2pts)

He had a second, eThagrosh list, but he'd told me he was going to run Lylyth and I believed him (because he's a standup guy like that).

Scenario was Recon. I dropped Butcher 3 into this game one last time. I didn't regret it. I think Lylith would have shot all those doom reavers off the table.

I swapped out the Rifle Corps for Great Bears, and Kovnik Joe for Saxon Orrik (to deal with the giant pond in the middle of the table).

This game was strange. Everything in my army did it's job reasonably well. The mortar took apart my opponent's objective, as well as a shepherd and a few Striders along the way! Fantastic. These SR 2015 objectives for artillery are Great!

On his feat turn, he laid down the death chill on a bunch of models. Spriggan, trolls, a War Argus, etc. My next turn is slightly blunted. Butcher gets up on a hill, two of the great bears get charges on Zuriel doing about half his grid in damage, the other one hangs back for a charge next turn. The Boomhowlers Jam. Eiryss peels off upkeeps...

The MVP of the game was Corbeau. Zuriel at one point got a spray on to a bunch of my models, including Corbeau. She suckered it onto one of Butcher's puppies who was already nearly dead, and it killed off the puppy triggering Vengence. Breathing a dejected sigh he says, "Oh man, I think that just caused me to lose the game." He tries jamming with some stuff but it didn't end up mattering.

It took just about every single model I had to Kill Zuriel who was in Butcher's way... But with his last gunshot, Holt pulled it off! Butcher Energizes into position (after his corbeau move, and Vengeance moves) and charges through two free strikes from Shredders to kill Lylith. All in all this was a good game, and I'm not even going to call shooting at corbeau a mistake, really... But it did cost him in the end.

A great tournament. A great day for the Motherland!

Kovnik Komuniqué - The Iron Fist of Khador

Hello again, Komrades! Last time, I head a good deal of calling for a battle report featuring Strakhov. He's the leader of Khador's Black Ops squad, a total badass, and probably one of my favorite warcasters. He's a ton of fun to play, and hopefully this battle report will show you that he means business when he takes on the Circle Orboros.

Kovnik Komuniqué: Battle Report

Khador: Kommander Strakhov vs. Circle Orboros: Baldur the Stonecleaver

This battle report was a scenario battle against a friend of mine at our FLGS. We played a Steamroller 2014: Balance of Power. The map is pictured below, and it's first to five wins as usual with the following scoring opportunities:

• Friendly Flag: Dominate = Opponent loses 1 CP before players score CPs this turn (minimum = 0)

• Zone: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP

• Enemy Flag: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP

(No death clock this game; we were keeping things casual)

The Army lists were as follows:

Khador (Played by Dan):

Kommander Strakhov (*6pts)
* Beast-09 (11pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Black Dragon Officer & Standard (2pts)
Fenris (5pts)
Goblin Tinker (1pts)
Iron Fang Kovnik (2pts)
Kovnik Andrei Malakov (3pts)
* Spriggan (10pts)
Man-o-war Drakhun (without dismount) (4pts)
Manhunter (2pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)

Circle (Led by Paul):

Baldur the Stonecleaver (*6pts)
* Megalith (11pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
* Druid of Orboros Overseer (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Tharn Bloodtrackers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Nuala the Huntress (2pts)
Lord of the Feast (4pts)

The Battlefield:

We set up a rather balanced scenario bord. The flags were near forests, but not so close they could be abused. There were also hills in the opposite corners, and linear walls just outside the zone. Again, so they couldn't be abused by toeing the zone and getting cover.

Setup:

Circle won the go ahead roll (bad news for Strakhov), and decided to go first. This is always something to watch out for when playing against circle. Many of their models and units get advance deploy. So, not only is it easy for them to counter-deploy against you, but it also means giving up the first turn will see Circle swarming the scenario zones before you can do much of anything about it. During regular deployment, my oponent deploys a whopping four models including his Warlock:

I used to own a circle army, and I don't like his deployment because I know the druids and bloodtrackers are going to be in my face faster than you can say, "Damn Treehuggers!" :P

In almost complete contradiction, most of my troops go down on the regular deployment step:

This was meant to highlight Strakhov, so I'll be a little more descriptive about the early steps: Strakhov goes down right behind the flag. And all his viable upkeep targets go near him: Beast-09, Great Bears. The Caster support goes directly behind: Sylys, Reinholdt. My Dragoons deploy on very wide flanks. The pikemen and the Iron Fang Kovnik take up the vanguard position as I plan to jam the zone with them early on and use them to clear charge lanes in later turns. Malakov and 'Rustputin' (My rusty, old, Spriggan model. One of the first in my collection) take up the other flank, and the Gobber Tinker is right behind.

Now comes Circle's AD, and I'm already sweating:

My AD was a single Manhunter on the left side in front of Fenris. I didn't bother with a Picture because the placement was simple. The Bloodtrackers declare Prey on the Great Bears and off we go! 

Circle Orboros: Turn 1:

The Bloodtrackers run to jam the zone good and hard. The druids run to the wall. The Stalker, and Pureblood run to take up position just outside the zone. Measuring control, Paul determines that Megalith would be too far away from the BloodTrackers to give them Stoneskin via Geomancy, so he just runs. The stones teleport into place, threatening to tele-drop any one of his heavies into the zone if I put anything valuable too far up front.

Baldur activates, and my Paul informs me he'd made a mistake waiting so long. If he'd activated Baldur (Or even Megalith) before the Blood Trackers, he'd have been able to put Stoneskin on them this turn in preparation for dishing out some nasty damage next turn. Now, however, he was too far away. Baldur simply advances, and places Stoneskin on the Stalker. The lord of the feast runs into the forest and looks quite menacing.

If you didn't believe me before about Circle's ability to really threaten a scenario jam if they get the first turn, maybe this visual aid will help. This is why I wanted to go first!

Khador: Turn 1:

Paul's put me in a bad spot. I consider my options and actually discuss a turn 1 feat. Ultimately, I decide that's a bad idea. His heavies are well protected. A turn 1 feat just wouldn't quite get me the damage that I was looking for. I decide to bide my time and begin making other plans.

It's apparent that if I don't get something into that zone right now, I may not be able to do it at all. So, I decide to give up the Iron Fangs. That's what infantry's for isn't it? No need to Shield March, so I save the Kovnik's activation for later. The Brave Black Dragons declare Iron Zeal and make a run for it! They manage to engage the first few Bloodtrackers. Just what I wanted. This would make them a pain to dislodge!

Their Kovnik follows up behind them and makes it to the wall. The Great Bears run to the treeline near the flag. The Drakhun hugs the table edge and threatens to charge the druids next turn if they don't do something about him. Fenris takes up a vantage point on the hill. The manhunter makes a mad dash for the Lord of Feast's forest, declaring it to be Khadoran land. Orboros be damned!

Malakov casts Redline on Spriggan and moves off to the side. The spriggan runs for free and gets his toes behind the wall. The Tinker gives him a hug!

Strakhov finally activates. He casts Superiority on Beast-09 and Occultation on the great bears. Then advances to the flag. Reinholdt gives him a hug and sylys dances a jig.

The board after the first turn:

Circle: Turn 2

Paul, ever the optimist, tells me that he thinks his Bloodtrackers are screwed. He takes a few minutes to look over the board and decides he has a plan, and upkeeps Stoneskin on the Warpwolf Stalker.

The druids activate. A few use clouds, the leader puts up anti-magic, and the UA decides to cast the devouring on an Iron Fang Pikemen, who Paul woefully discovered was engaged, making him DEF 17.

The devouring missed, scattering back into the lines of the IFP, claiming only one life instead of three. The final few Druids tossed out a few force bolts to minimal effect. All of them maintained their defensive position behind the wall.

The lord of the feast activated. He walked through the forest to just outside reach distance of my Manhunter and let loose his crow. It missed. Things weren't going well for Paul's plan!

And then, this happened:

With some of the best shifting stones placement I've ever seen, he gets the stalker in between two of his blood trackers. It looks like he was REAL close to nudging models from the picture, but trust me, I checked. Twice. His Warpwolf entered the fray with barely millimeters to spare. I had to applaud him there. It looked like my jam tactic was about to come apart at the seams!

The stalker unloaded on my Pikemen. He claimed the lives of Four Khadoran troops (using his animus for sprint somewhere along the line) before turning on the two brave Bloodtrackers he'd teleported next to. Sprint saw him shuffle to one side to engage what was left of the Black Dragon's front ranks.

Later, Paul admitted this was another mistake. He determined the better play would have been to use sprint to push the Stalker forward so that it engaged with my Spriggan and the Black Dragons hanging behind the wall.

Next up was Megalith, taking a hop skip and a jump around one of the shifting stones as if it were a maypole, the druidic monolith spread peace, love, and Stoneskin among the Bloodtrackers. He'd managed to disengage the majority of the unit. However, he didn't like their chances of hitting the BDP behind the wall (even aiming, they'd need 9's to hit for an above average chance to kill at P+S 11 weaponmaster against Arm 18). He opted, instead, to devote half the remaining Bloodtrackers to take out the Black Dragons remaining mid field. The remaining 8 Bloodtrackers and Nuala managed to kill a grand total of two pikeman which the Stalker had left behind. The pureblood advanced, and sprayed through the gaps at the ones behind the wall, catching just 1 BDP in his 10" spray (but no friendly models either). The fury mechanic sealed his fate.

Baldur activated, advanced, and placed a forest in front of him as a LoS blocker. Then, Baldur ended his activation. Remember this moment. We'll come back to it later.

Here's the board at the end of the turn:

Khador: Turn 2

It's turn two, so we'll begin calculating Control Points at the end of the turn.

It was now, or never. The all important Strakhov feat turn.

Control phase: Strakhov drops Occultation, and upkeeps Superiority for free thanks to Sylys Wyshshhshnlllhhllyyyylrrr and his goofy socks. Malakov upkeeps Redline. Both warcasters load up their respective warjacks to the max.

I always like to get the easy things out of the way early when it's my feat turn. The Manhunter, who wouldn't need the speed boos from the feat charges, and kills the Lord of the Feast. "My Forest!" he says.

The Gobber Tinker sat and repaired last turn's damage from Redline on the Spriggan bringing it back to full.

Now the difficult part. I wanted to activate Strakhov. But I couldn't. The trick to playing him is to hold the feat as long as possible during your turn until your important charge targets become clear, and you've identified beyond all doubt, what specific model will be your warjack's Overrun Trigger. That means, I had to clear some charge lanes before he could activate.

The Iron Fang Kovnik sits behind the wall and declares that the Black Dragons Shield March. The Black Dragons activate, and damn if they don't get work done! Ordering for Shield Wall, the three in the center press as far forward as possible while remaining in the melee range, and LoS of the Stalker. The ones on the left traipse toward the left side of the zone to engage the Blood Trackers on the left. And the Iron Fang officer follows up the ones in the center flank. 

This very specific movement wasn't without forethought mind you. Let's take a moment to talk about why I'm doing this. It's a Strakhov battle report, after all and this activation was likely the most important one of the game for me. Take another look at the board:

To the left of the stalker are five Bloodtrackers in a triangle formation. The two at the back I don't care about. The three that make up the front of the triangle (the ones circled in the picture) absolutely have to die right now. Only then, will Spriggan have a charge lane to Megalith. But perhaps even more importantly, I have to eliminate those models while keeping that future charge lane clear of my own models.

The Black Dragons make fantastic use of their CMA ability. On the right, there are two CMA's (the second one originating from the Unit's Officer) where the Black Dragons need 6, and 5 to hit respectively. I roll a six. P+S 15 kills automatically. I roll a five. P+S 15 kills automatically. Then on the other side, the pikemen ignore the far left Bloodtracker and CMA the remaining lane blocker. I need 6 to hit the last all important attack roll. The dice come up 3, and 3 causing me to breathe a sigh of relief.

One last piece of bookkeeping: Reinholdt activates, uses Spyglass on Strakhov and he measure's the distance between the Spriggan and the Pureblood (I can't quite see Megalith, otherwise I would have used him). I know that Spriggan will have a 15" threat range after the factoring in Strakhov's feat and Redline. The Pureblood is about 12" away, and using that educated guess I am sure that I'll have the distance I need to charge Megalith.

Now, it's time.

Strakhov activates and declares that it's time to show the enemy the Iron Fist of Khador! But again, the trick to playing Strakhov is identifying the key targets before you pop your feat. First and Foremost, I know that Beast-09 is going to be my Overrun trigger, killing the Stalker to make Strakhov back peddal at the end of the turn. That means Beast-09 needs to activate last, and I need to leave the Stalker alive until he does. Measuring control, I know that the Great Bears will have the distance they need to charge the Pureblood, but I need to clear that lane still. Spriggan will have Megalith, of course. And Strakhov? He's eyeing that Bloodtracker in front to trigger his Sprint ability. If everything goes my way, Paul won't have any beasts left at the start of his next turn! Now the hard part: Actually pulling all that off.

Strakhov starts his activation with 3 focus. Two of it immediately goes to casting Overrun on Beast-09. Then, Strakhov charges the Bloodtracker, staying on the right side of it to avoid the Stalker's reach threat. He boosts to hit, and connects, giving the Bloodtracker it's well deserved comeuppance. Strakhov pops his feat, and ends his activation. He retreats just enough so that he doesn't block the lane for either the Great Bears, or Beast, and yet can still tag Megalith with his Feat. He ends up about midway between my flag and the Stalker. But we're not out of the woods yet.

Spriggan takes off like he's shot out of a gun. Poor Rustputin's gears begin screeching and grinding under that strain of Redline. He barreling across the field shrugging off a free strike from the Bloodtracker on the left. Skewering Megalith with the charge, he pauses to bash another Bloodtracker with his shield. Then, I buy an attack on the shifting stone. Because in the off chance that I can't quite kill Megalith with a few more P+S 20 hits, I want to make absolutely sure that Paul can't send him halfway across the battlefield with his damn hippy magic. The stone dies, and Rustputin delivers two more punishing blows to Megalith after that. I botch the damage roll on my first bought attack, rolling only a four. The last attack puts another decent wad of points on the construct, but leaves him at one single box! No!

Malakov saunters up the the wall, but can't quite reach Megalith with his gun, so he takes a pot-shot at the Pureblood and misses.

The Great Bears activate. I quickly notice that even though I cleared the Bloodtracker out out of the way, the Stalker's line of sight is going to be a problem. Yarovich takes one for the team an charges the Stalker such that the back half of his LoS gets blocked, and the lane becomes freed up for his brothers in arms. Volkov and Kolsk both take the initiative and move 13" downfield to give the Pureblood the business end of their sharp pointy objects. Yarovich nearly gives me a heart attack, rolling almost max damage against the Stalker almost killing it on the charge attack. If he had, Beast-09 would have not had anything to attack, and Strakhov would have been left hanging in the winds. The other two make short work of the Pureblood.

The Drakhun crashes into the druids. The clouds prove effective causing both of his impact attacks to miss, but the charge attack lands, taking of their leader's head. Fenris activates, and charges the one Bloodtracker remaining on the left that had taken a free strike at Rustputin.

Beast-09 finally activates, charging the Stalker, and taking it apart with the first swing. That's three wasted focus on him, but you can never be too careful when you absolutely have to trigger Overrun. The spell goes off, and Strakhov backpeddals to just behind the friendly flag, dominating it (just in case).

Unfortunately, my last activation: Sylys isn't enough to dispatch the last few Bloodtrackers in the zone, for Control points, so I just keep him safe behind me and end my turn.

Circle: Turn 3

Paul, gracious as he is, decides to call the game. He's down, but not out, but doesn't feel the need to let the game drag on. He didn't expect Strakhov's threat ranges to be quite so long as they were! We shake hands, clean up our models, and part as friends.

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Now, remember that moment I said I'd come back to later on?

The next day, I received a text message from Paul: "I forgot to feat! I just realized it! God damn!"

Sounds like Paul should be listening to more of a certain podcast! But yes, if Paul had used Baldur's feat during turn 2, it certainly would have been a game changer. The stalker probably still would have died. But Megalith would certainly be right as rain, and I might not have killed the Pureblood either!

Lesson learned, Paul, don't forget to feat!

Until next time, Komrades!

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.

The Butcher of Khardov

So, a while ago I promised myself that if we ever did another Journeyman league for Warmachine, I'd slow-grow the eButcher Tier list.

Here's a couple shots of my painted eButcher model (compliments of Waffle):

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Here we go again.  I'm a hater I know but you're here, so you must want to hear what I have to say about LoZ:SS.

So I beat Skyward Sword last night.  I think that it would probably be one of my favorite Zelda games of all time.  I would throw it right up there with Majora's Mask and Link's Awakening.  It's not quite Ocarina quality, but then... What is?  You'll notice the key words in those sentences: "would".  Unfortunately, Skyward Sword gets neither of these commendations in my book.  Why? The controls.  They sucked so bad it brought the entire experience of the game crumbling down.

Somewhere near the middle of the ending, Link places the Master Sword in a pedestal (a la Ocarina).  All I could think the entire time this was about to happen: "Please oh please don't make me do the stupid thing with the Wii Remote just to get him to thrust the sword into the ground like I had to through the game."  This really saddens me, because the game was having what I would refer to as 'a moment'.  But all I could think of was how much I hated the controls.

Hero Mode? Yea, fuck that noise!

Want me to break it down further? Sure.

Equipment:
Bug Net - Should never have been one of the game's major equipment items. But alas.  Anyway, you swing it like the sword.  When ever other equipment can be quickly put away by swinging the Remote to draw your sword and this cannot. It caused more than one hiccup in the game.
Beetle - It would have been cool to see link walking around with the medieval equivalent of the Nikita.  But it was so uncontrollable at times, I would go out of my way to not have to use it.
Clawshots - Worse than the Twilight princess version.  After that awesome item, how can you expect me to go back, Nintendo?
Bombs - A staple of Terrorist Link's item bag since day one.  However, they suffer from having to use the crappy Wii Remote controls of throwing and rolling. Terrible! Take a lap!

You know what? No. Forget it. I can't even go through the rest of the items. I'm too pissed. If you really wanna hear me hate some more on your own time, email me. Or maybe I'll come back to this after the Remlit wounds aren't so fresh...

The only way I'll ever play THAT....

Ever tell yourself that the only way you would sit down to play a certain video game is because of some unforeseen yet tragic catastrophe that leaves you either bedridden, or bored as hell?

Me too.

Coincidentally, I was in fact recently board as hell.  I cracked open my roomate's copy of Crackdown 2 that had recently been shipped from Gamefly.

It was awful.

I played it for a few hours, and kept telling myself that it would get better.  Maybe the controls would get easier as I played, or at least I might get used to them.  I kept telling myself that maybe the incredibly annoying narrator/central command agent that was constantly telling me what to do, where to go, and even what not to do would shut the hell up!

He didn't.

And I was so, SO upset because of this.

Crackdown 2 is klunky.  Even the main character is badly designed.  I say this for two reasons, which directly relate to what you're character is supposed to be (but isn't).  Your character wears a suit of power armor.  It is supposed to enhance his durability and athleticism.  I found that they hit the nail on the head in the durability factor.  It's so incredibly hard to kill, it takes much of the adrenaline out of playing an action game in which you cannot lose.  Even when you do get killed, there is little to no penalty for doing so.  You just re-spawn nearby, AND get restocked with ammo, weapons, and vehicles as you see fit. With those kinds of 'penalties' why wouldn't you want to die when you run out of ammo? The enemies don't respawn, and you can just drive back up with a fresh car and some fresh gear. Bad game designers.  Bad!

Okay, sure you can jump like fifteen feet in the air, and you can leap from the tallest buildings without fear of death, and you can scale buildings left and right.  But if your character is that athletic, and enhanced by power armor, then why does he move like he's walking around inside a giant fat kid? I don't think I need to say anymore on the subject.

Let's talk about the collectibles and advancement in the game.  You're character's skills increase by getting kills with either weapons, explosives, driving, or your fists.  Fine. I can see that.  When you 'level up' one of your skills, you gain access to the next tier items, which you can just have air dropped nearby for you.  Sure.  You're better at shooting? You can now handle a better gun.  I accept.  Unlike other games, you actually have to level up your ability to platform (your athleticism, if you can call it that) by picking up these glowing green orbs.  Leveling this ability allows you to run faster and jump higher.  But the orbs you get, barely contribute much if anything to leveling it.  The increases are not significant, and yet are essentially the most important skill you can level up.  So why make it so slow in progression?  Oh, and lets not forget your reward for being a power armored super soldier: You have the option to collect a different type of athletics orb which gives you an even higher boost (not really) to you score.  The catch - it runs away from you.  The game designers thought it was a good idea to make these orbs so incredibly hard to capture that ... oh, there aren't words for the frustration I had to endure.  I spent no less than thirty minutes chasing ONE orb.  It had the bad habit of following the same path over the same four rooftops.  When you get near, it speeds up.  When you're far, it stops.  So you can't even chase it from a different direction.  I once tried to head it off at the pass by leaping between the two corner buildings and grabbing it while it was in the void between the skyscrapers.  It stopped in mid air rather than continuing on it's path and through my character. It's like they want me to hate playing this game.  My only reward for trying to grab the orb through an unorthodox method was a swift fall back to street level from where I had to spend five minutes climbing again.  I have to move on, because I think I'm going to vomit if I cover this section much longer.

Goals.  Yea, this game has'em.  Yea, they suck too.  The game gives you the location of your objectives.  But never really tells you how to get there.  Except for the first time you encounter that type of objective when it has you "follow the white line".  After that, you're stuck guessing as to which building it might be on, and where you can climb.  You can't even look at your map, because It's just a black square with white lines, and there's no way you can tell the difference between roads and buildings.  And once you locate the building you've got to climb, good luck doing so.  It turns out that the only possible way to ascend that building is by jumping from an adjacent one, and so on, until you find the only building you CAN climb, about five blocks away.

I really can't convey how irate I am at this game with words.  They just don't do me justice.  This game sucked.  Pure and simple.  I'm just glad I had a few beers that night to take the edge off the pain it caused me.

I'm tempted to not even grant this game a rating, but if you have to know, I'd give it...

1 pulsating mutated virus infected freak...out of 5. No. 10. It was that bad.