Ivan's Stand

It's been two weeks since this game was played. I wish I could say I was busy the entire time, which is somewhat true, but was I so busy I couldn't get to write one game down? Probably not. But let's get to it.

I continued playing with Skorne, and this time we were playing 35 point game.

My list was:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Archidon
- Rhinodon
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment

Minimum unit of Paingiver Beast Handlers
Venator Flayer Cannon
Aptimus Marketh
Agonizer
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor

I was playing against Khador, and I knew that was a pretty damn good possibility. And still I didn't take any real way to counter Arm 20 into my list. Oh well.

Khador was, however:

Oleg Strakhov
- Black Ivan

Great Bears of Gallowswood
Widowmakers
Maximum unit of Assault Kommandos + 1x Flamethrower
2x Kayazy Eliminators
Widowmaker Marksman
Epic Eiryss
Gorman diWulfe

Judging from the pictures, I believe Skorne got to start the game. Scenario was Incursion.

I had tried to place Archidon to control the left flag, but so that there would be no line of sight to Black Ivan, because if there was, it'd just come and make a mess out of Archidon.

Bloodrunner Master Tormentor did more than it had ever done before - a lucky hit killed one of the Kayazy Eliminators. A praetorian swordman charged to eliminators too, but missed both attacks even with Death March helping him out.

Next turn Strakhov used his feat. There was, in fact, LOS to Archidon so the beast was gone. We were not sure how to handle the situation where LOS is lost during charge movement, but apparently Ivan could've charged so that it could have tied up Basilisk Krea, which would've made my next turn more difficult. I doubt it'd made it entirely impossible, so I try not to be too annoyed by the fact that I gained some unfair advantage from wrong ruling.

Widowmakers and their marksman shot at praetorians. The marksman got the Officer to one hit box remaining and Eiryss snipered him soon after, and so praetorians lost Side Step, their minifeat and even Death March.

Assault Kommandos ran into the woods, thanks to their Pathfinder from Strakhov. Great Bears of Gallowswood made some charge shenanigans and got to position themselves like they did. Their damage rolls weren't quite good this time around, and much to my suprise they didn't destroy Rhinodon.

Then it was my turn, and I felt some anxiety from the fact that now Black Ivan was in close proximity to my army, and I had nothing else to crack it down except a crapton of low-powered attacks. That's not usually a very good thing.

However... Hexeris's feat kept me in game. Obliteration was succesfully cast on the big bunch of Assault Kommandos, and that's where the chain started. When the chain came to an end, Venator Flayer Cannon added fuel to the fire, as well as Rhinodon killing off all the bears. One of them made the tough roll, so he couldn't really move anywhere as a zombie. But yeah. All in all, it was a devastating feat.

Agonizer cried a little with the effect that makes warjacks lose their arc node and being unable to gain focus from allocation. I guess that was a way of taking Black Ivan out - I could do nothing to it, and it'd have only one attack against Skorne.

Anyway, next turn Strakhov went crazy. He charged Basilisk Drake, killed it and then sprinted to dominate left flag. Eiryss and Widowmakers kept a safe distance, and Eliminators went to control middle flag. In this process Skorne lost all of the Swordsmen.

On my next turn Agonizer kept on crying for no focus allocation, and the rest of my forces tried to kill the Eliminators. Aptimus Marketh managed to kill one of them, since he had swollen quite fat from the souls he had already stored. Hexeris himself had to charge to kill the remaining Eliminator.

Def 14 Arm 20 target wasn't an ideal target for MAT 4 & 5 warbeasts with highest P+S being 14. Basilisk Krea used her animus to lower Ivan's Def to 12, but still it was a bit on the high side for my hitting potential. As a result both of the beasts were only scraping Ivan's armor a little.

Next turn Ivan killed Rhinodon. Really, really bad. I think Strakhov killed one of the paingivers and then Sprinted away. Widowmakers and Eiryss killed Venator cannon and Aptimus Marketh.

On my turn Basilisk Krea used her animus to lower Ivan's Def and then Hexeris himself tried to destroy the warjack. If I remember right only the cannon broke down, though it didn't have too many boxes remaining any more. Ah well.

Then it was Khador's turn and Black Ivan tried to kill the crying little bugger, but its 8 damage boxes shielded it well enough.

Krea hadn't taken damage during game really. Strakhov charged it, and I believe the warbeast should have died, but defying all fate it was still standing after Strakhov's activation. I don't remember how the dice rolled, but since Sprint didn't trigger now, I had my only chance of assassination.

First Krea was healed by the last remaining Beast Handler, and then Hexeris advanced, attacked Black Ivan and pushed it 1" away and Hexeris advanced 1" closer to Strakhov. Hexeris unloaded all of his Fury on the warcaster, and Strakhov was no more.

So it was a really close-fought game. And I really, really need to start paying some attention to high armor values. Despite some 3 rounds of melee against Black Ivan, it had still not lost any important systems.