Game 177: Elara2 vs Strakhov2

Game 177 – Vs Rob Mcormick – Khador – 15/04/18

My list:

Elara, Death’s Shadow (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Chimera

-Siren

-Siren

-Aspis

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Mage Hunter Assassin

Min Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Spears of Scyrah

-Soulless Escort

His List:

Assault Kommander Strakhov (Legion of Steel)

-Marauder

-Torch

Iron Fang Kovnik

Kapitan Sofya Skirova

Uhlan Kovnik Markov

Great Bears of the Gallowswood

Max Iron Fang Pikemen

-Officer & Stadard

Max Iron Fang Pikemen

-Officer & Stadard

Max Iron Fang Pikemen

-Officer & Stadard

This Sunday I went down to Powerfist Gaming in Stafford for a 3 round Steamroller using my new pair of Elara2 and Vyros2. Round 1 saw me up against Rob’s Khador, the faction that I think my pair is weakest into. He dropped a caster that I haven’t seen before, Strakhov2 in Legion of Dawn, and I drop Elara, knowing how badly it would go if Pikemen charge Griffons. I win the roll to go first and we get moving.

With the potential of Quicken the central Advance Move unit of Pikemen threatens a pretty impressive distance, so I have to be careful with my positioning on turn 1. I run everything up out of threat ranges and put out Scything Touch onto the Mage Hunter Assassin.

Rob is very aware of the threat ranges of my units, and so decides that he has to Feat this turn to prevent losing too much from my alpha strike. He takes Torch’s shots, getting a scatter onto one of the Spears, killing her and triggering Vengeance. The rest of his army Shield Walls up and skews towards the left, pushing further into my Mage Hunters on that side. The Solos sit behind, ready to Counter Charge next turn.

I decide this is the turn for my Feat, partly for the increased threat range on the right, and partly for the Ghostly aspect to move into the back arcs of Pikemen to negate the Shield Wall bonus. I take out a decent number of Pikemen, losing a few Mage Hunters in return to Counter Charges. On the right I charge 3 Strike Force into a Dark Shrouded heavy, leaving it on around 9 boxes. The rest of my forces move into position for next turn.

Rob keeps his units in Shield Wall and makes a start on my infantry, killing off most of the front line that went in as well as taking out around half the boxes of my Chimera. Markov gets a lot of work don, killing 2 Mage Hunters with Impact Attacks before taking out 3 more including the Assassin with his AOE blast on his Lance. Rob can’t quite clear the left zone but does contest the right, so nobody scores.

I feel pretty good about the attrition game on the right flank, but less so on the left. Scything Touch is recast and the next wave of Mage Hunters charges in, finishing off the Marauder and taking out more Mage Hunters, especially on the right flank. I am concerned by how quickly the left flank is falling apart, but do at least score the right zone for a 1-0 lead.

Rob again manages to unlock my lines and gets a lot of work done into my infantry, before taking out my Aspis and the main weapon on my left Siren. I lose a lot of Mage hunters this turn, and feel that the game has swung away from me. Rob score the left zone to level up at 1-1.

I make a few attacks to score some additional points and a CP, before conceding.

DEFEAT

I would like to think that playing this matchup again would go a lot better than this game did. I am trying to work out how the game would have played out if I had just backed off on his feat turn, but having played with the Tactician rule myself I know how easy it is for a list like this to unjam itself. Instead I should probably have swung harder to the left flank, and hopefully been able to overpower him on that side. It was a really interesting game, and certainly doesn’t put me off the list.