Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Khador vs. Mercs - Butcher 3 vs. Drake MacBain (35 Points)

Tonight was the second time I delved deep into the world of miniature table top wargaming, or as normal people call it, playing with my little plastic friends. Rob, the owner of Table Ready Terrain (tablereadyterrain.com) found me on Facebook and challenged me to a 35 point Steamroller 2015 match up.

For this game we played Outflank which has 2x circular zones that can be controlled for 1 point or dominated for 2.

Rob from Table Ready Terrain getting ready to deploy after winning the starting roll.


For my list I decided to bring Khador and flex my Butcher 3 muscles. He is definitely a fun caster to play but has his share of bad anti magic match ups.

Khador - Butcher 3 - Butcher Unleashed

Warcaster: Butcher 3  (-4)
Warcaster Unit: War Argus
Warcaster Unit: War Argus
Warcaster Attachment: War Dog (+1)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Underboss (+2)
Unit: Aiyana & Holt (+4)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)
Solo: Widowmaker Marksman (+2)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)

Butcher is the driving force in this list. He won't start the fight but he sure will end it. The goal is to use the Juggernaut to initiate a piece trade and end that transaction with Butcher smashing face. The Kayazy are MAT 9 with Gang and DEF 16 in melee. They are there to jam while Aiyana & Holt are there to assist them against higher ARM. The Ogrun is just for security because Butcher sometimes gets shot off the table. Shield Guard allows him to dodge a silver bullet.

Mercenaries - Drake Macbain

Warcaster: Drake MacBain  (-4)
Collosal: Galleon (+18)
Unit: Press Gangers (+6)
Solo: Bosun Grogspar (+2)
Solo: Wrong Eye(+9)
Warbeast Snapjaw(+9)
Warbeast: Bullsnapper (+3)
Solo: Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile (+2)

Rob brought a Galleon ARM skew list. MacBain's Fail Safe (+2 Armor, Warjack doesn't suffer crippled effects) and the Bullsnapper's Spiny Growth (+2 Arm) brings the ARM total of the Galleon to an impressive 23. The Press Gangers are there to jam and buy time while the Galleon drags heavies to their scrap metal death.


Rob wins the roll and elects to go first

Rob casts Fail Safe on the Galleon and runs everyone up. He ends his turn with casting Spiny Growth on the Galleon making his ARM total 23.

On my turn I run most of my units up but I cast Energize with Butcher 3 to get my battlegroup and Warjacks up 3 more inches. I almost screw everything up because I forgot that Ruin had Abomination instead of Terror which forced command checks on my Kayazy and Ogrun Bokur. Lucky for me they both passed. 

After that debacle I offer up the Juggernaut to the Galleon hoping he'll spend a turn killing it while I set up Ruin and Butcher for a counter attack. I tried to block the Juggernaut from being dragged by some Kayazy and the War Argus but forgot the Galleon had blast damage on his rapid fire guns.

End of Turn 1

Rob upkeeps Fail Safe on the Galleon and allocates it 3 focus. He then charges in with his Press Gangers but unfortunately isn't able to kill any Kayazy. He then activates Galleon and after a 3rd party confirmation and a laser line check, he is able to drag the Juggernaut to his death. He ends the turn casting Spiny Growth on the Galleon.

Yes! He took the bait! Now I just have to close the deal... but wait... am I too far? Uhh... I think I'm just a hair shy from Ruin and Butcher wreaking havoc on him! I activate Aiyana & Holt and cast Kiss of Lyliss on the Galleon but I'm about a half inch too far and miss. I am able to kill the Bullsnapper with Holt though which really helps. My plan was to get the -2 ARM Debuff on Galleon and charge in Ruin to remove Fail Safe, then finish him off with the Butcher. Unfortunately, I have to activate Butcher first and cast Energizer to make sure I am in charge range for everyone.

Butcher then charges and I roll incredibly bad on 6 hits, not damaging any systems. I have 3 focus left after popping my feat and I have a decision to make. Should I spend the 3 and take a shot at killing the Galleon and then set myself up to be Ganged by MacBain? No. I decide to camp the last 3 focus. 

I activate Ruin and he charges in with 3 focus. I almost forgot about Dispel on his weapon but that was crucial to remove Fail Safe. After Ruin's activation, Galleon has a crippled Left Side but still has his massive Trident.

I pop the Kayazy mini feat and charge them through the Press Gangers and get a couple shots at the Galleon only doing about 5-6 damage to him. I run the War Dog and Ogrun Bokur to help the Butcher against his final stand and end my turn. 

I do end up moving into position and scoring 1 point for controlling one of the zones.

Mark 1 - Rob 0

Mercenary Turn 3

Rob goes in the think tank for quite a while. He's trying to decide the best way to handle the situation. The War Dog is a huge problem for him as it bumps Butcher's defense to 16. In the end he decides to allocate 3 to Galleon and smash away. He boosts to hit on all of his shots and hits 2 out of 3 leaving Butcher on 6 health. He then buys 3 Jackhammer shots needing hard 10s to hit and misses them all.

He moves his Press Gangers in and try to take out the Kayazy but fail. He also tries to charge Bosun Grogspar at Butcher but eats 2 free strikes from the Kayazy and dies. Wrong Eye and Snapjaw are able to handle Ruin and leave him a steaming pile of wreck marker. MacBain, sensing impending doom, moves back since the scenario is not Killbox and ends his turn.

Mark 2 - Rob 0

On my turn, instead of risking being left wide open after killing the Galleon I decided to wipe out the Press Gangers instead. Those nasty pirates tough the hell out of their rolls and force me to use everything I've got. In anti-climactic fashion I am able to kill over half his unit forcing him to make a tough check. They fail and there's no one to contest the zone. I simply toe the zone with Butcher and dominate for 2 points and have Aiyana & Holt with the Widowmaker Marksman control the other bringing my total to a game winning 5 points.

Mark 5 - Rob 0

End of the Game - Khador Victory by Scenario

Overall a very good game. It could have gone either way with just a simple dice spike. Rob did a hell of a job almost killing Butcher. I got pretty lucky on making the call to camp the 3 focus instead of trying to finish off the Galleon because without it, Rob would have had exactly enough to kill Butcher.

Final Thoughts

I made a couple of huge mistakes this game. My first mistake was thinking Ruin had Terror instead of Abomination and forcing myself to make command checks on both my own Kayazy and Ogrun Bokur.

The second mistake is that I placed 2 Kayazy base to base with the Juggernaut trying to stop the drag, forgetting that the Galleon had AOE which wiped them out like nothing when the attack targeted my easy to hit Juggernaut.

I wouldn't change too much of the list at 35 points. If I were playing this in a two list pairing for Steamroller I might take out Aiyana & Holt so I can get better use out of them in another list. I'm pretty comfortable with the Kayazy and their mini feat really catches a lot of people off guard and is hard to plan for. I could try Iron Fang Black Dragons but that isn't my play style. I could also switch for some Nyss Hunters but lately I haven't had too much luck with them other than just being a contesting jam unit. I might put in the Widowmakers instead to help clear a path for Butcher and his Jacks.

I do love Butcher 3 and his pups. There's a tournament at GMI Games on Saturday and if I go I'll most likely play him with either pVlad, pSorcha, or Old Witch. There's a lot of Trolls in the Inland Empire meta though so I need heavy hitters.

Till next week!

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