Cygnar (Stryker 3) vs. Skorne (eHexeris) - Steamroller 2015 Two Fronts

Last night's game was a bad dice night for all. I played some Skorne lead by eHexeris and Austin played Cygnar with Stryker 3. The scenario we played was Two Fronts from the 2015 Steamroller packet.

I ran a mishmash of guys with the goal of charging in eHexeris like I would Butcher 3 and then pop feat back to full fury after he does some major damage. Spoiler Alert: Bad idea and never happened.

I ran eHexeris, Molik Karn, Titan Cannoneer, Titan Gladiator, and a Cyclops Raider. The units I brought were all full units of Cataphract Arcuarii and Cataphract Incindiarii. The solos I brought were the Extoller Soulward and Aptimus Marketh. Not the best build but it's what I had.

Austin brought Stryker 3 with Stormclad and 2x Defenders. He brought a unit of Sword Knights, Tempest Blazers and min unit of Boomhowlers. For solos he brought Strageways and a JWC. 

Bottom of Turn 2

The first turn we all ran up. Austin was afraid of the Arcuarii's dragging in his Tempest Blazers so he kept them back but he didn't realize that they couldn't because their bases were smaller. Austin made 2 rows of Sword Knights and put Arcane Shield on them giving them 19 armor. Austin also ran up the Boomhowlers and did a staggered 2 row formation and spread them out pretty well for AOE. His Defenders and Stormclad kind of bunched up in the middle of the hill.

I was able to use the Arcuarii to kill Sword Knights on the left flank and used Molik Karn to finish off the front line and Fate Walking backwards.

The Incindiarii lit up the Boomhowlers but they toughed. I also coudn't roll 5+ for the life of me and couldn't kill them. They were still on fire so I was pretty confident on the right side. I was also able to get Far Sight on the Cannoneer and was able to snipe out Austin's JWC.

Bottom of Turn 3

Austin failed most of his Fire checks but I rolled 4's so I wasn't able to kill much on the ARM 16 Boomholwers. He was able to Feat with Stryker 3 and charge in with the Defenders which probably wasn't the best idea because they're made to shoot. Austin also rolled very poorly and wasn't able to take out anything. He did kill 1 Incindiarii with a Boomhowler Charge though. He also failed to do much damage to the Arcuarii with his Tempest Blazers that flanked around the back.

I was able to heavily damage one Defender and take out another on my turn. I had some bad rolls vs. the Boomhowlers and didn't do much. Same goes on the other side with the Arcuarii's vs. the Sword Knights. They did shoot off 1 Tempest Blazer though.

Austin decided to change strategy and instead of killing one of my beasts with a fully loaded Stormclad, he decided to charge my Bunker objective to get points. He shifted Stryker 3 there as well.

On Skorne Turn 5 Austin was down 1 Defender and I was able to kill his Boomhowlers jamming my Incindiarii with eHexeris who also sneaked into the zone. The Incindiarii charged the Arcane Wonder objective and Got it down to 2 life. The POW 10 electrical damage took one of them out. I had to use the Extroller Soulward and Marketh to finish it off but at the end of the tun I was able to get 3 points. My beasts finished off the 2nd Defender leaving Austin with Strkyer 3, Stormclad, 4 Tempest Blazers and 2 Sword Knights. I think at that point I've only lost 2 Incindiarii and Molik Karn. I ran the Arcuarii to tie up Stormclad who was inside the left zone.

At this point the only way Austin could win would be to free up Stormclad using Stryker 3 and run him into the other zone to contest. The problem was that he was jammed up with 3 Acuarii with POW 12 weapon masters. He was able to clear out 2 of them and the 3rd one did 9 damage to the Stormclad on a Free Strike. He also had to run past my Titan Gladiator and took another Free Strike of 8 or so damage. The Stormclad was had about 13 life was pretty much done for on my turn because his shield was gone and I still had my Feat in my back pocket. All I needed to do was kill it and I would have 5 points at the end of my turn.

I told Austin that we should forget the scenario and just meet on top of the hill with our casters and duke it out. I started with 7 Fury and went first. I was able to do 12 damage and camped 3 Fury. Austin did 13 damage after I transferred 3 hits and left me with 4 boxes. Since we were playing with just casters I had to Cut for 3 damage to get 3 Fury back. I was able to get him down to 2 life but failed to finish him. Austin casted Fury on himself and used all of his Focus to buy attacks and failed. He was left with 1 Focus which he used to buy an attack. He needed a hard 8 to hit and he got it and killed my caster.

I didn't get to use much of my caster in the game as the Incindiarii and Arcuarii did most of the work. I could have been more aggressive with my warlock but I usually play it real safe. Austin probably should have been more aggressive with his Stormclad and more defensive with his Defenders. 

It was fun. Our dice were really bad but it made it interesting.

Cygnar vs. Khador - Company of Iron - Bunker

Last week we played some more Company of Iron scenarios. I hadn't played pVlad for a while so I decided to bring him. I forgot how nasty Signs & Portents was and how adding a die and dropping the lowest number swings your percentages so much to your favor.

It worked out really well for the Behemoth and the Winter Guard Deathstar but not so much for the Greylord Outriders which tried to flank outside pVlad's control area and went up against the Gun Mages and got owned.

 Setting the line of battle

 My pVlad list included a Behmoth, Winter Guard Deathstar, Great Bears, Greylord Outriders and a battle engine. I was actually hoping to play Ryan's Cryx and murderize him but he had car trouble and couldn't make it that day. Austin brought Siege (again) along with a Stormwall and a Defender that was controlled buy a JWC. He also brought a full unit of Gun Mages.

 The game went pretty according to plan for me. I was able to use my Outriders to flank his Gun Mages but I didn't get the rolls so they just kept each other busy. I was ab to get the Great Bears in with some protection and they took out the JWC and the defender. I messed something up and Austin was able to get a Stormwall shot on pVlad on Siege's feat which hurt bad but I survived.

 After that there wasn't much he could do with S&P Winter Guard Deathstar with Kovnik Joe's For The Motherland. Siege was assassinated. Austin totally ignored the bunker and went for an assassination which was probably a mistake. With Defender and Stormwall he would have been able to possibly take out the DEF 5, ARM 20, 100 HP Bunker in a couple turns.

Skorne vs. Cygnar - Company Of Iron Bunker

I've been getting a little bored with Khador lately so I asked Austin to bring some of his Skorne so I can use them to play against his Cygnar. He also made an awesome Bunker structure for the Company of Iron league.

Austin decided to use Siege with Stormclad and Old Rowdy along with some Sword Knights and Long Gunners. He also brought a min Tempest Blazers unit to sweep the back. Siege is real pain in this scenario because his Ground Pounder can be used while he's inside the Bunker and no one can touch him unless you go around the back entrance.

I went beast heavy with Epic Xerxis (Tiberion, Titan Cannoneer, Titan Gladiator, and Molik Karn) in hopes that they would just smash the bunker (ARM 20 - 100 boxes) before Cygnar could pick them off. I also brought Incindiarii to deal with pesky High DEF troops. 

Skorne vs. Cygnar. Company of Iron Bunker Scenario 

This was actually the second game we played during the night. I brought the same Skorne list and Austin used Haley 3. The game was pretty much over on turn 2 after the beast got within charge range of the bunker so Austin decided to call it and start over.

 There's not much Cygnar in the picture above because they've been methodically wiped out. You can see Siege peeking out of the bunker and one lone Long Gunner left outside the Bunker.

I was able to use all the fun Skorne speed buffs to out threaten Cygnar and just wiped most of them out.

There was a little controversy because it was pretty late and I started to play sloppy. I was attacking with eXerxis against a Tempest Blazer and hit. All I needed was 2 damage to kill it and I accidentally rolled 3 dice. I didn't call the boost and didn't mean to roll 3 dice but Austin made me pay for the boost. It almost cost me the game because I was planning to use the fury to transfer and Austin got eXersis down to 2 health.

I eventually got some charges into the bunker and got it down to 2 life.This time I left 3 fury on eXersis and was able to transfer everything off. The Incindiarii were able to finish the bunker off with some shots.

I kind of like Skorne but they play a little like Khador. I'd rather play something totally different to scratch a play stlye itch.