Warmachine Battle Report: Khador (Zerkova 2) vs. Mercenaries (Drake Macbain) - Steamroller 2016 Extraction

Today we have the reigning Queen of Cold, Zerkova 2, fresh from shattering Krueger 2 into tiny bits of flesh and ice (View the battle report here) vs. Radioactive Man himself, Drake Macbain.

Here's today's Lists:

Warcaster: Zerkova 2 + Doomreaver Guard
Warjack: Behemoth
Unit: Greylord Outriders
Unit: Greylord Ternions
Unit: Kayazy Eliminators
Unit: Winter Guard Rifle Corps
Unit Attachment: Winter Guard Rocketeers x3
Unit: Aiyanna & Holt
Unit Attachment: Valachev
Solo: Kovnik Joe
Solo: Eiryiss 1

Warcaster: Drake Macbain
Warcaster Attachment: Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Warjack: Galleon
Unit: Nyss Hunters
Unit: Kayazy Assassins
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Underboss
Solo: Eiryss 2
Solo: Kell Bailoch
Solo: Harlan Versh
Solo: Orin Midwinter
Solo: Saxon Orrik

Top of Turn 1: Khador - The Greylord Outriders activate first and run behind the Forest in a tiered formation. While they out threat the Nyss, they want to set up in case there's an opportunity for an assassination at the top of turn 2. Eiryss gets in the forest and waits to hunt down Kell Bailoch.

The Winter Guard Rifle Corp and Kovnik Joe move up the right flank while the Greylord Ternions get bogged down by some rough terrain. Behemoth runs up along with Aiyanna & Holt. Zerkova 2 casts Telgesh Mark on the Kayazy Eliminators and moves up with her bodyguards.

Bottom of Turn 1: Mercenaries - The Gallon activates first and moves up the field. Drake Macbane casts Fail-Safe on the Galleon which gives him +2 ARM. He also casts Fortune on the Nyss which allows them to re-roll a missed attack roll. Finally he casts Countermeasure on the Kayazy Assassin and moves up behind the Galleon.

The Nyss  move up into range of the two Greylord Outriders that overextended themselves and with the help of Kell Bailoch, they are able to put 2 of them down significantly reducing the threat of a feat assassination. Harlan Versh and Orin Midwinter move up slowly on the right flank hoping to catch the Rifle Corps next turn. The Kayazy Assassins get a little help from Saxon Orrik and are able to run through rough terrain.

Round 1 completed

Top of Turn 2: Khador - Zerkova upkleeps Telgesh Mark and allocates 1 to the Behemoth in hopes that he can drift a few AOEs on to the Nyss. She moves up and casts Occult Whispers giving Friendly Faction models an additional die on Magical attacks. The Greylord Ternions move up and are able to take out Eiryss 2 with some lucky shots. The Greylord Outriders, now down to 3, are able to line up some amazing shots and take out 5 Kayazy Assassins and a few Nyss. Eiryss 1 moves in and takes out a Nyss along with Holt.

The Winter Guard Rifle Corps launch a combined ranged attack to the Galleon and only do about 6 damage total. The Rocketeers try to drift 3 AOE shots into Harlan Versh but fail to finish him off. Behemoth tries to drift 2 into Harlan Versh but also fails to kill him.

Bottom of Turn 2: Mercenaries - Drake Macbain upkeeps Fortune and Fail-Safe. He lets Countermeasure drop on the Kayazy Assassins because they've taken too many casualties. The remaining Kayazy Assassins charge up and kill off the last of the Greylord Ternions. Harlen Versh has 3 shots and uses them all to aim at the Rifle Corps and makes 3 kills. Orin Midwinter unleashes a bolt of electricity and manages to make it leap 3 spots killing a group of Rifle Corp.

The Nyss with Fortune combine together to finish off the last of the Greylord Outriders. Saxxon moves up and kills Aiyanna while Kell Bailoch snipes out Behemoth's #4 column.

A fully loaded Galleon does more work on the Behemoth with his shots and puts the hurt on him. Drake Macbain stays back behind the Galleon to make sure there's no chance to assassinate him and pops his feat rolling a 6. He uses his 11 True Grit "can't be killed" tokens and puts them on 3 Nyss, Kell Bailoch, Saxon Orrik, 3 Kayazy, Harlan Versh, Orin Midwinter, and Sylys.

Round 2 completed

Top of Turn 3: Khador - It's getting pretty grim for Zerkova 2 and company. Most of her assassination weapons were blown away. Eiryss 1 is able to work her way around the back and snipe out another Nyss. The Kayazy Eliminator is able to jam up Harlan Versh while the Rifle Corps try to do some work on the Galleon before it's too late but without much luck.

Zerkova's Doomreaver Guards move in but fail to take out the 2 Kayazy Assassins because of True Grit. Holt fails to do anything significant because of True Grit. True Grit really destroyed any hope Zerkova 2 had for an assassination run.

Bottom of Turn 3: Mercenaries - Drake Macbain upkeeps Fail-Safe on the Galleon and Fortune on the Nyss. He allocates 2 to the Galleon. The Nyss move up and take out Holt while the Kayazy Assassins finish off the Doomreaver Guard. Harlan Versh is able to easily kill the Kayazy Eliminator jamming him up because of the extra die he gets against models with Upkeeps (Telgesh Mark). Orin Midwinter launches another bolt arcing to 3 more models killing 2 Rocketeers and a member of the Rifle Corp.

Saxon kills some more Rifle Corp along with Kell Bailoch leaving the unit with 3 models. Gallon unleashes a barrage of shots on Behemoth taking out his Cortex.

Round 3 Complete

Top of Turn 4: Khador - Kovnik Joe activates and gives the Rifle Corp For the Motherland and they are able to kill Orin Midwinter. Zerkova goes and moves up in desperation. She pops her feat and casts Occult Whispers. Valachev is able to take out 3 of the Kayazy Assassins and Zerkova casts Telgesh Mark on the last Rifle Corp grunt. Behemoth shoots at the Galleon but has no luck. Eiryss 2 continues moving around the back and takes out another Nyss.

Bottom of Turn 4: Mercenaries - Drake Macbain loads up the Gallon and Upkeeps Fortune on the Nyss for free. The Nyss then activate and get Eiryss 2 to 1 life. Kell Bailoch aims and snipes another 6 damage off of the Behemoth. Drake Macbane swaps out Forntune and puts it on the Galleon and then takes a shot at the Rifle Corp killing the last grunt.

The Galleon then activates and kills off the last Rocketeer and uses his harpoon to Drag in the Behemoth and finishes him off easily.

Top of Turn 5: Khador - Sensing the impeding doom, Zerkova 2 moves up and dominates the flag. She camps her full stack hoping for a miracle. Eiryss 2 moves in and shoots  down Kell Bailoch. Kovnik Joe moves up and shoots at Macbain and does no damage.

Top of Turn 5: Mercenaries- Drake Macbain upkeeps Fortune and fully loads the Galleon. The Galleon then activates and boosts a Harpoon shot on Zerkova and sucks her in. He does 5 damage on the boosted shot. He then stabs her with his Harpoon doing a massive 15 damage instantly killing her.

Overview: Zerkova 2 had a much harder time vs. ranged than expected. Most of her assassination tools were picked off early by Galleon, Nyss, Kell Bailoch, Harlan Versh, and Orin Midwinter. She has very few options of delivering her team safely and has to rely on being out of range. The Greylord Ternions could have thrown up clouds but it wouldn't have helped much with all the accurate guns on the Mercenaries side.

Zerkova 2 should have sensed the problem with the Gun Line and used her feat to take care of it instead of waiting and waiting for the assassination shot to open up which never did.

The Mercenaries did a great job of prioritizing targets by taking out important models that would cause them problems. Fail-Safe was amazing on the Galleon making him tough to deal with. A key moment was when Harlen Versh was able to trigger Purgation on the Kayazy Eliminators with Telgesh Mark. They were the last chance Zerkova had to arc node an assassination.

Overall there were many mistakes made by Zerkova 2 and her crew and Macbain was able to capitalize for the attrition/assassination win.