Saturday, September 28, 2013

Kraye (Cygnar) vs. Rhyas (Legion)

  My frequent opponent has a tournament coming up, 50pts tier.  He's been tossing around a lot of list ideas and one of them he wanted to test out was Rhyas's tier.  We met up at our LGS (I haven't decided if it's friendly or not) and set up our lists.

  Scott's looked like this:

Rhyas
*Ravagore
*Typhon
*Seraph
*Shredder
*Shredder
Swordsmen w/ UA
Swordsmen w/ UA (I think.  Tier bonus, I believe)
Warspears w/UA
Warmongers (Proxied by the Warspears on the right side when you see the picture)
Warmonger Solo
Succubus

  Of my two main casters, eStryker and Kraye, I generally have better luck with Kraye against Legion.  He matches their speed, brings accurate shooting or accurate melee, and can change it up midgame.  My normal list has Kraye, Minuteman, Avenger, and Stormclad, Rangers and Blazers.  Lately though, as much as I love the Blazers, I've been swapping them for the ATGM.  Three reasons.

  1)  Main reason is the threat range on my Stormclad is 17'' with reach, full tilt from Kraye, and feat.  The setup key is the Avenger.  On a direct hit, he knocks down a 4'' AOE, which is great.  You might say that the Stormclad is already boosted to hit though on everything, because of Kraye's feat.  That's true, but on a caster kill, I really like the caster down so hits are pretty nearly automatic.  It also makes it much easier to shoot the target if that's needed as well.  The maximum range on the Avenger though, is 14'', including moving him.  Jack marshalling him to the ATGM though, gives him Snipe.  Now we're at 18'', and we can still boost to hit.  Plus, I normally bring the Trencher Master Gunner for Artillerist, and any Ranger bonuses.  That makes a normally RAT4 jack pretty accurate, even shooting at a DEF16 caster.  Toss in Snipe so it can aim, and we're talking.  Normally though, the Jack doesn't get to aim.  It's got to move 3'' just to reach out and touch what the Stormclad wants to kill.  Before I marshalled to the ATGM, that couldn't happen.  The Gun Mage UA solves that.

2)  Scenario's pretty rough on Kraye, and five models from a normally fast unit like the Blazers doesn't help too much.  I haven't decided if the ATGM are better for Scenario or not, but they seem like they could be. 

3)  They're two points less than the Blazers, which lets me fit a Squire in.  If I want.  With the Avenger Jackmarshalled, Kraye only has 2 jacks, and 6 focus generally works for that.  Seven focus is better though.

  So, my list was the following:

Kraye
*Stormclad
*Minuteman
*Squire
Rangers
ATGM w/ UA
*Avenger

  I just realized I brought a 35pt list to a 50pt game...  I'm not even kidding.  I don't know how I messed that up.  We got there, and he wanted to do 50pts, and I knew it, and I grabbed my Kraye list off of Warroom and went at it.

  Nevermind the fact that it said 35pts at the end.

  I feel like an idiot.  Welcome to the first batrep of a new blog, everyone!  Wooohooo, Jedi's a moron.  Yeah...

*sigh*  Here's a picture...  I didn't have my Sony, so the pictures aren't quite the quality that's the norm for me.


  Gee, I just feel brilliant right now.  Anyways, we'd rolled off, and he won, so he elected to go second.  The Rhyas Tier is really nice because if gives his Warnouns AD.  For a slow unit (Compared to the rest of Legion), that's really nice.  The Warspears, in particular, are annoying with the ability to Prey, and assault.  They preyed my minuteman, Scott being fully aware of what that guy can do under Kraye.

  So, turn is to me.  I'm looking at the board, and absolutely nothing is amiss.  It's completely normal for Kraye to run 1/3rd the number of the opposing force.  I'm a little bit concerned, but it's a lot of models to deal with, I've never played Ryas, and that's a lot of 8 wound medium based units to deal with.  On the plus side, I have a lot of guns.  My main concern is that I'll move up, he'll move up, I spend a turn shooting down a unit, won't kill all of the Warmongers that'll beserk and kill most of my infantry, leaving me just a battlegroup to handle what's left of his warnouns, the caster and her battlegroup.  Hopefully the Minuteman can get a unit of swordsmen.  We also chose incursion for a scenario, but we don't have the flags in place yet.

  I roll off.  Stormclad gets a focus, and that's it.  Avenger runs up, Stormclad runs up, Kraye gives the Minuteman Full-Tilt and he runs for free way way away from the Warspears.  I can't get into their lines turn one with him, but maybe turn two if he can survive.  So I hide him behind the "forest" on the right.  The Rangers move up to hug the hill, ATGM spread out, everything kinda wary of Typhon's spray.  Kraye camps three focus.  That's turn for me.



  Pretty standard, really.  I hand back the tape measure (I'd forgotten mine) and he runs everything up.  He asked what the threat range was of the Stormclad, which is 17''.  He kept his Warmongers back a little, guessing, but moved his Warpears just as far.  In fact, they assaulted my Rangers.  Most were out of range, and at DEF17, were having a hard time hitting, even with the +2 RAT from the Warmonger Solo.  They killed one Ranger on the hill and that was it.

 The Swordsmen all ran and stationed themselves behind the warnouns, making me wish I had enough points to fit Electro-leaping Tempest Blazers into the list...  Rhyas moved up and tucked in behind the Warmongers, and leashed Typhon up behind her.  She then cast Occultation on the Warmongers.  The Seraph gave somebody an extra 2'', may have been Rhyas, I'm not sure.  Shredders moved up on the flanks and Scott gave me back the tape measure.


  That's a lot of models to deal with.  Full Tilt is still on the minuteman, and if I give him easy rider, he can wander through the forest, jump, and definitely hurt some troops, maybe even Rhyas, because she's awful close...  In fact...  

  I measure control range.  The Warmonger directly in front of Stormclad is 14'' from Kraye, tucked in behind the Warjack.  That's 12'' from Stormclad.

  I asked Scott how many Fury Rhyas had on her.  Five, he said.  There probably wasn't a chance of me killing her with Stormclad.  Not with four attacks and five transfers.  However, dice plus 5 damage was probably the best chance I was going to have at his beasts.  High enough rolls and I could easily kill two, maybe three beasts this turn.  Even if I lose Stormclad, that's a pretty decent trade.  Kraye drops the Full-Tilt upkeep on the Minuteman, gives Stormclad 3 focus and keeps the other four.

  The rangers move up.  One runs, so nobody shoots.  He sprints across and lands near Typhon, trying to be 5'' from the Warmonger you see right behind the purple upkeep token.  Right behind him is Rhyas.  The ATGM move up, and five of them are within range of the same Warmonger, who, incidentally, is 5.5'' from the Ranger.  Dangit.

  But, at RAT7, the ATGM hit him four times, and one crits.  Which is exactly what I need.  See, I'm trying to set up an easier shot for the Avenger.  Unfortunately, four shots kills the Warmonger, and the Avenger has to hit a standing one.  Great job, guys...

   Kraye drops Mage Sight out there, and full-tilts the Stormclad.  Then he rides up, shoot Rhyas with a Ride-by and gets behind the forest.

  The master gunner artillerists him, and I use the snipe shot from the Atgm.  Happily, the Warmonger to the left is in range, and in Mage Sight now too.  RAT4, +2 for aiming, +2 from the Artillerist, aaaannd +2 from the Ranger who's actually close enough to mark this one.  I need not snake eyes.

  I roll a one, and a four.  A hit.  KDs Rhyas, Typhon, and the Warmonger.  I boost damage on Rhyas, and get four, five damage.  Typhon shrugs it off and the Warmonger survives.

  The Stormclad, however, charges.  I don't even Feat Kraye, I'm saving that in case the Minuteman needs to do something next turn.  Kind of an insurance plan.  Stormclad travels 13'' and tucks right into the bases of the two Warmongers and easily has reach on Rhyas, who is KD for DEF7.  Not snake eyes to hit.

  Stormclad does Impact attacks to the Warmongers, then swings at Rhyas and hits.  Dice +5 and does fourteen damage.  Enough to kill her.  She transfers and kills the Shredder with points to spare and takes them back on her for a few more points.  The Focus he had comes back to her, so she transfers the next damage to Typhon, which hurts him considerably.  I use the shield on the KD warmonger and kill him, and buy another attack with the blade.  It hits, and again, does enough damage to kill Rhyas.

  Scott looks up.  "Good game, I screwed that up." he says.


  "I thought you had five fury on her." I said.  

  "I misunderstood.  I had five fury out there on her beasts.  Rhyas only had one."  

  Heck, that's even better.  With two more attacks, I definitely would have killed another beast, if at the very least the Shredder.  Both the Seraph and Typhon would have been hurting.  I still would have been in trouble though, with that much infantry.  So I'm glad it happened how it did, but none theless...

  Thoughts:

  1.  I think the ATGM are going to stick around.  A 18'' threatrange on the Avenger is incredible.  I love it.  It really makes this list shine.  It also handles stealth much better instead of relying on Mage Sight for everything.
 2.  Stormclad is awesome.  I didn't even do the Electro leaps.  It would have probably killed the Warmonger next to her and some of the Swordsmen behind her, but it didn't need to, Stormclad handled her just fine.
3.  I can't believe I forgot 15 points...
4.  Scott was way far up, but even if he'd been back two inches, I had Kraye's feat to go yet.  He needed to be back about three or four to really be out of range.  At the very least, Rhyas needed to be back an inch or two.

  Overall, pretty happy with the game, though it was really short.  I kinda felt bad because Scott didn't really get in the Tournament practice he was looking for, but at 35pts... probably wouldn't have gotten it anyways lol.  I'm a moron.

  Tune in some more!  I've got a couple of Vassal Reports and some painting progress in the next few days.  Hope to see you guys around!

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