35pts Dominar (Skorne) vs. Kraye (Cygnar)

  Running around on Vassal the other day, I got a game in against Skorne, for the first time.  My standard list against Hi-ARM is eStryker, but I was on a Kraye kick, and every once in awhile, I like to dump myself in a bad matchup, or at least one I wouldn't prefer.  

  This, however, wasn't a typical Skorne list.  For one, it was Dominar Masheth, not Makeda or Molik.  Just a giant dude being toted around on a bed.  I felt like I was up against Jabba the Hutt's entourage.

Dominar Masheth

*Titan Cannoneer

*Cyclops Raider

*Krea Drake

*Krea Basilisk

Gatorman Posse

Willbreaker

Willbreaker

Beast Handlers  

Feralgeist

Extoller Soulward

  Kraye's list has changed a bit in the last couple of weeks.  I've slowly transitioned away from the Blazers as much and gone more for the ATGM with the ability to give Snipe to the Avenger when Jackmarshaled.  It's a bit unnatural to jackmarshal in a Kraye list, but snipe is worth it, it seems.  

Captain Jeremiah Kraye

*Stormclad

*Minuteman

*Squire

Trencher Master Gunner

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages 

*UA

*Avenger

Rangers

  I don't remember who rolled higher, but I got to go second, which is what I prefer with Kraye anyways.  I picked bottom (So I don't have to rotate models lol) and we began.

   Here's the part where we realize that Jedi started using the log ability that Vassal has.  The Gatormen moved up, and then Rasheth activates.  He drops the Krea's animus of Paralytic Aura, which gives a DEF/ARM bonus against ranged attack, and a DEF debuff against enemy models.  He then gives Carnivore to the Gatormen, which grants +2 to melee attacks against living models, and heals the caster d3 for each model it boxes.  He then camps the rest of the fury.

  The Cannoneer runs, the Raider runs and the Krea moves up as normal and casts its animus, the Paralytic Aura we saw earlier.  The Drake ran, moving to the right.  All of the solos run as well.  Beast handlers advance and one conditions.  Then it's turn and I'm up.

  

  Stormclad gets a focus, and Kraye keeps the rest.  Rangers move forward to take advantage of the woods.  One chances a shot at the Raider behind cover, but doesn't roll the 11 needed to hit.  The Avenger takes the Jackmarshal point and runs forward.  Kraye activates and moves in behind the barricade, then gives Full Tilt to the Minuteman.  Of course.  The light jack activates and tucks into the woods with the Rangers, and the Stormclad runs forward.  The Trencher Master Gunner and the Squire join Kraye and the ATGM run forward.  And that's turn.  

  

  Incidentally, we were playing scenario, and it was Incursion.  We rolled and the left flag disappeared.  Dominar begins his turn by upkeeping Carnivore on the Gatormen, who move up and pray for Dirge of Mists.  Feralgeist runs.  Dominar moves up, and casts Paralytic Aura again.  He then throws Far Strike (Essentially snipe, but it's the Raider's animus) on the Cannoneer successfully.  He tries it on the Raider, casting through the Feralgeist, I think.  That's what he measured from anyways, and was shy of it by an inch.  The Krea moves up an does his animus again by Dominar, the Paralytic Aura.

  The Cannoneer moves up, and shoots at a gunmage.  Needing an 11, he boosts.  It still misses, and deviates for no damage.  The Soulward moves up and guess what?  Gives the Raider eyeless sight.

  Dangit.  I thought I'd gotten away from that, no playing against Legion.  

  Anyways.  The Raider casts his farstrike animus on himself, boosts and shoots at the minuteman.  Happily, he misses, rolling a 6 when he needed a seven.  The willbreakers move up.  If you're not familiar with these guys, they're basically Vassals like in Menoth.  One gives Ancillary attack to the Cannoneer and the other does the same for the Raider.

  Personally, I wish I'd brought Tempest Blazers.  Electro leap loves itself some support solos.

  Anyways, Cannoneer shoots again.  He shoots at the Rangers this time, but since he, for one, does not have eyeless sight, misses.  The deviation is still POW8 and kills two of them.  He manages to do one damage to the minuteman, but nothing big.  The Raider though, takes another shot at the same jack.  He manages to do 7 damage to my 4 on the poor guy.

  The Drake runs way far right, looking for the flag.  The Beasthandlers move up and condition, and that's turn.

  

  So that went ok.  Kraye upkeeps Full Tilt, takes a focus from the squire and gives two to the Minuteman.  The ATGM activate and move up to the first flag as I pretend to play scenario.  They open fire on the Gators at DEF14/ARM18, needing 7s to connect.  I throw thunderbolts at two gators and the Canoneer and push them all back a few inches, but fail to kill any of them.  I rolled sevens to hit quite easily, but failed to ever roll higher than 8 to break ARM.

  The four remaining Rangers moved up and fired at the Raider.  Needing only fives, two hit, and one managed to do three damage.

  The Trencher Gunner gives Artillerist to the Avenger, and he moves up.  He then snipes at the Raider, but is out of range, even at 14'', so it deviates.  At first it lands on my rangers, but the rerolls from artilerist save them and it lands harmlessly beside them.

  The Minuteman activates, moves up in front of the Raider, and then jumps behind him, B2B with the Cyclops and Soulward.  He only manages to do four damage to the Cyclops with the Flak, but kills the Soulward.  The Willbreaker takes one point of damage as well.

  Then I swing at the Raider.  I miss once, hit the second time, and boost damage at dice -7.  I proceed to roll 1, 5, 1.  Welcome to Vassal.  Then he light cavs back into the Willbreaker and Beasthandler, and ends turn.  One control point to me.

  

  Dominar drops Carnivore, and the Feralgeist runs.  Arcing through the guy, he casts Blood Mark on the Minuteman.  This lowers his ARM by 2.  Then he drops Farstrike back on the Cannoneer and hangs out.  The Raider walks up, punches the MM twice, boosting to hit and boosting one damage.  Then he gets an ancillary attack from the Willbreaker, and tries to hit me again, but misses.  He has, however, eliminated both arms and the cortex.

  The Canoneer advances, fires a shot at the DEF15 ATGM and deviates off to the right, but still kills two of them.  Then the Gators charge.  Two get the charge, the other three run.  The charge kills two more.  Then the Drake runs again, looking for that flag once more.  The Krea moves up, drops his aura once more and the Beast handlers advance and condition and that's turn.

  

   I allocate three focus to the Stormclad, pull one from the squire, and don't upkeep Full-Tilt on the minuteman.  I activate that jack first, and flak-field.  I do boxcars to the Raider, which doesn't kill it, and don't manage to kill the other two.  With both arms gone, I can't hit anything, even with a six, so I lightcav, and he dies in the freestrike.

  Now that the Raider is no longer in melee, the Rangers move up, and open fire.  They kill it fairly easy, and the Feralgeist inhabits the dead beast.  At first I was annoyed, but then realized that that really doesn't help him much.  Unforceable beast way off in the corner, I'm not worried.

  I turn my attention to the ATGM who passed CMD checks successfully against the gators.  One's engaged, the other one moves.  Both fail to do any damage.  But I move the unengaged one out of the way, hoping to get a charge with the Stormclad into the two gators on either side of the fence.

  The Trencher Master Gunner artillerists the Avenger, who shoots the center Gator with a crit brutal.  I actually crit, and didn't realize at the time that boosted my shot, so that was dumb, but I still KDed the three Gators in the center.

  Kraye gives the Clad full tilt, moves up, and shoots the leftmost KD gator.  Two shots later, and it's dead.  The Stormclad charges.  This is where I screw up.  He gets the charge, impacts both the ATGM and the gator, kills the ATGM, does 2 damage to the gator, and then kills it with the initial swing.  However, I wasn't far enough forward, and the gator on the other side of the fence is out of melee range.  I should have shot the center gator with kraye, and charged further, where I could have got most of them, and cleared them from contesting the flag, but I did not.  So the last gator is right there, out of reach, and contesting the flag.  I'm not horribly worried because I think Stormclad can survive a round, but it is a little irritating.  I end my turn, and my opponent gets another CP for the flag on the right.

  

  So, Skorne begins.  Blood Mark goes away, and the Willbreaker casts Puppet Master on Rasheth.  Beast handlers advance up, and the possessed Raider aims at a ranger, and misses.  Rashet then moves up, and arcs Blood Mark onto the Stormclad through a beast handler, who dies.  

  The Canoneer then opens fire on the Stormclad.  Boosting to hit and boosting damage, he does 11 damage to the 3...  The Ancillary attack does another 7.  The Gators pathfinder, charge, and kill what's left of the Jack.  So much for that plan.

  Krea moves over, does his Aura again, and that's turn for him.  He takes another point, for a total of three.  The ATGM is still contesting.

  I'm toast.  The ATGM proceed to fail CMD to Terror, and Rasheth is sitting on five fury.  His ARM/DEF sucks, but he's got 20 boxes, and each is minus -1 than normal.  He's pretty much un-assassinatable at this point, and I don't have a lot of options.  Looking back, I might should have just gone for it, shot him a bunch with rangers, the Avenger and Kraye, but I don't think it would have done it, and especially at 5 transfers and 3 beasts to send it to.  

  I flee my remaining ATGM, and he dies on the free strike.  I artillerist the Avenger, who's probably Autonomous now (The ATGM UA is still alive, but in a failed CMD, so IDK what that does), and he aims into the Gator's back arc.  It KDs them both, and kills one.

  Then I realize I should have moved my Avenger.  See, I can charge Kraye and kill both gators, and take the point for 2 CPs, and maybe run something to contest the flag by the Drake, but it's a long shot.  But I can't even get the charge with the Avenger in the way.  So Kraye rides in, shoots him twice, casts Arcane Blast and finally kills the Gator.  The Rangers all run and engage the Cannoneer and the Krea, so they can't get in and attack Kraye, and that's turn.

  

  But it's also game.  All he has to do is end his turn for the 5th CP, and that's it.  So he does, and Victory to Skorne.

Thoughts:

  1. I bungled the charge with the Stormclad.  I could have taken the CP, and that would have been another point for me, and I would have had a much better shot at dominating next turn.  If I had focused on killing the center gator instead of a different one, I think the game would have been a bit closer.

  2.  Running the Rangers to engage was a good idea, and I might should have done it a turn earlier, instead of trying to kill the Raider.  The Canoneer did 18pts of damage to the Stormclad, just shooting.  Bloodmark didn't help, but yeah...

  3.  Support.  Hordes likes their support, be it Circle, Legion or Skorne.  I haven't played much against Trolls, but they're probably the same way.  Legion and Skorne definitely though.  Blazers... might have been better than ATGM, but a sniping Avenger has pretty much got me sold...

  Overall though, good game, and I thoroughly enjoyed it to the last.