50pts Stryker2 (Cygnar) vs. Madrak2 (Trollbloods)

My second game Saturday was against a guy who just recently switched to Cygnar. He'd been playing Khador, and in fact, his Harkevich list with 4 clamjacks and Black Ivan had given me serious fits. However, he's recently started picking up swans, and we set up for a game after I got smashed by the last Khador player.

So, Stryker2 vs. Madrak2. Something of a mirror match. One guy gives everyone a post-turn 3'' move and an attack, and the other guy gives everyone attacks to everything in their melee simultaneously. Some differences, but certainly more similarities. Both casters rely on a high volume of attacks, and try to get their guys to hit harder, but I think Madrak does it better. Stryker requires a jack, preferably with Reach, to get in there and make Positive charge work, whereas Madrak just adds a dice to his favorite unit and sends them in. As far as Positive Charge goes, Trollbloods basically has it on a stick with the Chronicler, and I haven't used it at all. Me and my two months of Trollbloods experience...

So, eMadrak.

Madrak2
*Runebearer
*Bomber
*Impaler
Fennblades w/UA
Fennblade Kithkar
Champions w/UA
Champion Hero
Fell Caller
Janissa
Min KSB w/UA

The list continues to change. I had the Champions originally, and dropped them because I thought they were too slow, and got the Long Riders instead. I still like the Long Riders, but I playtested the Champ Hero and Skaldi a bit more, and I really like what the Hero and Skaldi to for the Champs. I also dropped the Sons of Bragg, because they're amazing, and need to go in lists that need amazing help, without feeding them support (Jarl, Grim, even eDoomy).

The Battlegroup is also evolving. I originally had the Impaler and Slag for some ranged anti-jack goodness, plus some +2 damage for Madrak or the Kithkar (maybe the Hero now), but at the end of the day, I was struggling against Hi-DEF infantry, and not against Warjacks. Fenns on Blood Fury don't need a Slag to soften up a jack before they hit it. So out with the Slag, in with the Bomber. Or the War Wagon. In this case, the Bomber. I'm debating between 2 AOE4s that I can boost damage on, vs 1 AOE5 and 1 Spray 8 template, plus a bunch of impacts. It's an interesting trade. The other problem with the War wagon is that I need a second beast to pull fury from, so while the wagon is cheaper than the Bomber, the 5pt beast I'd need to bring counterbalances it considerably. So the Bomber makes more sense at the moment.

My opponent's list had a familiar format, but with some changes. The Stryker/Maddie/Squire concept was all the same. The Stormblade Deathstar (Heh) was there as well, along with Runewood, Rhupert, SB Captain and Jr. for support. However, where I take Nyss, he took Forgeguard with Jonas, and Swordknights.

Stryker2
*Squire
*Ol' Rowdy
Maddie
Runewood
Rhupert
Stormblade Captain
Stormblades w/ UA and max WA
Sword Knights w/ UA
Forgeguard w/Jonas
Harlan Versh
pEiryss
Junior

Some differences, but it's a caster I've played a lot, and am pretty familiar with what he can do. He can easily box eMadrak, but he can't do that, AND remove all grim salvation targets, especially over a wall that's taking Madrak to DEF16 against Melee.

We rolled off and he won, so he deployed first. SKs went to the right, Forgeguard to the left. Stormblades were scattered behind, Harlan on the right flank, Eiryss on the left. Rowdy, Stryker and support hung out in the center.

I dropped Fenns on the left against Forgeguard. Not only was I pretty much guaranteed the alpha against them, between POW12 and Blood Fury, I wouldn't have any problems breaking their ARM. The Champions, on the other hand, went opposite of the Sword Knights, which meant that I could pretty much ignore them and penetrate as deep as I could into the flank and start cutting apart Stormblades.

To support that was the Bomber/Impaler combo, there to clear out Swordknights/Stormblades. The KSB went center, the Fell Caller hung out behind them, Janissa, Runebearer, all that great stuff.



Cygnar leads off. Everything runs/moves up. Stryker drops Deflection and camps, and Jr. puts Arcane Shield on Rowdy. Jonas probably minifeated, making the dwarves immune to blast damage, but I had better targets for that anyways. The kicker in this mess is Runewood, who put pathfinder on the Swordknights, who then activated and ran forward, clumping into 3man groups for Defensive line. Unfortunately, this left runewood in everyone else's way.



First off. Fenns run forward. Moses does Harmonious Exaltation on Madrak. Champions run forward. Impaler moves up, puts Farstrike on the Bomber and hangs out. Bomber moves up and throws a bomb. It drifts the right way, lands squarely on a clump of Swordknights. I boost the damage three times and kill all three, and pass on buying a second shot. Chances are I'd drift the wrong way, and on top of that, I'd be running hot, and would be out of fury anyways with which to boost blast damage.

Fell Caller shuffles along. Madrak presses forward, drops Warpath and dumps the rest to the stone. Janissa presses forward and drops a wall. KSB moves in, and auras, catching all but a few of the champions, several fenns, and all of the brick. The Fennblade Kithkar and Champion Hero run to support their respective dudes and it's my opponent's turn.



More of the same now. Jr. drops Arcane Shield on Rowdy and moves up. Everyone runs forward a bit more. The Forgeguard spread out, getting ready to take the alpha from the Fenns and countercharge. Stryker moves forward near Rowdy, toes onto the hill, casts Deceleration again and camps. Eriyss sneaks closer to my left flank, and Harlan sprints to flank my Champions. The Swordknights run forward and clump again, with the exception of one lone brave soldier who runs to engage my Champions, and triggers Countercharge from Skaldi, who crushes the little guy.



Looking at the pics, I think 2 sword knights engaged, and Skaldi killed one of them. That left one more to deal with.

So, Madrak pulls in fury. The Champion Hero charges, decides not to thresher for obvious reasons, and easily kills the Swordknight. The Impaler chucks a spear at someone, misses, but puts Farstrike on the Bomber, who again starts bombing Sword Knights and Stormblades. Needing 8s to kill, I fail to kill more than 2 of them.

The Champions proceed to charge, and tear into the Swordknights, killing most of them. They fail CMD, but pass it on the reroll since the banner is still in play. One champion gets countercharged by rowdy though, and gets boxed, but he toughs.

The Fell Caller shuffles over, puts War Cry on the Fenns for +2 to hit. Moses moves in and gets Blood fury on them with his minifeat. They charge in, minifeating also, and I distribute one for each of the forgeguard nearby (Which have tough on them from Rhupert) and four charge into Rowdy's back arc now, since he charged. The forgeguard are all boxed, but one toughs. Rowdy is taken down to 1 box on his cortex. All engaged units pass their terror checks as well, which is saddening.

I really debate about throwing an axe into rowdy, just to finish him off, but decide against it. Madrak moves up, casts warpath to burn fury, casts Blood Fury onto the Kithkar so I can get it off the Fenns and take them back up to DEF12 instead of DEF10, and then puts one more on the stone, leaving me at 1 fury, and capable of taking in everything from the warbeasts next turn.

KSB moves up and pops aura. I could have put fury to them, but I wanted warpath instead, whereas the stone would cover everything I needed it to.

Janissa drops a wall, Kithkar moves up, and that's turn.



Now the counter attack. Rowdy turns around and Tremors. We found out later that you can't do star actions with the systems missing that Rowdy was, but it doesn't change much. He rolls a 6 on one dice and knocks all four of the Fenns down engaging him. The Swordknights swing back, and damage a few Champions. Harlan shoots Skaldi in the back a bunch, but does just 1 box. The Stormblades assault, with Runewood's blessing, and kill a few, and finish off some of the Fenns that are KD behind Rowdy.

The forgeguard charge, and kill everything they reach. Eiryss shoots a Fenn too. Rhupert moves up and puts tough back on the Forgeguard. Jr. moves up to be within range of Stryker, and Stryker activates, hangs out, casts rebuke on what's left of my Fenns, and feats.

So, everything that survived the onslaught dies. The Stormblades and Swordknights move in and finish the champions, and every Fenn in melee range dies except 2. I'm down to four Fenns, the Kithkar, and my Hero Champion.



I pull in my fury, drop Warpath, and drop Blood Fury. The Fenns that can Vengeance can, and I don't think they have reach on anything. The Kithkar moves up and kills one of the Forgeguard at the edge of the hill.

The actual turn begins. The Champion hero charges into the place occupied by the champions last turn, and threshers, killing a few Sword knights, but missing the charge target, AND Rowdy, who I really wanted to finish. Double 1s for both those guys. I think Rowdy had a box of movement left, not Cortex, or I would have autohit.

The Bomber unleashes a few attacks, and clears out the Swordknight UA, banner, and a couple more SKs and a Stormblade or two. Not bad. Impaler drops a Stormblade on the hill. There's two near Stryker, but I'm leaving them as much as I can. Fenns move up and swing, since they can't charge. They kill a few Forgeguard, but it's not terribly important. I'm clearing a charge lane.

The KSB runs forward, up onto the hill near Rowdy, but leaving room for Madrak, and pops aura, and the Elder adds +1 STR.

The Fell Caller puts Warcry on Madrak, and the Runebearer gives him Harmonious Exaltation, and he charges the Stormblade in front of Stryker. He's 8.5'' from Madrak, and Stryker's a good 3'' beyond that. Madrak reaches him, feats, and essentially threshers, killing Rowdy, and both Stormblades. The Hero smashes what's left in his melee range, and that's pretty much it for things to do with the feat.

So, Madrak has 2 fury now from the feat, and 5 normal fury. He spends 1 to gain Blood Fury (Harmonious Exaltation) and spends the other to move forward and attack with Tide of Death. He hits Stryker, and does a few boxes at PS15, or Dice minus 5.

Buy. Hit. Two more boxes. This sucks. Blood fury is boosting every damage attack, but two boxes? Buy. Miss. Buy, hit, four or five more boxes. Buy, hit. Another two or three boxes. Buy my last one, swing, connect, and roll perfect damage to box Stryker.



At that point, I realized that I forgot to factor in the STR bonus from the Krielstone. That added 5 damage automatically for the attacks that hit, and did damage. So it wasn't as close as I was afraid. Had me worried, but it wasn't the perfect damage roll like I thought it was.

Thoughts on the game:

1. I played my Champions too hard. I could have charged one or two in, and let them take it, but I didn't. I have a problem playing Madrak where I see a bunch of targets, and I decide that I'm definitely going to feat, so I engage all my stuff in the enemy lines, and kill everything I engage... which means there's no reason to feat. Then my army sits there and takes the counterpunch. That's no good.

2. Jr. dropped Arcane Shield on Rowdy, and meant to put it on Stryker, and never did. That would have saved him. Easy. But he never did.

3. Maddie never really got used. Usually, Maddie, Runewood, Squire and Stryker is a surefire heads up that the assassination is coming, but it never did. In fact, he just sat up fairly close and never went anywhere. He attritioned well, but he's not impervious to assassination. It felt weird to assassinate my favorite assassination caster, but there it is.

4. I like my list. I enjoyed having a Bomber for a change... Where are those Kayazy now?

eKrueger vs. eStryker. Can we trade Stormwalls?

  I got down to the shoppe today in hopes of playing another buddy who plays Menoth.  I seem to be only able to make friends with mean people.  He was however engaged in a fight against an eButcher wielding maniac that's probably in the top three of our meta.  Undoubtedly in the top three, it's just a matter of which one.  Anyways, so I grabbed a blister of Nyss and Jonas Murdoch and then another guy walked in with a Woldwrath and was looking for a game.

  I'd already decided against pCaine, because my Lances are on the painting table, and I'm loving them so much, that I couldn't bring myself to play Caine without them.  I thought about Kraye, but decided to run with eStryker and the Boomies and see if I like them more than Nyss.

  Our lists:

  As I was gathering the army, I realized I'd walked out the door without my second bag of units, so I was missing not only my eStryker model, but my pStryker model I use to proxy pretty much anything.  So bear with me.
eStryker  (Proxied by pCaine.  He'll make the gameboard one way or the other, it seems)
*Centurion
*Lancer (Proxied by the minuteman)
*Squire
Stormblades w/UA and 2 gunners
Boomhowlers (max)
*Jonas Murdoch (Proxied by Stormblade Captain)
Rhupert
Runewood
Journeyman Warcaster (proxied by pHaley)

...Yeah, yeah, I know.

  My opponent brought... eKrueger, and no Woldwrath.  I didn't know if that was good or not.  But I had not played eKrueger yet.  Generally, I chalk my first game up against a new caster as a loss unless I've seen a lot of battlereports against the guy, or gal.  I had seen very few with eKrueger.  I just know that he has a two feats, one with a 3fury Upkeep called Stormwall.  The menoth player I'd been meaning to play had been caught flat-footed with it a few weeks ago during the Tournament, and it was terrifying.  Go me.  Also, there's a lot of Tharns.

Tharn eKrueger
*Tharn Ghetorix
*Tharn Warpwolf Stalker
Tharn Bloodtrackers w/ Nuala
Tharn Ravagers
Ravager Shaman (Also a Tharn, but I wanted to change it up)
Tharn Blood Pack
Tharn White Mane solo
Tharn Stones w/ UA

... I think that's everything.  *Builds list in Warroom*  Yeah, I think that's everything.  He rolled a 3, I rolled a 1, and he elected to go second and choose his boardside, which in this situation was probably wise.

  I built the map not to be symmetrical.  There's more cover on one side, and more forests on the other.  He chose the forested side, and I realized I was in trouble.  Happily one unit has pathfinder (Blazers) and I have Runewood and Rhupert to give pathfinder to the other two units.  So, ok.  Not a gamechanger.  Everything on his side of the board having AD sucks, but meh.

  I rememembered my Stormblades advance move, so they moved up.  The Journeywoman (pHaley's early days) drops Arcane Shield on the Boomies, and they run.  Jonas gives them Go to Ground, and they hang out.  Lancer runs up, the Blades filter in behind the Boomies.  The Blazers run up onto the hill, because the Bloodtrackers preyed them (Of course), and the Centurion runs forward too.  Support and Stryker filter in behind the Centurion, and Stryker drops Deceleration, leaving the Boomies at DEF16, ARM18

    The bloodtrackers push through the woods, the real Tharns get into the other woods, and hide behind the pylon things.  The beasts run forward, toeing into cover where they can.  Krueger moves in, and casts Stormwall, and drifts a POW10 Electrical AOE out in front of my Stormblades, which is funny.

  Stormwall. Wait, Circle has a Stormwall you say?  Well, it's not a giant 19pt Jack.  No.  My wife showed up next turn and watched me, so she knows where this game is headed.  She's sitting here next to me while I write my report, debating if she wants Apple Cider, or Ice Cream.  I'm trying to explain why I lose most of my army shortly.  "Stormwall is where everything I have in his control range, a whopping 28'', loses 5'' of range, and my AOEs deviate in the direction he chooses."

  "That's mean." She says.  "But it's only one turn."

  "No, honey, that's a spell.  He uses it every turn."

  "Oh.  Oh, that's wrong.  That's messed up.  What's his feat?!"  

  His feat, ladies and gentlemen, is that everything gets pushed 3'' away, and gets -2 SPD.  So no charging, assaulting, nada.  And you're really far away.  Welcome to eKrueger.  Awesome caster.  I need him for my own Circle.

  My wife is sitting here still.  "I think that caster's like cheating."  Which is hilarious, because she's an eHaley fan.

  So yeah.  There's all that.  The warpwolf warps for prowl.  And it's back to me.

ACTION SHOT!!!  WOOO.  IT'S A THARN!!!!

  Back to me.  I seriously consider feating, but I don't think I can get up far enough.  So the Lancer gets a focus, and Stryker keeps the rest.  Runewood gets pathfinder to the Boomhowlers, who run/assault the Tharn.  Three actually get a charge, the others tie up the other Tharn, and one gets in Ghetorix's face.   The other tries, but gets caught by a free strike.  The three guys that assault kill their two guys and Boomhowler does Fell Call.

  The Blazers move in, and don't manage to kill anything, because it's all in the woods, well placed beyond 3'' and DEF17.  So they lightcav back to the hill, except for one who moves into melee with them to tie them up.  My wife looks at me at this point, because this beautiful young lady had brough me Korean for lunch.  In between bites of eggroll, she acts like I've just betrayed one of my men to the enemy.

  It's safe to say I'll not be seeing that tactic from her.  Yet.

  The blades move up, with effectively RNG1, and hang out.  Rhupert gives them tough, and the Journeyman gives them Arcane shield.  The Lancer runs forward, within 10'' of the two Tharn Ravagers shielding Krueger.  Stryker drops deceleration again, and casts Refute at the Tharn unengaged with the Boomie I ran, and hit.  This prevents them from issuing orders, so no running or charging from them.  The Cent edges forward.  No feat today.

  Here we go.  Krueger pulls in his fury.  The Warpwolf gives Sprint to Ghetorix, then moves over and slays the Blazer stopping the Bloodtrackers, who charge forward.  Three manage to kill one Blazer and then they reform, staying back and three engaging the Blazers.  The Ravagers move in, and slay my Boomhowlers who proceed to fail 80% of their checks.  Needing 4-6, I consistently rolled 1s and 3s.  Good job guys.  And, on top of that, the Ravagers gain soul tokens with which they proceed to buy more attacks.  They pretty much ate through the boomies.  Normally, the tough would be a good counter for them, but not today.  Rhupert, Boomhowler himself and one other boomie survive both the Ravagers, and the Blood Pack both.  They also pass CMD.

  Ghetorix walks up, and smacks my Lancer with ease, completely smashing him.   Then he hits the Boomie too and kills him before sprinting away.  Krueger activates, moves up tantalizingly close to eStryker's threat range and feats.

  So much for that.  Everything gets pushed except the blazers, and my Journeyman, waaaaay in the back.

  So, I'm in trouble.  I'm managing to contest Zones, but I'm running out of models really quick.  The Stormblades group together a bit more, and run forward 6''... Which, now that I think about it, can a unit run when their speed is lessened?  Idk.  It wasn't a game changer.  Rhupert gets them Tough, and the Journeyman gave them Arcane Shield and that was it.

  The Blazers attempt to kill the three Tharn engaging them, but only kill 1, so they hang out.  I cast Deceleration again, and move up as much as I can, and that's turn for me.  I forgot to take a picture at this point because I was kissing my wife goodbye before she left for JCPennies.  

  So, Krueger takes up the momentum.  He then realizes that he put too much fury out there, and Ghetorix frenzies on an 11.  He charges in and kills that lone stormblade on the left, and hangs out.  The Tharns then bellow and charge in.  The Ravagers open the ball and finish off the Boomies.  The one on the left (center board) charges in and kills three Blades by himself.  The others attack the other three,  and they actually start making their tough checks, hanging in there on fives and sixes.  Go them!  When the Boomies couldn't do it with 4, 5 and 6.  So the Blood Pack choke on the Blades.  A couple tried to shoot the Stormblades, but they only manage to hit their own guy in the back and kill him. The Bloodtrackers though, are far more successful.  They charge the Blazers, and four of them kill off the remaining three between the charge and quickwork.  That was brutal.  Three move over to screen Ghetorix from my Centurion.

  The Warpwolf prowls and hangs out in the woods, and casts Sprint on something and something else.  I don't remember what all, but he had four fury on him.  Krueger hops over next to him, TKs Ghetorix back a bit so my Centurion doesn't smash him, in spite of the Bloodtrackers.  He TKs him to the left a bit, and drops Stormwall again.  The stones teleport, and that's turn.  2CPs to Circle.

  

    As if the turn before wasn't bad enough.  Now he's pretty nearly got both zones, definitely dominating one.  The Tharns, at 8 boxes each, are not going to die easily.  The Blades might could kill five or six of them with feat, but it's risky.  The Centurion is completely healthy, but that's pretty much it.  

  So I do what I normally do and put my dice on the table, and take a focus from the squire.  The Cent moves into the Bloodtrackers, and with the bond from eStryker, hits, and smushes the gal.  He misses with the shield, but meh.  Junior gives Arcane Shield to Stryker, and Runewood gives +2 to the charge attack to Stryker.

  Stryker velocities forward 6'', just past the pylon to the left.  I wanted to only go 4'' and save a focus, but it just wasn't going to happen.  He then proceeds to charge Krueger.

 Krueger has 2 fury on him, and the Warpwolf is full.  That leaves Ghetorix.  Stryker overcharges for a whopping +15STR and takes 9 damage.  Heck, yes.  With the +2 from Runewood, he's MAT9 and I decide not to boost, needing a six.  This isn't vassal.  I roll decent and hit.  The boosted attack is +15 damage to krueger, and I roll something terrible, like a four or five on three dice.  But, that's 19 damage with Overcharge.  He transfers to Ghetorix.  

  I buy, and boost to hit. The attack does 24 damage.  He transfers to Ghetorix and that kills him, and the remaining damage leaves 1 box on Krueger.  I buy and boost to hit with my last two focus, and hit, killing Krueger.  This last picture is terrible, so bear with me.

  

  Thoughts:

  1.  Krueger is murderous for Cygnar.  -5RNG every turn is brutal.  The feat isn't any fun either, but the Stormwall spell alone is horrendous.  His other stuff is ok, and I could definitely see Telekinesis being useful, but Stormwall alone makes this caster crazy. 

  2.  I don't know what I'd take against him.  At the end of the day, it'd probably be pStryker.  +5 ARM on feat turn and Snipe to kind of counter the Stormwall spell.  But even that would be really difficult.  I'd have to brick up with Silverline in the front and push my way up the board to deny his spell.  It'd be a tough haul.

  3.  Blazers didn't do much all game, but they tied up the Bloodtrackers.  I'll take it.  The left side of the board really just neutralized itself with the Bloodtrackers winning in the end.  Even if feat turn had done well, and I killed most of the Tharns in the right zone, I'd of had Bloodtrackers in my face next turn and it'd of been bad.

  4.  Stormblades didn't even swing once.  The boomies failed most of their checks, but killed a few Tharn.  They did tarpit decently, I suppose, lasting into turn...3? I think?  Yeah, turn three.  The two tough checks they did make managed to keep the Tharns occupied to the right.  The more I play eStryker, the more I feel like it's 35-50pts of stuff to occupy the badguys while eStryker waits for a mistake.

 5.  I don't know if I wish I'd brought Nyss or not.  Probably not.  Stormwall would have been brutal to them, and POW9, with probably no charges, would not have been great against Tharn.  Though, DEF15 might have been nice.  It's a tough call.

  Overall though, very good game.  I got lucky at the end.  If the stones had been placed differently, or if they had teleported Krueger into the woods, on the otherside of the Stalker, or if he'd of TK'd Ghetorix in my way, it may have been different.  And him killing his own Tharn helped a lot too.  That guy was right in the way of my charge.

  Good game, props to my opponent, and I'll see y'all around.

  

Batrep, 35pts Grayle (Circle) bs. eStryker (Cygnar)

  Believe it or not, I hopefully will have non-Vassal batreps here shortly.  I usually endeavor to get those posted up ASAP, and Vassal reps fall by the wayside, even when sometimes they're the best games.  Hopefully though, I'll be playing something other than Legion tomorrow, and I'm kind of excited about that.

  This game, however, is against Circle.  The guy I played here watched me play the eStryker vs. eMagnus game I have posted earlier.  As soon as it was concluded, he challenged me, eStryker vs. the Circle Assassination expert, which is Grayle, apparently.  We set up and got after it.

  I obviously brought eStryker back because that's what he requested.  I did, however, change up my tarpit unit for the Boomhowlers instead of my normal Nyss shenanigans.  I then traded out the Stormblade Captain for my Journeyman Warcaster with the extra point.  Two reasons.  1.  I actually own a full unit of Boomies, and not a full unit of Nyss (Yet), so I wanted to try the game with stuff I own.  2.  I'm finding that the Journeyman does more for me than the Captain.  I love the captain, but when I only have 1 unit of Stormknights, and 2 methods of getting pathfinder, (Rhupert and Runewood), he's pretty redundant.

  eStryker
*Centurion
*Squire
Stormblades
*UA
*1 Stormgunner
Boomhowlers
*Jonas Murdoch
Runewood
Rhupert
Madelyn Corbeau

 My opponent's list.

Grayle
*Warpwolf
*WoldWarden
Skinwalkers
*UA
Stones
Stones
*UA
Swamp Gobbers
Gallows Grove
Lord of the Feast

  I've never fought Grayle, or the LotF.  The only thing I know about this list is that it's a lot of ARM to handle, double stones mean long threat ranges where Tarpits may or may not work, and that the LotF makes my friends cry.

  I rolled off and got first, and the scenario was Outflank.  We deployed, and began.

   I actually remembered my Advanced Move from eStryker on the blades, so I did that.  The Centurion got one focus and eStryker kept the rest.  The Boomhowlers ran forward with Fell Call, and Jonas sent them to ground, the goal here being to make anything to high of a DEF for the LotF to hit, and if he did, a 50% chance of toughing is cool too.  They also got Dirge of Mists from Rhupert, bringing them to DEF17.  The Stormblades ran in behind the Boomies.  The Centurion went wide, Maddie snuck in with the blades, the Journeyman gave them Arcane shield, and Stryker camped his focus.  

  So, Grayle activates.  He puts Storm Rager and Sprint (From the Stalker's animus) on the LotF.  The Gallows port, forward, and then the Non-UA stones teleport the LotF.

  I know this guy is crazy for a 4pt solo, and I know that I want one.  I've never fought one though.  I've read the card a half dozen times, and I've seen batreps on the forums where people playing against him sob, but I've never fought him.

  I hate that guy.

  He ports forward 8'', towards the Boomies.  Everything else moves up.  UA stones port forward, Skinwalkers run.  Woldwarden tramples forward and animus's his little forest, the Stalker runs, Gobbers run, and the LotF shoots the Stormblade to the right of Jonas.  At first, I think the Boomies block LoS, except that they're dug in.

  That dude lands in there, threshers and kills Maddie, Jonas, my Stormblade UA, and three more Stormblades including my Standard Bearer and Stormgunner.  That's like, 9 points.  9 important points.  I just lost Assault on both infantry units, the Boomies no longer benefit from feat, Stryker loses 3'' to his 20'' threat range... Yeah.

  Then, with his soul tokens, he goes after Boomhowler himself.... and... dies to a freestrike from the Stormblade behind him.  Which made me very happy, because now I was very frustrated.  I dislike being that frustrated, and it doesn't reflect well on my sportsmanship.

  Quick Side note.  One thing I've recognized is my difference in play on Vassal and on the tabletop.  I can have the same thing happen at the tabletop, and I'll be frustrated, but not horrible.  In the privacy of my own home, it's a whole different story.  I'm not a happy camper when a 4pt solo wipes out three of the most important things in my list when I tried so hard to protect them.  Is this something you notice in your own vassal games?  It's something I'm noticing with me, and I don't know if my opponent can tell if it's there or not.  My opponent here knew I was frustrated, but we played it through, because it only got worse.  But yeah, if you feel like you're a completely different man sportsmanship wise on Vassal, please post your thoughts, because I think it's an interesting situation and it's something I want to rectify in my own personality.

  Back on subject.  The LotF is dead, which is good, becuase he probably would have killed Boomhowler and some of his dudes.  As it was, I was already in trouble.  And it was my turn now.

  I also forgot to take a picture, in my confusion with what to do next.  There wasn't much to do though, really.  The Cent gets a focus though, and everything moves up.  The Stormblades have Tough now, since pretty much everything he has is Fearless, and he's pretty much out of shooting.  The boomies shoot at one of the stones a bit, but fail to completely kill it.  I move them up as much as I can to block them from getting into my zone at all, and toe Stryker into the trench (That hole.)  Journeyman upkeeps Arcane Shield on the blades.  The Cent moves up with his useless one focus, since I'm not running him, and casts polarity shield, and that's pretty much turn for me.

  

  I'm trying to do this from my memory now, and it's pretty complicated.  But Grayle teleports up.  He kills a Boomie or two, steps over to a blade, and hits him, but he toughs, then he gets ready to teleport away to safety, except that he realizes he's in the melee range of the Centurion.  He seriously thought about casting Gallows (I think) and pulling the Cent in so he could be charged, but he didn't do it first, and took the chance.  The Centurion hits him, and takes him down to like, six or seven health.  Pretty nearly kills him, but not quite.  He runs off to his zone to dominate it.

  The tree toes into my zone, because it's a dirtbag.  The Gobbers move up and drop smoke.  Which I hate.  Those Gobbers are like, the most annoying 2 points ever in Hordes.  Especially with Cygnar who likes shooting casters?  It's frustrating.  But ok.  Good play.  The Wold gets teleported forward, and he beats on my Centurion a bit, but to no avail.  I think he has all systems intact.  The Wolves walk in though, and try to hurt him a bit more.  If I remember correctly, the Wolf got in there too, hit him for some damage, then sprinted away.  Then the Skinwalkers walked in there and finished his Cortex and nearly got the right arm.  

  I'm in a bad spot, but I see a glimmer of hope.  I camp focus on eStryker.  The boomies move up, and kill the tree, opening a spot for my Caster.  He velocities all the way forward, then walks through the hole the Boomies made and boosts to hit as he shoots at Grayle, at which point, my opponent points out that his caster has stealth.

  This has been a bad game so far.  My opponent, the champ that he is, tells me to take it back though.  Just go back and do something else with eStryker, or if I'd like, call the game, because he knows I'm frustrated.  The dice haven't been good at all, the LotF trashed me, Grayle's stealthed, it's just been horrible.  I have no UAs for my units, only three or four dudes will benefit from feat.  It's just been nasty.  However, he's also playing a really solid game with the exception of getting caught by the Centurion's free strike.  I hate when I'm playing a solid game, and somebody just calls it.  So I stick it out, but pull stryker back.

  I would have used the Boomies differently, but it's too late for that.  The Stormblades charge the Wold, and kill him.  Pretty easily.  The Centurion kills a few Skinwalkers, so that's not too bad.  The feat lets me kill another one, and toe a Blade into his zone to contest it.  

  

      So, that turn hurt him, but I'm still not in great shape.  Grayle reeves in his fury.  The stones teleport the objective into the zone to dominate it, which I'd completely forgotten about.  However, I'm up to three points I think, and it won't take much to get up to five.  His skinwalkers move in, kill the Stormblade contesting the zone, and then surround the Centurion, who I believe has Arcane Shield at this point, because he's just tanking it.  They do kill off the Stormblades though, with the help of the Warpwolf, who did his stuff, then sprinted away, full on fury.  So, Stormblades are gone, Centurion is surrounded.

  Grayle charges in to finish the Boomies... and fails his charge.  He guestimated on the charge lane, and got caught on a Skinwalker.  I offered to let him take it back, but he wanted to learn from it, so he left Grayle there.  And that was turn.

  For all of my frustration, and irritation with myself, and as well as my opponent had played, and obviously had this game in the bag, it got ended when eStryker velocitied over, and with the +2 to charge attacks from runewood, got in there and killed Grayle in one blow.  The boomies moved out of the way, obviously, and the Cent beat on a few skinwalkers, but it was game over when the turn began and my opponent knew it.

  

  Thoughts on this game.

  1.  I felt horrible winning this one.  For keeping a cool head in a game, I got overly frustrated with this one.  Watching one solo just waltz through my army is horrifying.  And it's just a game.  This game is not my best representation of sportsmanship, but I wanted to batrep it anyways because:
   A)  My opponent, Seraphim_Guard, was a champ.  He's going to be playing in an online Vassal tournament against me shortly, and I'm looking forward to it.  If you see this guy on Vassal, he's a fantastic opponent, is great to play against, and I can't recommend him enough.  He was completely cool with me calling the game, and understood my frustration.  When I failed as a sportsman, he excelled graciously, and I wanted to showcase that with this batrep.
  B)  I wanted to pull out something I think I see in Vassal.  I've noticed a tendency with myself especially, to have a much worse attitude about the game than I think I would in person, and I wanted to bring that up as a topic.
  C)  Seraphim_Guard really did play a fantastic game, and had it very much in the bag except for that one mistake, and I felt like it was a good game to show.  He built a very, very strong list using animuses and solos and whatever else.  It's a tough list, and I want to open up the bragging rights for him on that one.

2.  Back to thoughts on the game.  I like the Boomhowlers.  They're not DEF19 like the Nyss are with Jonas, but they don't need Rhupert feeding them tough all the time.  And while the Nyss are Weaponmasters, the Boomhowlers are POW...12?  Or 13?  It makes up for it.  The RAT also isn't what the Nyss's is, but the power from the gun is great.  I think on the assault, these guy might be better against Jacks and such.  Against infantry, the Nyss will win.

3.  Jr. vs. the Stormblade Captain.  Doh.  Should have done that a long time ago.

  Overall, very good game, and I owe Seraphim_Guard one for putting up with my sorry carcass.  Shoutout to a great guy on Vassal.

35pt, Magnus the Warlord vs. Lord Commander Coleman Stryker

I played Sevensins awhile back, a buddy from Europe that I met through the forums.  He brought a dwarf list against me if I remember correctly.  I'm slowly coming to like Dwarf lists.  Generally, they can't handle the speed that either my Kraye or eStryker list can dish out, so I get a lot of shooting in before we meet, and I get to pick my lanes and whatnot.  I don't think I've lost to dwarves yet.

  However, we joked that our next matchup, since he's playing Mercs and I play eStryker, should be a lengendary Magnus vs. Stryker game.  Well, we ran into eachother on Vassal today, and decided to run with it.  35pts, since Vassal takes for bloody ever.  That being said though, this is a pretty fluffy match.  There's a lot of background to enjoy in this game and two casters like this, so driven in their passions and convictions, we've got to enjoy it.  So this Batrep will have definitely a more fanfic element to it.

  Some of you have no interest in that, which I completely understand.  So, to simplify things, story will be Bold and Batrep will not be.  Fair enough?  I'm not the kinda guy to tell the whole batrep through the story though, because that's annoying, so we'll have a regular batrep in here as well.

  I've got a pretty comfortable eStryker list.  It's as follows:

Lord Commander Stryker
*Centurion
*Squire
Stormblades
*UA
*1 Gunner
Stormblade Captain
Nyss Hunters
*Jonas Murdoch
Runewood
Corbeau
Rhupert

  I've been playing this one pretty consistently, and I don't tweak it very often except on the board, where I own a full unit of Boomhowlers, and not Nyss.  So tabletop wise, I don't get to play this as much.  On Vassal, that's not an issue.

  Sevensins brings Magnus the Warlord, of course.

Magnus the Warlord
*Renegade
Croes Cuthroats
Nyss Hunters
eAlexia (The one on the horse)
Wrongeye and Snapjaw
Sylys

  I told Sevensins I hated Nyss, and he laughed when I deployed my own.  Seriously though, I bring DEF19 Nyss, with Jonas, and he brings one of the few units that can counter that with Hunter.

  Moar Nyss.  Figures.  Here we go.  We roll off, and I get to go first.  Mainly because I lost the dice roll.

  The last rays of a waning sun skittered across the pavement leaving shadows in the weaves of the stone used to pave the bridge.  The sound of moving water calmly whispered below as the ever constant waves pushed their way towards the ocean.

  Towards the ocean, in fact, from which the enemy came.  A relentless and dangerous enemy.  With a limp and a patch and an army of paid warriors, he would come.

  And here, on this bridge.  Lord Commander Coleman Stryker would meet him.  He spun his blade in his hands, relishing in it's familiar grip.  He caught it and slung it behind him.  A clasp on the shoulder caught his attention and Archduke Runewood met his gaze.  "He's not far away, Commander."  

  Coleman nodded.  "How are the Nyss?" he asked.

  "Rhupert's with them now.  He says they're steady, and willing to fight their own kind." He said.  "They usually are."

  "That's a good thing, I suppose." the warcaster acknowledged.  "Pull them back well ahead of our enemy." He ordered.  "Captain Dest?"

  A Stormblade nearby turned and responded.  "Here, Commander."

  "Garalein, send your men forward first." Stryker ordered.  "Give yourselves a headstart.  You need to be moving as the Nyss pass you.  They'll do what they can to slow the enemy.  Assemble on my right flank.  The jack and I will be right behind you.  We'll communicate orders through Rhupert's tunes, as usual."

  "Understood." The Captain saluted and turned back to his men.  Quickly, they moved onto the bridge.  The Centurion Warjack stood slowly from it's sitting position on the base of the bridge.  He looked to the Warcaster, who motioned him forward.  He imagined the spot on the bridge beside the Stormblade brigade and waited for the small pulse of acknowledgement from the Warjack.  It hefted it's shield and lumbered along behind Captain Garalein.

  Runewood spoke again.  "Are you ready for this?" He asked.

  "As much as I can be." decided Coleman.  "It's fascinating to me, to be fighting the hero of my youth.  To be considering all the times I read the news of his battles and learned all I could from them long before I joined the military.  Now I go back to them and I study them as I would a Khador foe.  To kill him.  I fear that his age, and experience, will trump the rashness of my youth."

  "It might." The Archduke agreed.  "That's why you bring age and experience with you.  We'll give you all the help you can, and Jonas and I will toast drinks to your success while the rashness of youth runs off to do the hard work."

  Stryker chuckled, enjoying the lightness of the man in the tenseness before the battle.  "Well, let's be at it then, shall we?  To the bridge.  He's mad enough that we recovered the cortexes.  I'd rather face him here where I know he's coming, rather than watching our backs as we run for home."

  Ok, for all the fancy writing, it made for a fairly simple turn.  I ran everything.  I actually remembered to move the Stormblades with eStryker's Elite Cadre, so they actually got to move 15'' this turn, which is awesome.  The Nyss ran, Jonas gave them Go to Ground, and Rhupert toughed them, but not in that order.  DEF19.  Too bad Sevensins has Hunter, right?  Stryker drops Deflection and that's turn for me.

    Croe glanced back, and Magnus nodded.  The mercenaries doubled low, creeping across the bridge ahead of the main force, using the arc of the bridge to stay out of sight.  His warjack, a much smaller one than what Coleman was bringing, ran forward while he concentrated on it, watching it's steps and avoiding the gardens on the bridge.

  Sylys touched fingers to his forehead.  "His Nyss are leading, sir."

  Magnus nodded again.  "I assumed they would be.  I doubt Croe's crossbows will be enough.  I don't know that I care about that.  I wouldn't mind paying a few less salaries for that bunch.  Sylys, reach out for bullets.  The Nyss are what worry me.  Do what you can to make sure our shots are true." He ordered.

  Sylys nodded.  The Warcaster's brow furrowed and he reached out, feeling through the air as Cylena led her hunters forward using the garden for covered.  The opened up, and Magnus could nearly feel the metal of the arrowheads.  Eyes closed, his arm reached out slowly as he twisted the polarity within the metal to pull the direction he wanted to.  It suddenly became easier as Sylys took over for him, and Magnus opened his eyes.

  The Nyss of the Cygnar could be seen over the hill.  One stood to take a shot, but an arrow tore through her shoulder and dropped her.  Three more fell that Magnus could see, but one seemed to do it more out of reflex than anything.  She came back up to a knee and fired back, and an arrow blazed harmlessly by Cylena.

  Alexia wasn't far behind, and she shouldered through the Nyss, already reaching for the forces of undead within her grasp.  Magnuss wasn't worried about her.  

  Wrongeye rasped behind him.  "You're about to lose a lot of cutthroats." he commented as they opened fire on the Stormblades moving past the crates.

  Magnus shrugged.  "More's the better.  Keep your pet back." he ordered.  "Let them come to us.  Coleman's the excitable kind.  Maybe we can even recover those cortexes."

  Pretty much the same thing.  The Renegade runs, Magnus moves up, gives the Nyss Calamity, and they put the hurt to my Nyss.  Four got hit, one toughed.  The Croe's did next to nothing, with the exception of killing one Stormblade.  Sevensins averages were nuts too.  He rolled 5,6 on pretty nearly everything.  It was crazy.  Alexia collected two souls I think and that was turn.

  The Centurion knelt behind the shield as arrows bounced off.  Runewood leveled off and fired back at a Nyss in the gardens.  "Four Nyss are down, Sir." he called.

  Stryker started moving.  He fired two shots and waved at Rhupert.  "Call a charge!" he ordered.  The tunes turned shrill.  Garalein turned, glanced at Stryker, and swung his blade in excitement.  He stabbed it into the air and called a charge.

  Stryker was pretty sure he did anyways, he couldn't hear over the roar of fire as the Stormblades opened up.  They broke from a job into a full run.  Their stabbed high and forward, held double-handed at the top of their right shoulder while the buckler on the other arm covered their torso.  The Stormgunner opened up, sizzling energy across the bridge into the Croe.  The timing was perfect as the unit, as a whole, short-circuited their blades and released the pent-up energy stored within the suit.  The normally shorter-ranged bursts tied into the path of least resistance as the Gunner sustained his fire.

  The arc was incredibly bright, and Stryker could see as Runewood shielded his eyes.  The Warcaster's goggles were in place already.  He watched as his men reached their targets.  The burst of voltage tore into the Cutthroats and exploded in several directions searching for the path of least resistance into the bridge.  Several of the thugs collapsed in burns, smoke and convulsions.  The few who were properly ground weakly stood as the Cygnarians reached them in a roar and smashed through, cleaving them apart.  

  Stryker stood from his crouch, moving forward at a light jog.  He relaxed, and looked to Magnus.

  Magnus the traitor, the warlord.  The betrayer of Cygnar.  The man who even now sought their ruin.

  Runewood stepped back.  Stryker was indeed young, and rash.  He fed off of his rage, he dwelt in it.  It was times such as these he struggled to remain with his Lord and Commander, when all the world seemed to be nothing to the young Warcaster, and his rage dictated his every move.

  Yet it was addicting.  He could feel the release of energy from the talented young warrior.  The drive that filled him to do more.  Stryker broke into a run for the garden behind the Centurion that even now plodded to protect it's Warcaster.  Runewood was perplexed for moment, then realized that the Renegade was preparing to fire.

  Jonas realized it too.  The Officer mounted the barricade between him and Alexia and raised his blade high.  Beneath him, the Nyss surged forward into the enemy Warjack and Alexia, swarming her horse and the gun of the small steam-powered robot.  The Nyss before them stepped back, perturbed by the ferociousness of their brethren, but soon stepped forward to the fight.  

  The Archduke glanced to Rhupert, who shrugged, crouching behind the gardens.  "You should get down, sir."

  The officer shook his head.  "No, age and experience tell me that I want to see what happens next."

  Ooooh, the story segments are getting longer.  Long story short, the Nyss and Stormblades both assaulted.  I've fought renegades before, and those guys terrify me.  I gambled on Rhupert, and debated on Toughing the Nyss, or giving them Terror, hoping to force the Cutthroats and Nyss both to fail CMD.  Then I tied him up best as I could with the Nyss, but failed to do more than a few points of damage, and did little more to Alexia.  The Stormblades were far more successful and pretty nearly annihilated the Cutthroats.  Everybody passed CMD though, including the Cutthroats that did it twice, once from Terror on the Nyss and getting cut to half.

  The Centurion ran forward, since I was still pretty wary of that Renegade, and protected Stryker from him.  I dropped deflection again, and feated, which got everyone a bit further, but still failed to kill Alexia.  

  Wrongeye started muttering.  Magnus growled at him as he ran forward.  "What is it?"

  "The Cutthroats are less of a drain on your coffers now, aren't they?" he cackled.  

  "Nevermind that." Magnus countered.  "Send your beast forward." He ordered, pointing.  "The blades are all yours."  Twisting, he glanced to Sylys, who was still concentrating on aiding the Nyss.  Fair enough.  He moved forward with Cylena as they tore into the Nyss.  He was worried they'd fail to fight their own kind, but that was proving to not be the case they killed most of them.  Using the moment of distraction, he stepped forward and shouldered his firearm.  The sights lined up with his eye and he opened fire, blowing two Nyss away.  A few pellets bounced off of the the hull of the renegade harmlessly.  Excellent.  He put his fingers to his brow and reached into it's cortex. 

  Alexia laughed.  Three warriors of her own creation surged forward.  

  Magnus spared a moment to glance to Snapjaw.  He'd pretty nearly cleared out the Stormblades.  They lay in shambles about him, but one still fearlessly fended him off and Cutthroat both.  A Captain was out on the flank, pacing two more cutthroats easily, waiting for a moment to kill them both.  The Warlord grimaced.  That one captain was plenty to worry about.  Even with Snapjaw on the left flank, he might be in trouble.  He doubted it though.

  The Renegade, his creation and work of his own hands, shuddered forward and broke loose of the Nyss bodies before it.  He could see the Centurion across the way regrip it's spear, waiting for the Jack, but it never came.  It stopped at the barricade and fired at the young warcaster across the bridge.

  No luck.  The Renegade's movement carried the barrel too far out of line, and while both the Centurion and Stryker fell forward with the concussion, neither seemed to put out by it.  The Thralls of Alexia's reached them though, and Stryker stood, blocking the first attack with ease.

  The Nyss moved forward once more, making the best of the situation.  Jonas fell back, and arrow through his chest, but the one Nyss commanding Coleman's mercenaries remained unperterbed by the carnage and continued to fight.

  Sylys called out.  "He's got to run!  It's just a Jack and him left!"

  He wouldn't though.  Magnus smiled.  He knew this boy.

  I don't know about you guys, but I'm having more fun with the story than I am the batrep.  But yeah, this turn went badly for me.  The Renegade got two focus, Alexia had three souls.  Sevensins led off with Snapjaw pretty nearly annihilated my Blades.  Magnus used his spray on the Nyss engaging his Renegade and between him and the Nyss, they pretty nearly annihilated them.  He also feated, and chose the front and back table edges, so only sideways movements for my troops.  Happily, both the Cent and Stryker were out of his control range.  The Renegage moved up to let LOS to Stryker past the Centurion.  Boosting to hit, he shot at Stryker, but DEF20 (In the woods) sucks to hit, .  The deviation wasn't much though, and the AOE caught both the Centurion and Stryker, KDing them.  No damage, which is nice.  For me.

  The thralls were more of a problem though, engaging Stryker.  One charged Jonas and killed him, the other two moved to engage the Cent and Stryker, and Corbeau, one by charging the courtesan.  He happily missed.  At first I was really excited to use seduction, but since the Thrall is dead... No luck there.  Corbeau's charms apparently don't work on dead men.  What's the new Zombie romance movie?  It wasn't here.

  I'm in bad shape though.  Stormblades and Nyss both pass CMD (No failed CMD checks, all game) which is nice, but I'm down to one blade, the captain, a Nyss, Corbeau, Runewood, Rhupert, and the Centurion.  Not bad, but not much against a mostly full unit of Nyss, Snapjaw, Renegade and what's left of the Croes.

  Stryker watched as the Nyss were obliterated.  Runewood winced, as the Warcaster stood up and looked at him.  The young man drew his sword.  The Warjack dug it's shield into the ground and stood up, in spite of the Thrall swinging at it.  

  Garalein stepped into a strike from the Croe and ran him through.  Turning, he spun the friction-created energy in the blade and shorted it.  The resulting arc fried the Cutthroat behind him and he turned to Coleman, gauging the next move.  Run?  Stay?  It didn't matter.  The other Stormblade was on his own against the crocodile, of all things, and he charged into it.

  Stryker spun his blade.  Runewood grimaced and broke into a run.  The warcaster was going to be brash again.  He called out to the lone Nyss remaining.  "Take the Thrall!" He called.  She spun, realizing the threat behind her.  The bow came level and she drew the arrow back to her ear.  Flying true, the undead warrior in front of the Centurion collapsed, dead once more.

  The Centurion stepped past the body, as meekly as any automaton could and ignored the other warrior beside it.  It seemed to know that it didn't want between it's Caster and his man.  Runewood, still moving, leveled his handgun and fired, and the opponent fell.

  Stryker pushed the body back and started moving.  He stepped out of the gardens at an easy pace, almost daring Magnus to look at him.

  The older Warcaster smiled at him and Wrongeye cackled.  "He's not the brightest."

  Runewood called out once more.  "Go get him!"

  Stryker started moving.  Focus was on him entirely, which was probably the point.  He gripped Quicksilver with his right hand as he gathered speed.  

  The Renegade turned to swing at him, but the Warcaster was already past, clearing the barricade with a jump.  He came in and Wrongeye stepped forward.

  The Warcaster dropped, sliding in on his armor.  Spinning, Quicksilver twisted in his grip and deflected back the blade of the beastmaster.  The Cygnarian kicked him back and turned to Magnus, who shoved him away.

  "You're going to die today, boy."

  He swung, his mechanical arm whirring to keep up.  Coleman rolled left and missed the strike entirely.  He ended the movement in a crouch and stood, clubbing the one-eyed mercenary across the face with the butt end of Quicksilver.  "Is that what age and experience is telling you?" he asked.

  The next strike was for the kill, and he started high, swinging at the neck.  The suit sparked and glowed as Stryker shorted it for more power, crying out as the surge burned him.  Magnus blocked the blow, but was pounded into the ground.  His arm snapped, the metal warping into his own torso and crushing the armor.  He called out in pain and Stryker's blade whirled, cutting him across the cheek.

  "What's that, old man?" Taunted the younger man.  Then Snapjaw hit him.  The Crocodile launched into him, landing on all fours and throwing him back.  Wrongeye grasped Magnus.  "Come lord!" he said, pushing off. 

  Snapjaw rolled back to his feet, snarling and backing away.  Stryker stepped in, slinging his blade.  It caught the croc across the mouth, and it hissed in pain but backed up.  The Nyss beside him reformed, pulling away and shielding Magnus.  

  A blast shorted into the reptile, frying a spot on it's left shoulder as Garalein reached him.  Stryker stepped forward, but Runewood caught him, breathing hard from the run and the Centurion not far behind.  "Leave them, my Lord!" he gasped.  "Let them be, we've won this and we don't have what it takes to handle both them and the crew.  We have what we asked for, let them go."

  The rage in Stryker subsided slightly, but not much.  Garalein held his blade ready still, but he relented.  "He's right, I believe.  My men..." his assertion quieted to a whisper.  "My men need me.  What's left of them." 

  Lord Commander Coleman Stryker watched the battered warcaster reach the docks.  "So be it.  We let them go.  They'll be back, Runewood."

  "I know, my Lord.  I understand.  My age and experience will be here for you then too."

  Who saw that coming?  Someone did.  "Ooooh, Jedi pulls out the assassination... again..."  Yeah, yeah.  The main problem I think was Sevensins pushed too far up with Magnus.  I think I only velocitied for 2 and had all kinds of room on him.  I used Corebeau's skill to move the remaining Nyss (Cylena, incidentally), who aimed and shot the Thrall engaging her after she ran away.

  The Centurion backed up, taking a free strike for no damage, but then, like an idiot, I turned him around and engaged the Thrall engaging Stryker, which was dumb, because the whole point was to unengage him so Runewood could shoot him.  At DEF15, Runewood takes the shot, moving to be in range of Pathfinder on Stryker.

  Guess who pulls through on Vassal dice?  I rolled 4,5 and hit the Thrall, killing him.  With everything out of the way, it was pretty simple at that point.  Stryker overcharged for 3,6,6, and only took twelve damage.  Boosting to hit on Magnus, I oneshotted him.  Game over, victory to Cygnar.

  Thoughts on the game:

  1.  I hate fighting Nyss with Nyss.  Look, I have DEF19.  Look!  Nobody cares!

  2.  I think this is the first time I've fought Croe's Cutthroats, and I don't think Cygnar's missing out.  Stealth was nice, and bushwack is neat, but their RAT still sucks.  To be fair, my rolls on the Nyss attacks were bloody horrible, but the rolls from the Stormblades were phenomenal.  Annhilated the Croes.

  3.  I uh... didn't do anything for scenario.  Again.  I pretty nearly could have started fighting for Sevensins zone, but the one Croe that survived the original onslaught put a hamper in that, and then Snapjaw came in and obliterated any opportunity of it.

  4.  My major mistake that I can think of was the Stormblades.  I killed most of the Croe in the assault (which is awesome), and when I had the Feat from Stryker, I should have moved them back, and maybe had them another round.  I didn't, I moved them all forward, and then realized my mistake, which was too late at that point, and then the Croc pretty nearly killed all of them.  The Croe got a few I think, but most of it was Snapjaw, who is crazy.

  5.  I played a game right after this.  Seraph watched me and Sevensins duke it out, and asked to play Circle's assassination caster against eStryker.  My wife was in the mood for cooking supper and watching Avengers, so I got to get a second game in.  I traded out my Stormblade Captain.  I really like his model, and I really like his pathfinder, but quite frankly, I never use any of it.  He's just 2pts of other things I think I'd rather have.  Rhupert and Runewood both give pathfinder, I don't really need relentless charge from the Captain, and he doesn't ever get to do anything really.  I think I've got him too far back, for one, trying to protect him, but he never gets into the action.  This was one time I could actually do something with him.  Sevensins though he had him boxed up, but I was really looking forward to beating down the Croe engaging him and getting to shoot something with quickwork.  All that being said, I dropped him for the next game, and traded the Nyss for the Boomhowlers and Jr.  I think that might be a good trade.  The Boomies still get assault, and yeah, it's only RAT5 (Stormblades are like "Meh"), but it's POW12, and then the axe is POW12, which is essentially a Weaponmaster Nyss always rolling one dice at 3, which I'll take.  Plus, I get tough inherently, and the ability to stand up.  That leaves Runewood and Rhupert to focus on the blades entirely.  On top of that, Jr is involved now, so either the Boomies get AS, or the blades do.  DEF17, ARM what, 18? and Tough on a 4, 5, or 6?  Have fun with that.  

  6.  I don't ever use my Centurion.  I have yet to get positive charge on him.  He mainly just sits back there and eStryker hides behind him.  Is this a good idea?  Am I mishandling 9pts here?

  

  Really good game though, overall.  I hope you all enjoyed both the Batrep, and the story.  Comments, questions, rule checks, you name it.  Throw it out there.