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Lylyth

Angelius
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Incubi
The Forsaken
Blighted Swordsmen (8)
Striders

// 499
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Swordsmen act independently. Everything else centers on Lylyth. Forsaken is in mid range reserve.

First time using Incubi they are not even pinned I don't think.

No 'mongers, no carni, no Seraph, no Neph, no Teraph, no ...

Should be a good game.

So the game is actually at a stand still, maybe half-way through. We are playing Assassination. He has his usual force.

Archdomina Makeda
Praetorians with Command
Cataphract Cetrati (4)
Basilisk Krea
Titan Cannoneer
Ancestral Guardian
Saxon Orrik
Totem Hunter

He deployed the Pretorians on one side, beside them the Cetrati in a Forest with everything behind them. The two solos deployed on the far side.

I deployed everything in the middle of the table except my swordsmen on a side lined up against the Pretorians. The Striders went in the middle off to the side a bit lined up against the solos.

First turn I moved up, he moved up a bit. Playing Assassination and not being worried about objectives or anything I moved to go after the solos. The Angel moved way up, the Shredders took cover behind a fence and the Striders redeployed 14" on turn 3, moving to attack the main force. Lylyth took out Saxon Orrik with her bow before moving back to the right hand side.

On feat turn, Lylyth and the Striders shot up the Cetrati, or at least tried to. They did no damage but the Shredders were able to go Rabid and Charge using Blood Lure. They did no damage but remained stuck in to the forest. The Cetrati will lose their +2 DEF and +4 ARM next time around.

The Cannoneer, for lack of a better expression, got lucky, rolling a double-six to hit and took a chunk out of the Angel. He/ Makeda did some weird things to it and it was forced to take a threshold check at -5, causing it to frenzy and take out the Forsaken, standing behind the Shredders and ready to blight bomb Makeda and the two Warbeasts. Fortunately the Forsaken was at least able to cause the Warbeasts to hesitate. The Canonneer did not use its animus, for example.

In retrospect I should have used the Angel to shoot on Feat turn. That would have given me POW12+ shots from it, Lylyth and the Striders. Not bad. I chose to run instead. The Cetrati remain a tough nut to crack. Lylyth and the Striders took out the Ancestral Guardian with shooting while the Shredders cast Tenacity on themselves during Makeda's feat turn. One Shredder is hurt, while the other two, positioned nicely on one side are full health. The swordsmen moved behind them (12" run) and can attack the Warbeasts next turn.

As it stands it is his turn. Lylyth and the Striders remain in the middle of the table. The Totem Hunter and ... three Pretorians, which popped their mini-feat have moved into range of Lylyth but were not able to hit her due to Tenacity. She has full health. She cannot shoot her bow while locked in combat but we might be looking at killing Stiders to release Incubi.

So as it stands Makeda has already used her (STUPID) Feat. I have a great deal of high stength shooting to deal with Warbeasts, not to mention the Swordsmen which can rip apart the Krea if they charge. P+S 10 + 4D6. The Angel is looking to get some even stevens against the Cannoneer.

So I need to deal with the Totem Hunter etc while preserving as many Striders as possible. I may not be able to do it, but if I can keep the Leader and two others alive I am still looking at ... RAT 10 POW 14 CRAs. Nothing wrong with that. Although the Striders are actually not bad against infantry themselves, MAT6 and P+S 9. The Pretorians have pretty good DEF it might be best to just bite the bullet and use the Incubi to take them out.

So what happened. Coming in at DEF 17 Lylyth was able to stand against the first attacks from the Pretorians. The Striders moved away, the Pretorians deigned to attack them and they spent the rest of the game taking CRA shots at the Krea, which was eventually killed. Lylyth used Eruption of Spines twice. She cast it right in the face of the Pretorians, taking a hit herself. It killed two Pretorians and a Strider. The Strider erupted into the games first Incubi which then itself took out a couple Pretorians. 3 attacks after ariving in the Everblight turn.

The Angel, despite continuing being crippled by Makeda and the Krea took out the Totem Hunter but was ineffective against the Pretorians.

The Cetrati and the Shredders exchanged blows. Eventually the Swordsmen really got into things, putting hits on ... everything, really. Lylyth cast Eruption of Spines on the Krea after hitting with the bow. The Cetrati and Cannon were unaffected but the two Swordsmen exploded in more Incubi. A fourth Incubi was released at some point adding to the general carnage.

All in all it was a good game. Lylyth really took a beating and could have been killed with unlucky dice rolls although she also sucked up two or three good hits aided by Tenacity. In the end it came down to offense and attrition with the Incubi and the Angel finishing off the Cannonneer while the Striders and Lylyth really did a job plunking down 12" fire. If I had to do it over I would have taken the Angel more seriously as a firing platform, boosting to hit and to damage with the 7" move + 12" POW 12.

I do not know if things would have gone differently if there had been objectives. I was able to ignore the Pretorians on Feat turn, for example although my own feat was also ... uninspiring. The Striders and Lylyth used it at least. The Striders, Swordsmen and Incubi really stole the show and even the Shredders were surprisingly effective. Holding against the Cetrati, casting Tenacity everyplace and of course being back up Fury/ transfer batteries.

All in all I would say it was a solid victory for the Everblight side, just because while one died the second of three Shredders ended the game parked ready to charge any target and what you could call its opposite, the Ancestral Guardian was taken out by the POW12s before it could collect any soul tokens. THANK GOD.

A good game, and I look forward to the next. I will probably use Thagrosh although maybe I will go Vayl or even Saeryn.