Magnus (me)
- Renegade
- Renegade
- Talon
- Mangler
6 Croes Cutthroats
Herne & Jonne
Saxon Orrik
Kell Bailoch
Eirryss
Shae
- Mariner
10 seadogs
- 3 riflemen
- 1 mister walls
10 pressgangers
Commodore Cannon
First mate hawk
Bosun Grogspar
doc Killingsworth
Lord Rockbottom
dougal
To me this started of as a hard looking fight. He has lots of troops and they have good defense and easy access to though. It could become pretty nasty when the commodore got in range, so I was intent on not allowing it in range of my nice caster and his units. Fortunately I have Jonne to deal with units, as wel as the mangler, who also doubles as heavy hitter...
My opponent wins the roll and opts to deploy first. He has a hill centered just in his DZ, which extends out a bit and he deploys the cannon on top. Left, Besides the hill he deploys the mariner with shae and dougal behind. The doc and Rockbottom deploy a bit further left just inside a forest. on the right of the hill Grogspar and hawk deploy.
I deploy my battlegroup just left of the center. mangler center, renegade on either side and talon just behind to stand next to magnus. In the middle of my dz there is a forest sticking out to 6 inch. I deploy Herne & jonne there. the rest of my units
AD.
He Ad's first and places the pressgangers in front of doc and rockbottom. The seadogs go on the right just in front of hawk and grogspar.
I deploy Kell in the forest as far forward as possible, intending to give him snipe. Saxon takes up position just right of him on the edge of the forest. Eirryss and the cutthroats deploy last and form the right flank. Kinda a central deployment with the heavier hitters on the left and the troophunters central/right.
He starts by giving 1 focus to the mariner and then running everything up. shae casts something to enhance a charging unit and phantasm on the mariner. he then moves up the cannon a bit hoping to get range next turn.
I start by keeping 6 focus. Saxon moves back a bit and uses his special action on herne and jonne. Kell takes aim and shoots 2 seadogs to bits. then Magnus activates and after moving towards the center forest casts snipe on jonne and iron aggression on the mangler. finally he does a temper metal on the right renegade. I move Herne and jonne through the forest (thanx to saxon) and shoot at the seadogs. I scatter and only hit 3 with the blasts. they all die. Then Eirys moves up and uses a phantomseeker to take out mr Walls, standing behind a wall on the Right. He drops and one of the biggest offensive units is now somewhat less dangerous. I then try and shoot the cutthroats at them, but am just outside of range, so I retreat a little thanx to Bushwack and give turn to the opponent...
His turn starts by the mariner getting 2 focus. He upkeeps phantasm. Next he moves rockbottom towards the seadogs and gives them moneyshot. Then he moves up the depleted seadogs a bit as he is now out of charge range of everything except Eiryss, who he does not want to charge. He decides to shoot her. He misses with 4 shots before hitting 1 and killing her outright. Ah well, at least he isn't killing anything else... Grogspar and hawk move up to stand behind the rock mr walls was hiding behind. Dougal moves up a bit, followed by the mariner. It then uses a boosted shot and hits Jonne with a direct hit. Jonne get's a boosted damageroll and dies. herne survives with a couple boxes left. Then shae activates and casts veil of mist in front off the mangler. he hides behind it with his pressgangers, clumped up a bit. I will have to take advantage of this...
Doc followes the pressgangers and then the turn ends.
My turn I give 2 focus to the renegade near magnus. I keep the rest. I start by checking the controlrange. All my jacks are in, but the mangler is outermost left. I can't move him up to much now. I move up the renegade with focus as I have a clear plan for it. He shoots his rocket at the pressganger in the middle of 6 and get's a boost to hit. It is a direct hit and all 6 die in the blast. they then proceed to fail the leadershiptest, but regroup ussing rockbottom. the mangler now has a choiche of moving through the cloud (running) and engage the pressgangers, or not. I opt for the last. he shimmies around a bit keeping withing range of magnus. The talon and other renegade move a bit more towards the center. Saxon Orrick shoots 1 of the seadogs as a rangeshot for croes. he makes it and hits, killing 1 of the dogs. then croes shoot. 4 have the range and they kill 2. (5 dogs left, 2 on the left and 3 on the right.) Then herne, mad about jonnes demise, moves up and fires. However because of the tears in his eyes he misses... Then Magnus activates. He casts snipe on kell and Blur on the second renegade. Kell fires a shot at a seadog killing it. I now have a shot at Hawk and I hit him. The damage rolled is substantial and would kill hawk, but hawk shoves a seadog in front of him at the last second and another dog is dead. The dogs are quivering, but keep their act together inspired by hawk. My turn ends.
My opponent starts by giving 2 focus to the mariner, and dropping the upkeep. He keeps the rest to himself.The mariner will be charging this turn. He starts by moving shae a bit and casting a spell to improve mat, strentgh and Arm of the jack. then he feats and all except bosun and a seadog are in his controlarea. Everything moves up 3 inch. he then shoots at a jack, boosting hit and damage, but fails to do anything meaningfull. The commodore get extra powder rations from dougal who moved back a bit and shot at the renegade that fired his rocket. it gets hit and slammed back 5 inch, but only loses a single column to damage. (thanx to temper metal...) Then the mariner charges the talon. It starts wailin, but even with the boosts is unable to finish it off. I still have the spear and a cortex. the pressgangers decide they should try and scratch the paint on the mangler. They do just that while also breaking off a warning light. Mangler got 1 point of hull damagae. Doc and rockbottom move up to protect shae from a charge. Hawk charges saxon, but he misses both attacks as Saxon dives and dodges the blows. The last dogs engage croes, killing 2 grunts. Grogspar being out of range of the feat uses his movement to walk around the rock and takes a shot at Herne, hitting him and killing him. After this my opponent gratiously asks me to finish him, which I intend to do
I start turn by giving the mangler 3 focus. I give 2 to the second renegade and use 1 to upkeep snipe on Kell. I start by activating Kell and shoot doc. he passes a thoughroll. I then shoot rockbottom, who did not see it coming and goes down. I then move up the renegade and fire a shot at doc. I hit and boost damage on shae and doc. Doc again passes though, but Shae gets 6 or 7 damage (don't remember exactly). Then the Mangler activates and tramples the gangers he is surrounded by. he kills all 4. the trample ends 1 inch from shae. I buy an extra attack with a free boost to hit (I love Iron Agression). I hit and boost damage, doing enough damage to finish him off in 1 blow...
In hindsight I think my opponent made some very foolish decisions. He should have kept his supportpieces (all the solo's) in the middle a bit more and used his spells to keep them safe from shooting. What happened now was a shooting Gallery in which I could take apart his army piecemal. because he did not use rockbottom to make the seadogs thoug and doc to improve their thoughsave they fell apart quite easily. he also did not use bosun right because of this, as his biggest asset is keeping everybody walking when they should be knocked down from making a thoughroll.
On the other hand I also made some errors. I gave a bit to much focus to the renegade the first time and held back a little too much. Had we played a mission with objectives I would have lost second or third round. then again, I would have moved different then, going in a bit more boldly with my jacks. I also think I should have run the jacks into combat on the first occasion (second turn if I would have used the feat). This would have given him a nice problem as he would have too many targets close by that could take on shae and get away with it (mangler being the most dangerous).
I thought it was a nice skirmish game with a good ending. I lost herne and jonne plus 2 cutthroats in the end and have to paint a few jacks and fix some damages. The Tallon can get sent to the scrapjard, he will probably be replaced. Eirrys will also be taken under consideration for being removed, as I would like to add a unit off steelhead riflemen and halberdiers, so I can make a Tier 4 magnus the traitor list...
