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The quest to get experience at playing WM continues. Played a 35pt game against Karchev. Haven’t fought him before, but I’ve seen his card and stats, so this should be interesting to see how that translates into effectiveness. At this point I’m still messing around with some units and force builds to see what I like. The battle seemed better told by narrative, especially the way it ends, so enjoy the read.
My list:
Ravyn
Phoenix
Manticore
Houseguard Rifleman w/ UA (full size)
Mage Hunter Strike Force w/ UA (min size)
2x Mage Hunter Assasins
Ghost Sniper
His List:
Karchev
Behemoth
Kodiak
Draco
Doom Reavers (6x man)
Battle Mechanics (6x man)
A solo model (didn’t really participate in the battle, so I didn’t catch a name)
Ravyn stood simply listening and nodding as the cloaked figure next to her spoke. He was the commander of the Mage Hunters and reporting on a possible enemy warcaster they had been tracking. After the figure was done speaking he simply walked off. Ravyn thought for a moment before motioning the Houseguard officer over. “What do we have?” he asked bluntly.
“Apparently the caster we are tracking is a warjack, he’s called Karchev.” She replied without turning her gaze from the valley ahead.
“What?” the seasoned officer seemed genuinely taken aback by this revelation.
“The humans have found a way to meld two abominations into one and he’s headed this way. He’s also traveling with several other large jacks. It won’t be easy.”
Taking a moment to regain his composure, the officer replied “we’ll be ready ma’am” before leaving to prepare his men.
Ravyn surveyed the valley they had chosen to canalize the enemy force. She wasn’t confident they were prepared for such an opponent, but the Mage Hunters had already goaded the overconfident humans into the ambush. Ravyn directed her warjacks into position as the Houseguard and Mage Hunters moved to their designated locations. She positioned the Assassins on either side of her to take advantage of any opening in the enemy lines that would allow them to strike at the heart of the enemy. She saw a sudden movement from the trees ahead. The Ghost Sniper that she had sent forward to act as a scout was signaling that the enemy was here.
The enemy was arrayed for battle. Clearly he didn’t intend to stumble into an ambush. The sounds of mad men echoed from the left, giving away an enemy attempt to flank Ravyn’s forces. She sent the Mage Hunters to deal with the threat. The Mage Hunters skillfully fired crossbow bolts over a hill and their success was marked by a howl of pain. The Houseguard set up for a shot as Ravyn cast a spell to amplify their range.
The advance of the enemy jacks continued as the identity of the forces on the left was revealed. A formation of Doom Reavers came sprinting over the hill, but seemed momentarily shocked to encounter the mage hunters. A towering jack fired a barrage of shells that fell short, but it was still enough to cause a brief panic among the Houseguard. The Mage Hunters rapidly took advantage of the unprepared Doom Reavers downing two with combined strikes from their blades as another Mage Hunter fired an uncannily precise crossbow shot over the hill felling yet another. The Houseguard, while shaken from the shelling, found their nerve and fired a volley at the closest jack, a Kodiak model. The jack was visibly damaged, but didn’t seem to have lost any of it’s functions. The Ghost Sniper fired a quick follow-up shot taking advantage of a weakness he had spotted in the armor causing an arm on the monstrosity to malfunction.
The death of the Doom Reavers was a mixed blessing for the Mage Hunters as a volley of shells rained down from the largest of jacks killing all but one of the brave fighters. The remaining Doom Reavers soared off towards the Houseguard, uninterested in the lone survivor. The Kodiak moved back towards a barely visible group of mechanics, who hastily repaired the malfunctioning arm. Karchev continued his implacable advance with his two remaining monstrosities seemingly unconcerned by the losses so far. The last of the Mage Hunters fired a crossbow bolt at the Doom Reavers, but was too shaken from the massive explosions to hit his target. The Remaining Houseguard also opened fire on them, but the abominations moved too quickly. The Phoenix and Manticore had equally less luck firing on a particularly fierce looking jack wielding two massive axes, Draco as it was known. Ravyn was becoming concerned as the only one who seemed to be able to find his mark was the Ghost Sniper who put a well placed round into Karchev’s armored hide.
The price for failure was steep as a combination of a Doom Reaver charge and shell volley cut all but one of the Houseguard down. Draco charged into the Phoenix cutting through it’s shields and damaging it’s generator. The Kodiak moved at a quickened pace to get back into the action as Karchev looked prepared to unleash hell at any moment. Ravyn tried to keep her remaining forces together, coordinating a strike on Draco with the Phoenix and an Assasin. The Phoenix set everything around it ablaze killing a Doom Reaver and Damaging Draco before leveling it’s thermal blade for massive hit severing the ‘jack’s arm and cutting through it’s legs. The Assassin bounded in sending her chain blade sailing through the jack with uncanny precision shattering it’s cortex and severing pistons and wires. Despite the heavy damage, Draco looked like it was ready to continue the fight, but the now-vulnerable internal workings were engulfed by the funeral pyre the Phoenix had started causing the jack to slouch and eventually fall. The last Mage Hunter had now regained his wits and fired a crossbow bolt into the back of the last Doom Reaver’s head, gaining a small measure of vengeance for his fallen comrades. Ravyn wasn’t interested in celebrating the small victories as this battle was far from over.
Karchev gave a mighty roar so loud that it seemed an apocalypse would ensue and truly one did. Karchev and the Kodiak visited an unholy vengeance for the loss of Draco turning the Phoenix to wreckage in short order. The towering monstrosity known as Behemoth strode to the Manticore protecting Ravyn and effortlessly crushed the heavy jack in the manner of someone squashing an annoying insect. This was it, her forces were almost spent, but in the ashes of failure, Ravyn saw a glimmer of hope. Karchev had exposed himself and in doing so gave an opportunity that would likely not come again. Ravyn directed all remaining forces against the abomination. She would risk everything for success. The first shot in the climactic fight was the Ghost Sniper firing a precision round into the hulking monstrosity. The Last Mage Hunter made his unit’s final contribution putting a well placed crossbow bolt through a weak point in the armor. Karchev’s confidence was rapidly fading into concern after the two well-placed shots visibly damaged his iron hide. The Assassins were next sending a hail of chain-blades at Karchev shattering both of his arms into sprays of oil and shrapnel. As the Assassins were striking at their prey Ravyn began her final assault charging past the Behemoth in front of her. The clumsy ‘jack tried to stop the fast moving elf, but couldn’t even manage to land a blow. With Karchev still reeling from the Assassins’ strikes, Ravyn moved in delivering a flurry of blows and deep cuts to the armored hide. Her hits were taking a toll, but Ravyn was rapidly draining her magic and Karchev was still standing. Almost completely spent, Ravyn saw her opportunity. She leapt on top of her opponent and delivered a precision blow to Karchev’s chest causing the caster’s face to contort in pain. The blood drained from his expression as the massive bulk of his body collapsed. Ravyn rode the corpse of her fallen opponent to the ground and watched the Kodiak and Behemoth slump over without direction from their controller. The Khador mechanics barely took one look at the blood and oil spattered elf standing atop the corpse of their commander before fleeing in terror.
Final Result- Ravyn assassinates Karchev for the win
AAR: I was rolling pretty abysmal all game. I basically lost an entire round of shooting on a feat turn hitting nothing which is really damn impressive considering how low the enemy DEF ratings are. My guys really had to try to fail a few times, but they were dedicated and kept at it. In the end though, the dice rolls that needed to be there (fighting Karchev) were. The only real mistake I could see my opponent making was leaving Ravyn a narrow bit of visibility past the Behemoth to Karchev, but that’s a hell of a mistake. Ultimately Ravyn had to knock 10 damage boxes off of Karchev by herself while he was camping 2 focus and did the fatal damage with the last attack. As an odd side note, this is the third time I’ve seen a Draco across the table and all 3 times the Draco’s last two boxes have been knocked out by a fire damage roll. Apparently the Phoenix just really hates Draco. As far as the list, I like all of the components, but I'm not sold that it flows well. The MHAs will stay in for the forseeable future just because they hit so far outside of their weight class. The MHSF and HGR will probably get shuffled around as I want to see how they work in different sizes. The Ghost Sniper has been kinda hit-or-miss, I'm going to see how a pair of Arcanists work mostly because adding more funcitonality to the jacks seems like it will get me further, but we'll see.
Hope you enjoyed this little tale.
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