Game 8 - eMorv vs pStryker, the rematch!

Vs Pat Dunford!

Morvahna the Dawnshadow (*5pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)
* Brennos (9pts)
Tharn Bloodtrackers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Nuala the Huntress (1pts)
Tharn Ravagers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (9pts)
* Tharn Ravager Chieftain (1pts)
* Tharn Ravager Shaman (1pts)
Tharn Wolfriders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Druid Wilder (2pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)
Tharn Ravager White Mane (3pts)

VS

Commander Coleman Stryker (*6pts)
* Dynamo (10pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Storm Lances (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Tempest Blazers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Lieutnant Allison Jakes (3pts)
* Charger (4pts)
Stormblade Captain (2pts)

Deployments:


I win the roll-off to go first! The board is pretty mirrored, a wall and forest on each side with the Scenario in the middle, so no sides are changed!

Pat has Tempest Blazers and B13th on the right facing off against Wolf Riders, with the Lances, Stormblade Captain, Jakes and her Charger on the left against the Bloodtrackers. Ravagers take the middle to be all threatening, met by Stryker himself and Dynamo!

Phil, turn 1:

The usual running happens here. Stryker being a caster without deadeye, I can actually use my high defenses well. Running forward aggressively while keeping up Fog of War means that my lowest def is 15 (To everyone other than Hat-man of the B13th), which puts Pats guns at best needing 8/9's to hit. Or 10's in the case of the Wolf Riders.

Everything runs up to the 23" line, avoiding the charging threat of Storm Lances. In Hindsight I could have been a lot more aggressive with the Wolf Riders, but I wanted to make sure they stayed in Fog of War.

Pat, turn 1:

After some back and forth on various plans, Pat goes with a similar plan to this match up last time. In that everything advanced backwards. This time though, he holds his feat.

Almost no attacks are made, other the charger, who takes out two Ravagers. Sniped Dynamo and Eiryss both miss their attacks.

Phil, turn 2:

So last time I played against this I came up with three possible plans. The one I did last time (And was not very effective) was to hide Morv and then make the attacks I can.

This time I went with plan two: Jam everything. Very few attacks are made on this turn either with almost everything simply running forward. The Wolf Riders charged in, but unfortunately all missed almost all attacks netting no kills (Def 16 to good) and the one that hit not killing. Morv herself runs forward into the zone to threaten the objective and camps five.  

Again, captain Hindsight kicks in, and if I had run to one of the far flags, I'd have been safer from Assassination and very likely scored a point, while still being able to threaten the objective. 

Both heavies run forward very aggressively. The turn ends looking like this:

Pat, turn 2:

So this is time to strike for Stryker! The opening gambit involves the use of double earthquake deviations to knockdown most of the front line, mainly some Ravagers and Wolf Riders, followed by his feat. 

Lady A gives the Wolves a kiss and Holt plugs one and a Bloodtracker. Between electro-leaps and brutal shots the unit quickly is wiped out due to the knockdown. B13th put some magic lead into Ravagers and float a Mage Storm over the Bloodtrackers which takes out two and leaves a path to Brennos for the Lances.

The charger puts some hurt onto the Goatman who is quickly finished off by the two Lances that get to charge. The rest trade blows with the Bloodtrackers. 

Dynamo himself puts a toe into the zone and takes out a Ravager.

His turn ends up looking like this (Note the lack of models I have now!) 

Phil, turn 3:

Immediate regret comes due to not taking a point last turn. If i had put myself is a place to go up to four points this turn I could feat and jam out again for a likely scenario victory. That is still possible but due to low time on the clock I wasn't sure if i would have the time to be able to do it.

It would also be pretty difficult to both kill the objective and take out Eiryss, who was hanging out on my side of the table, as really Morv needs to be the one to do both of those to score.

On the other hand, Stryker is on no camp and in Morvs charging threat range. After spending some time to see if there is anyway I can knock him over (It would be extremely difficult) I consider just going for it. He's 16/20 with Arcane Shield. That's a reasonable chance of killing taking him out.

To make the odds more attractive, The pureblood aims, Wraithbanes and Sprays over Stryker, doing four points of damage. The Druid Wilder puts Wraithbane onto Morv. So now I only need to roll two tens to hit, then two fifteens on four dice. Seems.. better!

She has to charge the objective as she does not have LoS, and then starts swinging. Two double boosted attacks and some rerolls later, and she takes his head.

End of the game looks like this:

Closing thoughts! 

We spoke about this afterwards and Pat mentioned he underestimated Morvs melee killing power. Stryker certainly didn't have to be that far forward and could have been more safe. 

It is possible that even from here I could have gone for a Scenario win, but it would have been difficult to get the objective under feat (Arm 23), and if I didn't this turn I don't think I'd be able to score the following turn either. 

If I play this match up again, I'll try out plan three. Plan three being walk away. Without deadeye assault isn't a big threat, and the following turn I can start scoring. Perhaps jammed to early!

It should be noted that this the list changed from last time, swapping out Stormwall for other models. Without Stormwall it was much less threatening, as I'd never be able to deal with ArM 24 Stormwall in the zone.