This week saw the first match up between my Menoth and Aaron’s Khador.

Before you get too excited, I have to admit that I was proxying my warcaster for this game… although it may LOOK like eFeora, I was actually playing her prime counterpart. The reason for the substitution is simple: I own pFeora, but she as of yet unassembled and unpainted. So I figured that this would be an acceptable compromise (although it DID get me in trouble at one point during the game… we’ll get to that!). Aaron, for his part, was fielding Vlad2 because of list-chicken… he had a Strakhov list, packed full of fire-immunity, but he was worried about how it would perform against my less-fire-dependent Reznik list. More accurately, he put it together to psyche me out of using fire-weapons because he wasn’t really sure at all that it would *work* as a list, and therefore he could bring his more flammable Vlad2 list free of fear!

Let’s find out how that worked out for him, shall we?

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Deployment:

Before I go any further, a quick apology… due to just getting back from Adepticon now (11pm Sunday) and this having to go live in 8 hours, of which I hope to be asleep for 8 of them, the “brief” notes are going to go with the write up for the first day. Tomorrow evening I’ll give the “full” write up a quick polish and put it up on the site, but at least everyone can listen to the podcast now and look at the pretty pictures, and then I can write up the full report for those more literally-inclined!

So, with that stated, we rolled for initiative, which I won… and chose to go 2nd. I NEVER choose to go second, but this one time, I thought I would give it a try.

We’re playing “Incursion”, one of the best known and loved scenarios from Steamroller. 3 flags along the central line, one of the 2 outside flags will disappear at the end of the 2nd player’s first turn. The center flag is 1CP to Control or Dominate, while the remaining outside flag is 1CP to Control but 2CPs to Dominate. This is a minor but very, very significant improvement over the old method, and it is one of my favourite scenarios.

Aaron’s list was:

Vladimir Tzepesci, Dark Champion (Vlad2, eVlad)
– Drago
Winterguard Infantry (max)
– Officer and Standard
– Rocket Launcher Weapon Attachment (x2)
Kovnik Jozeph Grigorovich (“Kovnik Joe”)
Gun Carriage
Man o’ War Shocktroopers (max)
Iron Fang Kovnik
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Yuri the Axe
Aiyana and Holt (“A&H”)

A very solid list, with a solid amount of utility, firepower, accuracy, and armour cracking… plus Vlad is a monster on his own right.

My list was as follows:

Feora, Priestess of the Flame (pFeora, Feora1)
– Hierophant
– Reckoner
– Reckoner
– Redeemer
Exemplar Errants (max)
– Officer and Standard
Exemplar Errant Seneschal
Choir of Menoth (min)
Vassal of Menoth (x2)
Wracks
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist
High Paladin Vilmon
Paladin of the Order of the Wall (x2)
The Covenant of Menoth (“The Book”)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Not a great list by any extent… nor a good list. In fact, a pretty awful list, but I didn’t realize it at the time… eFeora can run 3 ranged warjacks relatively well (Escort certainly helps!), but pFeora… not so much. Also, not having the Bond for the Redeemer means that it really needs at least 2-3 Focus every turn to be at all useful… which is too much if you have any upkeeps worth upkeeping (which pFeora most certainly *does*). Sadly, until I get more infantry, I think pFeora may have to stay on the shelf (metaphorically speaking, of course, since I haven’t assembled mine yet!).

Aaron set up with the Kayazy Eliminators and Drago on the far left, then the Winterguard, Aiyana and Holt, and Vlad next to that, the Gun Carriage in the middle of the table, the Shocktroopers to the right of center, and the Bears and Yuri on the far right.

I set up Feora and her entourage and warjacks in the middle, with the Redeemer slightly closer to the Winterguard. Vilmon and 1 Paladin went on the right, across from all of Aaron’s heavy hitting non-magical weapons, while the other paladin, Rhupert, the Book, and all the Errants went across the table from the Winterguard.

Khador Turn 1:
Camps full stack.
Yuri, Greatbears, Shocktroopers, Iron Fang Kovnik, Kayazy Assassins, and Drago all run forward.
Battle Engine advances.
A&H advance and Stealth.

Menoth Turn 1
Feora assigns 1 Focus to each warjack.
Allegiant walks and drops into Shifting Sands. Paladin on that side runs forward.
All warjacks run forward, chased by Choir who can only catch up to the 2 Reckoners and say “No Shooting” on them.
Vassals give “Enliven” to both Reckoners.
Hierophant exalts.
Feora activates, blows up a Wrack, casts “Hex Hammer” on herself, “Ignite” on the Errants, and walks forward.
Errants, Seneschal, other Paladin, and Vilmon all run forward.
Book says “No Knockdown”
Rhupert gives Errants “Tough”.
Left flag disappears. Khador Turn 2

Vlad upkeeps “Hand”, camps the rest.
Greatbears and Yuri advance.
IFK gives “Shield March” to Shocktroopers, who Shield March.
Gun Carriage advances. First shot kills an Errant, damages Officer. Second shot at Redeemer (not covered by Choir), which misses and fails to damage anything. Rifle shoots at Errant and misses.
A&H activate. Aiyana tries to Kiss Errants (can’t be targeted), so instead gives Stealth. Holt misses two shots.
Eliminators charge 2 Errants: manage to kill one Errant and knock down another that Toughs (but is out of CMD-range of Book).
Winterguard Bob and Weave forward: Rockets kill 1, other misses and scatters harmlessly. Does 3 two-man CRAs, killing 2 Errants. Rest out of range.
Drago runs.
Kovnik Joe gives Tough.
Vlad tucks himself behind Winterguard, casts “Wind Blast”.

Menoth Turn 2
Feora upkeeps both spells, allocates 1 to each Reckoner and last 2 to the Redeemer.
Allegiant walks to flag and goes into Shifting Sands, Paladin walks up and goes into Impervious Wall.
Choir sings Battle.
Reckoner aims and shoots Shocktrooper, lights him on fire and inflicts 6 points of damage. Other Reckoner shoots and kills Shocktrooper.
2 Ancillary attacks for the Reckoners, both of which ping off Shocktroopers.
Redeemer’s first shot hits Shocktrooper, fails to wound. 2nd shot goes into Winterguard next to A&H: misses but only scatters 1″. Boost damage on Aiyana, kills her, 1 damage on Holt, kills nearby Winterguard.
Rhupert gives Tough to Errants.
Paladin on right walks up to engage both Kayazy Eliminators (forgetting they have Parry and Acrobatics… whoops) and does Impervious Wall.
Errants charge Gun Carriage: 3 do so successfully and inflict a total of 11 damage (sucky rolls).
Seneschal advance and tries to shoot Holt, but out of 5″ so misses.
Book walks forward and says no Knockdown.
Vilmon walks next to Book and uses Impervious Wall.
Feora walks up next to Vilmon, behind Book, pulls off focus from Wrack which explodes.
Right flag is controlled by Allegiant but contested by Greatbears, so no scoring.
Khador Turn 3
Neither fire goes out, but neither fire does damage (Shocktrooper and Gun Carriage)

Flags are still contested, no scoring.

Vilmon walks up next to her and goes into Impervious Wall.

Both flags still contested, no scoring.

Khador Turn 4

Aaron’s last Shocktrooper is JUST in 4″ of Central flag, so again, no scoring.

No scoring due to Shocktrooper.

Khador Turn 5:

Vlad walks out of the Book’s “No Spell” zone, casts “Razor Wind” on the last Errant, killing it. This freed the final Shocktrooper, who walked over to Feora. Needed an 8 to hit… got it. Needed a 7 to kill… rolled an 8, winning the game. Boo.

Post Game Analysis:

Well, my decision to continually move Feora TOWARDS the things that were shooting her and capable of killing her… questionable at best. Suicidal at worst, and unquestionably it cost me the game. I don’t know why I keep having this compulsive need to put my warcaster out in front of units with CRAs… really quite frustrating. Regardless, I really do like the way pFeora plays relative to her epic counterpart… I love them both, but they are VERY different. Can’t wait to try her again… but it won’t be until I get some Flameguard, some Zealots, or some Bastions on the table… she really needs more infantry than I gave her by a LONG shot!

Thanks for reading, comments and questions are always welcome!

Ratings:

Aaron:
Feat Use: 4
Tactics: 4
Scenario: 3
Luck: 3
Time Use: 2
Derptitude: 1

Marc:
Feat Use: 3
Tactics: 2
Scenario: 4
Luck: 2
Time Use: 4
Derptitude: 2