Another floor match, but this time featuring Severius. I asked a friend to come at me with his Mercs and he obliged with MacBain and a Galleon. MENDOZAAAAA!
The scenario was Ammunition Run which has three objectives and a vertically oriented zone in the center. The center objective is enemy to everyone which is important for zone control. Also, when the objectives are destroyed, they explode. Very unsafe ... someone should call OSHA.
The Lists:
MacBain with a Galleon
Dirty Meg jack marshalling a Vanguard
Wrong eye and Snapjaw with Bull snapper
Boomhowlers and Co
Aiyana and Holt, Gorman, Master Gunner, and Orin Midwinter
pSevvy with 2 Redeemers.
The Avatar of Menoth,
The Covenant of Menoth,
2 Vassals of Menoth
a min unit of the Choir,
a max unit of Exemplar Errants with UA,
a max unit of Holy Zealots with UA,
Rhovan and a set of Wracks.
(plus a secret extra Gorman that wasn't supposed to be in play but fortunately did not contribute)
DEPLOYMENT
Pretty standard stuff. The Galleon is incredibly intimidating and terribly mysterious. Terribly. Boomies are on the left, everything else is on the right. The Redeemers are on the left eyeing that linear obstacle.
TURN 1 - MENOTH
Basically jammed myself right away by trying to run my Zealots through my scattered Errants. I need to keep a screen in place so the Galleon can’t drag the Avatar in for a remodeling job. Errants get tough and Defender’s Ward. Severius parks himself on a hill (no killbox!) and puts up Eye of Menoth. The Redeemers advance and take up position behind the linear obstacle. Rhovan hangs out near him.
TURN 1 - MERCS
The Galleon runs into the zone. Everything else runs forward for the most part. The Galleon gets spiny growth, the Boomies get Countermeasure, the Galleon gets Failsafe, Snapjaw submerges.
TURN 2 - MENOTH
Sev allocates three to each Redeemer and upkeeps both spells. The Choir prays Battle, and the Redeemers go to work. They aim and shoot into the Boomies killing two and double toughing one more. The Zealots feat and pray no spells and run forward to jam the garbage out of the zone and hopefully the Boomies. The Avatar gets Enliven and switches field. Rhupert toughs and the Errants run and jam. The Book chants no Knockdown. The Honor Guard moves up.
TURN 2 - MERCS
The Galleon murders an Honor Guard and an Objective and puts some hurt into the other Objective which Holt cleans up. A few Errants die and a couple live. The Galleon also pops the Avatar for a few points and it Enlivens closer to the objective (keeping stuff in the way to prevent getting drawn in dangerously close). The ex-Cygnar lightning mage steps around the Galleon and shoots a Boomie in the back which of course does not force a tough check, and then of course arcs the lightning to the maximum possible number of targets murdering three Zealots (under mini-feat!). Gorman steps up and misses the Avatar with a Blind which deviates on to two Zealots. Spiny Grown goes up, Countermeasures, Failsafe, etc.
SCORE: Menoth 0, Mercs 2
TURN 3 - MENOTH
Severius gives out all his focus to the downtown squad again, the second Redeemer being just at the limit of allocation. The Zealots forget to pray and move around and take some pathetic swings, one of which forces a tough check! … which the Boomie passes. Several get too close to the Boomies and are prevented from throwing grenades because of Countermeasures. One lands a little damage on Snapjaw (represented by a wreck marker but totally functional). The Book moves into the zone and chants Fire on the Errants. The Errants get tough from Rhupert and charge/run all over the place. Three confirm charges on the Vanguard and get some damage in, while one puts some hurt into the Snapjaw. A few scatter themselves into the Zone as buffer and targets. A Redeemer manages to kill the Boomie blocking the remaining Honor Guard from springing the Avatar. Rhovan and Co activate and Rhovan gives a Redeemer Menoth’s sight while the Honor Guard murders the Boomie blocking the Avatar. The second Redeemer activates and kills Gorman and kills another Boomie. The Avatar Gazes and charges the objective, smashing it to flinders. The Boomie adjacent lives but the Zealot dies. The Boomhowlers fail their command check against the Terrifying Avatar. Gaze is up so they are going nowhere (the only one not in LOS is currently knocked down).
Score: Menoth 1, Mercs 2
TURN 3 - MERCS
The Errants tough and sac through a pile of activations, sucking down the Vanguard and the Snapjaw, and Wrong-Eye. A number of attacks go in and towards the Errant officer. He fails toughs twice and sacs most of the guys around him. The Lightning mage zaps down another Zealot. The Galleon puts a small bit a damage into the Avatar and wipes out some Errants and Zealots. Holt slides up and kills the secret Gorman. The Boomies rally. MacBane feats and makes most of his force immortal for a turn (when a model takes lethal damage it is knocked-down and heals 1 point). Then MacBane steps forward and tries to pot the Errant officer, who finally passes a tough check.
Score: Menoth 1, Mercs 2
TURN 4 - MENOTH
Menoth sees an assassination vector now that MacBane has shown himself. Severius allocates 3 to each Redeemer. Then Menoth derps his order of activation. How it should have gone down:
Menoth activates the choir and chants battle. The first Redeemer moves forward 5 inches and lobs shots into MacBane. RAT 5 becomes RAT 1 (inaccurate weapons) then gets a +2 from Battle and +1 from Eye of Menoth leaving him at RAT 4, boost to hit, Roll Damage, buy and attack, Boost to hit, Boost damage. Second Redeemer, same thing. Vassal 1 ancillary shot, Vassal 2 ancillary shot (on the other Redeemer). And if he needs any more the only Errant standing in Charge range could run in for the kill shot.
What Menoth did instead:
Opened with the Errant charge, putting McBane in melee and adding a -4 to all of the Redeemer shots. There was a glimmer of hope because the charging Errant confirmed the charge and the hit and rolled 5 5 6 4 on damage putting 12 points into McBane leaving him at 5.
Activate the choir for Battle, activate the first Redeemer, move forward 5 inches. Now with the melee penalty I need something like a 13 to hit. I decide to try to shoot my Errant in the back (-4 becomes -2 with back strike!). I hit the Errant! I need 3s to kill it and get MacBane out of melee … I roll double 1s!!! The Blast Damage does not hurt MacBane. Buy an attack and boost to hit, miss. The shot goes wide right. MENDONZA!!!!
Second Redeemer activates and moves 5 inches. I weigh the odds for a while trying to decide what to do, realize my only chance is to stick the shot on the Errant and boost the blast damage on MacBane. I take a shot and miss and the deviation goes wide left. I buy an attack. I boost to hit and this time stick the shot. The Errant gets evaporated. I need 13s to kill. I boost the damage and roll …. 4 … 3 … 6.
Victory for Menoth by Assassination!
Holy ****. The only way I pulled off the assassination was because MacBane moved forward. My only options if he hadn’t was to attempt to get around the Boomies (everything was under feat) and attempt something on the backside, trying to keep something in-between the Avatar and the Galleon (possibly pray for another failed command check). That Galleon … I have no idea what to do about it … I don’t have anything that can crack it reliably, and Failsafe means I probably only get one shot. True story: that night I had a nightmare about that Galleon. This was a hard scrabble of a win. I felt like I jammed up the Vanguard nicely, but put too much energy into the Boomhowlers. I was able to get up the board and jam effectively on both sides, but I had zero chance at scenario.
In the future I will look at the merits of going second against the Galleon. Being able to score two control points and then holding out for death-clock or dice-down in a tournament situation might be my only hope of winning the match.
After the match, Gorman apologized for trying to crash the party.
Thanks for reading
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