June CoC – Round 1 – Henry Griep - Empire

Scenario: Meeting Engagement

Deployment: As book with the exception that, like Dawn Attack, characters are assigned prior to rolling for deployment.
Special Rules: None

The List:

Arch Lector, warhorse, enchanted shield, dragon bane gem

Wizard Lord, warhorse, level 4, lore of light, talisman of preservation
Grand Master, warhorse, crown of command, sword of might, charmed shield

Captain of the Empire, warhorse, dragon helm, dawnstone, iron curse icon, bsb

Battle Wizard, warhorse, level 2, lore of beasts

14 Inner Circle Knights, full command, standard of discipline

10 knights, full command
5 Knights, musician, banner

4 Demigryph Knights, musician

4 Demigryph Knights, musician
5 Pistoliers

Steam Tank

So first round, and there is that steam tank right up front of my ‘oh shit’ list.  And to keep it company is a whole bunch of 1+ armor saves to go with my lovely max of strength 6.

We roll off for spells and I pick up Cloud of Corruption and Plague on my dispel scroll caster, my other level two gets wither and bless with filth and my level 1 gets pestilent breath.

Henry picks up Curse of Amhier and wildform on his level 2 and his level 4 gets Banishment, Net, speed of light and Pha’s protection.  That’s 2 spells that mess with my ability to do stuff and 3 that effectively makes me -1 to hit in combat.  Ugh.

We roll off and I deploy first.  Also means I will most likely go first.  Also means he will be able to counter me.  To help compensate for my wanting to be aggressive but also not wanting to get ganged up if he steals I refuse flank with the buildings allowing me to deploy on the line but then able to devote my chaff to protecting only one flank.  I roll and only one unit of giant rats doesn’t come in.

Henry goes to deploy and rolls 1s for all three of his knight units, and with that all his characters.  If the mission would have been normal this would have been huge as I would have gutter runner’d his wizards turn 1, but it also would have mean I would have had characters stranded.  It’s a good change to the mission despite how the normal would have helped me.  Henry had put all his characters but his level 2 caster into the unit of Inner Circle knights.  His level 2 when into the 5 man unit.  To counter my deployment, Henry put his demis on either side of his steam tank with the steam tank up front (close enough to force the frenzy check but not close enough to actually let me in).  He put his fast cav off on the right flank, not sure why.

I deploy my scouts to take out his shooting (and chaff) and claim the right board edge early.

We roll off and he does not get the steal, so I go first.  I pass my frenzy check and declare no charges.  I move up to just outside 12” on the steam tank in the hopes that he doesn’t roll high.  I use his lack of wizards to cast plague and put 2 wounds on the demis.  I then take off the pistolers and put 1 wound on the non-plague unit of demis.  I leave my rat dart off the table, on purpose, but it was probably a mistake.  I either should have brought him on right away, or kept him off longer to chase down fleeing units.  The sad part about going first is that I had to move up my rat ogres without knowing where those knights were going to be.  This means that the building was no longer protecting my flank.  But I couldn’t just sit still or else that cannon would just keep picking off characters.

Henry’s turn 1 the right demis charges a rat dart, which flees and redirects into another.  The other unit of demis moves in for a turn 2 charge.  I hold to force the demis away from the rat ogres.  The steam tank then rolls high and hits into the rat ogres (dang).  The knights come on the table, with the big unit getting into position to take advantage of my exposed flank.  The 10 pack comes on to try to deal with gutter runners and the 5 man takes center to get the wizard into position.  A 8/8 magic phase sees Henry failing to cast Pha’s on the demis, allowing me to control the rest of his magic.  We fight combat, but I fail to pass my fear test, putting my characters on 5s.  I then stupidly forget to attack with my rat ogres (so no big surprise I lose the combat and my frenzy) – we roll it later and I would have done 3 wounds which would have changed the game… but no going back after the turn ended even though it wouldn’t have affected anything.

My turn 2 and I have not charges.  My darts all rally.  I get lucky, and make a march block text on the left dart, allowing it to spin around and chaff the knights, protecting my flank.  I roll a 3/2 magic phase and Henry scrolls my cloud of corruption.  I kill a knight from each of the smaller units with gutter runners.  I pass my far against the tank and put another wound on.  I win the combat, but he doesn’t care.

Henry’s turn 2and he charges some gutter runners, I kill 1 to the stand and shoot and then the trees help as well (but alas, still 1 wound short of a panic test).  The Demi’s join into the front of the rat ogres.  He forgets to charge the rat dart on the left keeping the knights blocked up.  An 8PD/6DD magic phase has me dispelling Pha’s, scrolling speed and wildform going off on the demis.  He then only does 1 wound to the rat ogres.  I do 3 wounds to the demis.  He then rolls to hold.  The knights versus gutter runners has him making his saves and running me down and over into a giant rat unit.  Henry had also reformed his demis to try to sneak by the rat dart blocking knights and sneak a few guys into the front.

My turn 3 and I put a rat dart into the unit of demis for the static combat.  A 7PD/6DD phase has him dispelling both Bless and Cloud and me failing to cast wither.  I put down 3 knights on the wizard’s small unit and they flee.  The rat dart dies to the 10 (now 8) pack.  I kill another demi, win the combat but once again he passes and my leadership doesn’t matter.  Because the rat dart went in, my killing the demi meant that he had to pull the model still in base with the crown of command from combat.  With 1 wound left this spared him from getting attacked that round.  Phew!  I had also reformed my left rat dart to block both the knights and the demis.

Henry’s turn 3 and he finally puts his knight bus into the rat dart.  The baby knight unit keeps fleeing.  The second unit of demis turns around to start to think about gutter runners coming around behind.  A 10PD/6DD magic phase has me allowing net on a central unit of gutter runners.  I then dispel Pha’s and fail to dispel speed.  He then puts reroll wounds and flaming on his knight bus for fun.  I pass my fear test against the stank.  Thrott eats it.  He wins combat by his musician and I fail and run.  He fails to catch me though.  The chaff ides.  Henry realized mid-turn that he forgot to generate his steam points and asked if he could.  I didn’t say yes or no, but simply asked if he was going to let me get those rat ogre attacks on his tank – which he had denied me before.  He decided not to roll his steam points.

My turn 4 and the rat ogres rally, yay.  The giant rat unit doesn’t rally.  A 9PD/6DD magic phase has me fail to cast wither on 3 dice (just needed to roll a fricken 5).  He then dispels cloud and I fail to cast plague.  Shooting doesn’t see him roll any 1s.

Henry’s turn 4 and his knights charge and catch a fleeing rat dart.  This panics a gutter runner unit that fails its net test and doesn’t run.  It does lose 4 guys to the net though.  The tank fails to recharge the rat ogres, but the 2 demis do go in.  A 7PD/3DD magic phase has me failing to dispel both Pha’s and Speed, off by 1 on each.  I reform 4 wide to get back my ranks and deny him combat effectiveness on further charges.  Also lets me put my characters behind and get some higher attacks.

My turn 5 and the two fleeing darts don’t rally with 1 running off the table.  The Net Gutters do rally though.  A 7PD/4DD magic phase has him dispelling wither.  I cast cloud, killing 4 knights off the bus, a demi in combat, blowing off the small knight unit but only wounding the wizard (an making him no longer needing double 1s to rally).  I then kill 1 packmaster and a rat ogre.  In shooting I kill a knight off the 10 man.  I add more ranks in combat now that there is only 1 demi left (who just won’t die, damn magic superiority).

Henry’s turn 5 and the demis charge the gutter runners in the rear, which flee through the knights.  Tank joins Rat Ogre combat.  And that dam wizard rallies.  A 5PD/5DD magic phase has him casting Pha’s on steam tank and my dispelling curse on the rat ogres.  I drop the tank to 2 wounds and kill off the demis.

 

My turn 6 and I put gutters into the rear of the knights to try to keep them from flanking the rat ogres… but I fail.  All my darts and the gutter unit rallies.  I cast plague into the knights and he dispels cloud.  I win combat against the tank but don’t do any wounds.

Henry’s turn 6 and he puts all the knights into the rat ogres.  A 9PD/5DD magic phase has me allowing wildform and 5+ ward onto the flank knights and big bus, respecivly.  I then dispel a bubbled speed of light.  I get my but whooped but pass stubborn.  I had challenged into the front knight unit with a plague priest to deny that unit attacks and saved enough models to keep my ranks.

We add it up and I’m only down by about 200, giving me a 8/12 loss.