Our 2nd game was eFeora v pButch – again no scenario though this should be our last game without such! Vince took the same pButch list and mine was obviously different (seen below). I won roll-off and gave him first turn to get potential first turn shooting in and counter deployment options. We shuffled the terrain around a bit so forests would come into play more but not significantly so. You’ll excuse the lighting as well and should see some shadows midway through the photos as lights were turned on :P.
Menoth list:
eFeora
Vanquisher
Reckoner
Redeemer (bonded)
Full Choir
Min TFG + UA
Min Errants + UA
Vassal of Menoth
Wracks
List looks pretty similar yes? Normally I’d not be running the Errants in place of a Daughters unit + Full TFG but my Daughters haven’t arrived yet so I ran with two minimum squads instead. I’ll talk about the list more later as I feel I have too much anti-infantry...
Deployment:
Vince’s deployment is very similar to last time – clumped IFP holding the front of the line with Great Bears & pButch with Doggy hiding behind them. Spriggan and Beast 09 operating on opposite ends of the IFP wall. Widowmakers advance deploy on the right in the forest.
I have a similar deployment with my Temple Flameguard and Reckoner + Vanquisher with the Reckoner again squaring off against Spriggan. The Redeemer with its extra range deploys behind this with eFeora (so she gets her ARM bonus from Escort) along with the Choir & Vassal. Errants advance deploy on the left to shield the Reckoner from future charge lanes. Wracks deploy in the usual triangle to give eFeora extra focus as needed.
Khador Turn 1:
One focus is given to Spriggan, Butcher keeps five. Widowmakers spread out with two sticking in the forest and two more heading for the hill (aka crater). The IFP charge forward and follow-up with their mini-feat to advance a further 6” and gain shield wall (we’re not sure if this was okay? *shrug*). The IFP are spread out more than the were last game and at least have the SW bonus this time around but they still could have been spread more (i.e. little triangles of 3).
Spriggan and Beast both run with the Great Bears following behind the IFP. pButch advances and casts Iron Flesh on the IFP for 16/18 infantry – not bad.
Menoth Turn 1:
The IFP are still pretty clumped and I have again, a potential five AOEs – all of which cause fire. With Escort as well, these guys will be able to get into range and I don’t really care about the DEF 16 as long as they get lit on fire. eFeora therefore gives two to the Reckoner, two to Redeemer and keeps two herself. TFG advance in Shield Wall formation in four pairs of two with the banner at the back – should have kept my own advice with the triangles of three but without a full squad eight doesn’t divide well by three... Choir advances to future defensive positions and casts Hymm of Battle on all three Warjacks who then go to work but not before eFeora advances and casts Escort.
The Redeemer moves up next to eFeora and starts lobbing some shells at the IFP. The Vanquisher follows suit with an extra big one. Vassal moves up and lets the Redeemer fire another shell which attempts to hit the Great Bears but it scatters back onto the IFP. The Reckoner then assaults Spriggan with a boosted damage roll but only does three. The Errants move up to protect the Reckoner from potential charges next turn and throw a few extra crossbow bolts at the IFP.
The end result? Two IFP left plus the UA & standard.
Khador Turn 2:
Fire goes out on one of the IFP and we did a booboo on the other – counted Shield Wall so the other IFP kept kicking after double 1’s. pButch doesn’t upkeep Iron Flesh and keeps all his focus for himself. Greedy bugger! Spriggan advances on the left and lobs grenades into my support but does no damage. I feel Spriggan should have run again here to setup pushes laterally across my lines in future turns. Beast also runs on the right and eyes off the Vanquisher whilst pButch and his dog follow behind. The Widowmakers advance and drop three TFG whilst the remaining IFG claim one more after charging forward.
The Great Bears then take advantage of the too forward Errants and rip into them. Support attacks from some more IFP see only three left.
Menoth Turn 2:
eFeora gives one focus to Redeemer and three to the Reckoner; upkeeps Escort. She then sucks a focus off a Wrack moves laterally and away to stay out of pButcher’s potential charge range (and because Spriggan hadn’t run, she was clear on that side) and casts Ignite on the Flameguard. Choir shuffle around and cast Battle again and we go to work!
The Redeemer launches a couple of shells at pButch but both scatter horribly and don’t set anything on fire. The TFG charge the IFP in my lines and the Great Bears and are able to clear out the IFP but do minimal damage to the Great Bears. The Errants follow-up and again do minimal damage to the Great Bears with tough rolls saving two of them. The Vanquisher launches a shell at Beast but fails to damage it though it and pButch are set on fire. The Reckoner follows up with a Vassal’d cannon shot followed by an Assault shot, a charge and two bought attacks but doesn’t even disable a system.
Khador Turn 3:
pButch gives one focus to Spriggan and three to Beast, keeping two for himself. Spriggan charges the Errants in combat with the Great Bears and kills one. The Great Bears + IFP UA kill all but one Errant and TFG in combat with them. The Widowmakers move into the open and drop the rest of the TFG in midfield whilst pButch, War Dog and Beast converge on the Reckoner and turn it into a pile of scrap thanks to pButchs feat (not that they needed much help).
Menoth Turn 3:
eFeora doesn’t upkeep Escort in an effort to keep as much focus for herself. The Redeemer launches a shell at Spriggan in an effort to set it and the Bears on fire but it scatters and only gets Spriggan. The vassal moves into base contact with the Vanquisher which launches two shells at the War Dog in an effort to set more stuff on fire – the War Dog ends up dying and three Widowmakers from big scatter. The Errant is able to finally drop a Great Bear which frees the final TFG to engage pButch but fails to do any damage. The Choir goes nuts and engages a bunch of Khadorian infantry to try and keep them pinned in place (two of them cast Battle though as they were able to walk into combat).
eFeora then fire steps, Feats and gains three focus and charges pButch. End result: final attack misses by one and he is left on four boxes. Curses!
I think I overdid myself here – the Vanquisher could have easily been chucked into combat with eFeora if I had upkept Escort and used the Feat to plant some focus on him. Those couple extra attacks could have really helped. That being said, I didn’t really need to put eFeora in this turn, I probably could have waited another turn and sent the Vanquisher in alone first. That being said, the Spriggan was looming on the left flank with trample and bulldoze so...
Khador Turn 4:
Fire time!... fails on pButch, kills IFP UA and fails on Beast. pButch keeps all his focus... Wonder why? Spriggan moves into contact with a Choir boy then kills him whilst the Great Bears finish off the Errant and charge eFeora doing moderate damage. Beast lumbers over the Warjack wreck and cleans up the final TFG and pButch then uses up four focus of boosting and buying to kill eFeora after moving over the obstacle.
Conclusion:
Tactical errors on my part lost me this game after my stellar shooting Turn 1. The Errants were overextended an inch or so and positioning so they couldn’t self-sac very well against models with Reach. The IFP were the only potential threat to the Reckoner, I should have protected from that angle and kept the other Errants further back. Furthermore, I didn’t use my Reckoner correctly – rather than the toolbox unit he is, I threw him at the Beast and even with two shells before hand, that’s unlikely to work without good dice (avg damage would be about 30 so just on the cusp). Keeping the Reckoner mobile for another turn would have given me better options against pButch later. I also went in for the kill too early I feel or with too little. The Vanquisher with Escort could have reached (measured afterwards) pButch and gotten in some swings. I could have done this to soften him up before I feated the next turn or in conjunction with eFeora that turn by switching fire from multiple models (not to mention I didn’t really do this – i.e. moving fire from Beast to Great Bear).
From Vince’s perspective, again the IFP were too clumped. Widowmakers were much better and the IFP weren’t as clumped as last time but still could have been spread out a lot more – I was looking to put fire on as many as possible and if we had remembered our maintenance phase correctly, any IFP on fire was dead at that point. By moving up so far he put both my Redeemer and Vanquisher in range rather than just my Redeemer and wasted his mini-feat (not sure on legality here again). Simply running and spread out would have made it more difficult for me to do damage/set more on fire and not allowed the Vanquisher to shoot reliably without running him forward then using Vassal (i.e. costing me an AOE).
And that I think basically sums the game up :P. Vince made a mistake early which allowed me to clear most of his infantry and I didn’t capitalise on this enough and basically threw away my best Warjack and Warcaster when I could have done much more with them!
Now, to my list. I keep thinking I have too much anti-infantry and the Redeemer can be a pain in timed settings (this is a knock against timed settings I’m afraid, when during unit evaluation you have to consider how long a unit will take to use comes out as a negative...). I know I threw away my Reckoner but faster armies are going to be more capable of dealing with it and yes, I know I’m not always going to see ARM20 Warjacks. However, dropping Redeemer in place of a Reckoner (also dropping choir to Min and Wracks to get that extra two points) would give me another excellent heavy Warjack and I still have two 4” AOEs from the Vanquisher + Vassal. Plus one of the Reckoners can get four focus from bonding – always nice. I know most answers here are the Templar but just not sold on the guy... At 50 points this is much less of an issue – slap in the new Sanctifier and then seven points of solos (or a Repenter and up to three points of solos) and away you go :P.
