I will happily admit that going into this game I was a little nervous, having played against eHaley once before (granted with Strakhov) I'd been pretty much toyed with and smacked about (by the end of the game I had Strakhov and 4 Kayazy assassins left, although in my defence I was facing Nyss Hunters and a Stormwall...) and given that this month the scenario involved objectives, I felt this game was going to be an uphill struggle.
Journeyman Month 2 Scenario: 2 medium sized objectives 24" apart and 12" from each table edge, 1CP for controlling, 2 for dominating (controlling with 'Caster/'Lock), CPs were gained from the 1st players second turn.
Khador
pIrusk (+6 WJPs)
Beast 09 (11)
Doom Reavers (6)
UA (2)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5)
Widowmakers (4)
Saxon Orrick (2)
Wardog (1)
A little deliberation went into this list which was originally going to be max Kayazy Assassin + Underboss, thoug realising I'd need something to give ranged support, the Widowmakers were an obvious choice, they'd served me well before and rarely disappoint, the Wardog is an excellent points use and given Irusk's tendency to play upfield I felt the DEF buff and Counter charge would be useful, as for the Bears they were added primarily as a way of removing Beast or the Doom Reavers from Tar pits as well as providing me with another three models to hold an objective.
Cygnar
eHaley (+5 WJPs)
Ironclad (7)
Lancer (6)
Charger (4)
Sword Knights minimum unit (4)
Black 13th (4)
pEiryss (3)
Squire (2)
I instantly saw three major pains in this list, 1) Black 13th, having faced them preivously I knew they had the potential to be nasty if I let them, 2) eHaley, simply Feat + Spell list = pain, 3) pEiryss, having not really seen much of pEiryss I knew given the chance she'd be causing me problems if left unaccounted for so I aimed to take her out quickly.
Having won the roll off my opponent chose me to deploy first, when I realised all bar 6 models (Irusk, beast the bears and the wardog) had Advance deploy. Given the terrain (forest on the left flank reaching to the edge of my advance deployment, with a wall in the centre and further stone wall with a hole in on the right flank) I deployed Irusk a few inches from the left edge of the centre wall with Beast to his left and the Dog sat behind him, the Bears took up position a little way behind the hole in the right most stone wall. My opponent then deployed his sword knights huddling round the Lancer opposite Irusk with Haley and the Squire just behind, with a wall then in between the group and his Ironclad and Charger which deployed further along his right flank. Then came Advanced deploment where I held an advantage as I could deploy the bulk of my army knowing where my opponent's was placed in answer to the sword knight/Lancer formation I deployed my Doom Reaver squad, with the Widowmakers perching on the edge of the forest to their left. Saxon Orrick was then deployed next to the wall in front of the Bears, but close enough to the Doom Reavers so they could be given pathfinder if the need arose. In turn my opponent deployed Eiryss on the edge of a forest near his Charger on his left flank.
Khador Turn 1
I started my turn by activating Saxon Orrick, who moved forward to shelter round the side of the very large hill that effectively divided the battlefield, before using his reconnaissance action on the Doom Reaver squad. They in turn activated and ran forward on to the left most objective nestled amongst some ruins, essentially securing that objective unless the Black 13th and Charger came over to argue their point. Irusk then activated casting Superiority on Beast before walking forward and casting Inhospitable ground, with the Wardog running just behind Irusk. Beast then activated using his heavy boiler to make a free run, leaving the Bears to charge the Charger or rather sneakily gain pathfinder, due to relentless charge, to get round the wall, putting the second objective in reach.
Cygnar turn 1
My opponent started by walking Eiryss up behind a wall on the other side of the second objective and dealing some damage to the Bears with her crossbow. Then moved the Black 13th and Ironclad, Charger forward. the sword knights, Lancer Haley and the squire all walked up and ended their turn.
Khador turn 2
Having up kept Superiority on Beast, my turn once again began with Saxon Orrick, who walked up in cover from the hill and took a shot at a sword knight, missing. Beast then ran next to the Doom Reavers further enforcing Khadoran control on one objective. Next came the Bears who charged Eiryss, however only one managed to get in range and found Eiryss too hard to hit, missing both times, but securing the second objective. Irusk moved forward just behind Beast and recast Inhospitable ground drawing the line directly in front of the huddle of Sword knights and the Lancer, the Dog then ran forwards denying LOS to Irusk, with the Widowmakers also running, three into the ruins and one just to the right of Irusk.
Khador CPs 2 - Cyganr CPs 0
Cygnar turn 2 - Feat turn
Allocating a focus to the Ironclad, as well as one to the Charger, my opponent moved the Black 13th and charger through the rough terrain, the charger took two shots at the Bears, missing with both thanks to the cover bonus, the Black 13th missed Orrick and then used the Mage Storm AoE that missed but deviated and took out the lone Widowmaker stood near Irusk. At this point I realised the Widowmakers had an Abomination check to make being so close to the Doom Reavers (oops...), which they passed (phew). Eiryss activated and tried to run from the Bears who with the bonus MAT from the free strike finally connected and took out Eiryss handily. Haley then activated channeling Arcane Bolt through the Lancer, killing the wardog, then attempted to hit Irusk and took five damage from him before popping her feat.
Khador CPs 2 - Cyganr CPs 0
Khador Turn 3
Given last turns events I had two choices, take the fight to the enemy or focus on the objective. Due to Haley's feat the first was impossible as I had to forfeit movement or action, meaning no massed Doom Reaver charge today :(, instead the Reavers walked to make a little space on the objective. The widowmakers then activated, two teaming up to take out Watts of the Black 13th, the third I'd judged to be out of range of the B13th so chose to take down a Sword knight instead, Beast then walked forward and stood menacingly within Reach of both the Sword knights and Lancer, then Irusk walked over and claimed the objective, dominating it and with the Bears still holding the second objective winning me the game.
Khador CPs 5 - Cyganr CPs 0
Being completely honest the thing that utterly stuffed my opponent was a lack of pathfinder, which Cygnar struggles with, as a gun line army, it tends not to need it, but when playing an objective game where blasting the opposition off the objective tends not to be an option this really hurts you. Thats not to let my Doom Reavers take some credit, as their spell ward made it so that on the side where my opponent's caster was there was also an unit that he couldn't target with spells, not to mention a large amount of damage output.
My opponent also suffered with some bad dice rolling as more often than not a lot of attacks that should've (by laws of average hit) went sailing past the target. Though I feel it's fair to say that this is after all a journeyman game and my opponent is relatively new to the game and just learning his army at the moment, so to have faced the army he did and play the way he did I feel he did well, especially given his idea of using the Sword knight's Flank ability in conjunction with the Lancer would've caused a lot of problems had the game come down to a straight fight.
One more game to go this month against Skorne, relatively confident about it, but we'll see. I'll post up pictures of the additions to the army and the whole army so far in a few days and the second battle report should also be up shortly, so keep reading and keep on playing like you got a pair :)
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