Battle Report #1 - 50pt Cygnar (Kara) vs Menoth (eFeora)

Battle Report # 1 - Meeplemart on a Sunday Afternoon

50pt eFeora vs Kara Sloan:

Pre-game thoughts:
-This isn't my first rodeo with Kara Sloan against eFeora.  Nor will it be my last.  This was however a new player, and my first game in quite a while.  I hadn't originally come up with any 50pt lists for Kara for today, and I ended up just throwing together a bunch of models that I had on hand to play a game.  Obvious staples were Reinholt, B13, Squire, etc... but the list I was up against wasn't too similar to the ones that my other friend/opponent tends to field, nor did it look optimized, but it was still potentially frightening to my forces.  This would turn out to be an interesting match with a climactic end.



Kara Sloan (+6)
-Defender (9)
-Defender (9)
-Squire (2)


Stormblades w UA (8)
ATGM w UA (8)
The Black 13th (4)
Storm Tower (2)
Storm Tower (2)
Journeyman Warcaster (3)
Arlan Strangeways (2)
Aiyanna & Holt (4)
Harlan Versh (2)
Reinholt (1)


eFeora (+6)
-Bonded Redeemer (6)
-Castigator (8)
-Crusader (6)
-Repenter (4)
Avatar of Menoth (11)


Choir (max) (3)
Daughters of the Flame (5)
Nicia (3)
Vilmon (3)
Paladin of the Wall (2)
Paladin of the Wall (2)
Vassal Mechanik (1)
Vassal of Menoth (2)




DEPLOYMENT

SR2012 SCENARIO: Distraction

TURN 1:
Like most games of Warmachine, turn one entailed a lot of running.  But there were a few significant moments in Turn 1 that would decide the fate of the game.  The first is, that bonded-Redeemer with auto-fire on the template managed to run forward, get targeted by the Vassal for an Ancillary shot, fire at the Defender in front of Kara, miss because it was just out of range, and then my opponent proceeded to roll a 1 for direction and a 6 for distance, clipping Kara Sloan and instantly lighting her on Fire.  Oh no!  The count-down to her death began Turn 1.  She wouldn't shake the fire for the duration of the match.
The rest of his forces ran, with Nicia running around the House to the Cygnar player's right, and Escort being cast for additional movement.

The Cygnar player advanced, shot a Mage Storm at the Daughters to block off charge lanes, managed to give magical weapons to the Defender which pumped a shot into the Redeemer and cripple his mace with boosted damage.  It was targeted by Arlan for Evasive, and Return Fire should he receive further attention.  Arcane Shield on the Stormblades, Refuge on Kara.

TURN 2:

Turn 2 doesn't go so well for the Menoth Player.  He allocates some focus to the Redeemer, which then peppers both Defenders for little to no damage (but lighting them on fire) and simply advances under Passage.  The Avatar goes to claim to Flag on the Menoth Player's right side, and the Warjacks advance down field.  Vilmon and his Paladins advance up the field and use Stone and Mortar Stance for +5 Arm.  The Daughters Run to engage several Gun Mages and Harlan Versh.  Nicia takes a position to either shoot or charge from behind the house next turn.

Cygnar see's Kara continue to burn (she has taken about 9 damage at this point) and both Defenders go out (though one Stormblade burns to death.)  Kara allocates focus  to each Defender, advances and feats.  She and the Defenders destroy the Redeemer due to A&H's help making the Defender's gun magical.  They also shoot down the Paladin by the Redeemer to the Cygnar Player's right, and even manage to score a few points of damage to the Avatar (which was out of range for Passage.) The B13 activate and between aiming, Black Penny and Boosted to hit, kill 4 of the engaging Daughters of the Flame.  The remaining ATGM advance and kill the rest while Harlan runs around to get into a better position.  Stormblades Assault the Avatar doing a few points of damage with their ranged weapons, and the rest of them simply run into an advantageous position. Refuge sees Kara retreat a little.  I also attempted and failed a cheeky maneuver against Nicia, running one of my Storm Towers 8" towards her, and the shooting it with the other one in order to hit her with the electro-leap.  Unfortunately I bungled it up by keeping my Crew Member just a little bit closer than Nicia was, and so when the Gunner was shot in the back by the Storm Tower that aimed, the e-leap hit the Crew instead.  That'll cost them.

TURN 3:

Nicia starts this turn off with a charge and murders the Stormtower and Crew member.  She then wisely decides not to use Sprint to run forward and vanishes back behind her house.  eFeora allocates enough focus to have her Jacks run into position, and the Choir uses Passage on final time.  The Repenter aims at the close Defender and shoots it with the Flame Thrower, but is only just out of range.  The Avatar can't seem to make his Trample, so it opts to kill a Stormblade and Gaze, while the Paladin advances behind it and uses Stone and Mortar stance in order to prevent the ATGM from pushing the Avatar away.

Kara continues to burn. She allocates a couple focus to Defenders, advances fires a couple times due to Reinholt, reducing the Repenter to slag, heals a couple points of health and retreats.  The JWC then targets her with Arcane Shield to prevent her death.  The Stormblades assault into the Paladin, managing to kill him and hit the Avatar with a couple shots for minimal damage.  The ATGM push the Avatar out of position and knock him down.  Harlan Runs up towards the Choir behind the large house.  The Storm Tower manages to hit and kill some choir members, while the Defenders kill off the Vasal and Vasal Mechanik.

TURN 4:
Finally in a position to deal some serious damage, the Crusader gets loaded up with focus, hit with battle hymn and flies into the Defender, beating it to death with the Inferno Mace.  The rest of his forces advance, with the Avatar standing up and charging back into the Stormblades, killing another 2.  The Castigator looms into position getting ready to counter-attack anything that attacks the Crusader.  Nicia advances and takes a shot at Kara, but misses.

Kara Sloan takes some big damage from Fire this turn, reduced to 4 boxes.  She loads up one Defender with 3 focus, and holds on to the rest.  A&H advance and hit the Crusader with Kiss, and the Defender in turn advances into combat and kills the Crusader to the box with 4 mighty swings of its Cortex Hammer.  Kara Sloan shoots at the Castigator a couple of times and retreats to heal.  The ATGM advance and CRA the Avatar for a few damage points while the Stormblades assault the Avatar and manage to almost wreck the thing with some decent damage rolls. The B13's Brutal Shots then see the Avatar back into the hands of Menoth.  With most of the threats gone, the Menoth Player is relying on the Fire to kill Kara Sloan.


TURN 5:
Since there aren't many options available, eFeora loads up the Castigator with focus and the final Choir member sings the song of Battle.  It charges the Defender and manages to beat it to its knees, leaving it on just a couple boxes in both movement and cannon.  Then eFeora measures her range, camps the rest of her focus, and runs next to the Castigator (and conveniently into cover) after Flame Stepping, in order to get Kara Sloan into her CTRL.  Now the Fire will not go out, and the game could end right here.

Kara Sloan burns again down to 3 life.  The fire will not go out, and she has no where to run.  It's do or die.  eFeora is at an effective DEF of 19, and ARM 19.  This is going to be very difficult.  She camps all 6 focus.  A&H advance and hit the castigator with Kiss, as well as advancing within 5" of Nicia.  One hand cannon shot later and Nicia is no more.  Arlan advances and Evasive's the Defender, who advances away and shoots at the Castigator, dealing little damage.  the remaining Stormblades deal with Vilmon.  The ATGM and B13 advance and with a CRA into eFeora manage to score a few points of damage.  Watts is the only B13 to hit Feora and lands another damage point with an aimed Brutal shot. The Storm Tower shoots the Defender in the back and eLeaps into Feora for 1 points of damage.  Reinholt reloads Kara.  She aims...

...2 Focus for Dead-eye.  Boost to hit.  Roll a 14 on 4d6.  HIT!  Boost Damage... Roll 4d6... Roll a 22!!! POW 34 shot to the face and the game is over.  Kara Sloan is the victor.

After Thoughts:
My opponent played a very good game considering that he has never fought against Kara Sloan before, nor does he have much experience battling Cygnar.  In fact, he's a relatively new player (as can be seen by the sea of Silver/Primed Models he was fielding.)  He was friendly, courteous and seemed to take Page 5 to heart.

Overall, I think I played quite well, and it was nice to see another opportunity to use Arcane Inferno CRA from the ATGM.  It's rare that anyone speaks of, or seems to use this ability, but it's quite useful in the right circumstances.  Furthermore, the B13 really did a bang-up job, as did the Stormblades.  Kara can really make those Stormblades shine during feat turn/with Dead-eye.  Now if only my opponents would stop rolling 1 for Direction and 6 for deviation distance on their first turn... hmmm....