More Vassal from Korea!

I'd been daydreaming about using a Raek all day, so when I got home I ran straight to Vassal to try to find a game. It took only a short while to find one against a nice chap named JivesTheButler. I asked, and he confirmed that he was not indeed currently employed in that branch of the service industry. He was, however, fielding a formidible array of armoured meanies...


His army was led by Karchev the Terrible...who, by the way, has a nasty Spray attack. More on that later! A Spriggan was there, as well as two Destroyers for some considerable ranged and melee potency wrapped in several tons of whatever metal it is they use in Khador...Manganese-Molybinum? These metal badguys were supported by a herd of Battle Mechanics, some Greylord Ternions, and Eirys, Angel of Retribution was along to rid the world of Everblights...well, blight.

I didn't think about it, just used my default pre-made setup which includes Absylonia, Seraph, Ravagore, Typhon, two Shredders, a Harrier, three Forsaken, and a Shepherd. It wasn't until turn 2 that I realized that I'd not used the force I'd intended to use! No big deal, was a great fun game and I enjoy getting more familiar with my "basic" force.

We rolled for Scenario, and got Incurssion. This scenario places three 'flags' on the centerline of the table, 12" from edges and each other. At the end of Player 2's first turn, a random flag is removed. Points are scored for having a model in BTB with a flag without having an enemy within 4" starting at the end of turn 2.

I won the roll and chose to go second.

Here's how things looked during Turn 1:

I set up so that if the left flag disappeared I'd be able to take the middle while the Harrier could hopefully contest the right for a turn...Harrier was also there to keep Eeirys tied down a bit. If the middle disappeared I hoped that the one-turn Harrier disruption would give me a point-edge forcing him to come to me while I hid in the forest. And if the right flag disappeared I'd be able to charge whatever went to the middle flag while I sat on the left in the forest.

His first turn, and he put up Tow, moved all the jacks near center-table with the Spriggan going far in advance. All his support ran to keep up with the fast-moving Jacks.

I just slunk forward in to the trees, hoping my high Def would protect from the ranged shots coming next turn...then in a fit of memory-loss forgot that plan and ran a Shredder out in the open. I also put the Shepherd near the Harrier so I could force him to Animus and Charge if needed.

Here's the table at the end of Turn 1:

On turn 2 he Upkept Two and put some points on the Twins. He ran Karchev such that he could place the Twins in range, and they shot up the Shredder, killing it. I don't know why I put him out there...brainless blonde!

During his turn we realized we'd forgotten to remove a flag, and the roll came up for the right-most flag to be removed.

I put some Ravagore fire on his clump of jacks, but their high armor made the shot not terribly effective. I had Seraph in BTB with the left flag. He was not in BTB with any flag, so I effectively won the game right here...

Here's the view at the end of turn 2.

I had all my Heavies lurking at the edge of the forest for Concealment, giving even the lowly Ravagore Def 14 vs. shooting, while Typhon had a formidible Def 18 and Seraph Def 17! With the RAT 4 on the Destroyers I hoped he'd not be able to hit them.

Start of Turn 3, and he didn't yet realize that he was likely in trouble on scenario points. He upkept Tow, juked around to get the Sprig close, and used his Feat. The Sprig charged Typhon, but the Sprig didn't have quite enough Ooomph to finish him, leaving him with no Body but many Mind and Spirt boxes left. After this attack he realized that there was no way for him to get close enough to contest my objective, and he realized he'd lost. He soldiered on, though...one of the Twins took a shot at Typhon, while the other charged at Seraph...I'm not sure why he did that instead of shooting. The support lumbered up and healed Karchev a bit...he'd taken a few points to the boosted blast from the Ravagore on Turn 2.

For my turn all I had to do was not move the Seraph and I win. I pointed this out, and he conceded that the scenario was won...but the battle must go on!

What I considered doing, but decided I was too sleepy and strong out to think about enough to actually do, was have Absy put Playing God on the Ravagore...have the Ravagore move up and 2-hand throw the Spriggan at a Destroyer. Then Seraph slipstream Typhon 2" closer to Karchev, and put a few shots on his rear. Then Typhon charge Karchev's rear and hopefully destroy him. I think I could have pulled that off pretty easily, but at the time couldn't "see" it to figure out the right order to do it, etc. So, I went simple...and stupid.

I tried to get a charge with Typhon by slipstreaming him backwards. I put Blight Field on the Destroyers to prevent damage (I hoped), thinking since Karchev had his back to me I'd not have to deal with any nonsense from him. Typhon charged the Sprig, but I didn't quite get three inches...still with MAT7 vs DEF10 and POW19, he had little trouble wrecking the jack. I'd moved him so he'd have cover from any Destroyer shooting, or from Karchev's melee. The Ravagore and Seraph shot at one of the Destroyers, to no effect. The Forsaken, mostly all but unused until now, sucked some Fury off so I'd not be overloaded. Here's where we ended up after turn 3:

Now, remember when I pointed out at the beginning that Karchev has a nice Spray attack? Yeah, here's where I learned about that...Gobbo gave Karchev an extra ranged attack. Eeirys took a shot at Absylonia, needing an 11 to hit she got a 12, knocking off her animus. Mental note...a point of fury to transfer is better than a point of Def & Arm. Karchev then calmly turned around, hit her with the first spray, knocking her down and leaving her with 3 life. Hit her with the second, and she died!

So, I won the Scenario, but lost the Battle! I knew Karchev had that spray, I just didn't consider it in my plan. I was fixated on shutting down the shooty jacks and killing the Sprig, didn't think much of it. I think having his base "minimized" put him out of my mind....not that I think the opponent did this intentionally, it was just an effect of an over-tired brain :)

A great game...I learned a lot and again enjoyed how my army worked. Yeah Everblight! :)