Batrep 06-22-16

Ok. Second game with MK III and it was an interesting one. Here was my list:

Ragnar
Dire Troll Mauler
Earthborn Dire Troll
Troll Axer
Runebearer

Runeshapers x2

Fennblades w/ officer and drummer
Troll Sorcerer
Fennblade Kithkar

Krielstone bearers w/stone scribe elder

Janessa Stonetide

And here is the mega list my opponent brought.
Karchev
War Dog
Mad Dog
Drago
2x Rager
7x Berserkers

Battle Mechaniks

So yeah. Let's just put 11 'jacks on the table. My list was not built to handle that, not sure I have any list that is. Scenario was Outlast. Two 12" zones in the middle, control for one, dominate for two, no kill box. Terrain was spread out fairly evenly with two linear obstacles around the bottom of the two zones one on the right hand top of the zone, a hill in the middle of the upper deployment zone and two structures that really didn't come into play. I won the roll off and took first turn. I put my fenns and their buddies on the right side with the Mauler for support, Ragnar and his buddy went in the middle along with Janessa. EBDT and Axer went on the left side and the runeshapers go on each flank. He deployed everything in a straight line as much as he could in order to remain in Karchev's control area.



Top of 1.
Surprise, surprise, everything runs! I have yet to play a game where anything but running was done on the first turn. Ragnar dumped all his fury into the stone to power it for later.

Bottom of 1
Power up! Basically my opponent just wanted to see how far he could push the new power up rule. Pretty far as it turns out. Everything he had ran except Karchev and he moved up and cast battle-charged giving all his 'jacks countercharge.

Top of 2
Not much going on here for me. I've got an iron wall pressing down on me and I want to keep him from charging. So, my beasts move up against the zone, just barely in. Ragnar and runebearer get behind the wall on the left hand side, the fenns move into and fill up the right side zone. Ragnar puts pulverizer on the mauler The runeshapers move on the outside flanks trying to get into a better position.

Bottom of 2
Karchev goes first, drops Battle charged and casts road to war, then moves up. Berserkers on the right side move up and take out a few fennblades and two of the runeshapers on that side. Left side beserkers, drago and the mad dog move over and engage the earthborn, but aren't able to damage him. Over all I lose almost half my fennblades, a full unit of runeshapers and 2/3rds of another unit.

Top of 3
Fenns use their vengeance move to take swings at the berserkers and don't really do much too them, as is expected. Pulverizer is upkept. Runebearer activates and does harmonius exaltation on Ragnar. Stone activates and does stone strength and then moves up a little and out of the way of the Mauler. Mauler activates, uses his animus and charges the nearest Rager. He's sitting at P+S 22 due to all the buffs. Two swings later, the Rager is dead.  Ragnar activates and puts pulverizer and rage on the Earthborn and feats. He puts his remaining fury on the stone. Earthborn activates and punches the berserker in the face. Three hits and he's down. Axer considers charging, but at this point I would either take out a berserker and let Drago have a straight line to my Runebearer and caster or take out Drago and let the berserker take me. I decide to sit still. The remaining runeshaper goes, moves around two of the right side 'jacks and knocks them down with trembler. Fennblades move over and swam the two knocked down jacks, but still can't do a lot to them. They use their reposition and surround the jacks. I'm still at a loss as to what to do with Janessa, so I move her up and try and have a little fun with her tectonic shift, I catch one 'jack and push it backward, that's about it. I can see where this will come in handy to knock people out of zones, just didn't help much in this game.

Bottom of 3
He contemplates using Karchev's feat to counter mine, but decides against it.  He hands out a few focus, upkeeps road to war, does jump start to get the KD 'jacks back up and that's it for him. Left side berserker charges the earthborn and does no damage even though he boosted the attacks. He rolls for unstable and blows up. Drago charges the EBDT and puts a few damage on him, but nothing major, he also uses his imprint. Mad dog charges in and again, no damage. Being down 1 die on damage is quite helpful. Second Rager in the middle charges at the mauler and doesn't really hurt him at all. Now, on the right side, things were much worse. The three berserkers on the right side proceded to wipe the floor with my fenns, leaving me with one guy and the drummer. Finally the Battle Mechaniks move around and block charge lanes.

Top of 4
Things are starting to look a little grim. I'm only able to remove 2 maybe 3 heavy's per turn, not good when there are 9 of them left and Karchev still has his feat. So, Ragnar upkeeps Pulverizer on the EBDT. Stone activates and does stone strength again. Earthborn activates first and starts punching Drago. First two hits connect and do a massive amount of damage, the third hit misses and I get pushed 3" back due to his imprint. Buy an attack on the Mad Dog, decent damage, but nothing major. Rune bearer goes and does the same thing he's done all game. Deciding I need to end this somehow, I quit hiding Ragnar and move him out from behind the hedge. He switches pulverizer to the axer and shockwaves Drago to knock him down. Axer moves in and finishes off Drago, sadly, he's just out of reach of the Mechaniks. Mauler activates, Rages, then does a chain attack on the Rager in front of him. Throwing him into Karchev and taking out one of his columns and knocking them both down. Right side runeshaper knocks both 'jacks down again and the remaining fennblade flails uselessly with his sword.

Bottom of 4
Karchev hands out focus, lets road to war drop. He activates and repositions to make sure every jack is in control range for his feat. He feats and does jumpstart again.  (I'll note here, he was just barely out of range for the assassination run on Ragnar, so he moved up instead and tried to go for the scenario win). Left side action, Earthborn gets surrounded by another berserker and the mad dog and gets finished off. Axer gets charged and takes heavy damage but somehow survives. Mechaniks move over and repair the Rager that was thrown. Rager then charges the Mauler and puts a hurt on him. Another Berserker (damn I'm getting tired of typing that word) moves over and finishes the poor mauler off. In the right zone, the last remnants of control I had are wiped out and he grabs the zone for one point.

Top of 5
Ok. Gut check time. Gotta do something or he's going to have the win by assassination AND scenario. I look at the field and on first glance all my lanes are blocked, second look and I see an opening. Thanks to pre-measuring I was able to look at the charge distance and make sure I had it. Activate the Runebearer, harmonius exault. Activate the stone and do stone strength. Ragnar does pulverizer on himself and charges Karchev. Boost to hit the first one and hit, Warhead procs and takes out a mechanik and knocks Karchev down. Charge damage is considerable (I don't remember the numbers) since I'm dice -2 on 3d6. 3 fury left. Buy an attack, average damage. Buy an attack, roll like 3 damage. Dammit. Buy his last attack. I need an 11 to kill him. Roll..........12. Karchev dies.

Very, very close game despite me losing most of my army. I honestly didn't think I had a shot at this one but Ragnar can handle himself in melee pretty well. Warhead is awesome for the knockdown alone. Still haven't got to truely test the fennblades, but they did a good job of tying up 3 of his 'jacks most of the game. More testing is needed, but Ragnar looks promising so far.