Saga of Leaves and Rain: August 2014

Scenario: Rally Point

Player 1: Jesse
Makeda and the Exalted Court
* Molik Karn
* Titan Gladiator
* Bronzeback Titan
* Basilisk Krea
Agonizer
Saxon Orrik
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Paingiver Taskmaster
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Gatorman Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Player 2: Danny
Intercessor Kreoss
* Reckoner
* Repenter
Holy Zealots
* Monolith Bearer
Exemplar Vengers (Leader and 4 Grunts)
High Exemplar Gravus
3 Wracks
Saxon Orrik
Gorman di Wulf
Madelyn Corbeau
Choir of Menoth (Leader and
Vassal of Menoth
Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt

Four points short; I'm not sure what I've missed.

Deployment

I won the roll and chose to go first. The board was as pictured above; note that the two green terrain patches are woods, while the brown one represents a hill. I deployed my beasts to my right and the gators to the left in order to prevent him from scoring in the near zone. Makeda and support went in the center and back.

Danny deployed his Vengers on his right to counter my gators; put his Zealots in the middle; and spaced his battlegroup with the Reckoner in the center and a Repenter on either side, among the Zealots. Aiyanna and Holt were deployed on the far left, to counter my battlegroup.

Skorne Turn 1

I just ran everyone up the board. No special tricks or anything, but I was a mite more cautious than I should have been. I also found that my friendly objective was blocking my movement; this became a bigger problem on turn 2.

Protectorate Turn 1

Danny did likewise.

Skorne Turn 2

I ran the gators into the zone on my left, in an attempt to block most of his guys out of it; at the very least, I would be able to prevent his Vengers from charging most of the gators and the Bronzeback without eating a free strike. Bronzeback shifted over to toe into the left-hand zone. Karn had to do a bit of tricky movement just to get around the objective and set up for next turn. Gladiator just shuffled forward. Makeda and her unit shifted hard to the right; I sent one of the Court up the middle in hopes of picking up Battle Driven; she also served to Shield Guard Karn if necessary. The other ran through the forest to contest the right-hand zone. Agonizer also ran over to the right; I intended him to be ready to contest that zone if necessary, and be ready to zip in and deny focus allocation.

This turn was where my hesitation on Turn 1 bit me. If Molik Karn had been half an inch, maybe an inch further forward, I could have popped feat and probably eliminated a third of his army, or at the very least thrown his tempo off. As it was, I had to wait.

Protectorate Turn 2

Zealots charge in with mini feat up. They do some damage, but not as much as could be expected. Vengers move in and kill one gator, but fail to really make a dent on my left flank. He manages - after far too much work and some awful dice - to clear out the Court member standing in front of Karn, then charges a Repenter in to beat on Karn a bit. Karn remains fully functional.

Skorne Turn 3

At this point, I feel like I've pretty much lost the time management game, since I spent an awful lot of time last turn on my clock. I decide to make this feat turn and see how much work I can get done around the Zealot mini-feat. Unfortunately, the answer is "not much." Gators munch on the Vengers a bit, but that side remains in contention. Karn moves in under feat and does a little work, but the mini-feat prevents him from really going to town; in the end I move him up to tie up Kreoss. I screwed up hard with Makeda, though, trying to keep beasts in my feat/control area; as you can see above, she's right near the edge of the right-hand zone and far, far too close to Kreoss and/or other assassination vectors. Should have moved her to the right-most side of that zone and kept Karn back as a threat that he had to deal with...

Protectorate Turn 3

So it turns out I forgot about the Madelyn move. Danny shifts Kreoss to one side for a clear charge lane at Makeda; charges and takes no damage from Karn's free strike; and ends the game with an assassination.

Mistakes were made, mostly by me. I should have been more aggressive to start with, and positioned my early game pieces (Karn and Makeda) to move around the objective. On the other hand, I should have been more cautious later, and kept Makeda out of assassination range. I also found that I jammed myself in a bit in regards to the Bronzeback and the Gladiator. Both can do a lot of work in the late game, but they need to be up near the center line by turn two in order to do that, thanks to that SPD 4 stat. So the lesson is: Practice deployment and first turn movement.

List-wise, I'm pretty happy with it. I'm still shaking the wrinkles out here, but I do find myself missing an Extoller Soulward for the Eyeless Sight on a stick. Being able to draw line of sight through forests is extremely useful.