BR: 35pt eCaine vs. eVlad

The battle begins with a map with a fair share of terrain.  This battle highlights the importance of target priority over the ambition of caster kill.  Sometimes the quickest way to victory is not the shortest path.  By killing key targets and destroying your opponent's ability to maximize his turns, the game can be yours without the need of assassination!

My list looks like this:

Points: 35
Captain Allister Caine  (*5pts)
* Ol' Rowdy  (9pts)
* Squire  (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)  (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer  (2pts)
* * Hunter  (6pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team  (4pts)
Rangers  (5pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes  (2pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution  (3pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator  (1pts)


His list looked like this:

Points: 35
Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion (*5pts)
* Beast-09 (11pts)
* Drago (8pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Man-o-war Demolition Corps (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Widowmaker Marksman (2pts)

Cygnar Turn #1
The game started out with me casting True Shot on Caine and moving into the woods across from his deployment zone.  Everyone else moved up a bit; most notably the Rangers + eEiryss in the woods, the B13 getting Prowl and the Hunter sitting in front near Caine.  Everyone is ready to go.

Khador Turn #1
On his turn, he threw down Assail on Drago, Hand of Fate on the squad of Widowmakers and Transference on the Demo troops and moved his entire army up.  The Widowmakers go into the building to try to shoot at the Hunter and only inflict 3 damage boxes on him.  Since everything else was stealth or prowl, there was no further shooting from him.  The Bears ran up the flank on the broad's edge on the left side and that was it for his turn.

Cygnar Turn #2
On my turn, I ran a Ranger into 5" of his Widowmakers, moved Caine up a little bit and shot away with Reinholdt's reload and a bite from the Squire.  Caine takes down all the Widowmakers; including the Marksman and Gate Crashes back into safety.  The Hunter aims and shoots with a Runed Snipe and boosts damage for 9 boxes on Drago's right arm.  Arlan had Power Boosted him earlier.  The B13 remain a healthy distance away from the Bears and shoots them from 14" with Snipe.  I do deadly damage to one of the Bears but he just shrugs it off with Tough.

Khador Turn #2
Khador now moves his army up further and is pretty much in range of charges next turn with the help of eVlad's feat.  He, however, did not pop his Feat thinking he still had another turn.  He puts Hand of Fate on the Demos and runs his Great Bears even further.  The entire red army is on my door step.

Cygnar Turn #3
Make it or break it, here I go.  Rangers run into place, Caine reloads, eats the Squire and gets ready to go to town.  He positions himself in rough terrain, surrounded by many of his own troops so no charges with reach weapons can reach him.  He then starts the fireworks by pumping round after round into the marked Demos in front of him and Drago with Overkill in full effect.  After 10 shots go by, 3 of the Demos are dead and Drago is missing both of his arms.  The last 2 Demos have a guy left with 1 box after some bad rolling on my part.  The B13 lights up the Great Bears with Brutal shots and he manages to make 2 more Tough rolls before going down.  After 4 shots of Brutal, Volkov stands alone, but bloodthirsty with rage and violence.  My Hunter gets his aiming bonus again and shoots at Drago with a boosted ranged attack (from Arlan's PB) and the ATGM UA's Critical Brutal.  He fails to crit and fails to do any real damage.  My ATGM shoot at the rest of the Demos and at Volkov but fails to do anything.  Ol'Rowdy gets bored and runs towards the flank of the remaining Demos and sits there for next turn.  Eiryss moves in range of Drago and disrupts him for 1 damage.  The turn passes to Khador.

Khador Turn #3
Things are looking grim for Khador.  Drago gets antsy and runs into Ol'Rowdy hoping to tie him up in combat.  eVlad pops his Feat on the Demos and comes closer to Ol'Rowdy preparing to counter-charge him next turn.  Volkov, the last Great Bear, runs into the B13 and murders Ryan but fails to kill anyone else.  The Demos charge into my ATGM and slay 4 of them.  The Beast-09 charges my Hunter and attempts to hack his face off, but ends up rolling pitifully for damage and only boxes his sword arm.  The turn ends.

Cygnar Turn #4
I make my CMD check on the ATGM and the game continues.  I PB with Arlan onto my Hunter and the Hunter parries his way out of combat, dodging all of Beast-09s attacks.  He then proceeds to do a whopping 11 damage on Beast-09 and he gets back in combat with him.  Eiryss moves further away and disrupts Beast-09.  The rest of the ATGM attempt to damage the Demos but fails horribly even with 2 Critical Brutals hitting (thanks to eVlad's feat).  Lynch and Watts finish Volkov and Caine finishes the rest of the Demos with reload, squire, Ranger's marking and boosting for damage rolls.  He Gate Crashes away.. far far away from Beast-09.  Ol'Rowdy pummels Drago into the ground and Vlad looks at him with disdain.

Khador Turn #4
Beast-09 advances and threshers a good amount of my army.  He kills Arlan, a Ranger, a ATGM, the Hunter and almost gets the Squire but misses.  With the Hunter dead, Ol'Rowdy far away and no more Feat, I have nothing that can reliably kill Beast-09.  Vlad charges Ol'Rowdy with reach and full focus and wails on him for a crap ton of damage.  Ol'Rowdy survives with half of his boxes left with his main weapon and cortex still in play.

Cygnar Turn #5
I run everyone away from Beast-09's reach and Reinholdt and a Ranger dies because of free strikes.  The Rangers surround eVlad and the B13 moves into a more advantageous position.  Ol'Rowdy gets 3 focus and he walks over to Vlad and pummels his dog first.  He then buys another attack, boosts and puts 11 damage on Vlad.  My next hit misses and Vlad's not knocked down.  My kill shot came in with Caine getting into range and realizing that I need to hit a DEF21 Vlad thanks to Might of Kings and the fact I'm in combat with Ol'Rowdy.  With my Ranger's help and a boosted RAT shot, I meet the 10s requirement to hit him and boost damage for the game.

Cygnar Wins!