BR: 50pt eCaine vs. Butcher3

Look at this god damn crazy.

I was itching for a game all week but due to work, I wasn't able to get one in until last night.  As usual, I played over Vassal man, was it a lot of fun.  The scenario was Close Quarters.

Here's the list he took.  I'm not sure if it was standard or not, but that's what he brought to the table:

Points: 50/50
Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed (*4pts)
* Beast-09 (11pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts) (4pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Black Dragon Officer & Standard (2pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Iron Fang Kovnik (2pts)
Ragman (2pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)

I brought my standard eCaine list and we duked it out on a map with a trench on each side and a long shared forest on the right.  Most of the right side of the map was also a giant hill, so elevation all over the place.  Sorry, no pics, it ran pretty late last night and I just went to sleep right after the game.

Anyways, here are some highlights from the game:

• The game started out with him playing very aggressive and running or advancing everything up.  I did the same with all my guys but I couldn't really shoot at anything so I camped all my focus.
• Next turn, he manages to kill some of my Boomhowlers and strip them of their Arcane Shield thanks to Eiryss.  No further damage is dealt to the rest of my army while all of his marched up fearlessly down the middle.
• On this turn, I was able to run a few Rangers up and go hard on his army with my shooting.  My B13th killed some of his Pikeman with Ryan doing most of the work as usual, killing 4 by herself thanks to Mage Storm.  The Tempest Blazers advanced 9 and used Elecro-leap to drop a ton of Kayazy from the field despite them having Stealth.  Man, I absolutely love their ability to move 9.  Caine himself did some serious work as he was able to pick off a few Pikeman, Magic Bullet the nearby Eiryss to death and ping another Magic Bullet into Beast '09, but failed to kill Aiyana despite the +1.  A few more shots here and there from some of my other units at Ragman and he sac pawns to one of Butcher's dogs.
• The next turn was something pretty hilarious.  While I think I had a pretty good turn and I was pretty far ahead, I was definitely not expecting this.  Butcher immediately moves up thanks to Vengeance and drops one of my Boomhowlers stone cold.  He adds 2 focus to Beast '09 and then casts Impending Doom, Silence of Death and Flashing Blade, followed by Feat.  Needless to say, most of the Boomhowlers are dead in one foul swoop with no chance of Tough rolls.  He then advances, into some more Booms including Greygore, and Flashing Blades again to kill every single Cygnar-sympathizing troll on the board while camping 5 Focus.  Damn, that did not go the way I wanted to, especially when I was relying on them to block Beast so I can get another round of shooting.
• Some of the remaining Kayazy including the Mob Boss charges Ol'Rowdy and actually do something like 8 points of damage to him due to hot rolls.  Not just that, but he activates incorrectly and the 1-HP Aiyana trolls boxcars to Kiss Ol'Rowdy while he was already engaged!  Now, I watch grimly as his Beast '09 barrels down the field and straight into Ol'Rowdy's face, beating his ass into the ground and leaving him with 5 boxes left.  Looks like things really changed in a span of a few activations.
• With Ol'Rowdy near death, my primary jack was out of commission and the battlefield situation looks pretty damn even.  I choose not to allocate any Focus to Ol'Rowdy because both of his arms were out.  Instead, I move up my Gorman really close to Beast, toss Black Oil, it can only scatter 1" and it hits '09 in the face, sharply dropping his defense.  I then land a Kiss from my own Aiyana, shoot him for some damage with Holt, and put him at roughly half-health after Rowdy activates and hits him with straight dice.  Not the best outcome, but better than nothing.
• Now, my Rangers run ahead to mark the rest of his army while my Tempest Blazers advance into range of his A&H.  A few Electro-leaps after and both are dead, including his Gorman who's unfortunate enough to be within 5" of one of the Blazers after checking range.  With no more real targets, I'm left with a really tough decision.  I have Beast with Kiss and Butcher in range with Ranger's Mark Target.
• I know for a fact that with effectively POW14 guns, I can drop Beast in one go with Feat thanks to Black Oil, or I can go for Butcher.  My Eiryss was out of range to threaten Buthcer unfortunately, so I'm going to have to rely on Caine to do all the work.  Well, what the hell, why not go big or go home?  My B13th with Brutal Damage and Taryn try to do some damage to Butcher, but it was just not happening with his camped Focus.  Caine then activates and moves in range of Butcher with +2 RAT.  He throws down 10 shots, misses with the last shot and then proceeds to roll damage.  After the dust settles, Butcher is left with 1 HP and everyone in the room is sitting there in shock.
• Needless to say, I think that's going to be game.  Next turn, he charges one of his own Kayazy to get within Impending Death range of Caine, and smacks him in the face with Lola.  It actually took him two swings and that was the only thing he could muster, but he rolled what he needed to hit Caine for a second time and that was it.  If he missed, I would have shot him to death next turn.

The winning scenario for me would be to kill Beast with Feat, reallocate Eiryss to the other side of the board to threaten Focus-camping, and to shoot everything else dead in Butcher's army leaving him with no support.  Unfortunately, that might have taken too long to play and I was in a very YOLO mode because this is just a casual game and I've been working too damn much.  You gotta learn to relax and have fun a bit, especially when you're not playing in a tournament and its all fun and games.

I talked with my opponent for a little bit and he said I could have been a bit more aggressive with Rowdy and Eiryss.  I definitely agreed with the Eiryss part, as I think her ability to drop Focus off of Butcher might have been exactly what I needed on Feat turn.  A very fun and close game, I enjoyed it very much.