Jeremiah Kraye and Coleman Stryker’s forces both came to a crossroad just outside of Caspia. Apparently there was an Inn on both Commanders’ chosen routes back to their respective fronts: Crossbone’s Crossroad Tavern and Inn.

Both grizzled faces grimaced slightly at the sight of the other as they approached. Each recognized they would need to put up with the other for at least one evening. At least it gave them an excuse to drink in half-decent company.

After stabling their horses and Warjacks the two decided to commiserate over drinks. Debate broke out around the fifth flagon of Crossbone’s famous ale. It started with Stryker drunkenly boasting that his Storm Knights could best any Warjack contingent in Immoren.



Stryker’s boasts were met with loud agreement from the Storm Lance officer seated next to him, as well as with shouts from a few drunken Stormblades across the room. Kraye – whose own force consisted heavily of newly constructed Centurions – slurred and swore as he disagreed. Kraye’s Journeyman Warcaster attempted to calm the old warhorse down with soothing sounds, but before the first words were finished Kraye slapped the young man’s back so hard it felt as if the room shook. Apparently the younger officer’s voice of reason would go unheard.

Both Commanders determined that a friendly wargame should settle the dispute. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily for the local inhabitants, the grounds of the Inn made a picturesque field of battle.

As the soldier’s left the Inn, none could hear the Innkeeper’s pleas to spare the meticulously groomed grass around his beloved Inn. All anyone could hope for was that these well-meaning soldiers were sober enough to leave the Inn mostly intact and simply stay out of the way.

Battle Report!

COVID-19 has made Wargaming come to almost a complete standstill. Hopefully we are all practicing good social-distancing and only wargaming with people we live with to avoid unnecessary exposure.

As a result, Battle Reports and Warmachine content are a little hard to come by. My goal here was to play a game vs. myself to make an entertaining Battle Report. One of the nice things about this approach is that I can reflect my logic on both sides of the table, and easily reflect on my mistakes.

And mistakes were made aplenty!

Lists, Terrain/Scenario, Deployment, Turns, and Afterthoughts below!

Lists

Kraye – Tide of Iron



[Theme] Heavy Metal

[Kraye 1] Captain Jeremiah Kraye [+28]

– Centurion [17]

– Centurion [17]

– Centurion [17]

– Hunter [10]

– Hunter [10]

– Ironclad [12]

– Squire [0(5)]

Anastasia di Bray [3]

Captain Arlan Strangewayes [0(4)]

Journeyman Warcaster [0(4)]

– Charger [9]

Sword Knights (min) [8]

Stryker – Ride the Lightning

[Theme] Storm Division [Stryker 2] Lord Commander Stryker [+28]

– Cyclone [13]

– Lancer [10]

– Lancer [10]

– Stormclad [17]

– Squire [0(5)]

Journeyman Warcaster [4]

– Firefly [8]

Major Katherine Laddermore [8]

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord [4]

Savio Montero Acosta [0(6)]

Storm Lances (max) [20]

Stormblade Infantry [9]

– Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard [0(5)]

Terrain/Scenario

Scenario is Invasion (SR 2019 Packet)

Terrain list:

Fog Bank;

Two Forests;

Two “Ponds”;

Three LOS Blocking buildings Tavern (Left of Centre) Stable House (Middle Building) Toolshed (Far Right) All buildings are papercraft from www.davesgames.net



Kraye and Stryker roll off. Kraye wins and goes first. Stryker chooses side. Kraye wants to secure the Alpha by going first, and is not too concerned about the terrain with lots of Pathfinder available.

Deployment

Kraye deploys leaning heavily on the left side with his Jacks. Intention is to control the middle with Centurions, clear the left zone with Jacks, and score the right with Sword Knights (that will hide behind the toolshed and stablehouse). Hunters take the far flanks to help apply Kraye’s feat.

Stryker chose this side to take advantage of the fog bank in conjunction with the Tavern. Stryker is hoping the Tavern will provide cover for his critical solos, and give himself a place to camp out in the hopes of striking at Kraye.

Stormblades take the left with Rhupert, and the Storm Lances take the right deploying to go around the right hand side forest. Stryker deploys his Lancers on each flank for Positive Charge, and the remainder of his force stays central.

Turn1A (Kraye)

Kraye’s heavy Warjacks Trample + Repo 5 forward. One of each of the three Centurions aims for one of the three zones. Ironclad fades left.

Jr. puts Arcane Shield on the left most Centurion, and Kraye puts Admonition on the centre Centurion.

Sword Knights hang back – ready to flank on the central Centurions as necessary.

Turn 1B (Stryker)

Things Run!

Most of Stryker’s forces aim to stay outside the charge range of Kraye’s ‘Jacks. One big issue is that the Heavies have a threat of 14 Inches and the Ironclad has lots of LOS. As a result, Stryker sends up a Lancer and arcs Rebuke on to the Ironclad to stop it from charging.

Storm Lances are trying to stay outside their threats, and also position for a Charge. Stormblades huddle on the left by the Stablehouse.



Laddermore tries to exploit the Tavern to the utmost by hiding.

Cyclone puts down a Covering Fire template to dissuade movement in the center zone.

Stryker himself exploits the fog bank.

For Spells: Stryker puts up Deceleration (and sits on 0 focus after boosting Rebuke to hit). Jr. puts Arcane Shield on the Stormblades.

Turn 2A Kraye)

Kraye has a tough decision. Feat now – or risk Stryker feating on his next turn and getting stuck in. At that point Kraye’s feat would be largely neutered.

Kraye opts to feat for the Left and Right Centurions to charge. Left Centurion’s goal is to remove the Lancer and Laddermore as he has LOS on the Lancer.



Right Centurion’s goal is to go in on the right most Stormblade and remove as many as possible (and then Repo backwards).

Lets cover the Center, Left, and Right.

Center: Kraye moves forward (just avoiding the Covering Fire), feats and casts Horsepower, and puts a shot into the Lancer by the Tavern and one into Savio. Both hit. Lancer takes minor damage, and Savio lives on two boxes. Center Centurion advances forward and imprints (careful to avoid the template). Arlan moves forward and gives focus to the Right Centurion. Kraye was careful to repo backwards to take cover by the Tavern.

Left: Storm Lances don’t like shooting! Hunter and Charger remove three Lances with spiked damage rolls. Centurion charges the Lancer, puts it down to 14 boxes, but critically misses his charge by rolling a 4 on 3 dice. Centurion had 2 focus (and charged for free), and couldn’t kill a Lancer! Damage rolls were very weak. Ironclad, unable to Charge/Run, walks forward in shame and cries iron tears.

Right: Hunter shoots the right most Stormblade (hoping NOT to kill it). Knocks it down after the Stormblade makes its tough roll. Centurion takes the opportunity, charges in, and kills two Stormblades. It had the opportunity to kill more and missed an attack. The Centurion also opted to use its final focus for its Imprint. Centurion Repos back, and the Sword Knights position behind him. Hunter Repos backward at the end of its activation to stay out of the way.



Ultimately Kraye’s feat resulted in two dead Stormblades, a crippled Lancer, and 3 dead Lances. A little lackluster but better then nothing. Now Stryker has a heavily weakened left flank and a few Centurions to deal with.

Turn 2B (Stryker)

Loss of over half the Storm Lances comes at a bit of a shock. Stryker was hopeful that Decel would give them a fighting chance against the Charger (as a 12+ for damage was needed to kill them). Unfortunately, it did not work out.

Stryker starts to calculate if he can kill Kraye this turn….by laying down widgets.

Nope. Even with Velocity Stryker is a little too far out for his regular attacks. Stryker could get in with one swing with his feat, but it’s not guaranteed by any stretch with Kraye at Def 15 and having focus to spare. (In fact, I mock-rolled this scenario and Kraye lived with 5 boxes. Stryker rolled a 13 on his Overload.)

Instead – Stryker tries to close the gap by Feating! Goal is to remove the middle and right side Centurions, and the Charger.

Lets break this down: Center, Left, and Right.

Center: Stryker moves into the cloud and puts Positive Charge on both Lancers (arcing with the left, and being in range of the right). Stryker Feats. Left side Lancer runs into the engagement with the middle Centurion. Firefly advances, shoots the Centurion, and arcs lightning to fry 3 Sword Knights. Savio advances and shoots the Centurion (as he cant charge due to the Imprint) careful to leave himself with 4″ for his Feat attack. Stormclad tramples in, sacrificing his initials, and starts wailing on the Centurion with 3 PS21 attacks. Centurion takes damage, but nowhere near fatal. Electro leaps put 1 damage on the Objective in the process.

NOTE: Do you see the error here? The center Centurion had admonition on it! It would have been entirely safe and able to goad the Stormclad into charge range. However, I forgot it was there, and only remembered after all the dice had been rolled. In the end, it was another sharp learning experience….against myself. This Admonition move was the whole point of moving the centre Centurion up so far. Oops.

Left: Stormblades are unable to charge, and Stryker’s feeling is that they would be better served by being a scenario threat later. They take Tough from Rhupert and hide. Two Stormblades stay in the zone to contest.

Right: Cyclone starts, pre-feat, by spinning up and shooting the Charger. Cyclone gets all 6 of its shots, misses 3 of them, and does about 8 damage with the others. Storm Lances charge (pre-feat to be in range when Stryker feats). Storm Lance on the Charger does enough damage to the Charger to leave it with both weapons crippled, and hanging on by a few Movement and Cortex boxes.

Lance on the Centurion does some damage, but it is largely blunted by Arcane Shield.

Lancer moves in to get max benefit from Positive Charge to his friends. Laddermore attacks the Centurion and puts a few damage down.

Feat Attacks: Everybody but the Stormblades takes advantage of the Feat attack. Both the Centre and Right Centurions, unfortunately, survive, but are severely crippled. Right side Centurion has 9 boxes and the centre Centurion lives with 3.



While Stryker’s plan did not work exactly as he hoped it did leave Kraye with fewer resources to throw around.

Nobody scores at end of turn.



Turn 3A (Kraye)



Luckily one of Kraye’s Centurions (Centre) is within range of the Objective. Kraye is able to get it back 3 boxes and full systems restored in the maintenance phase of this turn. Unfortunately, the left side Centurion is crippled except for movement and its cortex. It should still hit like a truck, but with much less “umph”.

Anyway – Left to Right

Left: Ironclad and crippled Charger remove the last two Storm Lances. Ironclad repos forward to threat Stryker’s flank. Centurion attempts to kill the Lancer and Laddermore. Laddermore is dismounted and the Lancer clings to life with only a few boxes. The Hunter shoots and spikes damage on the Cyclone doing a respectable 12 damage.

Centre: Centurion, with full stack, attempts to kill the Stormclad. It survives with 2 boxes. Storm Knights charge in and put down 10-12 damage on the Lancer. Right hand side Hunter runs over to help contest the zone assuming the Centurion will die on the following turn. Kraye, in desperation, shoots at the Stormclad and is unable to do the last two damage. Kraye sits just outside the killbox line, and carefully measures to be outside the 17: threat from Stryker.

Right: Centurion walks forward, kills some Stormblades, and repos backward. Centurion opts to stay in the right zone in this instance to avoid giving Stryker a scenario lead.

Nobody scores. Again.

Turn 3B (Stryker)

Ok. Time to finally remove some Centurions and again a scenario lead!

Left to Right

Left: One Stormblade advances forward and smacks the Centurion in that zone. Main thing here is to make the Centurion take a free strike as it leaves to engage the middle zone. Rhupert gives the unit Tough.

Center: Stormclad, with only two cortex boxes, is able to scrap the crippled Centurion. Savio is then free to charge the Hunter, and gets a few damage on it. Firefly shot at the Hunter as well for good measure. (Hunter lived with about 12 boxes) Lancer activated and finished off the remaining Sword Knights. Jr. moves up and shoots the objective. No damage.

Right: Stryker moves further Right and puts Positive Charge on the Cyclone. Cyclone pummels into the Ironclad and leaves it with some damage but no downed systems. It is outside Kraye’s control and is not feeling that threatening at this point. Laddermore and the Lancer finish off the Centurion. Laddermore repos to move into the center on the following turns to take the Objective (was is not dismounted in the picture, but I think that was a mistake).

Turn ends. Nobody scores. Without the Hunter down the middle zone is still contested.

Turn 4A (Kraye)

Kraye is running out of options. Losing both Centurions was a heavy hit.

Left to Right

Left: Ironclad shifts around and puts some more damage on the Cyclone.Without any focus it is difficult to get much mileage from him. the crippled Charger and Hunter assist. During all of this both Laddermore and the Lancer survive miraculously.

Center: Hunter fails to kill Savio. Kraye then shoots the Firefly attempting to clear out the center zone. No dice. Jr. also shoots the Firefly and is unable to seal the deal.

Right: Centurion shifts position a bit. Uses its attacks to kill the Stormblade engaged with it and attack Savio. Savio was continually dodging these attacks and returning Riposte attacks with limited damage. The Centurion imprints to avoid a Stormblade charge.

Kraye ends turn and nobody scores.

Turn 4B (Stryker)

Stryker is tasting victory. Kraye has nearly no options and there is ton of pressure being applied on both scenario as well as possible assassinating Kraye.

Left to Right:

Left: Stormblades advance and shoot the Centurion plinking a few damage. Rhupert gives them tough.

Center: Firefly charges the Hunter and kills it. Lancer and Savio engage the Centurion and fail to do much.Stryker and the support solos advance forward to pressure Kraye.

Right: Cyclone kills the Ironclad assisted by Laddermore and a crippled Lancer.

Stryker ends turn scoring 1.

Stryker 1 – Kraye 0.

Turn 5A (Kraye)

Kraye is anticipating getting assassinated. He could run away fairly easily, but it is likely that will mean eventually Stryker takes the scenario victory. (Also – J is getting tierd and wants to see this charade end!)

Kraye decides to try to assassinate Stryker. Stryker is camping two.

Left: Crippled Chargers takes two shots at Stryker through a gap between Laddermore and the Lancer. Both land and plinks a few damage. Hunter on the left fades into center and shoots at Stryker. It lands and Stryker is forced to focus off 5 damage.

Center: Stryker is sitting on about 8 health. Jr. moves in to contest the center zone, shoots at Stryker, and misses. Kraye takes his shots, even boosted he misses the first, and lands the second but is unable to kill Stryker. Stryker uses his last focus and lives with 5 boxes.

Right: Squire moves into the right zone. Centurion takes some whacks at the Lancer and then imprints. Centurion misses hits and whiffs damage. (None of the Centurions have had much luck with rolls today)

Turn 5B (Stryker)

Stryker takes this opportunity to return the favor on Kraye. Both the Firefly and the Lancer charge him after the Stormblades kill the last Centurion. Kraye lives. Stryker kills the objective with gunfire from the Jr and Stryker himself.

Cyclone and Laddermore finish off the crippled Charger.

Rhupert charges the Squire to clear the left zone, but misses.

Stryker ends turn scoring 2

Stryker 3: Kraye 0.

Turn 6A (Kraye)

Note: I don’t have a photo for this turn. I had played this out very fast, and then swiftly forgot.

Kraye has four models left: Kraye, the Jr., a Hunter (Crippled), and the Squire. I don’t see any way to turn this around except to kill Stryker. Stryker is on 5 boxes and camping 4 focus.

Jr. walks forward and shoots Stryker, even boosted he misses.

Hunter attempts to walk out the engagement with the Firefly and the Lancer, but is killed by the free strikes.

Kraye moves forward and shoots at Stryker. One misses (needed a 9 on 3 dice to hit and rolled a 7); other shot lands, but damage whiffs. PS 11 vs. Arm 16…Dice -5….with Power Field available and Stryker on 5 Health..Means Kraye needed a 15 on 3 dice to kill. Not impossible, but was not meant to be.

Kraye graciously admits defeat – anticipating that either Stryker or his ‘Jacks will simply march forward and end the game on the following turn.

Afterthoughts

Lots of this game was plagued with poor rolls. It has been a long time since I have had this many ‘Jacks survive multiple rounds of punishment. Both Lancers especially shined in this area. Set Defense was excellent vs. Kraye.

I also feel that this game would have been very different had I activated Admonition. Center Centurion would have likely been able to thrash that Stormclad, or at least stick around to apply pressure. On the flanks, if the Centurion that charged on feat had been able to down the Lancer and Laddermore that would have left Stryker with a Centurion barreling down on his flank.

Also: Lets talk about Savio. Savio put down Riposte attacks like crazy in this game, and continually acted as a problem for Kraye’s forces to solve.

All in all I had a good time getting some practice in. Hopefully next time I will remember Admonition. (Also – Hopefully I wasted all my bad rolls on myself and my next game with a real opponent will go better.)

Finally: See how Anastasia di Bray is in my Kraye list? Yeah. Anastasia was sadly forgotten. Oops.

Let me know if you enjoyed the report! I will hopefully be doing another of these. Unfortunately, I can only play Cygnar v Cygnar, but please let me know if there are any casters you would like to see!

J

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