A couple
weeks ago I finished the first season of Crossroads of courage. This also concluded my test run of Zerkova I,
she of the cold heart and dark secrets.
My List:
·
Holden Courage
I faced Pete and the master assassin. This was a rematch from old times. We have faced each other many times over the
last year.
Pete’s list:
·
Holden Courage
The battlefield featured a ruin to the left, a
barrier in my near deployment zone, a high tower to the right, and a crater
field in the middle.
1.
Pete won the roll and chose to go second. I deployed Zerkova and a decimator to the
left of the barrier. The
man-o-wars, Holden, and the other decimator went on the right. Pete put Morghoul and his battle group dead
center. The legends went right. The rest of the infantry went left.
2.
The Kovnik walked forward and put desperate pace
on the bombardiers. The bombardiers and
the right hand decimator ran up and left in front of the obstacle. The left decimator moved up to complete my
standard defensive wall with a jack on either end of the mow’s line. Zerkova cast watcher, dropped her cloud wall,
and ran up behind the line. Pete sent
the legends to flank right, using the tower for a shield. The runners and the extoller ran to flank
left. Morghoul’s battle group came
straight down the middle.
3.
Ok, if he wants to play the pincer game I’m down
with that. I premeasured everyone’s
threat range and made some notes. The
thing with Zerkova going first is that she has no range top of turn two. Without objectives and kill box in play she
is better off castling up—forcing the other guy to come to you. I moved everyone up a couple inches, dropped
the wall, and passed the turn. Pete
moved up, put his flankers ready to charge, and left his battle group staring
down the man-o-war wall.
4.
Game time!
The decimators could not get into range (stupid SPD 4.) Zerkova let watcher expire. I took a second and worked out the order of
activation. The Kovnik walked right to
intercept the legends and put desperate pace on the bombardiers. I should have taken a shot but forgot he had
a gun. The right hand decimator killed
one of the legends but missed the second shot.
Holden took a shot and missed. The
bombardiers walked up to the edge of 5 inches of Morghoul—tag. The MOW went all-in on a CRA and hit Morghoul
for 12 which was transferred to the gladiator.
The left decimator took a shot at the gladiator, hit, boosted damage,
and rolled triple 6. That effectively
took the big guy out of the game. Zerkova
walked up, popped feat, and threw a boosted true sight hex blast at
Morghoul. The shot missed and scattered
into no man’s land—crap. I panicked,
blood runners within walking distance of my caster’s back 180, and spent my
remaining focus on a frost hammer. Two
runners died and the extoller powered up—double crap. Zerkova’s feat limited what Pete could do but
he did his best. Morghoul moved up,
popped feat, and killed off a bombardier.
The reptile hound walked up and damaged a trooper. The archidon charged the right decimator
doing significant damage. The legends
walked in, killed the kovnik, and did some more damage to the decimator. The extoller took a shot at Zerkova and
missed. The blood runners walked up and
did a couple points of damage to Zerkova (bad dice for the win.) They repositioned out of combat.
5.
Zerkova allocated 2 focus to the decimator. She shook blind, moved ahead, cast ghost walk
on the MOW, and zapped the extoller into oblivion. The decimator shook blind, charged Morghoul,
boosted to hit, and missed—triple crap.
The bombardiers built a wall of meat between Morghoul and Zerkova. They swung and missed due to blind. The far decimator tried for the legends but
missed. Morghoul retreated from
combat. The hound killed a
bombardier. The legends and archidon
finished off the right decimator. The
blood runners took a shot at Zerkova, again, but only caught air. They repositioned out of combat, again.
6.
Zerkova allocated 1 to the decimator, walked up,
hit Morghoul with a boosted frost hammer, left him stationary, and did major
damage which got transferred to the hound—killing it and knocking the master
assassin down a couple boxes. I throughout
a final frost hammer, auto hit, and killed Morghoul since the archidon was out
of his control range.
Thoughts:
1.
I made a lot of mistakes this game. I need to learn to push Zerkova farther
forward against armies with no ability to penetrate clouds. I forgot the shield on the Kovnik and did not
take a shot with him when I had the chance.
He could have done damage and might have otherwise survived. I should not have left her on 0 camp so
often.
2.
I am really beginning to dislike
decimators. They did a great job for me
in my journeyman league but here in a wide open format they just do not have
the range to get the job done. Zerkova
wants her team to reduce the enemy at range before making contact—god knows she
is not winning any awards for speed—so I am beginning to think I would be
better served with destroyers.
3.
We played caster kill—again—because it was what
most of the players could handle. That
being said, I think we have reached the limits of that scenario. Assassination is all well and good but it
provides for little strategic variety. I
am looking forward to the new CID steamroller rules if for no other reason than
it will give a nice change.
4.
I love MOW.
Base armor 16 and 8 wounds is just enough to give people problems. The offensive output is nice. The challenge all that metal clad meat
provides is the best. Over and over
again they have held up the opposing advance until the rest of my forces can
get the job done.
5.
I am becoming increasingly sure that MK III is
all about the threat range. I mean…not
like that is any different than before but I keep getting pulled to models
specifically due to their ability to reach out and touch the other side. I want to make the decimator work and against
a conventional force it is fine. The
catch is that “fine” is not enough with the prevalence of high armor and heavy
shooting lists.
6.
I cannot figure out what Zerkova “wants to
do. It is not a question of making her
work—more of purpose and synergy.
Casters like Butcher I are obvious generalists. Casters like Irusk are specialists. Zerkova does not seem to fall into either of
those categories. Other than hiding
behind the cloud bunker she does not have a clear purpose.
Season I is done. Counting victories I took first. Counting fate points I tied with Cheryl. That’s the end of the campaign for me. The group has fallen apart and I do not have
the time or contacts to raise a new community sadly. I am going to keep playing with friends until
I can find another store. Next up,
reviews of Zerkova and demolition corps.
