Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince of Umbrey, trudged through the Llaelese ruins, his warjacks chugging along with him. Menite insurgents had been spotted in the area, and the High Kommand had seen fit to dispatch to him to investigate. Did they not realize he had more important things to do than chase down religious fanatics? His less than pleasant thoughts about the High Kommand were interupted as he sensed movement. In the evening fog, there were shapes, moving back across the town square. He called a halt to his group.
"Movement, my prince." muttered Lieutenant Stanislov, leader of the Widowmaker contingent that Vlad had brought with him. He nodded in agreement. The Widowmakers moved forward, peering down their scopes, confident in the range of their weaponry. Kapitan Molovich, one of his Drakhun retainers, rode past.
"Flush them out Molovich, I want to see what we're up against." Vlad mumured. Molovich nodded in acknowledgement, his Man of War armor clanking as he rode into the fog. As he rode forward, Vlad could make out the light of heartfire in the haze, the light of a few heartfires, like a refugee camp in the mist. The tingling the back of his mind signaled the presence of another warcaster close by. He smirked. Perhaps this would not be a boring patrol after all.
A low chanting filled the air, the fog dispersing from the area, a blazing white light shining from across the square. A large ornate Menite 'jack gazed across the square at the Khadoran force, flanked by a Crusader and other smaller Menite 'jacks. Behind them, Vlad noticed a group of priests reading from scrolls, the source of the chanting. Most definitely forces from the Protectorate of Menoth. Behind the massive Warjacks, he made out the shaped of a hunched and chained figure, runes glowing around him. He did not appear to be a priest, Vlad was unsure what to make of him. more importantly, he could finally identify the source of the tingling. Issuing orders behind the Warjacks was Feora, Priestess of the Flame. Vlad scowled. He had fought this woman many times before to aggravating stalemates, this time would be different however. Imposing his will on his Warjacks, he let them slip their normal movement governors. Smoke flowed from their stacks and their eyes glowed bright. The trio of warjacks rushed forward to engage the Menites, eager to crush their gilt ornamentations.
The Prince of Umbrey was somewhat concerned as they left the range of thoughts, far beyond where he could influence them. It mattered little though. he knew they would be strong enough to withstand an enemy assault and that he could join them at his leisure. He strode forward, the Widowmakers scouting ahead.
The Menite battlegroup marched forward, choir priests chanting a hymn of battle to Menoth in old Caspian, praising his strength and justice. The warjacks under Feora's command seemed to flex, the sun seeming to break through the cloud cover to shine on their weapons. Yet they did not advance quickly towards Vlad's jacks. What were they waiting for? Molovich called out, catching Vlad's attention
"Ambush my lord!" He bellowed. In what had been an empty building across the square, suddenly a contingent of Knights Exemplar had appeared, brandishing crossbows. Creeping along the side of the building, Vlad noticed the shapes he'd seen in the fog before, Daughters of the Flame, zealous assassins on par with the Kayazy. Molovich seemed to notice them as well and started to move his mount away from the nimble women. As he started to do so, a wall of fire leapt up, blocking Molovich's path to the Menite jacks. His horse reared and would not move through the fire. Vlad cursed.
Deprived of his guidance, his warjacks moved forward towards the Menite line, running on their default orders. Lieutenant Stanislov and her Widowmakers dashed forward, taking up position in the middle of the square, behind the jacks, hoping to cover Molovich's advance and pick off the flanking Menites. Vlad cursed as the trap his force had walked into was sprung.
The Daughters moved like a rushing river, leaping through the windows of the ruin and coming from around, their blades biting into chinks in the armor of Molovich's destrier. The animal whinnied and reared, almost throwing Molovich from it's back. Vlad knew their numbers would be enough to at least unhorse him, and then their superior maneuverability would carry the day. A pair of loud clicks and two of the Widowmakers went down, exemplars accuracy surprising both Vlad and Stanislov, who just barely held her resolve in the face of fire. The Menite choir continued their song praising the martial prowess of Menoth. The largest Warjack of the group glowed with a fire purer than heartfire, a white light pouring out. It charged one of the Kodiaks, raining a hail of devastating blows on it. The Kodiak could only raise it's arms in defense, and even then those were quickly smashed by the flurry of attacks from this Avatar of Menoth's will. The Kodiak held it's ground however, battered and leaking oil. Vlad thought he would be able to get into range soon and give the Kodiak a fighting chance when the hunched figure stumbled forward, gesturing towards the Avatar. The construct leapt into the air at the Kodiak, it's sword pointed downwards. Vlad stumbled as the ground shook from the impact, the Kodiak wrecked and flaming. Almost immediately, the Crusader was on the other Kodiak, laying on with it's mace, pummeling the Kodiak as the Avatar had done to it's counterpart. By the end of the assault, the Kodiak stood, all but wrecked. Vlad was almost within range when Feora stepped forward, gesturing at the Avatar. Holy fire erupted from the Warjack, melting the Kodiak to slag. The Devastator was unaffected by the attacks however. It stepped forward and punched the Avatar with it's armor clad fist, doing a decent amount of damage with it. Without Vlad to guide it however, it did not process to use it's powerful charges on the other 'jack.
He rushed into range and shouted a spell, hoping that fate would see the day through in his favor, but it was too late. Stanislov's snipers were in disarray, shooting at the Warjacks in a blind panic, and Molovich was trying to take as many Daughters to Urcaen with him, but Vlad knew it would be to no avail. He turned started away from the field. It had been costly to learn, but he knew he would take every assignment seriously from this day forward....
***
So, tonight, I played a game against one of the other Slow Burn League fellows. I believe his name is Chris, and he's started Khador. I'd just gotten Knights Errant this evening so I could make a 35 point list. Above is the fluffy account, here's the more tactical account.
Lists were as follows:
5 Point Game:
Protectorate:
pFeora
-Crusader
-Revenger
-Repenter
Avatar
Vassal
6-Man Errant Unit
Daughters of the Flame
Khador:
pVlad
-Devastator
-Kodiakx2
Drakhun
Widowmakers
Khador had the 1st turn. He advanced his Drakhun and Widowmakers, then proceeded to pop Vlad's feat and run his 'jacks 16" towards my jacks. After shuffling Vlad forward, he then ended his turn. (I found out afterward he'd thought Vlad's control range was double his command vs. his focus. Hence the title.) I set up my KEE in a build on my side while my Daughters moved to flank, hoping to get the drop on the MoW or the Widowmakers before they started getting eaten. (Foolish me bringing infantry killers to this fight. Oh well, you plays what you got.) I shuffled my battlegroup forward, seeing if he would wait for me to close or if I could draw him into charge range. He seemed like he was going to try and use his Drakhun to ruin my Crusader's day, so I had Feora drop a Wall of Fire in front of him to block possible charge lanes.
On Turn 2, he didn't move Vlad forward enough to get his 'jacks in control, not to mention moved his MoW right up to the fire wall, rather than moving around take swings and engage the Daughters on his terms. He also charged his widowmakers out into the open, hoping to get potshots on my KEE next turn. He also, as I'd hoped, moved his jacks forward right into charging range of the Avatar and just about everything else in my battlegroup. it was then he realized how far he'd hung his jacks out, and that he had little he could do.
My turn came. The Avatar rolled 3 Focus, Feora allocated a couple to her Crusader as a follow up measure. Before I got to the meat of the turn, I had the Daughters plink at the Drakhun, mostly for grins, and then had my Errants shaft a couple of the Widowmakers, who just barely made their command check. The Avatar then charged, beating the holy hell out of one Kodiak, leaving it with about a single damage column. This had been mainly due to me rolling above average on the attack rolls, but roll very sub-par on the damage rolls (I think my highest was 9) The Vassal of Menoth then came forward and let my Avatar have one last swing. Box Cars trashed the Kodiak. The Crusader had much better luck, beating the other Kodiak within 3 boxes of wrecking it. Feora decided then to cast Blazing Effigy on the Avatar, which damaged the Kodiak for 3 points and wrecked it. (The Devastator just got the paint stripped by the attack.)
His final turn consisted of using his Widowmakers to take potshots at the Avatar, using the Devastator's normal attacks rather than it's more powerful blast attack, and then having Vlad come up and pop Signs and Portents so the Drakhun could waste 1 Daughter of the Flame.
We then had to pack it in because the store closed, but it was widely agreed I had the match in the bag. The lessons learned were, never ever hang your 'jacks out outside the caster range. Vlad needed to up and in my face more. Hopefully he doesn't have to learn this lesson again, because while it was good for me to get back into the groove, it's not really a victory to crow about. That said, as I said, for learning, it was good, and I'll be eagerly awaiting a rematch and more challenges to come.
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