Battle Report: Saeryn vs. Zerkova

Hey guys, time for another Battle Report. Since I'm prepping for the tournament next month, I'm trying to play my Thagrosh and Saeryn lists as much as possible, and with half my Shredders being stripped down, I went with Saeryn:

Saeryn
-Carnivean
-Scythean
-Shredder
-Shredder
Striders + UA
Blackfrost Shard
2 Spell Martyrs

My opponent is a new player at our store, and he was bringing, of course, Khador. It seems like no matter which store I go to, over half the players are playing Khador! He was bringing Zerkova, someone who I'm pretty familiar with since Del from the Brush/Paint/Mini blog plays her almost exclusively:

Zerkova
-Destroyer
-Decimator
-Spriggan
Widowmakers
Great Bears
Kell Bailoch
Manhunter

A solid list, with several jacks as well as some shooting and melee backup. With my experience against Khador, I'm not that worried. Interestingly, we're both using our factions' 3-man character units. Between these guys and the Black 13th, it seems like thats a pretty popular option! I win the roll and opt to go first. Below is a picture of the map:

Legion Deployment
Wanting to take advantage of the forest, I use my typical block formation just right of the middle: a front row of Shredder-Carnivean-Scythean-Shredder, with Saeryn and the Spell Martyrs behind them. The Blackfrost Shard sets up to the far right, hoping to flank my opponent.

Khador Deployment
The Great Bears deploy directly behind the forest, with Zerkova right behind them. The Spiggan and Destoryer deploy to the far right, across from the Blackfrost Shard, and the Decimator deploys on the right side of the forest. The Manhunter deploys to the left of the forest as far up as possible, so the Decimator is behind him.

Legion Advance Deploy
Since I'm going first and don't have to worry about getting shot to pieces, I deploy my Striders in 2 tight rows of 4 as far up as possible, right in front of the forest.

Khador Advance Deploy
The Widowmakers and Kell deploy in the back edge of the forest, to take advantage of Camoflage and Prowl.

Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova gazed out into the chilly night. Though her scouts reported nothing, her Orgoth artifacts had alerted her to a powerful arcane presence several days ago. While she had hoped to avoid the conflict, her foe had proved tenacious, drawing closer each night. Finding a defensible position, she ordered the Warjacks unloaded and fueled as she sent her advance forces, accompanied by the hired gun Bailoch, to give the intruder a bloody welcome. Whoever had the gall to interrupt her work was about the pay dearly.

Legion Turn 1
I suspect my opponent deployed his Widowmakers too close, so I walk my Striders up and attempt 4 2-man CRAs, one on each. Fortunately all are in range, and thanks to hunter, 3 Widowmakers bite the dust. The last passes his command check - I guess having the master hunter Kell Bailoch next to him inspires confidence, even when the rest of his unit is dead! The Striders then scatter with their reform move, wary of the Destroyer's cannon. The Shredders and Scythean run up, while the Carnivean just advances so he can put Spiny Growth on himself. Saeryn follow behind and puts Spiny Growth on the Scythean, as well as Respawn on the Carnivean. I decide to take the risk and have the Blackfrost Shard run up, instead of getting stealth. Just in case, I have Sevryn, the leader, move up in front, since he is the least valuable.

Khador Turn 1
My opponent is out for revenge after the loss of the Widowmakers, so the Spriggan advances up and puts a flare on one of the Striders before shooting his grenade cannon at him. Thankfully he misses, and the deviation doesn't catch anyone. Unfortunately the Strider's luck runs out quickly as the last Widowmaker advances and kills him with a Sniper shot. Kell also moves up and finds himself just within 5" of one of the Striders, who he also takes out with a Sniper shot. The Destroyer moves up next to the Spriggan, and takes a shot at Sevryn, who is just within range. Boosting to hit, he turns the Blackfrost Shard's leader into a hole in the ground. The Great Bears run around the left side of the forest, and the Manhunter advances and moves right, hoping his stealth will protect him from the Striders. The Decimator then runs forward, prodiving a nice deterrent so my Carnivean doesn't get any ideas of catching the Manhunter with his breath. Zerkova moves up, and using her Ghost Stone and Lens of Tarvodh takes out another Strider with Razor Wind.

A grim smile crossed the Omen of Everblight's face. Though her Striders had slaughtered the opponent's scouts nearly to a man, the alarm had still been sounded. At least some of the failures had been taken care of by the return fire. Her hopes of quietly capturing the Khadoran sorceress quickly faded as she saw the plumes of smoke in the fading light, telltale signs of Warjacks. A massive blast shook the earth, and she spared a quick glance in the direction of Sevryn and his brothers. Though by no means irreplaceable, their skills were still quite valuable and she hoped none had been seriously injured.

Legion Turn 2
My opponent is closing in, but I'm wary of Zerkova's feat - I don't want to get caught with 6-7" between us so I can't get to him but he can charge me. I advance the Striders up and finish off Kell with a CRA, but the last Widowmaker manages to survive. I then reform one of the Striders into melee with the Widowmaker, and another into the Decimator. The Manhunter looks to be trouble, so I have Shredder go rabid and run close to him, then follow up with a Spell Martyr. Saeryn activates, moving up and arcing Blightbringer through the Spell Martyr onto the Manhunter. One boosted damage roll later, he's nothing but a bubble in the pool of acid. The Carnivean then charges the Strider leader, allowing me to line up a breath attack on the Decimator as well as have the Strider there to keep me safe from charges. After all, DEF 15 should be safe from MAT 6 and RAT 4. I roll for the breath attack on the Strider, and get boxcars, killing him instantly. To add insult to injury, despite boosting the attack roll on the Decimator, I still miss. Well, that backfired miserably! The only upside is the Carnivean can put Spiny Growth on himself. The Scythean moves forward and right, positioning himself to take care of the Spriggan and Destroyer, and the remaining Spell Martyr runs up in front of him so he won't be charged. The second Shredder moves up to the edge of the forest, preparing to assist where needed, and the remaining members of the Blackfrost Shard move up, this time getting Stealth so they won't suffer the same fate as their leader.

Khador Turn 2
With our armies about to engage, my opponent decides its feat turn. He gives 3 focus to the Spriggan and 2 to the Decimator, then moves up to just behind the forest and uses the final two along with Ghost Sight and the Lens of Tarvodh to take out my Spell Martyr. She then uses her feat. With the path to my Carnivean clear, two of the Great Bears try to charge him, but find themselves short. The third goes after my Shredder, who he kills depite taking a point of damage from Blightbringer. The Decimator tries to trample past the Strider engaging him and manages to catch another one, but only the first dies thanks to a boosted attack roll. This leaves the second Strider and the Decimator in an odd position - they're in base to base, but since they're back to back, they aren't engaged! On the right side, the Spriggan tries to charge the Scythean, but falls short, so the Destroyer moves up and tries to take a shot at the Blackfrost Shard, but it misses and scatters into the middle of nowhere. The Widowmaker takes a swing at the Strider he's engaged with, but unsurprisingly misses.

Zerkova grimaced as she took in the battlefield. Somehow the enemy's forces seemed to melt into the growing shadows, appearing out of nowhere to kill the Manhunter who had been guiding her but nowhere to be found when her forces charged in after them, even escaping the so-called "Great" Bears of Gallowswood. Hoping to turn the tide, she called focused her energy and brought forth a howling winter gale, hoping to disorient the enemy long enough to land a crushing blow.

Legion Turn 3
He's used his feat and I'll still be able to engage him in melee, so its time for my counter attack. The Carnivean walks up between the Great Bears that charged at him and the Decimator, but is only able to get into melee with the Jack. A flurry of attacks later and the only uncrippled system he has is a few boxes on his gun arm. Saeryn then moves up and casts Blightbringer on the Carnivean, which fails to damage the Decimator but kills the closest Great Bear. She then slides a bit to the right and uses her feat. The two unengaged Striders each take a shot at one of the Great Bears, and great hit and damage rolls take down both, but one makes his tough roll, and isn't even knocked down to boot! The last Strider flails in vain at the Widowmaker, but the Scythean then moves up and, with help from the Blackfrost Shard, drops the Spriggan to 6 health, sadly with both his arms still active. The Shredder pulls back to Saeryn, since I feel like I've got the game in the bag but don't want to mess it up at the end.

Khador Turn 3
His forces are in shambles, and to make matters worse he can't retaliate against the beasts that are tearing him apart. The Decimator turns around and takes a swing at the Strider right behind him, but misses with his damaged arm. The Spriggan bulldozes the Scythean, but thanks to reach we're still engaged. The Destroyer takes a shot at the Scythean, but misses and ends up hitting the Spriggan instead, taking out his shield arm! Ironically, thanks to bulldoze, the Scythean is out of range. The last member of the Great Bears charges the Strider fighting the Widowmaker and kills him, and the newly free Widowmaker takes a shot at Saeryn, but misses. Zerkova finally decides to move around the forest and takes a boosted Razor Wind shot at Saeryn, but rolls 3 1's!

Despite the fact that her beasts were tearing apart the enemy jacks, Saeryn's smile had faded. They had taken down most of the opposing force, but the witch was yet to be found. Though she was tempted to send her beasts out to scour the enemy camp, she restrained herself and kept them focused on the task at hand. The enemy Warcaster's time would come soon enough...

Legion Turn 4
I ran a bit hot on Fury last turn, so I'm not able to take everything off my Carnivean. He rolls 2 6's on the Frenzy check, but the fully boosted bite attack is all thats needed to scrap the Decimator. The Shredder runs rabid and brings down the Spriggan, freeing up the Scythean to walk up and scrap the Destroyer. Saeryn herself then moves up, and with a pair of fully boosted Deathspurs takes out the last Widowmaker and Great Bear.

Khador Turn 4
With nothing but his caster against my whole army, my opponent runs Zerkova off the back edge of the board and concedes.

Kommander Zerkova silently cursed the incompetent forces assigned to her as she trudged through the light snow. Though she had escaped the battle, her research would be set back by months as she requisitioned enough resources to attempt this expedition again. Her only solace was that next time, she would bring a large enough force to grind the enemy warlock into dust.

Aftermath
From the very first turn, this was a slaughter. Since everyone did their jobs excellently, its hard to pick out an MVP, but the funniest moments are probably thanks to the Carnivean, who rolled boxcars, but only on frenzy checks or when attacking my own models! Between him and the Destroyer blowing off the Spriggan's shield, it seems our forces were telling us that "tactical" friendly fire was not a good idea.

Since my force did pretty well, I'd rather take a look at my opponent's army and consider what I would have done had the roles been reversed. First off, I probably would have deployed to the left, instead of on the right. The huge forest gave the Legion a huge advantage, since it shielded my troops while slowing his down. Even though we would be on opposite sides of the board, he had plenty of AOE's to whittle down my Strider while the rest of my force caught up. I probably would have put the Spriggan and Destoryer out front, blocking LOS to Kell and the Widowmakers. If the Striders moved up to try to get an angle shot, the Spriggan's flares would have made them easy pickings for my ranged units. Once the heavies reached me, I would probably placed the small models in front of my jacks and used my feat. Without the extra range from a charge, they would have a hard time getting to my jacks, but I would still be able to countercharge the next turn. With 7 focus to power the 3 jacks, taking out the Carnivean and Scythean would be easy, and essentially win the game since without them, Saeryn needs to cut for Fury. The main problems would be getting around her feat and respawn, but if I could draw out the feat with the threat of a charge and use the Manhunter to get the final hit after respawn, Khador would have a pretty good chance.