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Cygnar won the toss and opted to deploy and move first, as soon as Cygnar started casting multi shot, fast move horror spells I got a sinking feeling in my gut and sure enough the trenchers lined up to take… hmmm 20 odd shots into the Khadorian deployment zone… as luck would have it I’d deploted deep. The only models in range were the Kayazy’s (well in range but not in range), the widowmakers and the Shocktrooper. The Cygnar sneak attack collapsed with only 2 widowmakers and stray Greylord and Holt (killed by an errant grenade) . With the trenchers under the effect of temporal accel, they were done for two turns, the Assassins rushed forward and made a right mess of the counter attack, doing little damage. Meanwhile Fenris lopped off Maxwel’s head and booted it back where it came from.

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Turn 2 Cygnar advanced, did little damage other than blowing Fenris into the air with a Mule hit, sadly for the lancer he lander right next door and it had already activated.  The main Cygnar army moved up, considered popping feats and opted not to. Khador continued the Trencher mop up, the Witch charged into combat killing three trenchers and getting some nice soul food.  Gorman popped some smoke and the widowmakers made rather hard work of not doing much damage to the cygnar cavalry under Arcane shield. Fenris stood up and made very short work of the Lancer.

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Turn 3 Cygnar didn’t really lead to much, with the trencher sneak attack failed they were lacking in a back up plan and the Cavalry was bogged down in rough terrain facing the Behmoth widowmakers and Aiyana. The mules fired, missed and did little damage, more consideration to feats, decided against and then all hell broke loose.. The last trenchers died.  Sorcha moved up and it was a whole world of icey pain, catching both casters, both Mules, Laddermore and the Piper. This was followed by a tempest and it was time to clean up . Gorman popped smoke, scrappy slipped through the secret paths and sprang on Haley, Frozen she was easy meat and swiftly pinned and reduced to a few hitpoints, Fenris cleaved off the arm of one of the Mules and the Shocktroopers blew the cannon arm of the other one.

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Turns 4 to the end saw the Cygnar army in pannic as they failed to kill scrappy, Haley, and her support group were polised off and suddenly there was just bart, three StormLances and the fake Aiyana & Master Holt left. The Old Witch popped her feat to ensure no Cygnar stragglers got over excited. Bart held out, but was frozen every turn and while his Armour kept him alive, it was only until Eyriss arrived to stop that and the the Demo boys moved in splattered him all over the floor.

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All in all a massacre, Khador casualties amounted to a few scratches here and there and one unit of Greylords. Cygnar were left realing from the loss and review the trencher sneak attack as a viable attack option. For Khador it was stunning success, the synergy between Sorcha and the Old Witch was devestating. Scrappy once again did an awesome job but the hero of the day was Gorman who set up the cloud that enable Scrappy to jump into the frozen heart of cygnar and take out Haley.

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First up was a 750 Rage, Rivets and Solos with Kromac and the Circle taking on a confident Dominic Darius. Darius had witness last weeks royal massacre of the ciricle by Khador and felt the battle was going to be a mere formality of handing him a medal and getting his butt kissed by a hairy wolf… not quite the way it turned out. Luck desered Darius from the get go as his forces missed everything. Given a blunderbuss and a barn door, his forces would have missed, that was how badly it was going. Even his half jacks couldn’t repair his Jack’s fast enough and the forces of Kromac ripped a trail of cogs and screws right up to Darius and then ripped his head off and played footy with it, until that was, one of the Warp Wolves got hungry and ate it. All said and done, not a day to remember for the blue boys.

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Next up Dark hearted Fiona took on Vlad in a 500. Fiona fielding a couple of Jack’s, a full unit of Croe’s bad boys and some other assorted riff raff. Against an interesting combination of Khador cavalry and Yuri and his Manhunter gang…plus the obligatory fire and hope Mortar.  Well as it was for the Blue’s so it was for Croe and the barn door. Miss after miss and then the cavalry and the single Kodiak Jack stormed in. Blood everywhere and while a counter attack from Fiona did finish off the 3 Khador Cavalry she was left horribly exposed and with Yuri’s gang coming at her fast. Even her feat failed to stop the reds from cutting down her forces. A last throw of the dice she moved up to get range for an attack on Vlad…and forgot about the Man-o-War Drakhun counter charge.  That left her with 3 wounds left and no line of site to Vlad. Next turn just to add to the general all round horror, she got boiled alive the next turn by the Kodiak Vent attack… nasty!

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So the reds were feeling confident. And faced Madrak in a 500, Scorcha in for the reds.  The terrain was awful. It was a double champions brick and the reds really became very tentative early on, unable to find a way through the brick, even with the Kazyak Assassins and underboss they dithered around and waited for the Trolls to attack, which they did and then it was all down hill from there. Madrak maintained Sure Foot whch mean Scorcha couldn’t get penetration on the Brick and the Iron Fang Pike men couldn’t knock anyone over.  Greylords were burnt alive by the Pyre Troll, and the only good news was when Hawk managed to take out the fell caller, though with sure foot running he was never going to be needed. In the end Scorcha was left almost alone and made one last effort to get to Madrak, it failed and she died under the stomping champion boots.

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The second battle saw a 500 point Caine (Kris) and Cygnar take on Kruegar (Kobby)  and the Circle, Thing started well for Cygnar, mashing the Cicle Cavalry from long range, but then Kruegar popped his feat and it was a bloody bath of fried flesh as long gunners and arcane mages spent the next 2 turns getting zapped as they tried to keep up the fire on the advancing Circle.  Caine’s feat could have done better but even he was struggling to hit the Defense 18 and 19 Druids. As the battle progressed it became a mop up operation for the Druids, a potential caster kill from a charging Cygnar Knight came to nothing when he missed and while Caine continued to take pot shots at Kruegar he never did enough to really threaten him. Last turn Caine went all out left himself open for the kill, but then Kruegar blew his attack and it was all over. VPs were not counted as Caine and Doc were the only Cygnarmodels left on the table, compared to rather a lot of Druids.

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Everblight had the first turn and their warlocks supported their army with spells such as Rapport, Respawn and Dash. The Raptors advanced up to shoot some arrows at Alten Ashley who was hiding in a wheatfield but they couldn’t hit him. One unit of Gatormen advanced up to the wheatfield but were much too far away from Ashley. The heavy beasts advanced up Everblight’s left flank along with the Warmongers. The archers and other beasts stayed on a hill some 20″ from the Cygnar front line. Quite safe… or so they thought.

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Cygnar’s first turn was a shocker. Stryker immediately cast a 6″ Snipe on Caine’s guns which revealed to Everblight Cygnar’s basic strategy. Shoot them dead from a mile away! Caine suddenly got a 25″ threat range (movement and gun range). Caine advanced up a hill and offloaded his guns at the Seraph on the opposite hill. Three bullets later and the Seraph was dead. The Hunter jack took a shot at a Warmonger, hit it but only marginally damaged it due to a lack of focus. It then moved in front of Caine to screen him. Caine thought he was safe and well out of range from a counter-attack. The rest of the Cygnar army moved into position. The Long Gunners joined Caine on the hill. The heavy jacks took the middle and the Stormguard and Gun Mages took the right flank. Alexia’s Risen just tried to get out of the way.

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Everblight were scared now of Caine’s threat range and the usual big rush up the table didn’t happen. The Raptors did what they always do. Advance, shoot, and then retreat. This time they did hit Ashley but failed to kill him. The Gatormen advanced… wary of the Long Gunners on the hill. The Warmongers ran into the rough along with the Carnivean while the Angelus advanced looking for some warcaster to assassinate. The Legion thought they had Caine dead but it required perfect dice to pull it off. After being Dashed, the Blighted Archers approached as far as they could and five of them were in range of the Hunter for a Concentrated Volley of poisoned arrows. Unfortunately for Caine, he was directly behind the Hunter and was also hit. Poisoned arrows merely scratched the Hunter but severely hurt Caine. He was near death after the attack. Close but not close enough. The Legion had nothing else to throw against Caine so he survived the turn.

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Cygnar’s second turn saw some spells cast and some more Caine destruction. The Journeyman caster Arcane Shielded Stryker, while Stryker Arcane Shielded the Stormguard, Blurred the Gun Mages and popped his Invincibility feat. Almost all the Cygnar army was in the feat and would be near impossible to kill on Everblight’s next turn. Caine needed to get out of danger but he also needed to remove those Blighted Archers as they proved to be dangerous. Caine, as well, popped his feat and started shooting at the Archers. Each Archer hit blew up and killed his friends to the left and right of him. Five bullets later, the entire unit were blown to bits and Caine then cast Gate Crasher and teleported back to the Cygnar deployment zone where Doc Killingsworth was waiting to take care of his wounds. The Long Gunners started Waterfall attacking the Gatormen in the wheatfield but amazingly poor damage dice meant that only one of them died, with another wounded. Ashley had to get out of the wheatfield so he advances right and took a shot at the Carnivean but was just out of range. Ashley was now out in the open and sure to die. The Gun Mages advanced up to take Thunderbolt shots at the Angelus and Carnivean in the hopes of Knocking them down but the dice weren’t there. The Angelus was pushed fairly far back though. Rupert Marched the Stormguard and they ran through the rough to engage the Warmongers.

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Everblight’s third turn was largely ineffective due to Stryker’s Invincibility feat. The Raptors shot at a few Long Gunners who were just out of the feat’s effect and a couple of them died. The Gatorman ran up to Ashley to make sure he wasn’t taking anymore shots. Rhyas popped her feat which meant that none of the Everblight army could be attacked with melee weapons on Cygnar’s next turn. The Warmongers hacked into the Stormguard but the combination of Arcane Shield and Invincibility gave them an ARM of 23 and only one died. The Carnivean Assaulted and managed to do a bit better and killed a couple of them. The Angelus advanced and shot at a Gun Mage but couldn’t hit due to its Blur spell and bad dice. The Teraph remained Dug In on the hill and was screening one of its warlocks. Suddenly Bog Ambushers popped out of nowhere and descended upon the Gun Mages and Rupert. Rupert died but somehow only two Gun Mages died.

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Cygnar’s third turn was fairly short. The Stormguard couldn’t attack because of Rheas’s feat so they did nothing. Ashley accepted suicide and walked away from the Gatorman engaged him but snake eyes was the die roll and Ashley lived. He took a shot at the Dug In Teraph but missed. Now unengaged, the Long Gunners took another turn of shooting into the Gatormen but still didn’t kill them all. One remained alive… barely alive but still alive. The Gun Mages attacked the Bog Ambushers with their Gun Fighter ability and a few of them died. Alexia cast Paralytic Fear at them and killed their leader. They failed their CMD check and would have been running away except the Paralytic Fear spell prevented them from moving. Caine saw the Angelus flying its wings alone some 20″ away so he walked up a bit and took a couple of shots at it. Angelus was fairly damaged and Caine perhaps could have finished the job but he wanted to be a bit more cautious so he stopped with three focus left and teleported back to Doc would healed him but Knocked him down. The Field Mechaniks ran around Caine to protect his prone body.

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Everblight’s fourth turn saw the death of Ashley and the folly of Trampling. Ashley’s luck had finally run out. He was charged by the last Gatorman and killed. His corpse joined Alexia’s undead army. A couple more Long Gunners fell victim to the Raptor’s arrows. Saeryn popped her feat with allowed free movement and free attacks for her army. The Legion had hoped to chain attack using the Warmongers berserker ability all the way to reach Stryker. But first, the Stormguard in the way needed to be clearly out so the Carnivean Trampled through them towards both Cygnar heavy jacks (who had been doing basically nothing the whole game so far). The Carnivean trample ended up missing two of the Stormguard whose Free Strikes hit home and hit HARD! The Carnivean ended up at his target jack with a broken Body. Several Stormguard did die however. The Carnivean took a bite on the Defender and did less damage than it could have due to its broken body. The Warmongers now started Berserk carving their way through the Stormguard. The entire unit died without making a single in activation attack. Lots of Risen were created but placed far away from the Berserk Warmongers. The Warmongers did not make it to Stryker and stopped when they failed to kill a gobber mechanik. Now in flies the Angelus. Without a warcaster nearby, it settles for an Alexia assassination attempt. She got hit and hit hard. 13 Risen were nobly sacrificed to prevent all damage to her.

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Cygnar’s fourth turn cleared out the heavy Everblight beasts. Stryker focused up his jacks as strongly as he could. The Centurion went first and Critically hit the Carnivean which meant that its next two focus attacks autohit. After being hit three times with a P+S 18 weapon, the Carnivean was destroyed. However, it immediately Respawned and moved away a tad. The Defender moved up the finish the job. A boosted hit and boosted damage roll with its Shock Hammer ended the Carnivean for good. The Gun Mages now tried their luck again at Thunderbolting the Angelus and Knocking it down. The fourth and finally shot did the trick and the Angelus was Knocked Down and now severely damaged. Alexia moved back and bit and cast Paralytic Fear. After boosting the damage roll, the Angelus was dead. The Teraph died as well… but I can’t recall if it was on turn 4 or 5 and who killed it. Perhaps it was killed by the Long Gunners. Caine, previously Knocked Down by Doc, stood up and didn’t see any targets in range so he moved and cast Blur on the Long Gunners instead. Doc healed him up again and Caine was now at full strength. The Journeyman warcaster also died somewhere along the way and resulted in the Hunter shutting down… but, again, I don’t recall how it happened.

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Everblight knew now that it was all over. On their fifth turn, all they had left was three Raptors, two or three Warmongers, a Shepherd, and both Warlocks. The Raptors took shots at the Blurred Long Gunners and perhaps one died. The Warmongers were currently engaging two heavy warjacks and could do little against them… especially with Field Mechaniks behind the jacks repairing them. The Legion warlocks stayed out of the way. The Bog Ambushers were free to run away and took free strikes from the Gun Mages. A couple of them actually survived and ran away.

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Cygnar’s fifth turn was devoted to killing the Warmongers, the Shepard and the fleeing Bog Ambushers. However, one of the Bog Ambushers managed to dodge all the Gun Mage bullets. The jacks took care of the Warmongers while the Long Gunners took out the Shepard. Caine, for once, didn’t do anything. The enemy warlocks were too far away (and one of them was invisible anyway).

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Everblight’s last turn was interesting. The Raptors advanced to shoot at the Long Gunners and then took their free movement to advance to engage them. Rhyas then cast her Blight Shroud spell which wiped out the entire unit. Saeryn was too far away to do anything.

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Cygnar’s last turn. Stryker moved up to reactivate the Hunter and deny Everblight the VPs and also cast Earthquake on the unit of Raptors. They were all knocked down. The idea was to then use Caine to wipe them out. Instead, Caine saw Rheas in range and chose to go after her instead. In the end, it was a mistake. After all his bullets and focus used, she was still alive. A pity that. No casters died in the epic 1000 point battle. Nothing else in the Cygnar army was close enough to finish her off.

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Cygnar wins on Victory Points. 18 to 7.

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Kobby set up his forces behind a long wall on a hill, meaning that even the Raptors would have a tough time hitting anything, though when it mattered they did hit and kill what needed to be killed.

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Expecting fairly slow turns from Kobby I was settling in for a 4 hour game, but Cygnar turn 1 took 10 minutes, though I swear nothing moved and so passed the first three turns as Everblight edged forward carefully and Cygnar shuffled their defences. The main excitement being me forgetting to dump Fury and having three beats risk Frenzy checks on turn 2, one failed, but I escaped due to the Shephards on the table.

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Turn 3 saw Everblight advance into range and the Cygnar gunners opened up and infantry moved in to engage.  Both the Carnivaeron and Angelus were hit hard but survived on Cygnar Turn 4. Turn 4 for Everblight saw the Gator men engage the Cygnar infantry to little effect and the Raptors shoot a couple of infantry but the death toll was very very light on both sides. Turn 5 saw Cygnar set up to give Everblight a kicking, but Kobby forgot to assign focus, and that hurt. While he killed one Carnivaeron and hurt the Angelus, the Carnivaeron respawned and the Angelus was left with enough points to stay up. Siege advanced from his bunker surrounded by mechanics to get better range and stood admiring the battle secure in the knowledge that the Everblight forces were not going to get near him.

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Turn 5 for Everblight saw Siege realize his error, Saeryn advanced from her bunker cast a few ineffective spells and left herself exposed and easy bate for turn 6. The Rapotors advanced and all shot at the from Mechanic in front of Siege, Gobber on a hill Def 17!! Needing 10s and 11s to hit, the second shot hit and killed the little green skin, opening up the charge lane for the Angelus.  “Free Strike” gasped Kobby as the Angelus launched, forgetting they are immune and watched in horror as it settled a nice inch from Siege over the wall. Granted an extra 2 Defence from the wall, it didn’t help as the Angelus hit twice and killed him with a wound to spare. It wasn’t pretty, it was desprate and if had gone wrong then it was all over for Everblight.

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All in all I got very lucky, I was getting nailed from long range, if Kobby had remembered to assign focus on his turn 5 I would likely not have been in a position to attack his caster.  But that’s the way it goes, some times a desperate do or die attack wins the game.  The battle took 2 hours, which I have to say was wickedly fast for Kobby

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Round 3 “What!” cries the Cygnar player, demands to see card. Cygnar retreat… Haley activates Temporal Barrier , trundle trundle.  Everblight activate, shuffle around a bit, Saeryn discovers Breath Stealer… zap zap and the Cygnar Jacks are reduced to shuffling too…skip to round 5 Everblight, the past rounds being very much the same thing and the only thing to die was a Shredder that get too close to Haley’s gun.

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Round 5. Raek had ShadowStalk active on a Jack, as it shuffles around, he moves 3″ to get a nice line on  Haley. Haley keeps one focus, not expecting too much trouble with Temporal Barrier running but does want to stop all her Jacks being slowed by Breath Stealer, so has a focus handy for blocking at least one spell.  Everblight have other ideas… Saeryn targets Haley,  first attack blocked, second boosted and hits. The Raek then advances and latches on to Haley hits with his jaw, and strikes twice with his tail, hitting twice and getting just enough penetration with the last attack to bring Haley to her knees coughing up blood.