Captain Not-So-Fantastic

I feel like such a fool. I made such a silly, silly mistake that was bad for the Oli’s and my second CGC Doubles league game (can you guess which way this is going to go?) After our shaky start in the first league game, Team Burning Car Bomb took on the might of the Mark/Bill Troll combo.


After rolling off, we opted to go first. So we set up our Xerxis/eMorghoul force:

Xerxis

Titan Gladiator

Molik Karn

Arcuarii (max unit)

Beast Handlers (min unit)

eMorghoul

Adeptimus Marketh

Titan Gladiator

Cyclops Brute

Cyclops Savage

Praetorian Swordsmen

and Mark and Bill set up their list:

pMadrak

Calandra

Mulg

Impaler

Slag Troll

Axer

Fennblades (max unit) + Unit Attachment

Champions

Fell Caller Hero

Stone Bearers (max unit)

Chronicler

(I think that was it)

like so:

The game starts with a general move forward in a kind of brick like style, while our Praetorian Swordsmen ran forward.

And so did the Trolls. Mark and Bill sent a scouting force of Fennblades and Mulg towards our lines while protecting their warlocks with Stone Bearers and Champions.

Next turn and our Swordsmen ran into the Fennblades after the Arcuarii took down of them down (which triggered Vengeance for the Fennblades). Everything sort of just shuffled forward.

The Fennblades tore their way through a few of the Swordsmen, but not as many as they had hoped for. Everything had bricked forward in typical Troll fashion.

Then the game was won! My mistake was noticed. Again, Xerxis seems to have trouble with the Kill Box scenario. Last time he got blasted out of the zone, while this time he just didn’t want to enter it. The trouble was that I forgot to move my warlock in the first turn and his movement wasn’t enough in the second turn. I felt very silly and still do to this minute.

Mark and Bill didn’t want the game to end this way, so agreed to play on.

The Praetorians and Molik took out most of the Fennblades an eMorghoul went to engage the Troll mountain.

After watching Molik go through the Fennblades, the Trollkin champions and Axer took their revenge and made short work of the monster Cyclops. eMorghoul and the remaining Swordsmen were also dispatched. With no way of actually harming either of the Troll warlocks, and because the game went on for a long time already, we called it a night.

Another loss for me, and Oli, is not a big deal really. But it is ever-so slightly embarrasing making the simplest of mistakes in front of all of your European Team Championship teammates. Not that we want to go up there and beat the other 39 team attending (though it would be nice - think of the prizes), we just want to have a laugh playing a game that we love.
There are plenty more league games to play so I’m sure we can move up the table. Hopefully, I’ll be able to learn how to wield Xerxis more efficiently in future games because I really love him. I would hope to get him in a larger gamer with two full units of Cataphracts and a couple of Titans, although there may not be enough time after the league and before the forthcoming ETC.

Fancy a double?

After the success of CGC’s Iron Cross mini tourney, it was decided to carry on the fun with a doubles league. So six teams were assembled with a nice spread of factions (meaning less Khador for this event). We will be playing each other team twice (home and away) using the Kill Box scenario, and each player bring 25 points to the table.

I didn’t want to use Menoth as, as I have said before, they are on indefinite leave. Also no-one else uses Retribution at the moment and my Trollblood force is not big enough yet. So that left Skorne. While I don’t have a varied and flexible force yet, I can still field different looking forces. Having said that, I did go and buy Xerxis purposefully for this league. He just looks mean and plays mean too!
So I teamed with Oli, our resident Press Ganger to bring ultimate subjugation to our enemies. First off, we came up against the combo of Vish (Cryx) and Nick (Four Star Syndicate). We set up like thus:

Then we begun the mentalness. Vish pulled off some crazy manoeuvres while Nick steadily pushed forward with his shooty jacks. This was something Oli and I mirrored with Oli speeding his force forward and me moving my Xerxis brick slowly and surely. Once Nick had me in his sights, he took a shot at Xerxis and promptly knocked him out of the Kill Box scoring a point for Team S.P.E.C.T.R.E.. Some more mentalness…

happened and eMorghoul press forward and killed some stuff but not his intended target. Unfortunately, he would die soon after despite a ridiculously high Def. Xerxis took some more punishment, but laughed at everyone as he survived with a single point of damage. Vish’s caster decided to hide and Nick’s Magnus remained behind his lines making it a difficult task for Oli and I to take either of them. The Skorne were staring at the prospect of losing. The final turn proved to be quite tricky and demanded everything to go as planned (the planning took some time as well). This involved a Titan Gladiator picking up Nick’s Nomad (I think it was a nomad) and throwing it at Magnus and hopefully pushing the Merc caster out of the Kill Box and earning a draw. The was executed, but the flying jack deviated away from Magnus.

C’est la Vie! This was a great game and I cannot wait for the return leg for which we’ll be ready. You’ll probably have noticed a lack of quality (and diminished amount) of pics in this batrep. That’s because so much happened in the game that I wasn’t prepared for. It’s also the reason for highlights as opposed to a lengthy report. But I promise something a little better for next week against the Trolls. Just to make up for it, here’s a pic of the totally awesome cake celebrating four years of Cross Gaming Club. Happy Birthday!!!