That being said, I'm going to try and start writing a little more on here, since Patrick said he'd like to see some battle reports, and I don't mind waxing poetic about getting owned.
So last night was a fight against Brian and his Cygnar at 50 points. He was playing pHaley and I was playing Borka, and we ended up with the Supply Lines scenario. The game went...poorly for me. His army consisted of 20 Sword Knights, 2 units of Storm Blades, a Centurion, Thorn, Squire, and Gun Mages. Mine was Kriel Warriors, Krielstone, Fell Caller, Chronicler, whelps, and then a Blitzer, Bomber, 2 Impalers, and a pyre troll.
Right off the bat I was really outnumbered. Kriel Warriors are a great tarpit, but there was just too damn many Sword Knights and I got chewed up. All 20 SKs were ARM 19 with Arcane Shield (from Haley and Jr.), so blast damage was useless against them. On the upside, the Gun Mages were kind of useless (their POW 10s just couldn't cut through my armor), but they ended up being useful. More on that in a minute.
Round 1 went roughly along the lines of "He runs all his stuff up, I run my Kriels up, slap Iron Flesh and Hero's Tragedy on them, position beasts for maximum boomage next turn."
Round 2 was brutal. Haley ran Thorn up behind my lines and popped her feat, then arced chain lightening (can be engaged and still arc!) into my back lines, killing the Kriel Standard, some of the warriors, and one of the KSB unit. Sword Knights charged, needed 9 to hit, got 2 attacks, and just had a huge numbers advantage. I didn't make a single tough roll, and lost about half the unit. Storm Blades were right behind them, meaning even if I chewed through that many SKs I had a world of pain in store. My counterattack was less than awesome. Blitzer killed 3 or 4 SKs, Bomber got a couple gun mages Pyre lit some SKs on fire, Kriels whiffed up and down the field, Fell Caller got 7 SKs in a spray and didn't kill a single one...it was bad news bears. Worse, I had one supply point and he had 2.
Round 3 started and he basically continued the death spree. I was down to 3 KWs, and he charged the Blitzer with the Centurion, doing some solid damage but not killing him. I was losing ground and if I couldn't get Haley it was gonna be all over. I could see that with Far Strike, the Blitzer could probably shoot her, but there was an angry Centurion in the way, and Thorn's Reach would also hamper the effort. I worked it out as best I could, clearing out SKs and casting Mosh Pit, then having the Pyre knock down Thorn. With Far Strike ready, the Blitzer activated. By my calculations, two boosted damage rolls would probably do it. All I needed to roll was 3 or better on my d3 shots with him, then get 11 to hit with a boost. This was doable. I rolled a 1. Shit. Well, gotta make do with what I got, I guess. Blitzer walked up, smacked the Centurion to knock him down, then took his shot at Haley - and missed. One chance, needed 11 on 3 dice, rolled about 5 if I recall correctly. I sighed, ended my turn, he got 2 more points, then won by just ending his turn and getting the requisite points.
Basically I feel like I got diced pretty hard. I only made 1 or two tough rolls for the entire game, and flubbed vast numbers of attacks which should have tipped the odds strongly in my favor. The Fell Caller's spray alone should have eaten up a chunk of the SKs and pushed the attrition back in my favor, but it just didn't happen.
That being said, I'm glad Brian got a chance to see that Sword Knights are awesome. They're tough, cheap, and plentiful - a great combination no matter how you look at them. They can clog up the board and hold important points, tie up enemy units and hold their own even against relatively durable infantry. They performed well enough that I expect to see him fielding them a lot more now, at least a single unit, and I'm always happy when I can give someone new reasons to put pewter on the table.
Stupid Blitzer...
