Kommandant Sorscha Kratikoff (Sorscha3) vs. Kallus, Devastation of Everblight (Kallus2)

The Legion abominations are again plaguing the land. This time Sorscha is called upon to deal with it. She brings her trusted Man-O-Wars in an Armored Corps list against Kallus and all his merry evil Rudolfs. This battle was almost a song of fire and ice, where Kallus provided the fire and Sorscha the ice. Ice won – winter was coming.

Legion is not a faction I see too often. I have only faced them once before, but that was against Absylonia1 using Irusk2’s WGK list (list detailed here, and battle report here). That time Irusk was victorious. However, this Legion list is a completely different beast, and I’m opting for my AC list (list detailed here), which I’m quite happy about as I’m pretty sure that Winter Guards would die like flies against this Legion list. The two lists facing of are as follows:

This Legion list is the theme Children of the Dragon, which is apparently primarily a Blighted Nyss theme. The theme gives the Nephilim Bolt Thrower Unyielding, and the player a +1 to the starting roll. This list is controlled by Kallus2, and only has two heavy Warbeasts (Characters, though) and one light. However, there is a lot of Blighted Nyss on evil Rudolfs.

Kallus, Devastation of Everblight is all about fire. His Warbeasts gain continuous fire, his sword can give Continuous fire to nearby models if he boxes one. He even has two fire spells: Blazing Path, which gives friendly faction models in his control Fire Immunity, and opponents suffer Continuous Fire is they end their activation with 2″ of one of his models and in his Control Range; and Brand of Fire, which deals Fire damage and models with 5″ of the target hit suffers Continuous Fire. All of this fire leads up to his Feat, where everybody already on fire suffers a POW 12, and his beast can charge for free with a +3″ to their movement.

He can do some other suff besides being a pyromaniac. He has Hyper-regeneration (d3 per turn) and Reposition 3″. He also has an OK sword (2″ reach P+S 15, with fiery extras); being his own Cavalry he can also do Critical Knockdown. He has our old friend Battle Lust (model/unit gets addition dice on damage roll), and Overrun (if the target model kills something, a model in the Battlegroup can make an advance).

Kallus is accompanied by three Warbeasts and an attachment: Azrael, a Nephilim Bolt Thrower, and Zuriel; and a Succubus. The latter can upkeep one of Kallus’ spells for free, and cast three of her own. She can produce a 3″ cloud, cast Hex Bolt (no Special Attacks or Actions, or Power Attacks for one round); and can Influence. She is basically just an annoyance.

The Nephilim Bolt Thrower is basically just a light Warbeast that can shoot stuff up to 16″ away (6″ move and 10″ shot) at POW 14, and push the victim 3″ (Knockdown on Critical). The most annoying bit is probably that it can see through Sorscha’s clouds.

The two real beasts are Azrael and Zuriel. The former is not surprisingly another fire lover. To begin with it, like most other Legion stuff, ignore clouds; so Sorscha’s feat it somewhat hampered. The main thread from Azreal is its ability to shoot really hard. It can throw two spears (via Reload), with a base POW 17, range 10″. Of course it causes fire, and it has a Critical Smite. Not too shabby. The same spear is used in close combat. So, Azreal can put out five POW 17 attacks per round; that is 20 points of one of our Warjacks. If Kallus has put Battle Lust on it, it will kill a Warjack.

Zuriel is a highly mobile beat-stick, with a spray to Assault with. It has two P+S 16 swords, with a twist: they have Precision Strike so it gets to choose which column to affect. This is always bad news for our ‘jacks. Luckily, Sorscha brought Mechaniks.

In addition to the Warbeast, Kallus brought three units: one unit of Ice Witches, and two units of Blighted Nyss on evil Rudolfs with their support solo Annyssa Ryvaal. The Ice Witches are there for two reasons: to manipulate dice through Puppet Master; and to lower DEF through our own friend Ice Cage. The latter doesn’t really do a lot against Armored Corps (I mean anything that lowers DEF 10 is really not going to anything spectacular), except perhaps stationary.

The Blighted Nyss Raptors is some of the annoyingly fast cavalry that can both shoot and Reposition. Always a difficult one for the slow Man-O-Wars. They can move 9″, shoot 12″, and then Reposition 5″. So there is basically no way of catching them if they are in shooting mode. They do an average of 21 points of damage with their bow (extra dice due to Poison). If they opt for charging, they can on the average do 19 points on Impact, and then 24 points of damage on the charge attack. Easily enough to take out a Man-O-War, except for the Shocktroopers. However, they are only DEF 14 and ARM 15, with 5 boxes; so, this sounds like work for the Bombardiers. A two-man CRA should be able to take one Raptor out per shot. Unfortunately, the Raptors can shoot and reposition, and stay just outside the threat range of the Bombardiers, unless they have Desperate Pace.

The Raptors are accompanied by their solo Annyssa Ryvaal.  She is basically an assassin that can gallop around and shoot poisonous arrows at the poor Man-O-Wars.

Finally, Kallus bring the ubiquitous Blighted Nyss Shepherds, who are there for fury controle and healing; and Craelix, Fang of Everblight, who is another shooting annoyance. Despite being able to shoot a lot, and do some damage, I don’t think she is too dangerous for heavy armoured Man-O-Wars.

We are playing the 2018 Steamroller scenario Recon II, and Legion goes first. We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″). 

Kallus deploys Raptors on each flak. The left one also with Annyssa, and the right one also with Craelix. Kallus himself goes in the middle with his attachment and his beasts around him. Ice Witches and Shepherds in the back.

Sorscha deploys the Bombardiers and the Kodiak on the left flank. They both have Pathfinder and can get through the forest. They are supported by a unit of Mechaniks. On the right flank goes the Demolition Corps along with Beast, also supported by a unit of Mechaniks. In the middle is the ambolt of Shocktroopers along with the two Suppression tankers. In the back goes Sorscha, Atanas and the Kovnik. The picture above shows the deployment after Advance Moves.

Kallus begins by moving everything forward. On the right flank, the Raptors move far ahead along with Crealix, Zuriel, and the Nephilim. They clearly look like they want to eat Demolition Man-O-Wars. On the left, the Raptors are a bit more hesitant, as they are probably a bit afraid of the Bombardiers’ granades. All the rest just moves forward. So far uneventful. 

I forgot to take a picture at the end of the round. So the picture above depicts the situation at the very beginning of turn 2 in the first round. Just before Sorscha has started the show.

On the right flank, the Demolition Corps runs into the zone and activates Band of Brotherhood. Beast also runs op towards the zone. Finally, the Mechaniks follow suit. On the left flank, the Bombardiers run into the zone. The Kodiak runs along side of them, and the Mechaniks follow up behind. In the middle, the Kovnik moves up and gives Desperate Pace to the Shocktroopers, who them move up into a Shield Wall. They split up into two walls to protect Sorscha and to bait Zuriel. Both tankers just move forward, the rightmost up to the flag. Just before Sorscha activates, Atanas move forward and puts Heroic Call on the Demolitions Corps, as they are probably going to be shot a lot. Finally, Sorscha moves up casts Stoke the Fires on both ‘jacks, Iron Flesh on the Shocktroopers, Wind Rush on herself, and feats. She gets five clouds that she puts between the forest to the left and the house, and to the right of the house. She is now nice and cozy next to the healing objective, and behind a wall of clouds and Shocktroopers. 

It is now time for the lines to crash. 

Kind of surprisingly, the Raptors on the right flank decides to charge the Demolition Corps instead of shooting them (only three though). Had I known that, I would have put Unstoppable Fury on them instead. They do manage to take out two of the proud Man-O-Wars. I think they might have been sprayed first by Zuriel and/or the Raptors spiked their dice. Just three Raptors should not make more than 33 points of damage on the unit, which should leave roughly two remaining boxes on each model. Anyway, two goes down. Craelix also moves up and takes out the whole Mechaniks unit through shooting and Blight Spasm.

On the left flank, the other unit of Raptors move up and and shoots at the Bombardiers. Somehow the manage to take out two. They then Reposition away again. Azrael throws two spears at the leftmost Tanker, and thanks to Eyesless Sight can ignore Sorscha’s pretty clouds. This kills the Tanker. That was it. I think it was more than enough. The picture above shows the end of Kallus’ turn.

End of turn 2, end of round

I’m in a good place I think. There is sufficient pressure far up the board. I’m ahead on scenario points with no clear opening for Kallus to score any. 

Kallus commits the remaining Raptors on the left flank, along with Zuriel to removing the Shocktroopers at his doorstep. They are surprisingly inefficient, and manage to remove precisely none. It is a different story on the right flank, where the Demolition Corps is already heavily damaged. The combined forces of the last Raptor, the Nephilim Bolt Thrower, and Azrael manage to remove the remaining troops. Azrael also throws a spear at Beast, which then advances a bit towards the its attacker. Something, which I can’t remember what was also managed to remove the Kodiak. Sorscha scores another scenario point, Kallus does not. The picture above shows the situation at the end of Kallus’ turn.

End of turn 2, round 3

We are a Kallus last stand. The scenario score is 4-0 in Sorscha’s favour. Something drastic has to happen to stop a loss on scenario.

Kallus starts by finally committing himself to battle. He charges in, and together with Zuriel cleans up some the of Man-O-Wars on the left flank. They manage to remove three Shocktroopers and Azrael chips in by removing the officer by throwing spears at him. On the right falk, the Nephilim runs within 4″ of my flank, and the Succubus toes into the zone. A Shepherd also runs into each of the zones. That was basically it. Not a lot happened. The scenario score remains at 4-0. The picture above depicts Kallus last stand.

End of turn 5

Final thoughts

Until next time.

For the Motherland!