Scenarios, I get it now

Played another Vassal game today - was trying out pSev with models I currently own.

I played pSev, Guardian, Reckoner, min Choir, max Knight Exemplar Errant + UA, Knight Exemplar, KE Seneschal x2, Wracks.

He had Magnus, two renegades, a mule, 2x Halberdiers, and Croe's cuttthroats.

Turn one, I ran everyone forward but the KEE (who advanced, shot, and came up short). Sevvy put up Def. Ward on the KEE, Eye on himself, and Vision on the Guardian. He bushwhacked at the KEE with Croe's (who had snipe), saw they were 14/18 and then retreated everything back.

I scratched my head and on Turn 2 just kinda moved things around to see what he was going to do. He retreated again on turn 2. I said to myself "Well this is lame and uninteresting, might as well run forward or he will just do a bunch of moving around." Honestly, I was a little ticked - it was shaping up to be boring.

So everyone ran up on my side. He had hit the back wall so pushed halberdiers out on either side with the jacks and Magnus in the middle. Cutthroats moved to some woods and took some shots at the KEE. Snipe went on the Mule (who is now shooting 18" with arcing fire). Both the renegades fired their one rocket each, mule fired his - wiped out some KEE and KE.

My jacks had been running up the sides - Guardian finally in a position to arc A2A on the cutthroats - killed a few. KEE killed a couple of infantry here and there, and everything else moved up. Mule shot again (sevvy took some damage). He fired, moved infantry around and feated.

I moved up, cleared some infantry and healed Sevvy some. And then made a critical mistake - I trampled out my Guardian (who had been behind a little bit of forest) past a cutthroat. This put me out of range to arc spells - I thought I would be able to go closer, but was farther in the forest than I expected. Should have just ran - then I could have pumped 3 incinerates into a no-focus Magnus. Bad positioning on my part. End my turn. He shot with his mule, moved the renegade up and makes my Reckoner stationary with an arced spell. One flank of halberds runs to swarm the Reckoner and threaten behind Sevvy. Other halberds charge some KE/KEE just being kinda annoying on them and killing a few.

I went, made some charges/attacks with the KE/KEE doing not much. KEE Seneschal charges the renegade, deals some nasty damage and combo-smites him. The plan was to have him fly back and hit Magnus, but he barely touched the Mule and thus fell short of Magnus. Other KEE charged the other renegade - did some nasty damage and combo-smited him away. Guardian is swarmed by a few infantry, and thus can't move to get LoS on Magnus, but kills everyone around him. Reckoner tramples through the halberds behind Sevvy killing most of them (but there are a couple still threatening Sevvy). Sevvy then cycles def. ward on himself dropping eye. His turn, Mule fully boosted lands right on Sevvy dealing exactly 10 (when he had 10 hit boxes left).

Game over. I was too spread out at that point to effectively block LoS to Sevvy.

It ended up being more interesting than I thought it was going to be, but I understand scenarios now (kill box is all I have played and when I played it I thought "We are going to end up fighting in this box anyway, this is kinda silly"). Now I get it. My opponent had a good strategy - he forced his opponent (me) to come and fight him on his terms. Of course, had I not said "This is boring" I could have sat on my side waiting turns out as well.

All in all a fun game and I learned that choir boys make great LoS blockers when arcing fire is an issue, but they also die fast.

MVP of the game - the KE Sennys. Once they got to the target, two Pow 11 +2 (fury) +1 (eye) hitting at Mat 8 +1 (eye) with combo-smite...was awesome to see. I was hoping to test and see exactly how long they would live though if there was any kind of focused fire on them, alas - will have to happen in a later game. They are a seriously potent melee threat though.

Somewhere in there I feated, but I can't exactly remember when - I think it was right before I was trying to set up the "3 Incinerates" move that failed.

My first real game with Sevvy - and I like the old man of Menoth. I wish I had been able to make more use of his spells, but Eye of Menoth with an infantry-heavy army was brutal. Since I was the only one closing distance, though, I took too much damage on the way in and got too spread out.

Shenanigans

First, I received my shipment of minis and can now put together several different 35-50 point armies on the table top. But, this likely won't be happening anytime soon since my wife and I just welcomed our first child to the world (a healthy baby girl!).

On to my gaming topic of the day - what I am terming 'shenanigans.' Having played a bunch of games now, I have a grasp of the basic rules and am beginning to pick up some "board vision" (thinking about threat ranges of models, LoS, and charge lanes), but I think seeing that kind of stuff comes with time. I feel like I am gaining a grasp of the basics, but one thing I keep missing is things that alter the board I am looking at. These are the Shenanigans. Last night's game was an example, but not the only one I have encountered.

Playing a game on Vassal (Vassal is great for those of us who may not be able to make it out to the LGS) last night was an example - Trollbloods v. my Menoth. He was playing eDoomy (first mistake - I thought it was pDoomy which effected my play somewhat due to feat differences) and I am totally unfamiliar with Trolls. Testament and my Zealots/KE/Seneschals move up and zealots do a tiny bit of damage to Mulg and the big Troll, Avatar moves up on the right and a Reckoner on the left. Testament is kinda out in the open at the end of my turn, but is a solid 14" away from anyone else with rough terrain in front of him. Refuge is up on the 2 handed troll heavy, Mulg has Wild Aggression. Doomy activates and feats, Troll heavy eats some whelps walks up, grabs Avatar and throws him about 9" out of the way then Refuge walks another 8" up to the Testament and misses/fails to do anything. Mulg then activates and eats whelps - he doesn't have LoS on the Testament, but that ends up not mattering. He tramples 4+3+3+2+2 inches forward. He then boxed a model, and goaded 2 inches to the left to be in melee with he Testament, with only 1 fury on him. Smacks Testament, game over.

Mulg's 7" threat range was extended by the 3" feat +2" from the animus of the big 2 handed troll heavy +2" from Relentless - effectively doubling his threat range, and then he sidestepped 2 more inches.

I will be the first to admit that had I been familiar with the models I would have known to play differently and things are a little harder on vassal where there are no cards I can look over before the game starts. BUT there seems to be a fair amount of these shenanigans and almost all of them can be game-winning (or in the case of the doom-n-gloom forumites, game-breaking [see the thread on Molik Karn being in your DZ before your turn]) and are thus VERY important to keep in mind.

Thats my lesson for the day for myself - "Beware the shenanigans." I have seen the extreme movement stacking mostly in Hordes (since they can have an animus and an upkeep on them) and with Cryx (because they are Cryx), but its something I really need to start worrying more about.