Cygnar vs Khador (eStryker vs eSorscha) 35pts - Battle Report

Once again I face off against my Khador playing opponent. This time we're both playing our melee assassins. And you could call this game "How Assassinations Fail", as you're about to see. The lists we are playing are these:

Points: 35/35
Lord Commander Stryker (*6pts)
* Lancer (6pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
* 1 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (1pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Archduke Alain Runewood (3pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)

Points: 35/35
Forward Kommander Sorscha (*6pts)
* Beast-09 (11pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Black Dragon Officer & Standard (2pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Kell Bailoch (2pts)
Man-o-war Drakhun (with dismount) (5pts)
Manhunter (2pts)

Setup

We're playing the Steamroller 2013 scenario called "Into the Breach". I won the roll and wanted to go first. The unpainted Battle Mechanic on the Khador side is actually a Manhunter, he just left it at home to dry because he painted it earlier today. 

Cygnar - Turn 1

Everything ran up the board. Journeyman cast Arcane Shield on Ol' Rowdy, and eStryker cast deflection in lack of anything else. 

Khador - Turn 1

Sorscha cast Iron Flesh on the Pikemen and Shatter Storm on the Widowmakers. The Widowmakers shot and killed some Stormblades and Swordknights straight of the bat. Pikemen ran and so did the Drakhun. Beast 09, Great Bears and Manhunter all advanced slowly up the board. 

Cygnar - Turn 2

Eiryss advanced and shot the Pikemen to remove Iron Flesh. Swordknights advanced and so did my Warjacks. Stryker moved up behind Ol' Rowdy and cast Rebuke on the Pikemen and Beast 09. Runewood moved up and took a shot at the Widowmakers but missed. Stormblades advanced towards the middle. 

Khador - Turn 2

Sorscha kept Shatter Storm on the Widowmakers and cast Iron Flesh on herself. Drakhun ran into the forest and the rest of the army slowly advanced. The Manhunter ran into melee range with Eiryss. Widowmakers shot and killed both Runewood and a bunch of Stormblades due to Shatterstorm and some good rolls. 

Cygnar - Turn 3

Ol' Rowdy got filled with focus and trampled into the forest and got into melee range with the Drakhun, which he also killed. Stormblades ran into the forest, and into melee range with Kell Bailoch. Lancer advanced into combat with both Widowmakers and Pikemen. The three Swordknights who I had left charged into the Pikemen, killing two of them. Eiryss stayed in combat with the Manhunter and inflicted 2 wounds on him. 

Stryker advanced and used his feat for some extra movement and attacks from the rest of the army. Stormblades killed Kell Bailoch. Swordknights and Lancer managed to kill two more Pikemens. 

Khador - Turn 3

Sorscha gave beast 2 focus and kept Iron Flesh on herself before she advanced and used her feat. Great Bears moved into combat with Ol' Rowdy and started to swing their axes at him, bringing him down to about half of his wounds. Then Beast 09 charged and killed Ol' Rowdy. Pikemen advanced into combat with the Lancer and got him knocked down and crippled his shield, they also killed two Swordknights. A single Widowmaker made it into combat with eStryker but missed its attack. Manhunter in combat with Eiryss missed both his attacks. 

Cygnar - Turn 4

eStryker moved into combat with Beast 09 and used Overload with two dices (got +7 STR and took 4 wounds), killed Beast and one of the Great Bears. Journeyman cast Arcane Shield on Stryker and moved into melee with the Widowmaker but didn't kill him. Stormblades moved into combat with the Great Bears and killed another one of them. Lancer stood up but didn't manage to kill anyone. Eiryss did another 2 wounds to the Manhunter. 

Khador - Turn 4

Without much to do eSorscha went for the assassination. She charged eStryker, and got a Crit: Freeze but only managed to do about 6 wounds on him, due to his high armor (Arcane Shield and 2 focus). The remaining Great Bear did another 2 wounds on Stryker. Pikemen killed the Lancer and the Manhunter finally killed Eiryss. 

Cygnar - Turn 5

Stryker took the last focus from the Squire and did Overload with one dice (got +3 STR and took 4 wounds) leaving him with a single wound left. Then he started to swing at Sorscha, and the dice gods started to laugh in my face. Only 1 hit connected and did 8 wounds, the rest of my dice rolls was just terrible, just a bunch of 1's and 2'r everywhere, not a singel roll over the average of seven.

Khador - Turn 5

A Pikeman got to charge eStryker and hit (double sixes) and killed him... wow

Conclusion

Totally forgot that Runewood can pawn off damage to a nearby warjack. He would have made a huge difference in the late game with his battle plans. Also I need to start playing with the Swordknights as a meat wall for my Stormblades. I can't keep playing them on two flanks when my opponent have this many snipers. Oh well, the dices would probably screw me anyway this game as I couldn't hit the broadside on a Conquest to save my life with Stryker.