1v1 Circle Vs Khador - 500 points

An epic battle between two fierce enemies... kinda :D

Baldur the Stonecleaver meets up against the force of Karchev the Terrible. In this kind of confrontation, only one Warcaster/Warlock walks away alive.

As you can see from an earlier post, my list had been decided on a couple of days earlier. Just to reiterate, I had Big K, Beast, Drago, a Zerker, 2 Mortars, a team of Mechaniks and the trusty Wardog.

I was fighting against a construct heavy (typical) Baldur force - Baldur himself, a Woldwarden, 2 Woldwyrds, the everpresent Druids, a Sentry stone, some Shifting Stones, Saxon Orrick, Lord of the Feast and the INCREDIBLY annoying Swamp Gobbers.

Terrain for this battle was not in my favour - a large building on the right of my deployment zone with two minor hills in my deployment, and two forests in Richards deployment. I deployed all my heavies in a line straight across the middle - in "Blitz" pattern. The Mortars were seperated and to the sides, with the Mechaniks behind the Jacks.

Richard, sneakily, put all his guys in and around the forest - with the building blocking all LOS.

Turns 1 - 2

I advanced - casting Iron Curtain and Tow and manouvering my guys all over the place. Richard pelted me with those frustrating as hell Mannikins, doing some crazy damage to my Berzerker. Lord of the Feast snuck around behind my Jack wall - getting into position to take out my Mortar and Mechaniks. The Druids ran down the other flank, effectively circling me. (Ironic, huh?)

With such a low model count, I wanted to end it with Assassination rather than Attrition, so I (stupidly) clumped Karchy, Drago and the Zerker with the Wardog as well - in order to benefit from Sidearms and hopefully get a Tow + Feat + Crack the Whip assassination.

Richard promptly critted me in the face with an Earthspikes, Knocking Down the entire group. Lord of the Feast, in a burst of Speed, killed a Mortar and two Mechaniks, giving him 4 tokens towards the Offering. (Beast 09 promptly splatted him for his trouble.)

The other Mortar crew, having landed a direct hit on a Shifting Stone the turn before and doing 3 damage died to a Devouring from the Druids on the other flank. Almost all my support elements were dead, the remaining two Mechaniks repairing some damage on Drago and Beast 09 (which was mostly from the Mannikins).

Things are looking good from Circle's perspective!

Turns 3-5

I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, losing a good chunk of my support and a heavily damaged Berzerker while having done practically no damage to Baldurs army at all (i'd killed LotF and the Sentry stone at this point) - and with the 2 5" templates he was dropping each turn it was impossible to get LOS to the sneaky bastard. So - as any general would do at this point, I retreated. :'(

This is the point where I decided retreating was a good option.

However, while retreating, I ended up getting the Berzerker killed, and my remaining Mechaniks - to no kills for me. With only Beast, Drago (also knocked down at this point) and Karchev left - I was almost defeated. Baldur advanced menacingly towards me .... and then I had it. A quick calculation in my head, and Karchev cast Tow, assigned 3 Focus to Beast 09, picked 09 up, swung him around in a crazy arc, and popped his feat.

Beast 09 charges Baldur - ignoring the focus cost, rough terrain and facing - and gets him within .5" melee range. Baldur only had one fury for transfers, and 5 attacks later (2 auto hitting at POW19) and he was TOAST.

Beast 09 lays the Smackdown

Talk about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. I was amazed at this result - at turn 3 I had figured I was a goner, and merely playing to see how I would lose. The incredible speed and jack-handling of Karchev saved me again, and I didnt even need to cast Unearthly Rage!

MVP - Toss up between Beast 09 and Karchev. They worked together perfectly to get the kill.

Worst Player - Mortars. Geejus, couldnt hit the broadside of a barn. Could have been better if I had stopped them getting killed.

Final thought - Had Richard attritioned me down instead of making Baldur vulnerable - theres no way I could have won. He still had his entire unit of Druids, a Heavy and two Woldwyrds - that could have easily taken out my remaining two Warjacks and then Karchev when he was all alone. Worst play on my part - getting over 300 points of my army knocked down with one Earthspikes.

Another perspective on the smack being layed down.