Let the annihalation commence

Feora versus the Butcher. Suprisingly I started the Annihalation campaign I have been talking about recently last night. It is suprising as I was instead supposed to start it today. Due to this there had to be a few lists hastily constructed before I could get down to play. All in all ten minutes to plan and make out my lists for the campaign wasn't bad at all. Thanks to Forward Commander making lists is really easy now. I will post the eighty point campaign list in another post where I will also chat about my feelings on the campaign balance. Here is what I came up with for the twenty five point initial list:

Feora, Priestess of the Flame
Repenter
Repenter
Revenger
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts
Deliverer Sunburst Crew (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard
The Wrack (3 wracks)
Vassal Mechanik
Vassal Mechanik

Deployment was a pretty standard affair. I deployed and went first. My initial idea was to compete for two of the objectives and to ignore the third in the forest on the right flank. At least this way I could concentrate my forces rather than spread to far apart. Also it would help keep a clear field of fire open for my Sunburst. Having seen the Khador deployment I was a little disappointed to see that the Juggernaut was most likely going to be too far away to deal with via shooting! Turn one just saw me advance and put up Hexhammer on Feora. Pretty much everything shuffled forward to put the objectives within threat range. I was hopeing that grabbing and easy three points would tempt the Khadorans to rush forward recklessly!

Turn two saw the first few deaths. I managed to land a Sunburst in the centre of the Iron Fang Pikemen. This killed four of them. My Repenter on the right advanced for a spray but didn't manage to kill anyone due to the fact that I forgot to activate the Choir first. The rest of the army shuffled again up the field with the Templeguard going into shield wall. I put up Wall of Fire to prevent the Pikemen from moving directly towards me in their turn.

The Khadorans thankfully couldn't get any worthwhile charges off. The Iron Fang Pikemen took the centre objective and then with their special order they went into a shieldwall formation. The Men of war also fell into shieldwall. The Manhunter charged my Temple Guard but fell short. Finally the Widowmaker Marksman then took the right objective and killed a crew member on the Sunburst. My Wall of Fire worked out prefectly here meaning that the Pikemen had been forced to accept charges from me in the next turn. The chain weapons on my jacks meant that I could ignore their shieldwall.

This picture is a where the battle turned against me a little. The first thing I did was to fire the Sunburst into the Iron Fang Pikemen formation. I missed, narrowly, and it then proceeded to scatter into my forces. Thankfully it only damaged the Revenger despite hitting a lot more targets. Feora kept most of her focus this turn only giving the repenter on the right one. The repenter moved up to the forest edge and sprayed the Marksman with a boosted roll. He missed! The 'jacks in the centre under the influence of the Choir managed to move up and kill quite a few of the Iron Fang Pikemen.The threat of the Temple Guard on the left kept the Juggernaut and the Men o' War in place. Committing one of them would have given a good oppurtunity to me. Sadly the combination of the Butchers feat and the fact he managed to reach between the two Iron Fang Pikemen meant that the Revenger was smashed! I had run the Mekaniks forward in the hope they would have had something to repair... well sadly you can't repair a wreck marker. Agin the widowmaker marksman killed a crew member on the Sunburst. This meant that I no longer benefitted from having a rangefinder. The shot taken there doesn't have all the action shown. The Warhound moved up behind the Butcher and the Juggernaut was forced to get back towards the Butcher to stay in control.

With the game in its final phase I needed something to happen. So I took a few more risks. I kept all Feora's focus on her. She moved forward and killed the last four Iron fang Pikemen via her Flame Throwers and some spells. Despite the fact I hit the Butcher twice his armour was enough to stop most of the damage. At least I managed to set him on fire! Feora then popped her feat, probably a turn late, to help take down the Men O' War. I then charged with the Templeguard hoping to get some on range with on of the Men O' War. I was only able to get one guy in contact but the charge at least assured that I did some minor damage. I popped Iron Zeal to try to ensure that there would be some guys left by the time my turn rolled back around. The repenter on the right again attempted to spray the Widowmaker to no avail. The repenter now free to move towards the Butcher engaged him but without any focus he didn't even scratch the armour. At least he was in position for next turn. The Mekaniks had at the start of the turn repaired almost all of the damage he had suffered so I was confident he would be still there after the Butchers return attacks. Well I was wrong. I am not sure if it was two or three hits but the Butcher smashed the Repenter. The Men O' War then spread out to engage both the Templeguard and to get a charge on my Mekaniks and more importantly on Feora due to their reach. Thankfully some of them were not within range and the one who was missed with his attack. The Widowmaker finally managed to kill off the Sunburst, which was very annoying.

At this point I knew I had lost. While it is difficult to account for luck I could see some possible assassination routes to Feora and I know the Khadorans did too. I needed to take out some of the Men' O War and that meant I had to commit Feora. If I didn't take them out I would be whittled down in this battle too much and it would have a bad effect on the overall campaign. It was also getting pretty late and I needed to go to bed! So I kept all of Feora's focus on her. I then moved her up to kill another Man O' War. I needed to boost the damage roll but That was fine. I forgot that she has two weapons at this point so I didn't kill a second one. That would have been nice. I considered taking some focus from the Wracks again but I declined as I didn't want to risk them. If there was a next turn I would really need it. The Templeguard killed via some combined melee attacks the two they were in contact with. My repenter finally found its mark on the Widowmaker with double sixes! I fried him. I charged the Warhound with the Choir. It was a vain attempt to kill the dog but worth it. Sadly I didn't do enough damage.

This is how the battle looked when it ended. It was a bloody affair. The Butcher managed with his last attack to kill Feora. He missed when he charged and if I had just one more point of focus I would have been able to survive and maybe kill the Butcher. Sadly that wasn't to be. The remnants of my forces are:

Repenter
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 7 Grunts)
Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard
The Wrack (3 wracks)

This means I am doing okay in the Campaign over all. I managed to inflict some costly casualties in that battle leaving the Khadorans some hard choices in the games ahead. All in all that was a tough game. It is the first time I used Feora so I think I acquitted myself well. Sadly I can't use her in the next battle due to her recovery time.