High Reclaimer Attempt 2

The High Reclaimer vs. Captain Jeremiah Kraye (Cygnar)

Loss: Scenario (6/4)

I'd intended to play a Kreoss1 list seeing as I'd not had much luck with playing High Reclaimer (HR) on Tuesday.  However Glen pointed out (quite rightly) that playing HR for the first time into an unfavourable matchup doesn't make him a bad caster, so I resolved to try again.

This time, instead of Siege he used Kraye who essentially makes his jacks into Cavalry.  My list was the same - for the first time ever I resisted the urge to "tweak" and off we went!

I went first (my first mistake - the extra 3" forward are invaluable to HR) and ran forward (the zealots this time in two lines with the first line in the clouds).  Everyone else kept behind them and that was turn 1.  One thing I noticed but failed to do anything about was that the Avatar was completely out of postion. Glen had opted to place all his jacks on completely the other flank, only opposed by a minimum unit of Cleansers (who were woefully outclassed in this match up).

Cygnar turn and they crept forward and let rip at the Zealots in the clouds killing 3.  Other than that it was a pretty quiet turn.

Bottom of Turn 1:

Turn two I advanced again and took control of the centre ground.  The Zealots mini-feated to make sure I had someone left.  I knew that I wouldn't be able to hold the zones but made sure that I was contending as many of them as I could.  I also cast Ashes to Ashes on a Zealot with my newly found Souls.  A bit of luck on the dice and 4 gun mages dropped dead for the cost of a single Zealot - not a bad trade off!

Middle of Turn 2:

Cygnar turn 2 and with my clouds only blocking my centre I took a beating.  Kraye feated to give his Jacks free charges and boosted hit roles.  He also has Mage sight which allowed his two see through the clouds and drop Ol Rowdy and a Stormclad into the left hand Bastions.  Whilst not able to drop either unit I still lost 4 Bastions.  Other shooting also resulted in the deaths of 5 clearnsers adn the Avatar getting knocked back to the edge of the zone by Gunmages.

Bottom of Turn 3:

Turn four and I feated back the Bastions who had died and threw them into the two heavies in front of them, I completely forgot about Blessed on their weapons or chances are they both would have fallen and the ending would be very different!  Nevermind, they caused a lot of damage to both the jacks even though neither died.  The zealots also managed to kill Eiryss2 and removed the remainer of the gun mages along with a black 13th member.  Ashes to Ashes killed some support staff and things were looking ok.

Cygnar turn 4 and I lost all but three Bastions, even damaged the sheer strength of the hits was enough to smash a bastion and there wasn't much point passing the damage on.

My turn 4 and sadly I was a little greedy and it cost me the game.  I was very down on time so I went for the minimum number of actions to fullfill what I thought I needed too.  The Zealots ran foward to bomb the remaining Solos.  I also threw a cheeky bomb at Kraye and caused some damage, this was my downfall (I was never going to kill Kraye but had I bombed the Holt instead he probably would have died and I'd have won the game).   I then moved everything I could into teh right zone to Dominate it and threw Rhupert and the book into the left zone to contest.

I actually felt reasonably happy at this point I was drawing 4/4 on scenario and unless Glen could kill HR (through the clouds and behind the Bastions) then I foresaw it going to 6/6 in his turn and I could run in the Hierophant for the win (8/6 on Scenario) in my Turn 5 - Game sorted!!!

Middle of Turn 4:

What I missed was that Holt wasn't engaged and simply ran through the clouds into the zone for the win.  A bit of an anticlimax but I don't mind losing when I could do things differently next time and get the win!

Lessons Learnt -

• I need to see the bigger picture, had I killed Holt with the bomb rather than targetting Kraye the result would have been very different.
• I need to start remembering the finer points on the cards.  Using Blessed Weapons on the Bastions to bypass Arcane Shield would have meant another 4 points of damage for every hit.
• I was happier with the setup although I still think there is room for improvement, I need to be getting a charge in rather than taking the hit.
• I feel much happier with HR than I did after game 1.  I need to stick with a caster or two and stop jumping around.

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 6/16 (Protectorate 6/15 - Circle 0/1)