Battle Report against A_Bomb!

Hi all, I am bringing you a lovely little battle report from my last game. It was against A_Bomb!, a very good player down at the club who runs Cryx and has done for a long time. Tonight he was playing Lich Lord Asphixious with his list for the ETC, which we are going to together.

Lich Lord Asphyxious
- Cankerworm
- Deathjack
- Deathripper
- Deathripper
10 Bane Knights
Bane Lord Tartarus
10 Mech Thralls
- Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Necrotech
- Scrap Thralls
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren

A massive list with lots of dangerous units. I have a personal loathing of Bane Knights and Necrosurgeons, so it is not good for me. I am going to be seriously outnumbered, so I know that Assassination is the way to go for the win. Luckily I am bringing the Khador assassin, Strakov.


Strakov
- Beast 09
- Spriggan
Wardog
10 Kayazy Assassins
- Underboss
3 Demo Corp
Greylord Ternion
Drakun + Dismount
Fenris
Koldun Lord
Manhunter

My list is what I am taking to ETC, so I have been trying to get as much practice as possible. I love my jacks, though if I had the time I might paint a second Spriggan and replace Beast, but then again, for an extra point I get to scare the crap out my opponent with him, and normally the spriggan is ignored. The Kayazy work well, but the underboss keeps getting killed before mini feat, so I need to be careful with him.

Deployment

The battlefield has some rough terrain in the centre, with a wood off to the west, and buildings in our deployments. A hill on the east provided a nice feature. I rolled higher for deployment and chose to deploy 2nd. I did this since I wanted to try and time my charges well on the second turn, when we should be pretty close for me to break through, since Asphyxious is normally a backfield caster.

Asphxyious deployed in the centre with mech thralls in front with a deathripper. Necrotech, scrap thrall, deathripper and warwitch off to the east. The bane knights and tartar went off to the west. Deathjack and Cankerworm were front and centre in AD.

I had Fenris and Drakun out to the east, Strakov in the centre with two jacks, dog and Kuldon Lord, and then the KA and Greylords off to the west.

Cryx 1st Turn

Everything moved forward (really fast!) and Cankerworm came sithering through the wood to set up on the flank.

Khador 1st Turn

I kept all focus on Strakov. I ran Fenris and Drakun up on the flank to threaten this side. I ran the Demo Corp forward, Blizzarded 3 Kayazy for my cloud screen, and then ran the KA forward to cover the other flank from charges. Kuldon Lord put 1 focus on the Spriggan, but I forgot to move him. Strakov activated next, cast overrun on himself, Superiorty on the Spriggan, and advanced. Beast ran forward, and the Spriggan ran as well, taking up a postion slightly to the east. Wardog moved up next to Strakov

Cryx 2nd Turn

Faced with two flanking dragoons, the scrap thrall charged and exploded, doing 3 damage to the Drakun. The pistol wraith moved up and shot the Drakun, doing another 4 damage, and got the chain attack off, meaning I could only move or action next turn. The death ripper got a focus from the warwitch, and then charged, attacking fenris, and doing a few damage. Luckily he was in melee with the Drakun for next turn. The mech thralls ran forward into the terrain, followed by  the surgeon. the Pistol wraith in the centre shot beast twice and froze him, which meant he wasnt doing anything next turn. he even did a point of damage, but I forgot about hyper aggressive.

Asphyxious moved up and put down his spell which gathers spells over the KA. Tartarus cursed the KA, then the bane thralls charged the visible KA and killed 2 blizzarded ones. Canker took care of the last one and backed up behind my lines. Deathjack ran and engaged the spriggan on the side.

Khador 2nd Turn

I was not happy with the state of play here, since I did not see how I was going to get to Asphyxious, and if I didnt paste him this turn I was going to get a Ghostly Legion down on my head next turn. I decided to try and go for it with the Spriggan. I upkept overrun and superiority and put 3 focus on the spriggan. I tried to hit the deathripper with the drakun and missed. I then tried to move fenris to melee range of the deathjack and was just short, so I went for the Deathripper and missed with all 3 attacks! it was not looking good.

I then feated with Strakov, charged a mech thrall, boosted to hit and killed it. This activated overrun, which I then moved the spriggan, remembering I had bulldoze and getting the Deathjack out of the way and setting up my charge on Asphyxious. Strakov ran away with sprint. Spriggan went next and charged the Lich Lord. I bumped a couple of mech thralls out of the way and then layed down a Mat 10 power 18 boosted hit, which managed to take off most of his damage. with a shield and an extra lance hit I finished him off.

Conclusions

I pulled off a classic Strakov win, but I think this was mostly because Oli was not prepared. If he has used Gaspy's spell to prevent charging then i would have been in trouble. I used the dragoons really badly and should have split them up some more. I am pretty worried about going up against an opponent who knows him in and out, since it is do or die with him.