Summer Rampage: Western Khador Contested Ground

I got to play my first Summer Rampage 2008 game in via ninja lunchbreak! From last night's results (which is officially Day 1 of this year's SR), it seems Khador has taken Global Priority. And since Arvin will be playing his Magnus Agenda this time around, I got to pick where we'll be fighting. The choice was more of whimsy since I just asked what territory was still being contested (plus I wanted my first game to be in Khador as much as possible, good thing we had Global Priority, hehe). We rolled off and got Map 20 (the one with the wheat field and hedge rows) and Contested Ground for the scenario, but Arvin ended up getting first turn.

Arvin claimed he made a mistake by not putting focus on one of his three Nomads as his forces advanced forward. He had his Trenchers dug in on my left flank and his Steelhead Halberdiers hugging a hedge row on my right flank. Magnus and his three Nomads made a cautious but direct advance on the inner left territory.

With Vlad's Signs and Portents, I got to down a good deal of his Steelheads (which included their unit leader) with one of my Winterguard Mortar but Arvin made his Command check, and the Halberdiers stood their ground. The other Mortar Crew snagged some dug-in Trenchers, too. My Demolishers ran forward, providing some semblance of a screen for my Greylords. Both my Kodiak and Juggernaut took positions with running forward.

On his second turn, Arvin took to running his Nomads forward, jockeying for a good feat turn later. His Trenchers pulled back, continuing to pepper my Juggernaut with combined ranged attacks. The Halberdiers took to the inner right territory, maybe to lend support to Magnus or just a free bait. By doing so, he opened an opportunity for me to score a Control Point if I placed Eiryss there, but she'd be far from hitting Magnus if I did.

Before he ended his turn, Magnus popped Hit and Run - his three Nomads, laughing off the supposed free strikes from my Demolitions Corps, ran straight and positioned behind my Demolishers! Now all three can't be charged by the Men-O-War and my Juggernaut. Magnus finished off my bounding towards the outer left territory, taking concealment behind some hedges.

On my second turn, I had Vlad put a focus point on his Juggernaut, cast Signs and Portents and Blood of Kings. Vlad then advanced towards the Frenzied Nomad behind his line (Magnus has a spell called Frenzy), copied the knockdown ability of Magnus' Mechanikal Arm and brought the mercenary warjack down, doing some damage to it.

The Juggernaut on my left flank ignored Magnus in front of him and advanced towards one of the Nomads, snagging it with Critical Freeze and chopping off some metal from it as well.

The remaining Nomad had a Demolisher engaged, which gave it some defense bonus against the Greylords trying to Ice Cage it. But with Signs and Portents, the three spellcasters managed to freeze it, too. With Magnus' two Nomads frozen and another knocked down, MOW Demolition Corps with Back-swing under Signs and Portents destroyed two that were in the inner left territory.

Eiryss took the outer right territory, taking one of the Halberdiers with her death bolt. The remaining two were finished off by the Signs and Portents Mortar Crew. By then, three of the territories were all mine.

On the third turn, Magnus trotted over to the Juggernaut and broke it easily. But seeing the numerical advantage my Vlad already had on him, Arvin promptly tapped out.