Crossed Lines: Kaya vs Vayl

500 points - Circle vs Legion

I like Kaya, she's the first 'lock I used and she's the one I always go back to. I've been slowly painting a Circle army for a long time now and it's nice to actually get some of the painted models on the table. I've been working on refining my Kaya list so now with some of the Evolution models actually assembled I thought I'd try fielding some of them.

Circle:

Kaya the Wildborne

Warpwolf
Warpwolf

Argus

10 Wolves of Orboros plus the Officer and Totem Bearer

Sentry Stone

Totem Hunter

Legion:

Vayl, Disciple of Everblight

Angelius

Teraph

Seraph

Harrier

Shredder

5 Warmongers

Forsaken

Set Up

In each corner of the table a low barricade was placed. On both the left and right sides was a stand of trees, the stand on the right being on a hill. An obelisk was placed in the dead centre of the table with stone arches facing it on each side. Small stones were placed on either side of the arches.

Since we were playing Crossed Lines (from Primal) we had to choose three deployments points and then place out our forces model by model at each of these points. Defenstrator won that roll and placed the first of his points on the hill, followed by in front of the near arch and finally in front of the far arch when he turns allowed. My first point was placed near the stand of trees on the left, followed by the far barricade on the left and then the near barricade on the left.

Once the points were placed we then alternated placing models. Defenstrator started by placing the Harrier on the hill and I placed my Sentry Stone as close to the centre of the table as I was allowed. The Teraph Dug In in front of the near arch and my Wolves were set up behind the far barricade. The Warmongers were placed opposite them near the far arch and the Argus was set up on the other side of the table in front of the near barricade.

For the second round of deployment points the Seraph was set up in front of the hill, Warpwolf 1 in front of the trees, Vayl was placed in front of the near arch, the Totem Hunter joined the Wolves in front of the barricade and the Shredder joined the War Mongers. Warpwolf 2 was placed near the Argus and the Forsaken was placed behind the Seraph. Finally, Kaya joined Warpwolf 1 and the Angelius joined Vayl.


Legion Turn 1

Defenstrator won this all important roll so he got to start moving models first. The Shredder began by going Rabid and then charging the Sentry Stone, but the little beasts sharp teeth were unable to find a purchase on the tough rock. Vayl cast Slipstream and then moved around the arch (dragging the Angelius forward). She cast Chiller on the Angelius and then decided to sit on 2 Fury and put up Cat and Mouse.

The Seraph moved between the Teraph and the Shredder and shot at Warpwolf 1 with 3 extra shots doing a total of 15 points of damage. The Teraph moved up in front of the Angelius and shot at the Warpwolf. His blast missed and deviated off to do no damage. The Angelius charged Kaya missed with it's Thrust attack and did 13 points of damage that were transferred to the Argus.

The Forsaken moved to the obelisk and took 1 Fury off the Seraph leaving the War Mongers to simply run to the Sentry Stone and the Harrier to run behind the arch.

Circle Turn 1


The Sentry Stone produced its first Mannikin in front of the Seraph and then started Devouring Magic. It got 1 Fury from the Shredder, the Forsaken, the Seraph, the Teraph and the Angelius. It only failed stealing from Vayl. The Mannikin put the Fury to use by Splinter Blasting Vayl for 3 points.

The Totem Hunter charged the War Mongers with Flying Steel and managed to kill one of them. As he did that the Teraph reacted to Cat and Mouse and moved to engage Warpwolf 2 and the Argus. The Wolves ran up to support the Totem Hunter so the Harrier moved in front of Vayl and the Angelius moved away from Kaya to engage Warpwolf 1.

To attack the Teraph the Argus had to move around a bit and that let the Seraph move to the Angelius. It was largely fruitless as the Argus managed to miss with both attacks. Warping to add 2" to his move Warpwolf 2 made a run towards the group around Vayl. The Teraph threw in a free attack for 8 points and the Seraph moved back to Warpwolf 2. That move put it close enough to reach the Warpwolf once Vayl's Dark Sentinel abilityactivated. It attacked in melee and with a critical hit the warpwolf was hurting after taking another 14 points of damage.

Luckily that didn't kill the beast and Kaya could use him as the point for her Spirit Door. She was placed just beside the arch and within reach of Vayl. She started flailing at the other warlock with Splinter. She did 8 points of damage and managed to get a critical hit to knock down Vayl then did 4 points, then 2 points damaging the warlock but not doing enough to risk transfer to a beast killing it and allowing Vayl to reeve the Fury. She let loose with Wild Mastery and the last two hits did... Nothing! Uh oh.

Warpwolf 1 riled to full Fury... Just in case.

Legion Turn 2

Vayl leached back the 6 Fury available to her and chose to upkeep Chiller.

Defenstrator has some sort of compulsion that doesn't allow him to finish the game in the most expedient manner possible, so rather than just make the move that will most likely win him the game (I mean, Kaya, no Fury, pretty much in the open), he moved the Harrier to the Sentry Stone where it was bounced off like the Shredder. The Seraph moved to the obelisk and allowed Vayl to Slipstream out of "danger" and it shot and missed Warpwolf 2.

He loves his Teraph so he tried to let it get the killing blow by moving it towards Waprwolf 2. The Argus managed to do 5 points to it with the free strike on its way by. The Teraph attacked Kaya and managed to do 8 points of damage with the one attack that hit. Vayl moved past Warpwolf 2 and cast Hoarfrost on the Teraph, which did 6 points to Kaya. Then, finally, the Angelius moved to the arch and brutally took her down.

Afterword

Myantek

I liked the tweaks to my army. I think this one works pretty well. I can't decide if being more or less aggressive with this game during Vayl's feat turn would have been better or worse for me. We were so close at the beginning that I think it really was a matter of the person going first had the better chance of a win but I probably could have kept the Totem Hunter and the Wolves out of Vayl's command range without changing things too much.

I wish I had gotten a bit luckier with some of the hits on Vayl. After Kaya managed to survive the Angelius on the first turn I thought she'd have enough luck to take down Vayl as well. All in all it was an interesting game. It's the first time I've had to deal with Cat and Mouse and I probably could have done it better but felt that we were so close that I needed to go all in to have half a chance.

Defenstrator

First off I have to say that I don't like the Crossed Lines scenario. The armies invariably start on top of each other and whoever goes first has a huge advantage. That said, I managed to lose this scenario with Haley against Kreoss with a little sloppy play, but I'd still managed to kill almost half his army before he assassinated her.

It was because of that experience I played a bit more conservatively with Vayl. Sure I got in Kaya's face right away, but I made sure to keep some fury and transfer options open. I was all too aware how easy it is to over extend when going first in this scenario. My prudence paid off when the Angelius whiffed its hit on Kaya. Not that I was expecting to kill her, (since she was full of fury), but I had hoped to force her to badly injure multiple beasts and spend a bunch of her fury before she could use it to hurt me.

As it was she still managed to get off a half decent assassination run, but the dice weren't with her and the final attacks did nothing. And while I might have done other stuff first, it's because scarring experiance has shown me that taking it for granted that you're going to win is a good way to lose when the dice don't go your way.