Battle Report: Archdomina Makeda versus High Exemplar Kreoss

Battle Report #2

Archdomina Makeda versus High Exemplar Kreoss

I want to have at least a report a week up. So now it is time for number 2!

I started this blog saying why I prefer pMakeda to eMakeda, so I felt the need to do a report with her.

My friend and regular gaming opponent Roguejm11 (his handle on the Privateer Press forums) came over and we got a few games in. After a win out of my ass with Naaresh against the Harbinger (in what is admittedly a "for fun" game), we decided to throw down for realz.

He has been working on a particular pKreoss list, which I felt particular fit the theme of "p" casters that don't get a lot of love but are still fairly solid.

Going into this, I can honestly say that my typical pMakeda list would probably never see the light of day against pKreoss. I would much rather have one of the myriad of Task Master buffed Gators list or, ironically, eMakeda. Purification is super annoying for the defensive buffs. I walked into this match up knowing that the usual Defenders Ward and Brute Animus plays where right out of the window. pKreoss has a very hard feat to deal with, we have ways to get around the denial aspect of it, but when he can guarantee knocking down your caster and hitting it with rockets, all you can really do is camp Fury and pray you survive long enough.

My opponent also admitted that this was not a match up he would take in a tournament either, because he would rather not have to worry about Fury transfers and have pEiryss actually be super useful.

You don't become a better player by taking the easy match ups though, so we proceeded.

Here are our lists:

Roguejm11

High Exemplar Kreoss +5 points
* Reckoner 8 points
* Redeemer 6 points

4 Choir of Menoth 2 points
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios 3 points
Exemplar Errant Seneschal 2 points
10 Exemplar Errants 8 points
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard 2 points
10 Flameguard Cleansers 8 points
Knights Exemplar 5 points
Knights Exemplar 5 points
Reclaimer 2 points
2x Vassal of Menoth 2 points each

Mahu

Archdomina Makeda +5 points
* Archidon 7 points
* Cyclops Brute 5 points
* Molik Karn 11 points
* Titan Gladiator 8 points
* Aptimus Marketh 3 points

Agonizer 2 points
Hakaar the Destroyer 4 points
10 Nihilators 8 points
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor 2 points
4 Paingiver Beast Handlers 2 points
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer 3 points

I tried something I haven't done before and I swaped the usually Ferox Cav for the Archidon. My thought was that in SR 2012, the Ferox will probably always be my reinforcements, and I was really hoping we would roll a reinforcements scenario. The Archidon was there purely to maximize my beasts movement. I wanted to get the most out of yo-yoing Karn.

In the future, I think Ferox and Rhadiem come back into the picture. I love Savagery with these guys, and the Ferox natural immunity to knock down could have been helpful.

We rolled for scenario and came up with Restoration. Roguejm11 won the roll to go first and took it.

Here is the set up. Kreoss spreads the Flamegaurd across the front of his army with the Reckoner, Redeemer, and the Knights as his second wave. The Errants advance deploy to the right to take advantage of hunter with the woods.

Makeda deploys up front and has the Archidon and Molik to either side. The goal with Molik was to yo-yo the Errants as much as possible.

Kreoss basically takes the first turn and runs into position, the Errants try and maximize the Obstruction and woods as much as possible.

My whole army runs into position. Hakaar gets savagry and tries to stay far enough away from purification range. The Archidon hangs out in front of Makeda to prevent pop and drop LOS shenanigans (thanks Serpentine). Molik gets into position. Brute casts his animus on Makeda. I figure if Purification screws me over, I may as well force him to cast it and pull Focus away from him. Makeda gets behind the Archidon, casts Defenders Ward, and pops her feat. It may have been a little premature, but this is what I am thinking. Either this turn or the next is his feat turn. If he pops his feat now, he might not be in position to capitalize on the offensive capabilities of everything in his army, which more then likely will leave at least one Nihilator alive and let me get them all back. If he doesn't pop his feat and plays more defensively, then with the SPD buffs of my army, I can preserve the first strike. My army wasn't built to really capitalize on my feat anyways, so popping it now was probably the best use I could get out of it anyways.

So knowing my feat is up, Kreoss decides to be a little more defensive. He positions some more and puts the Flameguard's cloud aimed at a model in his unit to prevent some of my Nihilators coming to bear. The errants position a little more and throw some shots out, but it fails to do anything. He takes this turn as an opportunity to hit the objective. 3 Redeemer shots take about 8 points of damage off of it and kills the Nihilator behind it with blast damage.

My feat triggers the return of the one lost Nihilator and I was able to place him in position to threaten an Errant. Righteous Vengeance kicks in for Hakaar and he makes a 9" advance forward and I decide not to upkeep it. Marketh casts Savagry on the Nihilators and they advance. Nihilators do me a solid and take out a bunch of infantry. I could have threatened more but that 7" command range is still so hurtful. Makeda casts Savagry on Karn, and sits on 4 fury behind the Archidon. The Archidon casts Sprint on Karn and hangs out. Karn activates and walks 11" forward into the Cleansers cloud taking 4 points of damage. After a side step or two he clears out 6 infantry by himself, and advances back. I move over to the left. I felt I was relatively safe from retaliation between the 4 or 5 tough Nihilators in the way between Molik and the Reckoner, and I thought I was just far enough a way not to be in it's threat range. Hakaar runs up and gets into position. Again, I had Nihilators in the way, and I felt safe enough. Brute advances and casts its animus on Makeda, again, forcing the casting of Purification. Orin advances and does Null Magic but unfortunately he is to far out of position. Everything else advances up and the Paingivers pull fury off my beasts to get me down where I need to be. I knew the feat was coming, but I felt fairly confident in my positioning. His retaliation will hurt, but I felt that with tough infantry in the way, and staying far enough away from the threat ranges of his charging weapon masters. I could potentially survive the turn.

Hey, guess what Kreoss did? He wrecked my army. Kreoss moves up, purification, popping of the feat. He didn't get a few of the models in the back line, but he got what he needed. The Knights and the Errants, between charges and crossbow bolts kill every single Nihilator and the Agonizer, which I wasn't really using up to this point because I didn't want to pull fury from Makeda. I was frustrated because I didn't pass a single tough roll and that opened up the charge lane for the Reckoner, who charges Hakaar and ends him with a single blow. Hakaar had all three souls on him for ARM 21, but the Reckoner had it's gun and battle cast on it. I was sure if the Reckoner connected Hakaar was gone, I was only frustrated that if a single one of the 4 Nihilators passed a tough roll, it would have forced the Reckoner to trample to get to Hakaar, which would have taken at least 2 focus to do, possibly all three to get a second attack and finish Hakaar off, which would have put me in excellent retaliation position. After the reckoner downs Hakaar, it is sitting with 2 focus left. We get out the handy, dandy, 2" marker from the template set and see if it is within range of Karn, and it is by the tiniest fraction of an inch. So the Reckoner buys an attack on Karn, it is dice plus two and the Reckoner just cranks the damage and causes 13 with one 2 dice swing. He buys another attack, cranks it again, and causes 11 more. It put the Redeemer in a prime position to finish Karn with a single shot. So between my dice failure and his dice whoring, I am down Hakaar and Karn. Le sigh. The Redeemer adds insult to injury and finishes off the Tyrant Commander with 2 hits. Granted, the Redeemer could have possible killed Karn in its own activation, but with 3 shots, I doubted it. I was really hoping that the Reckoner would waste it's activation just on Hakaar, and that is what I tried to set up. But, my positioning was off by a hair and it cost me. Taking risks like that sometimes pays off, sometimes doesn't.

So now I am in a bad position. If Kreoss gets another turn, I lose, simple as that, so the bastard had to die.

The original plan was to plate the Gladiator with Kreoss, and hope that between Makeda's carnage and 7 effective MAT 8 high POW attack, I can put him down. The problem is that I have 5 weapon masters in my way, either preventing my charge angle, or threatening me with free strikes. So I had to start clearing stuff out. Orin goes first, stand still and hits the central most Knight, but only rolls a 1 on chain lighting, taking out the knight on the right of the original target. Makeda goes, casts Carnage, and advances around the Gladiator and swings at one Errant, I hit but do not kill, dice minus 6 equals the dreaded 7. Makeda sidesteps between the two and swing at the one really in my way. Again, no kill. At this point she is in the Gladiator's way, so she sidesteps away and casts Rush on the Gladiator. I was unable to kill the one model I needed to to prevent a free strike. The paingivers enrage the Brute and the Gladiator. Knowing that the Gladiator can't get there himself, I have to engage in plan be. The Brute goes and does me a solid by killing both Knights tieing up the Archidon. The Archidon can barely see Kroess, but can see him nonetheless. Now I am nervous. I have to Critical Pitch Kroess into charge range of the Gladiator. I didn't enrage it, so I would have to force to charge, and force to hit Kreoss. Which means I would only have 2 chances to get the critical on three dice. To top it off, to get the position I would need, basically getting to the side of Kreoss to be able to toss him in the right direction, I would have to take a free strike by flying over an errant. Taking Free Strikes from a Weapon Master sucks, and I was afraid that the right amount of damage applied to the right spiral could end this game for me. But at this point, I have no choice.

Archidon charges Kroess, and thanks to Carnage, the die roll I needed to hit was less, which made the posibility of getting the critical higher. I boost to hit with my charge attack, and success! The Archidon tosses Kreoss right in front of the Gladiator. I boost the throw damage and crak it enough to make winning a probability.

The Gladiator charges, and autohits the charge attack putting Kreoss in the dirt on the first swing.


I knew this was a rough match up from the get go, and my opponent had me by the balls after his feat turn. Being so out numbered was a rough hill to climb, but I felt as long as Molik yo-yoing was in play, I could play the long game, especially if I get past his feat. His feat turn being as good as it was put me in a bad position, and honestly, if Kreoss was even a few inches further, I probably would have lost, because I didn't have the foresight to Rush the Archidon. At least pKreoss' feat does push him closer to the army, and I was smart enough to play for that.

Overall it was a good game. Like I said, I really want to get the Cav back in the list. Just having a unit on the flank to threaten those Errants could have meant a world of difference.

Thank you for reading!