My list: pBaldur 25pts
Baldur the Stonecleaver (*6pts)* Megalith (11pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Stoneward and 5 Woldstalkers (5pts)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)
Jamie's List: pIrusk 25pt
Kommandant Irusk (*6pts)* Beast-09 (11pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard (2pts)
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (2pts)
...well, crap.
As a longtime Khador player, I can tell you that this list is composed of what is generally agreed to be the most powerful Khador infantry (WGI + UA + Joe, and Kayazy + Underboss), backed by the best infantry/single jack caster (Iron Flesh, Superiority, Battle Lust, Inhospitable Ground, and a feat that gives 4+ tough and bonuses to hit) and running Khador's most kill-y jack, Beast-09. Between the ridiculous def/tough bonuses that the Winter Guard will get, and the potential of DEF 19 stealth'd Kayazy in my face by turn 2, I am in one hell of a pickle.
We played a normal caster-kill game, both of us of the opinion this game would be so geared towards assassination from the start that any sort of objectives would just be flat out ignored, and Jamie won the roll, choosing to go second. The board at least provides me with a little hope -- two buildings dominate the middle with walls in between and forest next to them on my side. If there's a better choke point out there, I've not seen it. pBaldur's spell Earth Spikes, both from him and channeled through Megalith, will let me whittle down the hard-to-hit infantry (i.e. all of them) without fear of friendly fire casualties thanks to solid ground. I deployed the beasts to run up the middle behind the Sentry Stone, Baldur and the woldstalkers in the forest and walls to my right behind the building, and the gallows grove and blackclad on the left sneaking up behind the other building. Jamie plopped down both sets of troops side-by-side in the middle/left, moving to angle into the gap between buildings while Irusk and Beast took the straight stretch on my right.
Turn 1 - Circle
I ran forward with everything that could run, using Baldur's tried and true rapid-growth-cycling forest walk trick to pop into the forest up front and throw the forest in front of the walls. Solid ground went up (more to prevent friendly fire later than anything else; he had 1 blast, and it wasn't that great) while the Sentry Stone began it's slow march up the middle, intending to put itself smack between the buildings next turn.
Turn 1 - Khador
Jamie charged up the middle with the Kayazy, angling in front of Irusk and Beast thanks to their tremendous (by comparison) speed of 6. The Winter Guard managed to get up almost to the first set of walls on my left, and were in a good position to start spraying/CRA-ing my blackclad and grove next turn. pIrusk threw up Iron Flesh on the Kayazy (unexpected? nope.) and superiority on Beast, and proceeded to amble leisurely forward.
Turn 2 - Circle
Baldur didn't upkeep solid ground (no idea why, really) and hoarded his fury for some blasts/forest re-positioning. The Sentry Stone had one of his little twiggy minions sacrifice itself into a little twiggy forest, blocking the Kayazy from charging my woldstalkers on the right as they moved into position behind a wall. The grove moved up behind a wall on the left, and Baldur put down another forest before letting loose with a channeled Earth Spikes, taking out a kayazy and a winter guard thanks to a lucky scatter! Megalith cast his animus for a nice area of rough terrain and geomancied another Earth Spikes, but it scattered off, and both he and the woldguardian moved up into screening positions in the middle.
Turn 2 - Khador
Those two forests in the middle prevented the Kayazy from charging, but didn't prevent them from running around the forests and right into the face of my woldstalkers, manikins, and beasts. Shooting from the Winter Guard quickly killed off the Blackclad and Gallows Grove, while Irusk moved up towards another wall opposite the wall with the now-engaged Woldstalkers, Beast close behind him. Irusk cast a halfhearted airburst that failed to damage anything, popped his feat, giving all the Kayazy a 4+ tough, immunity to knockdown, and fearless, then cast Iron Flesh on them -- in short, they weren't going anywhere anytime soon....
Turn 3 - Circle
Baldur chose not to upkeep the forest (it had served it's purpose), and started off by popping his feat, casting Solid Ground, and throwing another Earth Spikes at a manikin grunt, hoping to take out a gaggle of Kayazy surrounding it -- all but 1 of which made their 4+ tough rolls. Curses! Megalith moved up and geomancied the same trick point blank, deviating less than an inch and killing 2 more. The woldstalkers zephyr'd just out of melee with the Kayazy, and thanks to the wall between them (boosting the little mafia gits to a DEF21!), took aim at a lone straggler not near the wall and swish cheesed him after 4 tries. The woldguardian threw up his animus and ambled up in front of Megalith, effectively ending the Winter Guard's hopes for a decent combined ranged attack next turn while positioning for a good charge at Beast once the dust settled.
Turn 3 - Khador
Faced with severely crippled movement and a general lack of anything hit-able to shoot at, the Khadorans spent the turn re-grouping -- the winter guard ran forward, consolidating into better positions once shooting lanes opened up again, while Irusk moved farther forward and up next to the safe, sturdy wall for protection, put Iron Flesh on himself, and pegged a woldstalker with a directly-hitting airburst (which ignores cover). Beast threw caution to the wind, running forward as far as possible to get good positioning for next turn's mosh pit. The Kayazy Underboss bellowed at his boys, giving them the ability to move through enemy models, and they proceeded to rush forward and surround Baldur and the woldstalkers as much as possible.
Turn 4 - Circle
Baldur once again chose not to upkeep solid ground, but for a good reason -- Irusk was now within 12 inches of him. Seeing his chance, he cast Rapid Growth, placing a forest right up next to Irusk, and forest-walked (away from an entire gaggle of sad faced Kayazy) to it for some good old fashioned caster-killing. 4 spent fury, 3 attacks, some spare boosting, and rather poor dice rolls later, Irusk is sitting at 12 hit points and Baldur realizes that he's in trouble. The situation worsens when I discover that Megalith is just outside of 12"; he ambles forward, unable to do anything to assist. The woldstalkers attempt to make up for this - thanks to zephyr and some lucky shots, they manage to take out the Winter Guard around Beast, allowing the Woldguardian to trample over (taking out another 2 Kayazy thanks to lucky rolls, hehehe) and wallop him something fierce, knocking out 3 columns (but not knocking him down, courtesy of Superiority). The sentry stone makes a menace of itself, pulling a focus off of Irusk and using it to put 2 manikin grunts into play, blocking Beast's lane to Baldur and managing to tie down some Winter Guard in melee at the same time.
Turn 4 - Khador
Irusk hordes his focus and upkeeps Iron Flesh, failing to hit Baldur in melee but unable to do much else. Beast 09 flails at the Woldguardian, doing some damage, while the Kayazy knock out a few woldstalkers and try in vain to re-position themselves. Kovnik Joe decides now is his time to shine, and he charges Baldur, knocking off 8 hit points and laughing into his immense beard. The Winter Guard not tied down charge Baldur as well, hitting him 4 times -- but leaving him with 1 hit point! There was hope!
Turn 5 - Circle
Baldur pulls 3 fury from the Woldguardian, and cuts himself for another (thanks to Megalith's auto-healing of 1 hp), leaving him close to death with 1 hit point. In turn, he brings Irusk down to 3 hit points but can't seem to finish the job. Megalith moves up, finding the smallest of lines between the Winter Guard to Irusk, and lets loose with a long range boosted Earth Spikes - it hits, but the blast also hits Baldur! The damage roll is just low enough not to do any damage to Baldur, while the damage roll against Irusk is just enough! Irusk is dead! Victory Circle!
So, there was definitely a point there where I almost gave up hope and called it, but I'm happy I didn't! Baldur can be annoyingly difficult to kill, and thanks to forest walk I wasn't forced to slog through 20 infantry to get to Irusk. In fairness, this was my opponent's first game against pBaldur, and I'm pretty sure that trick won't work again, but it was a fun game nonetheless.
I'm particularly happy with the Woldguardian's performance against Beast-09. I'm going to have to remember to keep the Blackclad behind the line at the beginning from now on; his spells would have been IMMENSELY useful in the late game.
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