Cancon 2019 Aftermath - Part 1

Right, it's now been over a week since Cancon, and I've still not had a chance to write up any of my games. I had planned to just do 2 posts - 1 for each day. But given how long this has taken and before the situation gets any worse, here is game 1...

I have written previously about my army list, which was thrown together with the intention of being as simple as possible in order to accommodate my lack of practice and expected difficult weather conditions. I had modest expectations, so let's see how that panned out. Here is my list again in case you can't be bothered going back to the other post...

• Exemplar Forsaker with Blade of Slashing
• Exemplar Forsaker
• Horde of Order of the Brotherhood with Maccwar's Caterpillar Potion
• Horde of Order of the Brotherhood
• Horde of Order of the Brotherhood
• Regiment of the Order of the Abyssal Hunt
• Regiment of the Order of Redemption
• Forsaken Beast with Regeneration
• Forsaken Beast with Regeneration

On with the report!

Game 1 - Push
Trevor Younghusband - Basileans

• Formation - Retribution of the Heavens
• Formation - Holy Lancers
• Horde of Elohi (with Caterpillar)
• Horde of Elohi
• Ur-Elohi
• Ur-Elohi
• Gnaeus Sallustis
• Regiment of Paladin Knights
• Regiment of Paladin Knights
• Regiment of Paladin Foot Guard
• Regiment of Paladin Foot Guard
• Horde of Sisterhood Infantry

That stuff doesn't total 2250 points. I've obviously missed a couple of items. There may even have been a Bearer of the Holy Icon waving the Lute of Insatiable Darkness around. 

This was my first game using my army list. In fact, it was the first time I had ever used Brotherhood. Obviously the first round was always going to be a challenge.

The terrain didn't help me. There's a rocky obstacle in front of the knights over on the right. I needed some time to get some clear charges.

Trevor's forces on my right were basically the infantry anchor. All the speed was over the other side.

Gnaeus and his mates. Only 20 knights? Pathetic!

Trevor got the first turn and swept around on my left flank. I was kind of hoping to make use of the forest to shield my units from being immediately flanked.

The rest of the advance was more careful. One of my flyers was within range of the nearest knight unit, but that solo charge would have gone predictably poorly.

It was hard to work out how to respond. There were 4 flying elements in Trevor's force. In essence he was quicker than me, despite my army being basically all cavalry. I pushed one of the Exemplar Forsaken (birdie dudes) up hard, where he'd only be able to receive the charge from either an Ur-Elohi or an Elohi horde - the terrain meant there wouldn't be room for both. I then set up stuff to respond with a flank charge, assuming he held. This was good in theory, but in practice I stuffed up. I forgot that the base of that obelisk was Height 4, so my second Exemplar Forsaken couldn't actually see as much as I had planned. It was sort of careless, but looking at the terrain it's easy to see how it happened.

I decided to move the pathfinding knight horde into range of the enemy cavalry. Neither of us had any shooting, but I figured I wouldn't gain much by delaying. Might as well invite the charge and see if I could hold. I probably should have sat far enough back that any charge would be hindered, but I suspect Trevor would have just backed up. The wall on the right was still bothering me. Soon I'd be clear of it... 

Trevor decided to accept my generous invitation to charge. Given the Paladin Knight regiments were both Elite thanks to the formation, his damage output was pretty good. I'm not surprised he went for it. If it didn't work however, he'd have real problems.

Trevor worked out that the obelisk was messing with my line of sight, and that the Ur-Elohi could get in with only Elmo the Forsaken Beast able to see him...

Unfortunately Elmo was only Movement 6. He could see, but he was out of range. It would have been different had the Elohi horde gone in, but Trevor essentially found a gap in my plans. The Elohi all just focused on staying out of sight, leaving all the work to their slightly fancier bro. Jerks.

So. That charge really hurt. I reckon he did about 18 wounds, and managed the rout roll despite my Inspiring. Oh well, it was a risk I had decided to take.

Vengeance would be mine! Well, maybe. I threw both units at the knights on the right, because I was hindered.

Gnaeus had reformed to face the horde of knights, however even in the front they packed too much punch for him. Gnaeus routed and the knights reformed to face the Elohi in their rear.

So. 52 attacks is a lot of attacks. Even hindered, I had hoped it would be enough to rout a single knight regiment. But apparently not. So my forces were stuck, and things were kind of unraveling.

I really don't like corkscrew charges. The knights I had not charged had enough space to spin and charge my horde in the rear, even as they had turned to prevent the Elohi from doing the same.  

Meanwhile, the engagement between the Ur-Elohi and my Exemplar Forsaken didn't go very well. I took 5 wounds on the initial charge, but that was OK. Given all my plans for flank charges had been stuffed up by my misreading the terrain, I decided the best plan was to counter-charge and just pin him in place by disordering him, then clean him up the following turn with the other Exemplar. Of course, this is all based on the big assumption that I would actually do a wound. My dude fluffed his attacks entirely, which meant the Ur-Elohi was free to fly off and leave me facing a wall. 

On my right flank, Cookie Monster (my second Forsaken Beast) was doing his job by receiving a charge in order to make opportunities for the cavalry. Unfortunately the horde of Sisterhood was free to move into my own horde, as the knight regiment counter-charged alongside. 

 So even hindered, a regiment of knights in the rear is not great for your health. I lost the horde in the centre, leaving everything free to look around for a new target. The Sisterhood and Knights didn't manage to get rid of my final horde, at least. That's something, I guess.

Having lost one of my units for a corkscrew charge, I decided to try returning the favour. Elmo was charging into the rear of the enemy knights, so it made sense to hit them in the front with my Order of Redemption as well to try to tip them over the edge.

My knight horde was not long for this world, so counter-charged the already-damaged enemy knights in an effort to at least clean them off before terrible things happened to them.

Cookie Monster had weathered the attentions of the Paladin Foot Guard, and counter-charged with assistance from the Order of the Abyssal Hunt.

 This is me trying to recover the use of my flyers after getting stuffed about by the Ur-Elohi. The other Ur-Elohi is there too - he's near the enemy knights, facing away from camera. So in essence I was trying the same thing again - waiting to accept a charge in order to set up a flanking response. But this time if Trevor didn't take the bait, I'd be hitting other units from unpleasant angles.

Elmo, you muppet. 3 wounds. That's all he could manage with his 24 attacks for charging into the rear. Way to go, man. As a result, I was once again stuck with all my stuff facing the wrong direction. At least I did get rid of the other knight regiment on the second attempt from my horde.

Between them, Cookie Monster and the knights managed about 12 wounds on the Paladin Foot Guard. This was not enough, and they brushed off my efforts. Another disappointment.

For his troubles, Cookie Monster found himself fighting an Elohi Horde which had traveled the whole length of the table to get to him. The Paladin Foot Guard were free to counter-charge the Order of the Abyssal Hunt.

Yeah, that's called overkill. The Sisters had this, but the second Paladin Foot Guard couldn't resist a flank charge. Over on the left you can see the Paladin Knights celebrating still being alive by charging my Order of Redemption. 

One Ur-Elohi flanked Elmo whilst the other accepted the invitation to charge my bird. 

Oh look, I have no right flank. The Elohi proved too much for Cookie Monster, and rather unexpectedly the almost-dead Paladin Foot Guard were more than a match for completely fresh Order of the Abyssal Hunt. At least the knight horde disappearing was no surprise to anyone.

Over on the left I didn't lose anything! Not even Elmo! How confusing...

Now this is more like it. I sprung my super-obvious trap on the Ur-Elohi, did 10 wounds, and rolled a 3 for the nerve test. Sigh.

I counter-charged everywhere I could, but made little headway. I think Elmo did a single wound to the Ur-Elohi, who shrugged it off with Iron Resolve.

Things were falling apart, but somehow Elmo was hanging around. He was clearly a stoic pacifist. Unkillable, but completely harmless.

And this is how things finished for me. I did eventually lose Elmo and one of the Exemplar Forsaken, and I did manage to kill the badly wounded Ur-Elohi on the second attempt. My sole survivor saw that the battlefield was lost and did the sensible thing, heading off to try to take Trevor's seat instead.

Not exactly a glorious start to the event, but I was philosophical. I figured the first game could be written off as a learning experience. No doubt the next game would go better.

Result: 1:20 loss