Theatre of War Mk II - Campaign Round 1 Redux

I promised "full" coverage over on dicerage.com, but it's not going to be fully "full". Doing each match is tedious work and probably not as thrilling. So therefore, I'll be giving you a redux each round, covering the situation at the start of the round, the orders given, the conflicts ensuing, and their resolution. I'll try to wedge in pictures where possible and present. I'll also give some insight into the ongoing changes to the system and the specials that'll kick in. Enjoy!


So you might remember this image from one of the sidebars. It's the exposition, the way that all regions where distributed at the beginning. The idea is that the lands where mainly controlled in equal parts by Cygnar and Khador, and that the Skorne had come as invaders, mostly scattering the Khadoran forces (I chose to have this purely background info influence my detachment selection, and made a larger one and three smaller ones whereas the other two big player have three about equal sized detachments).

There's a war brewing in yonder seemingly peaceful lands.

This first round, I was the only one ordering new models for my detachments, the others probably forgot that option even though I reminded them. I went with getting a unit of Kayazy Eliminators and a Manhunter for the Butcher, and a Koldun Lord for Zerkova. Even though I should've gotten one for Irusk as well, so he could lend his troops to other defending Detachments, and I wouldn't have to use him all the time when defending. Well, now that'll have to wait for the next round.


When it came to the first orders during the campaign round's control phase - remember that player chose these in secret - I opted to go with the larger detachment led by Irusk as my rapid reaction force. The Butcher's detachment would go and further fortify the city of Svadisthan. Sorscha would move out from that city to stage a commando mission at the outlying cygnaran region southwest and next to the Imperial City (the centre region). Zerkova would, finally, launch an attack at Gasteiz, the southeastern city, coming from the eastmost woods. Since Sorscha's and Zerkova's detachment were both too small, I would be forced to choose the "commando" follow-ups if I succeeded, but that was fine with me.
Cygnar's orders involved Nemo reinforcing the ruins next west of Gasteiz, an attack by Kraye on Svadisthan, and Haley doing interception duty based in the farmlands Sorscha was attacking.
The Skorne chose a more defensive approach. Both Xerxis and Rasheth were assigned to rapid reaction forces, the only attack was launched by Morghul from an adjacent region onto the most southwestern ruins Khador controlled.
Also, Garryth emerged from nearby forest to raid Svadisthan, Kaya Wildborne moved out to attack the forest directly East of the Imperial City, and Jarl Skuld took a long hike from his base to raid the Skorne.

The conflicts ensuing thusly (after Arides' decision whom to intercept when) were:
In the early timestep: Cygnar(Butcher) v. Retribution(Garryth) v. Khador(Irusk) / Skorne(Morghul) v. Cygnar(Haley)
In the midtime timestep: Circle(Kaya) v. Cygnar [and Skorne(Morghul) v. Khador(Irusk), should he punch through]
In the late timestep: Khador(Sorscha) v. Cygnar(Haley) / Trollbloods(Jarl) v. Skorne(Xerxis or Rasheth) [and Circle(Kaya) v. Khador(Irusk), should he punch through]

Results?
Early:
Kraye, Garryth and Irusk engage in combat. Irusk focuses a little too much on stopping Garryth to realize that iron fleshed Kayazy Assassins alone can't really hold a pit against Kraye, especially not when failing a CMD-check to flee, so Kraye wins. Following his victory, he proceeds to incite a riot through cygnaran agents in Svadisthan, destabilizing the region.
Also, Haley stops Morghul's forces, Precursors accounting for both the Gladiator and Bronzeback, and Morghul falling to a Chain Lightning.
Midtime:
Haley stops Kaya, mostly with Temporal Barrier and survives the assassinating Stalker thanks to camped focus, then brings down Kaya herself.
Late:
Haley moves to intercept Sorscha with a fragment of her force, but though she comes close to victory, her streak of successes ends, and Sorscha triumphs. Kinda. She continues her march, but will arrive only in the next round, so Cygnar knows where she's going.
Jarl could've picked a better time or spot to face the Skorne, the heavy rain setting in late wasn't exactly beneficial to him. It really hampered his shooting, but in the end, Xerxis wasn't able to knock out the bandit before the turn limit ended the game.

For this round, Arides was probably the most successful, getting Haley into a perfect intercepting position and gaining 89,5 Victory Points, as well as playing good enough to end with a W/L ratio of 3-1. The most unlucky player was hard to determine for this round, everyone had their share of bad luck.

And with this, we're going into Campaign Round two! Until then, farewell!

(C&C welcome)