Irusk vs Shae (25pt Battle Report; VASSAL)

Irusk did not like the south of Khador in the middle of the, albeit short, summer. It was hot, too damn hot, and was frequented by the most villainous filth. These pirates were men without honour, fighting for coin and caring about nothing but their own hide. The clear weather allowed them to hit the coast wherever the chose and flee back to the see when the army closed in on them. Repeated raids in this area, and specifically on this Khadoran military outpost, had drawn his attention here. Every raid had a purpose that revealed these pirates to be more than mindless thugs. They were planning something big. Large amounts of black powder had been stolen and they came close taking cortexes in transit past Kulvorn Bay.

They would not get away this time. The ambush had been primed. Irusk could sense the Devastator twitching – it’s boiler was at maximum capacity and it knew battle was about to commence.

Yesterday I smashed my long distance VASSAL record! Admittedly it was only my second game, but this game had 6500km, of mostly ocean, between the players. I had a fantastic opponent in Clayton, who is based in Orlando. He fielded a Privateer force lead by Shae. They would face Irusk in a 25pt ‘caster kill game.

THE ARMIES
Here’s Clayton’s list. I think Clay would agree that the list had one ‘jack too many for Shae to adequately allocate focus to. That said all of the other elements are solid and the Commodore really frightens me. That cannon has some nasty options.

• Phinneus Shae
  • Freebooter
  • Freebooter
  • Buccaneer
• 6 Sea Dog Crew
• 3 Sea Dog Rifleman
• First Mate Hawk
• Commodore Cannon and Crew
• Lord Rockbottom

This is a pretty standard list for Khador, but again it probably has one ‘jack too many. Irusk has one great ‘jack spell, Superiority, and on the Devastator it is fantastic. The IFP will go head to head against the Sea Dogs. I don’t have the solos to go up against Hawk or Rockbottom, so I’ll have to try other tricks to get them!

• Kommandant Irusk
  • Destroyer
  • Devastator
• 4 Battle Mechaniks
• 6 Iron Fang Pikemen
• Iron Fang Officer & Standard
• Widowmakers

THE GAME
The pirates had with them one of the biggest cannons Irusk had ever seen. It looked to have the potential to total a ‘jack in a single shot, so he was careful to keep the Devastator out of range as it advanced along the wall of one of the outpost.

He initially sent the Iron Fangs to deal with the cannon up the right flank, but thought the better of it when he saw the speed and ferocity with which the pirates advanced through the middle of the battlefield. He made the ground soft under their feet and ordered all infantry into the centre to meet the pirate threat.

The Destroyer dropped a bombard shot on the cannon and seemed to almost destroy it. It was with dismay that Irusk saw the ‘jack hurled to the ground by return fire from the artillery piece.

On the left the Devastator ran to engage both a Buccaneer and Freebooter who had earlier cleared out the Widowmakers. Their blows bounced off it’s thick armour and when it opened up to rain death on them they were almost crippled.

Out of nowhere another Freebooter trampled aside infantry to end up standing right in front of Irusk. The undisturbed Iron Fangs swung at it and severely damaged the enemy ‘jack. Irusk and the remaining Iron Fangs finished it.

The Destroyer stood up and exacted it’s revenge on the cannon. The pirates in the centre were cut down by the disciplined strikes of the well trained Khadorans. The pirate warcaster’s force was now severly depleted.

Realizing that living to fight another day was in his best interest he fired a couple of menacing shots towards Irusk and fled the field.

All of the screenshots are in this set. In the images each round is broken down into two turns a (Clay’s) and b (mine).

That was a good game and Clay is an excellent opponent. My dice luck was ridiculously good. I made an unholy number of tough checks on my feat turn and every damage roll I rolled was massive! Against that kind of luck it was hard to formulate a response.

Sending the IFP against the cannon would have been a mistake. It’s spray attack would have decimated them. The Destroyer did a good job taking out the Commodore and the Devastator gets MVP for taking out two ‘jacks. He had Superiority up all game. It’s a great spell.

Thanks again to Clay for such a great game.

Owen

PS I don’t know why some of the screenshots have white areas. Must be a VASSAL issue.