Vlad3 vs Rahn

In which Vlad3's threat range is underestimated once again. No photos for this as the camera on my phone didn't work for some reason. 

Khador

Vlad3

-Drago

-wardog

Uhlans

Markov

Yuri

Manhunter

Manhunter

Widowmakers

Fenris

Retribution

Adeptis Rahn

-Phoenix

-Gorgon

Battle Mages

Battle Mages

Mage Hunter strike force with UA

Mage Hunter Assassin

Mage Hunter Assassin

Arcanist

Right, we play killbox. I win deployment so I go first. 

Turn 1

-Vlad sees huge number of shooty units on the opposite, casts windwall. Casts infernal machine on Drago, casts dash. Charges up and fails. Drago runs up to be behind Vlad slightly but base to base. Fenris runs up to be in front of Vlad. Uhlans run up to flank to the side. Widowmakers move up. Manhunters run into the next forest.

+His mage hunters stand still and shoot at my manhunters. I may have made a mistake here as I forgot my manhunters were stealthed and phantom seeker doesn't ignore stealth. Bleh. Anyway, all my manhunters die. Note to self, remember manhunters have stealth. However, his mage hunters are now all clumped together. He moves Phoenix up to take a shot but forgets Vlad3 has windwall on him. He deviates anyway and fails to hit anything. He casts force hammer through the arc node on the Phoenix, hits Vlad3 who slams into Drago. He takes a fair amount of damage since he's dry on focus. Then he moves nearer to his mage hunters. Everything else moves near him. This isn't looking good. 

Turn 2

-For him. I drop all upkeeps. Vlad3 spends a focus to stand up. Fenris charges the Phoenix so he's no longer blocking the way for Vlad3. Most of his units are behind a forest but he forgets I can clearly see the phoenix and possibly 1 mage hunter. I don't want to quibble about LOS so I declare the phoenix to be the charge target for Vlad3. I feat, cast HOF on myself, charge the phoenix but in such a way I go through the forest and impact 2 of the mage hunters, kill both of them, turn to face the phoenix, hit it with the sword, sidestep, go close into the mage hunters, cast flashing blade using the sword so I can kill some of the ones nearby, kill more of the ones in reach, then I use my spear for the reach, hit, move in so I'm next to adeptis Rahn. At this point I have maybe 4-5 blood tokens. I go crazy with flashing blade. 10 blood tokens later, Rahn is dead, as are most of his squad of magehunters, the UA, the arcanist and 1 battlemage. 

Thoughts on game

I admit that since I played in the SR tournament where every scenario had a killbox, I'm somewhat addicted to killbox. It stops people from camping in one of the goddamn corners. 

I keep forgetting my manhunters have stealth, which is a pity as it got them killed really fast. I wasn't originally planning on using Vlad to assassinate, my plan was originally to feat, send in Fenris, hit, sidestep, berserk, berserk, berserk, sidestep, berserk, berserk berserk. He was close enough together that I could have cleared out a huge chunk of his units as well. It's just that I also saw the opportunity for Vlad to go in, but it was a risk since I had to spend 1 to stand up, 2 for hand of fate and then charge in. Ideally I would have liked to do it without having to spend 1 to stand up, which would have made for better odds. Did just manage to kill Rahn on the last hit though so yeah, it was somewhat risky. If I failed, I probably would have sprinted away with Vlad's feat and then sat on 27 armor and watched him try to hurt me. My Uhlans would have killed his Phoenix so he would have almost no heavy hitters left capable of hitting def17, arm27 Vlad3 with dog. 

But my opponent was rushed for time, so I chose the most risky route. It's not really something I haven't done before and when it works out, it's great. When it works out. The trick would be to really be careful in choosing how you time your initial attacks. You don't want to hit with your spear first and then later have no target in reach for your 2nd, shorter initial. Usually it's good if the enemy has some big ass unit like a warjack nearby for you to hit, or something that won't die in 1 shot so you can keep sidestepping around it to reach his warcaster or other units. It's also important you don't flashing blade recklessly and then end up killing everything you can reach and again have no target for your second initial.

Judging by my recent plays with Vlad3, I really should be casting Hand of Fate on him first instead of the Uhlans. I can always cast it again later on the Uhlans but when you're up for an assassination vector, you don't want to spend the precious extra focus casting HOF on Vlad3.