Hammer VS Elephant

Wait...those aren't Menites...

Had a 35 point match against Skorne today. Was pretty interesting cause it was the first time I've played against the faction. All I can say is "Elephants...hit hard..." Also, the sheer number of weapon masters Skorne can field, mind = blown.



Khador
Karchev
-3x Berserkers


2x Max MOW Demo Corps
Greylords
Max unit of Mechaniks


Skorne
eHexeris
-Cyclops Savage
-Bronzeback titan
-Titan Gladiator


Paingiver beast handlers
Cataphract Cetrati
Tyrant Commander & Standard
Orin Midwinter


He wins deployment so he makes me go first. 


Turn 1
-I cast tow on Karchev. He tramples up. Everything else runs up.
+He runs up as well. This is the result of not playing any shooting units at all.

Turn2
-DemoCorps run up. Karchev upkept Tow so he has a grey lord run all the way up so he can charge it and kill it. I don't trample because this at least allows me to change my facing. Granted, it at the cost of 1 unit and I would have been better off sacrificing a mechanic for it. Anyway, Karchev Unearthly rages.He then sends 2x berserkers to deal with the Titan Gladiator. They put it into the ground.

+In response, his units kill off the 2x berserkers and chargers my demo corps, killing off several of them.


Turn 3
-I retaliate in kind although I make a mistake here when I choose to have the democorps activate first. I should have moved with Karchev, cast Rage and then have the berserker KD the Titan which would have allowed my democorp to hit him for free. Instead, I miss several times with my democorp, allowing his titan to survive. Anyway, Democorp move to engage the weaponmasters to prevent them from charging. They also block the charge lane to Karchev.
+He kills off the last berserker and most of my DemoCorps

Turn 4
-Democorps keep backswinging. I don't believe I keep missing so often. Meanwhile, mechanics run up in a certain pattern, while leaving a charge lane available for Karchev to hit the Bronzeback later on. Meanwhile, greylords move up and spray the damn beasthandlers because I do NOT want them giving any more STR bonus to the beasts. Surprisingly, I manage to catch them all in 1 spray and kill all of them in the spray. Wow, my grey lords actually did something worthwhile this time. Karchev pops his feat, which means he actually gets to turn around BEFORE moving. This is extremely important since the Bronzeback was originally out of my LOS. He then charges the bronzeback through a maze of mechaniks. 1 Rage later, Bronzeback goes byebye. Meanwhile, I wonder how he'll try to assassinate me since I'm pretty out in the open.
+Instead of using his cyclops to walk to me like I thought he would, he choses to have his cyclops engage my greylords. But before that, it casts future sight on the warlock. He then tries to beat my greylord...and fails. He buys an attack, rolls 2 less than he needs to hit. That's when he decides to boost, and rolls a....1. Which is the 1 number he can't have if he wants to hit. Anyway, the rest of his infantry finish off the demo corps while the Tyrant charges and threshers. He kills off the mechaniks nearby. Then he buys and tries to kill Karchev. Nope, does not happen. Even when he pops his feat to leech another 3 fury from the cyclops. Karchev DOES NOT GO DOWN.

Turn 5
-The obvious happens. His warlock is right in front of a Karchev with all systems operations and Unearthly Rage. Mechaniks attempt to repair Karchev anyway.I take the extra focus, Rage and then hit him. I roll high enough that I pop him with 1 hit, with 1 initial attack left and 3 focus to buy additional ones.


Thoughts on game:
Well, this was a pretty painful game for me overall since his units not only had shieldwall, they also had weaponmaster. Ouch. However, he clustered his units too close together which let me hit all of them with the demo corps and take out a few of them. I was pretty careless with the berserkers in the game, throwing them away for less gain than I would have liked. Otoh, for ONCE, my greylords actually did something. 


I think my opponent could probably have won the game if during turn 4, he had sacrificed the cyclops to try and beat down Karchev. It would have died but it could stall karchev and damage him a bit so that his weaponmasters could charge in later and following that, his warlock. But then I may have just blocked their charge lane with either the greylords or the mechaniks and if his last beast died, he had no way of generating fury other than cutting, which meant the game would be in my favor.