Masha Shingai vs Knights of Weston

Fire Isles by yagyuninja
300 Points
Glyphs of Ulaniva (Unique Attack +1) and Valda (Move +2)

Current Version of Unit:

Army 1: Masha Shingai, Tagawa Samurai Archers x3, Otonashi (290)
Army 2: Knights of Weston x3, Sir Hawthorne (300)

Which Units Survived?
7 Tagawa Samurai Archers, Otonashi
~183 Points

Game Summary:
The knights won initiative and moved out Hawthorne, who immediately rolled a 1 and betrayed them.

After that, they struggled to recover. As the TSA slowly moved up onto level ground. On OM3, Masha rushed out and killed a knight, and one whiffed against a stray arrow earlier in the round.

The next round, he took OM1, but instead of retreating behind a line of TSA, he rushed out further to try and kill a KoW going for the Movement glyph, but the attack was blocked. The KoW then spun around to grab height, bringing his attack back up to 3 and dealing 1 wound to Masha (1 shield). They also tried killing Hawthorne before he could wreak too much havoc, but a good Blind Rage SA finished off two knights that had height.

In an attempt to swing the game back into favor, half a squad of Knights climbed onto height and got a couple of hits in on Masha, but all died to Lava Field damage at the end of that round. The Samurai then won initiative, and Masha disengaged from 1 KoW (safe) to retreat back behind a line of TSA.

By now, the Knights were pretty well thinned out, and after some selective lava burns that only affected their side, they were reduced to only 2 members for the final round. The Samurai won initiative yet again, and Masha rushed out to grab height on one of the knights so that he could whiff spectacularly.

The KoW then spun around and took height, missing once but blocking off a barrage of arrows from the TSA to attack again from height on Masha and deal 2 wounds, finally killing him. Unfortunately, his last brother hadn't faired so well, whiffing against one of the other archers, leaving him alone. He met the same fate the next turn.

Usefulness of Powers:
Awakened Fear:
-1 dice to TSA (blocked)
-10 dice to Knights of Weston

False Slumber: Never activated, since I intentionally put no range in the opponent's army.

Normal Attacks:
(3/5) killed a KoW
(3/5) blocked by a KoW
(1/6) on height but blocked by a KoW

Defenses:
(1/3) against (2/3) from a KoW on height in his aura
(2/3) against (1/3) from a KoW on height in his aura
(2/3) against (1/2) from a KoW in his aura
(1/3) against (2/3) from a KoW on height in his aura
(1/3) against (2/2) from a KoW in his aura
A TSA rolled (0/3) against (2/2) from a KoW in his aura
A TSA rolled (2/3) against (1/2) from a KoW in his aura (killed by Counterstrike)
A TSA rolled (1/3) against (2/2) from a KoW in his aura
(1/3) against (1/3) from a KoW on height in his aura
(0/3) against (2/3) from a KoW on height in his aura

In terms of kills, Masha slew 1 KoW and helped one get killed by Counterstrike for a total of 35 points worth of damage. This may seem low, but the threat that he posed to the knights was much larger than in any other game, especially since I was able to play around his aura with the range on the archers this time to where it practically only affected the opponent.

Additional Comments:
Thanks to how aggressively Masha was played and the giant lava crevasse in the center of the map, the TSA were able to avoid the aura much more than they were on more crowded maps like Highways and Dieways. Since the Knights were so slow, they also struggled to be able to consistently reach the archers before inevitably whiffing on defense.

Sir Hawthorne backstabbing on Turn 1 of the game was also brutal. I think the Knights would've still had a difficult time with him, but it would not have been nearly as bad as it was otherwise. The poor roll only deprived them of additional attacks every turn of the game, but got rid of the army's SA and soaked up a ton of attention from the KoW while the TSA and Masha freely reinforced their frontlines. This map was also nice for the TSA, given the easy height and giant crevasse to slow down the KoW.

Maybe the Knights struggled so much because I was using Utgar Valkyrie Dice for them. Perhaps this is their way of getting revenge on me. The jerks.