Warmachine: Butcher Battle Reports

I've got a tournament coming up later this week, so Luke came over for some practice games at the weekend. It's a "beginner friendly" Steamroller tournament. 35 points, two lists. 12 minute turns. Thanks to a trade with Lord Siwoc, I now have a decent amount of Khador miniatures. I'm still painting some of them, but, combined with the Khador miniatures in Luke's collection, I'll be able to put together two lists. Neither list will be entirely brilliant. One of them is almost every miniature that Lord Siwoc sent me with a few tweaks. The only is very, very thrown together. The Lord Siwoc list features eButcher, and would have been brutal in mki but, in Steamroller 2013 tournament rules, suffers badly from limited mobility.

PButcher and Co

Still, it's going to be my main list for the time being, so I decided to get some practice games in with it, using prime Butcher rather than the epic version. Because it's "beginner friendly" I'm hoping that that tournament organizer will let me use the eButcher model as p Butcher. I've asked, but haven't heard back yet.

These games are my tenth and eleventh games of Warmachine mkii. I played my ninth game on Vassal the night before.

Anyway, on to the lists:

eCaine list

My List:

pButcher

-Berserker

-Berserker

-Wardog

Widowmaker

Widowmaker Marksman

Max Uhlans

Max Shocktroopers

Saxon Orrick

Luke's List:

eCaine

-Stormclad

-Squire

Gun Mages and UA

-Defender

Stormblades and 2WA

Ayanna and Holt

Rhupert

Game One: Scenario 8

Game One Deployment

I chose to go first. Luke surprised me by taking the left hand table edge. I thought he'd have benefited more by taking the other table edge for the clearer lines of fire. I suspect that he just really liked the idea of being able to teleport his 'Caster in and out of a forest. 

My turn one consisted of putting Iron Flesh on the Uhlans (two of them are represented by Proxy Bases because Luke forgot to bring his Uhlans to pad out my own) and Fury on the Shocktroopers. Saxon Orrick gave the Uhlans Pathfinder. Everything Ran.

Luke put Blur on the Stormblades and eCaine's shooting buff (Dead Eye? True Shot? Snipe?) on the Gun Mages. His shooting was pretty ineffectual, only ticking off a few boxes from my multi-wound infantry here and there and killing a Widowmaker. Even eCaine didn't manage to do much. Ayanna and Holt were out of range.

In turn two, I dropped Iron Flesh on the Uhlans. My Widowmakers gunned down a number of Stormblades and withdrew bakwards. My Shocktrooper hugged the very edge of my control zone to stay out of charge and shooting range of the Stormblades. Orrick gave the Uhlans pathfinder and they charged the Gun Mages, killing a few (including the UA thanks to reach) but failing to do more than scratch the Defender. My Widowmakers picked off another Stormblade or two.

Uhlan's Charge Home

My Berserker with three focus failed to charge the Stormcad (half inch out) but as he hadn't actually spent any focus I didn't have to worry about him blowing up.

I looked at the board before moving Butcher and, knowing that eCaine would HAVE to go for an assassination run soon before his Gun Mage flank collapsed, decided to entice him into trying it too early, when the chances were poor. I moved Butcher (with just two focus) up so that only the War Dog was between him, the StormBlades and eCaine. 

Madness? Not really. I'd been counting inches and knew that Ayanna would be out of range to Harm and the Holt would be too. Plus I was fairly sure that only two Stormblades would be getting a shot in, and one Stormrifle. I expected the other would be killed the WarDog and that the second would be shooting the Dog to ensure it was dead before eCaine activated. Finally,  I'd worked out that, even with pathfinder from Rhpuert, eCaine would be an inch out with his pistols. I knew he'd just teleport away once he realised that he was out of range, but that would be thin.  I'd pop Butcher's feat. Massacre his over-committed Stormblades with the Widowmakers and Shocktroopers, kill or engage A+H with the Berkerker and remaining Shocktroopers, destroy the objective and control his zone with the Uhlans (I was confident the Defender and Gun Mages wouldn't kill them all) and claim a third control point with Butcher (safely behind a good number of medium bases and camping on six focus). That would force eCaine to go for the assassination again, which he'd fail. After that I'd wrack up one more control point on his zone and on my next turn after that, either kill Caine or score the 5th CP anyway.

I smiled at Luke and dared him to come get me.

Luke activates, drops his upkeeps, and camps everything on eCaine. I try not to smile. His Gun Mages activate and kill one of the Uhlans and Saxon Orrik. Fine. His Defender activates and kills an Uhlan. Fine. 

The Stomrblades move into range of Butcher. Also Fine. The Wardog doesn't kill the first rifleman (a little unexpected, but still fine) and runs back to Butcher. The first Rifleman doesn't kill it (but hit's it) the first Stormblade kills it. The second Rifleman hits Butcher for two boxes (fine, I'd expected at least one hit from the Stormblades) the second Stormblade hits automatically but does no damage. Ayanna advances and casts Harm. Out of range (as expected). Holt advances and shoots. Out of range (as expected). e Caine advances and shoots (fine). Wait.... what.... he' within range. 10" you say? But I counted  inches. He's out of range by a good inch. It should be 13". Even with a 1" margin of error, you should be out. What's that? Speed 7 you say?

S**t. Could have sworn he was speed 6.

What follows is very tense. First shot hits. Second shot hits, third shot... and every time the damage modifier gets better and better. Critically, eCaine actually misses a shot and by the time shot number nine rings out, eCaine is now sitting squarely in melee threat range of a very angry, 4 box Butcher who hasn't yet popped his feat. Knowing he's about to face a 5d6 Pow 16 hit damage roll followed by 6 more 4D6 damage rolls, Luke extends his hand across the table.

Butcher gives eCaine the chop.

Whew. Talk about close.

Game Two:

Game 2 Deployment

We decide to do a straight re-fight of the game, with the exception that Luke wants to switch table edges. Our deployments essentially mirror the first game in almost every respect. The first turn plays out exactly the same. In my turn two, I drop Ironflesh on the Uhlans with the intention of casting Fury prior to their pathfinder charge through the woods. But I make a mistake, Butcher is too far away to cast it without having to move towards them and away from the friendly zone. Deciding that his Stormblades aren't going to be able to threaten my own zone, I chose getting a control point myself (because I'm still first player) over stopping eCaine from getting his and don't cast the spell. But when I come to activate the Uhlans, I'm suddenly second guessing myself. Are those Gun Mages and the Stormclad even in charge range. I make a stupid decision and keep them where they are, in the woods, even knowing that the Gun Mages ignore concealment and that they might as well be out in the open contesting the zone.

It costs me the game. In Luke's second turn, the Gun Mages, eCaine, Ayanna and Holt combine to murder all my Uhlans. That's right, my mobile element -the only really mobile element in my list- is gone. I suggest re-starting as well still have time to fit in another game. Luke thinks I still have a chance. I can't see it, but I'm still feeling kinda bad about winning the last game by a fluke and decide that Luke deserves the satisfaction of taking me down. So I play on and break his Stormblades with shooting and two charging Berskers. See? Says Luke? You can still win this.

I physically can't, because I've nothing that can contest his zones in time (except the Berserkers, but I've still got the Mkii prime scenario rules in my head that say 'Jacks can score). But I grunt and play on regardless.

So his Stormclad charges my right-most Berserker and kills it (plus two Shocktroopers with lucky eleaps). His Stormblades rally but can't do anything. ECaine destroys his objective and teleports back into the zone and at the end of his turn three Luke is sitting on 3CP.

No Chance. End of Lukes turn 3

My turn four, I kill the Stormclad with the second Berserker (actually, it dies when the 'Zerker blows up from focus overload) and kill all but two Stormblades. The dog can't reach his zone to contest. He's on 4CP. He'll get number five just by ending his turn. I extend the hand.

Final Thoughts:

Two very bittersweet games tonight. My Victory in game one wasn't really earned, as I'd miscalculated how far Caine had moved forward and by rights I should have lost. I won the game due to a fluke of bad dice rolling on Luke's part more than anything else. Secondly, I lost the second game when I stupidly didn't upkeep Iron Flesh on the Uhlans in turn 2. I had intended to Fury them instead, decided they wouldn't be in charge range of the Stormclad and then instead of casting Iron Flesh on them again, I moved Butcher to the other side of the table looking to score a control point by dominating my zone. Then I compounded the error by leaving them in the woods (which wouldn't give them cover from the Gun Mages anyway) rather than at least moving them up to contest the zone. Major brain fart. 

I even suggested we re-start the game there and then, explaining to Luke what I thought would happen in the next couple of turns. Instead, he convinced me I still had a chance and then the game played out exactly the way I said it would, with the sole exception that I had one less Shocktrooper left than I'd anticipated. I'm kicking myself because we would have had time to get a third game in that might have actually been of benefit to both of us, rather than simply playing out a lost cause. Of course, if I could have just ditched the mkii prime thinking that Berserkers can't contest the game would have turned out....exactly the same. Buying me an extra turn until the Berkserkers were killed wouldn't have given me enough time to get the Shocktroopers across without running them. And it was a shot from the Shocktroopers that broke the Stormblades. If I'd ran them, that wouldn't have happened and they'd have been tied down for a turn in melee with the 'Blades. Same result.

I've learned a few lessons from this game, and I've tweaked my pButcher list accordingly, removing one of the Berserkes and replacing it with some Men O'War demi corps (I know, I know, my list needs more mobility, not more so slow units, but Luke and I don't have a single small-based Khador infantry unit between us yet. A major gap in my tool-box. It's like not having a screw-driver.

Lessons Learned:

1: It's all very well making your opponent dance to your tune. Just make sure he doesn't know something you don't.

2: eCaine is Speed 7

3: Saxon Orrick can only grant Pathfinder to WARRIOR models.

4: Be more aggressive with those Uhlans.

5: Be more aggressive with Butcher.

Warmachine Battle Report: Ashlynn v Absylonia (Mercs v Legion) 30pts

Last week I settled down for my fifth game of Warmachine mkII, once again against my regular opponent Luke. This time, he was paying Legion (at my request) as I've never played with or against Hordes, whether in Prime or mkII. We also played Death-Clock, for much the same reason.

Afterwords, Luke got in a Starter Box game against Ben and we fielded some questions from other members of the local gaming group. It looks like our plan to wean our fellow gamers away from GW and into Warmahordes is definitely paying off. 

No photographs for the second battle report in a row. We were playing in the pub basement again. While it's a great venue for the club, the lighting wasn't made for taking photographs.

My List- Ashlynn/HighBorn 30pts

Ashlynn
-Nomad
-Vanguard
Gun Mages plus UA
-Mule
Max Forgeguard
Reinholdt.

Absylonia:
-Typhon
-Angelius
-Shredder
Min Strider +UA
Strider Deathstalker
Shepherd

Luke won the dice roll and elected to go second to pick some favourable terrain. He sent his Striders through the woods on my left, forgetting that my Gun Mages had True Sight. In the initial exchanges, Luke came off worst, losing several Striders to my Mule and Gun Mages. However, he managed to wipe out my ForgeGuard with some brutal sprays from Typhon. I wasn't particularly bothered, since they were there to act as a bullet shield in the first place but I was surprised at how quickly they went down. Absylonia disrupted my Nomad which I'd positioned just slightly father forward than I'd intended.Luke then charged my Nomad with the Angelius and did some brutal damage. But in so doing, he left Absylonia open to what I thought was a potential assassination from the Gun Mages (not being familiar with Hordes, I hadn't realised just how hard Warlocks are too kill). The end result being that I ended up taking just two boxes off of her. My Vanguard joined the fight against the Angelius but in on the Legions next turn the beasts maxed out their focus to bring down both my jacks. Absylonnia popped her feat to heal them both back up, then killed two Gun Mages (despite Roulette being up) and ate them for full health.

Ashlynn then moved in, dropped all upkeeps (including admonition) and went to work on Absylonia with double-boosted Gallows. She lost 14 out of her 16 boxes and couldn't transfer to a nearby beast because they were all maxed out on fury. Reinholdt had given me two shots with the Handcannon, but I missed once and failed to knock off any boxes with the second shot.

My surviving Gun Mages and the Mule all miss their shots as well.

Next turn, with Admonition down, Absylonia moves in on full Fury and slaughters Ashlynn. Luke has about six minutes left on the clock. I have more than twenty.

Learning Points:
*Typhon has THREE Sprays.
*Might have been better to knock down Absylonia with double boosted Twister rather than dragging her with gallows (leaving me with two focus) and THEN shooting her with boosted damage Hand Cannons while she was down.
*Absylonia has an AoE Disruption.
* REMEMBER Warlocks can transfer.

Since then, I've played two more practice games, using pVlhad and pSorscha as my Casters. Normally I would keep playing a single caster (Ashlynn) for a good dozen games while I got to know how she plays, but I need to swap out casters and factions from time to time in order to keep things fresh for Luke, my regular opponent.

I lost the pVlahd game against Luke's eCaine, but won a pSorscha Battle-box game against Ben's pStryker.

War Machine: Ashlynn vs Kara Battle Report *No Photographs this time*

Played another two games of Warmachine last Monday. Our plan to drum up interest in Warmahordes within the local community seems to be working. No sooner had we set up our game than we attracted a crowd of fellow gamers to watch the game. Most eventually drifted off to play their own games, but one stayed to watch the whole thing. Eventually, this led to my second game of the evening with a pair of starter boxes.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. 

The first game we played was 30 points. No photographs this time. We were playing in the basement of a pub. The upside is that game's nights have a great, convivial atmosphere. The downside is that taking decent photographs is next to impossible. Decent photographs or playing in a pub that serves real ale from local breweries? No contest really.

Game One: Ashlynn High Born Covenant vs Kara Sloan
30pts
No Man's Land

My List:
Ashlynn
-Nomad
-Vanguard
Gun Mages and UA
-Mule
Max Forgeguard
Reinholdt.

His List:
Kara
-Minuteman
-2x Hunters
Strangeways
Black 13th
Arcane Gun Mages and UA
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Reinholdt

Scenario and Set-Up:
We decide to play a Prime mkII scenario and roll up No Man's Land. My eye's practically pop out of my head. Kara's list is all shooting and no melee. So I immediately abandon the plan I came up with when creating my Ashlynn list and decide to go for a scenario win instead. I win the dice-off and, erroneously believing that the objective can be controlled from the end of the second players turn two, I elect to go second and pick the table edge with the most cover.

Turn One:

On turn one, Kara's army moves up. My turn one I put one Focus on the Vanguard and one of the Nomad. Ashlynn gives the Vanguard quicken and, cackling like a maniac, I gleefully run the Vanguard 14" up the board to engage one of Kara's two hunters (completely forgetting that Hunter's have parry). I then run the Nomad up. I smile happily at Luke, who is practically bouncing in excitement. He just can't wait for my turn to end so he can pop his feat.

Turn Two:

Kara pops the feet and blasts the hell out of my sacrificial Jacks. She kills the Vanguard and Nomad but it takes everything her battle group has to do it. The Gun Mage Captain adept even has to finish off the Vanguard, which was sitting on one box. Luke seem's very pleased with himself, but I smile back gently and thank him for accepting the bait, I tell him I think he just wasted his feat killing two Jacks that have no command stat and therefore can't win the scenario for me. With the feat gone I'm pretty confident that Kara's army will now need at least two turns of shooting to kill Ashlynn with ranged attacks. This free's me up to play Ashlynn more aggressively than I could if he'd held the feat back for a bit.

Nearing the the end of his turn two, Luke has no models with a command score inside No Man's Land. I warn him that I can win the game next turn. BUT he still has the the Black 13th to activate. Although he doesn't yet advance into the zone, Ryan's AoE takes out FOUR of my Forgeguard, including the Leader. I sigh. Now three of my guys will have to run laterally towards the other group of three with the new leader. I think for a bit, turn back to look and say, "I can probably still kill your caster or win the scenario in two turns."

As it turned out, not being able to move the Forgeguard into No Man's Land in my turn two wouldn't matter. In No Man's Land controlling the zone only becomes important in turn 3. Ah well. 

Note to self: Read the darn scenario, stupid!

In my turn two, I kill Strangewayes with my Gun Mages and feel quite smug. I'm under the impression that Strangeways is actually marshaling the Minuteman (wrong again). I move the Forgeguard and Reinholdt forward a bit to block LoS from Kara to Ashlynn and the charge lane from the minuteman. My Mule kills a couple of Gun Mages and badly damages the Minuteman. I feel confident that I can basically ignore the Hunters, given that my Mule is at the opposite side of the table from them. The only Jack in Kara's list I need to worry about is the Minuteman, and with Admonition up he's not going to present too much of a threat to Ashlynn.

Turn Three:

Kara camps almost all her focus apart from one that she gives to the Minuteman. After the Gun Mage Captain clears up a LoS block by killing Reinhold, Kara shoots at Ashlynn with everything she has. Even the Hunter's and the Black 13th join in the fun. Ashlynn is Def 19 due to her base just barely touching a hill and despite having no focus takes just seven damage. 

Next the Miuteman walks up to her. So using Admonition Ashlynn walks round to the side of the Jack furthest away from Kara. This leaves her in melee range but out of base to base contact with the Jack. Frag Cannon's do nothing. With one focus on his Minuteman, Luke considers trying a two handed throw for a laugh "YES! Throw me towards Kara!", I reply and we have a bit of a chuckle about what a bad idea that would be. Instead he thinks about throwing me at a building. Realizing he would need elevens without a boost on the throw attack (only one focus to spend), Luke goes for a boosted fist attack and a normal fist attack. He misses with both.

I'm quite happy that the game is in the bag at this point. Luke has advanced his fragile Gun-Line into the No-Mans Land, but I'm about to charge the Black 13th, Gun Mages and Gun Mage Captain with the Forgeguard and Ashlynn. The plan thereafter being to blow away his remaining Gun Mages with my own.

Once again I announce that I can win in my next turn (not because I want to be a d**k, but because we're treating these games as a learning exercise. Sharing the reasons why we are about to do something or think a move is a good/bad idea is a good way to improve our skills). Luke therafter performs his usual act of jamminess and manages to kill another three Forgeguard with a Combined Range Attack from five Gun Mages. This forces a command check which I FAIL! 

Unbelievable. No charge from the Forgeguard this turn either! This is why I lost our last game. Because of failed command checks! 

Just losing three of the Forgeguard isn't have been a disaster in itself because with Roulette up next turn I'm sure I can gun down all Kara's Gun Mages with my own. But not being able to move the Forgeguard forward means that I'll have to try to kill the Black 13th AND the Gun Mage Captain with Ashlynn. A little harder, but it shouldn't be too difficult even with fairly average dice.

I study the board for a bit, humm and haw and say. "I'm still probably going to win next turn".

So on my turn, I pop my feat and charge the Black 13th with Ashlynn. I kill Ryan on the charge. I then Flashing Blade and kill a second Black 13th. BUT I spend all but one of my remaining focus trying to kill the last one. Why? Because despite the fact I announced I was popping my feet just thirty seconds before the charge I completely forget about the extra attack dice from Roulette!!!!! When I finally kill the last of the Black 13th, I've got just one focus left and no way to kill the Gun Captain Adept a mere inch away.

At this point, I realize I've lost the game. Kara will finish me off with her shooting next turn.

But I don't give up. I shoot with the Mule hoping for a deviation that will kill the Gun Mage Captain. I kill two Gun Mages instead because I actually hit when I was hoping to miss. Once again, I forget about Roulette. Then I kill all but two of Kara's Gun Mages with my own, missing only two (which I would have auto-killed with POW 10) because I forgot about Roulette!.

At the end of my turn, there are two Gun Mages and the Gun Mage Captain in No-Mans Land. So near but so far....

Turn Four:
Kara camps six focus for the second turn in a row. I forget about Roulette (AGAIN!). Ashlynn dies.

Conclusions:

Talk about being your own worst enemy. Let's look at the things I did wrong right up until my Roulette turn:

1: I forgot Hunter's have Parry
2: I mis-read the Scenario and thought I could win it in turn two.
3: I killed Strangeways at the start of my second turn and proceeded to act under the incorrect assumption that the Minuteman had been marshalled to him, effectively cutting it's potential threat in half. Wrong!

Even after all the muck-ups, I still found myself in a position to win the game after popping my feat in turn 3. So what do I do? Not thirty seconds after popping my feat, I forget I've popped it.

Why? Well, honestly, it might have had something to do with my wife coming into the pub, kissing me on the cheek, saying hello to the guys and handing me some extra beer money. By the time I returned to the game, kisses and cash had put all thoughts of Roulette straight out of my mind! Not that I'm complaining though. I'll take a kiss and beer money from my wife over winning a game of Warmachine any day!

I asked Luke after the game if, now that he knew what my game plan had been, he regretted using his feat-turn to kill two non-scoring Jacks. He still thinks it was the right move and, true enough, he did win the game in the end. He also pointed out that he didn't want two enemy melee 'jacks clogging up No Man's Land. Even so I can't help but think that he would have lost the game had I not made that huge error with my feat turn at the end of my turn three. If he'd popped his feat at the start of his turn 3, Ashlynn would have been toast. He'd have won the game there and then without giving me the chance to secure a victory for myself my turn 3.

Anyway, with that out of the way, we set-up the board for a Starter Box game between myself and Troy, who'd been watching us battle it out for the last couple of hours.

Game Two: pStryker vs pSorcha Battle Boxes.

Troy elected to take Stryker by the simple expedient of rolling a dice that came up odds. Luke elected to assist Troy by explaining his options (but, to Luke's credit, not spoiling Troy's fun by telling him what to do).

I took Sorcha, and tried repeatedly to warn Troy about Sorcha's Wind-Rush assassination run, but Luke kept shushing me every-time I tried. He made the valid point that the best way for Troy to learn what Sorcha can do is to see it happen rather than be told what to watch out for.

Troy kept Blur on the Ironclad, Snipe on the Charger and Arcane Shield on the Lancer for most of the match. Early on, he cannily charged my Devestator with the (now Arm21) Lancer and, after taking out one cortex box with the spear, boxed the other two cortex slots with shield bashes. His Charger also made good use of focus points through-out the early game to put dents in my Juggernaut.

I eventually unleashed the classic Sorcha Feat-Wind-Rush-Tempest Assassination run against Stryker, knocking him down and taking him down to six health via Tempest and Razor Winds. I wasn't able to complete the classic combo of shooting him while he was down because the Devastator was still tied up in combat with the Lancer (which had been protected from Sorcha's feat due to being out of Los).

Troy let out a huge sigh of relief, then decided it was time to get his own back. Stryker threw everything he had against Sorcha. First with Eathquake (aimed at his own Charger, then still engaged with my Juggernaut) and then in melee. But at the end of all this she still had two boxes left! Two! So Stryker popped his feat for the extra +5 armour before ending his activation.

Sorcha stood up and gave back everything she could. But at the end of her activation Stryker still had one health left. Fortunately, Troy had disengaged his Lancer from combat with my Devastator (taking a nasty back strike that disabled his shield) to take out my knocked-down Juggernaut. Alas, the back-strike took out the Lancer's shield. This freed the Devestator to move forward on my turn and, in an act of desperation, shoot at Stryker. Yes, the same Styker in melee with Sorcha. I was hoping that a direct hit would kill him and that Sorcha could survive the blast. At worst, I thought we'd both be killed and force the draw. But, when we added up the sums, a hit was impossible and I managed to kill myself with the deviation!

After we all picked ourselves up off the floor, we had a chat about the game. I hope we've made a convert out of Troy. He certainly seemed to enjoy himself so, fingers crossed, I might have a second local opponent to play against.

Warmachine Battle Report: 26 point Merc on Merc action

Luke and I played another game tonight. I was eager to try out my Ashlynn conversion and my newly arrived Gun Mages along with some re-painted miniatures from seven years ago. Luke was eager to try out his newly arrived Rhulic army (the whole lot arrived on Saturday and he managed to assemble, clean, base and undercoat the lot in time for today's game). 

This is only my third game of Warmachine since 2006, the last two having been played last week. So expect some stupid mistakes on my part.

So that Luke could fit in as much of the new stuff he wanted to try out as possible, we elected to play a 26 point game, rather than the more common 25pts. 

My Army (Highborn Covenant):

Ashlynn and the Highborn Covenant

Ashlynn (+6 Jack Points)
*Nomad 6pts
Arcane Gun Mages with UA 8pts
*Mule marshalled by UA 8pts.
Min Highshields 5pts
Gorman 2pts
Reinholdt 1pt

I knew this was not a balanced force, but it essentially consists of all the miniatures I had painted (except a Talon) plus a little extra. Because we were planning on doing a battle-report, I elected not to proxie and therefore ended up with a very ranged-heavy army. Normally, I'd have used Steelhead's instead of the Highshields and used the extra point to swap out Reinholdt for Rupert.

Luke's Army (Seaforge Commission):

General Awesome
*2 Groundback Gunners
*1 Groundback Blaster
*Basher
Tactical Arcanist Corp
Max Forgeguard
Herne & Johnne.

Scenario and Deployment:

A Scenario victory called for each player to capture and hold two 10" diameter control boxes. Any player who controlled both boxes after the second players turn 2 would win the game. We didn't have 10" diameter circles (bad planning on my part) so we used the lids of two kid's shoe-boxes instead and decided to count them as hills.

Side View of the table prior to deployment.

I won the dice roll and elected to go second. Luke deployed his miniatures centrally to threaten both control zones. 

Seaforge Deployment

I deployed in a concentrated brick on the right of the table, making it appear as though I was ignoring the control zone on my left completely.

Highborn Covenant Deployment

My plan was to move the Highshields forward in shieldwall, use Ashlynn and Gorman to place cloud effects in front of them, and fire the Gun Mages through the Highshields and Clouds thanks to Ranked Fire from the Highshields and Tactics from the Gun Mage Unit Attachment. At some point I hoped to make a fast break for the left control zone with Gorman under Stealth and the Quicken spell and use the Mule and Gun Mages to knock Luke's miniatures out of the right hand control zone. As usual, the plan did not survive contact with the enemy...

Turn One:

Both sides do the Turn One run except for the Casters, Herne and John, and the Mule. General Awesome put's snipe on a the middle Gunner and gives Herne and John Fire for Effect. Tactical Arcanist Corps fail their rolls to drop smoke. Gorman drops smoke but Ashlynn is out of position to drop a Cloud effect (via the Tempest spell) next to Gorman's smoke due to range issues. She cast's Quicken on the Highshields and moves more centrally, but ends up fairly far behind her lines. Finally, she cast's Admonition on herself. Herne and John fire, but scatter uselessly. The Mule fires back, and also scatters uselessly.

A quick note: I know that casting Quicken (+2 Def) on a 10 Def unit is a typical example of reinforcing weakness, but since this was my first game with my own mini's for seven years I wanted to experiment a bit. My normal instinct would have been to cast it on the Gun Mages to make them Def 17. 

Turn Two:

On his turn, Luke casts Energise to give all the 'Jacks in his battle group a 3" move prior to their activation. After that, he walks a Blaster with a point of Focus forward and  uses it to kill Gorman, hiding out in the edge of his smoke cloud. I laughed my head off because I'd got my miniature recognition completely wrong and hadn't realised that Gorman was threatened. I thought I'd been looking at a Gunner, not a Blaster... The Nomad is in range of the spray, and loses a box in column one.

Bye Bye Gorman, we hardly knew thee....

Herne and Johnne (with Fire for Effect upkept) move forward into one of the ruins and rain fiery death of the Highshields, killing three (despite Shield Wall making them Arm19) and killing a Gun Mage behind them. The rest of his army moves up, with the Forgeguard entering the control zone on my right. The Tactical Arcanist Corp manages to get a single smoke spell off this turn.

On my Turn Two I allocate three Focus to the Nomad, upkeep Quicken and Admonition and pop Ashlynn's feat. Almost everything moves forward. The Nomad charges to engage both the Blaster and the Basher behind it. He strips away all but five boxes on the Blaster, crippling it's movement and weapon and does heavy damage to the Basher as well.

The Highshields fire a combined ranged attack at Johnne and take off just one damage box.The Gun-Mages then move forward and using their Snipe Rune-Shots take pot-shots at Herne and Johnne as well, but although all hit Johnne is left alive with one health box. The Mule fires and, due to Ashlynn's feat Rollette (which allow's me to roll two extra dice for my attacks and pick the highest) achieves a critical knockdown. Six of the Forgeguard go flying backwards, but due to bad damage rolls only one dies. And even then only because the push and knock-down effects apply BEFORE the damage roll, meaning he was no longer able to benefit from Defensive Line before taking damage.

I love Critical Knockdown

Turn 3:

On his turn 3 Luke again upkeeps Snipe and Fire for Effect. General Awesome them activates and uses his Feat, granting every friendly model in his control area +2 Arm, +2 SPD and Pathfinder. He then also uses Energiser, allowing his Basher to escape combat with my Nomad and moving the Snipe-Gunner into range of my Gun Mage UA. The Gunner then manages to hit and kill the Gun Mage UA despite being under the effect of Roulette (in my opponents turn after I pop Roulette, he rolls two extra attack dice and I pick the two highest to discard). Thereafter Herne and John go to work again and kill two of the remaining three High-Shields (they pass their command check) and two more Gun Mages, leaving me with just three of them on the board. Alas, the Gun Mages fail their command check.

Luke consults the Prime book because neither of us are sure how slam attacks work with Admonition: After careful reading, we agree that my impression of how it works sounds about right: if the Basher clams Ashlynn then she moves 3" away as soon as the Basher finished it's movement, preventing it from slamming as the Slam attack happens after the Basher finishes it's movement. 

Since we're playing for fun, we allow Luke to make a Slam attempt against the Mule instead, but the Slam attack fails because the last High Shield is in the way. The Basher makes the dwarf pay for his temerity with a frag cannon blast that kills him.

Failed Slam

The Forgefathers then charge in but the Mule has obscene luck (thanks to Roulette) and not one manages to land a blow. 

At this point I'm still quite happy despite my losses because I can see a number of possible assassination's next turn and mention this to Luke. Who promptly smirks and reminds me I forgot to take a command test for the Gun Mages. Double 6's.. ah well.

He then decides to rub it in by walking one of the TAC to engage my Nomad (but not before using another to set it on fire). He then uses the third to kill the Gun Mage on the far left with another fiery AoE. The Gun Mage who would have had the clearest shot at General Awesome next turn. In fact, the other two would've had good shots as well (despite the General being in cover). Not that it matters because of those bloody box cars....

On my turn 3 I'm so rattled by the failure of that command check that I fail to register that the Nomad can easily survive a free strike from an immobile Blaster and a single TAC and move to threaten a charge against the General next turn. So I allocate it no focus and despite auto-hitting the stunty little jack with both my sword and my shield due to it being stalled, I only reduce it to four boxes!

On the right, Ashlynn upkeeps Admonition and charges the Forgeuard. Luke's eye's widen a bit as she effortlessly mows down three of them and inflicts heavy damage on the Basher. The Mule then wanders left a bit (taking a nasty hit from the surviving Forgeguard in the process) and smacks the Basher with it's Mace but it will....not...die. I have a minor bout of self-rage when I realise I should have walked out of melee and shot at Herne and Johne. I'd have had a very good chance of clipping or even killing the General that way. But at the moment I'm too focused on playing for time and getting a sure-fire assassination next turn.

The situation at the end of Turn 3

Turn 4:

Luke throws everything he can at my two surviving Gun Mages, only killing one of them. His Basher moves around a bit without triggering a free strike to clear charge lands to Ashlynn prior to it's attacking her but Ashlynn skips away to the left, using up Adminishment which now expires. The Basher then has a go at the Mule and does minor damage. Five of the surviving Forge Guard charge Ashlynn and manage to inflict a whole two hit points of damage on her. Luke grimaces and gnashes his teeth a bit and tells me that Ashlynn is, in fact, pretty awesome. I agree, observing that Ashlynn is really hard to pin down in melee and that boosted AoE's and Knockdowns are really her only weakness.

The last Forgefather cheers him up a bit when it rolls triple box cars for damage and wrecks my mule.

At this point, he decides enough is enough and Ashlynn must die. Herne and Johnne (still under Fire for Effect) target the Forgeguard next to Ashlynn in the back and ends up killing two Forgeguard to take just three more health boxes off Ashlynn, leaving her on nine health.

My turn four looks like this:

It's looking pretty desperate but if I can last until turn 6 I stand a good chance of winning. I allocate two Focus to the Nomad and keep four for Ashlynn.

Despite auto-hitting with a POW 14 shield and a POW 17 sword the Nomad fails to kill the Blaster with it;s initial attacks, leaving it with one box. Sighing, and knowing that my back-up plan is certainly not going to work now, I spend a point of focus to kill the thing with another attack. I then use the last point of Focus to hopefully kill one of two Tactical Arcanist Corp engaged with the Nomad and wouldn't you know it, the little bugger survives with one health box!

Ashlynn massacres the two ForgeGuard she's base to base with using Flashing Blade for one focus but then I double check the charge lane before announcing a charge directly ahead and curse. That last Forgeguard (just in front of the Mule) is in my line. I have Parry, but can't afford to go base to base with him. So instead, I have to walk forward instead, going about half an inch out of my way to avoid his base. I move up the hill (which makes me happily Def 19) and shoot General Awesome with my Handcannon. He's well in range so we don't bothering measuring. Then I cast gallows, measure the range and f**k me if he isn't 1/2" out of range! The same 1/2" I had to use up to move around that blood Forgeguard! Luke manages not to laugh his head-off and commiserates instead. Gallows would have pulled Awesome out of cover and given the Gun Mage a direct shot instead of a shot at a focus camping dwarf in cover. Why I didn't try to use Gallow's first and then make the Hand Cannon shot at a target that would (ideally) have been out of +4 Def cover, I do not know.

So near...yet so far....

Speaking of which, I forgot something didn't I? I move the Gun Mage into range of a Brutal Takedown shot and then realise I forgot something else! The Command check comes up box-cars. This time Luke does laugh (which is okay because I'm laughing too). I move him to engage the Gunner just in front of him. After running Reinholdt up to engage the Basher (and prevent it from slamming Ashlynn next turn) I challenge Luke to do his worst next turn....

Turn 5:

And I think he mis-understood what I mean't. Everything. I mean everything in Luke's army shoots at or swings at the Def 19 Caster without any focus on top of the hill and even after all that she's still alive. Down to three health boxes, mind, but still alive. My luck in Luke's turn isn't that great when it comes to hitting things either. The Gun Mage gets a free back strike against a Gunner as it leaves melee to shoot Ashlynn and does nothing.

Annoyingly however, General Awesome manages to cast Stranglehold on Ashlynn, meaning she can either move or take an action next turn, but not both. Not that I need both, mind you, cos Luke actually moved him a bit closer to me....

But wait.... Luke still has the Basher. He obviously paid attention when I told him that Ashlynn hates AoE's because it walks up to her and pops the frag cannons. He does four points of damage to Ashlynn to Ashlynn, one more than she has, and I tip her over. Good game. I'd like to say well-played, but we both made so many stupid mistakes I'd be lying through my teeth if I did. But we both enjoyed it and that's all that matters,

Lessons Learned:

• Herne and Johnne + Fire for Effect = Bad News
• Blaster's have the circular magazine on their back. Gunner's don't.
• Knockback before damage rolls is very useful against Defensive Lines and Shieldwalls.
• Measure your control range before trying to cast Gallows
• Use Gallows to drag someone out of cover THEN shoot them.

Looking Ahead:

We're playing another game at the local club tomorrow night, trying to drum up some interest. Because of the lighting conditions, we won't be taking photographs so there's no reason not to use Proxies. WEell be playing 30 points this time.I have a bunch of Crowe's cut-throats who will be standing in for Steel-Heads and I'm debating whether or not to swap out the High Shields for a Vanguard. Also, I'll be saying bye to Reinhardt for a while and replacing him with the Piper to bring my force up to 30 points. I have no idea what I'll be playing tomorrow. Luke's new Minuteman arrived yesterday as well, so I'm betting that I'll be facing either Kraye or Kara. I'll let you know how I get on.

Warmahordes: To Boost or Not to Boost

Found this very interesting article by Random Thoughts on War-Seer at this [link]. I've reproduced ithe link here for the simple reason that I want to be able to find it whenever and wherever I need it.

Warmachine: Quick Battle Reports

Luke, one of my regular opponents and the sole reason I've gotten back onto Warmahordes after a seven year leave of absence, let me borrow some of his models so we could get in a few quick games a week or two ago.

Luke obviously has a bit more experience in Warmachine than I've had lately, but he's still pretty much a beginner himself. There isn't much of a Warmahordes scene locally, but he and I plan to try and change that.

Here are a pair of (very brief) reports regarding those games. It was nearly two weeks ago now. I didn't note down the full lists (idiot), but we played two 25 pt games.

My list stayed the same throughout. I played Khador and I think I had:

Sorcha

War Dog

Juggernaut

Beast 09

Widowmakers

Widowmaker Officer

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Game One:

Luke fielded Kara, his favorite Cygnar Warcaster, with a pair of Hunters and a Squire. He also had a journeyman with a Defender and the Black 13th and possibly something else. I went first and advanced. Luke went next and popped his feat on turn one, tearing both arms off Beast 09 with his shooting and killing one of my Widowmakers. However, he got slightly too close to my Warcaster. On turn two, I Wind Rushed to within Tempest range of Kara, popped the spell with a boost to attack rolls and knocked both her and a shielding model over. After that I walked the Widowmakers forward and pumped shots into Kara and claimed a win! In turn 2 of my first Warmachine game in seven years!

Sorsha knocks down Kara with Tempest

Honestly, I think Luke just got a little over-confident and forgot that he wasn't playing a total beginner. Sorcha clearly hasn't changed much from her mkI days and, while I've always been a Merc player, I've played against Sorsha often enough that I remembered what she could not.

Not well enough though.....

Game Two:

Luke changed his list and brought epic Stryker (all the cool gamers call him eStyker these days apparently), a Squire, the Thunderhead, Ol' Rowdy, a Journyman Warcaster (the cool gamers call him "Junior") and Arlan Strangeways. Luke told me Styker could pretty much guarantee a Warcaster kill from 20" or so away so I ended up playing this game overly cautiously.

I SHOULD have popped my feat in turn 2, but forgot and charged the Thunderhead with Beast 09 (after it had already killed most of my Widowmakers). I forgot my basic maths for a moment and wasted a few points of focus boosting damage rather than purchasing more attacks. As a result, I hurt the Thunderhead but not badly enough. Ol' Rowdy had grudge up and was able to counter-charge Beast 09 as well, so it wasn't in great shape as my turn two ended with the Beast badly beat up.

In Luke's turn 3, the Thunderhead killed Beast 09 and my last two Widowmakers while Stryker ran over and killed their officer solo. That left me with just Sorsha, the Wardog and the Juggernaut against Luke's entire army minus the Gun Captain Adept I'd gunned down in turn 1. I stepped out from behind shelter, knocked a few models over with Tempest, but pretty much accomplished nothing because I AGAIN, for the second turn in a row, forgot to pop my feat.

Luke spent his next turn maneuvering for the kill and on my turn 4 I did the inconceivable: I actually conceded! Now not only is this considered very poor form in the Warmachine community, it's the first time I've conceded a game -any game- in over a decade. My hand was extended before I knew what I was doing. I even surprised myself. My wife was actually speechless (she was in the room doing some paperwork). I've only known Luke for about six months, but even he was pretty shocked considering I've always been pretty vocal about playing to the bitter end. A game of Warmachine in particular is famous for never being over till it's over and Luke had stranded his Warcaster all alone on the far side of the board. With Sorsha's mobility I could have been there in two turns. Granted, eStryker would have murdered Sorsha as soon as she got closed, but I might have gotten jammy. So I'm pretty disappointed in myself to say the least.

Still, I had a cracking good evening and my enthusiasm for Warmachine is stoked. Now if only my Arcane Tempest Gun Mages weren't stuck on back-order I'd be able to get a proper Merc game in!