How Does This Game Work Again?

It's been so long since we played Warcaster: Neo-Mechanika that we actually couldn't remember if the attack roll or the damage roll was opposed, and had to check Youtube for a quick refresher. I also may have messed up the cover rules a few times; I think I was mixing up the rules with some version of Warmachine's rules or something, where you have to be within an inch of a terrain feature for it to give you cover. We might have forgotten to boost Furies too. I really need to fully re-read the rules, especially stuff like jumping and climbing etc.

I decided to try Jax Redblade this game:
Artemis Fang hero solo
Jax Redblade hero solo
Coalition Weaver solo
Hunter solo x2
Ranger Fire Team squad
Dusk Wolf light warjack (Scout cortex, Railgun, Battle Rifle, Ripper Saw)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Bomber cortex, Talon Rocket Pod, Talon Rocket Pod, Flamethrower, Flamethrower)

Karas brought his Cadre:
Major Aysa Drayce hero solo
Paladin Seigebreaker solo
Regulator Reave solo
Regulator squad
- Witch Hounds attachments
Tracers squad
Paladin Defenders squad
Paladin Enforcers squad
Firebrand light warjack (Reflex cortex, Assault Rifle & Bayonet, Repulsor Shield, Immolator)
Morningstar heavy warjack (Exchanger cortex, Assault Shield, Assault Shield, Gate Crasher, Starburst Missiles)
Headsman heavy warjack


Pre-Game:
I forgot my cards this game. This slowed us down a lot as I was constantly checking the wiki for model and weapon stats. I built my rack using Karas' cypher cards: basically I went through his deck and picked the first three of each type of cypher that didn't feel completely useless to me. This did mean that I ended up stealing some powerful cyphers. We were playing Skirmish, so we had to extend the deployment areas to account for the small play area. We rolled for a mission and got Boiling Point.


Deployment:
Karas won the roll-off and chose to go first, deploying Drayce on my left and the Morningstar on my right. I started with my Dusk Wolf and a Hunter on my right, and the Rangers on my left.

Pulse 1.1:
Drayce grabbed the far left objective and put up her buffing aura. The Morningstar moved up and dropped a gate, from which emerged the Firebrand and Seigebreaker. I think Drayce also dropped a gate.
Pulse 1.2:
After consulting the rules my Hunter climbed a ladder to take the high ground. The Dusk Wolf shot at the Firebrand and, through some combination of spikes, cypers, and/or other abilities, the two ended up in positions that are confusing to me when I look at the photo now. I put a gate down near the Rangers.
Pulse 1.3:
Karas brought in the Headsman (and possibly the Regulator Reave, hidden behind the tower?). The Firebrand and Seigebreaker scored the right objective and killed my Dusk Wolf and Hunter with at least one pretty hot roll. Karas put down a gate in his deployment zone behind Drayce
Pulse 1.4:
My Rangers scored the near-left objective and took out the Firebrand, though it killed two of them with return fire. I brought in the Weaver and the Strike Raptor. I put down another gate nearer to the far-left objective.
Pulse 1.5:
The Headsman killed my Weaver and put a wound on the Strike Raptor. Karas brought in the Tracers and Paladin Defenders, finally putting down a gate next to the right objective.
Pulse 1.6:
Using a cypher for flight, my Strike Raptor hopped up to the high ground and took out the Seigebreaker, also putting some damage onto the Headsman. I collapsed my gate on the left to bring back my Dusk Wolf, and put down a new gate on the right.
Pulse 2.1:
The Reave channeled a Fury to wound my DuskWolf, inflicting Lockdown. The Headsman attacked my Strike Raptor but couldn't hit him though the cover. The Seigebreaker and Regulators emerged from the portal next to the right objective. Karas put a gate down on the tower near the Reave.
Pulse 2.2:
I charged the Strike Raptor with a second point of Arc, gave him Tune Up with a cypher card, then spiked for flight and flew down, taking out the Headsman and Regulators, and putting a couple of wounds on the Seigebreaker. For lack of any more jacks or squads I brought in Artemis, Jax, the Weaver, and a Hunter on the right. I put down a gate next to the last Ranger.
Pulse 2.3:
The Tracers moved into the center of the table and, with the help of the Seigebreaker, put two more wounds on the Strike Raptor, leaving him on one. The Headsman popped out of the gate on the middle tower. The Seigebreaker dropped another gate next to the right objective.


Pulse 2.4:
Jax killed the Seigebreaker and scored the right objective. The Ranger scored the near left objective, taking out a Tracer with some rather silly dice: I pulled my second Hunter, the only model I had left, out of my gate, and put down a second gate nearby.
Pulse 2.5:
The Reave moved up to body-block my Dusk Wolf, putting a second wound on it. The Headsman dropped down and killed the last Ranger and the nearby Hunter, knocking a point of Arc off a gate and scoring the objective. The Regulators popped out of the gate near the right objective, bringing the Witch Hounds with them this time. Karas summoned the Seigebreaker from the gate on the tower, and put a new gate down near the Tracers.
Pulse 2.6:
I pulled the Arc off a gate, collapsing it, and used a Cypher to fully charge the Dusk Wolf, who attacked the Headsman. Artemis Fang shot down a Regulator. collapsed my gate on the left to re-deploy the Hunter, and put down a new gate on the right.
Pulse 2.7... ?:
The Regulators were unable to kill Jax or the Strike Raptor. The Seigebreaker killed my left Hunter. Karas deployed the Paladin Enforcers and the Firebrand in the center of the table.
Pulse 2.8!:
The Hunter was the only model I had left to activate, but between him and a Cypher or two (I think I used a cypher that gave me another attack from Strike Raptor) I was able to kill the last two Regulators and a Witch Hound. I deployed my Rangers on the right, and put down a gate behind some scatter terrain on my left.
Pulse 3.1:
Both the Tune Up and Lock Down on my jacks remained. The Headsman killed my Dusk Wolf and scored the near left objective. I believe the Seigebreaker tried to finish off the Strike Raptor but failed. Karas used a cypher that would bring back a Regulator at the start of each of his turns.
Pulse 3.2:
I gave the Strike Raptor an Arc, then spiked for Flight. It then flew as far as it could towards the far left objective, killing Drayce and some Tracers on the way. Jax killed another Witch Hound, scoring the right objective. I used a cypher to advance the Rangers a bit. I brought in the Dusk Wolf again, and put down a new gate on the right.
Pulse 3.3:
A Regulator spawned. The Firebrand finally finished off my Strike Raptor. Something, either the Firebrand or possibly the Regulator Reave, wounded Artemis and set her on fire.
Pulse 3.4:
The Dusk Wolf took out the Headsman. The Hunter pushed up but didn't get anything done. I brough in the Strike Raptor again and put down another gate next to the Rangers.
Pulse 3.5:
Another Regulator spawned. The two Regulators and remaining Witch Hound attacked Jax; the first Regulator spiked his roll and took all 3 of her wounds in one hit, allowing them to score the objective. At this point there was no way for me to score the far left obective, meaning Karas won 14 points to 11:
Post-mortem:
It was a fun game. I was actually rolling really well on my defensive rolls, with models surviving far longer than they should. Part of that was down to trying to make sure my models were in cover of course. I got some pretty good dice on the attack too. As usual I was behind on points early and struggled to make them up. It didn't help that a lot of my turns I could only activate one unit as I didn't have any solos - and once I activated two solos as I didn't have any units. I need to pay more attention to keeping my deployed models balanced for more efficient activations.

The Strike Raptor was solid despite never having more than two Arc (often he was sitting on only one), but the Dusk Wolf might have been more consistant just because he was easier to bring in. Jax was surprisingly effective; she's not particularly strong on the offense, but with DEF 5 and 3 wounds with a reroll, her survivability was leagues ahead of my Hunters.

The Headsman Cometh

The Warcaster Kickstarter 3 stuff had arrived, and Karas had already put his cadre together.
Automech (proxied by Haqq Al-Fasid)
Paladin Seigebreaker
Paladin Weaver
Regulator Reave
Regulators squad
Witch Hounds attachment
Tracers squad
Firebrand (Reflex cortex, Assault Rifle & Bayonet, Repulsor Shield, Maelstrom)
Morningstar (Exchanger cortex, Assault Shield, Assault Shield, Gate Crasher, Maelstrom)
Major Aysa Drayce (proxied by Paladin Commander)
Headsman

I hadn't really made any changes to my list:
Artemis Fang hero solo
Coalition Weaver solo
Hunter solo x2
Combat Engineer
Ranger Fire Team squad
Warder attachment
Dusk Wolf light warjack (Scout cortex, Railgun, Battle Rifle, Ripper Saw)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Ace cortex, Railgun, Railgun, Battle Rifle, Battle Rifle)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Bomber cortex, Talon Rocket Pod, Talon Rocket Pod, Flamethrower, Flamethrower)


Pre-Game:
We played Skirmish and rolled Chaos Theory. We decided to modify it to use the same scoring method as before: a model scores during it's activation. Karas won the roll and chose to go first, deploying his Morningstar and Regulator Reeve. I deployed the Bomber Raptor and a Hunter.


Pulse 1.1
The Morningstar scored the far objective and Gatecrashed in Aysa and the Firebrand. He was able to "daisy-chain" a gate off Aysa on my side of the table. I charged the Bomber Raptor and used him to score the near objective and take down the Firebrand. I repositioned my Hunter to the right and put down a gate.
Pulse 1.2:
Iirc Karas used a Cypher to clear the activation token off his Morningstar and advanced it further up, using Gatecrasher to bring in the Seigebreaker, and then deploying the Automech and Headsman from the other gate. He used a cypher to fully charge the Headsman (which I guess was not technically in keeping with the correct turn order, but I don't think it made a difference really). I charged the Hunter and sent him to score the right objective, finishing off Aysa. I sent the Bomber Raptor to score the left objective, spiking for the extra movement needed, then put some damage onto the Seigebreaker. I deployed Artemis, the Weaver, and the Rangers with the Warder (I forgot how the rules worked here and deployed the Warder too far from the gate), trying to impede the Headsman's access to the right objective. I placed a gate on the far side of the table.
Pulse 1.3:
A Cypher allowed the Headsman to tractor-beam my gate towards the center of the table. The Seigebreaker killed my (illegally placed) Warder then moved to score my near objective. The Headsman was then able to walk around my Rangers and gun them all down, along with Artemis Fang, with his machinegun-flamethrower. Oh, and he punched my Hunter to death too. The Firebrand deployed out of a gate. I charged the Bomber Raptor and used a Cypher to give him +2 speed and Flight. The allowed him to fly over the building and, with a couple of extra 2" moves from the Bomber cortex, he was able to score the far objective. I don't remember who he shot at but with no Arc he wasn't able to kill anything. The Weaver hopped onto a building so I could target stuff with Furies. I deployed my Ace Raptor next to the Headsman, then put a gate down on the left of my deployment zone. At the end of the pulse round we each had 4 points. We rolled a 1 and the far left objective disappeared.


Pulse 2.1:
Karas used a Cypher to tune up the Headsman, who then got to work on my Ace Raptor. I thought this was a funny result for an attack roll, with all the reds rolling blanks and (almost) all the whites rolling double strikes: Arguably even more funny (depending on your perspective...) was this damage roll: That's a 19. Three wounds on my Strike Raptor, and just one strike off being a one-shot kill. Obviously my Raptor did not survive the activation. I think it was the Seigebreaker who killed my Weaver. Finally the Tracers dropped in, followed by a gate near to my own. My Bomber Raptor shot into the Morningstar, failing to kill it but taking out a Tracer, before shuffling backwards and scoring the far objective again. I brought in the Ace Raptor and Engineer, then put down a gate on my right.
Pulse 2.2:
The Automech that cleared the activation token from the Headsman and repaired two or three boxes on the Morningstar. The Headsman killed my Bomber Raptor. Karas used a Cypher to shuffle the Tracers downwards, then he deployed his Palading Weaver. I allocated an Arc to my Ace Raptor then my Engineer tuned him up. The Raptor then killed the Paladin Weaver, the Seigebreaker, and a Tracer. The Firebrand hopped over to where the Siegebreaker used to be. On my right I brought in my Bomber Raptor and a Hunter, then placed another gate on the far left towards the center of the table.
Pulse 2.3:
The Automech scored the far objective. The Morningstar used Gatecrasher to bring in the Palading Weaver on the right objective. I think the Morningstar killed my Hunter, though it might have been a Fury cast through the Weaver. Karas collapsed his remaining gate to bring in the Seigebreaker near my objective. I had been counting on the Hunter to score the right objective; I had tried to deploy him in a protected position. Without him my options were a bit limited. I opted to charge my Bomber Raptor and use him to clear and score the near objective. I brought in my Duskwolf, Rangers, and Weaver on the left, intending to push them towards the far objective. I put down a gate again closer to the central objective. At the end of the pulse round I had 8 points and Karas had 12. We rolled a 3 and the objective on the right was removed.


Pulse 3.1:
The Seigebreaker and Regulator Reave took out my Duskwolf and a couple of my Rangers. Furies may have been involved. Karas deployed a gate behind his Morningstar. I advanced the Ace Raptor and finally took down the Morningstar. I think I killed the Seigebreaker with a Fury. I collapsed my gate to deploy the Dusk Wolf and two Hunters, then put down a new gate on the far left. Pulse 3.2
The Headsman walked towards the center and casually ate my Dusk Wolf. Karas deployed the Firebrand beside the central objective. The Ace Raptor, tuned up and fully charged with three Arc, walked up to the central objective and failed to kill the (currently DEF 7) Headsman. I know attacking the Firebrand was the more logical choice, but at this point I cared more about revenge on the Headsman than I did about scoring. A Hunter tried to finish the job but predictably did nothing. I used a Cypher to advance my other Hunter towards the far objective for some reason. I once again deployed the Dusk Wolf, out on the far left.
Pulse 3.3:
The Paladin Weaver gave the Firebrand some Arc. The Firebrand then slammed my Ace Raptor off the objective, killing my Hunter and allowing him score. I moved the Bomber Raptor up to get line of sight to the Headsman and finally finished him off. I didn't bother with the rest of my attacks or activations. The game ended with Karas winning 18 to 11.


Post-Mortem:
Facing a charged and tuned-up Headsman who could have his activation tokens cleared by the Automech was pretty much getting a taste of my own medicine. He's a powerful and versatile model. Karas getting him charged and tuned up early, along with the ability to put models on the table faster than me with Gatecrasher, meant that I was fighting an uphill battle for attrition.

By spreading across the table and using my Raptors' manouverability I was able to keep up with the scoring in the first round, but as central objectives dissappeared and failed to push to the center and far objectives I was unable to keep up. My squad, solos, and even the Dusk Wolf, kept dying before they could do anything. It seems I should have focussed less on deploying them far up and more on deploying them in protected positions. In retrospect my target priority could have been better too, but at the time I wasn't sure which models were most worth the effort required to kill them.

By the start of the last pulse round Karas just needed to acivate his Automech and Morningstar and he would score 6 points, putting him 10 points ahead of me; even if I scored all three remaining objectives I could only score 9 points. We could have ended the game there, but there wasn't time for a second game so we played it through, with Karas delaying scoring. At least this let me kill the Headsman by the end, from which I derived significant satisfaction.

I was trying to spread the Arc and activations around a bit more than in my last game, but never really had the chance. The Strike Raptors really are my best models for holding Arc. Still, I believe I can get more value from the rest of my army if I play them better; getting to cast Furies is just free attacks, I should be able to get the Hunters to stay alive and kill stuff if I keep them back and just move in and out of cover rather than sending them forwards for objectives, and the Rangers could maybe do more work by knocking Arc off enemy models that by simply trying to damage them. I have reconsidered my Cypher deck to try to include more cards that benefit my models and playstyle, that should help too.

Raptors Run In Packs

It was finally time for a Warcaster rematch. I had a couple of new models:
Artemis Fang hero solo
Coalition Weaver solo
Hunter solo x2
Combat Engineer
Ranger Fire Team squad
Dusk Wolf light warjack (Railgun, Battle Rifle, Ripper Saw, Scout cortex)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Railgun, Railgun, Battle Rifle, Battle Rifle, Ace cortex)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Talon Rocket Pod, Talon Rocket Pod, Flamethrower, Flamethrower, Bomber cortex)

Karas had to run some proxies this game:
Justicar Voss hero solo (proxied by Jax Redblade)
Paladin Weaver solo (proxied by a Terrasaur Carnidon)
Paladin Commander solo (proxied by Artemis Fang)
Paladin Seigebreaker solo x2
Paladin Enforcers squad (proxied with G.U.A.R.D. Exo-Armours)
Palading Defenders squad
Firebrand light warjack (Assault Rifle & Bayonet, Sun Piercer, Recon Cortex)
Morningstar heavy warjack (Gate Crasher, Starburst Missiles, Assault Shield, Assault Shield)


Pre-Game:
We played Skirmish and ended up rolling the same scenario as last time. I won the roll and chose to go first. I placed the resilient Ace Strike Raptor close to the central objective, and a Hunter close to my objective. Karas mirrored my deployment with his Morningstar and Weaver.
Pulse 1.1
I put an Arc on the Strike Raptor. My plan was to fight for the central objective with my most powerful model, and meanwhile push towards his objective with my Hunter and later reinforcements; I figured I didn't need to grab my objective yet because it would be easy to grab before the end of the turn, so I advanced my Hunter and Ace Raptor agressively. The Ace, having a 20" range, was able to put a couple of Railgun shots into the Morningstar, but whiffed his attacks. I placed a gate with 4 Arc near the Hunter. The Morningstar advanced and placed a gate, out of which Karas deployed the Firebrand and Seigebreaker. He also placed a gate by his Weaver.
Pulse 1.2
I cleared my activated tokens and gave the Ace Raptor his second Arc, then played a Cypher to boost his speed and give him Flight. Now at 2 Arc, he flew up to the central objective and gunned down the Seigebreaker, scoring a point. The Hunter advanced and took a shot at the Morningstar, doing nothing. I collapsed my gate to summon the Bomber Strike Raptor on my far left. I placed a second gate with 3 Arc in my deployment zone behind my Ace Raptor. Using Repulsor from a Cypher, the Firebrand pushed my Ace Raptor off the central objective and scored it himself. Karas deployed Voss and a Seigebreaker from his gate.
Pulse 1.3
I gave the Ace Raptor his third Arc at last. My plan had been to push my Bomber Raptor aggressively at the far objective, but at this point I realised I was not going to be able to score my own objective unless I pulled him back, as I didn't have any other model that could activate and make it to the objective. So unfortunately that's pretty much all I was able to do in the activation phase. I used up the arc on my gate to summon my Weaver and Fire Team, then placed a new gate near my Hunter. The Seigebreaker advanced and knocked an Arc off my gate. The Morningstar pushed up to my Ace Raptor and took a couple of swings with his shields. It also put down a gate, out of which popped the Defender squad. I believe it also killed a Fire Team grunt and put a wound on my Weaver. At the end of the turn we were at 2 points each.
Pulse 2.1
I gave the Bomber Raptor his first Arc. The Hunter resumed his long march towards the distant objective. I activated the Ace Raptor and put as much damage as I could into the Morningstar, but the extra armour from the two shields kept him alive. Using a Cypher card, I was at least able to inflict the System Failure effect (we used the wrong token in the photos), shutting down his shooting. I collapsed my Gate to summon my Dusk Wolf and Engineer. The Palading Defenders, with the help of a buff from a Cypher card, were able to finish off my Ace Raptor. The Seigebreaker took down my Dusk Wolf.
Pulse 2.2
I gave the Bomber Raptor a second Arc, then set the Firebrand on fire (ha ha) with a Fury. The Engineer walked back to my objective to score it, and also tuned up the Bomber Raptor. Which then moved up and took down the Seigebreaker. Finally I put down a gate. The Morningstar moved towards my models on my left, putting down a gate from which emerged two Seigebreakers. Hidden by the building on the far left, Voss killed my Hunter.
Pulse 2.3
I put a third Arc on the Bomber Raptor. He spiked for speed and Flight, enabling him to move up and get line of sight on Karas' hidden models. He hit Voss with a Talon rocket, who spiked to ignore damage and teleport away. Thanks to the Bomber cortex, the Raptor was able to move up to the far objective. He then finished off the Weaver, the gate, and the Morningstar, allowing me to score. I advanced my Weaver, and used a Cypher to reposition my Fire Team towards the central objective, and put down a gate next to my Weaver. The Seigebreakers took my Ace Raptor down to one wound. Karas put down a gate near Voss. At the end of the turn we both had 6 points.
Pulse 3.1
I considered activating the Ace Raptor, which would ensure that it would get to activate before dying and allow me to score, but I was worried about Voss pushing my Bomber Raptor off the table again, so I used a Cypher I'd been holding for a while to clear the Bomber Raptor's activation token, allowing it to shuffle to a safer position. My Combat Engineer then walked up and repaired two wounds on the Ace Raptor. I used the same fury again to set a Seigebreaker on fire, and pulled my Dusk Wolf and a Hunter out of the gate. Finally I placed a gate in front of my objective just to block access. The Palading Defenders put some damage onto my Dusk Wolf and a Seigebreaker went back to wailing on my Duskwolf. The Paladins scored the central objective.
Pulse 3.2
I put an Arc on the Ace Raptor. I used a Cypher to double the Fire Team's output, and took down the Firebrand. The Hunter moved to my left and whiffed a shot. I summoned a second Hunter next to my objective. The Palading Defenders and a Seigebreaker killed my Weaver, Dusk Wolf, and a Fire Team grunt. The other Seigebreaker killed my fresh Hunter and knocked some Arc off my gate. Karas recalled the Seigebreaker on the right and placed a gate next to my objective.
Pulse 3.3
I gave an Arc to the Ace Raptor, who spiked for Flight and flew next to my objective. He killed the Seigebreaker but couldn't clear the gate so he couldn't score. Using a Cypher for a speed buff, Voss walked around the left side of the building on my far left and used Repulsor to push my Bomber Raptor off the far objective, allowing him to score. The game ended with me at 9 points and Karas at 12, for an ISA victory.

Post-Mortem:
We really need to play more often so we can get the rules down properly. I think we mixed up pulse rounds and turns the whole game, so we might not have resolved continuous effect properly. I do feel I'm starting to understand the turn sequence better, as well as what I suppose you could call the "gameplay priorities": where to use Arc, holding on to useful Cyphers and cycling through the useless ones as quickly as possible, keeping enough models on the table, etc.

Well, I say that, but at the end of the day I mainly just used Arc to charge and summon Strike Raptors. In fact most of my meaningful activations were Strike Raptor activations. When you can only activate a unit and a solo each round, why not activate the unit that can make 4 attacks with up to 3 extra Power Dice? And when you're allocating Arc, why not allocate it to the model where a point of Arc buffs 4 attacks per activation, as well as buffing the model's survivability? It's simply the most efficient use of the resource. Obviously efficiency isn't everything, it's just an easy answer is all.

Anyway, in the future I'll try to make better use of the rest of my army and not crutch on the Strike Raptor so hard. I was too complacent when it came to scoring my near objective, and that cost me-I actually didn't score it at the end of the game, hence my loss. And had I pushed the Bomber Raptor up earlier rather than needing to pull it back to score my near objective, I probably could have scored the far objective earlier, gaining an additional 2 points. You live and you learn right?