Day Of The Beast

It wouldn't be proper to play a game of Warmachine on Friday the 13th (again) without running Khador's very own Jason Voorhees: Beast 09. Unfortunately for me he wasn't on my side...

Ah-hem. So I threw together a couple of 30 point lists for a second game against Fuzzy (who I mixed up with Saint while writing a previous battle report in a rush; that has now been fixed). I took Andy out for a spin, bringing a Decimator (because I think the model works with him) and a Kodiak (because I was feeling too lazy to dig out the Juggernaut arms). The Wardog was there to deliver Fighting Dirty, and a Koldun Lord would help with damage.
Malakov2
- Decimator
- Kodiak
- Wardog
Nyss Hunters
- Valachev
Koldun Lord

I gave Fuzzy the original battlebox caster, Sorscha1, because she's a lot of fun. She can be a bit focus starved if she wants her jacks to do work, so the Forgeseer seemed to be a good support piece.
Sorscha1
- Beast 09
- Spriggan
- Sylyss
Croe's Cutthroats
Greylord Forgeseer


Pre-Game:
The table had just been used for 40K; I figured playing on the same terrain would demonstrate that Warmachine does not need flat terrain (it seems I had given people the impression that it didn't work with regular terrain). Rather than roll for a scenario or something I decided to just put two "flags" (the Butcher and Mechanic models seen below) in the middle of the table (they are a little to the side, but I figured that was the part of the table we would actually use considering our low model count). I decided to stick to the basic scoring system from the rulebook, so any model in base contact can score, any model within 4" contests, and first to 5 wins.

I won the roll and chose to go first. Fuzzy chose the Decimator as the Cutthroat's Prey target.


Deployment:
I deployed my battlegroup facing the rightmost flag and the Nyss to my left. Fuzzy deployed most of his forces to my left.

Round 1:
Malakov cast Escort and put Repo on the Decimator, then walked forwards, gave himself Prowl and threw a cloud over himself. The Decimator trampled then repo'ed forwards for a total of 12", matching the Kodiak's run. The Nyss Hunters ran forwards. My solos joined Malakov in the cloud.

The Cutthroats walked forwards and started shooting at my Nyss Hunters. Needing mostly 9's, they somehow managed to kill 5 Nyss before repositioning backwards. Beast09 and the Spriggan ran towards the flags. Sorscha put up Fog of War.

Round 2:
The Kodiak ran to base the flag. The Decimator took a couple of shots at the Spriggan for very little damage (I didn't allocate enough focus; with Fog of War even a Spriggan is hard for a Decimator to hit unboosted!) then tried to bodyblock the flag. The Nyss walked and Zephyred into range of the stealthy Cutthroats, killing I think 4 of them. On Nyss Hunter based the flag, while Valachev hugged a wall for cover.

Between aiming Cutthroats and an always-angry Beast09 (those Nyss kids were having too much fun!) Fuzzy took out all my Nyss Hunters, leaving a lonely Valachev wondering what had just happened. Sylyss ran to base the flag, while the Spriggan ran away from my jacks. Scoring began this turn so we both scored a point.

Round 3:
I put the Decimator into the Spriggan, taking about half his boxes but not crippling anything. The Kodiak stayed back to guard the flag, venting steam to help hide my squishies. The Wardog ran forwards in order to be able to apply Fighting Dirty next turn if I saw an opening. Valachev walked over to base the flag on the left and killed Sylyss with an ice shotgun. This prevented Fuzzy from scoring this turn, getting me a point up.

Sorscha cast Boundless Charge on Beast09 and the Forgeseer handed out some focus. The Spriggan softened up the Decimator, then Beast09 came in and finished it off. The Cutthroats killed the dog and based the flag. We both scored, bringing the score to 3:2 to me.

Round 4:
I dropped all my upkeeps for focus. The Koldun Lord cast Brittle Frost on the Spriggan - I would have preferred to use it on Beast09 but he's immune... The Kodiak charged in to the Spriggan, finishing it with his initials. I had actually hoped to be able to throw it into Beast09. Oh well. He then bought a couple of attacks on Beast09, completely whiffing his damage rolls...

The Kodiak used Vent Steam. Malakov feated; with the steam cloud in place the Kodiak (who I think was the new Prey target) would be able to walk behind it after Beast hit him, where he couldn't be targeted anymore. I bought an extra attack with Open Fire, which at least did a bit of damage. Malakov also shot at Beast09, managing only to hit the Kodiak in the back. At least he didn't actually do any damage.  We both scored, but as I was ahead at 4 points I would win next turn if Fuzzy didn't contest.

At this point I thought it was a good idea to explain Sorscha's feat and other abilities to Fuzzy. While doing so we realised that Malakov was inside Sorscha's threat range. So she Wind-Rushed forwards, popped feat to freeze all my models, then charged Malakov and killed him with two hits.

Post-Mortem
I actually did not realise that Malakov was that close to Sorscha. Clearly I'm still rusty. I also realised today that Sorscha's feat counters Malakov's pretty well; his feat says nothing about ignoring Stationary after all.

I thought the Koldun Lord would solve Malakov's damage issues, but a) I'm too cagey with him, and b) Beast09 don't give a damn. Actually I could have given the Koldun Lord repo and/or Prowl, and even a cloud, meaning that Malakov might be one of the better casters for keeping him safe even after he uses Brittle Frost. Still, I think Andrei might not be at his best at this point level.

Anyway, this was a fun game, and one that didn't drag out as long as Warmachine sometimes can for a slow player like me. Fuzzy's dice were pretty hot, rolling 9's with surprising ease. But that was pretty fair really, seeing as he'd just come from a game of 40K where his dice were stone cold...