Menite Jackspam

I got in another Warmachine game against Speedy. He was trying a fun list this time, while I had tweaked my previous list to make it legal in Wolves of Winter:
Strakhov 1
- Torch
- Juggernaut
- Destroyer
- Greylord Adjunct
Doomreaver Swordsman
- Greylord Escort
Nyss Hunters
- Valachev (free)
Koldun Lord
Forgeseer (free)

Speedy's list was in the Creator's Might theme:
Cyrenia 1
- Judicator
Avatar of Menoth
Severius 0
- Templar
Choir of Menoth (4)
Rhoven & Guard
Vassal Mechanic
Vassal x2 (free)


Pre-Game:
We rolled a Steamroller scenario, but it had like 7 scoring elements and I just felt like it would be too much. So after some waffling around I suggested we just play Hold The Line as it was fairly simply and neither too cramped nor too spread out (I ended up using a 50mm disc for the central flag because I only had 2 40mm discs and I didn't care anymore). I threw some forests on the table (well, we decided everything counted as a forest); I need to sort out some new terrain but I just don't know what would be a good choice and I don't want to have to paint anything really. Speedy won the roll and chose to go second.


Deployment:
I couldn't exactly ignore terrain the way I usually do with my infantry, so I had to work around the forests. I put my battlegroup on my left, and the Nyss Hunters in the middle. Speedy positioned his Judicator opposite my battlegroup, and kept his infantry behind his jacks. My Doomreavers went on my right.

Round 1:
Doomreavers apparated then ran forwards. I spread them all out, and also hid the Nyss behind the forest, as I was pretty sure the Judicator could put out a lot of AOEs. Strakhov put Occultation on the Nyss, Superiority on Torch, and Sentry on the Destroyer, and walked behind the forest. The Jacks ran forwards. The Greylords clouded themselves and walked up. In retrospect I could have given the Escort Stealth with a cloud if I had planned my turn properly, though it didn't end up mattering.

The Mechanic fixed up the Judicator a little, something (Rhoven?) gave him Eyeless Sight, Choir handed out Battle, etc. The Judicator did some damage to Torch and killed a couple of Nyss Hunters with drifts. The Avatar ran towards my Doomreavers and used Menoth's Gaze. Cyrena put Inviolable Resolve on the Avator and put a wall in front, then popped her Feat.

Round 2:
I don't remember if it was his normal or his Sentry shot, but I think the Destroyer put about six points of damage into the Judicator. The Doomreavers charged the DEF 12 ARM 23 Avatar and only put about 5 points of damage into him; not being able to hit him with Brittle Frost first was a unfortunate. The Escort simply based the flag. The Nyss ran up to engage models, with a couple also basing flags. Torch ran up to touch the flag on my left. The Juggernaut ran up, but made sure to stay further back than the Destroyer. Strakhov moved into the forest. The Koldun Lord advanced while trying to stay hidden from the Judicator.

The Avatar rolled 4 focus and killed four Doomreavers, leaving two knocked down. A pair of Choir I believe tried to finish one (which might not have been legal as I think they still sung Battle that turn?), but couldn't crack the armour. The Templar killed a pair of Nyss Hunters. Cyrena might have killed one as well? She put a wall in front of my jacks. The Judicator killed some Nyss Hunters and the Forgeseer, and put some damage onto the Destroyer. I scored two points for the side flags.

Round 3:
Strakhov filled up Torch and the Destroyer. The Destroyer put his Sentry shot into the Judicator or maybe the Templar. I probably should have used the Apparition move to shuffle the Greylord Escort behind the flag, but I forgot. I forgot to move him during their activation as well, so the Escort did nothing while the Doomreavers stood up. One Doomreaver killed two Choir, but without the charge the two attacks into the Avatar did nothing. Torch then charged into the Judicator and actually did good damage, crippling his right arm and only leaving a few boxes on that grid. The Koldun Lord shuffled as far back as possible while still keeping the Templar in LOS and range, before hitting the jack with Brittle Frost. Strakhov activated and recast Superiority onto the Destroyer, who I had intended to charge the Templar but I forgot I needed Pathfinder to go over the wall, and the flag was blocking me from making distance if I tried to charge around the wall. So instead I just put a double-boosted Bombard into the Templar (in retrospect I should probably have targetted the Judicator since iirc he doesn't get the target-in-melee defensive bonus, and I probably could have crippled his right grid). My last Nyss Hunter charged the Templar. The Juggernaut ran up to take Torch's place as a flag holder. I ended the turn at 4 points.

Since the victory condition for Hold The Line was simply to reach 5 points, Speedy was now in a bad position. The Mechanic fixed the Judicator's right-side systems. The Avatar finished off the Doomreavers. A Vassal ran to contest the flag on my right. The Judicator shuffled into range and shot down my Greylord Escort, put 10 damage onto Strakhov and killed my Adjunt, and put a heap of damage onto Torch, leaving his right arm crippled. Early in the turn the Templar used Road to War move to move in the general direction of my Destroyer, then at the end he looked to charge my Juggernaut but couldn't reach, so he just ran to contest instead. One warrior model based the central flag, giving Speedy a point.

Round 4:
Strakhov filled the Juggernaut and Destroyer. The Koldun Lord cast Brittle Frost on the Templar. Strakhov popped Feat and charged the Templar, then bought two extra attacks. He actually did good damage, leaving the Templar's shield crippled. Torch then charged into the Templar's back arc, hitting once with his good fist and then again with his crippled saw. Finally the Destroyer charged the Templar; he rolled a crit on his charge attack... but it didn't matter because the damage was enough to kill the Templar so the crit didn't matter. As usual. With the Juggernaut still sitting on the flag, I scored my fifth point for the win.

Post-Mortem:
I threw my army forwards as quickly as possible to push the lines of engagement back and let me score early. Speedy didn't really appreciate just how dangerous it was to let me get away with it, which is why he suddenly found himself in a pickle at the start of round 3. At this point he might have still been in the game if he committed to contesting flags. Trampling the Avatar over the Doomreavers to get to the Escort, or at least to get close enough to contest, would have freed up the Judicator to focus on my battlegroup and on getting close enough to contest, rather than having to move to my right to get into gun range of the Escort. If he had planned his moves better he could have moved the Templar directly towards the Juggernaut with Road to War (instead of blocking his direct path with a warrior model), which would have let him charge in and kill the Juggernaut. He could have also run more infantry models, like the remaing Choir, to contest flags rather than casting Battle (which he didn't really need all that much). Or he could have killed Torch with the Templar (possibly repositioning afterwards with Road to War, I'm not really sure how far he was at the start of the turn), freeing up the Judicator to charge my Juggernaut and possibly getting the Destroyer AND basing the flag all at the same time - three birds with one stone!

I think at the time he was being a bit too precious with his models, trying to keep the Judicator as safe as possible and focussing on killing my few remaining infantry models even though they weren't that big a threat. He probably should have swapped Inviolable Resolve off the Avatar since it wasn't really in any threat anymore, the other jacks needed it more by the end.

I think that was my last game with Strakhov. He didn't really do anything that game that any warcaster with a speed buff and free charges couldn't have. OK, I did have the option of just pushing the Templar away from my flag with two casts of Battering Ram, but... I never used Overrun (kind of hard when I can't kill anything at range, I'd have to charge the Juggernaut in to have a reliable chance of killing anything my battlegroup can actually reach), Sentry didn't do much, Occultation helped a bit but wasn't that big a deal, and I didn't exactly make the most of the Feat (as usual). The Koldun Lord didn't do much either, maybe someday.

I need some models that do more damage. It's kind of telling that even though I won, I barely killed anything; my death count for the entire game amounted to two Choirboys and a single jack at the end!