White And Gold

Two games in one day? Must be because it's... Friday the 13^th! Dun dun duuuun!

Game 1

Another intro game against one of our 40K regulars. I shall refer to him as Saint. I pulled out the same lists as the last demo game:
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Kodiak
- Sylyss
Winter Guard Infantry

Butcher 1
- Juggernaut
- Demolisher
- Wardog
Assault Kommandos


Pre-Game:
No scenario. Saint won the roll and chose to go first.


Deployment:
Our infantry faced off on my left, our battlegroups on my right.


Round 1:
I explained the basics of movement, running, and casting spells.

Round 2:
I explained ranged attacks, including aiming. Saint's Assault Kommando shooting took down a lot of my Winter Guard. He ran his Juggernaut right up to my Kodiak.

I demonstrated spending focus to boost attack rolls, and gave a taste of power attacks by throwing his Juggernaut into his Demolisher. My Juggernaut then charged in and finished off his. The Winter Guard charged his AKs, to little effect.

Round 3:
Butcher moved up, feated, and wailed on my Kodiak. The Demolisher did the same to my Juggernaut. One of my jacks survived with a few boxes left (I don't actually remember which one it was right now), but some hot damage rolls on AK shooting under Butcher's feet finished it off, leaving me with no battle group left - and no Winter Guard either!

Sylyss charged the Wardog and actually managed to take it out. Strakhov went in on Butcher, but cold dice meant I only did a little bit of damage

Round 4:
The Demolisher and Butcher took down the Hoff.


Game 2

Speedy's Menoth had just arrived and he was eager to get them on the table, so we played at 50 points. I didn't want to start swapping models around yet so I just added some stuff to my previous list.
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Destroyer
- Berserker
Nyss Hunters
Kell Bailoch
Alexia & the Risen
Widowmaker Marksman
Koldun Lord

Speedy decided to stick with Kreoss 1 for another game, but swapped out the Vanquisher. It seems he quite liked how the Repenter worked last game, so he doubled-down on them this time.
Kreoss 1
- Crusader
- Reckoner
- Repenter x3 (one proxied by MOW)
Cinerators
Choir (min)
Errants (min)


Pre-Game:
We rolled the main rulebook scenario with the single simple circular zone in the center (I think it's the first scenario). I chose the side with the forests and he chose to go second.


Deployment:
Not having any pathfinder on my jacks, I lined up my battlegroup with the gap in between the forests. My Nyss were positioned to my right, with the Risen behind them.

Speedy concentrated the bulk of his forces to my left.

I placed Kell towards my left, but then realised the Marksman would need to be closer to Strakhov to get Sentry.

The Errants deployed behind the forest on their side of the table.

Round 1:
Strakhov put Sentry on the Marksman, Superiority on the Berserker, and Occultation on himself. I then decided I didn't need to charge forwards and just walked, which of course meant that the Marksman didn't need to be that close to Strakhov. I walked the Marksman to the left, but messed up my positioning and ended up out of range of the errants. Nyss Hunters spread out through the forest and trench. The Risen just shuffled forwards, with Alexia creating one Thrall who ran over to my left, hiding behind a swell in the forest. The Berserker ran towards the zone, while the other two jacks ran to keep up.

Defender's Ward went on the Cinerators and Lamentation on Kreoss. The Cinerators advanced, with the jacks behind them with Passage. The Errants consolidated behind the forest defensively.

Round 2:
This round I focussed on taking down the Cinerators. My snipers took out one each, and the Destroyer took down another. I think the Nyss took down a fourth with a 5-man CRA. Alexia created another thrall (proxied by the Wardog) who set up on the hill on my right. His older brother just ran to the center of the zone to be a nuisance.

Kreoss switched Defender's Ward over to the Errants. A Repenter went after my snipers but only killed one, so another Repenter had to move in to take out the other. The Reckoner put damage on my Berserker, lighting him up with Flare. Repenter and Errant shooting killed some Nyss and the Thralldog. I'm not sure what killed the other thrall.

Round 3:
I spent a while planning this round, trying to get into the old Strakhov swing of things. I put Overrun on the Berserker, who walked into the last Cinerator's back arc. Because I was careless he took a free strike from the Cinerator and lost his cortex. Still, he killed the Cinerator and triggered Overrun to walk into the Reckoner. He then Berserked and used his second initial, but I don't remember which jack I put his attacks into.

Strakhov and the Destroyer chipped away at the Crusader with some boosted shooting, then the Juggernaut charged in and finished it off. My Nyss Hunters took a pair of 4-man CRAs into the Errants and whiffed both. A newborn Risen walked in to distract them, while a new Thrall charged into a Reckoner to keep it busy.

Speedy popped Kreoss' feat and did what he could to counter-punch, but somehow my knockdown-immune DEF 13 Berserker survived (with only it's movement intact).

Round 4:
I made a couple of mistakes this round. I dropped Superiority from the Berkserker because I wanted to switch it to the Juggernaut, but there was no reason not to leave it until after the Berserker's activation since it's free for Strakhov to upkeep. I also spent focus on the Juggernaut to shake, even though he didn't move during his activation and I believe casting Superiority on him would have stood him back up anyway.

Regardless, the Berserker flailed ineffectually at the Reckoner with his crippled arms. The Juggernaut got Overrun and Superiority, killed a Revengers and I think an Errant then walked back to safety. The Destroyer stood up and took a shot at the Errants, hitting and killing one thanks to a boosted attack roll.

Alexia popped up some Risen in Errant back arcs, but even a 3-man CRA into the back arc missed. She then converted one into a Thrall, who I believe succeeded in finally taking down the Errant. The Koldun Lord finally got into things by taking out an Errant himself with Brittle Frost.

Last turn I completely forgot to keep something suriveable in the zone, so Speedy set about clearing it. The Reckoner finished of the Berserker, and Errants and Revengers easily the killed the small handful of undead that still contested, earning Speedy a victory point.

Round 5:
With the board now clear enough for me to move around, I loaded up my jacks, popped feat, and put Overrun on the Destroyer. He started off by taking out one of the remaining Repenters (and he actually benefitted from a crit this time, doing an additional 4 damage on one attack - I believe it's the first time this has actually happened to me!) and Overruning into the other, clearing the lane for the Juggernaut.

The Koldun Lord cast Brittle Frost on the Reckoner, then Juggernaut charged in for the kill. A 4-man Risen back-strike CRA once again failed to do anything, and my Nyss Hunters embarrassed themselves as well.

Speedy tried to free up the Errants with Kreoss so they could try to get to Strakhov, but he didn't have enough models left.

Round 6:
My Destroyer took a free strike walking away from the Repenter in order to take a boosted shot and clear off a Choirboy. This opened the path for the Juggernaut to get to Kreoss; with the accuracy buff from Superiority he was able to finish off the old priest.

Post-Mortem:
Saint picked up the rules quite quickly, and appeared to be enjoying himself. He seemed to like the fact that Butcher was a proper beatstick, and played him more aggressively than expected. He commented to the effect that he liked the system well enough, but was not too fond of the model aesthetics. I can see that, a lot of the models have a style that won't work for everyone.


I wonder if I'm playing Strakhov wrong, because I always feel disadvantaged at the start of a game and only start to feel comfortable later when things have cleared out a bit, because that's when I start to feel like I can leverage Strakhov's mobility buffs to take out the models that scare me.

Which is why I feel like Speedy would have been better off throwing his army into me as quickly as possible, rather than keeping his distance and allowing me take his heavies without retaliation. Of course part of that was down to my Berserker doing an unusually good job as a roadblock - Speedy's dice were a little bit cold this game, whereas mine gave me the numbers I needed when I needed them (with the exception of the Nyss activations of course).

This was my first time running the Koldun Lord since the Wolves of Winter CID (actually probably since MkII). Early on I felt he was very vulnerable so I tried to keep him back, by late game I felt comfortable bringing him forwards. In this game I don't think he made much difference and a Warcaster attachment might have made my life easier instead, but landing Brittle Frost on the Reckoner meant my Juggernaut's chances of taking him out went from "pretty good" to "practically guaranteed", so maybe I'll keep him. He'll certainly come in handy if I start facing ARM-buffed heavies again.

Speedy was right to take out my snipers as quickly as possible, because those two would do a lot of work over the course of a game if they were allowed to run free - taking out a Defender's Warded Cinerator each is nothing to sneer at. I screwed up with the Marksman as usual, putting him too close to Kell and letting him die too easily.

His lights didn't do as much work this game - they were on the wrong side of the table to try to kill my infantry, and they don't really hit hard enough to be a problem for my jacks. I think that if he'd focussed them on my infantry (possibly with a much more agressive feat from Kreoss) that might have freed up his Errants to do some work on my jacks - charging weaponmasters are not to be taken lightly. Alternately if he had been more agressive with his heavies he could have used his lights to protect them from my heavies' alpha, trading the lights to get his heavies into mine.

Well, it was a fun game, but a bit of a long one. Speedy was talking about playing at 75 points, but I think after this he might reconsider and stick to 50 just for the convenience.

Menoth's In The Mail

Got another game in with Speedy. This time we played at 25 points. I ran some of my usual models:
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Destroyer
Nyss Hunters
Kell Bailoch

Speedy is still in the process of acquiring models so we proxied a bunch of my spares:
Kreoss 1 (proxied by Paladin of the Wall)
- Vanquisher (proxied by Demolisher)
- Crusader (proxied by Berserker)
- Repenter (proxied by Sentinel)
Choir of Menoth (proxied by Battle Mechanics)
Cinerators (proxied by MOW, Butcher, and Blasters)


Pre-Game:
We decided not to introduce scenarios yet, and played a basic caster-kill game. I won the roll and chose the side with more forests. Speedy chose to go second.


Deployment:
I deployed my Nyss Hunters to my left, behind a forest. My battlegroup was in the center.

Speedy layered his models, with the Cinerators in front, followed by the jacks, then the Choir, then Kreoss.

Finally I placed Kell forwards, beside the forest on my left.


Round 1:
I put out Superiority on the Juggernaut, Sentry on the Destroyer, and Occultation on Strakhov, who then fail-charged forwards. Everyone else ran forwards. Kell got himself into the forest for Prowl.

Speedy put Defender's Ward on the Cinerators, and Lamentation on Kreoss. Everything advanced. The jacks were given Passage.

Round 2:
The Nyss Hunters spread out. I ran my jacks into the trench. Strakhov tossed a cinder bomb in order to create a cloud; this scattered directly backwards and promptly killed a Nyss Hunter...

Kell advanced slightly and pinged the Vanquisher for 3 damage. I believe the Nyss Hunters and Destroyer both shot at the Cinerators and both failed to do damage, which of course meant they didn't get Vengeance.

The Choir walked forwards and sung Passage. The Cinerators advanced. The Crusader ran into the forest, while the other jacks advanced more cautiously on my right.

Round 3:
I loaded up the Juggernaut and the Destroyer. I believe the Destroyer put two damage on a Cinerator with his Sentry shot. Kell finished off that Cinerator and put three more damage on the Vanquisher. Between a boosted Destroyer shot and some charging Nyss Hunters I believed I killed another two Cinerators.

Then my Juggernaut charged the already-damaged Vanquisher. Needing three's to hit (even without the MAT buff from Superiority), he instantly rolled snake eyes on his charge attack. The fist landed, but the second axe attack ALSO came up double 1s! Finally a crit on the last axe attack left the Vanquisher stationary, but in pretty good health overall.

The Choir handed out Battle. The Vanquisher crippled the Juggernaut's cortex. The Repenter walked forwards and gunned down Kell. The Crusader trampled over some Nyss and bought an attack against another, killing three in total. Between Vengeance and their activation the Cinerators killed a couple more.

Round 4:
I loaded up the Destroyer; his Sentry shot killed three Choirboys, then he charged into the Crusader, crippling his mace. No crits were had unfortunately - my record of NEVER ONCE benefiting from the Destroyer's crit is still intact! Nyss Hunters did... nothing really. The crippled Juggernaut didn't get much done either. Strakhov walked out of the Repenter's charge range and spent four focus to land a couple of double-boosted shots into the Repenter, doing good damage but not crippling anything. I also tossed out a cinder bomb to block the Revenger's LOS to Strakhov, even though I knew there was absolutely no reason to do so.

Kreoss feated, knocking down most everything short of Strakhov himself. The Choir sung Battle. Between a charging Cinerator with a good damage roll, a boosted shot from the Vanquisher, and the Crusader flailing around with his crippled mace, my Destroyer was scrapped. The Juggernaut shared the same fate. Two more Nyss Hunters fell to a Cinerator.

Round 5:
Hail Mary time! Strakhov Feated and cast Overrun from outside of Kreoss' Lamentation range, then charged into a Choirboy, bouncing off and into Kreos himself. After four attacks Kreoss was still alive, so Strakhov Sprinted around to be out of the Vanquisher's threat range, taking seven damage from a freestrike.

Kreoss dropped Defender's Ward. A Vengence attack killed a Nyss Hunter. The Cinerator and the Crusader all whiffed their attacks against Cylena, but the Repenter's aimed boosted shot took her down, finishing off the unit. The Vanquisher turned around and walked towards Strakhov. The Kreoss turned around and started swinging, managing to finish off Strakhov with his last attack.

Post-Mortem:
It was a lot of fun to have a proper Warmachine game again after so long. I was rustier than I expected; I really didn't use Strakhov very well. He often ended up sitting on focus that he could have been using to do something useful, like put out some boosted shooting, simply because I was being too cagey with him, keeping him far back and behind clouds when he would have been completely safe a little bit closer to the action.

Still, I do think I would have won if the Juggernaut hadn't whiffed so epically. I mean, going in against a DEF 10 ARM 19 heavy who had already lost 9 boxes, and he didn't even cripple anything useful? You just can't plan for that. Had he wrecked the Vanquisher I would have had a Juggernaut dangerously close to Kreoss. Plus of course I would have had a huge attrition lead.

The fact that Strakhov still managed to pull off a respectable assassination attempt at the end is pretty cool. In retrospect I'm wondering if I could have avoided taking that freestrike and still stayed out of everything else's threat range? It might have been possible; if so Strakhov might even have managed to survive Kreoss' retaliation (by the thinnest of margins if that), and the finished the job next turn. Not saying it was likely, only I could have improved my chances if I had thought it through better.

Strakhov was actually pretty good against Kreoss I think; fire immunity means he's not too scared of the pop'n'drop and he can bring his own cloud and knockdown-immune jack for added protection, plus Lamentation doesn't affect him nearly as much as it does other casters who depend heavily on spells (whether they be upkeeps or direct casts).

Having said all that, I'm once again feeling Strakhov's lack of any kind of offensive buff. Sure, I can do speed, but my infantry miss more often than I'd like, and my heavies can't reliably  take another heavy off the table.

Man, Protectorate heavies are serious business in melee. I mean, a 10 point heavy who's P+S 20? A ranged jack with a P+S 18 chain weapon? That are harder to chip down at range before committing to melee? Yeah, I know, Choir tax. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade our jacks for theirs (what proud Khadoran would?), but you sure as hell can't take them lightly! I mean, even buying attacks with a crippled mace, the Crusader did a big chunk of damage to my (knocked down) ARM 20 Destroyer.

Cinerators don't sound like a big deal on paper, but Vengeance is a bigger deal than I initially thought it was. I reckon I can deal with it of course, I just need to get used to it.

Anyway, getting a couple of games in has made me excited about Warmachine in a way that I haven't been in a while. I'm enjoying it right now, just have to make sure I don't get carried away and buy a bunch of models that I'll never actually get to use...