Slow And Steady

I ran a demo game for a new member of our hobby group. This was my first game of Warmachine this year. I had put together two 30 points Unlimited lists in preparation. I ran a silly Strakhov2 list that I could use to show off a little of the jankier things you can do in this game, mostly centered around Alexia and LoLS to demonstrate soul and recursion mechanics. I don't think either of used a command card all game (though I did mention how he could use them a couple of times), but we both had Blessing, Lucky Penny, Old Faithful, Hit & Run, and For The Motherland (which I guess is not legal anymore but w/e).
Strakov2 (proxied by Strakhov1)
-Kodiak
-Elite Kommandos (2)(proxies)
-Reinholdt
Koldun Lord
Alexia 2 (& Thralls)(proxy)
Battle Mechanics
Legion of Lost Souls (Risen conversions)

The list I made for new players was intended to be simple and solid, mostly centered around demonstrating the basics, including the use of straighforwards buff spells. Ruin was a no-brainer. I included Bombardiers as versatile faction models with good overall stats and enough armour for Butcher's Deceleration to be meaningful. The Forgeseer fit with the MOW, was painted, and could help counter Strakhov's cloud/stealth tricks. Mechanics made sense as they are cheap and could repair most of the army.
Butcher1 (buff version)
-Ruin (proxied by Juggernaut)
Greylord Forgeseer (Bombshell conversion)
Man-O-War Bombardiers
-Bombardier Officer
Battle Mechanics


Pre-Game
I placed a simple 12" zone in the center and said any model could score starting from the second player's second turn, with the first to 5 points being the winner. I went firsts so I could demonstrate basics rules first. I gave him the terrain so he could place them as he wished.


Deployment
I put Strakhov and his support near the forest. The Kodiak in the center, with the Mechanics behind him, and Alexia and the Legion to the left. He spread his MOW in a line in front of the rest of his models (I could not remember the rules for deploying units).


Round 1:
Strakhov cast Inviolable Resolve on the Kodiak and Quicken on himself, used the Sneak battle plan and ran into the forest. His support followed. The Legion ran into the zone, clustered up in a shield wall. The Kodiak, excited to get to grips with the enemy, "accidentally" vented steam and killed all three mechanics. Oops. Oh well, accidents happen in war. Alexia respectfully and surreptitiously pocketed their souls - no point in letting good corpses souls go to waste, right? Walking up, she used the souls to craft three Thrall Warriors, who immediately ran forwards.

Butcher's army ran up, with Butcher himself staying behind the wall of Bombardiers, while the Forgeseer alone split off from the force. Butcher cast Deceleration, and put Vengeful on the Bombardier Officer.

Round 2:
I upkept both spells. Strakhov moved forwards just enough to take a shot at the Forgeseer, hitting and rolling just low enough to not do any damage. Alexia walked up and slung a Hellfire at a Bombardier, also somehow rolling just low enough to not do any damage. The Legion walked forwards and shot their pistols, doing some damage. The Thralls charged the Bombardiers, although only one could make the 3" needed for boosting damage. They finished off one Bombardier, but the return swing from Vengeful on the officer killed a Thrall. The Kodiak trampled up and used Vent Steam, the Kommandos then walked forwards and did the same.

Butcher upkept Vengeful and allocated to Ruin. The Bombardiers shuffled up a bit and killed the Thralls, allowing the Officer to lob a shot at the Legion; it missed but a roll of 10 on the blast damage still killed the target. The Mechanics then repaired some of the damage on the Bombardiers. Butcher Feated and cast Deceleration again. Ruin charged the Kodiak, dispelling Inviolable Resolve. I was surprised that even with Butcher's Feat and the free charge from his Bond, he still only just managed to finish off the Kodiak on his final hit (doing only one point of extra damage). The Forgeseer walked in to the zone and cast a Hoarfrost at the closest Legion grunt, killing it and also a second with another roll of 10 on the AOE damage. At least Alexia was close enough to take their souls.

Round 3:
I dropped Quicken. The Legion charged the Bombardiers, killing one and bringing back a member of the unit. One attack hit the Bombardier Officer, triggering Vengeful. The Officer's attack did no damage, but it was a Crit allowing him to use Shred to attack again (it was only later that it occured to me that Crit Shred is only during the model's combat action), unfortunately he rolled low again, leaving the Legion trooper untouched.

Alexia charged Ruin, using souls to buy attacks and boost damage rolls. She did some damage, not that much. One Kommando charged Ruin, the other I feared would block Strakhov's charge so I charged the Forgeseer instead, leaving her on one health. Reinholdt gave Strahkov a Lucky Charm (which came in handy as I think I rolled three 1's on a damage roll at one point). Strakhov then cast Last Stand on himself and charged Ruin. After buying all his attacks Ruin still had around 10 health boxes left; pow 11 is just sad really. The Koldun Lord managed to land a Brittle Frost on Ruin but did no damage.

With all my activations done Last Stand kicked in and Strakhov keeled over; karmic retribution for killing his own Mechanics no doubt.


Post-Mortem
It was a fun game that flowed fairly smoothly. I did end it somewhat prematurely using Last Stand, but I felt there wasn't much point in drawing it out too long. Still, in retrospect I probably should have let him take down Strakhov himself using Ruin. But this was actually my first game with Strakhov2 and I thought it would be funny for Strakhov to basically kill himself. I do think only have one jack per side is a bit of a problem, because losing that jack is hard to recover from; having a couple of jacks just sort of "buffers" the impact of losing one, or at least creates more of a back-and-forth. But I wanted to have a bit of everything without having too much of the power in the battlegroup as that might make the rest of the army feel redundant; I feel that gives a more accurate impression of the actual game. I think the Butcher list did what I wanted it to quite well, but I might re-write the Strakhov list.

Swapping Playstyles

Back in Mk2 I was quite fond of Lady Aiyana and Master Holt. It's a great looking unit, with an elegant decorative style, Holt looks cool with his bladed pistols and his rules and stats lived up to his appearance, while Aiyana's debuff spell was an incredibly powerful tool. But in Mk3 it became much harder to justify taking them outside of a Mercenaries list as the main reason to bring them, the Kiss of Lyliss, became friendly-faction only. Still, I've been thinking about running them lately, and the other day I had an idea. I've been having a hard time getting the most out of the Cutthroat's Prey, and was wondering if it was worth throwing it at a jack early. Then I realised that if I couple it with Kiss and Brittle Frost that becomes functionally POW 16 shooting; against an ARM 18 Cygnar jack, that's doing 5 damage per shot! Couple that with Holt's pistols and that's an average of 35 damage, enough to one-round a Cygnar heavy!

Of course I should take some more quality shooting just to be sure; since I'm pulling out some old models, how about Harlan Versh? He could be very effective if the target jack has an upkeep on it. But that's a lot of delicate pieces I would want to keep alive for multiple turns, so the best Khador caster to run them under would be Strakhov 1. But he'll only protect them for one round, and even then there's ways to ingore Stealth, so I would need some shield-guards. The High Alert card would help, but it wouldn't be enough, so how about Alexia 2 and a unit of Legion of Lost Souls to both stand in front and also catch bullets? Plus that amounts to a +6 damage swing for them, putting them at effectively POW 18!

Obviously I'd need the Blessing card, and I chose Infiltration and Hit & Run for extra defense. Finally I chose Old Faithful over Power Swell, since I was only taking one shooty jack and no repair models. This all sounded like a very silly and janky list that would probably catch someone by surprise and win the first time I run it, then probably never again.
50pts Unlimited Khador
Strakhov 1
-Destroyer
Lady Aiyana and Master Holt
Croe's Cutthroats
Legion of Lost Souls
Alexia 2
Koldun Lord
Ol' Grim
Harlan Versh
*Blessing
*High Alert
*Hit & Run
*Infiltration
*Old Faithful


I told Karas I was running a Strakhov gunline, and he finally succumbed to the urge to run a jackspam list; it's something he's mentioned wanting to do even though he knew it wouldn't work very well.
50pts Cygnar Storm Legion
Huxley1 (Electrify, Jackhammer)
-Courser (Advanced Deployment, Mag-Bolter, Voltaic Punching)
-Stryker (Arcane Precision, Voltaic Javelin, Heavy Mag-Bolter)
-The General
Arcane Mechanics
Sharpshooter
*Blessing
*High Alert
*Infiltration
*Old Faithful
*Sentry Duty


Pre-Game:
We took a quick look at the Battleforge Customs 1.2 scenarios (by Alif Cheng). On a whim I chose the Extraction scenario. I tried to set the table up in a slighly less symmetrical way than I usually do while still having an overall uniform spread; I chose to put some terrain in the very center, but not something that would be too punishing. I don't know why I have such a hard time laying out terrain... Karas won the roll and chose to go second.


Deployment:
I put Strakhov in the center to ensure he could cover my entire army with his feat, but closer to the forest since he likes concealment. Ol' Grim also went close to the forest. The Legion went in the center with all my important units and solos behind them. Karas deployed in a block to my left. My Cutthroats went behind the forest. I declared The General as their Prey target.

Round 1:
I ran everything up. The Legion went as far forwards as possible, while everything else tried to get defensive bonuses. Strakhov cast Assail on the Destroyer, then Feated and ran forwards to cover the entire army.

The General ran to the left objective. Huxley and maybe the Courser shot the right objective, leaving it on a few boxes, then Huxley used Jackhammer to destroy the left objective with The General, giving him a point.

Round 2:
I upkept Assail and allocated one focus to the Destroyer. I started by activating the Koldun Lord, who successfully landed Brittle Frost but did no damage. Aiyana and Holt went next; Aiyana landed the Kiss but Holt rolled low for damage. Next the Cuthroats activated, walking out of the forest and doing a fairly poor job as well. Harlan Versh activated, but without an upkeep on The General he did very little damage. Alexia tried to land a Hellfire (which would have been effectively POW 18) but missed. Ol' Grim tried his hand, and also fell flat on his face, missing one aimed shot and doing very little damage with the other.

Mathematically speaking The General should have been VERY dead by now, but it just wasn't happening. So much for that plan. I activated Strakhov, aimed, and cast Hand of Destruction on The General. I rolled three shots on the Riot Gun, and with damage boosts plus Hand of Destruction killed The General with the second shot. I put the third shot into the Stryker, then... somehow had two focus left? I... must have forgotten to pay for something? Anyway, I cast Convection at the objective but didn't do any damage, then repositioned backwards. I played High Alert on the Destroyer, who walked to within 3" of Strakhov and put a double-boosted Bombard into the Stryker. Finally the Legion of Lost Souls charged the Stryker and cranked their damage rolls, killing it! I scored two points for killing two undamaged jacks.

The Mechanics moved in and shot at the Legion, but only managed to kill one. The Courser hit Strakhov with his armour-piercing gun, but the Destroyer took the shot, taking 9 damage iirc. Huxley then shot Strakhov, doing 8 damage. The Sharpshooter took a shot as well, but missed.

Round 3:
Prey went on the Courser. I dropped Assail but forgot to allocate focus to the Destroyer. The Koldun Lord walked up and landed Brittle Frost on Huxley, but did no damage. Aiyana landed Kiss, but Holt didn't do all that much with his guns. Harlan Versh rolled four shots, missed two, and only did around 3 damage with the ones that connected. This was turning into The General all over again. Eventually, between Ol' Grim, Strakhov (who landed a boosted Hand of Destruction and remembered to use the Infiltration card after activating), the Destroyer (who didn't have any focus for boosting the damage roll), and the Cutthroats, I finally managed to take Huxley down. I think it might have been Croe who got the final shot, doing a single point of damage and also ensuring that Huxley wouldn't have been able to cast any spells next turn. I was planning to have Alexia buff the Legion's damage and walk them in if I couldn't finish Huxley with shooting.

Post-Mortem:
That was a silly but fun game, where we both played lists that felt better suited to each other's factions. I had a janky shooty list and Karas was running very unoptimised jackspam, so he was facing an uphill battle. The mission was a bit of a weird one, I didn't end up liking it; technically I won by points, because caster kill wasn't a win scenario. It's weird though, because I can see situations developing where you would run out of ways to score points and essentially have no way to win; I guess at that point you play to draw, or just conceded? That wouldn't be very satisfying. I need to spend more time looking at scenarios.

I was careless with Strakhov, running him dry; I really need to get used to resisting the temptation to use all my caster focus. It was a bit scary, facing down armour-piercing guns without any focus. In retrospect I could have protected him better; if I had put High Alert on Versh instead of the Destroyer, I could have replaced him with a Thrall with Shield Guard, allowing my to block two shots instead of one. Also I could have stayed within 3" of Old Grim, who benefits from Alexia's aura and thus was also a shield-guard. I kept forgetting to transfer Prey, and also forgot about Volume Fire on Strakhov. Oh well. Karas forgot that the Courser had Advanced Deployment, didn't put out his usual upkeeps, and he might have forgotten about the Eyeless Sight card (I'm not actually sure if he every had a chance to use it). Tournemant-winning players we are not.


Last game I said I was done with Strakhov, but I have to admit I felt as if he worked this game. He did pull his weight when so many models weren't; rolling a lot of Riot Gun shots will do that I suppose. Still, I think it's time to move on. I've had my eye on Butcher2, and recently I've been considering Vlad2 (who on paper looks like he has some similar gameplay elements). Most casters want faction infantry though, so realistically I need to start playing less mercs and get some more Khador stuff ready for the table. Eh, we'll see.

Hail Maries Are Fun

I played very carelessly last game, so I was happy to get another game in, hopefully I would actually remember to pay attention to little things like threat ranges this time. I've been exploring a lot of list ideas in the app over the last few weeks - thematic ones, skewy ones, gimmicky ones, all sorts really - but I wanted to give Strakhov another chance first, so I ran almost the same list as before, only replacing Sylyss with the Koldun Lord to help me with armour:
Khador Unlimited 50pts
Strakhov 1
-Juggernaut
-Kodiak
Cylena & the Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Battle Mechanics
Alexia 3
Koldun Lord
Ol' Grim
*Grave Robbing
*Hit & Run
*Old Faithful
*Power Swell
*Blessing


Karas was excited to try Cygnar's new Karchev. Sorry, I mean Karchev. Oops, my bad, what I meant to say was the new large-based Cygnar warcaster, Karchev-with-a-jetpack-and-a-gun-instead-of-an-axe.
Storm Legion 50pts
Huxley (Electrify, Jackhammer)
-Strike-her (Relentless Charge, Voltaic Javelin, 40K Fist)
-The General (OP-Head, Gun-Sword, Red-Light)
Arcane Mechanics
Tempest Thundercats
Stormblade Legionnaires
-Standard Bearer
*Old Faithful
*Power Swell
*Probably some other cards, idk


Pre-Game:
We've been having issues with scenarios; the current Steamroller scenarios feels too complex, at least for 50 points. After asking for some advice online, it was suggested that the Brawlmachine scenarios were decent for smaller games. A quick search brought up version 1.2 of the Brawlmachine rules, I skimmed down and snap-picked the "Binary" scenario, because it seemed simple but with a good number of objectives.

We used 6inch zones (I think the scenario called for 12", but we weren't sure and just kinda felt that was too big), which according to the linked Steamroller could only be scored by units and warcasters). For the 40mm flags, which could only be scored by warcasters and solos, I used my old plasticard discs. I threw some terrain onto the table and tried not to make it too symmetrical, while still hopefully being balanced. Karas won the roll and chose to go first, so I picked the side with more forests because I have a lot of pathfinder and my guys like to stand in forests for concealment - especially Strakhov.


Deployment
Karas placed his infantry on my right, ready to head for his zone. Since he didn't have any solos to score the flag, he put his battlegroup on that side so Cygchev could score it instead. I put my Nyss on the right, with Ol' Grim ready to grab the flag. Everything else went on my left. The I chose the Thunderers to be the Cutthroats' Prey target.

Round 1:
Karas got into position to score, even though scoring wouldn't start until next round. He put Electrify on the Stryker and Failsafe on The General.

My Kodiak "accidentally" vented steam before running to the zone, instantly and painlessly killing a mechanic. At least that's what the official report sent to his wife and children said. The part about Alexia reanimating his corpse as a Thrall was not mentioned in said report. Strakhov cast Assail on the Juggernaut and moved up into the forest. The remaining mechanics, Koldun Lord, and Strak's bony new shield-guard buddy followed.

The Nyss Hunters moved up and opened fire on the Legionnaires, only killing one. I used the Grave Robbing card to give Ol' Grim an unearned soul, then used a couple of well-aimed bullets to steal two more from the Legionnaires. I wanted to load him up to start putting boosted POW 12's into harder targets later, but I did spend one soul for +3 DEF, leaving him with two.

I didn't know what to do with the Cutthroats; it didn't look like they were going to be able to do any work on my left, so I bit the bullet and ran them all to the right. Alexia followed them into the forest, making sure to stay close enough to the Thrall for him to take advantage of her (now properly worded, thank you PP) Shield-Guard aura.

Round 2:
The remaining Legionnaires charged the Nyss Hunters, not doing much. The Thunderers then advanced into the zone and fired on Ol' Grim. The first AOE attack missed, but a big damage roll on the POW 8 blast damage was enough to kill the soul-laden spectre. The other shot into the Nyss Hunters, killing Cylena and one of her friends. I replaced Cylena - who was only just in range of Alexia) with a fresh Thrall (proxied by an unpainted Laddermore who had been converted to be holding a sword).

The Stryker shot at the Juggernaut for some damage, then repositioned back. I believe The General did too, and put up Polarity Field while he was at it. Huxley also chipped in some damage, but a low roll meant it wasn't too bad.

I allocated two focus to the Kodiak and dropped Assail as I wasn't going to use it this turn, but was going to use some focus. The Nyss killed two Legionnaires, and the Thrall took out the last one. The Cutthroats moved up and shot at the Thunderers, managing to kill one. Alexia ran across to base the flag so I could score.

The Koldun Lord cast Puppet Master on Strakhov. The Hoff then Feated and moved into the zone to cast an uboosted Hand of Destruction at The General. I needed a 6, and missed. Luckily I gave him Pupper Master for just this reason, allowing me to reroll the attack roll. I missed again. I then landed three unboosted Riot Gun shots, burning the Power Swell card to give me enough focus to boost the damage on all three for an OK number of boxes. The Kodiak trampled up to The General, buying two attacks and missing them both. He then Vented Steam and repositioned backwards - the cloud wouldn't save the Kodiak, but it would make it harder to reach the Juggernaut. The Juggernaut just stood at the back of the zone, where the Mechanics could walk up and heal a few boxes (very few; they only healed 3 between them). I realised that the Thrall was too far from Alexia to use Shield Guard, so I moved him away from the rest of the group so at least he wouldn't get killed by any blast damage or a stray Electroleap.

I had Alexia and Strakhov in position to score, Karas had Huxley and the Thunderers, so we both scored two points.

Round 3:
I believe this was the turn Huxley Feated, casting Full Throttle to help his jacks kill the Kodiak. He also shot Strakhov for 11 damage. I think Karas used the Old Faithfull card this turn. The Thunderers charged into the Cutthroats, making sure each Thunderer was only engaged by one Cutthroat - the plan was for each to kill a Cutthroat in melee then use Dual Attack to put an AOE shot into my mass of low-ARM infantry. Unfortunately they both missed their melee attack, so each could only kill one Cutthroat with a POW 8 blast damage roll. I replaced one with another Thrall, proxied by Ol'Grim. The Arcane Mechanics ran over to score the zone in the Thunderer's stead. This meant we both scored two points again, keeping the score even.

I loaded up the Juggernaut. The new Thrall moved to base my flag. The remaining Cutthroats killed the last two Thunderers, giving me yet another Thrall (proxied by Sorscha). An older Thrall charged a Mechanic, leaving him on one box. The three remaining Nyss Hunters charged the other two Mechanics; the first two rolled low on damage and just chipped away at him, then the third one cranked the damage roll and completely overkilled him, invalidating everything the first two had done.

The Koldun Lord put Pupper Master on Strakhov again, who moved up and cast Hand Of Destruction on the Stryker, then did a bunch of damage with his gun before repositioning into the forest. I also recast Assail on the Juggernaut. I made a stupid math mistake earlier on, thinking the Juggernaut could charge the Stryker and get into melee range of The General, but actually no, he could barely make it to the Stryker. So the Juggernaut made one charge attack - which crit and left the Stryker stationary with three damage boxes left, suffering from crippled left arm and movement systems - then got pushed back out of range by Electrify, leaving my jack with three unused focus.

Sadly I had nothing else in range to try to finish off the The mechanics ran into the zone to score, doing what they could to block LOS to strakhov. The original Thrall ran back to be in 3" of Strakhov again, and Alexia - now free of scoring duties - ran back into the forest, making sure to get close enough for the Thrall to get Shield Guard again. With the far right zone contested, I scored two points and Karas scored one, putting me one point in the lead.

Round 4:
Huxley swapped Failsafe onto the Stryker so it could ignore the crippled systems, and put Electrify onto The General instead. I think Karas used Power Swell this turn to help Huxley cast Jackhammer on the Stryker, but it might have been last turn. Huxley and the General then finished off the Juggernaut. This allowed the Stryker to charge a Mechanic and get close enough to ignore Strakhov's Stealth. The Stryker killed the Mechanic and gunned down the Thrall to deny Strakhov a Shield-Guard, but luckily missed his actual shot at the 6-health, 0-focus Strakhov.

One Arcane Mechanic killed the last three Nyss Hunters with stupid hot rolls on a single spray attack. The other one brained the Thrall engaging him. They didn't have any attacks left to try to kill the last contesting Thrall though, meaning they couldn't score the zone. I still had a Thrall on my flag, and Huxley was still on Karas' flag, so we scored one point each.

Well, I was all out of jacks, so I really needed some luck if I was going to do anything now. I debated upkeeping Hand of Destruction on the Stryker, but decided Strakhov wasn't going to be able to put any attacks into it, so I needed to commit all my focus to The General and let the upkeep drop. I remembered Alexia had a POW 14 spell and put it into the Stryker, but I rolled low on damage and did nothing to the ARM 20 jack. This left the Koldun Lord, who I REALLY needed to come through for me. I used a command card to give him Blessed weapons, and charged him into the Stryker. He crit the attack roll, meaning that he didn't need the Blessed weapons since he Dispelled Failsafe. With the Stryker now at ARM 18 with three remaining boxes, I needed to roll at least an 11 on three dice to kill it... I rolled a 12!

Killing the Stryker triggered Battle Wizard, allowing the Koldun Lord to cast Brittle Frost on The General to reduce his ARM by 2 - a crucial part of my plan. The last remaining Mechanic charged The General but missed the attack. The Cutthroats charged their new Prey targers, the Arcane Mechanics, and finished them off. The Thrall on that side ran around the back of the central building to start to threaten Huxley.

All that was left was to activate Strakhov. I cast Hand of Destruction on The General, and actually landed it this time. Strakhov charged into base contact and hit with his Trench Sword, getting pushed an inch back. I rolled two Riot Gun shots, hitting with both and boosting the damage, amazingly putting The General down on the second shot. Strakhov could have still made one melee attack with boosted damage if needed.

I repositioned Strahov backwards, for what it was worth. I now held two zones and a flag, scoring three points to Karas' one. This put me a total of three points ahead.

Round 5:
We spent at least ten minutes discussing the best way for Huxley to try to assassinate Strakhov. Should he take an aimed Mag-Bolter shot in Ground Assault configuration? Or use Sky Stormer configuration to just charge in to melee and start swinging? Finally Karas settled on his plan: charge in, take one swing, cast Ground Zero and boost the guaranteed POW 13 damage roll, then follow up with a boosted Mag-Bolter shot. With his course mapped out, Karas activated Huxley and casually took down Strakhov with his first attack.

Post-Mortem: Man, that was a good game! The last couple of turns were very exciting as we made increasingly desperate moves. We both had good dice at times and bad dice at times. I made mistakes, but overall I felt like I was doing a decent job of balancing agression with caution, sending models forwards knowing they would die, but also knowing it was necessary to push the battle lines to enable me to score. I also remembered the command cards this time. I should have used Old Faithful earlier, in my head I was saving it for fixing crippled systems so I could still allocate focus, but then never got the chance to use it. Blessed happened to not matter because of a crit, but it was certainy good to have. In retrospect I could have used the Reposition card to move the Juggernaut back after attacking the Stryker; this might have been enough for the Mechanics to reach him and repair a few boxes.

I liked the scenario, I thought it worked well at 50 points. It was relatively simple but had enough scoring elements that we had to spread out and push up. I do believe it favoured me, especially with the terrain being set up the way it was: Karas didn't have any solos so he absolutely had to glue Huxley to the flag to keep scoring - luckily for him Huxley was capable to contributing reasonably well from that position. Meanwhile I just kept generating more solos as the game went on. The action basically happening on two lanes also separated the infantry from the jacks, denying him Vengeance triggers when I killed his infantry. And the forest being close to my zone was good for Strakhov's survivability.

I pretty much knew Strakhov was unlikely to survive after killing The General, but that's OK, just killing that damned jack was a victory in itself. He just has SO MANY rules, and they're ALL really good! And then Electrify on top is just overkill. So yeah, I may have lost the game but I'm claiming a moral victory for finally taking that damned thing down.

Alexia3 felt much better this game; being able to create a steady supply of solos worked well for me, and having a shield-guard was a big deal against Huxley's long-range stealth-ignoring armour-piercing boostable gun. The Kodiak being able to cheat out a Thrall in my first turn feels like a big deal though; otherwise it would have been very hard to get a Thrall close the Strakhov early on.

Strakhov himself felt good to activate. I'm not sold on his toolkit or his playstyle (which I'm still trying to discover I guess), but his face card is amazing. Speed 7, Pathfinder, Reposition, Prowl, Alchemical Mask, Dual Attack, Pistol, Takedown; Strakhov basically ignores half the restrictions in the game! I don't know if he's strong, and the tools he has to support his army all feel set up for one big turn rather than the kind of slower game I tend to find myself playing, but there was just something liberating about being able to move 7", ignoring rough terrain, and also move another 3" afterwards, making a decent volume of quality attacks then passively gaining stealth.

Nyss Hunters were decent, which is better than they usually end up performing. As always they are kind of just OK at whatever they need to do, as long as they survive long enough to get the chance to do it. Cutthroats did work this game; two attacks with Prey and Poison worked out quite well against Karas' tougher infantry. Feels like they can be good in the right situations.

Huxley didn't feel crazy powerful, but my impression is that he's pretty good, and pretty fun to play. He isn't doing too much that's too useful mid-game if your opponent has Shield Guards, but he brings some good battlegroup support and, as we saw, he can present a good late-game threat. He did seem complicated to play though: not only do his stats, including weapon stats, change when he changes configuration, so do his base rules - including his field marshal! That means his jacks gain or lose Reposition or Pathfinder depending on his configuration! We didn't realise until halfway through the game that the Stryker and The General should not have been repositioning backwards after shooting!

I did notice that not having Pathfinder is a LOT less punishing that it used to be, and measuring is a lot easier since it's a flat -2 rather than having to break down your movement. I am OK with this change (even though a lot of my favourite models already have pathfinder and that's less of an advantage now than it used to be).


We might be moving up to 75 points next game. 50 points is tight, but I feel it's just enough to write a functional list if you forgo the bells and whistles. At least with my models. And even at 50 we play slow enough that games take a while. Perhaps we should put a time limit and score the game based on objective points if we run out of time? I am NOT ready for an actual deathclock though!

Rustier Than I Thought

Another game of Warmachine Mk4. I decided Alexia1 wasn't working for me, so I swapped her for Alexia3 and a unit of Mechanics; this would give me repair, shield-guards, and a point left to upgrade my Marauder.
Khador Unlimited 50pts

Strakhov 1
-Juggernaut
-Marauder
-Sylyss
Nyss Hunters
Cutthroats
Battle Mechanics
Ol' Grim
Alexia 3

Blessing of the Gods
Grave Robbing
Hit & Run
Old Faithful
Power Swell

Karas had just aquired The General. He's always hated my snipers, so this game he tried to counter Ol' Grim with his own Sharpshooter.
Storm Legion 50pts

Athena (Electrify, Jackhammer)
-The General
-Stryker (Relentless Charge, Voltiac Javelin, Power First)
Stormblade Legionnnaires
Stormthrower Legionnaires
Arcane Mechanics
Sharpshooter

Careful Reconnaissance
True Inspiration
Hit & Run
Old Faithful
Power Swell

Pre-Game:
We glanced at the Steamroller 2024 document, but all the scenarios seemed quite complicated, and a had a lot of scoring elements for a 50 point game. However Karas had a version of the Mk4 rulebook from 10/01/2024 that included a scenario called "Split Decision", which we decided to use as it was simple and had a more reasonable number of scoring elements. Karas won the roll and chose to go second.


Deployment:
I decided Strakhov would live in the forest, giving him constant Stealth. The Kodiak would come out of the forest to threaten the zone, and the Juggernaut would be more central. Ol' Grim would take advantage of the forests on the right. I put Alexia in the center so she could move to get my infantry in her bubble as needed. Support went behind my battlegroup. Karas bricked up in the center of his table. I put the Cutthroats on my left and the Nyss on my right. I believe I declared the Cutthroat's Prey to be The General.

Round 1
The Nyss headed for the trench. Strakhov put Assail on the Kodiak, walked into the forest, and spent the rest of his focus putting Return Fire on himself and a bunch of Nyss Hunters. The Cutthroats stepped into the zone. The Kodiak ran through the forest, while the Juggernaut ran around it. Ol' Grim got a Soul from the Grave Robbing command card and headed to the right. Alexia killed a Mechanic and replaced him with a Thrall... which we later realised I couldn't do, so later on you'll see the Thrall disappear and a Mechanic reappear.

Karas put Hallowed Avenger on the General - which it turns out was redundant because The General already has Righteous Vengeance - and Electrify on the Stryker. Everything moved up in his big brick.

Round 2:
I popped Strakhov's Feat, then pushed him up a little to try to take advantage of the part of his feat that nerfs the enemy's gun's range. I did camp all his focus just to be on the safe side. The Cutthroats shot at the Stormblade Legionnaires, but couldn't do any damage. I spread them out with the Repo move to avoid AOEs and electroleaps. The Kodiak ran in the middle to bully the zone. The Nyss Hunters moved into the trench and rolled like fire, killing five Stormthrower Legionnaires with five shots. Which is kinda insane; these are the guys who almost always disappoint me, consistently missing and dying without actually achieving anything.

Reeling in shock, I left them in the trench to try to push the lines past my flag. The Juggernaut pushed up to stop anything from contesting my flag as well. Ol' Grim moved behind the forest, then spent a soul to shoot at a mechanic with his double-boosted Fantom Seeker shot. Even with a boosted POW 12 damage roll, he wasn't quite able to kill a single mechanic, leaving it on one box. Which is crazy to me. Alexia based the flag.

Thanks to the Nyss' amazing performance, The General was able to take his Righteous Vengeance move and get into charge range of Strakhov. Athena Feated and swapped Electrify to The General, the Stryker killed all my Nyss (and the Thrall that Alexia created from a Nyss corpse), and The General managed to take down Strakhov with his last bit of Focus. The Stormblades could have gotten three or four men into Strakhov too, so it wasn't exactly close.

Post-Mortem:
Funny how my Nyss actually doing a great job was what lost me the game... alright, seriously, my carelessness is what lost me the game. I just kinda eyeballed Strakhov's position and said to myself "That's probably fine". I didn't measure any ranges or anything. And I completely forgot about Righteous Vengeance. I feel like I'm very rusty. I need to start paying attention and trying to remember how to play.

Seriously though, The General is kinda silly; SPD 6 with a MAT 8 RNG 2" POW 19 weapon is already very strong, but then he has a built-in 3" threat extension? Why are Cygnar heavies SPD 6 anyway? And why are Mechanics ARM 17 with 5 boxes? Maybe I need to bring Destroyers or something.

So far I just feel like Mk4 is worse than Mk3. Unit movement is faster... as long as you're not doing anything interesting. The moment your movement interacts with anything on the table, it becomes unintuitive and you have to learn a whole new set of rules that you didn't need to know before. And units have to be so bunched up all the time; I've always liked spreading out my grunts a bit, but now you can't really do that. The legacy themes are boring and extremely restrictive: there's some essential options that are missing from some themes, we barely even get to use any warcaster attachments! Unlimited is better, but all my units are half the size and since I run a lot of character units I can't just double-up. Power attacks were a fun part of the game even if they were rarely worth actually doing, but they've been nerfed so badly that all the fun is just gone. And hell, I can't even attack my own models with basic attacks now! Nevermind that they took a lot of the fun out of my favourite warcasters (Strakhov, Karchev, Butcher2).

I'm not sold on the command cards either. I feel like they de-value a lot of rules: if you expect Stealth to do anything, you probably need to bring a lot of it because just one Stealth model is easy prey. Ditto for ARM or DEF buffs, what with the Blessed command card. And of course rules that counter Stealth or Blessed aren't as useful since you can just bring a card instead. Yeah, the card is single-use, but that could be all you need (if you need it at all). Tough, Repair, all can be covered with cards instead of models.

Also Focus management used to be a core part of the game, but there's so much easy access to Empower now that you don't really need to allocate focus anymore, so managing it as a resource isn't that important. Between Power Up, Accumulator, and mechanics having Empower, the Cygnar heavies technically didn't need any allocation to be at max focus.

I dunno. I'm trying here, but I'm starting to sour a bit on this new edition. Well, maybe dusting off my brain and figuring out how to play again will make me feel better about the game.

He's Not The 'Hoff Anymore

It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since I've played a game of Warmachine. PP has released Mk4 rules for old models since the last time, so list building is a lot more interesting and fun to me now.

For this game I just brought my standard Merc infantry with a couple of cheap jacks and some solos. I did try to prioritise playing models that are actually painted, like Alexia and Sylyss. Also I figured I should really play Old Grim; he's the last WMH model I painted but I never got a chance to use him.
Khador Unlimited 50pts
Strakhov 1
-Juggernaut
-Marauder
-Sylyss
Alexia & the Risen
Cylena & the Nyss
Croe & the Cutthroats
Jolly Ol' Saint Grim
*Blessing of the Gods
*Grave Robbing
*Hit & Run
*Old Faithful
*Power Swell

Karas had picked up the Mk4 Cygnar Storm Legion starter.
Storm Legion 50pts
Athena 1 (Electrify, Jackhammer)
-Stryker (Plasma Nimbus, Voltaic Javelin, Space Marine Power Fist)
-Courser (Shield Guard, Mag-Bolter, Electrified Shield)
Stormguard Legionnaires
-Standard Bearer
Tempest Thunderers
Arcane Mechaniks
Legionnaire Officer
*Hit & Run
*Infiltration
*Old Faithful
*Power Swell
*True Inspiration


Pre-Game:
We wanted to get straight into it so we tossed some mousemat terrain on the table, put down a couple of buildings, and settled for a basic caster-kill game. I won the roll and chose to go first.


Deployment:
The buildings essentially split the table into three lanes. I wanted Strakhov to be somewhat central, but positioned Ol' Grim to apply pressure from a flank. I chose to not to ambush my units, relying on advanced deployment instead. After Karas bricked up in the center I kept my infantry relatively central as well. Cutthroats declared Prey on the Thunderers.

Round 1:
Strakhov cast Assail on the Marauder, and Return Fire on himself. I played Grave Robbing on Alexia, who advanced and crafted a Thrall. Everything else just ran.

Karas moved his entire army laterally, hiding behind a forest. Athena put Hallowed Avenger on the Courser, and Electrify on the Striker.

Round 2:
Strakhov Feated and ran. Alexia crafted another Thrall. Everything ran forwards while staying in Feat range.

In true Cygnar fashion, Karas moved all his models backwards.

Round 3:
I pushed further up. Cast Return Fire on Strakhov again. Ol' Grim killed a couple of Legionnaires and claimed their souls. The Nyss killed two more. Alexia crafted a Thrall.

Athena popped her Feat. The Legionnaire Officer killed Old Grim. The remaining Legionnaires put some damage on the Juggernaut, wiping out the Nyss with the AOEs. Something else shot the Juggernaut but finished off the Legionnaires with AOEs or Electroleaps or something. The Courser did some more damage, then the Striker finished off the Juggernaut, and also shot down Alexia. Which was annoying; she had like 6 or 7 corpse tokens on her at this point.

Round 4:
This was the second turn I had failed to keep Sylyss in range to give Strakhov a free upkeep. Oh well. Strakhov loaded up the Marauder, then cast Hand Of Destruction on the Striker with a boosted attack roll and Arcane Secrets. Being under Athena's feat meant I rolled 5 dice and dropped the lowest AND the highest. The spell hit. I then rolled two shots on Strakhov's Riot Gun; with no focus left to boost, the attack and damage rolls were four dice each, dropping lowest and highest. This did some damage, then Strakhov repo'd backwards. After this the Marauder charged in. Because of Electrify's Repulsor Field, I decided to go for the combo-smite. Sadly the Marauder lost the +4 damage on the Combo Smite in Mk4, which... actually kind a makes him a MUCH less attractive choice now than he was before. I boosted the attack and damage rolls, so again I was rolling 5 dice and dropping two. The Striker's left arm was crippled, but that was about it. The Cutthroats charged in, but were only able to kill one Mechanik. This triggered Hallowed Avenger on the Courser, so I ran a Thrall to box him in. The other two thralls moved up to be in charge range next turn, and the Risen put themselves in front of Strakhov.

Everyting piled into the Marauder. Somehow the Courser actually managed to miss an attack...

Still, between the Thunderers, the Legionnaire Officer, and the Striker, Karas killed everything and put 7 damage on Strakhov with an Open Fire shot of the Courser's Armour-Piercing gun.

Round 5:
Strakhov used Power Swell for a focus and moved up to get LOS on Athena. She was in a trench and in base contact with the Courser, putting her at DEF 18 ARM 19. I cast a boosted Hand of Destruction, but it missed. I rolled three shots on the Riot Gun; the first boosted attack hit but was shield-guarded by the Courser. The next two missed. I cast Convection and missed.

Another unboosted Open Fire shot from the Courser did 5 more damage, leaving Strakhov at 5, but a boosted attack during it's activation missed. The Thunderers missed their attacks, and their AOE damage did nothing. Finally the Striker charged in and managed to connect, finishing off Strakhov.

Post-Mortem:
I think we played much better than last time, I felt more confident about my understanding of the rules; I think we still made mistakes, but probably less than last time. Not playing a scenario obviously was an issue, but we both played to our faction's characters: I charged forwards agressively as befits a Khadoran while Karas cowered in the corner like a typical Cygnaran.

I still can't believe how much they changed Strakhov. He's a completely different model now. I don't think he's bad or anything; he has some good tools, and a LOT of rules on his own card. But he's lost a lot of the things I liked about him in Mk2 and Mk3. He just feels a bit boring now; he has a basic warjack speed buff, a single-target debuff, a mostly-defensive feat, and a good gun with some rules and stats to allow him to use it. It's just not that interesting; he doesn't make his army dance around like he used to, he won't wreck face like a Butcher or a Karchev... I dunno. I just don't feal anything when I read his card.

I'm going to stick with Strakhov 1 for now; he'll probably work better when playing a scenario. I'll make iterative changes to my army as is my preference, rather than changing the whole list all at once. This is also partly because I do want to try to put painted models on the table. Unfortunately my painting queue is a little full right now with non-WMH stuff, but hopefully later in the year I'll be able to get some Khador stuff painted and start to run some new lists.\

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!