I don’t seem to do well with turn by turn battle reports, so I’ll just try to give the gist of what happened.
In my previous post, I listed the army list I was going to be using. Here is Joel’s list:
With a lack of much else to do on our weekly Thursday gaming, Joel and I decided to play Warmachine Mk II. The rules seem to be good so far, so there’s no real reason not to give them another go. This time, instead of 25 pts, we’re bumping the level up to 35 points. He’ll be playing Fiona, Alexia, a Mangler and some Pirate ‘jacks and units.
My list will look like this:
Now that I know what some of Magnus’ spells do and with the effectiveness of Orin (who I expect will get a lot of attention from Joel’s army due to last game’s results), I hope to do much better this time. I swapped out the Nomad for a Mule just to get some more ranged attack action since last time his Freebooter(?) kept lobbing AOEs into my troops.
To really make my army choices complete, I need 4 more Halberdiers and a full unit of Devil Dogs, but I am at a point right now that I’m not sure I want to invest more cash in Warmachine. We’ll see what happens the more I play.
Joel and I have both gotten pretty excited about the new Warmachine rules. I think it’s not so much that the rules are so much better, but just that it’s the “new hotness”. I’ve always felt like the enjoyment of all tabletop games is based on your opponent and his/her attitude. With Warmachine, for some odd reason, I’ve found this is particularly true maybe because of the Page 5 syndrome or maybe just that it’s very combo-based and caters to people who are very competitive. So, hearing that a lot of the really competitive players are leaving the game due to the new rules actually makes me want to play it more. In either case, I purchased a lot on eBay that included Magnus the Traitor and several ‘jacks and a couple of units of infantry solely for trying out the new rules.
Here’s the list I used:
Joel brought:
For the most part, I am ambivalent about the way points are done now. It sounds kinda silly saying, “Let’s play 25 points.”, but really it doesn’t seem to matter. At the same time, I think saying one ‘jack at 6 points is the same as another ‘jack at 6 points is a little weird.
Neither of us had played the MKI rules in quite some time, but I had played more often than Joel. I won the deployment roll and had him deploy and go first.
The first turn saw us each move our models forward, but no combat took place. Alexia created a Thrall Warrior. It turns out we forgot to make her roll a skill test to do that. Oh well.
The next turn, Joel moved his stuff forward more.He fired the Mariner’s AOE attack and killed a few Steelheads who passed their command check. On my second turn, the Nomad charged and killed the Thrall Warrior. After measuring, it turns out he could have reached the Mangler. Orin Midwinter cast his Lightning Stroke into the Sea Dogs, killing four of them (Nice!). The Renegade tried to take a long shot to hit Fiona on a hill with the Obliterator and failed to hit her or anyone else. Steelheads charged the Buccaneer and did little to no damage.
Third turn, the Mariner fired again using MacNaile’s Double Powder Ration and targeted the Mangler. He did some damage to the Mangler disabling his movement. His Mangler attempted to Slam the Nomad in an effort to take out Orin, but failed the to hit roll. The Buccaneer Netted my Mangler as well. Foina popped her feat making all my attack and damage rolls one less die – harsh!. The Nomad tried to do damage to his Mangler and failed for the most part. Orin took out the two Thrall Warriors attacking my Mangler.
On the fourth turn, Fiona attempted to assassinate Magnus, doing only 7 points of damage. My mangler died as did my Nomad. On my turn, Magnus kept all his focus, knocked Fiona down with the Mechanical Arm and sliced her up with Foehammer.
All in all, a very fun game. The new rules make things a little less confusing like how terrain affects charges and what happens when a ‘jack’s system is disabled, among other things. I like the game a little bit more now. I’ll definitely be playing it again.
Back when this season of the Warmachine league began, Phil asked the group if he could borrow someone’s army since he wanted to do something other than Menoth for a change. I offered up my Cryx since I play a lot less anymore. Last night, I had to play against my own army with my Skorne.
His List:
495 points
My List:
497 points
Now, to defend myself a little bit here, I haven’t played any Warmachine or Hordes in quite a while plus I’ve never used Zaal at all.
I really liked the potential Zaal had for working with infantry and, had I assembled my second unit of Praetorians, I would have used them instead of maybe the Gladiator or something. I also picked up the Agonizer to use in this game, but after reading his abilities and seeing they all have to do with enemy warbeasts (of which Phil had none), he allowed me to proxy a Drake as my second Ancestral Guardian (which is still in a blister at home).
The game was really good. I never really felt like it was too one-sided, which is what I expected going into this. Phil pretty much neutralized one of my Ancestral Guardians through the use of the Pistol Wraith’s chain attack. As was pointed out later that night, I should have just killed the Ancestral Guardian off myself to activate the Kovass. Never having played against the Pistol Wraiths myself, but having used them many times, I had no idea how to kill them. Now, though, I do have some ideas. Phil’s Seether seemed to do pretty well until the Titan charged it, disabled it, and then chucked it. The Mechanithralls held him down afterwards, though. I had thought it would be a good idea to cast Hollow on the Praetorians in order to keep them alive and to keep them from fleeing, but as Phil pointed out, the Ancestral Guardians then get no soul tokens. Good point. I learned a lot from that game both in better ways to use my Skorne and to see someone who knows the game well play the Cryx. In either case, I think my next game will go much better.
After all this I am now jonesing to paint my Skorne instead of my Bretonnians, especially since the yellow I’m wanting to use on the Brets is pissing me off.
I’m hoping to get at least two games in tonight. Not sure if I’ll end up playing Hordes or Warmachine, so I’ve made quick lists for both.
Warmachine: Basic Deneghra Assassin List:
349 points, 14 VPs
Hordes: Basic Morghoul List:
345 points, 14 VPs
I’m not real sure how I feel about the Hordes list; I just didn’t want to use the Starter box plus extras, I wanted it to be something different. The Warmachine list I’ve played something very similar many times. It’s fun for me and my opponent because I go for the Warcaster kill, but I’m not all that much of a tactical thinker, so my opponent has a chance to counter it.
Oh well. we’ll see how it goes.
This Tuesday I played again vs. Katie. I think maybe I’m one of the few that enjoys 1000 point games anymore, so that’s why she wanted to play against me again. Who knows? Anyway, here’s my list:
1000 points exactly
She played a Irn Man list with Nemo and Darius, which included 3 Lancers, 2 Hunters, Thunderhead, Centurion, Hammersmith, and 2 Juniors (so, technically, not Iron Man).
It was a really fun game, one of the better ones in recent times. I deployed the DJ to the far right since she’d deployed the Thunderhead to my left. I had laid out my infantry first so that when I placed the Bloat, he wouldn’t be too close to them. I still say that was a bad idea as my Jacks all got messed up in their movement as did the Soulhunters. I feel like I cam pretty close to winning. I had a few PW shots at Nemo and a couple PW shots from the backside of Darius. I believe by the time we called it, Nemo was down to maybe 3 boxes and Darius down to two. Another turn and I think my DJ and Asphyxious would have finished off D, but I think Denny was in a position where she was pretty much doomed. All in all, a very fun game.
Well, I ended up losing this one despite her boasting “By The Numbers” and playing an Iron Man list, I still couldn’t keep her army out of my deployment zone and have mine make it to hers. No worries, though, it was a good game.
Seems everyone is trying to get in final games for the league this weekend. I missed going to the usual games day this past Tuesday, so I was planning on going to Jeff’s place anyway. Katie has challenged me to a 1000 point game. She says she’s going to be bringing a fun list. Well, games with Katie have always been fun, even if they’re frustrating due to Cygnar’s ability to pump out a ridiculous amount of damage sometimes. I told her I’d try to make a fun list, but she wasn’t getting the Iron Man list that was just plain crazy.
So, here’s the list:
996 points / 33 VP / 37 models
So, I arrive at the store around 6pm to find the place nearly void of people. Phil and Paul are there and Greg Crider showed up soon afterward. Katie and Jeff were there for a short time (long enough to deliver my Deathjack — thanks!!). But no one else showed up at all. So, it was a relatively relaxed and quiet evening.
I played against Phil with the army I listed previously and he played his Mercs. We had to play the Domination scenario, which I had played once before. We were supposed to get through 8 rounds to determine the winner. Well, with the amount of jawjacking we did and the fact it was a 1000 point game, that didn’t happen. We ended up going through 3 rounds and as expected, Phil won. Not that I think it’s impossible to win with an Iron Man Cryx list, just I don’t think I’m good enough to pull it off. It was all for fun anyway and I earned more points for my team than if I’d lost at any of the other point levels. 
So Phil posted on the CoG boards yesterday talking about wanting to do a 1,000 point game. He is on the team with Katie and Jeff, which is a Cygnar team. Phil’s not sure if he wants to do his mercs or borrow some Cygnar. I told him I’d play him if no one had accepted the challenge before tonight. The bounty for Cygnar on Cryx is that he has to kill all my ‘jacks, so I decided I’d boast Iron Man, meaning he’d have to kill everything except my casters to get his bounty. It wasn’t me trying to be a jerk, especially since the generally accepted concensus is that Cryx’s Heavy ‘Jacks pretty much suck compared to other factions’. Well, here’s the list I made just in case:
982 points
This ought to be interesting
