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Post by argentbadger on Mar 2, 2020 22:07:28 GMT
Round 2 – Anarchy vs Nick’s Infernals (game 20) conflictchamber.com/?cg201b_-1CpglVosgbomlUonlM1Goqorop30ohou___-1yo8oeoeoaoaolomonoSot4ioqoropofogoyovohouInfernals [Theme] Hearts of Darkness (Protectorate) [Feora 3] Feora, the Conquering Flame [+27] - Judicator [35] Alain Runewood, Lord of Ash [0(5)] Deliverer Arms Master [3] Eilish Garrity, the Dark Seeker [5] Exemplar Warder [5] Great Princess Regna Gravnoy [0(6)] Scrutator Potentate Severius [6] - Redeemer [11] The Wretch [4] Umbral Guardian [0(6)] Valin Hauke, The Fallen Knight [7] Choir of Menoth (max) [6] Griever Swarm (min) [8] Infernal Gate [12] Infernals [Theme] Dark Legacy [Zaateroth 1] Zaateroth, The Weaver of Shadows [+26] - Foreboder [4] - Foreboder [4] - Tormentor [12] - Tormentor [12] - Lord Roget d'Vyaros [4] Eilish Garrity, the Dark Seeker [5] Great Princess Regna Gravnoy [0(6)] Hermit of Henge Hold [5] Nicia, Hound of the Abyss [4] Saxon Orrik [4] The Wretch [4] Umbral Guardian [0(6)] Valin Hauke, The Fallen Knight [7] Cultist Band (min) [5] Cultist Band (max) [7] - Dark Sentinel (3) [0(6)] - Master Preceptor Orin Midwinter [4] Griever Swarm (min) [8] Infernal Gate [12] Well, this is quite the tutorial on playing into Infernals. Despite my losses last time I feel that Dr Arkadius is still needed here if I’m to have even a hope of dealing with the Judicator, and Nick helpfully backs me up by playing the Feora list. I out threat the Judicator in melee but it can do a lot more at range than I can so I will need to be a bit circumspect about distance here. I’m not actually too worried about anything else as Feora’s long threat range is hampered a bit by the fact that I can go further than her on my Feat turn. Severius improving everything that the army does is pretty annoying though! I also think that this is the first time that I’ve seen an army choose not to take the Hermit in a long time. Nick wins the roll and picks to move first. His theme benefit is to start with his upkeep spells out so Redline is on the Judicator, Banishing Ward on Feora and Road to War on Severius. Turn 1: Infernals Nick races up to be just a hair outside my melee threat ranges with Feora and the Judicator, everything else hangs back a little. Regna summons a Shrieker. Turn 1: Minions I realise that since Nick didn’t take the Eyeless Sight objective, I can cloud up behind the central forest and stay clear of the Judicator as much as possible. So Mire drops a few clouds to extend the forest and most of my warbeasts take up position behind it. On the right one of my War Hogs moves in to keep Nick honest on his positioning with Feora. The Judicator can’t get to it so I’m hopeful that the ranged attacks available on the right aren’t enough to put the War Hog down. Dr Arkadius puts up Aggravator (which I’ll forget instantly, of course) and casts Forced Evolution on a Road Hog. Turn 2: Infernals Feora and Severius upkeep their spells and Allocate one to their Warjacks. Regna eats a Choir boy and Allocates three to the Shrieker. The Choir sing Battle on the Warjacks. The Shrieker and Redeemer pepper the exposed War Hog with what felt like rather tasty dice and the Grievers eventually finish it off. That’s unfortunate, I was hoping not to lose that for nothing. Runewood comes forward and puts Shadow on another War Hog. Finally, and slightly to my surprise, the Judicator backs right up. Turn 2: Minions I decide not to Feat this turn as I doubt that I can get to the Judicator and I can instead use Sprint on the Road Hogs to put some nice damage out and stay fairly safe. Plus, I’m not so worried about the Judicator when it is standing far away. Dr Arkadius needles both Road Hogs and they charge in and kill Runewood, Eilish, the Shrieker and most of the Grievers. One Sprints back toward my lines and the other one (with Forced Evolution) jams itself deep to contest the right flag. I’m not really sure if this is the right play but I figure I’ll never find out if I don’t try. At the very least it’ll take up some of Nick’s activations to deal with it. The Witch Doctor gives Ghost Walk to Kwaak who runs onto the left flag; 1 – 0 to me. Turn 3: Infernals Feora and Severius upkeep their spells and allocate to their Warjacks again. Feora Feats and charges into the lead Road Hog, killing it easily. The Umbral Guardian kills Kwaak but can’t quite touch the flag itself. The Choir sing Battle on both Warjacks and Regna summons a replacement Shrieker, seemingly mainly for the Focus efficiency. The Judicator gets a line on the second Road Hog and kills it, then turns its attention on the central War Hog. Almost everything else available targets the War Hog too, and it finally goes down to a Griever. Again, I felt like the odds rather favoured the War Hog surviving but it was not to be. The Gate pulls Feora back and resummons a few Grievers. Neither of us score; 1 – 0 to me. Turn 3: Minions I was hoping to have a bit more punch available to work with here but I’ve given away far too much on Feora’s Feat turn. I end up turbo charging the last War Hog with Forced Evolution, Ghost Walk and Primal, then Feating it forward and hoping to get it directly to Feora. Unfortunately the positioning of Valen and flag don’t allow me to get straight into the Warcaster so I’m obliged to try to Overtake into her. Even with Primal the War Hog misses all three initials into Valen and so doesn’t have enough to put down Feora. Mire kills the Umbral Guardian and sits on my flag to score it again; 2 – 0 to me. Turn 4: Infernals Well, I am certainly in trouble here. But on the other hand, Nick has taken a lot of time over his turns so he only has about 2 minutes left to seal the deal through Dr Arkadius’s 3 transfers. Feora does a bit of jiggery-pokery to clear a lane to charge Dr Arkadius and burns a transfer before Fire Stepping away to clear space for the Judicator. The big machine has time to ignite its flamethrowers before the clock beeps, letting me away with yet another literally last-second reprieve. For amusement, we roll it all out and Dr Arkadius does not get the astonish luck that would have been needed to not die to the Judicator. Minions win by deathclock. Yikes, that was close. I played pretty badly there and gave up far too much of my army far too easily. Part of that was mistaking the threat ranges on Nick’s stuff, part of it was not accounting for slight high-rolling taking two Warbeasts where I might have held on to them both, and part of it was constantly forgetting that all the Infernals can just move through each other with no problems. On the other hand, I did it all in a timely and efficient manner whereas Nick spent a lot longer thinking about his moves. It was very lucky for me to get a win here as Nick outplayed me all the way through; to his immense credit he didn't get frustrated about crushing me through the entire game and then losing to the clock, but rather he took it like a gentleman. Things I learned: - I waited a turn too long on the Feat here. I think that there was an assassination on in turn 2 by Overtaking through Grievers etc into Feora; instead I got too greedy thinking I could just let the Judicator sit at the back.
- I didn’t position my solos well to score flags and ended up having to run Kwaak into danger just to score a point. If I’d thought out where he needed to be on turn 1 I could have used Enliven and maybe kept stuff alive.
- More accurately – a thing I didn’t learn. Hutchuk stayed off the table entirely. In this match-up I wonder if I might have been better served starting him on the table anyway as there was nothing going wide enough to be threatened by an ambusher.
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Post by argentbadger on Mar 2, 2020 22:08:26 GMT
Round 3 – Invasion vs Marty’s Skorne (game 21) conflictchamber.com/?c9201b_-2cfkm_mZ6u6un2n2n2ncn8n1n9n1mBmB___-2c6Qm_n46un2n2n2ncn9n1mBSkorne [Theme] The Exalted [Zaal 2] Zaal, the Ancestral Advocate [+29] - Desert Hydra [35] Abidan the Keeper [0(5)] Ancestral Guardian [5] Ancestral Guardian [5] Extoller Novitiate [0(2)] Extoller Novitiate [0(2)] Extoller Novitiate [0(2)] Hakaar the Destroyer [0(6)] Immortals (min) [8] - Extoller Advocate [3] Immortals (max) [13] - Extoller Advocate [3] Supreme Guardian [16] Supreme Guardian [16] Skorne [Theme] The Exalted [Hexeris 2] Lord Arbiter Hexeris [+27] - Desert Hydra [35] - Mammoth [35] Ancestral Guardian [0(5)] Extoller Novitiate [0(2)] Extoller Novitiate [0(2)] Extoller Novitiate [0(2)] Hakaar the Destroyer [0(6)] Immortals (max) [13] - Extoller Advocate [3] Supreme Guardian [16] Both lists involve clouds of high armour statues and a load of huge based models so I feel that I need to leverage the pure hitting power of Dr Arkadius [edit: I've added Marty's actual lists now]. So even though I quite fancied putting Jaga Jaga down, there is no way that she’s getting picked before Dr Arkadius. The extent to which I out-threat these lists is also significant. Marty picks Zaal2 apparently because he forgot to pack the Mammoth from his other list. I win the roll off and pick to have first turn again. I want to pin the Skorne back as far as possible so that they have to either come to me or just surrender the scenario. Turn 1: Minions I race everything forward as fast as possible. Mire puts Weald Secrets on the Blackhide Wrastler in case it ever becomes relevant (which I doubt). Dr Arkadius casts Aggravator and puts Forced Evolution on one of the Road Hogs as per usual. There probably isn’t enough shooting for Aggravator to be relevant but with Marty’s list I can’t see Guardian Beast helping much either. Turn 1: Skorne The Immortals and Supreme Guardians race up the outsides as quick as they can manage. The Hydra casts Sand Storm on itself, which could mildly inconvenience the Gun Boar if it was remote near to anything I might actually shoot. Zaal also puts Vision on the Hydra and then Feats. Turn 2: Minions There doesn’t seem to be much point in committing this turn as Zaal’s Feat means I’ll get almost nothing done and then be killed by the Supreme Guardians in return. My only attack is the Gun Boar taking a random shot into right Supreme Guardian for some trivial damage (after an amusingly high roll). I definitely don’t want to trigger Vengeance on the Immortals. One Road Hog ends up in range of the Supreme Guardian on the left as I need to contest that zone somehow; hopefully Enliven will keep it going. Turn 2: Skorne Both units of Immortals and their support staff swarm out to take up as much of each zone as possible. The right Supreme Guardian take a desultory shot at the Gun Boar; the one on the left gets a couple of swings into the Forced Evolution Road Hog before it Enlivens back out of reach with some fairly large chunks missing. The Desert Hydra continues to clog up the middle. No-one scores. Turn 3: Minions I’m never going to get a better Feat turn than this one. Hutchuk appears on the right and lands a Rust bomb on the Supreme Guardian before clobbering the Novitiate hanging around at the back. The Gun Boar blows up an Immortal and positions charge a pesky one when I Feat (but it will fail to kill anyway). The Wrastler eats its way through an entertainingly high number of Immortals thanks to Overtake and Mire kills one right the middle of the board before applying Rage to a couple of War Hogs. Over on the left, the Battle Boar Primals a Road Hog. Dr Arkadius casts Psycho Surgery to heal up that badly damaged Road Hog, Primals the last War Hog and lets fly with his Feat. The Feat attacks position the right War Hog in range of the Supreme Guardian, the centre one gets a very tasty swing at the Hydra (which is then cancelled with Vision) and the left one and both Road Hogs charge into the other Supreme Guardian, leaving it already looking rather peaky. When the individual actions come up, the War Hog on the right smashes the Rust-ed Supreme Guardian with attacks to spare and Overtakes its way through a few more Immortals. On the left, the Feat attacks leave the War Hog able to finish that Supreme Guardian without even using all its initials so it also Overtakes away to chop up some more Immortals. The central War Hog rolls like a champion and drops the Hydra after maxing out on Fury. The two Road Hogs eat an Ancestral Guardian and Hakaar, mainly because there are not any better targets. Marty has seen more than enough and concedes. Minions win. I had some excellent dice during that game and it contributed hugely to the result; it says a lot about Marty that he just took it in his stride. That said, I think that with the board state at the start of my final turn I was more or less sure to take out all three huge bases as I had a lot of spare attacks to go round. Marty could have made my life a lot harder by forcing me to go through the Immortals before getting to swing at the Supreme Guardians. Things I learned: - Getting a good Feat turn with Dr Arkadius is a really sweet feeling, especially if the dice are kind to you while it happens. What a nice way for the Doctor to sign off on our journey together.
So when it was all wrapped up I came in a nice mid-table position of 5th of 12 players. Many thanks to Andrew, Nick and Marty for three very fun games, and of course to Frazer for running the show. That is probably it for my Minions for now as I’m planning to get some games in with Cryx over the next few months.
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Post by chevelle on Mar 3, 2020 6:53:48 GMT
Nice Reports, thanks for Posting them.
Just for future games against Infernals, Regna can't summon a Desolator. ("Regna summons a Desolator" from your first battle report).
She can only summon light and lesser Horrors.
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Post by argentbadger on Mar 3, 2020 9:18:30 GMT
Thanks Chevelle. Good spot on the summoning from Regna; it was my mistake in the notes. I've corrected the text now as it seems that the summoned Horror was actually a Lamenter.
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Post by Azahul on Mar 3, 2020 23:21:05 GMT
Congratulations on your performance! Good luck with the Cryx, I hope they serve you well. It's a shame to farewell a fellow Minion battle report writer, but I'm sure you'll do your new faction proud at least
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Post by argentbadger on Mar 5, 2020 10:07:12 GMT
Thank you Azahul! I definitely agree that there are too few writers of battle reports in the Warmachine / Hordes community.
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Post by argentbadger on Sept 8, 2020 17:32:29 GMT
It’s been a while since I put my Minions on any table, even a virtual one, but I felt that there was an itch to scratch. Marc was also looking to play via Wartable so we racked up our armies together thanks to the magic of the internet. Game 22 – King of the Hill (scenario 1) vs Marc’s Protectorate of Menoth conflictchamber.com/?cb201b_-2njP4cjNjNjWbHoPoP7FoNoNjDMinions [Theme] Will Work For Food [Jaga-Jaga 1] Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27] - Blackhide Wrastler [16] - Swamp Horror [15] - Swamp Horror [15] - Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)] Dahlia Hallyr [17] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Rorsh [15] Void Archon [8] Void Archon [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] I love playing Jaga-Jaga so I started out with the list I’d used before in real-life games. Then, since I’ve been vocal about Void Archons being far too good for their points, I naturally added them at maximum FA. That cost me Boomhowler and Co which does feel a bit tough as I have no screen and a very slow, killable front line. I also reshuffled the solo load-out to remove the notably under-performing Totem Hunter and replace them with Dhunian Archons. I think that probably one Dhunian Archon would be enough and I could maybe use the Hermit instead of the other, but this way also was simple enough to be practical for playing. conflictchamber.com/?c2201b_-1qqb1q1XeVga9xmek9oLoLlM1q3t3t3z3z3B2_3F3HProtectorate [Theme] The Creator's Might [Feora 4] Feora, the Forsaken [+28] - Dervish [7] - Guardian [15] - Hand of Judgment [18] - Purifier [8] - Repenter [8] - Hierophant [3] Exemplar Warder Elias Gade [0(5)] Menite Archon [8] Menite Archon [8] Scrutator Potentate Severius [0(6)] - Dervish [7] Vassal Mechanik [1] Vassal Mechanik [1] Vassal of Menoth [0(3)] Vassal of Menoth [0(3)] Wrack [1] Choir of Menoth (min) [4] Idrian Skirmishers (min) [9] - Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide [5] Marc was testing out Feora4. If I understand the list here, the plan is to gum up my stuff until Feora is fully-charged up, then saunter over and explode everything she touches. Marc wins the roll-off so I give him the side without the houses to hide behind. I stuck the lesser Warlocks out on the flanks where they can hopefully work somewhat independently and then mixed the Void Archons and Valkyries somewhat to the left so that they can Shield Guard if possible. Marc takes a fairly symmetrical approach. Those Menite Archons out on the sides really will need early attention to stop them just rolling inwards until they kill Jaga-Jaga. The Idrians pick the Wrastler as their Prey, Gade chooses Brine. Feora utilises the theme benefit to it’s maximum extent by starting with a whopping four upkeeps in play: Hellwrought on the Guardian, Death March on the Idrians, Firestarter on the Dervish and Road to War on Feora herself. Turn 1: Protectorate of Menoth The entire Protectorate force races up at me. The Idrians also use their mini-Feat, not that I have much in the way of shooting anyway, and Severius puts up his own Road to War. Turn 1: Minions All my stuff also runs up. I stay out of melee threat ranges (other than the Idrians) but I’m going to have to accept a bit of shooting unless I cede scenario entirely. The lesser Warlocks cast their upkeep spells on the basis that they’re free from now on. Jaga-Jaga casts Battle Host and puts Grave Wind on the nearer Void Archon. Turn 2: Protectorate of Menoth All spells are upkept but no Focus is allocated. The Guardian runs over to within Arc Node range of Brine. Gade puts a couple of bolts into him and Feora channels three Scorns into my big ninja pig. The Guardian and the left Dervish get Enliven and Hand of Judgment shoots a Valkyrie; I figure that this is basically the only shot coming in so one of the Dhunian Archons stops it. In the centre some Idrians charge in and jam up my Swamp Horrors. Turn 2: Minions I’m going to try to clear the flag, deal with the Guardian and take out at least one Menite Archon. All spells are upkept, then Jaga-Jaga shuffles around a bit and casts Signs and Portents. I decide to take a chance on Brine dealing with the Menite Archon without Rage and he does so on his last attack, then Overtakes to face the oncoming Dervish. The Wrastler strolls up and eats one Idrian, then puts Rage on the nearer Swamp Horror. The Void Archon clears the other jamming Idrians and teleports out of my way behind the Horrors. The Raged Swamp Horror moves up and pulls in the Guardian but it Enlivens behind the corner of the building so I can’t pull it in for a good Beak-ing. Actually, I should have used the Soul Slave to put Ghost Walk on the Swamp Horror and had it move through the building itself, thereby blocking off that route. The other one eats up almost all the infantry within 4” of the Flag but leaves the Repenter on a single box (even more annoyingly, in it’s right arm). Over on the left, Skarath wrecks the Objective but the Dervish Enlivens to safety. Many thanks to Marc letting me correct my order-of operations here and having Dahlia put Mist Walker on Skarath first so that it could actually reach the Objective in the first place. I resign myself to losing the big snake shortly. The score goes to 1 – 0 me as I did at least pick off the Objective. Turn 3: Protectorate of Menoth Feora drops Death March from the handful of surviving Idrians and Severius gives up his Road to War. Severius’s Dervish gets allocated two Focus, as does the Guardian; Hand of Judgment gets one in anticipation of being topped up by a Vassal later. The Dervish kills Brine neatly to the box, allowing Gade to swap Prey onto Rorsh and shoot him twice. The Mechanic repair Hand of Judgmnt and, crucially, the Guardian’s spear. It then uses said spear to kill one of my Swamp Horrors and Hand of Judgment critically wounds the other. The Menite Archon almost one-shot’s Skarath and the Dervish leaves it on a couple of boxes. I wonder why Marc is obligingly leaving a load of my Warbeasts at the ‘almost dead’ stage instead of finishing them off when he explains to me about Feora’s Feat. That goes off, finishing Skarath, the Swamp Horror and two Valkyries; she kills the last one with a channelled Scorn. The ‘good’ news from all this carnage is that the Dhunian Archons have healed almost everything else back to full. Marc scores the left and centre zones; 2 – 1. Turn 3: Minions I’m quite far behind here, but I still have some good plays possible and I think I could possibly get back into the attrition game if I can handle both heavies and do something about the Menite Archon; a tall order but probably not out of the question. On the other hand, I have Void Archons who are glutted on souls from losing most of my army last turn and they’re just as dumb as Menite Archons, so it’s time to kill Feora instead. Jaga-Jaga uses Signs and Portents, then the right Void Archon kills a handy Idrian to Void Walk up to Feora. Between the spray and three bought attacks under Signs and Portents [edit: turns out that Void Archons can't buy attacks], Feora is down to a single box despite burning through her three Focus camp. The other Void Archon turns out to be annoyingly just out of melee range of Feora after Void Walking off another Idrian but she has only one box left so a fully boosted spray finishes the job. Minions win by assassination. It was great to get back to playing Jaga-Jaga, and it was also lovely to get in another game with Marc who is a terrifically nice opponent. I felt quite rusty with this list but Signs and Portents just makes things work so nicely and that’s always and enjoyable feeling. [edit: As pointed out below, Void Archons can't buy attacks so clearly I cheated Marc out of a deserved win this game. I've apologised to him accordingly.] Things I learned: - Not really a ‘thing I learned’ but Void Archons are ridiculously good. It blows me away that they made it out of playtesting with these rules. One of them was a single box away from one-shotting an unhurt three-camp Warcaster who has some very nice defensive stats (admittedly, under Signs and Portents) while having to cross both of our front lines. [edit: OK, so they're only that good if you don't read the rules properly and cheat. Oh well.]
- I could have done more to support that assassination run. I should have had the Soul Slave cast Ghost Walk on the lead Dhunian Archon and probably got it within range of Feora to blow-up using Jaga-Jaga’s Feat. That would have nicely placed a bit more damage onto Feora and made the assassination even more of a sure thing.
- I need to get a bit more clever with my Swamp Horrors. Notwithstanding that cleverer use of Ghost Walk could have netted me the Guardian in turn 2 as mentioned above, I seem to be very good at letting them get killed for little gain. Perhaps I’m overestimating the effort that will be required to kill them each time; Impervious Flesh only goes so far with only ARM15.
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Post by Kevin on Sept 9, 2020 6:01:56 GMT
Voids cannot use souls to buy attacks
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Post by Azahul on Sept 9, 2020 7:24:38 GMT
Hehe, yeah. Void Archons are ridiculously good, but they're not that insane
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Post by argentbadger on Sept 9, 2020 19:30:37 GMT
Kevin, Azahul - Whoops! I've edited the above to make it clear that this was cheating, and have apologised to Marc. This is another good reason to post battle reports – it's a way of getting your homework checked. Thanks to both of you. This is why the thread is titled as it is I managed to squeeze in another game of Warmachine / Hordes, this time with Gareth. Spoiler alert – there is some seriously poor play from me here as I got confused on a rule. Game 23 – King of the Hill (scenario 1) vs Gareth’s Cygnar conflictchamber.com/?cb201b_-2njP4cjNjNjWbHoPoR7FoNoNjDMinions [Theme] Will Work For Food [Jaga-Jaga 1] Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27] - Blackhide Wrastler [16] - Swamp Horror [15] - Swamp Horror [15] - Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)] Dahlia Hallyr [17] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Hermit of Henge Hold [0(5)] Rorsh [15] Void Archon [8] Void Archon [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] It turns out that Void Archons aren’t quite as good as I had thought since they can’t actually buy attacks using Soul tokens, but they’re definitely still good enough to put a pair of them in my list. I decided that a single Dhunian Archon was enough and swapped the second for the Hermit, who should hopefully assist with armour cracking a bit. conflictchamber.com/?c1201b_-1I7D9b9y9IoQpjoToRoMoMaep2o_p2oWCygnar [Theme] Flame in the Darkness [Stryker 2] Lord Commander Stryker [+28] - Charger [9] - Lancer [10] - Ol' Rowdy [18] Alexia, The Undying [0(5)] Black Bella, Duchess of Dread [4] Grand Master Gabriel Throne [7] Hermit of Henge Hold [5] Thamarite Archon [8] Thamarite Archon [8] Field Mechaniks (min) [3] - Morrowan Battle Priest (3) [0(6)] Legion of Lost Souls (max) [18] - Morrowan Battle Priest (3) [0(6)] Order of Illumination Resolutes (max) [13] This is the same list as Gareth’s last play with Flame in the Darkness. This time he was adamant not to give away a cheap assassination by just leaving Stryker too far forward. I’m actually not so worried about this list now as the lack of infantry on my side makes the Legion much less punishing – the ones I kill will mostly stay that way. I win the roll off and decide to move first. Gareth gives me the bottom side which I think I would have picked anyway with the objective of hiding Jaga-Jaga in that neat pocket within the central zone but behind the forest. I put a lesser on each side to at least threaten to score the rectangular zones and the rest of my force stays central; I need to keep Jaga-Jaga able to cover as much ground as possible with Signs and Portents. Gareth puts the Legion on the right so that they can at least eat the Valkyries. The Resolutes take a position on the far right, presumably to cover for whichever light Warjack gets assigned to sit in there. Turn 1: Minions Needless to say, all my stuff runs up the board. In theory I stay out of threat range of the Resolutes’ shooting but in practice I don’t think that I can get in range anyway. The lesser Warlocks cast their upkeep spells and I’m sad to note that Dahlia’s will be of no use whatsoever against the onrushing Legion of Lost Souls. Jaga-Jaga casts Battle Host and puts Grave Wind on the left Void Archon. Turn 1: Cygnar Gareth’s stuff does likewise, moving up the board and spreading out a bit to minimise the number of models I can spray to death. Throne makes the Legion Tough and Stryker casts Deceleration. [/img] Turn 2: Minions I need to contest the central flag and make sure that the left zone isn’t too easy to score. Gareth helpfully has no Warjacks on the right so I don’t have to worry about bleeding points over there. I have to decide how to play the left zone. If I put Brine in there he’ll die for no gain so in the end I figure I’ll throw him forward and try to cause a bit of chaos. Jaga-Jaga upkeeps her spells, strolls forward and casts Signs and Portents. Skarath, the Valkyries and the Void Archon on the left kill a decent number of the Legion; the latter also Void Walks back to safety. The Void Archon on the right sprays across the Lancer, doing trivial damage to it but at least dropping one of the Battle Priests over there; it then Void Walks back behind the cloud (before I find that the Resolutes ignore clouds anyway). Brine get Rage, Rorsh uses Diversionary tactics to move him forward and then I throw him away. He scraps the Lancer and one of the Resolutes before accepting his inevitable fate. In the centre I out-threat Rowdy (apart from under Stryker’s Feat) so my battlegroup mainly hangs back. I also make a mistake with the Hermit, putting him 4.1” away from the Flag which is pretty stupid of me. Turn 2: Cygnar Vengeance attacks from the Resolutes hurt Brine and the Morrowan Archon eventually finishes him off. Stryker allocates two Focus to Ol’ Rowdy. The Resolutes shoot the Void Archon who thought that it was safe behind the cloud. The Charger considers lining up a shot to deal with it until I remind Gareth that he can score the left zone just by running into it. Stryker shuffles forward, Feats and casts Positive Charge on Ol’ Rowdy who runs to prepare for a Feat attack. Throne puts Stir The Blood on the Legion and they come forward (along with the Morrowan Archon) to beat up my Objective, Skarath and kill a Valkyrie. Gareth’s Hermit runs to the flag and thumbs his nose at my Hermit from 4.1” away. Feat attacks hurt the left Swamp Horror and both Valkyries and finish off my Objective; I get very lucky not to lose either Valkyrie to this. Gareth scores the left zone, Flag and Objective; 3 – 0. Turn 3: Minions I’m going to end up bleeding points on the left so I need to contest it now to get enough time to play the rest of this game. On the other hand, I can probably score on the right without too much trouble. Finally, I have to deal with Ol’ Rowdy before it kills Jaga-Jaga and I want to tidy up the rest of the Legion so that I don’t have to worry about those annoying buggers. I upkeep everything and Vengeance kills one of the Legion. Jaga-Jaga casts Signs and Portents and kills another. My Hermit risks the free strike moving past Ol’ Rowdy who, of course, gets the critical knockdown. At least he made it to within 4” of the Flag now. Over on the right, Skarath clears the zone and remembers to cast Counterblast this turn; the Void Archon and Valkyries finish off the last of the Legion so I ‘just’ have the Archon and Throne to worry about on that side. Rorsh moves to be just within the left zone and hucks some Dynamite at a Resolute. The Archon takes it with Shield Guard and I decide to change priority and boost damage on him with the Pig Irons too, leaving it on a couple of boxes. The Void Archon kills it but ends up with its back to the Resolutes which I sense will end poorly next turn. Then comes a huge error as I send the Wrastler in to eat the Hermit which of course triggers Dark Shroud and messes up the rest of my plans. To compound this, I get mixed up on how this works* and spend the rest of my turn fumbling Swamp Horrors around the place and still not quite finishing off Ol’ Rowdy, though I do cripple everything except the buckler. I score the right zone; 3 – 1 to Gareth. *We left the Hermit icon in place with an aura marking what was affected by Dark Prophecy so it was clear what was in it. I got confused and played as though this was an actual aura and made moves to get out of this aura so that I could buy extra attacks. Gareth didn’t spot that this was my intention and instead assumed that I was trying some shenanigans with Pull. Turn 3: Cygnar Stryker camps all his Focus since the Charger is out of Control and Ol’ Rowdy’s Cortex is crippled. Bella hurts the Void Archon but doesn’t finish it off; the Resolutes can’t do it either but they do at least deal with Rorsh to clear that zone. On the right the Morrowan Archon kills my Void Archon and contests the zone. Throne tells Stryker to March, and then it’s go time. Stryker uses Velocity three times to get toward Jaga-Jaga, then Overloads. Hilariously, he rolls 1,1,1 for the strength boost, which not surprisingly is not enough to kill Jaga-Jaga especially as he also misses a couple of attacks. I figure that this is karma for my errors and misunderstandings next turn. We don’t both rolling out my entire army murdering a no-camp Stryker next turn; Minions win. For completeness, we re-rolled the strength boost and re-ran the assassination and a Str25 Stryker made short work of Jaga-Jaga. That was a very fun game, as is every game I play with Gareth. My colossal blunder on turn 3 with Gareth’s Hermit was annoying and easily avoidable, but not nearly as annoying as my misunderstanding of the rules causing me to make a mess of the rest of my turn. Oh well, maybe it’ll help me to remember for next time. As a result, perhaps there isn’t a great deal to learn from the outcome here, but there are still lots of things that I did wrong during the game. Things I learned: - Stryker’s personal threat is much further than I had understood. Admittedly I was planning to have something (probably a Swamp Horror) a bit further forward to body-block him but even so that is a scary distance that he can move and explode my Warlock.
- My positioning of the Void Archons was not great. I feel like I should be Void Walking them to make better use of Dark Shroud, especially turn 3 onward.
- This list really misses something cheap and disposable that I can use to contest scenario elements. Having to give up Rorsh in turn 3 just to avoid ceding a CP in the left zone felt very painful. I’m not sure if there is an easy answer here or if I need to rejig the list entirely to include some Gobbers or something.
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Post by argentbadger on Sept 11, 2020 19:23:28 GMT
It’s a good week for playing Warmachine / Hordes via Wartable. This time Frazer was up for a game so we racked up via the magic of the internet. Frazer actually rolled up King of the Hill again but I asked for a re-roll since my previous two games used that scenario. Game 24 – Spread The Net (scenario 3) vs Frazer’s Protectorate of Menoth conflictchamber.com/?cb201b_-2njP4cjNjNjWoPoP7FfFoNoNjDjDjDMinions [Theme] Will Work For Food [Jaga-Jaga 1] Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27] - Blackhide Wrastler [16] - Swamp Horror [15] - Swamp Horror [15] - Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Rorsh [15] Swamp Gobber Chef [1] Void Archon [8] Void Archon [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] This iteration of my Jaga-Jaga list removes Dahlia and Skarath for another two units of Farrow Valkyries. I went back to the second Dhunian Archon instead of the Hermit as I think that there is now enough infantry to warrant coverage from them both. Finally, I added a Chef on the basis that it is just one point and I needed to fill that spot. I don’t envisage it doing anything other than standing cheekily on a flag or contesting something. conflictchamber.com/?c2201b_-1q171q1q1ql_l_1LmelUlUoLoLlM1G3t3t3z3z3B2_2_Protectorate [Theme] The Creator's Might [Amon 1] High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza [+29] - Dervish [7] - Dervish [7] - Dervish [7] - Indictor [14] - Indictor [14] - Vigilant [9] - Hierophant [3] Exemplar Warder [0(5)] Exemplar Warder [5] Menite Archon [8] Menite Archon [8] Scrutator Potentate Severius [0(6)] - Redeemer [11] Vassal Mechanik [1] Vassal Mechanik [1] Vassal of Menoth [0(3)] Vassal of Menoth [0(3)] Wrack [1] Choir of Menoth (min) [4] Choir of Menoth (min) [4] Frazer randomised his Warcaster and ended up with Amon. I’ve no idea what he does so Frazer summarised him as ‘Synergy and Mobility on a stick’. Seems fair to me since I’m playing ‘Signs and Portents on a stick’ in the form of Jaga-Jaga. It’s a Protectorate list so of course it has the expected Sev0 and two Menite Archons. I win the roll off and opt to move first so Frazer gives me the side with the slightly more annoying building. Rorsh and Brine go on the right where that forest won’t be in their way and the Wrastler makes sure to be close enough to Brine to put Rage on him if needed. The rest of my forces are spread across the front line with my battlegroup fairly central and the Valkyries sprinkled liberally throughout. Actually their Shield Guard will be close to irrelevant in this match. Frazer also deploys rather symmetrically. Both Warders take an Archon as their Client. Severius starts with Road to War up and Amon has Synergy on himself and Fortify on the right Indictor. Turn 1: Minions Everyone runs forward. Jaga-Jaga casts Battle Host and puts Grave Wind on the left Void Archon. Rorsh casts Pig Pen even though it is never relevant, and I’m sure that I’d forget about it if it ever came up. Turn 1: Protectorate of Menoth Amon casts Mobility with the assistance of the Hierophant, then everything runs an alarming distance toward me. The Vassals both Enliven the Dervishes and the Choir sing Passage but some Warjacks have outrun them so actually the ones that I would want to shoot aren’t affected. Severius casts Mystic Wards. The Redeemer lobs shells at my Void Archon in the forest, eventually shipping a couple of wound off it. Turn 2: Minions I don’t think that I can get enough damage out to make any kind of alpha strike worth it so my plan is to contest where I can. I’ll leave the right flag as I’ll certainly lose anything that goes over there. Otherwise I think that I can leverage the relatively long threat of the Swamp Horrors to keep Frazer’s heavies back. Jaga-Jaga upkeeps her spells and casts Signs and Portents, then the Valkyries shoot at Dervishes who both Enliven backwards. On the left, the Void Archon goes in and hurts the Menite Archon and sprays to tickle the Warder but does kill one of the Choir so I Void Walk it deep to hopefully keep one of the Dervishes out of my hair for a turn. In the centre my Warbeasts all just shuffle forward while staying out of threat range. Finally, the left Dhunian Archon sits on my flag to make Frazer commit something to contest it and the Chef makes a cheeky end run to contest the left zone. Turn 2: Protectorate of Menoth All spells are upkept. Two Focus are allocated to the Redeemer and one each to the Dervishes. All the support stuff gets going while Frazer decides how to play this turn out, so the Hierophant does Harmonious Exaltation, Severius runs up to keep an eye on things, the Mechanics repair Dervishes (apart from the one still in Entropic Force range on the left) and Vassals Empower some Dervishes. Amon casts Mobility and takes a Focus from the Wrack. On the right, the Choir sing Battle and on the left they use Passage. Over on the left, a Dervish charges into a Valkyrie and misses both initials so no Sidesteps; the Dhunian Archon prevents it killing off bought attacks. The left Indictor goes in and Toughs another. The Menite Archon shows that killing single individuals is rubbish for a 14 point heavy Warjack and, as an 8 point solo, it easily Threshers down three Valkyries. On the right, the Indictor backs off behind the building. The Dervish on that side comes into my zone, Sidesteps off a Valkyrie and does a bit of damage to the Void Archon. The Redeemer moves up and boosts three rockets into the Soul Slave and improbably misses all three; they scatter nowhere interesting. The last Dervish charges my Void Archon on the left, manages to land the initial and kills it off. Frazer scores his flag; 1 – 0. Turn 3: Minions OK, I need to clear off my flag on the left and the zone on the right. If I’m lucky I might possibly be able to score the central zone. I also need to make sure that the Menite Archon on the left goes away. Annoyingly, Jaga-Jaga is in range of the Indictor so can’t upkeep Battle Host; she backs off and casts it as I need the extra move on a Swamp Horror, she also predictably casts Signs and Portents. The Soul Slave puts Ghost Walk on the left Valkyrie and the Wrastler puts Rage on it then maxes out Fury killing the Dervish in my zone as it misses all three initials. The turbo-charged Swamp Horror does me proud, strolling through the building and killing off the Indictor, the Dervish and pulling the Archon out range of the Warder and hurting it badly. The remaining Valkyries finish it off and I breath a sigh of relief. On the right, the Valkyries charge into the Indictor, Redeemer and Warder for trivial damage on the first two but ‘killing’ the latter; the main purpose was to get in the way of course. Brine continues to stare at the Menite Archon from slightly outside of its threat range while the Void Archon moves into the centre. I score my flag and the right zone; 2 – 1 to me. Turn 3: Protectorate of Menoth Amon drops all his spells and upkeeps nothing in anticipation of a Feat turn; Severius upkeeps Road To War and allocates two Focus to the Redeemer. Both sets of Choir sing Battle and the Hierophant does his Harmonious Exaltation. The Menite Archon kills one Valkyrie and the Dhunian Archon prevents the hit on the other one. A Vassal Mechanic runs to contest on the right and the Vassals Enliven the surviving Indictor and Dervish. Amon Feats then casts Mobility (two Focus to the Dervish), Synergy (two Focus to the Vigilant) and Fortify on the Indictor (allocating two Focus to it in the process). He also takes a Focus from the Wrack which explodes this time. The Indictor clears the Valkyries (actually if I’d been a bit more careful with positioning here I could possibly have blocked the Indictor from getting to one of them due to the position of the left one and the Redeemer) which allows the Redeemer to go into the Void Archon and kill it. Somehow I just hadn’t expected that; I just thought of the Redeemer as a gun platform; at the time I was bit annoyed with myself there but actually I was going to lose something to a fully-loaded Warjack so it might as well have been the Void Archon. The Dervish and Vigilant kill off my Swamp Horror in the centre. Frazer scores his flag and contests mine; 2 – 2. Turn 4: Minions I think that I can pick off the Menite Archon and all the remaining Warjacks apart from the Indictor here so if I don’t give up too much on the scenario then I can probably grind out attrition after that. Jaga-Jaga upkeeps Battle Host for free but has to cut for one. She casts Signs and Portents after shuffling to a slightly safer position, then puts Rage on the surviving Swamp Horror; the Soul Slave applies Ghost Walk to it. Rorsh uses Diversionary Tactics to move Brine forward and the Wrastler puts Rage on the pig. It also wrecks the Redeemer and Overtakes back into my zone (credit to Frazer here for letting me amend my Overtake move a couple of activations later after I realised that I put the Wrastler about 0.1” outside the right zone). Brine makes pretty hard work of it but does kill off the Menite Archon so job done there. The Valkyries knock down the Vigilant but the Dervish Enlivens into a slightly more annoying place in front of my Swam Horror. Luckily Ghost Walk lets it ignore free strikes so it just strolls round into the Dervishes back arc, kills it and pulls in the Vigilant to wreck it too. The right Dhunian Archon kills the jamming Mechanic to clear my zone on the right and the Valkyrie kills the Warder but of course he stays around long enough to contest my flag. I score the right zone, 3 – 2 to me. Turn 4: Protectorate of Menoth Amon drops Synergy as it’s no longer efficient but does upkeep Fortify; he also allocates two Focus to the Indictor. The Vassal Enlivens it and the Choir on the right sing Battle. On the left, the Choir rather optimistically charge in to the Swamp Horror, doing nothing but guaranteeing that they are next on the menu. The Invictor charges into the Wrastler (I constantly forgot about Field Marshal: Parry in this game) but misses one attack to leave my Warbeast alive on a few boxes. Incidental healing from the Dhunian Archons’ Mother’s Embrace ability eventually fixes the crippled aspects. On the left, the Vassal finally deals with my Swamp Gobber Chef which allows Amon to charge into the zone there and kill a Valkyrie. Severius goes ninja and kills one of the Valkyries in the centre and Toughs the other. Frazer scores the left zone and I score the right; 4 – 3 to me. Turn 5: Minions I just need to deal with the Indictor and stop Jaga-Jaga from dying to some shenanigans from Amon, then I can close out the game. Brine Frenzies and eats one of the Choir on the right which is a bit annoying as I could possibly have cleared the flag there and got something onto it. Jaga-Jaga again has to drop Battle Host due to the Indictor, so she moves away then puts Rage on the Wrastler and, of course, casts Signs and Portents. The Archon on the right bops Fortify off the Indictor but sadly can’t break armour so doesn’t trigger Enliven. The Swamp Horror reaches out a tentacle to fix that (the Indictor moves such that I can’t get any back strikes on it) then eats all the Choir and Severius for good measure. Rorsh guns down another Choir member but rolls really low on damage and doesn’t get the Vassal. The Wrastler easily kills the Indictor and the left Archon kills the contesting Vassal. I score the centre zone and left flag; Frazer scores the left zone; 6 – 4 to me. Turn 5: Protectorate of Menoth We’re pretty much done here. Frazer moves his few remaining models to contest zones, then moves Amon to go for a wildly optimistic ranged assassination on Jaga-Jaga. It doesn’t work. Minions win (by scenario next turn, I suppose) as we don’t play out the rest since it’s already close to midnight. I really enjoy playing against Frazer; he’s a lovely chap with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the games rules and minutiae. I think I played this one solidly if not particularly well, but it has to be said that I was definitely aided by Frazer’s frankly terrible dice. I think that I like the list change to swap Dahlia and Skarath out for the Valkyries and the Chef; this makes better use of the Dhunian Archons and I think that I prefer the improved board presence over the power of Skarath. They’re probably more useful if there is any incoming fire from the other side so that Shield Guard becomes relevant. Things I learned: - My positioning of things around Menite Archons continues to be rubbish. I left brilliant Thresher targets for both Archons and at least the first was very avoidable.
- The Void Archons need some more thought on when to commit them. In this list they’re by far the most mobile option and I sometimes feel that throwing something deep into an opponent can be quite useful just to keep them off balance (especially if playing on a death clock, which we were not here) but on the other hand they’re not cheap and I don’t like to lose them too easily. Perhaps this is just a case where more practice is needed.
- It’s not something that easily fits into battle reports, but the incidental healing provided by the Dhunian Archons’ Mother’s Embrace ability as I gradually get models sanded down is really helpful.
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Post by argentbadger on Sept 25, 2020 19:37:41 GMT
Marc offered a game of Warmachine / Hordes via Wartable and I was very keen to take him up. We discussed a bit about a fun match-up between my theoretical pair (Jaga-Jaga and Dr Arkadius) and his (Durst and Reznik2). Game 25 – Invasion (scenario 4) vs Marc’s Protectorate of Menoth conflictchamber.com/?cb201b_-2njP4cjNjNjWoPoP7FfFoNoNjDjDjDMinions [Theme] Will Work For Food [Jaga-Jaga 1] Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27] - Blackhide Wrastler [16] - Swamp Horror [15] - Swamp Horror [15] - Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Rorsh [15] Swamp Gobber Chef [1] Void Archon [8] Void Archon [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] This is the same version of the Jaga-Jaga list I’ve played for the last few games. I think that in general Dr Arkadius would be a better drop into the Protectorate but Marc felt that Reznik2 into Dr Arkadius would be a pretty rubbish game so I went for Jaga-Jaga. The Valkyries are a bit less valuable here than in some match-ups since there are no incoming shots for them to Shield Guard, but they’re still quite effective body-blockers and they’re fun too. conflictchamber.com/?c2201b_-1peU1X1XgagagajCjC3EoLoL3r3r3r3B2_niniProtectorate [Theme] The Faithful Masses [Durst 1] Anson Durst, Rock of the Faith [+28] - Guardian [15] - Guardian [15] - Purifier [8] - Purifier [8] - Purifier [8] Champion of the Order of the Wall [8] Champion of the Order of the Wall [8] High Paladin Dartan Vilmon [0(6)] Menite Archon [8] Menite Archon [8] Paladin of the Order of the Wall [4] Paladin of the Order of the Wall [4] Paladin of the Order of the Wall [4] Wrack [1] Choir of Menoth (min) [4] Initiates of the Wall [0(7)] Initiates of the Wall [0(7)] Having asked me not to play Dr Arkadius into Reznik2, Marc realised that Reznik2 into Jaga-Jaga would also be a terrible game so we ended up with Durst. I’ve never played against Durst but I think that Marc has pretty much never played with him either so maybe we’re on the same level there. Marc wins the roll-off and chooses to move first so I take the side that will allow me to do annoying tricks with Ghost Walk through that central building. I realised after set-up that I wanted the Wrastler further right to have the option of putting Rage onto Brine so Marc kindly allowed me to fix this before we actually started. I’m stacking the right side a little here as I’m hoping to clear things on that side early and then pivot round (or through) the house in the middle. Marc comes at me with a symmetrical deployment. The Menite Archons are out on the flanks where it will be hard for me to bring anything notable to bear on them. Turn 1: Protectorate of Menoth Durst casts Bulwark and puts Hallowed Avenger on the left Guardian. Otherwise, everything runs headlong at me. Turn 1: Minions I also run everything forward at top speed since I’m not at all worried about the threat range that Marc’s army projects. Rorsh casts Pig Pen since it is free to upkeep anyway, and Jaga-Jaga casts Battle Host on herself and Grave Wind on the Void Archon on the right. I took this screenshot before I remembered to move that Void Archon. Turn 2: Protectorate of Menoth Durst upkeeps Bulwark, casts Deceleration then moves up and uses his Feat. Everything continues to lumber towards me, the Paladins go into Stone and Mortar stance and the Choir sing Passage. Turn 2: Minions There isn’t much point in engaging anything near Durst as I’ll have to deal with Warjacks at ARM25 or so. I’m pretty sure that I can take out the Menite Archon on the right so I will aim to contest where possible as make the most of Marc’s short threat ranges to keep safe. Brine gets buffed up with Rage from the Wrastler and then goes into murder the Menite Archon; the overtake move keeps him facing the incoming Champion. The Void Archon on that side gets a lucky roll under Signs and Portents to kill one of the Initiates so Void Walks back behind a line of Valkyries. Over ont he left I mainly pull back, though the plucky Chef stands in the zone where I think that nothing can get to him. Neither of us score. Turn 3: Protectorate of Menoth Durst upkeeps Bulwark and allocates nothing. The Initiates on the right charge into Brine to hurt him a little. The Champion there charges one of my Valkyries; the impact hit doesn’t kill her so the Dhunian Archon cancels the lance attack; this means that in the end the Purifier has to finish the job which causes a bit of a traffic jam on that side. The other Champion charges into my Objective and leaves it on fire on a single box. The Choir sing Passage and Durst makes a little Warjack fortress for himself and recasts Deceleration. No scoring again. Turn 3: Minions My objective burns to death. I don’t think that I can score anything this turn but I can probably remove both Champions and all the light Warjacks so I go for that option. Jaga-Jaga upkeeps her spells, casts Signs and Portents and puts Rage on one of the Swamp Horrors. The Wrastler puts Rage on the other one and makes a total mess of attacking the Champion, eventually leaving him on a single box, still on his horse. Brine kills both Initiates on the right the dismounts the other Champion. Rorsh aims and boosts two shots into him, resulting in two passed tough checks. The Valkyries on that side poke ineffectually at the Purifier on that side and generally gum things up; one further back aims and forces another successful tough check on the Champion. Over on the left, the Valkyries and the Void Archon miss all their attacks into the Initiates, leaving all three just standing there untouched. I make a mistake and send in both Swamp Horrors up the centre; this allows me to take out both Purifiers and the Champion but I didn’t need to get both Warjacks; I could have kept one back for a counter punch next turn. The Dhunian Archon sidles over and uses Shepherd’s Call to reduce my Fury on the board. Marc scores his point for my Objective dying; 1 – 0. Turn 4: Protectorate of Menoth Vengeance moves hurt the lead Swamp Horror but the Champion amusingly misses Brine. Durst drops Bulwark and allocates two Focus to the left Guardian and one to the other. The Choir sing Battle. Vilmon and a Paladin poke the leading Swamp Horror then Durst charges in and explodes it with a massive damage roll. This is actually a bit awkward for Marc as he planned to charge it with the Guardian and then buy attacks on the other Swamp Horror but now he can’t see a target. Durst puts Boundless Charge on that Guardian. The Initiates shuffle a little to open up line of sight to a Valkyrie on the left of the cloud, then the Guardian goes in. It kills the Valkyrie with the charge attack then annoyingly finishes the Swamp Horror to the box with spear attacks. Various Paladins and the other Guardian attack Brine, also killing him to the box on the last attack. Finally, the Menite Archon shrugs off the pitiful free strike from the Valkyrie to set up a beautiful Thresher attack which kills one Valkyrie and the Chef; the Dhunian Archon cancels the hit on the last one so I still contest that zone. Neither of us score; 1 – 0 to Marc. Turn 4: Minions I’m pretty much out of Warbeasts and even if I can deal with both Guardians (which I doubt) Durst is still enough to take out any remaining big targets on his own. Instead, it’s time for assassination. Jaga-Jaga puts up Signs and Portents and puts Rage on the Wrastler. The Soul Slave applies Ghost Walk so I don’t have to worry about that building being in the way. The right Void Archon charges the Guardian and uses Dual Attack to spray first, killing both the Champion and the Paladin. It then Void Walks behind Durst and boosts a nice hit into him; the main point, of course, was to get Dark Shroud over there. I think that this is OK in the rules but if please correct me if not. The other Void Archon aims and puts some more damage on Durst, also killing off a couple of the intervening Paladins; it also Void Walks to Durst and hits him. Finally, the Wrastler strolls through the building, overtakes off the last Paladin and eats Durst with a single boosted bite. Even if I couldn’t have made the attack with the first Void Archon I feel that the Wrastler was enough to do the job. Minions win by assassination. Another fun game with Marc who is always a lovely opponent. The game was an interesting mix of my mobility versus Marc’s sheer staying power. I think that perhaps Marc used Durst’s Feat a turn too early, but I might have had the firepower to pull down some of his models in the centre in turn 2 if he had held off. The threat range on the Swamp Horrors is enough that he has to Feat proactively. Things I learned: - I keep getting greedy and going for big plays like using both Swamp Horror when one would do. If I kept the second one back in turn 3 and just dealt with the Champion, I could have made Marc commit his left Guardian for just one Swamp Horror instead of giving him both of them.
- I was probably too conservative with the Void Archons. Especially on the right I could have made good use of Entropic Force and then body blocked with Valkyries (or just relied on Def16 under Grave Wind) rather than timidly Void Walking backwards after each attack.
- On the other hand, the mobility of the Void Archons to put Dark Shroud where I want it is truly amazing. I think that I got them where they were needed right at the end, but I have to work on getting more use out of them turn by turn.
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Post by argentbadger on Oct 2, 2020 15:55:37 GMT
It feels like a long time since I was able to play Allan at Warmachine / Hordes but we both had a free night and decided to spend it pushing pretend dollies across a pretend table. Allan has temporarily cut down to a single physical faction and he played them here. Game 26 – King of the Hill (scenario 1) vs Allan’s Retribution of Scyrah conflictchamber.com/?cb201b_-2njP4cjNjNjWoPoP7FfFoNoNjDjDjDMinions [Theme] Will Work For Food [Jaga-Jaga 1] Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27] - Blackhide Wrastler [16] - Swamp Horror [15] - Swamp Horror [15] - Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Rorsh [15] Swamp Gobber Chef [1] Void Archon [8] Void Archon [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] No changes from my Jaga-Jaga list as I’m pretty happy with how it works; any errors are on my side. Looking at the match-up I’m interested to see how my plethora of shield guards will fare into the Valkyries. I think I’ve only played into the Retribution once or twice ever so I’ve no real idea what I’m going to do.
conflictchamber.com/?c5201b_-1ndU1gjshI3y4141dPdP35363u35363umpmpRetribution [Theme] Defenders of Ios [Issyria 1] Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn [+29] - Chimera [8] - Harpy [9] - Hemera [16] Arcanist Mechanik [2] Ghost Sniper [0(3)] Ghost Sniper [0(3)] Houseguard Thane [0(4)] Houseguard Thane [0(4)] Houseguard Halberdiers (max) [13] - Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard [4] - Soulless Escort (1) [1] Houseguard Halberdiers (max) [13] - Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard [4] - Soulless Escort (1) [1] Dawnguard Trident [16] Dawnguard Trident [16] Allan stated that this is a variation on a favoured list of his, dropping the Hermit as it doesn’t add much that the list needs. I guess that the idea is to leverage the shooting power of the Tridents while threatening to flood the board with Halberdiers. Allan wins the roll-off and decides to move first. There’s not much to choose between the table edges so I go with the bottom one as the house in the centre at the top will be quite annoting to work round. Allan’s deployment is almost symmetrical; I skew a bit to the right in the hope that I can collapse that side quickly and swing into the centre. Turn 1: Retribution of Scyrah Everything runs up. Issyria casts Admonition on Hemera, Inviolable Resolve on the left Trident and then uses Velocity to move back a bit (though I have no idea what Allan though I was going to do to get his Warcaster from such a distance). Turn 1: Minions I can’t stay out of threat ranges so I just send everything in. I try to limit how many Halberdiers can get to any one thing even if Allan casts Crusader’s Call, and I keep the Valkyires spread out to catch as many bullets as possible. The Void Archon on the right gets Grave Wind and sits in the rubble; I’m hopeful that will tempt Allan to commit a Trident to kill it and I’m probably OK with that trade. Rorsh casts Pig Pen which I’ll never remember to use and Jaga-Jaga casts Battle Host. Turn 2: Retribution of Scyrah Allan spends a lot of time thinking about his options here. In the end he allocates no focus but upkeeps both spells. Hemera runs right into my face. Issyria moves forward to cover a landing spot for the Trident on the right, Feats and arcs a boosted Blinding Light into the right Void Archon which misses. The Trident charges it and kills it in melee anyway, then guns down a couple of Valkyries and hurts Rorsh. On the left, the other Trident kills the Chef and another Valkyrie and the Harpy takes out two more. The incidental healing does get most of my other models up to full health though. The Halberdiers walk up and adopt Shield Wall. Turn 2: Minions I could possibly score the right zone but I think that leaves Brine in the awkward position of sitting around twiddling his huge meaty thumbs. Instead I decide to do as much damage to Allan’s big hitters as possible. Jaga-Jaga casts Signs and Portents and moves a bit further away from the scary Trident on the left. The Wrastler helpfully misses all three initials into the Chimera, then casts Rage on Brine who wrecks both the Trident and the Chimera. Rorsh guns down the Ghost Sniper on the right. One Swamp Horror triggers Admonition on Hemera (which I had forgotten about) but the other one pulls it in and teams up with a Valkyrie to leave it on a single box in movement. On the left, the surviving Valkyries and Void Archon do some damage to the Trident and the latter sprays a couple of Halberdiers down to teleport to the back of the zone engaging the Ghost Sniper. Neither of us score. Turn 3: Retribution of Scyrah Issyria upkeeps Inviolable Resolve and allocates one Focus to the Harpy. It guns down my Objective (I was tempted to take one shot onto the last Valkyrie but I figured she was doing a better job gumming up the Halberdiers) in two shots, taking it out exactly to the box. The Trident turns around and explodes the Void Archon easily and kills one Valkyrie but the Ghost Sniper misses the other one. A Halberdier charges through the Trident to finish her though which clears that zone. Issyria puts Admonition on herself and stays safe. The other Halberdiers mostly just derp around; one of them hits the blocking Valkyrie but the Dhunian Archon stops the attack. Allan scores the left zone and killed the objective; 2 – 0. Turn 3: Minions The left zone is going to be a massive problem from here on as I don’t think that I can get anything to it in a single turn which means that Allan will always be able to gun down anything I send in that direction. I also need to think of how I’m going to deal with scoring the right zone as I kind of need Jaga-Jaga and my Warbeasts to head left. In the end I figure I can have Brine sit in the right zone this turn as my Warbeasts will get in each other’s way around that central forest if I use too many of them; fortunately Brine doesn’t Frenzy. The central Valkyrie finishes off Hemera with Vengeance. Jaga-Jaga, of course, upkeeps Battle Host and casts Signs and Portents. The Swamp Horrors kill off the Harpy and eat a handful of Halberdiers and I send one Dhunian Archon to make a token effort around contesting the left zone next turn. I score the right zone and Allan scores the left; 3 – 1 to him. Turn 4: Retribution of Scyrah The Objective and the Mechanic repair the Trident which easily kills the Dhunian Archon and repositions back into the zone. Issyria casts Crusader’s Call and moves to safety with Velocity. The remaining Halberdiers go into both Swamp Horrors, killing the left one and mauling the right one quite badly. Allan scores the right zone; 4 – 1 to him. Turn 4: Minions I need to get the centre cleared so that I can stop Allan just running away with the scenario. Rorsh clears the right zone with his Pig Irons and Brine reluctantly stays there to score it. The Wrastler and Swamp Horror clear the flag and the Dhunian Archon sits on it; sadly I couldn’t quite clear the whole zone. I score the flag and right zone, Allan scores the left; 5 – 3 to him. Turn 5: Retribution of Scyrah The Trident continues to get repaired. It shoots the Swamp Horror and the Halberdiers eventually kill it. The latter also kill the Dhunian Archon with a truly heroic dice roll and she sadly fails to Tough. We both continue to score the same zones; 6 – 4 to Allan. Turn 5: Minions Jaga-Jaga swaps places with Brine in the left zone. I clear off the flag for the Soul Slave to run onto but I can’t quite pick off the last model contesting the central zone. I move Rorsh round the building as I’ll need another solo to sit on that flag soon. I score the flag and right zone, Allan takes the left; 7 – 6 to him. Turn 6: Retribution of Scyrah The Trident easily guns down the Soul Slave but can’t quite take out the Valkyrie. We both continue scoring the rectangular zones; 8 – 7 to Allan. Turn 6: Minions I finally clear out the central zone, but now I don’t have anything that can get to the flag. Brine swaps again with Jaga-Jaga as I’ll need to have her control range more central for the last turn. Rorsh continues to move toward the centre but critically I move him to exactly within range of the Trident; obviously I didn’t notice this until it was too late. I score the centre and right zones and Allan scores the left; 9 – 9. Turn 7: Retribution of Scyrah The Trident is now back to full health. It lines up on Rorsh and I know that this is going to be rough as Allan rolls up the maximum 9 shots and 3 power tokens. His dice slightly desert him as several shots are missed and I transfer the boosted damage ones to Brine; in the end Rorsh lives on a couple of boxes. The Ghost Sniper makes no mistakes, killing off my Farrow. Allan scores the left zone and contests the centre with the final Thane; 10 – 9 to him. Turn 7: Minions I ‘only’ need to score two scenario points and contest the left zone for a win; in a pinch either would do as I’m probably ahead on points destroyed too. Jaga-Jaga casts Ghost Walk on herself (as I need it to get to the flag) and the Wrastler, and applies Rage to the latter too. The Wrastler walks round to the back of the Trident and wrecks it in a highly satisfying way, then Overtakes and kills the Objective too. Sadly, the second overtake move is millimetres short of getting into the zone to contest it. The Valkyrie at the top charges into the Thane and misses both attacks. The other skirts round into his back arc and misses her first attack. She hits the second… and rolls low enough to leave him on a single box. Allan scores his zone again and I only get the point for the objective; 11 – 10 to Allan (note that we forgot to note the point I scored in the screenshot). Minions lose on scenario. Wow, what a close game! Many thanks to Allan, that was a terrific way to spend an evening. I can see what he means about the power of the Tridents, I think that they basically killed almost my whole force between the two of them. Things I learned: - I’m still getting sloppy with threat ranges. If I’d kept Rorsh 1mm further back in turn 6 he would probably have lived.
- I need to remember Jaga-Jaga actually has a Feat, even though I often joke that her real Feat is casting Signs and Portents every turn. If I’d remembered to use it in the final turn I could probably have made sure that the Thane would go down.
- My plan to stack the right side did work, but it came at the cost of losing the left; I do recognise that this is quite a predictable outcome in a symmetrical wargame of course. In this case my lack of ranged threat compared to Allan’s meant that this probably ended up as an advantage to him. I’ve been thinking of this as rather an ‘anti-shooting’ list with all the Valkyries but maybe I also need to consider what I’m going to do when, as here, almost all of my Valkyries explode in one turn.
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Post by argentbadger on Oct 9, 2020 16:18:49 GMT
Frazer and I got together virtually to play Warmachine / Hordes (or, more accurately, just Hordes) via Wartable. Frazer is going back to Trollbloods, apparently his main faction throughout MK2, which everyone seemed to find quite exciting. Game 27 – Invasion (scenario 4) vs Frazer’s Trollbloods conflictchamber.com/?cb201b_-2njP4cjNjNjWoPoP7FfFoNoNjDjDjDMinions [Theme] Will Work For Food [Jaga-Jaga 1] Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27] - Blackhide Wrastler [16] - Swamp Horror [15] - Swamp Horror [15] - Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Rorsh [15] Swamp Gobber Chef [1] Void Archon [8] Void Archon [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] This is the same Jaga-Jaga list I’ve been playing separately. I theorise that Dr Arkadius would be a better option into Trollbloods but I’m way out of practice with him and didn’t fancy putting Frazer through the tedium of watching my Feat turn take about an hour. conflictchamber.com/?c7201b_-26fL0rjnjojq6O0l0miTbK0b0ccATrollbloods [Theme] Band of Heroes [Ragnor 1] Ragnor Skysplitter, the Runemaster [+30] - Dire Troll Bomber [17] - Dire Troll Brawler [16] - Pyre Troll [8] - Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)] Trollkin Champion Hero [0(5)] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9] - Stone Scribe Elder [3] Trollkin Champions (max) [16] - Skaldi Bonehammer [0(5)] Trollkin Fennblades (max) [15] - Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer [5] Trollkin Warders (min) [10] Plus or minus a couple of points for CID changes, plus Boomhowler3. None of this is live in Conflict Chamber yet. Frazer is using some of the final CID rules so I guess that they are still subject to change before release. My knowledge of Trollbloods is no more than cursory anyway so I’m not likely to get tripped up on a minor rules change now. The Band Of Heroes theme benefit cancelling my Dhunian Archons’ Mother’s Embrace ability will be quite annoying. Frazer wins the roll-off and eventually opts to take the first turn. I give him the bottom side where he can hopefully feel safe hiding behind a house that I can eventually Ghost Walk something through to kill Ragnor. My battlegroup goes centrally with the idea that I can try to take that zone; I’m looking to clear on the right with the Void Archon and Rorsh. On the left I just want to contest in a fairly cursory manner by running the Swamp Gobber Chef around that house while the Benny Hill theme plays in the background. Turn 1: Trollbloods Ragnor casts Chosen Ground and puts Pulveriser on the Fennblades, then moves through the corrosion pool. The Krielstone choses Combat Warding to avoid any awkwardness with the Corrosion. The Runebearer casts Earth’s Sanctuary on the Krielstone, though I’m not sure what Frazer thought I was going to do to get to it at this range. Everything else runs full-tilt at me. Turn 1: Minions I do my usual turn 1 stuff; Pig Pen on Rorsh, Battle Host on Jaga-Jaga and Grave Wind on the left Void Archon. I run up as far as I can, though I do make sure to keep everything out of charge range. Turn 2: Trollbloods Ragnor upkeeps Chosen Ground and Pulvreiser. The Bomber chips away at the Dhunian Archon on the right. Ragnor uses his Feat and digs in. The Fennblades, not having anyone to charge, flood the right zone and jam where they can. Boomhowler gives the Bomber Hoof It so it can retreat behind a carpet of Fennblades. Turn 2: Minions With good dice I could possibly take out the Champion Hero and score the left zone but I think that my main objective here is to stay in the game while I ride out Ragnor’s Feat and not give too much away in Frazer’s next turn. Jaga-Jaga upkeeps her spells and casts Signs and Portents. On the right, the combination of the Valkyries, Dhunian Archon (who removes Pulveriser too) and Void Archon pick off a good number of Fennblades; one Valkyrie gets a fortunate critical knockdown on Boomhowler to make Frazer rather sad. Rorsh guns down a couple more. The left Void Archon gets Ghost Walk from the Soul Slave then misses both attacks into the Champion Hero (5s to hit under Signs and Portents turns out to be surprisingly hard) then sprays a couple of members of the Krielstone unit to Void Walk into the most annoying place I can find in Frazer’s backfield. I still expect to lose it but hopefully it’ll be enough of a distraction that I can buy myself some more time to handle the Champions. Speaking of the Champions, one Swamp Horror gets Rage from the Wrastler and between the two Horrors and the Valkyries I manage to polish off a couple of Champions and spread out some damage across the rest of the unit. Neither of us score. Turn 3: Trollbloods Ragnor upkeeps Chosen Ground and Vengeance achieves nothing. Skaldi gets Eyeless Sight from the Objective. Boomhowler sighs, stands up and misses a Valkyrie then uses Shout Down on the right-most Valkyries. The Krielstone uses Stone Strength and the Runebearer puts Harmonious Exaltation on Ragnor. The Champion Hero takes a swing at the Valkyrie engaging a Champion so I stop it with the Dhunian Archon. The Pyre Troll puts Flaming Fists on the Brawler then misses the Void Archon and gets pushed away; Ragnor puts Flaming Fists on a couple of Champions and Pulveriser on the unit. They charge forwards (spreading out a nice free-strike from the Valkyrie across Sanguine Bond) and drop the Dhunian Archon and one of the Swamp Horrors, leaving the other on 5 boxes. The Brawler makes short works of the Void Archon on the left. On the right, the Fennblades use their mini-feat and charge in with the Warders but only end up dropping a single Valkyrie. The Bomber Toughs the Dhunian Archon. Again, neither of us score. Turn 3: Minions I think that I can score the left zone (just need to drop the Champion Hero) and the centre zone since I need to pick off all the Champs anyway and I reckon that I can get something into the Objective with judicious use of Ghost Walk. Jaga-Jaga upkeeps Battle Host for free, heals the crippled aspect of the Swamp Horror and casts Signs and Portents. Apparently the Wrastler doesn’t get the message, missing all three initials into the Champs and finally filling up on Fury to eat them all apart from Skaldi. The Valkyries on the left get stuck into the Champion Hero, forcing a tough roll which he passes. Rorsh comes across and boosts two Pig Iron shots into him, both resulting in passed tough rolls. He also lands some dynamite on Skaldi which causes another successful tough roll; at least he doesn’thave Steady. On the right the Valkyries, Dhunian Archon and Void Archon take out all the Fennblades except the Drummer, two Warders and Boomhowler. The only downside is that I needed some awkward positioning from the Void Archon that leaves its back very exposed. The Soul Slave casts Ghost Walk on the Swamp Horror which strolls through the building and eats Skaldi, two members of the Krielstone unit and the Objective; I love Overtake. I score for the central zone and the Objective; 2 – 0 to me. Turn 4: Trollbloods The Bomber helpfully Frenzies into the last Warder, killing him. The Rune Bearer Hex Blasts the Swamp Horror and the Pyre Troll charges over and kills it. Ragnor charges my Void Archon in the back and one-shots it, then fires a Shockwave into the Valkyries, killing one of them. Neither of us score. Turn 4: Minions I’m still trying to deal with that Champion Hero since his death will let me score the left zone. I can clear the central zone but it will probably cost me the Wrastler next turn. Over on the right I have the choice of getting Brine onto the Bomber or Ragnor. Vengeance attacks on the Champion hero result in another pair of passed Tough rolls and the loss of another Valkyrie to Retaliatory Strike. Jaga Jaga upkeeps Battle Host again, casts Signs and Portents plus Rage onto Brine then shuffles into the central zone. Rorsh clears the blocking models from Brine, who receives Ghost Walk from the Soul Slave and goes into Ragnor. Even under Signs and Portents he misses his boosted charge attack, and both initials into the last Krielstone Bearer. A boosted final attack does some damage to Ragnor which of course is transferred. On the left, the last Valkyrie sidles into the Champion Hero’s back arc and causes another two passed Tough rolls. Getting desperate now I charge the Chef into the big chap’s back and finally kill him off. Now we know how he became a Hero in the first place – remarkable toughness. In the centre I dither over committing the Wrastler and eventually decide that it’s worth it for another point. Another round of poor rolling (charging bite in the back under Signs and Portent? Miss!) sees the Pyre Troll and Runebearer both dead but the Wrastler is maxed out on Fury again. I do score the left and centre zones, 4 – 0. Turn 5: Trollbloods I’m well up on scenario and I can probably hold it for long enough to grind out what’s left of my attrition and advantage so Frazer goes for the assassination. The Brawler uses Beat Back to push Brine off Ragnor, and he charges into the Wrastler. This gives range to land a pair of Shockwaves on the Objective to knock down Jaga-Jaga and do a bit of damage with boosted blast rolls. The Bomber then saunters away from the Dhunian Archon and kills Jaga-Jaga to the box with the first bomb. Minions lose by assassination. That was a very fun game, as all my games with Frazer have been. I feel a little bit disappointed to have let a good position slip away at the end but Frazer played his pieces well and I made a couple of poor choices in turn 4 that cost me the game. In some ways, this is what I love about WarmaHordes – that you can be down in the game but turn it around with a good assassination – even if I will admit that I prefer it to be the other way round (i.e. that I play the last-gasp assassination rather than being its victim)! Things I learned: - First and most obviously, I got sloppy with positioning Jaga-Jaga in turn 4. I could have tucked her in behind the building so that the Bomber couldn’t even see her, or I could have been just far enough away from the Objective (and Soul Slave) to avoid the Shockwave. Both options would have been even better.
- Also in turn 4 I was too keen to send Brine into Ragnor. I still think that there was a possible kill on if the dice had been a bit kinder. But the better play would have been to finish off the Bomber instead, clearing the zone and letting me keep the Wrastler back far enough to bully the Brawler for another turn while I picked up points in the outside zones.
- Void Archons are fantastic into Trollblood infantry and, although I did lose them both I felt that I lost them in ways that were still positive overall for me. On the left the Void Archon tied up both the Brawler and Pyre Troll for a turn and left out of position for another turn, while on the right the Entropic Force aura made it much easier for me to deal with a large number of the infantry models.
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Post by Dirhavel on Oct 10, 2020 12:11:12 GMT
Fun Fact: Trollbloods is one of those matchups where Jaga Jaga's feat is actually pretty great. If you can feat on the krielstone and break armor, they have to pass a tough check or the stone is just gone. Feat is not an attack so can't be Sac Pawned, and RFP means it can't be promoted either. Just something to keep in mind for your next game Thanks for all the batreps by the way. It's a great read every time!
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