Warmachine Batrep: Morghoul1 versus Ossyan

Chad and I got in a 35-point game of "Outflank, Outfight, Outlast" Saturday night. This mission has two 12-inch diameter scoring zones along the center-line.

We played on his new TheTerrainGuy.com desert terrain mat. The texture was perfect, but the color was disappointingly uniform.

Chad threw together a pMorghoul list, and I gave my Ossyan tournament list a first test drive.

Master Tormentor Morghoul
- Cyclops Brute
- Rhinodon
- Titan Bronzeback
- Titan Gladiator
Agonizer
Bloodrunners
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor
Paingiver Beast Handlers (full)

Lord Arcanist Ossyan Vyre

- Manticore

- Griffon

- Griffon

Arcanist

Dawnguard Invictors (full+UA)

Houseguard Riflemen (min+UA)

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

House Shyeel Magister

Setup

Retribution setup first, directly across from the objective with the most terrain. Skorne setup centrally with their bloodrunners directly opposite the Retribution line. Eiryss advanced deployed far left, off screen, to contest the left-side zone.

Setup

Retribution Turn 1

Everything runs. Manticore heavy jack got tangled up in the mass of bodies and ended up behind the front line. Also forgot to use his sustained fire template to deter the bloodrunners' advance. Minor.

Middle of Turn 1

Skorne Turn 1

Everything runs. Bloodrunners all take up positions behind the terrain columns, hoping for cover. pMorghoul and the tormentors begin pumping up the bronzeback with Rush, Admonition, and Enrage, I think.

Retribution Turn 2

Riflemen roll right and use their mini-feat to clear out several of the bloodrunners from cover. Probably overkill. This ruptures the bubble-wrap around my invictors and makes a real mess of by board position. Near the center of the board, I'm expecting 7-8" charges because I don't know all the movement bonus shenanigans Skorne will be pulling. More about that next turn. Invictors send three three-man combined ranged attack shots into the rhinodon taking it its spirit track and a chunk of mind.

Griffons position to intercept any incoming bloodrunners with free-strikes and the manticore drops a three-inch POW12 sustained fire template in front of the three near the rhinodon. It's centered on that little teal circle marker in the photo.

As Skorne's next turn is scoring, Eiryss reluctantly runs left to contest that scoring zone. Sadly, she'll remain there all game. This is one of the discovered flaws of this list. In a widely separated two-zone mission, this list has only Eiryss who can range away from the castle. More on that later.

Middle of Turn 2

Skorne Turn 2

Yar. Here it comes. The thing I keep forgetting when playing against Hordes is that their entire army is about the heavy warbeasts (in the same way that a Retribution army is entirely about the infantry). A charging bronzeback in my mind is the equivalent of a charging juggernaut warjack. Sure, it's going to mess something up, but it probably can't kill a heavy in one go without support, and there's an arcanist right there. So what's the harm? The truth is that most serious warbeasts seem to have three solid attacks plus three to five more they can purchase with fury. So when there's a bronzeback across the table from you, expect four to seven P+S16 or higher hits. The Manticore evaporates and the he uses beatback to advance into a couple invictors, squishing them like Capri Suns before moving within three inches of Ossyan.

Now the rhinodon. Paingivers heal a box off his spirit track and send him at us. Fortunately, he's not as much a threat and Morghoul's starting to worry about his fury load for next turn. The rhinodon manages to crunch about half of the griffon.

The bloodrunners use their shadowplay ability to kill a few riflemen while repositioning, but overall roll poorly and only kill two. One (two?) die to free-strikes from the far griffon.

The right-side zone is awash with bodies; the left-side zone is contested by Eiryss and the gladiator. Score is 0-0.

Retribution Turn 3

Too many heavy warbeasts are in my business, and I'm completely out of position. A plan forms. I'm going to use the magister to combo-smite the bronzeback over into the rhinodon, hopefully knocking both down and doing some damage. Then the griffon and invictors will auto-hit (plus free damage die from flank:warjack) and tear them both to bits. This is going to be great!

Except that I forgot the bronzeback was wearing admonition. He immediately advances three inches into melee with Ossyan, blocks the movement lane from my arcanist to my focus-less griffon, and the charge lanes from the invictors to the rhinodon. And they're both still standing. And... crap. I have only myself to blame for that one. I was feeling pretty crappy here, like I'd just given Skorne the game. Turns out Chad was feeling pretty crappy, too, because he just moved his bronzeback with five fury about four inches outside Morghoul's control range and was looking at a Hordes-style mess.

Ossyan is camping five focus and decides to run for it (it's the only hope) and takes a decent six-box free strike through ARM 20. There's some charge lane computation and I send everything against the warbeasts. With their flank bonus from the griffon, a combined-ranged attack from the remaining riflemen, and a couple chronophage cannon shots from Ossyan, we take the bronzeback down to three boxes and the rhinodon to eight boxes.

Right-side griffon finishes off the master tormentor and ties up the other three in melee.

Score remains 0-0.

Middle of Turn 3

Skorne Turn 3

Skorne's warbeasts are empty of fury except for the bronzeback. We look up the frenzy rules and Chad's face falls. Fury + 2d6 must be less than the frenzy threshold. It's 9. He needs a two or a three on 2d6. The bronzeback frenzies and beats the everlovin' stuffin' out of an invictor and then is done.

The rhinodon advances around the mid-field griffon, planning to pile into a mess of elves and use his reach-360-thresher attack, but takes a free strike that cripples his spirit. Morghoul then does something I didn't catch which causes some additional damage on the rhinodon, crippling its mind track and preventing the special thresher attack entirely.

Score remains 0-0.

End of Turn 3

Retribution Turn 4

Morghoul's feat prevents Ossyan's myrmidons from spending any focus, so he doesn't allocate any. We finish off both the bronzeback and the rhinodon. Ossyan drops shatterstorm on the right-side griffon hoping he'll hit one of the bloodrunners and the resulting explosion will kill all three... but he misses. Mid-field griffon advances on the agonizer-cyclops-Morghoul cluster and chooses to swing at the cyclops. Bad idea. Cyclops brutes can take a fury to force an attacker to re-roll. You'll eventually miss, and he'll create tons of fury for Morghoul. Pro-tip: kill the agonizer.

Eiryss dances behind a wide obstacle. You can almost see the titan gladiator sighing.

Highlight of this round is probably the pencil-neck geek arcanist, seized with battle-rage, advancing and wrench-murdering a sadistic Skorne paingiver. "Your *crack* stupid elephant *crunch* killed my *squish* new manticore!" Gruesome. That little melee is a perfect microcosm of the game.

Score remains 0-0.

Middle of Turn 4

Skorne Turn 4

It's late. Retribution has, somehow, sustained the heavy warbeast assault. The gladiator will probably never catch Eiryss, and she would score three points before he could even reach the main battle. And it really is late. Skorne concedes.

Parting Shots

Invictors with griffons are beyond my expectations. With a banshee myrmidon, they will be even better. Expect to see more of this combo.

I'm still on the fence about Ossyan. After four games he hasn't given me that "Ravyn moment" (or "Butcher moment", etc.). You know, the one where you almost feel sorry for your opponent? Definitely need more research here. He'll probably shine better against ranged lists: Cygnar, Legion. Still keeping him high in the batting order for another few months.

Most importantly, remember who's wearing Admonition. That's a game-changer.

Thanks for the game, Chad. Hope you got some sleep.