Wins and Losses

Lately I've been afraid that I'm writing up my winning battle reports and skipping on the far more important losses.  To keep myself honest all the wins and losses are now tagged as such over there on the right in the tag cloud.  If it gets out of hand, there will be some visible feedback.

Wins are fun, but it's the losses that teach us.  The best game I can play is one where I make a friend, have fun losing, and walk away a better player.

Warmachine: Unbound Test Drive

Who thought this was a good idea?

Steve W. and I played an apocalyptic 150 point game of Unbound on MLK Day. Unbound is a relatively new set of rules for Warmachine that allows extremely large games of 150 points or more with three warcasters in each army.  Rules for Unbound can be found in No Quarter magazine issues 36 and 38.

It hadn't been done before in our club. The models were sitting in our bags, daring us. Something had to give. We decided to start at 9 AM, but logistical issues and setup delayed us until noon.

One does not simply begin a game of Unbound. One must prepare, mentally and physically. One must ... unpack. One must pull up an extra table upon which to place models and cards and magazines with rules. One must take a very deep breath.

We began to set up.

Warmachine Batrep: Siege vs Ravyn

Major Markus 'Siege' Brisbane

Finally got a chance to play against Mike G. this week. We've been trying to play for months, but schedules never seemed to work out, until now.

Mike has several armies, but tonight he brought Cygnar and insisted on a 35 point game. What the heck. I put the Rahn list away and started rummaging iBodger until I found an incomplete 35-point Ravyn list from before the holidays. It felt too light on melee units, lacked any tar pit, and didn't have enough shooting to take good advantage of Ravyn's feat.

Or so I thought.

Warmachine Batrep: Xerxis vs Rahn

Tyrant Xerxis

Chad and I played a good old 50 point Kill Box game Tuesday night.  Chad's list was allegedly taken from PG Lord Tyrant Watt's 2011 tournament list, with the exchange of a unit of Cetrati for Tiberion, the new character tyrant introduced in Wrath.

Tyrant Xerxis
- Aptimus Marketh
- Basilisk Krea
- Cyclops Shaman
- Tiberion
- Tyrant Sentry
Agonizer
Cataphract Cetrati (leader+5)
Nihilators (leader+9)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (leader+3)

My list remained the Rahn list I've been playing the past few weeks:


Adeptis Rahn
- Manticore
- Phoenix (x2)
Arcanist (x2)
Dawnguard Sentinels (leader+9+UA)
- Soulless Escort
House Shyeel Magister
House Shyeel Battle Mages (leader+5)
Mage Hunter Assassin (x2)
Narn

Warmachine Batrep: Skarre2 vs Rahn

Malice

With the League and Unbound out of the way, Chris and I thought it was high time to throw down a fifty point game.  Chris brought his Skarre2 list, upgraded and improved for fifty points.

I've played Chris' different versions of this same list at 35 points a few times now, and knew what to expect.  Cryx is full of nasty little tricks, but one of the dirtiest plays out like this: Malice harpoons one of your warjacks and tows him across the board, and spends a soul to possess it.  He then activates the 'jack and sends it running deep into the Cryx lines where the Withershadow Combine uses their Dark Industry power to wreck it and replace it with a new helljack.  Hooray.  What could be more fun?  He fills the rest of the army with units you can't really ignore, like The Deathjack and a full unit of satyxis raiders with UA and solo support.  And at fifty points, he throws in some pistol wraiths to ensure your 'jacks are easy pickings.

But it didn't quite play out that way.

Journeyman Postmortem

Our club's double-length Journeyman League wrapped up this week, though the last game was played on 20 December.  As a player, I reveled in the event; but as a club organizer, I was less than pleased.

It started out strong, with twenty-six players, but by the twelfth week had dwindled to around eight.  Scoring was reasonably strong, and everyone seemed to have a good time.  Several hundred points of models were painted over the course of the event, new factions were adopted, and lessons were learned.  When you run one of these multi-week events, be sure your organizer or press ganger understands the club's expectations.  One can't expect them to understand your local club culture and motivations.  Be sure they communicate well and that their goals correspond with the club's goals, that the establish the rules, plan for player retention, and build motivational sub-goals into the event.  And plan how a lengthy event will affect non-participants. Communication – before, during, and after.  Drop me an email if you'd like an earful on the subject.

Still, I'm grateful the League got so many players into painting their first figures.  List-crafting and tabletop generalship is rewarding, but there's something about the personal connection one creates putting hours into making each figure one's own, then putting them down on the table that brings it all together.  Several other club players mentioned during the league that playing against painted armies was motivating them to paint, too.  And while there are plenty of solid arguments against groupthink and social conformity, in this hobby, placing down a painted army is mostly a gift to the players.

At its roots, our hobby is the nexus of social-crafting-puzzle and shared story-telling.  And a well-run Journeyman League can give that to your club.

Doubles Night

Our club had a doubles game night this past Tuesday.  Phillip and I decided to form Team Angry Elves with my Retribution and his Legion, and we challenged Team Too-Tough-To-Die with Steve's Khador and Jenn's Trollbloods.

The lists were:

Zevanna Agha & Scrapjack

Zevanna Agha, The Old Witch of Khador

- Scrapjack

- The Behemoth

- Sylys Wyshnalyrr

The Great Bears of Gallowswood

Iron Fang Pikemen (leader+5+UA)

Kayazy Assassins (leader+5+UA)

Widowmakers (leader+3)

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender

- Dire Troll Mauler (extreme)

- Dire Troll Bomber

Pyg Burrowers (leader+5)

Fell Caller Hero

Krielstone Bearer & 3 Scribes

Kriel Warriors (leader+9)

- Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower 

- Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower 

(Incomplete.  Maybe another min unit of Kriel warriors.  There were an awful lot of trolls.)

...versus...