Warmachine Un-Batrep: Old Witch vs Rahn

Steve and I setup to play a game this Saturday morning.  I should have seen it coming.

Zevanna Agha, The Old Witch of Khador
* Conquest
* Scrapjack
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Battle Mechaniks (leader+3)
The Great Bears of Gallowswood
Kayazy Assassins (leader+9+UA)

...Versus...

Adeptus Rahn Shyeel
* Phoenix
* Phoenix
Arcanist
Arcanist
Dawnguard Sentinels (leader+5+UA+WA)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (leader+5)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (leader+5)

Retribution won the roll and advanced.  Khador advanced.  Conquest fired at one phoenix doing six boxes and killing a nearby soulless escort, then setup a line of AoE and clouds across the board between our armies.

Dawnguard advanced with their vengeance move.  Rahn used Telekinesis to move both phoenixes forward, then tried to use it a third time to move a phoenix again.  Whoops!  That's illegal.  One advanced to combust and clear out the kayazy.  I misjudged the distance and only got three.  The other advanced to combust and clear out the great bears, but because I needed the second Telekinesis, he was short and missed all his attacks, leaving him two inches from the bears and five inches from Conquest.  Looked at the board… saw what was coming… saw no way out of it... and scooped.  The end.

Steve generously spent the next half hour talking through alternatives plans and how that might have affected the remainder of the game.  He strongly recommended I should have used the dawnguard's vengeance plus run to have them engage the kayazy, tying them up for a turn, and sacrificed one phoenix to the great bears to draw them out of position so I could kill them the next turn.  These still don't sound like very good options.  The battle is still replaying in my head, looking for alternatives.

Lessons learned: Telekinesis can only only affect a model once per turn.  And I need a serious revamp in my lists to deal with kayazy and underboss.

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.

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...

Journeyman, Week 3

Tonight began the third "week" of the Journeyman League, so lists bumped to twenty-five points. Mike K. and I played a nail-biter rematch of Kommander Sorscha versus Kaelyssa. Mike's list was:

Kommander Sorscha's Battlebox

Kommander Sorscha
* Juggernaut
* Destroyer
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Assault Kommandos (min+flamethrowers x2)
Widowmaker Marksman

Versus my:

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
* Manticore
* Chimera
* Griffon
Mage Hunter Assassin
Mage Hunter Strike Force (min+UA)
Mage Hunter Strike Force (min+UA)

We played Kill Box again, but on a regulation 4x4 table.




The Plan

Retribution's strategy was to use Kaelyssa's Backlash spell against the Khador 'jacks and then use my fourteen mage hunters, Manticore, and Kaelyssa to dink Sorscha to death, one hit at a time. It almost worked.

Early Game

The destroyer came forward, received Backlash through the chimera's arc node, took a hail of fire from two units of mage hunters, and fell back on turn two.  They had taken Sorscha down about a third.  This seemed to rattle the Khadorans, as they all rolled left and the destroyer fell back to get out of range.  The Great Bears stayed well out of range, and the kommandos formed up in shield wall centrally within some hills.  Juggernaut came forward to press the attack and cover the destroyer's retreat.

Mid Game

More Backlash, more shooting from the mage hunters, the manticore, and even Kaelyssa.  The kommandos moved forward for some countering fire through the chimera and griffon into mage hunters. By now I'd lost about six.  My assassin decapitated Volkov (grants Pathfinder on charge) to prevent the Bears coming across a linear obstacle, midfield.  Backlash damage against the 'jacks had left Sorscha with a dramatic single box remaining.  Uh oh.

Late Game

Sorscha outflanked on my left, passing the assassin, dashing through a mage hunter's threat range, and Windrushing/charging entirely behind my line and across the board to Kaelyssa, on my extreme right.  An intricate dance of Khadoran power ensued, as Mike and Doug (our Press Ganger) meticulously carved a charge lane for Sorscha from my left flank.  Tricks flew.  Great Bears were engaged by my griffon, but used his reach range to back off and pivot so they could swing at the assassin but still backswing at the griffon.  Assault kommandos fired flame templates through their own (immune) friends.  It was a beautiful display of game rules mastery.  By the end they had killed an assassin, formed a lane passing behind all three of my warjacks, and killed two of the three mage hunters who would have threatened free strikes.  Deep breath.

Then it was Sorscha's turn.  Seeing a full-focus warcaster charge twenty inches across the table never fails to impress.  Naturally, the mage hunter missed his free strike (MAT 6+2 versus DEF 16, I believe).  Had he hit, she would have died.  Kaelyssa, at full health but with no power field stood to take it on the chin.  Unfortunately, the dice were not with Mike, either, and he only scored a few points of damage. With one-health Sorscha three inches from a full-health manticore and a warcaster, Khador conceded.

Backlash... it almost worked.

Warmachine Batrep: Butcher1 versus Vyros

Any day is a good day for a game versus Mike and his Nurgle-ized Khador. We played a quick fifteen point game of Kill Box over lunch. This time we snagged the table by the natural light. Mike wanted to play his first fully-painted fifteen point list, and I just wanted to try some new models.

Mike's Butcher

Mike's list was:

The Butcher of Khardov
* Destroyer
* Juggernaut
Great Bears of Gallowswood

And mine was:

Dawnlord Vyros (Dawn's Talon Tier 2)
* Manticore
* Manticore
* Gorgon
Arcanist
Arcanist

Warmachine Batrep: Strakhov vs Ravyn

Maz and I played thirty-five points Capture the Flag last night, our first scenario game, ever. Maz's list was:

Kommander Strakhov
* Berserker
* Torch
* War dog
Kayazy Assassins (full+Underboss)
Man-o-war Demolition Corps (full)
Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

And mine was:

Ravyn, Eternal Light
* Discordia
Houseguard Halberdiers (min+UA)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (full+UA)
Stormfall Archers
Stormfall Archers
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
House Shyeel Magister