Battle Report: Void Seer Mordikaar vs. General Ossrum, 50pts

Last battle report on my burner, and coincidentally, the last of the year.  It's not a long one, but there are pictures.

I'm still fooling around with Mordikaar as a potential partner in crime to Makeda 3, and I've been pretty happy with how it's worked out so far.  I'm still playing around with the points, and this time, I ran the following list:

Void Seer Mordikaar (*5pts)
*Tiberion (11pts)
*Despoiler (10pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
*Tyrant Vorkesh (3pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Bloodrunners (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer (3pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)

Makeda and the Exalted Court vs. WOLD WAR, 50pts

Here's the second to last game in my backlog.  I played this one last Tuesday, so it's still pretty fresh in my memory.  No pictures of this one, but I'll do my best to describe what was going on.

Todd, one of the regulars at Tower, picked up Circle recently.  Specifically, he picked up Bradigus, and he's building his way toward a Tier 4 Wold War list of the kind that the Internet has warned you about.  He'd only had 3 or 4 games with it when we played, and still had to proxy some of the models (because Tower keeps running out of Woldwatchers for some inexplicable reason), but he'd already had some good results.  And that's not surprising, because Bradigus is good, and in Tier, he's very good.

UPDATE:  Todd actually took a video of this game, and said he would be fine with it if I posted it here.  It's a casual game, so it's a little long, and I do a fair amount of goofing off and fidgeting, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Since this is my first report against Bradigus, and since a lot of people are still looking for answers right now, I'm going to go a little further in depth than usual with my tactical analysis.  I'm going to take a good look at Bradigus, then at my opponent's list, and I'm going to spend more time on my in-game planning blurbs than usual.

Battle Report: Adeptus Rahn vs. General Ossrum (35pts)

Hello again!

This is the third Battle Report in my backlog of Battle Reports, and there are two left to go.  I'll be spacing them out over the coming week so that by the time I play again, I can get back to a 1-or-2-per-week schedule.

At any rate, this game happened a few weeks a go as well, but I have pictures to help boost my accuracy.  I decided to get back into the groove with Retribution, and I'm really interested in Rahn.  Multiwound bricks are popular right now, and they're one thing he can deal with pretty well with his spell list and Feat.

Iosan Civil War: Vyros2 vs Ossyan

Vyros and his small force of Dawnguard had come across an unexpected prize- one of the scions of House Vyre outside of the capitol's battlements, and defending a ley line extractor at that. The Dawnlord thought only of vengeance, and the myrmidons at his command responded in kind.

This past week I got in a game against one of our other local Retribution players, Sean, and his burgeoning Ossyan list. Since I'm practicing with Vyros2's Guardians of the Gate, I figured it would be a good thematic match for him.

Makeda and the Brute Squad vs Karchevolution, 50pts

So I said I had a couple of games on the docket.  Here's one of them, which I played about a week or two ago.  My opponent was Sean, who I dodged in the NFL League, when he was playing Gators.  He also plays Khador, and brought a cool-looking list he called "Karchevolution:"

Who's the Boss 17!

Fair and Balanced

On December 6th Crippled System hosted a Who's the Boss event in Madison, WI. Since I wasn't able to make it last year I was damn sure I was going to make it this year… even if that meant trudging 40 minutes to my car in the morning through a blinding hangover. I make good decisions!

For those of you who don't know what Who's the Boss is, here's a quick rundown on the format:

• Each round you get to spin the Wheel of 'Casters, which randomly determines which warcaster or warlock from all of Warmachine will lead your forces in battle
• The selected 'caster conforms to the rules of your faction. Your faction is considered Friendly Faciton for your 'caster and is a warcaster or warlock based on whether your faction comes from Warmachine or Hordes. This also means that any references to warbeasts/warjacks in the battlegroup are swapped and effects that remove fury instead add focus and vice versa.
• There are also little cheats that you can buy by donating to charity, such as switching your 'caster back to their Mk I Remix version, swapping casters with your opponent, or even swapping out your caster in the middle of a game.

I decided to bring the following list:

• Phoenix

• Banshee

Houseguard Thane

Arcanist

Arcanist

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Mage Hunter Assassin

Mage Hunter Assassin

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Max Mage Hunter Strikeforce + Strikeforce Commander

Max Houseguard Halberdiers + Officer and Standard

...and I just realized now that I was playing two points down the whole day. Sylys could've made it into the list after all! I make good decisions!

As far as why I chose what I did, our Mage Hunter models tend to get a bit… broken… with some 'casters, so taking as many as you can is generally seen as being in good taste. Taking an arc node is also a good idea, as certain 'casters *cough*SORSCHA*cough* are ludicrously broken with them.

Anyway, I select my long time friend/nemesis/opponent Russell to be my first round matchup. We approach the wheel of casters and I roll up Vlad1 and he rolls up Vlad3. I choose to time shift my Vlad back to his Mk 1.5 version (hooray 3 cost Signs and Portents and Blood of Kings!) and we get our game on.

Russell brought the following:

• Bronzeback Titan
• Titan Gladiator
• Molik Kharn
• Aptimus Marketh

Max Paingivers

Max Nihilators

Max Incendiarii

… probably something else.

I won the roll to go first and realized that my Strike Force would be doing little this game due to Vlad3's Wind Wall spell. So my game plan was simply to jam with them and set up a ridiculously long distance alpha strike with my 'jacks and halberdiers thanks to Vlad1's feat doubling the myrmidon's speed. Speed 12, it's a thing.

Part 1 worked out pretty well as the Incendiarii focused all of their fire on the Strikeforce. My Halberdiers got a bit jammed up by Nihilators that refused to die, so Vlad feated so that my Phoenix could clear out a couple with Combustion and the Banshee could charge Molik and get past (not over, just past) the wall that he was hiding behind. With S&P the big guy went down pretty quick.

Russell then overestimated Vlad3's killing ability and only waded halfway through my Phoenix with his feat up and didn't manage to sprint away. This allowed me to (barely!) clear a charge lane for the One and True Vladimir to charge the mounted pretender and put him to bed under Blood of Kings. It also allowed me to have fun with Mimic, which allowed me to copy one of Vlad3's weapon's abilities. At first we thought that Crit Knockdown from the mount was in the game, but unfortunately the Umbrean horse lord can't quite capture the essence of iron hooves. Brutal charge and MAT 10 did the job anyway.

Round 2 I fought my perennial opponent Josh and his Mercenaries. Mercs are in an interesting place in Who's the Boss as you can select a given 'caster's list or contract to pull your models from. Josh decided to go with his bro Magnus to get some of those fancy Renegades into the mix.

-Renegade

-Renegade

-Galleon

Max Boomhowler and Company

Max Cylena Rafaeyll and the Nyss Hunters

Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt

...probably something else.

Josh rolled first and got Haley1. With the words "This game isn't going to be fun, FYI" Josh time shifted her back to Mk 1.5 for the truly aggravating version of Temporal Barrier (all enemy models in her control area get their speed halved and can't charge… oy veh freakin' Mariah!). I rolled into Madrak2.

This game, as advertised, was frustrating, but Madrak, World Ender I found to be a whole ton of fun… as long as you interpret his 'Grim Salvation' ability to be any friendly warrior model and not just Trollkin. Otherwise he would've been Galleon bait.

Early on I engaged his Nyss with my Halberdiers and Feated to thresher through them and get some damage on the Galleon. I then charged some Blood Furied Strikeforce into it (i.e. 5 dice for damage)… but failed to space appropriately and left the big guy on about 1/3 of his health left. From there on Josh remembered to cast Temporal Barrier every turn, and I got bogged down until my clock ticked over. Even so I managed to kill all of his models except for a single Trollkin, Aiyanna and Holt and his 'caster, and the only reason Haley was still alive was because of that incredibly broken spell and a large tower that was just inside the kill box. But still… extra shots with Strikeforce/Eiryss/Narn and threshering Halbs? Not bad. Not bad at all.

Round 3 I got to have the singular pleasure of re-recruiting Lord Ghyrrshyld (Goreshade1) into Ios' armed forces. I decided to Time shift him back to Mk 1.5 due to the following benefits:

• His jack teleportation spell allowed them to activate

• He had Death Shroud as a model/unit upkeep spell

• Cloak of Shadows prevented him from being charged or targeted by ranged attacks

Pretty gravy. Against this my friend John had his Cygnar with Durgen:

• Stormwall

• Squire

Stormcaller x 2

Junior Warcaster

Max Boomhowler and Company

Max Horgenhold Forgeguard + Cygnar unit attachment

...probably something else.

This game my plan was to gang up on the Stormwall with two jacks and tear it to pieces while jamming with Halberdiers to go for scenario, with Narn eventually running through everything to get a Phoenix to Durgen. Unfortunately I keep on forgetting that Trolls aren't exactly slow, and they ran up into my front lines with covering fire protecting them pretty darn well, and Narn died to a damn storm pod. Once my Banshee was down and the Forgeguard were engaged in my front lines it was time for a Last Ditch Assassination ™, as John had left a narrow path for dem Banez (thanks feat!) to get to his 'caster. A round of Phantom Hunter shots from the Strike Force and Goreshade being a BMF led to the path being cleared and  4 Banez getting on Durgen. One missed, the others hit, and Durgen went tumbling down.

Lord Ghyrrshyld summons Banez TO THE FACE!!1!

Finally Round 4 I got into a Ret on Ret matchup, me with Hexeris1 and this time Lord Ghyrrshyld supporting the other side. His list:

• Phoenix

Houseguard Thane

Mage Hunter Assassin

Mage Hunter Assassin

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt

Max Magehunter Strikeforce + Commander

Max Houseguard Halberdiers + Officer and Standard

Max Dawnguard  Invictors  + Officer and Standard

… Sylys? I think?

Anyway, he got first and ran up. My guns shot down half of the Halberdiers and I parked my Halberdiers slightly behind the thin line of Strikeforce. He counterstruck with Halbs and reformed one guy into my Halbs, teleported the Phoenix in and murdered all of them plus Narn in one master stroke.

I got pretty desperate then and attempted to go for an assassination instead of disrupting and slamming his Phoenix, but failed to clear my trample lane. So Hexeris feated… and everything died. For those of you not familiar with his feat, basically whenever I kill something in his control area I get to make a 3" move with that killed model, make an attack, then remove it from play. This cascaded into me killing 9 strike force and 10 Invictors plus the rest of his Halberdiers… which if I'd been able to slam the Phoenix (which I missed) would've have pretty well turned the game in my favor. In the end he got Goreshade to make a Deathwalker within 5" of Hexeris and the Phoenix finished him, but man was that turn fun!

So, not exactly a stellar showing, but WTB isn't about winning- it's about doing silly stuff, and I think I did plenty of that.

Thanks for reading this rambling entry, next time I'll be getting back to more regularly scheduled battle reporting with a story ripped from the pages of the Iosan Civil War. Until then, shank a round ear for me!

Makeda 3 vs. Feora 2, 50pts

I played another game of Warmachine recently.  Unfortunately, I had a lot of work-related stuff, class got busy, and long story short, I'm posting it about 3 weeks after the fact.  Let's hope it's at least mostly accurate.  I swear I'm keeping up with the blog.  I have about 3 more reports on the docket, I just need to type them up, and post them.  Probably after this coming Tuesday, which is the final for my class.  I'll figure out a schedule, and get back to posting regularly. 

Anyway, I showed up on a Tuesday, which is Warmachine night at Tower, but which I usually don't have off.  I decided to play Skorne again, and fully intended to get some more practice in with Mordikaar.

However, my opponent (who I'm pretty sure is named Eric, but my memory is suddenly shaky about it), said he was playing Menoth.  Well, I've been meaning to play Makeda 3 against Menoth for a while, since Errants in particular can be rough on her.  So I broke out the Makeda 3 list I've been working on for the last couple of months.  In the interest of full disclosure, the fact that the list has, like, 15 models in it may have played a part as well.  Oh the excuses I make for myself.

First Battle Report in Forever: Fist of Halaak vs Miserable Meat Mountain (35pts)

It's been, like, two months since I posted on this blog.  I haven't given it up, but I also haven't played much Warmachine recently.  I've been pretty busy with non-gaming stuff (taking classes mostly, which pushes my workday later, which really cuts into gaming time)  I did manage to play a game this past Friday against Caleb, and even though I didn't take pictures (probably for the best considering the state of my models), I'm posting the report.

Tournament: Dice Dojo Warmachine Weekend Qualifier

Tink helps me get pumped for the tourney

This past weekend there was a Warmachine Weekend qualifier tournament at the Dice Dojo in Chicago. A bunch of folks from Madison drove over to try our luck and I decided to join the fray to get some tournament experience with my chosen lists. It was a four round Masters-style event with Divide and Conquer 1, meaning that we had to play each of our lists at least once during the tournament.

I decided to bring Ossyan, Vyros2 and Kaelyssa's Force Wall as my three lists. The first two I knew could cover all of my match ups, so the choice of Force Wall for the third was simply because I've been having fun with it lately. My lists and reasonings were as follows:

NFL League Semi Finals: Skorne vs. Cryx, 50pts

So, I finally scheduled my League Semi-finals game with Jamie and his Cryx.  The winner would go on to the finals, and possibly the stupendous glory of a league victory.

I already played Jamie in my 7th game, and I was eager to face him again, since I kind of felt like I didn't deserve that win.

Battle Report: Doubling Down on Vyros2

Since I have the Dice Dojo Warmachine Weekend qualifier coming up this Saturday I've felt the need to practice all of my lists. Recently I've had a fair bit of experience with Ossyan and several variations on Force Wall, but my Vyros2 match ups haven't been played through all that often. So I attempted to rectify that by getting in games against a couple of folks at Pegasus.

Ossyan vs the Mad Dogs of War

Taken from the PP site

Now that the Warmachine Weekend qualifier at the Dice Dojo is just around the corner I've decided to put my Force Wall lists on the shelf for the time being to practice the other lists that I'm planning on bringing to the tourney. This night I intended on practicing my Murder of Griffons list, but when I paired up with Jordan and saw that he was bringing the Mad Dogs of War I knew that I had to drop Ossyan instead.

Battle Report: pGrexy Tries eXerxis (50pts vs Calandra)

So I posted about epic Xerxis here, and a couple days ago, I finally got to try him out.

I wanted to play the list I posted earlier, but I didn't because I didn't have a Rhinodon card on me, and neither did any other Skorne player at the shop. :P

So instead I played this list, which is a point over due to me forgetting I was taking max Paingivers when counting up the points:

Xerxis, Fury of Halaak (*5pts) - Proxied by a headless Mammoth
*Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
*Titan Cannoneer (9pts)
*Titan Gladiator (8pts)
*Archidon (Bonded) (7pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Venator Reivers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts) - Some of whom are proxied by Bloodrunners :P
*Officer and Standard Bearer (2pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Extoller Soulward (2pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)

I hadn't planned on playing the Cannoneer, but it seems like a decent beast for eXerxis, and I like it pretty well in general.  The Mortitheurge and Extoller seem like good support for it.  I don't have much more planned than that.  Hopefully the list will work pretty well, and maybe I'll even get to try out my game plan of throwing and knocking down lots of enemies on the way.  If I play this list again, I'll probably swap some 2-point support piece for a sweet Gobber Tinker to fix up Xerxis' Rhino.

Caleb wanted to get back into Trollbloods, and felt like giving the Mountain King another chance.

Calandra Truthsayer, Oracle of the Glimmerwood (*5pts)
*Mountain King (20pts)
*Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
*Trollkin Rune Bearer (2pts)
Pyg Bushwhackers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Kriel Stone Bearer and Stone Scribes (Leader and 3 Grunts) (3pts)
Trollkin Fell Caller (3pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

If any Warlock can fix the Mountain King's Mat problem, Calandra can, and the Earthborn and Janissa are standard support to take its Arm up to 23.  Both Pyg units are pretty good with Calandra, and I know from experience that Digmies can be a real pain.


Scenario and Deployment

We rolled up Into the Breach.  There's a big round zone on one side of the table, and flag a short distance away.  The zone can be controlled for a point, or dominated for two, while the flag can only be dominated for a point.

Caleb won the roll off, and decided to go second.  He picked the table side with a decent-sized forest in the middle, probably for speed buffs from the Earthborn and its Animus.  Also because his bag was already on that side of the table.  My bag was already on the other side, so it was all fine by me.

I pre-deployed Xerxis in the middel, and Caleb pre-deployed the Mountain King in front of the zone.  I plunked my Titan herd in front of the zone to oppose the Mountain King, and put the Venators and Archidon on the Flag side of the table to harass support, and screen for Xerxis in case I went for the Flag.  The Paingivers and Krea went in support positions behind the Titan line and Xerxis, and the Willbreaker and Extoller took the far side of the table behind the Cannoneer.

Caleb deployed Calandra and his support in the center, with the Earthborn up next to the center forest to support the Mountain King.  The Bushwhackers Advanced Deployed behind a house near the Zone side of the table, while the Burrowers deployed in front of Calandra and the KSB to support the table as needed.

With that, we were ready to play.

Turn 1, Skorne

Most stuff ran.  Xerxis activated early on, put Ignite on the Bronzeback for Mountain King demolishing purposes, then cast Mobility so stuff could run further.  The Cannoneer ended up out of his CTRL, but thank goodness for the Mortitheurge.  It only ran 8 inches, although the picture shows it as having run 12.  We corrected it before Caleb's first turn though.

Speed 6 is fast.  A lot faster than I'm used to running with Titans.  The fact that I could have thrown Rush into the mix is boggling.  Maybe in one of my next trials I'll run a Gladiator and a Shaman, and get well into the zone top of turn 1.


Turn 1, Trollbloods

Caleb advanced more cautiously.  He kept his heavies and Bushwhackers well out of my threat ranges, and burrowed the Digmies so I wouldn't be able to attack them on my turn.  Calandra cast Star-Crossed, and threw the rest of her Fury onto the Kriel Stone.  She'd be safe from my shooting behind screening models and a wall though.

Caleb is set up to keep most of his models safe, and I doubt I'll be able to get to them this turn.  My goal will have to be setting myself up to control the zone with my heavy's threat ranges, forcing him to enter it if he wants to contest.


Turn 2, Skorne

Xerxis upkept Ignite.  The Bronzeback and Gladiator ran forward into the zone.  The Krea walked up, and popped a Paralytic Aura for shooting defense.

The Cannoneer advanced, and shot at the Bushwhackers, killing a couple with a good scatter.  The Willbreaker advanced, and used Ancillary Attack, which let the Cannoneer kill another one.

The Paingivers advanced, and managed Fury, then Xerxis ducked behind my objective, and cast Diminish (the Cannoneer's Animus) to give enemies within 2" a -2 Str penalty.  The Archidon flew up to screen Xerxis from any Pyg Burrower charges (those little guys are scary).

On the Flag side of the table, the Rievers advanced, used the Extend Fire mini-Feat, and sniped out the Fell Caller.  Less accurate Burrowers is a good thing.  The Rievers then retreated a bit with Reform.

Now I was well set up to control the zone, with my Titans' 11.5" threat range extending just beyond its back edge.  If Caleb wanted to contest, he'd have to open himself up to attack.  Scenario-wise, Xerxis can get around, so the flag is still an option, but I'm mainly focused on attrition right now.  My ranged game was doing well, and I had a good board position, so I was pretty sure Caleb would have to come to me.


Turn 2, Trollbloods

Calandra leached in her Fury, and the Pyg Burrowers popped up in charge range of my line of Titans.

The Rune Bearer advanced, and used Harmonious Exaltation to reduce the cost of one of Calandra's spells by one.  Calandra herself advanced, cast Star Crossed (enemy models roll an additional die on attack rolls, and drop the highest), and popped her Feat to reroll all 1's and 2's models in her army rolled in her CTRL.  The Kriel Stone advanced, and used its Aura to buff armor.

The Pyg Burrowers charged in at the wall of Beast in front of them.  Two charged the Bronzeback, three charged the Gladiator, two charged Xerxis, and three charged the Archidon.  Some damage was done to everyone, but the most the Pygs were able to do was take out the Bronzeback's Mind.

Caleb debated his next moves a while, then decided to play aggressively.  He ran the bushwhackers to a screening position in front of the Titans and Burrowers.  Then the Earthborn advanced, and used Transmute on the Mountain King to give it various buffs based on the terrain it was near - including the forest it was in for +2 Spd.  The Mountain King ran to just behind the Bushwhackers, pretty well screened from a Titan charge.

Janissa walked up, and popped a Wall out in front of Calandra and the Earthborn, and in plenty of range to give the Earthborn and Mountain King +2 Arm.

A gutsy move by Caleb, but if I couldn't get a Titan or two onto the Mountain King, it would cause me a *lot* of trouble, and possibly kick me out of the zone, especially backed up by the Earthborn like it was.


Turn 3, Skorne

Xerxis leached his Fury, and upkept Ignite.  I was pretty sure I could get the Bronzeback onto the Mountain King, so that was the plan for this turn.

Xerxis went first, Feated (all models are in his CTRL, and friendly models roll an additional die on attack and damage roll, and discard one of my choice), then healed the Bronzeback's Spirit.  He cast Lightning Strike on himself for free, and, after some incredibly embarrassing rolls, he managed to kill the two Burrowers engaging him, and cruise around my objective to get some distance from the Earthborn and Mountain King.

The Venator Rievers went, and killed off a couple of screening Pyg Bushwhackers.  The Paingivers Enraged the Bronzeback and the Gladiator.

The Willbreaker went next, and used Ancillary Attack on the Cannoneer, who killed a couple of Digmies with the blast, mostly freeing up the Bronzeback.  The Cannoneer then advanced, and killed a couple Bushwhackers in melee, then the Gladiator.  The Gladiator Trampled over some Burrowers to ensure none could take Free Strikes against the Bronzeback, and bought some attacks against the Mountain King.  Bad idea.  The King popped out some Whelps in the Bronzeback's charge lane.

Bummer.  The Bronzeback went next, put Train Wreck on itself, and sqandered 2 attacks (one potential bought attack to cast Train Wreck, and one of its Initials) to get into melee with the Mountain King.  The Bronzeback came up short by 6 hit points, but did light the Gargantuan on fire.  Unfortunately, it was surrounded by Whelps it could use to heal itself back up.

The Archidon killed one of the Burrowers it was in combat with, and they fled.

Luckily for me, I don't think the Mountain King can take all three of my heavies next turn.  Unluckily, my Bronzeback, and maybe Gladiator, are toast.


Turn 3, Trollbloods.

The Fire on the Mountain King didn't go out, and it took 2 more damage.

The Mountain King activated, and hoovered up all the Whelps it had spawned, healing back up to a respectable 20 or so boxes.  It started swinging on the Bronzeback, but thanks to Mat 5, it took all of its Fury plus several rerolls from Calandra to finish the mighty Titan.

The Rune Bearer tried to Befuddle the Gladiator, but missed.  The Earthborn put Transmute on the Mountain King again, and advanced toward the Gladiator, but was just out of range.  Calandra retreated a bit, cast Bullet Dodger on herself, and camped 1 or 2.

The Kriel Stone walked up and did its thing.  The Burrowers didn't rally, and the Bushwhackers dinged up the Cannoneer a little with their remaining guns.  Janissa finished up by plunking a wall in front of Calandra within 2" of the Mountain King and Earthborn.

Caleb needed to swing things his way this turn, but didn't quite do enough.  On the other hand, if I couldn't finish off the Mountain King, he'd get another chance next turn.


Turn 4, Skorne

No spells to upkeep.  The Paingivers Enraged the Gladiator, the Cannoneer and the Archidon.  The Cannoneer charged the Mountain King, and did some damage.  The Gladiator finished it off.  Xerxis cast Mobility, and put Ignite on the Archidon, then did a Ride By Attack on one of the Burrowers Engaging the Archidon.  He killed it, zipped around to the Zone side of the table again.

The Extoller shot the Earthborn for a little damage, then the Venators unloaded into it with two big CRA's.  The Archidon charged it, chewed away about half its health, and crit-pitched it into Calandra.

Caleb didn't see much of a way out of this pit.  I had three functional heavies to his knocked down one, and two half-dead squads of Pygmy Trolls.  My Venators were in a great position to threaten Calandra or just pick off his support while Xerxis and the heavies did the bulk of the work.  So Caleb decided to concede.

Victory to the Skorne!


Thoughts on Epic "Rough Rhino" Xerxis

Xerxis 2 was a lot of fun for the first time out.  I really need to practice with huge based models, especially Spd 9 huge based models with Cavalry rules and Sprint.  Xerxis was chomping at the bit to do a little more killing, but was more or less stuck behind the objective and the heavies for most of the game.  Still, he brought plenty of support to make up for it: Ignite was solid, Mobility was great, and his Feat was just what I needed to at least partially offset Star Crossed.  After a couple of games, I'll probably have him better figured out.

The list was very cool, but being a point over was not.  The Cannoneer was a last minute sub-in, but I really liked the support that the gun, backed up by Ancillary Attack, brought.  Diminish is also a pretty good Animus for eXerxis, since he's pretty easy to get into melee with, and not quite hardy enough to take a charging heavy without some kind of boost to Arm.  The Rievers were good.  I really need to put them in more lists, since they add some great fire support.  Eleven points is a lot for them, but they may have found their place in this list.

The Mortitheurge was also a very good investment.  I totally let Beasts roam out of Xerxis' CTRL, and given how fast he is, it's a good option to have available.  Between the Willbreaker, Paingivers, and a Bronzeback's Leadership ability, running some Beasts outside Xerxis' control is doable, and it lets him get around a bit more.

I'll be trying him out with various things in the coming months.  I'll definitely try that Throw spam I talked about earlier, and at least one person has had good results out of Despoiler with him, so I'll try that soon too.

Phoenix Force Hyperion GO!!!

I got in a game recently against Russell, who used to be one of my more frequent opponents, and his Skorne. I hadn't tried Retribution against the hordes of elephants in a while, so I was interested to see how they'd fare now that I had some actual experience with my faction. Originally I was going to try out Vyros2 (as I really, really need to get some practice in with him!) but Russell wanted to see how my latest version of Force Wall fared, so out came Kaelyssa once again.

Since I've been a bit disappointed with the Manticore heavy build I decided to try something a bit different this time…

Phoenix Force Hyperion GO!!!! Tier 4

Kaelyssa

• Hyperion
• Phoenix
• Phoenix (proxied by a Banshee)
• Aspis

House Shyeel Artificer

House Shyeel Battle Mages

House Shyeel Battle Mages

Arcanist x 6

The thought process was for the force to be faster and better able to clear infantry than the Manticore heavy build. The Phoenixes can Combust to murder troops, have Reach to get into combat quicker and have decent guns should an assassination present itself. Plus they allow me to throw out some rough terrain should my opponent not have the tools to deal with it.

Against this Russell dropped what he considered to be his prime Retribution list:

Hexeris2

• Gladiator
• Bronzeback
• Cyclops Brute

Cataphract Cetrati

Cataphract Incendiarii

Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer

Nihilators

Some number of Paingivers

I won the roll and chose to go first while Russell chose the side with a nice wall on it. We rolled up and off we went. Vyros2 and the Manticore chassis were our objectives. I pre deployed the Hyperion across from

Round 1:

I ran forwards with the speed of a pointy eared jackrabbit. Russell (after being reminded about Force Wall's tier 3 ability and a lot of cursing) waddled forwards.

Round 2:

I couldn't smash the objectives this turn, so instead most of my force spread out to claim the left zone. Kaelyssa arced a pair of Rifts off of my lead Phoenix while the Hyperion ran into the right zone, and with some Force Bolts I managed to kill most of the Nihilators. I'm pretty sure I popped my feat this turn, but I can honestly not remember.

The Skorne were nonplussed about my rough terrain but were annoyed that they couldn't charge me. The Incendiarii set to work setting my mages on fire while the Nihilators ran to engage. The Cetrati advanced in shield wall while the Bronzeback and Gladiator postioned themselves to counter charge my Hyperion.

Round 3:

Roughly half of my Battle Mages died due to fire… that stuff hurts! But my game plan was the same: kill the Nihilators that were in my zone, smash the objective and dominate for 3.  I also debated dragging in some Cetrati to murder, but figured that I would need all hands on deck to finish my plan.

The few remaining mages from my left squad activated first and managed to kill one of the Nihilators, but only managed to Tough the second. A juiced up Phoenix smashed the objective, but I had to devote part of my second Mage squad, the second Phoenix and Kaelyssa to finish clearing out the zone. My Hyperion backed up to the edge of the right zone, as I didn't want to get charged by one, let alone two, enraged elephants. I ended my turn and scored 3 points.

Now that all of my shenanigans had expired Russell moved to stop me from ever taking that zone back. More Incediarii fire set most of my remaining Mages ablaze while the Cetrati attacked one of my Phoenixes and dealt a fair bit of damage but failed to kill it. The Gladiator smashed his objective while the Bronzeback repositioned to counter any moves that my Hyperion made.

Round 4:

Most of my Mages died to fire… except 1. This was key, as there was a single Cetrati between my lowly Aspis and his Bronzeback. The plan: clear the right zone and dominate for the win. I allocated 2 focus to the undamaged Phoenix as a back up plan.

First part was to eliminate the lone Cetrati. My Battle Mage put on his big boy pants and dragged him 3" out of the way and also knocked him down. Next my Aspis got three focus and charged into the Bronzeback. Four attacks, a Hyper Aggressive and a counter charge later I still managed to punch the stupid elephant out of the zone. That left the Hyperion to get allocated 3 focus, wander over to the Gladiator and two handed throw it far and away from the zone. Kaelyssa ran over and dominated for the final 2 points, securing me a scenario victory.

Victory for the Retribution!

After the game Russell wanted to rerack with his take on Fist of Halaak, for which I donated a few o fmy medium based models. The list was as follows:

Xerxis

• Tiberion
• Gladiator

Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer

Cataphract Cetrati

Min Cataphract Arcuarii x 2

Min Cataphract Incendiarii x 2

There are tons of proxies in this list as Russell is still painting/assembling his army, so any Griffons and light warbeasts are all some variation of Cataphract :P

Russell won the roll to go first and I took the side with the wall.

Round 1:

Running! Well, at least for me. Stupid Skorne had to walk :P

Round 2:

His forces advanced and he managed to get three Defender's Warded Cetrati into the right zone while a unit of Arcuarii and Tiberion headed for the left zone, but none made it in. Xerxis put up Inhospitable Ground.

Seeing this I was faced with a conundrum- should I  attempt to clear the right zone and leave the left for a later turn power grab like before, or should I take the effectively free points that the left zone was giving me? Or should I try for an assassination, as I knew that Xerxis was on just 1 transfer and since he was perched on the edge of a hill was in LOS of both of my Phoenixes? The assassination plan got ruled out after some internal debate, and I measured my control radius and found that I wouldn't be able to run into the left zone, so I decided to plan on taking the right and allocated 3 to one of my Phoenixes.

The plan was to drag in the three Cetrati and murder them with Kaelyssa's gun, the full attention of one Phoenix and opportunity strikes from the second after it ended the objective. However I had discounted how frustrating Defender's Ward was and  only managed to drag two of the Cetrati. I killed them easily with a Phoenix with focus to spare, but decided that the plan was going pear shaped and chose to not spend the focus. Kaelyssa arced a Rift through one of the Phoenixes and walked over towards the left zone (and popped her feat) while the Hyperion destroyed the objective there at range and scored 2 points.

Round 3:

Two very important things happened this turn for Skorne. First, Tiberion toed into the left zone. Second, a metric ton of Cataphracts entered the right zone, sealing it off from me pretty much for good. They scratched up one of my Phoenixes and set my Mages on fire as well, but from here on out it was going to go down hill for me.

On my turn I started planning out how to take the left zone. The Hyperion attempted to gun down the four Arcuarii but missed with the Starburst gun, leaving one left alive and requiring help from one of my  Phoenixes to clear it out. And since I needed to aim with the Hyperion to clear them out I wasn't able to move it forward to start getting the drop on Tiberion, even though I blocked its charge range with my Aspis. I also carved up a few Cetrati.

Round 4:

Xerxis feated, and even with an epically bad feat turn managed to clear the right zone as I had foolishly left my second Phoenix just outside of it. Tiberion smashed my Aspis to smithereens.

Seeing as I had no way to get close on Tiberion I tried to go for an ill conceived assassination and failed. On the following turn Xerxis cleared the zone and dominated for the final points.

A defeat for the brave heroes of the Retribution.

Thoughts:
Force Wall has the tools to handle this match up, but I think it will involve switching up my list a bit. For the next version I'll be dropping an Artificer and a group of Mages for three Magisters which will allow my Phoenixes to better get the drop on enemy troops, as well as provide a more reliable form of drag should I need it.

Fist of Halaak has... a lot of boxes. I definitely think that going for the assassination on turn 2 would have been the correct course of action, especially since I still could have snatched two control points to keep him on the defensive. Even if I failed to kill Xerxis it would have wounded him and opened up the opportunity to get him on subsequent turns, especially since with Phantom Hunter it's very, very difficult for him to hide.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time shank a round ear for me!

NFL League Playoffs

With a record of 9-0 (my final opponent didn't have time to play me before the deadline last Friday, so our scores for that game aren't counted), I'm in the Tower NFL League playoffs.

There are three games (though I'm pretty sure I have a bye for the first round).  The format is basically the same as the regular season, with one exception: we can only use a Warlock/Warcaster once.

I won the Fury conference with a record of 9-0 (my last opponent and I weren't able to schedule our game in time for the deadline this past Friday).  Also in the Fury conference are Jamie and his Cryx, and Sean with his Blindwater.  My week 3 opponent, Tom, went 8-2, and won the Focus conference with Khador.  Benesh with Convergence, and another Tom with Mercenaries are also in the playoffs in Focus.

The first round pits the runners-up in each conference against each other: Jamie plays Sean, and Mercs Tom plays Benesh.  The winner of each match will play the conference winner: Me and Khador Tom (who posted here as Zatak).  Then the winners of those games will play in the finals.

Without wanting to telegraph my lists too much, I'm still sticking to the 4 Warlocks I've focused on over the summer: Mordikaar, pMakeda, Makeda 3, and Zaal (but especially Makeda 3).  I'll be able to bring 2 to each match, and I'll still be able to tailor my lists a bit to confound my current opponent.

The first playoff games are happening tonight, and I'll show up just in case Sean or Jamie wants to play a double header.

If not, I'll probably give eXerxis another spin, and/or try out Zaadesh.

EDIT: It turns out I can't play tonight :(  But that's ok.  I'll play on Friday, and let you all know how it goes.

Mercs: Short, Stubborn, and Surprisingly Well Painted

So, I've been seriously thinking about getting into Mercs (and more specifically Searforge) for a while now, for the following reasons:

1. I love Forge Guard - great models, great fluff, fun stuff on the battlefield, just fantastic all around.
2. General 'Awesome' Ossrum - this short little dude is just everything a caster should be, to me.
3. EARTHBREAKER SMASH! - nuff said.
4. Have I mentioned Forge Guard?
5. They are a bit different tactically from my current factions (Trollbloods and especially Circle), and it would be good to get back into a Warmachine faction from playing Hordes for so long.
6. MOAR FORGE GUARD!

So, contemplating this and actually buying (and assembling, priming, painting, and basing) said models are two different things entirely. In the meantime, my friend Tim says to me one day "Caleb, wanna buy some Searforge?" to which I says "maybe, how much ya got?"

Pretty much all of it.

So, I now have Searforge. A lot of Searforge. A lot of beautifully painted and based Searforge (with instructions on how to replicate the paint job for the ~1/3 of the models that are not painted). With the exception of Durgan, Gortan, the Tactical Arcanist Corp, and the Earthbreaker (which I promptly bought, but have yet to assemble), I managed to procure a complete Searforge army and helped a friend out to boot.

List Building

At the moment, I'm limited to Ossrum and Searforge - actually a lot of models, but coming from Circle and Trollbloods, that is actually a very limited selection any way you slice it. I have 2 games under my belt so far, one late-night game I barely remember winning, and another against my eternal foe, pGrezy (see battle report). I've been building Ossrum lists, which poses a surprising conundrum - Ossrum's tier, or straight Searforge?

Searforge:
Benefits: deployment zone extended 4", +1 to FA of non-character models/units

Thoughts:
 - an extra 4" deployment zone is just amazing, and help mitigate the universally low SPD
 - additional FA is ok, good for skew lists (3 units of Forge Guard), and it lets you take 2 High Shield UAs (which is actually a really nice strategy if you want to go gun line with an Earthbreaker).
 - with no tier restrictions to reach, it makes for MUCH more variable lists than tier.

Ossrum's Tier 'State of War':
Tier 1: take basically Searforge models = 1 unit gains Advance Deploy
Tier 2: take 2 units with ranged weapons = place 1 trench template (for each 2 ranged units, basically)
Tier 3: take at least 2 solos = start with Ossrum's Upkeeps already up
Tier 4: take 3 jacks in Ossrum's Battlegroup = they get +2 SPD for the first round

Thoughts:
 - All the benefits basically equal out to a very, very fast start: speed boost for jacks, AD for a unit, trench templates for running units/exposed Ossrum to hide in, and upkeeps already up so Ossrum can throw fury into a full Energizer and fail-charge forward for 10" (15"+ for 'jacks!) on the first turn. Not bad.
 - Getting to tier 3 alone means running either a straight gunline or a combined arms list, which can get kinda tricky unless you space them out (causing problems for his feat) or pack them near Ossrum to benefit from Martial Discipline (making it a tempting target for templates).
 - 3 jacks, even if two are gun bunnies, are really going to put a strain on Ossrum's available focus. Switching just one of them over to Thor would be a big help, but the tier is battlegroup-specific.

Conclusion:
Honestly? Both are about evenly matched. Ossrum's Tier 3 is amazing, and the advance deploy/spd buffs do a lot to make up for losing the 4" extended deployment zone, but it's really the main thing the tier has going for it and comes at a cost of a greatly restricted variety of lists over straight Searforge. What I'll probably do is make the list I want to make in one of them, and see if it would work better converting it over to the other. I'm digging the Tier list for the moment, mainly because it is such a faster start than anything I can make in Searforge.

The Lists

35pt Ossrum: State of War Tier 4
General Ossrum (*5pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Wroughthammer Rockram (8pts)
Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps Officer & Standard (3pts)
Herne & Jonne (3pts)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Lord Rockbottom (2pts)
Thor Steinhammer (2pts)

Sort of a bare-bones approach, it has everything I want in it and very little else. Rockbottom is in a lot of these lists partly to keep units/thor from failing command checks, partly as a secondary target for Fire For Effect (he's got a pretty decent spray), and mostly because there is exactly one other 2pt choice in the entire freaking sub-faction to fill up points with, and that model is already in every list anyway (Thor).

35pt Ossrum: Searforge
General Ossrum (*5pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Wroughthammer Rockram (8pts)
Herne & Jonne (3pts)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Tactical Arcanist Corps (4pts)
Lord Rockbottom (2pts)
Ogrun Bokur (3pts)
Thor Steinhammer (2pts)
* Ghordson Basher (7pts)

As much as I like High Shields with Ossrum (snipe!), it's tricky to fit them and Forge Guard in at 35pts and keep a good diversity of options - I had a hell of a time just dealing with incorporeal models in my first game, simply because I had only 1 magic weapon (Ossrum). Dropping them for a Bokur, TACs, and upgrading a gun bunny to bash bunny on Thor really opens up some options, namely magic weapons, shield guard, and a good single target slammer to keep jacks/beasts off my line and relieve the focus-crunch on Ossrum.

50pt Ossrum: State of War Tier 4
General Ossrum (*5pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Ghordson Driller (6pts)
* Ghordson Earthbreaker (19pts)
Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps Officer & Standard (3pts)
Herne & Jonne (3pts)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Ogrun Bokur (3pts)
Thor Steinhammer (2pts)

At 50pts, there really is absolutely no reason not to bring an Earthbreaker (discounting not being a jackass... kidding, kidding!), which severely limits options. Dropping the Rockram for the Earthbreaker and upgrading the bunny to a driller takes up a lot of it - I want the driller around to threaten enemy jacks/beasts once the Earthbreaker goes, as one of the few sure-fire ways to deal with an Earthbreaker list is to kill the damn thing as quickly as possible with everything you've got and hope you come out favorably in the inevitable counterattacking scrum. The Bokur is in there for charge blocking, as a 2nd string hitter, and (mainly) shield guard to counter the other sure-fire way to deal with the Earthbreaker: that dirty rat bastard. The problem is, to fit that in, I'm dropping TACs to keep to the tier requirement.

50pt Ossrum: Searforge
General Ossrum (*5pts)
* Ghordson Earthbreaker (19pts)
Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps Officer & Standard (3pts)
Herne & Jonne (3pts)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Lord Rockbottom (2pts)
Tactical Arcanist Corps (4pts)
Ogrun Bokur (3pts)
Thor Steinhammer (2pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)

Same thoughts, bit more variety. The blaster is a good choice for Thor, in my opinion, as he can pronto it around and it can boost a spray attack or two when needed, making it a solid 2nd line jack, especially with Thor devoting his buff to the Earthbreaker (because holy hell that's good). I'm debating dropping Herne and Jonne, Rockbottom, and the TACs (or just the High Shields and UA) for a full unit of Ogrun Assault Corps for some speed and a relatively independent combined-arms force to run interference for the big guy - medium bases are always good, after all. We'll see how this one works first.

So, there we have it! I'll be putting up some battle reports for these as soon as I can get some games in (they're just so photogenic, you see...), as well as (hopefully) a Trollblood tactica or two and some more lists now that the Circle-specific football league is over and the insanely busy summer is winding down. 

Throwin' the Gauntlet: Last Round and Overall Thoughts

As promised, the thrilling conclusion to the Gauntlet Rounds tournament!

The final game had me paired up against another member of Crippled System, Nathan, with his damn dirty Convergence robots. He was running Iron Mother, Father Lucant and Syntherion, but from previous experience (and the fact that he had two Prime Axioms available to use) I was pretty sure that he was going to use Lucant. Seeing that, I decided to use the following Ossyan list:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan, of House Vyre, First of His Name, Atomizer of Robots

• Hyperion

Arcantrik Force Generator

Arcanist x 2

Mage Hunter Assassin x 2

Aiyanna and Holt

Stormfalls x 2

Mage Hunter Strike Force + UA

Sentinels + UA

Halberdiers + UA and Thane

He brought Lucant with this:

Father Lucant

• Prime Axiom x 2
• Corollary
• Galvanizer
• Diffuser

Enigma Foundry x 2

Angels x 2

Reciprocators

Reductors + UA

Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex

… and probably some other stuff.

As opposed to my previous two "games" this one actually had some good back and forth going on. I still made a couple of mistakes, but for the most I felt that I held my own. Again, instead of doing a blow by blow I just want to cover the highlights.

Round 1: I spend a lot of time and effort trying to kill Def 20 Angels with Stormfall fire, only to throw away my Mage Hunter Assassin to kill a single Angel instead of saving it to take out one of his Enigma Foundries. I also move my Hyperion an inch too far forward leading to…

Round 2: ...one of his Prime Axioms charging it under Positive Charge, but still only getting my big robot to just under half health. Lucant feated at this point, making any attempt to harm his forces fairly impossible. I had the opportunity to try for a critical consume on his bunched up Reductors (could have killed 7 or so) but I chose instead to have the Hyperion take out half of the Prime Axiom. Meanwhile my MHSF and the remaining assassin flanked hard to threaten Lucant and my Sentinels foolishly charged his Reductors, killing a few but opening themselves up to be…

Round 3: ...slaughtered by POW 13 rerollable sprays. Ouch. The Prime Axiom finished off my Hyperion, my Stormfalls got engaged because I had moved them up too far previously and a bunch of my Halberdiers got smushed by Reuctors and the other Prime Axiom. However I now got to counter feat, and by using all of my models' activations (including a nice damage roll from my Houseguard Thane's pistol) I was able to bring down both of the Prime Axioms.

Round 4: Reductors murder most of my remaining infantry and he murders my objective while Lucant moves to dominate the zone. I counter by shoving my remaining Halberdiers in the zone along with the AFG, but I leave my infantry too close to the AFG allowing…

Round 5: … Lucant to get distance on the AFG and wipes it. Fortunately I had one infantry still in the zone, so I decide to go for an assassination. Unfortunately Lucant shield guards Ossyan's shot onto the Galvanizer and I'm only able to get him down to half health, allowing him to dominate for the win.

Next time I'll make sure to prioritize his Enigma Foundries for destruction, as with them on the board I couldn't even try to eliminate his infantry. I'll also try to keep my forces reeeeaaaally far back as I wait for his feat turn to expire, as if I get too close I can't do enough damage to smash his models.

General thoughts on the format:

Overall I think that the Gauntlet rounds are an interesting idea and definitely better than the previous year's format, but I still really, really don't like 75 point games. Playing Warmachine at 75 feels like playing Warhammer except with finickier rules and positioning, which is definitely not what I'm looking for in a game. It also really pushes you to have a game plan right from deployment, as getting all of your forces in the correct place from the start and having a good idea for how they will unpack is crucial when there are so many models on the board. Since I'm historically bad at this phase of the game except with armies that I'm very familiar with, you can see how this will color my opinion.

That being said, I can certainly see how the above points are intended to divide the lucky scrubs from the top tier tournament players, so the format seems to be working as intended. It's also nice that the 75 point games are only for the last two rounds, as having an entire day of 75 would probably break my soul.

If I were to play this again I would definitely focus more on the assassination. Retribution has never had a great relationship with attrition and 75 points seems to compound this issue. We have more tools to get a good alpha on, but due to the sheer quantity of models it's harder for that alpha to mean something. Since we can't hold the zone all that well and I don't have the skills for long games at this point level that leaves going for the enemy caster as quickly as possible, which is fortunately something that we're pretty darn good at.

Seeing as that's the case I think the three casters I chose are pretty good for the format. Switching out Ravyn for Kaelyssa would also work pretty well, as Phantom Seekered Hyperion can certainly kill casters if he gets half a chance to do so.

So, a bit rambly, but hopefully you enjoyed. Let me know what you think of the new format and how your force will handle it, and of course until next time shank a round ear for me!