Mammoth Roller - 1st Tournament of 2016!

Well Tournament time was here!  The day started with the night before's pizza for breakfast (the Breakfast of Champions) and then a walk down to the Wargames (via Asda to pick up a rather fetching tray - another post to follow!). 

I was a little nervous as an awful lot comes down to the actual draw, with quite a wide variety of skill levels in the room I hoped not to be drawn versus one of the favorites in the first round.  As it was I got drawn against the same Circle player who had smashed me with both Kromac2 and Morvahna2 recently.

 

Grand Exemplar Kreoss vs. Krueger the Stormlord (Circle Orboros)

Win: Assassination (0/2 on scenario) 

 

So having been beaten in the last 2 out of 3 games I was a little nervous.  The only benefit being that it was against Krueger2 who he wasn't very familiar with.  So as is standard with Hordes I dropped my Kreoss2 list hoping to weather the storm before smashing the exemplar hammer down and hopefully killing enough to win.

 

Turn one was pretty standard, the Circle moved up and dropped a screen of clouds in front of their lines.  I ran forward and feated the Zealots in charge range hoping that they'd get in the way.

In turn 2 things got interesting, I hadn't realised how bad Kruegers feat was versus this list.  He jumped forward and pushed back my entire army 3 inches, this doesn't sound much but the second part is what caused the issue.  A 2" movement penalty on my moves next turn whilst also stopping running and charging left most of my guys at the end of turn 2 either in the same position as the end of turn 1 or further away!  In several javelins found their mark and wiped out half the Errants.  The only good thing being that as the rest of the circle advanced it brought them into melee range of my Zealots (who couldn't firebomb without causing more risk to my guys then the oppostion).  The Zealots wandered into base to base, more to cause an irritation rather than kill anything.

Now that the after effects of Kruegers feat were done with turn three was back to game time.  I lost a few Zealots and a few more Errants to combat actions but really this was light as the Zealots had trapped the Circle beasts behind the Circle infantry at the back where they couldn't really cause much destruction.  My turn three was feat turn and resulted in the destruction of all the circle infantry in my way.  There was also an Argus pinning the Reckoner that was killed by the Errant Senschal to release the Reckoner to smash a Feral Warpwolf.

 

And then into the final turn, with  only three stones, two heavies and Krueger left the scenario win was pretty much off the table.  The only thing left was an asssassination run on Kreoss.  This all went swimmingly by moving various pieces out of the way with Telekinesis.  The next bit seemed simple and involved killing a single Bastion, however due to Sanguine bond this effectively gave the Bastion 40 hit boxes.  Whilst he had a good go, having thrown everything at him the unit was still all alive with 8 boxes remaining.  Having realised that he'd lost the last thing was to kill a few Zealots to drop them below half strength.  

In my turn all that remained was the Reckoner turning around into combat with Krueger and smashing him in the face with his bat.

Grand Exemplar Kreoss vs. Absylonia, Daughter of Everblight (Legion of Everblight)

Loss: Assassination (2/0 on scenario)

This game turned out to be a mirror match of the first time I'd beaten Legion a few weeks ago.  With regards to lists I knew that my Severius list would never stand a chance against the beast heavy list so the only option was to play Kreoss again and be list locked in the final round.

A standard deployment later and turn 1 went as expected, I ran forward behind the Zealots screen and mini-feated.  The next turn I received some long range pot shots that set a few Zealots on fire who would no doubt die the following turn.

Turn two and I continued my advance, jamming the remaining Zealots into a few beasts as always more to cause irritation than damage.  My hope was that these would pin things back ready for a turn 3/4 smash to remove as many heavies as possible.  I then remembered the scenario was killbox and moved Kreoss as far forward to keep him safe.  This was my critical mistake, I decided that behind the Bastions was safe from tramples and so chose to put him in a pocket a little further forward to avoid Killbox, had I put him in the other pocket he would have been tucked up nice and safe.

Well Mark rarely misses an opportunity to assassinate and I'd left a screamer on for him.  Whilst he was immune to trample he wasn't immune to shooting and the only thing that was blocking LOS was a Zealot and Raek.  However the solution was simple, the Raek leapt out of the way and into the Zealot.  I short attack later and the line of sight could be drawn.

Up stepped a pair of everyones favourite assassination beasts (Ravagores) and some spits headed inbound to Kreoss.  I thought I'd got away with it as at 14/19 Kreoss survived the two blasts but like a pro Mark had left a few millmitres between the bases so up stepped the Blightbringer.  Not taking chances everything was boosted and the Blightbreath flattened Kreoss (and with only 50 minutes of the 2 hour game time gone).

Grand Scrutator Severius vs. Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed (Khador)

Win: Assassination (0/2 on scenario)

The third and final game which was essentially for 3rd place overall.  I was list locked with Severius (although against Khador this wasn't neccesarily a problem) and Mark dropped Butcher3. 

Having both been assassinated fairly quickly in the previous round we were both in good humour and no rush to finish the game in under an hour so we took it at a nice sedate pace.  Chris even posed for a photo (note I'd forgotten about the photo after deployment so this was taken after I'd run the Vessel forward):

Having not really played each other before the first turn was a little cagey.  I did my standard raising of all of my upkeeps and ran everyone forward.  Most of the inbound fire came at my Flameguard but thanks to defenders ward & dirge of mists at DEF16 they survived surprisingly well!

Turn two and the Flameguard split in to and ran at the Winterguard and Widowmakers (more to stop them shooting than anything) as well as creating a screen across the front of the Vessel of Judgement.  I then opened up on the Behemoth with everything I could (including using it as a target for Ashes to Ashes and the Vessels gun).  Whilst the Behemoth like a champ took the punishment everything around it wasn't so lucky.  Butcher lost both Argus' and his wardog and the pikemen took a beating.  Too late however I realised that due to poor positioning (and having been forced into taking the first turn) Severius was in the killbox so I was going to gift to CP's to Chris.

In the bottom of turn 2 Chris had clearly decided to claim his friendly zone to put him on 3/0 and force me to chase the scenario.  For killing his dogs Butcher got a free move up, he then charged the screening Flameguard and dragged them and Blessing of Vengeance into combat.  Destroying all the Flameguard with two flashing blades (whilst the Blessings shield knocked him 2" closer to the zone) he then feat'd and did the same again, finishing of 8/12 Flameguard and Blessing over the course of the turn.  He then camped on ARM22 in the zone.  Luckily the Widowmakers couldn't hit the last 2 Flameguard in combat and so they were left to contest the zone. 

The final move was the pikemen on my left charging the Avatar - and here's where it got a little dodgy and I felt a little like a cheat.  Chris forgot to do the attacks on the Avatar after moving them all up. My turn started and I managed to roll high on focus for the Avatar. At this point Chris remembered he hadn't attacked (but didn't request that he do them now).  Treating this as an honest mistake I offered for him to do the attack now if he wished, he took me up on the offer and took some points from the Avatar.  However being enlivened the Avatar then skipped away towards a relatively unprotected Butcher.  In my defence I was going to charge the Avatar out of combat anyway across into Butcher, taking a free strike in the process.  And to a point the combat action was not to dissimilar from what the freestrike would have been, however it all felt a little dirty that I'd tricked him into enabling the enliven move (although though hand on heart this wasn't the case).

So back to my turn three, I was now sat with a really opportune assassination in front of me.  Butcher was there camping focus up to ARM22 but I now had the Vessel and Avatar in range of causing damage.  Taking my own advise from previous I stopped and properly had a thought about what I would do and just checking I'd not missed something obvious.  The threats to butcher were, the Vessels Gun, 2 x Ashes to Ashes fired at the (fire immune) Vessel (again a trick I'd learnt from experience) to then bounce onto Butcher and finally the Avatar causing straight damage with its MAT11 and POW22 sword.  I ran through the idiot sheet (focus, choir, hierophant) and then began the run. The Vessel blasted Butcher for a few points of damage, Ashes to Ashes blasted him twice again for a few points but nothing too significant - ARM22 is pretty dam tough!  Last but not least was the Avatar, having rolled full focus for him and hitting on anything but double 1 I was hoping that he would be enough.  By this point Butcher was on around 15 boxes and assuming everything hit i was looking at 8d6 - 6 worth of damage from the Avatar.  Whilst the odds were still in my favour for this, rolling a total of 21 on 8 dice was still not a given kill (according to http://rumkin.com/reference/dnd/diestats.php a 14% chance of failure).

Anyway in the end the negative spike didn't happen and I managed to get my second (although slightly dirty) win of the day.


Results
 
After all the games had finished I ended up 3rd which I was very happy with, I genuinely hoped I might get a win but never did I think I'd end up 3rd - a very happy chappy!

Lessons Learnt -

• Its very easy to give away assassinations against shooting forces, take the time to think about each caster move.  Don't just shift it where it looks vaguely ok!
• When someone forgets something, highlight the whole situation so they are making an informed decision.
• The two lists are fairly solid but if the tournament is only three rounds getting list locked is very easy.
• I did quite a bit of prep for this tournament, clearly it helped so keep doing it!

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 6/12

First Time Meeting Gators and Speed Playing 50 points in 80 minutes!

No photos again sadly, this week was pushing my pSevy tournament list into some matchups where I'd probably be more tempted to use Kreoss2:

 

Grand Scrutator Severius vs. Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (Circle Orboros)

Loss: Assassination (0/2 on scenario)

Well the game featured a very tough Circle list, 2 full units of multi-wound infantry backed up by 3 Argo's, 2 Warpwolves and Wrong Eye and Snapjaw.  So with all of that power this game was going to be tough, I deployed second and farily central.  Opposing me all the Gators were aimed at my left zone and the circle at the right.  I was relying on the Temple Flameguard holding up the gators (with a few Ashes to Ashes to cause some damage), the right I sent the Avatar in backed up by the Reckoner.  I finished up with the Vessel central to add fire support into whichever zone required it.

So the game went pretty soundly, the Avatar went in and smashed half the skinwalkers, Enlivened away and then Smashed a Warpwolf down to a single box.  It was promptly ripped apart by the wolf, I then followed this up with the Reckoner who used the objective to block charge angles and keep the beasts on their toes.  On the other side the Flameguard stood firm all game gradually whittled down to 5 members, although with the aid of Ashes to Ashes, the Vessel and Blessing of Vengeance they took down half the Gators and Snapjaw.

The game seemed to be going to plan until the Vessel got charged by the other warpwolf, unsurprisingly it was ripped apart and left a big hole in the middle of my line.  Cowering in this hole (which had looked fairly strong till this point) was Sevy, Laris promptly ran up and Kaya teleported in for the kill.

Grand Scrutator Severius  vs. Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper (Retribution of Scyrah)

Loss: Assassination (0/1 on scenario)

The second game of the night was  little more intriguing, we had only 80 minutes left so decided to give it a go and play a full 50 point game with 40 minute deathclock.

Its surprising what can be done when you put your mind to it.  With 10 minutes gone from my clock I was halfway through turn 2.  Essentially lots of rushing forward and getting ready, the Flameguard had been battered by combined ranged attacks so I ran them into combat to make them a little safer.  Then came two of several assassination attempts that failed.  With Kaelyssa close to the front line unit of mage hunters I cast Ashes to Ashes on the closest Elf to her, hit him and then required a 4+ to include the caster in the damage roll.  I promptly rolled a 2 and fried three elves.  This was followed up by a second attempt whereby I'd need a 3+ on the bounces...the dice came up a 1.  Luckily this now left her exposed and a shot from the vessel blasted 10 boxes from her.

When the potency of Blessing was realised the opposition shooting was then directed at my character Jacks and I managed to lose Avatar and Blessing in a single turn.  My turn three and Kaelyssa was now hidden behind a Myrmidon.  After casting a miracle to push away its attackers (leaving it on 3 points of damage left) the vessel pushed forward to a take a pot shot.  Having smashed 10 boxes the round before I was fairly confident of an assassination.  Boosting to hit I required an average roll but it wasn't to be.  The backup plan was a fully vamped up Reckoner taking a pot shot however  there was a Vessel in the way.  Nevermind, Vassal to the rescue - ancillary attack from the Reckoner destroys the Vessel and then in its turn it takes the shot.  However the Vessel is immune to fire attacks, at this moment to my horror I realised that all of the attacks that were powerful enough to damage the Vessel were all fire type attacks (immolation and ashes to ashes being the big ones) - I had nothing with which to kill it.  So instead the Reckoner flattened a solo and I hoped to get a turn 4.

This was never going to happen, Kaelyssa is a master shot and she walked into range of Severius and shot him to death. I wasn't to upset though considering she had lived through 4 assassination attempts she deserved the win!

Lessons Learnt -

• Severius doesn't go into tough opponents very well.
• With the single screening unit I'm going to get pretty stretched in two zone scenarios.  I need a plan to work around this.
• With the Elf caster I should have shot the Vessel into the easier to hit Jack and then boosted the power 11 Admonisher shot, this should have been enough to kill her and would have been an easier shot to take.  
• Had I thought about it rather than lamenting the fact that I couldn't damage the Vessel with Ashes I should have seen it as the awesome opportunity it was.  Had I blasted the Vessel with A2A it would have been fine, a high roll on the jumps and it could have taken her out with that instead, especially with the option to boost two damage rolls with all the focus Sevy had! - Doh
• I still think Blessing, Sevy and the Eye are awesome!

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 4/11

List Lock In

So, 10am Sunday morning I sent my list in to the Tournament Organiser.  Having played the games on Saturday I am really confident about both lists (my ability is a different matter!).  They are pretty much the same as the lists I used but I exchanged the Errants and a Redeemer for Temple Flameguard and a Reckoner.  I lose the blast damage but gain another heavy which I feel will give me more options.  Hopefully if that list faces a colossal I should be able to at least try and double team it with the Avatar and a Reckoner.

The other factions in the tournament are Cygnar (x2), Circle (x2), Retribution, Khador and Legion (+ my PoM).

Pre-Tournament Practice / 4 Player Mini-Tournament

With the local club tournament next weekend and list submissions by midday the following day a group of us decided to get together and have what essentially turned out to be a 4 player mini-tournament.

The four factions present were Cryx, Legion, Cygnar and my Menites.  We all also got to test out both our lists over the two games which really helped cement what I would lock in to the list.

Grand Exemplar Kreoss  vs. Absylonia, Daughter of Everblight (Legion)

Win: 5/2 on scenario

So game one was versus our resident Legion player, I put down my Kreoss2 Exemplar list as this is my standard Hordes drop.  I also expected lots of Beasts and on feat turn the Bastions really hit hard!  It turned out to be an awesome matchup and really made my oppponent struggle.

So I won the role and chose board edge, a castle in the middle of the deployment zone on the other side would really have messed things up.  I deployed second and opted to aim for the two right hand flags first before swinging round to hit the third flag on the left. 

Turns 1-3

End of turn 1:

The first three turns were basically two armies advancing towards each other.  There was a few exchanged shots but nothing major.  The real meat of the game happened in turn 4

Turn 4

  Beginning of turn 4:

So with both armies so close it was down to the nitty gritty piece exchange.  I was drawn 2/2 on scenario and needed to both keep Abby from scoring and also keep Kreoss ticking over.

The turn started with Abby feating and Blighty charging the Reckoner that was stopping her scoring.  With the Reckoner dead there was nothing that I could move into range that could stop the win.  However this is where it went wrong, the Reckoner had Enliven on it and after taking a hit walked away from combat.  This left Blighty high and dry in front of 10 Bastions.  After being surprised by the move my opponent threw everything at the Reckoner trying to drop it.  However they were all shooting attacks and whilst some damage was caused it was still left with half the boxes and was still blocking the scoring.  To finish of, the Raek charged Kreoss to stop him scoring and also with some luck kill him off.  It blocked scoring but otherwise did limited damage to Kreoss.

Bottom of the 4th

Well for the first time in my Warmahordes carrier I had the opportunity to beat one of the top tier players at the club.  I also had more than enough time to do what I needed to do without clocking out.  Essentially all I needed to do was kill a Raek, solo and Blightbringer and the game was won!

The big ace up my sleeve here was Kreoss2's feat and charging weaponmasters.  It took quite a few rolls and charges but the Bastions prooved adequate to trash the Blightbringer (even though it was Fortified), 4 zealots firebombed the solo and the Raek died to Kreoss and the Errant Seneschal.

End of turn 4:

 

Grand Scrutator Severius vs. Captain Jeremiah Kraye (Cygnar)

 Loss: 0/5 on scenario

The second game was my first against Kraye, the idea of 'jacks acting like cavalry was a little off putting as was the large amount of gunmages arrayed against me.

Turn 1:

 

Rather than do this play by play I'll talk you through the game.  Sadly the Errants were virtually annihilated by turn 2, between Eryiss stripping Defenders Ward from them and gunmages blowing them into next week they just couldn't keep up.  The positive was Blessing of Vengeance arcing ashes to ashes through it and killing Aiyana and Holt, the Black 13th, Strangewayes and 60% of the gun mages.  It also damaged a jack and the objective - what a great spell!  The Avatar was penned in by Eiryss and then took a beating from an opposing heavy.  It promptly then turned around and trashed the heavy back, despite being disabled by everything apart from its shield arm!  Turns out 4 focus and a P22 damaged sword are a thing.  He also smashed Eiryss in the face with the shield taking her out the game.  The Vessel also got invovled and bounced some shots around and damaged old rowdy.

However by this point I was really running out of troops, my skirmish screen was gone very early on, my jacks took a pounding and the vessel was down to half boxes.  The coup de gras was just before my final turn when I lost the Vessel and the Avatar.  This put me massively down on scenario, the only option left was an Immolation Assassination attempt on Kraye.  Tristran ran forward to have a go at the remaining gun mage and ended up being smashed by Old Rowdy and a defensive strike.  This made the Redeemer inert and gifted the zone to my opponenet (doh!!).  So Sevy powered himself up and Blessing ran across the table.  However it wasn't meant to be and of the 3 Immolations cast only one hit (needing 5's on two dice!) and then did no more than a point or two of damage.  This left my opponent with 2 warjacks and Kraye to kill a single choirman and the game was done.

 

Lessons Learnt -

• Kreoss2 is a beast when played aggressively. 
• Putting the Zealots back in the Kreoss2 list has much more playability than the Paladins used last time.
• Blessing, Sevy and the Eye are awesome!  Dishing out 2 + 2D6 power 13 hits per turn is enough to trash 9 models/turn.  Also the assassination potential of 4 x Pow15 immolations per turn really is a thing!

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 4/9

List Submission Time: T-60 hours

So I have 60 hours to get my lists in for the first tournament of 2016.  Whilst a week ago this would have been fine, I'm now really not confident in the Harby list and by association the Kreoss2 list and all the other lists that it needs to cover.

So now its going to take some real thought and planning, current thinking is:

a) Play it safe, a pSevy & pKreoss pairing is fairly solid and gives me a potential assassination option in the pop and drop.  I've also used pSevy the most so familiarity should help.

b) Use the two lists I had before this week, I've played them a few times and was confident before this hiccup.  Equally I wouldn't normally have played Harby into that list so the two loses with her are not necessarily indicative of anything.  Also having put the Zealots back in, the Kreoss2 list is a lot more balanced.

c) Throw caution to the wind and go for some really out there lists that skew heavily and potentially give my opponent some real headaches.  Current test lists are:

• eFeora Repenter Wall - 8 Repenters, 1 heavy, support and max Zealots
• eFeora Heavy Hitters - 5 Heavies, 1 light and support
• pSevy Magic and Monsters - 2 Ashes-to-Ashes Sevy, Vessel, Jamming and 11 Bastions

So I'm not sure what to do, some more thinking required!

Bish Bash Bosh!

Club night this week consisted of two games against my same opponent who gave me a good thrashing last Saturday.  With a bit of a push we planned two timed games, which would allow me to use both lists I was looking at using at the tournament 10 days later.  Sadly due to the time pressures I forgot to take photos.

Harbinger of Menoth vs. Morvahna the Dawnshadow (Circle Orboros)

Win: Timeout (0/2 on scenario - 20 mins/0 mins on clock)

So it was a little bit of a surprise to be facing Morvahna, I was anticipating Kromac2 and seeing as Morvahna had two full units of Skinwalkers Harby just isn't built to deal with multi wound infantry.

So I threw everything in, as anticipated the screening unit of Errants and feat really struggled with Arm18, 8 wound Skinwalkers.  I also forgot to feat turn 1 (again) which allowed everyone a lot closer than they should have been.  On the right though I was a little more successful and was hoping to piece trade 2 opposition heavies for half an Avatar.  Unfortunately the second heavy was left on a single box after the attack and went and trashed the Avatar.  It was still a 2 for 1 trade but left me a lot weaker on that flank than I'd have hoped for.

Between Harby martying, the Errants being tough and self sacrifice it was a real slog for my opponent and very quickly he was in hot water with regards to time.  As is often the case, once the clock got into the last 10 minutes everything got rushed and the time jsut slipped away.

Whilst winning on time isn't the greatest way to win, the very fact that I had so much left was comforting.  Equally it was realistically the only way I was going to win, without the time edge I was losing and was going to struggle to win on scenario or (after losing the Avatar) assassination.

Lessons Learnt -

• Winning on timeout is a thing, not necessarily gracious but a win is a win.
• This list really struggles with multi wounds, had there just been one unit it would have been ok but two (and then more brought back via the feat) were a real struggle.
• Maybe the Kreoss2 list is going to be my Circle drop...

Grand Exemplar Kreoss vs. Morvahna the Dawnshadow (Circle Orboros

Loss: Assassination (0/0 on scenario - 30 mins/8 mins on clock)

Game two was versus the same list but this time I opted for a slightly tweaked version of the Kreoss2 list that I'd used several times previously.  The change was basically removing the zealots and replacing them with Vilmon and 2 Paladins.  The idea being that three solos only vulnerable to magic would be more of a pain than 11 Zealots who were only invulnerable for a turn.  It was also 6 more very heavy hitting weapon master attacks for the feat turn.

This game was doomed to failure from my first turn.  Only having one screening unit meant that I was loathe to have them heavily bashed on turn 1.  This lead me to just toe the nearest zone to avoid being charged.  This worked but instead in a mirror of what I normally do with Zealots the opposing chaff ran into the Errants.  This stopped me moving turn two and forced me to move Kreoss into the frontlines (albeit hidden by Errants) to avoid giving away killbox points.  It also stopped me being able to challenge the opposing zone that Morvahna was toeing.

The few Errants weren't enough and a charging Warpwolf reducing Kreoss to 6 boxes.  Whilst I killed the Warpwolf on my feat turn I still couldn't move Kreoss into protection and on the last turn of the game a unit of Druids killed the screen and wiggled him out of his hiding place.  A Knarlhorn Satyr promptly charged him and ripped him apart.

Lessons Learnt -

• This Kreoss2 list doesn't play defensively and hasn't got the ranged threat to react enough to being pinned in place.
• Whilst the Paladins were useful to hold off a unit and a half of skinwalkers  they didn't do much else and with a movement of 6 under stance and a single attack they were a little limited.  I think that the Zealots are going to be back in.
• If Errants are taken as the jamming unit, use them to jam!  Moving them forward and at least having a few crossbow shots would have allowed me to keep Kreoss behind a full unit of Bastions - safe.

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 3/8

Painting

Well with the Tournament coming up I need to start getting some painting donw so today I started on Harby.  She's not going to win any awards btu I've at least started so thats enough for now!

Feat? Feat? Feat? Doh!

So whilst the Mrs' was at work I arranged a game in th LGS.  I was expecting to have a rematch of my recent game vs eKaya but instead my opponent proxied in Kromac2 - the guy is a monster!

I also managed to take a photo after each round so its like almost a battle report!

Harbinger of Menoth vs. Kromac, Champion of the Wurm (Circle of Orboros)

Loss: Assassination (0/0 on scenario)

So I  took Harby basically as I played Kreoss2 into Circle last time and I wondered how she would fare.

Deployment

I won the role and opted to go second, being that bit closer to the objectives and also relishing the possibilty of a few first turn shots was to tempting to miss.

After a long discussion after a previous game the battle plan here was to try for a solid grab of my objective and then swing across onto the enemy ones.  With that in mind i setup just left of centre with the Avatar ready to break right and go an make a nusance of himself.

After deployment:

 

Turn 1

So the Circle dashed forward throwing up a few forests to conceal themselves.  The big thing here was somehow Kromac ended up in the nearest bunker and after a quick measure with Harbys control I was fairly certain within charge range (using Crusaders Call).  So in an effort not to get too excited I took a deep breath and activated all the support.  I also managed to take 4 Vanquisher shots, one scattered onto Kromac setting him on fire.  Harby moved forward cast Crusaders Call and then Guided Hand on the Errants.  I wasn't going to mess up and miss with the one charging weaponmaster attack!  So the Errant Run/Charged and the one Errant attacked and caused 3 points of damage on Kromac - I was fairly happy till I realised in my rush to attack Kromac I forgot to Feat Harby...doh!

End of Round 1:

Turn 2
So quite expectantly the two Errants in front fo Kromac were butchered to release him.  I also Martyrd to keep an Errant alive that was attacked by a solo that ran the risk of being able to throw an assassination run on Harby if I didn't.  Other than that pretty much the entire Circle swarm ran forward.  The Avatar was slammed backwards by an Argus which then got me excited as he had a line on trashing a heavy beast and putting me 3/1 up in the heavy department.  The final move was Kromac featign and charging forward into an Errant, I martyrd to keep him alove and then I was really happy.  I had an assassination shot at Kromac with the Avatar, 2 Errants and Harby using Cataclysm!

Now seeing this and knowing I normally get excited I paused for a good 30 seconds to sum everything up.  First up was rolling for focus on the Avatar - 4 points, here we go!  Then I did the support pieces, Battle on all the Jacks, harmonious Exaltation with the Hierophant (I considered healing Harby but I reckoned that if this all failed she was likely dead with or without the extra health).  The problem I now had was that Harby had to activate first to cast Crusaders Call to get teh Avatar into combat, this meant I could only cast Cataclysm once.  Also I wouldn't be able to see how well the Avatar did before deciding to commit.  I decided the victory favours the brace and on we went.  Sadly Cataclysm didn't do much more than a few points of damage to (Armour 20!) Kromac. Ah well, here comes the Avatar to give him a good thrashing.

Here my lack of play experience against Hordes kicked in, sat on 5 focus there was no way the Avatar was going to kill Kromac. 

Predicatably all the big hits were diverted and Kromac was still alive at the end.  Even two charging Errants failed to finish him off.  Additionally due to Ornery, Kromac had removed half the boxes on the Avatar (it was only later I realised this should only be once per turn).  So my final hope was in the two Vanquishers dropping some hot shots on his head.  Needing 9's only one hit and left Kromac on 5/6 health points - close but not enough.

After the Vanquishers had gone I realised in my rush to charge (deja vu?) I forgot to Feat, not neccesarily game changing at this point but any additionaly strikes on Kromac may have been enough to bring him down - DOH!

End of round 2:

Turn3

Well the game ending was fairly predictable from this poin, Ghetorix telported forward and finished off the Errants in Kromacs way before killing his own Argus to make room.

Kromac then walked forward and with 3 souls (from the tier list) and 7 fury it was never in question.  As it turned out the rest was overkill as with a single point of focus and having Martyrd her life away trying to keep the blocking Errants alive she only had 3 boxes left and the first strike left her dead on the floor.

Game end:

Lessons Learnt -

• The Battleplan was sound but I should have made my side solid before sending the Avatar off, had he been closer the very threat of him would have helped. 
• Once I realised that the Assassination wasn't on I should have used Gaze of Menoth to reduce options rather than wasting a last attack.
• Remember to Feat! I need to add it to my idiot sheet!

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 2 /7

All quiet on the WMH front

So this week has been a little quiet, with me being unable to attend the club its meant no games of WMH for nearly a week - the horror!

However no games doesn't mean nothnig new, this week has seen the release of a sneak preview podcast from Privateer Press (http://privateerpress.com/primecast/primecast-episode-27), this mentions the new releases for the year and has had the forums ablaze with rumour, concern and even just made up stuff.  A favourite of mine is this post in the menoth forum -

http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?245461-Let-s-have-some-fun-predicting-what-awaits-us-in-the-coming-book

It says it all in the title, but its always funny how the internet takes hold and people start ranting!


So other than that I've mostly been reading through battle college to try and get my head around some of the other factions I know will be at the tournament at the end of the month.  This weeks faction was Khador who have some amazing buffs on their infantry and some of the casters look awesome!  It may not be the same as game time experience but its not a bad way to spend a lunch break!

Harbinger by Request!

So this game was a weekend escape to play our local Cryx player. I was torn between using pSevy/Vindictus/Kreoss2.  After the last few games with Harby I wasn't impressed at her shocking squishiness and against a Cryx force that I knew had lots of arc nodes for spell assassinations, I knew without at least a Devout I was wasting my time. 

However, apparently he has limited experience against her and wanted me to use her, so we came to an agreement where I proxy a Revenger as a Devout and see how it all goes.

Harbinger of Menoth vs. Goreshade, Lord of Ruin (Cryx)

Loss: Assassination (0/4 on scenario)

Lets start with a picture from the very start of the game (the raiders made the first move of the game as I was taking the picture):

My list is a small ish anti-infantry list, not specifically designed to be anti cryx but I hoped it would cause some issues.  It also has 4 jacks and quite a few support solos with the hope of keeping the Errants alive as long as possible.

The cryx I've faced before and last time really struggled with the ghosts and Satixys jamming my Errants and Zealots and forcing everything else to a standstill behind them.  However this time i had two Vanquishers dropping 4 x 4" AoE's of continous fire onto their heads for two turns, I also used the magical crossbows to keep the ghosts away for the first turn or two.

I also remembered to feat at what I feel was the best time (bottom of turn 1), this caused real headaches and meant the cavalry took a proper beating from the feat.  It also gave me time to get a crucial second turn of shooting at full strength before the Cryx blow landed, this changed it from being crippling to average and was a big reason why I had so many models left at the end:

So this is how it looked when the dust had settled, sadly my opponent got the scenario points ticking over early on and I was too busy not breaking formation (and so opening up a hole to be exploited) to contest the flag until it was too late.  In the semi-final Cryx turn he jammed/forced stationary most models resulting in my having to work hard to free a single Errant.  Then I just hoped I could martyr enough damage to keep him alive.

As it was I couldn't and Harby ended up dying martyring (if I hadn't I'd have lost that turn on scenario anyway). 

However if he had survived the whole game would have changed, I had many more guys and would have had a group of 4 charging weaponmasters that would have easily chopped up Goreshade with some spell assistance from Harby.  As ever though the game ended a turn earlier than I'd have liked.

Lessons Learnt -

• Harby with a Devout is a very different beast indeed, spell barrier and ignoring the first shooting attack really reduce the likelyhood that this attempt will be made.
• Jamming Errants are really good especially with Tough and Martyrdom to help out.
• I need to start looking at the scenario clock as soon as it starts ticking, not just the last turn when I'm forced into action.

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 2 / 6


All in all though a great game that I thoroughly enjoyed, I've now got a nice headache of what my pairing is going to be for the tournament at the end of the month.

Stats, Theories and Waffle

So recently I've been looking into the more intellectual surroundings of Warmachine/Hordes.  Note this isn't for anything useful, just because I was bored :D

So the first was an interesting caster ranking article that had been written.  It ranks casters from amazing to very poor.  Its worth a read if you want to see which casters in your faction offer a higher chance of winning:

http://www.astragamingteam.com/blog/2015/9/4/astra-warmachinehordes-caster-rankings-september-2015

Also via the gaming club appeared this link on which is the best faction:

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2016/02/why-there-is-no-worst-warmachine-faction.html

Whilst I agree with the premise that there is no worst warmachine faction, the stats don't neccesarily suggest there is no best faction.

So, what have I learnt? 

Well if you want to win tournaments then you have to play Legion or Cryx and your caster has to be Calandra/Bradigus/Morvahna2, lol.

The Circle of Trust / Sticks and Stones will break your bones...

I've recently been looking into  getting a hordes faction, more to learn how they work than anything else.  I've looked through the 5 factions and whilst I love the look of Trolls I'm told they are very similar to Protectorate with the idea of taking a hit then giving it back twice as hard.  I then looked at Skorne (even picking up a cheap starter set) but they seem to mimic the Protectorate with layers of synergy and beast handlers (basically a choir).  Anyway, in all honesty Minions were never an option so that just left Legion and Circle....

So when I found out that one of the guys at the club was selling his Circle, it seemed to good to miss.  They're also exquisitely painted (which means I don't have to paint them!!) and so on club night this week guess what I picked up?

 

I'm hoping to get a small game with them next week to curb my drive to play them before getting back to my Menites and tournament prep.  But then I'm really looking forward to a Sticks and Stones theme to at least one of my Circle Lists

The Enemy is Legion!!!

Ok so its not as dramatic as the title suggests but guess which faction I played against this week at the club??

The order of the day was speed playing, the aim being to get two 50pt games completed within 3 hours 30 mins of club game time (as prep for the two upcoming tournaments).  The chess clock was set for 1 hour each and off we went.  Unfortunately we didn't have a chess clock so an app on my phone substituted which meant no photos for the blogg - doh another rookie mistake!

Harbinger of Menoth vs. Absylonia, Daughter of Everblight (Legion)

Loss: Assassination

Well I'd blame this on the fact I was rushing or that I didn't mind losing after 25 minutes of total game time, but these would both be lies...

So the forces, well I took what I was hoping was an improved version of what I used in my last game vs Siege.  I had a tweak here and there (removing the pointless Deliverers comepletely) and managed to fit in the Avatar at the expense of wracks, half the bastions, the deliverers and a vassal.  However, I was up against a 10 model Legion force (with a Blightbringer - now that is a very cool model!) so I thought that this would be worth it for the extra armour cracking.

What materialised was sadly very similar (although it happened much much quicker) to the game against Siege.  I admit from the outset my mind was purely on killing the Blightbringer - its a recent addition to the club and no one has taken it down yet.  

The first two turns were a bit of minor piece trading (although I remembered Martyrdom to keep some Errants alive) finalised at the end of my turn 2 whereby I lined up the Avatar and a Reckoner for a charge on the Blightbringer and the second Reckoner for a strike on one fo the pair of opposition heavy Warbeasts.  Harby floated forward and feated trying to hold off the minor beasts and caster so I would only need to endure the heavies.

Sadly what I missed in all of my smugness as I hit the clock to begin Legion turn 3 was that Harby was out in the open, with only 3/4 focus and thanks to martyrdom had taken around 5 boxes of damage...  The short version is that up walked a Ravagore and burned Harby down to a single point of damage, however she was on fire.  This meant that for me to stay in the game I needed to roll a 1 or 2...I didn't and after 25 minutes of gaming that was it.

Lessons Learnt - 

• Harby needs a Devout, shield guard would have meant that the hit was taken by a jack and she could have survived to fight another day.  All being well this would have completely changed the game and after my subsequent charge would hopefully have put me in the drivers seat.
• Don't get carried away with killing stuff, theres no point setting up a world ending turn if you don't get the opportunity to play that turn! Which leads to..
• Concentrate and don't get so carried away with  the timer/promise of glory that simple mistakes are made.

However it did mean we definitely had enough time for a second game!

Grand Scrutator Severius vs. Vayl, Consul of Everblight (Legion)

Loss: Assassination (Also losing 2-1 on Scenario Points)

Well feeling somewhat deflated I opted for a caster I was more familiar with in the second game.  It also gave me a chance to use a list that has been sat in the back of my mind.  I've never been convinced with pSevy as a magic user prefering to use all his focus to fuel 2-3 jacks and having him hide somewhere at the back.  However this time I went the opposite way, fuelled him up for 2x Ashes to Ashes per turn through Blessing of Vengeance and it really opened my eyes to the possibilities!

Anyway this game was played on the same battlefield as before however I opted to swap sides as a fetchin bunker took my eye for Sevy to hide in, especially as this scenario had killbox.  I went first and ran everything forward and got all of ready for a lot of shooting turn 2.  In my opponents turn the Flameguard took a beating from the croaks and two Ravagores.

Back to my turn two and I was in such a rush I missed several crucial things, the first being  to use the Hierophant before Sevy (so only 1 Ashes-to-Ashes this turn, killing two croaks) and the second being the Choir (although it allowed me to use Passage which may not have been too bad).  The Flameguard went into Shield Wall and prepared for another round of being beaten with sticks, whilst the jacks advanced ready for some turn 3 charges.  In Legion turn 2 the Croaks setup the Flameguard with burning Oil, who were then ignited by a Ravagore and shot to bits with Strider solo Bows and Croak shots (leaving only 3 left by the end of the turn).  The Avatar was jumped by an Angelius then ran away and hid behind the opposition objective.  Finally a good shot into the trench from a Ravagore killed Tristan (disabling the Recokner) and the Vassal of Menoth.  The benefits of this army were that the Ravagores couldn't touch the Vessel of Judgement and the Hex Hunters couldn't touch the Avatar - maybe it does have legs...  Additionally, at the end of the turn I gave away two Scenario points by being in kill box :'-(.  Not the best turn of Warmachine I've played.

So my turn three and now I'd written out my idiot sheet Ashes-to-Ashes made up for the last turn by killing a maximum number of 14 models (including all of the guardians around the spawning pot - go Sevy!).  The Avatar broke away from a lesser beast and smashed the opposition objective (1 point to me).  Across the other side of the board the Vessel blasted at a ravagore with little effect and the remaining Flameguard charged to get in the way of the Assasination attempt that I knew was coming from a Ravagore.  Hit the clock and the Flamegaurd were quickly cleared out by the Strider solos, up walked a Ravagore and spat at Sevy boom down to 5 hitpoints but he was alive!!  Then the silly bit on my behalf.  Vayl shot the Ravagore in the back turning it into an arc node, then blasted Sevy with a spell to kill him and the game was up.

The more awake of you are now probably thinking, but that can't happen Sevy is immune to spells! I know, I know - although clearly I don't.  A massive oversight on my part which has now happened twice (the first time against Cryx).

Ah well, it was a good game and everything went fairly well (although the Flameguard were rubbish!!!), I learnt lots of things (amazing that if you play longer you learn more, lol) and enjoyed it so all in all a good evenings gaming.

Lessons Learnt - 

• pSevy cannot be targetted by spells!
• Giving away 2 points on scenario for kill box is very silly - don't do it!
• pSevy cannot be targetted by spells!!
• Sevy, Blessing, Wracks and a Hierophant killed 16 models over two turns - thats awesome keep going.
• pSevy cannot be targetted by spells!!!
• Ask for stealth, the Vessel of Judgement wasted a shot (of the two it took in a game) on a stealth target - completely unnecessarily.
• pSevy cannot be targetted by spells!!!!   Remember, remember, remember....It may not have altered the final outcome but at least it would have made my opponent work, and this is the second time it has happened, lol.

Keeping track of 2016

Via a chat group I found out about an App on my Android called Iron Grudge.

Basically it allows you to keep a record of who you played, what you both used and then it gives you a win/loss ratio so far.  So far the result isn't bad 2/3 which is 40%, think I'm going to include the in my posts for the future - hopefully the percentage will get better over time!

This is the link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=wagnerbang.irongrudge&hl=en