Vince and I went at it again on camera with our new Warmachine armies - I whipped out my newly arrived pSevvy (henceforce known as Scrotum) and Vince decided to give pScorscha a whirl. We went for 35 points - highest yet! and tried out some new models - please excuse the unpainted (and even unprimed for some) state of things.
We ran just a standard kill the caster type game as we are still getting used to everything atm and went to town! Lists below, Vince won roll-off and went first. Once again as well, terrain isn't what it should be - the crater represents a forest and the foam inserts are walls/barricades.
pScorscha
- Beast 09
- Destroyer
Max Winterguard + UA
Winterguard Rocketeer
Kovnik Joe
Great Bears
Widowmakers
pSevvy
- Blessing of Vengeance
- Reckoner
- Vanquisher
Min Choir
Min Temple Flameguard + UA
Min Exemplar Errants + UA
Vassal of Menoth
Wracks
Deployment
Vince deploys quite centrally with the Winterguard + UA front and centre - Kovnik Joe and the Great Bears sit behind them all bunched together. Beast 09 deploys on the right flank with pScorscha behind him and the Widowmakers advance deployed further out on the right. Destroyer brings up the left.
The Temple Flameguard deploy in two triangles with the standard and officer base to base behind them. Blessing of Vengeance deploys between the triangles with the Reckoner taking up the left flank and the Vanquisher on the right. The Choir, Vassal and Scrotum deploy behind the triangles and 'jacks to limit incoming fire to them. The Errants advance deploy on the right flank opposite the Widowmakers whilst the Wracks advance deploy in a triangle - the point of which is nestled amongst the TFG and the base of which is spread out to the flanks. This gives Scrotum (with a control range of 16") easy access to all three throughout the game for extra focus whilst not endangering the Menoth forces from explosions.
Khador Turn 1
Everything moves up! Beast + Destroyer are given one focus each and run full tilt forward. The WGI advance and spread out and are given +2DEF/Fearless/Tough thanks to the their UA and Joe. Scorscha and the Great Bears advance behind all of this with Scorscha casting a spell which grants her units concealment when within her control range. The Widowmakers make for one of the walls in midfield.
Menoth Turn 1
Scrotum takes a focus from the left-most Wrack which doesn't explode and hands two to the Reckoner and one each to Blessing & Vanquisher. The Vanquisher & Blessing run stopping around the linear obstacle on the Menoth side of the table whilst the Reckoner charges the Destroyer to extend the shooting range of his gun hitting but fails to damage even with boost. Temple Flameguard walk up behind the linear obstacle and use Shield Wall with the Choir advancing behind the 'Jacks and casting passage (no shooting at 'Jacks). The Vassal casts Enliven on the Vanquisher in case anything gets gutsy and tries to combat it. pSevvy moves up behind the 'Jacks as well on the right flank and casts Eye of Menoth in himself and Defender's Ward on the Errants.
The Errants advance towards midfield on the right and with their Blessed crossbows drop one Widowmkaer.
Khador Turn 2
Scorscha upkeeps Concealment spell and gives Destroyer one focus and Beast 09 two focus. The Widowmakers walk up to the linear obstacle and shoot down an exposed Choir member. I feel the Widowmakers should have stayed 1" behind the wall to gain a further concealment bonus whilst not being in melee range of your basic dudes on the other side of the wall (though Reach would have negated this). The Winterguard also advance and once again gain +2DEF/Fearless/Tough and attempt to spray the TFG but fall just short and they cannot shoot the 'Jacks. The Rocketeer and Destroyer on the left are able to drop another exposed Choir member though (woops!).
Great Bears & Scorscha advance behind the WGI whilst Beast 09 charges the Errants and clears out the front two.
Menoth Turn 2
Scrotum upkeeps Eye & Defender's and sucks another focus from a Wrack successfully. I unallocate two focus to Reckoner but forget the other 'Jacks! The Choir casts Battle Hymm and moves to where they can be hidden later in the turn. The Reckoner charges laterally across the battlefield to shoot Beast 09 but only does a bit of damage even with boosting. The Errants throw all caution to the wind and charge the Beast 09 and with some excellent (followed by terrible) rolls, leave him with two damage boxes left and both his right arm (the one with the big axe) and cortex still operational. At this point I have to make a choice - use the Vanquisher to finish him off or go for some AOE4 cont. fire blasts on the WGI. I go for the infantry clearing.
The Vanquisher moves up just a little bit to get in range of the central WGI and launches a steaming blast of fire which misses but scatters relatively well amongst the WGI. Vassal uses Anchillary Attack to give the Vanquisher another shot which also scatters with the end result being a damaged + burning WGI Officer and one dead grunt though three more are knocked down and set on fire. Two Widowmakers also die. One of the Great Bears (cannot remember name) takes two damage and is also set on fire.
Blessing then walks into range of the WGI (having forgotten focus) and drops one of the KD'd WGI. This is followed up with Scrotum moving behind the Vanquisher and arcing Ashes to Ashes into the Great Bears using an extra focus to boost to hit. It hits and bounces into six more models damaging all of the Great Bears and killing the WGI Officer + one more WGI.
The TFG then run up to engage as many models in combat as possible and limit moves/charges (especially by Scorscha on Scrotum) forward against me next turn.
Khador Turn 3
Both WGI on fire die whilst the Great bear on fire is brought down to one box left. No fire goes out and Scorscha upkeeps her concealment spell whilst allocating one focus to Beast 09 and one to Destroyer. The remaining KD'd WGI jumps up and along with his buddies, punch the crap out of some TFG. The rest are brought down by boosted shotgun blasts to the face thanks to Joe. One of the Choir boys dies as well due to a spray.
Beast 09 slashes twice at all the Errants in front of him but thanks to Defender's Ward, one is left alive. Destroyer lobs a shot at the Vassal/Choir/Scrotum bunching which falls short but scatters onto them regardless. Vassal is left with one damage and Scrotum takes a few points of damage as well. The Great Bears charge into Blessing and thanks to Reach can ensure they stay out of range of the Repulsor Shield. Blessing kills one with Defensive Strike but then falls down to the remaining two.
Scorscha had tried to setup a charge on Scrotum but her positioning in relation to the linear obstacles and the WGI movement to clear the TFG stopped this so she moved behind the WGI and feated causing all menoth 'Jacks + the remaining Errant to become stationary. I think she should have feated before Beast 09 went which would have allowed him to disengage from the Errant without suffering a free strike and go put a lot of pressure on pSevvy (especially if she saved some focus for Boundless Charge which might have put him in combat range).
Menoth Turn 3
Scrotum takes another focus from a Wrack (none have exploded!) and upkeeps Defender's Ward & Eye of Menoth. Three focus is then given to both Reckoner & Vanquisher. Vanquisher spends focus to stand up and moves sideways to get a clear shot on Scorscha and then launchers a fireball on her head. Boost to hit sees it land dead on target but only does a handful of damage but kills one WGI + the Standard and knocks two more down. Scorscha + the two KD'd WGI are set on fire. Vassal provides Vanquisher with another shot through Anchillary Attack which I boosted forgetting you cannot boost such attacks) but it misses regardless and scatters off into the wilderness but sets the Vanquisher on fire...
The Reckoner then spends a focus to stand up and I forget all about how KD'd opponents interact on the tabletop... So rather than charging Scorscha and using assault to ping her with the Reckoner's cannon and lowering her defense, the Reckoner tramples (killing both WGI in front of her), takes some damage from a Great Bear freestrike and plomps himself next to Scorscha where he fails to hit her with a bought attack. Charging + assault would have given me two attacks (one boosted) or one attack (boosted both times) plus the ability to shoot with the gun and lower DEF. Oh well.
Choir forgot to cast any Hymms but Battle Hymm on the Reckoner wouldn't have helped out anyway (missed by too much). pSevvy uses convert to steal the Rocketeer from the WGI, moves backwards and pops feat with Scorscha sitting on three focus.
Khador Turn 4
Fire does minimal damage to Scorscha but does not go out whilst the Vanquisher suffers quite a bit of damage though no systems are hurt. Scorscha doesn't upkeep her spell to save her focus to smack the Reckoner around. Beast 09 attempts to kill off the lone Errant but fails to thanks to Defender's Ward. The remaining WGI are again given boosted attack rolls and try to take down Scrotum but even with Destroyer's help, he still has over 10 health left.
The Great Bears charge the Reckoner and do significant damage to take out both arm systems but leaving cortex and movement. Scorscha does more damage but leaves two boxes left - one cortex and one movement.
Menoth Turn 4
Fire goes out on Scorscha but does some more damage to the Vanquisher. Scrotum takes another focus from a Wrack (not exploding) and gives three to each 'Jack left. The lone Exemplar does everyone proud and just takes the final two damage off Beast 09 whilst the severly damaged Reckoner smashes Scorscha into a pulp.
Conclusion
A lot when on in this game which was great fun and it was entertaining to see the way the game swung so hugely back and forth. As ever, when you point at things in WM, assuming you point with the right weapons, they die. Getting to those things is the trick :P.
I’m not sure why Vince didn’t use his Destroyer more aggressively – I think putting that Destroyer on the other side of the wall and bringing a Heavy to play which wasn’t a Menite in the middle of the board would have changed things drastically. As it was, my Reckoner (and Vanquisher if the game went on) was only really worried about the Great Bears (which admittedly, mauled whatever they touched). I was very impressed (and quite surprised) the Errants took down Beast 09 – even with Eye of Menoth & Defender’s Ward which freed up the Vanquisher to keep clearing infantry. Remembering rule interactions such as Knock-down is important though (and not trying to boost Vassal extra attacks! :P).
I was terrible at Choir positioning and ended up losing two to early firepower – when you can’t shoot my Jack-line, they should be protecting everything else behind them and I got very loose in that regard. I also need to work more on my activations with both them and Vassal to make sure they are in range both the turn I am using them and the turn after without throwing them into my opponent’s embrace. I also forgot to self-sacrifice the Errants so the Officer was still alive and for some reason put the Standard in there as well... oh well. Vince was also annoyed at himself for not Wind Rushing back Scorscha after he feated to keep him away from the two Heavy Warjacks for an extra turn.
Anyway, lots of little things to remember but I think the major telling factor was not having Destroyer really in play against my Heavies and not trying to get Beast 09 disengaged when there was only one Errant around. At the same time, the positioning of my support was quite loose and I pushed Blessing too far forward where it couldn't be hit by the Great Bears whilst still arcing Ashes into the WGI. Lots of lessons learned and hopefully more to come!
(and how cool does the top of the Reckoner look in those last photos? =D)
