That's no moon, that's a Deathstar: eSorscha vs. pDenny

I love Legos, but this one never appealed to me.

I've been on a bit of a losing streak lately, especially the epic pasting I got myself into last time out, so for this game I brought out the big guns.  Again.  This time I took a slightly different approach though.  Reasoning that Sorscha learned a valuable lesson in her last fight, this time around eSorscha hit the table.  Infantry was the appetizer, main dish, side dish, and dessert.  As a result the list fell into place with little effort.  The only real hangup was in the after dinner coffee phase of what jack to bring.  Black Ivan was my first choice (I really love that guy), but if Ivan was my only jack I wouldn't be able to use eSorscha's bond.  Remembering how well that bond has worked in the past I couldn't leave it unused.  Beast 09 is the obvious choice for Sorscha, but since I don't have the Beast I had to cast further afield.  The Devastator is a nearly perfect fit for the bond since it's such a tough nut to crack, so I plugged it in to the list and got the following result:



35+6 points, 32 models

Forward Kommander Sorscha  +6 points
* Devastator  9 points
* War Dog  1 point

Doom Reavers  6 points
* Greylord Escort  2 points
Greylord Ternion  4 points
Koldun Lord  2 points
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich  2 points
Manhunter  2 points
Widowmaker Marksman  2 points
10 Winter Guard Infantry  6 points
* Winter Guard Officer & Standard  2 points
* 3 Winter Guard Rocketeers  3 points


Lots of boots on the table.  The Ternion is there mostly to drop clouds and gum up that famous Cryx shooting, while the Koldun gives the Devastator the single Focus it'll need to run and allow Sorscha to hoard her Focus.  Taking a bit of advice from the PP forums, I planned to use the Doomies like they act in the fluff: barely restrained lunatics dying to cleave something in two.  I had a wild dream of sucking most of the Banes into the Devastator, then clumping them up with Bulldoze and Rain of Deathing them to...death, but something like that would take some magical circumstances.


As in the last game, EV took mostly the same list.  The arrival of the Deluge prompted him to make a single swap, with the following result:

35+6 points, 36 models

Warwitch Deneghra  +5 points
* Cankerworm  5 points
* 2x Nightwretch  4 points each
* Skarlock Thrall  2 points

10 Bane Thralls  8 points
6 Bile Thralls  5 points
10 Mechanithralls  5 points
Withershadow Combine  5 points
Gorman di Wulfe, 2 points

EV was looking at two targets to swap for Gorman, either the Fatty Thrall or the Skarlock.  Were I to find myself in his shoes, I'd keep the Bloat Thrall and ditch the Skarlock.  The Skarlock is a fine piece and has a place in the list, but for me the Bloat Thrall's threat range and generous blast area win out over the added utility of the Skarlock, especially in a list that already has the Withershadow Combine.

I won the roll the see if there would be a central forest, so the middle featured a bit of industrial decoration.  EV responded by placing a forest as close the center as possible, so with that settled I followed suit and we went from no forest in the middle to a double wood center.  In a clear breach of protocol we forgot to roll for scenario until after terrain was placed.  The result was Mosh Pit, similar to the objective missions we've had recently but a bit more smashy as there's no scoring, only last man, woman, zombie, or robot standing.  Hot on the heels of my so-called victory in the "will there be wood" roll, I also won the roll to go first.  Keeping things different, I accepted the first turn.

Initial deployment.

My basic idea in deployment was to put the Devastator in the middle to hold the zone, then clobber everything else.  The idea of advancing through difficult terrain (the water) was less appealing than you might think, so I skewed heavy to the right.  EV employed the standard wing deployment but a bit off center, probably in response to my own right-heavy deployment.  I put the Doomies on the wing with the Banes mostly to try and clear them out early, per the screaming lunatics plan discussed above, but also because I wanted a showdown of the two melee units.  The Doomies could mulch the MechThralls easy enough, but the Banes would be a tougher nut to crack.  The Widowmaker Marksman is just out of frame to the left.  I learned my lesson with him last time and put him on the side that wasn't entirely Stealthed so he'd have something to shoot at.  The Cankerworm is hiding behind the door in the middle building.

Turn 1

Exciting as always, turn one was the running turn for me.  To avoid any kind of targeting shenanigans that would allow EV to spray the Doom Reavers, I set said Reavers up in the penalty kick wall formation to screen the troops behind them, blocking LoS and keeping everyone safe behind their Spell Warding.  The Greylords dropped lots of clouds to jack up some DEF against all that shooting I was about to face.  Iron Flesh went on the WGI to no one's surprise.  I tried out the new PP tokens this game.  They're about what I expected.  I like not having to sort through the entire pile of Gale Force 9 cogs to find the proper spell effect tokens, but beyond that there isn't much difference.

Khador turn one.

EV had some action in his turn.  He channeled...Venom?  The spray spell, whatever it's called, at the Manhuntress.  He missed at the time, though during the next turn we realized that the Manhuntress shouldn't have gotten a concealment bonus because sprays are amazing and ignore things like that.  She would have been hit, but alas the moment had already passed.

Manhuntress lucks out.

Not much to report beyond that.  Since Deneghra doesn't have any buffs there was just lots of running.  The undead in Warmachine are far too fast for comfort.

Cryx turn one.

Turn 2

It took some creative thinking in terms of who activated when, but my efforts yielded some tasty fruits.  The Doomies charged the Banes and Biles, while others took a step back to clear charge lanes and form a second wave.  I sent a pair of Reavers into each unit to make sure the job got done, but in each case the first madman on the scene did all the work.  I botched the placement of the UA, who is also the unit leader for command radius purposes, but we'll cover that in a bit.

The part of casualty marker is being played in this report by cuddly teddy bears.

On the other side of the board the Marksman got to shooting and popped a single MechThrall.

One shot, one kill.

While the Manhuntress makes an attractive cruise missile I've been trying to use her in a more prudent manner, hoping that she sticks around past the initial charge.  When activating her this turn my first impulse was to bring her back into the woods a bit to avoid future sprays.  After a bit of deliberation, and a bit of prompting from EV, I got back to my roots and declared a charge.  The charge attack missed, but the second axe hit home and did some decent damage.  Had both hit she could have easily ripped the arc node off or wrecked the whole thing, but as it was she just did some decent damage and then waited for the inevitable reprisal.

She gets an A for effort at least.

Earlier in the turn the WGI sent some rockets out.  One hit home on the same bonejack the Manhuntress charged and did a bit of damage, while the two the went towards the Banes scattered into obscurity.  The WGI in general hung back a bit to see how the first wave fared before jumping into the fray.  I tried to tuck the Devastator behind cover as much as possible to help boost it's sorry DEF.  More all but meaningless clouds from the Greylords and another turn was complete.

Khador turn two.

The Manhuntress didn't have to wait long for her doom.  First she got used though, used like some poor plaything of a mechanical revenant that wants to spray nasty venom on some psychos, but can't because they're protected from magic by the force of their rage.  More and more, Warmachine is a game of angles, and I missed one that allowed EV to spray the Manhuntress and hit the Doomies.  He didn't kill any of the targets (though it took a Tough check to save one of the Doomies), but an ensuing melee attack from the other bonejack took care of the Manhuntress.

A deadly combination of attacks.

The Withershadow Combine charged the centermost Reavers and...didn't do much.  In a fine display of dicehate, EV whiffed with most (possibly all) the attacks.  Any attacks that hit either didn't wound or were Toughed out.  Realizing that the Combine would be in a bad, bad place, he then sent in some Bane Thralls but didn't do any better.  The final tally: 5 attacks on 2 targets resulting in a single Knocked Down Reaver.  I'm no mind reader, but I'll go out on a limb and say that EV was none too happy with this performance.

I think I made three separate Tough rolls for the one Doomie.  Tough little blighter.

On the right flank the rest of the Banes charged the rest of the forward Doomies.  This time things went better (or worse depending on your perspective) and the four Thralls took out the pair of Reavers.

Not enough Tough rolls on this flank.

Back in the middle, EV was still bent on clearing out the Doom Reavers threatening the Withershadow with choppy death.  EV has gotten pretty sneaky about Purging and front arcs, so it's no longer surprising when he sprays into a melee and hits only my guys.  (To be fair I guess this is what it's like when you engage the Winter Guard and then they spray their way to glory.)  Countless Purges have numbed me to the destruction they cause, but this particular Purge was one to be immortalized.  When the Bile Thrall trundled forward I saw that my two Reavers were in trouble.  I also noticed that EV would be getting a couple of his own pieces in the Purge, namely a Bane and the damaged bonejack.  A handful of remarkable rolls later I've lost one Doomie and the other is on his butt after a successful Tough roll.  (This will be a factor in a minute, but first things first.)  EV lost his Bane and also finished off the bonejack on what I think was boxcars for the damage roll.  Plus the Purging Bile Thrall of course.  I'll trade one of my pieces for three of my opponent's almost always, and if it's during their turn then you can take almost out of that statement. 

I say this a lot, but for real this time: best Purge ever.

On a better note for EV, the Skarlock came forward and put Crippling Grasp on the Devastator.  As I found out over the course of a few minutes this spell:

• Reduced my jack to SPD 2.
• Because of the reduced speed, my jack couldn't charge and therefore couldn't benefit from Boundless Charge.
• It also couldn't do special attacks anymore, so Rain of Death was out of commission.

There were some other effects as well, but those are the most relevant ones.  The grasp was truly Crippling and reinforced my need to find some source of upkeep removal.

Do warjacks have balls?  They'd be a great place to grasp something if you wanted to cripple it.

The MechThralls started moving into the woods, Denny hid behind a building, and I'm not sure the Cankerworm did anything.  This was a pretty brutal turn for EV, made even worse by the fact that the turn was his own.  The Withershadow/Bane performance was demoralizing, but looking at the table at the end of the turn I don't think it would have been enough to sink him.  The Purge though...ouch.  I was caught in the middle of wanting to giggle with glee at how it turned out for me and feeling bad for EV after getting so mishandled by his own dice.  The good news was that the surviving forward Reaver was out of formation, so he wouldn't be able to simply stand up and cleave everything in sight.  I imagine that was small comfort for EV though.

Cryx turn two.

Turn 3

The turn had to start with the Doomies.  The stranded Reaver shook off the Bile residue and stood up, his individual turn over.  The squad leader (not the UA, the actual leader model) charged in to the rescue while the remaining two members heroically ran and hid in the woods.  The charge went well as the Doomie struck down one of the Combine, but the cleave fell short on the second one.  I debated starting with the Bane on both swings but decided that I wanted to kill a characterful, and effective, Combiner more than a single Bane.

Withershadow de-Combined.

In the center some of the Winter Guard formed a modified Flying V to hammer the remaining bonejack.  One rocket and two CRAs later all that was left was a crater.

I love how small based models don't block LoS to medium based models.

Inspired by all that shooting prowess, Sorscha got into the action with her own gun.  I'd never used the Quad-Iron before so I thought I'd give it a go here since Sorscha wasn't going to do much else.  The first McThrall went down easy enough, but the other Thralls were far enough in the woods to be safe from the hail of bullets.

Gun test completed.

Back on the left, the Marksman continued his one man war by taking out another MechThrall.

Just another day at the range.

The Devastator walked back a bit to put some distance between it's crippled ass and the oncoming Thralls.  They may not be that imposing and the Devastator's armor may be thick, but that's no reason to make it easier for them.  The Greylords continued to drop clouds.

The return of random rotation.  Joy.  Khador turn three.

I thought I had taken out all the crowd clearers EV had left when the last bonejack went down, but I found out otherwise the fun way.  A final Bile Thrall came forward and swept the Doom Reavers off the table.

This Purge worked as intended.

That was it for casualties inflicted.  The Banes charged the WGI, but the super high DEF saved them from any hits.  The MechThralls charged the Devastator but failed to do any noticeable damage and ended up Stationary for their troubles.  The Doomies had met their doom and my Devastator was reduced to a place holder, but EV was more or less boned at this point.  The Deathstar was still fully operational and had Greylord backup, not to mention Sorscha herself and her trusty pup.  Meanwhile EV had lost his Bile Thralls and arc nodes, his remaining units were banged up, and everything on the board was well within range of the Winter Guard.

Cryx turn three.

Turn 4

The surprise performer of the game, the Widowmaker Marksman, kicked things off by gunning down the Skarlock.  This guy has been underwhelming in previous games, but this time he really pulled his weight.  It's probably due to a better matchup for him, but regardless of why it happened it was nice to see him being effective.

Moving on to the juicy targets.

I knew I could really gut EV's army this turn, but it would require careful activations.  The Devastator kicked it off by doing a reverse Kool Aid Man, which made a bit of space for the others to work in.  (No free strikes because the Thralls were Stationary.  Thanks warjack bond!)  With no need for Power Booster, the Koldun Lord stepped up and got the first spray in, clearing out a trio of Thralls.

Evil Santa gets his hands dirty.

Next up was Sorscha who popped her feat and then popped some heads.  The Quad-Iron took out a pair of Thralls before running out of range.  It was around this time that I realized I could have gotten in a counter charge with the War Dog in the previous turn, but things had gone just fine without it.

Bang bang, my baby shot them down.

On the right flank a handful of sprays finished the Banes off.  This one took some creative spraying, but the Winter Guard are nothing if not adept at spraying their way out of trouble.

That's a lot of bears.

Back in the center a clutch of Guardsmen got together to deal with the Cankerworm.  A pair of CRAs added a third crater to the jack boneyard.

Got worms?  CRA them away.

The final spray was a bit of a disappointment.  The regular, non-Officer leader sprayed a pair of Thralls and only killed one of them.  Slacker.

Stunt finger provided by EV.

The Greylords dropped more clouds, mostly because they couldn't get close enough to anything to spray.  I had a moment of panic when checking to see if the Devastator was still in the Mosh Pit.  It was a close thing but the whole base was just inside the zone.  We've had enough games end prematurely because one of us forgets where the zone ends.

Khador turn four.

EV got started on his turn by sending in Gorman to Rust the Devastator, then followed up with a charging McThrall.  While figuring out the relative P+S vs ARM scores I realized I could send the dog in.  EV must have bad memories of the dog finishing off a jack because he conceded at that point.

Endgame.

This game goes to show how effective the Winter Guard are, not that anyone really needed a reminder.  That's not really true though because I was looking for a reminder after the WGI got handled pretty well the last time they hit the table.  What this game really shows is how effective the WGI are if you can't break down their buffs.  Bob & Weave probably isn't going anywhere, but Iron Flesh can be stripped like any other upkeep.  EV tried to do this with the Withershadow in turn 3 but was just out of range.  Gorman might have helped with Black Oil, but I don't have my books handy to see exactly how that ability works.

The ironic thing is that EV has a piece that can poke some pretty big holes in the Winter Guard: Fatty Arbuckle, aka the Bloat Thrall.  You can see the psychological scars that guy has inflicted by looking at all the cloud effects to block LoS and how spread out everything was until I realized there wasn't much left that could clear hunks of troops.  The Bile Thralls could have done the job well, but the central forests ensured that they couldn't rush up and Purge all over everyone without getting shot up on the way in.

In the post game jawing EV said that he had to design a list with the WGI Deathstar in mind.  While I think you could get around them to a point with an all-comers sort of list, I do agree that you need to have certain tools in your list to be able to deal with them.  At the same time, I'm compelled to bring sufficient anti-infantry to deal with the undead horde I'm likely to face.  I don't know that either set of "requirements" is such a bad thing.  Considering our "metagame" is effectively the two of us, it would be very easy to go down a particular rabbit hole of list design where we each try and undercut the other, ending up with bizarre builds that do well against their opposite but probably wouldn't get to far out in the wild.  One of these days I'll find a tournament that I can attend and when I do I'll want to have the tools I need to deal with a variety of lists, and also be familiar with them.  Upkeep removal seems like a pretty basic need in most any list, even if it isn't always the easiest thing to get into a list.  Same for anti-infantry, anti-armor, long ranged threats, and melee beatsticks.

Variety is the spice of life they say, and I think that applies to wargaming as well.  I love the idea of running very jack heavy, but I've found that it just doesn't work out like I want it to.  Infantry is too powerful in Warmachine to be countered solely by warmachines, sad as that is to say.  But going all infantry isn't much better as a jack will laugh at the Purging Thrall that strikes fear into the heart of any foot slogger, to say nothing of the cleavetastic Doomies.  The WGI are good at everything, but a good Purge or template will ruin their day real quick, especially if it catches a key piece like the UA or Kovnik Joe.  Everything has a counter and there are few useless units (looking at you Kossite Woodsmen). 

Khadoran Machine Breaks Cover

 EV and I changed it on Friday, breaking the stranglehold 40k has had lately and bringing out the Warmachine.  EV called out the Winter Guard in particular, so when I sat down to make a list a large chunk of the work was done already.  This was unfortunate as I had lots of ideas for non-WG lists, but there'll be another time for those.  The game saw the full-on, maxed-out Winter Guard unit for the first time, thanks to the new arrival of a pair of Rocketeers.  I wasn't very happy with my list as I felt like it put a lot of pressure on the WGI to perform since they were such a large part of the list.  Rough approximations of the two lists are as follows:



eSorscha
Devastator
Destroyer
Koldun Lord
Full WGI w/UA and maxed Rocketeers
Kovnik Joe
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Manhuntress

Siege
Defender
Hunter
Journeyman Warcaster
Long Gunners
Storm...blades?
Stormsmiths
Reinholdt


We decided to do a scenario this time.  The most consistent advice I'd seen regarding how to beat Cryx was "Play scenarios," so it was something I had wanted to do for a while though this time around the context is different.  We rolled up Mosh Pit, which basically meant we had to keep bodies in the middle or lose.  I've added a helpful yellow circle approximating the extent of the pit to the setup shot.

Deployment.

I won the roll to setup first, which meant I also went first.  Most of the game was an odd sort of remembering for me as I tried to recall the differences between 40k and Warmachine.  In short, Warmachine makes a lot of sense in places that 40k seems insane, but you probably know that already.  There wasn't much to be done other than putting upkeeps in place, which I did, and advancing, which I also did.

Middle of turn 1.

See the yellow line in the above picture?  That's what I guesstimated my Widowmaker's range to be.  While the ruined building was a great place for them to hide, it was a lousy place to shoot from.  I realized all this during EV's first turn, which went much the same as mine.

End of 1.

In the second turn you can see my plan begin to unfold.  It's a complex one: plug the center with WG, send my Devastator after Siege/a tasty looking jack, and hold the other flank with the Destroyer.  The Rocketeers get off to a good start and kill a couple Long Gunners.  I also moved my Widowmakers out and up so they could do something in the fight.  I stranded the Marksman a bit, but I figured he'd be ok with Stealth.

Middle of 2.

This is where I start missing pictures.  It's ok though, there wasn't much that happened in the turn that I missed (both halves of the turn at that).  Both casters used their feats, a jack was destroyed, and a unit was blasted.  Not much at all really.  I moved the Devastator in against the Defender, supported by my various infantry, with the hopes that I could do some damage to it and then survive the reprisal, leaving the Defender stationary and primed for my feat.  I also picked off the Stormsmiths that had moved out of cover to try and attack.

Middle of 3.

This long shot actually worked out.  The Devastator did a little damage, then took a couple on the chin from the Defender to freeze it because of Sorscha's warjack bond.  Siege came in and finished it off, but my ploy had worked and all that remained was to close the trap.  EV popped his feat this turn and killed the Devastator with it, plus a single WGI.  He piled damage on the Destroyer throughout the game as well.

End of 3.

Turn 4 was going to be the turn where I ended the competitive part of the game.  I thought about what I needed to do for a minute, then went about it.  I popped Sorscha's feat and shot at Siege to no effect.  I cleared out all but one of the Long Gunners.  Then I carefully plotted and placed my WG so they could pour fire into the Defender.  This accomplished, I proceeded to try and shoot Siege a lot.  This wasn't as effective as I thought it would be, but when you're trying to hit a caster's DEF instead of a jack's then things are going to be a little harder.  This was a huge gaffe on my part, and not even the last, but I soldiered on anyway.  Post-script: it's also possible that I was shooting at the jack, but shooting at it's regular DEF instead of it's stationary DEF.  Regardless of exactly what happened, I made a plan and then deviated from it.

 Middle of 4.

In his half of turn 4 EV brought in the Stormblades.  I didn't think he had the range to make it to the Winter Guard, but he managed to get a couple guys in.  You can see that the WGI are slowly getting whittled down, particularly the UA Officer which eliminates Bob & Weave, but ensconced as they are in the woods they're still relatively safe from harm.  EV also moved his Hunter back a bit to try and stay out of range of the WGI.  A few templates get dropped on the WGI, but for the most part they hold up. 

End of 4.

In turn 5 the Winter Guard move up to counter-punch the Stormblades.  The standard bearer is still alive, so I get to pump some sprays into the Stormblades.  Unfortunately I messed up my activation order yet again, so Kovnik Joe doesn't get to boost the attacks.  Things work out anyway and most of the Stormblades get cleared out.  The Manhuntress also enters the fray, taking out a pair of Stormblades before preparing to die.  At least she killed some stuff this game.  I continue to plink away at the Defender which has been hiding behind the wrecked Devastator.  With that jack in cover, and Siege in the same position, I have a hard time connecting even with the Widowmakers.  The Rocketeers have to score a direct hit to have a hope of damaging the jack, and without the boosted attack rolls this is a tall order.  I'm feeling pretty good at this point.  Most of EV's infantry is dead, while the WGI still holds the center.  I'm concerned about jacks coming in against them, but the Hunter is staying at range and the Defender may have had it's legs shot off by this point, so even that threat is not too big.  I have the mosh pit flooded with troops while EV is quickly running out of bodies to contest the area with.

Middle of 5.

 EV continues to pump templates into the WGI, but to little effect.  Because I activated Kovnik Joe after the WGI I gave them Tough for the turn as the boosted attack rolls wouldn't have done anything.  This was fortunate as I made a couple Tough rolls to keep bodies on the table.  The Hunter plinks away at the Destroyer and is wearing it down, but not fast enough.  The Manhuntress is cut down as expected.

End of 5.

 Turn 6 is a bit of a slap fight.  I line up the WGI to take some shots at Siege, but I spot the Journeyman caster out in the open and decide to shoot at the easier target instead.  A rocket to the face ends the caster quickly, and I get an unexpected bonus: the Hunter loses it's Jack Marshall and goes inert.  In other news I trim the Stormblade unit by 1 and keep pinging the Defender.  I also bring Kovnik Joe up thinking he's fairly safe and might as well use his Hand Cannon.  He does little damage.  I also lob a Destroyer shell at Siege, but fail to connect.

Middle of 6.

 EV takes out some of my support pieces, Kovnik Joe and the Koldun Lord in particular, but his lack of pieces is hard to overcome.  Siege isn't going to break cover to come after the WGI, the remaining Stormblades are locked in combat with said squad, and the Defender is immobilzed.  I'm not sure how I'm going to kill Siege, but I figure I can swamp him with bodies and get the job done.

End of 6.

I think I missed a shot or two towards the end of the game, but there isn't a whole lot going on.  We both have our little strongholds, me in the woods and EV in the ruins.  My Winter Guard are pretty beat up by now, but EV's force is reduced to a stationary jack and Siege.  I start to bring my forces to bear on Siege, but in the interest of time (and realizing the game is effectively over already) we call it here.

End of game.

I'm pretty pleased with how the WGI held up.  They're very hard to kill with Bob & Weave and Iron Flesh on them, clocking in at an impressive DEF 17.  Putting them in the woods means they're even harder to get to.  I think that EV had a solid force for dealing with them as he had plenty of templates, plus Explosivo to make more templates.  The key to defeating the WGI is avoiding their high DEF, and templates are the perfect tool for the job.  EV took out 1-2 per turn, but in the end it wasn't enough.  I though he should have focused on them more, dropping as many templates per turn on them as possible, but on more reflection he did pretty well against them.  He targeted the Widowmakers once or twice, but stayed on target for the most part.

In the end this was a pretty ugly game.  We both had plenty of gaffes and misplays, which is to be expected after a long layoff from a game.  Our feat turns were ineffective and the Winter Guard proved too resilient to be overcome.  I would say the terrain and scenario played against EV, but considering that he set the terrain up before I arrived, as is usual, he had a chance to not put a big blob of cover in the middle of the board for my Winter Guard to hide in.  The scenario roll was a bad turn for him, but things don't always work out perfectly.  It amuses me that the unit which I dismissed at first glance as ineffective has turned out to be the solid foundation of my army.  That said, I would like to try out some of the other infantry units.  Kayazy Assassins are supposed to be very nice, and Iron Fang Pikemen should go without saying.  What I'd really like to run are Men of War, but I think I'll wait for them to come out in plastic as I don't want to do all the pinning and greenstuffing such a unit would require.  I'd also like to run the Bombardiers, but considering they have no models they're not yet an option.  Then there's all the character options between the Great Bears, Beast 09, Torch, and the Behemoth (which I have a crazy notion to convert from the plastic jack kits).  Always more things to get.  This game reminded me of just how compact a Warmachine army is, and therefore how easy it'd be to get it all painted.  I think I'll try and squeeze in a caster or some Widowmakers between batches or Orks, but for now the Khadoran Machine goes back into its case to await another day of glory.

WM Battle Report - The Deathjack Cometh

Warmachine content here?  When's the last time that happened?  Played a 35 pointer with EV today, eSorscha vs the Witch Coven.  I had a notion a bit ago to do a 50 point game, and that's on the docket, but since I haven't played WM in a month or three, I thought it'd be a good idea to start with something smaller before jumping to a point size I've never played at before.  My army selection was somewhat influenced by wanting to use that last of the models I haven't used yet, eSorscha and the Devastator.  I wanted to run eSorscha and I would have taken the Devastator with her anyway, so it wasn't too hard fitting them in.  I had made an eSorscha list a while ago but had forgotten about it, so I made a new one up last night.  Turns out they were basically the same, except one had Doom Reavers.  Which list made the cut?  Army lists and the report itself after the break.




No Doomies this time.  I'm never quite sure what I'm going to be facing with EV, but I had an inkling it'd be Cygnar, so I wasn't worried about the lack of magic weapons.  Turns out it was Cryx, but I didn't miss the DRs as it was.  Sorscha bonded the Devastator.  My list:

eSorscha + 6
Devastator - 9
Juggernaut - 7
Wardog - 1
Greylords - 4
Widowmakers - 4
Full Winter Guard Infantry - 6
WGI UA + Rocketeer - 3
Mortar - 3
Kovnik Joe - 2
Manhuntress - 2

EV ran:
Witch Coven + 5
Deathjack - 12
Slayer - 6
Some kind of arcnode - 4
Full Bane Thralls - 8
Min Bile Thralls - 5
Tartarus - 4
Necrotech - 1

I never have a clue which of the arc nodes he's using, they all look basically the same to me.  I had looked into the Witch Coven before so I knew something of how they worked, but Tartarus was new.  I've heard plenty about how nasty he is and I figured he was the Cryx version of Kovnik Joe.  The Deathjack...what else needs to be said?  Generally regarded as the best 'jack in the game, I knew I was in for a rough one.  I prepared myself for a 'learning experience.'  Setup was as such:

With EV's Bane Thralls on the far northern flank, and behind water, I decided to deploy hard on the southern flank to make them walk as far as possible.  The WGI went in the middle because that's where they go.  Maybe one day I'll try them somewhere else, but that day was not the first day that I ran an Iron Flesh caster.  I've heard a lot about how nasty they are in that setup and they proved to be very resilient.  My general plan was to roll up the southern flank while the WGI gummed up the middle.  With all the stealth EV had my shooting would be limited at best, but you don't get to tailor your force to your opponent.

The first Cryx turn was uneventful, just advancing.  EV put Occultation on his Bile Thralls.  I came up with the great idea of shooting the arc node with the Widowmakers, destroying it and then taking out some Bile Thralls in the resulting Shatterstorm explosion.  We'll cover that shortly.  For now, end of Cryx turn 1:

I put Iron Flesh on the WGI and Shatterstorm on the Widowmakers.  The mortar got a lucky shot in on the Bile Thralls, taking one out.

The Widowmakers didn't do so well.  I had a hard time even hitting the arc node at Def 15 and didn't do enough damage to kill it, so the Bile Thralls lived.  I had spread out the Widowmakers in case of this, expecting sprays to come my way in the next turn.  End of Khador turn 1:

One of the many things I'd forgotten about WM was the Bile Thrall Purge.  Since it autohits, cover was useless and my Widowmakers mostly died a messy death.  A Bile Thrall did do though, so yay for small victories.  Very small.

With the Manhuntress Stealthed, the arc node had no choice but to finish off the Widowmakers.  Good use of 4 points on my part.

Now I have Deathjack in the middle of the table, perilously close to charge range of my WGI.  My Widowmakers are done, and my Manhuntress is not long for the world either.  I had notions of swinging her wide and continuing into the Witch Coven, but I couldn't find a route to avoid the Bile Thralls.  At least the Bane Thralls were well behind the army, so that was going to plan.  End of Cryx turn 2:

Realizing her time is limited, I decide to get some use out of the Manhuntress and charge her into the arc node.  I have yet to do anything constructive with a Manhunter, though one day it'll happen.  Not today though, as she only did a bit of damage to the chicken.

A lot of these pictures are blurry.  It happens.  I moved my WGI back a bit to keep them out of charge range of the Deathjack and basically formed a line.  I didn't think about the Devastator out in front, which would start a chain reaction.  End of Khador turn 2:

As expected, the Manhuntress goes boom quickly.  At least she did some damage before she died.

Lack of thinking ahead meant the Deathjack got a charge in on the Devastator.  I was, quite naturally, scared shitless at this first contact with the legendary menace.  I hoped I might survive with armor 25 on the Devastator, but it didn't seem likely.  Then EV's dice hit, and that caused the Deathjack to miss.  Or hit and not damage.  Over and over.  6 attacks I believe for the net result of 2 damage on the Devastator.  A ray of sunshine broke through and shined on me, and I had hope.

I thought that maybe the new posting interface here would eliminate rotated pictures, but apparently not.  It is pretty handy outside of that though.  EV was understandably rattled after the epic failure of the Deathjack's charge.  The rest of his army advanced and he corroded the Devastator, but things had definitely turned.  With the Devastator still alive, the Deathjack was frozen because of the bond.  End of Cryx turn 3:

With the Deathjack frozen, I had to strike.  I popped Sorscha's feat and went to work.  I had thought it halved armor, but turns out it doubles damage done that exceeds armor.  Either way, it means pain.  I loaded the Devastator down with focus and considered whether to fist or Rain of Death.  Turns out fists are only 2 Pow less than RoD, and since DJ was frozen the autohit didn't matter.  The Devastator did it's best, but didn't quite finish the job.  CRAing WGI did though, and the Deathjack was left as just a wreckage marker. 

In the background, the Juggernaut charges and splats a Bile Thrall.  I poured more WGI shots into the Slayer and did some damage there as well.  At this point I was feeling pretty good.  I had taken out the dread Deathjack before it did anything of note.  I was up on points and had a 2 to 1 'jack advantage.  End of Khador turn 3:

Predictably, the Slayer came in for revenge.  I hoped the Devastator would survive this onslaught as well, but with its shell open there wasn't much hope.  The Slayer lives up to its name and the Devastator is no more. 

In other news, the Bane Thralls charge the WGI.  They swing...and miss.  And miss.  And miss some more.  Turns out Def 17 is really hard to hit.  Even Tartarus can't connect.  I'm still feeling good here.  Though my Devastator is dead, I have a Juggernaut ready to avenge that loss.  I survived the Bane Thrall charge with no losses.  My line was holding.  End of Cryx turn 4:

I loaded the Juggernaut with focus to go Slayer hunting, but it turns out it was overkill.  I did some planning and used the Greylords to Ice Cage the Slayer.  All 3 hit, freezing it in place.  The Juggernaut rolled up and finished it off easily, holding on to the 3 focus for a rainy day.  Deciding I could take it, I had the WGI step back.  A flurry of free strikes ensued, but they all missed again.  I laid down many sprays templates and CRAs, resulting in a swath of destruction where the Bane Thralls were, including Tartarus.  At this point I'm nearly giddy.  I've lost a jack and my snipers, while EV has lost better than half his army.  I'm starting to think about mopping up.  End of Khador turn 4:

Turns out my elation was a bit premature.  I'd managed to forget about purge again in the space of an hour or so.  Def 17 doesn't help against autohitting attacks, so one purged Bile Thrall meant I went from full WGI to 4 in no time.  This did not please me.

EV moved his Necrotech up to the 'jack junk yard and made some Scrap Thralls.  While I knew these guys could be nasty, I figured I'd shoot them down with no troubles.  End of Cryx turn 5:

I trample the Juggernaut through one Scrap Thrall en route to smacking another and the Necrotech.  Then the Greylords want in on the fun.  There are 3 Scrap Thralls left, so I position my Greylords to spray through them.  The first spray hits and kills one of the Thralls...and two of my Greylords.  Fortunately the other Greylord can still get both under the template.  He sprays and kills one of them...and himself.  Explosions really got me this game, something I'll have to pay more attention to next time. 

Kovnik Joe took out the last Scrap Thrall and the WGI took out 2 of 3 remaining Bane Thralls.  I'm less than confident now.  I've managed to kill one of my own squads during my turn.  My WGI are all but dead.  I have a 'jack, but it's slow and won't be able to reach the Coven.  Sorscha is looking awfully exposed.  Still, EV is down to 6 models all told.  Things don't look as good as they did, but I'm still relatively confident of victory.  End of Khador turn 5:

Death by casting is my biggest concern, so when the arc node comes in to start channeling into Sorscha, it's doggy to the rescue.  While the dog doesn't kill, or even hurt, the chickenjack, it does put it into melee and keep it from channeling. 

I seem to have missed a Cryx turn 6 picture.  The Coven moved around some and the Bane Thrall charged the WGI, again to no effect.  I had an assassination run in mind and started in on it.  I had scored a lucky mortar hit on the Coven earlier, so I plugged the hurt with with a CRA.  Kovnik Joe shot and missed another witch.  Then Sorscha moved in.  I cast Cyclone, then charged the ball.  I had 4 attacks on it, and through it one already hurt witch plus another unscathed one.  Despite my best ball pounding, I left one witch up with a box or two remaining.

The game was basically done at this point, but there was a chance for Cryx victory so EV kept at it.  End of Khador turn 6:

EV charged with his Bane Thrall and remaining witch, but neither killed Sorscha.  I was satisfied that Sorscha could manage the remaining witch, as was EV, so we called it there.  End of game shot:

This was a bloody one that swung a couple times, though that's probably from my perspective more than reality.  I figured I had it in the bag after DJ went out, and it turns out I did, but I nearly gave it away a couple times.  The Iron Fleshed, Bobbing and Weaving WGI really got the job done.  Nothing could hit them, outside of the autohitting purge.  EV and I were both rusty and it showed during the game as we flubbed activations, misallocated focus, and generally stunk the place up here and there.  In the end I'll take the win, of course, but it wasn't as pretty or as dominating as it should have been after DJ died.  I was happy that I got the Sorscha assassination run right, except the part where the victim dies of course.

One thing I noticed doing the write up here was how much the smoke and fire markers help the US battle reports, both visually and in terms of reminding me what went on.  Having shots of an empty battlefield here just doesn't work as well to me.  Litko has some little skull markers that I've been thinking about, and I'll probably put an order in for some now that I see just how much they'd help.