Wednesday 5 October 2011

Bacon or Facon?

Last time at the club I had a really good game against Bill. He left the trolls at home and decided to bring his pigs. He bought along a tier 4 Dr Arkadius list:


Dr. Arkadius
* Gun Boar (5pts)
* War Hog (7pts)
* War Hog (7pts)
* War Hog (7pts)
* Targ (2pts)
Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Farrow Brigands (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Farrow Brigands (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Farrow Slaughterhousers (Leader and 5 Grunt) (6pts)
Rorsh & Brine (9pts)

With an upcoming Warmachine Wrath event coming up at Tanelorn, I wanted to try out some new bits:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan (*6pts) - NEW
* Chimera (6pts)
* Hydra (9pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts) – NEW
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
* Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard (2pts)
Houseguard Riflemen (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Houseguard Riflemen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts) - NEW
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Mage Hunter Commander (2pts)
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Now the wife, as she does occasionally, took my camera with her on a trip across the Channel. This left me with our bigger camera which is a bit unweildly and I would undoubtedly forget to buy new batteries (I had forgot to charge the rechargeables). I will have forgotten stuff but I’ll give this report a good go anyhow.
I one the roll-off and decided to go first. I ran the Vics around the right side of the large piece of forest in the centre of the table. The MHSF went into the forest and the RifleElves move around to the left of the forest. I ran my Archers up behind the rifles and the myrmidons, A+H, Sylys and Ossy moved up behind everything and gave Shatter Storm to the Rifles, Admonition to the MHSF and cast Chronomancer. Bill had moved the Gun Boar and Targ towards my right nearly facing the Vic’s. Some Brigands moved to face my rifles and dug-in. Bill’s battlegroup moved up behind the forest with the Slaughterhousers, Grinders and other unit of Brigands. Rorsh and Brine made their way towards my Rifles.
Next, The Rifles opened up on the dug-in Brigands but only managed to kill one, plus Shatter Storm didn’t do anything as they were immune to blasts. The MHSF started shooting at Brine but only made him angry allowing him to move closer, but he suffered a bit of damage. The Vics moved forward and mini-feated for a bit of extra range and started to CRA the Gun Boar adding a bit more hurt. The Hydra powered up and unleashed a POW 15 shot at Brine, but this wasn’t enough to kill. The Archers only added a couple of points of damage to Brine. On Bill’s turn, things started to get messy. Rorsh used distraction allowing Brine to slam my back line. The slam target was my Hydra which went all the way back and killed Holt, Sylys and even put a little damage on Ossy. The previously dug-in Brigands moved slowly to my Rifles and opened fire taking out a couple. The Gun Boar had missed a shot after he moved out of Arkadius’ range. The central most War Hog charged into my MHSF, fortunately to little effect as they had Admonition on them allowing them to move out a little (and towards Arkadius). Everything else shimmied towards me.
This was my feat turn and I had to make it count. Now that I had a Brine right under my nose I had to take him down and the Hydra duly obliged in dispatching Brine and subsequently Rorsh. The Vics stood and shot at another War Hog that had strayed into range causing minimal damage. The MHSF did a little better and managed to crack a few shots at the Farrow Warlock and the War Hog that was looming over them. My RifleElves had a good turn by finishing off the Brigands with their rifles and Shatter Storm. My Archers, who have had a very quiet (useless) game, failed to hit the third War Hog with anything which meant quite a bit of deviation. Fortunately for Bill, the result was that I blew up a few Rifles. There wasn’t much else to do so handed over to Bill who started off his feat turn by getting rid of most of my MHSF with a War Hog and Slaughterhousers (I think they all ended up dead). Another War Hog charged into my Vics killing a couple.
With three large piggys in my face, it was time to be bold. The Hydra, now fully loaded with focus, started to wrestle with a War Hog. I think that the result was a draw as not enough damage was caused. The remaining couple of Mage Hunters had another pop at Arkadius with little effect. Now it was down to my Vics to eliminate the War Hog they were mostly surrounding. Firstly, Aiyana used her Kiss to soften the big fella up. Then, upon thinking about the best way to do some big damage, I went for a few three-Elf CRA’s. After the first CRA caused some damage, the War Hog had decided to react by moving past the Vics. This ended my turn as there was now nothing else to do. Bill was full of smiles at this point as he now had a Hog in charge range of Ossy. But smiles turned to indecision as he agonised on whether to boost the hit or save to buy another attack. He settled for boosting the first attack with his tusks hoping that he would get a Critical Knockdown which he got. It then took this and another attack to win the game.
So, definately not Facon. I will admit that coming up against three heavy beasts (who were relatively (stupidly) cheap in a tier list was quite intimidating, but Bill ran a very good list with a great warlock who can look after his beasts. I also realised that Targ is a great support solo. The way he can extend a control area is just amazing.
I was very pleased with my new bits and pieces. Ossy’s spell list is quite handy with Shatter Storm and Chronomancer (Future Sight for Myrmidons? Yes please!). Sylys is amazing (and would have been for the rest of the game if he hadn’t died early on) and cannot wait to use him further. A+H have a lot of potential. Aiyana could be brilliant and so could Holt but I didn’t get to see him in action. One thing I forgot though, not that it would have made much difference, was my Arcanist.

But still, another great game taking my streak now to 18!

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