Minor hit and major miss.

Well, last night was fun.


First up was a game against a newcomer to Warmachine.
Mark fielded a Khador force with the Butcher at it's head. He also took the very immense looking Behemoth, a unit of Assault Kommandos and a unit of Man-o-war Shocktroopers.
I took Severius along with the Blessing of Vengeance and a Vanquisher. This was supplemented by full-strength Choir, Exemplar Errants and Zealot (with Monolith Bearer of course) units. And following these were an Exemplar Seneschal, a Reclaimer and a Vassal. The game was a bit one-sided as Mark didn’t use all of his point allocation and I didn’t realise this at all (not being entirely familiar with Khador troops). So I won’t really chalk this up as a win, but I will take heart from the fact that I started to remember the order in which I should activate models.
The game itself saw the Zealots reform well causing heavy damage on the Behemoth and then dying in order to become souls for the Reclaimer. The Errants protected my flank by taking out the Assault Kommandos (this could have been a lot tougher if Mark and I remembered that they were entitled to another attack each). But the Kommandos did enough to make sure the Errants stayed away from the main fight. The Vanquisher, aided by the Vassal made good progress on the Shocktroopers. Also, while engaged by the Behemoth at the end of the game, the Blessing of Menoth was not properly utilised. It did use it’s Bushwhack Imprint to Repel the Behemoth, leaving it open to a very effective Exemplar Seneschal (who himself caused a lot of damage). One thing about the Blessing I forgot to use was it’s affinity with Severius. Once in the game, I could have got a +2 bonus to damage with a channelled spell (this would be added to the +2 given by the Choir’s Battle hymn and +1 for Severius’ Eye f Menoth spell – a total of +5), Immolation would have finished off Behemoth leaving the Seneschal to take down the Butcher.
Speaking with Mark after the game, he definitely wants to take a cheaper heavy ‘jack (Kodiak for example) next time. He would also like to have been more offensive with the Shocktroopers (they could have put a dent or three in my Vanquisher) and Kommandos. Also, remembering to take the full allocation of points (the additional 11 points could have yielded another ’jack and maybe another unit) would have changed the whole complexion of the game.
But we will have a rematch in a couple of weeks to make it right. We probably want to look at having a 50 point game, in which I would probably take the same list and add another ‘jack and a solo or two.

The second part of the night saw me play my Necromunda campaign action. As the last exploration action was quite successful, I went for another one. This time I had to face giant spiders. All I had to do was kill 10 of the aforementioned creepy-crawlies. The spiders took the first turn and charged towards my Ratskins, leaving me to set most of them up on Overwatch. Second turn saw the Spiders charge. They took down three of my guys after everyone on Overwatch failed to cause a wound. I did manage to beat one of the spiders in combat leaving me with 9 more to go. The start of my turn saw me fail quite a few panic tests giving me a bottle roll, which I failed after coming up with a double 6! GAME OVER.
This was, to say the least, a very horrible way to finish the game. It’s like making my Necrons phase out after turn three. This was totally unacceptable, and the Ratskins will have to try harder next time.

Next time a the club I have a 35 point Warmachine game against Carlos who is also just starting out with the vile Cryx. I am looking forward to this as it will give me more practice with pSeverius. I want to use one specific warcaster for some time before trying someone else (I don’t know who will be next out of pKreoss, pFeora, the High Reclaimer and Vindictus). And having taken an extra two minutes (!!!) to look at the Forces of Menoth book, I think I can field some tiered armies currently which will make things a touch more thematic.