First game of 2013

Here is the battle report of the year and my first game of any kind since 13th October. So as soon as Cross Gaming Club announced the first club night of the year, I took up Marcus’ challenge. The last time we played was January last year in our club’s Slow Grow League when we had a bout of Gatorman infighting. Sadly for me, his Barnabas soundly beat my Calaban (although I did get points for having a fully painted force). It’s the time before that I’m interested in at the moment. It was the previous encounter to our Gator-off that springs to mind. This was when I finally got one over on the Old Witch. The handful of times before that when I came up against Marcus and the Witch always ended in tears for me, so you can imagine the grudge I hold against her.

I finally got round to beating her when I fielded Vindictus. I still came out of the game fairly scarred, but Vindy held on after the OW used Unseen Path (after Scrapjack tore through millions of my dudes) to get up close and then failed to do anything else than scratching the second highest authority of the Church. Vindy thanked Menoth and took the OW down with three boosted melee attacks. So it was with this game in mind, I opted to bring Vindy out to play when Marcus stated his intention to field my most hated enemy.

With the history of this grudge out of the way, let’s get down to business.

I took:

Vice Scrutator Vindictus – Tier 4
* Reckoner
* Reckoner
* Sanctifier
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts

* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 5 Grunts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer
Holy Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Vassal Mechanik

I’m loving the free Errant UA and giving my heavy jacks Advance Deployment from the Tier list.

Marcus bought:

Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador – Tier 4

* Scrapjack
* Destroyer
* Kodiak
* Spriggan
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Manhunter
Manhunter
Yuri the Axe

 With me winning the roll-off (needing my tier bonus to do so) I opted to take the first turn. I set up fairly wide knowing that the Kossites can take me by surprise so I tried to counter that at the first opportunity by placing the smaller unit of Errants on my right and the larger unit on my left. The jacks and Zealots were all fairly central hoping to take advantage of pathfinder in the first turn.
Marcus setup in a large cluster behind the control zone on his table half with the Widowmakers, making use of a small forest, facing my right and the Yuri led Manhunters just ahead of the zone.

TURN 1

This saw nothing but a general advance towards the Khador line. Both Reckoners setting themselves up in a forest with everything a little bit behind them.

Marcus moved his jack comfortably into the control zone and spread the Greylords out a bit more. The Greylords laid down some more cloud effects (to add to those already in play from the Tier bonus) while the Widowmakers needle the Sanctifier for a four points of damage. Yuri made his intentions clear when he charged one of my Reckoners and took out it’s cortex.

TURN 2

My left-hand Errants pushed on up to the Murder of Crows cloud and tried to shoot around it to no avail. The cortex-less Reckoner took a swing at Yuri and failed so the other one stepped up to get rid of him. My big unit of Zealots then pushed forward to throw bombs not doing much except for killing a Mechanic and putting two points of damage on OW. The rest of my turn was a non-event.

This is the turn where I felt things slip slightly out of my grasp. Marcus brought on a unit of Kossites on either edge and they both had an immediate effect. Between them they took down eight Errants and at least one Zealot. Scrapjack did what he does best and that was cause utter carnage and carve his way towards Vindy. He did get a decent hit in but couldn’t do enough to kill. Spriggan and a Manhunter charged into a Reckoner (the one with a cortex), doing a chunk of damage, but not taking out any systems. Kodiak pushed his way through a wall of Errants and Zealots, crushing a few heads along the way. The other Manhunter attempted to charge the cortex-less Reckoner but couldn’t physically squeeze between two Zealots. Finally, OW moved to a slightly better position and feated.

TURN 3

Under OW’s feat, there was not a lot that I could do. On the right side of the board, the remaining Errants and Zealots killed four Kossites causing them to fail a command check. The Sanctifier, fully souled up and given a prayer by a choirboy, smashed Scrappy around until he stopped moving (which always brings a smile to my face). After that I went to move the Mechanik to try and heal the cortex-less Reckoner, but I forgot about the feat meaning he died before he could do anything. The Reckoners both stood still and thrashed their huge sticks around. The mindless Reckoner did nothing while the other put down a fair bit of damage on the Spriggan. Zealots tried to get some cheeky scatter but didn’t do anything of note.

Marcus started of his turn with those silly Kossites to my left and they picked off a few more Errants and Zealots. Spriggan lay the smack down on the Reckoner that hurt it in the last turn. The Widowmakers moved towards a cloud and needled the Sanctifier for a couple more points. Kodiak managed to get his chain attack off and threw one Reckoner into the other which was quite effective.

TURN 4

With things looking bleak for me, it was to go out swinging. The last couple of Errants on my left charged the Kodiak for a bit more damage. Then my Zealots went to throw some bombs at Spriggan for a few points of damage. Two Widowmakers fell to the crossbows of the Errants to my right, but they made their command check. It was up to my Sanctifier to take Spriggan down, and he duly obliged. I then moved Vindy closer to the action but not doing anything with him.

Now because I moved Vindy further into the battle, Marcus got inspired. All he needed to do was clear Kodiak’s path so he could launch him into my caster. Between Kossites and Greylords, Marcus did this and charged into Vindy. Fortunately for me Vindy was DEF 17 and ARM 22 at this point, so he survived the worst. The Destroyer moved up a little closer and, more importantly, moved in front of OW knowing that the Sanctifier knew where she was hiding.

TURN 5

There wasn’t much for me to do at this point except go mad. I managed to drop a Manhunter with a Zealot bomb while the remaining Errants crossbowed a couple of Greylords. The Sanctifier charged into the Destroyer taking out it’s axe and cortex amongst all the damage caused. Lastly it was down to Vindictus, the second most important man in the Church. He hit with both initials and boosted the damage. With the last two Focus, I decided to go for it and bought another hit with boosted damage. All of this was enough to take out both arms. Menoth was smiling on Vindy.

The Kossites coming in from the left charged the last of the Zealots in their path which enabled the last Manhunter to charge Vindy. Thankfully she failed to damage him any further. Kodiak tried to beat on Vindy, but with both arms out of action (because the Mechanics didn’t have any success in fixing him), nothing was happening. Kodiak did however attempt to head-butt Vindy and failed. The Greylords moved into action and combined to Ice Cage the Sanctifier, making him stationary.

TURN 6

So Vindy survived. I started the turn by dropping another Widowmaker. The Sanctifier shook off his stationary state and totalled the Destroyer. My last activation needed me to break Kodiak into pieces and hope for the best in the net turn. Vindy did the same as the previous turn and boosted the damage on his initial attacks and buying a third with boosted damage also. I’m not sure how many boxes were left, but Vindy fluffed enough to get worried.

OW moved away from the Sanctifier to relative safety. Then the Battle Mechanics got Kodiak fully functioning again which proved to be the end of things. There was no way Vindy could survive this onslaught. Marcus wins by caster kill. 

Such an epic game in the end, we were both fairly exhausted by the end of it. I just cannot believe it had been a year since I played Marcus, but the wait was worth it. If Vindy had managed to hang on for another turn, things might have looked better for me. Both Tier lists were incredible in terms of what they added to the game with my pathfinder and jack AD and Yuri at no cost and stealth and pathfinder and upkeeps for the first turn.

The Kossite Woodsmen were the stars of the game with all the worry they caused me on top of all the Menites they killed. The way they hemmed me in meant there weren’t many safe hiding places. On my side, the Sanctifier stood out, (admittedly with a choirboy behind him) put the finishing touches to Scrappy, Spriggan and the Destroyer which was pleasing. I am really glad that I bought one last year.

What would I have done differently if I got to play this game again? I would probably have dropped the minimum unit of Zealots for one Errant Seneschal and a second choir (minimum unit, they are a cheaper option for Sacrificial Lamb) or simply two Errant Seneschals. Having at least one of them on the table could have afforded me a little more option with Hunter allowing me to do some more damage. I might have tried a bit harder to limit Scrappy when he is on an Avatar of Slaughter run. But most importantly, I should have been less worried about the incoming Kossites as they really did occupy my mind, until they came on. In the end I couldn’t do anything about the hurt they caused me.

This list is something that I’ve wanted to try for a while now and am happy that it kind of works. I hope to take this out again at some point in the near future. However, the next list to get given a run out will be Intercessor Kreoss. He was one of my holiday presents this time around (along with a unit of Vengers and a Judicator) so he won’t be painted just yet. The interesting thing about this is that, apart from High Exemplar Gravus and Fane Knight Skerryth – neither of whom I used to their full horsey potential) I have never used cavalry before in any of my games, so this upcoming game against Venethrax (I am 0-2 against this guy) should prove to be a lot of fun.

Occupied Llael - Final game (round 5)

Today would be my last game of the year. It would also be my last game with Menoth for a while. Tonight would also be the last time that the Old Witch would get the better of me (hopefully). Tonight...

On with the game, and I bring out Vindy as I have a feeling about him tonight.

Vice Scrutator Vindictus (*6pts)
* Devout (5pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

Marcus opted for the first turn and shuffled forward while putting up his nasty upkeeps (Iron Flesh on his Demo Corps, Avatar of Slaughter on the Old Witch and Weald Secrets on his Juggy).

For me, I pushed my jacks forward trying to channel the Demo Corps into my Crusaders. To do this I cast Sacrificial Lamb for the extra focus point for each jack while casting Defenders Ward on one of the Crusaders.

Next turn, Marcus moved Fenris down his extreme flank, followed this by moving his Winter Guard into some cover and the Demo Corps closer to my font line.

As my Vanq had not been too effective with its shooting in the previous turn (it was so bad I didn’t even mention it), It was time to charge the Demo Corps. Two fell under a Thresher attack (which should easily be a reach weapon). Vindy moved with his bodyguard of Zealots and Bastions slowly picking off another Zealot for more Focus.

Marcus made his move and boldly set everything forward. Fenris took a big chunk out of one of my Crusaders while the Great Bears and Juggy went for the second one. Thankfully, it only took one hit due to Enliven cast by the Vassal and just walked out of combat. The remaining Demo Corps went to work on the Vanquisher hurting it a little.

The Vanq retaliated and took down two more of the Demo Corps with the aid of the Vassal and Choir boy behind it. The now unengaged and fully loaded Crusader charged the Great Bears and finished them off leaving itself open to a looming Juggy. The other Crusader lashed out with its mace (it lost its open fist) and put some damage on Fenris forcing him to dismount. I followed this up with my Bastions who finished the job.

The Grey Lords at the back of the field helped out the lone Demo Corps member and got rid of the Vanqs support. Meanwhile Juggy went to avenge Fenris and occupied a Crusader. The other was frozen to the spot unable to lash out at the incoming Scrapjack. Scrappy moved up to the Bastions providing cover for Vindy and allowing the Old Witch to cast Unseen Path. This placed her right in Vindy’s face. So much for cover! Sitting on five focus, she began to attack second highest authority in the church. Here, is where I really felt for Marcus. He had missed his initial attacks thanks to Vindy’s high DEF and bought more attacks. After causing only minimal damage, Marcus ran out of focus.

It was really up to Vindy now, needing eight to hit I boosted the rolls and hit with both weapons. I also boosted both damage rolls. Sadly I just came up short. So with two focus left, I bought a third attack and boosted the to hit roll. With this I managed to finish her off.

Finally, I had gotten rid of the Old Witch. After putting a dent in Marcus’ force, I thought that I would be able to push Vindy’s brick towards my nemesis and try to kill her on my terms. I felt that Vindy was secure enough with his bodyguard (after my experiences at Tanelorn recently, I really didn’t like the idea of anything just appearing in my face), so I tried to cancel out as much space as possible. If nothing could physically appear next to my caster, then he wouldn’t get smooshed! The Zealots would have only been temporary as they would have vanished to give my jacks some more focus each turn, while the Bastions would have took some grinding down before a gap opened up next to Vindy. As a matter of fact, you’ll notices from the pics that I removed the wrong Zealot giving just enough space for the Old Witch to appear in. At that point, I thought it was over. Vindy didn’t have enough time to cast Defenders Ward on himself (make him DEF 17 and ARM 18 – meaning the Old Witch needed 11’s to hit) but did have a few focus on himself which helped. Fortunately for me, the dice conspired against Marcus. It happens to us all occasionally, but I certainly didn’t enjoy watching all of those failed rolls (well, maybe a little). Thankfully, Vindy is somewhat handy in melee so he can look after himself. And if he didn’t finish the enemy off, I had some Bastions and a Devout nearby.

I was pleased with the list. The Zealots were restrained and helped Vindy give out 12 focus during the game which I think is a decent return for four points. The Crusaders stood up well with the usual support and the Vanquisher held up play on my left flank. The Bastions provided protection while threatening anything that came nearby While the Devout didn’t do a thing except for taking a the hit from a spell one time (I think this happened, I’m not entirely sure). The Vassals were awesome (especially when saving a Crusader from a potential mauling with Enliven) and the Choir went about thier business in the usual manner.

I could (should) have lost the game to careless positioning of my Zealots, but I have the feeling that might not have mattered with Scrappy nearby. But still, Vindy won the battle and even turned the Old Witch into a Zealot with Death Toll. Praise Menoth!

My fire wasn't quite hot enough - Occupied Llael round 5.

Last night saw my Silent Bob take on Sorscha in a club campaign game last night. This was a tough game against a fairly new member of the club, Jaden. We agreed on a 35 point game but still ended up running out of time in our session, meaning we only played 3 turns each.


Jaden took (adding additional points for territories owned):

Kommander Sorscha (*5pts)
* Beast-09 (11pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 6 Grunts) (4pts)
* Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard (2pts)
* 3 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers (3pts)
Fenris (5pts)
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (2pts)
Kovnik Markov (4pts)
Man-o-war Drakhun (with dismount) (5pts)

To which I answered with (again with additional points for territories):

The High Reclaimer (*6pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Flameguard Cleansers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

Having barely won the roll for deployment, I let Jaden set up and go first. He set up his Fenris and Beast to my left and his Drakhun and Markov to my left in menacing flanking manoeuvres. The Winter Guard were set in front of the Great Bears while Sorscha and her War Dog sat behind slightly.
For me, I set up a brick of Zealots (the larger unit) with UA and Vanquisher to keep an eye on the Fenris and warjack. Near my centre I placed my Cleansers just ahead of my smaller unit of Zealots. Then I put the Errants and UA to cover the other flank, utilising the woods on that side. Silent Bob and his bonded Crusader sat behind the brick to my left.

First turn saw a general advance on Jaden’s part with the Rocketeers taking first blood, but wasn’t able to do much else. I mirrored the general advance with the Errants taking position in the woods ahead of them and keeping an eye on Markov and the Drakhun.

Next turn saw Markov come down the extreme flank looking to pull away my Errants. The Rocketeers took a few more casualties while everything else shuffled forward slightly. My turn came around and I had to get the Errants to charge Markov, which they did with ease. The Vanq pressed forward and took aim at the War Dog hoping to catch Sorscha behind it. I scored a hit and put it and Sorscha on fire but didn’t do damage to either. The Vassal gave the Vanq another go and this time went for Beast who also caught fire but with minimal damage. The Zealots moved forward to plug the gap between the ruins to their left and the Vanquisher and popped their mini-feat. This was to prevent the nasty Fenris from charging my caster. The Cleansers started to spray the Winter Guard with Menoth’s Fury and were largely unsuccessful, though they managed to set a few on fire.

The third turn saw the continuous effects cause very little damage. Sorscha suffered only one point, the War Dog suffered three while the Beast started the turn unscathed. The Winter Guard also suffered a few casualties in the same way, but they also made a couple of Tough rolls. Sorscha kicked things off by pooping her feat making a lot of my force stationary (over half of the larger unit of Zealots, the Vanquisher and Vassal, and half of the Cleanser and smaller Zealot units), before using Windrush to jump back to safety. The Winter Guard advanced to within shooting range of the Cleansers and managed to gun them all down and also take aim at the Vassal who, unfortunately, was not in B2B contact with the Vanq in order to get a DEF/ARM buff. It was time for Beast to come out and play and it promptly smashed the Vanq to pieces. Fenris just sat behind Beast as he had nothing he could go for. Drakhun took advantage of the open area that now appeared and moved close to Silent Bob and just look threateningly at him. This was looking a bit bad for me as I had lost a lot of troopers. Bob started the turn, now with a total of 18 focus, and feated bringing back 5 Zealots back from the dead. He then proceeded to cast Ashes to Ashes and put heavy damage on Drakhun and some Winter Guard. The Drakhun’s mount then perished to a well aimed swipe from the Crusader, but the Drakhun himself survived. The Zealots who came back to life went to work on the remainder of the Winter Guard and killed a few more. The Errants came towards the centre of the field and got rid of a couple more Winter Guard.

This is where we ran out of time and called it a draw.

The look of the game might have changed in the next turn with a lot of Continuous Fire on several models, most notably Sorscha and her Dog. The Dog would have died while the caster would have suffered 2d6-2 damage which would have left her very vulnerable. Drakhun would have kept the Crusader engaged while Beast could have gone after the Zealots next to him. This could have left Fenris with a good opportunity to come and engage Bob (the way Bob was positioned, he couldn’t have been charged anyway). What was left of the Winter Guard would probably aimed at the smaller Zealot unit and softened them up for the Great Bears, who smartly stayed clear of the action. But then my Errants could have covered the Zealots and give the Bears a fight.
Once again, I was very pleased with my force composition, so I will now briefly rate my force:
High Reclaimer - did well with his spells and moved away from trouble.
Crusader - didn't see much action apart from squishing Drakhun's mount.
Vanquisher - set things on fire and provided a nice distraction (there was nothing he could have done about Beast '09).
Zealots (max) + UA - blocked vital charge lane and made Jaden think about waht he wanted to do with Beast and Fenris.
Zealots (min) - took out some Winter Guard only after they had come back from the dead. I had hoped to keep them behind the Cleansers and launch bombs over them towards the enemy (it helps that the Cleansers are immune to Fire).
Cleansers - put some Winter Guard on fire but didn't have the chance to shine before they were wiped out.
Errants + UA - were pulled out of position by Markov (who paid for this dearly) and then came towards the fray and took down a few Winter Guard.
Vassal - did what he had to twice by urging the Vanq to take extra shots.

I do wish we had not taken so long in each turn, so we could have found a winner. So neither of us gained territory or lost it either. This is a shame as I had my eye on a particular piece of Jaden’s land.

Next game: more Khador under the command of my nemesis, Marcus.

Occupied Llael - Round 2

Lots has happened in my little part of the gaming environment. There have been regular games down at the club, all of which require some sort of battle report. There has been a major shake up in my collecting of minis for wargaming, a potential real life crisis actually. And there have been some slightly different ideas for future projects that may never take off.


To start off, some form of battle reporting. I have had a few WM/Hordes campaign games at the club. All have been great games. I’ll start her by going over the Round 2 games. I think that the first one that I forgot to write a report for was a very fine game against Oli and his Legion. I don’t remember much about this game (except that I lost and it was an AWESOME game). I think it was the first time that I used a second unit of Zealots in my list. Using a second unit of Zealots seems to be a staple with my campaign Warcasters, Vindictus and the High Reclaimer. I think in this game I came nowhere near Oli’s ‘caster but certainly made him think about positioning. My play was maybe a touch too aggressive (in a game that applauds aggressiveness) and I ended up leaving the Reclaimer too open.

Next up was a 40 point game against Marcus and his Khador. We played the special ‘break week’ scenario which involved two ‘casters per side. This was a totally kick-ass game!. This is the first game in which I used Vindictus and the Avatar of Menoth. This was a huge game with no less than 11 ‘jacks, more than half of which were heavy! The scenario involved me putting one of my ‘casters and part of my force in the centre of the table with the rest at the back of my deployment zone. Marcus’ force would come on en masse and try and kill both of my ‘casters. There is a lot of animosity on my part for Marcus’ Old Witch and her Scrapjack. The amount of times that they have caused me and my army pain is almost innumerable (maybe three or four times – which seems like a lot). Needless to say, with Vindictus as bait, the High Reclaimer made a beeline to the Old Witch. This was successful as both the Old Witch and her annoying puppy Scrapjack succumbed to Menoth’ righteous fury. After all of this, I lost Vindictus which evened things up. There was an enormous amount of carnage after that with ‘jacks just getting wrecked and Menites and Khadorians alike spilling their blood. The Menite deaths started to fuel the High Reclaimer with souls to further boost his might. So he used this large pool of Focus to cast spell after spell which for the most part failed. What he should have done was keep all of the Focus on himself in order to overboost his powerfield (he would have had armour 35 or something) which would have stopped the Khadorian ‘jacks from stomping all over him.

This was a crazy scenario that kept the excitement levels very high throughout the game. And it was actually great using two ‘casters in one game and I hope to get the opportunity again in the near future.

Scrap Metal game results.

The first game of the weekend was against Rob and his Seaforge Commission. I enjoyed seeing an all Dwarf army, even though it broke all my preconceptions concerning their slowness. The scenario for this game was Revelation, which involved capturing control banners on the halfway line on the field. I lost the dice off (the first of five failed rolls in all six games), I think Rob went for the Defenders role (his Seaforge could in fact extend their Deployment Zone, which put them closer to the Control banners). Rob took a fairly ‘jack heavy army with three Blasters (total nuisances) with a good choice in troops. All this led by Gorten Grundback. The game itself saw my Zealots rushing straight to the Dwarven front line only to wonderfully implode by having a few bombs scatter into their own ranks (they wouldn’t be fun to use if they didn’t do stupid things like this). The Errants ended up being shot to pieces right at the start, while the Bastions fared far better with their durability. Everything else got caught up in a wall of ‘jacks being very ably assisted by Lord Rockbottom and Thor Steinhammer trying to get at an extremely evasive Gorten. Rob looked to win by scenario (he cleared me away from both control banners), but went for caster kill to rack up a very high score.
Next up was Andy and his Circle. Here, again was a nicely painted set of warbeasts led by pKreuger. This time the scenario was Close Quarters which involved taking to Control Zones. My Errants had a good time taking on the Bloodtrackers before taking a Warp Wolf and a Pureblood close to their deaths. Kreuger stayed too far away to even think about damaging and his feat really hurt my hopes of moving forward to capture either of the control zones. The Bastions did their best to try and control one of the zones but Andy had scored the more control points than I did by that time.
In the last game on Saturday, I faced Dill and his Trollbloods led by eMadrak. A lot of the killing was being done by three Impalers and a unit of Troll champions which tore through my line with alarming speed. This scenario, Kill Box, turned out to be just a standard (but bloody – Menoth blood sadly) ‘caster kill. Zealots almost took the glory and went for ‘caster kill and dealt some damage, but Madrak was left standing with 8 points left. Kreoss was killed by Impalers.

Sunday’s first game I was pitted in a game of Capture the Flag. My opponent Tom took Khador led by eSorscha and a wonderfully posed Beast. Things were going well to start with, the Fire of Salvation (loaded up with four Focus) made straight for Beast in the third turn and turned it to junk. As the game wore on I found my situation getting a little more desperate. Fortunately for me, we ran out of time to play another turn and ended with a draw. If we had I surely would have lost the game by scenario.

Game 5 was against Craig and yet more Trollbloods led this time by pMadrak. Craig could have won in the first turn as I didn’t follow the scenario (Process of Elimination) properly. I hadn’t placed my Zealots in one of the Control Zones properly and were subsequently cleared from the Zone. As that would have meant that the game was over right there and then, Craig let the game go on. I wish he hadn’t as everything went wrong (including Craig making 7 consecutive tough rolls). My ‘jacks were taken down by a couple of Impalers and some Troll champions. The Errants ran away from Pygmies and during Madrak’s feat turn the Earthborn went to town on my entire force. Kreoss fell yet again to Impalers. I had scored my lowest total of battle points so far.

The final game of the weekend was against Dan and some more Mercenaries, this time from the Highborn Covenant. Without me paying attention to Dan pointing out what everything in hiss force was and what they do, I soon lost the plot. My Errants got tied up by chaff consisting of a unit of Press Gangers (who also happened to be very successful with their Tough rolls) and Zombies. The rest of the force were engaged by more Press Gangers and Pistol Mages. I started to get things totally wrong, and Dan very helpfully (and extremely kindly) stepped in and made some suggestions. Without these hints, I would have lost any ability to destroy Dan’s Objective Markers instead of drawing.

Self assessment will follow as soon as I have got over how lame I was.

Battle report catch up.

I have been a bit lazy recently. I owe you two battle reports.


The first against Marcus and his Khador was an interesting run-out for my 50 point Scrap-Metal II list. It has only had a very minor tweak dropping the Revenger for a Devout and reducing the size of the Choir.
The game itself was a huge challenge as at the start I left my prized Errants fairly vulnerable during set-up. They promptly got smooshed by Scrapjack (who I have a deep hatred for, I still have nightmares from the first time I faced it) who just gained attack after attack after attack. The rest of the force did ok. Maybe I could/should have used my Vanquisher more aggressively. More pot-shots into enemy lines is always good plus it could have controlled one side of the table a lot better. Marcus’ Kayazy Assassins with Underboss proved to be a difficult obstacle and made a bee-line straight to Kreoss. Kreoss was then forced (no pun intended) to choose between overboosting his own power field or buying and boosting extra attacks to get himself out of the predicament he found himself in. In the end, buying extra attacks worked in getting rid of the Assassins, but then the door was left open for … (I’ve totally forgotten who or what) to put Kreoss down. Discussing the game afterwards with Marcus, I could have used my set-up a whole lot better to force Marcus into changing his battle plan. As it was, he was able to get his force to concentrate on destroying parts of my army before moving in for the kill.

The week after was a game against Rob and his Cryx (Rob was playing only his third game with his Cryx force). I used the same 50 point Kreoss list. After Advance Deploying my Errants, I let them bomb forward straight towards the enemy. They succeeded in pulling one of Rob’s units to one side and occupy them. They pretty much wiped each other out while the Errant Officer remained standing. While remaining where he was in a forest, he also pulled out another unit. The Vanquisher did most of the work for the force. It successfully shot with it’s Flame Belcher every turn suitably aided by a Vassal (Ancillary Attack) and a Choir (Prayer of Battle). This left the rest of the army to trundle forward. The FoS pushed forward but then got sidetracked by a light Cryx warjack, while my Bastions provided an immobile shield for Kreoss (they were unable to advance too far as they kept getting knocked down). The Knights, Knights Senny and the Bastions didn’t cause a single point of damage between them which was really disappointing (but totally my fault as I was so undecided as to how use them effectively). In the end it was the Vanquisher/Vassal/Choir team that got me the win. After putting a large hole in one unit then boxing one of Rob’s heavy ‘jacks, the team turned their attention to the enemy caster pDenny. Now she was hiding behind the second heavy ‘jack, plus I couldn’t target her as she had Stealth. So I just shot at the ‘jack. The vanquisher loaded up with Focus hit the ‘jack and because of it’s 4” AOE hit Denny. I boosted her damage roll to add to the Choirs’ Prayer of Battle and got a nice healthy 15. As she was still not dead, the Vassal used Ancillary Attack on the Vanq. The Vanq, once again, boosted the damage on Denny this time causing 13 points of damage. If the game had gone on a couple more turns, we both would have used our feats which would have been interesting. It would have been a case of who popped theirs first. I might have dreaded Rob getting his in first as mine would have been ruined, or at least less effective. But still the feat wasn’t needed, and I gained a slightly better idea about my Scrap Metal force.

An edge of your seat battle (no word of a lie guv)!

Once again, I am writing things a bit later than usual as Real Life has reared its ugly head and seconded me into doing actual responsible stuff. With danger averted, I hope to inform you of the great and wonderful game I played on Tuesday 13th against a guy called Ravage (Mark) and his Khador force. Even though this was such a monumental game, I will, in all likelihood, forget some of the details.

We agreed on playing a 35 point game in which I would be using new models.
I had dusted off pKreoss (whom I am hoping to spearhead my Scrap Metal II force (more on the subject in another post)) and decided to field a carefully proxyed Fire of Salvation (I used a Crusader) and a unit of Exemplar Bastions (I used a unit of Deathwing terminators). The full list is as follows:
High Exemplar Kreoss (*5pts)
* Revenger (6pts)
* Fire of Salvation (9pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Knight Exemplar Seneschal (3pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)

While Mark took:
The Butcher of Khardov (*6pts)
* Berserker (6pts)
* Kodiak (8pts)
Assault Kommandos (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Greylord Escort (2pts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
Fenris (5pts)

I think I lost the roll to set up so I started with placing my Bastions as far forward as they could go (they would need a bit of a head start with their low movement) on my left. On their right stood both ‘jacks backed up by the Choir with Kreoss behind them. The Senny sat back behind the Bastions waiting for his moment.
Mark put his ‘jacks directly facing my Bastions with the Butcher and Shocktroopers behind them. The Assault Kommandos set up in the centre of battle line, while Fenris started off right at the back of the field.
Next up was the Advance Deployments. I placed my Errants and UA behind some woods in left-field with Mark placing his Reavers and Greylord more or less opposite them.

First turn saw a general advance with not much happening for either side. Kreoss cast both of his upkeep spells, Lamentation and Defenders Ward on the Bastions (taking them up to DEF 13 and ARM 18). Mark did the same and cast his upkeeps.
Turn two saw a bit of contact between the two sides. My Errants popped out of their cover and charged the Reavers killing four of them. Kreoss cast Cleansing Fire via the Revengers’ Arc Node causing a few points of damage on one of the Shocktroopers and setting him on fire. Mark opened fire in retaliation with his Kommandos. They put a few points of damage on the Fire of Salvation. The Greylord inflicted a whole world of pain on the Errants taking advantage of their crowding and cast Frostbite. This killed a grand total of 8 Errants leaving the Officer and Standard Bearer along with the leader and one grunt. The Berserker charged into the Bastions causing a bit of damage which was spread around as a result of their Sanguine Bond. The Kodiak skirted around the woods to my extreme left.
Turn three saw Kreoss edge forward thus putting the Butcher within his control range, subjecting him to Lamentation (Butcher would have to pay double for spells and upkeeps – which came in quite useful). The Bastions didn’t quite get the hang of hitting the enemy ‘jack with only two out of five causing damage. The FoS broke cover and ran towards the Shocktroopers using it’s Holy Fervor (American spelling) Imprint (spend Focus point to gain boosted melee attack rolls). Didn’t cause as much damage as I’d hope but he tied up the Butcher’s bodyguard. The remaining Errants finished off the Doom Reavers leaving only the Greylord. Mark’s turn saw the Kodiak charge the Bastions causing a little damage. The Berserker didn’t do much better either. Mark’s Kommandos laid down more fire, this time aiming at the Revenger. Luck wasn’t really showing her face this turn as the Greylord tried to duke it out with an Errant and failing. Last of all Fenris activated and raced toward the back of my line causing some concern for Kreoss.
Turn four saw the end of the Greylord leaving the Errants free to venture towards the Kommandos. The FoS went to work on putting the Shocktroopers down for good as he was loaded up with Focus. The Senny finally came out of hiding and launched himself at the Kodiak. His pulled of all three attacks (two initial plus a Smite chain attack). This took the Kodiak to within an inch of its life and knocked it down. This in turn reminded me about Kreoss’s feat. I popped the feat which made the Berserker go down quicker. I maybe should have popped the feat at the start of the turn but I’ll beat myself up over that later. Things looked fairly decent for me.
Mark kept at though as the Kodiak stood up and smooshed the Senny, who never recovered because no friendly model died near him in order to trigger off Restoration. Mark had popped his feat at the start of the turn but still couldn’t cast multiple spells as I was upkeeping Lamentation. The Kommandos started shooting at the oncoming Errants but sadly did not do anything fatal. The Fenris drew ever closer to the back of my line while drawing a bead on Kreoss.
Turn five saw me pull back Kreoss and the Revenger just enough to still let the Butcher feel the effects of Lamentation. The Errants went to engage the Kommandos killing just one as all bar one was in charge range. The FoS finished off the last remaining Shocktrooper, while the Bastions saw off the threat of the Kodiak. Mark positioned the Fenris for an assassination run.
Turn six saw the Bastions run toward the Butcher and fall short. The FoS engaged the Kommandos along with the remaining Errants. Kreoss ordered the Revenger to stand between him and Fenris. In Mark’s turn, he charged Fenris into Kreoss. But he had to go through the Revenger who got a free strike which didn’t quite do enough damage. Fenris used both of his attacks well and scored more than enough damage points to put Kreoss down.
Mark won by ‘caster kill in only his third game.

We both agreed that this was an extremely awesome game which did go right to the end. And, as usual, we both had a long list of things we forgot/did wrong. Mark wishes he used his Doom Reavers differently and maybe advanced his Kommandos more. As for me, where do I start?
The obvious one was right the end. I should have loaded the Revenger up with Focus and charged Fenris. That would have left Kreoss and the Bastions to take care of Butcher. Kreoss should not have pooped his feat mid-turn, the Senny might still have been alive to aim himself at the enemy ‘caster. The Errants did not use their Quick Work Tactic granted by the UA. After they killed some Doom Reavers in melee, they had a free shot with thier crossbows. This may have finished off the unit and/or the Greylord. The FoS could have ignored the Kommandos and went for Butcher. If I had done one or more of these things, the game might have ended differently.
But overall, I’m happy with how everything performed. Kreoss’s upkeeps kept the Butcher fairly quiet. The FoS showed, if used correctly, that it can be a melee beast. The Bastions were just as tough as I hoped, while the Senny and Revenger did their bit for Menoth. Special mention goes to the Exemplar Errants. With their new UA, they have now become my auto-include unit. It used to be that I would never enter a battlefield without some Zealots and Monolith Bearer (although I can see me taking them later with the likes of Vindictus running the show). The UA granting Pathfinder and giving the Quick Work tactic makes them a lot more fun to use. Also add the Errant Senny, who grants them Hunter, and you have a very nearly perfect unit.
This list was a smaller version of what I aim to take to Maelstrom Games’ Scrap Metal II event in August, so I was very encouraged with what I saw tonight. At first glance, I may change the Revenger (I didn’t put the Arc Node to full use) for a Devout (who’s abilities I got confused and thought belonged to the Revenger). I may also take eKreoss instead of pKreoss. These two changes frees up two points which can get me a very useful Vassal. I will see in my next game against Marcus and his Khador (!).

Famous quote.

"In Khador there are no cakes, only ice creams made from manly tears and profiteroles made from the sadness of grieving families." Gringo.

I was laughing so hard, my wife thought I was having an anuerism.

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.

False hopes / new additions.

Nope! It is not a case of new venue, new luck! I rocked up to the club to play some Warmachine and got my Menoth butt handed to me (by a guy called Jeremy and his Khador) in the first session, and then suitably squished in the second after some hot Menoth on Menoth action (thanks Nat). I will make a couple of excuses in my defence, however. These were my first games under the MKII rules and I was getting myself all muddled up. Also, I still haven't sat down and read/studied/absorbed the rules (quelle surprise as my wife would say). Yes, these are rubbish excuses! they shouldn't even be excuses. I knew I should have just sat down Sunday morning, ignored the cat and the aforementioned wife, and forced myself to do something about it. Instead, I found myself gorging myself on some Monday Night Raw and Smackdown from a couple of weeks ago.


Still, I'm going to try again tonight. I'll be playing a new guy to the club, and indeed Warmachine itself. This means it won't be a competitive game which is good as I don't do competition very well. I just like to turn up and have a drink and roll my uncooperative dice.

Gaming aside, I have made quite a few additions to my various forces:

MonPoc: I have purchased another monster (Rakadon) and lots of grunts for my Terrasaurs/Empire of the Apes force. I have nearly enough of each model released so far so I have a lot to choose from the next time I play. All before the next block of releases for the game.

Warmachine: I bought Vindictus, the Blessing of Menoth, Dartan Vilmon, The High Reclaimer (this should have been Orin Midwinter), Gorman di Wolfe, Doc Killingsworth and the Temple Flameguard unit attachment.

40k: I don't have a particular need to add to my Dark Angels or Necrons (especially with GW's future price increases), but when I saw some OOP Necrons I snapped them up. I got a Necron Lord, seven Scarabs, 20 Warriors, 5 Immortals and 3 Destroyers. ALL OLD SKOOL!!!

Malifaux: for some unknown reason, I took advantage of Tor Gaming’s clearance on their Malifaux mini’s. I bought a shed load of Outcasts, much more than I need to start.

All in all I have spent way too much on models and I'm going to take forever painting (thankfully the old style Necrons are already painted). The only thing I didn't buy was luck...