SYNERGY!!!

As promised, I brought out Amon for a night of fun. Jack and I had agreed on a 35 point game as he was fielding his list for an upcoming Highlander one-dayer and I had to leave early to collect my wife from the Eurostar.

Having used Amon just once before, I felt a little rusty with him. But then again Amon is kind of a one-trick pony. The list I took was a variation of the previous Amon list I had fielded. The main differences were swapping the Vanquisher for a Reckoner and somehow squeezing in the Blood of Martyrs. The trio of Dervishes and Devout remained the same.

High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Devout
* Repenter
* Blood of Martyrs
* Reckoner
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
* Banshee
* Discordia
* Phoenix
Houseguard Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Houseguard Halberdiers Officer & Standard
Arcanist

SmogCon dice

We chose the Close Quarters Scenario and Jack won the roll-off and elected to go first. Jack set up with his Phoenix and Banshee to my left and clumped his Halberdiers around the Discordia. Kaelyssa and the Arcanist sat behind the infantry. I sort of set up all higgledy-piggledy with the only real planning going into putting the Repenter out on my right with the intention of spraying the Halberdiers.

Turn 1

Jack made a general advance with everything activating the Discordia’s imprint to give a little more protection to the Halberdiers. Kaelyssa helped out her infantry a bit more by putting banishing ward on them.

I allocated one point of focus to a dervish and my Devout to start off. Amon then cast Synergy and Mobility and let his army make a general advance. The Choir then move towards their jacks and used the Prayer of Shielding (no magic); I figured this was the best they could do as the Prayer of passage only stops non-magical ranged attacks (all of the Myrmidons had magic ranged weapons). 

Turn 2

Jack shuffles his Halberdiers forward some more alongside the Discordia. Discordia attempts to spray one of my Dervishes but to little or no effect. Kaelyssa feated first and then cast Phantom Hunter on the Banshee who took a shot at my left-hand Dervish. The Dervish suffered a little bit of damage and then squished a Choir boy when he was pushed back.

My turn would be a difficult one with the Elves being un-chargeable and Stealthed. Synergy was upkept and two Focus was allocated to the Reckoner and one to the Repenter. I started off by moving Amon inside my lines and cast Mobility. The Repenter then moved forward so that he could get the maximum number of elves under his spray. After catching six Halberdiers and the Discordia, only one of the elves fell and the Discordia was set on fire but suffered no damage (after being boosted). What I should have done was activate the Choir beforehand and maybe some more elves would have burned. Next up was the Choir (!?) who sung the Prayer of Battle making sure the Reckoner was affected. Dervishes just shuffled out of the way of the Reckoner who moved so he could see the Discordia. Boosting to hit and damage, the force field suffered seven points of damage.

Turn 3

Jack rolled into action with his Halberdiers who used their mini-feat to excellent effect. They charged the Reckoner and managed to scrap it. They reformed slightly so they could be more of a nuisance. The Discordia waded into the Repenter taking out his flail and movement. The Banshee took another shot at the Dervish and managed to turn it into scrap. The Phoenix shuffled forward and took a bit of a swing at the in front of it, but thankfully failed to do anything.

My immediate reaction was to feat. I dropped Synergy only to recast it and Mobility. With two focus left, I walked Amon forward so that he could start the Synergy chain off by killing two elves. Having spent all of his Focus, Amon dished it out; one to the Devout, two to the Dervish in front of the Phoenix, two for Repenter and the last one for the last Dervish. The Choir activated and sung the Prayer of Battle affecting both Dervishes, the Devout and the BoM. And away we went. The Devout charged the Banshee, causing little damage, but moving the Synergy chain up to +2. The Repenter moved out of Melee with Discordia (thanks to getting Perfect Balance from the feat) and sprayed. I think he only killed one Halberdier. The BoM tore through a few elves getting the chain up to +3. The central Dervish filled his boots as well getting rid of three pointy ears with the chain going up to +4. The last Dervish activated and killed the Halberdier in front of him and Side Stepped into the Phoenix. With one more initial attack and two Focus, I was hoping for some big damage. Needing to roll anything but snake eyes, and now at P+S 19, this was going to look good. And it was. The Phoenix was totalled by a four point jack. Such a nice way to end the turn.

Turn 4

My turn three didn’t actually end with me doing the happy dance. It ended with me crapping my pants because I realised where I left Amon.

Jack started off by getting the Banshee to smack up the Devout a little, taking out its cortex. Then he activated Kaelyssa, who noticed that Amon was in the open and aimed her ROF 3 gun at him. With no Focus to steal from Amon, Kaelyssa double boosted the first shot for eleven damage, bought her second shot, boosting the hit only for five damage, and then buying her third  and only needing a five or more on two dice. Which she got, therefore winning the game.

A super game against someone I’ve never played against before. I like the way that Amon works and getting the Synergy chain up can be a beautiful thing if the last jack(s) is a Side Stepping Dervish.

The bad bits:

Remembering that I always have a problem with activating the Choir before the jacks. In turn two, the Repenter might have toasted a few more Halberdiers. This might have saved the Reckoner.

My positioning of Amon in my last turn. If I had got  him to stand by the nearby wall while he splattered an elf, then Jack might have had to get Kaelyssa to cast Phantom Hunter so she can get a shot on Amon. Of course this would have been at the expense of the third shot and a boost to damage which might have left Amon standing.

The good points:

The P+S 19 Dervish. I can see the potential here as an assassination tool. 10.5” on the charge with Mobility and then two Side Steps giving another four inches gives a heck of a threat.

The list will need a little bit of tweaking, with the BoM likely to be the first candidate to be dropped. It was the first time I used it and I can see it being quite handy. I like the idea of its ability Hand of Vengeance giving yet another boost to attack and damage rolls. This in addition to a Choir and Synergy would make this a nightmare against big targets. The thing I have to remember is that it only has Side Step when it is in Thyra’s battlegroup (I used it last night).

The reason why I tweaked the list from the first time was that I was worried about having a couple of SPD 4 jacks but I’m not sure that it really mattered in the end. So for the next time that I rock Amon, It should look a little bit like: 

High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Devout
* Crusader
* Crusader
* Reckoner
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Slow Grow Tourney - game 1

Luke used pretty much the same list as he did against me a fortnight ago.
Lord Arcanist Ossyan
* Phoenix
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard
* Soulless Escort
Heavy Rifle Team
Heavy Rifle Team
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Arcanist
Arcanist
Dawnguard Destor Thane
Dawnguard Scyir
* Griffon
* Griffon
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios
Ghost Sniper
Ghost Sniper
Mage Hunter Assassin

I won the roll-off and let Luke go first. The scenario was Destruction. Luke and I both set up in fairly wide lines.

TURN 1

Turn one saw a huge general advance as usual with Luke’s Griffons being driven out front and Narn and the MHA moving so quickly down my left flank. Luke started taking shots at one of my Wrastlers with the Ghost Snipers and Eiryss. They caused an automatic nine points.

I advanced my army towards the forest in the middle of the table, while W+S looked to take on the oncoming Narn and MHA.

TURN 2

This would be a big turn for Luke as the carnage started with the MHA taking out Wrongeye. Snapjaw didn’t like this and seemed to vanish. The Ghost Snipers and Eiryss took another nine points of damage off one of the Wrastlers. This Wrastler was finished off by being charged by a Sentinel. The rest of the Sentinels ran around the forest to my left to protect the objective. One of them even decided to run out in front of my line and just wave his sword around for a bit. Both Griffons were marshalled forwards and took out a Croak Hunter.

My left-hand GMP retaliated and proceeded to fail to take out one of the Griffons. Even though they had back up from a Croak, they couldn’t do it.. The other GMP ran into the forest to get away from the sniper group on my right. One of the Croaks then took out Narn, leaving the MHA by herself so that she could kill the Witch Doctor.

TURN 3

Luke‘s Griffons strike back at the Gators surrounding them but have real difficulty in causing major damage. The Destor Thane decides to start taking shots at some Gators and takes out only one Gator. A few Sentinels decide to join the fray to try and occupy my front line even more while the Stormfalls race over to the other side of the field in order to protect the objective. Luke’s trio of snipers take another automatic nine points off the Wrastler while Ossyan decides to further protect himself by firing his Chronopahage Cannon into the forest. This would hamper any attempt for my   Gators to move forward.

I start the turn off by running my Wrastler into the forest out of harm’s way. One of my Croaks sees the threat of the oncoming MHA but could not even scratch her. The combined work of my left-hand GMP finally take down a Griffon and put some serious damage on the other. I think this was the turn that I feated and decided to go through the Sentinels (foolishly decline the chance of triggering Vengeance.

TURN 4

First off, Luke sends his Thane racing to behind my line in order to help out the MHA who failed to tackle her froggy opponent. Needless to say that the Thane found that it tasted just like chicken. The Scyir bombed forward to help out his Griffon but also found it tough going against a few Gatormen. More Sentinels trickled forward to further prevent me from advancing towards Ossyan. The Phoenix took a boosted shot into the forest at the Wrastler but failed that so he just stood watch. Finally, the sniper group opened fire on the objective causing another nine automatic points of damage.

With the MHA and Thane behind me I take a Gator and get him to go and engage. He causes a bit of damage to the Thane but not enough to kill. But at least the MHA is tied up. More effort is poured into destroying the last Griffon, and yet still nothing is final. I take out a couple of Sentinels and move the Wrastler over in some weird attempt at consolidation.

TURN 5

The Thane kills his opponent, thus freeing up the MHA only for her to fluff up an assassination attempt. The Sentinels creep ever closer using their Vengeance move (killing a couple of Gators in the process) and then two of them got a bit of a charge on Maelok. Fortunately for me they failed, I don’t think that I could have taken two charging Weaponmasters to the snout. The Lone Griffon swung its arms about but was in no fit state to cause any damage. Ossyan fired his Cannon once more halting the Wrastler for a bit. The snipe group put another nine points on the objective.

During my turn, I was determined to tie up some loose ends. The second Griffon was finally put out of commission. The remaining Croak blunted the threat of the Sentinels slightly by throwing a poisoned spear at the Officer, killing him. No more Vengeance moves. A couple of Gatormen cleared the threat from the two Sentinels engaging Maelok. All that was left was the MHA. I sent in the Bull Snapper and was not surprised by its lack of melee skills despite boosting the hit.

TURN 6

There wasn’t much for Luke to do except to go after Maelok. First he got the Thane to start shooting the Gatormen protecting their bokor. He managed to kill one but nothing else. The MHA then shimmied around the Snapper and decapitated Maelok without much song and dance.

Post Slow Grow plans

While we are at the halfway stage of our league with two rounds and a one-day tourney to go, I am already thinking about what’s going to happen afterwards. After the tourney there will be a few months until The UK Masters and the European Team Championships. I plan to take the Mordikaar army I used at the end of 2011 to these tourneys. I would also take the time to see if I can get a handle on either Hexeris. My Skorne would not take much effort to be completely ready for play as most of what I would intend to use is fully painted.

But lately I have been looking back at my Menoth collection as a result of Bloody Barnabas and Maelok’s feats being quite similar to a couple of Menoth feats. I had fun taking a pKreoss all exemplar force to the Darksphere event back in November. It turned out that I wasn’t as rusty with my first ever caster as I first thought I would be as I broke ‘The Streak’ and could have helped myself to another win on scenario (and maybe out-attritioned a heavy Khador army in the last game). I know the last half of the previous sentence suggests that I’m dreaming, but looking back through the pics I took (and that day’s second opponent acknowledging that I would have won if he had been less brave) I think that a move back to Menoth might not be a bad thing. So with Barny’s feat mirroring pKreoss and Calaban using tricks from eSevvy, I see that Maelok’s feat pretty much mirrors the Testament’s. Now ToM is a caster I do not have in my collection. I have used the Prime version of Silent Bob quite a bit and he definitely features in my fave 5 (which can change from day to day). However, I have been reading up on ToM recently and am seriously using this guy to make my return to the church. His short range soul collecting ability is not what I’m used to with Mordikaar and Hollow, but not allowing the enemy to do the same makes up for that. I love Revive which is something I have with Mordi and Maelok when I choose to use him. But with his low Focus stat, I’ll be looking to take the Avatar of Menoth (generates own Focus) and the new Sanctifier (collects souls) when it’s available, both jacks are fairly self-sufficient. Then I’ll see how many Zealots I can fit in; I currently have two max units and the Bearer with an eye on a third unit.

Alternatively, I can pay a bit more attention to my Retribution (have a bit more practise with Ossyan) as I’m just not feeling my Troll (sorry Grissel) force at the moment. Or just go mad and begin those Witch Coven or Gorten lists I’ve had my eye on. Thankfully my feelings for the latter two (armies I have yet to start anyway) have lessened recently now that I’ve got a bit more (6% or so) patience with a paintbrush. Wanting to finish painting up lists or even whole armies in my collection will hopefully curb my spending over the coming months (yeah right, I want those Venator Slingers, It’s about time I bought Molik, I’ll say yes to another unit of Errants, etc).

Of course, this is all to do with PP games. What about finally messing around with my ever-growing Outcasts crew? OR my Combined Army and Yu Jing forces?

We’ll see how it goes. I’ll never be good at proper planning, will I?

Allez-oop! (as my wife would say)

As promised, a battle report of some kind while it is still fresh in my mind. I have probably got back into these write-ups as ***SPOILER ALERT*** I had some fortune and ended a seven game losing streak and have been buoyed by this win. I will stress that this was an extremely fortunate win meaning that the streak should’ve been extended. Once I finish with this report I will move on the write-ups for the Iron Cross mini-tourney we had at CGC a few weeks ago. Then I will try and do write-ups of the other games I’ve had this year with the aid of the many pics I took during these games.


And so we begin… without the aid of pics as the batteries in my camera decided that to run out of charge (bloody rechargeables).
This game saw a 50 pointer between Lewis and myself. Lewis took the following (this list is actually missing a few points but I cannot remember what was missing):

Lord Commander Stryker
* Lancer
* Ol' Rowdy
* Stormclad
* Squire
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard
Sword Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts)
* Sword Knight Officer & Standard
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Lanyssa Ryssyll, Nyss Sorceress
Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

I took a slightly different list to the one I used the previous week (which I will eventually get around to), swapping out the Battle Mages with Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen:

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
* Chimera
* Manticore
* Manticore
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Mage Hunter Commander
* Soulless Escort
Arcanist
Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen
Mage Hunter Assassin
Mage Hunter Assassin
Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

I won the roll-off and went second.
First turn saw Lewis make a general move forward with his two centrally placed units. These were flanked with Ol’ Rowdy on one side facing my MHSF and the Stormclad and Lancer heading towards my Sentinels. The Black 13th and Gorman went out to my extreme left to investigate the oncoming threat of Narn, a MHA and Skeryth. I made similar movements as well with Narn and his accompanying MHA running crossing half the table with Skeryth in tow. My other MHA ran halfway down her side of the field. My MHSF used cover to get into position.
Turn two was a big turn, Lewis moving the bulk of his force closer to my lines pretty much on the verge of engaging the bulk of my force. Then he feated causing a few casualties. My MHSF managed to disengage from melee thanks to a supporting Manticore, and took aim at ‘Ol Rowdy - they needn’t have wasted their effort really after causing only six point of damage from 8 crossbows! In order to save face, I sent a MHA after ‘Ol Rowdy. She caused the same amount of damage and looked set for a beatdown next turn. The Sentinels caused quite a bit of damage but didn’t quite have enough to clear their lines as the UA was killed meaning they did not get to use Vengeance. My flanking force to my left crept up on the Black 13 and Gorman but couldn’t decide who to send out as a decoy, so they stayed in cover.
Turn three saw a bit more shuffling between both sides and a few more casualties. ***In total contradiction to the first sentence of this entry, I don’t remember much of this turn as it was now two weeks ago (yes I have fallen out of the habit of writing again!)***.
Turn four saw the end of the game. With stalemates between Black 13 and Narn’s flank team and between ‘Ol Rowdy and an extremely (p)lucky MHA, Lewis announced that he would now attempt to kill Kaelyssa. All he needed to do was clear a path which meant killing a conga line of Sentinels who were still almost at full strength. He managed to do this with the use of Electro Leap which is very nasty up close. Now it was up to eStryker. He cast his spells in order to extend his threat range and increase his strength (an insane P+S 30! Although he did suffer damage for it). The charge was announced and he arrived right in front of my casters face. As she wasn’t camping any Focus, one hit would have been enough to kill. Using his last point of Focus the attack roll was boosted. Needing only 9 on three dice, Lewis proceeded to roll each die separately. He rolled a 1, followed by another 1. This now meant it was impossible to hurt my caster, but Lewis rolled the third die anyway! Yet another 1! You couldn’t make it up! Needless to say a fully loaded Kaelyssa only had to decide on how to kill Stryker, whether by herself of a fully loaded Manticore. Which was fine by me, as I wasn’t exactly in a position to even begin to hurt Stryker if he hadn’t of feated.

This result made it 2-1 to me after our double header some weeks back (maybe watch this space?). Another fun game ended by a move that epitomises the premise of the game – ‘Play like you have a pair’! It never amazes me about how fun this game is. I can only think of maybe only two games of Warmachine/Hordes that I haven’t enjoyed compared to say 40k (which I have mostly become disappointed with). It is definitely a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

There you have it, a batrep at long last. I hope to be catching up with myself and getting all the games from the beginning of the year, including the Iron Cross tourney. Next up however, should hopefully be the first game in CGC’s new Warmachine/Hordes Doubles league. This saw the ever-so-excitable Vish (Cryx) teaming up with the battle-ready Nick (4 star Mercs) up against the ultra chilled Oli and the only person at the club who cannot get dice to cooperate, me. We both wore the colours of Skorne.

First night back at Cross Gaming Club.

I seem to remember winning my first game last year (this may not actually be a true statement – I suppose I should read my own blog). This year I am aching from a beatdown, in which I learnt a couple of lessons.

I accepted Slasher’s challenge and take on his Menoth with my Retribution. This would be a test to see if I can actually leave my church days behind me and carry on in this new direction of mine. On my side of the battle field I had:
Dawnlord Vyros (*6pts)
* Chimera (6pts)
* Hydra (9pts)
* Phoenix (10pts)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Houseguard Riflemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Ghost Sniper (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

While Nat took:
High Executioner Servath Reznik (*6pts)
* Castigator (8pts)
* Castigator (8pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
* Hierophant (2pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Exemplar Cinerators (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Knight Exemplar Seneschal (3pts)
Paladin of the Order of the Wall (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
The Wrack (3 wracks) (1pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

There will not actually be much of a structured battle report this week (or for my games on Thursday and Sunday coming up) as my wife has decided to take BOTH of our cameras with her on her business trip to the Big Apple. So I will give the basics of what happened.

Basically I forgot (I’ve never used him before) that he doesn’t like other people using magic (Reznik = ineffective Battle Mages), and when they do, he puts a Cassy in your face. Nat’s Cinerators and Crusader blocked my flanking Mage Hunters and proceeded to crush them after the MH’s put their jack hunter ability to good use. The accompanying Chimera just needed finish it off and put two more damage points on the Crusader. On the other flank, my Mage Hunter Assassin did her job and provided a huge threat. Running 14” for the first turn and then charging (14” threat range) the Paladin in Stone and Mortar pose which ended with a decapitation. She then ran another 14” inches and wound up in some trees behind Reznik. My central block of Houseguard Riflemen and Stormfall Archers were woeful in their shooting (even though the riflemen put a little damage on both Cassy’s and the archers set Reznik on fire). The Phoenix was obliterated and the Hydra didn’t have the opportunity to do much except for showing the world how not to protect a warcaster. The Arcanist really didn’t have much to do, while the Ghost Hunters abilities did come in handy.
We did run out of time, but it was obvious that Nat could have broke Vyros by a couple of different methods. My only hope might have been if my Hydra either slammed or charged the Vanquisher that was standing in front of Reznik most likely pulling off the Smash and Grab chain attack (this would have put more hurt on the Vanq and then put some hurt on Reznik (probably not enough to kill him) and hope he stayed on fire next turn). But I was probably short anyway.
What I really needed was to take a Mage Hunter Commander. He would have given my MH’s Phantom Seeker. They would then have laughed at the large terrain piece between them and Reznik and shoat at him with 11 magic crossbows. The Riflemen (RifleElves?!?) could possibly have used a UA as well. So the points I spent on the Battle Mages (who were largely useless) could have paid for these UA’s and maybe a Soulless Escort.
Not the best way to start the year, but a good insight of what may be to come.

Next: 100 point battle: pKreoss and pFeora vs Morvahna and Kromac. (damn the wife, it would have been so good to take pics of this one)

Tanelorn Wargames weekend - round-up

What a great weekend! Despite not actually winning a solitary game, I had immense fun. Tanelorn do know how to throw an event and the atmosphere was really relaxed. I didn't see anyone who was ultra competitive (even though some lists were really cheesy, the players (the ones I saw anyway) were all good sports - Nigel my game 4 opponent apologised profusely). The organisation was good as well as the venue itself (a cosy room in an ex-serviceman’s club). But the best for me was the idea of the campaign was brilliant, all of the factions vying for vital info on some valuable resources over different battlefields. None of the team captains were actually told what each victory or defence would mean, but it all added up.
Some factions started off really well but then trailed off and vice-versa. So the best Warmachine faction according to Tanelorn? Well, unfortunately it wasn’t Menoth. We came second. The best faction was Retribution who beat us by a solitary point. You can only imagine my shame for not actually winning any of my games which certainly would have put us top of the pile. If I had just won one game (maybe defended the Menoth table against Retribution), we might have come away top dogs. Maybe I was secretly hoping that the angry elves would win as that’s the direction I’m going in the new year.
I’ll repeat, this was a very enjoyable weekend and I would be happy to do this again. They are a great bunch of people and a few actually attend Cross Gaming Club as well. I would also like to attend Tanelorn’s club night so that I can get to know the wider Warmachine community in London, but they roll on a Sunday night which is a bit sacred to me and the wife.

Tanelorn Campaign Weekend - game 5

Ok! Last game of the weekend. A win is not too much to ask for is it? I’d basically like anything other than a loss. At this stage during the Scrap Metal II tourney a few months ago I had broke my losing streak with a draw against a Sorscha led Khador. The chances of me getting a win were reduced by the fact that my last game would be a three-way and not a two vs one like my first two games. I was up against a guy called Nick (Retribution) and Nigel (Cryx – the guy who beat me an hour or so before). Nigel took roughly the same as he did previous game while Nick fielded Garryth with two units of Stormfall Archers, some Mage Hunters and other bits and pieces. We all had one objective which was to claim the ‘ploughed field’ in the centre of the table.

To face the double threat a familiar face took to the battlefield:

The High Reclaimer (*6pts)
* Redeemer (6pts)
* Castigator (8pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)

I thought that I should take the Bastions again and surround my caster so that other warjacks cannot just ‘appear’ next to him.

First turn and Nigel sent a large part of his force to meet me (and my warjacks) head on (and tie me up again, especially with my slow speed).

I was aware of the silly Scrap Thrall threat and shot half of them down with my Redeemer/Vanquisher combo. The smaller Zealots ran towards the objective and everything else just shuffled along.

Nick advanced and both units of Archers let loose on the Cryx jacks on his side of the table. His Mage Hunters took several successful pot-shots at my Zealots and made the turn on their heels after taking out half of their number.

Turn two saw some more sneaky Cryx tricks and a Helljack just appeared in my Vanq’s face. The Menoth jack weathered the attacks. The Scrap Thralls joined in and engaged my Castigator. Nigel used another of his jacks to engage both units of Archers.

The Cassy got rid of the Scrap Thralls while the Vanq laid down some pain on his opponent. The Redeemer laid down some more covering fire and partially damaged another Helljack.

Nick’s Mage Hunters moved forward towards the objective while having his Mage Hunter Assassin keep an eye on the Cryx Warcaster. Those Archers that were not in Melee, targeted another Helljack and promptly destroyed it.

Turn three saw Nigel send yet another Helljack my way taking out two Zealots. He sent another to the objective while doing his best to occupy the angry elves.

The Vanq and Cassy deftly destroyed what was in front of them. I was no where near contesting the objective yet, so I got the High Reclaimer to feat and resurrected 6 Zealots who promptly made their way to the centre of the table while taking down a couple of Mage Hunters and the Assassin (this upset Nick as the assassin had been in threat range of Mortenebra and most likely would have killed him).

Nick made up for this by using the remaining Mage hunters to clear the objective of all things Menite and Cryxian, thus gaining enough control points to win the game.

Loss? Second place? It certainly wasn’t a win, but it was a very exciting game and a good way to finish the weekend. The three-way was a lot of fun and challenging, especially when you had to consider an additional opponent. I will hope to play more three-ways in the future.

Tanelorn Campaign Weekend - game 3

Saturday’s final game saw my team captain put his faith in me and place me in defence of the Menoth table. Keep this, and us Menoth players keep a kind of special ability (can’t remember the exact wording but, each enemy unit must take a command check before activating – failing would mean no activation). Didn’t really work out on the whole. My opponent for what was to be the most fun game I’ve ever had was John who represented the Retribution. I would be looking very closely at how the angry elves work as I’m planning on having a battle ready force in the new year.

With my favourite caster back in action, I took the following:

The High Reclaimer (*6pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Avatar of Menoth (11pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard (2pts)

They faced Vyros, some Sentinels, Halberdiers, Mage Hunters, a Gorgon and a Hydra (there were some UA’s and most likely some other bits and pieces – told you I was looking closely).
I lost the roll-off and was given the first turn. I had hoped to set up very solidly on one side protecting my caster and hope to give John something to think about with some flanking Knights Exemplar. John set up in a similar fashion with his Mage Hunters in flanking position.

Off we go for turn one, And everyone moved forward with the Zealots on the arriving just short of the objective (a Menoth temple of all things). I kind off found my self bottle-necked with my Vanq who had to sit behind the Flameguard.

John made a general advance, also arriving just short of the temple. The Hydra laid down some covering fire in front of the Flameguard.

Turn 2 saw my Vanq getting fed up of sitting behind the immobile Flameguard so he just moved out towards the left hoping to catch some Mage Hunters soon. The Avatar bore down on the Gorgon and Sentinels, while the Zealots started to occupy the temple.

John promptly got rid of those Zealots and got his myrmidons to sit in the temple (they suffered fire due to the special table rule – non-Menoth models immediately suffer continuous fire once they enter the temple, this does not go out) but not enough to actually hurt them much.

In turn three, the Avatar and Knights engaged the Sentinels and gave them some hurt. The Vanquisher was also successful at hurting the Mage Hunters. And the Flameguard did their bit as well by reducing the number of Halberdiers. The remaining Zealots entered the temple along with half of the Crusader (who looks invisible in the pics, but he just fell off of his base and I couldn’t be arsed to put him back).

John wasn’t put off at all by the Avatar and promptly turned it into trash and took out one of my Knights. The Flameguard were engaged by the remaining Halberdiers. The Hydra also put paid to the remaining Zealots.

Turn four saw the Knights take on the Sentinels which was mildly successful. The Flameguard finished off the unit of Halberdiers and the Crusader stepped up to face the Hydra.

Then John ended the game by engaging the Flameguard with the Halberdiers UA meaning they wouldn’t be able to flood the temple. The Sentinels UA also came good by using it’s Vengeance mini feat making a mockery of my flanking Knights. And finally the Hydra, now loaded up with Focus thanks to Vyros’ feat. Meaning I could not control the temple and it was lost.

I think my plan was kinda of solid, but I do think it started to go a bit wrong with the Avatar going down to some really good dice and the Vanq not being totally useful. John was a really fun opponent and gave a really good non-serious competitive game. I hope to cross paths with him again in the future.
All that was left for me to do was tell my teammates that I lost one of our character jacks meaning that none of us could use it for the remainder of the weekend, and then go home and sleep.

Campaign Rules.

I woke up on the right side of bed. The cat wasn’t screaming at me to get fed and neither was the wife. I had a good breakfast myself – one toast with peanut butter, one with Marmite, a bowl of Alpen, two teas (milk, no sugar) and some apple juice. After a good, fuelling and a kiss from the wife and the cat, I felt really good about the day’s wargaming. My train arrived as I got onto the platform, and my next two changes happened fairly quickly making the journey to Leytonstone very smooth. I really was having a good morning. Arriving at Leytonstone tube, I didn’t need to consult the map I copied quite badly from the interwebs or even ask directions. I found the Ex-Serviceman’s club without trouble. Everything was easy. Everything got even better when I saw there was pretty much unlimited (almost) tea to be had all day long.


Did I say I felt good?

As this was a team event, we all grouped with our faction buddies and were told the layout of the campaign by John Snape (the tourney organiser).The aim was to gain clues about a source of magic/treasure/useful stuff by taking certain areas (all the table’s had been laid out to represent faction bases, farms, woods, etc). Gaining these clues would give you access to the special tables which would lead to good things for your faction.. Also as each round of games was a continuation of the previous games, our resources wopuld be limited. So we had obviously one each of the Character jacks and a limited number of regular jacks between five players (one of our number pulled out). This was unless we controlled the ‘Factory’ table. We also had a limited number UA (e.g. 3 Monolith Bearers). If these were lost in a game, then we would need to control the ‘spawning pool’ table. Another rule was that if a caster had died in a game, he/she would sit out the next game. This was be ok for everyone except if everyone lost thier games. The only faction who would have trouble with this would be Retribution who only have five casters, but they had special dispensation.
So with all this laid out, the faction captains bartered and bargained for the table they wanted. Then they cam back to give the orders and we were on our way.

I had a good feeling.

Next: Game 1

New directions

I am completely silly, as I have started thinking about a couple of distractions in my exploration through the entire Menoth army and their Tier lists. I have the beginnings of a Retribution force and a Skorne force. I definitely wanted to start the Skorne force as I wanted a Hordes army. But the Retribution force should have been a pipe dream. But it isn’t.


So now I have:
Army: New Direction!
Type: Skirmish (1 caster, 35pts)
Points: 15
Master Tormentor Morghoul (*7pts)
* Cyclopse Savage (5pts)
* Cyclopse Savage (5pts)
* Razorworm (4pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)

Army: Other Direction!
Type: Skirmish (1 caster, 35pts)
Points: 21
Adeptis Rahn Shyeel (*6pts)
* Hydra (9pts)
* Phoenix (10pts)
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Ghost Sniper (2pts)

I know what I want to add to the Retribution (well, what is the most common sense for the ‘caster) to make a 35 point list, but I’m not completely sure about the same for Skorne. I really like the look and sound of Immortals, but the unit I really want is a unit of Ferox. I played against them last November at Tanelorn and was just amazed that they were so nifty. I was left chasing shadows all game. My Errants looked so foolish and there wasn’t much they could do about it. But I should probably play it safe and get some Praetorian Swordsmen and some Paingivers for the ‘beasts. And see where I go from there.

As for the Retribution, I know what I want to add. I want to add a unit of Mage Hunters accompanied by Magister to benefit from Rahn’s feat. To help with survivability, I think I should add a unit of Halberdiers and UA. I would drop the Ghost Hunter at this stage to make room for the UA. I think from what I’ve checked on various forums that this would be a decent 35 point list.

This may take some time to do as I promised the wife I’ll be a LOT more sensible when it comes to buying minis. But this is quite ok as it will give me more time to fully explore my Menoth future.

Fighting those tendencies.

I cancelled the order form last month as Wayland Games were still awaiting stock (either the book or the template set I ordered), which means I am no longer going to get the Retribution book. Yet. I still have my eye on them.

Stupid compulsive tendencies!

I have done something a bit wrong. It’s going to hurt me very a lot. As I was purchasing some Flameguard Cleansers, a Reclaimer, an Allegiant and a couple of Redeemers (for the small campaign that's just starting at the club), I had a quick peek to see if the Skorne book was out yet. It wasn’t ( I looked on the 10th but the book was due for release on the 11th) and I had a quick look over at the Retribution stuff. I’ve been intrigued since they first came into the Warmachine world. Maelstrom Games only had the hard back book, and as I’m not a fan of hard backs I looked away. It wasn’t until I realised that I keep meaning to get some templates when I buy things, that I went back to Maelstrom and looked. They were out of stock, so I looked at Wayland Games, who did have some. As I placed my order, but before I paid, I had a look at the Retribution stuff. And they had copies of the soft back version. So I ordered one. I said I wasn’t going to start my second force until the Skorne book was released as I wanted a Hordes army. I’m still going to get a Skorne force (Mildred the Razorworm will need some company at some point), but that plan has been pushed back a little as I’m really discovering all that the Tiered Menoth lists have to offer. Then maybe after I was happy with my Skorne force I would go back to Warmachine for a third army, which in all likelihood would have been Retribution. But now I’ve shaken my own plans. I don’t know what I’m doing now. I should probably shake some sense into myself and simply just read the book when it arrives and stick to the original plan.