No guts, no glory.

After trying out my new bits for my Retribution, I was feeling good about a day of fun at Tanelorn Wargames Club. Jon Webb was running a one day event for Wrath. It promised to be good. 30-odd guys squeezing as many games as they could into the day with a few prizes and some charitable donations can only be a good thing. Especially as it was an opportunity to get some interaction between members of both Cross Gaming Club and Tanelorn, which unfortunately doesn’t happen enough. Which is a shame as there are some really nice players there. I remember having a really good time at their two-day campaign driven Warmachine event to decide on the best faction. Although I didn’t win a single of my five games (quelle surprise) it was great to see and meet players in the wider community. The only times this year I have seen, let alone spoken to, was at the UK Masters and the European Team Championships.


After packing my case on the Friday (really early with the event happening on Sunday – a habit I’ve picked up from the wife who will pack our bags no less than a week before we go on holiday) I started to make up some lists, as players would get points for using multiple casters. I rehashed previous lists to accommodate my new bits and try things I don’t usually try (even the Dawnguard Scyir was included). So all prepared, it was time to sleep and dream about getting at least one win.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a very explosive feeling, and it certainly wasn’t confidence. My bowels had decided to rebel against me. I couldn’t get back to sleep. As a result, I did not make it to Tanelorn. I didn’t feel that, even in a fairly large gaming room, 30 or so other guys didn’t want to have someone whose guts were on fire. I really wanted to go but at least I made some contribution in the shape of a charitable donation as part of the entry fee.

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 4

Sunday morning. Good breakfast, good journey (no delayed/cancelled trains) etc, etc. Today I was going to show Tanelorn Wargames Club my Menoth ninja skills. I had left my case at the venue so my models spent the night soaking up the battle atmosphere.
Game 4 saw me pitted against the nasty, sneaky Cryx being handled by a guy called Nigel. I played Nigel in a one day tourney also held by Tanelorn about this time last year. I remember losing that time, so I wanted to even up the score.
Although the High Reclaimer didn’t die, I opted to take:

Vice Scrutator Vindictus (*6pts)

* Crusader (6pts)

* Vanquisher (8pts)

* Vanquisher (8pts)

Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)

Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)

Paladin of the Order of the Wall (2pts)

Vassal Mechanik (1pts)

Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

The heavy jacks were vital as Nigel would be taking Mortenebra. My team captain saw that on Saturday his list was filled with heavy jacks. To add some more punch, I took a full unit of Bastions for a change. We both had to capture the central objective as well as a nearby flag.

Once again I lost the roll-off and Nigel seized the day in turn one and went hell for leather towards the objective. Everything moved so fast due to Morty’s spells which was truly frightening.

I wanted to make sure that my flag was secured first so my Zealots turned on the speed. The Bastions made their way slowly towards the main objective.

In turn two, Nigel’s Scrap Thralls saw the Bastions and went to tie them up for a bit. They were spaced out which would make taking them out a drawn out affair. Three of the Cryx jacks made towards my flag with one of the them looking to pick on my faithful and trusty Zealots. Fortunately, this one came up short of melee range.

This was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. After the Zealots used their bombs to soften up the enemy, my jack went all out to hurt their Cryx counterparts. Both Vanquishers led the attack with one boxing the Cryx jack closest to my flag and the other putting down some heavy damage on the one with the harpoon thingy (you know I’m not good at names). The Crusader simply waited in line for the next wave of enemy. The Bastions took down the few Scrap Thralls that they were engaged with but couldn’t do more. My Paladin sat on one edge of the objective while waiting for his moment to attack.

Turn three saw some ouch! come my way. With the Bastions tied up, my Paladin hiding, my jacks engaged and out of the way, Nigel came up with an assortment of spells and feat (pictures do aid the remembrance of games, but they do not make note of the specific spells and stuff) to place a Warjack in Vindy’s face. Game Over.

Once again, I was undone by some foolish positioning. This was certainly a very quick game. I thought things were looking fairly good. The Bastions eventually would have gotten through the Scrap Thralls so they could contest the objective. My jacks were coping with the Cryx jacks with a little support from the Zealots. I did feel confident. But I didn’t expect such an end. I should probably start reading my opponents cards when I start games so I’m not caught out.

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.

Tanelorn Campaign Weekend - game 2

The second game saw me double teamed again, but this time by Cryx and two of their handlers (also attendees of Cross Gaming Club) Jon and Rob. As I had lost the High Reclaimer in the last game, he would be lying down in a tent somewhere having his wounds tended to. So Vindictus had decided to help me out this time:

Vice Scrutator Vindictus (*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)

Vassal Mechanik (1pts)

Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

Jon was using the Coven while Rob took Skarre and they opted to go first.

They moved like lightning (compared to Menoth anyway) and their claim on both objectives.

I made my move a made my claim on one of the objectives with my Vanquisher, the Zealots would move up behind.

Turn 2 saw the Bane Knights move closer to my line along with a big scary Helljack (it’s been said before, I’m not good with names). Rob’s Nightmare harpooned my Vanq and pulled it closer in order to smack the crap out of it. Then Skarre feated, meaning that my Avatar and Crusader couldn’t attack while a few of their jacks couldn’t receive damage. Not cool.

Leaving a stalemate in front of me, I decide to get the Zealots to do what they do best and launch some bombs at the Nightmare and Bane Knights who happened to be nearby. My Knights Exemplar took down a couple of Bane Knights also.

 Turn 3 was absolutely gobsmacking! The Cryx player got Skarre to cast Ghost Walk and well… the pic shows what happened, I don’t need to say anything.

Again, I am undone by the positioning of my caster. My whole positioning during set up was kind lame as well. I think I really need to read up on the many enemies at some point. Again I was probably too conservative with some units. The Knights probably could have done more as could the Crusader and AoM.

But hey, there was still some more time to show what Menoth can do…

Tanelorn Campaign Weekend - game 1

Due to some factions being a man down, game 1 saw me up against a Cygnar double team. This was a 50 pointer and Barry (Cygnar team captain) and John shared the points in order to be fair. Now I’m not very familiar with Cygnar as I haven’t played against them before and I have a bad habit of not reading up on the enemy. As I was taking the High Reclaimer, I put together an infantry heavy list:

The High Reclaimer (*6pts)
* Devout (5pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
Avatar of Menoth (11pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Deliverers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard (2pts)
Reclaimer (2pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)

The idea would be to let the TFG protect the caster while moving up the table collecting the inevitable souls from the marauding Zealots. The Deliverers would try, albeit inadequately, fight fire with fire at range.
I forget the exact layout of the Cygnar force and what their jacks are called so won’t include Barry and John’s list.

In turn 1, I started off with a general advance towards the closest of the control zones. Nothing exciting really.

Barry moved his troops towards the other control zone and sat his Field Gun in the one closest to him. John moved his Stormblades towards my control zone.

In turn 2, I moved all Zealots and who got to the control zone. My deliverers moved awkwardly into position so that they could hopefully rain down some inaccurate fire on the Stormblades that were looking to contest for another VP.

The Stormblades did indeed make a move for Cygnar’s next control point, while the Gun Mages picked off my Zealots in my closest zone. The Field Gun made sure that the Gun Mages were fairly safe by laying down some suppression fire.

Turn 3 and the Deliverers took out a few Stormblades with two Rocket Volleys, while the Zealots picked off some more leaving them with a unit of two. Everything else moved up behind with the Avatar moving to my right looking to see where the enemy casters were hiding.

John announced that his caster was going to feat from behind the hut she was hiding behind and cast another spell that affected her warjack. The aforementioned jack saw silent Bob’s cloak and drew a bead on him. It wasn’t nice and the Devout was helpless. And so ended the game.

I had left the High Reclaimer open to such a silly attack which is quite upsetting. A lot of my force didn’t really see any action and maybe I should have been a bit more aggressive with them (running the Deliverers in the first turns to establish a kill box for example). The Avatar should have blocked the corridor from which the assassination happened and should have moved towards the enemy far quicker than it did.

Still, it was early in the weekend. There was plenty of time to show Menoth’s might.

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

Tanelorn Warmachine Campaign Weekend (13-14th November 2010)

What a weekend! Because I am still fairly wiped out from it, I haven’t begun to write up anything. Even on my lunch break while looking at all the photos I shot, I just couldn’t put it into words. I might start after dinner tonight.

I’ve taken several pics (my new camera works a treat and the quality is decent) for player deployment and after every turn so now things may make a bit more sense when I write it down. There were 5 games in all and were all thoroughly enjoyable, and the format of the event was organised very well. Thanks go to the grown-ups at Tanelorn, my faction team-mates and my many opponents for super weekend.