Warmachine Battle Report - Circle (Krueger 2) vs. Khador (Zerkova 2) - Steamroller 2016

Krueger 2 was the reigning champion from the last game, eeking out an assassination vs. Vlad 2. Today he fights Zerkova 2 and her army of magic slingers. Normally vs. a shooty army, Krueger 2 would be safe with Windstorm but now he has to deal with magical spray army which is a great counter for it. Let's see how it goes!

Deployment - Circle wins the die roll and decides to go first. The amount of Advanced Deploy allows him to counter deploy the druids vs. the Greylord Outriders since their UA can protect them from their Cold Magical Sprays.

Khador notices that Krueger 2 is deployed towards his friendly flag in hopes of some early domination and sets up their magical assassins accordingly.

Turn 1 Top: Circle Orboros - Circle runs up and prepares to dominate their friendly flag next round. The Druids get some protection in the forest and wait for the advancing Greylord Outriders which they will be immune to next turn.

Krueger 2 casts Windstorm to protect from short ranged shots but it seems he is too far back for it to apply to anything that matters since most of Khador's attacks will be sprays.

Turn 1 Bottom: Khador - Khador gets their magical units in position to run into Krueger 2's range next turn. The Greylord Outriders run up against the Druids in a tiered formation in hopes that a few survive next round.

Behemoth moves in and launches 2x shots at the Druids in the forest which are about 1" out of range but gets lucky with the deviations and kills 3 Druids.

Eiryss moves in to try and kill the Blackclad Wayfarer and needs an 8 to kill him but rolls a 4. She is in trouble.

Zerkova 2 activates and gets Telgesh Mark on the Kayazy Eliminators and moves up the field. The Kayazys are now Arc Nodes and run up behind Aiyana & Holt who have also safely advanced up.

Turn 1 Overview- It was pretty dumb for Eiryss to move up so close to the Blackclad Wayfarer. It's a bad trade. The Behemoth's deviating 4" AOEs really helped open up the battlefield for the Outriders.

Turn 2 Top: Circle Orboros - The Druids activate first and see how much damage they can do to the Greylord Outriders. The UA casts his Elemental Protection so the Druids are immune to their cold damage spells while the other Druids plink away at them. There were a few bad rolls but with the help of the Stone Keeper, they are able to remove an Outrider.

Behemoth is still too far up to charge with the Warpwolf Stalker, even with Gallows and Telekinesis so he just runs up just out of his charge range. The Blackclad Wayfarer is pissed at Eiryss and unleashes a spray which annihilates her. The Wold Guardian is able to Geomancy and kill a Ternion with a Gallows.

Krueger 2 is able to set up and dominates his friendly flag and will score a point as long as no one contests next turn.

Turn 2 Bottom: Khador - Zerkova 2 sees an opening and plans out her assassination attempt. The order of activation has to be just right for it to work. She allocates 1 to the Behemoth and upkeeps Telgesh Mark and prepares for battle.

The Greylord Outriders are in a great position as they can be in melee and still cast their spells. They activate and take out 1 of the Gallows Groves and plink at Krueger 2 doing 3 damage to him after he transfers a 7 pointer to the War Argus. The Greylord Ternions run into position. The rough terrain gives them a little bit of a hard time.

Aiyana and Holt then activate and Holt is able to hit Krueger for a couple damage but Aiyana misses Kiss of Lyliss. The Kayazy Eliminators run through models and get into place just out of melee range of any Circle units.

Zerkova now activates. She casts Occult Whispers giving all Friendly Faction models an extra die on attacks and moves up. She has 2 Focus left and pops feat which allows all Friendly Faction models in her control area to cast a spell for free. She casts Hoarfrost through the Kayazy Eliminator Arc Nodes and boosts it giving her 4 dice to hit because of Occult Whispers. Zerkova 2 lands a critical which makes Krueger 2 Stationary. She hits him for 6 damage with boosted dice.

Next, Aiyana & Holt activate. She casts Kiss of Lylsiss and it sticks. Holt then shoots Krueger 2 for a couple damage leaving him with only a few. The Greylord Outriders activate and shatter Krueger 2 into tiny bits of blood and ice.

Turn 2 Overview - Behemoth and the two remaining Ternions didn't even activate yet which would have added a POW 12 shot and 2x Boosted POW 14s. Krueger was not surviving that barrage.

Final Shot - This seemed like a bad match up for Krueger to begin with. The fact that Windstorm only works vs. ranged attacks really made it so he had no defenses. He couldn't block LOS because most of the shots were sprays and Behemoth would have just arced over whoever was in front of him. Krueger 2's feat didn't really play that much of a part in it since most of the models were outside of 14" when they began their turns.

The only way for Krueger 2 to survive that assassination turn would be to camp 7 fury and ride it out. It would probably really hurt his battlegroup but he would be able to heal them and hopefully take out most of the threats next turn.

Zerkova 2's feat and spell list are amazing against high DEF low ARM casters. You have decent odds of getting Crit Stationary on Hoarfrost with 4 dice. I think I might pick up a Koldun Lord even through he's pretty lame otherwise. A second unit of Outriders would be amazing but just expensive monetarily and I wouldn't use 2x in any other list.

Zerkova 2 is really fun and I plan to get her on the battlefield more often. Stayed tuned for her next match up!

Khador Butcher 3 vs. Circle Krueger 2 Warmachine Battle Report (35 Point Steamroller 2015)

Here's a quick little battle report with Khador (Butcher 3) vs. Circle (Krueger 2) and yes, I am playing against myself.

There's a 35 point tournament coming up at our local store and it's kind of their last hurrah for MKII. There aren't many Warmachine players there but hopefully MKIII will bring in some new blood. I won the previous 35 point tournament with Butcher 3 and Old Witch. My biggest challenge right now is probably Krueger 2 and I know there's a very good player in our Meta that plays him. I was able to beat him last time because he didn't want to be list locked and instead played against his Krueger 1 which I was able to beat.

The issue I am having is how to combat Kreuger 2's feat turn.

In the practice game I played Butcher 3, Ruin, Juggernaut, a unit of Press Gangers, Madelyn Corbeau, Widowmakers, Widowmaker Marksman, and Kell Bailoch. The sniper pack is mostly for The Book or Orin Midwinter. They do help clear paths out for Butcher 3 but are probably not the best choices. I might swap one out for Doc Killingsworth for the Press Gangers.

The Circle list included Krueger 2, Ghetorix, Stalker, Gorax, Druids + UA, Stones, Stones + UA, and a Gallows Grove.

Deployment

Circle Top of Turn 1

Circle focused on the top zone and set up to take it over. The druids held the bottom and used Summon Vortex to put up clouds to contest.

Khador Bottom of Turn 1

The Press Gangers spread out in the top zone hoping to contest long enough for Butcher and the Jacks to get up the field. Butcher 3 sets up on a hill and uses Energizer to move up his battlegroup. Ruin and the Juggernaut each take opposing zones. The Widowmakers and Widowmakers take shots at the DEF 18 Druids (Camo + Smoke) and come up short. Kell Beiloch also misses.

Turn 2

 

Circle used the Stalker to clear a path for Ghetorix to the Juggernaut and Kruger 2 set him up with a Telekenisis. Circle thought they could send in a POW 19 Ghetorix with lightning strike to finish off the Juggernaut but fell very short only crippling its movement. With Ghetorix's last attack he tried to kill a Press Ganger to trigger Lightning Strike and move back but rolled snake eyes and failed. Circle also should have feated on this turn but it wouldn't have helped too much since the Juggernaut would have killed Ghetorix most likely. The Druids simply move up and cast summon vortex. The Stone Keeper kills 2 Widowmakers and they fail their command checks.

On Khador's turn I send in Ruin which explodes Ghetorix with 3 hits. Butcher just moves up and tries to set up in the zone to prepare for the carnage ahead. The Widowmakers have to flee but Kell Bailoch is able to kill a single Druid.

Circle Turn 3

Butcher 3 is camping on 0 focus and this might be the only chance Circle will get to assassinate him. The first part of the plan is to use the Druids to push away the Ogrun Bokur and have the rest do damage to Butcher. They do about 2 damage. The next step is to have the Stone Keeper do some damage and he is able to put on 4 damage.

Kruger now moves in and has LOS to Butcher. He boosts to hit and makes it. He has Sustained attack with his gun which is POW 12 ROF 3. He uses all of his shots and boost them all and gets Butcher 3 to 8 boxes. Circle should have feated but again, I don't think there was a chance with Impending Doom, Energizer, Reach, and Butcher 3's feat still active.

Khador Turn 3

Madelyn Corbeau's skill triggers and butcher moves up 3". He then uses Energizer to move another 3". He then charges the Stalker doing damage and then casts Impending Doom which sucks in Krueger 2. With MAT 9, Weaponmaster POW 16 he is able to decimate both Krueger 2 and the Stalker for a caster assassination.

The Killing Blow

 

That's the end. I missed a lot of things with Circle and I think a truly skilled player would have beat me on scenario. The Press Gangers were awesome and held the zone with toughs and volume. I am thinking about throwing in Doc Killingsworth to give them a little more staying power as their only job is to hold the line and wait for Butcher and friends to make it up field.



Khador (eSorscha) vs. Circle (eMorvahna) - Steamroller 2015 Destruction

We haven't played Warmachine at our local store for 3 months now because we started playing a little Infinity and when we got back into Warmachine, Austin and Ryan didn't feel comfortable in their play to get some games in at the store. 

I have a little table set up at my house and sometimes I'll just play little practice games against myself to get the feel of the movements and ranges of units I don't play so often.

Ronan is tall enough to reach the table now

Today I wanted to practice one of my Steamroller 2015 list for Khador against Cirlce of Orboros.

The list for Khador was; eSorscha with a bonded Conquest, Sylys Wyshnaylr, full Winter Guard Death Star with Joe, a full unit of Nyss Hunters, Lady Aiyana and Master Holt (which I forgot to deploy) and eEiyrss.

The Circle list was eMorvahna, Ghetorix, Warpwolf Stalker, Gorax, a Druid Wilder, full unit of Bloodtrackers with Nuala, a full unit of Skinwalkers with UA, Shifting Stones with UA, and Lord of the Feast.

Deployment

All the terrain that I have is at the office so I had to make do with a bunch of rocks and left over stuff. The scenario was Destruction. Khador deployed with the Winter Guard on the right side and Nyss on the left. Circle deployed the Bloodtracks who Preyed on the Winter Guard on the left along with the warbeasts, and the Skinwalkers on the right.

End of Round 1

On the first turn everyone ran up. The Bloodtrackers tried to spread out while the Winter Guard didn't really care because they had Iron Flesh and Courage of the Forefathers.

End of Round 2

Circle was able to do some damage up top with the Lord of the Feast but he was still engaged after his first "thresher" and couldn't shoot his raven to move deeper into the Nyss line because he was still in melee and couldn't perform a ranged attack. He did end up buying more attacks with souls and was able to take out the 3 Nyss in the front.

The Bloodtrackers moved in and killed 5 Winter Guard but were left sitting ducks. The Skinwalkers moved up behind them along with Ghetorix and the Stalker. eMorvahna casted Fog of War and Carnivore on the Skinwalkers.

Khador was able to make up a lot of ground. The Nyss took out the Lord of the Feast by doing a 6 man combined attack and finished him off with good dice.

The Winter Guard wiped out the entire Bloodtracker unit and made it so they couldn't be brought back by eMorv's feat. The Conquest tried to crit devastate on Ghetorix but didn't get it off. The Conquest ended up doing 6 damage to Ghetorix. It's hard to see but the Great Bears are behind the Conquest.

Circle Top of Turn 4

Circle changed its strategy up a little and decided to jam the Conquest with the Skinwalkers. One Skinwalker was able to get a charge off on eSorscha and did 10 damage bringing her down to 7. Ghetorix then took out the objective and eMorvahna toed the zone for a total of 3 points at the end of Circle's turn.

Khador Bottom of Turn 4

Khador retaliated with eSorscha popping her feat and using Quadiron to take out most of the Skinwalkers that were stationary because of her bond with the Conquest. The Winter Guard Deathstar positioned themselves to block Ghetorix from charging eSorscha. I forgot that the Skinwalker Alpha was in the back and that eMorvahna could bring them all back on her turn.

Conquest charged and oneshotted both the Skinwalker and the Gorax. The Great Bears were still trapped behind him but they were able to charge in and kill the Stone so they couldn't port in Ghetorix. I positioned the Winter Guard incorrectly and blocked the Conquest from charging Ghetorix. I should have been able to kill Ghetorix and the Stalker or at least one and tie up the other.

Circle Top of Turn 5

Circle was able to use the Stone Keeper's Rock Hammer and eMorvahna's Death Knell to make enough room for Ghetorix to trample in and finish off eSorscha who only had 7 life left.

Ghetorix Kills eSorscha

There was some bad placement with Khador. I really don't like playing with a Colossal because of how much room it takes. The Nyss Hunters were ok but I might swap them out for Kayazy Assassins that can move through people once per game. It would help with some jamming. I figured the Nyss could get a good combined POW 20 on eSorscha's feat from 19" away. (12 range 7 move) 

I also forgot Aiyana and Holt because I left them at the office. I don't know if they would do that much more against this list. Conquest pretty much one shotted all the beasts he touched. Holt could have possibly taken out the Skinwalkers instead of eSorscha leaving her with some focus to cast Iron Flesh on herself. Ghetorix would still be hitting at bosted MAT 7 so he would need 12's. That would have changed a lot since he would spend 1 to trample, 1 to buy an attack, 1 to boost. It would only leave him with 1 good boosted shot at 37.5% which if he failed, would have cost Circle the game.

Overall it was fun and I learned some good lessons with both factions. I would normally play Butcher 3 into eMorv but I wanted to get some more practice with eSorscha which I really needed.