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.



Cygnar (Strkyer 3) vs. Skorne (eMorghoul) Battle Report

I was planning on playing some of my Steamroller Khador parings tonight but I didn't want to make Austin cry like a little girl so I threw together a Skorne army.

The Skorne army consisted of eMorghoul, Molik Karn, a Brute, Tiberion, Harpoony dudes, Incindiarii, Prateorean Swordsmen, the Warlock attachment, and the Paingivers.

Austin decided to play his Stryker 3 with a Centurion, Stormclad, Lancer, Storm Blades, Runewood, Finn, JWC, The solo Gun Mage, Strageways, Boomhowlers, and Rhupert.

Austin already confused about the set up

All of Cygnar ran up on turn one. Austin got Fuiry on the Sword Knights and set them up to take the first hit. On Turn 1 I was able to move up my Incidiarii slowly and lob a couple shots at the Sworsmen who Reformed closer. I was able to set 2 on fire and kill one.

Cygnar Top o Turn 2

Austin began drawing the line of battle with the Sword Knights and Boomhowlers. I was able to kill 2 Boomhowlers after he made 4 tough rolls which helped a bit. He lined up his Arcane Shielded Centurion up front for me to try and smash.

Skorne Bottom of Turn 2

Austin was able to tie up Molik Karn and blocked the charge lane to Centurion with Sword Knights. I used Morghoul with Fate Walker to clear a path and charged in.

Skorn Bottom of Turn 3

On my turn I was able to clear some room for Tiberion to charge the Arcane Shielded Centurion. With bad dice rolls I was only able to take out his left arm. On my next try, I trampled with Molik Karn and was able to get the Centurion down to 1 life. I had to send the Brute in which took a free strike from a Fury'ed Sword Knight and took out an aspect. I had to boost but I was able to kill the Centurion off. It took pretty much everything.

Cygnar Top of Turn 4

Austin feated and was able to kill Tiberion and didn't do much after that. His Boomhowlers failed to do any damage to Molik Karn and the Brute. In an odd strategic choice, Austin ran Stryker so he would be in Melee with Morghoul.

On my turn I moved Morghoul out of the way with that 2" thing and  then launcheda combined shot with 6 Incindiarii doing about 8 damage. Morghoul was able to charge in and finish off Stryker 3 for a Skorne victory.

Skorne is ok. Their beasts aren't as good as Warpwolves and their casters have low Fury with minimal spells. They're fun to play once in a while but I feel they lack deep strategy and flexibility. I am loving Incindiarii though. If Khador's Bombardiers were like them, I would take them in every list.

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.

Cygnar (Stryker 3) vs. Skorne (eHexeris) - Steamroller 2015 Two Fronts

Last night's game was a bad dice night for all. I played some Skorne lead by eHexeris and Austin played Cygnar with Stryker 3. The scenario we played was Two Fronts from the 2015 Steamroller packet.

I ran a mishmash of guys with the goal of charging in eHexeris like I would Butcher 3 and then pop feat back to full fury after he does some major damage. Spoiler Alert: Bad idea and never happened.

I ran eHexeris, Molik Karn, Titan Cannoneer, Titan Gladiator, and a Cyclops Raider. The units I brought were all full units of Cataphract Arcuarii and Cataphract Incindiarii. The solos I brought were the Extoller Soulward and Aptimus Marketh. Not the best build but it's what I had.

Austin brought Stryker 3 with Stormclad and 2x Defenders. He brought a unit of Sword Knights, Tempest Blazers and min unit of Boomhowlers. For solos he brought Strageways and a JWC. 

Bottom of Turn 2

The first turn we all ran up. Austin was afraid of the Arcuarii's dragging in his Tempest Blazers so he kept them back but he didn't realize that they couldn't because their bases were smaller. Austin made 2 rows of Sword Knights and put Arcane Shield on them giving them 19 armor. Austin also ran up the Boomhowlers and did a staggered 2 row formation and spread them out pretty well for AOE. His Defenders and Stormclad kind of bunched up in the middle of the hill.

I was able to use the Arcuarii to kill Sword Knights on the left flank and used Molik Karn to finish off the front line and Fate Walking backwards.

The Incindiarii lit up the Boomhowlers but they toughed. I also coudn't roll 5+ for the life of me and couldn't kill them. They were still on fire so I was pretty confident on the right side. I was also able to get Far Sight on the Cannoneer and was able to snipe out Austin's JWC.

Bottom of Turn 3

Austin failed most of his Fire checks but I rolled 4's so I wasn't able to kill much on the ARM 16 Boomholwers. He was able to Feat with Stryker 3 and charge in with the Defenders which probably wasn't the best idea because they're made to shoot. Austin also rolled very poorly and wasn't able to take out anything. He did kill 1 Incindiarii with a Boomhowler Charge though. He also failed to do much damage to the Arcuarii with his Tempest Blazers that flanked around the back.

I was able to heavily damage one Defender and take out another on my turn. I had some bad rolls vs. the Boomhowlers and didn't do much. Same goes on the other side with the Arcuarii's vs. the Sword Knights. They did shoot off 1 Tempest Blazer though.

Austin decided to change strategy and instead of killing one of my beasts with a fully loaded Stormclad, he decided to charge my Bunker objective to get points. He shifted Stryker 3 there as well.

On Skorne Turn 5 Austin was down 1 Defender and I was able to kill his Boomhowlers jamming my Incindiarii with eHexeris who also sneaked into the zone. The Incindiarii charged the Arcane Wonder objective and Got it down to 2 life. The POW 10 electrical damage took one of them out. I had to use the Extroller Soulward and Marketh to finish it off but at the end of the tun I was able to get 3 points. My beasts finished off the 2nd Defender leaving Austin with Strkyer 3, Stormclad, 4 Tempest Blazers and 2 Sword Knights. I think at that point I've only lost 2 Incindiarii and Molik Karn. I ran the Arcuarii to tie up Stormclad who was inside the left zone.

At this point the only way Austin could win would be to free up Stormclad using Stryker 3 and run him into the other zone to contest. The problem was that he was jammed up with 3 Acuarii with POW 12 weapon masters. He was able to clear out 2 of them and the 3rd one did 9 damage to the Stormclad on a Free Strike. He also had to run past my Titan Gladiator and took another Free Strike of 8 or so damage. The Stormclad was had about 13 life was pretty much done for on my turn because his shield was gone and I still had my Feat in my back pocket. All I needed to do was kill it and I would have 5 points at the end of my turn.

I told Austin that we should forget the scenario and just meet on top of the hill with our casters and duke it out. I started with 7 Fury and went first. I was able to do 12 damage and camped 3 Fury. Austin did 13 damage after I transferred 3 hits and left me with 4 boxes. Since we were playing with just casters I had to Cut for 3 damage to get 3 Fury back. I was able to get him down to 2 life but failed to finish him. Austin casted Fury on himself and used all of his Focus to buy attacks and failed. He was left with 1 Focus which he used to buy an attack. He needed a hard 8 to hit and he got it and killed my caster.

I didn't get to use much of my caster in the game as the Incindiarii and Arcuarii did most of the work. I could have been more aggressive with my warlock but I usually play it real safe. Austin probably should have been more aggressive with his Stormclad and more defensive with his Defenders. 

It was fun. Our dice were really bad but it made it interesting.

Warmachine Battle Report - Khador eSorscha vs. Khador eZerkova - 50 Points Steamroller

This is a straight up Khador vs. Khador civil war battle between two of coldest and sexiest Warcasters in the game. They're probably fighting over who ate the last Yoplait in the fridge.

In this game, Scott plays the brand new super magic assassin Warcaster eZerkova vs. my new to me but old to everyone else armor cracking Warcaster, eSorscha.

eSosrcha - Cold as Ice (50 Points)

Warcaster: eSosrcha (-6)
Warcaster Attachment: Sylys Wyshnaylrr (+2)
Warjack: Conquest (Bonded) (+19)
Unit: Winter Guard Infantry (+6)
Unit Attachment: Winter Guard Officer & Standard (+2)
Unit Weapon Attachment: Rocketeer (+3)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Underboss (+2)
Unit: Battle Mechaniks (Min) (+2)
Unit: Great Bears of Gallowswood (+5)
Solo: Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (+2)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)
Objective: Effigy of Valour

List building: This is the paring to my Butcher 3 list in the last battle report. It seems to cover the bad Cryx match ups I have with old Butch with its Grape Shot Sprays, high DEF Kayazy with Iron Flesh and the ability to crack armor. The Bonded Conquest is my favorite because if you fail to kill it in melee you will become stationary at the end of your activation. Everything is highly accurate which is what I love. You've got Winter Guard rolling either 3 dice on Attack or combining shots, the Kayazy Assassins are MAT 9 with Gang, the Great Bears are 8, and Conquest... is Conquest at MAT 6/RAT 4.

The thought is to put Conquest out there and shoot a bunch forcing your opponent to charge him with jacks/beast killing it. Then eSorscha pops her feat and the Great Bears charge through the Wreck Marker with Relentless Charge and smash everything. The Kayazy are there to jam and soften up important models and the Winter Guard handle large groups of infantry.

VS.

Scott's eZerkova List (50 Points)

Warcaster: eZerkova (-4)
Warcaster Unit: Reaver Guard x2
Warcaster Attachment: Sylys Wyshnaylrr (+2)
Warjack: Behemoth (+13)
Unit: Greylord Outriders (+9)
Unit: Greylord Ternion (+4)
Unit: Greylord Ternion (+4)
Unit: Kayazy Eliminators (+3)
Unit: Great Bears of Gallowswood (+5)
Unit: Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (+2)
Unit Attachment: Koldun Kaptain Valachev (+2)
Solo: Koldun Lord (+2)
Solo: pEiryss (+3)
Solo: Harlan Versh, Illuminated One (+2)
Solo: Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (+1)
Objective: Bunker

List Building: Scott's army can put out 15 boosted Magic Spray Attacks in one round and on his feat turn can shoot 30 of them. Crazy, right? It looks like the Behemoth and the Great Bears are there to take out high ARM targets that get close to Zerkova and everything else is just going to spray everything to death.

I had never played against eZerkova but I felt that that Conquest could dominate the board if I did two things:

1. Take out the Great Bears early
2. Kill or jam up the Behemoth.

It seemed easy enough with the Kayazy, my own unit of Great Bears and eSorscha's feat. My plan was to position myself to dominate my opponent's zone on turn 2. I positioned Conquest, the Mechaniks, Sosrcha, Bokur, Sylys, and the Kayazy Assassins to the right and left zone for the Winter Guard Infantry to handle.

I then ran up my Winter Guard Infantry with Desperate Pace and figured that they could they could easily outlast the Outriders with Tough and Bob & Weave. Twas not the best of ideas.

  

On Scott's turn he positioned his Behemoth and Great Bears in the center of the battlefield and waited for me to come into his threat range. He lobby a few Behemoth shots into my Winter Guard but they came out unscathed. He then runs his Outriders on my left flank along with pEyriss who is able to kill one Winter Guard Infantry. 

On my second turn I continue pushing forward on the right side with my Conquest and I am able to land a crit Devastation on his Great Bears killing two. My Winter Guard were able to do some work and kill two Outriders which I thought was pretty good. The Kayazy ran up my right flank and I try to position them for an assassination run next turn. I played Sorscha far back in fear of his feat but it was my first time playing with her and I didn't realize that she was pretty much immune to most of Scott's army. This is something that Scott reminded me after the game was over, lol.

At this moment I feel I'm in a pretty good position to win the game... until Scott started spraying...

Scott let loose his super boosted sprays and wiped out almost my entire unit of Kayazy Assassins on the right side. His Outriders then used ride by attacks and sprayed down about 8 of my Winter Guard Infantry. He then positioned the Outriders to take out my Mechaniks behind Conquest the next turn with his Light Calvary move. The Eliminators charge in and kill a couple of Mechaniks.

He gets 1 good charge off with his last Great Bear and really hurts my Conquest. Things totally flipped to Scott's favor and he hadn't even popped his feat yet.

The scenario pressure is on me so on my third turn I kill his objective with my Great Bears and try to clear the Greylord Ternions with Conquest but fail and leave 1 in the zone. I do remember the Bond on Conquest and I'm easily able to kill his stationary Eliminators with my Bokur and the last Great Bear that charged in. The rest of the Mechaniks repair the Conquest. At the end of my turn I tried to hide Sorscha behind Conquest and await Zerkova's feat.

Scott continues his rampage and wipes out my entire Winter Guard unit with more crazy boosted sprays. He also is able to Hoarfrost a Great Bear and charge the Conquest with his Reaver Guard which does a bit of damage. His Ternions wipe out my Kayazy and he positions his Behemoth to charge Conquest next turn.

He does make a slight error and positions Zerkova in the center of the map. This could be my big opportunity to swing the game.

If Scott decides to play super cautiously he will win on Scenario so I realize that the only way I can win is by assassination. I try to position Sorscha to Freezing Grip Zerkova but realize she is immune to Cold just like me. Scott was nice enough and let me take my move back which made up for one I let him take back earlier in the game. I just end up taking a shot with Sosrcha at Zerkova and missed. I pop my feat but also realize that it is cold based and does not effect her or the Outriders. 

At this point I'm all in because Scott can easily win on Scenario. My only out is if I use Conquest to clear out the Greylords blocking Zerkova and clear a path for my last remaining Great Bear. I get a good deviation and I am able to clear the path early. I use my remaining Conquest shots and do a little bit of damage to her. I actually did not want the crit Devastation because it would have pushed her just far enough that my Great Bear wouldn't be able to reach her. I had to shoot her though because I needed every last bit of damage.

I then activate my Great Bear and charge into her with Backswing. I need 7's to hit and I am able to make the charge attack. Zerkova is only camping 2 and is fairly hurt so a POW 12 with 4x dice is able to take her down.

Final Thoughts - Even though I won totally messed up and forgot about everyone being immune to cold. I didn't ever need eSorscha's feat anyway because Scott kept his Behemoth out of ranged and I was so scared of the Outriders and Ternions which I didn't need to be because they had cold attacks.

If I had known about the immunity I would have been far more aggressive and just dominated the right side instead of playing so cautiously. If I had focused on the Behemoth and Great Bears as originally planned I would have dominated with Conquest.

Scott most likely would have won the game if he had played more cautiously. He had cleared my zone of Winter Guard Infantry and could have moved his army to Dominate a turn earlier than me forcing me to run to horrible positions just to contest.  He told me that his mistake was declaring a charge order on his Reaver Guard against the Conquest. This forced him to play Zerkova more to the center.

As far as my list goes, I do like it but would make a few changes. I don't particularly need the Freezing Grip on Sosrcha because all my models except the Conquest are quite accurate. I could probably drop Sylys  and maybe 2 Rocketeers for Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt. This would really pack a punch on feat turn with Kiss of Lyliss. They Kayazy could probably take out anything that was -2 ARM and I wouldn't have to put my Conquest in danger. It would be really great on Trolls which are prevalent in our Meta but I most likely would drop Butcher 3 against them.

Either way, it was a great learning game and I am now more comfortable with eSosrcha and eZerkova.

Warmachine Battle Reports - Khador vs. Trollbloods - 50 Point Steamroller

Last night I was able to play Scott again at GMI games but this time he brought out his super Trollbloods. His list was not something I've played before and it had a lot of unique stuff including 2 units of Minions that did fancy things.

Butcher 3/3 + Snipers (50 Points)

Warcaster: Butcher Unleashed (Butcher 3) (-4)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Devastator (+9)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Nyss Hunters (+8)
Unit Attachment: Valachev (+2)
Unit: Widowmakers (+4)
Solo: Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (+3)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)
Solo: Kell Bailoch (+2)
Solo: Marksman (+2)
Objective: Fuel Cache

List building: I've been toying with this list for a while as I love Butcher 3 and I'm pretty good with him. Butcher 3's major problems are things that hinder his Flashing Blade and Impending Doom. (The Book, Orin Midwinter, Mulg, Druids, etc) I have the Widowmakers and Marksman to take out Orin and the Book and I have eEiryss for Mulg's animus. I wanted this list to have a large focus of highly accurate long ranged snipers to soften up my opponent while Butcher 3 and his 3 Warjacks come in and clean up the big stuff. The Nyss are there to be accurate, high defense guys who can contest on the opposite side of the map.

VS.

Scott's Trollbloods (50 Points)

Warlock: Grim Angus (-6)
Warbeast: Mountain King (+20)
Warbeast: Slag Troll (+6)
Warbeast: Troll Impaler (+5)
Unit: Pyg Burrowers (+6)
Unit: Bog Trog Ambushers (+8)
Unit: Farrow Bone Grinders (+2)
Unit: Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew (+1)
Solo: Fell Caller Hero (+3)
Solo: Totem Hunter (+3)
Solo: Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorrceress (+2)
Objective: Bunker

List Building: I hadn't played a list like his before. The Burrow is definitely something interesting that countered my snipers and the Ambushing Bog Trogs make his positioning unpredictable.

Round 1

Khador Turn 1 - Scott chose Butcher as his Prey target for the Totem Hunter which got me worried. On my turn I simply ran everything up and got it ready for the incoming advance. I was kind of worried about his Bog Trog Ambushers because he mentioned something to Andrew, another player at GMI, about how he was going to try to assassinate Butcher 3 with them. I ran my army up and then Advanced Butcher and used Energizer to give my battlegroup an extra 3" move. My plan was to hold the Left flag and use my high DEF models to contests the other.  I was able to get a couple snipes off on to his Burrowers and boxed his Officer which he toughed.

Trollbloods Turn 1 - Scott favored the right side of the board a little by advancing his Mountain King to that side. He then used the Fell Caller to stand up his Officer of the Burrowers and burrowed them 5" up from his advanced deploy. This made it so I could not target them on my turn. He them moved the rest of his army up the center leaning a little towards the right side. He then ran his Totem Hunter up the left flank.

Round 2

Khador Turn 2 - When I saw his Burrow marker I figured it'd be a perfect time to set my Devastator up for an awesome Rein of Death turn. I ran him into place next to the marker hoping that when he popped up, I would just destroy his entire unit.  I saw that the Totem Hunter was just in Ruin's threat ranged and since I was not familiar with his army, I thought he was trying to bait me to get close to the side of the board for his Ambush. I decided to take out the Totem Hunter anyway and easily dispatched him with Ruin and 3 focus.

I then set up Juggernaut and one of the dogs to block a charge lane to Butcher from the Left side of the board in case he decided to Ambush. I also was very cautious and popped my feat defensively to get Butcher back up to 6 focus. I debated on this because I wanted to save the feat to deal with the Mountain King but I figured Scott has something tricky up with the Bog Trogs and the Burrowers that I couldn't take any chances.

My Widowmakers, Marksman, eEiryss, and Kell Bailoch were able to take out his Fell Caller under the smoke of the Swamp Gobbers. The Nyss were able to charge the Mountain King and did a good chunk of damage on him. I didn't realize that he spawned Whelps each time I hit him and there was no limit to how many came out. It was probably a bad idea. I should have just stayed back and did a combined attack.

Trollbloods Turn 2 - This is the turn I feared. Scott debated a while and came to the conclusion that he probably would not kill Butcher at 14/24. He decided to do as much damage to my Warjacks as possible. His Burrowers came up and charged Ruin and did a small amount of damage. He then Ambushed me and charged Bog Trogs into Ruin, Juggernaut, and Madelyn Corbeau. His rolls were below average but he was able to do minor damage to the Warjack and take out the Cortex of Ruin. He definitely gummed up that side of the board with 20 infantry.

He then activated Grim and popped his feat catching the Devastator, my sniper crew, and some Nyss Hunters. He then cast Marked for Death on the Nyss reducing their DEF to a 13. After that he activated the Mountain King right side he ate all his Whelps and healed him almost to full health. Grim was able to kill Valechev with a shot as I positioned him too close. With Marked for Death Scott was able to Power Sweep and kill the 4 Nyss that were surrounding him and luckily I passed a command check.

I was ok with this as I figured the Nyss were there to just contest and be annoying. Marked for Death really made the Nyss suffer. I didn't know the Mountain King spawned unlimited Whelps so I probably should have just done a combined ranged attack and hit the Mountain King for 1 shot.

Round 3 

Khador Turn 3 -  I didn't get a good picture of it but Ruin and the Juggernaut were completely surrounded by a combination of 20 Bog Trogs and Burrowers. My goal was to wipe them out using Ruin and Butcher and pick off the stragglers with my snipers.

My first move was with Ruin. I started with his little first and missed and then moved on to my big weapon and began decimating his Bog Trogs. Even with his Cortex out, Ruin was able to kill all the Bog Trogs except for the 2 that were behind the Juggernaut by using the souls he collected to buy attacks. He can wipe out entire units that way.

Madelyn Corbeau tries to do some seducing but the Bog Trogs fail to hit each other. The Devastator uses his Rein of Death and smashes 3 Burrowers that surrounded him. He was debuffed under Grim's feat along withe the snipers. My sniper crew takes some shots and they are able to kill one Swamp Gobber who has DEF 19 and a couple of Burrowers who end up Toughing. The Bokur is able to kill 1 Bog Trog with his spear.

Butcher and his Wardogs Activate in hopes to kill all the remaining Bog Trogs and Burrowers. The dogs easily dispatch of the last Bog Trog and Butcher goes in for the remaining 7 Burrowers with Flashing Blade. After Toughing multiple times, Butcher is able to finish everyone off with 2 Focus to spare. He uses 1 to Energize back 1" so he is touching the flag and moves the rest of his battlegroup up 1".

Trollbloods Turn 3 - Scott is in an interesting position because now I've put some scenario pressure on him. Butcher is pretty safe at the moment because of distance so he decides to return some scenario pressure to me. The first thing he does is upkeep Mark of Death on the Nyss and then uses Hunters Mark on my Fuel Cache objective with Lanyssa. He then uses Bait the Line on the objective as well giving models +4 to Charge on it. He then uses the Mountain King and assaulted the objective easily killing it for 1 point. He then shot a spray into my sniper crew but was only able to kill 1 Widowmaker. He then uses the rest of his focus to wipe out 2 of the Widowmakers closest to him.

With his Farrow Bone Grinders, Scott tries to finish off my Marked for Death-ed Nyss but fails to kill them due to some below average dice rolls. His Slag Troll tries to wipe out my ARM 17 Devastator with his Acid with Erosion but also rolls below average and leaves the vulnerable Devastator with all his systems.

The Impaler then shoots a spear at the Devastator failing to crit and does a few points of damage. He ends his turn by running his last remaining Swamp Gobber to contest the left most flag.

The Game is tied 1 - 1.

Round 4

Khador Turn 4 - I was quite lucky that Scott was not able to finish off my Nyss because it gave me a good shot at retaliation. Without Cylena I was not able to combine but I easily shot off the Farrow Bone Griders and Lanyssa which freed up the right side of the board for me. I then used the remaining snipers to do a couple damage points to the Slag.

All I needed to do now was set up my Warjacks to block line of sight to Butcher and position them so that I can kill his Bunker objective next round, oh, and kill that stinking Swamp Gobber contesting my flag which I failed to do with an aiming eEiryss but was able to do with my Ogrun Bokur.

This gave me my much needed 2nd point and put in position to win next turn.

Score: Khador - 2 vs. Trollbloods - 1

Trollbloods Turn 4 - Scott was in a little trouble with his fury leeching and had to make Frenzy checks for all his Warbeasts. He passes both the Impaler and the Slag but fails on the Mountain King which Frenzies and kills a Widowmaker. This is a huge turning point in the game as the Mountain King would have probably been able to clear the center zone putting him up 3 points vs my 2 if he manages to contest the right flag with his Impaler or Slag which would require them to run.

Scott then uses his slag to try to clear Kell Bailoch and the Winterguard but fail to do so even with boosted rolls. He ends his turn with the Impaler and is able to land a crit on the Devastator which pushes him back 1" but fails to do damage.

Score: Khador - 3 vs. Trollbloods - 1

Finishing Move

Khador Turn 5 - If I can manage to kill the Objective with Ruin (minus Cortex), Ogrun Bokur, eEiryss, Kell Bailoch, and 1 Widowmaker I can win the game. The first thing I do is activate Butcher and Energize everyone up 3". I then charge with Ruin at the objective doing only about 5 damage to it. I use my offhand and do 8 more damage putting it at 2 Life. The Ogrun Bokur leaves his client and is able to finish off the Bunker for the win.

Final Score: Khador - 5 vs. Trollbloods - 1

After Game Thoughts - I really enjoyed playing against Scott's Trollblood list. I had never fought against Bog Trogs, Farrow Bone Grinders, Burrowers, Lanyssa, or a Mountain King before so it was a good model learning game for me. It was really cool how how much flexibility he had with his Ambush and Burrowers. The match up was probably not the best for him because of my Warjacks and 14/24 Warcaster but it was interesting.

This was the first time I played with Madelyn Corbeau and I didn't feel like I got a ton of use out of her. Butcher is normally behind a wall of Warjacks so getting that 3" move in my maintenance phase wasn't all that useful. I almost always play very cautiously with him, trying to camp as much as I can and keep my distance while moving towards a flag or zone. Opponents also play very cautiously against him so I rarely have a chance to assassinate making Corbeau not as effective.

I might switch up and replace her after I try her a few more times. I might go for the whole sniper package and put in Alten Ashely. I was also thinking of swapping out the Devastator and Juggernaut for Beast 09, a War Dog, Alten, and Goreman. It would definitely help me against the Domination spell which the Haleys have and give me a fairly accurate high POW Thresher Reach weapon with a threat range of 12" with Energizer. It also saves me a focus because Beast 09 runs for free.

I would be losing an ARM 25 Bulldozer and a 7 point Warjack to piece trade though. I also lose a large base blocking LOS.

I'll have to do some testing to see which is better. I'll most likely be playing Circle of Orboros for the next 3 weeks because of the Devastation Event we are having at GMI. I look forward to winning another coin!

My First Warmachine Tournament - Khador The Old Witch vs. Skorne eMakeda

GMI Warmachine Steamroller 2015 Tournament

Part 1: My List Pairing for 35 point Steamroller 2015

Part 2: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Menoth - Harbinger

Part 3: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Circle - pKreuger

Part 4: Khador - Old Witch vs. Skorne - eMakeda

Part 5: Final Thoughts for the Tournament

This is the last round of the tournament and I made it to the finals table undefeated along with Jose who was also undefeated and playing Skorne. I had never played against Skorne before and I was frantically trying to add his list to War Room so I could at least figure out what his Warlocks' feats were.

I was torn because I wanted Jose to win his last match because I really wanted to experience a Skorne army but I also didn't because I had no clue what they did. I would have been much more comfortable against Zoe, the person he beat, because she brought Legion which I am fairly familiar with.

Oh, I'm also list locked because I hadn't found a favorable match up for my Old Witch list. Jose on the other hand was not list locked. He brought eMakeda and Xerxis' Fist of Halaak Tier list. I've heard a lot about this Tier list so I knew it was something to be feared.

After looking at my locked list, Jose decides to take eMakeda.

Into the Woods (35 Points)

Warcaster: The Old Witch of Khador (-3)
Warjack Attachment: Scrapjack
Warjack: Behemoth (+13)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Assassin Underboss (+2)
Unit: Winter Guard Infantry (+6)
Unit Attachment: Winter Guard Officer & Standard (+2)
Weapon Attachment: Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeer x2 (+2)
Solo: Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (+3)
Solo: Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (+2)
Objective: Effigy of Valour

VS.

Supreme Archdomina Makeda (35 Points)

Warlock: Supreme Archdomina Makeda (-5)
Warbeast: Molik Karn (+11)
Warbeast: Titan Gladiator (+8)
Unit: Paingiver Bloodrunners (+5)
Unit: Praetorian Swordsman (+6)
Unit: Paingiver Beast Handlers (+3)
Unit Attachment: Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard (+2)
Solo: Hakaar the Destroyer (+4)
Solo: Feralgeist (+1)
Objective: Fuel Cache

I didn't get a lot of good pictures because I was really busy trying to read what all his stuff did so I didn't get caught in a gotcha move.

Initial Deployment

I deploy Old Witch in the center of the battlefield behind my objective that gives cover and place Scrapjack on the far right side so I can hopefully run with him and cast a surprise Unseen Path and place the Old Witch next to the flag to score a point.

In not surprising fashion I lose the roll to go first. Jose activates eMakeda and casts Leash on Molik Karn which allows him to advance directly towards her when she moves. She advances up and Molik Karn follows her like a one eyed pup. She then casts Road to War which gives +2 movement to any non-warlock faction models in her control area. She then has Molik Karn, Titan Gladiator, Hakaar, the Bloodrunners, the Swordsman, and Beast Handlers run up as far as they can.

On my turn I allocate 1 to each jack and I basically just run all my guys up except for The Old Witch. I cast Iron Flesh on my Winter Guard Infantry and then cast a 5" Murder of Crows cloud in front of them hopefully to deter the Bloodrunners.

Turn 2 End of Round

I forget to take a picture in between rounds because I'm still trying to figure out what to do. Jose runs his Bloodrunners up to get some of my Winter Guard in melee. He positions the rest to block me from controlling the flag. The Bloodrunners have an ability called Shadow Play which says if they damage one or more enemy models with a melee attack, at the end of the combat action you can place one model in the unit in formation anywhere within 1" of another model in their unit. This gives them some extreme mobility that I did not plan for.

He then runs his Praetorian Swordsman to try and jam my Kayazy Assassins. Molik Karn and Titan Gladiator position themselves to kill next turn and after doing the math I realize that Molik Karn can possibly get +2 movement from the Titan Gladiator, +2 Movement from Road to War, +3 movement for Charge, and +2" for Reach. With speed 6 he's got a threat range of 15" which is extremely deadly especially with eMakeda's affinity of +1 fury, her feat which gives him boosted melee attacks with no Free Strikes, and Future Sight which allows him to boost after the fact.

He then moves up eMakeda and for some reason casts Engine of Destruction. I'm not 100% sure why he did that because he didn't attack and it doesn't give any bonuses to defense. He might have done it to free up some fury on her but there was no point because he wasn't running his beasts hot. It might have been better to keep the fury as transfers.

On my turn I allocate 3 to the Behemoth and hold 4 on The Old Witch. I let Iron Flesh drop on the Winter Guard. I then activate Kovnik Joe to give the Winter Guard his For the Motherland speech which gives them boosted ranged attack rolls. He takes a pot shot and misses. Half the Winter Guard Infantry move up with Bob & Weave (+2 DEF) and spray the Bloodrunners down to 3 models which pass their command check. I am also able to get Hakaar down to 4 life but he loads up on Souls which gives him an armor boost and tokens to buy/boost attacks. I use 2 of the Winter Guard Infantry and spray into the Beast Handlers that are surrounding eMakeda to clear some room for my Kayazy Assassins. I use the other two Winter Guard Infantry and do a combined shot on eMakeda which takes off only a few life.

Next I activate Behemoth and move him up 4" so he can see eMakeda. He lobs 2 arcing fire bombard shots and doesn't hit. The AOE's do minor damage to her which she transfers to the Titan Gladiator. She is now sitting on 0 Fury.

After that I activate Eiyrss and take a shot at her and just do 1 damage bringing her down to 12 boxes.

I then activate my Kayazy Assassins who pop their min-feat, Kill Stroke, which gives them acrobatics and allows them to move through models. I am able to get 4 charges on eMakeda and the rest run to get behind her in case I fail and need a second shot next turn.

With Gang, Kayazy Assassins are MAT 9 which is pretty insane. They also are POW 12 which isn't very good but I've got 4 boosted shots at her.

I hit with the first Kayazy and do minor damage to her bringing her down to 7 life. The second Kayazy whiffs with snake eyes and I'm getting worried because I have only two more shots on her and I already rolled double ones. Fortunately one of the Kayazy attacks and connects needing a 6. I need a 12 on damage which is a 37.5% shot and I manage to roll a 14 which ends up killing her.

Khador Victory!

Close up of Assassination

Those tricky bastards did it! Jose said he didn't know that they had that once per game Acrobatics or he wouldn't have left her out in the open so much. He smiled and said it won't ever happen again and that sometimes it's better to lose and learn a good lesson.

I don't particularly like winning when someone doesn't know what a model does but I really wanted this bad. I definitely would have told him about the Kill Stroke ability after he moved eMakeda in their threat range if it was a casual game. We both had about 30+ minutes on our Deathclocks so we did have time to inspect each other's cards and figure out what everything did.

After the match
Jose was very nice about the game and we chatted about what we would have done differently.

He mentioned that he should have brought his Fist of Halaak list which had Incindiarii that would have murdered my Kayazy Assassins with AOE 3 continuous fire shots.

I might have been more likely to win on scenario though because of the lower model count of Fist of Halaak.

If Jose didn't leave me that opening on eMakeda it would have most likely been a long drawn out scenario match. I would have been able to deny him with Old Witch's feat which says that enemy models in her control area can't run or charge and if they end their movement in it, they take a POW 14. I would have controlled the right flag and then tried to slowly win on scenario.

It was definitely a great tournament and I really enjoyed myself and the people I played against.

For the Motherland!

My First Warmachine Tournament - Butcher 3 vs. pKreuger

GMI Warmachine Steamroller 2015 Tournament

Part 1: My List Pairing for 35 point Steamroller 2015

Part 2: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Menoth - Harbinger

Part 3: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Circle - pKreuger

Part 4: Khador - Old Witch vs. Skorne - eMakeda

Part 5: Final Thoughts for the Tournament

I learned that Steamroller Tournament strength of schedule is determined by 3 factors. The first factor is your Win/Loss record. The next factor is how many control points you scored during your matches. The final is how many points of enemy models you killed.

Since Andrew and I were the only players that won on scenario and scored 5 control points, we were the #1 and #2 seed and faced each other in the next match. Andrew is a very experienced player but mentioned that he hasn't played competitively in a while. He brought a very strong control army with eKreuger and another hit and run style anti-infantry army with pKreuger.

After everyone submitted lists I saw what Andrew brought and I knew that was going to be the toughest match up for me and I did not want to play against him unless I had to.

Before our match, Andrew and I talked about our lists and not wanting to get List Locked. (You must play both your lists at some point during the tournament) Knowing that he was going to be the hardest match up for me in the tournament I decided to go with my stronger list and play Butcher 3 while Andrew gambled and played pKreuger hoping to save eKreuger for the finals.

Kill Stroked (35 Points)
Warcaster: Butcher 3 (-4)
Warcaster Unit: War Argus x2 (+2)
Warcaster Attachment: War Dog (+1)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Assassin Underboss (+2)
Unit: Widowmakers (+4)
Solo: Widowmaker Marksman (+2)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)

VS.

pKreuger (35 Points)
Warcaster: pKreuger (-5)
Warbeast: Warpwolf Stalker (+10)
Warbeast: Feral Warpwolf (+9)
Warbeast: Gorax (+4)
Unit: Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers (+5)
Unit: Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers (+5)
Unit: Shifting Stones (+2)
Unit Attachment: Stone Keeper (+1)
Solo: Blackclad Wayfarer (+2)
Solo: Gallows Groves (+1)
Solo: Gallows Groves (+1)

He beats me on threat range and has answers for my high DEF Stealth infantry but I beat him on big bald fat guys that hit hard.

End of Round 1 

Andrew won the roll and went first and set up on the side with the linear obstructions. He moved both his units of Woldstlakers in a straight gun line and set up for my advance. The double Gallows groves move into position for Arc Noding while the Stones set up to use Shifting. His Stalker and Feral Warpwolf stay back and wait to be Shifted.

What I didn't realize was that Shifting says "within" and not "completely within" so the actual distance of placement is not 8" but more like 9.5" which is much scarier.

On my turn I move my army, cast Energizer so my battlegroup moves 3 extra inches and get ready to dominate the flag on turn 2. I keep Ruin behind Juggernaut and hope that the Warpwolf Stalker will take the bait. I know once I can trade for one of his Warbeasts, I'm in a really good spot to attrition.

I position my Kayazy and Widowmakers in a way that I feel would best protect them from pKreugers feat but I was sorely mistaken. The Widowmakers do some work and killed 4 Woldstalkers.

Round 2

On Turn 2, Andrew moves his unit of Woldstalkers on the right side of the picture so they can pop shots at Ruin. With Concentrated Fire they are all able to hit and do quite a bit of damage to him. He then casts Primal from the Gorax on the Warpwolf Stalker and ports him 9.5" into Reach range with Ruin. He makes quick work of him and also cripples both of Juggernaut's arms. I'm a bad spot but I still feel like if I can take out the Warpwolf Stalker I have a shot.

Andrew then pops pKreuger's feat and decimates my Kayazy. As you can see from the picture above, I spread my Kayazy out and feel like they're safe but I didn't realize that the 3" AOE templates didn't have to be centered on models but instead placed anywhere he wanted. He was able to wipe out 7 Kayazy and all 4 Widowmakers. Luckily the Kayazy passed their command check.

I suffered mass casualties so I had to shift gears. I charged Butcher into the center of the pile of Woldstalkers and Feral Warpwolf and cast Impending Doom and pulled everything in. I then used Flashing Blade and wiped out 4 Wold Shrimp, a Blackclad Wayfarer, and the Warpwolf Stalker. I popped my feat and got back to camping 6 focus bringing his defensive stats to DEF 14 ARM 24.

I then decide to use Energizer to place Butcher base to base with the flag but unfortunately the action was challenged because Butcher was inside a wreck maker that counted as rough terrain. A judge was called over to mediate. Energizer states that he gets Pathfinder on activation he charges. I felt that, since he charged, he had Pathfinder for his entire activation but it was ruled that he did not. It's ok though, I was still able to get a War Argus next to the flag to get 1 point.

I gave up the safety of Butcher and sent out the Ogrun Bokur and the War Dog to contest my friendly flag in future turns. I knew that I was down in attrition with my Juggernaut's crippled arms and if I could just play 1 step ahead of Andrew I could pull away with a scenario win.

MARK: 1 - ANDREW: 0

Round 3

Andrew was successful with Electro Leap attacks from the Feral Warpwolf attacks that had Lightning Tendrils and focused on clearing out the Kayazy's threat and killed all but 2. He used then used his Gallows Grove and moved it based to base with my flag and gained a point. I didn't think this was legal because the Gallows Grove shouldn't be able to control a flag but couldn't specifically find the rules. Andrew said it could and confirmed with the Press Ganger and was able to get a point. I was fine with it.

Later I found out that Immobile models cannot control zones and that Gallows Groves were in fact Immobile. It was my fault because I used the word "Construct" when asking Joe, the Press Ganger, instead of the word "Immobile" which he confirmed that Constructs could control flags.

It was all good. Andrew had to move pKreuger out of the way because the 2 Kayazy had a shot at assassinating him. This made it so that he couldn't dominate on his turn. He also used the Gallows Grove as an Arc Node and used Tornado to Throw the Juggernaut into Butcher knocking both of them down. The Juggernaut took some more damage but luckily Butcher did not.

MARK: 1 - ANDREW: 1

On my turn I played it safe and just moved everyone to guard Butcher. I felt that killing him would be the only way Andrew had a chance to win now that I controlled the board. I put my crippled Juggernaut in front of my army with the War Argi behind him and finally positioned Butcher behind everything camping 6 focus.

I used the remaining Kayazy to kill the Gallows Grove that was controlling the flag and positioned the Ogrun Bokur and War Dog on opposite sides of the flag in hopes that Andrew wouldn't be able to kill both in one turn.

At the end of the round I killed 1 shrimp and leader and dominated my zone for another 2 points.

MARK: 3 - ANDREW: 1

End of the Game

There was a ruin terrain that separated the Feral Warpwolf and Butcher which meant it was almost impossible for the Feral to reach him even with Lightning Tendrils. He was able to easily wipe out the Ogrun Bokur but the War Dog miraculously toughed.

There was nothing much left for him to do. He positioned pKreuger safely and toed the zone instead of Dominating his flag. It would have given him 1 more point but ultimately there was nothing he could do to contest his friendly flag.

MARK: 3 - ANDREW: 2

My resilient War Dog was able to get up and contest my friendly flag and the War Argi, with Gang were able to wipe out the Gallows Grove that was contesting my enemy flag.

I ended my turn with Butcher dominating which put me up to 5 control points for the scenario win. Khador Victory!

MARK: 5 - ANDREW: 2

Final Thoughts

This was definitely a very stressful match for me. There seemed to be a lot of things that didn't go my way which was ok because they didn't change the outcome of the game.

The Charge/Energizer/Pathfinder ruling was my fault because I didn't do everything in the proper order. I would have been able to do it if but just needed to do it before my initial attack. I would have had to change the order of my activation to make it work. I would have needed to Charge first, kill everything with the Flashing Blade spell, then Energizered because technically I would have still been in my charge activation and had Pathfinder. It didn't change much because I was still able to get 1 control point with the War Argi which was all that mattered.

The second rules that went wrong was the Gallows Grove that controlled a flag. It was my fault again because I asked the Press Ganger if constructs could control and he said yes when I should have asked if Immobile models could control. Again, this didn't change the game outcome but it did change the tempo and forced me to play more offensively instead of defensively.

I learned a lot during this game because I was able to play an experienced and fierce competitor which I really enjoyed. It was stressful and I was exhausted after it but I think it helped me become a better Warmachine player.

 

My First Warmachine Tournament - Butcher 3 vs. Harbinger of Menoth

GMI Warmachine Steamroller 2015 Tournament

Part 1: My List Pairing for 35 point Steamroller 2015

Part 2: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Menoth - Harbinger

Part 3: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Circle - pKreuger

Part 4: Khador - Old Witch vs. Skorne - eMakeda

Part 5: Final Thoughts for the Tournament

My first match of the day was actually the one I've been dreading all week. I was matched up with Justin, someone who I saw play Harbinger the last time I was at GMI. His list was quite scary. Justin is a really good player and is experienced in tournaments. He won the last event at GMI.

Justin Deploying his sweet winged Harbinger

Knowing this I practiced a solo game against myself with both my lists vs. Harbinger the morning of the tournament so I would know what to expect. Turns out it's a waste of time to kill any of her units :P

The list I chose to play against her was my Butcher 3 list because I figured that I can solve the Martyrdom problem (When warrior model is disabled take D3 damage and heal them 1) with Silence of Death (No Tough, No Heal, No Transfer on damage) I did learn that Sanguine Bond was not effected by SoD.

Kill Stroked (35 Points)
Warcaster: Butcher 3 (-4)
Warcaster Unit: War Argus x2 (+2)
Warcaster Attachment: War Dog (+1)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Assassin Underboss (+2)
Unit: Widowmakers (+4)
Solo: Widowmaker Marksman (+2)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)

Harbinger of Menoth List (35 Points)
Warcaster: Harbinger of Menoth (-5)
Warjack: Devout (+5)
Unit: Exemplar Errants (+8)
Unit Attachment: Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard (+2)
Unit: Exemplar Bastions (+8)
Unit: Exemplar Bastions (+8)
Solo: Paladin of the Order of the Wall (+2)
Solo: Covenant of Menoth (+2)
Solo: Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (+3)
Solo: High Paladin Dartan Vilmon (+3)

The double Bastions really worried me as they could soak up tons of damage and spread it around. Even if I managed to dent them they still had Martyrdom to stay alive. They also could potentially take out my Warjacks or even worse, Butcher. The Covenant of Menoth also really worried me too and I specifically brought 4 Widowmakers and 1 Marksman just to deal with it. Again, I would still have to find a way to get past Martyrdom.

End of Round 1

Justin ended up going first which means I'm in a whole heap of trouble. He popped feat on the top of Turn 1, locking my Kayazy and Widowmakers in place. He advances his unit as far forward as he can toward and leaves only 1 Paladin to contest my zone. This surprised me and I decided to capitalize on it.

When I saw Justin's placement I quickly used run/charges and Energizer to shift my entire battlegroup toward my friendly zone so I can hopefully start scoring on Turn 2. I test to see how far 20" is from Harbinger's feat by moving the Widowmakers and I end up losing 2 to auto hit POW 14. Luckily I make the command check. 

The Kayazy's know better and just move up 1-2" and are safe from Harby's feat but are not able to threaten alpha strike. I kind of thought Justin was going to pop his feat on Turn 2 instead of Turn 1 but I guess it didn't matter because it basically made me skip a turn with my units either way.

Ruin and Juggernaut actually take a POW 14 from the feat when moving but only took small damage.

End of Round 2

By the end of Round 2 I was feeling confident about winning on scenario. Justin He shifts his army to his friendly zone and leaves nothing but an Impervious Wall'ed Paladin (Only can be damaged by Magical Weapons and Spells) to contest my zone.

On my turn I am able to use Butcher and his magical axe, Lola, to kill the Paladin and then position the jacks with Energizer to set them up to block the zone from the Bastions.

Mark 1 point - Justin 0 points

The game continues on and Justin's takes a long turn. The pressure of Deathclock is weighing down on him and he starts to make minor mistakes. On his last turn he sets up the Juggernaut to be charged by Bastions but in the middle of their activation, decides to switch gears and try to take out the Kayazy Assassins in his zone. He did this because he realized that the Kayazys have Kill Stoke which gives them acrobatics (lets them move through other models once per game) and are threatening assassinating Harbinger. He takes quite a while to finish which puts him down to about 5 minutes on the clock to my 20 min.

In the crunch he forgets to contest my zone bumping me up to 2 points at the end of his turn. If he had contested, it would have bought him another round.

On my turn I use Kill Stroke and use my Parry skilled Kayazy Assassins to move through other models and position myself to contest the zone. I position it so i can also it's hard to kill the entire unit so I can plan to contest again the next round. I forget about the 5" AOE auto-hit Cataclysm Harby has with her 10 focus.

I am able to kill the Bastion that was close to contesting the zone and end my turn scoring another control point.

Mark 3 point - Justin 2 points

End of the game

Justin focuses on contesting my zone and starts to move both units of Bastions into my zone. With the Rough Terrain he is only able to get one in and I have to figure out a way to deal with it. Normally you can just kill him but there are 2 problems. One is Sanguine Bond which allows the Bastions to spread damage among the unit which is basically 40 boxes of ARM 16 and then on top of that the second problem is Harbinger's Martyrdom which can keep other warrior models alive and kicking as long as she has boxes to transfer damage to.

Harby was able to to deal with all the Kayazy using Cataclysm which is a 5" AOE auto hit and causes them to fail their command check bumping him up to 2 points.

On my turn I end up allocating 3 focus to Juggernaut and 3 to Ruin. With the two problems posed above I decide that instead of killing the Bastion, I need to throw him out of the zone. I've never done a throw in a game ever so this was pretty new to me. I end up boosting to hit with a MAT 8 vs. DEF 11 and then using my STR 12 vs. his STR 7 I was able to chuck him 6" away.

I then charged my opponent's objective with the Juggernaut with 3 focus and at POW 19 I was able to 1 shot the objective with a roll of 15 Damage bringing me to a total of 5 control points.

Mark 5 point - Justin 2 points

This was a really stressful match for me because it was my first tournament game and also my first timed match ever. I only ended up killing 1 Bastion and 1 Paladin but I figured that's how it would go down because of Harbinger's model protection tricks. I had to rely on adaptation and positioning well to win the game instead of a slugfest which he would have won.

This allows me to move into the next round of games!

Final Thoughts

Practicing vs Harbinger before the tournament really helped me understand that I could not beat her traditionally. I didn't attack once with my Kayazy the entire game and just used them to contest his zone to swing the point favor to me which a lot of people don't really expect. Justin did a real great job of taking them out with Cataclysm. Fortunately, he was under pressure with the Deathclock and had to make quick decisions which I was able to capitalize on.

It was a great game and I'm excited/nervous to play my next one!