Easter Weekend Gaming at Connections – report part 1

As promised, I have just taken place in a couple of solid days of Warmachine and Hordes gaming.  This post will focus on the game I played on Friday, April 2nd, with a couple of mentions to other action that went down.

Friday saw a middlin’ size group of us show up to throw down.  Old stalwarts Dylan and Trolland showed up ready for battle.  A few players new to Warmachine also ventured forth:  rancidtwinkie, gds23 and lorenz.  If there was anyone else that showed up for a game, I must have been distracted by the carnage on the table in front of me.

Despite my best intentions, I did not end up noting down other people’s lists, other than my own opponent’s force.  So, from my hazy memory of what happened on the tables around me:

Lorenz brought out his Cryx against rancidtwinkie’s Khador.  It sounded like Deneghra had fun with Shadow Bind and eventually put Vladimir down for the count.

Later in the day, rancidtwinkie trotted out the Butcher (Vlad was recuperating from his near-Deneghra experience) to oppose Lord Commander Stryker.  I witnessed a ferocious charge by the Butcher at a Centurion that saw the Butcher carve air and strike non-threatening poses.  The Centurion was not as stylish, but more effective in his counterattack…

Trolland pipes up with the following:

I used a Terminus list (Terminus (-4), Seether (9), Slayer (6), Necrotech (1) , Machine Wraith (1), Warwitch Siren (2)) and played one game against gds23, followed by a game against lorenz. Terminus ate souls.

gds23 had Stryker, Ironclad, Lancer, and Stormblades +UA, I think. lorenz had Deneghra, Seether, Banethralls, nightwretch, and a necrotech I think.

In both cases my machine wraith took stuff over to mess with my oppenents head, but he got ejected on the first try both times. Either way, my opponent was unable to allocate focus to his ‘jack on a key turn, which kind of messed with things.

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In a bout of fugue, I imagined that Ryan and bwafer had shown up on Friday. But that was all a terrible illusion, they showed up Saturday. Nothing to see here, move along!

So, why am I not mentioning myself in all the festivities? Well, Dylan had arrived and was still angry about a certain battle that had taken place between the two of us.  Words were spoken.  Certain gestures were made in my direction.  A gauntlet was thrown down.  The Retribution was looking for retribution.  Not happy with a small-scale skirmish, Dylan suggested a 50 point encounter so we started drawing up lists.  I was lacking a few of my models as I had been thinking smaller-scale for the day, but no excuses.  I came up with the following:

Void Seer Mordikaar (-5 pts)

• Titan Cannoneer 9 pts
• Titan Gladiator 8 pts
• Cyclops Brute 5 pts

Cataphract Cetratii (Leader + 5) 11 pts
Cataphract Arcuarii (Leader + 5) 9 pts
Praetorian Karax (Leader + 5) 4 pts
2 x Void Spirit 4 pts
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer 3 pts
Extoller Soulward 2 pts
Total 55 – 5 = 50 pts

The Retribution opposition to my plans for tyrannical domination would be:

Dawnlord Vyros (-6 pts)

• Hydra 9 pts
• Manticore 8 pts
• Phoenix 10 pts

Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader + 9) 9 pts
–> Officer and Standard Bearer 2 pts
–> Soulless escort 1pt
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader + 9) 10
–> Officer and Standard Bearer 2 pts
–> Soulless Escort
Mage Hunter Assassin 2 pts
Nayl 2 pts
Total 56 – 6 = 50 pts

We wanted to play some sort of scenario and the first piece of terrain I grabbed from the large collection was a multi-tiered temple.  Plunking that down in the middle of the table, we declared that someone would be the king of the hill at the end of the game.  Starting with the third turn, if you lacked any models on the temple steps at the end of your turn, you lose!  Three forests, a swamp, a couple of craters and a 2″ wall completed the terrain.

First turn is Skorne’s and it’s fairly simple.  Hollow goes on the Cetrati, who under orders from the Tyrant Commander shield wall up and march on the left flank.  The Karax aslo form up at the base of the temple steps.  Mordikaar gives ghost walk to the Arcuarii and cuddles up with the Karax and the Brute.  The Arcuarii run through the wall and fan out on the right.  The Gladiator runs up near the swamp and wonders if he has time for a mud bath next turn.  A void spirit hides out in the left blast crater and the other runs up to the second rung of steps.  The Extoller hangs out with the Karax.

The Retribution run, with the exception of a covering fire template that just barely misses the Void Spirit on the left.  Nayl runs up the right side of the board opposite the Arcuarii, and a mage hunter hides out in the forest at the far left.  The Void Spirit up top gets missed by the Phoenix’s boom-boom blast(tm).

Skorne’s second turn sees the Void Spirit run around the covering fire template and scare the beejesus out of the Mage Hunter in the forest.  The Arcuarii march forward, and send a couple of harpoon shots into Nayl, who promptly expires.  The Karax edge up the steps in shield wall, and the Tyrant Commander ordes the Cetrati to Press Forward.  They happily (or, perhaps, emotionlessly, now that they have been Hollowed out) shield wall and march forward.  The Extoller hides out with Karax and performs Guidance for the Cannoneer, who advances to the left edge of the temple and boosts a shot into the Retribution back-field, annoying the Hydra and maybe nicking something else.  The Gladiator edges forward into the muddy swamp, splashing like an idjit.  The Brute, thinking he might slip, keeps watch over him with a Safeguard while sticking close to Mordikaar.

The Retribution turn, mid-way through, has the table as displayed by the image above.  The Void Spirit in the left forest is put back to undeath by the Manticore.  The Sentinals charge forth into the Cetrati, but fail to kill any of them thanks to Hollow, leaving two knocked down.  The Cataphracts are soon all lit on fire by the Phoenix for a burning-good-time, as the Phoenix climbs up onto the temple steps.  The Invictors start ventilating the Arcuarii and take a couple of them out.  The Mage Hunter had spooked out of the forest but rallies when it sees the scary boo-ghost is gone.

The Skorne counter-attack begins with the Karax marching further up the temple and getting out onto the top.  Mordikaar follows the Karax up the steps, putting Rush on the Gladiator splashing about in the swamp and resurrecting an Arcuarii.  The Arcuarii get Ghost Walk as well.  The flaming Cetrati pick up their buddies and under the Overcome order from the Tyrant Commander, murder some Sentinals.  The Cannoneer climbs onto the steps and boosts a shot at Vyros, bullseyeing him for a few damage.  The Void Spirit charges into Vyros and swings a boosted attack (boost courtesy of Void Lord) and a charge attack plus an extra die from Annihilator, but the roll comes up luke-warm.  Still a bunch of damage, but not the deadly strike I was hoping for.  The Gladiator then sees his change to slam the Phoenix over Vyros and finish the job, but cannot get enough distance to engage the jack, failing his slam (uhoh).  The Arcuarii charge the Invictors and kill a handful of them.  The Brute walks under Mordikaar and Safeguards him from falling off the steps because he’s a good mother hen.

No doubt thankful that the Skorne stab for the heart of their force has come up short, the Retribution go crazy.  The Manticore charges up to the Cetrati and… fails to kill any thanks to tough rolls!  The Sentinals charge in their second wave and… fail to kill any Cetrati due to tough rolls!  The Invictors regroup and put some concentrated fire into the Arcuarii, reducing them to two men.  The Hydra freaks the hell out on the poor overconfident Gladiator.  Two smashes with the fists and one chain attack later and the Gladiator is tumbling head over heels to smoke Mordikaar on the head (thankfully he couldn’t be knocked down!).  The angry elephant expires in a messy bloody lump as Mordikaar holds his nose against the smell.  Vyros eliminates the Void Spirit and tosses an armour buff on the Phoenix, which climbs up more steps and blows up a couple of Karax.  The Mage Hunter charges up from the rear to get near the steps, but misses its target.

Having lost the initiative, the Skorne need to push back.  The Karax maintain their shield wall and stick to the right of the temple steps, stabbing the Phoenix in the magic shield for little effect.  Mordikaar wanders up behind the Karax, revives an Arcuarii and puts Rush on the Cannoneer and Ghost Walk on the Arcuarii again.  The revived Arcuari tries to charge through to Vyros, but I didn’t have LOS, so settle for running between the Phoenix and the Hydra while his two buddies charge the Hydra and mess up its left arm.  In a moment of life imitating art, the Hydra’s left arm actually fell off when it was bumped off the steps by accident.  Scary!!  Eek!  Ghosts! The Cannoneer goes slam-happy and sends the Phoenix tumbling down on top of Vyros but cannot squash him flat (and barely busts through the Phoenix’ forcefield to boot).  The Brute moves in front of Mordikaar to try and shield him from the Invictors should they walk this way.

At this point, it’s a losing battle for the Void Seer.  The next two turns see the Cetrati finally put to death and the Arcuarii shot full of holes as Mordikaar bombs the last of the armed Sentinals.  The Mage Hunter starts hacking up the Cannoneer and just misses the Extoller who has been lurking most of the game (and missed with a gazer beam at one point).  The two Retribution heavies on the temple wipe out the Cannoneer, Brute and the Karax as Vyros fell back to the forest on the far right.  The last hurrah was Mordikaar slapping Ghost Walk on himself and dodging the two heavies to try a boosted shot at Vyros.  He came up short on range but deviated onto the Dawnlord.  Boosting damage, I came up just short of killing him and was quickly shot down and hacked up.  The only Skorne model to survive on the table was the Extoller, who was engaged by a couple of models anyways.

Win by Vyros, due to being one tough S.O.B. that refused to die despite being asked nicely several times.

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It was overall a very entertaining game.  I got crazy lucky with tough rolls on the Cetrati and when they finally started dying, the soul tokens on Mordikaar made it much easier to boost a bomb blast and still cast Ghost Walk and Revive while leaving a couple of transfers around.  My luck with the tough rolls was counteracted by the somewhat low damage totals I rolled against the Phoenix and particularly Vyros, but them’s the breaks.  I was pleased with how the army worked together, but I don’t think I was taking enough shots with Mordikaar to try and thin out the infantry I was outnumbered by.

Well done to Dylan for avenging his previous defeat.  He played a pretty sound game and made me work for every shot I got at his caster.  A rubber match is no doubt in the future.

2 Responses to “Easter Weekend Gaming at Connections – report part 1”

1. Ben says:

   2010/04/07 at 03:17

   Actually I didn’t come out on Friday – you got your days mixed up, I was there on Saturday! And I believe I played rancidtwinkie, not gds23 (although now I’m not sure – I get so confused when people’s real names are different from their screen names). I was also playing Mercenaries (HIghborn Covenant) for the first time, instead of my beloved Cygnar. Of course, that didn’t stop me from bringing Gun Mages…
   • Subhedgehog says:

     2010/04/07 at 16:39

     You not being there at all greatly explains my confusion…