Sunday, 7 December 2014

Tourney Tales - Journeyman League 35 point Tournament

Following the Journeyman league recently my local gaming group decided to run a Tournanent for the participants. Two 35 point lists, divide and conquer with one list using one of the casters and the battle group from the league. I played a number of practice games using a pSevvy list, but on deciding I was lacking a good answer to a heavy armour list I swapped this at the last minute for a variation on my eReznik list from my last tournament, which ended up with two lists:

eFeora +6
-Vanquisher -8
-Dervish -4
-Repenter -4
Vassal -2
Wrack -2
Nicia -3
Carvolo -2
Paladin -2
Min Choir -2
Daughters -5
Max TFG with UA -8

eReznik +4
-Devout -5
Avatar -11
Vassal -2
Wracks -1
Mechanic -1
eEiryss -3
Min Choir -2
Max Bastions -8
Min Zealots with UA -6

After the random pairings I was placed against one of the most experienced players in the tournament, Nick, whose legion I played frequently during the league. He chose a list of Thagrosh, accompanied by a Carnivean and a Scythean, with a max unit of Warspears and UA along with two Deathstalkers and a shepherd. His other list was a beast heavy Saeryn list and I knew that my melee heavy Reznik list would be shut down by her feat and so I elected to take my Feora list. The scenario we were playing was close quarters and I deployed with a mind to protecting my own flag. I made a number of mistakes throughout the game that an experienced player like Nick was more than capable of taking advantage of. After the initial movements in turn two my Daughters (the Warspears' prey) were wiped out to a single model, who I should have run away to the far edge of the board to deny him the prey but who I instead threw away to tie up a Deathstalker. My Vanquisher took a couple of punishing shots at the Scythean but failed to destroy it. The counter charge from the heavy beast similarly hurt my jack and the two slapped at each other for the rest of the majority of the game. The middle part of the game was mainly me jamming my own flag (and making a ridiculous number of tough checks) and putting some wounds onto the enemy army. Nick was punishing me throughout the game but his clock was running low and I had plenty of time. I made another stupid mistake and charged my paladin into Thagrosh instead of jamming the flag and wasting his clock. This allowed him to kill off the paladin and move into dominate his own flag. I had nothing on his side to contest and so I charged Feora across the table to try for a risky assassination but came up half an inch short. She managed to survive the retaliation but couldn't put Thagrosh away the next turn with almost full fury and so I lost to scenario, with less than a minute on Nick's clock. 

My second game was against a Cryx player who hadn't had a lot of time to practice with his lists and so made a few critical mistakes and oversights. I chose to go for Feora again as both of his lists were fast an infantry based and pretty dangerous for Reznik. This left me locked into Reznik for my next game but I was hoping for a better match up. He took pDenny with a max unit of Bloodgorgers and Slaughterborn, and a max unit of blood witches, alongside a pistol wraith and skarlock. Denny was accompanied by a Slayer and three chickens. 

He took the first turn and, as we were playing Outflank he moved strongly into the zone with the bloodgorgers on one side and ran across the board into B2B with the TFG with the witches, which meant he was unable to use the mini feat and basically fed them to the guards who promptly killed all but one of the unit. Meanwhile the Vanquisher splashed the bloodgorgers killing 5 of them with a single shot as they were bunched together. The daughters then killed the last few and engaged Slaughterborn. This basically crippled his army but I hadn't been able to move anything into the zone to my right and so he controlled it for a point. Taking advantage of my mistake he moved in his caster and feated, dominating for a further two points. Gerlak took a swing at a daughter but missed, derailing his slaughter. On my turn I moved a trio of TFG into the zone to contest and save the game, along with Nicia and a Repenter. The Repenter took a shot at a bone chicken, missing but boosting the shot on Denny who was stood behind it, dealing little damage but setting her on fire. The daughters combined melee'd Gerlak to death and the paladin moved into melee with the pistol wraith but stayed in stance. Next turn he spent all his resources to clear the zone but couldn't quite manage it. The pistol wraith ate a free strike trying to kill the last choir member and died. He'd left Denny exposed trying to kill Nicia and finished on no focus, and so the Vanquisher moved up and squished her in short order, netting me a win and basically tabling him and scoring two control points to boot. 

In the final round I played against a Circle army which was a terrible match up for my list locked eReznik army. He chose to use eMorvanna. I started strongly, wiping out his Wolves of Orboros and Skinwalkers with the feat but I was forced to expose Reznik. He then used shifting stones to move a Stalker into Reznik and promptly ripped him apart. 

I ended the tournament with the highest Strength of Schedule and was the highest scoring single game winner, placing me near the bottom of the middle of the listings. Overall it was a fun day and I regret not taking the pSevvy list I had been playing with in practice games but I did enjoy blowing up a swathe of Druids with Reznik's feat. My local club is deciding to run a similar tournament each month and I'm looking forward to playing some more tournaments in coming months and writing them up for you to read!

-M

Sunday, 23 November 2014

Sword<Pen<Brush - Continuing the Legion

Following my last article about having started to paint my Legion of Everblight forces I've managed to get a bunch more models painted up starting with a max unit of Legionnaires including the UA:-


To be honest my technique for metal is pretty easy on this army and these guys are pretty much 80% metal so it wasn't especially hard to plow through them. 

I followed up by completing a full unit of the Spawning Vessel:-


I enjoyed painting this unit but it didn't come together as a unit until the last lick of paint but then I ended up quite happy with how they looked, especially the pot itself. 

I then knocked out the Incubi solos:-


I decided the paint the flesh of the unfortunate hosts in Elf Flesh with a blue wash, highlighting this with more Elf Flesh. I had wanted it to come out a little differently but I also wanted a good contrast with the draconic Incubi skin which it did so I can't complain at the result. 

I then painted my pair of Strider Deathstalkers. With a number of Legion players in my current meta there are a number of very nice Deathstalker conversions. I've never been much good at anything beyond the simplest swaps so I stuck with the usual sculpt:-


I think the bows and cloaks both came out just like I wanted them to and they have the right balance of dark and light for the army. 

I then painted up the Twins, Saeryn and Rhyas:-


I was debating for a while what colours to do the long scarves in but I wanted them to stand out while not clashing and I felt that the red was the best option for them, and again I feel it worked well. 

Finally I managed to squeeze in one more model and it just had to be Epic Absylonia:-


Much like when I first painted the beasts I was a bit taken aback by quite how blue she was by the end, but the model is gorgeous and detailed without being too complicated. 

I'm really enjoying diving into a new army and I'm excited for next year when I can start buying more models. 

-M

Friday, 21 November 2014

Mini Thoughts - Reznik

Continuing my long overlooked Mini Thoughts articles I would like to talk a little bit about the High Executioner of Menoth himself - Servath Reznik. Reznik is probably one of my favourite casters in the fluff, with a lovely model to boot. It's especially nice when all that loveliness is also tied to a brilliant rule set to go with. 


The first and most important thing to know about Reznik is he is a bad-ass, smash mouth take-no-prisoner type caster. From his spell list and abilities to his feat Reznik is designed to kill people, hopefully enemy war-nouns. His stat line is impressive on its own and he can clearly bring the hurt to virtually any opponent, but that can easily be coupled with his spell Engine of Destruction (EoD) to bring him up to ridiculous levels of smashery (MAT 11 P&S 18 anyone?) and at a cost of two there's plenty of focus left after using it to really lay into someone. You can then couple that with his Purgation ability on his sword (giving addition dice on melee attack and damage rolls vs a target with an enemy upkeep on them) and his feat (stripping focus and fury from everyone in his control range) to handily murder anyone in his 12" threat range (under EoD). 

As well as the blunt force aspect of his rules Reznik also has some nice movement shenanigans for his battlegroup to further facilitate his assassination focused play-style. First up he had the ability Witch Hound allowing one model in his battlegroup to advance and make an attack each time a battlegroup model is hit by a spell. As well as that he has Perdition, a damage spell that allows a warjack in the battlegroup to advance if the spell does damage, once per turn. These abilities are circumstantial at best but against the right armies are devastating. 

He also boosts a pair of upkeep buffs, the typical Menite staple of Ignite, giving +2 to melee damage rolls and critical fire and the devastating Iron Agression, hands down one of the best warjack buffs in the game. This spell lets one jack run and charge for free as well as giving an additional die on melee attack rolls, and can crank a great jack into one that makes your opponent cry, especially if it's stuck on a jack like the Avatar. 

Generally Reznik's gameplay is brutally unsubtle, plodding up the field until you can get close enough to deliver Reznik to your opponents face. Even the toughest war-nouns in the game get squished pretty quickly when charged by Reznik under his feat and EoD. Moment of anecdote, just this week I managed to kill Terminus on the turn after his feat using Reznik. Ouch. 

Now I'm a big Reznik fan boy but I'm not blind to his weaknesses. First of which is his low Focus. 6 is fairly average as these things go but with so many battlegroup effects on his card he wants to take a jack heavy list and also wants to be quite greedy with his focus meaning he feels pretty starved most games. Really he wants to be taking a focus efficient battlegroup and a Heirophant. And Wracks. And maybe a Reclaimer. Seriously that 6 does not go as far as you'd really like it to. 

The other issue with Reznik is that his aggressive play style means he's often pretty far up the board, increasing the risk that someone else will get to him for the assassination first. With Def 14 and armour 17 with very little to camp he has a solid defence but not enough to be dependably survivable, especially against an opponent who can boost rolls. 

On top of this in a meta game sense Reznik does have a whole lot of tricks and sneaks but they come with caveats that, to a knowledgable oppenent, are pretty easy to avoid triggering, and he doesn't play to scenario very well. When I'm making a list for the Executioner I generally just make an assassination delivery system for Reznik to reach the other carter with enough jam units in there to keep me from losing on scenario before he can get the killing blow in. 

Overall I think that Reznik is a characterful and (perhaps more importantly) fun caster to play. He's also simple, and doesn't require much finesse to play well, but can really shine in the hands of a canny oppenent who can set up some strong charge lanes to score the win. 

He's definitely a big favourite of mine and hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll put up a battle report using him at 50 points after the tournament I'm playing next week. 

-M

Sunday, 16 November 2014

Sword<Pen<Brush - Joining the Legion

Having finished (ish) my Menoth I've started a new project. I put aside my army of crazed, fanatical, God-bothering zealots and have started up a new army of crazed, fanatical Dragon-bothering zealots. Big difference is these zealots also come with their own giant, gribbly, land-shark dragon-monsters. Ooooh pretty. 

That's right I've been seduced by Everblight over to the Legion. Switching out to Hordes to try the other side and getting to play with some models I love and with characters I enjoy. Yay! I started myself off with the Battlebox and a Forsaken, but have since had a big ol' box of models delivered to my door including some legionaries, some Nephalim, and a bunch of solos, along with the Spawning Vessel (recycling is good) and some casters (eVayl, eAbsylonia, Saeryn and Rhyas). 

I have a long standing tradition of painting my armies using alternative paint schemes. I like to take the normal or studio approach to an army and put my own spin on it, usually just shifting the colour scheme slightly (see my cream Menoth) to add a little individuality to my painting. On top of this I like to pick out a palette of colours for the army and stick to those paints on every model in the army to tie them together. If you look through the army books for most miniature games the paints for different models will shift slightly as different times and different painters or techniques show through, but I like to paint my generals with the same colours as my fodder to keep them unified. This was a bit of a problem with Legion for two reasons: 1. There is a big difference between different studio approaches meaning there is no real set way to paint the army (which seems to be a trend in Hordes where the factions are inherently less cohesive). 2. I don't really like the studio paint scheme anyway. Too pale. 3. Also I have a bunch of Citidel paints that I have no intention of swapping out and most of the paint guides are for P3. (I know I said two reasons. Sue me.) 

The other thing I wanted to do was nice bases. For anyone who's seen my Menoth army the models are decent but the bases suck. I'd decided to try out the latest Citidel 'cracked earth' magical paint and to be honest it was a huge flop. It hardly did what I wanted (cool dry cracked desert?) and just ended up looking like I'd slapped some light brown on and said 'good enough'. I was both thoroughly disappointed and also commited to using the stuff on the rest of my models. Not this time. Not for my Legion. Did I mention my friend recently started making gorgeous resin bases? Well he has! Check them out: http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk. I decided to do his Rocky Bases as thematic snowy bases and bought a whole bunch. 

I started on the four Shredders from the Battlebox first, as they were the easiest and most 'expendable' if I didn't like my paint job. Truth be told by the time I finished they were a lot bluer than I had intended but the more I looked at it the happier I was with them. The way I did it was by starting with a base of Fenris Grey, painting up to Ice Blue by way of Shadow Grey, before adding a highlight of Space Wolves Grey (yeah some of these paints are ooold). I was also especially happy with how the models came out on the jaws which were a simple Elf Flesh layer with a red wash which I think contrasted well with the teeth, which again, were very simple with Ushabti Bone leading up to pure white:-


With them completed I turned my attentions to the lovely Forsaken. I initially didn't like this sculpt when I saw it but this is definitely a model that I didn't like on paper but really liked once I had the bare metal in my hands (see prime Feora as another example).  I decided to leave the darker undercoat showing on the membrane of the wings but otherwise it was the same technique;


Next I threw out the big guy - the Carnivean. Sticking to my main approach I kept the paints the same. The chitin armour is much more prominent on this model, and took some more effort to achieve a good effect. I wanted a dark brown for the scales to contrast with the vivid blue of the flesh and so I started with a cover of Rhinox Hide for the base and then gave each scale and plate a highlight on pretty much every edge I could find with Mournfang Brown before touching up the most raised areas with a touch of Khemri Brown:- 


Finally for the battlebox I painted Lylyth, one of my favourite narrative Warlocks. Unlike the bulk of the army Lylyth has equipment and such to paint. For the metal I based the whole area using Chainmail, then washed it heavily with Asurman Blue to almost completely stain the recesses before painting the raised areas with Chainmail again to get a dark/light contrast I was pleased with. The cloak was a base of black painted up to Necron Abyss with a highlight of Regal Blue to finish. The leather straps were painted in the same brown as the beasts' scales while her hair was the same paints as their teeth, and the same blue tinted skin across the army:


I left it at that for a while due to a (temporary) lack of models combined with moving home. I've resolved both issues now, and have started to make some more headway with my Legion by churning out another couple of Nephalim using the above techniques, first a Bolt Thrower and most recently a Soldier:


I'm really enjoying the change of pace and I'm looking forward to getting them on the table once I've built my forces up a bit more next year, but for now they're a fun hobby side project to keep me occupied while I keep playing my Menoth (to whom I fully intend to keep adding). 

Thanks for reading I hope you can take something from my humble paints (though if you only take one thing away it should definitely be that http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk has awesome bases you can buy!). If anyone has any questions or comments feel free to let me know!

-M

Friday, 14 November 2014

Apologies

Hey readers, sorry for the long break, I've just moved house and unfortunately my hobby stuff got knocked back a little bit. But don't worry I'm back in full swing so expect a couple of Sword<Pen<Brush articles about the Legion I've just broken in as well as more battle reps and hopefully a Tourney Tales in a couple of weeks!

Wednesday, 15 October 2014

Journeyman League - Conclusion

The final week of the Journeyman League might have been last week but this week we had an announcement for the winners and a prize ceremony of sorts. Despite having held either first or second place consistently throughout the league several people came in at the last minute with loads of hobby points to claim the top spots, bumping me down to 5th place. Despite this there was a clear division of almost double the points between my position at 5th and the person in 6th, and there wasn't a huge divide between the top 5. This meant that the EO decided to award the top 5 players with prizes. The player in first got their choice of Journeyman Warcaster/Lesser Warlock and the next four players (including me) got one of the special edition Cephalix Gobber Mind-Drudges. I got mine painted up last night:


The League has been great fun and it's been a great way to meet new people who share a love of your hobby. It's also an interesting way to learn the game and develop your skills. If you aren't part of a regular gaming group and you get a chance to join a Journeyman League, regardless of whether you just picked up a battlebox for the first time or if you're a veteran Tournanent player, I highly recommend it!

The League might be over but the group is now moving on to other things, including a Journeyman League Tournament at the end of next month, and there's talks of a heap of other things to come, and I'll be sure to keep you all posted!

-M


Thursday, 9 October 2014

Journeyman League - Week 9

This week was the final game of the Journeyman League, and I tried a variation on the previous week's list attempt. The final week was with no restriction on lists at 35 points. I went for 

eFeora +6
Vanquisher -8
Templar -8
Min Choir -2
Vassal -2
Max TFG with UA -8
Reclaimer -2
Wrack - 1
Min Cleansers -5
Nicia Tear of Vengence -3
Allegiant -2

This list contained a few things (Templar, Reclaimer, Nicia) that I hadn't tried before but wanted to give a shot to. My opponent was one of the many Legion players in the League and one of the better overall players. He fielded eLylyth with a Ravagore, two Nephalim Bolt Throwers, a Naga Nightstalker along with a Deathstalker, Shepherd, two Foresaken, a Succubus and Fyanna the Lash. My opponent was the other member of the league who was painting huge numbers of models in a short time and so he was putting out a few things, like Fyanna, who he was really just trying out, as he'd painted them up. 

I won the roll for first turn and decided I'd go first. We were playing the Incoming scenario from the 2014 Steamroller packet, and I deployed my battlegroup opposite the opposing zone, and my infantry on the other side of the table. My opponent set up his battlegroup opposite my own near his friendly zone, with the Ravagore and Naga more towards my infantry, where they could do the most damage. The Deathstalker set up shop opposite the infantry to ping away at them from the start of the game.

I started with Feora, casting Escort on herself and Ignite on the TFG, using a focus from a wrack. Each of my jacks ran up the field and then received Passage from the choir. The monk and Nicia both ran up into position up the board and then the infantry followed suit, the cleansers being out of range and the TFG vulnerable to the Deathstalker's sniper regardless of shield wall. The Legion turn started with a bolt thrower perforating Nicia, who'd moved up too far, and the Deathstalker missing his shot at the TFG, nullifying his deadly shooting for this turn. The rest of the turn involved the majority of the army running up to get further up the field and the Foresaken starting to fill up on Fury. 

I started my second turn by having both Jacks advance up, with the Templar shifting forwards alongside the Vanquisher, who took two (thanks to the Vassal) shots that set a bolt thrower and the Ravagore on fire thanks to scatters that did little damage. Continuing the scatter joy the cleansers used their combined ranged AOE to hit the Deathstalker, with the blast damage being enough to kill him, ending the sniper threat to the TFG who took advantage and shield walled and Iron Zeal'd and moved solidly into my zone. The Choir sang Passage again and Feora moved up into Escort range with the Vanquisher. 

Lylyth started the turn by feating to give all models an extra shot and Snipe (+4 range to shooting) and proceeded to kill the choir and vassal blocking Feora, hitting Feora a couple of times herself, but with her camped focus and the benefit of Escort she was a high enough ARM that she only took a few boxes of damage. A Bolt Thrower activated and shot at Feora, pushing her back a couple of inches and dealing another couple of boxes of damage. The second Bolt Thrower managed to push her out of range to benefit from the armour buff from escort but rolled poorly for damage, meaning that Feora sat on around 6 boxes. My opponent then activated the Ravagore and moved up, before remembering that Feora was immune to fire and he wouldn't be able to get the job done, which he beat himself up about a bit before shooting at the TFG instead. Between the Ravagore and the Naga (both of whom had been out of range for the feat) they only managed to kill a couple of TFG but did clear a LOS to the Reclaimer who got sniped and killed before he could achieve anything. He then moved up Fyanna the Lash, who advanced into melee with the Templar, doing a pair of Beat Back attacks to move the jack away from his caster, but only doing minor damage to the heavy. 

On my turn I allocated one focus to the Vanquisher and four to the Templar (bonded thanks to eFeora), activating them first. The Vanquisher moved into melee with Fyanna, avoiding blocking up the Templar, and squished her with a boosted attack roll. The Templar, now freed up, activated and charged Lylyth, who'd exposed herself running the assassination last turn. I was able to connect thanks to the speed bump from Escort and the distance from reach, and boosted to hit on the charge attack. I missed. I bought and boosted a second attack with the flail, connecting and doing dice +5 damage to her, taking most of her boxes and setting her on fire (thanks to the bond again), but failing to kill. I knew I was dead next turn so I moved up with Feora but, measuring my control range, I found I was just out to hit with her flamethrower and consigned myself to die, camping her remaining one focus. In a blaze of glory moment I killed a Foresaken and a shepherd with the Allegiant and TFG respectively. 

As soon as the Legion turn started my opponent asked to measure my control range to see if his three burning models were within Feora's caustic presence. All of them were and I realised, to my horror, that I could have feated last turn to gain 3 additional focus, enough to fire step the extra distance to reach Lylyth with the flamethrower and have enough left to boost to hit and for damage! He rolled no significant fire damage on his beasts but rolled 4 damage for Lylyth, forcing her to use her last Fury to transfer, meaning my feat probably would have won me the game, had I been smart enough to think of it at the time! Lylyth moved up and took a couple of shots at Feora, but couldn't quite finish her, requiring a bolt thrower to finish the job, a small consolation! 

In addition to forgetting to feat I realised the next day that I hadn't included my +2 to hit on my charge attack with the Templar from Battle, making me kick myself again for not being focused enough in the game. However to be honest it was only poor dice rolls that had allowed me to survive Lylyth's feat turn at all to get anything done!

Overall this was an educational game that brought home how important it is in this game to (when not playing timed) take your time and consider your options to make the most of your own abilities. While I lost I was close and I can see how I could (perhaps even should) have won the game so I feel like it's helped me improve. Couple that with the fact this game was much more competitive than my last game against this opponent (the first Legion game in Week 3), which he even commented on himself, made me feel I'd come along as a player, which is nice in itself!

Next week we'll be finding out the overall winner and I'll post a summary of my league experience. Stay tuned, wargamers!

-M

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Journeyman League - Week 8

So, after the game I wrote about in my last post I managed to squeeze an extra game in against 'Hall of Legends' Jayke Hall and his Talion Charter. The game was very long and gruelling and both of us rolled so poorly that it took a long time to do much of anything after the obligatory turn 2 death of all the sea dogs. The game ended with his Alt caster, Captain Shae, going for the assassination as I was holding the flag and had more models than him. He failed to shoot Feora to death despite knocking her down and she retaliated, taking him down to a few boxes, he then weathered a combined melee charge from 5 TFG and finally died to fire in his own turn. It was a long game and I won't bore you with all the details. 

This week, however I got my regular game in as well, using a new list as the final two weeks would be 35 points. Following the effectiveness of the Bastion/Senechal combo from the tournament, I decided to include them in my list; which ended up looking like this:

eFeora +6
Vanquisher 'Pyre of Idolatry' -8
Dervish -4
Repenter -4
Min Choir -2
Vassal -2
Max Bastions -8
Bastion Senechal -3
Daughters of the Flame -5
Min Clensers -5

It was a different approach that I wanted to try out and I was looking forward to seeing how it would play. I should note that the EO decided that one of the jacks from our starting battlegroup should be named and bonded to that caster, and would have the benefit rolled, and this could be used throughout the event! My Vanquisher earned the title 'Pyre of Idolatory' and rolled the awesome 'dominator' ability netting it +2 to hit and damage rolls while in Feora's control range!

My opponent was the Legion player I'd faced in the first week, who was using a very cool alternate caster - epic Abysylonia! The list was very beast focused, and included a Ravagore, Shredder and Raek from his starter battlegroup augmented by a Carnivean and an Angelius, making for a very intimidating line up. Added to this were a Forsaken and a Shepherd to help with Fury management, and a maximum unit of the Spawning Vessel to throw out even more gribbly monsters. 

The game started, as usual with everything on both sides of the board running up, with the main casualties being three Daughters of the flame to shooting who promptly failed their command check, setting a troubling precedent for their usefulness, and the Clensers threw down a cloud in front of the Carnivean who had been out of range for the AOE which scattered backwards. 

On turn two Abby flew up and feated, turning her Beasts into powerhouses that could charge for free, which they promptly did, killing the Vanquisher and Dervish in short order before tying up my Cleansers with a Rabid Shredder. The Ravagore took a shot at the Bastions but only managed to hit one, but rolled so high I opted to kill him rather than spread out the damage. This left an annoying cloud in front of the Senechal. 

The Cleansers failed to harm the Shredder on the flank and the Daughters ran past the pot (not wanting to kill any and give away Corpse tokens). The main action was a charge from my Bastions, having to spread themselves thin in order to get all of the beasts into melee and stop them from rushing forward to kill my caster. This left me on the back foot and back peddling. The charge attacks were impressive and there was plenty of damage to go around, but with only one attack on each beast it was nowhere near enough to kill any of them, and I feated to put fire on Abby which did no damage at any point in the game. 

On his turn the fully loaded Shredder failed to Frenzy and so had to take a single unboosted attack that achieved little against the Cleansers. The beasts attacked the Bastions but only the Angelius did enough damage with it's Armour Piercing attack to outright kill one of them. The vessel attendants turned around and started to pummel the Duaghters causing them to fail their Casualties check again(!) and gained enough corpse tokens (after one of the attendants chucked her sister in the pot) to throw out a Stinger which charged the nearest Bastion, just clipping the melee of the Senechal, who hit with a Defensive Strike to take out all but a couple of Circles, massively reducing it's ability to harm anything. 

On my turn the Bastions continued to spread out, trying to corral the beasts that were all up in my face, but with little effect. The Clensers were similarly useless attacking the Shredder and I ended my turn. 

The Angelius finished off another Bastion, which freed the Carbivean up to make a charge on Feora, who I'd thought was safe behind the Repenter. The big beast had trouble hitting her high DEF and by the end of the round he was maxed out on Fury and Feora had 5 boxes left. The Forsaken activated and bombed the Cleansers, neatly polishing them off, and the Sheppard moved up to where the Beasts were locked in with my remaining Bastions. 

I started my turn by moving the Repenter out of Feora's way, accepting the free strike from the Carni, which failed to cripple anything, and took a shot at Abby, hoping to soften her up, but failed to wound. The bastions squished the Shepherd who was blocking me and took a couple of swings at the many beasts, but achieved little. Feora activated and Cast Fire Step to dodge out of combat and move up, taking the opportunity to charge Abby, who was now exposed and on 1 Fury, hoping for a desperate assassination as my only real chance to win. I took multiple attacks and boosts but ended with her on fire with only a few boxes left, but still camping that one Fury, guaranteeing her survival for next turn and sealing my fate.

He activated, hoping to use a spell to slam Feora into melee with a heavy but it was unnecessary as the damage from the spell itself was enough to polish her off, winning him the game. 

It was a fun game and showcased, if nothing else, how devastating eAbysylonia can be, especially under her feat! I could have done a few things much better, but I was happy to have at least taken the assassination run and done some nice damage as a last hurrah!

Thanks for reading!

-M

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Tourney Tales - Limited Battlegroup

Last Sunday I went to my first ever competitive tournament in Sheffield at The Outpost hobby store, (a really great place to go to to play or buy the majority of table top war games) and also hosts of various tournaments and gaming nights. (Check them out for 20% off RRP on Warmachine, Warhammer, Malifaux and heap of others - http://the-outpost.co.uk/). 

The event was a beginners tournament (although it allowed for 'new to faction' experienced players) with two 35 point lists apiece, using Divide and Conquer (each list must be used at least once). I'd run though a few different options in my practice games, generally trying to get the hang of the timed turns that were used in the tournament which I'd not experienced before. Eventually I settled on the following:

The Harbinger of Menoth +5
-Reckoner -8
-Devout -5
-Heirophant -2
Min Choir -2
Vassal of Menoth -2
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon -3
Paladin -2
Max Exemplar Errants -8
Errant UA -2
Rhupert Carvolo -2
Visigoth Juviah Rhoven and Honour Guard -4

Servath Reznik, Wrath of Ages +4
-Crusader -6
Avatar -11
Min Choir -2
Vassal of Menoth -2
Max Bastions -8
Bastion Seneschal -3
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution -3
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist -2
Wracks -1
Vassal Mechanic -1

Both lists had been tweaked and developed from their original forms during my test games and I wasn't especially confident in either. My main goal was to avoid being one of the bottom players and end up somewhere in the middle. 

Game 1 - Khador

This was the first game and we were starting with 10 minute timed turns, playing the Incursion Scenario. I was quite relieved to be starting with Khador, as it was one of the armies I knew my eReznik list would do better against, but his was the list I was least confident in, and I was hoping to play him early to avoid being locked in later in an unfavourable match up. I chose Reznik and my opponent (whose army was gorgeously painted and set on lovely hand made bases, which won best painted) plumped for Butcher's prime incarnation. 

The game was fairly balanced, and I repeatedly rolled low for the Avatar's Focus pool, 'limiting' his effectiveness but thanks to Iron Aggression he was still an insane powerhouse and wrecked a Juggernaught in two turns as well as killing two of the Great Bears. The Bastions weathered a charge from a pair of assassins and a full unit of Shield Walled, Iron Zealed Iron Fang pikemen, to retaliate by brutally wiping the pikemen out. There was only one control point scored in the game after he cleared the central flag by throwing the Avatar across the board. Reznik and Eiryss destroyed a full unit of ambushing Kossites that got in my back arc and managed to kill my Monk, proving how capable a battle engine cavalry caster could be. 

The game was won when the Butcher charged the Bastions who had Death March upkept on them. He managed to kill one of the seriously wounded heavy infantry but in my turn a trio of Blessed Mat 9 weapon master attacks from Vengence followed by their in-activation attacks finished the caster off. 

It was a good first game and I did enough damage to earn a large number of victory points, which was a mixed blessing as my next round oppenent was a much higher skill level than myself. The two best aspects of the game for me were getting to use eReznik effectively which I was excited for (see my previous post - http://mitsuharu-on-minis.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/mini-thoughts-vengeance.html?m=1) but also being able to enjoy two lovingly (if I say so myself) painted armies duke it out. 

Game 2 - Retribution of Scyrah

My second game (after a delicious Burrito for lunch, included in the ticket price) was against the (spoiler alert) eventual winner of the whole tournament, who was a competitive Trollbloods player using a borrowed Retribution army. Having never played against, read into or watched Retribution I had no idea what to do about them or how they would play. We picked lists and I went for Harbinger, for three reasons, firstly I was more (unjustifiably) confident with her list, secondly I knew he would be fielding a quicker list and the feat and Fear of God would slow him down, and finally I knew that eReznik was too big and easy to shoot against a Ret list that could bring lots of magic to the table to negate Suffering's Prayer. My oppenent chose Garryth, the Mage Hunter Caster who specialises in quick assassinations. 

I did not play the game well at all, making an activation mistake and not getting my feat off in the first turn due to a rules misunderstanding. I was on the back foot throughout the game and his support solos negated multiple threats in my list. My Errants got into combat with a heavy but just failed to cripple it and were wiped out in return. And by the end of turn three his caster used an assortment of movement tricks to line up a charge on Harbinger, winning the game by assassination, with me gaining no control or victory points at all. This at least gave me time to recover before the next game started!

Game 3 - Cygnar

Game three was another fairly balanced game with an experience edge going to my opponent. As my opponent was Cygnar I knew there would be too much magical shooting to risk using eReznik and so I decided to drop Harbinger again. My opponent had a pair of quite unusual lists, with Kraye and a pair of Heavies in one and a Stryker3 Cavalry heavy list for the other. He decided on Kraye.

I managed to get my feat right this game, holding his infantry back in the early game and damaging the jacks that did advance. The Errants were picked apart by Gun Mages but managed to destroy an objective, giving me a point, as well as kill a bunch of Stormblades. One of the pair of Stormclads charged by Reckoner and took it down to only a handful of boxes, unfortunately for him those boxes included my melee arm and the cortex allowing me to scrap his jack in return. 

The game ended when he managed to use a combination of Kraye's spell Full Tilt, his feat and a boost from Strangewayes to charge right across the board, ignoring free strikes, to hit Harby who'd been forced to move into an unfavourable position due to my army positioning and the Kill Box. This left his caster completely exposed, with no focus and both my Paladin and Dartan with clear charges to him next turn. This was a Hail Mary pass. His charge attack connected but didn't do enough damage on its own to kill her, and he just managed to get in another, boosted, damage roll to finish her off with seconds left on the clock. It was a close game, that could easily have gone the other way if his run hadn't succeeded. But he'd killed my caster, netting me my second loss. 

Game 4 - Menoth

In my final game I was shuffled down in the random pairings. These were based on numbers of wins/losses but in the case of odd numbers one random player would be shuffled down to the tier below. This was me, and my opponent was on 3 losses, and was one of the less experienced players. The list he decided to use was an eFeora list, that had a number of similarities to my own that I was using in the Journeyman League. I chose eReznik as it was my heavier hitting list and I was feeling let down by my usage of Harbinger

He made a number of mistakes throughout the game, such as not using Conbined Melee, Shield Wall or Iron Zeal with his TFG, never mini-feating with the zealots despite facing down a full unit of Bastions. Worst of all on several turns he forgot to allocate any focus to his Jacks. This made it a slightly easier game for me, as I knew everything in his army comprehensively, and he seemed quite unsure of how his army worked best. The Crusader, Avatar and eEyriss took out the TFG, the bastions chewed through the Zealots and Reznik smashed the Daughters, and by the end of the game there was only the support and Jacks left on his side of the board. 

I got the win when he charged the Avatar with his Reckoner. He hit and did a few boxes of damage to him, before I Enliven'd out of melee and just across from Feora. Eiryss shot the focus off her and I rolled four focus for the Avatar, who had Iron Agression upkept all game. The end result was a very dead caster and a sizeable chunk of victory points to boot. 

Conclusion

I walked away with 2-2, one close loss and a resounding defeat from the overall winner, and a result I was happy with. I also managed to get myself a bunch of new toys while I was there which is always a win in itself. It was a fun experience I'd be happy to repeat and most of the guys there were great to meet and talk to. My lists didn't play exactly as I'd thought they would but that's half the fun!

Thanks for reading and look out for more posts to come!

-M

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Journeyman League - Week 7

We're approaching the end of the Journeyman League, with only a couple of weeks left to go. This week was still 25 points with alternative casters available and so I ran a very similar list again:

eFeora +6
-Vanquisher -8
-Dervish -4
-Repenter -4
Min Choir -2
Vassal -2
Max Temple Flameguard with UA -8
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon -3

I managed to get my game this week against Nick, whose Legion I'd played in the pre-league and once again in the mid week of the League and who also runs his own company making high quality (and surprisingly cheap) resin bases at http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk. Both of my previous games had been definitive losses, albeit fun games, and I was determined to try and be better each time we played. The list he was using was pretty much the same as the pre-league and was now beautifully painted to boot. It consisted of pThagrosh with a Carnivean and a pair of Shredders along with a pair of Deathstalkers, a Shepherd and a full unit of Warspears with UA. This list had devastated me last time I'd played it and I was hoping to do better with it this time around. We were playing Close Quarters again and I won the roll to go first deciding I would take the lead. 

I deployed my infantry opposite the opposing flag and my battlegroup and Dartan near my own flag where there was a forest to shield my advance. Nick went for a more centralised deployment with Thags, the Carni and a Shredder slightly towards his flag, with the other Shredder behind, and the Warspears clumped slightly to my flag's side of the board with the Shepherd near them. The Deathstalkers advance deployed ahead of the battlegroup and opposite the Flameguard. 

My first turn was fairly uneventful, with most of my army running forward. Dartan ran up to the edge of the forest, contesting my flag, as did Feora, hoping to score a couple of points, casting escort to give her jacks some speed. The Dervish ran across the board to my flag and the Vanquisher moved more centrally, hoping to get a few shots off next turn. The Flameguard ran forward towards the enemy flag, knowing that no amount of armour buffs would help against the Deathstalker's sniper ability. Finally my Choir and Vassal moved up, buffing my jacks with Passage and putting Enliven onto my Vanquisher.

In his turn there was a similar process of moving everything up the board quite quickly while throwing out Tenacity and Spiny Growth to keep everyone tough (though not Tough). The Deathstalkers then started their work killing two Flameguard each and using Swift Hunter to advance out of their retaliation range. 

The next turn was more eventful, the TFG continued to advance, this time, with the Warspears and Carnivean looming, using both shield wall and their mini feat of Iron Zeal to give them a respectable ARM stat. The Vanquisher used an attack and an Ancilliary attack to blast half of the Warspears, doing moderate damage with the blasts but getting some lovely fire on them for next turn. Dartan shuffled up and set into Imperishable Wall to become functionally untouchable, and Feora moved up to dominate the flag, with the Dervish advancing into the forest in front of her to block the Warspear's charge. The Repenter wandered forward towards the flag and the Choir put Passage back on the Vanquisher and Repenter, though the Dervish had advanced out of their range. 

On Nick's turn the fire stayed on everyone, finishing one spear off. He spent a long time measuring and re-measuring his control range trying to determine if the Carni would be in threat range to charge the Vanquisher. It was hard to judge but in the end he went for it and was in by the tiniest of margins, it was likely 9.5" exactly but that was all that was needed and it quickly chomped through the Heavy Jack, leaving it on 2 boxes, but failing to finish it off. Next the Warspears activated, declaring charges across the board. Two Warspears charged the Dervish in front of Feora, another two into the Flameguard and one into the Vanquisher hoping to finish it off with an assault shot (he had Prey on the Vanquisher and wanted to finish it off and move the bonus to the Dervish). Unfortunately for Nick he'd forgotten about Passage and so, thanks to the intervention of Menoth, the Vanquisher survived. The other Warspears, clearly scoffing at the colleague's misfortune decided to make up for it, with one assault shot rolling a 12 on the Dervish, and happily scrapping the jack between the two of them. The other Warspears managed to kill a couple of the Flameguard and called it a day. The Shredder went Rabid and polished off another Flameguard, while the Deathstalkers killed off the last of the Flameguard not in melee and started into the Choir, killing their leader, but failing to kill the Vassal who was still B2B with the mortally wounded Vanquisher. Thagrosh moved forward slightly, out of the Kill box, bringing his sacrificial Shredder forward for Transfers if needed. 

My retaliation was less destructive, but satisfying nonetheless. The Repenter activated and pprayed the two Warspears nearest Feora, boosting damage to kill one and wound the other, allowing Feora to advance up and get the flamethrower shot on the other, also clipping the UA finishing the trooper and harming the UA before fire stepping back to the flag to score. The Vanquisher could only target the Carni but thanks to Spiny Growth, two boxes left and a crippled weapon it would be suicide to even try, leaving the Vassal with not much to do so he advanced up (hugging the Vanquisher) and took a shot at the UA with his magic attack, finishing it off! The Flameguard poked the Warspears with a stick, doing no damage, while the commander defiantly jabbed the Carnivean to set it on fire. Netting me a point. 

The following turn several Warspears continued to burn from the fire but didn't let it stop them from finishing off most of the Flameguard (with help from the Deathstalkers) and finally finish off the Vanquisher, allowing the Carnivean to Tranple through the forest towards Feora, passing through Dartan's Melee range, and taking a huge amount of damage from the free strike, but not knocking out any spirals. The remaining Deathstalker polished off the Vassal ending his celebration with an arrow to the throat and Thagrosh moved up to dominate his home flag but there was a single TFG left contesting so both flags were contested this turn. 

On my turn both Feora and Dartan poured as much as they could into killing the Carnivean but it managed to survive the onslaught with only a few circles remaining. The final Flameguard (the officer as it happened) advanced forward, carefully staying within the Reach of the Warspear while managing to get a Deathstalker into his reach, but failed to hit. The rest of my turn was fairly uneventful, and left the Carni in melee with Feora. 

Nick opened his turn by healing up the Carni to restore its lost spirals, preparing it to put the hurt on Feora. Thanks to her high DEF and the ARM buffs from Escort and the one focus she was camping she was a tough nut to crack and required multiple boosts and after the multiple smashes from the big beast she was still standing on 5 boxes. The Warspears lost the last few boxes from the fire and died leaving the Shredder to eat the last TFG alone, freeing up the Deathstalkers to advance closer to my flag, with a rapid Shredder moving to contest my zone, and Thagrosh advanced to claim the flag bringing the points back to 1-1. 

On my turn Dartan set up his stance and delivered the killing blow to the Carnivean, freeing up Feora to flamethrower the Deathstalker nearest her, and with a boosted roll hit and kill it, with the second Deathstalker getting hit with a boosted flamethrower from the Repenter. 

At this point I was down to Dartan, Feora, one Chorister and a Repenter and Nick was down to one Shredder and a Shepherd, leaving the board fairly bare. Nick scored his second point, putting him to 2-1. I had no way to contest the flag in my next turn, meaning Nick would win in the following round (one point in his turn, one in mine since I couldn't reach to contest, one in his to win) but we carried on the game anyway. 

On his turn Nick consolidated around his flag and feated to bring the Carnivean back to life and ended his turn securing a 3-2 lead. I followed this in my turn by moving Feora up and slapping a flamethrower over the Carnivean, also hitting the Shepherd and Thagrosh in the process. The Carnivean took slight damage and Thags dodged the shot, but the Shepherd was hit and died in a final blow before Feora fire stepped back to the flag for 4-3. Then in the next turn the Carnivean activated and charged Feora boosting to hit and killed the caster, netting an assassination on top of the scenario victory. 

Overall it was a good, fun game. In retrospect I think I would have done a lot better if I'd taken a unit of Bastions instead of the TFG since the Deathstalkers wouldn't have been able to pick them off as easily and I might have contested the opposing flag a little longer but who knows cos I didn't, but as always Nick was helpful and I feel like I managed to get a lot further than my last few games. Plus I'm looking forward to starting my Legion next week using his gorgeous bases; again go look for yourself at http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk, so I can hardly begrudge him!

-M


Monday, 15 September 2014

Journeyman League - Week 6

Hey guys and welcome to the latest week in the journeyman league! We were still at 25 points this week but we could select an alternative caster to use, keeping the same battlegroup, but would then have to stick to either them or our original caster. Also, instead of Incursion we were playing close quarters as the EO wanted a change for everybody. 

The Alt caster I chose was epic Feora, continuing the trend I had set up with her prime version. Otherwise my list stayed exactly the same. I had planned to drop the Wracks to get the extra point for Dartan Vilmon, but my game this week was against Cygnar and I was worried there would be too many magical ranged attacks to feel the benefit:

eFeora +6
Vanquisher -8
Dervish -4
Repenter -4
Min choir -2
Vassal -2
Max Temple Flameguard w/ UA -8
Paladin -2
Wracks -1

As I said my opponent was playing a merc heavy Cygnar army led by eStryker with a Squire, Hunter and a Stormclad as well as a max unit of Boomhowler and co and a Tactical Arcanist Corp. I won the roll for deployment and chose to go second, allowing him to set up first. He placed his Boomhowlers on the flank nearest his own flag and the rest of the army opposite my flag. I deployed my battlegroup opposite his, and the TFG and Paladin across from the flag. He then advance deployed his hunter out in front of his battle group and I placed my Wracks near the flag, including one within 4" to auto-contest it. 

His first turn started with him running his army forwards, with Boomhowler taking his flag (it could only be dominated to score though) and the battlegroup moving quickly up towards my flag. The hunter moved close but just in a forest to get some defensive buff. 

On my turn the paladin and TFG walked up the board to keep their ARM buffs from the outset and then Feora activated, casting escort and moving up to get a Heavy Flamethower shot on the Hunter, doing a hefty 10 damage. The rest of the battlegroup ran up, the choir did passage  to keep the jacks safe from any shooting and the vassal gave the Vanquisher a shot that deviated nowhere. 

On his turn the flaming Hunter moved up to the objective and had LOS to Feora and took a shot. The Hunter has the Armour Piercing rule meaning my armour was reduced but I only took 5 damage. The Boomhowlers continued to advance across the board and the Stormclad and TAC advanced further towards the objective, with Stryker advancing to just behind the forest to end the turn. 

On my turn it was clear that the Hunter was a serious threat and so I gave the Dervish 2 focus and then had the Repenter shoot it. The Repenter did reasonable but not amazing damage (and also hit the Stormclad to set it on fire), and so the Dervish charged, boosting the attack and luckily taking out the Movement, making the second initial much more likely to hit, which it did, and a second boosted damage roll under choir was enough to finish it off. I then used my Side Step to turn around so my back arc was not facing the Stormclad. The Vanquisher/Vassal took a pair of shots at the Boomhowlers, one of which was in by only the tiniest of margins after having to get a third party to judge on the distance. The net result of which was a few knocked down trollbloods and one fatality thanks to Boomhowlers call improving tough and some very handy rolls. However it did put a lot of fire on the board. The TFG and Paladin continued to trudge up the board and I forgot to mini feat to mitigate the inevitable charge from the Boomhowlers next turn. Feora activated and moved away from the flag towards the centre of the board, trying to get more Boomhowlers in the control range for her Caustic Presence. 

His turn was all retaliation and started with the trolls on fire mostly dying from how on fire they were without the benefit of extra tough. The remainder of the unit charged the TFG (and one on the paladin) but only managed to kill one thanks to the Defence boost from Set Defence against charges. The Stormclad moved up and made short work of the Dervish that killed it's little friend, scrapping it from full with three attacks. The TAC moved up and threw a fire bomb at the Vanquisher, easily hitting its low DEF. Then the sneakiness came into play as the Vanquisher was stood very close to the wrack, which was hit by blast damage and exploded, hitting the Vanquisher, his Vassal and two Choiristers, killing the all the support models and harming the Heavy in the mix while also taking out my last wrack! It was a great move and it underlined how crappy my placement had been, allowing him to take advantage; reducing my strength considerably. Stryker then ran across the board, miffed that Feora had moved out of his threat range, and dominated his home flag for a point. 

On my turn I gave two to the Vanquisher and started to attack. The Heavy walked up to two of the TAC and Threshered, killing one outright and knocking the other down to almost no damage, so I bought a second attack and smushed the dwarf, leaving one. The Paladin took out the Trollblood who'd attacked him and the TFG used CMAs to hit and kill all of the remaining Trollbloods, but they all passed their tough. The Repenter valiantly moved into melee with the Stormclad and did a whopping three damage. Feora then activated and charged the last TAC model and killed it. I then Feated, gaining 4 focus from the models in my control on fire and took fire off one of the Boomhowlers and put it onto Stryker. I then took a double boosted Convection shot at the caster which did 5 damage to him before fire stepping away. Again this was a close decision, requiring proxy bases and 3" templates to get just behind the TFG. I ended my turn giving up another control point. 

Again we had a measuring issue where Stryker was in the Caustic Presence by a tiny margin but the fire stayed on and did a reasonable few damage. He decided to go for the assassination and used his caster's special ability 'overboost'. This allowed him to roll 1-3 dice and add that to his strength, but he then had to roll that many dice and take it as damage. He rolled a 10 for strength bringing him to Herculean standards and then rolled 13 damage on himself, killing his own caster by only two points, giving me a win! Since this was a bit unusual we agreed to play out the final turn anyway to see how much damage Stryker would have caused if he hadn't died and thanks to the velocity spell he was able to get into melee with Feora and kill her with one swing of Quicksilver. 

A risky but fun move that ended in a crazy end to the game, sealed how much fun the game had been overall. It had been close, competitive, and most of all enjoyable. It was easily my favourite game of the League so far and I'm looking forward to playing him again in the future!

-M

Sunday, 14 September 2014

Sword<Pen<Brush - On 'Finishing'

Almost exactly a year ago I started into Warmachine. I've been a hobbyist for my entire adult life but had mainly stuck to GW related products like Warhammer (Tomb Kings, Skaven, Beastmen) 40k (Chaos Space Marines, Orks, Tau) and even Bloodbowl briefly (Dwarves). But for the last year it's been Menoth. And now I'm done. I wrote myself a veritable shopping list of goodies and I've bought, assembled and painted all of them (including a few I hadn't intended to!). In fact I've got almost the full range. Today I finished my final model. 

But that's exactly what I wanted to talk about. 'Finishing' isn't something hobbists do well. We're a 'one more model' hobby. And that's one of the best and worst things about the life. I am finished and I can say that with pride. I've done what I set out to and more. And I've got all the models to prove it. But there's always something else. Sure I'm moving on to Legion in a couple of weeks and I'm excited for that. But I don't think I'll ever really be 'done'. Even if it's not moving on to another project there's always that one more model. And isn't that awesome? Sure you can never truly say you've finished an army but on the other hand you also never have to stop doing something you love. That's a great thing and it's why this hobby can be so absorbing. Why you can lose yourself in it so much. 

But for now I can move on to another project satisfied that my Menoth is 'finished'. 


For now....

-M

Friday, 12 September 2014

Journeyman League - Week 5 and a Half

Following on from my last post I actually managed to get one last 25 points game with pFeora against my pirate playing buddy Jayke, of Hall of Legends (http://hall-of-legends.blogspot.com). So here I am to tell you all about it before I break out the epic in week 6 in a couple days. 

We both used the same lists from Week 4 and the game was still Incursion. The only real difference was that he'd swapped out the Deck Gun for Lord Rockbottom. 

He won the roll for deployment/first turn (Talion charter gets +1 to the roll) and decided to go first and he chose to set up with his battlegroup in the centre of the board and the sea dogs to one flank. I deployed with the Flameguard to the centre and my battlegroup opposite the majority of his forces shielded by a forest and the Paladin on the flank he'd left exposed. 

Turn one we both moved up the board with him running everything up and casting Batten the Hatches with Bart for an armour buff. I also ran with everything, including the Paladin and TFG, who sacrificed their respective ARM buffs to run nearer their flags. At the end of the turn the flag nearest his army disappeared, leaving him to trudge across the board with the sea dogs. 

Realising the far flank was now the flag to capture and that it was uncontested he ran up his Buccaneer, just managing to get within 4" to contest. The rest of the army moved up across the board with the sea dogs and Mariner taking pot shots at the Flameguard and killing a couple. Bart Feated, hindering my movement around the board and moved his melee jacks up to contest the central flag. 

With the feat up I had to be careful about my movement and so I started by moving my Paladin up to B2B with the flank flag and Stone and Mortar'd to make sure he could stay on it. (He was just out of the range of the feat) My Repenter moved up, also far enough away to miss the feat and was berely in range to kill one sea dog. The Vanquisher took the aiming bonus to not move and took a shot at the sea dogs (and another with the vassal) which killed a couple more of them. The TFG used Iron Zeal and Shield Wall to reach ARM 21 and un-knock-down-able and walked onto the flag with impunity. Then Feora measured her control range and shuffled forward an inch to avoid Bart's feat and used her own, setting fire to the Freebooter and about 80% of the remaining sea dogs. 

On his turn without the benefit of Tough from Rockbottom only one of the dog's fire didn't go out, and with low ARM they all died without a roll. The Freebooter stayed on fire but took no damage. This was a pretty heavy hit both tactically and to morale, but there were still 2 heavy jacks and the caster knocking about so there was no need to let it stop him, especially as Warmachine can turn in a second and Victory is always an option. Starting his turn it was clear that, despite looking like 12", when we used a combination of Spray Template and Reach marker the Buccaneer was just out of Bart's control range by about half an inch, meaning he couldn't allocate focus to it to help take out the Paladin. Despite this set back the light jack moved up and took a swing at him anyway, failing to hit but moving up heto contest the flag more solidly. The remaining sea dogs charged the TFG alongside the Mariner and the Freebooter. The Mariner threshered (he'd moved in and didn't technically 'charge' but artistic licence) but failed to wound the Iron Zeal'd Flameguard, and the sea dogs had a similar issue, since they needed 11's to wound. The Freebooter killed one Flameguard but missed with the second attack. Bart used Batten again to give himself an armour buff and ended the turn. 

I started by attacking the Buccanner with my Paladin, getting a high roll and a very lucky column, taking out his melee weapon. The TFG Shield Wall'd and made a couple of Combined Melee attacks against the heavy jacks but despite being +4 to the rolls did little appreciable damage. The Dervish that had been stuck behind a forest all game started to crash through the trees towards the Freebooter but only managed to get about 3/4 of the way through. The Repenter, still on the far, empty flank moved up and hit and killed the gunner attachment, who replaced the remaining sea dog and failed his command check. The Vanquisher could see through the Flameguard thanks to Ranked Attacks from the UA and so had a line of sight to Bart. I directly hit him, and caught the back of the Mariner. Even with a boosted roll I only managed 4 boxes from the caster and then got another 4 with the ancilliary attack from the Vassal. The Mariner being pretty much fine against the blast damage both times. Feora moved up through the forest and took a couple of Flamethrower shots at the Freebooter, crippling one of the Arms. 

The pirate captain allocated a bunch of focus to the Buccanner hoping to clear the Paladin from the flag, which I had nothing else to contest, securing a steady flow of control points. Unfortunately he'd forgotten that the jack had a crippled arm and so was only rolling single dice, meaning he was boosting to get a regular 2d6 roll. Following this Bart activated and charged the TFG and used attacks and Overtake to slaughter around half of the remaining Flameguard, sugnificantly buffing his ARM. Adding insult to injury the Mariner and Dougal also took out a few guard themselves, but the Freebooter with a crippled arm managed little. 

On my turn I continued to swing at the Buccanner with my Paladin, chipping away at it but not doing a great deal. The TFG threw a couple of cursory CMAs but also achieved little beyond their roll as flag contesting road block. The Dervish charged the back arc of the Freebooter and took a pair of attacks doing minimal damage, as did Feora who continued to pour on fire from her flamethrowers. Stupidly I Side-stepped the Dervish right into the path of the Repenter I'd been planning to use and so he could only try (unsuccessfully) for the Rhulic Financier Rockbottom. The Vanquisher activated and fired directly at Bart again, considering the TFG in the blast radius acceptable martyrs. The shot hit and, boosted, managed to knock off his last box, winning the game. Except he has Tough. And passed. So I ancilliary attacked the now knocked down caster, hitting easily and once again knocking off the last box to secure the victory. Except he got tough again, staying defiantly in the game. On his turn the fire didn't go out and was enough to finish him off for the third time and finally Bart gave up and the tough check failed. 

This was a fun game but it did feel like luck was on my side with most (if not all) of the critical dice rolls in the game going my way, I played a solid game but made disproportionate gains thanks to the luck of the dice more than anything. But when you're a tabletop gamer capricious dice are a cruel part of the life and I've certainly had my fair share of 'nothing but 1s' games. 

I'll be back in a couple of days with week 6 and alt casters, stay tuned!

-M