pFeora +6
-Vanquisher -8
-Dervish -4
-Repenter -4
Min Choir -2
Vassal of Menoth -2
Wracks -1
Max Temple Flameguard -6
Flameguard UA -2
Paladin of the Order of the Wall -2
This gave me way more tactical options since this week we would be playing the 2014 Steamroller scenario 'Incursion'. For those who don't know this has three flags worth one point a turn to control and the flanks are 2 if you dominate. spread across the centre line. At the end of turn 1 either the left or right flag disappears and after turn 2 you start scoring for them. First to 5 wins. Because of the terrain placement our middle flag ended up in the middle of a forest.
My opponent was my Pirate buddy from last week who had also expanded up to the 25 mark, adding a full unit of sea dogs with rifleman, a deck gun, and Dougal MacNaile to his list of Bart, Mariner, Freebooter and Buccaneer.
He took first turn and moved everything rapidly up. I followed suit with most of my battle group on one flank, my TFG down the middle and the Paladin heading on the other flank. I managed to get a shot off by using my Vassal's Ancilliary Attack on the Vanquisher, killing some sea dogs. At the end of my turn the flag across from my battle group disappeared.
Next turn the deck gun and the Sea Dogs took potshots primarily at the flameguard but only managed to kill a couple of them. The Mariner moved up but he'd forgotten it needed to be in B2B to get to shoot and so couldn't use the focus he'd put on it. His jacks opposite mine shuffled around slightly and Bart feated. Bart's feat means all enemies in his control suffer a Def penalty and if they advance in his control they are immediately knocked down. On my turn the Paladin was well out of range so he moved up to capture the flag without an issue securing a point at the end of my turn. My TFG used Iron Zeal from the UA making them immune to knockdown and added shield wall to reach ARM 21 and shuffled through the forest to get B2B with the centre flag. Despite controlling the centre flag there were enemy models in 4" so I couldn't score from this. My jacks were all within the feat so they chose not to move, gaining the aiming bonus for the Vanquisher and Repenter who shot up a few more Sea Dogs and set his jacks on fire but did no damage. I moved Feora up and cast Wall of Fire into the forest between the remaining Sea Dogs and my TFG. I ended my turn with one point.
The following turn the pirates attacked with the mariner trying to get my Paladin off the flag but only managing to get 3 of his 5 boxes since the solo was in Stone and Mortar stance for +5 ARM. The Sea Dogs were blunted by the wall and had to shuffle through the forest around it and take a couple of pot shots with their pistols on the flameguard who weathered the attack with minimal casualties. The melee Jacks moved slightly but had no focus for anything interesting. Since both zones were now contested no one got any points for the turn.
On my turn I shifted the flameguard around so they could control the flag and still attack the sea dogs in the forest who were butchered, leaving only the couple on the flank near the Paladin standing. Dougal was still within 4" though so I couldn't gain any points. I walked the Paladin around to try and just get in to melee the Dog contesting his flag but was just shy and so resigned myself to Stone and Mortar and try to survive. My Vanquisher and Repenter took shots at the pirate jacks but did minimal damage. Feora moved up and feated setting everything but the cowardly Deck Gun on fire. I tried to Immolate Dougal, with a boosted attack roll (forest) and hit. I only needed a 6 to kill him and decided to camp a focus for ARM. I rolled a 4. No points again.
On his turn he rolled for Fire and everything went out apart from one jack and a sea dog. The dog died but the jack took no damage. Bart allocated one focus each to his Jacks and started charging. The Mariner ran down the Paladin without an issue but since I moved round the previous turn he wasn't in B2B to secure the flag and couldn't score. The Freebooter charged the Repenter and got a solid hit but missed his second roll denting the armour but doing no major damage. The Buccaneer moved in to the TFG he was closest to but failed to do any damage to their high armour on a really crappy roll. Not much else happened with a few models taking shots but not getting much done. Again no points.
On my turn I kept all of Feora's focus on her. All three of my Battle'd jacks moved into melee with the Freebooter and reduced it to two boxes in a flurry of blows. The flameguard used CMA to do virtually nothing to the Buccaneer but did manage to kill McNaile who tough'd to stay in the game. I threw on EOD and charged the Buccaneer and scrapped it with just my initial attacks. This only left Bart in 4" (McNaile was also in but knocked down so he couldn't contest) gaining me a second control point. Then I got stupid. I decided to try Immolation on Bart and boosted attack and damage leaving Feora naked and doing healthy damage to the caster but not killing him. I gained a second point.
The mariner moved up and took a risky close range shot on the TFG hoping it wouldn't back scatter onto himself. It went wide of everything. The sea dogs moved up to the flank flag to control it. And then Bart charged through the forest and was in range by the tiniest of margins. A few double boosted attacks later and my caster was dead. Losing me a game I'd been firmly in control of from the outset. But that's just how Warmachine plays, make one mistake that your opponent can capitalise on and that's all it takes to lose.
We later realised that we'd been playing the rules for forests wrong all game and had been using 5" in or out instead of 3". Maybe if we'd been playing that everything would have played out very differently but unfortunately we hadn't been. The game took so long that in the end we had to leave without getting another but it had been an enjoyable game. I'm looking forward to next week where hopefully I can get a couple of games in.
That's all for this week!
-M
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