Tourney Tales - 2015 JML mini tournament

Welcome back everyone. This week my local Press Ganger, Dave, decided to run a mini-tournament to cap off the Journeyman League that had been running recently (check the archive for more of my experiences in that). The format was 2 35 point lists, one with one of your journeyman casters and one with your starter battlegroup, not necessarily in the same list. We also had some pretty fancy seasonal boards to play on too. The tournament was broken down into two 'pods' of 4 players. Basically the winners of the two games from the pod would face each other and so would the losers, deciding the rankings that way. My JML score got me into the top pod of players! So the two lists I decided to run were:

List One

eVayl +6

Machinations of Shadow - Tier 4

-Seraph -7

-Scythean -8

-Angelius -8

-Angelius -8

Shepherd -1

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Legionnaires -6

Objective - Arcane Wonder

List Two

Saeryn +5

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Angelius -9

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Spell Martyr -1

Spell Martyr -1

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Objective - Fuel Cashe

Game One

My first game was against Alan, one of the other Legion players in the JML. His two lists were a pThagrosh and an eAbby list. I decided to go ahead with the Saeryn list since there was a lot of Melee in his two lists. He'd seen my Saeryn list and realised his Melee heavy Abby list would be pretty badly hamstrung by the feat and so decided to throw down pThagrosh. The list included a Scythean, Seraph, Shredder and a Raek along with two shepherds, two Deathstalkers and a max unit of Warspears with UA. This list had plenty of shooting to overcome my feat but not enough to be too overwhelming. The first round scenario was Outflank. I got the first turn and started by running everything up the board, swapping my Scytheans around to deny prey from the ogrun. Saeryn put out Banishing ward on herself and Respawn on a Scythean.

Alan then followed suit by having his army run up, mainly heading towards the zone on my right to fill that up. Thagrosh threw out Draconic on the ogrun to boost up their hitting power. Thagrosh hid behind an obstruction for some added cover. 

On my turn I had my Scytheans advance into each zone and then had my Angelius charge the Seraph but it was half an inch out. Then I had Saeryn advance up and feat, catching all of my beasts to give them a little safety and then burned out a martyr to put Breath Stealer onto the opposing Scythean. 

With my Angelius exposed Alan had almost all of his army shoot to try and take it down. Most of the force aimed and took pot shots, doing a ton of damage but, even with the entire force, he didn't quite manage to clear it, leaving it on 3 boxes with nothing left that could shoot, much to Alan's frustration. The Raek on the other flank shuffled to actually get toe in on the zone to contest. 

On my turn I had the Scythean on my left charge the Raek and slaughter it, gaining control of the zone. Saeryn healed up the aspects on the Angel who then charged and polished off the two Ogrun in the zone with an armour pierce and an extra attack, securing that control too. The Deathstalkers took some shots on the Warspears but had trouble with their high ARM. The Foresaken each gobbled up a helping of Fury. Then I ended the turn up to two control points. 

Alan took the exposed Scythean as an invitation and charged it with his own. After some pretty decent rolls he managed to destroy it but it respawned to get out of the way. The Warspears charged to get into the zone more and managed to roll high on an assault into one of the Deathstalkers, splattering it. The Seraph rolled low again on its strafe and didn't get much in. Thagrosh feated back the Raek who advanced into the pot and then put tenacity onto the Scythean in the zone. 

On my turn I had my freshly respawned Scythean advance into Alans but apparently his was better trained than mine and rolled super low on damage and couldn't really get the job done. The other Scythean made up for it, though and killed a couple of Warspears, the Foresaken using its fury to tear apart another one. The last one (the UA) was frustratingly hard to clear and the spawned animused charging harrier didn't polish it off and neither did the blightbringer that clipped it. My damage rolls really letting me down his turn. In a last ditch Saeryn moved up stupidly and used some of her last fury to flick a knife at him, cranking the to hit in Melee and finally killed him, leaving me with 4 control points and no transfer targets. 

Alan started his turn by having his Deathstalkers advance up and take shots. They both hit her high DEF and put a few points on her. The Seraph reared up, getting ready to polish her off just as dice down was called. I was literally seconds away from a loss but I was saved by the bell and won the game with 5 control points!

Game One: First Tiebreaker Win

Game Two

With my win in game one I was paired with the winner of the other round one game which was, of course, Nick whose beautiful terrain we were battling over, who'd managed to win his game against Ben's Skorne two tables down. As it was D&C1 we were both locked into our other lists. This left me with Machinations of Shadow. Nick had played his Goreshade list on the other table and so that left me to deal with his evil, evil pDenny list. It included a Skarlock, a Slayer and a Deathripper in the battlegroup along with a Machine Wraith, a max unit of Nyss Hunters, the Devils Shadow, Rockbottom, Dougal and Wrong Eye and Snapjaw. I played against this list several times in the league and it destroyed me very well whenever I played into it so this was the list I'd been dreading. 

The scenario for round two was Destruction and, despite my +1 I lost the roll to go first. Nick chose sides, picking the more defensive terrain, giving me first turn. I started the game by running everyone up the board to claim some real estate, putting Admonition and Refuge on the two angels respectively as well as Occultation on the Legionnaires. The Seraph and Scythean advanced up to near the zone in the nearby forest. The Legionnaires and Spawning Vessel plodded up the centre of the board. 

Nick followed suit by having his Nyss run out, spreading themselves across the front line followed up by everything else. Denny herself advanced up with the Devil's Shadow to hide behind the nearby wall. Wrong Eye and his pet advanced up to the nearby hill and Submerged themselves to avoid any shooting malarkey. 

On my turn the Seraph advanced up and killed the front two Devil's Shadow with its gun and the Scythean shuffled further into the forest. The Legionnaires ran to gum up the zone a little followed by the pot. The Angels just shuffled around on my flank pulling in a little while Vayl snuck up behind the obstruction to get cover. 

On Nick's turn he had Denny move out of her wall and into the open so he could feat, managing to catch the majority of my models (only Vayl and the Vessel avoided it) he then proceeded to have his shooting take out a couple of my legionnaires (bringing back the two dead Devils Shadow) and spot remove one of my Angels, putting some serious hurt on the other one what he was at it. The Machine wraith ran into the zone to be incorporeal and contest like a pain. 

Under Denny's feat my army was pretty bad but I saw an opportunity on Denny since she was actually exposed. I had my Legionnaires and pot shuffle around to expose a lane and then spawned a harrier to be Vayl's channeler. Vayl moved up to exactly 10" away and pinged it in the back. Then she feated and threw a free obliteration at Dougal, hoping to clip Denny in the Blast. The AOE is smaller than I thought and so missed her, simply splattering Dougal. I bought another one on a Nyss and hit, killing two Nyss and getting boosted blast damage on Denny. Unfortunately my dice weren't amazing and I only did a little damage. The Seraph advanced up Strafed into her with two shots, actually managing to hit with one despite the reduced RAT, but the damage roll wasn't great and she was left with 12 boxes. My surviving Angel pulled back and the Scythean shuffled deeper into the forest to end my turn. 

My assassination run hadn't been very successful but luckily I hadn't exposed myself too much and I'd used my other feat spells to put Occultation on the Pot, Admonition on Vayl to give her a smidge  more protection and Refuge on the Scythean. So on Nick's turn he took the safe route and moved a bunch of stuff into the zone, including both of his jacks, locking out the scenario until he could wipe out the rest of my army. He also managed to slaughter a bunch of legionnaires along the way too. Denny hopped back behind the wall. 

On my turn I had the remaining legionnaires clear out a path for the Harrier I spawned to move up and be another node for Vayl at the end of the turn. The Scythean charged up and destroyed the objective and killing a devils shadow before refuging back. That scored the first control point of the game. The Angel then flew over to the other flank settling near Vayl. The Consul herself through out her oraculus and got channeler to boost an Oblit into Denny. I boosted the hit and managed to get exactly enough to hit her even behind the wall. My clock ended but I was able to take the damage roll. I couldn't boost since I was sat on nothing now and my clock was over. The dice came out too low to polish her off. 

With Vayl camping nothing Nick started his final plan. Snapjaw charged up and killed a legionnaire to free up the arc to allow Denny to double boost a Scourge into her. The damage roll came up big and left me on 3 boxes and knocked down. The Nyss were next to move up and put Vayl down with a big CMA. Again, though, Dave called dice down seconds before my loss and, since I'd taken out the Objective last turn I was up by one control point and won the game. 

Game Two: First Tiebreaker Win

Post-Games 

These were two really close games that I managed to get a win despite being on the very precipice of stupid losses. I felt like I played fairly solid games up until the ends of both games but luckily I managed to luck my way into wins. Regardless this made me the overall winner of the tournament, deserving or not! I was completely wiped out by this point but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was pretty pleased, not just with the result, especially since I didn't feel I particularly deserved the wins, but with how great a time I had. I'd had a long day and was a bit under the weather so I was expecting to not have the best time but I really enjoyed the games and it was enthusing to play. 

I'm planning to take a bit of a palette cleansing break from Warmachine for a while. In fact I just picked up Fishermen for Guildball! I'm actually really excited to play a new game so expect some posts about Guildball coming soon!

As always thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - High Executioner Reznik vs.

Hi guys, welcome to Mitsuharu on Bat Reps and my last Menoth Bat rep for a while as I retire my Scrutator mask and take up the Blight with Legion. Since this was my farewell game with the faction (for now) I wanted to play something a bit more fun. I was debating playing a Thyra list I knocked together with Flamebringers to try but in the end I decided to use my favourite Menoth caster, Reznik. The list I decided on was:

pReznik +6

-Heirophant -2

-Templar -8

-Vanquisher -8

Avatar of Menoth -11

Min choir -2

Vassal of Menoth -2

Vassal Mechanic -1

Max TFG with UA -8

Min Zealots with UA -6

Wracks -1

Gorman Di Wulfe -2

eEiryss -3

Saxon Orrik -2

Madelyn Corbeau -2

Objective: Effigy of Valour

The game I originally had prepared fell through and so Nick of Solid Ground Studios (http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk) being the consumate gentlemen he always is stepped in to play me again. I always enjoy my games with Nick and playing him has really forced me to up my game. I couldn't ask for a better opponent to see out my Menoth for Legion. Especially since Nick plays Legion and moved to them from Menoth himself! Nick has been really focusing his attention on his ETC lists (eThagrosh and eLylyth) and so he's been playing them almost exclusively for several months now. He decided to take a break for a little bit, to make sure he didn't feel stale with them. He decided to try a new caster and so went for eVayl in Tier 4. His list comprised of Vayl, two Angelii, two Ravagore, a Scythean, a Seraph, and a shredder as the battlegroup, along with two sheppards and a max unit of Spawning Vessel. This is a fairly standard tier 4 eVayl list and Nick was interested in trying it out. 

We set up the board and rolled for scenario, getting Two Fronts. Nick was happy as this gave him opportunity to use his new zone markers! Despite the tier benefit from Vayl I won the roll to go first and picked first turn. Nick chose the side of the board with the more defensive terrain, sacrificing the hill on my side. I deployed with Reznik central, the Avatar and Templar on the right side of him and the Reckoner on the left. The TFG set down with Orrik on my extreme left flank, the Zealots on the other flank. Nick then put his Pot opposite the Zealots and the mass of heavies central. 

My first turn was pretty straight-forward and generally involved a lot of running forwards. The TFG ran into the zone on their board edge. The zealots ran up the opposite flank too. Reznik gave Ignite to the TFG and Iron Zeal to Avatar and advanced up the board. 

Nick used his turn to start killing things. The Angels both got Tenacity and one each got Refuge and Occultation then advanced further up the board. The Seraph used Slipstream and moved up, taking a Ravagore with it. The Ravagore moved up and blasted 4 of the TFG off the board. The second Ravagore also took a shot, it missed due to the distance and deviated forwards still killing two of the Flameguard. 

On my turn I allowed Ignite to drop from the Flameguard since they'd been halved since last turn. I debated taking a run on the Angel closest to Reznik, concerned about the threat its Armour Pierce posed. In the end, though, I decided the distances would likely be out. The zealots started the turn running towards the other angel and the zone, using Greater Destiny to prevent them from being removed. The TFG shuffled around the scather templates and turtled up with Shield wall and Iron Zeal. The Templar and Reckoner both shuffled up the board but the Avatar advanced up and into the zone and used Gaze of Menoth. The Vassal advanced and put Enliven on the Avatar. Reznik and Madelyn advanced further up the board to get out of kill box. 

  

On Nick's turn the Seraph used its Strafe attack on the objective, boosting until it was dead. The Ravagores took shots at the TFG but these only managed to kill a couple of the Flameguard, setting another two and Saxon Orrik on fire. The Refuged Angelius charged the Avatar but only managed to do a couple of boxes despite being dice +2 on the charge before he enliven'd away. The copy-cat Angelius then also moved back behind the forest thanks to Refuge. Vayl then used her feat before putting out a couple of tenacities. He then Purified, not realising this would remove his own Animi and put out the fire on the two Flameguard. She then fired an Oraculus into the Angelius in front of her and then arced her free Obliteration into a zealot, but was just short. It deviated but still hit and killed one of them. Vayl then put Occultation on herself and Admonition on the Scythean, ending her activation by putting out Refuge on the arc noded Angelius. This Angelius then charged the TFG in the zone, boosting the hit roll, but thanks to set defence he failed to hit. Nick then used the Animus, hoping to push them through the scather templates. This worked on one of them, but the others were bulked together, with the farthest ones out of animus range, meaning they were just pushed into each other and couldn't move. Nick prepared to refuge away until I pointed out that he hadn't actually hit anything this turn, meaning it was stuck there. The spawning vessel moved further into the zone. 

Since the Angelius hadn't been able to move it was still in Corbeau's command range and so she let Reznik move 3" right towards Vayl. I checked my Control area but was still just short of her. I decided I still wanted to try and so had the intervening models shift out of the way and allowed the Avatar to push Reznik another inch diagonally, but he was still out. I knew this was my best chance to take an assassination run and decided to just go for the spell assassination run. I was debating this for a while until Nick pointed out that he had Occultation on Vayl. Instead (thanks to some help from Nick) I decided to run a zealot in front of Vayl and charge it in the back with Reznik. So that's what I did. I charged up and instantly killed the zealot. Before I could cast, though, the Scythean used its Admonition move to shift directly in front of Vayl. I sighed and recalculated again. Now it was tight and I was dead if I failed. So I used hex blast on the Scythean, directly hitting to strip it and Vayl of their tenacities and upkeeps. I boosted the damage on Vayl but only did a few points. I then shot a Perdition into the Scythean, using the granted action to move the Reckoner up and take a shot down a tiny line between the Scythean and an obstruction. I rolled a double 5, setting her on fire and rolled at dice plus one. But I'd forgotten to feat and so he just transferred it off. Just what this turn needed. I then declared my feat. The Reckoner then activated and took another shot at Vayl, managing to hit thanks to the flare. I rolled an 11 on the damage leaving Vayl on two boxes. It was likely that fire would finish her off next turn but if not I would lose. Then I remembered I had one last chance. The Templar moved up and out of Eiryss' way allowing her to advance up and take a shot on Vayl rolling exactly enough to finish her off and win me the game. 

Nick said that he deserved to be assassinated because he felt that he had completely misplayed his previous turn and not taken full advantage of the feat. In a more serious game I probably would have played this out a little longer to try and get a more likely chance to deliver Reznik to Vayl. Since this was a fun farewell game, though, I went for something more fun and luckily it paid off. 

This was a really fun if slightly crazy game and demonstrated exactly why I like Reznik, almost all of my games with him come down to a 'ah, fuck it' moment where I decide to go for a weird assassination run. This was exactly the sort of game I was hoping for and as always Nick delivered a fun and exciting game. 

So for now I'm shelving the Menoth, though they'll definitely be back, and moving my attention finally to Legion. 

I'm going on Holiday now for a week and a half so it'll be a little bit of radio silence for a while but don't worry I'll be back with a vengence. Keep an eye out for a bumper edition of Cogs in the Theory Machine about my planned Legion lists when I get back!

As always like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for more updates and photos. While you're at it check out the range of Warmachine specific terrain and bases at Solid Ground Studios!

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - The Harbinger of Menoth vs Captain Bartolo Montador

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest edition of Mitsuharu on Bat Reps. This week I was continuing my practice with the Harbinger using a (very) slightly different list:

The Harbinger of Menoth +5

-Heirophant -2

-Reckoner -8

-Devout -5

Minimum Choir -2

Wracks -1

Vassal of Menoth -2

Maximum Exemplar Errants with UA -10

Rhupert Carvolo -2

Covenant of Menoth -2

Minimum Holy Zealots with UA -6

Maximum Exemplar Bastions -8

Dartan Vilmon -3

Paladin of the Order of the Wall -2

Anastasia Di Bray -2

Objective: Fuel Cache

The change? I've swapped out the errant Senechal for Anastasia, primarily for the +1 to the starting roll for the game, but if she gets an espionage off then I won't complain! I realise how big a deal it is to have first turn with Harbinger and so this seemed like a solid swap. 

My opponent this week was our local Mercs player, Will. Given the top of two assassination in our last game I was a little apprehensive, but willing to preserve. He was trying out a new list that he'd only had a couple of games with that included: Captain Bartolo Montodor with a Mangler and a Galleon, along with Dougal MacNaile, a Gobber Tinker, Wrong Eye and Snapjaw (and Bull Snapper), Max Nyss Hunters and Aiyana and Holt. One of my biggest issues here was the Galleon since I don't really have a good answer for the really high ARM. 

We decided to play Recon, trying to get more breadth of experience with the 2015 scenarios. Despite including Anastasia I lost the roll to go first and so picked the table edge with the trench and less difficult terrain. Will set up with his Galleon on one flank with the Jack support, with the Nyss and Aiyana and Holt on the other. I set up with Harbinger and her battlegroup central, with the zealots screening the Bastions on my left and a paladin on each flank. I then advanced deployed my Errants centrally to move into the zone on my first turn. 

Will went first and ran his Nyss as far up the board as possible, followed by the rest of his army, the Mangler moving to just outside the zone with Snapjaw just behind him. Dougal used his mini-feat and Artillerist on the Galleon to make it more accurate and longer ranged and then it moved up to start taking pot shots at the Errants. Thanks to having a high number of shots on the guns and the rerolls from Dougal he managed to kill 4 of the Errants before I could put tough on them. On my turn everything ran up, trying to take stronger board presence since Will was covering swathes of table. I also advanced Harbinger up slight ( I was concerned about the Galleon) and Feated. 

The Nyss stood still to aim, ignoring my feat, and shot a bunch of Errants of the table. The Mangler and Galleon both moved into them and reduced the unit to 2 models in a hail of cannon fire and Threshers. Everything else shuffled forwards, trying (successfully) not to be caught in the feat. 

On my turn I fully loaded the Reckoner and prepared to charge the Mangler. Harby Purified, moving back slightly as I was scared of the Galleon's guns throughout the game, followed by the Devout. The Bastions and Zealots on my flank ran forwards to cover more ground and Anastasia ran up the board to put pressure on Bart. The Errants moved out of the Reckoner's way and he charged the mangler, failing to kill it by 5 boxes, and leaving it with just movement remaining. 

As I had put Enliven on my Reckoner Will decided to mitigate this by run/charging his Nyss around it to rob it of any way to get out. Snapjaw then charged but missed the charge Attack as well as one of his bought attacks meaning he wasn't even able to take out anything despite having Harm on it. The Galleon shot up my Bastions, only doing a small amount of damage but also managed to kill the zealots monolith bearer with blast damage, as I had placed them too close together. 

On my turn the zealots moved up and fire bombed the Galleon, actually managing to put a few damage on it as well as get the crit to set it on fire! Harbinger used Purification to clear off the Spiny Growths knocking about as well as hotshot, then threw out Crusader's call but failed to hit the Nyss with Fear of God as they were engaged. The bastions then charged the Galleon and the Mangler. Only one reached the Mangler and two on the Galleon, neither doing meaningful damage (I forgot all game that they have Blessed and so was rolling vs. Batten'ed ARM like an idiot). The Reckoner, who'd been fully loaded again, managed to kill Snapjaw with only 2 focus, taking an extra swing on the Mangler but it refused to die. Meanwhile Dartan began an extreme flanking menouver and Anna ran straight up the board towards Bart, forcing him to deal with her next turn. 

Will retaliated hard this turn. The Nyss charged into the Reckoner, Vassal and a Choir member. Killing the Reckoner despite missing the Kiss from Aiyana and forcing me to martyr the Vassal. The Galleon opted to shoot and rolled 6s on both sides with his cannon. He then proceeded to kill some zealots and take most of the boxes off the bastions, but only actually killing one of them. Holt moved into melee with Anna but missed all 4 of his attacks, forcing the Bull Snapper to move back to double boost on her to finish her off before she could get any shenanigans. 

On my turn I was rapidly running out of options, but had been presented one nice option with the Nyss clumping together. I moved Harby up slightly and then used Cataclysm to kill half a dozen of them, forcing a panic check which they passed. The Paladin in the trench killed the Nyss engaging him, the Vassal missed the Nyss engaging him and accidentally shot the Choir in the back. The zealots threw more bombs at the Galleon and the Bastions continued to thwack at the collossal too, but still couldn't do anything meaningful even with the charge (again totally forgetting Blessed on their halberd) with one of the others killing Cylena and the other still failing to kill the Mangler. Blowing up the Nyss with Harby was probably the highlight of the game for me  though. 

On Will's turn he shifted his colossal slightly freeing up a lane for the tinker before shooting the last of the zealots and one of the bastions off the table and doing two points to the Covenant to boot. The Nyss moved around the bastion on the wreck marker, but one of them left the other Bastion's arc, dying to the free strike, forcing the other to fail their panic check. The Tinker then moved up and mended the Mangler back to full functionality. The Mangler then shifted across and took a Thresher, killing the two bastions in the zone and accidentally killing his own Tinker in the process. The Bull Snapper moved up to contest the far flag since that was my best chance of scoring. Aiyana gave magical shots to Holt who moved up and shot Dartan (who'd been creeping around the back of the Colossal) off the table 

On my turn I realised I was in pretty dire straits and didn't have much of an option to win. I decided that my only real shot was to somehow control the flag to my right. I had Harby purify and then moved across into the trench along with the Devout. Rhupert moved towards the zone to contest next turn and gave the choir tough hoping to hold the zone a little longer. 

Will then had his colossal use its guns to take out the last bastion and errant as well as tow the covenant in to finish it off. The Mangler then charged my objective, hitting it twice but failing to kill it, reducing it to 2 boxes. Wrongeye moved up and put spiny Growth on the contesting Bull Snapper. Meanwhile Bart shuffled across to behind the Galleon. 

On my turn I knew I needed to clear the flag to be able to dominate in order to have any shot at winning the game. Harby gave 3 to the Devout and then cast purification and put Fear of God on the Mangler to remove thresher. The Devout charged but only did a medium amount of damage with the charge Attack. The shield did nothing and it then missed two of the bought attacks. This meant I hadn't cleared the flag and, since it was getting late, I forfeited the game. We decided that it would take a while to clear the zone but Bart would be able to dominate eventually and I would ultimately lose on scenario. 

This was a good, balanced game. As I had feared this list did not deal well with an up-armoured collosal. The game was a gruelling grind fest on both sides but Will was able to use his Galleon really well to tip the scales in his favour. We both had pretty big dice swings throughout the game, with one turn coming all 6s immediately followed by not being able to get much of anything done. I'd have liked the first turn (duh) but either way I think allowed the threat of the Galleon to really limit my play. 

A prime example of this was in turn one. I lost almost half the Errants to the Galleon, crippling my prime jamming unit because I was too scared to Martyr so early. I was too precious with Harbinger throughout the game, given that I kept her far back and also refused to martyr unless I felt I had to. This undercut the whole point of the army. Something Will exploited well. 

I think I might try out a new list next time. Or maybe not! Either way I'll be sure to tell you all about it here!

As always if you like the blog then please like it on Facebook!

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - The Harbinger of Menoth vs Thagrosh, the Messiah, Redux

Hey wargamers, I'm back with my latest Bat rep and I'm still having practice games with Harbinger. I'm still using the same list, and I've had some success with it so far:

The Harbinger of Menoth +5

-Heirophant -2

-Reckoner -8

-Devout -5

Minimum Choir -2

Wracks -1

Vassal of Menoth -2

Maximum Exemplar Errants with UA -10

Exemplar Errant Seneschal -2

Rhupert Carvolo -2

Covenant of Menoth -2

Minimum Holy Zealots with UA -6

Maximum Exemplar Bastions -8

Dartan Vilmon -3

Paladin of the Order of the Wall -2

Objective: Fuel Cache

So after last week Nick wanted to have a rematch between Harby and eThagrosh. But before I get to the regularly scheduled battle report, I also managed to get another game in this week with Jayke's Cryx (http://hall-of-legends.blogspot.com/) with her too. Long story short we played Recon from SR2015. Jayke used an infantry spam pSkarre list vs my Harbinger, since he's practicing it for the ETC in a few months. I won the roll to go first, and basically feated to lock him out, and then used my second turn to completely surround the zone with my models to keep him out. This let me score 3 points on my turn 3, dominating the zone after destroying the objective. After that it was a grind, with him slowly clearing me out of the zone, and me not managing to kill a load of models. Despite this thanks to Martyrdom I was able to stick in the zone pretty tenaciously, even burning most of a stack of focus to maintain the martyring. Because his list was an infantry spam and my list was so hard to get rid of (Martyr'd, tough, no knockdown Bastions are a pain to shift) he clock'd out without scoring any points. So another win with Harby, and a game I wouldn't have won without the Deathclock, but when I noticed how much I was ahead on time I just played for it, trying to out-attrition, which is one of her specialities. 

Anyway. Back to the main battle report with Nick's Legion. Nick wanted a rematch from last week and so was using the same list too. It included Thagrosh, the Messiah, with 3 Scytheans, two Raeks, a max unit of Legionnaires with Farlior, a max Spawning Vessel, two Forsaken, two Shepherds and a Feralgiest. We rolled for scenario and got Close Quarters, and then I won first turn. (I didn't get any photos of either game, sorry, my phone's battery was dying and I'd forgotten my charger). 

I set up my Errant package across from the opposing flag, along with Dartan. Harbinger set up in the middle of the board with her jacks and support staff, with the zealots and bastions near my own flag. Nick set up his whole army fairly centrally, with the Raeks and a shepherd off to the flank opposite the Errants. I take my first turn and move everything up the board, and feated. Nick was pretty locked down in his turn and so moved only his heavies forward (apart from 3 pot carriers who went kamikaze to spawn a shredder) Thagrosh flew up behind a forest near his own flag and took 4 points of damage. 

In my turn my original plan had been to try and run the Errants far enough to control the enemy flag and try and move far enough up to prevent contesting of it. Instead I took advantage of Hunter from the Senechal to take 10 shots at Thagrosh with the Errants instead (they still moved up to the flag). I then rolled fire, reducing Thagrosh to only 4-5 boxes. Harbinger then moved up B2B with my flag to be able to score later. The Zealots then moved between her and a pair of Scytheans and used their minifeat to become a nice speed bump. The bastions followed them up, but much more slowly. My Paladins moved up to contest each flag in Imperisable Wall. At this point I realised I'd blocked off the charge lane I'd been hoping for my fully loaded Reckoner, and hadn't cast Crusader's call or Purification, so it just moved up and took a pot shot at a Scythean but achieved very little, annoyingly. 

Nick started his turn with feating and casting Manifest Destiny, moving further back, and into the forest, healing slightly. The Raeks, a Scythean and Shredder munched through most of the Errants. The other Scytheans moved around but could only get to the Zealots who were under Greater Destiny. A Shredder then moved right up to contest the flag nestled near the zealots. The Legionnaires then moved up the board using their minifeat on top of the Dragon's Blood that he'd upkept to become very high ARM. 

On my turn the zealots failed to kill the Shredder to free up the flag. They did throw a bomb at the Legionnaires and killed one. The remaining Errant took a spiteful swing at a Raek but missed. The bastions continued to move up to the flag. 

Nick moved his Legionaries and a Raek up to contest my flag and try and clear out my mass of stuff. The next couple of turns were fairly back and forth. My turn I managed to finish off the Shredder, and kill the Raek and the Legionnaire who were contesting my flag, letting me score one defensively. Meanwhile Dartan sat in Imperisable Wall 4" from his flag and within 10" of Harbinger. 

Unfortunately I didn't have photos or take notes so I'm a bit hazy on the late middle of this game so... Cliff notes. Nick kept pushing more and more models into contest my flag, and I failed to clear them out, but also managed to keep a strong presence on the board thanks to rolling multiple single points in a row with Martyrdom. This went on for a couple of turns and most of Nick's clock. I made no headway in the game but hunkered down and tried to outlast him. On the final turns Nick moved a mostly healed eThagrosh onto his flag and then took several Martyr'd swings at Dartan, and then moved a fully stacked Foresaken into my mass of guys and blight bombed, catching Harby, who was camping 5. Nick rolled 7d6+8 on Harbinger, who was sat on 10 boxes. He did 9 damage. After that Nick had 10 seconds left on his clock and so forfeited the game, as he felt he couldn't get an assassination in 10 seconds on his next turn. We played out the next couple of turns anyway, and he missed the assassination by 1 box a second time! 

It was a good, fun game, and one that I would definitely have lost if not for the Deathclock saving my bacon again. As always it was a fun back and forth game like I've come to expect from Nick and I made a few stupid mistakes that he capitalised on well, but unfortunately I was up on time for most of the game despite starting first, but by the end of the game I had very few models left on the table. 

Overall I'm really enjoying this Harbinger build and how it's playing on the table. I'll have another game up next week with her as well, so tune in for more!

Don't forget to like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for more regular updates, and go to Solid Ground Studios for your Warmachine and Hordes Terrain!

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - The Harbinger of Menoth vs Thagrosh the Messiah

Hey Guys, it's my latest bat rep, this time using Harbinger of Menoth as promised. I was using the same list that I had discussed in the previous Cogs in the TheoryMachine post:

The Harbinger of Menoth +5

-Heirophant -2

-Reckoner -8

-Devout -5

Minimum Choir -2

Wracks -1

Vassal of Menoth -2

Maximum Exemplar Errants with UA -10

Exemplar Errant Seneschal -2

Rhupert Carvolo -2

Covenant of Menoth -2

Minimum Holy Zealots with UA -6

Maximum Exemplar Bastions -8

Dartan Vilmon -3

Paladin of the Order of the Wall -2

Objective: Fuel Cache

I managed to get a game in this week against Nick from Solid Ground Studios (http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk) the best place to get all your warmachine and hordes terrain. Speaking of which he's recently donated a whole bunch of fully painted (by his own talented yet disgustingly modest hand) terrain from his latest collections to our LGS. It was on this lovely board, with two fully painted armies that we faced off. The game we were playing this week was Two Fronts from the 2015 Steamroller packet. 

Nick has been practicing recently with an eThagrosh build he's been toying with. Which means: Messiah off! Who is the most Christ-y? We shall see. Accompanying the Messiah of Everblight were three Scytheans, two Raeks, a max unit of Legionnaires with Farlior, a maximum Spawning Vessel, two Foresaken, a Shepherd, and a Feralgiest. 

Nick won the roll to go first, and decided to take the first turn since the terrain would have a minimal impact on his pathfinding Legion army. He deployed with his three Scytheans placed centrally with Thagrosh, with the Reaks and a Shepherd on one flank and the Legionnaires and the pot on the other side. On my side of the board I placed my Battlegroup centrally with the support staff, placing the Errants inside a forest opposite the Legionnaires and the zealots on the opposite flank with the bastions behind them. 

As usual for warmachine the first round consisted of a lot of running. Nick moved his army forwards, placing buffs out on them, putting unnatural aggression on a Scythean and Dragon's Blood on the Legionnaires. I also moved up, getting my Errants into the opposing zone, with the Zealots moving in and mini feating early to hold my zone. Harby moved up and feated, accompanied by the Devout, and then used Purification to clear off the upkeeps and animi. 

Being caught in Harbinger's feat meant that the majority of Nick's stuff spent the turn shuffling sideways, with three of the pot carriers commiting suicide by feat to top up the pot for a free shredder. The Legionaries moved out of the Scythean's path to allow him to crab walk into contest his own zone. Thagrosh used the recently spawned shredder's animus to put Tenacity out on almost all of the battlegroup, and then moved up, taking 5 points of damage and spawning another Shredder. 

I started off by using Harbinger to Purify, clearing all the tenacity and buffs back off the table. She then moved to the side, toe in on my own zone. The Zealots moved further into my zone and threw three bombs at a Raek, doing a couple of points of damage, followed up by the Bastions and Dartan. The Errant Seneschal charged a bundle of Legionnaires, killing two thanks to assault. My Reckoner used its Flare shot to lower the defence of the Scythean in the zone. I was feeling greedy and wanted to score 3 points in one turn, I was dominating my own zone and wanted to kill the Scythean contesting and the objective to net another 2 points. Retrospectively what I should have done is moved backwards, out of the threat range of the Scythean and then shot the objective to death and settle on a single, second point. As it happened three of the Errants advanced into melee with the objective and the rest took shots. One on the objective and the rest at the Scythean, failing to destroy either and horribly exposing my Errants, who Rhupert put tough on. 

Following this it was time for Nick to bring the thunder. Thagrosh moved up, using his spray to kill some zealots from the zone and put a little damage on the bastions. Then he feated. The Reaks cleared most of the rest of the zealots, while he Scythean devoured a bunch of Errants, especially since I stupidly self sacrificed his initial, allowing him to get the Chain Attack. The Legionnaires then charged in to kill another few of them. I failed every single tough roll all game. A shredder charged into the Reckoner to lock it up, but took a defensive strike from the Devout, who took most of its spirals. And then all the beasts activated again, killing more Errants and putting some more hurt on the bastions, while also destroying my objective, equalising our scenario points. The Reak also moved to engage the Reckoner. 

This had left me in a bad position as I was going to struggle to control either zone to score again for the game. Despite this it was time for some damage control. I fully loaded the Reckoner and then had the Devout move up and finish off the shredder engaging the Reckoner. Harbinger then activated, giving guided hand to the Bastions and using Cataclysm on the Raek engaging the Reckoner. The bastions then charged the two Raeks, two on the Reckoner one and the rest on the other. Only one each had the charge bonus, but it was enough to kill them both. This freed up the Reckoner to charge the nearest of the pair of Scytheans in my zone, getting both of them and the Shepherd in reach range. The Flare hit, and with battle did a reasonable amount of damage, lowering the DEF so that anything but double ones  would hit. And so the charge Attack rolled a 2. Typical. I bought two attacks but didn't quite manage to finish it, leaving me in a bad position for the next turn. To mitigate this slightly the Vassal moved up to enliven. Meanwhile in the other zone the remaining Errants did nothing but had tough put back on them. The Paladin moved into the Legionnaires using Impervious Wall to tie some of them up. 

Taking advantage of the Reckoner's fumble the nearby Shepherd and Foresaken moved in B2B to pin the Reckoner to deny enliven. The shepherd also helpfully healed up the Scythean, restoring its aspects to allow it to start attacking the Reckoner fully. It bought all the available attacks but only managed to reduce it to a single box instead of destroying it. The one box left was the right arm, meaning I still had his other Scythean locked down. To remedy this the Legionnaires killed a pot member and each other to fill up the pot and spawn a Harrier, who used a true strike charge to finish off the heavy. The Shredder polished off the last Errants in the zone and the Scythean who'd been solo all game charged the vassal and a bastion, killing them both. Thagrosh then charged a bastion, buying several attacks against the bastions and Dartan, hoping to clear the zone. Thanks to Martyrdom Dartan survived, but two of the remaining Bastions died. I was left with 5 boxes on Harbinger. The final Scythean, no longer tied down by the Reckoner also charged into the bastions, killing another but missing an initial thanks to awe, so didn't set off the Chain Attack. This left me Dartan, one Bastion and two zealots in the zone. It also left Thagrosh quite far forward and camping only two. 

This was my best chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I had been itching to check my ranges etc but hadn't wanted to tip my hand too early. As soon as my turn started I checked Harbinger's threat range and used a laser to check that she'd almost definitely be able to move along a line across the front arc of the Scythean and end up in melee with Thagrosh. I started my Hail Mary by having the Heirophant move up and give Harmonious Exhaultation to Harby. Dartan then moved around the Scythean, getting out of Harbinger's way. The remaining Bastion that had been Martyr'd back to life also shifted out of Harby's way before taking a swing at Thagrosh for 6 points that he elected not to transfer, leaving him with 9 boxes. Harby then charged in, auto-hitting with Providence. The charge Attack rolled exactly a 9, forcing him to transfer to a Scythean, and then I bought and boosted 3 more attacks. By the end of those he'd been forced to transfer with his last Fury and had 5 boxes remaining. I used the last 4 focus on Harbinger to cast a boosted Cataclysm, at with three dice doing dice +3 she couldn't fail to kill him, securing me a last minute win despite only having a handful of models left on the table!

This was a hard fought game and I felt that this was the best I've played against Nick, who is a more than capable player. As always when he puts models on the table it was a hugely enjoyable game and finally I managed to beat him! After being schooled by him multiple times I'm delighted to have finally managed to pull a win out of the bag against him. 

Looking back on the game I think my biggest mistakes were on my right flank, as I said above I should have moved the Errants back to shoot the objective instead of trying to be greedy on a much less likely outcome. Also, knowing how skilled a player Nick is it might have been more sensible to use an Ancilliary attack on the Reckoner on its failed charge to finish off the Scythean, since he succeeded in nullifying the enliven. Again, though, I did feel like this was the most effective game I've played so far against Nick and it was only a lucky assassination run that netted me the win, and it was very tight as to whether I'd be able to get it in! But I guess it's true - it's better to be lucky than good!

I'm finding that now I'm a slightly more experienced player the Harbinger is great to play with and can cause a lot of problems for an opponent. I'm looking forward to playing her some more in the coming weeks! Stay tuned!

And don't forget to like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for more regular updates! And go buy some terrain from Solid Ground Studios while you're at it!

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Intercessor Kreoss vs. Kallus, Wrath of Everblight

Welcome back, wargamers! This week I'm continuing my practice with the Intercessor Kreoss list I used last time. Following my defeat last week I switched out Dartan as planned for Nicia to help with solo removal, making my list:

Intercessor Kreoss +5

-Vanquisher -8

-Reckoner -8

Avatar of Menoth -11

Min Choir -2

Vassal of Menoth -2

Gorman di Wulfe -2

Max Vengers -11

Daughters of the Flame -5

Nicia, Tear of Vengence  -3

Paladin -2

My opponent this week was Nick, the owner of Solid Ground Studios and all the lovely bases they make (http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk) using his skew Legion list. His army consisted of Kallus with a Ravagore and a Succubus, along with two max units of Warspears with UA, two minimum units of Warmongers, a maximum pot, a set of Swamp Gobbers and a max unit of Gators. This is a bit of an unusual Legion list but given it's full of pretty meaty infantry and has only lost one game so far it's a pretty safe bet to be honest. If nothing else there's a real psychological edge to seeing quite that many Blighted Ogrun on the other side of the board, I can assure you.

Nick won the roll to go first and so I selected the table edge with the least terrain that would swamp down my pathfinder-light list. We were playing 2014 Outflank in a goodbye to Steamroller 2014 (since the new rules for 2015 had only just come out and neither of us had had much chance to read them over). Nick deployed his force centrally while I put my Daughters, Reckoner and Avatar on one flank with Vanquisher, Vengers, Nicia, Gorman and Kreoss on the other. For both of our first turns the majority of the turn was taken up with running everyone further up the field while getting upkeeps out. Kreoss put Holy Ward on the Daughters, Ignite on the Vengers and Warpath on himself, while Kallus gave one of the Warspears Ignite on the Legion side. 

Moving into the second turn things started to happen for Legion. The Warspears assaulted the Vengers, killing two and hurting a third. The other spears and mongers moved up into the zone while the gators moved up into the other. The warmongers on the other flank charged the Daughters but couldn't meet their boosted DEF 17. The Ravagore moved out of the forest he'd been hiding in and managed (seeing through Gorman's smoke) to get a shot on Kreoss, who was sat on zero focus after dishing out his upkeeps. The shot hit and with a boosted damage roll he managed to put 10 damage on my caster at the top of turn 2 and giving me a sad face. 

On my turn the Vanquisher softened up the Warspears, hurting/setting two on fire and outright killing one. Then the Vengers charged the Spears that had assaulted them, completely destroying two and getting some disappointing damage rolls on the others but putting some hurt on them nonetheless (to be honest I may have forgotten some of my buffs etc. the clock was putting pressure on me and I messed it a little). This activated my Warpath, allowing the Reckoner to side step the obstruction that was between it and the Ravagore. This set the Reckoner up for a charge on the heavy beast, which he promptly did and between the assault shot, the charge attack and buying a second (I'd only allocated 2 to it) I managed to kill the Ravagore in one round, somewhat making up for the offensive shot on the last turn. The Paladin moved into jam the zone, the Daughters joined together to charge the two Warspears in the zone and combined their attacks to kill them. Across the board Nicia charged a Warspear but didn't manage to get the kill to activate her sprint ability to get to safety, even with her second attack. 

On the Legion turn the pot spat out a Harrier who put up it's auto hit animus and flew over to Nicia and bit her head off without any difficulty. The remaining Spears charged the remaining Vengers and polished them off. Two of the members of the other Warspear unit charged Kreoss and managed to reduce him to 4 boxes between their charges and assault shots. The Gators moved up with the last monger in the flank zone and swung at the daughters, but even with the cold blood reroll they only managed to kill one of the girls. The unhurt unit of Warspears and a couple of the gators managed to wreck the Reckoner in retaliation for the fallen Ravagore. Kallus threw his feat up to mitigate some of the damage coming in the next turn. Killing my Vengers had left the zone clear, scoring him the first control point. 

On my turn the Avatar charged the Gators and Warspears, hoping to clear the zone, allowing me to move Kreoss in to Dominate and edge a scenario win. Unfortunately he had only rolled 2 for focus, and failed to kill one of the models, meaning my redemption shot was a bust, but still seriously hurting his jam units. The daughters ran into some gators but didn't have the P&S to crack their ARM, even with combined melee. The Vanquisher moved in to contest the zone and killed one of the two Warspears engaging Kreoss with a shot, hurting the other and setting him on fire. Kreoss then used a ride-by attack to finish off the Warspear and then moved further into the back field, feating to put Holy Ward on himself while camping a full stack. 

On the Legion turn the gators managed to kill most of the unbuffed Daughters, and the mongers put a few points on to the Avatar. Kallus put Ignite on the unit of Spears nearest Kallus and then put up Dark Guidance, using his full stack, and leaving Kallus flapping in the wind in a direct line from the Avatar, throwing all his chips in. The two Incubi that had had spawned from the feat then charged Kreoss but couldn't hit his DEF 16, followed by the last two Warspears, who missed their assault shots. The first Warspear took his first swing, but only took Kreoss down to 1 point. The final Spear cracked his neck, rolled his Blighted shoulders and plunged his spear straight through the Intercessor with a powerful thrust, netting the win for Legion. 

After the game Nick and I had a discussion about the list and I asked his opinions on what I should do moving forward. We agreed that the list needs to be more balanced, especially in a two list format. The list is great for armour but doesn't handle infantry well at all. For my next practice I'm thinking about making some more drastic changes. Starting with swapping out the Avatar for a max unit of Errants with UA to offer a bit more jam and crowd control to the list to make it more balanced, maybe even changing up the merc and solo load out too. I'll probably make another post with some list ideas next week. 

Until then may all your dice roll be 6s. Apart from command checks. And skill checks. And checking continuous effects on your warcaster. And... You know what. Just be lucky. 

-M