Mini Painters

100 points of Warmachine madness

Last night was the huge Warmachine battle between my Khador and a friend's Menoth.  I'm hoping to get some photos of the event up here soon because the league organiser was taking a few pics of the battle.  Anyway, on with the report.

We'd both done test deployments previous to the game so, after rolling for setup, we decided that we may as well just do a staggered deployment with myself, who won the roll, putting a few units down before my opponent started putting his down.  That way he could still react to where I was deploying but setup didn't take all night to complete.  Luckily neither did the game.

We rolled for scenario and ended up with one where there is a rectangle in the middle of the table 8" by 16" and you have to end your turn in control of it.  It is worded slightly badly because, as it stands, all I had to do was run an advance deployer in there on the first turn and I win.  We decided to amend it to read "beginning the third round, a player wins if he's in control etc.." that way we'd actually get a battle out of it, and boy did we.

The first turn I ran practically everything forward, only really pulling my cavalry short of their full 16" run so they wouldn't get immediately charged on my opponents turn.  Eiryss moved up and took a pot shot at a unit attachment (you'll have to forgive me, I don't know the names of the Menoth units) but didn't do enough damage on the roll for a clean kill, which was a shame.

My opponent did pretty much the same thing, starting off with activating the unit Eiryss shot at and doing some special action that allowed them to shoot and then charge in.  This combined with the combined ranged attack ability and combined melee attack spelled the doom of all but one of my doom reavers.  A few AOE shots off the bow took down a few of the Iron Fang Pikemen but that's what they were there for, to soak shots so I wasn't too bothered.

The second round was where battle was joined with the full fury of 100 points of Menoth and Khador meeting in the middle of the table.  I made a few mistakes judging distances at this point and managed to get a completely failed charge with the IFP, which later led to them getting massacred by firebombs.  I also charged the Avatar with my Iron Fang Uhlans ending up with two of them outside of melee range, which also spelled disaster for them.  Still, they put 5 points of damage on the Avatar so not a total loss  One of the manhunters wandered up and lopped the head off of Eiryss once and for all proving that Menoth had managed to hire a fake one.  Unfortunately the real Eiryss didn't do a lot, trying to get disruptor shots off on one of my opponents warcasters and failing miserably each time and finally dying to a free strike from a light 'jack.  The remaining Doom Reaver and Fenris combined managed to almost completely massacre the shooty unit that decimated them the turn before.

On his turn, my opponent realised that he was going to lose if he didn't get a model into the area in the middle of the table, so he moved up a really annoying unit that could only be hit by magical attacks and weapons.  Those being few and far between on the table, things weren't looking too good for the boys in red.  After watching his mates get clobbered, the last remaining shooty guy decided to leg it and died to a glowing green sword in the back. Unfortunately the final Doom Reaver and Fenris then looked up and saw a heavy warjack and several light 'jacks heading their way rapidly.  The Doom Reaver was rapidly turned into a fine red mist and Fenris' horse was knocked from under him and subsequently squished by another 'jack mooching into combat. The Ulhans and Pikemen were both massacred shortly afterwards and then my opponent realised they'd left me with a perfect charge lane straight from Yuri to one of his casters.  Gotta love the damage output of a weapon master on the charge

So began the start of my third turn and, sadly for my opponent, the shortest one of the game.  I got Eiryss killed by trying to leave combat (she's next to useless in combat, especially against a 'jack) to take another shot at the caster.  One lucky roll later and she was a small red pile of entrails on the floor.  I charged in a put a few damage boxes on one of his 'jacks with the Great Bears.  What's better than weapon masters on the charge?  Weapon masters on the charge with two attacks, that's what!  The Man-O-War Shocktroopers then thundered into combat, combined their attack against a light 'jack and stuck something like 14 points of damage on it.  Not great for a unit worth the same amount of points but it was the only thing in their range.

I then decided that I may as well see if the game ended that turn.  My opponent only had 1 solo inside the control area and I had plenty within charge range.  The problem was that he could only be hit by spells.  Unfortunately for my opponent, he'd managed to park him mere inches away from my Greylord Ternions and Koldun Lord. Practically the only magical attacks I had left on the table short of my casters.  Oh dear, oh dear...  So, spray attacks all round then.  The first attack hits!  3 damage.  Not enough for the kill, but I still have 3 more so i'm not worried.  The second attack misses completely!  The sweats started and with a shaking hand, I roll to hit with the third ternion. The third attack hits home!  But only 2 damage.  My opponent then informed me that that was enough to kill him.  The Paladin toppled over and I ended my turn in complete control of the area and the game.

Looking back on it, things were not going well for me.  I'd lost several units and solos already, the IFP, Uhlans, Doom reavers, Fenris and one of the Great Bears were already down and all i'd popped were an annoying shooty unit and one of the multitude of light 'jacks.  The only upside was that I had Beast '09, Drago and 2 Juggies all souped up and ready to kick ass at a moment's notice.  Had we been playing to caster deaths, I think it would have been interesting to see how the game progressed.  My opponent was hampered by playing such a huge game with a lot of units that he wasn't familiar with and space for movement was very limited.