League
Thursday night was the first night of the Warmachine league at the local game store. Officially, the publisher sponsored league doesn't begin until the 17th, but since Los Angeles is the center of the universe we start early.
After much pondering, I ultimately decided to field a list I was familiar with, rather than the most b0rken-est list I could think of. A subconcious understanding of a model's strengths, weaknesses and abilities facilitates a sharper focus on tactical thinking, something I knew I would need to concentrate on when facing unfamiliar opponents.
My list was thus:
Vladimir, Dark Prince of Umbrey
-hey, it's Vlad. He's a one man army. The rest of this list was built around getting maximum pwnage out of Vlad's Signs & Portents spell.
Behemoth, Unique Warjack
-The Bow-wheem-owth is a terror even without Vlad, but with him, it can be truly horrific. One of my favorite combos with these two is a little something I like to call "Shock & Awe." This involves Vlad casting Signs & Portents and activating his feat on turn one, allowing the Behemoth to run forward 16" and fire it's bombards into the enemy ranks. This sends explosive death up to 2" into the enemy's deployment zone, before deviation. Signs & Portents adds a deadly edge to the blast damage, upping the odds that indirect hits will inflict casualties.
-This is the sort of tactic that only works well once - the opponent's initial surprise (rather than the casualties) is the greatest benefit of this approach, and this is lost in future games as the enemy will generally start spacing out his forces to avoid too many troopers getting caught in the blasts.
Doomreavers
-At 100 points for 6 one wound models, Doomies are not the most cost-efficient troops available. I have had them work to great effect, but more often than not I get more mileage out of the threat they represent than their actual battlefield performance. In theory, Doomreavers are massively destructive, capable of both threshing through infantry and demolishing warjacks. In practice, the savvier opponents I've faced have made sure that the Doomies never get the chance to swing their felblades.
-So why take them? Well, I had a cunning planTM. The Doomreavers benefit from an inherent Spell Ward which prevents them from being targeted by spells, friendly or enemy. This is a defensive boon, but can also be a liability since the Doomies can't receive buff spells either. However, while they cannot be targetted by spells, they can still be affected by spell effects. This means that they benefit from Vlad's spells Signs & Portents and Wind Wall, as both of these are effects that emanate from Vlad, rather than specifically targetting the Doomreavers.
-A nice trick is to cluster the Doomies around Vlad and have him cast Wind Wall. This makes a screen that can't be targetted by spells or mundane ranged attacks, and rolling up into melee with Doomreavers generally ends in tears.
Widowmakers
-Pwn
Manhunter
-Huntin' men
Kell Bailoch
-the one-man fifth and sixth Widowmaker. Having five snipers on the board can really ruin the enemy's plans.
Winterguard Mortar Crew x 2
-This unit is kind of wrong, especially with Signs & Portents. 20" range, 4" AOE, Power 16... WRONG.
The Games:
My first game Thursday evening was against the same Protectorate player I faced in the previous week's Mangled Metal tourney. He ran Reznik once again (painted this time!) supported by a Reckoner, a Revenger, Choir, Zealots and Deliverers. He also took Gorman and a Paladin of the Wall.
I chopped up this list pretty good. I managed to get into a position where the Manhunter and Doomreavers were in position to strike Reznik, and if he killed any of them, it would open up a charge lane for Vlad. Rock and a hard place. To his credit, Reznik was able to kill and Wrack a Doomreaver, blocking Vlad's charge lane. Then, a Deliverer rocket aimed at Vlad deviated into the Wrack and blew it up, annihilating the Manhunter, 2 Doomreavers and inflicting a handful of wounds on Reznik.
Kill time. I probably could have waltzed in with Vlad and just stabbed Reznik in the face at this point, but I decided to get a little fancy. I moved Vlad up a bit and cast Impaler, scored a hit and inflicted damage, resulting in a stationary Reznik. I thought I had it right there, but Vlad damaging Reznik triggered the effect of one of Reznik's spells (Witchhound, I think) allowing the Reckoner to advance into melee with Vlad and make a single boosted attack. Gulp. Vlad didn't have Blood of Kings up. Since he boosted Impaler's attack and damage roll, he only had one focus camped, meaning his DEF/ARM was 15/17; good but not great. The Reckoner scored a hit, and now I was worried. The POW+STR of the Reckoner's weapon is 17, meaning straight dice damage. A high roll would splatter the Dark Prince. Fortunately for me, my opponent rolled a 4 and Vlad survived.
Vlad retaliated, boosting damage and disabling the Reckoner. The Behemoth and Mortars opened fire on the stationary Reznik, easily scoring hits and obliterating him in a conflagration of explosive shrapnel.
My next game was against the Legion of Everblight as played by a guy named Parker. Parker is a pretty savvy player and Legion is a force to contend with. To his credit, Parker took a pretty balanced list: Saeryn, Angelius, Seraph, 2 Shredders, Blighted Archers with UA, Incubi and a Feralgeist.
I lost this game primarily due to poor distance estimation. My Doomreavers could not quite get close enough to the Blighted Archers to force a command check from their Abomination status, and the Manhunter's followup didn't quite reach them to engage in melee. Both ended up getting perforated. This left no backup for Behemoth who was dismantled by the Angelius, assisted by Saeryn's feat.
Ultimately it came down to Vlad, the one-man army. At this point in the game, both Shredders were dead and the Angelius was close to death (although it had Respawn cast on it and a Feralgeist nearby). Vlad managed to carve up the undamaged Seraph but could't get both it and the Angelius fast enough. Swarmed by Incubi and a back-striking Angelius, the Dark Prince fell.
Sunday I played two more league games. First was against the Golden God's Cryx. He took the Coven, 3 Deathrippers, 1 Nightwretch, Mechanithralls, Bane Knights, Tartarus, Skarlock Thrall and a Pistol Wraith. This list has F'ed me in the GA more times than I care to remember, and this weekend was no exception. Matt made good use of the Coven's feat, blunting my forward advance, and I misjudged Vlad's control range for the purpose of allocating focus to the Behemoth. Blarg.
Later that day I played Mario's Cygnar. He brought Caine, a Lancer, a Hunter, Rangers, Gunmages, Alexia and Eiriss. Once Mario gets a better handle on the rules, he's going to be formidable. So I'll take my wins while I can. We fought a bloody battle of attrition, but since I was able to slaughter the Gunmages before they had a chance to hobble the behemoth, I basically had an unstoppable force unchallenged on the field. Even so, Mario could have danced around with Caine indefinitely, but he was a good sport about it and hung Caine out in the open, and attempted to shoot Vlad to death. Fortunately for Vlad, Blood of Kings was up, and he only took about 5 damage from Caine's pistols. The next turn, Vlad charged, and cut Caine up handily.
So 2 and 2 so far in the League.
After much pondering, I ultimately decided to field a list I was familiar with, rather than the most b0rken-est list I could think of. A subconcious understanding of a model's strengths, weaknesses and abilities facilitates a sharper focus on tactical thinking, something I knew I would need to concentrate on when facing unfamiliar opponents.
My list was thus:
Vladimir, Dark Prince of Umbrey
-hey, it's Vlad. He's a one man army. The rest of this list was built around getting maximum pwnage out of Vlad's Signs & Portents spell.
Behemoth, Unique Warjack
-The Bow-wheem-owth is a terror even without Vlad, but with him, it can be truly horrific. One of my favorite combos with these two is a little something I like to call "Shock & Awe." This involves Vlad casting Signs & Portents and activating his feat on turn one, allowing the Behemoth to run forward 16" and fire it's bombards into the enemy ranks. This sends explosive death up to 2" into the enemy's deployment zone, before deviation. Signs & Portents adds a deadly edge to the blast damage, upping the odds that indirect hits will inflict casualties.
-This is the sort of tactic that only works well once - the opponent's initial surprise (rather than the casualties) is the greatest benefit of this approach, and this is lost in future games as the enemy will generally start spacing out his forces to avoid too many troopers getting caught in the blasts.
Doomreavers
-At 100 points for 6 one wound models, Doomies are not the most cost-efficient troops available. I have had them work to great effect, but more often than not I get more mileage out of the threat they represent than their actual battlefield performance. In theory, Doomreavers are massively destructive, capable of both threshing through infantry and demolishing warjacks. In practice, the savvier opponents I've faced have made sure that the Doomies never get the chance to swing their felblades.
-So why take them? Well, I had a cunning planTM. The Doomreavers benefit from an inherent Spell Ward which prevents them from being targeted by spells, friendly or enemy. This is a defensive boon, but can also be a liability since the Doomies can't receive buff spells either. However, while they cannot be targetted by spells, they can still be affected by spell effects. This means that they benefit from Vlad's spells Signs & Portents and Wind Wall, as both of these are effects that emanate from Vlad, rather than specifically targetting the Doomreavers.
-A nice trick is to cluster the Doomies around Vlad and have him cast Wind Wall. This makes a screen that can't be targetted by spells or mundane ranged attacks, and rolling up into melee with Doomreavers generally ends in tears.
Widowmakers
-Pwn
Manhunter
-Huntin' men
Kell Bailoch
-the one-man fifth and sixth Widowmaker. Having five snipers on the board can really ruin the enemy's plans.
Winterguard Mortar Crew x 2
-This unit is kind of wrong, especially with Signs & Portents. 20" range, 4" AOE, Power 16... WRONG.
The Games:
My first game Thursday evening was against the same Protectorate player I faced in the previous week's Mangled Metal tourney. He ran Reznik once again (painted this time!) supported by a Reckoner, a Revenger, Choir, Zealots and Deliverers. He also took Gorman and a Paladin of the Wall.
I chopped up this list pretty good. I managed to get into a position where the Manhunter and Doomreavers were in position to strike Reznik, and if he killed any of them, it would open up a charge lane for Vlad. Rock and a hard place. To his credit, Reznik was able to kill and Wrack a Doomreaver, blocking Vlad's charge lane. Then, a Deliverer rocket aimed at Vlad deviated into the Wrack and blew it up, annihilating the Manhunter, 2 Doomreavers and inflicting a handful of wounds on Reznik.
Kill time. I probably could have waltzed in with Vlad and just stabbed Reznik in the face at this point, but I decided to get a little fancy. I moved Vlad up a bit and cast Impaler, scored a hit and inflicted damage, resulting in a stationary Reznik. I thought I had it right there, but Vlad damaging Reznik triggered the effect of one of Reznik's spells (Witchhound, I think) allowing the Reckoner to advance into melee with Vlad and make a single boosted attack. Gulp. Vlad didn't have Blood of Kings up. Since he boosted Impaler's attack and damage roll, he only had one focus camped, meaning his DEF/ARM was 15/17; good but not great. The Reckoner scored a hit, and now I was worried. The POW+STR of the Reckoner's weapon is 17, meaning straight dice damage. A high roll would splatter the Dark Prince. Fortunately for me, my opponent rolled a 4 and Vlad survived.
Vlad retaliated, boosting damage and disabling the Reckoner. The Behemoth and Mortars opened fire on the stationary Reznik, easily scoring hits and obliterating him in a conflagration of explosive shrapnel.
My next game was against the Legion of Everblight as played by a guy named Parker. Parker is a pretty savvy player and Legion is a force to contend with. To his credit, Parker took a pretty balanced list: Saeryn, Angelius, Seraph, 2 Shredders, Blighted Archers with UA, Incubi and a Feralgeist.
I lost this game primarily due to poor distance estimation. My Doomreavers could not quite get close enough to the Blighted Archers to force a command check from their Abomination status, and the Manhunter's followup didn't quite reach them to engage in melee. Both ended up getting perforated. This left no backup for Behemoth who was dismantled by the Angelius, assisted by Saeryn's feat.
Ultimately it came down to Vlad, the one-man army. At this point in the game, both Shredders were dead and the Angelius was close to death (although it had Respawn cast on it and a Feralgeist nearby). Vlad managed to carve up the undamaged Seraph but could't get both it and the Angelius fast enough. Swarmed by Incubi and a back-striking Angelius, the Dark Prince fell.
Sunday I played two more league games. First was against the Golden God's Cryx. He took the Coven, 3 Deathrippers, 1 Nightwretch, Mechanithralls, Bane Knights, Tartarus, Skarlock Thrall and a Pistol Wraith. This list has F'ed me in the GA more times than I care to remember, and this weekend was no exception. Matt made good use of the Coven's feat, blunting my forward advance, and I misjudged Vlad's control range for the purpose of allocating focus to the Behemoth. Blarg.
Later that day I played Mario's Cygnar. He brought Caine, a Lancer, a Hunter, Rangers, Gunmages, Alexia and Eiriss. Once Mario gets a better handle on the rules, he's going to be formidable. So I'll take my wins while I can. We fought a bloody battle of attrition, but since I was able to slaughter the Gunmages before they had a chance to hobble the behemoth, I basically had an unstoppable force unchallenged on the field. Even so, Mario could have danced around with Caine indefinitely, but he was a good sport about it and hung Caine out in the open, and attempted to shoot Vlad to death. Fortunately for Vlad, Blood of Kings was up, and he only took about 5 damage from Caine's pistols. The next turn, Vlad charged, and cut Caine up handily.
So 2 and 2 so far in the League.