Week 3 Battle Reports and Recap of Current Totals

We had four battle fought tonight with plenty more to happen throughout the week.  Our current totals stand at...


Recap of the Journeyman League Totals

Cryx                                                 11pts

Cryx

Legion                                              5pts

Merc - Pirates - Nicole                   37pts

Minions - Thornfall - John              27pts

Minions - Blindwater - Lucas          9pts

Khador                                             21pts

Cygnar                                              2pts

Cygnar

Menoth                                             3pts

Circle                                                6pts

Circle

Skorne                                              11pts

Retribution                                       6pts

We definitely have a few front runners with Pirates getting a lot of games in and the most painted models.  Great job Nicole!  I'm currently in second with Steve nipping at my heals at 3rd.  The only different between Steve and I is the 6 points I've received from painting so far.

I also love how some of our new players are showing great improvement, great job Lucas and Matt!

Now to the battle reports (most of these will be short as I didn't fully watch any of the games)

Khador vs. Pirates

Sorscha                        Bartolo Montador
Destroyer                     Mariner
Juggernaught                 Freebooter
Bombadiers (min)         Buccaneer
Manhunter                    Aiyana and Holt
                                    Bloody Bradigan
                                    Dougal MacNaile

This battle started out with some barrages from both sides and quickly escalated into an all out throw down.  Bart popped his feat first and applying pressure to Khadors forces killing off the Bombadiers and Manhunter quickly.  Then Khador retaliated by pressuring the high armor warjacks.  The battle quickly boiled down to Bart surviving Sorscha's assassination attempt who then wind rushed away as it obviously wasn't working out.

Bart retaliated by eating a free strike and charging Sorscha.  She survived his barrage of attacks and brought the full force of her army onto him.  Missed both of the Juggernaught attacks needing 7's, landed the Destroyers attack putting Bart to 3.  Sorscha missed all of her attacks but one and failed to crack the Pirate Captains armor!

With the fresh reprieve Bart finished off Sorscha who was no longer defense 18.

Minions (Barnabas) vs. Skorne

Barnabas                               Morghoul
Spitter                                   2xSavages
Wrastler                                Gladiator
Croak Hunter                        Bloodrunners (min)
Thrullg                                   Void Spirit
Feralgeist                               Beast Handlers
Totem Hunter

As I watched the previous battle more I didn't catch much of this game's details.  Skorne claimed victory though, undefeated at this point!

Skorne vs. Pirates

Bartolo Montador                 Morghoul
Mariner                                 2x Savages
Freebooter                            Gladiator
Buccaneer                             Accuraii
Bloody Bradigan                   Beast Handlers
Dougal MacNaile
Aiyana and Holt

Pirates used their advantage very heavily with their shooting to force Skorne to close the gap and come to them.  Unfrotunately for Adam and his Skorne, Nicole's shooting really hammered his army.  That combined with Bart's feat really left him without many good options.  Skorne was out done by the Pirates shooting as Bart claimed a second victory and ending Adams win streak!


Khador  vs. Minions (Barnabas)


Sorscha                     Barnabas
Destroyer                  Spitter
Juggernaught             Wrastler
Bombadiers               Croak Hunter
Manhunter                 Thrullg
                                 Totem Hunter

Sorscha used her Khador forces very effectively to close the gap on the gators and line up Sorscha on a solid assassination run.  This was very effective as early on the charge lane opened up and Steve took it.  Slamming into Barnabas and using her feat to make every blow hit.  Barnabas went down with Sorscha's last attack, but the victory was short lived as Barnabas survived by a tough check.

Next turn after shrugging off stationary Barnabas clobbered Sorscha to death with a whirlwind of attacks.

A Saturday of gaming and painting

Bart's loyal Mariner

Gaming this Saturday was very low key. It was only my friends Greg, Steve and myself interested in playing. Nicole and I painted earlier in the morning, while she continued to paint throughout the rest of the day. She cranked out two beautiful Pirate Jacks AAARGH!  I finally finished up my warlock, Lord Carver, BMMD, Esq. III.  You can discuss a lot about his spells and stats, but nobody can argue he has easily the best name in HORDES.

Lord Carver, BMMD, Esq. III

The first battle today was a quick Kaya vs. Sorscha where Steve taught Greg the 19 inch threat trick.

Freebooter, Master of Hog Throwing

After that battle Greg challenged me and we had a Carver vs. Kaya battle. Just one game for the league, and then we decided to do a 50 point battle for fun.  I learned a lot of tricks this battle, one them being spirit door is a very hard, specially when Greg filled out the rest of his force with two units of shifting stones to add on to the movement shenanigans of his force.  He picked me apart with Spirit door slowly removing my Gun Boars then doing a drive by on the War Hog and poor carver trapped in the middle of shifting stones.  A very dirty trick I had taught Greg years ago!  As Carver was smashing through the stones Kaya lined up her Feral Warpwolf and proceeded to go piggy bowling! All in all a very amusing game.

The second game was a Harbinger vs. Maelok. Greg has a very effective Harbinger list he's been practicing and I think Maelok is one of the better options for Minions when facing the all powerful 12 year old blind girl.  The game started out very much in my favor with a good Bog Trogg ambush onto his knights errant.  Destroying everyone in the unit except the standard bearer that turn. Totem hunter and Gator Posse finished off the Seneshal.  Greg retaliated with a very powerful ranged turn from a Reckoner doing devastating blows to Maelok.  I didn't protect him nearly enough, and with purification removing spiny growth he was down to his 17 armor. Harbinger also popped her feat.

Maelok retaliated by popping his feat, effectively negating Harbinger's feat, though the Bog Trogs and Wrong Eye were too far away to be affected by Maelok's counter feat. I slammed into the paladins with the Gatormen Posse and Bull Snapper forcing Harbinger to martyr roughly 8 times, this was only doable because Greg kept rolling 1 point of damage!

The next turn Greg opened a charge lane with some paladin killing blows, including Vilmon slaying 1 of his own paladins of the wall! (Moral victory right there in my opinion.) Then sent the Avatar right at Maelok who was sitting on 3 transfers but only 2 hit points left.  The Avatar with guided hand rolls 3 1's missing Maleok with the charge attack. After the laughter subsided he took two more attacks forcing me to pass off 2 transfers.  Then the Reckoner took a ranged shot at Maelok needing an 11 to hit and connected, also setting him on fire.  This was transfered off as well.  Now for all the marbles.  The vassal moved up to the Reckoner and did an ancillary attack needing a 9 to hit on two dice.  Rolled an 11 and finishing off Maelok.

All an all a I like Maelok.  I think I would drop a turtle for another Gatormen Posse and tweak the list a little further.  I also want to experiment with Calaban vs. Harbinger.  I think I might be able to angle some good tricks vs. her.  Maelok is a little heavily reliant on some key up keeps, that are hard to manage with purification on a 10 focus caster.

Next up on the painting block is Thunder Pig!  Though I have no idea how long he will take to crank out. Until next time!

Week 2 of Journeyman League

Paul's Denegra

Week 2 is upon us and it started out with a really fun Friday night.  We had lots of games going on and people showing up with painted models to show off, all in all a good gaming session.

To start off Paul showed up with a really killer Machine Wraith that my picture doesn't give any justice, sorry Paul!  Paul also finished up his Warwitch Denegra, earning him 3 points for painting.

   I finished up a pair of my Gun Boars, they've definitely earned their paint job throughout the course of the week.  Those pow 13 guns are not to be understimated!  I have been blessed with some nice caster shots and a few devastating blows to crucial warjacks.  They did fail me tonight vs. Bart, but only after using all the good ammunition vs. Paul's Cryx, but i'll dive into that as we approach the battle reports.

Paul's machine wraith

Pair of Carver Gun Boars

Kreoss vs. Stryker

I admittedly didn't watch this game in heavy detail.  I can point out some of the highlights as I was battling Cryx on the table next to it.  Dave our Menoth player kept advancing into the guns of Cygnar trying to take advantage of his arc node.

While Eric kept blasting away with his charger and black 13th, as well as his own arc node on the lancer!  The powerful shot ability on the charger landed some damage early on and racked up some damage boxes on Menoth as they advanced.

As the armies started to collide it seemed the Cygnar army was impervious with Strykers feat +5 armor, and Arcane Shield +3 armor on the Ironclade.  Taking him to a massive 26 armor, which is typically unheard of in Warmachine!

Dave was not to be daunted though as his crusader began picking up and chucking Eric's warjacks in a nearby shallow lake extinguishing the furnaces!  It was both hilarious and mournful as Stryker's forces who've been doing so well are being defeated by body of calm cool water.

The battle ended with Kreoss taking home victory for Menoth.

Carver vs. Denegra

 This battle was truly about the Gun Boars as they opened up with a nice hit on one of Paul's bone jacks.  Paul retaliated by spraying and applying corrosion to half of my army.  Though the rest of the damage hits were mitigated by Batten Down the Hatches.  Such an amazing spell.

As the Cryx army rushed to calm the thunderous shots of the Gun Boars one Bone Jack bit the dust.  Once engaged quagmire on one of the Gun Boars helped mitigate the high defense of the Cryx jacks.  Though the one Death Ripper that closed in on a Gun Boar proceeded to heavily damage the pig.  With the mighty 20 armor the Gun Boar survived.

Carver decided to end this now as he saw his pigs taking a heavy toll.  With the help of his feat Carver charged the Slayer and landed a devastating blow.  This was followed up by a pair of Gun Boars battering the Slayer to dust freeing the War Hog to run off to engage Denegra.

Denegra being immune to free strikes (Doh!) backed away from the War Hog and proceed to shadow bind, parasite and bash the War Hog landed very powerful hits.

Though Denegra had lost too many much and Carver applied  lots of pressure as the Gun Boars finished off the Bone Jacks and Carver moved into position to charge next turn.  Denegra seeing her army disintegrate before her took solice in destroying Carver's War Hog before finally getting cut down by Carver's weapon, The Hand of God.

Bart vs. Legion

I didn't watch this battle at all honestly.  Only thing I noticed as I glanced over was Bart had removed all of Legions army and had put 12 solid points of damage on Lylth.  With Lylth's dying breath she landed a powerful bow shot, followed by a parasite and another bow shot to do enough damage to fell Bart (and Carver) has yet to pass a single tough check in the league so far.

Sorscha vs. Denegra

I only caught the highlights of this battle after it had ended.  Sorscha's crazy threat range of 19 inches got her into melee with Denegra and her trusty hammer Frostfang finished the job.

Carver vs. Bart


Going into this battle 1 to 1 a real grudge match has been a brooding.  Carver taking the first turn runs forward with everything except Carver who casts Batten Down the Hatches.

Bart using his superior range takes a shot with his Mariner landing one damage point to a Gun Boar.  The Gun Boars retaliated doing some damage to the Buccaneer and Freebooter.

Mariner taking a 2nd round shot blasts into Carver doing 4 points of damage.  The Freebooter charges into the War Hog doing really nice damage considering it was dice minus 7, but failing to hit with the grab and smash allowing to do its free two handed throw, the bane of the war hog's existence!

Carver calls his feat and charges the Freebooter.  I pick up my four dice happy to roll this devastating blow and see the dice come up 1 ... 2 ... 2 ... 3.  I did 3 points of damage to the Freebooter!  This throws off the rest of my plans the turn and I proceed to take a few pot shots off with the Gun Boars and attack the Freebooter with the War Hog who doesn't finish it off.  (I forgot to mention Bart's minus 3 to hit on feat turn is rough!)  Seeing a charge lane from Bart to Carver all be it too late.  Targ decides to eat the bullet and runs in front of Carver.

The next turn is humorous.  Dougle fires off his Quad Iron and misses with snake eyes.  The Mariner then deciding to kill off Targ to open the charge lane fires killing Targ, who decides to be too tough for a cannon ball and lies down instead (passed tough). The Buccaneer having enough moves up and skewers Targ's body on the ground.  With the charge lane free Bart charges Carver.

Bart lands two solid attacks on Carver who shrugs one off to a beast. (His 1 and only transfer)  Carver sitting at 13 def 20 armor with 5 hit points left thinks he'll survive the round to get his revenge on Bart!  Bart spend his last focus hits.  Picking up two dice we do a quick calculation of the odds.  Bart is pow 14, Carver is armor 20, with 5 hit points left.  Bart needs to roll a 11 or 12 to finish off the pig.  Nicole picks up the dice rolls them on the table and lands double 6's.  I am sweating now.  All I need is a tough check, I pick up my die and roll it, 3.  Game over Bart, you win this time but I'll get my revenge!

Recap of the Journeyman League Totals

Cryx                                      11pts

Cryx

Legion                                   5pts

Merc - Pirates                      19pts

Minions - Thornfall                20pts

Minions - Blindwater             4pts

Khador                                 10pts

Cygnar                                  2pts

Cygnar

Menoth                                  3pts

Circle                                    6pts

Circle

Skorne                                  3pts

Retribution

As it's nearing 3 I'm going to wrap this one as I'm tired.  Though I have got Carver nearly done, so look for an update this weekend with my warlock finally done!  Maybe that's the edge Bart has had all a long!

First painted model of the Journeyman league!

FIRST PAINTED MODEL!

While I was writing this my wife painted up her warcaster.

We also have our first painted model of the league!  Captain Bartolo Montadoor, congrats Nicole.

Journeyman League Starts!

Our journeyman league started today!  I love teaching new players how to play.  We got a few new players to try out armies and have some fun first time experiences.

Our Journeyman League consists of almost every faction which makes me very excited!

The list of factions and points currently earned...

Cryx

Cryx

Legion                                  2pts

Merc - Pirates                      5pts

Minions - Thornfall               6pts

Minions - Blindwater            4pts

Khador

Cygnar

Cygnar

Menoth

Circle                                    6pts

Skorne                                  3pts

Retribution

My first two games, which are mangled metal battle box games for people who don't know, were Blindwater and Mercs.

Bloody Barnabas vs. Lord Carver

Right before Carver charged Barnabas to seal the deal.

First round was me reshifting my army across the battlefield as the gators deployed on the opposite side near the lake.  While the gator player advanced (his second game of Warmachine!), we went over a lot of the basics while I tried to remember all the important details and rules Lucas needed to know.

Second round was a barrage of gun boars vs. the spitter ranged attacks.  I missed both my shots on the Iron Flesh wrastler and he landed a hit with the spitter on the boar tagging both with the corrosion.

Third round I fired both gun boars into Barnabas getting him to use his two transfers.  I then went with Lord Carver popped my feat (making him a weapon master), cast mobility (taking care of the swamp pit) and charged Barnabas.  The first hit landed a devastating blow of 34 damage putting Barnabas at 1 hit point.  I then bought another attack and finished the job, even though the attack only did a few damage.

Funny part is, things would've got really tricky if he had passed his tough roll.

Bartolo Montador vs. Lord Carver

This game was very amusing.  Though Montador and Carver's feats are very different the armies player very similar.  Both having batten down the hatches(BDH), with hindsight I think the edge went in my favor with BDH countering the knock down portion of his feat.

First few rounds were Gun Boars firing into the mariner while the Mariner fired back into a gun boar.  I landed a devastating blow early on with a 15 damage roll on dice.  Though the gun was the one system that stayed in tact.

The buccaneer moved up and tied up the gun boars.  Another shot from the mariner into my warhog, who then got charged by the freebooter.  The freebooter was played very well and did some damage to my warhog then tossed the war hog out of my warlocks control range.  Effectively allowing it to be knocked down even though BDH was up and did some serious damage as it got thrown into a wall.

The next turn I had to use Carver to destroy the buccaneer, and fired off another shot at the Mariner.  Since the war hog was out of my control area I couldn't stand him up in the maintenance phase so I just stood up and moved back into the control area.

Montador repeated the tactic and moved up pounded on the war hog with a few hits and tried to throw the hog again.  Luckily for me I was able to win the strength  test 1 dice vs. 2.  This was game altering, allowing me to destroy the healthy freebooter with my war hog as it only had 5 damage boxes left.  This was then followed up with some gun boars firing into the mariner making it a wreck marker.

Montador now standing alone takes advantage of the wreck markers around him for cover and sprays into my gun boar, but his 20 armor (thank you BDH) blocked the majority of the attack.  I moved up with Carver popped my feat and cast mobility.  Both gun boars knowing they won't hit Bart with +4 def charge.  The first attack lands, I pick up my four dice to roll damage very excited!  Bart sitting on 4 focus points gets ready to take a brutal attack.  The dice roll ... 1 ... 1 ... 3 ... 3.  I looked at the dice amazed, I've done no damage.  The next attack swings, connects, and does 3 points of damage to Bart.  The next boar goes, misses his charge attack, lands his second attack and does 1 or 2 more points of damage to Bart.  I definitely thought I had the game in the bag on that turn.

Bart activates, slaugthers the damaged gun boar collecting a blood quencher token (+1 str + 1 armor) and takes overtake to move an inch farther from Carver.  

Carver casts mobility and charges Bart. I land the charge attack and put Bart to 5 hit points.  Carver then missed his next attack.  At this point I start to sweat, I know if I missed the next attack or even connect but Bart makes his tough check I'll be in a world of pain.  I land the blow and finish off his hit points.  My opponent (who happens to be my wife) picks up the dice knowing if she could roll a 5 or 6 the game was in the bag.  Stares me in the eye and rolls the die.  It comes up a 4.

I must give the MVP too Batten Down the Hatches.  That spell is amazing, even more so vs. the match ups I had today.  Barnabas and Bart both have knockdown feats and the buccaneer couldn't throw his net on me all game.

Very close game and very enjoyable.