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!

Lather, Rinse and Repeat - Day 2 of Journeyman League

Saturday a group of people for the Journeyman League got together to play some more games.  Two of our players who haven't got games in yet showed up.  Here are a few brief battle reports plus a more detailed one of one of the more epic battles.

Bart vs. Denny

I didn't watch this game in heavy detail except for the ending.  At the end it only only Bart and a mariner vs. Denny.  Denny kept shadow binding the mariner.  Bart finally landed the killing blow after a couple back and forth rounds.  Denny's low mat made it hard for her to win out in a fight vs. Bart who has great melee stats at 15 def 16 armor.

Sorscha vs. Denny

I wasn't there at all for this game.  I was on a pizza run.  Sorscha won with a feat turn assassination run onto Denny with wind rush.

Carver vs. Sorscha

This game was actually really slow and boring so I'll keep it brief.  It was a shoot off, gun boars vs. destroyer. Once the gun boars showed they were going to win Sorscha started doing hit and runs with wind rush.  War hog got a charge off on the juggernaut removing it from the table and with some exceptional shooting I forced Sorscha to come to me.  She failed to kill the war hog by one and died to him on the following turn.

Bart vs. Sorscha

Turn 1 - Mercs

The jack's walked forward with Bart casting Batten Down the Hatches (BDH) and throwing Hot Shot onto the mariner. (Boosted damage rolls)

Turn 1 - Sorscha

Sorscha's battle group advanced under the protection of fog of war.

Turn 2 - Mercs

Bart upkept Hot Shot.  The buccaneer moved forward and attempted to net the destroyer, but fail short.  The freebooter walked up to be able to counter charge anyone who attacked the buccaneer.  Mariner stayed where it was taking an aiming bonus against the destroyer.  The shot hit but did no damage.  Bart broadsided to get another shot out of the mariner and popped his feat(she realizes this was a mistake in hindsight).

Turn 2 - Khador

Sorscha upkept fog of war. The destroyer opened the turn by firing and removing the net arm off of the buccaneer. The juggernaut moved forward in front of Sorscha who then cast wind rush to go up to defense 18.

Turn 3 - Mercs

Bart upkept hot shot.  The buccaneer ran in between the juggernaut and the destroyer locking both into combat and taking a wild pow 10 attack at the destroyer.  The freebooter moved to block a charge lane to Bart.  The mariner fired at the juggernaut doing minimal damage.  Bart then cast BDH.

Turn 3 - Khador

Fog of war finally dropped.  Sorscha casted boundless charge onto the juggernaut, wind rush onto sorscha and then feated and caught all of Bart's battle group in the feat. The destroyer shot the mariner and splashed damage onto Bart, though only doing minimal damage to both. Juggernaut charged the freebooter and was just barely out of charge range.

Turn 4 - Mercs

Bart spent 3 focus to shrug off stationary on everyone except the buccaneer.  Spent another focus to upkeep hot shot. Bart moved up, then the mariner moved up into base to base with Bart  and fired off a shot into the juggernaut missing.  The freebooter stepped up to the juggernaut hit twice doing minimal damage then landed a 2handed throw, but lost in the strength test vs. the juggernaut.

Turn 4 - Khador

Sorscha kept all of her focus.  Sorscha cast wind rush then proceeded to charge Bart. Sorscha did 6 points of damage to Bart and sat on 1 focus.  Never count out Sorscha though, defense 18 is hard to crack. The destroyer fired at the mariner doing 2 more points of damage to Bart and some damage to the mariner but no systems were crippled for Barts battle group yet. The juggernaut moved up and smashed into the freebooter, but spread out the damage so no systems were crippled.

Turn 5 - Mercs

This turn the game got really  quirky.  3 focus went to the freebooter and Bart sat on 3.  The mariner swung at Sorscha missing. Bart moved up boosted to hit and missed and then decided to camp the last two focus. The freebooter successfully hit both initials on the juggernaut doing only minimal damage, and with the grab and smash rule took a 2handed throw attempt again. This time succeeding and targeting Sorscha with her own juggernaut. The attack missed scattering directly into the middle of Sorscha, Bart, and the mariner.  Moving the smaller casters.  Bart didn't get knocked down due to being moved into base to base with the mariner who has the lash rule.  This knocked down Sorscha and the juggernaut, the juggernaut didn't have any crippled systems. The buccaneer moved up and engaged the destroyer.

Turn 5 - Khador

Sorscha paid to stand herself up leaving her with 5 focus.  Sorscha with reach bought and boosted two unsuccessful attacks.  The third attack connected putting Bart down to four health! The juggernaut stood up forfeiting his movement.  Took a swing with his axe missing and then took a swing with the fist connecting!  Though the damage roll didn't go in Khador's favor only doing 2 damage to Bart leaving him at 2 hit points! The destroyer took a freestrike from the buccaneer doing nothing and fired at the mariner hoping to splash damage onto Bart.  The attack missed and scattered onto Sorscha, mariner, and juggernaut doing 1 point to Sorscha leaving her at 4 hit points!

Turn 6 - Mercs

Bart allocated 3 focus to the freebooter, 1 to the mariner and left 2 on Bart.  The freebooter moved up with a backstrike swung on Sorscha with a boost needed an 8 and missed.  The second attack found its mark and with a boosted damage roll of 1 .... 1 ... then a 5.  Doing enough damage and ending the game!  The craziest game I've seen yet in our Journeyman League.

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.