Intro
I wanted to recap my game w/ Chip last Saturday - Cygnar's Markus "Siege" Brisbane vs Legion of Everblight's Absylonia. I'm a noob Warmachiner and trying to get better. I lost, but learned a lot. And that's the goal here. John read over and approved of my report. His thoughts/additions/corrections are in red.
Goals w/ these posts
I hope to be re-capping most of the Warmachine games I play in posts like this one. I've wanted to do that for a while. As I doubt anyone would ever read such esoteric posts (Warmachine jargon approaches science in obtuseness), these are primarily so that I will think about and better remember what I did wrong, to help me improve my game.
Perhaps they can also function as a learning stint for other noob warmachiners, to avoid my mistakes, provided there are any out there interested in reading. I do think that game recaps (particularly at the tournament level) would be *really* nice to have, for learning's sake, and I don't see many. Most stuff like that comes from podcasts after the fact, which are useful, if long and extraordinarily verbose. (I've started to realize though that it seems they are meant to be that way. I prefer just the facts.)
There's some other interesting sites I would recommend far above my own blog: Muse on Minis and the Privateer Press forums, for one. I hope to be doing more reading of both at some point. Experienced players feel free to skip my "Noob Notes," as you'd already know all that information anyway.
Our Lists
Mine - 35 pts - Cyngar - Siege
Black 13th
Boomhowlers
Junior
Reinholdt
Stormwall
Squire
Versh
Chip's List - 35 pts - Legion - Absylonia
Typhon
Carnivean
Angelius
Shredder
Strider deathstalkers 2x
The Forsaken
N00b Notes: What I learned about Chip's Legion
This was my first game against Legion. I discovered the Absylonia's feat would allow her to heal all her beasts so you want to focus fire and kill single targets of her army as much as possible.
The chief thing I was worried about (rightly so, as it turned out) was her Blight Field, a four inch AOE that does not allow the channeling of spells, forcing or allocation of focus. Very bad for my Stormwall.
The Typhon - has three heads and can fire off three pow 14 eight inch sprays or three pow 17 bites, whichever he prefers. Other things: 360 deg front arc and some healing abilities - kinda mean. Chip said he was squishy. At 13/17 def/armor, I guess so - but most Cygnar stuff is not that much higher armor, so I didn't consider that too bad.
Carnivean - typical heavy beast - one 10 in spray pow 14, a pow 18 bite and two pow 16 talons. He has the animus "spiny growth," which gives +2 armor, and causes beasts and 'jacks that attack a target w/ spiny growth to take d3 damage. It can be very effective at crippling already damaged 'jacks, as they have to damage themselves to attack the target. He can assault. Speed 6.
Angelius - heavy beast - speed 7. Eyeless sight - can see through stealth - 14/17 def/arm - range 12 pow 12 flame jet and pow 14 tail strike that has reach. His tail strike can be armor piercing - similar to what the Hunter can do. Halves base armor. However, unlike the hunter's pow 6, the Angelius has pow 14! That can do a lot more damage. He can also repulse models within 2" of him 3" directly away.
Shredder - I've seen these guys before (or heard of them). Speed 6, and 8 with Rabid, including Pathfinder and boosted attack and damage rolls. He has snacking, which means he can eat living models and heal d3. His animus is Tenacy = +1 def and +1 arm. Basically, just really annoying little biters to get up in your face and cause havoc. He's also often played well back to upkeep tenacity. Tenacity is a great animus - it can take good casters stats to excellent. For instance, a caster like Siege at 14/17 def/arm becomes really annoying at 15/18 and can be literally twice as hard to kill.
Strider deathstalkers - are your typical annoying stealth dudes. They have range 12 pow 10 guns, stealth, pathfinder and advance deploy, with some various shots they can do, to be more irritating. Very good at killing infantry.
The Forsaken - can take fury off beasts - nice - and gains an extra die for attack and damage rolls for each focus/fury that is ON a caster! Ahhhh. I see how it is now. Yes, very bad for casters.
Comment: Notice how fast these guys are - speed 6-8. Dangerous. Keep that in mind. They can cover the field quickly.
N00b Notes: My Siege List
I'll only discuss each of my lists once. I've enjoyed playing with Siege so far. He gets the job done and plays in a way that I enjoy.
Reinholdt - is there for his reload - let's Siege fire twice. And firing a pow 14 range 14 (same as control w/ Squire) gun isn't chicken feed. He can also do two other things - give caster an additional die on attack or damage roll, discarding lowest, and allow him to measure the distance between two models within his LOS. I'm not sure when those things would be more useful than reload though. (Neither does John.)
Squire - there for +2 to control, and his extra focus, obviously. One thing I *always* forget about him - he lets Siege reroll one failed magic attack roll as long as he's within 5".
Junior - a.k.a. Journeyman Warcaster is there to arcane shield (+3 arm) either the boomhowlers or Siege.
Boomhowlers - in this list are meant primarily to clog the field and be irritating, giving enough time for the Stormwall, Black 13th and Siege to do their job. They will generally be running interference for the Stormwall, in front of him. They can be hard to kill, as they can call +4 tough.
Black 13th - three deadly snipers - Ryan (2 shots), Watts and Lynch - typical abilities for gun mages - snipe (+4 range), brutal damage (+die on damage) and black penny (ignores firing into melee penalty). Ryan can also mage storm - AOE 4 pow 12 magical damage covering fire.
Harlan Versh - I love Versh more every time I play this list. He's not always useful, but when he is, he kicks face in. He's there basically to help my list deal with buffs, which can be a difficulty for it. He has blessed and purgation - blessed ignores spell effects that add to a model's arm or def. Purgation gives him an extra die on attack and damage rolls for targets with an enemy upkeep spell on them (not friendly). AND he has multi-fire - meaning, as long as he hits, he can shoot at something 4x OR anything within 2" of the original target. Translation - he's crap good at taking out buffed infrantry. He can also take out a buffed caster or a heavy beast/warjack BY HIMSELF.
N00b Conclusions - about the lists and match up
This match up wasn't terribly great for me, as it was model light and had a lot of heavy beasts with no infantry. Matt mentioned that Murdoch would be better than Reinholdt, because he gives the boomhowlers assault and makes them Cygnar models, rather than Merc.
John agrees and feels like he would certainly go in a 50 pt list, along with some rangers. To trade him in, I'd need to get rid of Reinholdt and Versh - I just love Versh too much to do that. But who knows, we'll see. I have to discuss with John some of those points again. I know there's more I'm not remembering.
The Setup
Here's how I spread my pieces out in the setup.
I wanted to recap my game w/ Chip last Saturday - Cygnar's Markus "Siege" Brisbane vs Legion of Everblight's Absylonia. I'm a noob Warmachiner and trying to get better. I lost, but learned a lot. And that's the goal here. John read over and approved of my report. His thoughts/additions/corrections are in red.
Goals w/ these posts
I hope to be re-capping most of the Warmachine games I play in posts like this one. I've wanted to do that for a while. As I doubt anyone would ever read such esoteric posts (Warmachine jargon approaches science in obtuseness), these are primarily so that I will think about and better remember what I did wrong, to help me improve my game.
Perhaps they can also function as a learning stint for other noob warmachiners, to avoid my mistakes, provided there are any out there interested in reading. I do think that game recaps (particularly at the tournament level) would be *really* nice to have, for learning's sake, and I don't see many. Most stuff like that comes from podcasts after the fact, which are useful, if long and extraordinarily verbose. (I've started to realize though that it seems they are meant to be that way. I prefer just the facts.)
There's some other interesting sites I would recommend far above my own blog: Muse on Minis and the Privateer Press forums, for one. I hope to be doing more reading of both at some point. Experienced players feel free to skip my "Noob Notes," as you'd already know all that information anyway.
Our Lists
Mine - 35 pts - Cyngar - Siege
Black 13th
Boomhowlers
Junior
Reinholdt
Stormwall
Squire
Versh
Chip's List - 35 pts - Legion - Absylonia
Typhon
Carnivean
Angelius
Shredder
Strider deathstalkers 2x
The Forsaken
N00b Notes: What I learned about Chip's Legion
This was my first game against Legion. I discovered the Absylonia's feat would allow her to heal all her beasts so you want to focus fire and kill single targets of her army as much as possible.
The chief thing I was worried about (rightly so, as it turned out) was her Blight Field, a four inch AOE that does not allow the channeling of spells, forcing or allocation of focus. Very bad for my Stormwall.
The Typhon - has three heads and can fire off three pow 14 eight inch sprays or three pow 17 bites, whichever he prefers. Other things: 360 deg front arc and some healing abilities - kinda mean. Chip said he was squishy. At 13/17 def/armor, I guess so - but most Cygnar stuff is not that much higher armor, so I didn't consider that too bad.
Carnivean - typical heavy beast - one 10 in spray pow 14, a pow 18 bite and two pow 16 talons. He has the animus "spiny growth," which gives +2 armor, and causes beasts and 'jacks that attack a target w/ spiny growth to take d3 damage. It can be very effective at crippling already damaged 'jacks, as they have to damage themselves to attack the target. He can assault. Speed 6.
Angelius - heavy beast - speed 7. Eyeless sight - can see through stealth - 14/17 def/arm - range 12 pow 12 flame jet and pow 14 tail strike that has reach. His tail strike can be armor piercing - similar to what the Hunter can do. Halves base armor. However, unlike the hunter's pow 6, the Angelius has pow 14! That can do a lot more damage. He can also repulse models within 2" of him 3" directly away.
Shredder - I've seen these guys before (or heard of them). Speed 6, and 8 with Rabid, including Pathfinder and boosted attack and damage rolls. He has snacking, which means he can eat living models and heal d3. His animus is Tenacy = +1 def and +1 arm. Basically, just really annoying little biters to get up in your face and cause havoc. He's also often played well back to upkeep tenacity. Tenacity is a great animus - it can take good casters stats to excellent. For instance, a caster like Siege at 14/17 def/arm becomes really annoying at 15/18 and can be literally twice as hard to kill.
Strider deathstalkers - are your typical annoying stealth dudes. They have range 12 pow 10 guns, stealth, pathfinder and advance deploy, with some various shots they can do, to be more irritating. Very good at killing infantry.
The Forsaken - can take fury off beasts - nice - and gains an extra die for attack and damage rolls for each focus/fury that is ON a caster! Ahhhh. I see how it is now. Yes, very bad for casters.
Comment: Notice how fast these guys are - speed 6-8. Dangerous. Keep that in mind. They can cover the field quickly.
N00b Notes: My Siege List
I'll only discuss each of my lists once. I've enjoyed playing with Siege so far. He gets the job done and plays in a way that I enjoy.
Reinholdt - is there for his reload - let's Siege fire twice. And firing a pow 14 range 14 (same as control w/ Squire) gun isn't chicken feed. He can also do two other things - give caster an additional die on attack or damage roll, discarding lowest, and allow him to measure the distance between two models within his LOS. I'm not sure when those things would be more useful than reload though. (Neither does John.)
Squire - there for +2 to control, and his extra focus, obviously. One thing I *always* forget about him - he lets Siege reroll one failed magic attack roll as long as he's within 5".
Junior - a.k.a. Journeyman Warcaster is there to arcane shield (+3 arm) either the boomhowlers or Siege.
Boomhowlers - in this list are meant primarily to clog the field and be irritating, giving enough time for the Stormwall, Black 13th and Siege to do their job. They will generally be running interference for the Stormwall, in front of him. They can be hard to kill, as they can call +4 tough.
Black 13th - three deadly snipers - Ryan (2 shots), Watts and Lynch - typical abilities for gun mages - snipe (+4 range), brutal damage (+die on damage) and black penny (ignores firing into melee penalty). Ryan can also mage storm - AOE 4 pow 12 magical damage covering fire.
Harlan Versh - I love Versh more every time I play this list. He's not always useful, but when he is, he kicks face in. He's there basically to help my list deal with buffs, which can be a difficulty for it. He has blessed and purgation - blessed ignores spell effects that add to a model's arm or def. Purgation gives him an extra die on attack and damage rolls for targets with an enemy upkeep spell on them (not friendly). AND he has multi-fire - meaning, as long as he hits, he can shoot at something 4x OR anything within 2" of the original target. Translation - he's crap good at taking out buffed infrantry. He can also take out a buffed caster or a heavy beast/warjack BY HIMSELF.
N00b Conclusions - about the lists and match up
This match up wasn't terribly great for me, as it was model light and had a lot of heavy beasts with no infantry. Matt mentioned that Murdoch would be better than Reinholdt, because he gives the boomhowlers assault and makes them Cygnar models, rather than Merc.
John agrees and feels like he would certainly go in a 50 pt list, along with some rangers. To trade him in, I'd need to get rid of Reinholdt and Versh - I just love Versh too much to do that. But who knows, we'll see. I have to discuss with John some of those points again. I know there's more I'm not remembering.
The Setup
Here's how I spread my pieces out in the setup.
Chip's setup on his side. Note the deathstalkers in the forest, of course.
End of Turn 1
These pictures were taken at the end of turn 1. Discussion is below.
These pictures were taken at the end of turn 1. Discussion is below.
End Turn 1 - Discussion
Boomhowlers vs Legion beasts
By this time, my boomhowlers had run up. They were going to try to engage the beasts to keep them from Stormwall. Unfortunately, I did some stupid things - one of which was I forgot to call their +4 tough fell call (turned out being unnecessary as all my tough rolls were 2's anyway).
Also, I should have spread them out a bit more. As they are now, Chip's Typhon was able to spray three times and get 2-3 per spray, and was able to wittle them down quite nicely, as they did not make their tough rolls so much this game. (John's *thumbs up.* Yup, Typhon was SO happy.)
Stormwall, Black 13th and Versh vs Deathstalkers
Stormwall shot his lightning pod out there (10" range) toward the deathstalkers as well as threw out 3" AOE covering fires from his littler guns. I learned in a previous game that covering fires were the way to go - and it makes sense. Ryan then mage stormed the lightning pod and killed it, but it allows her to precisely place a mage storm. Steven discussed this tactic w/ me. Here, it's not very important.
As you can see, they aren't close enough together. I need to get the distances right in future - ideally, you'd want them to be about 1/4" apart so that infrantry can't walk between them. In this case, I realized that it was not very useful as the deathstalkers don't really care about the covering fires - they can just shoot over them. And there wasn't any infantry to worry about. Still, I wanted to get into good habits, so I mostly did that for practice. It was ineffective to even hindering the deathstalkers, because I didn't get them close enough together.
End Turn 2, Chip - Discussion
As you see, by the end of his turn, Chip had killed four of my boomhowlers and knocked down three others. They needed to be more spread out. Absylonia was in the forest behind Angelius there, just out of range of Siege's control. Chip made sure of it.
I felt like this turn *looked* very promising. I was hoping to down one of his beasts easily with Versh and a little help from Black 13th, as they all had upkeeps. That was the plan. It didn't go nearly so well as I wanted. The only good thing was that Chip failed to kill Ryan with the deathstalkers. I didn't think feating on this turn was feasible, but I expected to feat top of turn 3.
Boomhowlers vs Legion beasts
By this time, my boomhowlers had run up. They were going to try to engage the beasts to keep them from Stormwall. Unfortunately, I did some stupid things - one of which was I forgot to call their +4 tough fell call (turned out being unnecessary as all my tough rolls were 2's anyway).
Also, I should have spread them out a bit more. As they are now, Chip's Typhon was able to spray three times and get 2-3 per spray, and was able to wittle them down quite nicely, as they did not make their tough rolls so much this game. (John's *thumbs up.* Yup, Typhon was SO happy.)
Stormwall, Black 13th and Versh vs Deathstalkers
Stormwall shot his lightning pod out there (10" range) toward the deathstalkers as well as threw out 3" AOE covering fires from his littler guns. I learned in a previous game that covering fires were the way to go - and it makes sense. Ryan then mage stormed the lightning pod and killed it, but it allows her to precisely place a mage storm. Steven discussed this tactic w/ me. Here, it's not very important.
As you can see, they aren't close enough together. I need to get the distances right in future - ideally, you'd want them to be about 1/4" apart so that infrantry can't walk between them. In this case, I realized that it was not very useful as the deathstalkers don't really care about the covering fires - they can just shoot over them. And there wasn't any infantry to worry about. Still, I wanted to get into good habits, so I mostly did that for practice. It was ineffective to even hindering the deathstalkers, because I didn't get them close enough together.
End Turn 2, Chip - Discussion
As you see, by the end of his turn, Chip had killed four of my boomhowlers and knocked down three others. They needed to be more spread out. Absylonia was in the forest behind Angelius there, just out of range of Siege's control. Chip made sure of it.
I felt like this turn *looked* very promising. I was hoping to down one of his beasts easily with Versh and a little help from Black 13th, as they all had upkeeps. That was the plan. It didn't go nearly so well as I wanted. The only good thing was that Chip failed to kill Ryan with the deathstalkers. I didn't think feating on this turn was feasible, but I expected to feat top of turn 3.
End of Turn 2, me - Discussion
I made several bad mistakes that bit me in the butt here - forgot to call +4 tough again, as well as, I started by moving up the boomhowlers and engaging the Carnivean, however, because Typhon has reach (*see below), they also engaged *him* and gave him the melee combat def buff, along with cover from the wall, putting him somewhere around def 21. That was NOT a smart move on my part, and I was pretty annoyed with myself.
Also, note from John - I should have been playing the Squire further back. He doesn't have to be b2b w/ his caster and risks getting killed by smart enemies. Keep him behind further back (within 5").
**Now that I'm look at this though, I'm confused, because I can't find that the Typhon has reach - that's the Angelius's tail strike. He looks out-of-combat, if that's the case, but he might have a special rule. I'll ask John to clear this up later. Anyway, at the time, I thought I'd engaged him.
**Typhon does not, in fact, have reach. What was going on was Chip had used Absylonia to cast "Playing God" on him, which gives his melee weapons open fist AND reach. Also, the target gains terror and can make power attacks w/o being forced (w/o using focus, for Warmachine).
John spent quite a while discussing the amazing uses of "Playing God." For one, it allows models without an open fist to gain one, which allows them to make power throw attacks. It also allows them to lock a model's arm/head. I didn't know about locks before this. He said that you can use an open fist to lock a model's arm, provided it hits. The target must then use its initial attack to free its arm by making a skill check, comparing strength. It can then buy other attacks with focus, but it wastes time unlocking itself, which can be really annoying.
The rules for colossals were specifically modified so that only other colossals could lock them (models with bases equal to or greater), due to someone's excellent use of Playing God and Blight Field. A model would lock the colossal. Absylonia would cast Blight Field on it. Then colossal would free it's arm, but could not be allocated focus, so it could literally not make any other attacks. Oh yes. I can just see it now.
That left me with Angelius to try to take down. The problem with him though - although he wasn't close enough to the wall to get cover, he was also just out of range of everything good - black 13th and Versh.
I ended up trying to shoot him. The shots just missed. Versh tried to shoot and missed (out of range, that is). The stormwall got closer and got his AOEs to line up better, along with Ryan's mage storm on the pod (see above). Although, this was a very promising turn that turned out to do absolutely nothing - kind of anticlimactic and sad.
One thing John said would have been good to do here is have the Stormwall shoot lightning pods, not behind the beasts, but IN FRONT of them. Why? This keeps them from charging him, and they have to waste attacks shooting a stupid pod, or move around it. A brilliant idea! I think he's told me this before, and I just forgot.
End Turn 3 - here's where things got interesting
I made several bad mistakes that bit me in the butt here - forgot to call +4 tough again, as well as, I started by moving up the boomhowlers and engaging the Carnivean, however, because Typhon has reach (*see below), they also engaged *him* and gave him the melee combat def buff, along with cover from the wall, putting him somewhere around def 21. That was NOT a smart move on my part, and I was pretty annoyed with myself.
Also, note from John - I should have been playing the Squire further back. He doesn't have to be b2b w/ his caster and risks getting killed by smart enemies. Keep him behind further back (within 5").
**Now that I'm look at this though, I'm confused, because I can't find that the Typhon has reach - that's the Angelius's tail strike. He looks out-of-combat, if that's the case, but he might have a special rule. I'll ask John to clear this up later. Anyway, at the time, I thought I'd engaged him.
**Typhon does not, in fact, have reach. What was going on was Chip had used Absylonia to cast "Playing God" on him, which gives his melee weapons open fist AND reach. Also, the target gains terror and can make power attacks w/o being forced (w/o using focus, for Warmachine).
John spent quite a while discussing the amazing uses of "Playing God." For one, it allows models without an open fist to gain one, which allows them to make power throw attacks. It also allows them to lock a model's arm/head. I didn't know about locks before this. He said that you can use an open fist to lock a model's arm, provided it hits. The target must then use its initial attack to free its arm by making a skill check, comparing strength. It can then buy other attacks with focus, but it wastes time unlocking itself, which can be really annoying.
The rules for colossals were specifically modified so that only other colossals could lock them (models with bases equal to or greater), due to someone's excellent use of Playing God and Blight Field. A model would lock the colossal. Absylonia would cast Blight Field on it. Then colossal would free it's arm, but could not be allocated focus, so it could literally not make any other attacks. Oh yes. I can just see it now.
That left me with Angelius to try to take down. The problem with him though - although he wasn't close enough to the wall to get cover, he was also just out of range of everything good - black 13th and Versh.
I ended up trying to shoot him. The shots just missed. Versh tried to shoot and missed (out of range, that is). The stormwall got closer and got his AOEs to line up better, along with Ryan's mage storm on the pod (see above). Although, this was a very promising turn that turned out to do absolutely nothing - kind of anticlimactic and sad.
One thing John said would have been good to do here is have the Stormwall shoot lightning pods, not behind the beasts, but IN FRONT of them. Why? This keeps them from charging him, and they have to waste attacks shooting a stupid pod, or move around it. A brilliant idea! I think he's told me this before, and I just forgot.
End Turn 3 - here's where things got interesting
End Turn 3 - Discussion
Above is end turn 3, from Chip. I didn't take more pictures after this, but I remember what happened. Not a whole lot moved and it was all down him from here for me. >.>
Chip's moves
Absylonia moved up behind the wall and cast Blight Field (as I had feared) on my stormwall, leaving him with no focus allocation. Then, the Angelius charged him and took out most of his right side, including the R arm. The deathstalkers finally managed to kill Ryan this turn, and ignored Versh, because they hadn't realized yet how deadly he was. The shredder charged the remaining Black 13th and engaged them both, forcing them to deal with him first and waste a lot of shots to kill him. Typhon continued to kill boomhowlers and they failed their command check. The Carnivean didn't do that much. I forgot what he did - he might have charged the stormwall later. Lastly, the Forsaken, with five fury on him angled himself near Siege - which was bad news for him.
My moves
Unfortunately, even with Absylonia so close, she was behind a wall with three fury and some kind of animus on her that made her def 21 (That animus was the shredder's Tenacity. Base 16 def + 4 def from cover + 1 def from Tenacity = 21). Thus, she was going to be very difficult to kill. I decided to feat on her beasts and hopefully kill them before she feated and healed them all.
I first had the boomhowlers run away from Typhon, as you see here, so they wouldn't be engaging him and I could shoot him. They managed to survive the freestrike.
Reinholdt activated and cast his reload on Siege. Siege grabbed focus from Squire (during the maintenance phase, not when he activated), feated and shot and killed the Forsaken. He tried to shoot Typhon, I think, but his damage roll sucked even with his feat and did almost nothing to him (maybe 5 damage... or maybe more, I cannot remember).
The black 13th activated and killed the shredder. But, then they only had one shot left, and they used it on the Typhon. Again, it didn't do that much damage. (I was rolling ridiculously low - it happens.)
I *think* the stormwall tried to shoot the Angelius with his left side. However, he wasn't able to kill it (something like five boxes left maybe).
Finally, there was only Versh. He nonchalantly walked up, tipping his hat, and unloaded all four of his blessed, purgation, multi-fire rounds into the Typhon leaving it with only 3 boxes. Chip was aghast. That much of the game, I still chuckle about. Versh is my man. However, it was all to no good - he didn't kill him - his rolls weren't quite high enough. I was rolling pretty low.
Turn 4 and Wrap Up
I can't remember if it was the Carnivean or the Angelius that was at low health - one of them and the Typhon, though. Pretty sure it was Angelius. Alas. I was so sad. I knew I was doomed now, because in Chip's next turn, Absylonia feated and healed everything back to full. Angelius scrapped the stormwall. The Deathstalkers killed Versh immediately. Typhon finished off the boomhowlers and helped kill stormwall.
On my turn, Siege made a valiant effort to assassinate Absylonia by foxholing Typhon. He did manage to get a 14 damage shot off onto her, but she transferred it, of course. After my turn was up and he was still alive, I conceded. There was nothing else I could do, at that point. But, it was a fun game!
Summary of Key Points Learned
1. Lightning pods take damage from mage storm. It doesn't matter if they die from it.
2. Don't forget to shoot lightning pods during EVERY turn (I forgot to shoot them on turn 3, when everything crazy was happening. I could have done more damage.) And shoot them in front of beasts and 'jacks to keep them from charging.
3. Stormwall needs focus to do power attacks - I forgot about that - and uncrippled systems, of course.
4. Keep boomhowlers more spread out to avoid excessive damage from sprayers. And call their +4 tough, darn it!
5. Might be better to keep stormwall further back, away from the Blight Field, in this case.
6. The Squire should be played farther back. He doesn't have to be b2b with Siege - he can be within 5". Otherwise, he risks getting killed by smart enemy players.
7. Yet again, note to self: cover = +4 def, a hill = +2 def, melee penalty = +4 def, stealth = +4 def; one cannot benefit from stealth and cover at the same time (but the others, yes).
Closing Comments
Typically, I'm starting to really enjoy games these days. I don't care about losing - what I enjoy is seeing all these new things and finally getting to take them all in. I'm understanding more of what's going on, especially my own units and the terminology. This lets me focus on the enemy more and on what they can do. They kill me, and I take notes. It's fascinating. I'm seeing the big picture a lot more - it's a wide horizon opening out before me that I've just stuck my toe into.
So, despite losing, I can't help but enjoy myself because I'm actually learning things, versus getting beat and not knowing what the heck happened or what my army could do to prevent it.
I hope to provide more battle reports, on the completion of more games. They will be shorter than this one, most likely.
Above is end turn 3, from Chip. I didn't take more pictures after this, but I remember what happened. Not a whole lot moved and it was all down him from here for me. >.>
Chip's moves
Absylonia moved up behind the wall and cast Blight Field (as I had feared) on my stormwall, leaving him with no focus allocation. Then, the Angelius charged him and took out most of his right side, including the R arm. The deathstalkers finally managed to kill Ryan this turn, and ignored Versh, because they hadn't realized yet how deadly he was. The shredder charged the remaining Black 13th and engaged them both, forcing them to deal with him first and waste a lot of shots to kill him. Typhon continued to kill boomhowlers and they failed their command check. The Carnivean didn't do that much. I forgot what he did - he might have charged the stormwall later. Lastly, the Forsaken, with five fury on him angled himself near Siege - which was bad news for him.
My moves
Unfortunately, even with Absylonia so close, she was behind a wall with three fury and some kind of animus on her that made her def 21 (That animus was the shredder's Tenacity. Base 16 def + 4 def from cover + 1 def from Tenacity = 21). Thus, she was going to be very difficult to kill. I decided to feat on her beasts and hopefully kill them before she feated and healed them all.
I first had the boomhowlers run away from Typhon, as you see here, so they wouldn't be engaging him and I could shoot him. They managed to survive the freestrike.
Reinholdt activated and cast his reload on Siege. Siege grabbed focus from Squire (during the maintenance phase, not when he activated), feated and shot and killed the Forsaken. He tried to shoot Typhon, I think, but his damage roll sucked even with his feat and did almost nothing to him (maybe 5 damage... or maybe more, I cannot remember).
The black 13th activated and killed the shredder. But, then they only had one shot left, and they used it on the Typhon. Again, it didn't do that much damage. (I was rolling ridiculously low - it happens.)
I *think* the stormwall tried to shoot the Angelius with his left side. However, he wasn't able to kill it (something like five boxes left maybe).
Finally, there was only Versh. He nonchalantly walked up, tipping his hat, and unloaded all four of his blessed, purgation, multi-fire rounds into the Typhon leaving it with only 3 boxes. Chip was aghast. That much of the game, I still chuckle about. Versh is my man. However, it was all to no good - he didn't kill him - his rolls weren't quite high enough. I was rolling pretty low.
Turn 4 and Wrap Up
I can't remember if it was the Carnivean or the Angelius that was at low health - one of them and the Typhon, though. Pretty sure it was Angelius. Alas. I was so sad. I knew I was doomed now, because in Chip's next turn, Absylonia feated and healed everything back to full. Angelius scrapped the stormwall. The Deathstalkers killed Versh immediately. Typhon finished off the boomhowlers and helped kill stormwall.
On my turn, Siege made a valiant effort to assassinate Absylonia by foxholing Typhon. He did manage to get a 14 damage shot off onto her, but she transferred it, of course. After my turn was up and he was still alive, I conceded. There was nothing else I could do, at that point. But, it was a fun game!
Summary of Key Points Learned
1. Lightning pods take damage from mage storm. It doesn't matter if they die from it.
2. Don't forget to shoot lightning pods during EVERY turn (I forgot to shoot them on turn 3, when everything crazy was happening. I could have done more damage.) And shoot them in front of beasts and 'jacks to keep them from charging.
3. Stormwall needs focus to do power attacks - I forgot about that - and uncrippled systems, of course.
4. Keep boomhowlers more spread out to avoid excessive damage from sprayers. And call their +4 tough, darn it!
5. Might be better to keep stormwall further back, away from the Blight Field, in this case.
6. The Squire should be played farther back. He doesn't have to be b2b with Siege - he can be within 5". Otherwise, he risks getting killed by smart enemy players.
7. Yet again, note to self: cover = +4 def, a hill = +2 def, melee penalty = +4 def, stealth = +4 def; one cannot benefit from stealth and cover at the same time (but the others, yes).
Closing Comments
Typically, I'm starting to really enjoy games these days. I don't care about losing - what I enjoy is seeing all these new things and finally getting to take them all in. I'm understanding more of what's going on, especially my own units and the terminology. This lets me focus on the enemy more and on what they can do. They kill me, and I take notes. It's fascinating. I'm seeing the big picture a lot more - it's a wide horizon opening out before me that I've just stuck my toe into.
So, despite losing, I can't help but enjoy myself because I'm actually learning things, versus getting beat and not knowing what the heck happened or what my army could do to prevent it.
I hope to provide more battle reports, on the completion of more games. They will be shorter than this one, most likely.