Overview
Last Saturday, I played two games - a 15 pt game and a 25 pt team game. This post details the 15 pt. game against Nick: Cygnar's Siege vs Protectorate of Menoth's Kreoss. ... I'll just warn you that this game was kind of totally embarrassing, as both of us made caboodles of mistakes. Yeah. I'm hoping that outlining them all and seeing boldfacedly just how bad they were will motivate me NEVER to do that again!
I got to meet at least two new guys up at the Tower who are newer Warmachine players. Very exciting! I'm hoping all these new people continue to come.
I think I went overboard a little with this report, making notes to myself. I'm going to have to rest before I right up the second. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.
Our Lists
Mine - 15 pts - Cygnar - Siege
Black 13th
Defender
Charger
Squire
Nick's - 15 pts - Menoth - Kreoss
Crusader (2x)
Choir of Menoth
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
High Paladin of the Order of the Wall (2x)
Noob Notes - my list:
This 15 pt list was just a quick and dirty one that I made up on the spot. I traditionally like to be more thought out about these things.
Noob Notes - Nick's list:
Aegis - he's immune to continuous effects. He gives this (Aegis) to friendly exemplar models (any of the models that have "exemplar" in their title).
Imperishable Conviction - he heals 1 damage pt for each friendly faction model killed in his control area.
His weapon has two star attacks:
Armor Piercing - halves the base arm stats of models hit that have medium or larger bases. This attack gains +2 to damage rolls against models with small bases. (Does not halve the armor of the small base models. Siege's feat might be the only thing in the game that does.)
Smite - instead of making a normal damage roll, the model hit is slammed d6" directly away from this model and suffers a damage roll with pow equal to this model's current strength (6) plus the pow of this weapon (8). The pow of collateral damage from this slam is equal to this model's strength. Note how the wording of pow is used. Ranged weapons just list pow. Melee (and thrown weapons) lists pow + str.
Spell list....
castigate - cost 2 - rng self - aoe ctrl - enemy models lose arc node in his control area
chasten - cost 2 - rng 8 - enemy upkeep spells/animi on target hit by chasten expire
cleansing fire - cost 3 - rng 8 - on a crit, models suffer fire continuous effect, pow 14, aoe 3 (for each of your turns, if the fire does not go out - goes out on 1 or 2 on d6 - the model takes a pow 12 fire damage roll)
inviolable resolve - target friendly faction model/unit gains +2 arm and Fearless
sacrosanct - target friendly faction model/unit. When an enemy non-warcaster, non-warlock warrior model destroys one or more affected models with an attack, immediately after the attack is resolved the attacking model is knocked down.
FEAT: Friendly faction models that make melee attacks against enemies in Kreoss's control area automatically hit, and they gain one additional melee attack during their combat actions.
Starting Setup - the mound in center was designated a hill (+2 def)
Last Saturday, I played two games - a 15 pt game and a 25 pt team game. This post details the 15 pt. game against Nick: Cygnar's Siege vs Protectorate of Menoth's Kreoss. ... I'll just warn you that this game was kind of totally embarrassing, as both of us made caboodles of mistakes. Yeah. I'm hoping that outlining them all and seeing boldfacedly just how bad they were will motivate me NEVER to do that again!
I got to meet at least two new guys up at the Tower who are newer Warmachine players. Very exciting! I'm hoping all these new people continue to come.
I think I went overboard a little with this report, making notes to myself. I'm going to have to rest before I right up the second. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.
Our Lists
Mine - 15 pts - Cygnar - Siege
Black 13th
Defender
Charger
Squire
Nick's - 15 pts - Menoth - Kreoss
Crusader (2x)
Choir of Menoth
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
High Paladin of the Order of the Wall (2x)
Noob Notes - my list:
This 15 pt list was just a quick and dirty one that I made up on the spot. I traditionally like to be more thought out about these things.
- Black 13th - I *should* have remembered this by now, but they have MAGICAL weapons - ALL 3!! /headdesk
- Defender - can shoot ROF 1 pow 15 shot, range 16
- Charger - ROF 2, pow 12, can boost both attack and damage with one focus
- Squire - can reroll one magical attack (to hit) roll a turn; gives Siege one extra focus in maintenance phase
Noob Notes - Nick's list:
- Kreoss - focus 7, spd 5, mat 7, def 14, arm 16, pow 14 sword with reach and magical weapon.
Aegis - he's immune to continuous effects. He gives this (Aegis) to friendly exemplar models (any of the models that have "exemplar" in their title).
Imperishable Conviction - he heals 1 damage pt for each friendly faction model killed in his control area.
His weapon has two star attacks:
Armor Piercing - halves the base arm stats of models hit that have medium or larger bases. This attack gains +2 to damage rolls against models with small bases. (Does not halve the armor of the small base models. Siege's feat might be the only thing in the game that does.)
Smite - instead of making a normal damage roll, the model hit is slammed d6" directly away from this model and suffers a damage roll with pow equal to this model's current strength (6) plus the pow of this weapon (8). The pow of collateral damage from this slam is equal to this model's strength. Note how the wording of pow is used. Ranged weapons just list pow. Melee (and thrown weapons) lists pow + str.
Spell list....
castigate - cost 2 - rng self - aoe ctrl - enemy models lose arc node in his control area
chasten - cost 2 - rng 8 - enemy upkeep spells/animi on target hit by chasten expire
cleansing fire - cost 3 - rng 8 - on a crit, models suffer fire continuous effect, pow 14, aoe 3 (for each of your turns, if the fire does not go out - goes out on 1 or 2 on d6 - the model takes a pow 12 fire damage roll)
inviolable resolve - target friendly faction model/unit gains +2 arm and Fearless
sacrosanct - target friendly faction model/unit. When an enemy non-warcaster, non-warlock warrior model destroys one or more affected models with an attack, immediately after the attack is resolved the attacking model is knocked down.
FEAT: Friendly faction models that make melee attacks against enemies in Kreoss's control area automatically hit, and they gain one additional melee attack during their combat actions.
- Crusader (2x) - heavy warjack - I wasn't very impressed with the crusader. It costs 6 pts and has no special abilities or actions. John says, yes, but it is a cheap heavy. Ok. I can see that. Stats: spd 4, def 10, arm 19, open fist pow 14 and inferno mace pow 18. And under Kreoss's feat, his attacks autohit.
- Choir - a buffing unit of which fame I've heard much and seen frequently - easily the most famous/signature Menoth unit. There's four in their unit, speed 6, def 12, arm 12. They can sing three different songs, range 3". Each one can sing to a different 'jack. O.o Good to know! I actually had forgotten that. A warjack can only be affected by one hymn at a time. They're songs are (star actions):1) Battle, +2 to attack and damage rolls for one turn 2) Passage, the warjack cannot be targeted by non-magical ranged attacks. Lasts for one round. 3) Shielding, the warjack cannot be targeted by enemy spells. Lasts for one round.
- High Paladin Vilmon - spd 6, def 13, arm 16, mat 9, fearless, one sword, pow 15, weapon master, magical weapon and reach. Very very nice. I thought that was a pretty high pow for a weapon master. I've never seen one that high. John says he's one of the highest pow weapon masters in game. He gives other friendly paladins of the Order of the Wall Impervious Wall. Two abilities - Impervious Wall - can forfeit movement or action to gave this one found - makes him immune to continuous effects, does not suffer damage or effects from non-magical ranged or melee attacks, and cannot be knocked down. Also, Stone-and-Mortar Stance - can forfeit movement or action to gain +5 arm. The affected model cannot be knocked down. Lasts one round.
- High Paladins of the Order of the Wall (2x) - spd 6, def 13, arm 16, mat 8, fearless, one sword, pow 14, weapon master, magical weapon and crit fire. They have stone and mortar stance. With Vilmon, they gain Impervious Wall. Note that to call both of those, they must give up their movement AND action!
Starting Setup - the mound in center was designated a hill (+2 def)
Note: Lynch, in this game, was an imposter gun mage officer. I grabbed the wrong one in my hurry to setup and didn't notice until after the game was over. The Defender is missing an arm - it came off somehow, and we'll be fixing that.
End Turn 1
End turn 1 - Discussion
From briefly reading Kreoss's feat and seeing his paladin weapon masters, I assumed that if he reached me at all, I was dead. My goal was to shoot him to pieces before he reached me. Seeing as he had no guns, this seemed a straight forward and easy thing to do. I didn't think this match up was the best for him, as he just had to take damage while I pummeled him as he came across the field.
I was just trying to move my stuff up to within range to shoot. My first turn, everything ran almost (but not quite) their full length. Running the max distance makes me nervous. I hope that when I get more confident about when I should or should not do that, I won't be worried about it.
Note that Nick was putting Kreoss behind the paladins almost b2b. He had crusaders on both sides flanking Kreoss/paladins in the middle, with the choir completely behind his left crusader, as you see.
Now that I've thought about this, I can see lots of problems with this arrangement. For one, the choir all bunched together like that means that I can kill almost all of them with a mage storm, which is what I ended up doing. Also, he was having all of them sing to one 'jack, when he could have had a few singing to the other one as well.
On the right crusader, he had Kreoss cast inviolable resolve and the choir singing to the left 'jack the whole game.
End Turn 2 - both of us
From briefly reading Kreoss's feat and seeing his paladin weapon masters, I assumed that if he reached me at all, I was dead. My goal was to shoot him to pieces before he reached me. Seeing as he had no guns, this seemed a straight forward and easy thing to do. I didn't think this match up was the best for him, as he just had to take damage while I pummeled him as he came across the field.
I was just trying to move my stuff up to within range to shoot. My first turn, everything ran almost (but not quite) their full length. Running the max distance makes me nervous. I hope that when I get more confident about when I should or should not do that, I won't be worried about it.
Note that Nick was putting Kreoss behind the paladins almost b2b. He had crusaders on both sides flanking Kreoss/paladins in the middle, with the choir completely behind his left crusader, as you see.
Now that I've thought about this, I can see lots of problems with this arrangement. For one, the choir all bunched together like that means that I can kill almost all of them with a mage storm, which is what I ended up doing. Also, he was having all of them sing to one 'jack, when he could have had a few singing to the other one as well.
On the right crusader, he had Kreoss cast inviolable resolve and the choir singing to the left 'jack the whole game.
End Turn 2 - both of us
End Turn 2 - Discussion
On his turn, his guys continued to move up the field, with the choir singing Passage (cannot be targeted by non-magical ranged attacks) to the L crusader and Kreoss casting inviolable resolve on the R crusader.
I *think* his paladins were moving up and casting both Stone and Mortar Stance and Impervious Wall. If so, that was an error, because he would have had to sacrifice BOTH movement and action to do so.
On my turn, I allocated three focus to the charger and cast explosivo on Siege and the defender. I believe Siege shot the L crusader, doing a little more damage to him. Siege's ranged weapon is not magical, while his melee one is - I checked this just now.
I moved the black 13th up and had Ryan cast mage storm on the L crusader. It didn't do much damage to it, but it killed three of the choir, which were right up behind it, which made me really happy. Unfortunately, that left one solitary choir member, which continued to sing to the 'jack as if nothing had happened.
Major Mistake 1 - and this is the part where I didn't realize that my black 13th had magical weapons. /headdesk I had Lynch and Watts shoot the R Crusader with brutal damage. They didn't really do much to him. John (and Chip and Steven) felt that their shots would have been better spent shooting the paladins with brutal damage.
Major Mistake 2 - the charger's mission was to shoot the R crusader. Unfortunately, he moved up and was out of range by about an inch. /headdesk What a glorious waste of focus that was!
End Turn 3 - both of us
On his turn, his guys continued to move up the field, with the choir singing Passage (cannot be targeted by non-magical ranged attacks) to the L crusader and Kreoss casting inviolable resolve on the R crusader.
I *think* his paladins were moving up and casting both Stone and Mortar Stance and Impervious Wall. If so, that was an error, because he would have had to sacrifice BOTH movement and action to do so.
On my turn, I allocated three focus to the charger and cast explosivo on Siege and the defender. I believe Siege shot the L crusader, doing a little more damage to him. Siege's ranged weapon is not magical, while his melee one is - I checked this just now.
I moved the black 13th up and had Ryan cast mage storm on the L crusader. It didn't do much damage to it, but it killed three of the choir, which were right up behind it, which made me really happy. Unfortunately, that left one solitary choir member, which continued to sing to the 'jack as if nothing had happened.
Major Mistake 1 - and this is the part where I didn't realize that my black 13th had magical weapons. /headdesk I had Lynch and Watts shoot the R Crusader with brutal damage. They didn't really do much to him. John (and Chip and Steven) felt that their shots would have been better spent shooting the paladins with brutal damage.
Major Mistake 2 - the charger's mission was to shoot the R crusader. Unfortunately, he moved up and was out of range by about an inch. /headdesk What a glorious waste of focus that was!
End Turn 3 - both of us
End Turn 3 - Discussion
Basically, on our third turns, Nick moved up and I just stayed there. I now knew that the charger did have range. Here, I was planning a Siege assassination and completely flubbed it. Oh boy. What was I thinking?
He moved up, had his one choir member sing to the L crusader, had Kreoss cast inviolable resolve on the R crusader and had the paladins move up and cast (I think both) their abilities.
I then allocated took a focus from Squire, gave one to Defender and three to charger and cast explosivo on myself, on defender and on charger.... leaving Siege WITH NO FOCUS!
Major Mistake 3 - Never leave Siege with no focus when he needs to foxhole. Nick allowed me to mulligan my focus allocation and take two back from the charger so that I could foxhole. >.> I let him take some back to on the next turn. We were derps.
I had Siege feat and foxhole Vilmon. He then shot Kreoss and did seven damage, I think. O.o I couldn't boost it as I had no focus left. Another big error. Then, the defender shot Kreoss and missed him. Ryan shot the L crusader and did ten or so damage; Lynch and Watts probably shot Kreoss and did no damage; the charger shot the R crusader and did 13 or so damage. I can't quite remember who shot who this turn.
What I should have done - I could have done several things way better at this point ...
1) I should have had Ryan mage storm Vilman on the feat turn and KILL ALL THE PALADINS!! John suggested this with aghast face after the turn was over. For some reason, this didn't occur to me. Why the heck not, I wonder?
2) I could have had Siege not bother with explosivo at all and instead walk up and force hammer Vilmon over Kreoss AND THEN have him feat, so that force hammer would not mess up the feat on Kreoss. Kreoss was b2b with Vilmon essentially. Then, everyone could have shot him to death knocked down. That would have been a good thing.
If I had done both of those, things would have been totally way better all around.
End Turn 4 - Discussion
While there is no picture for this really, I know what happened. Everything moved up closer again and Kreoss went up b2b with the R crusader instead of the paladins.
I had Siege foxhole the R crusader, shoot Kreoss, and the charger and defender both pummel him with boosted shots to hit and damage, which did kill him.
Once again, I could have force hammered the crusader over Kreoss, which might have been better. Hmm. Yeah. I learned a lot in this game.
Summary of Key Points Learned
1. Gun mages have magical weapons and can shoot people with the choir's passage buff. I should have had them shoot the paladins and Vilmon.
2. Should have mage stormed paladins on Siege's feat turn. Always do so (on a feat turn), or the choir, if they are all bunched up like that.
3. Could have slammed the crusader over Kreoss with Force Hammer.
4. On my feat turn, I should not have explosivoed the charged at all - it wasn't even necessary - and as the defender shot Kreoss, his wasn't necessary either. Nope. Not even Siege's. That was ridiculous.
5. Make sure to be judging distances better with measuring Siege's control, or having one of the black 13th call snipe so that I don't miss a shot with the charger leaving him with three wasted focus.
Basically, on our third turns, Nick moved up and I just stayed there. I now knew that the charger did have range. Here, I was planning a Siege assassination and completely flubbed it. Oh boy. What was I thinking?
He moved up, had his one choir member sing to the L crusader, had Kreoss cast inviolable resolve on the R crusader and had the paladins move up and cast (I think both) their abilities.
I then allocated took a focus from Squire, gave one to Defender and three to charger and cast explosivo on myself, on defender and on charger.... leaving Siege WITH NO FOCUS!
Major Mistake 3 - Never leave Siege with no focus when he needs to foxhole. Nick allowed me to mulligan my focus allocation and take two back from the charger so that I could foxhole. >.> I let him take some back to on the next turn. We were derps.
I had Siege feat and foxhole Vilmon. He then shot Kreoss and did seven damage, I think. O.o I couldn't boost it as I had no focus left. Another big error. Then, the defender shot Kreoss and missed him. Ryan shot the L crusader and did ten or so damage; Lynch and Watts probably shot Kreoss and did no damage; the charger shot the R crusader and did 13 or so damage. I can't quite remember who shot who this turn.
What I should have done - I could have done several things way better at this point ...
1) I should have had Ryan mage storm Vilman on the feat turn and KILL ALL THE PALADINS!! John suggested this with aghast face after the turn was over. For some reason, this didn't occur to me. Why the heck not, I wonder?
2) I could have had Siege not bother with explosivo at all and instead walk up and force hammer Vilmon over Kreoss AND THEN have him feat, so that force hammer would not mess up the feat on Kreoss. Kreoss was b2b with Vilmon essentially. Then, everyone could have shot him to death knocked down. That would have been a good thing.
If I had done both of those, things would have been totally way better all around.
End Turn 4 - Discussion
While there is no picture for this really, I know what happened. Everything moved up closer again and Kreoss went up b2b with the R crusader instead of the paladins.
I had Siege foxhole the R crusader, shoot Kreoss, and the charger and defender both pummel him with boosted shots to hit and damage, which did kill him.
Once again, I could have force hammered the crusader over Kreoss, which might have been better. Hmm. Yeah. I learned a lot in this game.
Summary of Key Points Learned
1. Gun mages have magical weapons and can shoot people with the choir's passage buff. I should have had them shoot the paladins and Vilmon.
2. Should have mage stormed paladins on Siege's feat turn. Always do so (on a feat turn), or the choir, if they are all bunched up like that.
3. Could have slammed the crusader over Kreoss with Force Hammer.
4. On my feat turn, I should not have explosivoed the charged at all - it wasn't even necessary - and as the defender shot Kreoss, his wasn't necessary either. Nope. Not even Siege's. That was ridiculous.
5. Make sure to be judging distances better with measuring Siege's control, or having one of the black 13th call snipe so that I don't miss a shot with the charger leaving him with three wasted focus.