Two for Tuesday

I finished up my Vanquisher last week and decided to show him off. Originally, I got the Vanquisher in a trade several months ago and it had a less than stellar paint job. It needed to be stripped and re-painted as you can tell by the picture. After stripping the paint, his morning star chain snapped off so I had to order another right arm. Here is a picture of the model when I first got him.



He's now finished and I'm thinking about getting another one. I really like the first generation Menoth heavy jacks. For me, the side angle is where the real coolness comes in. Here's the end result and ironically enough, the hill/mound he is sitting on got a make over as well. If you can call it a hill.
























I'm quite pleased with the end result and if I do get another one, I'm going to try and reverse the color scheme.

A Game of Re-Inforcements

Yesterday, the Smib Thralls (all two of us) sat down and tried out Re-Inforcements Incoming, the custom scenario in the last post. The game ended up being a real blast and once we started playing, it didn't take too long. There were a couple of rule conflicts that came into play and we're trying to iron them out.



Some things that came up were:

• When the re-inforcements come into play, do you roll for continous effects on your 35 pt army?


• Feats. We're still trying to iron out the details on these and the ones that have rules going into the other player's turn. Sorcha's feat comes to mind and we'll have to figure this out. It doesn't help that there's only two of us testing this out.


• Upkeeping spells from your 35 PC army after they have missed a turn of action.

It's still a work in progress but I'm thinking that we can get these things figured out after talking about it some. I was thinking that the 3rd turn would be the "Re-Inforcement Round " and if a player activated a feat, it would end when he deployed his re-inforcements, that's if it lasted that long. Also, you would resolve any continous effect and upkeep any spell, when you activated your 35 PC army again. This is something I came to a conclusion of and I'll have to run it by CptCalvinus.

The match was Reznik, accompanied by Bart versus Siege, accompanied by Stryker. Here's one of my better rolls in the game, I arced Perdition through the Guardian, boosting to hit a GMCA. My roll failed and I decided to try again with my last two focus and no way to boost. Box Cars baby!!!

Bart and his entourage come on the battlefield and try desperately to make a difference.


Now its Stryker's turn to come on the field and be the difference maker. Too bad Reznik perished because both Stryker and Seige were on fire. Roasting swans is so much fun.

Siege's feat is a real bruiser against my army, here a Defender takes out Bart in one shot! I missed the subsequent tough roll.

We're definitely going to have to play this scenario again. It makes for a lot of different match ups and it adds a little bit of chance to the game. It might not be fair but its a lof of fun!

Barrett's thoughts:

I was really taking a gamble that Phill's 15pt army would deploy on my right side. By the time the third round started, my longgunners and the Defender were the only things able to hold onto my left flank. His TFG and the Guardian were held off on the right side, and were quickly joined by the Pirates. So, I did get lucky here. The kill for Reznik came from earthquaking Ol' Rowdy (with only 2 damage boxes open) with Reznik and 2 Jacks in the AOE. A knockeddown Reznik at half armor really made this too easy. I love the combo of Siege and Stryker's feats, though Siege and Haley would have cleaned up this board even faster.

Re-Inforcements Incoming, A custom Scenario

As the summer months progress and with the start of a new job, I'm finding less time to paint than I would like. Still the hunger of Warmachine still presides in my appetite and I'm hoping to add more content than painting and battle reports.

Oddly enough, this next entry is going to get it's own battle report in the future. The Smib Thralls first custom scenario for MK II. I know the rules aren't final for MK II but I'm hoping this scenario will be pretty fun to use in the future. And with the current field test rules, it should be no problem to play.

Re-Inforcements Incoming

A custom Warmachine Scenario

• Each player starts the game with a standard 35 PC army.
• Each player will have a 15 PC army for reserves. This army has to have a warcaster and be able to work for the player’s 35 PC army. IE: A Cygnar player has to use either another faction warcaster or a Mercenary warcaster that is able to work for Cygnar.
• Deployment for the 35 PC army is standard.
• Field Allowance must not go past the regularly allowed in a 50 PC game. IE: A Cygnar player can only have 2 GMCA between the two armies.
• At the beginning of round 3, the player that went first rolls a d6 dice.
• If the dice is 1,2, or 3, the player deploys his 15 PC on the left table edge of the table, that is between you and your opponent, anywhere along this edge. Army set up 6 inches from the table edge and no advanced deployment.
• If the dice is 4,5, or 6, the player deploys his 15 PC on the right table edge of the table, that is between you and your opponent, anywhere along this edge. Army set up 6 inches from the table edge and no advanced deployment.
• The player who’s turn is second, will deploy his 15 PC army on the opposite side of his/her opponent’s 15 PC army, 6 inches from the edge, and anywhere along the table edge.
• Players will activate only their 15 PC army during their 3rd turn and then it will be the opposing player’s turn to deploy and activate only their 15 PC army.
• The subsequent turns will have the both players activating their 35 PC Army and 15 PC army.
• Victory condition is Caster kill on both warcasters.
• At the end of round 6, whoever has the most warcasters left on the table wins. If there is a even amount of warcasters, the game is a draw.

Here is a couple of pictures from Vassal to demonstrate the scenario.







It's the end of round 2 and the beginning of Round 3. The Cygnar player went first and at the beginning of his next turn, he'll roll a D6 dice to see which side his reinforcements come out on...









He rolls the dice and it lands on 2. This means he must deploy his troops on his left hand side of the table edge, 6 inches from the table, anywhere along the table edge.

The Cygnar player deploys Stryker, Ol' Rowdy, a Defender, and a GMCA along the left table. He now starts his turn like a normal one, dishing out focus, casting spells, etc..










This is the scene after the Cygnar player has activated his 15 PC army. After activating this portion of his army, his turn is over and its the opposing player's turn to go.












The Menoth player now has to deploy his 15 PC army on the opposite of the map. He now deploys Bart, a Mariner, Nomad, and Dougal McNaile along the opposite side of the table, anywhere along the table edge, 6" from it.








This is the scene of the game, after the Menoth player activated his 15 PC army. After his turn, its the opposing player's turn to activate both his 35 and 15 PC armies.

After his turn, his opponent will get to do the same. The battle is played to 6 rounds or whoever gets caster kill on both warcasters.

Some questions to consider

Q. What happens if one of the casters die during the first two rounds.?
A. Continue playing out the scenario and have non-fearless troopers lose 1 or 2 command.

Q. If my warcaster dies, will my second warcaster be able to re-enable friendly faction warjacks?
A. Sure, why not.

A couple of thoughts on creating the scenario

Originally, I intended for the 15 PC armies to deploy 10" from the table edge, just like normal deployment. I'm glad I did the demonstration on Vassal because it gave me an idea of how close the re-inforcement army could get to the opponent. When I went to deploy Stryker and his army, I realized that this wasn't such a good idea, so I moved it back to 6". Plus, it would be kinda unfitting for a army to pop out of nowhere like that.

I chose a 35 PC army because it wouldn't have too many models on the table, that would clutter it up. Or at least in my experience, and if I'm not playing the HR, there's plenty of room on the table after both players deploy. Second, I like the fluff of a warcaster and one or two of his warjacks, and solo or two, coming to the rescue of another warcaster. It seems to fit the flavor of Iron Kingdoms, you know where you have Caine being told by Siege that he should be elsewhere in Legends.

Lastly, I thought about putting a restriction on the 15 PC re-inforcement army when they first deployed. This restriction was going to be "You can't use your feat the turn you deploy". Obviously this could always change but it went against the whole "Play like you got a pair". A big thank you goes out to the people who created a warmachine module for Vassal. Thanks for all the hard work.

Thanks for looking and let me know what you think. Better yet, try the scenario and let me know what you think.

Kreoss vs Nemo, A 35 PC Game

This morning, CptCalvinus and I played our first match of a series of 35 PC games with our remaining casters. We decided on 35 PC because it's just enough models for a good game and both of us play pretty slowly. Unfortunately, this match still took a while to play. I'm not sure if its set up time or what but we probably need to start enforcing a time limit on turns.

CptCalvinus' Army
Nemo
*Thunderhead
*Centurion
Squire - proxied by a Mangler Shoulder
Journeyman
*Charger
Arlan Strangeways - proxied by Siege
Field Mechanics - proxied by Long Gunners
Stormsmiths x 2
GMCA x 2

bluecardinal's army
Kreoss
*Revenger - proxied by a Devout
*Vanquisher - proxied by a Mariner
*Crusader
Choir full unit
Bastions full unit - proxied by 3 jacks, Reznik, Bosun
Ruphert
Orin Midwinter - proxied by a Reclaimer
Herne and Jonne - proxied by a Gunbunny and Dougal McNaile

I'll post the highlights of each round and try to keep the battle report rather short. Here's the layout of the battleground at the start of the match. CptCalvinus won the opening roll and elected to go second.


First Round



The Crusader, Revenger, and Vanquisher all run. Kreoss puts Protection of Menoth on the Bastions and casts Lamentation. The Bastions run, Ruphert sings Dirge of Mists, and Choir sings hym of Passage.









Journeyman puts Arcane Shield on Nemo, Nemo puts Disruption Field on the Centurion and Electrify on the Thunderhead. Everyone else advances.






Second Round

Vanquisher gets 2 focus and shoots at the Centurion, boosts to hit and damage. It does 5 damage if I recall, the AOE clips 2 mechanics and a Stormsmith, taking all three out. The Bastions advance in the middle and get Heroic Call. Orin runs to the middle to avoid the GMCAs on the left flank. Choir sings hymn of passage and Vassal puts enliven on the Revenger.

Herne and Jonne wiff at the two GMCAs on the left.


Fire stays on the Centurion and actually damages him for 2. The Squire gives 1 focus to Nemo. The Thunderhead gets 3 Focus, moves up and does his special pulse. He boost the hit and gets all my jacks and Bastions in it. This does minimal damage to the Bastions. It also hits my Jacks and we both wonder if they can be hit by it with Hymn of Passage up and we play that you can. This does minimal damage to them. I forgot totally about enliven. Arlan moves up and repairs the Centurion, removing 2 damage. Centurion gets 5 focus and charges the Bastions. Kills only one of them and another passes a tough roll.

The Charger gets 2 focus and takes some pop shots at the Bastions and does minimal damage. The two GMCAs take a shot Herne and Jonne and kill Jonne.

Third Round

All my jacks are disrupted so no focus for them. Orin runs back to within Melee range of a GMCA. Kreoss doesn't upkeep anything and moves up, pops his feat, knocking down the Thunderhead, Centurion, GMCA, Arlan, and Stormsmith. He gives Ignite to the Bastions. I totally forgot about this spell until mid game (more on this later). Bastions move up and take out the Thunderhead's cortex and right arm.

The Choir sings Battle Hymn and the Vanquisher shoots and kills Arlan. The Revenger moves up and hits the Centurion, doing little damage. The Crusader moves up and hits Centurion and does little damage with both weapons. The Vassal gives one more shot for the Crusader but the Crusader only does 3 damage to the Centurion.

Nemo upkeeps Disruption Field on the Centurion, Centurion gets 5 focus and wrecks the Crusader rather quickly and then takes out two more Bastions as they failed their tough roll. Thunderhead wiffs on the Bastions, Charger gets 3 focus and manages to put some damage on a focus camped Kreoss (he had 5 left over).

GMCA breaks free from Orin and Orin misses the free strike. He then shoots at the Vassal gets him to one life. The second GMCA hits Kreoss and does 4 damage with the extra die. The Stormsmith fails his skill check. Nemo moves forward and pops his feat. All my jacks are disrupted again and take a good bit of damage. He then casts Chain Lightning on the Vanquisher and kills the Vassal in the process.

Round Four

Lets see, all my jacks are disrupted again and I upkeep Ignite on the Bastions. The remaining two Bastions try to disable the Centurion but fail. The Choir sings Battle Hymn again and the Revenger moves into melee range with Nemo. I need a 7 to hit and I roll a six, I think. The Vanquisher moves into melee range with the Thunderhead and does almost enough to wreck him. At this point, the Thunderhead has about 3 boxes left.

Orin moves up and casts Arc Lightining onto the Journeyman and almost takes him out. I forgot Nemo was immune to Lightning so this does nothing. Kreoss moves up and casts immolation on the Journeyman, and wipes him out. Kreoss then casts Protection of Menoth on himself.


The final hooray, Nemo has a whopping ten focus from the three spells that were cast in his control area the turn before. It was a no guts, no glory moment, and CptCalvinus charged Nemo right into melee with Kreoss. He took a free strike from the Revenger that netted him 10 damage.

He boosted all the attack and damage rolls save for the first charge attack that was already boosted. The first attack hits and lands 10 damage to Kreoss. He needs 3 more damage to kill him with 9 focus remaining. With Protection of Menoth up, he then wiffs on his next two attacks bringing his focus count to 5. And then he wiffs on his remaining 3 attacks. It was terrible luck and looking back, I should've lost, big time.

Round Five

Kreoss boosts to hit and boosts damage on Nemo. Nemo falls...

Post Game Analysis

Menoth
To get the post posted, I'll provide the colour commentary for both of us. First off, I should've had Ignite on the Crusader the whole time. I can't believe I forgot about that spell and should've looked over Kreoss card before starting the match. With Battle Hymn going he would've been hitting at PS 22 and the Centurion would've definitely crumbled. Second, I shouldn't have ever casted Lamentation. Nemo sits back and is likely not going to get in the mix and duke it out with someone. Plus, his one offensive spell is usually casted through an arc node and CptCalvinus wasn't running one.

Bastions are still great at soaking up damage and with Protection of Menoth, it only gets better. The next match they're going to take a break so I can try a new unit out. I'm giving up on Herne and Jonne, with a Vanquisher and Orin present, I already had enough crowd control. I'm thinking a Paladin would do just fine next match.

Cygnar
CptCalvinus had a good mix of solos and jacks in his list. He used his GMCAs to great effect in the game and they're a good flanking tandem of two. The Charger didn't really do too much because the Bastions just dispersed any damage done to them. Matter of fact, I'm suprised why he hasn't gone after my choir in the past two matches. I think a Lancer would do him well in a match like this.

Disruption was a real life saver for his jacks this game. After round two, my jacks were relying on the Vassal and Choir to give them any support at all. This ended up saving his Centurion from being wrecked. Clumping up his mechanics next to his Centurion was a bad thing with a 4" auto fire AOE in the game. This took out one of his stormsmiths that could've done damage to my choir.

edited for spelling...

...Countered By A Heavier Dosage Of Lightning

Now that my time with Stryker has come to an end, I'm looking forward to testing out the MkII versions of my other casters, likely in this order: Nemo, Haley, Caine, then my newest, Siege. I don't have any of the epic versions of these yet, though eNemo would be very handy for what I'm planning.

I think the core of my army is going to continue to center around the THead and the Centurion. Not only are they the two heavies I own, but I think they'll work well together. I haven't Pulsed yet against the Cent, but I'm pretty confident I won't suffer much damage from it most often. And whenever the THead is on the board, you'll likely see Arlan. He's quickly becoming a favorite solo. He gives me options, like the GMCA. The JW, the Stormsmiths, and even the Squire do one thing (very well), but I like the variety of these other two solos.

My List:
Nemo
- Squire
- Cent
- THead
Arlan Strangeways
GMCA x 2 (I don't think I'll ever take just 1 again!)
Stormsmiths x 3
Long Gunners Min
and, drumroll please... Field Mechanics.

Yes, I said Mechanics. I have never (in MkI) been interested in this unit. But with the Gobbers' Bodge ability, and the increased effectiveness of Jacks till they're wrecked, I'm gonna try these out to see if they'll lend Arlan a hand. He's a great mechanic, but he can only repair once a turn, and he has two other skills I want to use. So I think a mechanic and three bodgers running around will work wonders, especially for the Centurion.

So, the goal is to chain lightning and CRA and ePulse the infantry, giving 5 focus to the Cent to wreck jacks, while keeping Feora wary of the GMCAs and Stormsmiths. I could potentially drop the Squire and the Mechanics/1 Stormsmith to take the JW for the focus generation, but, like I said, variety.