This past weekend, to cap off the Warmachine & Hordes Journeyman league (though open to anyone which about half the players were not from the league) there was a small three game tournament. The format would be a different army size for each game: 15pts, 25pts then 35pts. I thought that meant different lists, but no, turns out it meant start with a 15 point list then add 10 points to it for each new game. Well that messed up the plans I'd had- I was going to try out 'Domina' Rasheth for the 35 point list... oh well, so I went to the caster I'd used for the last half of the league: epic Hexaris. There was about a dozen people, with Hordes being a bit more than half, though of those, there were 3 Skorne! Can't fault them for taste ;)
Game 1: Skorne vs. Trolls 15 points.
There was a scenario for this, but it came down to both armies going for each other's throat, so I don't recall.
My Army:
Hexaris (epic), Bronzeback, Gladiator, Feralgheist, Beasthandlers (minimum)
Trolls:
Madrak, Mulg the Big Troll, Champion Hero, Fellcaller Hero, Krielstone unit
-Too bad I didn't play him later in the day, he had a nicely painted unit of Fennblade trolls.
This was the first time I played against trolls. Madrak is quite a good caster! He has a talisman that prevents him from being charged, so he lead with his warcaster, so I couldn't reach him. If I sat back, he'd throw his axe at me until close enough he could charge me, if I advanced, he'd charge me. Quite a mess! The stone increases the armor to the point that my best spell to cull his infantry wouldn't hurt them.
He only had one beast: Mulg, so my plan was to kill that Troll, then Madrak wouldn't have a source of power. I moved the gladiator up, as bait, the champion charged him ,but I was ok. The Titan then killed the champion and I blasted Madrak pretty good with a spell. Madrak then charged a beasthandler, and with an ability he had, started inching closer to my caster, so that by the third swing, he was attacking Hexaris! Not good! He got one good hit on him, but missed 3 times! He only needed a 6, but three times didn't get it on 2 dice... some really bad luck there. My Titans made a wall, preventing Mulg from coming to his rescue, and Hexaris hit Madrak and took his life.. but Madrak (being a Troll) made his 'Tough' roll (5+ on 1 die) and got back up, So I hit him again, and he Toughed again, and so hit him again! and the third time he stayed down!
A win for me, but the dice did him no favors. He took it very well.
Game 2: Skorne vs. Legion 25 points.
Another first: I hadn't played against Legion before. This had an odd scenario. At one corner of the field was an area to control. At the opposite corner was a flag. If you controlled the zone (no enemy models in it) *and* had one model near the flag, then you got a point, and the person near the flag got fried with a powerful magic blast. "Thanks for helping- no good deed goes unpunished." First to get 2 points won.
My Army:
Added to the army: minimum unit of Gatormen with Beast Task Master and an Agonizer.
Legion:
Epic Vayl, Scythean & Angelius beasts, Tower battle-engine, shepherd and spirit martyr.
I had a hill with difficult terrain on it in my deployment, and I made a big mistake- I should have deployed my Gators in it, since they can 'pathfind' and they'd have been able to move out of it fast and get toward the control zone. Since I didn't, he got to it fast and tied me up with the tower, further slowing me down. I did take out the tower with the Bronzeback, but the Gladiator didn't fare too well. The flying beast struck out, did a lot of damage, then flew back to safety, and the big beast with scythes there in the foreground of the picture finished him off. 2nd big mistake: I forgot to use the feralgheist! He's a ghost, that I can use to inhabit a dead beast, so i could have still used the gladiator. I used my feat to drain away all the fury, so next turn his caster wouldn't have power without damaging herself, but by then he'd got the victory points and it was over. Turns out this Legion caster has some really nasty spell abilities, so not sure what I'd have done if I'd found out about them the hard way ;)
Result: Loss.
Game 3: Skorne vrs Retribution 35 points.
I did play against Retribution a couple times in the league, but it's the army I have the least familiarity with.
The scenario was to try to destroy a target near the enemy, once that was done, another would appear and you'd have to then destroy that one- meanwhile the opponent was trying to do the same to a target pair near you. These pillars were pretty tough. He had a lot of range and I didn't, so I'd have to tie his army up while trying to get to my targets bodily.
My Army:
Added: remaining Gatormen for a full unit & Archidon.
His Army:
Ravyn, Warjacks: Phoenix & Hydra, Mage-hunters (shooters) Archers (more shooters) Eirys (shooter hero)
a mechanic, a magic-aide and a mounted hero with a lance that shoots lasers!
-I never cared much for the look of the warjacks (though I kind of like the one here without a sword,just has hands) and since they're about the newest army I haven't learned much about them. So i didn't know much about their abilities. Both warjacks have a ranged attack though, and since everyone else did too, and I had none, order of the day looked like advance fast! but not so fast I get stuck where I could get charged first. Easier said than done.
I set up like this, with Gators behind woods, so they could pathfind through it and the archidon could fly over it, ah-ha! learned from the last game!
Then I found out that one of the shooting units could see& shoot just fine through woods, and even through my own army! They shot magically through my titans and killed all of my squishy but very valuable beasthandlers. That's not good! He also shot at my Bronzeback, who could chose to move up when attacked, but if I did I'd get charged by the knight, so I didn't.. at least not at first. He did get hurt a bit more, so I went ahead and moved up, while the gladiator prepared to charge him in return should it all go bad, and if not, he was guarding the target (unpainted titan below).Eirys the elf moved up and did 3 points of damage to the target with her crossbow.
(you can see my target, Domina Rasheth across the field- I'll update her later).
The knight did charge the Bronzeback, who took some damage, but not a whole lot. I also lost 2 Gatormen to arrows (they failed their tough rolls) but the next turn I got to hit back. The gladiator had rush so charged through the difficult terrain and stepped on the elf. One problem down. That healed the Bronzeback a bit with Hexaris' vampire power, and the Bronzeback killed the knight, which healed him a bit more. Hexaris blasted the Phoenix warjack knocking down it's shields and a couple points of real damage. The Phoenix then charged my Bronzeback, but he again survived it. My next turn, the Gatormen continued to wade through archers and the Bronzeback wrecked the Phoenix, which handily gave him some cover.
The Bronzback at this point is not far from his caster, so he charged it with his other warjack. He was hurt pretty bad at this point, but still hanging on...barely. I needed the Bronzeback free to attack his caster, so the Archidon flew over, charging the Hydra warjack, I boosted the hit (roll an extra die) and got what I wanted: a doubles, so he threw the warjack! I aimed at the caster, but it missed, crushing the mechanic instead. The Gladiator put Rush on the Bronzeback allowing him to move faster and over the wreckage, and the caster elf didn't survive the charge from a very angry Titan.
Neither of us managed to destroy a pillar target -if I'd tried the archers would have killed the gators, so made more sense to attack them instead.
Result: Win.
The Tournament was won by Skorne, but not my Skorne ;) I did manage to get the prize for best painted though, which I'm always happier about than battle victories.
I'll be playing Circle in the next Journeyman league, but I am happy with the Skorne and will be continuing to add to them.
I'll do an update for the Archidon soon, you might have noticed he has some paint on him now ;)
Game 1: Skorne vs. Trolls 15 points.
There was a scenario for this, but it came down to both armies going for each other's throat, so I don't recall.
My Army:
Trolls:
-Too bad I didn't play him later in the day, he had a nicely painted unit of Fennblade trolls.
This was the first time I played against trolls. Madrak is quite a good caster! He has a talisman that prevents him from being charged, so he lead with his warcaster, so I couldn't reach him. If I sat back, he'd throw his axe at me until close enough he could charge me, if I advanced, he'd charge me. Quite a mess! The stone increases the armor to the point that my best spell to cull his infantry wouldn't hurt them.
He only had one beast: Mulg, so my plan was to kill that Troll, then Madrak wouldn't have a source of power. I moved the gladiator up, as bait, the champion charged him ,but I was ok. The Titan then killed the champion and I blasted Madrak pretty good with a spell. Madrak then charged a beasthandler, and with an ability he had, started inching closer to my caster, so that by the third swing, he was attacking Hexaris! Not good! He got one good hit on him, but missed 3 times! He only needed a 6, but three times didn't get it on 2 dice... some really bad luck there. My Titans made a wall, preventing Mulg from coming to his rescue, and Hexaris hit Madrak and took his life.. but Madrak (being a Troll) made his 'Tough' roll (5+ on 1 die) and got back up, So I hit him again, and he Toughed again, and so hit him again! and the third time he stayed down!
A win for me, but the dice did him no favors. He took it very well.
Game 2: Skorne vs. Legion 25 points.
Another first: I hadn't played against Legion before. This had an odd scenario. At one corner of the field was an area to control. At the opposite corner was a flag. If you controlled the zone (no enemy models in it) *and* had one model near the flag, then you got a point, and the person near the flag got fried with a powerful magic blast. "Thanks for helping- no good deed goes unpunished." First to get 2 points won.
My Army:
Legion:
I had a hill with difficult terrain on it in my deployment, and I made a big mistake- I should have deployed my Gators in it, since they can 'pathfind' and they'd have been able to move out of it fast and get toward the control zone. Since I didn't, he got to it fast and tied me up with the tower, further slowing me down. I did take out the tower with the Bronzeback, but the Gladiator didn't fare too well. The flying beast struck out, did a lot of damage, then flew back to safety, and the big beast with scythes there in the foreground of the picture finished him off. 2nd big mistake: I forgot to use the feralgheist! He's a ghost, that I can use to inhabit a dead beast, so i could have still used the gladiator. I used my feat to drain away all the fury, so next turn his caster wouldn't have power without damaging herself, but by then he'd got the victory points and it was over. Turns out this Legion caster has some really nasty spell abilities, so not sure what I'd have done if I'd found out about them the hard way ;)
Result: Loss.
Game 3: Skorne vrs Retribution 35 points.
I did play against Retribution a couple times in the league, but it's the army I have the least familiarity with.
The scenario was to try to destroy a target near the enemy, once that was done, another would appear and you'd have to then destroy that one- meanwhile the opponent was trying to do the same to a target pair near you. These pillars were pretty tough. He had a lot of range and I didn't, so I'd have to tie his army up while trying to get to my targets bodily.
My Army:
His Army:
a mechanic, a magic-aide and a mounted hero with a lance that shoots lasers!
-I never cared much for the look of the warjacks (though I kind of like the one here without a sword,just has hands) and since they're about the newest army I haven't learned much about them. So i didn't know much about their abilities. Both warjacks have a ranged attack though, and since everyone else did too, and I had none, order of the day looked like advance fast! but not so fast I get stuck where I could get charged first. Easier said than done.
I set up like this, with Gators behind woods, so they could pathfind through it and the archidon could fly over it, ah-ha! learned from the last game!
The knight did charge the Bronzeback, who took some damage, but not a whole lot. I also lost 2 Gatormen to arrows (they failed their tough rolls) but the next turn I got to hit back. The gladiator had rush so charged through the difficult terrain and stepped on the elf. One problem down. That healed the Bronzeback a bit with Hexaris' vampire power, and the Bronzeback killed the knight, which healed him a bit more. Hexaris blasted the Phoenix warjack knocking down it's shields and a couple points of real damage. The Phoenix then charged my Bronzeback, but he again survived it. My next turn, the Gatormen continued to wade through archers and the Bronzeback wrecked the Phoenix, which handily gave him some cover.
The Bronzback at this point is not far from his caster, so he charged it with his other warjack. He was hurt pretty bad at this point, but still hanging on...barely. I needed the Bronzeback free to attack his caster, so the Archidon flew over, charging the Hydra warjack, I boosted the hit (roll an extra die) and got what I wanted: a doubles, so he threw the warjack! I aimed at the caster, but it missed, crushing the mechanic instead. The Gladiator put Rush on the Bronzeback allowing him to move faster and over the wreckage, and the caster elf didn't survive the charge from a very angry Titan.
Neither of us managed to destroy a pillar target -if I'd tried the archers would have killed the gators, so made more sense to attack them instead.
Result: Win.
The Tournament was won by Skorne, but not my Skorne ;) I did manage to get the prize for best painted though, which I'm always happier about than battle victories.
I'll be playing Circle in the next Journeyman league, but I am happy with the Skorne and will be continuing to add to them.
I'll do an update for the Archidon soon, you might have noticed he has some paint on him now ;)
Well done that man - wins! I've got to say a well deserved prize for the painting as they look just gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap, did anyone else have a painted army?
ReplyDeleteThanks Michael, the first win surprised me- I got lucky ;)
ReplyDeleteThomas: most armies were painted or mostly painted, but there wasn't a painting requirement so not all the armies were painted. The Trolls had a nicely painted Fennblade unit, but that was for the higher point value games so wasn't in the army when I played it- the picture there doesn't do the army justice with the couple that are unpainted being in the front- the champion hero looked good, just doesn't show well in that photo.
Very cool.. and nice that you got best painted.. its the one I aim for most times, though it is not as big of a thing over here.
ReplyDelete