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Thursday, February 25, 2010

Moving to Texas


We have been planning a move to Austin, Texas for some time now. Suddenly, that time is NOW! The moving truck will be here on Wednesday and we have two days to load it. We will unload on the 10th in Austin at our new apartment.

But Wait, There's More!

My roommate found out she is having Carpal Tunnel surgery TODAY!!! That's right, 6 days before the moving truck gets here. Then, next Friday, she will have the other hand done. We are excited to get this fixed. It's a Workman's Comp thing that needs to get done before we leave Kentucky. So I have double the packing to do now and we will spend most of today at the hospital. Fun.

So if anyone is in Austin and wants to help unload the truck on the 10th-12th of March, any and all help would be appreciated. (It is a ground floor apartment =) There probably be pizza and beverages too!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Massive 150 pts Warmachine MKII Battle

We got to play a huge game yesterday! It was crazy fun and I wanted to share it with y'all. We played 150 points. Andy and I split the Cygnar points while Coffey fielded every one of his models. Each side played with three casters. For Cygnar, I took Darius and Andy took Brisbane and Gen. Nemo. Cygnar rolled highest so Andy decided to setup first and take the first turn. Below is my line up of 75 pts. I went a little crazy with labeling stuff but it was fun =)

From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game


This is Andy's line up. Brisbane isn't listed but he is tucked away behind the Defender and Centurion. In regular Warmachine, if you lose your caster, the game is over. For this game, we decided to you had to kill two of the other faction's three casters for the win.
From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game

This is Coffey's lineup. During his Advance Deployment phase, he would place a Manhunterin the trees to the right and Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios on the hill in the center. Both have stealth and cannot be shot at from more than 5" away. The Widow Makers will advance deploy into the trees on the left. (Coffey would want me to add that he really does have the models for the Iron Fang Uhlans but they are on the painting table and he had to use these as proxies). Karchev is one of Coffey's casters, though he is as big as a Warjack and has the heath boxes to prove it.
From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game

This is the center of the Khador line. Notice how big Karchev (the black jack) is to a person sized miniature like the Winter Guard!
From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game

This is the left side of the Khador line with most of the heavies. The other two casters are Vlad and The Butcher.
From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game

Turn 1:
Cygnar advances. Darius uses Full Throttle to run his Large Jacks forward for free. The Halfjacks get into position to become mines later. The Hunters try for shots but don't have range yet.
From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game

The top of this hill counts as trees. It bogs down the movement of the Long Gunners but provides cover.
From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game

Partway through Khador's advance, you can see the Storm Lancers (Cygnar's Cavalry on the end) is setting up to charge the Iron Fang Pikeman. The Defender will take damage from the Bombards of the Behemoth. One shot deviates and kills Andy's Journeyman warcaster. This is huge, as his Centurion warjack goes inert. The Butcher casts Iron Flesh on the Widow Makers. This spell costs 2 the first time it is played but be renewed each turn for only 1. Karchev will cast Tow on the his battlegroup and run forward. The 3 Destroyers get towed along for free and do not count as moving, giving them an aiming bonus. They shoot, killing 3 of the 6 Trenchers and 1 of the Sword Knights. Those things are almost more damaging when they deviate! Eiryss (solo in the bottom middle) disrupts my Hammersmith, causing it to not receive focus next turn.
From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game
Turn 2:
Two of Andy's Hunters are able to advance and get great shots into the Butcher (caster) dropping him from 20 to 10 health! Nemo pops his feat, giving each warjack in his battle group 3 focus. Then, Nemo is able to send an electro blast into the Butcher (I believe this is the shot that reduces him to 2 health points). The Stormsmiths disrupt the Behemoth. The Storm Lance Cavalry Assaults the Iron Fang Pikeman and kill the Captain and several others. Their Electro Leap ability is crazy!

Side note: Storm Lances have an ability to Assault. When they do, they charge in getting a ranges attack off before they engage in melee. Their weapons also cause an electrical arc to the next person. So here is how it works out.
  • Give the order to Assault
  • Make a ranged attack, rolling to hit and to damage.
  • If it hits (no, it does not have to damage) then a power 10 electrical bolt hits the next nearest guy. The hit is automatic, just roll for damage.
  • Now, with the same Storm Lance, make a melee attack, rolling to hit and, if it hits, roll for boosted damage due to the charge.
  • Again, if it hits (no, it does not have to damage) then a power 10 electrical bolt hits the next nearest guy. The hit is automatic, just roll for damage.
  • Finally, if that wasn't enough, let your horse kick him a bit with a +2 to his attack roll and a power 10 damage roll (the damage roll may get boosted for being a charge but I'm not sure).
You read correctly, that's 5 chances for kills from 1 guy! It took a while to roll but 5 guys on horses took out about half of the Pikeman and they are pretty tough.

From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game

On my side, the Thunderhead took out Eiryss, the Centurion took out the Manhunter, and the Sword Knights lined up.
From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game


The Halfjacks became mines (4"AOE, power 14). The Stormguard would hold this side so effectively that they never get to hit a thing in the whole game. The Khador cavalry will break to the left, following after Boomhowler's Company.
From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game
Off camera, the Khadoran Mortar Crewes miss Darius and the shots deviate, killing four Long Gunner.

Karchev (the black jack/caster in the photo) swings around, pops his feat of Total War, allowing his jacks to power attack for free, and opens a fissure beneath the line of Sword Knights. They are wiped out (i.e. not in the pic, they were in line with the Hammersmith before). The fissure also knocks down the Hammersmith, nullifying his defense. One Destroyer does a little damage to the Thunderhead (in front). The other two gang up on the helpless Hammersmith and all but destroy it, ripping off both arms and pinning it to the ground.

From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game
Off Camera, the Devestator uses reign of death tho kill 3 Stormguard. The Butcher pops his feat, boosting attack and damage rolls. He then targets the Hunter with an AOE, knocking 4 points off the Hunters hull and killing 2 more Stormguard. The Spriggan charges the Hunter, dozing him and killing another Stormguard. The Behemoth bombards Brisbane (caster) for 7 points and the remaining Pikeman cut through the Storm Lances.

Turn 3:
The Stormguard advance into the Devastator and Behemoth, causing some damage but locking them into combat. Brisbane pops his feat, misses his shot, but his Defender kills Vlad. One caster down, one to go. The Thunderhead picks up the Devastator and double-hand throws him into the the Shock Troopers. He then uses his energy pulse. All models within 6" are automatically hit with an energy pulse and take a power 12 electric hit. He took out most of Boomhowler's crew, 3/4 of the cavalry, 3 Winter Guard, and a Shock Troop. He also was able to do several points to a Devastator. At this point, Andy had to leave for work =( I had little to no experience running his troops but I knew I only had to do 2 more points to The Butcher to win the game. Each of the Stormsmiths took shots at the Butcher, knocking off one more point of health. Nemo advanced too far in front of his defenders, trying to get a spell into the Butcher to end the game but the range wasn't there. This left him exposed.

The remaining cavalry were able to charge Darius but were unable to connect with much force. The rest of the attacks were focused on Nemo and Darius. Karchev was able to open another fissure, knocking down his own jack, but putting Nemo on his back. From there, the rest were able to finish the old guy off. The Winter Guards couldn't get enough shots into Bisbane to bring him down though.

At the beginning of turn three, Brisbane was able to make the kill shot on the Butcher, ending the game and getting the win for Cygnar.
From 02/12/10 huge cygnar v kahdor game
Over all, this was a crazy big game and it took about 7 hours. I don't think we knew it would take that long and we did have to refer to the rules quite a bit. I think my next game is going to be something simple like 15 points!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Game On

I got to play Warmachine MKII this week against my friend Coffey. I took my camera, got one picture taken, and the battery died. So, the drawings are the best I could do. We rolled for the scenario and got "Break the Line" (p. 91, Warmachine Prime MKII). There are two ways to win the game:
  • Kill the Caster or
  • At the end of the first player's third turn, a player will win if they control two of the territories on their side and one of the territories on the opponent's side.
Control means you have a model or unit in the territory with CMD greater than 1 and there are no enemy models in the territory.

I marked the territories 1-6 for ease of reference. There is a dry river bed splitting the board with a bridge to the left. There is also a pond and several banks of trees. There were actually more trees but you get the idea.

Army:
Knowing I had to hold territory, I decided to go with a ton of units. It is very different from what I normally do, which I thought might throw Coffey off. With 50pts to spend I went with:
  • Major Victoria Haley
  • Hunter (Coffey often spends a lot of energy killing these things)
  • Lancer (Haley really benefits from the additional range of the arc node)
  • 10 Long Gunners
  • 10 Sword Knights
  • 6 Stormblades +Officer and Banner Bearer
  • 10 Stormguard
  • 10 Trenchers
Coffey took
  • Kommandant Irusk
  • A destroyer (I think, I know it was one with arcing fire)
  • Iron Fang Ulhan (cavalry)
  • Widow Makers
  • Man Hunter
  • There were several others but they didn't really come into the fight so I don't remember them)
Setup:
I had to set up first. I set up my 10 Sword Knights to the right, hoping to run up the side and secure territory 3. The 10 Storm Guard and 10 Long Gunners would hold the center of my territories. The Storm Blades went to the left with eyes on the bridge.

Coffey set up his cavalry to rush the bridge. Irusk was behind the pond. The Manhunter and the Warjack with arcing fire set up towards the middle of the board.

My Hunter set up in the trees in territory 6 and my trenchers set up in the trees near the bridge. Coffey set up his Widow Makers on the edge of the pond which provided cover.

Turn 1:
Everyone advanced and the widow makers picked off a couple of troops. My Sword Knights ran up the side and got clear of the forest. The Iron Fangs moved into position to take the bridge.

Turn 2:
I advanced my Stormblades to block the bridge. I didn't know if they could kill the Iron Fangs but I knew I could stop their charge and set them up to get shot at by my Long Gunners and Trenchers on the next turn. The Lancer moved forward and Haley arced a boosted Arcane Bolt into Irusk. With a lucky roll, he lost 7 of 17 health and surprised Coffey (always a good thing). Haley also cast Deadeye on the Trenchers and they were able to pick of 3 of the 4 Widow Makers. My Sword Knights were able to make it just inside of Territory 3.

The Iron Fangs charged across the bridge, charging into the Stormblades. I lost 4 but they were able to hold the line. The Manhunter and the arcing fire took out all but one of the Stormguard. Irusk moved away from the Lancer.

At the beginning of turn 3, I realized that Coffey's Manhunter was the only model contesting territory 3. I controlled territories 5 & 6 with no problem. The last remaining Stormguard closed with the Manhunter and took him out. The Sword Knights gave me the territory. In stunned silence, we both realized I had won.

It was a fun game, though a little anti-climatic. Coffey forgot about the scenario and it bit him in the butt. I enjoyed the game and look forward to another game soon.

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