Making New Friends

I mentioned in my last blog that I went to "Casual Warmachine" night at a local gaming store.  There was no Warmachine and I was pretty disheartened.  However, the comments were fantastic and upbeat so I bravely ventured into the local forums and where I saw this:

If anyone's interested, I'll be at Battleforge about 5:30-ish with a couple 35 pt lists i want to try. (my traditional Rahn list, and the Kaelyssa list I've been trying to whack out)

I posted back and we met up at 5:30.  We got two games in and he was really nice.  I would still classify my play at the newb level and he was both helpful and instructive.  There were also about 40 other players for the game night, some with Warmachine, others with the standard mix of 40k, WHFB, and FoW.

Game 1
For our first game, I took prime Haley's tier 4 list, full of Long Gunners and Hunters.  It is a very shooty army but a unit of Sword Knights added some teeth.  I (sort of) survived Rhan's feat round, where my Lancer (with the arc node) and my two Hunters were knocked down and then push/pulled right into the teeth of his infantry.  One lonely Hunter was left with 3 boxes at the end of it, his left sniper rifle ripped off and only and axe left.  He took out one infantry in turn.

On my next turn, pHaley popper her feat which allows all friendly units in her control range to make an additional attack, regardless of Rate of Fire.  The Sword Knights charged and took out his heavy 'Jack before it could light me on fire.  They had to roll a 4 to hit.  For damage, they rolled 4 dice on the first hit and 3 dice on the second hit and subtracted 8 from each.  It was brutal.  I had no idea those guys were so tough!

My Long Gunners were next and they stood still and shot.  This gives them an additional shot, on top of the one Haley gave them.  18 shots at his light warjack finally brought it down, but not before it arced a chain lightning ball into me twice.

At this point, the game was over.  My opponent conceded the game, saying the rest would just be my 2 units of Long Gunners chewing through his remaining forces.  This gave us time for a second game.

Game 2

Our second game was much quicker.  I took my standard Darius list with all heavy 'Jacks.  It is not a tier list but he had to leave for work in an hour and I am faster with the 'Jacks.  He took his Kaelyssa list.  This list is designed to shoot through walls, models, and everything else.  80% of the force is advanced deploy and I believe the only things with out stealth were the two heavy 'Jacks and Kaelyssa herself.  Everything else is designed to get at the warcaster and assassinate.  I didn't understand all this, though my opponent tried to warn me, and I started 'Jack walking my group up.  As soon as Darius was within range, it didn't matter that there were tons of Iron in front of him.  He was phantom shot from a far and a solo made it through for the coup de grace.  She decapitated him!  It's one of her special abilities.

Overall, it was a great night and I met several other players.  I didn't take any  pics.  I'm sure my opponent would have been cool with it but I already felt new and didn't want to add to it.

So thank you to all of you who posted encouraging comments last time.  They helped and I got to play two games.  Now to finish painting up those Long Gunners, they deserve it...