Protectorate and Trolls Win the Day!

I played my first 2-on-2 game tonight. Barring the stuff in the previous post, this was a very amusing game to play. It was combined 1000pts, with myself and Zugbart teamed up against Circle and Legion. In an accidental twist, the Circle player had miscounted his army's points and was short 100pts unfortunately, but it still made for a good game. It was a fast 3 rounds, with the Legion warcaster (Thagrosh) being assassinated by myself, and the Circle player forfeiting after failing to assasinate Madrak at the end of round 3. Alot happened, so I won't try to recount the battle itself, but here's some highlights:

• Kruger's feat is crazy. It's definately less effective against Warmachine than Hordes, but it's still crazy. It killed Vilmon in the first round.
• Warlocks with no focus, are just bait waiting to be ground up.
• Tharn Ravagers with 4" reach are naughty.
• Circle continues to amaze me for it's ability to move dangerous things around the table with so much freedom.

The assassination of Thagrosh was a beautiful No Quarter challenge sort of item. Well, not entirely as complicated as a NQ challenge, but still beautiful. Here's the setup: The Revenger was at the very edge of Amon's control area, engaged with a Carnivean and a Shredder, and about 4" from Thagrosh, who has a second Carnivean right in front of him. The Devout and Castigator near Amon. Here's the chain of actions:

1. Amon puts one focus on the Devout.
2. Amon activates first, feats, and meditative stances, putting the 2 focus on the Castigator.
3. Amon casts Mobility. 3 focus goes to the Revenger.
4. Amon casts Synergy. 1 focus goes to the Castigator, one to the Devout.
5. The Chior activates, moves forward, and catches the Devout and Castigator with Infuse.
6. The Devout charges a Tharn Raveger, cutting it down and clearing the lane for the Castigator.
7. The Castigator (using Amon's SPD 6 and Mobility) slams the Carnivean, barely scratching it, but slamming it into Thagrosh, knocking both of them down and doing a couple points to Thagrosh.
8. The Revenger walks around the Carnivean, taking a free strike from the Shredder, taking enough damage to take out it's movement boxes, but no fear, Amon's feat overrides the reduction to the Revenger's SPD.
9. The Revenger moves around into melee with Thagrosh, but still in the Carnivean's melee arc (this part was key).
10. The Revenger, now at +2 to hit from Synergy, proceeds to take a pair of attacks on Thagrosh. After the first hit, it's at POW 16 with Synergy against Thagrosh's ARM 15. It only took two attacks to slay him.

The above... that's exactly why I love Warmachine and Hordes. It's brutal, unforgiving, and like a chess match on steroids. Timing and combinations are the core gameplay features of the game.