Battle Report: Kraye vs Madhammer

Fake battle report from my phone. Played a game the other day at a Warmachine BBQ. I ended up losing and it had some to do with a very well placed and diced Avalancher template. But more than that, I feel like I just got beat by a superior army list that I didn't have answers for. Primed Press Gangers that run into my front line is brutal. Lists are below. Needless to say I lost this one by assassination.

Games played this year: 43

War Room Army

Cygnar - B1

Theme: No Theme Selected

75 / 75 Army

Captain Jeremiah Kraye - WJ: +30

-    Squire - PC: 5

-    Centurion - PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 17)

-    Dynamo - PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)

-    Stormclad - PC: 18

-    Firefly - PC: 8

Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 4

-    Firefly - PC: 8

Savio Montero Acosta - PC: 6

Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10

-    Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: 5

-    Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner - PC: 2

-    Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner - PC: 2

-    Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner - PC: 2

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GENERATED : 07/28/2016 10:15:53

BUILD ID : 2022.16-07-07

This list isn't quite right but I'm working from memory...

War Room Army

Mercenary - New Army

Theme: No Theme Selected

70 / 75 Army

Durgen Madhammer - WJ: +29

-    Ghordson Avalancher - PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 17)

-    Ghordson Basher - PC: 9 (Battlegroup Points Used: 9)

-    Ghordson Driller - PC: 10 (Battlegroup Points Used: 3)

-    Grundback Gunner - PC: 6

-    Grundback Gunner - PC: 6

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 4

Ragman - PC: 4

Press Gangers - Lass & 9 Grunts: 12

Press Gangers - Lass & 9 Grunts: 12

Horgenhold Artillery Corps - Gunner & 2 Grunts: 6

Herne & Jonne - Herne & Jonne: 5

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 8

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GENERATED : 07/28/2016 10:24:14

BUILD ID : 2022.16-07-07

Kryssa, Conviction of Everblight

Finally got her finished! She'd been sitting on my desk simply waiting for more dullcoat spray to arrive (which finally did) and so now she's really done. Other than the weirdness of attaching her cloak, this model was pretty nice to work on. The cape is a little strange, and without a 360 view of her on the PP website yet, it was hard to figure out. I'm pretty sure I did it just slightly wrong based on the gap between the cape clasp and the back of her armor. However any further shifting would have made her left arm just seem crazy bent backwards. Beyond that though, the sculpt is actually pretty good. I was suspicious of these new plastic models and the detail, but I have to admit that Kryssa came out very nice.

Battle Report: Sloan vs Ravyn, Kryssa vs Helynna

Pointlessly brief double battle report.

Game 1:
My list: Sloan, Squire, Avenger, Dynamo 2 Fireflies, Reliant, Strangeways, 2 Gun Mage Captains, Acosta, Ragman, Bokur, Anastasia.
My opponent: Ravyn, Corbeau, Banchee, Manticore, Mechanik, Artificer, Voidtracer, Destors (5), Sentinels (6+UA), Electromancers, Dahlia, Skarath.
Scenario: , no clock.
My opponent's dice peed all over me again. The coup de grace was when a Soulless Voidtracer charged in an killed Acosta (needing a 10 to hit and 10 to kill), which ended up completely breaking my board control on the left zone. After that I got flustered and made scenario errors, despite the fact that I was winning the attrition war. We played it out after my failure to stop him from winning on scenario and I would have won eventually, but it was still a stupid loss on my part.
Lessons learned: Sloan's new feat is good, but she'll be focused starved during it. Still, it works lovely with Dynamo. Plus, I still love Fireflies. Lots.

Game 2:
My List: Kryssa, Neraph, Bolt Thrower, 2 Shredders
My opponent: Helynna, Manticore, Griffon, Chimera
This was mostly just a quick test to see how competitive the two battle boxes are. Honestly, I got super lucky on an assassination run. The Bolt Thrower managed to crit knockdown the Griffon out of the way, and then Kryssa was able to Quickness to the side and charge Helynna, promptly getting a crit and cranking dice rolls well enough to kill Helynna just exactly.
Lessons learned: The Legion battlebox is a pretty tough kit to use. It requires a lot of hit and run tactics, but if the opponent has decent armor, it's not going to go well. It really revolves around Kryssa getting a good assassination run using her feat. I like the idea of her using the Neraph animus to further pull models forward into range of other stuff, but even then it's pretty tricky.

Games this year: 42

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #129

Not going to be many weekend updates for a while. Family vacation is about to launch.

Joy of joys! Liquitex Burnt Sienna ink is a wonderful replacement for the old GW Chestnut ink that was ended years ago. I'm so excited!! I tested it out a bit and it's a pretty fantastic.

Ran out of dullcoat. Doh! Kryssa would be completely done except I need to spray her with dullcoat. It's on it's way though, so hopefully this week.

Got some progress done on the new Proteus, as well as the Scythean parts to convert my old Proteus with. That is going to be a real nerve-wracking conversion process for sure!

Arc painting progress:
Warlocks: 16/16
Heavy Beasts: 11/11
(Seraph, 2 Angelius, Typhon, Neraph, eCarnivian) Light Beasts: 10/10
Lesser Beasts: 24/24
Pack Beasts: 8/8
Solos: 13/13
Incubi: 10/10
Small Based Units: 34/34 (Striders+UA, Hex Hunters+UA, Legionnaires+UA, Blackfrost Shard)
Medium Based Units: 11/11 (Warmongers, Warspears+UA)
Cavalry Units: 5/5 (Raptors)
Artillery/Support Units: 11/11 (Scather, Spawning Vessel, Blighted Bather)
Total: -/153
No arcs needed: 3 (Lylyt3, Throne, Archangel)
Unpainted models: 15 (2 Hellmouths, 2 Shredders, Bolt Thrower, Neraph, Proteus, Kryssa, Scythean)
For some reason my model collection total is off for Legion, so that's now updated. Further proof that I'm more of a Cygnar player than a Legion player I guess.

From the Desk: Marking Arcs (part 4)

Latest update. This time I was painting Raptors and remembered I also need to paint numbers on multi-wound models.

Warlocks: 9/16
Heavy Beasts: 1/13
Light Beasts: 10/10
Lesser Beasts: 24/24
Pack Beasts: 8/8
Solos: 11/13
Incubi: 10/10
Small Based Units: 31/34 (Striders+UA, Hex Hunters+UA, Legionnaires+UA, Blackfrost Shard)
Medium Based Units: 11/11 (Warmongers, Warspears+UA)
Cavalry Units: 5/5 (Raptors)
Artillery/Support Units: 10/11 (Scather, Spawning Vessel, Blighted Bather)

Total: -/164

Realized today that Lylyth3, Archangel, and Throne don't need arcs. Duh. I keep updating total counts as I figure out stuff. Will post another update this evening.

From the Desk: Marking Arcs (part 3)

Yet more progress from yesterday that didn't get posted due to board game evening...

Warlocks: 4/17
Heavy Beasts: 1/13
Light Beasts: 10/10
Lesser Beasts: 24/24
Pack Beasts: 8/8
Solos: 10/13
Incubi: 0/10
Scather Crew: 0/3
Spawning Vessel: 7/8 (including Blighted Bather)
Warmongers: 0/5
Warspears: 0/6
Raptors: 0/5
Striders: 0/8
Hex Hunters: 0/11
Legionnaires: 12/12
Blackfrost Shard: 0/3
Total: -/165

I'll start collapsing unit counts down in the next update.

From the Desk: Marking Arcs (parts 2)

Progress from last night that I forgot to note.

Warlocks: 4/17
Heavy Beasts: 1/13
Light Beasts: 10/10
Lesser Beasts: 24/24
Pack Beasts: 8/8
Solos: 9/13
Incubi: 0/10
Scather Crew: 0/3
Spawning Vessel: 0/8 (including Blighted Bather)
Warmongers: 0/5
Warspears: 0/6
Raptors: 0/5
Striders: 0/8
Hex Hunters: 0/11
Legionnaires: 0/12
Blackfrost Shard: 0/3
Total: 56/165

Battle Report: Sturgis vs Garreth

Lazy battle report.

My list: Sturgis, Stormwall, Dynamo, Sylas, Journeyman, Firefly, 2 Arcane Tempest Riflemen, Strangeways, Stormblades (6+UA).

My opponent: Garreth, Imperatus, Manticore, Chimera, Elara, Griffon, Mechanik, Arificer, 2 Mage Hunter Assassins, Nayl, Destors (3), Sentinels (6+UA), Lanyssa.

Scenario: The Pit, no clock.

Sometimes your opponent's dice just pee all over your plans. This was somewhat one of those cases. Despite having Arcane Shield and fancy plans, I got pounded pretty bad. After the second round, everything was going downhill too fast in the attrition game and I simply didn't have enough moving parts in my army to pull off an assassination. However this was one of my last games of fielding "new" stuff. Breaking out Stormwall was a good exercise.

Lessons learned: Stormblade melee ranges increased! Stormwall machine gun damages went down.

Games this year: 40

From the Desk: Marking Arcs

As a part of working towards my yearly goals, I've started painting arcs on my Legion models. I'm hoping to bang this out pretty fast, and to that end I'm going to use some short posts here to keep me motivated and track my progress. To that end, I've broken down all the models into groups for easy tracking. I'm sure I'll collapse this down more as I make progress. I'm also not including stuff that isn't painted at this point.

Warlocks: 2/17
Heavy Beasts: 1/13
Light Beasts: 7/10
Lesser Beasts: 24/24
Pack Beasts: 0/8
Solos: 0/13
Incubi: 0/10
Scather Crew: 0/3
Spawning Vessel: 0/8 (including Blighted Bather)
Warmongers: 0/5
Warspears: 0/6
Raptors: 0/5
Striders: 0/8
Hex Hunters: 0/11
Legionnaires: 0/12
Blackfrost Shard: 0/3
Total: -/165
Let's see how fast I can get this done!

Battle Report: Nemo3 vs Strakhov1

ZAP ZAP ZAP!!!

My list: Nemo3 & Finch, Squire, Dynamo, 3 Fireflies, 2 Storm Striders, Silverlines (10).

My opponent: Strakhov, Behemoth, Ruin, Juggernaut, Black Dragons (10+UA), Drakhuun, Widowmakers, 2 Manhunters.

Scenario: Mosh Pit (book), no clock.

So this battle exemplified everything that I love in a game of Warmachine. Both of our armies got to do their special things. We learned rules and our models. We got to punch each other in the face. Our dice both succeeded and failed us. There was much laughter. Overall, it was a blast. Rather than try to recount the battle, here's some highlights...
I managed to get a full stack of boosting on a Juggernaut! The Silverlines put their template on it for +2 electrical damage. There was a Firefly within 5" of it for +2 more damage. There was a Storm Strider within 10" of it for +2 to hit. And then Nemo feated for an extra die of damage. At this point a Storm Strider got to plug the thing with 2 effective POW 19+3d6 damage hits which left my opponent both laughing and crying.
Strakhov got to super missile both Ruin and Behemoth into my army, on 2 separate turns. They did crazy damage, although poor Ruin failed to take out Dynamo in a single alpha strike.
Overall the battle was great fun. As it wore on though, I was losing on attrition so I orchestrated an assassination attempt on Strakhov. After clearing a lane and engagement, 1 Storm Strider was able to aim at Strakov while gaining the +2 bonus from the other Storm Strider, thus needing 5's to hit. Unfortunately I missed with one of those attacks. That combined with a fully-boosted lightning strike from Nemo, on average dice, would have put Strakhov into "extra crispy" mode. Oh well, such is the nature of a game that uses dice. Still, despite the loss, I feel like I played pretty well and used my entire army to great effect.

Lessons learned: Ruin and Behemoth are dangerous. I love the Storm Strider still, especially with Nemo3. Dynamo is just crazy good all around. Most of all, I need to read my opponent's cards more carefully at the start of each game.

Games this year: 39

Colbie Sterling, Captain of the Bri

Limited edition sculpts are always a bit of a tricky thing for me. I want to paint them, but then I also want to do a top notch job on them. This one fell below the line for effort unfortunately. I somewhat speed painted her. It's not a terrible model, but for some reason I just couldn't get into it, and my effort certainly doesn't match what it deserves. Still though, I have a second one in the closet if I really want to try again.

Resource: Kuku Kube

I know, it's sort of a fad thing, but this test is sort of an interesting exercise to get a sense of how attuned your eyes are to spotting color and brightness. However if you try this, I recommend not taking it in the spirit of trying to score as high as possible, but more in the spirit of just knowing how well attuned your eyes are. Training your eyes to see color and contrast and brightness is a skill that can be trained to some degree. Knowing your current ability to spot color gives you a sense of how much room for improvement you have.

So give it a try! Kuku Kube

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #128

Belated happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans! And belated happy Canadian Independence Day to my Canadian brothers and sisters! And, uh, happy weekend to the rest of you.

Finished my Cygnar box! Finished the Gun Mage Riflemen! Got Proteus assembled and did gap filling on the Bolt Thrower and Neraph! Used lots of exclamation marks!!

I also finally got around to making some spare wall templates. I was going to order some out of clear plastic, but it turns out no one actually sells any, so a custom order from the plastics store was my only option which would have been unnecessarily expensive.

Got one of my Rules Digests spiral bound at a FedEx Office location. Totally worth the $6 I paid for them to do is, as it was done perfectly, and also given clear plastic covers. So much easier to use since I can lay it open flat now. Highly recommend doing this.

One last note to myself, I got a tip that Liquitex Burnt Sienna ink is a pretty close match for the old GW Chesnut ink that I miss oh so much. Need to see if I can find some.

Gun Mage Riflemen

Since they were FA:2, I decided to get 2 at L&L. I'm stoked to have these ready for play well before their official release date. So very stoked. As with my GMCAs, I decided having different colored models would make it easier to manage them, especially since there was no reasonable space for putting numbers on them.

Lancer (take 3)

Plastic Lancer from the Mk3 Cygnar starter box. More shock shields and arcnodes!

Battle Report: Caine1 vs Issyria

Running low on energy, so this write up will be sketchy.

My list: Caine1, Reinholdt, Ace, 2 Hunters, Gun Mages (6+UA), Hunter, Tempest Blazers (3), Strangeways.

My opponent: Issyria, Corbeau, Imperatus, Chimera, Destors (5), Heavy Rifle Team, Arcanist Mechanic, Artificer, 2 Mage Hunter Assassins, Narn, .

Scenario: Mosh Pit (book), no clock.

Won initiative, chose to go first. Advanced, then enemy advanced, then I did some shooting. One thing I enjoyed was using a combination of Jack Marshal with a Hunter, and then Strangeways to give it a focus, and Caine to give it Deadeye. The net result is that with the Take Aim option, the Hunter becomes RAT 9 +3d6 to hit, and POW 8 boosted armor piecing with crit brutal damage. I managed to get the crit when shooting at Imperitus too, but unfortunately rolled really badly. Still, at 4d6-1 for damage, it put a serious dent in him. From there things got pretty grindy for me though. Fortunately my opponent didn't feat early with Issyria and I managed to keep things at bay. Then later when Imperitus got a run on Caine, dice bent in my favor and he survived by 4 points, after having spent 2 focus for damage drops. At that point I had to take a run on Issyria. There was a bit of luck and a Gun Mage managed to Thunderbolt shot Imperitus sideways 3", allowing Caine to then Thunderstrike Imperitus back into a Destor, which then freed a Hunter from melee engagement. Caine continued his run by advancing, shooting the Artificer down (to get rid of the +2 def against ranged), and then feating and popping shots into Issyria. If Caine hand't gotten lucky and finished her off, Ace and the freed Hunter were all set to finish the job. Still though, I was sweating that one and simply got lucky with my opponent's dice not rolling average.

Lessons learned: Caine1 is still awesome. Jack Marshalling is totally a thing. Issyria is scary. And most of all, between this list and the Stryker1 list, I've learned that balanced lists really are pretty important in order to have answers to lots of different questions. I'm honestly starting to believe that skew lists are actually more punished in Mk3 than they were in Mk2.

Games this year: 38