Menoth Versus... (Two Battle Reports)

Here's a brief rundown of the Warmachine games I played at the local store on Friday.  I managed to pull out a win in both, but this game isn't one where you can ever feel completely comfortable until it's over!

I won't overwhelm these games with excessive notes; frankly, I'm still learning the names of all my opponent's units and abilities!  If you've not played Mark II, the rules themselves are easy but they're modified by the numerous special abilities and spells each unit and Warcaster has available.  It's this aspect which gives the game its tactical depth - heck, even switching Warcasters can make the same army play in a completely different style... which is perhaps my favorite part of the game.

I welcome any experienced player's ideas and input.  In fact, I'll be disappointed if you don't!

Menoth Vs Skorne

Here's my deployment.

And Skorne advances.  Gauthic just purchased this army, so all he's done is basecoat it.  Knowing him, it'll be done next week.

This is what I've been experimenting with.  Everything is model on model - units matter, but you don't engage or kill a unit, you do so to a model.  Therefore I've been practicing spacing with the idea of controlling space and counterattacking my opponent.

In Warmachine, sometimes you just have to get stuck in.  Gauthic sees what I'm doing but goes for it anyway.  He's going to counter attack the unit(s) I'm counter attacking with!

In my play, my Knights charge...

...and kill the model.  Vilmon goes in to play speedbump... he has an ability which makes him immune to normal attacks.

Gauthic has a melee Warlock with magic weapons, meaning Vilmon doesn't slow him down much.  What worried me was the medium Warbeast had a reach weapon, so he charged in and started swinging at Feora!

I seem to be firmly in control, but that's misleading.  If I was a bit closer, the Skorne Warlock could have used his abilities to kill and advance, kill and advance, and making it to Feora!  He knows he'd be a bit short...

...so he repositions his elephant-thingy and gets stuck in.

I put it down, then try to block the Warlock from getting to Feora, who's stuck where she's at since she had to help kill the elephant... thingy.

Doh!  The Warlock uses his abilites to kill, advance, kill and advance again before finally gaining a full advance at the end.  I'm not sure that we did it properly, but regardless the inch advance the Warlock had put him just short of Feora, so he elected to get the hell out of Dodge.  He did enough damage to the Choir that it took a Command Check, which they failed.

It's moot.  Feora casts her buff and puts paid to the Warlock.

Warmachine!  

After my game, I take a break and watch the action.  Here we have Horde on Horde and Warmachine on Warmachine... the latter at 25 points.  We're getting there.

We have to be forgiven for the lack of painted armies.  We're only about a month in.

Menoth Vs Khador

Here I'm playing the Professor's Khador.  He's elected to play a small, very elite force with Sorcha at its head.  The heavy 'Jack is a stand-in for the Beast09, and the Khador infantry are going to shield wall up and play hard to get.

Sorcha's ability to freeze my army makes me vulnerable.  At the time, I wasn't aware that I could still draw and spend Focus to unfreeze Feora and the two 'Jacks, but regardless the Professor would still have a turn to kill my defenseless, frozen units.

Therefore I'm spreading out to minimize the damage.  I'll need to get close enough at some point to play Feora's Feat and set the infantry on fire.  It's my best chance of softening up the heavy infantry before the battle gets going proper.

For some reason, the Beast09 decides to go after my Knights.  I'm glad to see it, because that model could do an unreal amount of damage to anything he hits.  Let him play on the edge all he wants!  You'll see Vilmon plays speedbump again, where my general plan is to counterattack whatever goes after him.  I enjoy using Vilmon as an achor, though frankly a Paladin could probably do the same job for a point cheaper.  Moving forward though, I plan to have both!

I'm missing a picture.  In my round, Feora got close enough to set fire to the Khador line, doing damage to a goodly number of the models.  Sorcha popped her Feat, freezing almost my entire army!  The heavy infantry moved in and killed Vilmon (since he couldn't activate, he wasn't protected from their attacks) and attacked the Crusader.  It wasn't enough; the Crusader unfreezes and kills two models, while my light 'Jack and Feora strafe the remaining two, eventually killing them.  Sorcha is forced to spend Focus healing herself from fire damage.

I'd kept the Beast09 busy by feeding him Knights one at a time.  In my last turn, they couldn't quite reach Sorcha, who turns and pounds them in the dirt with weapon and spell.  The game ends and I'm up on points.