The really really small mini WM/Hordes tournie of the club

Hi everyone, its me again, and i felt like writing down my experiences of playing with Hordes for the first time
Me Tom and Neal got together for a 15 point micro-tournie of our own, Andy didn't bring his Cygnar, and Alex was unable to show up till late into the evening. (Oh Oh and btw Neal, the Forces of Warmachine: Protectorate of Menoth book is now up on the PP website, check it out yo)
"The Road to Salvation is Paved with the Skulls of Heretics"
Seems about right

I asked Tom to bring his Legion so i could take them for a spin on the gaming board whilst he did some experimenting with his Retribution so he had a few proxies knocking about.

He had 4 combinations of Legion lists available to me but i chose a beast heavy list comprising of

Thagrosh, prophet of Everblight

2 shredders
1 Nephilim soldier
1 Carnivean

Tom's Retribution

Dawnlord Vyros

1 Griffon
1 Phoenix

1 Arcanist
1 Dawnguard Scyir
1 Griffon (marshalled to the scyir)

The terrain was as varied, with some rough terrain here and there and some impassible too, we rolled for deployment and i let him go first.

Turn 1
Tom:
Tom ran everything forward to get things closer, far as i can remember

Me:
Eager to start burning fury off to make room for the fury that i was inevitably going to leech, i fired up fog of war to give my units concealment and draconic blessing on the Carnivean, both spells used 6 of my 7 fury

I advanced the Carnivean into the woods to await the Retribution barreling towards me so i could get a nice charge in

The Nephilim advanced forwards with a similar idea in mind
As did both shredders

Turn 2
Tom:
I remember Inviable resolve being cast on the phoenix and mobility making the Vyros Griffon and the phoenix gain 2 movement and pathfinder (better then Mortenebra's Terminal velocity if you ask me)

The scyir moved his jack and himself up onto a nearby hill and sat waiting for further orders

the Phoenix made a charge at the carnivean, blasting through the rough terrain to make an 11" move plus 2" reach (which got it in easily, darn reach!)
It did its best to mangle the carnivean, and it ripped a chunk of health off with its charge with its flaming sword of flamey doom and fist plus extra flaming blade attack, but the carnivean lost no aspects

The Vyros griffon levied a charge at the nephilim soldier but only caused superficial damage to the sword bearing dragon spawn


Me:
The Athanc shard generated 1 focus for Thagrosh, fire expired on the Carnivean
i upkept draconic blessing on the Carnivean
I was hoping i could use the Carnivean's spiny growth animus but its spell-like and couldn't be used in combat
Speaking of that big pink lug, he struck the phoenix repeatedly in the face, dealing a fair amount of damage i think crippling his right arm by the end of it

The Nephilim was pretty pissed at the griffon so he shuffled a bit to the right so Thagrosh could later join in and was actually able to attack the griffon's weakpoint for massive damage (See Sony's 2006 E3 press conference and seek out Genji 2 in the vid to see where 'massive damage' comes from)
Thagrosh of course being a beatstick, charged the softened griffon and was able to whittle it down to 1 itty witty box (i should of put it all the way down with that last fury but i foolishly thought while it was alive it'd block Rayvn's charge lane)

Whats a shredder good for? Going rabid and charging, thats what (and being a damage transfer sink) and thats what they did, one charged the Scyir griffon and only caused modest pain
while the other shredder (which was actually further away from Rayvn, so stupid me for charging the scyir griffon with the shredder closer to rayvn, but i didn't immediately think it'd reach till the 1st shredder just reached the griffon) charged at Ryvn and missed badly, it blocked his charge lane some but that was it.


Turn 3
Tom:
he started with the scyir who drove his griffon to be able to re-roll attacks against the shredder, the griffon was delighted at this and promptly skewed the feisty bugger on its halberd and that was that

Rayvn skirted past the shredder and into reach of Thagrosh (because he was barely able to avoid the shredder's melee range and get around the wounded griffon), i tried to save Thagrosh from his impending doom by transferring damage but it takes fury to transfer so i could only deflect 6 points of damage before he continued hitting him and smacked him down!

Retribution: 1
Legion: 0

I engaged in some light-hearted sulking because i'm unfamiliar with fighting Retribution, and in retrospect i've not once played Hordes, only fought it on a couple occasions (1 time under MkI and the 2nd under MkII at the sunday Chorley tournie) so it was twice the handicap i suppose.

Whats more i was able to do a lot of damage despite not getting the all-important charge with the nephilim or Carnivean

Hordes ideally should be played aggressively, and i wasn't being proactive by riling beasts and casting animus to generate fury for Thagrosh to leech for later use, my mind is firmly locked in the ways of Warmachine and its focus mechanic.
However the experience has generated seeds of Hordes supremacy in the Privateer press games sector of my mind, though i'm not a fan of the normal Thagrosh model, there's no denying he is a great beatstick, with some beast friendliness thrown in for measure.



However i'm more attracted to the party tricks of having a unit of striders plus UA plus strider deathstalker solo plus eLylyth plus Incubus for when the striders finally get cornered and terminated
I'm also bit of a fan of the Nephilim protector model
But Absylonia is one heck of a beast caster now, she arguably has better options then Vayl in terms of buffs and feat
Almost everyone goes for eThagrosh at tournies; yes he is a monster of a warlock but i'd give him a miss on the grounds of finding a super-power warlock elsewhere.


Unfortunately i didn't give the match against Neal and Tom my full attention as i was distracted by the purdy MkII rule book
what i do know is that Neal was packing:

Severius

The Avatar of Menoth
Blessing of Vengeance

Deliverer Sunburst artillery

And that it was a tough battle which at the very end of the evening Tom was barely able to send Severius to meet Menoth himself in the sky

Tom's Retribution

Dawnlord Vyros

1 Griffon
1 Phoenix

1 Arcanist
1 Dawnguard Scyir
1 Griffon (marshalled to the scyir)

Neal was packing:

Severius

The Avatar of Menoth
Blessing of Vengeance

Deliverer Sunburst artillery

Basically a charge towards each other, with the avatar having protection of menoth, making a def 12 arm23 monster. Tom charged his entire army to bring this bad boy down, and did after 2 turns. Severius put focus on Blessing of Vengance and tore Vyros down to 2 health. Tom then sent a Jack Marshelled light into Severius, to get beaten to a pulp.

SHould have kept him further back, and feated.

really nice quick clean skirmish game. Real shame we didnt have another opponent of either Alex or Andy as this would have been a great night of WM/H