First Warmachine MK2 game!! 35pts

Hey guys im going to try my hand at this battle report thing, and would like to share with you what i remember about mine and alex's game last monday.

Alex first had to make me redo my list as i did not get the new warcaster pts and such had an additional 12pts to spend !
So we sorted it out then placed the terrain which consisted of a rocky mass in the middle with two forests at either end and some ruins in opposite corners.
I asked alex if we were counting the rocky mass as difficult terrain which it should be but was placed in the middle so messed up charge lanes I think he said they were difficult.
So the role to deploy commenced with alex rolling a 5 and me a 2 and he decided to be the aggressive khadoran hard man and go deploy first go first.

Khador
The Butcher Of Khardov
1 Wardog
1 Juggernaught
1 Behemoth
1 Kovnik Grigorovich
10 Winter Guard (I think)
3 Winter Guard Rockteers
1 Winter Guard officer & standard bearer
6 Kayazy Assassin
1 Kayazy Underboss


Retribution
Ravyn, Eternal Light
1 Hydra
1 Manticore
1 Mage Hunter assassin
1 Arcanist
10 Dawnguard Invictors
1 Dawnguard Invictor officer & standard bearer
4 Stormfall Archers
1 Ghost sniper

Deployment
Alex deployed his winter guard on the left board side with grigorovich at the back, The butcher and his wardog sat behind the juggernaught and behemoth and the kayzay assassins including the underboss where slapped on the right hand side on the otherside of the rocky mass.

I then deployed with the invictors facing off the winter guard in a defensive line at the edge of deployment with the manticore on they're right the hydra on his then the storm falls on the right of them closest to the kayzay ravyn was slapped behind the hydra and manticore with the arcanist.
finally my advanced deploy the ghost sniper was popped in the middle near the rocky mass hoping to do some damage to the destroyer and i didnt know wat to do with the mage hunter so i slapped him with ravyn behind the jacks.

Turn 1

Alex
Alex allocated 1 focus to each of the heavies and cast iron flesh on the kayzay and rage on the winter guard troop then moved slightly forwards followed by his trusty wardog companion.
The Kayzay assassin's ran to the right and into the "Difficult terrain".
The Behemoth and Juggernaught both ran up an amazing 8 inches towards the middle of the board...
The Winter guard decided to folow suit and ran towards the invictors with a bob and weave order and grigorovich snapping at their heels shouting profanities and giving them tough

Thus alex's turn ended.

Tom
I fully alocated 3 focus to the hydra and cast snipe on the stormfall archers with ravyn and then used the arcanists ability power booster to give the manticore a focus for lols. The Hydra and manticore shuffled forward and the manticore slapped a 3inch covering fire template nearish to were the winter guard would walk next turn.
The invictors walked 3 inches forward due to being in a forest at the game start and kept within btb to keep the +2 arm from defensive line.
The stormfall archers were then the first to inact some retribution upon the primitive humans and walked they're 6inches forwards and shot at the kayzay assassins with the amazing 16inch range due to snipe selecting brutal shot (extra damage die) they auto missed due to stealth but two deviated to take out two of the 6 assassins!
Having remembered i do have a ghost sniper i used his deadly shot action to inflict an automatic 3 pts to the behemoth on his 3rd column in an attempt to do damage to his sub cortex.
Again i had no idea wat to do with the magehunter assassin so she flirted with the arcanist behind the jacks gaining odd looks from ravyn.



Turn 2

Alex
Alex started his turn by allocating 3 focus on the behemoth as it was shooting time for those big scary cannons and upkept the rage and ironflesh.
Thus began the bombardment the behemoth aimed two shots at the ghost sniper which both missed due to stealth but deviated into open ground and did nothing.
Now came the brief arguement about whether the rocky mass which the kayzay were now convieniently traversing was actually just a pretty mound and no inconvienance at all, or an outcrop of sharp rocks that would be difficut terrain. Alex said a dice roll would decide it and he won so the kayzay got to run across it meaning two of them got into melee range of the ghost sniper making him now useless.
Grigorovitch shouted the same as last turn after drinking some water and so the winter guard moved forwards and planted some rocket shots at the officer of the invictors unit. they were all out of range so deviated, one landed near two invictors but an arm of 17 stopped the shrapnel and heat.


Tom
My starting thoughts of the turn were my my those kayzay got here quick
anyway ravyn upkept snipe, popped her feat, cast vortex of destruction on herself and cast veil of mists infront of the behemoth but didn't allocate any focus as the hydras focus battery allows no focus to be lost over the maintenance phase woop!! (her feat gives every friendly model in her control range an additionally die on ranged attk rolls and swift hunter)
now things got interesting and Alex had a fright, the empowered stormfalls thought to themselves hmm tasty butcher meat and walked within the 16 inch range unleashing 3 shots with brutal shot active and did 15pts of damage to him and 2 to the wardog. The last stormfall saw the underboss giggling about the ghost sniper so took a shot at him which of course missed deviated and did nothing
The Invictors now activated and the officer popped his feat giving the unit +4 rng ! they unleashed a storm of fire at the winter guard but killed only 4 due to bob and weave giving them 14 defence and some passed the tough rolls. Sadly a lot of the winter guard were still out of range (should of moved forward a little more) so what could have been a devasted squad was still happy and marching onwards.
The Hydra continued the theme of blasting things form afar so collected its powerfield together and blasted the behemoth with a beam of kinetic force at range of 15 pow 15 due to the 3 focus. This then did 9 pts of damage to the third branch of the damage grid taking out its sub cortex and badly damaging its movement and cortex.
Ravyn now weary of those pesky assassins moved her manticore to block her off and forced him to plop his covering fire template just in front of the kayzay just so they had no charge angle on ravyn without taking a pow12 damage roll. The mage hunter moved behind the covering fire template and pondered away.


Turn 3

Alex
The Butcher allocated no focus to his jacks and moved towards them more trying to get away from the incoming fire, then popped his feat his wardog at his heels.
The Jugg and behemoth shuffled forward again Alex hell bent on getting a charge.
The winter guard moved 6 inches forwards again and commenced fire on the invictors squad again having been insulted by a different but equally scary word from grigorovitch giving them boosted attk rolls this caused them to do some real damage to the invictors killing 4 including the officer this caused the farthest left model to be out of range of the invictors lieutenant.
The underboss crossed his arms and popped his feat making the assassin underlings MEGA they could not reach they're prime goal but instead killed the ghost sniper and charged the manticore, arcanist and stormfalls. The charge killed the poor arcanist outright and did 8 damage pts to the manticore, two stormfall archers died at the blades of the underboss and an underling.

Tom
Ravyn gave 1 focus to the hydra and 3 to the manticore then upkept both her spells leaving her focusless she then scooted up to the kayzay in front of the manticore and popped him with her halberd causing instant death after a good roll.
The mage hunter saw her fancy killed and swore revenge charging the lone kayzay swiftly lopping his head from his shoulders and removing the threat from ravyns back.
The storm falls grieved by they're comrades death passed they're leadership test and gritted they're teeth, One took a shot at the wardog who was nestled between the two heavy jacks ready to pounce. It missed but didn't deviate far causing no damage to both the dog and the behemoth, the second stormfall took his arrow and pointblank shot the underboss in the face leaving only two smouldering shoes on the ground.
The invictors slightly disheartened by the death of their beloved lieutenant combined they're shots at the wardog swearing to take it down, they connected but the dog proved a sturdy beast and passed its tough roll. The remainder of the squad took pot shots but only achieved 2 winter guard due to tough and 14 defence.
Ravyn thought it time and sent her eager myrmidons cascading towards the khadoran hulks. The manticore spent a focus to increase his str by 3 and attempted a combo strike which missed, then another focus was spent on another attack which connected but failed to do much to the heavy plates of the juggernaught.
The Hydra Faired better, he connected with both attacks one dealing no damage but the other inlficting 4 pts to 4 taking out no systems. The hydra then used grab and smash as both original attacks hit and threw the enormous jack at the butcher however the huge mass of metal fell short knocking it down.


Turn 4
And this is where i massively underestimated the winter guard!

Alex
The butcher allocated all his focus to his jacks and stroked lola in eager anticipation.
The Winter Guard received grigorovitches harsh words once again and gained an additional attk die, they then moved towards the middle where ravyn was now stood unprotected. the remaining 5 riflemen combined they're shots and took 9 pts off ravyn, the three rocketeers then finished the job and launched 3 rockets at her one missed deviated and skimmed an invictor whilst the other two rockets took her square on just killing her with 3 and 4 damage!!

FATALITY

A win for Alex's khador and a learning experience for toms retribution.
From turn two i thought i had the butcher in a bag and turn three saw me avoiding the usually devastating kayzay caster kill, but it was the winter guard who stole the show and took ravyns head to kiss and do things that lonely Russians on the front do!

Things to learn for next time Alex is devious, Mage Hunter Assassin's need to be used more and stormfall archers rock !!

top stuff Tom, you included coloured titles for things such as who's turn it was and the actual turn count, this is a good habit
While people like me have next to no idea what the Retribution can and will throw at me, there's still the actual practice side of using them, its one of those joys of discovering something new, like not forgetting that the under-boss has a mini-feat which will let his unit to go through the Satyxis to nail the poor bloody warwitch

I bet a phoenix's combustion special attack would mess up those winterguard funtime, assuming its like the Castigator's combustion, battle college sez it can even be done on the charge on the Phoenix- getta burnin'!

[quote="
The butcher allocated all his focus to his jacks and stroked lola in eager anticipation.[/quote]

He did what thats the last thing you would expect a huge russian chap doing in the middle of winter

[quote="Things to learn for next time Alex is devious, Mage Hunter Assassin's need to be used more and stormfall archers rock !![/quote]

how many attacks does the mage hunter get? reading about her, see seems really quite powerful - maybe take down Grigor..

the invictors have Jack Marshall, was this used? As Ravyn only has 6 foc, this would have been really usefull. Ontop of that the invictors would then have been more likely to make use of flank. A unit of 6 attacks, charging, with flank - 6x 10+4d6 is gonna hurt even the big behemoth.

A great write up Tom. Was this the first time you have used your retribution? very well done for a first game against Alex with it, and causing soo many points on Butcher

I remember Alex saying he was just testing this list out in November(?), he had a good comeback with it after the first game.

Alex - are you getting your quota of games atm?

More battle report please.

lola its the butchers axe neal XD the mage hunter assassin only gets one attack but thats expected as she costs 2 pts but its her threat range that really makes her a nice solo, 7 inch movement so +3 on charge and a 4inch melee range albeit its p+s 9 but weapon master, decapitation and arcane assassin means she is slapping 9+4d6 and doubling damage on what goes over the Armour this can seriously hurt anything !! but narn costs 3 pts and has 2 p+s11 weapon master hits with a smaller melee range but acrobatics which i have to drool over making him like alex's kayzay assassins but half the price.
i will get them all but for this tourny we will see what maelstrom has in stock for me !!

hey - heres another site you can do some shopping on:
http://www.giftsforgeeks.org.uk/p/category/1519692895-Retribution+of+Scyrah/

if its a bit rushed, or you are wondering about painting maybe quicker & cheaper to get heavies, but then once they are put together, the stuff doesnt need to be painted to be used in tournaments.

I am thinking of picking up the covenant of menoth if you do make an order, let me know

k man well gifts for geeks have messed me about with previous orders they came 3 weeks late and i cant afford that to happen again, maelstrom have always pulled through within the week and u get discount the more models u purchase ill have a look now and see if they have what i want otherwise gifts for geeks will do XD

gifts for geeks has everything but not sure if its in stock whilst maelstrom has narn but not the chimera ><

i'd recommend Maelstrom, i've found (and my bro and dad have found when shopping for me prezzies though their cases might of been the fact it was like, 2 weeks away from Christmas day) that Gifts for Geeks can be on the slow side with orders, plus you build a pile of money that can be used as a discount with Maelstrom, a nice bonus

I have a feeling Gifts for geeks only keeps minimal stock on-site and forwards orders to their supplier who sends it to Gifts who then sends it to the customer, its the most logical reason i can think of why they're so slow!

only problem is they don't have the chimera in stock >< most shops restock on fridays right?

I think they do so on a as & when basis, Uncle Google was a big help, i search for when do shops restock and it comes up with search results related to when shops restock freakin' neopets!

I'd get Narn from Maelstrom just for the fact that he'll come faster and you'll get a little extra money added to your discount pile. The Chimera however, odds are Maelstrom would get it to you in a similar time-frame to Gifts for Geeks, depending on whether or not Maelstrom's supplier will play nice it could come faster, but i can't say for sure

im emailing them first to chek when they could get it too me XD

also try giving The gaming crypt in altrincham a call - may be a little late tonight though - and its nye

http://marketplaceadvisor.channeladvisor.com/storefrontprofiles/default.aspx?sfid=78681

the website is rubbish, but the shop is well good. Well worth a visit if you can get up there.


It is good to know the Gift for Geeks website is a little slow, as this is an *emergancy purchase* for Tom

i dont know what mercenaries you can use, but i some available for you if wanted.

need to borrow eiryss off alex if hes not using her if not ill have to buy that aswell

Just gonna butt in on that Neal, i've looked at mercs on the card pdf and i thought Cryx were low on mercs that would work for them compared to the other factions-
Only 2 that i spotted that say they'll work for the retribution is
Lady Aiyana & master Holt
orrrrr
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters

course, Eiyrss is a ret partisan so she's alright

Now that IS a poor selection of merc options, then again ghost snipers with Kell bailoch supported by Rayvn with snipe would just not be funny

kell Bailoch is a monster of a sniper - able to auto point damage, 2 shots, RAt 9(?)
then ontop of that he is def #16/17 with buffs.

although he is quiet easy to neatralize.

from what Sath has said though - your defo not having him if I am playing against you

RAT 8 but obviously when he aims, he can hit even easier, and assuming his ROF of 2 is base 2, assuming that ROF of 2 isn't from his dual-shot ability (which he needs to aim to use), when he aims he gets another shot (3 shots from Kell plus ghost sniper love would screw behemoth's sub-cortex on so many levels in 1-2 turns, unless the ROF 2 is him standing still to aim in the first place)
Good thing he won't work for Retribution!
But he'll work for you Neal, and that concerns me

Then again, there's those new mercs, including that chap rutger Shaw (only sez merc or faction army on PP), but not the large-chested Taryn (Merc, Cygnar or protectorate according to PP, if you want someone who can pistol-whip anything that moves, your stuck with Holt!

duel shot is an ability - think he can always do it, certainly in Mk1. Not read him up on mk2 yet. Am sure he will kick arse :-)

anyways its been great chatting on here recently, esp when i am mean to be studying, but for now - Pirates of tehh Carribean is on