I hadn't been able to get out to the Slow Burn lately due to work/gas/life, but I've also found that Uncle's in Tukwila (Slightly closer to home) does Warmachine Tuesday nights. It's a mix of experienced and new there, so it's a fertile ground for testing things.
The briefs!
Week of 12/1
Feora threw down against Makeda in a 15 point rumble. In the end, the Avatar slaughtered Molik Karn and was on his way to ending Makeda when my opponent conceded. Enliven and repels were a big part of the victory, showing my opponent how deadly Protectorate is with their support, like a little puzzle box of death.
Week of 12/8
25 points, Kreoss vs. Butcher: Fight! Butcher had the Behemoth, and the 2 box heavies with a pit crew, while Kreoss rocked out with a full support team (choir and 2 Vassals) and Pallie riding shotgun. In the end, after the character jacks were scrapped, it was the Butcher taking a flurry of Cleansing Fires and Repenter Flails to the face that won the day.
Week of 12/15
35 points, against old Nemesis, pVlad. pFeora was hung out and the last of the Great Bears was able to claim victory. I got greedy and tried feat to catch Vlad afire. Additionally, the last Bear made his tough roll and was steady. Noteworthy as my Daughters managed to shank the other 2 bears before Torch torched them. My Errants continue to prove their ineffectiveness as they were picked off by a bunch of shifty Widowmakers. Want TFG so badly.
The 2nd game of the evening was an odd duck, a 3-way between Cygnar, Retribution, and myself. Stryker made a jack gunline, and with the Retribution on the other side of the board, I couldn't resist showing the Swan why guns don't work against my jacks. Clustered troops and marched them towards him, Passage protecting the jacks and him reluctant to move at me. The Ret (Lead by Garyth) bolted towards me, hoping to nail Kreoss in the back before I kill Stryker and could about face. I was forced to use me feat defensively, Kreoss using his force push to hold the Retribution at bay. This was where I made my mistake. After doing this, Kreoss should've bolted ahead to start mixing it up with Cygnar. Instead, I held him back and tried to arc a spell at Stryker. More the fool I when Kreoss got a Phoenix Thermal Blade between the ribs. He then spent the next turn trying ot scrap the Phoenix and epically failing, though the Avatar just about scrapped 2 jacks in 1 turn. No more 3-ways for me, too easy to get gang-beat if you're the wrong guy.
The Meat!
Made it out to Dragon's Lair for Slow Burn tonight. I missed snagging a game last week, but watch Rhyas and borka throw down, which was somewhat amusing. This week, I got reintroduced to Legion in the form of Sam's eThagrosh, the Dragon-Man. We ran 20 points as we were worried about time constraints.(Think we could've done 25, but in hindsight, this benefited me in the end)
My List:
Kreoss +5
Crusader 6
Avatar 11
Vassal of Menoth 2
Vassal of Menoth 2
Paladin of the Wall 2
4x Choir 2
His List:
eThag +3
Typhon 12
Shredder 2
Shredder 2
Shredder 2
Shredder 2
Forsaken 2
Spell Martyr 1
Turn 1
Everblight got 1st ups. He ran everything up, with his Forsaken leaching 4 fury off of Typhon. After seeing that monster go off against the Trolls last week, I knew I didn't want it anywhere close to Kreoss while he was on any sort of Focus.
Staring down the paxk of vicious Dragonspawn, I cautiously advanced my army, casting Lamentations (of the non-present Nyss women I was hoping to hear.) and sticking Defender's Ward on the Crusader. I ran the Crusader, figuring it would make a fine walking target for him to nail while I got the Avatar up the field to set up for a kill. The choir told Typhon and Thag they couldn't breath on the jacks and to step off. (They were in mint-condition, filthy mouthbreathers.)
Turn 2
His turn to cautiously move up field. Keeping in mind the range of our control areas, he stayed just outside and dashed his Martyr in, arcing a Scourge at an exposed Choirboy. (He targeted the Avatar but I let him switch as he was unaware of the Avatar's Ward.) The choir boy bit the dust (Not a huge loss, had 3 more waiting and eager) as well as the Vassal next to him, he also knocked the Avatar on it's ass. (Smegging hell) He then screened Thag with his Shredders to prevent any crazy charges and left it at that.
I figured I would need to feed him the Crusader. Since it was Def warded, I figured if it didn't survive, it would at least soak up most of his turn getting rid of it. I ran it forward straight into the maw of Thag's warpack. The Avatar stood up and ambled forward, waiting for the countercharge, while his lil Vassal buddy Enlivened him. I knew that the Avatar would be catching at least one rabid Shredder to the face next turn, and I wanted him getting up deeper in the fray. The Pallie continued his move up, readying to charge Typhon, a Shredder, or maybe even Thag, depending on how the position of my decoy worked. Stone and Mortar made him an unappealing target for my opponent to root out when my jacks were gettin all up ins. Finally, Kreoss stepped up again, catching Thag's forces in his control and feated, knocking them all over. This isn't quite so devastating to Hordes as it is to Warmachine, but it still eats up Fury for extra fun times on the beasts. More importantly, Thag was in the range of Lamentations, limiting his magical answers to my maneuvering.
Turn 3
After blowing the fury to stand everything but the Forsaken up, he decided it would be good to cast Manifest destiny for 6 Fury, draining him. He then charged the Crusader. even with MD up, he missed the warded Crusader by a hair's breadth. He then feated. His warpack proceeded to gangbang the Crusader as planned, Kreoss wincing all the while. As planned, a shredder peeled off to nibbled on the Avatar and it used the move to crest the hill. After munching at the Crusader, the Shredders used their rabid feat hits to try and put some points on the Avatar, but all they did was scratch the paint and make him upset.
The Paladin finally took his opening and charged eThag, swinging big and missing by one. Then I saw it. His 2 shredders were small. Avatar was big. After the Choir sang Battle, the Avatar ran roughshod over the intervening shredders, leaving them with 1 HP each and unable to properly free-strike him. From there, it was the Avatar smacking Thaggie up with his Butter knife to wrap up the game.
All in all, it was interesting. Sam realized he shouldn't have let Thag move up and should've in fact pulled back out of Lamentations range as his beasts would've taken out the jack without Thag and would be a good position to eat the rest of my forces. If I'd spread my 2nd Vassal away from the choir boy, he might've survived to Enliven the Crusader and made the whole feat turn more painful for Thag overall, but as it was, my plan worked for the most part. Lamentations is brutal if you're not looking for it and the Avatar continues to be an MvJ, though I'm lucky I ended things when I did else Kreoss might've gotten Typhon in his face next turn.
Until next time true believers....
