Reports from the Northern Crusades!

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....

Aftermath

SteamCon was a modest success for Rise of Aester, but for my Menite Forces, it was a non-starter. The game room seemed to only have a couple press gangers with battleboxes, rather than interesting PUGs. Not to mention I was so busy running an underwater pirate auction I didn't even have time to even brush on my box game. Hopefully the snowpocalypse diminishes enough I can go out game over the next couple days.....

The SteamCon

In preperation for SteamCon, I don't think I'll be making it out tonight, much to my chagrin. Hopefully I'll get some play time in at SteamCon, being just down the hall from the game room.

Skipping church

Erg, really want to go out to Games and Gizmos tonight to give my stuff a proper field test, but I promised I'd go see a friend in a play. Stupid life getting in the way of Menoth...

A Costly Lesson: A battle report against Khador

Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince of Umbrey, trudged through the Llaelese ruins, his warjacks chugging along with him. Menite insurgents had been spotted in the area, and the High Kommand had seen fit to dispatch to him to investigate. Did they not realize he had more important things to do than chase down religious fanatics? His less than pleasant thoughts about the High Kommand were interupted as he sensed movement. In the evening fog, there were shapes, moving back across the town square. He called a halt to his group.

"Movement, my prince." muttered Lieutenant Stanislov, leader of the Widowmaker contingent that Vlad had brought with him. He nodded in agreement. The Widowmakers moved forward, peering down their scopes, confident in the range of their weaponry. Kapitan Molovich, one of his Drakhun retainers, rode past.

"Flush them out Molovich, I want to see what we're up against." Vlad mumured. Molovich nodded in acknowledgement, his Man of War armor clanking as he rode into the fog. As he rode forward, Vlad could make out the light of heartfire in the haze, the light of a few heartfires, like a refugee camp in the mist. The tingling the back of his mind signaled the presence of another warcaster close by. He smirked. Perhaps this would not be a boring patrol after all.

A low chanting filled the air, the fog dispersing from the area, a blazing white light shining from across the square. A large ornate Menite 'jack gazed across the square at the Khadoran force, flanked by a Crusader and other smaller Menite 'jacks. Behind them, Vlad noticed a group of priests reading from scrolls, the source of the chanting. Most definitely forces from the Protectorate of Menoth. Behind the massive Warjacks, he made out the shaped of a hunched and chained figure, runes glowing around him. He did not appear to be a priest, Vlad was unsure what to make of him. more importantly, he could finally identify the source of the tingling. Issuing orders behind the Warjacks was Feora, Priestess of the Flame. Vlad scowled. He had fought this woman many times before to aggravating stalemates, this time would be different however. Imposing his will on his Warjacks, he let them slip their normal movement governors. Smoke flowed from their stacks and their eyes glowed bright. The trio of warjacks rushed forward to engage the Menites, eager to crush their gilt ornamentations.

The Prince of Umbrey was somewhat concerned as they left the range of thoughts, far beyond where he could influence them. It mattered little though. he knew they would be strong enough to withstand an enemy assault and that he could join them at his leisure. He strode forward, the Widowmakers scouting ahead.

The Menite battlegroup marched forward, choir priests chanting a hymn of battle to Menoth in old Caspian, praising his strength and justice. The warjacks under Feora's command seemed to flex, the sun seeming to break through the cloud cover to shine on their weapons. Yet they did not advance quickly towards Vlad's jacks. What were they waiting for? Molovich called out, catching Vlad's attention

"Ambush my lord!" He bellowed. In what had been an empty building across the square, suddenly a contingent of Knights Exemplar had appeared, brandishing crossbows. Creeping along the side of the building, Vlad noticed the shapes he'd seen in the fog before, Daughters of the Flame, zealous assassins on par with the Kayazy. Molovich seemed to notice them as well and started to move his mount away from the nimble women. As he started to do so, a wall of fire leapt up, blocking Molovich's path to the Menite jacks. His horse reared and would not move through the fire. Vlad cursed.

Deprived of his guidance, his warjacks moved forward towards the Menite line, running on their default orders. Lieutenant Stanislov and her Widowmakers dashed forward, taking up position in the middle of the square, behind the jacks, hoping to cover Molovich's advance and pick off the flanking Menites. Vlad cursed as the trap his force had walked into was sprung.

The Daughters moved like a rushing river, leaping through the windows of the ruin and coming from around, their blades biting into chinks in the armor of Molovich's destrier. The animal whinnied and reared, almost throwing Molovich from it's back. Vlad knew their numbers would be enough to at least unhorse him, and then their superior maneuverability would carry the day. A pair of loud clicks and two of the Widowmakers went down, exemplars accuracy surprising both Vlad and Stanislov, who just barely held her resolve in the face of fire. The Menite choir continued their song praising the martial prowess of Menoth. The largest Warjack of the group glowed with a fire purer than heartfire, a white light pouring out. It charged one of the Kodiaks, raining a hail of devastating blows on it. The Kodiak could only raise it's arms in defense, and even then those were quickly smashed by the flurry of attacks from this Avatar of Menoth's will. The Kodiak held it's ground however, battered and leaking oil. Vlad thought he would be able to get into range soon and give the Kodiak a fighting chance when the hunched figure stumbled forward, gesturing towards the Avatar. The construct leapt into the air at the Kodiak, it's sword pointed downwards. Vlad stumbled as the ground shook from the impact, the Kodiak wrecked and flaming. Almost immediately, the Crusader was on the other Kodiak, laying on with it's mace, pummeling the Kodiak as the Avatar had done to it's counterpart. By the end of the assault, the Kodiak stood, all but wrecked. Vlad was almost within range when Feora stepped forward, gesturing at the Avatar. Holy fire erupted from the Warjack, melting the Kodiak to slag. The Devastator was unaffected by the attacks however. It stepped forward and punched the Avatar with it's armor clad fist, doing a decent amount of damage with it. Without Vlad to guide it however, it did not process to use it's powerful charges on the other 'jack.

He rushed into range and shouted a spell, hoping that fate would see the day through in his favor, but it was too late. Stanislov's snipers were in disarray, shooting at the Warjacks in a blind panic, and Molovich was trying to take as many Daughters to Urcaen with him, but Vlad knew it would be to no avail. He turned started away from the field. It had been costly to learn, but he knew he would take every assignment seriously from this day forward....


***

So, tonight, I played a game against one of the other Slow Burn League fellows. I believe his name is Chris, and he's started Khador. I'd just gotten Knights Errant this evening so I could make a 35 point list. Above is the fluffy account, here's the more tactical account.

Lists were as follows:

5 Point Game:

Protectorate:

pFeora
-Crusader
-Revenger
-Repenter

Avatar
Vassal
6-Man Errant Unit
Daughters of the Flame

Khador:
pVlad
-Devastator
-Kodiakx2

Drakhun
Widowmakers

Khador had the 1st turn. He advanced his Drakhun and Widowmakers, then proceeded to pop Vlad's feat and run his 'jacks 16" towards my jacks. After shuffling Vlad forward, he then ended his turn. (I found out afterward he'd thought Vlad's control range was double his command vs. his focus. Hence the title.) I set up my KEE in a build on my side while my Daughters moved to flank, hoping to get the drop on the MoW or the Widowmakers before they started getting eaten. (Foolish me bringing infantry killers to this fight. Oh well, you plays what you got.) I shuffled my battlegroup forward, seeing if he would wait for me to close or if I could draw him into charge range. He seemed like he was going to try and use his Drakhun to ruin my Crusader's day, so I had Feora drop a Wall of Fire in front of him to block possible charge lanes.

On Turn 2, he didn't move Vlad forward enough to get his 'jacks in control, not to mention moved his MoW right up to the fire wall, rather than moving around take swings and engage the Daughters on his terms. He also charged his widowmakers out into the open, hoping to get potshots on my KEE next turn. He also, as I'd hoped, moved his jacks forward right into charging range of the Avatar and just about everything else in my battlegroup. it was then he realized how far he'd hung his jacks out, and that he had little he could do.

My turn came. The Avatar rolled 3 Focus, Feora allocated a couple to her Crusader as a follow up measure. Before I got to the meat of the turn, I had the Daughters plink at the Drakhun, mostly for grins, and then had my Errants shaft a couple of the Widowmakers, who just barely made their command check. The Avatar then charged, beating the holy hell out of one Kodiak, leaving it with about a single damage column. This had been mainly due to me rolling above average on the attack rolls, but roll very sub-par on the damage rolls (I think my highest was 9) The Vassal of Menoth then came forward and let my Avatar have one last swing. Box Cars trashed the Kodiak. The Crusader had much better luck, beating the other Kodiak within 3 boxes of wrecking it. Feora decided then to cast Blazing Effigy on the Avatar, which damaged the Kodiak for 3 points and wrecked it. (The Devastator just got the paint stripped by the attack.)

His final turn consisted of using his Widowmakers to take potshots at the Avatar, using the Devastator's normal attacks rather than it's more powerful blast attack, and then having Vlad come up and pop Signs and Portents so the Drakhun could waste 1 Daughter of the Flame.

We then had to pack it in because the store closed, but it was widely agreed I had the match in the bag. The lessons learned were, never ever hang your 'jacks out outside the caster range. Vlad needed to up and in my face more. Hopefully he doesn't have to learn this lesson again, because while it was good for me to get back into the groove, it's not really a victory to crow about. That said, as I said, for learning, it was good, and I'll be eagerly awaiting a rematch and more challenges to come.

Plots and plans for slow burn

So, I've gotten a decent set to start with. Protectorate Battlebox, Feora, a min Choir, a Vassal, the Daughters, and the Avatar. I can put together a couple tight 15 point lists, 25's slightly more shaky, and 35.....I think I'll need Errants. Trying ponder what the next purchase will be....

Enter: The Protectorate

So, I'm getting back into playing Warmachine and my LGS has a slow growth group that's starting. As the local meta is somewhat Cryx-heavy, I have elected to start an army for my 2nd love, the Protectorate of Menoth. I've been spending the last couple weeks doing heavy research. These guys are some nasty little fanatics.

I started off my career a couple weeks back at 1-1, beating and then getting beaten by a Cryx box, fighting with a pKreoss box. I got some Daughters of the Flame (Including Psuedo-charas Sisters Eina and Sani) along with the box and this past week, I expanded my options with Feora, a small Choir unit, a Vassal of Menoth, and the Avatar of Menoth (*Chorus sings behind him.*) I'll be taking this stuff to the Slow Burn League this week and see what kinds of holy havoc I can wreak.

Next on my list: Exemplar Errants (with their UA). Also, where's a man of Menoth got to go to get Temple Flameguard and PSeverius?