I managed to get up to the Gamer's Sanctuary on Monday night for open Warmachine/Hordes play, and found that there was an impromptu tournament going on.
I had the five bucks to participate, and I wanted to get in a few games, so this seemed ideal. Further, I'd never played with Scenarios before, and I feel that they add a lot to the game. Playing the standard "chess" warcaster-kill game is a little boring to me; and I feel that many warcasters aren't as good at assassination as they are at scenario or objective-based play. So if you're only playing caster-kill games, each faction's roster of 'casters isn't as competitively deep as it could be otherwise.
Of course, as 'caster-kill is still a victory condition for most scenario games, assassination 'casters are still good. But army-buffing 'casters like Commander Douchebag are actually pretty good at scenario play.
My 15-point "Duel" slapped-together at the last minute list was:
Lieutenant Alister Caine (+6 Warjack points)
Ol' Rowdy character Ironclad warjack 9 points
Stormblades Unit 5 points
Stormblades Officer and Standard Unit Attachment
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
In scenario play, controlling objectives either requires solos or whole units, or warjacks. I hadn't considered this before building the list, and instead just went with stuff that I liked, had painted, and that is generally considered good.
I've already written about Caine, and I still like him alot. He has the potential, even without the Squire and Reinholdt, to put 4 reasonably accurate power-12 shots into a target. Against many warcasters a boosted power 12 will put a dent in them. And two fully boosted shots with another two focus left to Teleport away makes Caine a headache in small-points play. Further, his feat is great at murdering swathes of infantry, and can give an early points advantage.
The Stormblades are a glass cannon. They hit like trains, and hit like trains _twice_ with the UA, or once with the UA from a serious distance. However, they're not going to last through much engagement.
The Black 13th are elite gun mages who I've also already written about. When I roll poorly for damage they don't shine, but every once in a awhile they roll fire and they wreck shit.
Ol' Rowdy is the pet warjack of Stryker, and he's probably Cygnar's best warjack. He's stupid-accurate with his hammer, he's got above-average armor, he can pay a focus to counter-strike during the opponent's turn, and he can counter-charge (if an enemy model ends an advance within 6"of Rowdy and in Line-of-Sight, Rowdy can out-of-turn charge that model). He's goddamn dangerous. He's also built on the Ironclad chassis from the battlebox, and so his hammer has critical knockdown, and Rowdy can drop a reasonably accurate Earthquake as needed.
All of these models are solid choices in any army. In a small points game they performed well.
Round 1: Cygnar v. Khador
I'd told Mike, the local Press Ganger and tournament organizer, that this was my first ever WM tourney, and only my 15th game (something like 15, more than 10 and less than 20). He said I could play him in the first round, and since he was the TO it was an autowin. He also told us that anyone who actually beats him gets an extra prize, since we were autowinning anyway. He played Khador, known for high armor, slow jacks.
His list was
Kommander Harkevitch
Spriggan
Winterguard full unit
Winterguard Weapon attachment
Winterguard Unit attachment
Winterguard support solo (Kovnik Joe)
Harkvitch allows the slow Khador heavies to move more quickly, and they protect him while they stay close with a spell called Escort. The Winterguard are a common tournament sight, as the full unit described above is 13 dudes, and with Kovnik Joe supporting them they gain a lot of special rolls, including extra attack dice or Tough (harder to kill).The Spriggan is a shield-and-lance heavy warjack which also fires low-power area-of-effect grenades for clearing infantry.
Mike won the die roll and set up first. I set up across from him, splitting my deployment a little with the 'blades in the middle (they're slow, so I needed them as close to the action as could be), Rowdy and Caine a bit to the left (near some walls for cover), and the Black 13 on the right (on the other side of a building that took up a good part of the middle-right-center of the board.
We were playing a scenario that required us to get a lot of models into a control zone in the middle of the board and keep the enemy models out.
Mike just moved his guys up and made his winterguard Tough with Joe. That was good for them, because I got a crazy-lucky scatter on Ryan's Mage Storm that plopped into 4 winterguard and Harkevitch like 15 inches away from Ryan. Even with Tough I managed to kill 3 guys.
Caine then moved 7 and popped his feat, which allows him to fire a shot at everyone in range. He killed three or four more winterguard, then used his basic attacks to kill another. He put Blur on the Stormblades to shore up their ranged defense and Teleported to relative safety in cover.
Harkevitch moved up and managed to shoot Ryan. He kept Escort up, and then the ranged attacks came. Joe gave the winterguard boosted attack rolls, and the grenadier weapon attachment blew up a Stormblade. Then the rest of the winterguard moved up and shot, but didn't manage to actually kill much. The Spriggan had more luck, dropping two 3" grenades into the thick of the Stormblades and killing 3 more.
It seemed silly to upkeep Blur, so I dropped it. Rowdy charged a winterguard (as much to get into a favorable position as anything else) and missed it twice, rolling snake eyes twice in a row. Caine cast Snipe on himself to get more range and put two shots into winterguard, killing them. He bought another attack against Harkevitch, but missed. He then Teleported back a bit. The B13 moved around and shot Harkevitch, hitting once but doing no damage, since Harkevitch's armor was at 19. The stormblades Assaulted forward for ranged attacks (they were out of reach of their melee attacks) and managed to kill a few winterguard but again did not scratch Harkevitch.
Harkevitch had his winterguard harass Caine but they missed. He popped his feat, which gives armor to himself and the Spriggan for a round and allows Harkevitch and the Spriggan to make a ranged attack before charging. Between the two of them they killed the other four Stormblades. Kovnik Joe hid behind a hill.
Mike said that the round would be called after this turn, and decided to try something ballsy. Caine put two on Rowdy and then moved to get a good line to slam the Spriggan away from Harkevitch using Thunder Strike. He hit pretty easily, but I needed to roll a 4 or more to get rid f Harkevitch's Escort armor bonus (if he has a 'jack within 3 inches he gets +2 armor under Escort). Even without Escort, the Kommander was at 20 armor, which was gonna be tough to get through. Caine managed to roll a 6 on the slam, which also pushed the Spriggan out of the control area (so I could win by scenario even if my assassination failed). Caine took his two shots at Harkevitch and managed to do a couple points of damage. The last two B13 moved into the zone and shot Harkevitch in the back, and they rolled gangbusters, doing 8 or so damage to him.
Rowdy took a free strike from the winterguard in front of him, but he managed to charge over to Harkevitch, hit on the charge with a critical knockdown, and do an absurd amount of damage on the damage roll (harkevitch's 20 armor was good, but Rowdy's power 18 hammer and 12 on the dice did the trick).
So, that worked out well. Rube Goldberg it may be, but it was a lot of fun to pull off.
Round two: Cygnar v. Cygnar
In round two I found myself squaring off against Cygnar. It happens. In fact, there were at least four guys there who play Cygnar. My last opponent played Mercs instead, but he's got a sizable Cygnar force that I've seen him play. My opponent, Ignus, played this list:
Epic Stryker (Lord Commander Stryker, Epic Douchebag, Stormb Brigade, etc.)
2 Lancer light warjacks (as from the battlebox)
Stormblades
Stormblades UA (Officer and Standard)
Stormblades weapon attachment
I looked at the list and cringed a bit because I knew just what it could do. eStryker has some awesome spells, and plays much more aggressively than basic/prime/normal Stryker. I'll write him up more at a later date (I own him but have only used him once), but with Lancers he can arc a spell called Rebuke onto my units, which means they can't get orders (charging or running is an order, so it slows me down) or do special attacks. Stryker also has a spell that makes his Lancers much more formidable in melee combat (well, any 'jack really, but in this instance two Lancers).
However, my opponent gave me some chances. Epic Stryker allows Stormblades to Advance Move, meaning that after deployment they get to walk forward a bit, before either player's first turn. Ingus won the die roll and deployed his 'blades front and center, with a Lancer on each flank and Stryker behind. I deployed my B13 on the left-hand side near a huge forest, since they gain Prowl in cover, and the blades near the center to avoid some rock walls and get charge lanes. Rowdy and Caine took the right flank.
Ingus moved his 'blades up wit Advance move, then ran his whole army forward toward the middle of the board. We were playing a "take control of the center and opponent's side" control zone scenario, so we had to cross the field to get points. Or kill the other 'caster.
Caine Blurred the Stormblades, then moved up 7 inches and popped his feat on the bottom of turn one. He caught 6 Stormblades in that salvo and managed to kill all but one. He used his first normal pistol attack to kill the one that survived the feat, then cast Snipe on himself to extend his range and tried to kill another but missed on snake eyes (that's a lot of double aces so far tonight). He then Teleported to behind a wall. The rest of my army ran, either through the woods if they were the B13, or through the middle for the rest.
My opponent was disheartened, but soldiered on. He moved up a Lancer and then arced Rebuke onto the Stormblades (Blur did not help as much as I'd hoped during these games). His remaining 'blades milled around the center, knowing they were out of range of my own Stormblades since mine couldn't charge. His other Lancer engaged Rowdy with its spear, but didn't hurt the heavy 'jack much.
Rowdy mauled the Lancer in front of him in two swings, but it wasn't wrecked yet, so I felt I should move the Stormblades to finish it off and contest the center point. They tied up his other Lancer and wrecked the one bothering Rowdy. The B13 moved up in the woods and shot two more of Ingus' Stormblades, leaving him the Standard Bearer. Caine activated and moved up, killing the last Stormblade and taking a potshot at Stryker that missed. Then he Teleported back behind Rowdy again.
I didn't want to be anywhere near epic Stryker. He's a sword-toting wrecking ball. He can overboost his powered armor to gain a +xd6 Strength bonus during his turn, but takes xd6 damage as well. Until he's hurt he's dangerous. In the one game I played him, I wrecked a heavy 'jack with him and did like 14 damage to an enemy 'caster. He also has a ridiculous threat range and vector, since he has a spell that grants him an extra move once per turn of 2-6 inches depending on how many focus he spends, and his feat gives his whole army an additional 3 inches of movement and another melee swipe (including himself).
The remaining Lancer killed the 'blade engaging it. Stryker Rebuked the 'blades again, then moved up and killed two more of them.
I activated the B13 and they took shots at Stryker, hurting him a little but not much. Caine took a few shots but again didn't kill, just chipped away at him. Rowdy stayed back as cover for Caine. I engaged Stryker with 2 of my remaining 'blades but they failed to hit him (dude has some serious defense and armor stats to boot).
Ingus decided he needed to go for an assassination on Caine, and cast Velocity to move Stryker 6 inches away for a charge lane on my 'caster. This gave my Stormblades engaging him free strikes as Stryker left their engagement arc, and they stabbed him to death on his way out.
So two victories, both of which were unexpected. I wound up in the finals of the 8-player tourney, as after 2 rounds there were only two undefeated guys.
Round 3: Cygnar v. Mercs
My opponent, Andy, was playing Ashlynn, who was featured in my last visit to the Gamer's Sanctuary write-up.
Ashlynn
Mule heavy warjack
Precursor Knights
Precursor Knights Battle Chaplain and Standard Bearer
Boomhowler and Company
Andy's army was very tricksy. Ashlynn has a Quicken spell that allows a +2 movement, and Andy used it a LOT to move his guys inordinate distances. It also grants some ranged defense bonuses, and that certainly helped. We played on the same table as my last game, and I even played on the same side, as Andy had the most tournament points and got to choose table. He also won the die roll to choose to go first, but told me to set up first instead.
We were playing a "take an 8-inch circle Control Point on your opponent's half of the board" scenario.
I deployed and moved my guys much as I did in the last game, being the same table and all. Andy put Boomhowler and Co in the middle, with the Precursor's behind them, and the Mule and Ashlynn on his right (my left near the woods and B13) flank. Ashlynn gave Boomhowler and Co Quicken, and they ran 16 inches to threaten the center of the board. The Precursor Knights advanced behind in shield wall formation for extra armor. The Mule ran as well, but pretty slowly.
Caine saw the opportunity to wreak havoc and moved deep into the board to pop his feat. He personally killed one of Boomhowler's trollkin, knocking two others down (he killed them, but they made their Tough checks and were knocked down instead removed from play). He also killed 5 of the 8 Precursor Knights, and one of the remaining guys was the standard bearer, who is too busy praying to pick up a mace. That was a devastating blow to the backline. Caine took his initial attacks and managed to kill another trollkin outright, then Teleported to relative safety. My Stormblades activated and assaulted the remaining trolls, killing the two Caine had already killed once (Tough! *shakes fist*), leaving only one grunt and Boomhowler himself alive. Rowdy moved around a bit to threaten Boom howler. The B13 put out a bunch of shots but didn't manage to do much.
Ashlynn popped her ridiculous feat (all models making attack rolls in her control area for a round [her turn+my next turn] roll two extra dice, and Ashlynn chooses two to discard) and moved the Mule to fire a Steam Lobber shot at Caine. Caine was hiding behind a wall, but the Steam Lobber has Arcing Fire so it doesn't care about Caine's cover. However, he got unlucky and the shot missed Caine's 17 defense, even with five dice to choose from. (he needed a 12 on 3 of 5; got an 11 with 4,4,3,1,1) Ashlynn moved up and shot a Stormblade. Boom howler moved, and I had Ol' Rowdy countercharge him. Even rolling two extra dice didn't save him from Rowdy's hammer, and Boomhowler failed his Tough check. The last trollkin killed a Stormblade. The Precursors moved up in Shield wall to protect ashlynn.
I was winning decisively at this point, but I started playing sloppy, and Ashlynn's feat is difficult to weather. I took a lot of shots and missed most of them during my turn. Rowdy engaged the Precusors and the Stormblades killed the last Trollkin and managed to kill the Mule. Caine finished off the 'jack himself.
Ashlynn moved onto the wreck marker from her Mule and cast Quicken on herself to get bonus speed and defense against Caine's pistols. She cast Flashing Blade and killed all but two of my Stormblades.
I was really sloppy the next turn. I just shot at her with all my guys and had Rowdy mug a Precursor Knight, moving the last two 'blades to engage her. It was foolish, as she is incredibly dangerous in close combat. Further, I forgot to Teleport Caine away from her so that she couldn't stab him. Just poor play on my part.
Ashlynn ignores free strikes (whoops, forgot that) and walked past my Stormblades to get at Caine. She stabbed him twice and did a bunch of damage but he wasn't out yet. I moved the blades and Rowdy to block her advance and moved the Black 13th into the Scenario Objective. I got a control point, and as long as I held it I would win the game next turn. I teleported Caine 8 inches away from her.
She managed to get back at him with Quicken and stabbed him twice more, leaving him on 2 boxes. I won on Scenario.
It was then we realized that she is a weapon master and he should have rolled an extra die for damage four times. So he should have won. However, the TO let it stand as my victory, tainted though it was. Hey, I forgot to teleport Caine during one turn, and that stood, so I guess it's alright. I decided to split the first place prize (store credit) with Andy anyway, because I felt like he should have gotten that victory.
Ashlynn also should have killed my Stormblades for trying to stab her; she has Riposte. She's pretty badass, actually.
If I was a good player, I'd have used the B13 to clean the Precursor Knights off of Rowdy with Black Penny shots, then used Rowdy to fire a Boosted Tremor at Ashlynn while she was sitting on ridiculous defense. He would have needed a 9 (7 if he gets the back arc bonus) on three dice to knock her down (about a 60/75 percent chance), but if I had we wouldn't have even needed to worry about her weaponmastery.
Still it was good times. It was nice to play some scenarios and learn how to hold the objectives too. That's all stuff I'll need to know if I play in larger tournaments.
So, playing Caine against a lot of infantry in small points games is awesome.
-Merlin out
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