VTES is Still a Thing

I "played" in a VTES "tournament" run by our local "prince" a few weeks ago. It was supposed to be sweet but wound up being 6 guys playing casual games of VTES with multiple decks.

I brought a Kyasid Ravager Bloat and lunge deck, which I never quite got to work. It does super well at the Bloat part, with Vessels and Goblinism to seek out the Hungry Coyote, and a couple Ravagers later I can reliably get 4 pool per turn by hunting. Of course, going forward at that point can be difficult. It depends on whether I got an extra guy out with my Governs to still press forward or stay up to bounce.

Ahmed (Lasombra PRE vote) > Neil (Ravnos with aus) > Matt (Nahkthorheb gets a big bleed and then bleeds) > Me > Robb (Ferox and Tupdogs)

Ahmed and Matt had little predator most of the game. Neil bled Matt for a bit, but Ahmed was hammering Neil, so it wasn't going well overall. Matt bled me hard, which I often bounced. Robb often blocked with Ferox and didn't hurt Nahkthorheb or Ankh-Sen Sutekh. I got the Arcadian and Rod March, and proceeded to wade my way through Robb's substantial pool (7 for Ferox, 1 to merge him, the rest for Tupdogs, but Robb was waiting for the Clan Impersonation). I mauled him pretty badly, and Fae Contortion saved me from several rushes, but it wasn't for much. Ahmed ousted Neil. Matt ousted me and Robb, and then managed to get Ahmed as well.

Decks which rely on Clan Impersonating almost never work (unless you're Qadir).

Game two we decided to tap Ray in and play different decks. I'd only brought the one so I borrowed one of Matt's.

Neil (!Ventrue midcap block with guns) > Ray (Hooge Baali from G5+) > Matt (Tzimisce block and kung fu) > Ahmed (Harbingers don't really do much) > Me (ambrogino zombies)

My deck turned out to be like 25 Shambling Hordes and 10 Graverobbing, so it was super thematic. It was totally lame against intercept on the left from Neighbor John and to the right on Matthias. There were three blocky decks at the table. I did manage to get like 4 Hordes in play, but all Neil's vampires got guns. Neil ousted Ray quickly, Matt more slowly, and I backousted Ahmed because he was making me discard like 4-6 cards per turn needlessly. Neil won the table.

Game three we switched decks, and since Neil ousted Ray all the way back to his house Robb tagged back in.

Neil (Malkavians...?) > Ahmed (Long Range Black Hand Assamites) > Robb (I want to say Saulot? He wasn't there long) > Me (Matt's Taco Bell with Beef POT rushathon) > Matt (Lucita Assault Rifle Rush)

The game was silly. I bullied everyone with my rushes and managed to backoust Robb (as I do). Then I got Matt by a hair, and Neil by more. Then Ahmed and I slogged it out and I ran out of Immortal Grapple and Maneuvers before he ran out of Flash and Taste of Death. Ahmed won that table.

Overall it was fun to get some VTES in. It's the first I've played in about 9 months.

-Merlin out


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Away week of Warmahordes

Just finished playing a 50pt game of Warmachine in Grayslake with tMage. He's practicing for a 50pt tourney, and so am I. I'm testing out various builds to see how I like them. I know I want to play Constance Blaize, and in Cyngar, but I'm not sure what support models I'm taking with her yet. I didn't take Precursor Knights tonight and I sorely missed them. A flank bonus here or there could have made the difference.

My opponent played Major Haley’s new theme force with two Storm Striders:

Haley
Thorn
Thunderhead
Stormclad
2x Storm Strider
Free Storm Tower
2x Storm Smith
Black 13th Gun Mage bad mama jammas

Vs.

Constance Blaize
Squire
Gallant
Hunter
Jr
Hunter
Min Trencher Commandoes (Trenchers who don’t wear underwear)
Maximum Finn
3 Trenchmandoes with shotguns
Black 13th Gun mage muthas
Gorman Di Wulfe
Nyss Hunters with Murdoch

Tmage won the roll but asked me to go first. I ran up the trenchmandoes a lot with Finn giving them desprate pace. The Nyss Hunters went to ground for extra defense after running and Murdoch charged Gallant. Constance put Banishing Ward on the Trenchmandoes (in case Thorn got close enough to arc through). The Black 13th and Gorman made a little stealthy smoke orgy. Constance stood behind a wall. Jr put his Arc Shield on her.

He moved up field with the Thead between his Striders. Haley and thorn were behind them. The B13 took his far left flank and the Stormstuff took the right. No shots were fired.

I had my Hunters put bullets into one Storm Strider, but Deceleration is a way good spell against Cygnar as it turns out. My B13 managed to miss his B13 with just about everything. Gorman hid behind a wall. I had my Nyss actually CRA the wounded Storm Strider for a decent amount of damage, but it was still ticking. I put a bunch of them out there because Constance then feated and moved out from behind the wall but not super forward. The Trenchmandoes killed most of the Storm Smiths and Storm Tower, leaving the artillery piece engaged. Gallant hung back with Constance.

Tmage retaliated savagely. The Thead walked up and promptly pulsed, killing 7 Nyss and a Trencher Commando to give me 8 soul tokens. The wounded Storm Strider then tried to kill my Black 13th but had trouble because of the extra armor. They did manage to kill Watts and Lynch, but Ryan lived on. The other Strider put some hurt on Gallant. The Stormclad killed more Trenchmandoes. Thorn did naught. Haley feated.

Constance was, mercifully, out of the feat, with 11 soul tokens. Tmage dictated a bunch of my turn, and Ryan managed to deviate a mage storm away from everything important. My hunters scrapped the wounded Strider and Gallant and the Nyss shifted positions. Gorman was also out of feat. He moved up and Black Oiled the Thead. Constance charged in and cast Flashing blade multiple times, scrapping the other Storm Strider and mugging the Thunderhead. She stopped at 26 ARM and hung out in the middle of the table.

Tmage used the Stormclad to finish Gallant and hurt the Squire. Thead and Thorn moved to surround Constance. His B13 failed to kill Ryan and Gorman. Haley backed up a bit.

The Nyss charged the Stormclad, doing a fair bit of damage. Constance cast Flashing Blade 7 times with her focus and scrapped the Stormclad while doing a lot of damage to Thead and Thorn. She walked away and took a free strike from Thead for 4. Then Gorman Black Oiled Thead, catching Thorn in the aoe as well. Blind for all! Ryan dropped a mage storm on Ryan. The Hunters shot ineffectual bullets at blind Thorn engaged.

Haley kept all focus, cast Telekinesis to move Constance closer to her, charged, and managed to finish Blaize herself. It was a pretty awesome game overall.




Cheating that happened:

Tmage didn’t predeploy his battle engines! Naughty!
I shifted Constance a bit before casting Flashing Blade and then moved her later! Villainous!
I shouldn’t have been able to scrap his Battle Engine with Constance because we both forgot about Repulsion! Silly!

I’m sure there was more, but as always, the Cheating Phase never ends.

The next night I got in two games at the same store with different folks. I played a 25 point mangled metal against eSkarre, and I’m not a fan of Cygnar mangled metal in general. I played Haley, who is good, but. . .not eSkarre good. Anyway, lost on scenario.

I also played a sweet game of 35 points Supply and Demand against my Khador opponent from a few weeks back. He played:

Strahkov
Spriggan
Devastator
War Dog
2x Kayazy Eliminators
Min Iron Fang Pikemen with UA
Great Bears
Kholdun Lord

I played
Captain Haley
Hunter
Ol’ Rowdy
Squire
Jr
Hunter
Min Trenchmandoes
2 Trenchmandoes with Shotguns
Black 13th
Gorman di Wulfe

I won the roll but made him go first, as I thought I could play defensively and take an alpha strike. Strahkov has a mean threat range, so I played pretty conservatively. He moved up all his stuff, put Occultation on the IFP, and said turn. The War Dog did a weird flanking maneuver.

I moved up my B13 to my objective and put out a Mage Storm, missing wildly. Haley and Jr fed their hunters some focus for shots at the Spriggan (who had Superiority) but they did minimal damage. Haley gave the trenchmandoes Deadeye for more accuracy and cast Temporal Barrier before moving up to deny some real estate for charges. The Trenchmandoes managed to kill one unit of eliminators.

My foe ran his Eliminators up to harass the Black 13th. The War Dog ran through the mage storm (!) to threaten that portion of the table with countercharge. The Iron Fangs charged my trenchmandoes and killed 3. The Great Bears charged in and killed two more. Strahkov and the Spriggan stayed back. The Devastator ran for the second turn in a row.

I had Haley go first, give two focus to her Hunter (Jr gave one to his), cast Temporal Barrier and feat (everything gets an extra shot. The Hunters both shot two bullets at the Spriggan and managed to mug it good. The Trenchmandoes killed a Great Bear and 3 IFP. Rowdy killed another IFP. Jr shot the last great bear with a boosted hand cannon shot. Lynch walked up to the War Dog and shot it twice in the head, execution style, but the thing was Tough twice. Ryan dropped her Mage Storm on an Eliminator and killed it. She then shot the downed war dog and it stayed down. Watts missed the last Eliminator twice.

Strahkov was running out of options. I asked him why he hadn’t feated for extra movement and he looked like he was going to jump across the table at me. I asked for Strahkov’s card and read the feat, realizing that he only grants extra movement on charges, and my Temporal Barrier spell denies charges in a 16” bubble around Haley. Wow. So me playing Haley against Strahkov is actually a dick move. I apologized profusely, but my opponent graciously said that he’s won this matchup before, and usually he can deal with it.

In fact, he’s the one who made the hilarious Strahkov flowchart.

As I paste the link I realize I've been spelling strakhov wrong for some time. Damn.

He did what he could, killing the last two Trenchmandoes and bulldozing Gorman into my Mage Storm to kill him. Strahkov stayed near his fuel dump while the Eliminator moved Base to Base with my fuel dump, gaining him a scenario point. The IFP engaged Rowdy.

I allocated some to my hunters. Haley cast TB first (as is proper) to buff everything’s RAT essentially. She also speared two Iron Fang Pikemen. Jr killed the last engaging Rowdy. Rowdy charged the final one. My Trenchmando ran away to keep Overrun from triggering and Strahkov walking up to Haley. The Hunters Scrapped the Spriggan while moving close enough to contest Strahkov’s Fuel Cache. Ryan dropped another Mage Storm on the last Eliminator, killing it. Watts killed the Kholdun Lord.

Strahkov tried to Battering Ram the Hunter away, but the forest kept him within 4” of the cache to contest. The Devastator opened up on the Objective and killed Ryan.

The Hunter charged Strahkov but it’s awful in melee. Rowdy moved up to menace. Haley cast TB again. I positioned some stuff to contest my fuel cache. Strahkov tried to shoot Haley, but came up short. Rowdy pasted Strahkov.

It was a bit one-sided. I didn’t realize before the game that Haley’s TB spell totally counters Strahkov’s feat, but sometimes bad matchups happen. I do feel bad it happened in a friendly game though. My opponent was awesome about it, and almost managed to beat me by scenario anyway. He said he never uses Battering Ram and it was interesting that the spell became viable during this particular matchup.

-Merlin out.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Warmachine League posited

My Dungeons and Dragons group has gotten tired of D&D, and two of them already play Warmahordes. So we decided to play a house league of sorts, asking one other person to join. I'll go into the details in another post (after we begin the league and I know all of them), but I'm excited to be playing some more WMH.

I played two games against Charlie, our DM, as a refresher. I played Constance Blaize in both. The first was in mercenaries and the second was Cygnar. Charlie played Trolls in the first and Khador the second.

First game was the supply and demand scenario, where each of us needs to defend a fuel cache while trying to destroy the opponent's.

Constance
Gallant
Full Nyss Hunters
Harlan Versh

Vs

Grim Angus
Earthborn Dire Troll
Impaler
Full burrowers

Charlie Lost the roll and I got to go first. My Nyss ran halfway across the board to threaten his objective the next turn with charges. Harlan hid behind a building (Grim can see through his stealth). Constance and Gallant moved up. She put Banishing ward on the Nyss and Transference on herself.

Charlie burrowed his burrowers, had Grim kill a Nyss, and positioned his beasts to counterpunch the Nyss.

The Nyss charged up under Crusader's Call and mauled the objective, but left it on 3 boxes. I had no other attacks to get to it. Gallant moved to protect Blaize and Harlan did an extreme flanking maneuver, running around the building to threaten Grim's backfield.

I wasn't sure how Charlie would deal with my shenanigans. He decided to use his burrowers to kill Harlan. They did so easily. He managed to kill two Nyss with the Earthborn and Grim, but they were outside Blaize's feat range so no souls. The Impaler missed his targets.

I had the Nyss charge again (at angles or at other targets to allow new Nyss to get the charge boost) and they crushed the fuel cache. Then I backed up Blaize to my objective to control it, and the onus was on Grim to kill Blaize or lose the game by scenario.

He didn't have a lot of options, and wound up losing by scenario. Constance was sitting at armor 22 and had a shield guard nearby to soak up a shot from Grim.

Game two was a radial scenario, command and control. Players must control a circle in the center of the board and have their warcaster contest one of four flags in the four cardinal points of the board.

I played
Constance
Gallant
Harlan
Journeyman warcaster
Min precursor Knights with UA

Charlie had
Sorcha1
Juggernaut
Greylords ternien
Full Kayazy assassins

I think he was a point short.

I went first again. Put banishing ward on gallant and transference on Blaize. Everything moved forward.

Charlie didn't do anything special aside from running the assassins in a flanking action. Sorcha parked herself near a flag in case I gave him a chance to score. The greylords put up some clouds.

I moved the PKs in shield wall around a bit but didn't try to charge in. Gallant charged into the Juggernaut but did minimal damage. Constance feated.

Charlie froze Gallant with his feat and kept the PKs locked down while the assassins continued around the back arc of Constance, running into striking position. The juggernaut scrapped the frozen Gallant.

I needed to kill a bunch of assassins without my PKs. Harlan moved within 5" of them to avoid stealth and managed to kill two with his quad iron needing 6s to hit. Constance moved back and cast flashing blade twice and killed 4. She then cast sunburst to kill another. The journeyman cast arcane shield on Blaize to protect her and charged in killing yet another Kayazy.

Charles was down to sorcha (the PKs had killed the greylords), the juggie, and two assassins.

He went for the assassination. He was about 50/50 on his chances of success, and the dice tilted in my favor by one wound. The PK battle chaplain killed sorcha before Blaize even joined the fight.

More from Monday. Peace out.

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