Game day 2-27-16

Goooooooooood morning Internet friends and wargamer family members and welcome to another bat-sums!  We recently had a Journeyman League day and I was able to get 4 games in, this time with a better track record than the week before!  Let's get right in.

The three boards altogether

My first game was with Bernie and his Cygnar, specifically he went a blend of pNemo and the core battlebox jacks.  He had enough points to bring the Black 13th as well, whereas I had enough points to bring....nothing.  I was pretty much stuck with my 4 models like last week, ah well.  The board had a lot of choke points which I thought would have been to my advantage so I moved my chicken's in covering positions and my Leviathan in a solid firing lane.

The chokepoints worked against me :(

Unfortunately it's been awhile since I've played against Cygnar and I forgot that when it came to ranged warfare, I was not in the superior.  With similar control ranges pNemo was able to get some extra focus from my spell casting and so was able to not only pump up the Charger but also the Lancer.  They both wrecked/crippled my chicken jacks and while I was able to knock out his Ironclad I was losing out on attrition.  The Black 13th was able to move around the side and were able to hit Scavvy for some damage, allowing the Charger with full focus to take the last 2 boosted shots needed to wreck him.  Thus giving the game to Bernie.

After 1st turn moving

My second game was with my lovely wife and her Retribution, with the newest additions being 2 Arcanists.  I was able to keep her Phoenix at bay with some of my trickery and Leviathan firepower.  I think I did a decent job moving up and staying in cover with not only Scavvy but my jacks in general.  I was able to keep her Hydra busy with one of my chicken jacks the majority of the game.  So I thought I had the game in the bag mid-way, but alas that was not the case.  I felt that the only way I was going to be able to win the game is by pulling off a magical assassination run so I moved Scavvy up the fence line to get into position.  Unfortunately I was bogged down by a wreck and ended up falling short which then led Ravyn to take the initiative and end up taking Scavvy out in her own assassination.  A win to Courtney!

Turn 3

My next game was against Josh and his Circle and he was able to bring a lot more to the table than I was prepared for.  It ended up being his original force, shifting stones with UA, Blackclad Wayfarer, and a Gallows Grove.  Josh was able to move up pretty quickly and get into a solid position about 2 turns before I could have hoped to.  Thankfully Josh messed up on his order of activation and missed out on a chance to do a turn 2 assassination (yay!).  Josh then feated and kept me from being able to charge in, but given my force selection I don't think I would have wanted to anyways.  In a way Josh seemed to be not sure what to do with his new ability to teleport all over the map and so ran Krueger empty on fury and he had his Stalker rush in via shifting stones through the tower to take out my Leviathan.  On the turn after his feat I was able to move up both Ripjaws into a clear LoS and in range of all my spells, then I popped my feat.  It was a precarious situation I was in, if I missed up on ANY of my rolls I would have lost as his Stalker could easily charge in and win the game next turn.  I wagered on tossing Feast of Worms followed with two Excarnates and thankfully I was able to hit and deal enough to win the game.  Without any fury on Krueger Josh ended up not being able to transfer and lost the game.

Turn 3 or 4 I'm not sure which

My last game of the night was a mirror faction match against Mychaela's Cryx.  She was able to bring a Warwitch Siren and a Skarlock in addition to her other models.  I was able to get into a good position with my Leviathan and before Mychaela was able to take advantage of cover I managed to start hitting her jacks for damage.  I wanted to play it more safely this game and mostly we ended up trading damage on our jacks.  Mychaela moved up a Nightwretch to arc Curse of Shadows up on Scavvy,  In response I moved him into melee with the Nightwretch and in position of concealment giving me an effect DEF against ranged and magic to a nice solid 20.  A venom spray put Scavvy on a timer as his health ticked away, Mychaela moved the other Nightwretch into combat making it more difficult for me to just walk away.  I used the Leviathan to throw the more healthy chicken off of Scavvy and walked away, allowing me to draw a bead to eDenny and take out her remaining hit boxes for another win.

Overall I think I did pretty well for myself considering that I won 2 games out of 4.  I think playing the long game with Scavvy is the way to go for now and I have to be careful about my placements when using him.  Hopefully next League week I'll be able to bring some more to my force and maybe pull more wins in the future.  Until then happy gaming folks!

Game Day 1-30-16

All right folks here are some of the pics and the results of last Saturday's game day.  The wife and I headed up to Wise to get a couple games in with Josh and Mychaela.  We test-ran our Journeyman League starter forces and I have to say I am generally pleased with my decision thus far.  So without further ado let's get started!

To start here is my 'battlebox' that I finally settled on:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous:

• Ripjaw
• Ripjaw
• Leviathan

In retrospect the Leviathan might not have been the best choice of jack for Scavvy, but since I'm starting off with Cryx I wasn't really sure what else to go with.  I chose the Ripjaws because compared with their 1 pt cheaper Deathripper brothers I feel that the Ripjaws can help cut through some of the heavier armor that Scavvy might not be able to himself.

My first game was with Josh who brought eKrueger, a Gorax, and a Warpwolf Stalker.  Josh is getting used to the Fury mechanics that are key to effectively playing with Hordes so there were some mistakes made with making sure beasts were in control range to be forced and making sure he had the right fury balance.  First couple of turns weren't too interesting aside from being in the right position.  He was able to move his Stalker through the forest and put a hurting (17 points worth) on one of my Ripjaws, but the cortex and head were still intact so I could strike back. 

I was able to lock down his Stalker though with some savvy Scavvy tricks, but this is also where I felt that his weakness was exposed.  I had to pop my feat to do all of those but I was able to telekinesis the Ripjaw out of combat, so I could telekinesis the Stalker to turn around exposing his back arc.  Then I moved one Ripjaw into his back and did a Vice Lock preventing him from advancing (and change facing) and the other Ripjaw went in and did Armor Piercing.  In 2 turns the Stalker was unable to move and was torn to shreds by the Ripjaws.

His Gorax unfortunately ended up frenzying and charging my Leviathan kept him out of the fight most of the time.  Throughout the fight though Josh was able to ping Scavvy with lightning bolts knocking him down in health piece by piece.  Sure 3-4 damage might not be much at first but after several shots it wore him down.  Scavvy ended up having to charge Krueger in an all-or-nothing charge and got him down to 2 boxes, but couldn't finish him off.  Krueger took the game after that.

For Courtney and Mychaela it was a fight between Ravyn and eDenny respectively.  From what I saw Courtney did a fair job dealing out damage but was trying to fight a way of attrition.  Neither of the two are used to their casters/forces and so it ended up being a game of learning more than anything else.  Courtney ended up losing to an arc node assassination run when one of Mychaela's Nightwretches went around and put itself in prime position to be channeled through.  Cryx came through with an assassination victory!

For my next game it was a Cryx vs Cryx matchup against Mychaela while Josh and Courtney went against each other.  This game went by more quickly than the one against Josh as both Mychaela and I had assassination on the brain and we had similar lists.  Turn 1 had the usual running up into place except both of my Ripjaws went in to engage with her Nightwretches to deny arc node usage.  She casted Ghostwalk on the Nightwretch to my left so that she could move it up and try to channel some spells at Scavvy.  Unfortunately this left her open to the Ripjaw being used as an arc node right in front of her.  Scavvy popped his feat, chucked some spells at her, got her down to a couple hit boxes.  Luckily my Leviathan moved up and was able to roll above a 9 (like I said luckily) and took her off the board for the win.

Courtney and Josh played their game and from Courtney's description she took the chance to learn how her spells worked more than anything else.  She is not used to how Fury works as a mechanic as well so we had a chat about the pros and cons of Focus/Fury afterwards.  I believe it ended up being a loss for Courtney as well with Josh able to assassinate her via beasts.

It was a good day overall with only a couple games.  I can see why Scavvy might not be so popular to play with.  He's got some tricks up his sleeve but they come at a cost.  Unless you happened to have a good round of soul grabbing (which I don't think would be a good idea to throw him at an infantry unit and hope for the best), his spells are pricy.  Good but pricy.  You really do have to decide what you are going to do that turn and only do that.  If you need to buff up your jacks, that's all you can really do.  If you need to cast a bunch of spells, you can do that too but only that.  If you need to attack something yourself you can do that but only that.  He doesn't really have the means to spread his actions out like some other casters do.  Still I enjoyed him and I think it will be a great league in the near future.

That's all for today folks, I hope it's been a great weekend for you all and this weekend coming up should be another round of game day shenanigans!  Until then happy gaming!

Journeyman League Musings: Damned factions part 1!

So here in our little corner of VA the snowstorm has hit and we ended up with about 6" so far with more to come.  What better way to spend the snowed in days than doing war game stuff!  Today I wanted to expand on my faction thought processes for the Journeyman League coming up.

Since most of the group are prior vets to the game we have the added caveat of starting with any combination of caster and jacks/beasts we want.  No character units at this point, so this opens up a wide range of options for me for sure.  From our last post on the matter at hand (right here) I talked about 6 factions I was interested in.  Let's get started with the Iron side of the factions for today!

Cygnar: The Swan Kingdom of Lightning Pew Pew

 
Cygnar has been a faction of interest since I've started the game.  I am a fan of their clean cut models, their techno-arcany feel, and the ability to do some shenanigans with their casters.  When I look at this faction I think of the strong casters at their disposal (any of them Haleys will do) and some strong, albeit niche, infantry choice (ATGM ftw).  If I went with this crew I would definitely have some hard choices to make to start off and would also end up getting some new Mercenary troops as well to help cover the weaknesses inherent in Cygnar infantry (e.g. no super strong beef wall imo).  

Casters of choice:

1. pHaley: I especially enjoy her all-around capabilities and offensive potential she brings to the army.  Her ability to deny enemy spells in a 3" bubble around her for only a focus point also has potential.  Downside is that one of her infamous spells in this incarnation costs 4 focus, so there will have to be some focus mitigation.
2. eCaine: While I have some minor experience with pCaine, I feel like eCaine has that potential for surprise assassination runs with his Gate Crasher spell.  Given he has an insane RAT it is likely he will be able to assassinate most casters.  Might have some issues with the current swing of Horde players incoming being able to transfer damage, but we will cross that bridge later.
3. eStryker: This was a tough call between him and one of the Nemo incarnations, but I feel for the JL Stryker might be the better choice.  Once again he brings a nice toolbox of useful spells for all around and his Feat is a solid choice too.  I also enjoy his very risky Overload ability, with lady luck on my side I might get that +18 to STR and not take much damage haha.

 Cryx: The Undead Debuffers of Doom

Cryx was the other faction I had thought about when I first started the game a few years ago.  I love the undead as I've stated in this blog and so it would seem that I would have started them.  Now that I have the chance to I have been toying around with these undead blokes in my head.  I like the under-handed tactics they can bring to the field and some of the tricks I've read up on are just simply unfair (not technically but it's so mean).  While some of their infantry choices may seem weak on paper, when you start the debuffs rolling in they become disgusting.  

Casters of choice:

1. eAsphyxious: My friend Danny will say I am cloning from him (partially true) but eGaspy is a solid caster.  With a excellent feat and the ability to put down a zone to suck up those souls, eGaspy has the potential to toss out a lot of spells.  Plus his lists can be down right nasty in the right hands as Danny showed me.
2. Scaverous: Something about this caster makes me want to see about playing him and seeing if I could do well.  From my research he's a solid all arounder caster that can do things well, but you have to decide what that is each turn.  In a way he reminds me of a mix between pSeverius and eKreoss in an undead body.
3. p/eGoreshade: I put the two together because I'm still not sure which is better for me but I know that in either case it is my third caster of choice.  Goreshade I feel is a strong melee beatstick with some aggressive spells to back up.  His affinity for the bane type infantry is also a key appeal factor as well.

Khador: The Motherland's Toughest Bastards 

Khador is a faction that I see often in the local meta and it's not surprising why.  They are tough, strong, and Russian themed.  They have some great sculpts as far as models go and if you dig past the Butcher you will see they are not just a simple "hurr durr smash" faction.  There are a couple units and casters that draw me to the Motherland.  Knowing my approach to gaming to go for the esoteric/unused I have my eye set out on some unusual-for-the-meta units and casters.

Casters of choice:

1. The Old Witch: Oh how I love this ole' granny.  She is my top choice for Khador casters due to her ability to control the board like no other in the faction.  Plus she has access to the faction's only Khador arc node in the whole faction.  Her feat is a great area of denial and against infantry builds it will prevent most movement for a turn.
2. eZerkova: pZerkova had a reputation of being the worst caster for Khador, and then she got an epic version.  It seems to run counter-intuitive with the rest of the faction wanting to rush in a go to melee town, but I like it.  It might take some time to get a build going on in my head but I think that if I went this route it would be hard but fun.
3. Strakhov: In our meta we had one guy who did the last JL with Strakhov and it caught me off guard in a few games.  Since then it's been stuck in my head that he is not the weak caster I thought he was, and since he moved we do not have a Strakhov player.  So I would choose this elite commando as my third caster of choice.

So that about sums it up for my thought processes regarding the Warmachine side of my Journeyman League choices.  Next time I will look over my Hordes options and then maybe by then I will have made a decision for the league.  Stay warm and safe and happy gaming!