Warmachine / Hordes battle report: Minions vs Mercenaries (75 points); 26Jun2019

Once again Joe and I went for a game of Warmachine. I wanted to try out a different list this time so I asked Joe to pick a slightly less ‘infantry swarm’ option for me to face, and he duly obliged me.

Game 5 – Stand Off vs Joe’s Mercenaries

https://conflictchamber.com/?cb201b_-0P13fy0M0M1d1d0L0LjWbOfCjVnd4c

Minion Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Will Work for Food

[Arkadius 1] Dr. Arkadius [+32]
– Battle Boar [7]
– Gun Boar [9]
– Gun Boar [9]
– Road Hog [16]
– Road Hog [16]
– War Hog [15]
– War Hog [15]
– Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)]
Gatorman Witch Doctor [0(4)]
Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter [0(6)]
Kwaak Slickspine & Gub, Croak Sorcerers [0(4)]
Underchief Mire [4]
– Blackhide Wrastler [16]

I love the idea of Dr Arkadius and played a handful of games with him in Warmachine mk2. This is probably the simplest list I could think of for him; basically 2 of most of the classic Warbeasts, Underchief Mire with a Blackhide Wrastler to apply Rage as needed and then fill up with free solos. I expect that there will be some changes but that is part of the game-playing process. Hutchuk is being represented by an Ironhead and Mire by Rask.

This is theoretically the other part of the pair for my Jaga Jaga list; the idea being that I would use this against tougher (i.e. battlegroup heavy) options and Jaga Jaga against lighter, more numerous forces. It probably shows a lot about my experience in Warmachine that I haven’t really thought about this in much more detail.

https://conflictchamber.com/?c6201b_-0Jb_9o9o9o949494929292922T3W7mirirchch

Mercenary Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Irregulars

[Ossrum 1] General Ossrum [+28]
– Ghordson Basher [9]
– Ghordson Basher [9]
– Ghordson Basher [9]
– Ghordson Driller [10]
– Ghordson Driller [10]
– Ghordson Driller [10]
– Grundback Blaster [6]
– Grundback Blaster [6]
– Grundback Blaster [6]
– Grundback Blaster [6]
Alten Ashley [0(6)]
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [0(7)]
Kell Bailoch [0(5)]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [6]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [6]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]

I did have a feeling that Joe would give me General Ossrum to face against. I find this Warcaster a tough nut to crack as his feat is really strong and that one turn of moving fast, hitting hard and being resilient has often been enough to force me out on scenario. The cannons are proxying for the Horgenhold Artillery Corps.

I win the roll off and choose to go first. I skew slightly to the left, with some idea of parking Dr Arkadius in that nice trench near the flag and therefore having plenty of room for him to run away if things go a bit sour. I feel like there should be some clever tactics around exactly which order I deploy the warbeasts but somehow it still seems like I’m dropping them in an almost random order.

Turn 1: Minions
Surprisingly, everyone runs forward. I debate between Guardian Beast and Aggravator on Dr Arkadius, eventually figuring that the former will make Joe play around it a bit more and prevent me from getting over-excited and sending one of my Warbeasts to an early demise. Forced Evolution is put on the right hand Road Hog and Mire drops a cloud to slightly extend the cloud wall already in the centre. The Witch Doctor puts Shadow Walk on the Wrastler to help it though the forest.

Turn 1: Mercenaries
Ossrum uses Energiser for a bit of extra forward movement and casts Fire For Effect on the left cannon. After some deliberation, Joe decides to Feat early to blunt my attack. Alten Ashley and the first cannon shoot at the left Road Hog, crippling its spirit. The Basher on the left is in range of my lead War Hog over there (I knew that it could get to me, but I wanted to get some board presence on too) so it slams my Warbeast into the Gun Boar and damaged Road Hog for some nice damage across all three. The other Cannon missed the other Road Hog and it scatters onto Dr Arkadius for a couple of points of damage.

Turn 2: Minions
I debate for a while about how to approach this. I could back off a bit, leaving minimal stuff to contest the zones and then use my own Feat once Ossrum’s is out of play. Or I could just go all in now. In the end, I decide to back off and hope to make my contesting pieces at least awkward to remove. Dr Arkadius upkeeps both spells and I choose not to bring Hutchuk on (as opposed to normal, where I just plain forget about him). On the right, the Wrastler backs up slightly into the zone. Dr Arkadius casts Psycho Surgery and boosts Crippling Grasp into the Basher; the War Hog makes heavy work of killing it but does finally get the job done on the last attack. The left Gun Boar runs to toe the zone while lurking in the forest, the right one toes the central zone and misses an optimistic shot in the direction of the nearest Eliminator. Both Road Hogs miss her too. Mire puts a couple of clouds in front of the Gun Boar to stop the Driller from charging after being Energiser-ed though the first cloud. Kwaak moves to the flag and puts Enliven on both heavies.

Turn 2: Mercenaries
Ossrum allocates 2 to the lead Driller and upkeeps Fire For Effect. That Cannon and Alten Ashley are enough to kill the Gun Boar on the left so Joe can score that zone. Ossrum uses Energiser to move his wall of Warjacks toward me and the loaded Driller tramples in to kill the contesting Gun Boar in two attacks. I think that he had options to get more damage there but I was hoping that the little chap would last a bit longer. The Eliminators on the left charge in and smack the leftmost War Hog and then a Blaster comes over and sprays through it to kill Kwaak. Well, so much for him. The other Eliminators contest the right zone and claim the central one. Joe scores the left and central zones plus his flag; 3 – 0 to him. I was hoping not give up all three points this turn but Joe did exactly what he needed to do.

Turn 3: Minions
Right, now that Ossrum’s Feat is out of the way, it is time to hit back with my own. Both spells are upkept again. Hutchuk charges into Kell on the flag but misses him. Mire puts Rage on the Wrastler and the nearer of each Road Hog and War hog. The Wrastler kills the Driller but misses the boosted attack on the Eliminator after Overtaking into her. The right War Hog charges to scraps the Basher in front of it and maxes out smacking the Driller around too. Arkadius puts Primal on the left War Hog so it has a hope of hitting those Eliminators, heals everyone a bit with Psycho Surgery then Feats. First the Primalled War Hog eats one of the Eliminators. The Road Hog over there gets some nice damage on the Blaster that killed Kwaak and the other Road Hog finished the Driller in the centre. This frees up that War Hog to go into the next line of heavies (do they never end?) and put some tasty damage into the Driller. Finally, the Battle Boar charges in the general direction of the Eliminator to get a bit of range; in its own activation it walks into her back arc and boosts an attack to kill her and Overtake into the right zone. The Raged, Forced Evolution Road Hog finishes off the Driller in the middle and starts chewing up the Basher. The left War Hog moves as far round the Eliminator as possible, kills her and Overtakes into the Blaster to scrap it. The left Road Hog charges Alten Ashley, killing him in melee and getting an entire artillery team with the flamethrower. Unfortunately, some poor placement on my side means that this Road Hog is almost sure to be the War Hog’s Frenzy target. Finally, the Soul Slave moves to my flag. I score the left and right zone plus my flag; 3 – 3.

Turn 3: Mercenaries
Ossrum allocates two to the Basher. The Cannon can’t quite kill off the Soul Slave so the last Eliminator runs to contest the flag. Annoyingly, she ends up within 6” of Dr Arkadius but I forget about Guardian Beast; I could have had the Primalled War Hog walk over to her as a Frenzy target. On the right, two Blasters team up to kill Hutchuk and the last one moves into the zone to contest it while spraying the Battle Boar and Wrastler. The last Basher smacks a bit more damage into the War Hog in the middle and Ossrum sticks Bullet Dodger on himself and Energises around a little. Joe scores his flag; 4 – 3 to him.

Turn 4: Minions
I upkeep Forced Evolution but drop Guardian Beast. The left War Hog kills the left Road hog with its Frenzy attack and the Battle Boar Frenzies to tickle the contesting Blaster on the right. The Eliminator is going to be almost impossible to remove with what I have available; in the end I decide that she’s just going to have to live. The Witch Doctor starts a run for my flag because the Soul Slave is not going to last much longer. Mire puts Rage on the Road Hog and Wrastler; the latter wrecks the contesting Blaster and Overtakes to contest the flag. The War Hog finally deals with the last Basher then uses the Overtake to engage the Cannon and the Road Hog gets another Basher but misses Ossrum with the assault spray; he Dodges away to the right. I score the central and right zones; 5 – 4 to me.

Turn 4: Mercenaries
Joe is out of options so now it is down to a last gasp shot at Dr Arkadius. Ossrum drops Bullet Dodger. He puts Snipe on Eiryss who rolls the 10 needed to knock off Dr Arkadius’s Fury even in the comfort of his trench. The Cannon disengages from the War Hog by getting killed and allowing the unengaged crew member to Take Up (I will admit that I was quite surprised that was how the rules worked) but they can’t roll the 6,6 that would allow them to actually hit Dr Arkadius. Amusingly (from my point of view) the blast scatters onto the Eliminator and kills her. Joe has seen enough and concedes; Minions win… by scenario I suppose. It seems that I forgot to take one last picture.

Wow, I really enjoyed that. Dr Arkadius is even more entertaining to play than I had dared to dream. Of course, it helps that Joe is a great teacher, guiding me to learn the game better every time we play. The whole game felt like it was on a knife edge until the end of my Feat turn when I think I understood that I’d done so much damage that I was really only likely to lose to an assassination (which, considering Dr Arkadius’s stats, is never out of the question). Things I learned:

• The Soul Slave is not a good fit here. I mainly included it since I already have the model, but I think that I have to consider Targ instead as just allowing a free upkeep a turn is not a great return on the investment.
• Hutchuk continues to be a bit useless for me. I think that probably he is offering some value by affecting what Joe can put out on the sides but so far he’s done more or less what he dis in this game – run on and contest a flag, miss his single attack at something, then die.
• Kwaak will be an interesting piece to play more of. I think that perhaps I was a bit careless to let him get killed by that spray from the blaster here. Enliven seems like the kind of ability that could really change games if only I could learn how to leverage it.

Painted Nurglings (part 1)

These glorious, cute little piles of goo are Nurglings, part of my ongoing Chaos Daemons project. As befits tiny creatures on a battlefield filled with tanks, superhumans and wizards, Nurglings are quite easy to kill and don’t do much damage. However they are quite cheap, very un-threatening, fairly inefficient to kill and can sit on objectives like champions while the rest of my army goes about the business of fighting.

Despite how amusing I find Nurglings, I decided to keep it as simple as possible when painting them. So it was a simple green wash over white undercoat, then pick out the mankiest bits in pink. I did consider giving a couple of the individual Nurglings a different colour just to liven them up a bit but getting into their backs with the paintbrush looked to be a bit awkward. Overall I’m pleased with how they look considering the effort needed to complete them.

Next on the painting table: Plague Drones

Warmachine / Hordes battle report: Minions vs Mercenaries (75 points); 17Jun2019

For various reasons I haven’t been playing Warmachine for several months, but I got the opportunity to head over to Joe’s place again and get another game in with my Minions.

Game 5 – King of the Hill vs Joe’s Mercenaries

https://conflictchamber.com/?cb201b_-0PjP4cjNjNjWbM7y7F4njD7g

Minion Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Will Work for Food

[Jaga-Jaga 1] Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27]
– Blackhide Wrastler [16]
– Swamp Horror [15]
– Swamp Horror [15]
– Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)]
Brun Cragback [16]
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor [0(5)]
Rorsh [15]
Totem Hunter [0(6)]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (max) [17]

It’s the same list as before, except that now I actually have the correct miniatures for everything (though some of them are borrowed). At least in theory I have a Dr Arkadius list to pair with it, but I haven’t actually put that on the table at yet and didn’t really plan to, regardless of what Joe was bringing here.

https://conflictchamber.com/?c6201b_-0JoHlLlL2Tj6nH6i3G3H3G3Hchch8Mca

Mercenary Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Irregulars

[Fiona 1] Fiona the Black [+27]
– Toro [13]
– Toro [13]
Alten Ashley [0(6)]
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist [0(5)]
J.A.I.M.s [0(5)]
Alexia Ciannor & the Risen [10]
Idrian Skirmishers (max) [15]
– Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide [5]
Idrian Skirmishers (max) [15]
– Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide [5]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt [8]
The Commodore Cannon & Crew [7]

Joe is at least as much of a faction butterfly as me. In the time since I last played even a single game of Warmachine, he has spun through Khador and Circle before coming back to Mercenaries.

I win the roll off and choose to go first. My vague plan is to hide Jaga Jaga behind the house, hold the right zone with the Wrastler and the left with the two lesser Warlocks, then bully the centre with anything I have left. My Totem Hunter Preys the right Idrians. They Prey the right Swamp Horror, the left Idrians Prey Brine and JAIMS Preys the Totem Hunter. This might get messy…

Turn 1: Minions
Everyone runs forward. Brun casts Stonehold, Jaga Jaga casts Battle Host on herself and Grave Wind on the Totem Hunter. Brun and Rorsh are a bit circumspect and decide to make some use of the cloud for this turn before being forced to advance into the teeth of the Idrian guns.

Turn 1: Mercenaries
Alten Ashley saunters forward and slaps Grievous Wounds on Lug, and some of the leading Idrians take pot shots at it too. Fiona puts Roth’s Mercy on the right Idrians and Occultation on herself. Everything moves up but Joe is careful not to offer me anything too juicy.

Turn 2: Minions
Jaga Jaga and Brun upkeep their spells. The Totem Hunter cuts down the two lead Idrians and Sprints off to hide behind the forest. Jaga Jaga casts Signs and Portents from the comfort of her little shelter behind the house (obviously I should have done this before using the Totem Hunter but I guess he didn’t need the help). The Boomhowlers mostly run; one misses an opportunistic swing at a nearby Idrian. Lug kills one and moves back to the edge of the Zone with Return, and finally Orin zaps three Idrians on my right.

Turn 2: Mercenaries
Fiona upkeeps Roth’s Mercy but drops Occultation. The Commodore Cannon kills a couple of Boomhowlers by slamming one into another. The right Idrians get a few models into the range to do a CRA on the Totem Hunter and roll the exact number of boxes to kill him in one go (JAIMS swaps Prey to the right Swamp Horror). Alten Ashley continues to pump bullets into Lug, crippling his Spirit and making me sad. Over on the left, the Idrian and a Thrall kill a few more Boomhowlers; Lug does get an entertaining Countercharge / Return combo to eat a cheeky Idrian though. Fiona goes quite far forward and Feats. No-one scores.

Turn 3: Minions
It would be quite nice to get at Fiona while she’s so close but I can’t think of any realistic way to do it under her Feat and with a bunch of Risen in the way. Brun upkeeps Stonehold (in retrospect, I’m not sure why I bothered since nothing was looking like knocking him down) and Jaga Jaga upkeeps Battle Host. The Soul Slave sticks Ghost Walk on the Boomhowlers and they move in and deal with a couple of Risen (the only targets they were likely to hit under Fiona’s Feat). Jaga Jaga casts Signs and Portents and uses her Feat to kill all five remaining Boomhowlers in exchange for some tasty damage on Alexia and all four Kayazy Eliminators. On the right my Swamp Horror clears all the contesting Idrians since it is far enough away from Fiona to avoid her Feat. Rorsh kills a couple of Idrians on the left but mainly I back off on that side. I’m going to lose Lug so I just end up leaving him in the zone to contest it. I score the right zone; 1 – 0 to me.

Turn 3: Mercenaries
Fiona drops all her spells. Alten Ashley takes his customary shot at Lug and eventually the Idrians on that side of the board kill it. Eilish puts Puppet Master on Fiona. She drops a Valkyrie to Tough with Chasten (burning the Puppet Master re-roll on damage) then puts Curse of Veils on the Swamp Horror and backs right away. Sadly, taking down the Valkyrie means that I can’t Shield Guard the Commodore Cannon’s shot so it slams the Swamp Horror back out of the zone. A random shot from an Idrian deals with the knocked down Valkyrie and JAIMS comes in to kill a second on the other side of the building. Joe scores for the left zone, centre zone and flag; 3 – 1 to him.

Turn 4: Minions
I finally realise the Stonehold is not helping me so drop it. Jaga Jaga upkeeps Battle Host though; it is free, after all. She heals the crippled system on the left Swamp Horror and casts Signs and Portents. The right Swamp Horror kills the contesting Idrians but apparently rolling an 8 und Signs and Portents to hit JAIMS is just out of the question so eventually the Blackhide Wrastler has to come in and deal with her. Orin zaps the Toro just to get an electroleap to kill a couple of Risen; I’m also sort of hoping that the Toro will take the bait to get Orin so I can have the Wrastler deal with it. The Soul Slave tags a Thrall with Bone Shaker but sadly a Risen free-strike kills it before I can take a cheeky swing at Holt. The other Swamp Horror comes back into the zone and goes through a highly satisfying chain of pulls and overtakes to eventually kill both Aiyana and Holt. I probably would have been better dealing with the last Risen within 4” of the Flag so I could score, but I was on a roll and probably killing Holt was more useful in the long run. Brun kills a few Idrians and gets a lucky critical Stationary on the left Toro; sadly Brine can’t do more than scratch the paint on it. I score the right Zone; 3 – 2 to Joe.

Turn 4: Mercenaries
Fiona upkeeps Curse of Veils and allocates two Focus to the left Toro, which then shakes Stationary. Alten Ashley, a load of Risen and the right Toro combine to kill the Swamp Horror in the zone. Eilish puts Puppet Master on Fiona and teleports to the Flag. Fiona swaps Curse of Veils onto Brine and the combined efforts of the Toro and Idrians kill him off (the Idrians choose the last Valkyrie as their new Prey). The Commodore blows away the Soul Slave. Joe scores the left Zone and the Flag; 5 – 2 to him.

Turn 5: Minions
Jaga Jaga upkeeps Battle Host, paying an actual Fury for it this time like a peasant; she then casts Signs and Portents. Orin has had enough of the Toro ignoring him and the Commodore Cannon blowing up all my stuff so he kills two of the crew and toughs the third. The Swamp Horror kills the contesting Thrall. The last Valkyrie (hidden behind the building in the photos) kills two of the Risen she’s surrounded by to clear a lane for the Wrastler to get to Alexia. It only takes a single bite to end Alexia, then the Wrastler overtakes to kill a third Risen (Joe let me do this after I’d activated some other stuff because I couldn’t actually see the Risen doe to the building). Brun, clearly not in the mood for anyone’s nonsense after Lug’s demise, walks into the centre zone and combines Frost Hammer and his gun to kill five Risen and Eilish and get a cheeky critical Stationary on the central Toro. Rorsh gets to be the contesting piece on the left; he does finally gun down Alten Ashley though. I score the right Zone; 5 – 3 to Joe.

Turn 5: Mercenaries
Fiona allocates two Focus to the central Toro, which shrugs off Stationary. She planned to put Curse of Veils on the Wrastler but Orin’s presence will stymie that plan. Instead the Commodore takes a shot at Orin but luckily for me it misses. Fiona instead kills Brun with Chasten. The left Toro kills Rorsh and the loaded Toro combines with the remaining Idrians to put some damage into the Wrastler. Joe scores the left Zone and I get the right Zone; 6 – 4 to Joe.

Turn 6: Minions
Hmm, I am feeling like I’m in trouble here with so much of my army gone. On the other hand, the Mercenaries force isn’t looking much better. Jaga Jaga drops Battle Host and walks round to apply Ghost Walk to the Wrastler. She also applies Signs and Portents just to be sure. Orin boosts some Chain Lightning into Fiona to burn one of her camped Focus (and kill an Idrian in the process). Finally the Wrastler charges into Fiona and eats her in a single bite. Yummy. Minions win by assassination.

I’ve really missed playing Warmachine, especially against Joe. He was taking it pretty easy on me since I’m quite rusty and very kindly pointed out some obvious things that I was missing; this is really helpful for my learning as it allows me to see how things look from his side of the board too. Things I learned:

• Lug is a massive bullet-sponge against Joe and yet again didn’t really get to do anything. I guess that I was taking those shots (especially Alten Ashley’s) anyway so someone was going have to take them.
• Contesting Zones seems to be a problem for me since most of my pieces are quite valuable. And the only jamming I have (Boomhowler and company) tend to get any survivors of the opening rounds evaporated by my own Feat on either turn 2 or 3. On the basis that I theoretically would use Dr Arkadius to cover a more elite Battlegroup-heavy match-up, perhaps I should consider dropping one of the lesser Warlocks to load up on some more infantry. I am considering either Nyss Hunters or yet more Valkyries for this role. I would be happy to read any advice from others.
• Positioning for the Valkyries (and Orin) is quite precise and important. I’m still working on this but I did feel that at least in this game Joe had to work around them a little; therefore they must be closer to being the right places.

Painted Plaguebearers (part 1)

Here are the first ten Plaguebearers for my Chaos Daemon army. They fulfil my troops choice and appear to be fairly effective so I guess I’ll eventually end up with quite a few of them. In particular, the main benefit that Plaguebearers bring is being really inefficient to kill so I want to maximise that by taking the full-size unit of 30 so that they can maintain the benefit of their -1 to hit ability for as long as possible. When it comes to actually killing stuff, Plaguebearers are not my first choice. But they excel at sitting on objectives and not dying very fast, so usually I punt them onto an objective and / or ram them down the throat of something that specialises in massive single target damage and just let them grind it out over a few turns.

In contrast to the Poxbringer, I wanted this (first, perhaps of several) unit of Plaguebearers to sport green skin. As with the Poxbringer, I did this by applying two layers of Biel-Tan Green wash over a white undercoat. I deliberately kept to a minimal approach for detailing the miniatures since I expect to end up with 30, 60 or even more of these in my army, so most of the smaller spots / boils / etc on their bodies were not specifically picked out. I like the way that the green skin and bone weapons work together.

Next on the painting table: Nurglings.

Painted Poxbringer

This is a Poxbringer, the first miniature in a fledgling Chaos Daemon army for Warhammer 40,000 (and Age of Sigmar, at least in theory). In the time since I last played the game, all the Heralds have been renamed into something more silly and copyright-able; in this case the Poxbringer would previously have been a Herald of Nurgle. It’s a pretty cheap HQ choice and mainly benefits me by increasing the strength of other nearby Nurgle units and occasionally contributing some damage or similar with a psychic power. The few times I’ve been desperate enough to commit the Poxbringer to close combat have gone pretty poorly so I generally aim to keep it behind a big blob of Plaguebearers.

Furycat and I got the itch to play GW games again after a rather long break so we’ve been dipping in with 500 and 1000 point games between combination of my Daemons, his Space Marines and Gary’s Space Wolves. You can read a bit about his initial thoughts here: link. So far 8th edition has been quite entertaining, being fairly smooth on rules interactions and at least tolerably balanced (by GW standards). The missions are the main let down as we’re playing with the scenarios from the main rule book but I understand that there are alternative options available for us to research.

I’m splitting the skin tone of the Nurgle units between green and brown; as can clearly be seen the Poxbringer got brown. I’ve been trying a new approach of working mainly with washes for the bulk of the miniature, so in this case I started from a white undercoat and went straight in with two washes of Seraphim Sepia. Everything else is done in the ‘normal’ way; i.e. with paint first. I like the way that the purple guts contrast with the skin, but the bone of the weapon and tree / antler (?) thing sticking out of the Poxbringer’s back is probably a bit too close in tone. I couldn’t think of a clever way to fix that since I want to keep those bony colours consistent even for when I get to the units with green skin and so it needs to be something both slightly naturalistic and contrasting with green. Even with that, I like the result and feel that the Poxbringer will be a good start to my Chaos Daemons. One down, potentially hundreds still to go!

Next on the painting table: Plaguebearers.