Last night’s adventure in Warmachine/Hordes was a new experience for me as I played someone on Wartable that (at least as far as I know) I’ve never met in real life. My opponent was Dave, who seems to be well known on the Scotland scene and also on Lormahordes as The Buoyancy of Water.
Game 28 – Recon II (scenario 6) vs Dave’s Legion of Everblight
https://conflictchamber.com/?cb201b_-2njP4cjNjNjWoPoP7FfFoNoNjDjDjD
Minions
[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)]
Dhunian Archon [0(6)]
Dhunian Archon [0(6)]
Rorsh [15]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Void Archon [8]
Void Archon [8]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
I stuck with Jaga-Jaga for much the same reasons as last time, i.e. that I wasn’t sure how long the game might last and I didn’t think that I could get a Dr Arkadius Feat turn done in a reasonable amount of time on Wartable and without practice. I’ll save that for a game with Gareth sometime, as I think as he’s more patient with me.
https://conflictchamber.com/?ca201b_-2hg-kOkKqceJcococob9kGkJfTfT
Legion
[Theme] Primal Terrors
[Kallus 2] Kallus, Devastation of Everblight [+28]
– Archangel [35]
– Golab [17]
– Mekanoshredder [4]
– Neraph [12]
Spell Martyr [1]
Spell Martyr [1]
Spell Martyr [1]
The Forsaken [0(4)]
Blighted Rotwings (max) [12]
Chosen of Everblight (max) [20]
Hellmouth [0(6)]
Hellmouth [0(6)]
My experience playing against the Legion of Everblight is limited to probably a single game, way back in the distant past when we could meet people face to face and play with our toys together. I assume that the plan is to set all my stuff on fire with the Archangel, then send in the Chosen to kill everything and tank any return attacks long enough for the second wave of Warbeasts to eat any survivors.
Dave wins the roll-off and picks the first turn. I take the bottom of map as the terrain looks slightly less annoying, though the fact that much of the terrain is clouds is not ideal against all the Eyeless Sight on the Legion side. I put both Void Archons on the right as I think that they’re the key to dealing with Chosen in a timely manner. This leads to Brine facing off against the Archangel on the left which is a problem since the only cover over there is a cloud… which the Archangel ignores. I put some Valkyries and a Dhunian Archon out there to protect him a bit and hope for the best.
Turn 1: Legion of Everblight
Kallus puts up Burning Path and everything races up at me.
Turn 1: Minions
Gosh, that’s a scary amount of scary stuff, a scary distance up the board already. My moves are very cautious as I don’t want to give up too many first turn charges, though there is nothing that I can do to stop Overrun going on the Archangel and having it fire Golab or the Neraph into me. The Void Archons spray down a pair of Hellmouth Tentacles on the right. Rorsh casts Pig Pen (I dream of a day when that actually becomes relevant), Jaga-Jaga puts up Battle Host and casts Grave Wind on the nearer Void Archon.
Turn 2: Legion of Everblight
Kallus upkeeps Burning Path. The Archangel kills a Valkyrie and sets another one plus Brine on fire. To my great surprise, almost everything else just backs off with the exception of a few thngs to contest scenario elements. Kallus does arc a Brand of Fire through a hapless Spell Martyr to set Jaga-Jaga, both Swamp Horrors and the Soul Slave on fire.
Turn 2: Minions
I can score my own flag without too much pain and it won’t be hard to contest the other one; scoring the zones seems unlikely though. Otherwise my main plan is to deliver a Void Archon and one Swamp Horror to do as much damage to the Chosen as I can and hope to pin Dave’s forces back a little while dealing with them. The fires do surprisingly little and the right Swamp Horror gets Eyeless Sight from my Objective; the Wrastler puts Rage on it. Jaga-Jaga upkeeps her spells, shuffles a bit and casts Signs and Portents. On the right, one Void Archon tucks in behind a wall and knocks a few boxes off the lead Chosen, then the other one goes in and Void Walks to maximise the positioning of Entropic Force. The fully-loaded Swamp Horror kills three of the Chosen and hurts the Objective. The Valkyries on the left take a few pot shots and contest the flag. My big mistake here is dithering too much with Brine. I didn’t want to throw him into the screens too early but in the end I did nothing at all with him; at the very least I could have had him eat a couple of tentacles or something as he was never going to stay far enough from the Archangel to be safe. I score my flag with a Dhunian Archon; 1 – 0 to me.
Turn 3: Legion of Everblight
Kallus upkeeps Burning Path again, puts Overrun onto Golab, Battle Lust on the Rotwings and then Feats, moving to the left a little. Tentacles spawn around the place; one kills a Valkyrie on the left but on the right they miss both the Void Archon and the Chef. The Neraph boosts a charge attack which kills the Void Archon despite Grave Wind and the remaining Chosen go into the Swamp Horror and Valkyries to pleasingly little effect. The Rotwings swarm all over the burning Swamp Horror and make short work of it – hilarious dice sees it die to the second attack. On the left, Golab charges the burning Valkyrie and kills her on its second initial (I cancelled the first hit with the Dhunian Archon) and hurts Brine; the Archangel charges in to finish the job. The last Spell Martyr sits on the flag to score it; 1 – 1.
Turn 3: Minions
I think that it’s probably possible to clear both zones here if I get a little lucky which would give me a nice scenario lead and a local attrition advantage on the right, which would be just as well as I’m rapidly running out of anything to work with on the left. The Valkyries on the left take Vengeance attacks on Golab and helpfully land the critical knock down on the very first attack which rather changes the game. Jaga-Jaga shuffles a bit and recasts Sign and Portents. The Valkyries then go again and take Golab down to two boxes. Rorsh finishes it off with a Pig Iron, detonates the right Tentacle and a pair of Rotwings with dynamite but then fails to break armour on the last contesting Tentacle. Good work Mr Pig, but unfortunately I don’t have any further attacks to deal with it; the Dhunian Archon is a bit too far away and anyway has to run to contest the flag. The Void Archon charges a Tentacle and then Void Walks to kill the Hellmouth with boosted damage attacks thanks to the glut of souls it is carrying around. The Valkyries clear the zone and the Swamp Horror Overtakes its way through some Rotwings to score it. I get the right zone and the flag; 3 – 1 to me.
Turn 4: Legion of Everblight
Burning Path gets dropped. The Hellmouth pulls in the Dhunian Archon and hurts her but the tentacle helpfully misses Rorsh. The Mechanoshredder puts its Animus on the Neraph which adds a second Void Archon scalp to its collection; slightly to my surprise it sprints back rather than putting more pressure on me. The Forsaken runs up to contest instead. Kallus kills the Dhunian Archon (I have to admit that I was hoping for a bit of Tough / no knock down shenanigans here but it was not to be) then puts Battle Lust back on the Rotwinds. The Archangel aims, puts up its Animus and shoots at Rorsh. The first one gets taken on a Valkyrie (which dies) but Rorsh does survive, albeit on fire. The few surviving Rotwings again roll like heroes to nearly polish off the Swamp Horror but it lives with a few boxes remaining in Body. Dave scores the flag on the left; 3 – 2 to me.
Turn 4: Minions
I’m losing too much on the left to have any chance of dealing with the Archangel before it guns down Jaga-Jaga so I need to finish this. I can’t pick up enough points to close out a scenario win (possibly I could have managed it if I’d got the left zone in my last turn) so it’s time for assassination. The Valkyrie survives the fire but Rorsh needs a successful Tough roll to stay in the game. The Valkyrie sidles round into Kallus’s back arc but misses her attacks entirely, never mind the cheeky knock down that I was hoping for. In the process of doing this I also realise that I’ve moved her out of the zone so that removes any chance of holding on for a scenario play. Jaga-Jaga heals the crippled Swamp Horror, casts Signs and Portents and kills a blocking Rotwing with her snake. The Valkyries clear the rest of the Rotwings to free up the Swamp Horror. It charges the Objective, kills it and Overtakes into the Tentacle (with its tentacles, fittingly), kills it and Overtakes into the Spell Martyr, kills him and Overtakes into tentacle range of Kallus. I need a Signs and Portents 7 to land this… and make it. Kallus is dragged, probably kicking with his spare legs and screaming, into charge range of the Wrastler. Rorsh stands up and unloads his guns into Kallus. The Blackhide Wrastler doesn’t need a second invitation and kills Kallus through his transfers. Minions win by assassination.
That was a very fun game, many thanks to Dave for being a lovely opponent. I felt that this was quite a fortunate end to the game from my perspective in the sense that I probably couldn’t have held on for another turn before my attrition disadvantage became completely insurmountable. Still, it was a nice contrast to my previous game – there I was winning nicely and lost to assassination and here it went the other way round.
Things I learned:
- Not so much a ‘thing I learned’ but rather something that I want to point out. I’ve heard Jaga-Jaga described as quite a boring Warlock in the sense that she mainly just hangs around casting Signs and Portent every turn, and that is true. But the flip side of this is that Signs and Portents just smooths out the probability curves such that things simply work more often; for example on the assassination at the end here I had to hit lots of targets needing 6s or 7s, and most of the time I’d probably want to boost. But under Signs and Portents I have a much lower risk of missing those, which means that when I do need to boost I can really make it count. Also the combination of Ghost Walk, Overtake and Pull enables some truly hilarious plays, though of course the first wasn’t really needed in this case.
- My use of Brine was very poor here. I should have recognised that the Archangel was going to be able to drop him in turn 3 unless I pulled him right back to the point of uselessness. Instead of standing around in a cloud I should have fired him off into the cloud of Rotwings and just Overtaken through as many as I could.
- I’m still not precise enough with my positioning of Valkyries. I often needed them to Shield Guard something only to find that I’d left them 3.1” away from it.
The Bovine Overlord 
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