I’ve been playing Privateer Presses’ Warmachine off and on
again since it first came out. It’s been
collecting dust for a while as I got sucked into the whirlpool that is
Dystopian Wars. Feeling guilty and
knowing we have a very healthy Warmachine / Hordes community locally, it was
time to low the dust off some figures and play a game.
For those who don’t know what Warmachine is (Where have you
been hiding???), it’s a Steam-Punk fantasy war game based on the world of the
Iron Kingdoms. Large Steam Powered
robots called War Jacks, controlled by Warcasters (Warrior Mages) are the
“Super-Weapons” of the era. While all
armies have access to the “regular” Infantry and Cavalry (notice the quotes),
everyone wants these horrific machines of war to win the battle for them! Warcasters know various spells and have
“Focus” which limits how many spells they can cast AND how active their War
Jacks are. Warcasters are also your
army’s Leaders.
Basically, if you kill all the opponent’s Warcasters, the
machines go inert and you win!
The really interesting thing about the game is ALL the army
lists are “Broken” or Over-Powered. The
game designers’ philosophy has been if Everything is broken, then the games are
fair; it comes down to how brave you are and who play’s their “Broken” tricks,
first! This attitude is notoriously
stated on the rule book’s notorious Page 5:
Play Like You Got A Pair.
The Forces:
First, Graham and I decided to do a “Training Mission” as we
haven’t been playing in a while. We
selected 35 Points – a “smallish” starting game. Large enough to take 2-3 War Jacks and a
couple of infantry and/or solos, but not so large as to be overwhelming.
Interestingly, to help balance the game, your choice of
Warcaster grants you extra points to which to select your force which must be
spent on War Jacks! The more powerful
the caster, the fewer points (in theory).
Cygnar:
Captain Haley (+5 Points – 40 total) with:
Lancer Light Warjack
Defender Heavy Warjack
Defender Heavy Warjack
Journeyman Warcaster with:
Hunter Light Warjack
Unit of 10 Sword Knights
Unit of 10 Long Gunners
Khador:
Kommander Sorscha (+6 Points – 41 total) with:
Behemoth Heavy Warjack
War Dog
Man-O-War Kovnik with:
Jack Marshalled Destroyer Heavy War
Jack
Unit of 3 Men-O-War Bombardiers
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew
Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Kovnik Josef Grigorovich (Spent the game with the Mortar
Crew)
============================================
So, we picked a 4 X 4 table in the local gaming store and
decided to be lazy, play the terrain that was already setup. From Cygnar’s Left, we had a fence up to a
“wood” (1 Palm Tree!) and a hill.
Opposite was a building, a wall and another wood on the right.
I made Graham roll a mission in the Main Rule Book, and we
rolled “Killing Field”.
3 Objective markers are setup on the table’s Center Line,
one on each side, 8” in from the table edges and one “Dead-Center”. The Players “Hold Objectives” by moving over
the markers, denying their opponent contact to the counter (in our case, due to
the “rubble” table and the incorrect size and shape of the objectives, it was
good enough just to touch the Objectives.).
A player got 1 Control Point at the end of each turn if they controlled
an objective.
The player won when they had 7 Control Points OR they were
the last player with a Warcaster on the table!
Khador won the roll-off so chose that Cygnar would take 1st
Player Turn and deploy 1st.
Behind the woods on the Left, there was the Lancer, the unit
of Sword Knights in base-to-base contact, in 2 ranks and Haley behind the Sword
Knights. The Defender setup behind the
hill and the Long Gunners setup in a long row to the right of the hill. Finally, the Journeyman and Hunter setup on
the far right.
After Cygnar deployed, Khador deployed their forces.
From the Cygnar left to right, The Man-O-War Kovnik hid
behind his Destroyer beside the building.
The Field Gun and Mortar crews deployed on the Deployment line (10”),
some distance behind the wall. Sorscha and
her War Dog set up behind the Behemoth, just to the right of the Wall. Finally, the Man-O-War Bombardiers ended the
Khador Line on the far right.
Start of Game
Turn 1:
Cygnar:
Haley and the Journeyman gave each their ‘Jacks a focus
each.
The Lancer spent its focus to Run into the woods with the
Sword Knights. Haley walked behind the
woods and cast “Arcane Shielding” (add +3 Armour) on the Sword Knights. On the far right, the Hunter ran forward, towards
the Objective and woods on the right table side. The Journeyman walked behind and cast Arcane
Shielding on his Warjack as well. The
Long Gunners also ran forward, keeping more to the left of the woods. Finally, the Defender stayed back behind the
hill, waiting to see what the Behemoth would do.
End of Cygnar's 1st Turn
Khador:
Khador suffered the same issue as Cygnar for the 1st
turn – nothing in range of their ranged weapons. The Destroyer and the Behmoth both walked
forward and fired their big guns, hoping for Deviation to land their shells on
the Cygnar forces, but all missed their targets. (All the Khador Jacks weapons had “Area of Effect”
(AOE) and as such, had to scatter.
Cygnar weapons didn’t have AOE so couldn’t scatter.)
The Man-O-War Kovnik followed the Destroyer. The Field Gun moved forward to the wall,
preparing to shoot next turn. The Mortar
stayed where it was and fired at the Cygnar forces but also scattered out of
harm’s way. Sorscha and the War Dog
followed the Behemoth, with Sorscha casting “Fog of War”, which cast
concealment over everything in her control area, adding +2 to hit her troops with
Magic or Ranged Attacks.
End of Khador's 1st Turn
End of Turn:
As neither side had reached an Objective, there were no
Control Points earned on either side.
Turn 2:
Cygnar:
Haley and Journeyman both recovered their spent focus, then
spent 1 focus each to upkeep their Arcane Shield spells. The Journeyman allocated his remaining 2
Focus to his Hunter while Haley assigned 2 focus to the Defender and another to
the Lancer.
On the right, the Hunter managed to move far enough around
the woods to draw Line-Of-Sight on a Bombardier. The Hunter took the shot, spending 1 Focus to
boost the Attack Dice (3 instead of 2) and hit the Bombardier. Using its last focus, the Hunter boosted its
Damage roll while the gun’s special abilities cut the Bombardier’s armour in
half – killing the Bombardier outright with 1 shot! First Blood for Cygnar!
The Defender climbed over the hill and shot at another
Bombardier, but in spite of the boosted Attack roll, missed the bombardier and
was stuck with an extra Focus it couldn’t use.
The Long Gunners moved to the left and formed 2 ranks, then fired at
another Bombardier using Combined Fire (The Chance of hitting and amount of
damage are each boosted by 1 for every EXTRA gunner that shot at the same
target), badly wounded a second Bombardier.
On the left, the Lancer moved out of and around the woods,
onto the leftmost Objective. Sword
Knights ran forward through the woods, maintaining their Defensive Line on the
edge of the woods – ready to leap out next turn. Haley followed the Sword Knights into the
woods and the Journeyman moved forward towards the objective on the right.
End of Cygnar Turn 2
Khador:
Sorscha recovered her spent focus, then spent 1 to upkeep
“Fog of War” and allocated some focus (I
didn’t record how many) to the Behemoth.
The Remaining Bombardiers moved towards the woods on the Right,
but only one could draw Line-Of-Sight to the Hunter. The Bombardier fired and managed to damage
the Hunter. The other Bombardier drew
Line-Of-Sight to the Long Gunners and shot at them, but his shot deviated onto
the Defender. Sadly, the explosion
couldn’t pierce the Defender’s Heavy Armour.
In the Center, the Field Gun crew shot at the Lancer, but
missed. The Mortar fired on the Sword
Knights at the edge of the woods, but again, the shot deviated, this time
catching Haley in the blast. Again, the
shell failed to cause any damage.
Finally, the Man-O-War Kovnik passed a command test to order the
Destroyer to take a shot at the Lancer with a Boosted Attack roll. The Destroyer is then able to use the “Jack
Marshalled” ability to boost the damage. The shot hits and damages the Lancer, but not
significantly.
Sorscha and the War Dog moved up behind the Behemoth.
End of Khador Turn 2
End of turn:
The Lancer, controlling one of the Objective Markers, claims
a Control Point for Cygnar!
Turn 3:
Cygnar:
Haley & Journeyman both paid to Upkeep their Arcane
Shields. Journeyman allocated both focus
once more on the Hunter, while Haley gave 2 Focus to the Defender once more.
The Journeyman managed to make it to the Objective on the
right, but was unable to draw Line-Of-Sight through the woods to shoot at a
Bombardier. The Hunter stood still and
with boosted Attack and Damage rolls, shot and killed a Bombardier. The Survivor passed its Panic Test, only to
be shot at and killed by the Defender!
The Sword Knights ran out of the woods and formed ranks and
a Defensive Line over the Leftmost Objective while the Lancer moved to the end
of the line. Haley moved out of the
woods behind the Sword Knights.
End of Cygnar Turn 3
Khador:
Sorscha once more paid to upkeep the Fog of War.
First, the Field Gun crew managed to kill a Sword
Knight. First Kill for Khador! Then the Mortar fired at and managed a Direct
Hit on the Sword Knights! The blast
covered all but 2 Knights! Incredibly,
due to Defensive Line & Arcane Shield, none of the remaining Sword Knights
were injured!
The Man-O-War Kovnik passed it’s command test to order the
Destroyer to boost its attack roll again.
He then charged the Sword Knights, but failed his charge when he
measured and fell short of his charge range!
Worse, while his weapons were out-of reach of the Knights, he was within
the reach of the Lancer – meaning he was engaged in combat, but unable to reach
anyone with his weapons AND unable to shoot!
The Destroyer marched forward and fired at the Sword Knight
Line, but in spite of the boosted attack roll, missed and the shot Deviated
onto the combat between the Lancer and the Kovnik, as well as a single Sword
Knight. Again, the deviated shot failed
to pierce the armour of anyone.
The Behemoth Marched forward and took control of the Central
Objective. The War Jack turned its guns
on Long Gunners. One shot killed a
solitary Long Gunner, the other deviated onto the Defender on the hill, but
caused no damage.
Sorscha and her trusty Canine Companion moved to the right
of the Behemoth. Sorsch cast Razor Wind
on the Long Gunners and killed 1 Long Gunner, while her Hand Cannon killed a 2nd.
End of Turn.
Cygnar gained 2 more Control Points for a total of 3, while
Khador got their 1st Control Point.
Turn 4:
Cygnar:
Haley and the Journeyman both paid to upkeep their Arcane
Shields. Journeyman once more allocated
remaining Focus to the Hunter while Haley assigned 2 Focus to the Defender.
(Remember I said earlier all Army lists are broken? Here’s where Cygnar plays “Nasty”!)
Haley moved forward into the woods and cast “Temporal
Barrier” with her remaining Focus.
Temporal Barrier causes all enemy troops in Haley’s Control Area
(14”radius – I caught the ENTIRE Khador Army except for the Mortar Crew in the
zone) to suffer -2 to their Defences and they are not able to charge or
run! Finally, Haley cast her feat: BLITZ
– ALL Friendly Faction Models make 1 Additional Attack this turn, regardless to
normal Rate Of Fire limitations!
(Graham just groaned and cursed that he hadn’t cast his feat
last turn.)
The Sword Knights Declare charges and attacked both the
Man-O-War Kovnik and the Destroyer. The
Sword Knights quickly overwhelmed and killed Kovnik, while the Sword Knights
all used Piercing Attacks (Generate 1 Hit Point damage automatically rather
than rolling damage) and inflicted 10HP damage on the Destroyer, seriously
shaving off large amounts of armour!
With Kovnik dead, the Lancer was no longer engaged so it
walked back onto the left Objective to hold it.
On the right, the Hunter peeked around the edge of the woods
and took a boosted shot at Sorsch.
Though the shot hit, it was unable to harm her, in spite of being
boosted damage. In a questionable plan,
the Long Gunners shifted to a line (ranks cannot fire through each other at a
target the same size or smaller than themselves) so that all could see Sorscha
and the War Dog. The first shot hit and
killed the War Dog easily. In spite of
her armour and defences, the second shot (due to Haley’s Feat) badly injured
the Khador Warcaster!
With the War Dog gone, the Defender moved to the right to get
Line-Of-Sight to Sorscha. In spite of
two boosted to hit rolls, the Defender’s two shots both missed Sorscha.
Khador:
Having been wounded, Sorscha put on a brave face and decided
to face her imminent death with bravery and bluster! She Maintains the Fog of War Spell, then
casts her Feat: Icy Gaze. Enemy Models
in her Control Area that do not have immunity to cold are frozen and stationary
for 1 turn! This affected all the Long
Gunners, the Defender and the Sword Knights engaged in combat with the
Destroyer!
Sorscha then charged the Long Gunners (a mistake – she was
still suffering from Temporal Barrier, but I forgot!). Sorscha then killed 4 Long Gunners in Close
Combat, but more importantly, her weapon left her “engaged” to both the
Defender AND the Long Gunners! Neither
could take a shot while engaged in Combat!
Worse, they couldn’t reach Sorscha with their shorter ranged Combat
weapons!
The Destroyer, facing frozen Knights, swung its axe and
killed one of the Knights.
(In hind sight, it technically wasn’t engaged in combat as
the Knights in Base contact were frozen.
It could have walked away, but we didn’t realize it at the time.)
The Behemoth, seeing Haley just inside the woods, fired both
its guns at her, but missed, as did the Field Gun and Mortar. Haley was a popular but difficult target to
hit!
End of Khador Turn 4
End of turn:
Cygnar gained another 2 Control Points for a total of 5
while the Behemoth grabbed another for Khador for a total or 2 Control Points.
Turn 5:
Cygnar:
Haley and the Journeyman both pay the upkeep for Arcane
Shield once more.
Haley, suffering hatred for Sorscha and “Target Fixation” at
her wounded opponent, marches through the woods and, in a very Un-Cygnar or
Haley moment, cast Chain Lightning on the closest Long Gunner. Chain Lightning if it hits, lets the
Lightning arc through the target through up to D6 other “victims”, working
closest through the next target, etc.
The Lightning hit the hapless Long Gunner (Die for the Glory
of CYGNAR!) and, to my dismay, rolled 6 more attacks! The next closest Target was Sorscha and , as
anticipated, the lightning hit Sorsch and Haley boosted the damage, then rolled
something like 4 – didn’t even discolour Sorscha’s Armour! The Lightning then arced over and killed all
the remaining Long Gunners (DANG!).
The Sword Knights that could, moved into base contact with
the Destroyer. Confusing rules of Stationary
with Knockdown, continued to grind away the armour of the Destroyer (only 2 or
3 Knights could have attacked and damaged the Destroyer.
Sword Knights Swarm The Destroyer
Finally, the hunter moved forward and shot the Behemoth for
something to do, causing minor damage.
Khador:
Sorscha upkept Fog of War (though it wouldn’t be necessary).
Sorscha maneuvered around the back of the Defender to do a
Back-Strike (in error – rules state if an attack starts in the front arc, it
cannot do a backstrike). The swing did a
Critical Hit and froze the Defender once more.
Swinging a second time, Sorscha knocked the Defender down to only 6HP
left, disabling both arms and movement – leaving just the Cortex (brain)
operational.
The Destroyer took another swing at a Sword Knight, but
missed.
The Field Gun crew managed to kill another Sword Knight that
wasn’t able to make it into Close Combat.
The Behemoth fired twice at Haley, and managed to hurt her
finally.
Everything else missed.
End of turn:
Cygnar captured another 2 Control Points, for a total of 7,
while Khador managed to grab 1 more for a total of 3.
Cygnar Wins!
End of Game!
============================================
Good Game for Cygnar!
Not so good for Khador.
As I stated earlier and throughout the report, we hadn’t
played for a while and we did make some mistakes. Mostly due to bad memory and
“Heat-Of-The-Moment” excitement.
I insisted in a Random mission because if we just went for
‘Caster Kill, it becomes very stale, very quickly. Not to mention trying to pound through all
that Khador Armour is always a pain.
We didn’t use the Steamroller missions because
- I forgot about them.
- Graham didn’t have access to them before hand
- We’re “restarting” – need to do things as basic as possible(As it was, we both screwed up on some very basic points.)
As to army choices, I think Khador really suffered in this
game. While having 2 Weapons Crews may
have increased the “shootiness” and long-distance damage capability for Khador,
it was very inaccurate and it did restrict the potential to capture objectives. Khador was limited to capturing objectives
with the Behemoth, Sorscha and the War Dog, The Man-O-War Kovnik &
Destroyer (they had to stay close to each other to work) and the
Bombardiers. All of which were “small”
and vulnerable units. The Bombardiers as
a 3-man unit were taken out very quickly.
The Destroyer and Man-O-War Kovnik were both easily tied up with a unit
of Sword Knights. The only thing that
really had a chance to capture anything was the Behemoth. It’s so big a nasty, I don’t WANT to go near
it!
On the other hand, if we had rolled Mangled Metal (otherwise
known as ‘Caster Kill), Cygnar would have had a harder time as it would have
taken so long to grind through Sorscha’s forces to get to her.
