torstai 16. lokakuuta 2014

Warmachine Battle report #3: 50pts Mercenaries "MiMeMo" (Ossrum) vs. Cygnar juniors (eCaine)

Hi everyone! I’m Juho “Tanan” Auer and this is my 3rd warmachine miniature game battle report on this site. The lists below where done using www.forwardkommander.com .

My mercenary list:
System: Warmachine
Faction: Mercenaries - Searforge Commission

 Casters: 1/1
Points: 50/50
General Ossrum (*5pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Gunner (3pts)
* Grundback Gunner (3pts)
* Grundback Gunner (3pts)
Tactical Arcanist Corps (4pts)
Ogrun Bokur (3pts)
Ogrun Bokur (3pts)

Ville "vherne" Hernesniemi Cygnar list:
System: Warmachine
Faction: Cygnar
Casters: 1/1
Points: 50/50
Captain Allister Caine (*5pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
* Hunter (6pts)
Lieutnant Allison Jakes (3pts)
* Hunter (6pts)
* Hunter (6pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
 
The scenario: SR2014 "Rally Point"
Two circular zones and objectives on the middle. The nearest objective is friendly. Destroy enemy objective for one control point. Dominate the zone on your left for one control point. Dominate the zone on your right for two control points and control zone for one control point. Win for the first who gets five control points.

55 min deathclock is used, but deployment isn't clocked ("Nordic deathclock").

About the lists: 

I think that the Ossrum list above highlights the differences between Gorten "MiMeMo" (miserable meal mountain)  and Ossrum "MiMeMo". Gorten has the tools to bypass high ARM (Dual hand cannon, Molten metal, Strength of Granite) and high DEF (feat, Eruption). When I built my Gorten MiMeMo list I chose models that further enhance these abilities (multiple battlegroup melee heavies to bypass high ARM with Strengh of Granite, Brun&Lug bypass high ARM and high DEF etc.). Ossrum on the other hand doesn’t have innate tools to bypass high ARM or high DEF. I could choose models that would mitigate these weaknesses, but I feel that this isn’t the right way to play Ossrum (or warmachine in general). I think that Ossrum is best in scenario control (speed, bulldoze), anti-hordes (lower ARM in general and it’s easy to frenzy beasts with bulldoze) and assassination (snipe, energizer, feat) and that the list should enhance these traits.

I have mixed feelings from Ville's list, probably because I have love/hate relationship with Captain Allister Caine (also known as eCaine or Caine2). I mean, Caine is one of those casters that can during his feat turn, oneround a colossal or reliably kill a enemy warcaster from 22" away. During non-feat rounds, he removes enemy light infantry with frightening efficiency. While this works very well against most warmachine/hordes list (in current meta, most armies have only one heavy jack or colossal and a lot of infantry), it really struggles against high ARM armies. Most swan players try to mitigate this weakness by boosting Caine damage output even further by including models like Ragman and Aiyana & Holt. Ville has done the same by taking three Hunters and assigning them to Jakes and Junior warcaster.  Like I mentined before, I don't think that this is the right way to play warmachine.

Cygnar deployment: 
I won the roll to go first, and chose to deploy second. 



Mercenary deployment: 

I chose to go last and select the board edge, because the forest terrain party obscures the zone on my left. For those who are not familiar with warmachine, this kind of pocket is ideal for contesting a zone. I'm confident that four Blasters will be enough and Ville will not be able to win with control points. Three gunners are on the middle of the deployment where they can threaten any models that decides to advance more than 8" from their deployment zone.

Cygnar Turn 1:
Caine casts 'Blur' on himself and 'Heightened reflexes' on Boomhowler & Co. Rhubert gives Boomhowler & Co pathfinder. Junior Warcaster casts 'Arcane shield' on Ol'Rowdy. Jakes casts 'Sidekick' on Hunter. Everyone runs forward.  I'm actually little surprised by these moves, since Jakes Hunters could have shot my Blasters.

Mercenary Turn 1:
Boomhowler ran little too far. Assign three focus for Gunners. Ossrum casts Energizer with 3 focus. Gunners shoot Boomhowler to death. Blasters take up defensive positions behind the wall. Tactical Arcanist Corps spread clouds to protect Bokurs from Hunters.

Cygnar Turn 2:
Caine, Jakes and Junior upkeep spells and Caine camps focus. The Boomhowler Co charge in and concentrated fire from Caine and Hunters destroy one Gunner and cripple two. Ol'Rowdy runs to the zone on my left.


Mercenary Turn 2:
There are only five Boomhowler grunts and two rangers are on the rightmost zone, so I try to get some control points. Assign 2 focus for Blasters. Unfortunately, Blaster struggle to penetrate ARM16 and 5+ tough works far too many times. At the end of the shooting one Boomhowler grunt and one range remain on the zone. Ossrum is intimidated by Caine's threat range, runs toward my table edge and hides behind Bokurs. Four Blasters play hide-and-seek with Ol'Rowdy on the leftmost zone.

Cygnar Turn 3:
Caine upkeeps 'Blur' on himself, but drops 'Heightened reflexes' from Boomhowler Co. Jakes and Junior upkeep their spells. Ville measures Caine's control range many times, but finally decides that Ossrum's ARM21 and two Bokurs are too much for a reliable assassination run. Caine and Hunters perforate the last Gunner and two Blasters.

Mercenary Turn 3:
Caine came little too close, time for some shenanigans ;). Assign two focus for Blaster 'I' and four focus for other Blasters. Blasters C, D, F and J finally eliminate the Boomhowlers. Ossrum uses his feat the 'Perfect Plan'. Blaster 'A' runs in front of Caine. Thanks to Ossrum's feat 'Perfect Plan' Blaster 'I' is able to slam (wall and Blaster wrecks were blocking the slam movement) Blaster 'A' and Caine is knocked down by collateral hit. Tactical Arcanist Corps move up and kill Caine with flame blasts.

Mercenaries win by assassination!

Post-game thoughts:
Overall, I think that "MiMeMo" is a pretty bad matchup for Caine. Ville also made numerous small mistakes throughout the match.  His biggest mistake was deploying Arcane shielded Ol'Rowdy on my left flank. That jack and spell would have been seriously needed in the rightmost zone. Another mistake was relying on 'Blur' for protection. If Caine had 'Arcane shield' or 'Heightened reflexes' he would have survived the assassination.
For my part, I think I didn't make big mistakes. Ossrum "MiMeMo" will grind any infantry to dust, even if that infantry is Boomhowler & Co. I overestimated my Blasters ability to remove the Boomhowlers and rangers during my second turn, but I didn't really lose anything so no harm done.

 What do you think about the battle report? Please post your thoughts on the comment section.




torstai 4. syyskuuta 2014

Warmachine Battle report #2: 50pts Mercenaries "MiMeMo" (Gorten) vs. Khador jack spam (pButcher)

Hi everyone! I’m Juho “Tanan” Auer and this is my 2nd warmachine miniature game battle report on this site. The lists below where done using www.forwardkommander.com .

My mercenary list:
System: Warmachine
Faction: Mercenaries - Searforge Commission
Points: 50/50
Gorten Grundback (*7pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Grundback Blaster (3pts)
* Ghordson Basher (7pts)
* Ghordson Basher (7pts)
Tactical Arcanist Corps (4pts)
Brun Cragback & Lug (9pts)
Gudrun the Wanderer (3pts)

Valtteri "Walz" Laivamaa Khador list:
System: Warmachine
Faction: Khador
Casters: 1/1
Points: 50/50
The Butcher of Khardov (*6pts)
* Berserker (6pts)
* Berserker (6pts)
* Berserker (6pts)
* Berserker (6pts)
* Juggernaut (7pts)
* Juggernaut (7pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard (2pts)
Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt) (3pts)
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (2pts)


And then disaster struck (again)! One of the Berserkers had its leg damaged during transport and had to be be proxied by Devastator.
 
The scenario: SR2014 "Fire Support"
Two flags and objectives on the middle. The nearest objective is friendly. Destroy enemy objective for one control point. Dominate flag for two control points and control flag for one control point. Win for the first who gets five control points.

55 min deathclock is used, but deployment isn't clocked ("Nordic deathclock").

About the lists: 
[copied form #1 battle report]The basic idea behind my list is pretty simple. Blasters are incredible models, because they hard counter infantry and are one of the most durable models in the game for their point cost. The durability and firepower of Blasters buys me time to annihilate key enemy models and either win by attrition or scenario control points. In Privateer Press Mercenary Faction Forum, this list type is called "Miserable Metal Mountain" or MiMeMo. Thanks @Althrion for coming up with the term.[/copied form #1 battle report]
 
Valtteri's Khador list has a lot of inexpensive Khador melee jacks and the all-too-common Winter Guard infantry, officer and Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich combo (also known as WGI+UA+Joe). I'm not too worried about the WGI, but Khador Berserker heavy jacks could shread my jacks in melee, if I wasn't careful. For those who are unfamiliar with warmachine, Valtteri's warcaster is Orsus Zoktavir - The Butcher of Khardov (also known as "pButcher" or "The Butcher"), who is the hardest hitting melee warcaster in the game. Nothing in the game that can survive his giant axe 'Lola' more than few swings. The Butcher's signature spell 'Full Throttle' gives his warjacks free charges and boosted melee attacks, meaning that he can run a big battlegroup very efficiently. His feat is very simple: add one damage die to all damage rolls. Enemy models/armies tend to disappear during his feat turn.

Khador deployment:
Valtteri won the roll to go first, and chose to deploy and go first.


Mercenary deployment:
I chose the side with the least amount of forest.


Khador Turn 1:
Everyone runs forward.

Mercenary Turn 1:
Assign three focus for Blasters. Gorten casts the Solid Ground spell and walks forward. The Bashers and Lug "help" Blasters to move forward by slamming and throwing them. Brun casts Stonehold spell.

Khador Turn 2:
The Butcher camps everything and charges the leading Blaster and kills it with two swings from Lola. Everyone else runs forwards to engage Blasters.

Mercenary Turn 2:
The Butcher charge was a bad mistake. Assign 3 focus to Basher. Solid Ground and Stonehold aren't upkeeped.  Blasters move to block Khador jacks. Gorten uses his Landslide feat to push The Butcher few inches forward and then casts Strength of Granite spell to Basher. Brun casts Lug's animus (Bear hands) on himself, charges the Butcher and knocks him down with a boosted attack. Lug charges the Butcher and leaves him with a couple of health boxes. Strength of Granite buffed Basher finishes the Butcher with one attack.
 
 Mercenaries win by assassination!

Post-game thoughts:
Sometimes warmachine games can be very short. This was one of those games. :

What do you think about the battle report? Please post your thoughts on the comment section.



Niko kertoo kuinka Khadorilla pelataan



Niko ”SpartanMk1” Lintula kertoo kuinka Warmachine miniatyyripelin Khador ryhmittymällä pelataan. Kuuntele haastattelu ao. linkistä.



Haastattelussa mainitut listat (tehty käyttäen www.forwardkommander.com sivustoa):

System: Warmachine
Faction: Khador
Casters: 1/1
Points: 50/50
Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova (*6pts)
* Decimator (9pts)
* Grolar (9pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (Alexia and 9 Risen Grunts) (5pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew (Leader and 2 Grunts) (2pts)
Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt) (3pts)
Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt) (3pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (2pts)
Ogrun Bokur (3pts)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)

System: Warmachine
Faction: Khador
Casters: 1/1
Points: 50/50
Vladimir Tzepesci, Great Prince of Umbrey (*5pts)
* Devastator (9pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Iron Fang Uhlans (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Kayazy Eliminators (Leader and Grunt) (3pts)
Kayazy Eliminators (Leader and Grunt) (3pts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire (4pts)
Iron Fang Kovnik (2pts)
Manhunter (2pts)
Manhunter (2pts)