Tuesday, January 15, 2013

And Thus Circle Scattered Like Fallen Leaves... In A Typhoon!

Last night I felt crazy enough to go and try to have a game of Warmachine on Vassal.

This time around I played against a random machinist from the great internets. And I'm glad that I did, because random encounters like these can really shake you up from what you've used to play against.

Now it was Bartolo Montador, AKA Broadsides Bart. Never played against him, not during Mk1 or Mk2.

I had decided to pile up some games for Kaya, and my 50 point list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Gorax
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Warpwolf Stalker

Minimum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Overseer
Blackclad Wayfarer
Lord of the Feast
Druid Wilder
War Wolf
Feralgeist

Reinforcements:
(Tharn Bloodweavers)
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Lanyssa Ryssyl

And opponent had a following Four Star Syndicate army:

Broadsides Bart
- Galleon

Maximum unit of Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters
Minimum unit of Steelhead Halberdiers
Lady Aiyana & Holt
Epic Eiryss
Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw
- Bull Snapper

Reinforcements:
2x Kayazy Eliminators
Gorman diWulfe
Kell Bailoch

We played A Flag Too Far scenario from Steamroller 2012, that's why lists include reinforcement options.

Circle started the game. Kaya cast Occultation on Wolves of Orboros (since they were going to directly face Nyss Hunters). When opponent played his/hers first round, I half realised why indeed Galleon is such a nasty piece with Bart.

After all, there is possibility of running Galleon up front, then casting Broadside and Batten Down the Hatches. Broadside might be used on the harpoon attack, dragging warjacks and more horribly, warbeasts out of control range.

Of course these shenanigans weren't in range just yet, but my other eye had opened to this combo. Later my other eye would open, too, but we're not there yet.

Anyway, Spiny Growth from Bull Snapper and Batten Down the Hatches meant ARM 24 Galleon right up there. First picture is from the end of Circle's second turn, where I decided that I really have to try to take out the Snapper.

And it succeeded. Lord of the Feast was teleported by Shifting Stones to front of Galleon, and then he threw the bird at the colossal. Pseudo-thresher killed two halberdiers and dealt some damage to Bull Snapper, and bought attacks from heart tokens killed the beast.

Cool. Only ARM 22 colossal to take down any more.

Then opponent does a rather devastating turn.

Opponent calls in reinforcements, who thankfully mess up their dice rolls. Only two dead Ravagers and one blind Ravager. Could've been worse.

Aiyana gives the Kiss of Lyliss to Gnarlhorn Satyr who had been peppered a little by Nyss Hunters, and then Snapjaw charges it. The goat went down in short order, and Feralgeist jumped inside of the dying milkmachine. However, Snapjaw had only bought two Fury, so that was pretty much futile attempt.

Halberdiers kill off Lord of the Feast, and fully loaded Galleon with Hot Shot on lumbers forward and starts to take shots at my gathering of troops. Dougal MacNaile had done his trick and given +2 Range.

This is where my second eye opened to the horrifying combo that Bart + Galleon is. I had somehow thought that Hot Shot gave boosted attack rolls. This was a time where I found out that it actually gave boosted damage rolls for ranged attacks.

Boosted pow 7's killed Stone Keeper, Druid Wilder and dealt some damage in to Kaya herself. Also, a boosted pow 7, boosted pow 13 and a boosted pow 15 killed Stalker completely. Feralgeist jumped in again.

And to make matters even worse, Bart used his feat Typhoon, cast Batten Down the Hatches and Broadsides (actually it might have been this attack that ultimately finished off Stalker. Don't remember.) and then he charges Galleon.

Soo... pretty much both of my "heavy" hitters gone in one round, and opponent still had undamaged ARM 22 colossal right there.

Also opponent had Typhoon on that prevented just about all retaliation I could try to do.

But I did call in my reinforcements. And I did forget to activate half of them.

White Mane tried to charge one of the Nyss Hunters, but just failed to get in reach. Wolves then ran to engage as many Nyss Hunters as possible without entering Typhoon.

Blackclad Wayfarer forfeited movement and teleported into middle of Nyss Hunters, trying to tie them up a bit.

Tharn Ravagers charge around, and they did something good for a change, killing two Eliminators (from different units) and finishing off a halberdier who had wandered too close.

Griffon ran to woods near my secondary flag. If I ever could do anything in this game any more, it'd have to have something to do with scenario victory.

But this so much was not the case.

Galleon goes to control primary flag and shoots the crap out of all ravagers it could see. Luckily it couldn't see too many of them, when Kell Bailoch had already killed one.

Only Ravager Chieftain alive any more. And as it couldn't make free strikes on Kayazy Eliminators, one of them ran straight to secondary flag. Damn.

That was outright 2 control points for opponent.

Also, Wolves of Orboros are butchered up by Nyss Hunters and Snaojaw and Eiryss. Eiryss actually dispels their Occultation, in a way that's an insult to injury.

Some stray shot from Combined Ranged Attacking Nyss' also kill Warpwolf Stalker again, and feralgeist jumps out.

Having my whole army devastated so, time called for desperate actions.

Wolves of Orboros under Power Swell, War Wolf and Gorax managed to kill off Snapjaw.

Griffon killed three Nyss Hunters that were close to my secondary flag.

I had this original plan of using Spirit Door to teleport Kaya to secondary flag, but I had nothing left to clear the surroundings of my primary flag. So Kaya had to attempt it all by herself. She charged Eiryss and killed her.

Then she spent rest of her Fury trying to kill nearby Nyss Hunters with Spirit Fang, but the green one dodged any and all fangs with Def 19 (in melee). Though it wouldn't have worked anyway, since even Master Holt was contesting my primary flag.

Well, that was pretty much it.

Feralgeist ran to contest opponents secondary flag, and shifting stones teleported to contest opponents primary flag.

But that didn't really save Kaya, or prevent opponent from scoring scenario points.

In a way, opponent won by both Caster Kill when Nyss Hunters CRA'd Kaya dead, and by Scenario when Galleon had cleared off the shifting stones and shot Feralgeist down (Aiyana had given magical weapons for the colossal).

I hope that doesn't count as a double loss, heh.

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