Then Gun Mage got Line of Sight

About a week ago I played yet another Warmachine game (damn, two within a week! Crazy stuff.)

It was a 35 point game with random scenario. I was still continuing with Kaya, and my list was:

Kaya
- Feral Warpwolf
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Argus
- Scarsfell Griffon

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stonekeeper
Druid Wilder
War Wolf

And opponent had:
Epic Caine
- Ol' Rowdy

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + Officer
- Defender
Minimum unit of Greygore Boomhowler & Co.
Squire
Epic Eiryss
Madelyn Corbeau
Reinholdt

Scenario was Destruction, and Cygnar got the start. First of all, all the trees, uglyns and wold constructs you can see in the pictures are objectives for scenario, not part of any particular army list. First picture is taken from the end of Cygnar's second turn, and as you can see, Cygnar really started the aggressive play. Pretty much everything ran full speed forward.

Since yo-yo games with Kaya, Pureblood and shifting stones had worked so well last game, I decided to attempt such shenanigans again. This time I was targetting def 15 stuff though, and results were not all that great.

Also there was a serious blunder included. I charged Ol'Rowdy with Feral Warpwolf, warping for Strenght. Serious blunder was that it charged away from Kaya's control range, which turned a p+s 17 charge attack & 4x p+s 17 attacks & p+s 16 attack into a p+s 17 charge attack and two other initials without possibility to boost as needed...

Wolves of Orboros tried to make up for the warpwolf mess-up, but they made only minor damage here and there. Actually most notable thing they did was to down Greygore Boomhowler himself with only one attack. He did pass tough roll, however.

Well, I didn't want to lose both of my heavy warbeasts just like that, so I decided to activate Kaya and use her feat. Warpwolves were relocated to mid-field, and then Kaya herself jumped to Scarsfell Griffon for a little better safety (or so I thought...)

Then, next. I had a reminder that Gate Crasher doesn't need a target, it's just a placement effect, really. So despite Kaya being deep within the safety of a ruined building, I actually had to worry about getting assassinated. Most of opposing army just shuffled around, and then Caine started moving forward.

Since you have to place Caine "completely within" 8 inches instead of "within" 8 inches was the fact that saved Kaya. It was so close. Well, then Caine just crashes next to Scarsfell Griffon that had foolishly come out of its nest, and butchers it to last feather.

Other damage done was mercifully little, but I had lost Druid Wilder, which was probably the most hardest blow. Also damage I had done to Cygnar was at most "minor".

Next Circle turn was even more bitter mess-up than the earlier feral charge. And it included Feral Warpwolf again, to be honest.

First Pureblood is teleported and it takes a shot at focusless Caine. Sadly a miss.

Argus bites a couple of gun mages down, which was rather impressive.

Then Kaya activates and shoots a boosted Spirit Fang at Caine. Obviously a miss again. I wanted that to succeed to cut 2" away from Caines movement to ruin another gate crashing party at Kaya when she cast Spirit Door to teleport to Feral Warpwolf... Oh wait... that beast is just a little out of control range.

Well. She teleports to Pureblood instead. Only an amazing dice screw would buy me yet another turn after this one...

Now Feral Warpwolf is within control range, so it charges Ol' Rowdy. If memory serves it wasn't even destroyed.

Then it's Cygnar turn again. Defender takes an aimed shot at Kaya, an hits, and POW 15 sure hurts an ARM 13 model.

Then gun mages activate and take aimed shots at Kaya.

End of game, Caine didn't even have to come in for the final shot.

Raging Bull does sound more menacing than Raging Goat

Few days ago I played a 35 point game of Warmachine.

I'm trying to get some games in with Kaya the Wildborne, so I took her as my warlock.

My list was:

Kaya
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Druid Wilder
Blackclad Wayfarer

And opponent had:

High Exemplar Kreoss
- Crusader
- Repenter
- Revenger
- Dervish

Minimum unit of Deliverers
Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants
Wracks
2x Paladins of Order of Wall
Vilmon
Vassal of Menoth

We randomised a scenario from a few possible choices, and turned out we were playing Close Quarters from Masters 2013 rule set. First picture is probably taken from the end of Circle's second turn. Things had already started happening there. Deliverers knocked off Blackclad Wayfarer with a rocket volley, and shifting stones teleported Pureblood forward to punish deliverers for their wicked deeds. And to prevent retaliation the big bad wolf was yanked backwards to safety.

Had I still had Blackclad Wayfarer, I would've probably tried to cast Hunter's Mark on Crusader and make a ridiculous slam with Gnarlhorn and use feat to pull back the goat too.

Well, the satyr actually got to slam on opponents next turn, when Crusader advanced just within 6" (damn that's a long distance...) and counter-slam triggered.

Collateral damage knocked down Kreoss and Crusader, and destroyed a wrack. Following explosion killed Vassal of Menoth that had just survived collateral damage from the slam. Crazy performance, but I wasn't sure if it was worth it.

Repenter and Revenger both came to beat up the heavy warbeast, but dice gods weren't really on opponents side. Charge attack from Repenter came out as triple 1's, and a single attack from Revenger didn't do much better.

Next turn Druid Wilder moved to hug a flag and cast Primal on Gnarlhorn Satyr. I didn't expect it to survive another round, but I thought it could destroy Repenter and deal some damage to Revenger. Now, Gnarlhorn Satyr continued its long trend of sub-par damage rolls. 2x P+S 16 attacks and 5x P+S 17 attacks just managed to wreck Repenter.

Because I might have scored points this turn, Scarsfell Griffon charged the one Exemplar Errant that looked like being within 4" of opponents flag. Charge falls about a full inch short.

Pureblood is teleported again full speed forward, and this time it tries to kill paladins with its spray. Dice weren't really good here either, but to be honest, all paladins were under Stone and Mortar -stance. However, only Vilmon dies, a paladin is slightly damaged and one of the deliverers is completely missed.

Wolves of Orboros ran to engage as many errants as possible, but really, things could have went a little better this turn. Now as a hindsight I guess I shouldn't have been so scared of Kreoss' feat and move a little closer with Kaya, use her feat and pull back Gnarlhorn too. But since satyr was frenzying next turn anyway I foolishly thought that it'd be good to have a large target tying up one flank. For some reason I didn't pay attention to the fact that Kreoss still had his feat...

Next turn Kreossindeed launches the full wrath of Menoth. Pureblood, Griffon and Kaya are out of Kreoss' control range, though, so that was good news. Bad news was that Gorax and Gnarlhorn both died mercilessly, and opponent had lost only Repenter.

Ah well. Next Circle's turn I got to use Kaya's a little bit more humble feat.

Shifting Stones teleported Pureblood behind paladins that were turned into living chew toys. Griffon charges remaining deliverers and delivers their souls to urcaen.

Wolves of Orboros use Power Swell and try to kill exemplar errants that are hiding in the woods, and despite doing good enough job, they cannot dislodge them from contesting flag.

Kaya uses her feat and calls back her remaining beasties with Spirit Doors.

However, on opponents next turn Kreoss moves so close that it isn't possible to dodge that weeping song any more. No more Spirit Door for me, then.

In fact, it was less than half a centimetre away that Kreoss would have started dominating flag. Shifting Stones were just close enough to deny those precious points for opponent.

Wolves of Orboros still try to kill exemplar errants who are denying me my precious points, and they kill all but one. The one who is still contesting. Self-Sacrifice is such an aggravating rule...

Anyway, Kaya charges the remaining errant herself and puts him down for good. And thus she dominated 3 control points.

Pureblood Warpwolf warps for strenght and charges Crusader. Gnarlhorn had in its days made an amazing damage roll against it, but still Pureblood couldn't wreck it. Everything else except cortex broke, though.

Scarsfell Griffon tried to charge Dervish, but its charge falls short... again. Good job, birdie.

On opponents turn the griffon actually acted as a launching pad for Dervish, which combo-striked respectable damage in to the winged beast, and walzed even closer to contest flag.

At the other flag Kreoss, Crusader and Revenger destroyed two shifting stones that were contesting, making Kreoss dominator on the left side. Control points were 3-3, then.

So, if I could destroy the Dervish, I would dominate 3 points more.

At least Kaya doesn't do it herself, though she manages to knock it down. Wolves of Orboros don't do it, nor does Scarsfell Griffon do it. All this combined might brings it down to one to three hit boxes, so when pureblood warps Ghostly and proceeds upon the contesting warjack, it was a handshake time. (I don't actually remember if we actually did shake hands, though.)

Now that I'm looking at the picture, I see I haven't actually teleported the last shifting stone to contest enemy flag, which I technically should have done to actually win by scenario, but it was forgotten in all the hassle.

Nice game all around.

Soon I try to write another one from last Friday, but it's 2:55 AM right now, that'll just have to wait.

Happy NSFM Valentine's Day!

I wonder if I'm finally playing like I got a pair?

Anyway, this is a small painting update before I start to write up upcoming backlog of 2 warmachine games.

Earlier I have done two flag markers for Warmachine scenarios.

Then I got a few... interesting... models from the final sale of Maelstromgames before they quit business. Let the picture speak for itself:

So, aeons ago I had ordered some gates. They're white metal, by the way... that was way before the great price rise of tin. I don't remember their manufacturer anymore. Toying around I finally got a nice little idea for 50mm objective marker, using Uglyn Lovelord as a sort of eye-catcher for this piece.

I switched the, uh... can I use language like this in this post? I switched the top of Lovelord's shaft with a crystal top I had laying around from Skaven Plague Monks plastic kit.


I also finished a third flag marker with marble pillar and red souls and whatnot. But that's there just for completeness sake.

Behold the marvel of Uglyn Lovelord.

Shopping Spree

Today I bought Talisman: The City expansion.

A painting update for characters will probably come some time later as per tradition.

A few quick pointers that I noticed while skimming through the contents:

- No new spells. That's actually a good thing. Spell deck is already bloated.

- Two "revealed" and one "hidden" alternative ending. All of them actually look playable, though Assassins Guild is a bit difficult if you play with onnly two players and you need to take a life from a player of certain alignment...

- Too cheap warhorses.

- Good enough characters. And by good enough I mean that not too many of them look superior, though Bounty Hunter and Elementalist do have some advantage from early on thanks to their high strenght. None of the characters are crazy spellcasters, though! That's a good thing.

- And my favourite: more trinkets! I liked the Trinkets mechanic from Highlands and have been a little disappointed that no trinkets have found their way into the basic adventure deck. Well, now there are plenty of spaces and even card draws other than in Highlands where you can get them!