First couple games of Warmachine took place last night, Felix my long time gaming compadre and Privateer Press Ganger , which is an official volunteer organizer akin to the old GW outrider program, came over after work to show me the ropes. We played 25 point games which I think is a decent starting level. If you dont have a concept over how these things work I'd recommend 15 points as this game is pretty complicated for the novice as far as skirmish games go, even someone as immersed in miniatures games as myself, had my head swimming in rules 20 mins or so into the first game, my knowledge of the quickstart rules not withstanding.
My force of choice is The Cryx, an Undead nation run by Lichlords melding their dark magic with the stolen technology of the living advanced Human nations my force was the Cryx battlebox plus two solo units.
Warcaster
Warwitch Denegrah
+4 Warjacks:
Deathripper x 2
Defiler
Slayer
Solos
Pistol Wraith x 2
Game 1 action- "I ghostwalked that Ripper in back through the building
so I could move into contact with that totally annoying choir"
My 25pt force as is...basecoated and ready for paint...which I hope to do in the next few weeks if I can get everything ready for the next campaign night.
Felix ran the Protectorate of Menoth, a faction of Religious Fanatics that are trying to convert the masses.
Warcaster-
High Executioner Servath Reznik
+3 Warjacks
* Dervish
* Reckoner
* Hierophant
Units
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Solos
The Wrack (3 wracks)
The first thing I noticed is at 25 points I was outnumbered 3 to 1, not good odds but strangely enough it was not that huge a problem, but I need to consider running some units at 25 pts for sure.
Both games kind of played out the same way but with opposite results
I'll spare you most of my noob details as I stumbled along, but my initial observations:
Both Denegrah and the Pistol Wraiths are very good, my Defiler with its acid cannon
not so much..but I see how it can be useful it could be in the right circumstance,
The Slayer can dish out the pain but not take it.. Deathrippers are pretty good for taking down light Warjacks, but I need the arcnodes for spells...I thinking using the 4 of these i have in bigger games will come in handy.
The Menoth stuff was filled nasty tricks, spell denials, flaming attacks..a lot of stat boosting, I'd be lying If I said I can adequately recall all the stuff felix was throwing at me
As I mentioned both games were similar...the real threats were the heavy Menoth Jack and the warcaster who had killer close combat moves. The three bastions also seemed difficult and hard hitting but I didnt have two much trouble nerfing them and put alot of wounds on them in the 2nd game ..although they took out my Slayer no problem in game 2.
In Game 1, down to just his Warcaster and Heavy jack and maybe 1 other unit...Felix charged his Caster at my Warwitch and handed out just enough damage in one strike (16 pts) to slay her dead. game over.
Game 2, Felix pushed to me hard...with his Errants gone early, my Deathrippers locking down his light jack, his bastions with barely a wound each left of him..he brought his caster up and finished off my defiler, leaving me with only 1 pistol wraith, Denegrah, and 1 Deathripper that wasnt going anywhere, I left all my 7 Focus on Denegrah... moved up right next to the remaining bastions whom with her reach I could get past them to get his caster..unleashing her feat "the withering" I used all my focus to buy extra attacks and boost the dice on each, and got enough damage in my debuffs to hack him down and victory...now having said that, If I had failed, I was getting slaughtered on Felixs next turn ..but I pulled it off.
Anyway that was that, I have some more games set up Tuesday against my pal Steve, before we get into some WFB tuesday...I'll let you know how it goes.
The defiler here is my one finished test model..nothing fancy here, just as close to box shot as I can get it...it will take me sometime to get up to speed painting these warjacks. thinking about doing this battlebox event Felix is hosting in June, I think I can this all painted up by then.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Warmachine- First Steps
Posted by JPL at 8:50 AM
Labels: Battle Recaps- WM, Cryx, Warmachine
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Longtime player safety tips:
-Yes, the Defiler kinda sucks. Deathrippers are your bread and butter.
-Pistol Wraiths are incredible, until people figure out how to deal with them. Once that happens, they're not the end of the world, but they're excellent secondary or tertiary threats against their warcaster.
-Yep, Slayers are more fragile, but they're wicked fast, and have quite a few attacks. Abuse that.
-If you're having trouble with any of the enemy units, IGNORE THEM. Deneghra really shines with a bucket of Arc Nodes and her army tuned to murder the shit out of the enemy warcaster while leaving the rest of their army standing around like idiots.
NB: All of the tips above were learned by being on the receiving end of them. Cryx is a nasty, nasty army to play against. They're also one of the main reasons I nearly quit Warmachine during Mk. I. Take that as you will.
Bill, don't you run Severius? He's immune to spell assassination for the most part (well, until Deneghra learns to target her own models with Venom and catch you in the spray).
Careful with arc node over-reliance. People will use fast elements to engage your nodes and denial spells like Castigate to shut down your own arc node advantages.
John, I'll have to read over your post later and comment. Still processing stuff ;)
True, Felix, the Old Man is my crutch, and it's precisely for that reason. It's also why I own around 125-ish points of Menoth, yet don't have a Devout- the bodyguard ability is neat, but it makes Severius much more vulnerable to spells being splashed onto him. It's the "whoops, a Cryx model wandered in, time to pop Denny's feat, catch you with 2 fewer focus, and then blast the shit out of that lost Mechanithrall next turn with Venom" that gets me.
You make a good point about arc-node denial with fast elements- most of my army was built before the Protectorate really had any of those, but I imagine that it's possible. John, buy Bile Thralls, and watch your friends flip tables and refuse to talk to you. They are the hilarious counter to Infantrymachine, and one of the few things that was nerfed before even the second book came out. They're still brutal, undercosted, and absurdly destructive. Does the other guy have infantry? Not anymore.
actually bill, I just realized I played both those games 5 points down because your caster if free
and I forgot to correct that on this list, (I was just going to run another Ripper and spaced building it for Felixs visit.)
But a unit of Bile Thralls is 5 points..makes my 25 points a bit richer.
Since Aaron and I are going to play WM on Tuesdays a bit whenever he can here early...You and Martha should think about stopping back by- be great to have you guys back!..Lim too if he's even gaming at all these days.
Ha, I haven't seen Mr. Lim push any lead in a dog's age. WM is kinda at the bottom of the pile for me lately- Mk. II was a shot in the arm for a ruleset that was getting really creaky, but I haven't had anything to reinvigorate me after the kinda shitty tourney at GenCon last year. I know Martha is definitely more interested in playing though, and Mr. Dane has been working on his Hordes stuff. That'll really bake your noodle.
LOL!, yeah Joe D playing Warmachine seriously scares me..welp hit us up if you get the itch!
Interesting read. I've yet to play a game but I started painting a Cygnar Warjack over the weekend.
Going for quick and easy but also clean and unique.
I'll put up pics on my blog in the next couple of days.
I'm still lurking here. And John I couldn't be happier with your choice of serving the Dragon Father (Cryx).
I have lots of nasty Crxy trix I can impart.
Billy is right, buy Bile Thralls, get 10, though you will most likely run less, cause more than that is just unfair (at least in my experience). I also highly reccomend the Scarlok thrall when using denny. Its basically a free Ghost walk every turn. "Oh I'm sorry was that terrain suppose to slow me down, to bad I ghost walked my entire army through it to murder you in the face"
Also shoot me an e-mail before you go buying a bunch more stuff, I have lots of unbuilt pewter that I can part with for a fraction (what am I gonna do with it?
Yes, yes its been a dogs age since I have pushed any lead around and that should be remedied soon, we'll see....
Bill
Post a Comment