Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Warmachine- Learning to walk


Don't look at my bare metal, check out Steve's Cygnar. I ran out of paint so wont be able to get my guys primed and based until tomorrow


Steve dropped by early Tuesday, it been forever since he'd be over here even thou we see each around at all the events. He picked up Warmachine in back in November when the WFB 8th edition malaise started sinking in. He's still involved in WFB tourney organization and support but has been playing alot more Warmachine than WFB the last 6 months and it shows. He Cygnar force is well on it way to be painted and he has plenty of stuff to run competitive 35-50 lists with alternate casters.

He had originally planned to come by for a couple of games before my 8pm WFB dice drop, but our 4th player WFB (Joe) this night had to do an early afternoon airport run to Ohare and you know how those go..Joe calls me at 7:30 saying he's still at the airport and wont be by until at least 9:30. with a midnight call around here we decided to reschedule Since Aaron and Chris were standing around..they decided to play each other and Steve and kept on playing Warmachine..5 games total, 4-35 point games and 1 -25 point game.

Steve Ran a couple games with Coleman Stryker and then the rest with Captain Haley
he mixed it up during the many games but his Warjacks were:
Ol'Rowdy
Stormclad
Defender
Lancer
Charger

Units in play over the course of the session:
Stormblades w/ Infantry Storm Gunner
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Longunner Unit

Solos
Squire
Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist


I again was playing Cryx again with my small amount of models.
I ran Pirate Queen Skarre this time for all the games with the same list
except chopped down for the one 25 point game.

Skarre's Battlegroup was
Deathripper x 3
Defiler
Slayer

Units
Revenant Crew (6)

Solos
Pistol Wraith x 2
Captain Rengrave
Ogrun Bokur (client was Skarre)


I had a couple games were I got just one turn in and Steve showed me how easy you can get assassinated if you arent very careful. First time was Coleman Strykers
"Drop and Pop" the second time was Haley with some shooting that caught me unprepared.

The rest of games were pretty good, and went quite awhile, One of the 35 point Stryker games..I managed to surround Ol'Rowdy with backlash cast on him with Skarre and the Pirate Crew with Rengrave moving in on Stryker. I had popped my Feat a turn early when my Slayer and Skarre went in, the next turn I had the pirate crew in (and I stupidly forgot their gang rules) And I just a bad dice streak and couldnt convert..low damage rolls on rowdy and Rengrave missing saved Stryker only taking 6 or so damage and that was as close as I got. I beat up Rowdy good, but next turn the Slayer died and Skarre got exposed to the Defender cannon and got blown to hell.

Learned alot about the game and what works with Skarre and what doesnt..Bokur was a total waste I bought because he look cool and can take down a Jack in the right situation but he's too slow and Skarre feat doesnt work on him, he died everygame before I could ever get him in combat.( Im sure I wasnt taking advantage of him the best I could, since I dont know what I and doing but it seems I am WAY better off with the Black Ogrun Boarding Party if I want some biguns, comparison also for Deathtoll, Rengrave thing plus Skarre Sacrifice thing I need some more units and the Skarlock- so thats where I am headed next...plus maybe another heavy jack because the bonejacks are more Denegrahs style..I didnt really need all those arc nodes for Skarre and the bonejack just couldnt take all the Cygnar shooting.

I'll probably pick up some more stuff in the coming weeks and work on painting the battlebox and move on from there...Before that thou I have some LotR gaming coming up on the 21st and the next Legends of the High Seas Campaign night is the 24th..I need to start squeaking in some WFB real soon. I have much different Empire List than I have been running and need to practice it a bunch in the 6 weeks..the Tournament is in early July, not that far away..and there's bunch of new models I need to paint (10 greatswords, new command models for my Knights)

As for Warmachine, I like quite a bit so far...you cant really "half ass it" if you want to win, you need to know your stuff, fluky dice rolls wont win you the game alone you really need to work your brain, and that's pretty refreshing. I had alot of fun yesterday, so thanks to Steve on that!









Blurry picture, but here was my one shot at Ol'Rowdy with Backlash putting the hurt on Styker, my Slayer put 15 damage on the big guy right before this and I couldn't convert, it's going to happen.

4 comments:

Felix Flauta said...

Bokur can eat one shot through Shield Guard, but that's about it. If the Bokur were up when that Defender shot got through, then Skarre would still be alive. However, I suspect that might be why the Bokur was already dead by that point...

JPL said...

Yup I never got a chance to use Shield Guard..as Steve just made sure
Bokur was either knocked down or dead every time before going after Skarre

TrekkerYu said...

Good read John. Sounds like a nice change of pace from WHF, but do you see it replacing WHF, or going higher on the totem pole? I've only played one game which was fun, but every game I've seen (tournament or casual) seems a big scrum of primed/unpainted/partially painted figs in the middle of the board. It doesn't seem to have the same visual pagaentry that WHF does...not sure if that's due to unpainted figs, a skirmish game...I don't know.

JPL said...

Hey Chris,

It took awhile for this post to reappear after the blogger meltdown.

Given my frustration with GW of late I wouldn't be surprised if Warmachine takes the lead with me for awhile its a much better balanced game with alot more options for alot less money. The pagentry of WFB is and was always its biggest draw for me and WM serious has shortcoming in that department, Its out there but you need to look hard for it.

The upside of that is alot of the new players you and I both know are all very good hobbyists so at least for our local meta the players do have control over that, and I expect to see cool things if everyones initial interest blooms.

The tournament side of WM also leaves me with questions regarding my own enjoyment. I dont want to play in events with unpainted figs, and there currently arent any tourneys that have painted requirements accept for the hardcore format that isnt really for novices like myself,(yet) and Adepticon seems to be the only opportunity here locally for that, Of course we are free to run our own unofficial events.

As for WFB- I am a bit bummed at our local groups seeming indifference to the games changes in 8th ed and unwillingness to change local tournament play to reflect it. the status quo in tourney scene still seems to reflect a "no comp" 7th ed feel, which I was never that into during the last edition let alone this one. Without some kind of Comp and/or Scoring changes that better reflect 8th edition WFB being "a game" instead of "a random bunch of bullshit where you push your pretty models you slaved over for months around" (yes, unfortunately that's how I currently see the game ) I am finding myself less and less interested.

I am doing Blood in the Sun and Core Comp this year mainly for the social aspects. But I've dropped any hope of getting my Lizardmen on the table this year and unless major changes are announced in structure and rules for next years Adepticon, I wont be playing WFB at all, dropping it in favor of other games.

I'd say pick up a battlebox or build your Adepticon freebie if you still have it..and give it go, you know enough people playing it and like myself I think you'll be surprised once you get a handle on it..which takes a dozen games or so.

 

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