Last
month I entered a 50 point journeyman league.
As my experience in the new edition could at best be called “limited”, I
wanted a way to ease into the new environment.
My LGS has been around for decades
but has only been doing minis for about 15 years. The local wargaming population has ebbed and
flowed due to venue changes, varying store choices, and market pressures. I have bopped in and out of the community at
different points dating back to MKI. No
matter how many stores or game systems I part ways with, I always seem to end
up across the table at this store.
We
had so many inexperienced players that September’s
installment started
with 8 of us playing a massive 4-4 box set battle using the trial by fire scenario. The thought was that we could read the rules
together and learn from everyone else’s questions—and since half the table had
played 0 games in MKIII that sounded better than having a couple of us
constantly answering global shout outs.
I took the new Khador battle box.
I teamed up with 2 more Khador players and legion to face down Circle,,
Menoth, and Trolls. Half of the field
had the new battle boxes while the other half ran alternate casters with
jacks/beasts totaling 0 points based on WJ/WB.
We laid out 4 circular felt scoring zones, went over deployment basics,
and started the destruction.
The game
quickly devolved into 2 2-2 games with the menoth and Cryx players facing down
the legion player and my red wall. I am
not going to cover every detail of this contest since there were a lot of
talk-through-turns and takebacks as we were working through our options. My observations follow:
·
Moderate cost beet stick heavies like the
juggernaut and crusader are the gold standard for this environment. They are not threatened by many lights and
multipurpose heavies but are capable of one-rounding almost anything.
·
Trial by fire comes down to who can piece trade
in such a way as to leave enough scoring models that their opponent cannot
clear the board. Against some factions
that is not difficult, but against any battle group with two heavies and a
decent combat light Khador has to draw first blood or run out of models with
which to get work done. Kozlov looks
like a scenario monster on paper but in this game he needed to start off
looking for the assassination.
·
Gone are the days when battle box games boiled
down to everyone using some small variation on the same rule sets. Hordes plus a new crop of casters means that
you really really have to read the rules and know your cards in advance. For example, managing fury—a key element of hordes
list strategy—was a challenge for this group.
Since all the casters/locs have their own unique abilities, there is a
small but noticeable knowledge bar to minimally competent play.
·
I was not impressed with Kozlov in this
arena. Granted, it was an informal very
non-standard setup. However, he just did
not seem to push the scenario. He was
always an accuracy, damage, or movement buff away from getting work done. Some of that is my fault —I need to remember
slams are a thing—but his toolbox struggled for relevance with just a battle
box to work with.
·
If you have a strategy in mind, premeasuring
makes turns fly by. If you do not know
what to do then premeasuring induces decision catatonia—see my previous note on
knowing your models rules in advance.
My side “won” so I earned a destroyer point. I learned a lot which in retrospect was what
I needed. I feel bad that several of the
new players spent so much time waiting for the rest of us to take our turns but
I think if they were paying attention there was a lot to be gained from the
experience.
October’s
league featured a 25 point installment. The
Menoth and Legion players returned and we picked up a Skorne player. The store employee who played circle last
month while running the event graciously stepped down this time so that the
rest of us could fight a round-robin.
Games were 1 hour long using the trial by fire scenario.
I
looked at my options for 50 points and 25 points with an eye toward having some
fun using models that would not normally get table time. I ended up playing 2 points down so that I
could play a better 50 point list in November.
My list:
My painting goddess just finished
the hammer boys. At P+S 16, MAT 7, and
CMA, they looked like great targets for fury.
They are somewhat durable. They
do not need much support. I added the
scouts because I needed something to defer infantry plus, they are just a good
all round unit even outside the sniper boat.
My first
opponent was an acquaintance from previous league play. She loves painting and sometimes comes out to
test her masterpieces on the field of honor.
We took our time walking through setup and turn priority to make sure we
had the basics down. She won the roll
and opted to go second.
Jess’s legion:
·
Seraph
·
Strider Deathstalker
I played the same side of the same board for all my games for everyone’s
convenience. Trial by fire makes a lot
of the board irrelevant unless you care about elevation or you are bogged down
without pathfinder. From my perspective,
the deployment zones directly opposite the scoring circle were clear of
terrain. I had a small forest ahead and
to the right and a ruined building foundation slightly ahead and to the
left. They created a virtual funnel
toward the center point. My opponent
(again from my perspective) had a multi floor ruin ahead and to the right but
was otherwise untroubled with terrain—not that either of us lacked for
pathfinder.
1. I
deployed my army in an iron wall across the funnel gap intending to power walk
my way to the objective. From left to
right I had the decimator, juggernaut, and demolition corps with Kozlov
slightly behind his jacks. Jess deployed
her beasts centrally with her caster and sheperd bringing up the rear. The widowmakers advance deployed into the
right hand forest while the deathstalker climbed into the building for maximum
field of fire.
2. Round
1, Kozlov casts tactical supremacy on the decimator and fury on the
juggernaut. He pops feat and the iron
wall advances at best speed toward the coveted scoring circle. The widowmakers check range and advance ahead
and to the left to be able to cover the zone and rush to contest if
required. Legion advances at my force
with the seraph roosting at the top of the nearby building.
3. I
premeasure and decide my best bet is to toe the zone with my Man-o-Wars. My jacks should be able to deal with the two
melee beasts and then the game is essentially over. I very carefully put my jacks outside
carnivean charge range on the edge of the zone.
The widowmakers consolidate their field of fire and square up their
line. I remember thinking to myself
“they’re defense 14, they’ll be fine.” The
seraph advances to the front building edge and converts 3 of Khador’s finest
into piles of ash. The deathstalker
shoots the last one and pings a Man-o-War.
The Carnivean walks forward and breaths on 2 demolition corps—setting
them on fire. It maxes out on fury to
use spiny growth. The raek walks forward
to cover the carnivean with its countercharge bubble.
4. I
let tactical supremacy expire, allocate 2 focus to the juggernaut, and check my
ranges—all of them this time. The
juggernaut charges the carnivean. The
reak countercharges the juggernaut doing trivial damage. The juggernaut drops the carnivean—taking 14
points of damage from spiny growth in the process. The decimator has no valid targets due to
range and cheaty cheaty legion stealth. Kozlov
walks onto the zone in expectation of domination! My Man-o-Wars take this opportunity to charge
the raek and save the day…defense what?
They CMA twice (2&3 each) and miss both swings. @@######!
This is our last round, so Jess opens fire with everything she has. She cannot clear me from the zone but if she
can kill off the demolition corps she will win on points. We spend a couple seconds discussing whether
the seraph is out of control and whether it has to frenzy or not. In the end, rather than draw out the
turn based on a rules question that she
would have fixed earlier anyway, we agree to let her ret-con the deployment and
she ends up killing all but one man-o-war.
Damaged, on fire, and surrounded, he endures to win me the game.
It was nice starting off with someone
willing to walk through turns systematically.
I made some mistakes especially not reviewing what the seraph can do in
this edition. That being said, I learn
best when stomped by the none-too-gentle boot of experience.
My next opponent was Josh with Menoth:
·
Vanquisher
·
Choir of Menothh
This was exactly the kind of list I feared. Protectorate jacks are almost as tuff as
Khador’s, cheaper, and benefit from fantastic synergy. Three heavies and a solid light with extra
focus from the journeyman is a tuff nut to crack.
1.
I won the roll and picked second turn. Josh deployed in what he called the wedge of
sadness. I think it should have been
called the hope breaker. Tristan set up
on the left behind the vanquisher. The
crusader, castigator, and repenter deployed from left-to-right with the
castigator leading the charge. Caster
and choir took up supporting spots behind the wedge of sadness ™. I deployed in the same manner as the first
game hoping that Josh’s lack of long range fire would let me push the zone with
my widowmakers.
2.
We do the normal bum’s rush to a very slow
rendition of chariots of fire. Tristan
puts fortify on the vanquisher. I put
fury on the juggernaut and tactical supremacy on the decimator.
3.
Menoth steps into the circle. He does not have much range to do anything so
plays conservatively. Jacks move to take
best advantage of fortify. The decimator
moves up and blows the repenter’s flail off.
It steps back out of charge range with tactical supremacy to remain relevant
in future piece trading. Widowmakers
work 4 boxes toward stripping the crusader of its mace. I should have worked on the repenter with
these shots as it was already heavily damaged.
Man-o-Wars move up with one model contesting the zone hoping that my
jacks will be able to counter attack and start the attrition war.
4.
The vanquisher hits my juggernaut with a flame
belcher shot and manages to set Kozlov on fire.
The castigator and repenter move into the zone and remove the contesting
demolition corps. We discuss popping or
not popping feat until I point out that with my caster on fire he is never
going to get a better chance to go for straight damage. Malekus moves up, pops feat, and uses open
fire on the repenter to finish off
another Man-o-War. He goes to 2 control
points. I look at the board and realize
that I need to get in the game. Kozlov
takes boosted fire damage leaving him on half health. The clock is running out. I allocate max focus to my jacks, let
tactical supremacy expire, and do a bunch of measuring. The juggernaut walks over and removes the
castigator. Widowmakers take shots at
the repenter doing minimal damage. The
game is about to end on time when I realize that Malekus is within charge range
of the decimator which is loaded with focus…hmm…I cannot say I planned it this
way but the alternative is a loss on scenario.
The decimator spends one to charge, spends one to boost to hit and
misses. He buys another attack and misses—again. Game goes to the protectorate.
This was a fun tactical game. I felt like I had a better grasp of this
force than the legion circus—though I feel like I lost track of scenario
conditions on turn 2 which lost me the game.
If I had left the decimator a little farther forward I might have been
able to contest and I would have won on points with the castigator down.
My last game came against Peter with Skorne:
I had mixed feelings looking at this list. On the one hand it was not technically legal
by journeyman standards (he could not have used the mammoth in the first month
and the agonizer would not have brought him up to wj-4 or better.) The list felt a little shady. On the other hand, Peter clearly wanted to
play the elephant—who was I to deny him?
the list itself looked like something I could handle. Since I cannot see that well, the size and
appearance of a model have no effect on me.
The mammoth was just 56 high arm boxes to kill—less than I was fielding
between my two heavies. This would be my
first game with or against a huge base so I figured at the very least I could
get a sense of how they work.
1.
I won the roll and opted to go second. Gigantor started off to the left with the
blood runners aiming for a full court press on the zone. The agonizer and Morghoul held back a
little. I used my standard deployment
but switched the widowmakers to the left for some game on the giant snipable
target.
2.
First turn everyone charges the zone. Man, bloodrunners are fast. If I had single wound infantry out they would
be of concern. The decimator gets
tactical supremacy and the juggernaut gets fury…sweet sweet fury.
3.
The mammoth takes a couple shots at my jacks
which deviate away into oblivion. His infantry
move up. Widowmakers snipe out 4 mind
boxes. The decimator blows off 15 boxes
from the gargantuan. I am out of charge
range and forget to move into the zone.
He goes to 2 control points.
4.
I do not remember the next 3 turns very
well. It was getting to the end of the
session and I had been playing for over three hours straight. My focus was beginning to suffer. We had to double check several rules. By the beginning of my turn 4, the clock was
running out, the mammoth was almost dead, half the bloodrunners were gone,
Morghoul survived one assassination attempt already, and I was still losing on scenario. I had to take morghoul down. I reserved all my focus and charged the
high-assassin with Kozlov. He hit him
twice, leaving him on 2 boxes. The three
remaining Man-o-Wars tried to leave combat to finish him off but died to free
strikes. Skorne claims the win.
This was another “learning game.” My biggest takeaway was that there is a world
of difference between discussing piece trading, assassination, attrition, and scenario
play in the abstract of the forums and actually melding them into a seamless
strategy. The theory of the game only
gets you so far. Along the same lines, I
am used to reading coverage of tournaments where the meta is determined by top
tier players who pick lists to deal with national competitive trends. This means that they often have the exact
tool they need to deal with problem match ups.
In these smaller less polished venues you will run into situations where
you just have decent tools and they will not always be employed in easily exploited
strategies—doubly true since you will often face model combinations ignored by
the competition minded.
This
game brought home how unfamiliar I am with the new face of warmahordes. I used to be familiar with everything—at least
in a general sense. Now, not so
much. It is a brave new world out there
filled with new stat lines and abilities.
Things I need to remember next time:
1.
Scenario, Scenario, Scenario.
2.
I need to refresh my memory on power attacks,
especially throws and slams.
3.
The feat needs must be popped turn 2 or 3 to get
stuck in. Do not wait till the perfect
moment—there is no such animal.
4.
If I am going to lose on scenario I should angle
for assassination from the beginning.
That is all
for now my red painted Brethren. You
shall hear from me soon.
