WarMachine Legends: Legacies Tournament
Sunday, September 14th, Game Empire hosted a WarMachine Legends release tournament. I was the only person in my regular play group with the stones to compete. Here's the report:
My first game of the day was against a Cygnar player named Daniel. His force included:
Daniel Deployed Kraye, the Centurion, Stormlances and the Journeyman in the center, Long Gunners along his right flank and the Sentinels and Charger along his left flank. The Hunter advance-deployed in a forest toward the center of the board.
I deployed the Behemoth, Scrapjack, Mechaniks, and Greylords in the center, the Old Witch and Gorman on my left flank in a forest and the Winterguard and Drakhun on my right flank. I advance-deployed the Doomreavers on the left, a bit ahead of the Old Witch, the Manhunter toward the center ahead of the Behemoth and the Widowmakers on the right flank ahead of the Winterguard.
Daniel took the first turn and advanced his army forward. Kraye cast Full Tilt on the Centurion and the Journeyman cast Arcane Shield on the Stormlances. The Hunter took a pot-shot at the Behemoth and inflicted a couple of damage to it's left arm.
On my turn, I advanced the Doomreavers toward the Long Gunners, just out of range of their guns, hoping to lure them a bit further forward. Furthering this gambit, I advanced the Old Witch to the front edge of the forest, cast Slaughter on herself and laid down a Murder of Crows in front of the Doomreavers, blocking primary LOS to them from the Long Gunners. The Behemoth lobbed a bombard at the Stormlances, but was out of range. The second mortar got lobbed at the Journeyman but also missed. The Manhunter charged the Hunter and inflicted some serious damage but was unable to disable or destroy it. The Widowmakers plinked away at one of the Sentinels, the Winterguard advanced into position. The Drakhun moved up to intercept the Stormlances. Scrapjack and the Greylords advanced, the Greylords cast Blizzard on Scrappy to get him into a cloud.
Next round, Daniel took the bait and advanced his Long Gunners. They managed to kill two Doomreavers. Kraye upkept full-tilt and continued to advance with his vanguard of Stormlances and the Centurion. The Stormlances killed the Manhunter, freeing up the Hunter who once again shot up the Behemoth. The Sentinels perforated the Winterguard and Widowmakers, killing 4 Winterguard and 1 Widowmaker.
On my turn, the Old Witch upkept Slaughter with her Withered Staff and spent a focus to upkeep Murder of Crows. She cast Hidden Path on herself and repositioned within the Murder of Crows cloud, then charged the Long Gunners. She killed seven of them thanks to Slaughter, and collected a bevy of Soul Tokens. She did not get to the Standard Bearer, so despite suffering greivous casualties, the Long Gunners held their ground. The Doomreavers repositioned themselves onto Kraye's flank. The Mechaniks advanced and repaired the Behemoth, bringing it back to full health. The Behemoth advanced and fired off two bombard shells at the Hunter and did a bit of damage. The Widowmakers and Winterguard opened fire on the Sentinels, seriously damaging them, but failing to disable or destroy them. The Drakhun chased the Centurion down, did a bit of damage to it, then killed the Journeyman with his second flying-steel attack.
Round three, Daniel rushed in to capture two flags. The Sentinels shot up the Winterguard and Widowmakers again, killing 1 and 1, while the Charger ran up and captured the flag they were guarding. The hunter ran up the hill where the Behemoth had been and grabbed a flag there. The Long Gunners attacked the Old Witch in melee, but could not hit her. Kraye and the Centurion continued to advance while the Storm Lances charged the Behemoth, taking out it's subcortex.
On my turn, the Old Witch had 13 Focus... and nothing to spend it on. She was out of range to allocate focus to the 'jacks and had no viable targets for the rest of her spells. I contented myself with moving Scrapjack up, then having Gorman drop a Smoke Bomb on the Witch. The Witch killed the rest of the Long Gunners, then re-cast Murder of Crows in a new position to the rear of Kraye and co. She used Hidden Path to teleport into MoC and was now in range to channel Spells through the Scrapjack. She cast a boosted Strangling Chains on Kraye hoping to drag him into melee with the Behemoth. The witch inflicted a couple points of damage, but only dragged Kraye 3". Agha had now spent 10 of her 13 Focus and I didn't want to risk another, unboosted one, so I camped the rest of the Focus for Armor. In retrospect, it would have been wiser to use 2 of it to cast Iron Flesh on herself, but it worked out.
The Doomreavers charged the Stormlances and slaughtered them.
The Winterguard and Widowmakers continued to dance with the Sentinels and Charger. The Drakhun whaled away on the Centurion.
Round four, Daniel gambled. First, he moved the Hunter over to the third flag to cap it. Then, he charged the Old Witch with Kraye. This is why I should have cast Iron Flesh. Fortunately, the camped focus and the Witch's inherent DEF conspired to prevent Kraye from killing her. He boosted his charge attack and hit, inflicting 8 Damage. He bought a second attack and boosted to hit, hitting again and doing 3 damage. He bought a third attack and boosted to hit, doing 2 damage. He bought a fourth and final attack but without the boost, was unable to hit. The Old Witch lived.
On my turn the Old Witch had 12 Focus, but it was unnecessary. The Doom Reavers surrounded Kraye and chopped him to bits.
Game One: Win
This round, I faced Mario, also playing Cygnar. His army was thus:
I had surrounded the Old Witch with cloud effects - one from Gorman's Smoke and two from Blizzards cast by the Greylords on the Mechanics, who were lined up next to the Old Witch. LOS to her was completely blocked and I thought I was safe.
What I didn't realize is that if the target of Blizzard is destroyed or removed from play, the Blizzard cloud effect leaves play immediately as well. D'oh! Caine sauntered in, popped his feat, and laid waste to most of my Winterguard and all four Mechanics blocking Agha. Two boosted shots to the face later and she was the Dead Witch of Khador.
I suppose I can't be too upset with myself over this loss, since this was the first game I'd ever used Greylords in, but even so... there are so many things I could have done to save myself from Caine that I just didn't do, and it burns me that I didn't see it coming.
Game 2: Loss
This game, my opponent was Will, a fellow Khador player. Will is probably the best Warmachine player at the store. Fortunately for me, he had just finished playing Parker (who is also arguably the best), and Parker had severely depleted Will's forces. Will still won the game, but since he was defending again, his losses stacked. He was able to field:
My force was very similar to Will's:
Now one might think with such an advantage I would roll Will right up. Well, Will is not the best for nothing. He fought tooth and nail and came within 1 damage of killing my Vlad. On his feat turn, Will annihilated my Pikemen and killed, two of my Uhlans and trashed both of my Kodiaks - evening the odds considerably. I pretty much had to feat on my following turn just to keep up, and managed to retaliate reasonably effectively, but Will had blunted my advance enough to go on the offensive his next turn.
He did so, and charged my Vlad with his Vlad. I went full-retard for a moment and used my Vlad's Preemptive Strike against his Vlad, which did 3 damage... BUT! Also granted his Vlad 1 blood-token and Might of Kings, adding +1 STR, DEF and ARM. STUPID ME!
Will's Vlad whanged away at my Vlad, dropping my Vlad to 1 hit point (if I hadn't used Preemptive Strike, Will's Vlad would have done 3 less damage, giving me much better odds of surviving, but as it was, I got lucky). But my Vlad lived. Oh yes. He lived. Will charged my Vlad with an Uhlan, but was unable to connect, since my Vlad's DEF was now 18 thanks to my own Might of Kings.
On my next turn, my Vlad had 10 Focus thanks to Blood Trials and summarily slaughtered Will's Vlad. I breathed a sigh of relief. Close one!
Game 3: Win
My final game of the day was against a Menoth player, Prado, using High Exemplar Kreoss. He took:
This game was short. I charged straight up the center with the Pikemen, the Drakhun and Vlad, with the Kodiaks supporting the flanks. The Uhlans, Manhunters and Yuri acted as outriders.
Prado gambled and moved Kreoss up very close to my army in order to catch as many models as possible in his feat. As it happened, he got all of them. All of them, except of course, for the Drakhun, which cannot be knocked down :)
2 Pikemen were killed, Yuri was exploded, a Kodiak went down and a Uhlan got pasted, but overall, my forces were left relatively intact, if flat on their backs.
At this point, I considered forgoing the easy win and trying to win more VPs to be in contention for a medal, but I was tired after a long day of gaming, and didn't want to screw up and let victory slip away. Vlad sacrificed movement to stand up and used his feat, targetting the Drakhun (among others, but that's the only one that mattered). The Pikemen sacrificed action to stand up, and moved aside to open a charge lane for the Drakhun. The Drakhun charged Kreoss, rolled 3 attacks w/Flying Steel meaning he would get a total of 4 MAT 11 P+S 16 attacks rolling 4 dice each for damage. As it happened, it only took two swings to cleave Kreoss in twain.
Game 4: Win
So, 3 Wins, 1 (stupid) Loss, and no medals. Competition was pretty tight for the various tourney awards, so I don't feel bad about not winning any medals, but I'll tell you this: I'll never forget how Greylords' spells work again!
My first game of the day was against a Cygnar player named Daniel. His force included:
- Jeremiah Kraye
- Centurion
- Sentinel
- Sentinel
- Charger
- Hunter
- 9 Long Gunnners + Officer & Standard Bearer
- 3 Stormlances
- Journeyman Warcaster
- Zevanna Agha, Old Witch of Khador
- Scrapjack
- Behemoth
- 10 Winterguard + Officer & Standard Bearer + Rocketeer
- Greylords Ternion
- Widowmakers
- Doomreavers
- 4 Battle Mechaniks
- Gorman DiWulfe, Rogue Alchemist
- Man-o-War Drakhun
- Manhunter
Daniel Deployed Kraye, the Centurion, Stormlances and the Journeyman in the center, Long Gunners along his right flank and the Sentinels and Charger along his left flank. The Hunter advance-deployed in a forest toward the center of the board.
I deployed the Behemoth, Scrapjack, Mechaniks, and Greylords in the center, the Old Witch and Gorman on my left flank in a forest and the Winterguard and Drakhun on my right flank. I advance-deployed the Doomreavers on the left, a bit ahead of the Old Witch, the Manhunter toward the center ahead of the Behemoth and the Widowmakers on the right flank ahead of the Winterguard.
Daniel took the first turn and advanced his army forward. Kraye cast Full Tilt on the Centurion and the Journeyman cast Arcane Shield on the Stormlances. The Hunter took a pot-shot at the Behemoth and inflicted a couple of damage to it's left arm.
On my turn, I advanced the Doomreavers toward the Long Gunners, just out of range of their guns, hoping to lure them a bit further forward. Furthering this gambit, I advanced the Old Witch to the front edge of the forest, cast Slaughter on herself and laid down a Murder of Crows in front of the Doomreavers, blocking primary LOS to them from the Long Gunners. The Behemoth lobbed a bombard at the Stormlances, but was out of range. The second mortar got lobbed at the Journeyman but also missed. The Manhunter charged the Hunter and inflicted some serious damage but was unable to disable or destroy it. The Widowmakers plinked away at one of the Sentinels, the Winterguard advanced into position. The Drakhun moved up to intercept the Stormlances. Scrapjack and the Greylords advanced, the Greylords cast Blizzard on Scrappy to get him into a cloud.
Next round, Daniel took the bait and advanced his Long Gunners. They managed to kill two Doomreavers. Kraye upkept full-tilt and continued to advance with his vanguard of Stormlances and the Centurion. The Stormlances killed the Manhunter, freeing up the Hunter who once again shot up the Behemoth. The Sentinels perforated the Winterguard and Widowmakers, killing 4 Winterguard and 1 Widowmaker.
On my turn, the Old Witch upkept Slaughter with her Withered Staff and spent a focus to upkeep Murder of Crows. She cast Hidden Path on herself and repositioned within the Murder of Crows cloud, then charged the Long Gunners. She killed seven of them thanks to Slaughter, and collected a bevy of Soul Tokens. She did not get to the Standard Bearer, so despite suffering greivous casualties, the Long Gunners held their ground. The Doomreavers repositioned themselves onto Kraye's flank. The Mechaniks advanced and repaired the Behemoth, bringing it back to full health. The Behemoth advanced and fired off two bombard shells at the Hunter and did a bit of damage. The Widowmakers and Winterguard opened fire on the Sentinels, seriously damaging them, but failing to disable or destroy them. The Drakhun chased the Centurion down, did a bit of damage to it, then killed the Journeyman with his second flying-steel attack.
Round three, Daniel rushed in to capture two flags. The Sentinels shot up the Winterguard and Widowmakers again, killing 1 and 1, while the Charger ran up and captured the flag they were guarding. The hunter ran up the hill where the Behemoth had been and grabbed a flag there. The Long Gunners attacked the Old Witch in melee, but could not hit her. Kraye and the Centurion continued to advance while the Storm Lances charged the Behemoth, taking out it's subcortex.
On my turn, the Old Witch had 13 Focus... and nothing to spend it on. She was out of range to allocate focus to the 'jacks and had no viable targets for the rest of her spells. I contented myself with moving Scrapjack up, then having Gorman drop a Smoke Bomb on the Witch. The Witch killed the rest of the Long Gunners, then re-cast Murder of Crows in a new position to the rear of Kraye and co. She used Hidden Path to teleport into MoC and was now in range to channel Spells through the Scrapjack. She cast a boosted Strangling Chains on Kraye hoping to drag him into melee with the Behemoth. The witch inflicted a couple points of damage, but only dragged Kraye 3". Agha had now spent 10 of her 13 Focus and I didn't want to risk another, unboosted one, so I camped the rest of the Focus for Armor. In retrospect, it would have been wiser to use 2 of it to cast Iron Flesh on herself, but it worked out.
The Doomreavers charged the Stormlances and slaughtered them.
The Winterguard and Widowmakers continued to dance with the Sentinels and Charger. The Drakhun whaled away on the Centurion.
Round four, Daniel gambled. First, he moved the Hunter over to the third flag to cap it. Then, he charged the Old Witch with Kraye. This is why I should have cast Iron Flesh. Fortunately, the camped focus and the Witch's inherent DEF conspired to prevent Kraye from killing her. He boosted his charge attack and hit, inflicting 8 Damage. He bought a second attack and boosted to hit, hitting again and doing 3 damage. He bought a third attack and boosted to hit, doing 2 damage. He bought a fourth and final attack but without the boost, was unable to hit. The Old Witch lived.
On my turn the Old Witch had 12 Focus, but it was unnecessary. The Doom Reavers surrounded Kraye and chopped him to bits.
Game One: Win
This round, I faced Mario, also playing Cygnar. His army was thus:
- Lt. Allister Caine
- Hunter
- 3 Storm Lances
- 6 Precursor Knights + Officer & Standard Bearer
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
- Gun Mage Captain Adept
- Journeyman Warcaster
- Dirty Meg
- Mule
- Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (Steve Holt!)
- Gudrun The Wanderer
- Ogrun Bokur
- Winterguard down 1 squad member
- Greylords down 1 squad member
- Doomreavers down 1 squad member
- Widowmakers down 2 squad members
I had surrounded the Old Witch with cloud effects - one from Gorman's Smoke and two from Blizzards cast by the Greylords on the Mechanics, who were lined up next to the Old Witch. LOS to her was completely blocked and I thought I was safe.
What I didn't realize is that if the target of Blizzard is destroyed or removed from play, the Blizzard cloud effect leaves play immediately as well. D'oh! Caine sauntered in, popped his feat, and laid waste to most of my Winterguard and all four Mechanics blocking Agha. Two boosted shots to the face later and she was the Dead Witch of Khador.
I suppose I can't be too upset with myself over this loss, since this was the first game I'd ever used Greylords in, but even so... there are so many things I could have done to save myself from Caine that I just didn't do, and it burns me that I didn't see it coming.
Game 2: Loss
This game, my opponent was Will, a fellow Khador player. Will is probably the best Warmachine player at the store. Fortunately for me, he had just finished playing Parker (who is also arguably the best), and Parker had severely depleted Will's forces. Will still won the game, but since he was defending again, his losses stacked. He was able to field:
- Vladimir Tzepesci, Dark Champion
- Drago (with damage)
- 3 Ironfang Uhlans (down from 5)
- 8 Assault Kommandos (down from 10)
- 10 Ironfang Pikemen (down from 12)
- 2 Widowmakers (down from 4)
- Man-o-War Drakhun
My force was very similar to Will's:
- Vladimir Tzepesci, Dark Champion
- 2 Kodiaks
- 5 Ironfang Uhlans
- 10 Ironfang Pikemen + Officer & Standard Bearer
- Yuri The Axe
- 2 Manhunters
- Man 'o War Drakhun
- Battle Mechaniks
Now one might think with such an advantage I would roll Will right up. Well, Will is not the best for nothing. He fought tooth and nail and came within 1 damage of killing my Vlad. On his feat turn, Will annihilated my Pikemen and killed, two of my Uhlans and trashed both of my Kodiaks - evening the odds considerably. I pretty much had to feat on my following turn just to keep up, and managed to retaliate reasonably effectively, but Will had blunted my advance enough to go on the offensive his next turn.
He did so, and charged my Vlad with his Vlad. I went full-retard for a moment and used my Vlad's Preemptive Strike against his Vlad, which did 3 damage... BUT! Also granted his Vlad 1 blood-token and Might of Kings, adding +1 STR, DEF and ARM. STUPID ME!
Will's Vlad whanged away at my Vlad, dropping my Vlad to 1 hit point (if I hadn't used Preemptive Strike, Will's Vlad would have done 3 less damage, giving me much better odds of surviving, but as it was, I got lucky). But my Vlad lived. Oh yes. He lived. Will charged my Vlad with an Uhlan, but was unable to connect, since my Vlad's DEF was now 18 thanks to my own Might of Kings.
On my next turn, my Vlad had 10 Focus thanks to Blood Trials and summarily slaughtered Will's Vlad. I breathed a sigh of relief. Close one!
Game 3: Win
My final game of the day was against a Menoth player, Prado, using High Exemplar Kreoss. He took:
- High Exemplar Kreoss
- Crusader
- Reckoner
- Revenger
- Choir of Menoth (6)
- 9 Deliverers
- 10 Temple Flameguard + Officer & Standard Bearer
- 5 Holy Zealots + Monolith Bearer
- 6 Daughters of the Flame
- Vassal of Menoth
- Paladin of the Wall
- Reclaimer
- 2 Wracks
This game was short. I charged straight up the center with the Pikemen, the Drakhun and Vlad, with the Kodiaks supporting the flanks. The Uhlans, Manhunters and Yuri acted as outriders.
Prado gambled and moved Kreoss up very close to my army in order to catch as many models as possible in his feat. As it happened, he got all of them. All of them, except of course, for the Drakhun, which cannot be knocked down :)
2 Pikemen were killed, Yuri was exploded, a Kodiak went down and a Uhlan got pasted, but overall, my forces were left relatively intact, if flat on their backs.
At this point, I considered forgoing the easy win and trying to win more VPs to be in contention for a medal, but I was tired after a long day of gaming, and didn't want to screw up and let victory slip away. Vlad sacrificed movement to stand up and used his feat, targetting the Drakhun (among others, but that's the only one that mattered). The Pikemen sacrificed action to stand up, and moved aside to open a charge lane for the Drakhun. The Drakhun charged Kreoss, rolled 3 attacks w/Flying Steel meaning he would get a total of 4 MAT 11 P+S 16 attacks rolling 4 dice each for damage. As it happened, it only took two swings to cleave Kreoss in twain.
Game 4: Win
So, 3 Wins, 1 (stupid) Loss, and no medals. Competition was pretty tight for the various tourney awards, so I don't feel bad about not winning any medals, but I'll tell you this: I'll never forget how Greylords' spells work again!