Week 2... and the conclusion that the Journeyman scenario rules are rubbish!

Well... week 2 rolled along and yesterday, the good riot (no link to his latest blog entry... presumably because he's in too much of a rage to post anything about his... uh... 'game'... >_> ).

Anyway, yesterday and today, I got a couple 15pt games in.

So, without further ado:

Retribution of Scyrah (15pts)
Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper (+7)
Manticore (8), Chimera (6) & Griffon (4)
Arcanist (1) & House Shyeel Artificer (3)

(Note - I could finally take advantage of Kae's Force Wall tier benefits... but as the games proved, I really couldn't... mainly because an extra FOC for the Myrmidons was a tad pointless in the main.)

Cygnar (15pts)
Commander Coleman Stryker (+6)
Ironclad (7), Charger (4) & Lancer (6)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2) & Squire (2)

Firstly: when will I ever see a Cygnar army WITHOUT a damned Squire?! Answer: yeah, probably never!

Anyway, DAMON and I rolled off and I won, opting to go first with the "Killing Fields" scenario... and woohoo, pics... -_-

Yeah, the objectives were bottle-caps because we (read: Lano) were cheapskates... anyway, first turn we both trundled forwards and second turn, I seized the objectives and popped feat (no charging me and Stealth for all my folks), and with the score on 3-0 we concluded... this is dumb.

All he could do was run onto the objectives to contest, to which I'd respond by shoving him off with Push power attacks (with back up from the Beat Back'ing Artificer just in case). I basically couldn't lose. A bit of discussion among me, DAMON, Lano & riot later and... Steamroller rules (scoring commences on the second player's second turn and first player has a truncated deployment zone).

On the restart, DAMON went first and ran his guys up. I was a little more cautious and advanced up, feated so it was sure to be a contest for the objectives rather than a plain smash-fest.

He shrugged... and counter-feated (a ma-HOO-sive ARM bonus to everyone) and got two of the objectives (blue & red), meanwhile prodding my Arc Node with his Arc Node. (0-0) With nothing much I could do about Stryker's feat, I sent the Manticore over to deal with the Charger... only to see it fail in his attempt to double-handed throw the Cygnar light away. The Chimera ran interference on the Lancer before the Artificer charged up and batted both the Lancer and the Ironclad away from the objective. The latter could have proved to be disastrous. The Griffon, meanwhile, unobtrusively strolled up to the white objective. (2-0)

The Manticore was now horribly exposed and the Ironclad obliged by charging in... before really fluffing his lines and failing to do much damage except to partially deplete the Myrmidon's Arcantrik Field. DAMON was suitably grinding his teeth. The Charger took a swing, but didn't achieve much. The Dice Gods would not favour the Cygnaran, unfortunately, because the Lancer took a stab at the Artificer (he of rubbish DEF in melee) and dealt two damage... >_> Stryker made things worse by charging up and missing everything in sight. (2-1) In response, the Chimera quickly extricated itself, raising its head for Kae to channel and pop an Arcantrik Bolt at the Ironclad (in the back, rather helpfully), before she sought cover in the small forest. With the now frozen Ironclad leering at him, the Manticore (with a helping hand from the Arcanist), totalled the Cygnaran heavy with three attacks (at dice + 2 damage), before swiping a chunk off of the Charger. The Griffon spied Strangewayes, charged and smacked the engineer off the field. The turn ended with the Chimera stepping up behind the Lancer and slapping it upside the head. (2-1)

The Charger still couldn't do much except take rather ineffectual swings at the Manticore, so Stryker could only sigh and grumble that he had to do everything himself. The Lancer finally managed to bat the Artificer aside... with his shield of all things, and my decision to spread Kae's battlegroup to score control points quickly with only the Artificer as cover was about to bite me, as Stryker had a clean run, which he duly took. But if the dice gods didn't like DAMON before... they really didn't like him now. A boosted attack missed... OK, buy another attack, boost to hit... HIT... boost to damage... 7. Not bad... buy another attack, boost to hit... uh... yeah... with one FOC left (the Squire had been cut for the last time, too), a nine on 2D6 was a bit discouraging... (2-2) Unable to dent Stryker's ARM with mediocre MAT and a relatively low PS weapon, Kae camped, hoping to get more CP, which she duly did, the Griffon walking back onto the white one and the Manticore finally managing to throw the Charger away from the red one. With that, I ended the turn with Kae sitting on ARM 21 and 9 hit boxes. I really should've lost by assassination already, but perhaps Jedi hand-waving the dice really does work! =P (4-2)

With 6 FOC again, Stryker huffed, raised Quicksilver Mk I and (tried to) whale away at Kae. Attack 1: boosted... miss... Attack 2: boosted... HIT! ... boosted damage... 4! Attack 2: boosted... miss... uh... yeah... (again). DAMON looked ready to raise his hands to the heavens and drop to his knees and convert to atheism (shut up, we're wargamers, we worship Dice Gods!). Unable to do much more, the Charger having stood up and missed its attack on the Arcanist and the Lancer continuing to make little impression on the Chimera, the Cygnar turn ended. (4-2) The Arcanist ended the game, strolling up to the blue objective and securing the 3pts necessary to win... with Kaelyssa ending with just 5 damage left and, once again as against Magnus, far from amused... -_-

Final score 7-2 to the elven terrorists.

Got real lucky, or rather, bad luck afflicted my opponent as I was a little too ambitious with the distribution of my battlegroup and should have been beaten for severely restricting my caster's ability to manoeuvre.

In the next game, played just this afternoon, I did most things right and played the only tactics that Kae could use against Hordes. Pick a sensible target, slap it silly, rinse and repeat, letting her nick Fury and mess with my opponent's fury management. Most of Kae's spells/abilities are good only against WarMachine, or magic heavy armies and Farrow... are neither. But still, the pigs are fun and very silly.

So:


Farrow (Thornfall Alliance) (15pts)
Lord Carver, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction the Third, Esquire (+6)
War Hog (8), Gun Boar (Iron Pig) (5) & Gun Boar (Bang!) (5)
Razorback Crew (the Pig-a-Pault) (3)

Yes... I know, it's a silly (yet awesome) name, and I will insist on using it in its entirety, 'cos the Farrow are nothing if not hilarious.

Anyway, Lano and I chose to dispense with the scenario rules and went balls in (something he accuses me of never doing... which is true, more often than not... *ahem*) and went for a plain caster/lock kill mission. Throughout the game, only one mistake was committed... and it wasn't by me! -_-

Unfortunately, I neglected to take photos... except for deployment and how things ended up... uh-duh! ¬_¬

I won the roll-off and chose to go first, while Lano shielded his War Hog, weirdly and Advanced Deployed his Pig-a-Pault (Thornfall Alliance thing, apparently... *shrug*).

The Myrmidons started things off and half-ran up the board, Kae channeled Arcantrik Bolt and picked off the grunt of the artillery crew. The Artificer floated up, set Force Wall and that was my turn 1. The big pigs ran up in response with Lord Carver, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction the Third, Esquire casting Batten Down the Hatches (ARM bonus with a DEF penalty) and Mobility (SPD buff) to get his battlegroup going. For the hell of it, the Pig-a-Pault slung a burning projectile at the Chimera... and somehow hit it, removing all of its Arcantrik Field.

In turn 2, I looked beadily about and went for it. Firstly, Kae nicked as much FUR as she could from the pigs, before the Griffon Fleeted and charged Bang! damaging the Gun Boar a bit. Then, a FOC'd up(!) Manticore charged in (too far to stroll in like he wanted to) and trashed Bang! before looking over his shoulder and backhanding Iron Pig one. The Chimera rounded off the elven battlegroup activations by chopping at Iron Pig, only to mess up and miss on a double 1. The Artificer kept back milling around, throwing up Force Wall again with a dumb expression. Lord Carver, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction the Third, Esquire looked back and snorted, cut himself for two, popped his feat (additional dice damage for all pigs!) and charged in, clonked the Manticore with his unpretentiously named cleaver "Hand of God" and swung at the Griffon too. Unsure about what Kae would do next turn, he Quagmire'd his War Hog and sat on two fury. It turned out to be completely unnecessary as the War Hog took two swings at the Manticore and wrecked it, but was too far to take a bash at the Griffon... his own warlock was in the way! The Iron Pig rounded things off by essentially putting the Chimera out of commission.

It was currently advantage Farrow as one Retribution heavy was mashed, and both the lights were nearing that stage. Still, a slight boost from the Arcanist allowed the Griffon to angle round and the light Myrmidon just made the attack roll to Head Butt Lord Carver, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction the Third, Esquire (transferring damage to the War Hog with one of his two remaining FUR)... and with a knocked down enemy 'lock, Kaelyssa went on her ranged assassination run... only without the running. Standing and not needing to aim, she nicked Lord Carver, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction the Third, Esquire's remaining fury and dealt a moderate amount of damage, even with a boost. The second shot failed to damage and needing to deal 8 damage with the last shot with a POW 10 weapon (yeah, you use it to nick FUR/FOC, not kill people) against ARM 17:

Woohoo, 4-5-6! That's a dead Lord Carver, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction the Third, Esquire and my quickest game with caster kill, I think. The Artificer was thus left still floating about with a dumb expression (could've charged the pig-lock just in case).

Thus sits me... on 23 Journeyman League points. Not bad going.

Now for the revenge of Batman & Robin... oh wait, sorry... Rorsh & Brine! =P 25pts ahoy.

Bubi

Journeyman League Kicks Off

Well...Week 1 and battlebox games abound...

First game was against mr2key and his Convergence... and perhaps irksomely, I knew just as much as he did about them... ¬_¬

Anyway, no pics... I was foolish enough not to take any. Eh... quick report, incoming...

Retribution of Scyrah (11pts)
Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper (+7)
Manticore (8), Chimera (6) & Griffon (4)

Convergence of Cyriss (10pts)
Syntherion, Forgemaster (+6)
Cipher (9), Galvanizer (3) & Mitigator (4)

The Vectors started proceedings by legging up as far as they could... which was just far enough for the Mitigator to take a POW12 shot in the face from my Manticore... and then another one from Kaelyssa and an Arcantrik Bolt.

Slight repairs saved it for another turn while the Cipher shook the ground a little in front of the line of Myrmidons. But since dispositions had not changed much, the Manticore finished the Mitigator off which his next couple of shots, helped out by another Arcantrik Bolt and the Griffon maintaining a flanking position.

With nothing for it the Cipher (with Hot Shot cast on it) walked up and took a shot, but to no avail, whereupon it was rendered stationary by yet another Arcantrik Bolt (Kae got a lot of mileage out of this spell yesterday evening) before being attacked by a souped up Manticore (spent 1 FOC to boost its strength). Four determined PS18 attacks later and the Cipher was no more.

The Galvanizer hurriedly rushed across to protect its caster, but even with Reconstruct, it was first disabled by a charging Manticore, before its repaired form was struck by the Griffon from the flank.

And since it was the Mangled Metal scenario... the Elves of Ios win the day. Maybe I should turn up with painted miniatures more often!

After a bit of refreshment, on to my second game, against our generous host, riot of riotville. Honestly, he's probably got the better report, but I feel honour bound to defend my... well, honour, since my memorisation of my battlegroup's cards was considered quite suspect! -_-

Anyway, game 2, let's go:

Mercenaries (Four Star Syndicate) (11pts)
Magnus, the Traitor (+6)
Mangler (8), Renegade (5) & Talon (4)
(Note - Renegade normally costs 6, but costed as five due to the "Most Wanted" Tier 1 benefit)

Let me just say now that I was indeed quite scared of the Renegade's Obliterator shot (it's once per game shot be damned!). Still, I determined to be aggressive (unlike how I usually play with Kae) though once again, I was going second.

Both of us deployed in line and riot's jacks pondered forward, the key spellcaster action being Tempered Armour on the Talon (lots of battle damage painted onto this chap, and that would soon be demonstrated), letting it sit on ARM 20. The Myrmidons ran forward in response, the Chimera seeking the cover of a rocky outcropping. Kae popped Rift through her Arc Node, seeing it splat between the two forces and prevent Magnus' jacks from effectively closing the distance.

Thus, he shambled forward some more, now with Iron Aggression on the Mangler... which could've been nasty were it not for Kaelyssa's feat, which she promptly popped in prime charging position. But not before making the Talon stationary with her second Arcantrik Bolt of the turn.

However, riot knows Magnus' tricks and popped it straight back, running his jacks right into the thick of it amongst the Myrmidons. Apparition was a godsend and the Chimera phased back, letting Kae successfully Arcantrik Bolt both the Talon and the Renegade (cast that spell seven times so far! ... out of eight spells cast overall!). The Chimera then took a whack to tie up the Talon for next turn, while the Manticore angled around and took a few swipes at the Mangler, though its Blade Fists seemed like Pillow Fists for those hits, even at PS 18, until it smacked the Renegade, crippling its right arm. The Griffon rounded off post-feat-turn by moseying around and taking a jab at the Mangler, doing not much of anything else.

The fatal error of that last Retribution turn was having the Manticore turn his back on Magnus, who took full advantage and took off more than half of the Myrmidon's hitboxes by himself, before the coup de grace was delivered by the Mangler, who shrugged its shoulders and casually chucked the Manticore at the Griffon, destroying the heavy and knocking the light down. One thing that I noticed was that neither of the Mercenary lights had shaken Stationary, so Kae and her Griffon could still dance around the Renegade. Which the Griffon duly did, nipping outside of the jack's melee range, popping up beside Magnus and head butting him. Knocked down caster only six inches away meant only one thing for me: assassination time. Advancing around the Renegade and settling just between the Mangler and Magnus, she unnecessarily nicked a point of FOC off the Mangler (unspent from the Manticore trashing) and struck away at the downed caster. Three boosted damage rolls against an FOC free Merc dealt almost enough damage... the key word there being "almost".

At the beginning of turn 5... head in hands having left Magnus with one... one... ONE!! damage box left (I have a history of this... Sorscha was reduced to one hitbox by Kae's ranged assassination run before the elf was eviscerated by Frostfang), I could only hope that DEF 16 was enough protection... ARM 14 sure isn't! With full FOC, Magnus opened up first with his Mechanikal Arm, hoping for the knockdown... but missed a boosted attack (on MAT 7, he needed 9's, but rolled a 6). He got more luck from the Foecleaver's Powerful Attack, hitting and dealing 6 damage to Kae. Buying another attack and boosting it, he missed again, rolling 8. With his last purchased attack, he rolled a 6 yet again, leaving riot to rue his run of good luck that had just run dry. The Mangler took a swing, but could not hit the jinking elf, while the Renegade also tried, but was too far and swung at thin air. Not amused, Kae turned, took one boosted attack and boosted damage swipe at Magnus, leaving me with two wins from my first Journeyman League evening.

Woohoo!! =_=

And here's what my battlegroup looks like (just to prove I actually play this f***ing stupid game!):

And here's a bit of a fluffed up Artificer I painted today for week 2 (might redo his armour in purple or something, not sure the green works) and there's a half-painted Arcanist somewhere around: -_-

Anyway, until next time...

Bubi