Paul and I played a game of WARMACHINE on Friday the 30th of July. The 35 point throwdown was between Khador and Cygnar and the scenario was Break The Line. We had decided to play fully painted armies after the introduction of MKII came out in the spring and what a great feeling to see all the models on the table with some fabulous terrain. Allister Caine took the field against Kommandant Irusk with the goal of holding three of six quadrants on the board at the end of the third round. Khador deployed as a hard little knot in the center of the board with Iron Fang Pikemen and a Demolition Man-O-War unit accompanied by Irusk. On the left flank the Winter Guard and a Destroyer held vigil. The right flank was occupied by Widowmakers and a Manhunter.
Caine set up with most of his forces spread out evenly across the front of his deployment zone. There was two units of Arcane Tempest Gun Mages, three Hunters (!) and two Gun Mage solos, as well as the Black 13th. It looked grim for the Khador army as they had no long range weapons (just range 8" blunderbusses) besides the Destroyer. The only hope was to move forward as fast as possible and hope to get to grips with Cygnar before they were all shot to hell. And that is basically what happened.
On the first turn all of Khador advanced. Most with some sort of defensive buff. Man-O-War under Iron Flesh, Iron Fangs with Shield Wall and Winter Guard with Bob and Weave. Cygnar also moved forward but a little bit more warily, trying to use what cover they could, still pretty spread out. Khadors big mistake was deploying the Destroyer so far from Irusk as he had to run back in order to be granted the spell of Superiority from his 'caster. Second round saw the Widowmaker taking some shots at the Hunter on their flank, causing only one point of damage with their Sniper ability. I thought that they would be able to benefit from their Camouflage skill but the Gun Mage unit benefitted from True Sight. Within a turn they would be destroyed to a man, although their true purpose was to tie-up the Hunter and the Gun Mage unit. The Gun Mages on the left flank took out a good number of Winter Guard although it would have been more if the Kovnik Joe hadn't given them the tough ability. Additionally, some of the shots of the Hunter got through to kill off a couple of the Man-O-War unit. Caine also arrived in the second round and activated his feat, taking shots at everyone in line of sight although that nuber was decreased significantly by a cloud effect thrown out by a member of the Black 13th. Third round saw Cygnar taking possession of some of the zones of control, if only for their part of the turn. Khador continued their advance forward and got into charging range of some of the Hunters and one of the Gun Mage units. They did a good job of knocking down a 'jack and eliminating some of the Gun Mages. After their charge they regrouped thanks to the help of the standard bearer and sat tight in Shield Wall. The Winter Guard did a good job of knocking out some their opponents, the second Gun Mage unit. After this round, the center was looking weak for Cygnar as well as having some fraying around the edges. Cygnar tried a little something on their turn and then ceded the battle to Khadors overwhelming melee units.
Thoughts on this game: Khador did a good job on set-up in that they threatened most parts of the board equally. Key if you want to keep your opponent from discerning your true goals. Also learned was that units really need some sort of attachment, preferably the officer and standard bearer. A character solo doesn't hurt either. Both of them are used to increase the inherent abilities of the unit and make them pack a bigger punch and defend with greater acumen. The other thing that I learned was that tier list (which Paul used) are very specialized. They give you some good zing in specific situations but they have some very big weaknesses. Once I engaged Cygnar in melee they were pretty much done because of the preponderance of weak melee models. For the most part I think that a balanced list is best although that will not stop me from fielding a tier list. They are just so "fluffy" and the story aspect of one of the things that drew me into the game in the first place.
Later on in the evening we played two games of Combat Commander. We have been taking great delight in the scenarios in the new Normandy battlepack. This time say the Germans opposed first by the British and second by the Canadians. The first was a beach breakout by the British. They were aided in their approach by well placed smoke rounds before the game started. This and timely draws of the Recovery order allowed the first sortie to quickly leave the beach assault a bunker. Taking the bunker involved also killing an officer and taking out an artillery piece. Once in the bunkers and trenches the British had litte trouble finishing off the old men and boys that the Krauts chose to man their defenses. Fortuitous weapon breakage and poor, poor defense/offense draws helped the British in their inexorable advance.
The second scenario saw elite German troops marching on an urban area held by mediocre Canadian forces. This time the pendulum swung the way of the Germans. The Canadians couldn't draw a decent defense card to literally save their lives. The Germans executed a text book advance-and-flank maneuver and it was over rather quickly through surrender.
Thoughts on these games: When attacking it is important to have several Move and Recovery orders. Units are more likely to be broken when moving and it is essential to get them recovered before they take more fire. Conversely, when defending, it is critical to be able to fire to stop troops but even more critical to finish them off once they are broken. This speaks well of fire groups that contain a mortar. If the mortar can break some units then you can clean them up with unit or weapon fire. Another point to remember, if you have the chance, have some Ambush actions in your hand before you try an Advance. This allows easy clearing of enemy when you go to engage them hand-to-hand.
 |
| Khador at setup |
 |
| Cygnar at setup |
Thoughts on this game: Khador did a good job on set-up in that they threatened most parts of the board equally. Key if you want to keep your opponent from discerning your true goals. Also learned was that units really need some sort of attachment, preferably the officer and standard bearer. A character solo doesn't hurt either. Both of them are used to increase the inherent abilities of the unit and make them pack a bigger punch and defend with greater acumen. The other thing that I learned was that tier list (which Paul used) are very specialized. They give you some good zing in specific situations but they have some very big weaknesses. Once I engaged Cygnar in melee they were pretty much done because of the preponderance of weak melee models. For the most part I think that a balanced list is best although that will not stop me from fielding a tier list. They are just so "fluffy" and the story aspect of one of the things that drew me into the game in the first place.
Later on in the evening we played two games of Combat Commander. We have been taking great delight in the scenarios in the new Normandy battlepack. This time say the Germans opposed first by the British and second by the Canadians. The first was a beach breakout by the British. They were aided in their approach by well placed smoke rounds before the game started. This and timely draws of the Recovery order allowed the first sortie to quickly leave the beach assault a bunker. Taking the bunker involved also killing an officer and taking out an artillery piece. Once in the bunkers and trenches the British had litte trouble finishing off the old men and boys that the Krauts chose to man their defenses. Fortuitous weapon breakage and poor, poor defense/offense draws helped the British in their inexorable advance.
 |
| The Canadians surrounded! |
Thoughts on these games: When attacking it is important to have several Move and Recovery orders. Units are more likely to be broken when moving and it is essential to get them recovered before they take more fire. Conversely, when defending, it is critical to be able to fire to stop troops but even more critical to finish them off once they are broken. This speaks well of fire groups that contain a mortar. If the mortar can break some units then you can clean them up with unit or weapon fire. Another point to remember, if you have the chance, have some Ambush actions in your hand before you try an Advance. This allows easy clearing of enemy when you go to engage them hand-to-hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment