Tournament Podcast 002 – First Tournament with Protectorate: Will Everything Burn?

So on Saturday, Aaron, Nick, Adam, Kassem, and I attended a tournament.

Well… actually, Aaron had to cancel to keep an eye on his sister while his parents are vacationing. So Nick, Adam, Kassem, and I attended the tournament.

Well… actually, Nick’s girlfriend had to go in for surgery on Friday, so he was at the hospital being a good partner. So Adam, Kassem, and I attended the tournament.

Well, actually, Adam had plans that afternoon and was worried that the tournament would run past 4pm. Which left Kassem and I attending the tournament.

But the two of us did! And it was awesome! And now you can read about my exploits and laugh at my misadventures!

We decided to throw together a quick “Tournament Podcast”, which you can listen to! It’s basically just Kassem and I regaling Nick and Aaron with our tournament stories, and Nick and Aaron mocking the SNOT out of both of us for it!

Direct Download

The tournament was a 50 point Steamroller, using “Divide and Conquer” (you must use each list at least once). There was also the Deathclock variation, which gave both players a total of 60 minutes, including deployment, to play their game. I like Timed Turns, but I’m a much, much bigger fan of Deathclock!

The field was as follows:
Me (Menoth)
Kassem (Skorne)
Matt (Convergence of Cyriss)
Dwayne (Menoth)
John (Khador)
James (Trolls)
John (Retribution)
Todd (Retribution)

Of most importance: No Cryx! Or Legion! Or Circle! Woo!

My Two Lists:

So, I still only own 2 Menoth warcasters… eFeora, and Harbinger. And I only have 1 unit, so much of my list building is sort of done for me! As a result, you’re going to see a lot of similarity in my lists.

Feora, Protector of the Flame (eFeora, Feora2)
– Hierophant
– Redeemer (Bonded)
– Reckoner
– Vanquisher
Exemplar Errants (max)
– Officer and Standard
Exemplar Errant Seneschal
High Exemplar Gravus
Paladin of the Order of the Wall
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist
Taryn di la Rovissi
Gorman di Wulfe
Wracks
Vassal of Menoth (x2)
Choir of Menoth (min)

There was a lot of debate in this list for myself, in the form of Taryn’s inclusion. I would’ve preferred to take a 2nd Allegiant, honestly, but I don’t own a 2nd yet… and another Paladin of the Wall seemed like a bad idea without Vilmon (+5 ARM is nice, but not a lot of things really struggle to kill DEF13, ARM21… with Defender’s Ward? Sure… or any DEF buff, really…). I was thinking that Taryn could put “Shadow Fire” on huge bases to allow my Redeemer to get LoS to fragile warcasters behind… plus, she’s pretty handy in a fight against warjacks in general.

Harbinger of Menoth (Harby)
– Hierophant
– Reckoner
– Vanquisher
– Devout
Exemplar Errants
– Officer and Standard
Exemplar Errant Seneschal
The Covenant of Menoth
Rhupert Carvolo
High Paladin Vilmon
Paladin of the Order of the Wall (x2)
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist
Wracks
Choir of Menoth (min)
Vassal of Menoth (x2)

I like this list. Would I like it more if I had the Avatar? Probably. But for now, I like this list… the trick is to not let Harby cut herself too deeply, and to play *just* aggressive enough with her to inflict the -2 to Attack Rolls from her Awe, without getting her killed. But I still like it!

Round One: Trolls

My first opponent, James, was rocking his beautiful yellow Trolls. I freely admit that Trolls are still one of my weakest Factions to play against, since I’ve only played against them a few times. He brought a Hoarluk list (sadly, I forget which), and a Grim Angus. Both had Mountain Kings and several heavies… I decided to run Feora, since Harbinger’s Feat wouldn’t do me as much good, and I figured that I might get an AWESOME Feat turn out of Feora if I could light all his models on fire!

The scenario was Supply and Demand: a central 12″ zone with 2 objectives slightly outside the zone. The Objectives grant free charges for warjacks or warbeasts within 4″ if they’re not contested, and deny your opponent’s warcaster the ability to Dominate if it is within they’re CTRL. 1 point to destroy your opponent’s Objective, 1 to Control the zone, and 2 to Dominate it. Oh, and Kill box.

We rolled for initiative, which I won and elected to go first.

James’ list was as follows:

Grim Angus (“Determined Cow”)
– Mountain King
– Impaler
– Dire Troll Bomber
Fennblades (max)
– Fennblade Officer and Drummer
Krielstone Bearer and Scribes (max)
– Stone Scribe Elder
Fell Caller
Fennblade Kithkar

The Bomber’s ability to make things immune to blast damage was going to be annoying, but at least he didn’t have a Pyre Troll to make things immune to fire! That would’ve been bad.

He dropped his Mountain King near the middle of the table, and then I deployed. Feora and her warjacks went near the middle, with the Paladin out on the extreme left flank, and Gravus near the middle. The Choir and Vassals went behind the warjacks, and I put the Allegiant out of the right flank. Taryn and Gorman went near the middle of the table but slightly back, hopefully staying safe long enough to drop some shots on the Mountain King. My Errants and Wracks were Advanced Deployed in response to James’ setup, basically in the middle of the table for the Errants, and the Wracks went scattered around the board in convenient-to-pull-Focus-from positions.

James set up Determined Cow near the Mountain King, with the Bomber and the Impaler slightly to the left, the Stone and its entourage behind him, and all the Fennblades to the right.

With that, we were ready to being the first game!

Menoth Turn 1

Everything runs.

Okay, I’m going to get sick of that joke one of these days… but all joking aside, there was a lot of running. The Errants run forward, with Gravus following behind them.

It’s at this point that I realize I forgot to allocate Focus to my warjacks… gods, I’m such a beginner. Oh well… the Hierophant gives Feora a -1 cost spell, and she casts Escort and walks forward. The Reckoner and Vanquisher move straight forward, while the Redeemer goes around the forest.

My Vassals walk forward and give both warjacks “Enliven”, while the Choir sings “No Shooting” on them. Gorman heads up behind Feora, while Taryn starts running through the forest.
The Allegiant runs up the right side of the table, while the Paladin runs up the left.

Trolls Turn 1

So I’ve presented my Errants to James’ army, which has a surprising amount of ranged firepower… well, perhaps not “surprising” for anyone who’s actually familiar with playing against trolls, but for me, it would be a rude awakening.

The Mountain King moved forward and shouted at one of my Errants, blasting him to pieces. Interesting start…

Next, the Dire Troll Bomber strode forward, and began lobbing explosives at my Errants. Two throws and a few lucky scatters and some equally-unlucky damage rolls, and 2 more of my Errants had perished. Gravus was happy, though, now flush with souls.

James then realized he forgot to give Farstrike to the Bomber (could’ve made a BIG difference), but he moves up his Impaler anyways.

Determined Cow goes next, moving up and dropping a stack of Fury on the Krielstone and casting the spell that gives the Fennblades Pathfinder (“Cross Country”).

The Krielstone does the ARM-aura, and the Scribe adds some sort of damage buff to the mix.

The Fennblades run forward, most of them ending up in a nearby swamp, with the Kithkar moving into their midsts.
The Fell Caller runs forward, and he’s done his turn!

Menoth Turn 2

There were a few things about about James’ turn that concerned me: first of all, it took him all of 5 minutes, so I was already behind him on the Deathclock before my turn even started. Second, he had proven that his list had ranged damage potential, and the Mountain King, despite being a much maligned model, was still a colossi with a tonne of hitboxes. That could heal itself for free. So… let’s say I was encouraged to make sure I killed it sooner than later. And those Krielstones… gawds, those were going to be a thorn.

But no time to think! Must act! I upkeep Escort, allocate 2 Focus to the Redeemer, 1 to each of my heavies, and we’re off!

The Errants go first. They walk forward, their crossbows mostly ineffectual, but one slaying a Fennblade on a lucky strike. Gravus moves up behind them.

My Choir activates and sings “Battle” on my warjacks.

The Vanquisher goes next, walking forward 6″ (thank you Escort!), and firing a shot into the midst of the tightly packed clump of Fennblades.

Did you know that Fennblades burn? Oh yes, my friends… that first shot kills 3 outright, and hits 2 that Tough and are lit on fire. Not a bad start… but my Vassal is unsatisfied, and so gives the Vanquisher an Ancillary Attack, which kills 3 more, leaves 3 on fire and 1 knocked down. Two shots and his Fennblades went from full strength, to 5 models, 3 of which are on fire and one of which is a drummer!

The Reckoner advances and pings the Mountain King , but even with boosted damage, only inflicts a few points (and spawns a little chattering whelp!). The Vassal gives it an Ancillary attack, which hits but fails to penetrate armour.

Feora activates, and walks into the Killbox and the forest for safety.
The Redeemer goes next, walks forward and opens fire on the Bomber, hitting and boosting damage, inflicting a few points and lighting the heavy on fire. Buys another shot which misses (RAT3, whaddaya expect), and scatters to clip the Bomber and the Impaler behind it, neither of which it wounds, but it DOES light the Impaler on fire.

The Paladin walks forward and gives himself +5 ARM, the Allegiant walks forward and adopts “Shifting Sands” stance, and I forget to activate Taryn since I can’t see her under the tree-scenery the model is under.

Gorman does move forward, though… cautiously, but I’ve already got one eye on that Mountain King…

Trolls Turn 2

The loss of the Fennblades was a bit of a blow, I’m sure, but James is still in a very good position, overall. He fills back up on Fury, upkeeps Cross-Country, and we’re off.

But first, some Vengeance! The knocked down Fennblade is out, but there are 4 still standing ones… one of them is within 5″ of my Allegiant, and so with his 3″ move, he can get close enough to take a swing… which promptly misses, and my Allegiant walks up to tie up any potential charge lanes for the mighty Fennblades to get into the zone.

The Mountain King eats its whelps (healing back up to almost full), walks up and punches a few of my Errants to death (all the deaths are Self-Sacrificed, to avoid unpleasant snacking).

The Mad-Bomber-What-Bombs-at-Midnight (Tick reference? Nobody? Right… carrying on) strides forward and throws a bomb at Gravus which hits and inflicts 9 damage (phew!). He throws his 2nd, which also hits and dismounts the mighty dragoon.

The Fell Caller activates and tells the knocked down Fennblade to stand up.

The Fennblades go next, with 4 of them striding up to my Allegiant. The officer swings first, but misses… and the Allegiant skips back out of melee range of the others.

Can you believe that he’s one of the LESS popular Menoth solos? Anyway, 2 points completely tying up that entire flank. I love me my Punchy-Monk!

Grim goes next. He dumps a Fury on the Krielstone to replace the one it used last turn. He takes a shot at an Errant, but misses.

The Krielstone pops the Protective Aura again, and the Elder adds +1 to the POW of everything.

The Impaler moves up a little and throws a spear at the Seneschal, which hits and I Self-Sacrifice off to somebody else.

With that, his turn is done… and again, he’s used almost no time! Gah! Panic!

Menoth Turn 3

So I would be lying if I didn’t admit that James’ RIDICULOUSLY quick turns weren’t worrying me. They were. A lot… but what can you do? The plus side was the his Mountain King was right there… pretty much in the open… and the Internet has said that those things are super-sucky, so I should be able to kill it, right?

Right?

I upkeep Escort, allocate 3 to the Reckoner, 1 to the Redeemer, and 1 to the Vanquisher, and we’re off!

My Errants go first, shuffling around. Two go on the Bomber, 2 more on the Mountain King, and the 2 unengaged ones on the far left move into the forest behind the Bomber. The Errants on the Bomber both hit… and do no damage. The 2 on the Mountain King both hit… and do a total of 4 damage (and spawn 2 Whelps). The two behind the Bomber take shots at the Krielstone… the first misses, but the second hits and kills the Bearer! James has another member of the team pick it up (which is actually significant, although neither of us realized it at the time: apparently the Protective Aura drops if the Bearer is killed, which is why they have Self-Sacrifice, which James should’ve used!). At least the Aura will shrink a bit.

Gravus goes next, charging the Mountain King. He hits! He rolls… doing THREE damage, and spawning another Whelp! That’s okay… he buys another attack, which (of course) hits, I boost, and inflict… no damage. I buy his last attack, hit, and inflict TWO damage.

I haven’t seen this many 1s since… uh… the 1 Convention on… uh… 1 Street. Okay, that was lame, I can do better…

Anyway, the Seneschal charges the Mountain King… and also inflicts single-digit damage.

But this is okay! I still have a powerful, face-wrecking Reckoner! It charges the Mountain King! I roll… and THEN remember that I forgot to activate my Choir! OR cast Ignite on it! GAH!

After the Reckoner is done, the Mountain King has lost one spiral (Body), but is surrounded by 4 or 5 Whelps. Le sigh.

The Allegiant walks up to engage both Grim and the Fell Caller, and rather than taking the swings, just drops into Shifting Sands again. My plan was to hope that he’d be missed again, and get all the way over to the Krielstone, so I could start punching them to death (which was more likely than hitting Angus on 8s or 9s).

Also, that gets him out of the way of my Vanquisher, which takes advantage of the fact that James has politely clumped up his remaining Fennblades. One shot and an Ancillary Attack later, and the Kithkar and one other are dead, and the 3 other Fennblades with weapons are on the ground and on fire.

Awesome. THAT’S more like it!

The Paladin charges the Bomber, and manages to inflict respectable damage (not GREAT, but better!). My dice seem to be warming up a little…

The Redeemer shoots the Mountain King, hitting, boosting damage, and inflicting a few points…

To add insult to injury, Gorman walks directly towards the Mountain King and lobs a Blind grenade at him… and is JUST within range (phew!). The shot hits, and now the King is at -4DEF and -4MAT… actually, including the Flare from the Reckoner, he’s -6DEF, putting him at… 3?

I know the lowest DEF can go is 5… but still. He’s really easy to hit right now.

My other Vassal walks up and puts “Enliven” on my Reckoner, and Feora moves up a little towards the zone, now that the Bomber is engaged and the Mountain King is blind.

Lastly, Taryn runs almost out of the forest. I have NO idea what I’m going to do with a couple of POW10s against Trolls, but at least I can choose to do something with her, I suppose?

Trolls Turn 3

It’s safe to say at this point that things are not going as planned. That Mountain King should be dead… but instead, surrounded by tasty nodules, he’s going to be up to at least fully functional, and likely up to full health (or at least close!). Sure, he’s going to struggle to hit anything, but with the POW buff from the Krielstone, he doesn’t need to hit anything often!

However, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. First, the fires consume 2 more Fennblades, and the last one breaks. Nice. The fire also keeps burning on the Bomber and Mountain King, but neither are damaged (obviously… sigh…).

Although… now that I think about it… I’m not sure the Protective Aura should’ve been added to those warbeast’s ARM… huh. A little cheating there, but I won’t be throwing stones about that.

Anyway, the Impaler passes his Threshold check after Grim takes back all his Fury. He also upkeeps “Cross-Country” on the last, broken Fennblade… because… uh… because? Doesn’t matter, he does.

The Krielstone goes and pops its Aura again and adds POW to his troops.
Grim activates and tosses another Fury on the stone. He then boosts a swing at the Allegiant… which misses! Nice. The Allegiant dances around behind Grim and in B2B with 2 of the Krielstone bearers.

James activates the Impaler. He walks over to the Allegiant and boosts to hit… and hits! He easily drops the lithe monk… who then… fails his Tough roll. Gah! So close!

But that’s okay! It took him a warbeast, an entire unit of Fennblades, his warlock, and two solid turns of trying to kill the little guy! Good job, Allegiant!

The Bomber swings at the Paladin… and misses! Phew! He takes another swing at an Errant, which hits and kills (which I Self-Sac to deny the Snacking). He buys and swings again, missing, and then buys and swings again, missing! Nice.

He then eats 2 Whelps and heals. Bleh.

The Mountain King eats 4 Whelps and heals 10 points of damage (BAH!). He then boosts to hit my Reckoner… hits! He boosts damage, and inflicts 16 points with a single blow! My cannon is completely obliterated, but the Reckoner Enlivens away.

The Mountain King then takes swings at Gravus, boosts to hit… and misses! Thank Menoth for Blind!

The last Fennblade rallies, and that’s James’ turn!

Menoth Turn 4

At this point, I have less than 10 minutes on my Deathclock, and James is sitting on a basically full-health Mountain King, a pretty-much full-health Bomber, an ACTUALLY full-health Impaler… I’ve removed his infantry, but if I can’t get rid of his warbeasts… especially that damnable Mountain King, I’m going to be in a LOT of trouble.

I think for a few minutes about whether to pop Feora’s Feat, suck in as much Focus as I can, cast Ignite on herself, and then Charge the Mountain King with my warcaster… I 1-rounded a full health Arch Angel the other day at ARM19… but I decide it’s too big of a risk without knowing if I can kill the other 2 warbeasts first.

So, instead, 3 Focus goes back to the Reckoner, 2 to the Vanquisher, and I upkeep Escort.

Gorman starts by aiming and lobbing another Blind grenade at the Mountain King, which hits (phew!).
My Errants take swings, the remaining ones around the Bomber and Mountain King inflicting light damage and spawning more Whelps. The 2 behind the front lines both take shots at the Krielstone again, the first missing, but the 2nd hitting, killing, but the Stonebearer Toughing (gah!).

The Choir activates and sings Battle.

The Reckoner walks up and takes swings at the Mountain King… they all hit and wound, but the giant rock refuses to die! It also spawns more Whelps, now with 5 in B2B behind it…

The Vanquisher moves forward and fires off a shot at Grim Angus himself… boosting to hit… misses! Damn. But it only scatters an inch, lighting the Fell Caller, Angus, and my Reckoner on fire. I boost damage on Angus and inflict a few points (which he takes), fail to kill the Fell Caller, and blessedly don’t damage my Reckoner.

My first Vassal gives an Ancillary Attack to the Reckoner, which hits home for a few more damage on the Mountain King, and the second gives Ancillary Attack to the Vanquisher, which fires at Angus again… sadly, this time the shot flies wide of anything.

Taryn moves up, and decides not to shoot anything with her puny POW10s.

The Paladin adopts his +5ARM stance and swings at the Bomber, hitting and crippling its Body (and spawning another thrice-accursed Whelp!).

Lastly, Feora moves up into the zone. I debate… I consider… I think… I decide not to Feat (which, unquestionably, a mistake)… I take a Focus from a Wrack which explodes, and stay with Angus just within 12″ of my warcaster.

Trolls Turn 4

I don’t know if he was planning it this way, but James is rapidly approaching the ability to deathclock me… I have 10:33 left on my side, and he’s still sitting at 38:41. I’m simply not sure I have enough time to kill enough stuff that I can win!

But that’s no excuse for James to stop wiping out my stuff! And so he gets at it… pulls in Fury, upkeeps Cross-Country again, checks the Impaler for a Threshold check (which it passes), and we’re off.

Well… fire first! Since Feora has all of James’ burning models in CTRL, there’s no risk of any of them going out… sadly, the Fell Caller does NOT burn to Death, but Grim takes a few more damage (4-5?) from burnination. Both the Mountain King and Bomber, still benefiting from the Aura, are unharmed again. Boo.

The Fell Caller goes first, walking around the Objective and giving itself a boost to its attack rolls. It then shoots (or screams?) at Feora… and misses! Phew… she’s not within 3″ of any of my warjacks!

Grim himself goes next, moving to JUST out of melee with my Reckoner (wisely) and taking a shot at Feora through a tiny, tiny gap between my warjack and the Mountain King. He boosts to hit… and misses! PHEW!

He tosses another Fury onto the Stone, and spends his last few Fury on… something. Menoth, I wish I could remember what… but I don’t.

The Krielstone activates and attempts to douse Grim… we call over a judge, who rules that Feora’s “Caustic Prescence” trumps the Stone’s ability, and so he goes back to the ARM-buff ability with them.

The Impaler throws at my Standard Bearer, boosting to hit and missing. The Bomber successfully kills 2 Errants (the first self-sacrifices, but the last is eaten). The Mountain King, still blind, kills two Errants (me forgetting that they were effectively DEF14 due to the Reckoner… d’oh!). Lastly, the final Fennblades walks up to my Vanquisher to engage it, hits, but does no damage.

And again, with barely any time used, James ends his turn…

  

Menoth Turn 5

So I’m down to less than 7 minutes at this point, and my noble and worthy adversary has still got over 20 minutes on his clock (I think it was closer to 27!). Winning by Scenario is becoming increasingly unlikely as my stuff slowly dies and his Mountain King refuses to… but I happen to notice that Grim is standing… basically in the open… with no Fury!

I wonder if he’s flammable… or inflammable… forget which! Doesn’t matter!

2 Focus to the Vanquisher, and we’re off!

Choir goes first and sings Battle.
My Vanquisher activates and walks up and over a little to get a clean LoS to the warlock. He shoots, boosts to hit… and nails it! Rolling at Dice+1 and boosting damage… I manage to kill Grim in a single massive fireball!

Victory to Menoth!

Post game analysis:

Okay, so many of you have probably noticed that I’ve gone out of my way to NOT mention a model on the table: Rhupert. See, Rhupert was in my Feora test lists, but he didn’t make the cut into this version (being replaced by Gravus, more or less, who wants the Errants to die so that he can get souls!). As a result, Rhupert went in my Harbinger list… but I was so nervous I accidentally put him on the table and used him this game!

In my defence: I am an idiot.
But more importantly! I made 11 Tough checks this game, and I didn’t succeed at a single one. So Rhupert’s impact was minimal, and although I felt AWFUL about the realization that I included him when I got home and looked at the pictures (I had forgotten all about it when I ran this list a 2nd time!), I hope it’s a forgivable oversight. I do apologize to James, though!

Other than that, the game went pretty poorly, but thankfully was pulled out by that last-minute assassination run. I made more than my fair share of mistakes (sending in the Reckoner without Battle OR Ignite!? Almost unforgivable!), but managed to keep my head and pull off the victory!

Round Two: Khador

My opponent for this round would be John, who some of you may remember from the LAST tournament I competed in… John and I played each other in the finals, although at the time I was using Cygnar, and he was using Circle! So it was to be a rematch, of a sort, but with much changed…

John’s two lists were a eSorscha with a Conquest and gobs of Winterguard… and an eIrusk, with MORE Winterguard, Behemoth, and some artillery. One thing I’m aware of, though… Winterguard can deal with many things, but the Harbinger’s Feat? Yeah, not one of them.

So I dropped my Harbinger list, John picked his eIrusk list, and we were good to go!

John’s list was as follows:

Supreme Kommandant Irusk (eIrusk, Irusk2)
– Behemoth
– Destroyer (Bonded)
– War Dog
Winterguard Infantry (max)
– Officer and Standard
– 3 Rocketeer Weapon Attachments
Kovnik Joesph Grigovich (Kovnik Joe)
Winterguard Infantry (max)
Winterguard Mortar Crew
Aiyana and Master Holt
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman

And interesting list, and one I was pretty happy to see across the table… few high-ARM models (the warjacks, basically), and lots of things that should be too worried to move during Feat turn, meaning that Harby should be able to buy me an extra round. Of course, everything John had could shoot… and accurately, for the most part… but hopefully my Tough Errants would slow him down enough that the rest of my army could chew through his!

The scenario for this round was “Balance of Power”: a 12×6″ zone, oriented with the long way running parallel to the Deployment zones, and a Friendly and Enemy flag. Dominating your flag removes 1 Control Point from your Opponent prior to scoring (to a minimum of 0), and you get 1CP for controlling or 2CPs for dominating either the central zone or the enemy flag. I was a little sad to see this… Harby has a great Feat for getting CPs, and this scenario was going to be very difficult to win that way.

We rolled for initiative, which John won and chose to go first. I took the side of the table with elevation, and we began.

He deployed the Behemoth, Destroyer, and one unit of WInterguard on the left flank. eirusk, the War Dog, Kovnik Joe, and the other Winterguard went near the middle, while the Mortar team and Aiyana and Holt went to the right. The Widowmakers and the Marksman would be Advanced Deployed in the middle of the table eventually.

I deployed Harby near my friendly flag (and far, far away from Behemoth), with her warjacks nearby towards the middle. The Covenant went nearby, with Rhupert next to it. Vilmon and one of the paladins went to the left, while the Allegiant and the other Paladin went to the right. The Vassals and the Choir went behind their assigned warjacks, and then the Errants Advanced Deployed across from the Widowmakers, while the Wracks went scattered around the field.

With that, we were ready to rock!

Khador Turn 1

John allocates 1 to each warjack and we’re off.

The Widowmaker Marksman goes first, moving up and sniping one of the Errants… he hits and kills, but I Martyr to keep him alive. The rest of the Widowmakers move up and shoot, most missing, but 2 more kills and 2 more Martyrs as a result (a total of 4 damage for the 3 martyrs).

The minimum unit of Winterguard run up the left side of the table, while the maximum unit runs up the middle. The two warjacks run forward, as does the Mortar team.

Irusk moves up and casts “Fire for Effect” on the Mortar team and “Superiority” on Behemoth, and the War Dog follows along behind him.

Lastly, Aiyana and Holt run up to the right side, and he’s done!

Menoth Turn 1

Well, that wasn’t so bad, I suppose… not ideal, but no losses yet, so I suppose I can’t really complain! But that Mortar Team was going to be a problem… well, one thing at a time. The Harbinger allocates 1 to all her warjacks and I begin.

The Hierophant goes first and heals the Harbinger for 3 points of damage. Good start!

Rhupert activates, moving up a little and giving the Errants Tough.
The Errants go next, moving forward and opening fire on the Widowmakers. Thankfully, they have Hunter, so the Widowmakers are “only” DEF15, but that still needs 9s to hit, and the Marksman himself is safe with his Stealth. Still, I manage to drop one of them with a lucky shot.

The Seneschal moves over a little, staying on the hill.

My Choir activates and sings “No Shooting” on my warjacks.
My heavy warjacks both run forward, and then get “Enliven” from my Vassals because why not.

The Harbinger activates and moves forward her full 6″ and pops her Feat. She then casts “Purify” to get rid of “Fire for Effect” and “Superiority” (make him work for it, at least!), and camps the remaining Focus.

The Devout walks up into B2B with her and says “No Spells!”

The Allegiant runs forward, within 10″ of the Harbinger. One of my Paladins runs up behind him. My other Paladin and Vilmon head towards the left flank, aiming to hold off the minimum unit of Winter Guard (who are, not coincidentally, far away from the Magic Weapon Granting abilities of Aiyana!).

Lastly, the Book activates, moves forward, and says “No Knockdown!” very loudly.

With that, I’m done!

Khador Turn 2

John now has to deal with the joy of Harbinger’s Feat… at least he has a lot of guns! He allocates 2 to the Behemoth’s subcortex, and we’re off.

Irusk goes first and casts “Fire for Support” on the Mortar team again.
The Mortar goes next and aims at the Harbinger… needs an 11 to hit, but thankfully misses (or… sadly misses? The Devout is standing RIGHT THERE to take any direct hits!). The shot only scatters an inch, tagging Harby, the Devout, and a Choir… it kills the Choir (Martyr’d for 1) but fails to wound either Harby on the Devout.

The Behemoth activates and moves forward, taking 3 points of damage from the Feat (not bad for Dice – 7!). He then opens fire on my Errants… the shot misses and scatters a little, tagging 3 of them, none of which it penetrates ARM. Sweet! Takes its second shot, this time directly hitting… that Errant makes his Tough (nice!), while the others hit, one fails his Tough and is Martyr’d for 3 points on the Harbinger.

The Destroyer walks forward (takes 2 damage from the Feat) and opens fire at my Errants, missing and the shot scatters away harmlessly.

Aiyana and Holt move laterally up towards the Mortar (staying out of CTRL range). And everything else stands very, very still…

Menoth Turn 2

Okay, so far so good. Time to make the Errants earn their place by Menoth’s side in Urcaen. The Harbinger allocates 1 Focus to the Vanquisher, 2 to the Reckoner, and we’re off!

The Vanquisher activates first, walking forward and opening fire on Behemoth, who he hits and boosts damage on, inflicting a handful more and lighting the mighty warjack on fire.

The nearest Vassal activates and gives it a second shot, which misses and scatters to only hit the Behemoth, who it can’t wound with blast.

The Errants activate and Charge. 2 get onto the Destroyer, 3 on Behemoth, 1 on a Widowmaker, and 3 on the Marksman. I inflict moderate damage on both warjacks (nothing crippled, sadly), miss the Marksman 3 times, and kill the Widowmaker and take a Quick Work shot at the Mortar… which hits! And fails to penetrate ARM13! Gah!

Fine. The Seneschal activates, moves forward, and shoots the Mortar… he’s out of range! Gah!

FINE! My Choir activates and sings Battle.
My Reckoner walks forward and opens fire on the Mortar… he hits and wipes it out… and it fails its Tough Check. One down…

The closest Vassal activates and gives the Reckoner a 2nd attack, which it uses to kill the other member of the Mortar team, who also fails his Tough. There we go! No more 20″ threats to the Harbinger, thank you!

That settled, the Hierophant moves up to the Harbinger and Heals her again (2 points). The Harbinger moves forward and pulls Focus off a Wrack that decides to explode. She spends enough Focus to get her back up to full health (3? 4? Something like that), camps the rest while in B2B with the flag.

The Devout moves up next to the Harbinger and as many things within 2″ as it can manage.

The Book walks forward as far as it can (which is only 3″, damnation!) and says “No Knockdown” again, and then Rhupert moves forward and gives the Errants Tough again.

Vilmon and the Paladin on the left both move forward and drop into Impervious Wall, while the Paladin closer to Aiyana and Holt drops into +5ARM. The Allegiant walks forward and punches a Widowmaker to death.

With that, I’m done! I score my first CP for Controlling the central zone… Time to weather the frozen Khadoran onslaught!

Khador Turn 3

John has to start contesting the zone, or I’m going to win in very short order, and there are a LOT of Errants between him and the zone! Which, you know… kinda what they’re there for…

First we check the fire on Behemoth, which does not go out… but also doesn’t wound. No suprise.

John allocates 1 to the Destroyer, 3 to the Behemoth’s Subcortex, and camps the rest.

Kovnik Joe goes first, giving the Winterguard boosted Hit rolls. He then shoots at an Errant, hitting and killing him (fails Tough).

Next, the Destroyer activates and Tramples forward over 3 Errants. He hits 2 but fails to wound either. We have a brief rules discussion: John had been under the impression that Trampling over a model knocked it down. Neither of us could find that stated anywhere in the Trample rules, so no Knock Down occurs. Regardless, the Destroyer is now in the zone, contesting.

Aiyana and Holt activate. Aiyana moves up and Kisses the Errants, and Holt manages to kill the Allegiant with his 4th attack.

The central WInterguard unit activates, getting “Bob and Weave” orders as they move forward and swarm around Irusk protectively. A flurry of shots and rockets later, he’s managed to kill every Errant save 3. Ouch.

The Behemoth takes his initial attacks on the 2 remaining Errants engaging him, splattering both (failing their Tough and with nothing else within 3″ other than themselves!). Thus freed from his engagement, he fires at the Vanquisher, hitting twice and boosting damage once and inflicting solid (albeit not crippling) damage.

The Marksman activates and takes a swing at the last Errant… and misses!

The other 2 Widowmakers retreat and open fire at Choir, both hitting and killing, and Harby Martyring both times (total of 2 damage).

The other unit of WInterguard activate, move forward, and open fire at Rhupert, the only 1 in range missing (phew!).

With that, John is done his turn and the score stays 1-0 for Menoth!

Menoth Turn 3

My Errants have nobly, but ineffectively, held the line… down to their last number, I have to swing this battle back in my favour pretty dang quick. Thankfully, I notice that the Destroyer and Behemoth are close to each other… close enough that I can probably charge a Reckoner, hypothetically speaking, up into that space and do some serious damage to both… maybe even destroy one! If I can swing the warjack-exchange in my favour, I can probably kill enough Winterguard that the game will go my way… that’s the plan, at least!

So, 3 Focus to the Reckoner, 2 to the Vanquisher, and we’re off!

The Hierophant gives Harby a Harmonious Exaltation (I just realized I’ve been spelling “Exaltation” very, very wrong for a very, very long time!).
The Harbinger activates and casts Crusader’s Call. She then sits pat on her Focus.

The Choir activate and sing Battle.

The Reckoner charges the Destroyer (if I want to score points this turn, it has to die). The Assault shot hits and drops his DEF with Flare, but fails to wound. The Charge attack, however, hits easily and inflicts serious damage, crippling the ax (woo!). I buy an attack on the Behemoth, hitting and inflicting enough damage to wreck the subcortex (WOO!). I buy another attack on the Behemoth, and shatter his left arm.

All in all, pretty good for 3 Focus!

The closest Vassal activates and gives the Reckoner “Enliven” (hey, maybe he’ll even survive the counter attack!).

Vilmon activates and Charges the Destroyer… he hits, and inflicts just enough damage… to leave him on 2 boxes! GAH! So close! The other Paladin on that flank walks directly towards the unit of Winterguard and drops into Impervious Wall.

The Book activates, walks forward, and says “No Knockdown” again (mistake… should’ve said “No Spells”… oops!).

I activate the Devout, which walks forward into the zone, but still within 2” of the Harbinger.

The Vanquisher activates, walking towards the middle of the zone. He fires at the Winterguard directly in front of Irusk. I boost to hit… and miss. Damn! It scatters directly onto Irusk! Sweet! I boost damage, and inflict 7 points! Nice. The blast, meanwhile, outright obliterates 5 or 6 Winterguard, causes 3 to be Knocked Down and on Fire, and kills a Widowmaker.

The Vassal activates and gives the Vanquisher an Ancillary Attack, which it fires straight at Irusk (hey, a single lucky roll here could end the game!). I roll… and miss. The shot deviates backwards and tags another 4 WInterguard, killing 2 outright and knocking down the other 2 when they make their Tough rolls. The Officer and Standard have both survived, but are both on Fire at this point…

Rhupert backs up and gives the Choir “Tough” (hey, somebody should get it!).

Lastly, my right flank Paladin walks up and strikes down Holt… and Aiyana, so stricken with grief, breaks! Nice…

Sadly, I haven’t cleared the zone, so the score stays 1-0.

Khador Turn 4

We start with the fires currently raging among the Khadoran lines. Irusk takes enough damage to drop him to 5 health, and a few more Winterguard burn.

John doesn’t have much to allocate his Focus towards… he gives 1 to the Destroyer, and enough to the Behemoth that Irusk is camping 4 (so… 2?).

The Destroyer goes first and Headbutts my Reckoner (damn). He hits, knocking Enliven off. His ax then auto-hits, boosting damage and doing a respectable amount.

The Behemoth activates, striking automatically on my knocked down Reckoner… which I’m JUST realizing it was immune to thanks to the Book. Damn! Anyway… when the dust clears, the Reckoner has lost his legs and cannon, but still has the Cortex and mace!

Irusk activates, spending all 4 Focus to heal himself back up to 9 health (and still on fire…), and pops his Feat, making several Tough’d Winterguard stand up automatically. He then shoots my right-flank Paladin for 4 points of damage.

Kovnik Joe gives a speech about not missing your enemies, and pops a shot off at my right-flank Paladin, hitting but only inflicting 2 wounds… which is still enough to kill him, curse it.
The central Winterguard activate, the remainder of the unit (about… 6 men? Including the Officer) and move forward, 2 more getting into the zone. The entire unit does a single CRA on the Vanquisher, hitting and inflicting a POW19 damage shot (so I guess there were 7 left!)… which does *just* enough damage to cripple the cannon! Gah! Where’s a Vassal Mechanik when you need one!?

The other unit of Winterguard move forward and open fire, a couple pinging Vilmon but failing to kill, several missing Rhupert, and 1 hitting and damaging the Book for 1 point.

With that, the turn is over! Still 1-0 for Menoth…

Menoth Turn 4

Thankfully, my Reckoner still has a functional Cortex and mace… and 2 warjacks rather in need of disassembly nearby! I send him 3 Focus. My Vanquisher gets only 1, and I give 2 more to the Devout.

The Choir goes first and sings “Battle” again.
The Reckoner activates and flattens the Destroyer on his first swing, and the Behemoth on the 3rd, leaving me with 1 excess Focus… not as bad as usual!

My Paladin walks up to engage 3 WInterguard from the min unit, adopting his “Magic Weapons Only” stance. Vilmon sacrifices both movement and Activation to get the +5ARM and immunity to non-magic attacks.

The Book says “No Knockdown” again, Rhupert walks forward, gives “Tough” to the Choir and strikes down a Winterguard with his sword.

The Devout walks up to engage the 2 Winterguard in the zone, striking both down easily.

My Vanquisher walks up to the 1 remaining Winterguard in the zone, getting close enough to one of his buddies to hit both with his initial Thresher attack… which kills both, but the one in the zone Toughs! No worries… I took an extra Focus for just such an occasion… the Vanquisher auto-hits, and this time the Winterguard fails his Tough check, clearing the zone of enemy models!

The Harbinger activates and moves up to the far-back corner of the zone, pulling Focus off a Wrack which explodes.

I have one Vassal give an Ancillary Attack to the Vanquisher, which he uses to shoot his crippled cannon at Irusk. It misses, but only scatters an inch, catching Irusk in the blast and inflicting 3 damage (woo!), as well as lighting almost all the remaining Winterguard from the Central unit on fire AND killing the Marksman (not bad for 1d6 damage!).

With that, I end my turn and score 2 more CPs, bringing the score to 3-0 for Menoth.

Khador Turn 5

Before we really get started, we see if Irusk is polite enough to burn for Menoth… the fire doesn’t go out! Nice! I roll for damage… and only inflict 2, leaving him on 3 health (damn!). The fires do claim 3 more Winterguard (including the last Rocket) and Kovnik Joe himself.

Irusk has no more warjacks, so he camps his full stack.

John starts by casting “Battle Lust” on his War Dog and charging my Reckoner with Irusk. Irusk spends his full stack, and at the end the Reckoner has 2 boxes left… just his mace functional.

The War Dog activates and charges my Vanquisher, inflicting heavy damage… but leaving it with the flail and cortex functional (woo!). He then takes his free follow-up move to head over to Irusk.

The Winterguard activate, fan out and open fire on my models. They manage to kill Rhupert (who Toughs and SHOULD have been knocked down…), do 3 more points of damage on the Book, and manage to miss my Vassal twice. Aiyana, who rallied last turn, moves over, John realizing he forgot to put Kiss on one of my warjacks before charging them.

He ends his turn… having failed to Contest the zone, giving me two more CPs and the win!

Victory to Menoth!

Post game analysis:

To be honest, there wasn’t a WHOLE lot John could do at this point in the game… even if he managed to wreck both of my warjacks (not impossible, albeit unlikely), the Harbinger still has her auto-hitting POW20 Cataclysm to polish off Irusk with. So not contesting hurried the end slightly, but that’s all. Still, a fun game, and I suspect John will think twice before tightly packing his infantry around Irusk again!

Round Three: Retribution of Scyrah

My final opponent for the day was a different John… the pleasant gentleman who I played in an NPR recently. Great guy, great fun to play against… despite the fact that he was playing Retribution, I was super-happy to be seeing him in the finals!

John brought an Issyria (Hyperion + Phoenix) list, and a Ravyn (Hyperion + Daemon) list. I was really hoping to drop my Harby list again, since it had Rhupert, and Tough Errants are much better at dealing with Retribution… but I couldn’t risk her against Ravyn’s Snipe-Feat-Go. So… eFeora it was! John, for his part, did take Ravyn… probably a good choice, since Issyria, although strong, would struggle in an attrition battle against a good Menoth player.

The final scenario was “Into the Breach”: a 12″ diameter zone on one side, a flag on the other, and Friendly and Enemy Objectives that make models within 4″ fearless while they aren’t contested. 1 CP for dominating the Flag or destroying the enemy’s objective, 1 CP for Controlling the zone, and 2CPs for Dominating it. Plus, no killbox! Woo!

We rolled for Initiative, which John won and elected to go first. I picked the side of the table I was on (since the terrain was almost completely symmetrical), and we were off.

John’s list was as follows:

Ravyn, Eternal Light
– Hyperion
– Daemon
Sentinels (min)
– Officer and Standard
Mage Hunter Strike Force (max) (MHSF)
– Officer
Aiyana and Holt
Mage Hunter Assassin (x2) (MHA)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios (pEiryss, Eiryss1, “That Elven Bitch”)

The Hyperion went down near the left side of the middle. Ravyn went next to it, with the Daemon closer to the middle. The Sentinels went behind a building to the right, and the MHSF went Advanced Deployed near the middle. Both Mage Hunter Assassins and Eiryss went to the left side.

I deployed Feora near the middle, with all three warjacks spreading out to her left. Gravus went near the middle, with the Allegiant going far left and the Paladin far right. Taryn went slightly to the right, Gorman stayed safely behind the warjacks, and the Choir and Vassals went near their mechanical warriors. The Errants went in front of Gravus, with the Seneschal further to the right, and the Wracks scattered around, more on the left to tempt his MHAs.

With that, we were ready!

Retribution Turn 1

Ravyn starts by allocating 1 to each warjack and we’re off.

Ravyn goes first, moving up slightly and casting “Snipe” on the MHSF and “Vortex of Destruction” on herself.

The MHSF goes next, walking forward and opening fire on my Advanced Deployed Errants (I have to learn to stop doing that… putting them so far forward against enemies that can shoot them on Turn 1!). They manage to kill 4, filling Gravus up with souls in the process.

The Sentinels run around the house, with Aiyana and Holt moving up behind them. The Daemon runs down the middle of the street, with the Hyperion running forward towards the hedge which pEiryss is hiding behind. The two Mage Hunter Assassins both take off towards the left flank.

First turn done, and John is definitely off to a good start!

Menoth Turn 1

I know that the MHSF are about 14-15″ away from my Errants… safely out of both walk-shoot range (10″ against the Stealth MHSF) and charge range (8.5″ without Crusader’s Call, 10.5″ with). So I know that those poor souls are going to move up to try and absorb as much of John’s firepower away from my army as possible… hopefully for another turn or two!

Feora allocates 1 Focus to each heavy warjack, gives 2 to the Redeemer, and camps the last 2.

The Errants go first, running up the middle fo the table to occupy as much space in the zone as they possibly can. The Seneschal activates next, running over to be closer to the Sentinels (and hopefully a thorn in John’s side!).

The Allegiant walks to be JUST in the zone (at the back) and drops into Shifting Sands (hit my DEF17, ya everything-else-ignoring bastards!), while my paladin walks towards the approaching MHAs and adopts his +5ARM stance.

The Choir activates and sings “No Shooting” on my Warjacks (keeping them safe from the MHSF for awhile is going to be critical, I suspect!).

The Hierophant gives Feora Harmonious Exaltation.

Feora goes next, casting “Escort” on herself and walking forward towards the zone. I’m hoping her ARM17 will keep John from risking a Snipe-Feat-Go attack on her… Ravyn is pretty far away, but if he wanted to, he might put me in a rough spot. Statistically, though, Feora would survive being hit 11 times by the MHSF (not by MUCH, but survive)… but I’m still hopefully he decides not to try it until I can whittle down his forces a bit!

Speaking of which, my Redeemer activates and walks forward, roughly towards the MHAs on the left. He opens fire at the first, and it scatters just enough to hit her! I boost damage, but sadly only inflict 3 points… but she’s on fire, and that’s something!

I buy another attack at the other MHA, but it scatters away harmlessly.

Gravus runs up behind the Errants, preparing to cleave his way through either the Sentinels or the Daemon, as the situation warrants.

My Reckoner runs forward, as does my Vanquisher… I consider taking a shot at the MHSF, but I have too many Errants too far forward. Odds of hitting several are way too high.

Taryn runs around behind the building, heading towards the Sentinels, where I hope she’ll be able to help slow their lines down (Black Penny will be useful, I suspect!).

Lastly, Gorman curls slightly towards the Hyperion, but stays well back from the front lines.

Retribution Turn 2

We start John’s turn the way most of my opponent’s turns have started: Determining what burns to death. Sadly, the MHA’s fire goes out! Curses!

With that out of the way, Ravyn allocates 1 to the Hyperion, 1 to the Daemon, upkeeps both Vortex and Snipe, and we’re off!

The Daemon goes first, walking forward and taking a shot at my Vanquisher, boosting to hit… and hits! This pulls in Feora into B2B, the Reckoner, and the Redeemer (who hits the Objective and stops). Sadly (for John) it inflicts no damage on any of them.

The Hyperion goes next, walking forward and firing a shot at the closest Errant. John boosts to hit… and gets a Critical! No! The Errant and 2 of his closest allies are all instantaneously vapourized (including the Officer and Standard! GAH!). He opens fire with the Thresher guns, one of which kills another Errant and then has no further targets (nothing within 2″), and the other of which manages to miss twice.

The MHSF activate, pulling backwards towards safety behind the Daemon and opening fire. They clear out the rest of the Errants except for my Seneshal.

The Sentinels activate and charge, 2 getting on the Seneschal and the rest just running up behind… the first utterly obliterates him.

The first MHA charges my Paladin and hits, inflicting 20 points of damage (“Decapitate” is lethal!). The second just runs up behind and beside her.

Ravyn activates and moves behind the Hyperion for safety (wise). She casts a Veil of Mists in front of the MHSF to protect them.

Lastly, Eiryss takes a shot at my Vanquisher, who is just in range, and disrupts it (GAH!).

With that, John’s turn is done and I’m on my back foot. But Menoth has shown me a ray of hope… slim thought it may be…

Menoth Turn 2

Did you manage to see it? That front member of the MHSF is in the Veil of Mists… which means I can see him… and all the tightly packed Mage Hunters behind him are VERY close together… of course, I can’t allocate Focus to my Vanquisher, but that’s okay since he would auto-miss anyway!

So, with that in mind, I debate a little bit about whether to commit my Reckoner to killing the Daemon or not… if I do, almost without question I’ll lose it to the Hyperion next turn (I have only 2 Vassals, and the odds are good that I’m going to need those for Ancillary Attacks for the Redeemer and Vanquisher over Enlivening the Reckoner)… but I figure safe is better than sorry. Feora upkeeps Escort, gives 3 Focus to the Reckoner, 2 to the Redeemer, and we’re off!

The Choir goes first and sings Battle.
The Hierophant activates and gives Feora Harmonious Exaltation.

Gravus activates and Charges the Daemon. His initial attack hits, and inflicts considerable damage. I spend souls to buy attacks, but at the end the Daemon is still standing (some AWFUL damage rolls!).

Fine. I Charge the Reckoner in, hitting with the Assault shot and the Charge attack, leaving the Daemon with only a few boxes. My first bought attack wrecks the heavy.

On the plus side, I MAY be safe from counter-charge from Hyperion due to the position of the Objective…

But on to the main event! The Vanquisher moves forward, trying to curl around the cloud… I get far enough that I can see some of the back rank of MHSF, which I then fire on. The shot misses (obviously) and deviates… back towards the 4 MHSF that AREN’T clumped together scattered around the house! It hits two and kills them instantly.

But that still leaves 9…

The first Vassal activates and gives the Vanquisher an Ancillary attack. I aim at the frontmost MHSF… and get the *perfect* scatter, 3″ in Direction 1 (straight towards the pack).

The blast instantly kills 6 and lights the Officer on fire, inflicting 2 wounds on her in the process.

Boo-ya.

Time for the Redeemer to earn his stripes. Being Disrupted by Eiryss reminded me how much I dislike her… my first shot goes at her, and scatters only 1 inch, catching her in the blast! I boost damage and roll just enough to bury the mercenary immediately! SWEET! By coincidence, it also lights the Hyperion on fire… nice little bonus there!

My Allegiant notices that there are only 2 elves remaining in the zone, and they just happen to be very close to each other. The Allegiant charges, getting both within melee range, and drops one of them with perfectly timed punches (they were fast as lightning… in fact he was a little bit frightening…)>

Taryn, not to be forgotten, moves forward and fires Black Penny shots at the other Sentinel in the zone engaging the Monk. The first hits but fails to wound, but the second both hits and kills! Nice!

Gorman moves forward, prepared to Blind the Hyperion when it moves in to finish off my warjack.

Thus cleared, and without MHSF to worry about (well… there are still 3 on the table, but I suspect it will soon be 2), Feora walks into the zone, pulls a Focus from a Wrack, and claims 2CPs for dominating the zone!

2-0 for Menoth!

Retribution Turn 3

As is so often the case, we begin with the Burn-checks… the Officer, as predict, fries. The fires on Hyperion do not quench, but only inflict 2 points of damage to the forceshield of the mighty colossus.

The Sentinels get their Vengeance attack, with 2 of them getting within range of my Allegiant and the rest just moving forward. Both attacks miss, but sadly I don’t have Shifting Sands up, so I don’t get to move away… however, he IS blocking the charge-lane to my Vanquisher, so there is that!

Ravyn allocates 3 Focus to the Hyperion, drops both Vortex and Snipe, and we’re off!

Ravyn goes first. She casts a Veil of Mists on the Objective to allow the Hyperion to move through there. She then pops her Feat, moves up a bit… but has nothing within range!

The Hyperion charges the Reckoner and effortlessly pounds my mighty warjack into scrap pieces on the last Focus. No surprises there. It also allows the Hyperion to *just* get into the zone, which is sad…

The closest MHA tries to charge Gorman, but he’s safely an inch or two out (phew!), and the other runs up behind her, safely spaced out.

Aiyana and Holt activate. Holt moves up and takes his initial two melee attacks to kill the Allegiant (who fails his Tough, boo), but both of his Ranged attacks miss Feora. Aiyana, for her part, tries to Kiss my Vanquisher… and misses!

The Sentinels charge! 3 get range on my Vanquisher, and the Officer and Standard charge Taryn. The 3 all hit the Vanquisher and inflict moderate damage, wrecking the legs but nothing else (PHEW!). The Officer, for his part, needing a 7 on Taryn… misses! Nice.

The last 2 MHSF move up into the zone. They both open fire at a Vassal and manage to kill it on the 2nd shot.

With that, John’s managed to claw back into the fight, although not nearly as commanding a position as he was a turn ago. The score stays 2-0 for me.

 

Menoth Turn 3

There are many “Live the Dream” moments” in WarMachine… but one of my favourites? Getting to lob Blind grenades at colossi. It’s just a wonderful feeling to almost completely tie-up a 18+ point model with my little 2 point solo. Time to live that dream!

Feora allocates 1 to the Redeemer, and camps the rest of her stack, just in case Gorman misses!

The Choir activates and sings Battle.

The Redeemer goes next, moving up and boosting to hit the closer MHA, splattering it outright. He also positions himself to make it impossible for the MHA to charge Gorman… sure, I may lose my Redeemer, but that’s a fair trade for keeping Gorman safe!

Speaking of which, Gorman aims at the Hyperion… and nails it! Boo-YA! One blind giant!

Gravus takes his attack on the Hyperion, dropping the shield but doing no more damage than that.

The Vanquisher activates, rotates on the spot, and Threshers the 3 Sentinels into powder.

The remaining Vassal activates, moves up a bit, and gives an Ancillary attack to the Vanquisher, targeting Aiyana… it misses and scatters onto Holt and 1 MHSF, killing the MHSF outright and lighting Holt on fire.

The last MHSF breaks. Woo!

Taryn moves up to engage the Officer and Standard and opens fire on the Officer. She hits, does no damage, hits again, and does 2 damage (damn).

Feora activates, stands still, and fires at the Hyperion, doing a few points of damage with a boosted damage roll.

And with that, I’m done my turn, and John is now in a VERY bad way… I almost feel bad for him. Almost.

2-0 Menoth.

Retribution Turn 4

John starts his turn deliberating (quickly, as we’re still on the clock!) about whether to give Focus to the blind Hyperion… in the end, he decides to allocate it a full 3, and camp the remainder on Ravyn.

We start with the fire-checks… Holt, being within 12″ of Feora, doesn’t have a chance and instantly fries. To add insult to that particular injury, Aiyana breaks!

The fleeing MHSF pulls back a bit and rallies successfully. Aiyana runs well away, and also rallies.

The Sentinel Officer swings at Taryn… and misses! Phew!

The Mage Hunter Assassin charges my Redeemer (John was initially hopeful that he could charge Gorman, but there was no way to charge past the Redeemer to do so!)… he hits, and at 4d6-6 x2 damage… inflicts nothing! Woo!

John, still smiling on the outside at least, has the Hyperion take a few swings at the Reckoner, boosting to hit to overcome the -4MAT from Blind. It takes both Initials plus 2 bought attacks, but he does manage to scrap my noble warjack. He buys one additional attack, hitting and dismounting Gravus.

Lastly, Ravyn activates and moves up behind the shrubs behind the Hyperion. With that, his turn is over!

Menoth Turn 5

The loss of my Reckoner is lamentable but not at all surprising. And thankfully enough damage has been applied to the Hyperion that I’m pretty confident I can take it down this turn… maybe next turn at the worst. So Feora allocates 3 to the Vanquisher, upkeeps Escort again, gives 1 to the Redeemer, and we’re off!

The Choir goes first and sings Battle on my remaining warjacks.

The Redeemer goes next, boosting to hit the last Mage Hunter Assassin, and splatters her easily.

The Hierophant activates and Harmoniously Exalts Feora.
Feora activates and casts “Ignite” on the Vanquisher (who is a respectable POW20 now, thank you!). She takes a shot at the Hyperion again, boosting damage and inflicting a few points. She then pulls a Focus off the right Wrack, which does decide to explode this time.

Gorman activates and aims at the Hyperion, hitting easily and Blinding it again.

The Vanquisher activates and Charges the Hyperion (needing to do so due to the wreck-marker left by my Reckoner… and a lack of Reach, of course!). The Charge attack hits, as do all the bought attacks and the Ancillary Attack… sadly, while I do cripple both arms and the forcefield, I don’t inflict quite enough to wreck the mighty warjack. Close, though!

Gravus takes his attack, which hits… will it be enough to destroy the Hyperion?

No. No it will not. It’s down to its last 6 boxes (movement and cortex, I believe).

Taryn activates and shoots the Sentinel Officer twice, but again both bullets deflect off his thick armour.

With that, my turn is done!

Retribution Turn 6

John allocates 3 Focus to the Hyperion, and we’re off!

The last of the Mage Hunter Strike Force moves deep into the zone and considers shooting Gorman to finally free his Hyperion from the Blind-rain…
“No, you don’t want to do that.”
“I’m pretty sure I do…”
“He’s Stealth.”
“… REALLY!? Damnit!”
Instead he shoots at my Vassal, whom he hits and inflicts 4 wounds on.

Wanh-wanh.

Aiyana moves up to toe into the zone and stands there lookin’ pretty.

The Sentinel Officer swings at Taryn again… and misses again!

Lastly, Ravyn moves up to be B2B with the Hyperion (I imagine to comfort it as it dies…). She takes a shot at a Choir member, and misses.

Menoth Turn 6

Well, about time to put the kids to bed. Feora allocates 3 to the Vanquisher, 1 to the Redeemer, and upkeeps both Escort and Ignite.

The Choir goes first, singing Battle one more time.
Taryn goes next and finally drops the Officer with her 2nd shot (nice!).

My Vassal activates and gives the Vanquisher an Ancillary Attack, which hits and makes the mighty but wounded Hyperion finally collapse. A noble end to a valiant warjack that held out far longer than it had any right to… I salute you, Hyperion.

With that, the Redeemer walks up and fires a shot at Ravyn, boosting to hit… and missing, but scattering only a little, lighting her on Fire and inflicting a few points of blast damage.

Gorman goes next, walking directly towards Ravyn and lobbing a Blind grenade at her (better safe!). Sadly, it deviates away harmlessly (boo!).

Gravus Charges Ravyn, hitting and again inflicting a few points of damage.

And then the Vanquisher activates. He Charges Ravyn, boosts to hit his initial… which hits. Rolling at Dice+2 damage… he finally ends the game with a single, earth-rendering blow.

Victory to Menoth!

Post Game Analysis:

There was a lot of swings in that game, but the cinching moment was nailing his entire unit of MHSF in a single round with two 4″ flaming AoEs from the Vanquisher. Killing Eiryss so early was also a massive boon… she can certainly be a thorn, and the risk of her pinging Feora even once is an extremely potent threat! Gorman blinding the Hyperion two or three times certainly didn’t help John’s game (although apparently Retribution doesn’t have a Shield-Guard model to help avoid that… so maybe nothing he could do?), and Taryn engaging that Sentinel Officer for turn after turn certainly made my life easier!

Overall, it was a great game to finish the day with, and I hope John had as much fun as I did!

Post Tournament analysis: Wow, did I ever not deserve some of those wins! The game against Trolls in particular was very much in my opponent’s favour due to some almost unforgivable mistakes on my part… forgetting to allocate Focus on my first turn, and then forgetting to sing “Battle” on my Reckoner before sending it off to the Mountain King was extremely stupid (there’s a BIG difference between Dice-4 and Dice-2), and failing to put Ignite on it (to make it Dice damage) would’ve been a wise point investment. The Khador game I felt much more comfortable with… being able to take out John’s artillery and heavies early on meant that the Harbinger was pretty safe, but it was a mistake to lose both the Allegiant and one of my Paladins in exactly the same spot… I *knew* it was out of 10″ from Harby! Oh well. And against John… the lucky roll against Eiryss was pretty well countered by the bad luck of the MHA not dying, and not burning to death a turn earlier. Gorman was, like against the Mountain King, pretty instrumental to my victory… getting him within 6″ and just aiming and lobbing Blind grenades every turn put my opponents in a very poor position, and let me be a bit more careless with killing their Colossi.

I had a tonne of fun, and I think I have to stop saying that I expect to do poorly… despite making lots of mistakes, I seem to be able to hold it together for the most part relatively well. Won’t say I didn’t get lucky (I did), but I played talented, capable opponents and managed to come out on top!

A huge thank-you to Todd, the Press Ganger, for organizing and running the event, to Tim, the store-owner of Game Chamber in London, Ontario for letting me borrow his camera and for hosting the event, and to all the competitors! And to you, whoever you may be, for reading! Feel free to ask questions and/or comment!