Warmachine/Hordes Battle Report: 35pts Legion vs Khador

Hello! This week I played some more Warmahordes, against John and his Khador. He had a 35pt Butcher2 tier list, while I had 35pts of Thagrosh2 and friends.

Lists

Butcher2
1 War Dog
6 x 6 Doom Reavers
Spriggan

With lots of Weaponmaster Infantry to chop up my beasts, this was going to be a bit tricky, and this game could hinge around getting the alpha strike.

Thagrosh2
Raek
Raek
Shredder
Shredder
Scythean
Angelius
Deathstalker
Deathstalker
Forsaken
Forsaken

I had to drop 15pts, so I removed a Scythean and the Blightblades. With hindsight I'd have kept the Blightblades, as they're great for scenarios and could have helped jam some stuff too- they don't really care about Weaponmaster, as they're so fragile anyway!

Deployment
I lined up, with the Deathstalkers ready to take one side and the Raeks on the other, with the heavies, forsaken and Thagrosh in the middle.
John Advance Deployed his 6 units in a line, spreading out to cover as much as possible.

Round 1
John went first, and ran or charged everything straight forwards, staying out of terrain where needed.
In my turn, I decided against the Feat, as I would only get to make Feat attacks. Instead I shuffled up but stayed out of Weaponmaster charge range. The Deathstalkers killed a few Doomreavers pretty easily. The heavies riled up to 4 and this was consumed by the Forsaken, ready to Blight Bomb some infantry.

Khador Turn 2After the objective on my left disappeared, John pushed pretty aggressively on that side and through the middle, and with hindsight I can see that he was sacrificing everything to win on scenario- I really need to improve that area of my game. He was able to engage both Deathstalkers and a couple of my heavies, but not my Forsaken...

Legion Turn 2
I had a pretty epic turn by "models killed"! The Forsaken both used Blight Bomb, and cleared a bunch of Doomreavers up close. Thagrosh nailed a couple more and put some clouds down, then the Raeks each killed a couple, feated and killed a couple more. The same happened with each Shredder, and the Scythean. The Angelius flew across and nailed one guy, but stayed a little too close.
The Deathstalkers carried on shooting, plinking away at the Doomreavers.
Despite everything that died, John scored a point this round on my right side, and I scored nothing.

Khador Turn 3
John's Spriggan charged and killed a Deathstalker, while the Butcher also shot one. This allowed him to use his feat to kill my Angelius! The remaining Doomreavers pushed up, further trying to jam me. John scored another point, going to 2-0.

Legion Turn 3

After my last big turn, a couple of beasts on my left frenzied. I realised that I was going to have to try the assassination this round, so Thagrosh popped up and tried to Scourge Butcher for the Knockdown followed by a Raek assassination. However it missed as it was just out of Range, and the Raek also missed the headbutt. At this point it became clear that John was going to win in his turn as he was about to go 3-0 up, so I tried to kill his Spriggan with the Scythean just for fun, but to no avail. I did get a point this turn though!

Khador Turn 4
John gets away from the Raek with Butcher, dominates the flag for 2 points and goes to 5-1 for the scenario win!

After Action Thoughts
Yet another loss on scenario! John's list really threw me off, as I wasn't sure how to play and perhaps was too defensive. I wish I'd kept the Blightblades instead of 1 Shredder and Raek, so that I could have jammed or even cleared a squad from a side objective. John played really well at the scenario though, sacrificing his forces well to keep me occupied while he ticked up for the win! I think I'm going to drop a Raek though, as they don't do enough damage, even with Manifest Destiny on the Feat turn, and probably a Shredder too, and then add the Blightblades.

Thanks to John for the game, and thanks to you for reading! In the coming weeks I'll be playing some more 40k, so should have some battle reports using a new Eldar list, and perhaps an accompanying list analysis article.

SimonW

Warmachine/Hordes Battle Report: 50pts Legion vs Cygnar

Over the past couple of month I've been playing a bit more Warmahordes, and at 50pts too. A couple of weeks ago I had a pick up game against Chris and his Cygnar, inlcuding a Colossal that absolutely dwarfed everything else on the board!

Lists

Chris had the following Cygnar list (my apologies for the inaccurate nature, I don't know Cygnar very well):

Stryker2
Stormblade-type warjack
10 Stormblades
UA and Standard

Electric Gun UA

Captain

Journeyman warcaster
2 Solos that combo'd with the Stormwall for some lightning triangle
Stormwall
Squire
The Black 13th

I was using a modification of my Thagrosh2 list from last week:

Thagrosh2
Succubus
Shepherd
3 Shredders
Harrier
4 Raeks
Angelius
Scythean
2 Deathstalkers
2 Forsaken

Many beasts and support solos! There is good synergy with  well with

 Deployment
Chris won the roll-off but gave me first turn. He said afterwards this might have been a mistake, as it allowed me to set up my threat ranges first. I set up in a pretty standard line- the left hand Scythean model was a proxy for the Angelius. My Deathstalkers advance deploy on the left, while his Stormblades advance move closer to them.

Legion Turn 1I moved up ready to threaten in a "reverse-delta" formation that tried to keep out of threat range of his Stormwall. I don't have anything in range, despite my Advance Deploy Deathstalkers or his Advance Move Stormblades.

Cygnar Turn 1

Chris advances quite uniformly, and lays down some POW 12 AOEs that remain in play. His Stormblades push towards the Deathstalkers, hoping to make a play for my Objective and Flag.

 Legion Turn 2
I took a long time deciding what to do this turn, and looked very carefully at my threat ranges. In the end I sat back, deciding not to advance and feat just yet. This meant I'd have to weather some shooting next turn, but I wouldn't have to take free damage from the AOEs and I wouldn't be able to get very deep into his lines anyway due to the dense formation Chris was using. The Deathstalkers were able to start making a mark though, their Sniper ability bypassing his high armour and with Snap Fire I was able to kill 4.

Cygnar Turn 2 Onwards
In Chris's turn, he feated with Stryker2, and pushed up into my force with his stormblades and jack, while Stryker himself hid behind the colossal. Chris was able to kill 1 Raek, reduce another to 1 health, and knock an aspect off the Angelius. Fortunately most of my army was still alive, and Thagrosh had enough Fury available to heal all the damaged aspects.

In my third turn, I counter-assault with my own feat. A shredder goes crazy, and hits the 'jack for more than 20 boxes with Rabid, Manifest Destiny and the feat. My Scythean and Angelius team up and lay the smackdown on the colossal. The Scythean charges first and hits with both initials, triggering Bloodbath to kill the Witch Hunter and a Stormblade as well. It then bought 3 more attacks, which knocked out the whole of the left side and made a start on the right. The Angelius followed up by hitting 14 damage on the Armour Pierce, then buying another 2 attacks to finish it off. Stormwall down!

The rest of my forces also activate and start to clear out more of Chris' army, but by this point the store was closing so, with some independent advice we called it there as a victory for the Legion of Everblight!

After Action Thoughts
I wasn't sure how I'd do against the Colossal, but the Scythean tore through it pretty fast and the Angelius finished off what was left, almost without difficulty. I think I'm starting to see the reason people don't use Raeks so much, as although with Stealth, Def 15 (16 with Tenacity) and the awesome Leap, they unfortunately don't have a very high damage output, especially when they can't boost during the feat. I might swap a couple out for another heavy beast, perhaps a Neraph, as I'm interested to see what it can do.

Chris was really friendly throughout the game, and explained all of his models' abilities and interactions really clearly. We'll have to have a rematch one day and get to the end! Thanks again for reading, and sorry for the delay in posting this game compared to when it was played.

SimonW

Warmachine/Hordes Battle Report: 50pts Legion vs Retribution of Scyrah

Last week I played more Warmahordes- Marc is one of the most experienced players at my club, so I was looking forward to the valuable experience I could get from our game. Although he has several faction, Marc was using Retribution of scyrah- Steampunk Elves!

Lists
Marc's list:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn - WJ: +6
-    Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
-    Hyperion - PC: 18

Arcantrik Force Generator - PC: 10

Arcanist - PC: 1

Dawnguard Invictors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 10
-    Invictor Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard 2
-    1 1 escort's: 1
Dawnguard Sentinels - Leader & 9 Grunts: 9
-    Sentinel Officer & Standard - PC: 2
-    1 1 escort's: 1

My list:
Thagrosh2
Scythean
Angelius
Neraph
Raek
Raek
Shredder
Shredder
Harrier
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Deathstalker
Forsaken
Forsaken
Strider Blightblades

I had a small mix-up with my case this week, so I had quite a few proxies- Thagrosh2 was being played by the giant bear, the Neraph was played by the blue troll, and the unit of 6 small based troll infantry played the Blightblades. Woops! Fortunately for me Marc didn't mind at all.

Deployment 

I won the roll off and took first turn. Marc pre-deploys the 2 huge bases, and then I line up on the 7" line. I put the Raeks to threaten one side, and the 2 Deathstalkers for the other, assuming he'd set up 1 infantry squad either side. The 3 heavies went more or less down the centre, ready to try and smack some damage onto the colossal.

 

Round 1
I advance to what I think is just outside of Marc's threat ranges, and it is. I'm pretty happy with most of my positioning. The objective on my right disappears.

Legion Turn 2
I push forward, but don't feat as I can't see how it will help me kill much stuff. I get my Angelius onto one objective and the Neraph on the other, with a Harrier contesting too. The Blightblades make their move, jamming or killing a load of Marc's shooty elves on my left. The Raeks push up to block some lanes to stop Marc contesting the objective, so that I should be able to score at least 1 point in his turn.

 Retribution Turn 2

Marc has a charge with Hyperion into Thagrosh2- oh dear. He starts by knocking him down with the Battle Engine, for 7 damage. I decide against the transfer and pop out a shredder to block the charge lane, forcing Marc to clear it with the rest of his shooting. He manages though, and the colossal barrels into Thagrosh2! Luckily I have a camp of 4 fury, and due to the way Marc's damage spikes occur I am able to take 1 attack and transfer all the others out without killing any of my own beasts! However a Raek is reduced to 1 health, and my Angel loses an aspect.
In other news, Marc's Weaponmaster infantry use their Vengeance move to charge the Neraph, who dies quicker than you can say "I should be another Scythean". The Harrier is contesting the flag as planned though, so I take a 1-0 lead.

 Legion Turn 3
Feat turn! I reave back to 7 fury with Thagrosh, spend 1 to stand up (however I am already in melee, so I forget to move up closer and extend my threat range for feat/Manifest Destiny), spend 2 healing the Raek back to 3 health, a 4th fury to heal the aspect on my Angelius, and my last 3 to cast Manifest Destiny- it's do or die time! My Scythean goes apeshit on the colossal and removes the shield, and its entire right side, and starts on its left side. The Angelius swoops in but unfortunately derps on the Armour Pierce attack, and the 2 Shredders also try and take a bite but don't do a huge amount, meaning I'll have to kill it on my feat turn. One Raek and the Blightblades make even more of a mess of the shooting unit, jamming them further and killing another few. The other Raek tries to get in range for a boosted Headbutt on the caster, but due to not moving up with Thagrosh2 I am just out of range at the very edge of his control area. I try a tail attack but it does no damage, and the second fails to hit. The Deathstalkers continue to ping away at the Weaponmasters. With the feat, I am able to kill Hyperion- unfortunately Thagrosh2 is just short of boxing it himself to create a cover cloud. I put a Raek and the Angelius into the Weaponmasters as well, trying to prevent the assassination. A Forsaken bombs them too, but can only kill 1 of them, needing 10s.

Retribtion Turn 3

Marc goes for the assassination as I have no transfers and only about 10 boxes left. He puts on "Blinding Light" with his caster, then goes for D3+1 shots from the Battle Engine... and scores 4. He doesn't even need the 4th, the first 3 doing enough to take down Thagrosh2 and win the game! I was able to get a second control point with the Forsaken, but it's nowhere near enough.

Defeat for the Legion of Everblight!

After Action Thoughts

Another Colossal, and a Battle Engine too! Although I didn't target the Battle Engine, I did manage to take out the Colossal without too much difficulty.
I made a few small mistakes, putting the Neraph in a poor position and losing it cheaply, and not killing the front ranks of the Weaponmasters to decrease their threat range, and one that proved pretty major- I should have pushed Thagrosh2 in closer to the colossal and extended his control area for the feat/Manifest Destiny for the assassination run, and I should have attacked with him later in the activation when the colossal was more damaged, so that I could box it with his magic weapon and create a cloud to prevent him from being seen next turn. Still, I think I learned from these mistakes, so they weren't in vain.
Marc was very generous, explaining rules whenever I needed and even allowing me to take back decisions I realised were mistakes several times. Marc gave me some great advice too, about both the playstyle and the list. After our chat I think that the Neraph wasn't up to much and with Manifest Destiny, the auto-hitting ability of the Tail attack is not that useful, and will probably trade it and the Harrier out for another Scythean to give me some more hitting power.

Thanks again for reading guys! I haven't played any 40k in a while, but I've got a game arranged soon and will be testing out a new Eldar army I've been thinking about!

SimonW

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report: Wood Elves vs High Elves, 900pts

This week I played a Warhammer Fantasy game for our club's escalation league, against Jay and his High Elves. It was painting score week again, but sadly I wasn't able to finish anything, and as we only get points for fully painted and based stuff I didn't get any more painting points. However, I could still get some more playing points!

Lists

Jay

Loremaster of Hoeth
10 Sea Guard
10 Archers
20 White Lions

2 Repeater Bolt Throwers

Some good artillery and shooting, backed up by a tough combat block!

I would have to kill the bolt throwers fast before they could cut apart my infantry, and I needed to keep well away from the White Lions.

I was using:

Spellweaver, Level 4, Dispel Scroll, Obsidian Lodestone, Elven Steed
5 Sisters of the Thorn

15 Glade Guard, Trueflight Arrows, Musician

2x 5 Deepwood Scouts, Hagbane Tips

5 Waywatchers

Great Eagle

Magic: Jay's Loremaster had all 8 signature spells from the rulebook.

My spellweaver had Hand of Glory, Soul Quench, Drain Magic, and Walk Between Worlds. The Sisters had Curse of Anraheir and Shield of Thorns.

Deployment
Jay was deploying first, and set up his bolt throwers last to ensure they could see all my units. However after scout deployment and vanguard moves I felt a bit safer- the Waywatchers scouted in the corner, while both units of Hagbane scouts went on the other side. Jay won the roll off, took turn 1.

High Elves Turn 1
Jay pushes forward with the White Lions and Archers. One bolt thrower faces the Waywatchers, while the other looks to team up with the Sea Guard and shoot the Scouts. His shooting isn't great though, and he only manages to kill 2 Scouts due to the heavy modifiers. He also fails to wound with both the hits on my Waywatchers! The Winds of Magic are 3+1, so Jay puts all his dice into Wildform on the White Lions, and I succeed in putting all my dice to stop it.

Wood Elves Turn 1My Eagle lines up a charge on a Bolt Thrower, while the 8 remaining poison scouts do a wound to the other, The Waywatchers wound the one ready to face the eagle. The Trueflight arrows manage to pierce the Loremaster's armour twice, as he was on his own. My magic phase is similarly uneventful, with all 3 of my dice going into Soul Quench on the Archers, which is dispelled.

Wood Elves Turn 2 Onwards
In the High Elves turn, Jay reformed the archers to try and shoot the Waywatchers next turn (as they had no musician so couldn't perform a Swift Reform). The White Lions failed a 10" charge into my Trueflight Glade Guard, taking 2 casualties for their efforts. The Sea Guard tried to shoot the scouts, and killed one (needing 7s to hit!), and the 2 left panicked. One Bolt Thrower took 2 wounds from the Eagle, while the other was unable to hit my Scouts. Jay's magic phase was eventful- we had 9 vs 6, so he started with Wyssan's on the White lions, which I let go, followed by a 3 dice boosted Fireball on my Sisters. He managed to cast it irresistibly, but due to my 2+ Ward vs magic I was okay. On the resulting miscast, he suffered a Dimensional Cascade! Although he survived the Str 10 hit even with 1 wound remaining, he didn't survive being sucked into the warp!
In my turn, the scouts didn't rally. However the others killed a bolt thrower, which panicked the Sea Guard. I got a strong magic phase, 10 vs 5, and was able to cast Soul Quench on the Archers to kill 1, Hand of Glory on the Waywatchers who killed another 8 Archers, as well as Drain Magic and Curse of Anraheir on the White Lions. The Trueflights and Blackbriar Javelins killed 5 more White Lions. In other news, the Eagle charged the bolt thrower, and the remaining elf crewman hit and wounded, slaying the bird!

Unfortunately Jay had to leave early, so we decided not to start another turn. However Jay didn't have too much left due to some unfortunate rolls, so he conceded to the Wood Elves. Athel Loren 1, Ulthuan 0!

After Action Thoughts
I loved the Waywatchers this time, and Hand of Glory on them is awesome. I much preferred this list to last week's, and the poison scouts were solid too. The Eagle again wasn't great, I think I need more experience playing it. Jay left his Loremaster out of a Unit due to having rolled a Dimensional Cascade on his Wizard the last 4 weeks in a row, and unfortunately his paranoia was proved valid as it happened again!

Next week we're going up to 1200pts- I'm thinking another Eagle, and some more Trueflight Glade Guard to split the unit into 2x 10. I also want to try out a Branchwraith, with Lore of Undeath, for some shenanigans! With the remaining 90pts, I think I'll get a musician (or maybe a standard) for my Sisters and a 3rd unit of Hagbane Scouts.

That's it for the battle report. A quick apology- I'm sorry several of the games have had to end early recently, resulting in much shorter reports, and also that my picture-taking has been lax; I'm endeavoring to play a full game soon though! I also played a Warmachine/Hordes game last week that will be posted soon :)

Thanks again for reading!

SimonW

Warmachine/Hordes Battle Report: 50pts Legion vs Trollbloods!

Hello! This week I played my first ever 50pts game of Warmachine/Hordes, against Byron and his Trollbloods! I was excited to have a "tournament style" game at last, and I was pleased that it hasn't taken me too long since I started playing either. I used a different Warlock too, Thagrosh, Messiah of Everblight, as I was finding Lylyth to be a bit repetitive. I still don't have any units, but I'm not really sure what I need and as they're relatively expensive I'm holding back for now.

Lists

I had a new list, with Thagrosh2 (or rather Thagrosh2's legs...), and a whole load of beasts and support solos!

Thagrosh, Messiah of Everblight (+3)
Raek
Raek
Raek
Raek
Shredder
Shredder
Shredder
Harrier
Scythean
Scythean
Succubus
Forsaken
Forsaken
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Deathstalker
53pts

This list was focused on aggression, in a similar style to my Lylyth2 list, except all with melee rather than shooting. The Deathstalkers made it in to help clear charge lanes, but other than that the plan was advance strongly round 1, then charge turn 2 with Manifest Destiny and Thagrosh's Feat to hopefully assassinate the enemy caster, or do enough damage that I can win on attrition. It's quite high risk, but luckily Thagrosh can camp quite a few fury at once and he's not exactly short of transfer targets! I don't yet own any units, but it seemed like the list would be really fun to play!

Byron had the following:
Madrik Ironhide, World Ender (Epic)
Runebearer
Dire Troll Mauler
Impaler
Fell Caller Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Trollkin Champion Hero
Krielstone Bearer and Stone Scribes (Leader +5)
Stone Scribe Elder (UA)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader +9)
Trollkin Champions (Leader +5)
Skaldi Bonehammer (UA)
Trollkin Fenblades (Leader +9)

Byron told me afterwards he was actually 1pt over, but I didn't mind- he was a very generous opponent, letting me take back a couple of mistakes and helping me throughout my activation.
I don't know enough about Trolls to really talk about the list in depth, but it was certainly very intimidating, with a huge number of models, many with multiple wounds and/or Tough, which turns dying into being knocked down on a 5+!

Scenario
I don't know the name, but there was 1 flag each side- you could dominate (caster base-to-base, no enemy in 4") your opponent's flage for 2pts, control (any model base-to-base, no enemy in 4") your opponent's flag for 1pt, or dominate your own flag for 1pt. There was also a "killbox", so the casters had to not be completely within 14" of the board edge after turn 1.

 Deployment

I lined up my stuff, spacing carefully to avoid the multiple Abominatons in my list causing too many command checks. I essentially went symmetrical- Thagrosh2 central, then Forsaken, Scythean, Lesser, Lesser, Raek, Raek, with the Succubus behind Thagrosh2. The Deathstalkers Advance Deployed on the left opposite some single wound infantry, hoping Tough Checks didn't hinder their Snap Fire/Sniper combo too much.
Byron countered by bricking up, his army forming a huge mass of Troll-flesh, with Madrak2 somewhere in the middle! The Pygs Advanced Deployed away from the Deathstalkers, planning to burrow early on.

Round 1
My stuff runs or walks forwards, using just enough Fury so I can manage it. My Deathstalkers are out of Range. Byron also walks or runs towards the middle, and his Pygs burrow so they can't be attacked.

Legion Turn 2 Onwards
In my 2nd round, Thagrosh2 activated, used his Feat and cast Manifest Destiny, camping the other 4 fury. 3 of the Raeks got Tenacity, and 1 of the Scytheans had Dragon's Blood as a free upkeep. My Deathstalkers killed one of the Fennblades and knocked another 2 down, so the Shredder and Harrier on the left went after the survivors. The 4 Raeks and 2 Scytheans all charged and made a big mess out of Byron's various infantry around Madrak, and then on the feat they were joined by 2 of the Shredders to attack Madrak himself who had no transfers, and only 2 Grim Salvation targets! 1 Raek didn't get in, and after all my extra Manifest Destiny attacks, Madrak was left on about 5 health! So close!
In Byron's turn, he also used his feat, so that each of his models can make a normal melee attack against everything in melee range. The Pygs arrived and decided to join in against the beasts, and between all his stuff Byron was able to kill both Scytheans, 3 Raeks and 2 Shredders! He was also able to pop a Forsaken.
Due to the immense length of time our back-to-back feats had taken, we had to stop the game early there after only 2 rounds unfortunately, so we called it a draw.

After Action Thoughts
Thagrosh2 is fun! He's similar to Lylyth in his "feat or bust" playstyle, but I think he's much more fun with his all his beasts and melee attacks. Looking towards the rest of the game, neither of us had any Control points, so I think it would have come down to assassination; on my next turn a Forsaken with 5 Fury had to kill 1 Pyg Burrower, and the I could charge with a 7 fury Thagrosh2 on a 0 fury Madrak2, with only 2 warrior models close enough for Grim Salvation. However if that had failed or he'd passed his Tough checks, I'd have died faster than you can say "no transfers available". Regarding my list, I think the 2 Scytheans would be better as 2 Angelius, as they can use the armour pierce attack to improve some match-ups, and with the Feat they can strike and retreat if needs be, helping me on scenario too, along with their fantastic "repulse" animus letting them escape very well!

Comparing this game with 40k, I think it really highlights the need for good play around orders of activation, and model placement. That extra Raek could have won me the game with better placement, but it's good to have something to work on. If you can get your placement and ordering correct, you can pull off more combos and more powerful ones, which are great ways to win such a fast-paced game.
From my first impressions, deployment is not as tactical, and terrain is less important (however that could be due to not having used too much). Deployment does seem like variations of "line up and run at each other" here, whereas in 40k there's much more to it than that. I think that mainly comes from the central nature of the objectives, the cumulative scoring rather than end-game and how quickly you can win a game, normally in 1-2 rounds of controlling objectives, all of which force players to get their armies into the middle of the board, and fast. Smaller boards and smaller forces, as well as the "control area" mechanic keeping things central also encourage straightforward deployment. I'm not saying this is bad, as this game is very tactically complex in other areas; I'm just comparing it to 40k, where placement can be almost perfect due to pre-measuring anything at any time, and order of activation is less important due to the "army moves, army shoots, army assaults" nature of the game.

I really enjoyed my first ever 50pts game, and I've got another one arranged for this Tuesday which I'll also be blogging. It's against Retribution of Scyrah if I remember correctly. Until then, thanks again for reading!

SimonW

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report: Wood Elves vs Skaven, 900pts

Hello again! This week I played Andy, a regular Warhammer Fantasy opponent, and his Skaven. We played twice, but I only got pictures the second time, and the first was over very quickly- he managed to turn my Sisters of the Thorn and Level 4 Wizard into Clanrats and Wither/Plague combo my Glade Guard in the same Magic Phase, so we called it there.

The game was for the Warhammer Escalation league running at our club, and this week we'd moved up to 900pts. Due to the new Warhammer FAQ, we also got 50% Lords & 50% Heroes, which meant it was time for a Level 4 Wizard!


Lists:

My list was slightly changed from the previous weeks:

Spellweaver, Level 4 (High Magic), Steed, Obsidian Lodestone, Dispel Scroll
Waystalker
15 Glade Guard, Trueflight Arrows, Musician
5 Sisters of the Thorn
5 Waywatchers

1 Great Eagle

I decided to try the Waystalker/Waywatcher combo instead of the poison scouts, and try to Hand of Glory them every turn so that I could still multi-shot effectively. The Level 4 with High Magic is something I want to use in bigger games, and I think the lore has lots of versatility, not to mention a really cool attribute- whenever you successfully cast a spell and it isn't dispelled, you gain a "protection counter" that negates the next unsaved wound. It sounds simple, but it's easy to start building them up and then your Wizard and accompanying unit become very durable!

Andy was using the following Skaven list:

Grey Seer, Warp Energy Condenser
Warlock Enginner, Doomrocket
40 Clanrats, Hand Weapon/Shield, Full Command
Poisoned Wind Mortar
6 Rat Ogres, 2 Packmasters and 1 Clan Moulder Packmaster
5 Giant Rats, 1 Packmaster
Warp Lightning Cannon

Lots of bodies! I thought I could avoid the Rat Ogres, and I'd have to kill the Cannon with the Eagle as soon as possible. The big brick was the main threat however, keeping his characters safe so 1 could hit me with the Doomrocket and the other transfigure me into Clanrats!

Magic

Spellweaver: Soul Quench, Hand of Glory, Tempest, Fiery Convocation
Sisters of the Thorn: Shield of Thorns, Curse of Anraheir
Grey Seer: Dreaded 13th, Warp Lightning, Skitterleap, Plague

 Deployment
We randomly generated the terrain again, and had a couple of "fancy" pieces- the hill on my left was an Anvil of Vaul, while just to my right of the river was a Bane Stone.
I was finished first, so got +1 to the roll for first turn and won it!

Wood Elves Turn 1
My Eagle makes a bee-line (or bird-line) for the Warp Lightning Cannon (behind the Giant Rats, it was a proxy), but makes sure he can't be charged. The Sisters advance towards the Clanrat block and try Fiery Convocation with all but 1 of my dice, but it is dispelled. I try Hand of Glory on the Waywatchers with my final dice, but I fail on a natural 2!. The Glade Guard and Waywatchers trim off a few Clanrats with shooting.

Skaven Turn 1
Andy movesthe Rat Ogres ready to occupy the building, and tries to block my Eagle with the Giant Rats. The Clanrats and Mortar advance, before Andy throws all of his dice into the Dreaded 13th on my Sisters. Luckily it isn't irresistible, so I use my Dispel Scroll. In the Shooting Phase, his Warp Lightning Cannon blows up 3 of the Waywatcher unit, while the Doomrocket lands smack in the middle of my Glade Guard, hits all 15 of them and kills 12. Ouch! They panic, and eventually flee off the table.

Wood Elves Turn 2
I need a big turn here, as Andy will surely win the attrition. I checked the rules for Flying models, and found that they are able to charge over intervening units, so the Great Eagle can get the Warp Lightning Cannon after all! Meanwhile my Sisters move to start clearing up the Giant Rats, but the Spellweaver splits off, hoping for a big Magic Phase. The Waywatchers don't move, hoping to get a Hand of Glory to help them out. In Magic, I roll reasonably, and throw 5 dice into Fiery Convocation which is cast irresistibly! After the dice are rolled, 22 of the 34 remaining Clanrats are dead, and the miscast caused me to suffer a wound use a protection counter, and drained a single dice. I had 1 dice left, and cast Hand of Glory, but Andy threw all 5 dispel dice at it and it was no more.
The Clanrats panicked after having so many ranks depleted however, which was a huge swing!
The waywatchers trimmed a couple more clanrats, sending them below 25% and killing the Warlock Engineer. However as Andy still had the Grey Seer they could rally normally.
In combat, the Eagle breaks the cannon and fails to catch it.

Skaven Turn 2
The Clanrats fail to rally! They keep running, but should have another chance or two. The Warp Lightning Cannon also continues to flee, while the Rat Ogres occupy the building. Andy's turn is pretty quiet overall- his magic is mostly out of range, and my Eagle passes its Toughness test from Plague. He does dispel Fiery Convocation though.

Wood Elves Turn 3
I try to push for the win- my Eagle chases the Warp Lightning Cannon off the table, while my Wizard aims at both Clanrats and Rat Ogres. I cast a boosted Soul Quench on the Clanrats, reducing them to 5 plus the Grey Seer- however I didn't realise that fleeing units don't take panic tests, else I'd probably have targeted the Rat Ogres.
I don't have much shooting left, and it doesn't achieve much this turn/

Skaven Turn 3
The Clanrats again fail to rally and are millimetres from the, so Andy leaves the building with his Rat Ogres, and Skitterleaps his Grey Seer inside before the unit runs off the table next turn. Clever play! He tries to cast some spells to thin me out but unfortunately the Winds of Magic aren't with him and he can't do much.

Wood Elves Turn 4
My Spellweaver pushed a boosted Soul Quench through irresistibly on the Grey Seer and loses another wound protection counter in the fallout. However the Grey Seer fares considerably worse, even with his 4+ Ward Save, and he is dead. The Giant Rats flee from the Sisters' Javelins, while the Waywatchers avoid the arc of the Rat Ogres.
At this point we call the game, as Andy has only 1 Rat Ogre unit left and it's quite easy for me to avoid them for the rest of the game.

After Action Thoughts
Magic is brutal! After the first game where he destroyed me with it in one round, almost the same happened in reverse this time. It turned out to be "who can cast the big spell 1st", and luckily it was me this time. However I'm sure as the points increase and we have bigger armies around the wizards, the balance will change as there's only so many power dice and they can only have so much influence. This game was fun, and we're both continuing to learn the rules- Flying units being able to charge over intervening units was a big deal this game, and I felt bad for Andy because he had no idea it was the case. I only found out that turn when I checked the rules to see how it worked! It's really interesting coming in from knowing very little about a game, and certainly different to 40k.


Thanks for reading, and thanks again to Andy for the great match. I'm already looking forward to next week's games, and I'm hoping to play both Fantasy and Warmahordes, or even 2 games of Fantasy, and I'll be sure to post the reports up here.

SimonW

Starting Warmachine/Hordes & 35pts Battle Report: Legion of Everblight vs Gatormen

Hello, and welcome once again to Back In The Box! This article will be about getting into the Warmachine/Hordes (or Warmahordes/WMH) game produced by Privateer Press, how I'm finding it to play and the main differences to 40k.

Like any wargamer who plays at an independent store (Firestorm Games for me), I can't help but be exposed to non-GW systems. I already play X-Wing, and a few of my friends suggest I give WMH a try. For a long time I wasn't particularly grabbed by any of the factions- I was tempted by Circle Oroboros, but decided on Wood Elves instead. I then investigated many of the playstyles, and Legion of Everblight seemed like a good starter faction- they get around some of the mechanics which makes them easy to play, and they have a "glass cannon" playstyle that I enjoy, as long as it's more cannon than glass!
So from here it was a matter of choosing some models to start with. Privateer Press produce "battleboxes" for new players, with a Warcaster/Warlock (essentially a HQ in 40k terms, but you instantly lose if it dies) and a few models for them to command. However, I went down my own route and bought a couple of Warlocks and several Warbeasts (fancy monstrous creatures that are controlled directly by the HQ) and Solos (support models that can act independently) so that I could mix and match. I chose one Warlock who was good at ranged combat, Lylyth 2, one good at melee, Thagrosh 2, and one all-rounder, Vayl 1. I assembled a small force to use with Lylyth 2- a few shooty Beasts and some Solos for support, so that I could have a 35pt game with someone. While I've played a couple of practice games with friends to learn the core rules and mechanics I wanted a proper "pick up game", and was able to have one on Tuesday against Sam and his Gatormen Minions!

My 35pts list was as follows:

Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight (-5)
Ravagore (10)
Ravagore (10)
Nephilim Bolt Thrower (6)
Naga Nightlurker (5)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1)
Forsaken (2)
Strider Deathstalker (2)
Strider Deathstalker (2)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (1)
35pts

Sam was using approximately:

Barnabas the Bloody
1 Heavy Bull Gator Beast (not certain about the name)
1 Light Gator Beast
2 units of 5 Gatorman Posse
2 Feralgeists
Wrong Eye and Snapjaw

We played a scenario called Incursion, which has 3 flags across the centre of the board, but either the left or right one disappears after the first round.

Deployment

As a beginner, it seemed far less nuanced than 40k- essentially line up either side before running into the middle. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but it still doesn't seem quite so important as in 40k.

Round 1

Sam went first, and moved his Gators up. He also created a few swamps to hide in, so that none of his models could be shot by mine. Sneaky!
In return, I moved my models up but kept distance, so that I was pretty sure I couldn't be charged next round- there's no pre-measuring in WMH, so it's back to judging distances by eye. I was still able to fire at Sam's Feralgeists despite them being out of range, so I hoped for the AOE shots (blasts) from my Ravagores to scatter well into Sam's lines. They didn't, but they did produce some Scathers that caused damage if Sam moved over them.
The flag on my left disappeared.

Round 2
Sam moved stuff up and got ready to score some Control Points by controlling the 2 flags. He kept most of his Gators submerged in Swamps, but did push some forward to try and cause problems next round.
In my turn, Lylyth used her Feat (like a Warlord Trait that you can use once per game, but usually with a strong effect), which let all of my beasts fire an extra shot, and all my models got +4" of range. I blazed away and was able to kill a few of the Gatormen Posse models, as well as the Heavy Bull Gator. I couldn't directly targer Sam's Warlock due to the Swamp, however I was able to target the Bull Gator with the Bolt Thrower, pushing it back and knocking it down, so my Ravagores could catch Barnabas with their blasts and set him on fire! Neither of us were able to score points just yet, but Sam had a lot of models ready.

Round 3 Onwards
Sam moved most of his remaining Posse up to engage my Beasts in melee, and killed both of my Strider Deathstalkers. He scored 2 control points, while Barnabas hid in a swamp. He did take some more damage from the fire though.
In my turn, I realised I was going to lose next turn unless I could kill Barnabas. As I still couldn't shoot him and he hadn't left anyone nearby, I ran my trusty Gobbers next to him and targeted them instead. However I couldn't kill him, so contested with the Bolt Thrower. Sam scored another point, bringing the game to 3-0.
In Sam's turn, he just needed to kill 1 Gobber and my Bolt Thrower to win. He used Barnabas' feat to knock the Nephilim down, and proceeded to beat it to a pulp! He then killed my Gobber with his little Gator beast, clearing the zone and scoring another 2 points for a 5-0 victory!

After Action Thoughts
Well that was fun! Although I lost 5-0, I felt the game was quite close- I managed to do a lot of damage to Barnabas and killed most of his battlegroup, but Lylyth 2's ranged playstyle was effectively neutered by the Gatormen's swamps and spells. I think moving forward I need to work much more on scenario play, and I'm quite keen to try out my other Warlocks, especially Thagrosh 2 and his Beast-heavy list!
Sam was a great opponent- letting me off a couple of mistakes here and there like forgetting to rile or managing fury, and he even took the pictures for me as my battery had died! We'll have to have a rematch in the future.

Comparing 40k and WMH, I think the main difference is that it's primarily a skirmish game, so everything can be more detailed. The beasts have awesome rules and are really fun to play, but they do have to be micromanaged quite extensively.
The scenarios seem really well thought out- scoring throughout the game is a good way to build missions and encourage aggressive play, and 1 flag disappearing was a nice touch. I also love the assassination mechanic too, as it ensures that even if you're losing heavily on the scenario, you can still try a "hail mary" play to pull out the win!

So that wraps up my first Warmahordes battle report! I hope you enjoyed my fumblings with Privateer Press, and I'll hopefully be playing more and more soon!
Thanks again for reading! If you have any comments, or tips about Warmahordes, then feel free to let me know beneath!

SimonW

Returning to Fantasy

Hello! Today I'll be writing about starting Warhammer Fantasy, with Wood Elves, and I'll include a few battle reports from the start of our Escalation league.

Firstly, my apologies for the long delay since the previous post. I've recently started a new job, and have been working long hours so just haven't had much time to blog. However it's settled down now, so I've got more free time for hobby-related activities!

The Plan

So, why Warhammer Fantasy? I used to play back in 5th edition with a Skaven army, but I got bored fairly quickly and didn't enjoy the painting at all. So I sold the lot and focused on 40k. However recently a couple of players at my local club have started playing Fantasy, and it looked great fun. Add to that one of them had a load of Wood Elves for sale- an army whose aesthetic and playstyle has always appealed to me- and I was in. I prefer manoeuvrable, shooty armies to combat oriented ones (like my 40k Eldar), so the Wood Elves seemed a perfect fit. They also just got a new book released along with a couple of new kits, which made it seem like the perfect time.

From my initial games Wood Elves seemed pretty good, and after chatting with some more experienced players they agreed that the new book was considered quite strong. I had mixed feelings about this- on the one hand, it's good to know that an army you're going to spend money on is good and won't be frustrating to play as it frequently fights uphill, but on the other hand I was quite looking forward to more casual games of Fantasy and it was a shame that I was already playing a very strong faction. Luckily, many of the other guys who play have either High Elves, Warriors of Chaos or Undead Legion, all of which I'm assured are very strong too!

The League

Our Escalation league starts at 600pts, with a 300pt increase every 3 weeks to 1200pts maximum. All painted models get Hatred (Unpainted Models), which I think is a great idea. List changes are allowed as much as you like, but I decided to keep the same so I could get used to it.

My list was the following:

Spellsinger (Lore of Shadow)
Level 2
Dispel Scroll
Elven Steed
150

10 Glade Guard
Trueflight Arrows
Musician
160

5 Sisters of the Thorn
130

5 Deepwood Scouts
Hagbane Arrows
80

5 Deepwood Scouts
Hagbane Arrows
80

This comes to 600pts on the nose. The plan was to not have much to deploy, and hopefully get first turn with the +1 bonus for finishing first. The Glade Guard should sit behind my free wood, while the Scouts and Sisters harass as best they can. I made sure to bring plenty of magic, as I wanted to learn the mechanics behind it, and experiment with different spells!

The Games

This was the second week of our league, and I was able to get some photos for battle reports this time- previously I was pretty busy learning the mechanics, but now I'm more confident with them I had time to take photos. In every game, the large snow based wood was the "free" Wood Elves one. I always put it just inside my table half, in the centre of the board.

Game 1- Jay's High Elves

Jay brought more or less the following:

Mage
Level 2 (High Magic)
Mounted

5 Ellyrian Reavers

5 Sisters of Averlorn

5 Dragon Princes

5 Shadow Warriors

Jay went for both the High Magic signature spells on his Mage, Drain Magic and Soul Quench, while I got Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma and Okkam's Mindrazor on the Spellsinger.

Deployment and Wood Elves Turn 1

Deployment and Game Turn 1
The Trueflight Glade Guard line up behind the free wood and get ready to shoot through. The Sisters of the Thorn deploy on the left with the Spellweaver and use their Vanguard move to get up the middle. I put a unit of Scouts in each wood.
Jay deployed his Dragon Princes on the flank and his Reavers centrally, with the Sisters of Averlorn. His Shadow Warriors scouted on my right.
I won the roll off thanks to the +1 bonus and went first. The Trueflight Glade Guard wheeled and shot at the Shadow Warriors, reducing them to a single elf. My Sisters of the Thorn got behind Jay's Sisters of Averlorn. Their magic did little except cast Shield of Thorns on the middle Scouts and Miasma on the Reavers. However the javelins combined with 1 unit of Scouts and killed all but 1 Sister of Averlorn. Finally the other Scout unit killed 2 Reavers. Jay passed all his panic tests.

High Elves Turn 1, Wood Elves Turn 2Jay advances his Dragon Princes, and desperately charges his last shadow warrior into my Glade Guard. Unfortunately the 10 Trueflight arrows cut him down, ignoring all penalties.
In the magic phase, Jay removes Miasma and then casts Soul Quench on the central Scouts. However he miscasts and rolls a Dimensional Cascade, and he fails the 4+ and his mage is destroyed! He does kill 3 of the Scouts with the spell though, who flee. His Reavers also kill 2 Glade Guard.
In my turn I rally the scouts, who do nothing more. I wheel the Glade Guard and clip the Venom Thicket with them, before they shoot into the Reavers again, but this time for no damage. The left hand Scouts finish the last Sister of Averlorn, and the Sisters of the Thorn throw javelins at the Dragon Princes to no effect. Magic this turn has little effect except reducing the Reavers to BS3 with Miasma.

 High Elves Turn 2, Wood Elves Turn 3
Jay's Reavers try to shoot some Scouts, but they need 6s to hit and do nothing. His Dragon Princes line up a charge on the Glade Guard for next turn.

In my turn, the Glade Guard swiftly reform and walk backwards into the trees, aiming at the Dragon Princes along with the rallied Scouts. Between the magic arrows and Jay's terrible saves they manage to kill 4 out of 5, and the 5th Prince flees!
My other Scouts and Sisters kill off another 2 reavers.

High Elves Turn 3, Wood Elves Turn 4
Jay's Dragon Prince fails to rally and is almost off the board, while his final Reaver tries and fails to shoot a Sister of the Thorn. Miasma has been really good this game, neutering a lot of Jay's shooting.
In my final turn, I shoot down the Dragon Prince and charge the final Reaver; the Sisters get the job done and the game is over.

After Action Thoughts
That was fun! The list plays how I hoped- fast, manoeuvrable, and hard hitting. I think in small points games, the arc-dodging of the Wood Elves is very strong, so it remains to be seen how that will pan out as the points increase. I felt bad for Jay, as to lose a wizard to a miscast on only 3 dice, on the first turn, is such a shame, and from then I could dominate the magic phase.

Jay was a great opponent as always, and we've got a rematch arranged for as soon as possible!

Game 2- Andy's Brettonians
Andy is organising the Escalation league and has played lots of Warhammer Fantasy, and he was really helpful with the rules. He had the following list:

Battle Standard Hero
Mounted

Priestess
Level 1 (Beasts)

Cheap Lord
Mounted

8 Knights Errant
Lances/Shields/Command Group

10 Peasant Bowmen
Spikes

10 Peasant Bowmen
Spikes

For magic, Andy gets Curse of Anraheir on the Priestess, while I get Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma and Purple Sun.

Deployment and Game Turn 1
My set up was similar to before, but the scouts stuck together opposite the big unit of Knights. Andy won the roll off and went first, plowing towards my lines. His longbowmen moved up and killed 1 Glade Guard and 2 Scouts.
In my turn, I get quite a low Winds of Magic roll so cast Curse of Anraheir on the Knights and move around them with the Sisters. One unit of scouts discovered a Fungus Forest and wandered forward in a daze. My shooting wasn't very effective, killing just 1 knight.

Game Turn 2
 The Knights charge the Scouts and kill them all, but not before 4 of them die and the BSB, Wizard and Lord all take wounds through a combination of dangerous terrain, and my rerolls to hit and also rerolling wound rolls of 1. The other scout unit panics at the sight and flees from the board. The Longbowmen try to shoot at my sisters, but only kill 1.

My Glade Guard panic one unit of Longbowmen off the board, while the Sisters fail to Javelin anything. Curse of Anraheir is maintained on the Knights.

Game Turn 3
 The Knights break apart to make a hail mary move, the 2 Errants marching towards the Sisters while the characters surround my Glade Guard. The peasants swift reform and kill 2 Sisters, who then fail panic! It's not quite off the board, but I'm getting charged next turn.
Luckily I rally and get a strong magic roll, so I can cast a boosted Miasma on the Peasants, Anraheir on the Knights, and Shield of Thorns on the Glade Guard. The Glade Guard then shoot down the Battle Standard Bearer in a hail of Armour Piercing arrows.

Game Turn 4 Onwards
Andy charges the Glade Guard with his Lord, and passes Dangerous Terrain, then 2 saves from Shield of Thorns, then 3 more from my poisoned rerolling attacks. He kills 3 Glade Guard and runs down the rest, again passing Dangerous Terrain.  Andy also casts Anraheir on my Sisters and fails to dispel Shield of Thorns, which promptly kills the 2 Knights! The peasants have already marched though, so luckily can't shoot me.
Turn 5, Andy's Lord tries to leave the woods and trips over a tree, losing his last wound. His peasants shoot at my 2 remaining Sisters and Spellsinger, but only kill 1 and they pass panic. We thought this was turn 6, and so as I was winning on points I didn't move due to fear of Dangerous Terrain, and so that was another narrow win for the Wood Elves!

After Action Thoughts
What a close game, with some real swings at the end! It's a shame we only played 5 turns, as it would have been interesting to see what would have happened next, although I'd likely have braved the dangerous terrain tests and hidden in the corner of the board. That was a great game- I didn't manoeuvre quite so well this time, and I think I should have focussed on clearing the peasants first and then running around the Knight block all game and keeping Curse of Anraheir on them to attrition them down through Dangerous Terrain tests.


Finally, I played Andy's Dwarves straight after this game, as we still had plenty of time.

Game 3- Andy's Dwarves
Andy has several Fantasy armies, and brought 600pts of a few to help the Escalation get running. This time it was his Dwarves, with a gunline:

Thane

10 Thunderers

10 Thunderers

Organ Gun
+1 BS
Reroll misfire

For magic I got The Withering, and took Miasma as well.

 Deployment and Dwarves' Turn 1
Andy sets up in a line, as do I, out of range of the Organ gun with most things but in range to move and poison it. However he goes first and in a hail of bullets tears apart 6 Glade Guard! Fortunately they pass their panic test.

Game Turn 2 
In the Wood Elves' first turn, I move up, Anraheir the Organ Gun and Miasma one unit of Thunderers. Then my poison scouts try their best to kill the Organ Gun and only do 1 wound. However, my Trueflight arrows do 4 hits and 2 wounds, finishing it off!
Andy responds by marching both units straight forward, and then in my 2nd turn I Wither one unit and kill 3 with shooting. The other unit gets Miasma to reduce their BS.

Game Turn 3
Andy shoots at the Sisters, with both units, but they have soft cover and Miasma to protect them, and only 1 dies. In my turn I again get a good Wither into the weak unit, and their toughness 1 exposes them to my bows, killing another 5. The other unit is again Miasma'd, protecting me from retribution.

 Game Turn 4

Andy turns to face my Sisters and shoots them, but needs 9s to hit and does nothing. The Spellsinger again casts Withering, this time only reducing the Dwarves' Toughness by 1 and the following shooting phase is much less effective.

End of Game
So on my turn 5 I charged into combat to see what would happen... and it did not go well. I'm sure given time Andy's T6 Thane would have ground me down and broken or killed everything, But luckily the game finished while I still had enough points left for the win, although he was able to kill 4 Scouts, 2 Sisters and my Spellsinger!

After Action Thoughts
Another close game with Andy! I probably should have just shot his Thane and friends at the end of the game, but in the spirit of the league I tried to win via melee. Rerolls from Always Strike First are nice, but they only go so far against T6 and a 2+ save! The Organ Gun was brutal, but after it died so quickly I was able to mow down most of Andy's army as it crossed the board. The Withering was an amazing spell too- reducing his higher Toughness by 2-3 almost every turn was invaluable.

That's the end of this week's battle reports! I had a ton of fun, and it was great to play something different. Hopefully I'll have a couple of Warmahordes games in the next few weeks, so watch out for those battle reports as well. I've played a few practice games and I'm feeling more confident about the mechanics, if not the precise detail of the rules.

I hope you enjoyed the games even half as much as I did, and as always thanks for reading!

SimonW