Sunday, November 14, 2010

Warmachine on the Road: Haley goes to War

I've always played widely amongst the factions, and lately, due to travel to Town where a good friend (Geektactica) has a Cygnar army I can play, it's Haley.

This is the scene at the end of the first round. Mark played very agressively, He had first turn and he started towards me all out right from the beginning. All I did was to cast Arcane Shield on the Hunter and on the Longgunners and Temporal Barrier, which caught only the foremost Boneturkie, though that was something. I also took out the arc node on that jack with a shot from the Defender. One of the moves forward I made was with my Journeyman Warcaster. This was thoughtless on my part and, as shall be seen below, led to a Turn 2 demise of that valuable soldier.


Here is Mark's army right up in my grille by the second round. Note how he has engaged one of the Satyxis Raiders with my Lancer...cunning fellow. He Hellmouthed the Journeyman Warcaster and two Longgunners into a sludgy oblivion and engaged one of my Longgunners with Bane Lord Tartarus. Thankfully they passed their terror test, but I guess a Command of 8 is sweet. Note to file to hide the Journeyman from now on.


Here is the scene after my feat turn. Notice the absence of the previously foremost Boneturkie on the lip of the hill on the left (that Mark had arced Hellmouth through), which I CRA'd into a wreck with three Longgunner shots. As well, note the reductions in the size of the Satyxis Raider and the Mechanithrall units (the Brute Thrall is gone too). What I did was put a focus on the Lancer, kill the Raider engaging it, and then arced Chain Lightning at the Raiders killing 4. I also got one with the Defender. This was absolutely critical to my survival. I'd think about engaging with two grunts in a similiar situation down the road when I am in Mark's shoes next, but it has to be said that his model placement was brilliant. The Raider unit was just outside Haley's 10 inch range so I had to arc in the circumstances. The Sentinal double-tapped the Brute Thrall. Oi vey, what a jack!


This skips a bit of the action, which was Mark's assault on the heart of my army with his Raiders, Mechanithralls (three he created with the Necrosurgeon), the Stalker, Tartarus and the Pistolwraiths. Essentially I survived, though I had only four points left on Haley, from a combination of Feedback and two successful combo-strikes on Haley (!) from the Mechanithralls. Anyways, when the dust settled eDennie was not incorporeal and I realized that my one and only chance to pull my nuts out of the fire was to take her out with the Sentinal. To do that I needed to kill two Satyxis Raiders engaging the Sentinal, Charger and Lancer as I needed to move the Sentinal towards eDennie by a couple of inches to get the shot in. It wasn't going to be easy as she was in woods. I had to put three focus on the Sentinal and cast Deadeye on it from Haley. Amazingly, it all worked. Even though I only rolled two shots for my Strafe roll, with Deadeye both hit eDennie, and with boosts both came in at a (fortunate) 28 point damage roll. eDennie only had one focus on her and was double-tapped out of the battle. Great feeling, and a great game. Mark was a fell opponent, and watching him play reminded me of the style of the Cryx player (Chuck?) who was in the Nationals against Flanzer in August. It all could have been so different.