Wargaming with Thagrosh and Vlad

So, another 700 km road trip - each way - for some Hordes and Warmachine gaming. I haven't played a lot of Hordes, and what I have played was mostly Primal Skorne armies back in the spring and summer of 2007. The last time I played Thaggie was during the May 24th weekend in 2008.

I brought Legion and Khador with me across the island and for the first game I flipped a coin to decide which to play against Mark's eDeneghra list. I forgot my camera, and so was reliant on the use of Jason's.

This is a nice shot of the table in the earliest part of the battle. My Legion paintjob is set off well by the Pegasus ruins Ken picked up from Neal at the Warstore.


The view from Mark's side of the table.


I was hoping for an epochal struggle between Carnivean and Death Jack.


Alas, it was a Death Jack that thought discretion the better part of valor.


I conceded the game after eDennie survived a second round of burning (she was on fire from the Carnivean's Blight Breath, and I had whiffed the first damage roll, which easily could have done the job on its own). As of the moment in time that I conceded Thagrosh had been beaten up on during Dennie's feat turn...I could have Slipstreamed him away as I was next to the Seraph in any event but I didn't bother...I Obliterated a Nightwretch instead but Mark had another Bonejack or three in the wings.

Lessons:

Generally, advancing towards a Cryx assassination army is counter-productive as well as being counterintuitive.

Don't ever use Thagroshes' spell Obliterate again! I missed it once, I think with a boosted attack roll. That's 5 fury gone. To get a reasonable result you need to boost damage too. To put it more reasonably, I can just imagine situations where it's useful, but you'd have to knock the target down first.

Don't feed living models to a Death Jack if you can avoid it. I took his arm off and then gave him some bacongator to put it back on again.

Okay, game two. I didn't want to play inter-faction and so I went with Everblight again against a Karchev list. This first picture shows the situation at the end of round two. I'm positioning the Gatorman Posse for a potential charge on Karchev.

Karchev has moved up closer again. I've decided now that I'm going to charge him with the Carnivean after Slipstreaming it over from its' current position.


Okay, I've charged, first, the Forsaken. A couple of points...she's lost 1 point of P+S on her claw in MKII but more to the point it was a dumb idea any way you look at it. Then the Carnivean charged with three Fury left to be used. I missed everything! with the Breath Attack and then did very poorly with two bites and two claw attacks against Karchev. The Wardog is fantastic with Karchev, raising his melee defence to 14. Wildness. Then, I decided I'd experiment and see what would happen if I charged the Spriggan with Thaggie. I used all of my Fury but one and didn't get the Spriggan's lance, or very much else for that matter. The lesson learned from this experiment is that Thagrosh does warjack damage (i.e. the same as a Beserker's axe) but that doesn't mean he can take out a Warjack.

Here's a side view of the final confrontation.


Next up were a couple of games that night against Jason's Cygnar and Trollbloods. In this first shot I've just taken 9 points off of Krae by a combination of sniper shots and a blown up Beserker - not shown. ;-)


This is another picture of the same scene from just behind Krae. The rest of the game involved a series of futile attempts by each of us to assassinate the other's caster. Jason whiffed an attack from a Lancer that would have finished Vlad, and Eiryss basically killed Krae with a couple of deathbolts over the course of three rounds.


I learned a lot during this game about playing Beserkers. As well, Eiryss is a must have for my GenCon list. The main thing I learned, however, is to never give up. That's ultimately what that whole play like you've got a pair thing means for me...just never give up because in Warmachine you truly have a chance to win every game you play if you are just a little patient in the face of adversity.

The final game of the day was my Legion against Jason's Madrak list. This was a rather disjointed affair during which, amongst other things, my Carnivean was killed twice! We had to call the game due to exhaustion, but Jason was in pretty good shape by then. I did learn a few things, however. My Seraph actually finished off a Dire Troll Mauler (it needed a Critical Hit with two fives on two dice to do it) which was a pleasant surprise. Thagrosh killed the Fell Caller and two Champions in the same turn of combat as well, with Fury to spare. I didn't play as agressively as I should have and made the cardinal error of splitting up my forces from the second round on. I also dropped Fog of War when I didn't need too, and held off on casting Spiny Growth when I should have put it on the Carnivean (I was thinking I'd transfer onto it later and the animus would have put it up to max Fury, but I had the Seraph at full health in any event and the Carnivean would have lived a little longer). Oh, and I forgot one of the key rules of meodern life...Don't feed the Troll! However, the game also reinforced for me the importance of taking out the foe's warbeasts. That lesson is what playing against Warmachine armies will not get you.


All in a great day. I am decided upon Vlad and Khador again for GenCon. It's just ultimately the familiarity factor...I owe it to the other players. Here is the core of my 35 point Hardcore list:

Vlad
Wardog
Drago
2 x Beserkers
Widowmakers
Great Bears
Eiryss

I just need to decide how I'm going to spend my final 7 points. I'm pretty sure I'll take the Drakhun with dismount, which leaves 2 points. I have to decide whether I'll take Kell, a Field Gun or a Manhunter.