[Wargaming] 100pt end of year Warmachine

Monday nights is our weekly gaming session at Warwick Sci-Fi. There are only three of us that regularly play Warmachine & Hordes: myself, Paul (a PhD student), and Dom (a final-year undergraduate). It’s a bit of an awkward number, but we’ve worked around it with smaller points levels, three player games, and by only having two of us there a lot of the time. As Dom’s graduating this year he’s going to be leaving, and since last night was his final week at Sci-Fi we decided to do something a bit special as a send-off – a massive 100pts, two warcasters per side game.

I’ve got easily the biggest collection, so I agreed to take one side by myself using my Cryx. Paul and Dom would take 50pts each of Khador and Circle Orboros respectively. I had several advantages going into the game. First, with 100pts to myself I had full control over my side. Second, Paul and Dom’s limited collection meant that I had a decent idea what they would be taking, particularly for their Warcaster & Warlock as both have a clear preference that I’ve noticed. Third, I usually play my Circle at the games nights, so they had very little idea what I’d bring. The first factor obviously I could do nothing about, but I tried not to let my knowledge of their options affect my army selection too much.

I won’t give a blow-by-blow account of the battle, as it would take too long owing to the sheer number of models. Suffice it to say that it was a blast. In the five hours that we had available we managed to get in three turns per side,  with the battle ending in a Cryxian victory: 4-3 on scenario points, and with two remaining warcasters to the coalition’s one. It was so much fun that I’d like to repeat the experience sometime (maybe using the Unbound rules next time though!), and a fitting way to see out the academic year and say goodbye to Dom.

After the break you can find the army lists, pictures of the game, and a few quick notes about what happened.

Armies:

Faction: Cryx                                                                                                    Faction: Khador
Points: 100/100                                                                                                Points: 50/50
Warwitch Deneghra (*5pts)                                                                            Kommander Orsus Zoktavir (*6pts)
* Nightwretch (4pts)                                                                                        * Behemoth (13pts)
* Nightwretch (4pts)                                                                                        * Conquest (19pts)
Pirate Queen Skarre (*6pts)                                                                            * Kodiak (8pts)
* Cankerworm (5pts)                                                                                       Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Deathjack (12pts)                                                                                         Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
* Skarlock Thrall (2pts)                                                                                  Fenris (5pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Blackbane's Ghost Raiders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)                                              Faction: Circle Orboros
* 3 Brute Thrall (3pts)                                                                                     Points: 50/50
Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls (2pts)                                                        Krueger the Stormlord (*5pts)

Revenant Cannon Crew (3pts)                                                                       * Argus (4pts)

Revenant Crew (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)                                              * Gorax (4pts)

* 3 Revenant Crew Crew Riflemen (3pts)                                                   * Woldwatcher (5pts)

Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)                                * Gnarlhorn Satyr (8pts)

* Satyxis Blood Hag (2pts)                                                                            Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)

Satyxis Raiders (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)                                             * Druid of Orboros Overseer (2pts)

* Satyxis Raider Sea Witch (2pts)                                                                Shifting Stones (2pts)

Soulhunters (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)                                                    Warpborn Skinwalkers (Leader and 2 Grunts) (5pts)

The Withershadow Combine (5pts)                                                              * Warpborn Alpha (3pts)

Bane Lord Tartarus (4pts)                                                                               Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)

Captain Rengrave (2pts)                                                                                 Lord of the Feast (4pts)

Darragh Wrathe (4pts)                                                                                     Celestal Fulcrum (9pts)

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)
Satyxis Raider Captain (2pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)

We were playing the "Killing Fields" scenario from the "Warmachine: Prime" rulebook. Three flags spread across the board: one in the centre, and the others 8 inches from the sides. You score 1 point for controlling an objective (having the only models base-to-base with it), and first to 7 wins. We changed it slightly so that models within 3 inches contested, rather than just models base-to-base, as with my horde I could quite easily block the coalition's more elite army out.

We set the board up as in the photo above, which looks across the width of the board. The green lozenge in the top-left is a hill. The other green and brown ovals are woods. The river is shallow water, with two crossing points: the bridge in the centre, and the ford where the top flag is. The pool just below the bridge is deep water. The black and red rectangles are difficult terrain, with the long thin pieces being linear obstacles, and the red square a ling-of-sight blocking obstacle/impassable terrain.

I won the roll, and chose the side with the hill - I didn't want the Conquest and Celestial Fulcrum getting up there and being able to shoot anything they wanted! Above (left) is the board after normal setup; the models above the hill are my advance deploy, which aren't in place yet here. THe other photo is looking along my lines at the horde of models (and cards!).

Here's the board after advance deployment is complete. The coalition had Circle on my left, and Khador on my right.

Looking along the Cryx lines. My basic plan was to rush the ford with my zombie pirates, supported by the cannon on the hill. The centre would be taken by the Soulhunters, while the Satyxis/Mechanithrall boat swarmed the Khadoran lines on the right.

Cryx turn 1 - the horde advances! I pretty much just ran everything forwards, but it took some thinking to avoiding getting in my own way! The Bane Thralls ended up in No Man's Land a little, and the Cankerworm wasn't in a great location. Skarre moved out to support the right flank, while Deneghra hid in the back. The only spell I cast was Ritual Sacrifice with the Skarlock, getting 3 extra focus for turn 2.

I wasn't sure whether to run the Satyxis Raiders over to engage the Doom Reavers (proxied by Forge Guard) and the Lord of the Feast. I knew I had the distance, but also knew that they'd murder anyone that got over there. In the end I decided it was worth it just to slow them down a bit.

Coalition turn 1 - Sure enough, I lost a lot of Satyxis Raiders. But some survived. A complicated plan to get the Argus' 360degrees line-of-sight animus onto the Lord of the Feast failed by about an inch, and was irrelevant anyway when he missed his Raven shot into the back lines of the Raiders. The Conquest put down annoying covering fire, and shot two of my Brute Thralls with his main guns. On the left, the Druid Overseer's Devouring missed, killing only three Pirates instead of five, and the rest of the Druids killed a few more.

Cryx turn 2 - Skarre feats to allow me to charge through the Conquest's covering fire templates. She also cast Dark Guidance. I destroy the Doom Reavers, as well as one of the Great Bears, and score a point on the right flag. I also score the centre flag when Deathjack advances onto the bridge. Cankerworm is well out of position. I also run up a Nightwretch to stick Parasite on the Behemoth, and Crippling Grasp on the Argus, then charge them with the Soulhunters for minimal damage. Light Cavalry moves put me engaging Butcher2. On the left, the Pirates swarm the ford but can't kill the contesting Shifting Stones. Blackbane's unit run to engage, and I shoot a druid with the cannon.

Cryx 2 - 0 Coalition 

Coalition turn 2 - Double feat turn! The Skinwalkers and Druids murder a bunch of Pirates, but fortunately leave the Quartermaster alive. The Celestial Fulcrum shoots something but misses. The Woldwatcher slams my Nightwretch clear off the bridge into the deep water (which was pretty funny). The Gorax kills a Soulhunter, then Kreuger2 pushes everything away and slows down my entire left flank. Butcher feats, takes a free strike for four damage, and then the Lord of the Feast and Fenris kill a whole bunch of Satyxis and Mechanithralls.

Coalition turn 2, post feat from Butcher2 - there used to be some Cryx on my right flank! Butcher racked up 10 rage tokens during the regular turn. He gave three to Fenris, three to the Lord of the Feast, and three to the Kodiak. Fenris only needed one to kill five more Satyxis and Mechanithralls with berserk attacks. The Lord of the Feast kills the Necrosurgeon and a Pistol Wraith. The Kodiak misses.

Cryx 2 - 1 Coalition

Cryx turn 3 - retaliation! On the left, Zombie Pirates resurrect and swarm the Skinwalkers but fail to kill anything. Nothing else really happens over there thanks to Kreuger's feat. In the middle, the Deathjack (who was soooo close to dropping into the deep water via the same feat) moves up onto the bridge with Tartarus to score. On the right, a combination of charging Mechanithralls and Darragh Wrathe take down Fenris. Then I move up the remaining Pistol Wraith to shoot Butcher2 for a decent amount, Dark Fire him with the Withershadow to take him down to three, then move up Skarre and Sacrificial Strike him to death using one of the Withershadow to give me straight dice (yay for ARM16!). That basically gives me the right flank, as all of the Khadoran warjacks (which were most of Paul's points) go inert.

Cryx 4 - 1 Coalition

Surprise! The Gorax jumps on Tartarus and eats him.

Coalition turn 3 - payback. With only the Circle army really able to do anything, they go all out to make the game close. The Skinwalkers kill loads of the Zombie Pirates, then the Gnarlhorn tramples three more and removes the rest so that only the Riflemen remain. The Gorax munches on Tartarus, and Kreuger moves the Deathjack out of contesting range using Telekinesis.

Cryx 4 - 3 Coalition. Victory for the Dragonfather!