Here is an update to the two player ANNIHILATION campaign system based on a lot of play testing recently. This new version includes rules for models that bring other models ‘Back from the Dead’.

• ANNIHILATION v1.2

Feedback and experience would be most appreciated.

Owen

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• Lesson 1: Synergy
  There are an awful lot of interdependencies between the solos and Sea Dog Crew units, so you need to plan out what you want the achieve with them. The Sea Dogs are a pivotal unit and you want them to be mobile, hit hard and survive.

  Mobility is the area Mr. Walls helps out most. He gives them Pathfinder and +2 movement on the mini feat. Coupled with Shae’s movement enhancements this can get the Sea Dogs moving amazingly quickly. Shae’s feat, Godspeed, allows everyone to move up 3". This out of sequence move can get the army that bit closer to the enemy. His Coup de Main spell gives the whole army (or at least those starting a charge in his control area) another movement enhancement on the charge.

  Hitting Hard is the realm of Rockbottom and Hawk. Object of Desire coupled with Gang ensure the Sea Dogs can throttle troops. Rockbottom again can again help here with his coins. Mr. Walls helps a little with his once-per-game mini feat. This feat does several things, but in terms of hitting harder the Sea Dogs become Fearless and cause Terror. The former can really help when they’re going up against an Abomination or Terror causer.

  Survivability is primarily the role of Lord Rockbottom and Doc Killingsworth. Rockbottom can grant them tough and Doc makes that on a 4+. Bosun Grogspar has a role there too as he can ensure the Sea Dogs closeby cannot be knocked down. Shae’s Phantasm spell can help the survivability of anything it is cast on.

  There are other synergies worth mentioning. Dirty Meg, as a ‘jack marshal, can obviously take some of the burden of ‘jack control from Shae. This can free up some focus for other uses. Dougal MacNaile is someone I don’t have, but he can obviously enhance the accuracy of any ranged weapon. I’m sure there are more synergies, but these are the ones I use a lot!

• Lesson 2: It all starts with deployment…
  This is true for all armies, but the Privateers need to deploy with their synergies and potential mobility in mind. For example, with the Press Gangers and Sea Dogs (with Mr. Walls) advance deploying you have to ensure they don’t outpace Shae (specifically if he intends to cast Phantasm on one of the units). I tend to deploy Shae to the front of his deployment zone with a lane for him to move through. I usually activate him first on my first turn, sometimes even popping his feat for a little extra movement!

  Likewise the solos need to be placed for best effect. Will Hawk be supporting the Sea Dogs offensive output with Object of Desire? Or will she be running up a flank to attempt an assassination run? Similarly, you need to pay attention to Lord Rockbottom’s ability to give out coins in the first couple of turns. Doc and Grogspar should be in close proximity to the Tough infantry (Press Gangers and Sea Dogs with a coin from Rockbottom) and solos.

  Don’t forget the ranged elements of your army – the Mariner, Commodore and Deck Gun (which I don’t use!). They may need lanes to shoot through. The Commodore in particular is a great denial piece and keeping your own troops out of it’s way is important!



• Lesson 3: Activation order and Charge/Fire Lanes
  This is the lesson that has taken me longest to get right. The basic rule is solos/Shae first, troops second. You need to think about what buffs, either offensive or defensive your troops will need. For example, I tend to think about what Shae is doing first, then Rockbottom, then the ‘defensive’ solos, then Hawk and finally the troops. Obviously the ‘jacks need to be considered here too.

  The reason this is important is that you want the units to have the buffs they need to hit with the maximum power. Rockbottom and Hawk help the troops to hit harder. Shae helps them to move faster (feat and Coup de Main) as does Mr. Walls. Doc and Grogspar increase survivability. The problem with all of this potential is that it is very easy to have units trip over each other! When they get in each others’ way they end up blocking charge lanes and fire lanes. This can be very frustrating and limits the punch, which can be formidable, of the army. Practice is the best way to mitigate this, but thinking about how you plan to fight your opponent will help – do you want to use Tough to ride out their offense (risky!)? Do you want to hit them with ranged attacks? If so, which ones? Is it all about the Sea Dogs’ charge?

  … and hundreds of other permutations.

I don’t claim to be the master of the Privateers, but I’ve learnt a few lessons and hopefully you’ve found them useful. Just writing them down is useful for me (and helps my poor head)!

Owen

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We both moved up cautiously. Joe got the hop on me with a Raek/Scythean assassination attempt. I left a lane open and the Raek leapt in to Headbutt Strakhov. Thankfully he missed and so too did the Scythean. Joe’s dice deserted him. My next turn was damage limitation – I managed to take out the Scythean. Thankfully the Raek was out of range to leech and it made it’s Threshold check. With all of the action the scenario was being ignored. My sole remaining Widowmaker moved up to take a control point.

We began trading beasts and ‘jacks and Joe moved the Feralgeist back to prevent me scoring another control point. On my turn Strakhov moved up to cast Rift at the spectre, thus sealing the win.

Timed turns weren’t a factor and neither of us used our time extension. I’ll keep practicing, but that was a much more positive experience.

Owen

No related posts.

I also decided to streamline my list a little. To that end I went for a list with fewer units and models for tonight’s game -

We used the standard 10 minutes turn with a single 5 minutes extension. I had two things going against me, though – I’ve never played either Strakhov or Beast-09 before. We played the overrun scenario which is very difficult to win or lose, so the game was pretty much guaranteed to go down to an assassination.

I played the game without using my 5 minute extension and if anything my list was a little time conservative. However, Joe had a hard time with his Legion force. He had similar numbers of units/solos to me, but he didn’t like being forced to play faster. I can’t blame him, either. It was hard to have a chat and a laugh knowing you might be wasting the other player’s time. I can see the benefit of timed turns in a tournament setting, but when playing casually it does suck some of the fun from the game. However, timed turns are a part of the tournament scene and you have to practice somewhere.

I’m sorry to say I’ll be looking for a timed game again next week!

Owen

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The nationals/masters will be a two day event with both 35pt and 50pt games. It will use the most recent Steamroller format available.

More information is available here.

Owen

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Steve’s army was led by Vyros, who I’ve only faced once before. It was a good tight game with my Sea Dogs dishing out a hellish amount of damage on the charge to two of Steve’s units. In response the Retribution decimated the crew and Pressgangers. The game devolved into a slugfest with me trying everything I could to get ranged shots on Vyros. Eventually it paid off and I managed to drop the Iosan ‘caster. The Commodore chipped in, but it’s main role was to keep the Retribution ‘jacks on their asses!

The second game was a much more one-sided affair. Again the Sea Dogs and Press Gangers got the hop on my opponent and killed off a swath of Swordsmen and Accuri. My dice were on fire and it seemed that everything I hit, I killed. In the face of so much destruction and with the Commodore having a commanding view of the battlefield, Harry decided that Xerxis would have been in trouble. He was right. Again the big cannon took on the big targets to slam them out of the way. Harry called it when most of his army was in shreds and he had no way of getting at Shae.

So, two wins to round out my practice with the Privateers. Let’s see what Saturday brings!

Owen

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It was, however, a close game in the end with Lenny having to risk eHaley in order to avoid a loss by scenario. My army was in tatters at that stage and Shae was engaged by a Centurion and Lancer. They had trouble hitting him, but they eventually did the job. I managed to drop the Cygnaran ‘caster to only four boxes, but in the end Cygnar won the day.

It was a good game and it felt quite tight (even if most of my army was decimated at range).

Owen

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She managed to get Backlash onto my Nomad and between 4 Mechanithralls and Brute Thrall dished out eight points of damage onto Shae before the ‘jack was totalled. In the end the Commodore, with Money Shot from Lord Rock Bottom, blasted the Pirate Queen into oblivion.

Owen

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Joe’s 35pt force was led by Absylonia and he used her to great effect, buffing his beasts and feating at just the right moment to heal loads of damage. I felt that I’d nearly killed each of the beasts (Typhon and Carnivean) at least three times!

I’m not very good with the pirates yet, but I got some things right this evening. Shae’s feat was very effective at helping to deliver the army to where it needed to be. It, coupled with Coup de Main and Mr. Walls’ mini-feat, gave the Sea Dogs an impressive charge. They had Payday on them too, so they showed a unit of Striders (plus UA) who was boss. They’d had Phantasm cast and upkept on them until that turn, so this coupled with 4+ Tough (from Doc) and No Sleeping on the Job made them a difficult target to get at range.

I did, however, also have several screw ups during the game. I used the Buccaneer’s assault to knock Typhon down. I then shot him with the Commodore, but of course couldn’t slam him! This was annoying as they probably would have hit him on an effective RAT 12 10 (base RAT 4, 2 x Gunnery, Aiming and Money Shot) without the knock down. The slam would have creamed the Shepherd behind it! Forgetting to allocate focus to my Nomad before it was due to charge the Carnivean was another mess up. It still got to charge (under Coup de Main), but just didn’t have the damage output without the additional focus.

My biggest screw up, though, was forgetting to win the game. We played the Close Quarters scenario and I had picked up one control point already. I spent a turn focussed on killing off a Carnivean (the audacious beast had attempted an ill-conceived assassination on Shae), but forgot to move one of several available solos into the control zone to net my second (game winning) control point. Typhon assassinated Shae on the next turn, doing exactly the amount of damage needed with its three sprays.

I’m still learning, but the Privateers are still a bit of a mystery to me. Oh well!

Owen

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Step 1: Since I was using Warmachine rounded-edge bases, I decided to fill the inside of the base with Milliput. For these kinds of modelled bases I always work with the model off the base. Before the Milliput dried I pressed the base into fine (but not too fine) sand.

Step 2: When this dried I used a watered dow PVA mix to liberally coat the base and again dipped it in the sand. I’m not too concerned about uniform coverage as walked on sand is rarely smooth.

Steps 3 and 4: Repeat Step 2.

Step 4: Attached the miniature to the base. As always time spent pinning them on now will save heartache later on.

Step 5: Undercoat the miniature. I decided to undercoat these guys black, which was better for the miniature, but would mean a few more steps in painting the base.

Step 6: Paint the miniature. This is easy and should only take a minute or two, right?!

Step 7: Paint the base. I tidied up any mess from the earlier painting using Chaos Black. Next I used two watery coats of Khemri Brown to get rid of most of the black. A watery coat of Iyanden Darksun (a deep yellow colour) was applied next. I then drybrushed the base with this yellow colour. Next I mixed it 50:50 with Bleached Bone and did a light drybrush. Finally there was one more pure Bleached Bone drybrush. Take some Chaos Black and tidy the edge of the base.

(I painted the base and then the miniature, but that was the wrong way around as then you need to be very tidy when working on shoes, etc.)

Step 8: Add Seaweed. I grabbed some moss from the back garden and left it to dry overnight. I mixed a very watery PVA mix and then dipped the ‘seaweed’ in it and added it to the base.

That sounds like lots of steps, but when your basing a whole unit there is very little hanging around as (certainly with the painting) once one step is completed on all of the miniatures you can go back to the first model and start the next step. Easy and effective.

Owen

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• Captain Phinneus Shae
  • Freebooter
• Press Gangers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
• Sea Dog Crew (Leader and 5 Grunts)
• Mr. Walls Sea Dog Crew Quartermaster
• Bosun Grogspar
• Doc Killingsworth
• First Mate Hawk
• Lord Rockbottom

This is a Tier 2 list and boy do you get a lot of miniatures for 15pts. I made my first mistake at the list construction phase. The Freebooter’s attacks are only POW 14 and the next most powerful attacks come from Shae with Blow the Man Down (POW 15) and Storm Rager cast on himself for a POW 15 melee attack. It was going to be difficult to dent Khadoran armour with that. My opponent had the Khador battle box and a unit of Widowmakers. Sorscha could immobilise much of my army as only Shae and the Freebooter would be able to shake effect.

My second mistake was made on my first turn. The Press Gangers and the Sea Dogs (because of Mr. Walls) were advance deployed with the solos as close as they could be. The mistake I made was moving the whole army forward and leaving Shae until last. He has two upkeep spells that I wanted to get out – Phantasm on the Sea Dogs and Storm Rager on Hawk. Unfortunately, my preferred targets were out of range. I moved him up and just cast Phantasm as Hawk was still out of range, but this left him behind the army when I’d prefer him to be in the middle of everything.

Anyway, the game went okay with Shae dealing most of the damage to the Khadoran ‘jacks and the infantry slowing the ‘jacks and dealing with the Widowmakers. Both armies were whittled down to pretty much the ‘caster and this is where Shae shown. He cast Storm Rager on himself and began camping focus. On a turn he upkeeps it he is DEF 17 with ARM 21. Even if you manage to knock him down he’s still DEF 17. MAT 9 and POW+S 15 is just gravy.

The game ended with Shae running into melee with Sorscha. She managed to critically freeze him, but couldn’t get through the armour. On his turn he shook the stationary and finished it.

Phinneus Shae is indeed a hard man to kill!

Owen

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And Fiona the Black -

Everybody –

Owen

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No, not a toy soldier, a Press Ganger! You know, one of those guys that supports Warmachine and Hordes in their local community…

… should be fun.

Owen

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I’ve just finished photographing the whole army, so I’ll post them later this week.

Owen

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I’ll probably pick up one or two more ‘jacks, but that’s it for the pirates for now.

Owen

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The Shae Tiers are in No Quarter #30 and have already been implemented on the Forward Kommander Army Builder. Here’s a quick 35pt list I put together -

• Captain Phinneus Shae
  • Mariner
  • Commodore Cannon & Crew (Commodore and 3 Crewmen)
• Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
• Press Gangers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
• Sea Dog Crew (Leader and 9 Grunts)
• Mr. Walls Sea Dog Crew Quartermaster
• 3 Sea Dog Crew Riflemen
• Bosun Grogspar
• Dirty Meg
  • Buccaneer
• Doc Killingsworth
• First Mate Hawk
• Lord Rockbottom

This is a Tier 3 list. I get all of the solos I want at a bargain basement points cost. My army will be lightning fast in the first turn game and I get a better chance of winning the starting roll. Sweet!

It’s good to be a pirate!

Owen

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She’s a pretty easy minature to paint. I started with the flesh – Tallaran Flesh, two watered down Ogryn Flesh washes and then added progressive amounts of Elf Flesh to Tallaran Flesh. Next up I painted the apron and blouse with Khemri Brown. I lightened the apron with Snakebite Leather and then added Bleached Bone for a highlight. The blouse is Bleached Bone over the brown and then highlights with progressive amounts of Skull White added. Her trousers were based Shadow Grey and I added Space Wolves Grey for the highlights. They were washed with Asurmen Blue. Her hair is Snakebite Leather mixed with Khador Red Highlight (an orange colour). They’re all of the main colours. Everything (apart form the trousers) received a 1:1:1 wash of water, Devlan Mud and Badab Black. It makes her look appropriately grimy.

I now have a 35pt force painted. I’d rather not field this many solos at 35pts, but until the Press Gangers are completed this is the only fully painted Talion Charter force I can field at this size.

Owen

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Frame and Base
• 4 ‘ x 4′ 6mm thick plastic sheet (thicker MDF would also be fine)
• 2″ x 1″ x 4′ batons
• 12-16 ½” brass screws
• 4 x 3″ brass screws

Terrain and Sculpting

• Several different pieces/sheet of 1″ and ½” of packing foam
• Plaster Filler (I used a brand called Polyfilla)
• PVA Glue (I used 1:1 watered down Durabond)

Painting and Finishing

• Acrylic Paints
• Flock (Static Grass)
• Matt Varnish Spray

Tools

• Dremel
• Electric Drill
• Electric Screwdriver
• Jigsaw
• Sand Paper
• Hot Glue Gun
• Rubber Gloves!
• Paint Brushes

STEP 1: Put a Frame on the Board
Okay – this is pretty straight forward stuff, but like all woodwork you need to measure twice and cut/drill once. Also, be careful – all of the power tools can do a lot of damage to a person, so pay close attention to what you are doing. First up you need to drill some guide holes in the 4′ x 4′ sheet to fix the batons through. Make sure the holes are not too close to the corners as you’ll be using the 3″ screws to secure the batons together and you don’t want the screws that hold them to the board to get in the way. To that end I measured and marked eight holes – each 4″ from a corner and 1″ in from the edge. I drilled this with a small bit on the Dremel. I then grabbed the real drill and sunk wider holes (just wide enough for the ½” screws). I positioned a baton flush with one edge and then attached it to the board using the screwdriver. I attached the opposite baton. I oriented the batons so the broader (2″) side ran flat with the board.

Next I needed to cut the other two batons to length. Rather than measuring the 44″ (48″ – (2+2″)) I lay them between the fixed batons and mark the length to cut. I then cut them to length with the jigsaw and fixed them in place.

This step is optional, but for more rigidity I drilled holes from the longer batons into the new shorter ones and secured them with the 3″ screws.
I drilled four more holes through the board in the centre of the batons and fixed with screws. There are now three screws holding each baton to the board and four screws connecting the batons.
The board and frame is now solid and pretty well supported.

STEP 2: A decision to make?!
I now had a decision to make – which side of the board would I build the battlefield on. The ‘top’ side is a flat 4′ x 4′ area with the frame underneath. Building on the bottom would mean loosing 2″ (the thickness of the batons) from every edge, but it would be more robust for storage. As can be seen in the photo I opted for the later an decided to build the battle field between the batons and sacrifice some table area. If I ensure the battlefield does not rise above the baton edge I should have a board that is less likely to be damaged.

STEP 3: Shaping and Gluing Foam
As mentioned earlier I used basic packing foam, you know the kind that electronics and the like come in. I shaped most of the foam using a bread knife, but before doing so I drew the shape of the battle filed onto the boards. This way I could position the available foam, which was a hotch potch of hoarded bits, before cutting. Once all of the foam was cut I used a hot glue gun to fix it into position. The glue melted the foam slightly, but since it was melting it where it wouldn’t be seen that didn’t really matter.

STEP 4: Conturing the Foam
I grabbed a large tub of Polyfilla (or Spackle) and used it to contour the edges of the (low) hills, riverbed and river bank. To do this I wore a pair of rubber gloves and had a small container of water hand. This is a messy job, but produced a great looking result. For the dried riverbed I ensured it looked like it had been shaped by flowing water by working it in the same direction. I gave the Polyfilla 24 hours to dry before moving to the next step.

STEP 5: Applying Sand
This is a straightforward, but time consuming step. I watered down PVA glue and applied it in 1′ x 1′ sections, being careful to avoid the bottom of the dried pond and riverbed (the previous step gave them enough texture). I then tilted the board and poured sand onto the wet area. I repeated this process until the board was covered in sand.

STEP 6: Painting and Flocking the Board
Painting the board is pretty easy. I wanted the sand and textured Polyfilla to give natural highlights so I used a heavily watered down mix of Burnt Sienna artists paint (you know the kind that comes in a tube). This is a pretty quick step, but because it is so watered down it can take a while for the paint to dry. I left it 24 hours. Next I used PVA glue to judiciously apply flock to certain areas of the board. As I was aiming for a dried earth look, I didn’t want too much grass. I also painted the wooden at this stage.

STEP 7: Sealing the Board
There are a couple of different approaches to protecting a board, but I decided to use spray matt varnish. This only provides a small bit of protection, but it also helps to keep the flock in place.

It seems like a lot of work, but it is worth it to have a good looking board to field your battles on. Here are a couple of pictures of the board in use -

Owen

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I’m a fan of The Iron Agenda and Focus and Fury podcasts. In my mind they fill slightly different niches, IA are slightly more considered and (dare I say) scholarly, while F’n'F sound more hardcore and seasoned. Each podcast also has different production quality, IA is more honed and F’n'F is pretty raw. I subscribe to and listen to both, so it’ll be interesting to see where Lost Hemisphere Radio settles, but so far so good.

Owen

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Here is an update to the two player ANNIHILATION campaign system based on myself and Peter’s campaign -

• ANNIHILATION v1.1 Campaign Rules (PDF)

Feedback and experience would be most appreciated.

Owen

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The ANNIHILATION is over and Khador came out on top. Each of the four games was contested closely and the attrition rules limited both of our force selection, particularly in the final game. Here are all of the articles related to this campaign -

[Games 1 and 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Campaign Rules]

We’ve fought a hard campaign and there are plenty of things to reflect on. I’m going to tweak the campaign rules for readability, but otherwise they’ve worked well. I’ll run the campaign again with other factions, but for now the rules seem robust enough.

Anyway, now that the dust has settled and we’ve had a chance to assess our losses here are our final remarks.

Peter: So, quite a comprehensive loss on my part for the campaign then, and it had all looked so good after the first game. And even after the first few rolls of the dice in this one, to be honest!

Looking back, I think my biggest weakness throughout the series of games was not doing enough to protect my caster. The first game I had a house to hide Sevvy behind, and it made all the difference. In the later games I was a bit too easily led into attacking, and in the last game in particular, bad dice meant that I got tied up in combats that I was expecting to win decisively. Owen did a much better job of keeping his eyes on the prize and had plenty of firepower to bring to bear on me when I made a mistake.

I’ve enjoyed the games a lot, especially having to pull together a force from a limited pool. By the end of the four games my force is actually looking reasonably healthy, not hurt by the High Reclaimer bringing back my bait unit of Bastions. Having seen the amount of damage I did to Owen’s force, even through Khador armour I would be interested to see if other factions came out with enough points for the final game. Cygnar wouldn’t be able to rely as heavily on hanging back and shooting due to the scenarios, and Cryx playstyle tends to be classified as a glass hammer.

Apart from the fairly major mistakes in a couple of games, I think I made a big mistake in my choice of casters. I think carefully looking at the scenarios would have suggested different choices on my part, but then I wouldn’t have had the chance to bring back all of my Bastions ready to charge back into the fray, which was one of my favourite moments in the final game.

Overall then, I think as a test run of the system which Owen set up it was almost entirely sucessful. We had a few issues tracking the zones in the last scenario, and I’m not a big fan of ‘jack bonds other than the ones that come with epic casters, but I think the openness of knowing which scenarios and which faction you are facing result in fairly evenly sided matches. Plus I managed to total a Devastator during it, and that’s never a bad thing!

Owen: Playing 35pt ‘caster kill games can get a little formulaic with each player trying to pull off their tricks before the other. Not so when you play a campaign like this. Each game challenges you as you have to pay attention not only to the scenario winning conditions, but also to the losses you are willing to take to win the scenario. With the campaign view in mind both Peter and myself did some merciless slaying in the first two games. In the first and second games Peter and I (respectively) had the scenario win in the bag, but continued the carnage until our turns ended. It isn’t enough just to win, we wanted to take down as much of the enemy as possible too!

He may have a ruthless streak, but Peter is a great opponent. He got into the spirit of the campaign and played four great games. His Bastions, who refused to die, were a pain throughout the whole campaign and I’m certain that if there was a fifth game in the campaign I’d be toast. As it is I got lucky with two of the wins. One area I was happy with was my choice of ‘casters. Sorscha and Irusk are great scenario ‘casters. My one regret is not choosing Sorscha to lead my army in Game 1. For the ‘clear the area’ scenarios such as Mosh Pit and No Man’s Land her feat is awesome. Irusk is handy enough in a fight too as he can buff a lot of his army and exercise some great board control. Overall my army selection was good, but it was a little frustrating that I was left with a number of duplicate FA:1 units for the last game. That’s the nature of an attrition campaign.

I’m planning an update to the campaign rules. Whilst the ‘jack bond rules had zero effect in our campaign they have the potential to be very powerful, so I’ll change them to be optional. Other than that I’ll leave the structure as is. More play testing may necessitate changes, but for now the campaign rules seem fine.

I enjoyed that so much I’m itching to play another ANNIHILATION campaign. I might bring the Legion out to play next time.

Owen

Update A new version of the campaign rules are available here

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Honouring the fallen

The scene was one of devastation. The Menite crusaders were all fleeing the battle, inert ‘jacks abandoned and the injured left to die where they lay. The Khadoran jubilation was short lived. Yes, the enemy had been vanquished, but the cost has been high. Irusk lamented the death of every Khadoran soldier. Their blood had been spilt on Khadors own soil and he could think of no more noble death than to die defending this great empire. Still their loss hurt him.

Irusk ordered a nearby Mechanik to return to the camp to fetch medics to see to the wounded and get more Mechaniks to reclaim the damaged ‘jacks. He could sense the confusion felt by the Marauder. Both of its arms had been disabled in the battle and it moved around looking for a target. He could hardly believe it was over himself. The intensity and ferocity of the Protectorate’s attack had been extreme. Had they really expected to bring their crusade to these lands without the Khadoran army reacting? Either way, the last two days had been bloody and costly for both sides. A unit of Widowmakers lay dead in perfect formation to his right and he was surrounded by dead Machaniks who had rushed forward to reach the damaged Marauder. Who knows what the final death toll would be? All of these valiant sacrifices would not be forgotten.

Game 4: 50pt / Break The Line

It all comes down to this. I was ahead on campaign points with 6 against Peter’s 1.5, but with this game worth 5 ultimate victory could go either way. Both of us were suffering from the losses in the earlier games. I had several units that were down on numbers, but thankfully most of my ‘jacks were available and both of my ‘casters were viable for this game. Break The Line is a tough scenario requiring the army to fight on a broad front. Looking at my remaining pool I’m a little light on units. The loss of the Great Bears in the last game was particularly painful. Here’s what I had left before this game and the units marked in red were chosen to fight for Khador in this final battle -

Peter wasn’t faring a whole lot better. With Game 3 going down to a ‘caster kill Epic Severius wasn’t a viable choice for this game. He was still doing okay for units. Two units of Bastions, coupled with the High Reclaimer’s feat, could be game winners. Anyway, here is what Peter had to choose from, with the units marked in brown being chosen for this final game -

As you can see there isn’t a whole lot of army left for either faction! The attrition from the previous games was really dictating our army choices. Between the compromised army selection and the fact that the campaign win was still up for grabs I wasn’t feeling confident. In fact, they’re not the reasons I wasn’t feeling confident; it was Peter’s two units of Bastions…

It all comes down to this …

Break The Line is a tricky scenario; the battlefield between the two deployment zones is divided into six areas. From turn three if either player ends his turn controlling two areas in his half of the board and one in his opponent’s, he wins. To be sure you don’t give away an easy win you must context all three areas on your half of the table at least. The battlefield had two farmhouses in the centre, with some hills and a forest surrounding these. Peter won the dice roll, but let me go first. My deployment was divided into three battalions – the IFP and manhunter on the left; the Koldun Lord marshaling two Destroyers in the middle; and Irusk’s battlegroup and Widowmakers on the right. The remaining elements were positioned to be a little flexible to move between the middle and right areas. I had to proxy a couple of Mechaniks as I only own four.

Peter put the full unit of Zealots (with Monolith Bearer) and a Paladin to challenge my left (not shown in this photo). The bulk of his force was concentrated spanning the line between the middle and left areas with the High Reclaimer in the centre, ready to do what he does best – reclaim the souls of the fallen. In this group were two units of Bastions, two Choirs, a small unit of Zealots and a Paladin. Peter had the Redeemer positioned slightly towards the right area, the Blessing of Vengeance in the middle and the Dervish to the left. He also had to do a bit of proxying with Trollkin Scattergunners representing a unit of Bastions, some TFG representing Zealots and Deliverers pretending to be a Choir!

My turn one was unremarkable with everyone pushing forward and Irusk casting Superiority on the Juggernaut. Peter’s first turn should have been equally unremarkable were it not for the amazing shots from the Redeemer at the Widowmakers. He managed to hit one directly and deviate another shot onto two more making three dead snipers.

Turn two is when the jockeying for position really began. The IFP had been badly stung by the Zealots in our last game, so I was determined not to let that happen again. They moved forward into Shield Wall, but kept their distance from the Zealots. On the right the Juggernaut moved up to go around the back of one of the farmhouses to try to slow the approaching Zealots on that side. The Drakhun and War Dog moved up for potential counter charges while the Destroyers bombarded the Blessing of Vengeance from afar, doing some damage. Irusk activated and cast Inhospitable Ground and cast Iron Flesh on the Drakhun (stupidly denying him the potential of a counter charge!).

Peter pushed everything forward on his turn. On the left the zealots moved up and lobbed bombs at the IFP. Luckily (for me!) they proved to be out of range or mostly inaccurate. Those that struck (or deviated onto) the IFP did no damage. The Zealots on the right threw their bombs at the Juggernaut dealing little damage. After the amazing luck with the REdeemer in the first turn Peter’s dice luck seemed to have abandoned him. In the centre the Bastions moved up menacingly and the High Reclaimer cast Ashes to Ashes through his arc node at the Marauder. It bounced into Irusk and the War Dog. Irusk and the Marauder were unharmed, but the dog was reduced to single box of damage.

Turn three had to be about killing Bastions for me. I doubted I could take out both units so I decided to concentrate on the one coming towards Irusk’s battalion. I hit them with the Destoyer’s Bombards, charged them with the Drakhun and War Dog and had the Juggernaut trample over the Zealots to get into them. After all that I had killed four of the five and reduced the last man to two points of damage. There was nothing else I could throw at them and with the Reclaimer’s feat still to come, and the additional focus from the souls of the dead I knew next turn was going to hurt. Irusk cast Inhospitable Ground and feated, hoping to mitigate some of the damage next turn. I charged the Blessing of Vengeance with the Marauder, but forgot about its shield. He used defensive strike to hit me with it and bounced the Marauder back 1″.

On the left the IFP ran up to the Zealots and then used Defensive Formation to ensure their B2B triangles provided them with Shield Wall. I hadn’t damaged the Zealots (they were Invulnerable this turn anyway), but at least they were nearly all engaged by the 2″ reach of the Blasting Pikes. The Manhunter pushed forward a bit on that side too.

As expected Peter feated on his turn and returned the Bastions to full strength and added a Zealot to the unit that was trampled. The Bastions proceeded to demolish the Drakhun and the War Dog and deal some decent damage to the Juggernaut. The Paladin and Redeemer charged the Juggernaut as well. It’s movement was knocked out, but it was otherwise functional. There from other unit of Bastions charged the Marauder and managed to barely scratch it. Peter’s damage dice (4D6 on a charge) were appalling.

On the left the Zealots maneuvered with the IFP killing a couple with bombs and the Paladin. A well placed bomb took out the Manhunter.

On turn four I needed to stall Peter’s army. The Marauder and the Destroyers (one with range the other in melee) got stuck into the undamaged Bastion unit and dealt a lot of damage to it. The Juggernaut took a couple of wild swings, but was ineffective. The Mechaniks moved up to get close for a combat repair if needed and block charge lanes to Irusk. He cast Inhospitable Ground again, but was beginning to feel the heat. The Widowmaker Kaptain who had been taking pot shots at the Zealots on the right continued to do so. On the left the IFP killed a lot of Zealots, but not enough for them to flee, and took out the Paladin.

On Peter’s turn four he moved the two units of Bastions in to take out the Juggernaut and deal some substantial damage to the Marauder. I didn’t spot it at the time, and thankfully neither did he, but in moving the Bastions he had left a firing lane open for Irusk. He cast Ashes to Ashes onto the Mechaniks, killing all bar one and dealing four points of damage to Irusk. The Redeemer fired another miracle shot to kill the Widowmaker Kaptain who was in cover (effectively DEF 20!) with a double 6s. On the left the Dervish and choir moved towards the IFP. The Zealots proved ineffective in melee.

I needed to finish it in turn five as Peter really had me on the ropes. The Juggernaut was gone, the Marauder was badly damaged and the left flank wasn’t going to hold much longer. I left all focus on Irusk with the intention of putting two Swordcannon shots into the High Reclaimer. Before I did that I decided to fire the unengaged Destroyer at him. It was marginally out of range, but the deviation drifted onto the Reclaimer. The boosted blast damage roll was high. The other Destroyer stepped back from combat with two Bastions to take a shot. The free strikes caused a lot of damage, but no systems were taken out. His shot was in range and on target. The damage roll was again big and the High Reclaimer went down. Arcing fire Bombards are a thing of beauty! Irusk didn’t need all of that focus in the end. Khador wins.

Not quite the final thoughts

Wow, Khador may have won, but it was at a high price. When you look at the remaining Khadoran forces I’m not sure I could field a viable 25pt army from the 100pts that started the campaign.

The win in this game gives me the campaign win by a decisive margin, but every game was close. The result could have easily gone the other way. Peter and I will write up some concluding remarks for the campaign and I’ll post them soon.

Owen

Update Concluding comments can be found here.

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This is an article I wrote a couple of months ago for Issue 3 of the Uplink magazine [pdf]

“Play like you’ve got a pair!” is the catchphrase for this fast-paced aggressive game. If you like the sound of a wargame that has a stunning range of miniatures, is based in an immersive and compelling world, has some of the most beautiful books produced by any gaming company, is balanced and has a set of rules that are rock solid then Warmachine is the game for you! Warmachine has been around for about seven years now and is produced by Seattle-based Privateer Press. Its second version, called Warmachine MkII, released at the start of 2010 after an open field test in which thousands of players contributed feedback to tweak and refine the game and model rules. This award-winning game has earned Privateer Press a devoted set of followers worldwide who love their games equally for their strong character-driven storyline and fantastic gameplay.

I mean, what’s not to love, Warmachine is a game full of massive steam-powered machines of war that can headbutt, slam and throw their enemies to the ground before pounding them to oblivion. These machines, named warjacks (or just ‘jacks), are controlled by battle mages known as warcasters. The background of the Iron Kingdoms, a set of countries on the continent of Western Immoran, is one of almost constant war. The warcasters are the powerful protagonists at the centre of these conflicts that are tasked with leading the armies of their countries. They are warriors beyond compare who can wield potent magics to cast spells and boost their ‘jacks in battle. In the world of Warmachine the warjacks are sentient constructs of armour, weaponry, pistons, gears and steam-powered might centred around a cortex. The cortex is a delicate piece of magically constructed engineering that gives the ‘jack basic intelligence and allows it to operate autonomously. It also enables the warcaster to see through the ‘jacks eyes and push it to extremes. This is the unique selling point of the game, the focus mechanic that represents magic. The fact that the game has exceptionally well thought out and balanced rules doesn’t hurt either!

Before I can talk about how focus works, I first need to introduce the basic combat mechanic. Like most wargames every model has a set of stats that represent its movement, combat abilities and capacity to sustain damage. Warmachine does not rely on players learning off tables to calculate the chances to hit and wound an enemy. Rather a player simply rolls 2D6, adds them to a combat statistic and compares them to their opponents defense. Equal or beat their defense and it’s a hit. Wounding them is done in a similar manner – roll 2D6, add the strength (and power) of your weapon and if it beats their armour they sustain damage. It is in these dice rolls that the delicate balance of the game lies. Everything is based around average rolls. For example, most ‘jacks have a melee attack (MAT) statistic of 6. A high defense (DEF) on a warcaster would be 16. On average rolls a ‘jack would have a hard time hitting a ‘caster. Here’s were a ‘jacks controlling ‘caster can help out.

Every warcaster has a focus statistic (typically around 6 or 7). At the start of a turn the player can allocate focus from their ‘caster to ‘jacks to enable them to do exceptional things during their activation. With focus a ‘jack can perform power attacks, such as throws, slams, armlocks and headbutts, and importantly boost attack and damage rolls. Boosting allows the ‘jack to add an additional die to a roll. That DEF 16 warcaster seems a lot easier to hit now that the ‘jack is rolling 3D6! Focus allocation is one of the key skills in the game as the ‘caster can also use focus to cast spells and boost their own attacks. Every warcaster has a unique list of spells that they can cast to destroy their enemy, control the batlefield or help out their own army. They also have a once per game feat that can dramatically change the face of the game. When playing against a new warcaster the first thing you do is check out their feat to see what it does!

So, that’s the basics of the gameplay – you have a powerful warcaster (or two!) at the centre of your army who pushes it to excel in battle. Warcasters are so focal that changing a warcaster can completely change how an army performs. Armies are constructed in a similar fashion to other games, you set a point total and add ‘jacks, units and solos until you reach the limit. Warmachine is a game of synergies. Some units and solos work well with each other and specific ‘casters. Games tend to be scenario focused were there are two winning conditions – win the scenario or kill the enemy warcaster. Larger games, 50 or 75 points, can have a large number of miniatures on the table and will take 2-3 hours to play. At this scale Warmachine isn’t the skirmish game that it appears to be at initial glance. The carnage is beautiful and battles can change quickly as a player who seems to be winning the scenario suddenly finds his warcaster under threat. However, even small games that comprise a warcaster and a few ‘jacks are great fun. These battlebox games last less than an hour and are so-called because they are made up of the contents to a factions basic boxed set. Each of these boxes contains a warcaster, a few ‘jacks, their stat cards and a quickstart version of the rules (which are also available for download). If you’re considering playing Warmachine this is a decent place to start.

There are essentially six factions in Warmachine – Cygnar, Khador, Protectorate of Menoth, Cryx, Retribution of Scyrah and Mercenaries. Coming from games like Warhammer and 40k this might look like very few, but the fact that each faction has a lot of warcasters (as many as a dozen in several cases) really mixes things up. These ‘casters completely change the character of an army, so there is a lot of strategic diversity in the game. There are a lot of resources on the Internet that talk about the features and differences of the different factions, so I won’t go into them here. Each faction has a broad theme and a unique aesthetic. For example, the Khadorans could be characterised as a cold power hungry race that value superior armour and bone crushing weapons over speed and precision. Their large brutal ‘jacks are symbols of a stoic people and an ever expanding empire. Each faction has its own character. The factions are well balanced as Warmachine is released incrementally, i.e. each book release sees every faction get something new, so you don’t end up with army books developed under an old edition become obsolete. As MkII is a new edition of Warmachine everything was reviewed and updated. The releases of MkII during 2010 will see each faction getting a Forces book that details the background and rules for every miniature in that faction. From 2011 the game will return to the incremental releases

There has never been a better time to get into Warmachine. It is a mature game, with lovely miniatures and a great set of rules. Ask a friend to give you a demo, or take the plunge and pick up a couple of battleboxes, but whatever you do remember to “play like you’ve got a pair!”.

Owen

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My Marauder had used Combo Smite to slam Deathjack towards Tartarus and the Bane Thralls. Unfortunately I only rolled 1″ on the slam, but that’s another story. Anthony, my savvy opponent, saw the opportunity to cause a little mayhem. He loaded Deathjack with focus and used Shake Effect to overcome the knockdown. On his activation Deathjack trampled across the pikeman and wardog (who made his tough check) to make contact with the Juggernaut. He then proceeded to almost wreck it with additional attacks (bought with focus). Beautiful.

I remember when ‘jacks used to get bogged down completely by infantry. Thankfully that’s a lot harder to do now.

Owen

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The Khadoran Avalanche…

Irusk’s attempt to blunt the early enemy advance had been less than successful. To add insult to injury he had lost the only Devastator in his force to a rare moment of impetuousness. Severius had brought confusion to the Khadoran ranks, something Irusk was not accustomed to and had managed to sieze the high ground. The first battle had not gone well.

With the momentum back in his beloved Khador’s favour it was his turn to deal damage to the enemy. Severius was again trying to push forward on his damne crusade. Now was the time to bring the Khadoran avalanche to bear. These Menites would have to retreat of be buried by it’s might.

With a win apiece things were close. I was marginally ahead in the campaign points and had sustained slightly fewer losses. Things start to hot up with Game 3 which is a 35pt game played using the Killing Field scenario. I had a win from the last game so I could nominate one unit to gain Advance Deployment. Peter’s Protectorate of Menoth army was led by Epic Severius as in the first game and I had Irusk commanding my force. I’m hoping to avenge Irusk’s loss from the campaign opener.

Game 3: 15pt / Killing Field Scenario

Peter’s force comprised a unit of Bastions, a unit Zealots and Monolith Bearer, a Choir, a Vassal, the Blessing of Vengeance, a Revenger and a Templar and was led by Epic Severius. My army was commanded by Irusk and contained a Marauder, a Juggernaut, a full unit if Iron Fang Pikemen and UA, a unit of Mechaniks, a unit of Greylords, the Great Bears, a War Dog and a Drakhun (with dismount). It was a toss up between the Great Bears and the IFP for my bonus advance deploy unit, but I opted for the IFP.

Killing Field has three objectives marked along the centre line and players receive a point at the end of their turn for each point they hold. The first to 7 points wins.

I had my IFP and Great Bears deployed on the left to contest that objective marker. The bulk of the rest of my army was in in the centre. Irusk cast Iron Flesh on the Great Bears and Superiority on the Juggernaut (which was upkept until the last turn). The advance deployed IFP charged up (through rough terrain) to take the left hand objective. The Juggernaut moved towards the right hand objective with the Mechaniks following close behind.

The Greylords moved up behind them. Meanwhile the War dog moved up behind Irusk and the Drakhun moved out in front of him. Opposite this main part of the Khadoran force stood the Templar, Vassal, Choir and eSeverius. Across from the IFP and Great Bears was a Revenger and a load of Zealots. I was confident that I could keep that flank, but my confidence would be short lived…

The Zealots moved up cautiously as did the Revenger. It arced Influence onto a couple of IFP and had them kill their comrades. On my turn I saw a chance to charge the Revenger with Great Bears. Unfortunately only one could make it in. His dished out a load of damage, but the bounce back pushed him out of melee range. Severius responded by arcing everything he could at the Great Bears and IFP. This coupled with the Zealots’ bombs wiped out the Great Bears and decimated the IFP.

On the right things weren’t looking a whole lot better. The Bastions advanced forward to take the objective on that side and the Blessing of Vengeance moved up to arc spells towards the advancing Khadorans. I had little to realistically counter them, so when the opportunity presented itself the Juggernaut moved into the arc node and threw it towards the Bastions. Unfortunately the throw went a little long and it landed behind them. The Greylords moved up to spray the Bastions, dealing some damage and then the Mechaniks ran between them and the Bastions.

In the middle the Marauder slammed into the Templar and put it on its ass. Unfortunately it only went back 1″. A few more inches and it would have been an unpleasant surprise for Severius! While the Templar was down the Drakhun charged in (with Battle Lust cast on it) to deal a load of damage. The War Dog ran forward to make Severius second guess his movements. Irusk moved up and popped his feat primarily to protect the warriors on the right flank. With my warcaster, a warjack and a Drakhun in close proximity Severius was under real pressure.

On the left the remaining IFP charged the Revenger and nearly totalled it. I sneakily left the standard bearer on the objective. At this point it was 4:1 to me. Peter responded by Hex Blasting Irusk for only a small bit of damage and then feating, hoping to pit my army against me. He began to advance one of my Greylords into a position to spray Irusk, but I opted to free strike him. Poor dice rolls conspired to ensure that that was all the feat really did. The Bastions charged the Juggernaut and the troopers on the right. They dealt some damage to the ‘jack, but tough rolls and misses meant the majority of the troops survived. The Templar stood up and moved to engage the Marauder. The Choir charged the mutt killing him.

Things were going south quickly. The flanks were collapsing and Peter was soon going to start picking up control points. I slammed the Templar back again, but failed to take it out. The troops an Juggernaut on the left took swings at the Bastions, but didn’t do enough to kill them. Having kept all of his focus he moved into a position to shoot Severius. Two boosted shots later and he was down. Game 3 to Khador.

Peter: Looking at the scenario for Game 3 I was fairly confident that I could win it. The combination of a large control area and Sevvy’s upkeep spell that gave an extra attack and damage dice seemed like they put me in a great position. Then I realised the spell had a range of self and things started to look a little bit shaky.

My plan was to try and contest all three of the objectives, so I had a Templar in the middle with beat back to shift things off the marker, and two Revengers with their repulsor shields to help keep things away from them. Zealots and Bastions were stationed on each flank as they could act without focus.

Of course, the plan did require me getting to the objectives first which just wasn’t to be. Owen got first turn, plus the bonus from the last game meant he could advance deploy a unit. Then Inhospitable Ground went up and I was going to be finding it very difficult to get into the middle of the table without setting myself up to be charged and destroyed.

In the end I took a chance at an assassination and left Sevvy out in the open and was punished for it, but I did take a few positives away from the game. Getting rid of the Great Bears was just fun, and clearing out a good chunk of Iron Fangs will hopefully limit the amount Owen can play outside his control area (I’ll quite happily send a unit of Bastions against a marshalled jack). I think the most important thing is that I only lost one choir member in the whole game, so I’ve now got lots of infantry choices for the final game meaning I can cover a lot more area than the High Reclaimer’s control area.

Owen: Wow, that was a tough game. Losing the Great Bears and pretty much all of the Iron Fangs is really going to hurt in the next game. Failing to take out the Templar and the Revenger was disappointing, but taking out Severius was quite nice! Irusk is a great scenario ‘caster, but when he needs to finish things he’s more than able. An outcome of the game is that Irusk has developed a bond with both of his ‘jacks.

My losses are starting to mount up. I can field a viable force for the last game, but it is going to be ‘jack heavy. This win puts Khador in the driving seat, but everything is still left to play for. I’m really looking forward to Game 4; the empire will either send the Menites packing convincingly or the Protectorate will gain a toe hold in southern Khador.

Owen

Update Game 4 can be found here.

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