Legion Swordsmen

   In Mark 3 PP decided to make Swordsmen more of a staple and priced them accordingly. The funny thing is I liked them in Mark 2 just fine, and like them a bit less in the Mark 3 environment. Yes there's lots of jacks for them to beat up on, but infantry clearing got better as well, and aside from their DEF 14 Swordsmen are pretty squishy.

Mark III Journeyman Battle 2

Magnus vs Helynna - Mangled Metal, 0 Points

   Our last game was fun but there was definitely a sense that neither of us knew quite what we were doing with our casters, so we decided to play another 0 Point game before expanding our lists.

Army Lists

Magnus the Traitor
Mangler
Rover

vs

Magister Helynna
Manticore
Chimera
Griffon

 

 

Scenario

   Assassination. Kill the enemy caster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Set Up

   Myantek won the roll and chose to go first. I decided to pick my side because with no pathfinder that crater looked like a pain to deal with. Myantek set upon her left hand side while I set up on my right with an eye to getting on the hill.

Turn 1 

Retribution

   The Chimera Apparated forward (place this model anywhere completely within 2 inches). Helynna cast Rhythm of War (Warjacks in the battlegroup can advance 3 inches after all models have activated.) and Deceleration (+2 ARM vs Ranged and Magic attacks) and then advanced. The Griffon, Chimera, and Manticore all ran, then the whole battlegroup advanced another 3" thanks to Rhythm of War.

Mercs

   Magnus put Blur (+3 Defense against range and magic attacks.) on himself, Snipe (+4 Rng on target model.) on the Rover, and Death Ward (+2 ARM and pick hit locations.) on the Mangler, then advanced up behind the hill. The Mangler ran on to the hill, but the Rover didn't have quite enough movement to get on and ended up behind it.

Turn 2

Retribution

   Helynna paid one focus to upkeep Rhythm of War. The Chimera Apparated forward another 2". The Chimera, Griffon, and Manticore all advanced, with the Chimera 10" away from the Mangler. Helynna cast Obliteration (Cost 4, Rng 10, AOE 5, POW 15) though the arc node at the Mangler, but a low damage roll meant it bounced off thanks to Death Ward. The jacks then all backed out of retaliation range thanks to Rhythm of War.

Mercs

   Magnus upkept everything for free thanks to his Resourceful ability and assigned one focus to the Rover. The Rover advanced and shot at the Chimera, boosting to hit and damage. A good roll did 13 damage to the jack, blowing off its power field. Magnus and the Mangler simply advanced.

Turn 3

Retribution

   Helynna upkept Rhythm of War and assigned two focus to the Manticore. The Manticore advanced and rolled 1 for the number of shots it had this turn. It shot at the Mangler with a boosted to hit roll but with bad dice it missed due to the elevation bonus of the Mangler being on the hill. The Chimera and Griffon moved back and Helynna advanced forward and fixed 4 points of damage on the Chimera. The Manticore then used its Rhythm of War move to back up out of charge range.

Mercs

   Magnus upkept all his spells and assigned one focus to the Rover. The Rover advanced and with another good damage roll crippled the Chimer's right arm system. The Mangler then advanced into charge range of the Manticore, daring it to come in. Magnus advanced off the hill behind the Rover.

Turn 4

Retribution

   Helynna again upkept Rhythm of War. Helynna activated first and used her feat (+3 ARM to battlegroup. Remove all damage from warjack power fields. Ignore the effects of crippled systems for one ). She then cast Obliteration though the Chimera at the Rover doing 5 damage. Magnus spent a focus to shrug off damage from the blast. The Manticore aimed and shot the Rover doing another 6 points of damage. The Chimera and Manticore then retreated using Rhythm of War while the Griffon advanced forward.

Mercs

   Magnus upkept all his spells and assigned one focus to the Rover. It advanced and shot the Chimera for 7 damage, breaking its just fixed power field. The Mangler moved back into charge range of the Manticore. Magnus advanced to the Rover and fixed 3 points of damage.

Turn 5

Retribution

   Helynna upkept Rhythm of War and assigned two focus to both the Manticore and the Griffon. The Manticore spent a focus to (Gain +3 STR) and charged the Mangler. It hit but a bad damage roll meant it only did 4 which I assigned to column three thanks to Death Ward. The Manticore hit again with its second initial attack but bounced, bought an attack and did 3 more.
  
   The Griffon then charged the Rover and did 6 damage. The shield attack bounced, but it bought and boosted a second attack and did 5 more damage. Helynna advanced and fixed 5 more damage on the Chimera, which at this point between the repairs and feat had 15 damage points fixed on it so far. The Chimera then advanced thanks to Rhythm of War.

Mercs

   Magnus upkept his spells again and assigned two focus to both the Rover and Mangler. He then advanced, used his feat Hit and Run (Models in battlegroup gain Parry. After all models have activated all the models in his battlegroup can run for free.) and fixed 3 more points on the Rover. Last he cast Iron Aggression (Target warjack may run, charge, or slam for free. Melee attack rolls on the warjack are boosted.) on the Mangler.

   The Mangler then advanced and used its Thresher *attack (This model makes one attack against every target in its melee range and LOS. Thresher attacks are simultaneous.). This did 8 damage to the Griffon and crippled its shield. Between the Manglers two initial attacks and three more bought attacks it wrecked the Manticore.
  
   The Rover then attacked the Griffon. It missed its initial Axe attack, hit with the Shield for 2 points, missed with its Point Blank (may make a melee attack with its ranged weapon with a .5" melee range) gun shot. It then bought an attack and did 3 points, bought and missed, bought and did 4 points more. The whole battlegroup then ran, with the Mangler engaging Helynna and the Chimera, and the Rover getting close with Magnus behind it.

Turn 6

Retribution

   The Chimera Apparated behind the Mangler. Helynna assigned one focus to the Griffon. She then cast Obliteration though the Chimera at Magnus needing to hit DEF 17 thanks to Blur. A boosted roll made it and hit Magnus for 7 points of damage. She then risked the free strike from the Mangler to shoot at him and took 13 points of damage, reducing her to 3 points. Her shot missed.

   The Griffon then advanced and was just in melee range of Magnus. A solid hit did 9 more points of damage leaving him at one. The Chimera then advanced and made it to melee range. Spending its focus to boost to hit it did, and managed to do the 1 point of damage it needed to kill Magnus.

Afterward

Defenstrator

  There were two things to blame for that loss. The first was the Rover. As the saying goes, you had one job. The Griffon was sitting in front of it, damaged with no Shield, and it had six attacks. Could it close the deal? Nope. That left the Griffon around to deal the big smack to Magnus that put him in danger range.

   The other problem was me screwing up. I had a plan for the turn, which was kill the two jacks and then put pressure on Helynna, and followed it even though the Griffon lived. What I should have done was use my feat to reposition and trap the Griffon, making sure I could kill it next turn while keeping Magnus safe. Then it would have been Magnus and his two heavies against Helynna and her one light.

Myantek

   I got lucky.  He says that there are key things he did wrong, etc.  I got lucky.  I figured there wasn't a whole lot of options on my last turn.  He was going to catch me no matter where I went to hide so I went for it and did just enough damage to get the win.

  

Mark III Journeyman Battle

Magnus vs Helynna - Mangled Metal, 0 Points

   It's been a while since the last update. But Warmachine and Hordes MkIII has arrived and we have been enjoying it. Myantek and I decided to play the armies that we had not been using as much, so she bought the Retribution Battlebox and I bought a Rover, which gave us each the core units of the Journeyman League. We play big games on Friday with our friends and on Sunday evenings will be doing our own Journeyman games.

Army Lists

Magnus the Traitor
Mangler
Rover

vs

Magister Helynna
Manticore
Griffon
Chimera

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scenario

   The scenario was simple, kill the enemy caster.

Set Up

   I won the roll to go first and Myantek picked the side. With just the warcaster and two jacks deployment was straightforward. I placed centrally with an eye for cover as I advanced. Myantek did the same opposite me.

 Turn 1

Mercs

   Magnus put Snipe (+4 Rng on target model) on the Rover, Blur (+3 Defense against range and magic attacks) on himself, and Death Ward (+2 ARM and pick hit locations) on the Mangler. He then charged the Griffon and moved 8 inches before his turned ended with the failed charge. The Mangler and Rover both ran.

Retribution

   The Griffon used its Fleet ability to gain +2 movement and advanced 8 inches. The Chimera Apparated (place this model anywhere completely within 2 inches) and advanced. The Chimera advanced and placed a wall template. Helynna advanced and cast Deceleration (+2 ARM vs Ranged and Magic attacks) and Rhythm of War (Warjacks in the battlegroup can advance 3 inches after all models have activated). The jacks then moved forward another 3 inches.

Turn 2

Mercs

   Magnus upkept all the spells on his battlegroup for free thanks to his Resourceful ability, and assigned one focus to the Rover. The Rover advanced and shot at Helynna, but missed even though it boosted to hit. Magnus then advanced and put Blur on the Rover, and the Mangler ran to block line of sight to Magnus.

Retribution

   Helynna spent one focus to upkeep Rhythm of War and assigned one focus to the Manticore. The Manticore advanced and shot. Myantek rolled two for the number of shots on its d3. It hit the Mangler with the first shot but the boosted damage still bounced thanks to Death Ward. The second shot missed. The Chimera Apparated forward. Helynna cast Obliteration ( Cost 4, Rng 10, AOE 5, POW 15) through it at the Rover, hit, boosted damage and did five damage to the one column. Magnus spent a focus to prevent the damage from the AOE. The Warjacks then repositioned 3 inches.

Turn 3

Mercs

    Magnus upkept for free due to Resourceful, and assigned one focus to the Rover. The Rover advanced and shot the Griffon, doing 2 points of damage. Magnus then used his Feat, Hit and Run (Models in battlegroup gain Parry. After all models have activated all the models in his battlegroup can run for free.) and charged, ending his activation.. The Mangler also ran. During the feat move the Mangler and Rover ran to engage Helynna, while Magnus ran past to safety.

Retribution

   Helynna upkept nothing and assigned one focus to both the Chimera and Griffon. The Chimera Apparated behind the Mangler. The Griffon smashed the Mangler with a roll of 6,5,5, for 8 points, then bounced off with the shield. Helynna struck the Mangler twice, pushing it five inches away with her due to her staffs Force Grip (Instead of causing damage, an enemy model hit by this attack can be pushed up to 3" in any direction.). The Chimera then charged Magnus and hit with its combo strike. Magnus spent a focus to reduce the damage but still took 7 points. The Manticore advanced, spent a focus to gain +3 Strength, and did 8 damage to the Mangler.

Turn 4

Mercs

    Magnus upkept for free again and assigned two focus to both the Mangler and the Rover. Magnus attacked the Chimer and missed, then cast Iron Aggression (Target warjack may run, charge, or slam for free. Melee attack rolls on the warjack are boosted.) the Mangler. The Mangler then advanced toward Helynna taking 5 damage from a free strike from the Chimera. It then used its Thresher special attack, striking the Griffon for 10 points of damage. Boosting the attack on Helynna it did 5 points of damage, then bought and boosted to hit another attack for 6 more, with Helynna spending focus to reduce both those hits.

   The Rover then moved in, and finished Helynna off.

Afterward

Defenstrator

   Well that was interesting. I felt I had to get in on Myantek right away as she was going to just out shoot me or yank a jack in with Helynna's staff and tear me apart piecemeal. So I popped my feat and rushed her. Was it the right move? I got away with it, but I think that was more because of Myantek's inexperience with playing Helynna rather than any tactical brilliance on my part.

Myantek

   I'm not used to assigning focus.  Too many games with Hordes where I can do things on the fly.  Also, Kaya can get herself out of trouble much easier than Helynna can.  I made a lot of mistakes.  Mostly due to inexperience with the models (for instance, Apparate is supposed to happen in the maintenance phase, oops).

   Helynna is certainly an interesting caster.  I can see possibilities but balancing 'jacks and spells is going to be the tricky part.