Mark III Journeyman Battle 3

Magnus vs Helynna - Mangled Metal, 10 Points

   It's been fun so far, but now it's time to increase the points. We each had ten points to spend, which could only be added to the battlegroup. For me it was easy. Magnus is the only one that can take his unique Renegade light warjack, and it is ten points exactly so it went straight in. It stands out on a number of levels. It's the Mercs only arc node, it can really grind through things in melee with both Critical Shred and Sustained Attack, and it has a one shot Rng 14, POW 16, AOE 4, auto-knockdown gun.

   Myantek decided to add more control aspects to her army with a Gorgon. Anything shot by it becomes -2 SPD, which should give her even more options with all the movement shenanigans she already has.

Army Lists

Magnus the Traitor
Mangler
Rover
Renegade

 vs

Magister Helynna
Manticore
Griffon
Chimera
Gorgon

Scenario  

    At 10 points the scenario continues to be Mangled Metal. We fight until the enemy caster is dead.

 

 

Set Up

   I won the roll and decided go first. Myantek decided to pick the side with the trees to hide behind.

Turn 1

Mercs

   Magnus put Snipe (+4 Rng on target model) on the Rover, Blur (+3 Defense against range and magic attacks) on the Renegade, and Death Ward (+2 ARM and pick hit locations) on the Mangler. He then charged the a Retribution jack and moved 8 inches before his turned ended with the failed charge. The Mangler, Renegade, and Rover all ran.
   This probably sounds familiar to the other games but he's an upkeep caster. It's what he does.

Retribution

   The turn started with the Chimera Apperating (place completely within 2" during the upkeep phase) forward. 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 advanced. The jacks all ran forward and the used Rhythm of War to shift around a bit.

Turn 2

Mercs

   Magnus upkept his spells for free thanks to his Resourceful ability. I decided to go for it and try and live them dream, and assigned one focus to both the Rover and Renegade. After doing some measuring to see if everything was in range the Renegade advanced and shot its Obliterator shot at Helynna. It hit directly and knocked her down doing 13 points of damage. Helynna spent a focus to abosrb five damage.

   Magnus then cast Arcantrik Bolt (Cost 2, Rng 10, POW 12, A warjack damaged becomes stationary for one round) through the Renegades arc node, boosting to hit and then damage. Helynna took 11 more damage points and spent her last focus to reduce that to 6 and live.

   Finally the Rover advanced and shot Helynna with its boosted POW 14 gun and that was that.

Afterward

Defenstrator

   Well I went for it and it paid off. Myantek had made sure she wasn't in charge range of any of my models and was planning to start shooting me up next turn. But Helynna was hanging out in the open and I was able to put all my shots into her. The lesson? Assassination wins games
    It wasn't a great game though, so we're going to be playing it over again next week and put the lessons learned into action.

Myantek

   This game can be best summed up with a Penny Arcade Warmachine quote. Well that's bullshit, and you're bullshit, and your whole army is bullshit, and this whole table is bullshit, except my side which is balanced.
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/02/14

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.

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

    The Arcane Tempest Gun Mages, or ATGM for short, are the most popular Cygnaran unit with good reason. Their guns are magic which lets them shoot a whole bunch of things you're normally unable to. Their Unit attachment lets them ignore Stealth which lets them shoot a whole bunch more. Their UA is also arguably the best Jack Marshal in the game, granting the units Rune Shots to the jacks under its control. And the Rune Shots themselves let the ATGM reach a long way out, or even shove stuff around the board. It is a rare turn they can't do anything.

   Their Unit Attachment is also one of the ones you take all the time. Taking the unit without the attachment is just never done, it adds so much.

 

Captain Farilor and Legionnaire Unit Standard

   Farilor and Standard are an interesting unit attachment, because they transform the feel of the Legionnaires a lot. At 6 points the Legionnaires are a good throw away unit and can get in the way of incoming models and feed the Spawning Vessel when they die. At 3 points for the Unit Attachment they become an 9 point unit that you rather expect to get some work done.

   This means I only take Farilor in certain lists. Generally ones where there is some way to stack the durability he provides the Legionnaires with something else. When stacked with Epic Thagrosh's Dragons Blood for example, the Legionnaires are a solid ARM 18 all the time, and an impressive ARM 22 and immune to being made Stationary or knocked down when they use Iron Zeal. Otherwise I don't bother with Farilor and let the Legionnaires feed the Vessel.

Stormwall

The Stormwall has been a big deal on a number of levels. Cygnar relies on its jacks to do the heavy lifting, and to provide the hardest hitting guns. But generally if a jack does one it doesn't do the other. The Stormwall does both, and brings good covering fire, and synergises with Cygnar's lighting powers, which are one of its most potent metheods of troop clearing.

It's also a kick ass model. I like it becuase it really captures the grace and technological prowess of the faction while still feeling very Iron Kingdoms. The only conversion work I did was to add the contector wires from the generator to the gauntlets. It makes it look more natural to power its electro-leaps, and ties it in with the Thunderhead.

Objective Markers

I picked up the resin objective markers from PP awhile ago and finally painted them up. I normally focus on my armies, and they all have a limited colour pallete to keep a cohesive look, so it was nice to be able to just open the paint box and grab what colours I wanted.

I put a brighter colour on each one to help make them stand out a bit since there was so much wood and metal on them. I also can't help but feel I should pick up another box since I normally have more than one game running at my house. Maybe I'll try making some first. They're nice but not cheap.

Cygnar Army Photo

I've had a few people ask for a group shot of my Cygnar army, and with the Storm Strider done I don't see me painting anything else for the Swans for the rest of the year. Although the Stormwall Colossal is very tempting.

My collection of Cygnar is of course quite a bit larger, but it's good to see all the painted stuff together. It's surprising how blue the army looks considering it's just an accent colour. The same with the yellow. They are far more sparse on the miniatures than the metalics, but they are what stands out. I like the balance though. The army has Cygnar's colours without being overpowered by them.

Three Lancers

So here are all my Lancers completed. You may notice that one of these things is not like the other. That's because when I picked up my second Cygnar battlebox I didn't pay attention and ended up switching the Lancer and Charger bodies. Another change is that I converted the Lancer on the far left by switching its weapon arm with my other Charger. I cut and repinned the weapons on both so I could have the Lancer in a more aggressive over hand grip.