Umm…Hello!

My name is Adam, and the wonderful leprechaun overlords of overload online, have allowed me to grace your computer screens once a week, to talk about games I’ve played, and occasionally I might spout some tiresome “Tech” about the garbage lists that I’m playing.

Some background about myself before we get started. I’ve been playing warmachine for about 18 months now. I’m currently playing protectorate, which is now my 3rd faction (Everyone else’s toys are better than mine after 6 months I swear). I play for the Sheffield Honour Guard, as sponsored by the wonderful Outpost Wargames.

So whats this battle report business?

I started posting my battle reports on the PP forums a little while a go, somewhat infrequently (Essentially whenever I was bored at work) and as the tournament season has begun to ramp up this year, i’ve enjoyed writing my reports more and more, and decided to make it a regular thing!

This week I had some revelation that I going to rekindle an old flame, and bring Vindictus out of my case after a long long slumber.

The list;

Vindictus +6

– Devout 5

Vessel of Judgement 9

High Paladin Dartan Vilmon 3

Paladin of the Order of the Wall 2

Paladin of the Order of the Wall 2

Knight Exemplar Seneschal 3

Vassal Mechanik 1

The Covenant of Menoth 2

Gorman di Wulfe 2

Rhupert Carvolo, the Piper of Ord 2

Holy Zealots (Max) 6

– Monolith Bearer 2

Exemplar Bastions (Max) 8

Exemplar Errants (Max) 8

– Officer & Standard 2

The gimmick…

The idea behind this was simply to pack a list full of ridiculously hard to kill models, to make vindictus’ feat even more punishing. Imagine your opponents horror as his own models die damaging your errants, for them to then tough and survive! A glorious, glorious thought.

The battle engine made the cut, because god forbid one of your precious models actually die…You need full value! If you’re going to die, drag someone down with you I say!

The Game…

My opponent this week was the awesome Simon, a warmachine veteran of 10 years, and quite a regular down at the outpost. He’s been playing cryx recently and brought P skarre, the list looked something like this;

Skarre

– Helldiver

– Helldiver

Bane Knights (Max)

Bane Riders (Max)

Blood witches (Max)

– UA

Mechanithralls (Max)

Mechanithralls (Min)

Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls

Gerlak Slaughterborn

Saxon Orrick

Scarlock Thrall

Tartarus

There might be even more in there somehwere!

I win the roll off and elect to go first, Simon leaves me the side with the nice forest just away from my flag, and a big hill to my left.

Deployment!

Knowing the simon has a lack of magical weapons in his list (Especially hard hitting ones) I put the 3 paladins directly opposite his flag, planning to have them contest for the entirety of the game, I have the battle engine deploy so it can sit itself on the hill, and have line of sight to the juicier targets in Simon’s army, support and vindictus go in the middle, behind the AD’d errants, with bastions on the right.

Simon deploys his Mechanithralls, Gerlak, Blood witches, Saxon and the necrosurgeon off to the left, with Skarre and her jacks in the middle, and finally all the banes off to the right. Its only at this point do I realise how much infantry Simon’s actually brought to the table….This could be quite the struggle.

Protectorate Turn 1

Vindictus throws out true path and defenders ward onto the errants and then shockingly, everything runs! Tough go up on the errants, the book calls no knock down, and everything bombs it up the board.

Cryx Turn 1

Simon has everything sprint its way up the board, bloodwitches minifeat, getting right into my face, followed by skarre feating for a full 5. The Scarlock sacs off a mechanithrall, getting Skarre some free focus next turn, and I get ready to hit my head against a brick wall for a full turn!

Its…its a wall.

Protectorate turn 2

VIndictus upkeeps defenders ward and keeps a full 5. Because of the speed of both our lists, true path has already become bordeline useless, but the bastions are parked in a wood, which isn’t the best place for them to be, to vindictus throws it out, advances, and feats.

The zealots go and sorround vindictus, not bothering to minifeat, as theres practically no ranged in Simon’s list whatsoever, it gave me the luxury of saving it for later into the game. All 3 paladins then go, calling impervious wall, and walking into contest range of simons flag. Which is likely where they’ll be staying for a while.

The errants go and start charging into simons ranks. Between them they manage 2 points on some bane riders, and kill 2 blood witches. Value! After that, piper calls tough, follows by no knock down on the book. I then have the battle engine go, shooting a blood witch just in front of the hag. Depressingly it only rolls 1 additional model for its bounces, and therefore doesn’t catch the hag aswell….That could be an issue for my errants next turn.

Boosting on both the engine kills them. The bastions go, 1 of them charging a bane rider, killing him (Dice -11 pshhh). Finally, K.E.S and gorman advance behind the wall.

Well that was a successful turn…

Cryx turn 2

Now it was simons turn to hit his head against a brick wall! Unfortunately, simon was almost garunteed an easier time of it, as i’d failed to kill the damn blood hag! The mechanithralls on the left go and swarm around the paladin, attempting to attack them, until Simon realises what impervious wall actually does!

The blood witches go advancing so that the blood witch is super far up the board. They kill off 2 errants, who take 2 witches with them thanks to the feat! The bane riders go, doing ride by attacks, but only killing 2 errants, and not managing to escape anywhere! Then, the big man tartarus comes in, killing 3 errants (Unfortunately Simon hadn’t brought any extra bane models with him), and taking 3 points from the feat.

– Quick Note. Because thresher is simultaneous, but generates seperate attacks against each model, does tartarus take a point for each model damaged? or just a single point? Answers on a post card please!

The bane knights go and run up the field. Followed by Skarre, tiptoeing herself out of the killbox and getting some more free focus from the scarlock!

Farewell, precious errants…

Protectorate Turn 3

I’ve got to start seriously doing some work now. As is the usual cryxian way, Simon is overwhelming me tremendously, and I need to start making huge attritional swings, if i’m to have any hope in this game.

Vindictus upkeeps DW and keeps 5 on himself. The battle engine goes, firing a shot into some blood witches, killing 3, and clearly a path for my main man gorman! I desperately need to remove the Necrosurgeon to make my life easier, but unfortunately can’t afford to commit the battle engine to do it, So gorman walks up, throwing an acid bomb, hitting like a champ, killing 2 mechanithralls, a stitch thrall and the necrosurgeon! Hero.

The paladins all call impervious wall again, walking deeper into the mechanithralls and gerlak, keeping them tied up nicely. The errants go, killing some more bane riders, followed by vindictus true pathing and advancing onto the flag. The bastions then go into Big man tartarus and some bane knights, killing them, but leaving themselves awfully exposed.

The zealots greater destiny and pray warding, sorrounding vindictus. Finally, K.E.S plonks himself behind the wall again, ready to go into the helldivers should they dare to come forward next turn. I end the turn and we go to 1-0 on scenario.

That delicious Acid bomb shaped hole in the middle…

Cryx Turn 3

The bane knights go and through a combination of vengeance and their activation, leave me with just 1 poorly bastion left! The lone bane rider then goes, cursing vindictus and charging him, he goes pretty hot on the dice and does 10 boxes to the poor fella!

The mechanithralls to the left just flail around for a while, as well as gerlak, seeing as they can’t go anywhere without taking at least 2 free strikes each! Skarre puts up Dark guidance, and gets yet more free focus from the Skarlock. Finally the mechanithralls in the middle go into the remaining errants, only managing to kill 1! Simon passes the turn and we remain at 1-0 on scenario.

Things are starting to look pretty dire for me!

Protectorate turn 4.

This turn I need to start performing miracles! I desperately need to clear out the bane knights that are bearing down on my flag now. Vindictus drops defenders and keeps all 6 to himself. The lone bastion goes first, removing the the bane rider, freeing up my zealots to call fervor, and start dropping bombs. My dice roll absolute fire this turn, and I remove 5 of the remaining bane knights with zealots alone!

The battle engine then swings across, boosting a shot into the last 2 bane knights, removing them. Vindictus pops defenders ward onto himself, and nestles up on his flag. The paladins start chewing through the mechanithralls, all the while calling impervious wall (Now aptly renamed as “Immunity: Death”). K.E.S and the remaining errants chew through some more infantry. I pass the turn and we go to 2-0 on scenario.

Vindictus gets some much needed breathing space.

Cryx turn 4

Skarre is on 12 focus this turn due to sacrifical Pawn, and simon decides to just go for it! The scarlock advances, putting a blood rain into a zealot, clearing line of sight for Skarre to then walk up, Sacrificial Striking into Vindictus using the Scarlock, boosting damage, but not doing any damage! Simon then unleashes 2 blood rains, with boosts into vindictus, dropping him to about 8 boxes.

Foolishly I muse that if Simon just camps his remaining focus, I probably can’t kill Skarre with what I have left. So he obliges!

His last stitch thrall runs into contest the flag, and the 2 helljacks just walk up together.

Protectorate turn 5

I’m getting damn close to closing this game out, but I’m very concerned that I can’t kill Skarre. So vindictus upkeeps Defenders ward, camps his 5, and stays on the flag. The zealots clear out the contesting stitch thrall, and the lone bastion charges into Skarre, doing a champion amount of Damage to her, leaving her on just 6 boxes! (At this point I realise I should’ve gone for it)

K.E.S Goes into one of the helldivers, nearly wrecking it. And the paladins call Impervious wall, Killing some more mechanithralls and Gerlak. I pass the turn, and we go to 3-0 on scenario.

Cryx Turn 5

Skarre keeps a full 6, and the healthy helldiver kills the bastion that is in Skarre’s way, she then proceeds to charge vindictus, as I’d failed to put more than the lone bastion between him and her. Boosting on the Knock down hit, then life trading for weapon master on Takkaryx and boosting, killing vindictus outright…

Umm Woops…

And that was game! What a disappointing and silly way to lose! I failed to respect Skarre’s Melee prowess, as well as failing to protect vindictus suitably. There was a fair amount of things I could’ve done to secure myself victory, and sitting there like a lemon definitely wasn’t one of them!

Over all, the list proved its worth in a rather terrible matchup (Or so I think) and it was my own idiocy that failed it!

Thats it for this week. But before I leave, i’d like to thank the wonderful gentlemen at overload online for having me, as well as give a shout out to my local friendly gaming store.

Without Outpost Wargames I wouldn’t be able to do these reports at all, as i’d have no where to play. Nor would I have ever started playing this wonderful game in the first place!

If you go check them out at; http://the-outpost.co.uk/ and use the super special code; OVERLOADJUNE, you’ll get an extra 5% off your order!

But wait, like a shopping channel cliche, theres more! Anyone who makes an order with outpost this month is in with a chance of winning £250 of store credit. (These guys just love to give stuff away).

Go check them out and support the best gaming store in Yorkshire!

I’ll see you next week, where most likely I get assassinated by a gallows grove.

– Stem