Warmachine vs Hordes

This week I got the chance to do a couple of low-point games of Warmachine as I helped a friend get the hang of the rules. In the second game, Tim wanted a crack at Circle of Orboros, so we did a game of Warmachine vs Hordes – lists and battle summaries to follow.

Game 1 – Khador vs Khador (15 points)

  • Harkevich +5
    • Black Ivan (10 points)
    • Spriggan (10 points)
  • Sorscha +5
    • Beast-09 (11 points)
    • Destroyer (9 points)

The point of these lists was to be simple, but still have some flavor. In hindsight, this seems a cool pair of lists because it’s each caster and his/her character warjack (though that was completely unintentional at the time).

I played fairly conservatively this game, using Harkevich’s ability to get extra shots of allow me to make some pot-shots at Beast-09 and strike Sorscha as a secondary target. Meanwhile, the Destroyer was taking pot-shots at the Spriggan from the back as well. Finally in position, the Spriggan charged Beast-09 for minor damage, but leaving room for Black Ivan to get in the killing blow. Unfortunately, this left me a little off balance, so Sorscha was able to get her feat off and come in behind my ‘jack line. Commiserating that I should have feated the prior turn, I held on to my focus and looked to smash Sorscha with Minister. Realizing too late that I’ve made that mistake before… …Yeah… …I wasn’t able to kill her off. The destroyer came in the following round and squished Harkevich. While I was able to do a lot of damage to Sorscha over the course of the game, that doesn’t really matter much when you take a warjack to the face.

Game 1 – Khador vs Circle (15 points)

  • The Butcher +6
    • Juggernaut (7 points)
    • Juggernaut (7 points)
    • Juggernaut (7 points)
  • Kaya the Wildborne +6
    • Ghetorix (11 points)
    • Argos (4 points)
    • Argos (4 points)
  • Shifting Stones (2 points)

My list is a Butcher/Juggernaut list that I really enjoy – it has no ranged support, but it’s a fun list. I always expected it to be a bit limited on mobility, and what better way to demonstrate than to go against Circle, right?

This game started out as we both measured up each other and tried to pick our battleground. Circling the tree in the center of the battle field, I managed to pick off one of his Argii before battle really broke out and reform my line without too much trouble. Before I knew it though, he was way behind that line with Kaya and the second Argos giving The Butcher an ultimatum: I had one round to live. It sounded like a good turn to use my feat (since I didn’t at all last game), so I left focus on the Butcher and proceeded to go to town. Kaya took the first hit without flinching, and the second she shuttled off to the Argos – I had forgotten about the fury in my blood lust. I did manage to kill off the Argos in one hit though, so that was something. Noting that Ghetorix was also still in her command range, I realized that I really didn’t have enough damage to take her out myself, so I had to pull back and reform. One Juggernaut charged Ghetorix dealing a little bit of damage, while the other two formed up around The Butcher. His turn: Kaya ran in and kicked the Butcher a few times for minimal damage, counting the extra attacks from her feat. But, Ghetorix was in the shifting stones and so was able to warp in for the kill (though it did take all of his attacks so I don’t feel too bad). Butcher Down (for the lose)!

I think in both of these games, my primary mistake has been underestimating my opponent’s casters’ squishiness. A theme I noted in my prior game against Cody as well, so something I will be thinking about more going foward. Also, I missed a huge tactical mess that allowed Ghetorix to get in to attack me at all, and that was the shifting stones – my Juggernaut could very probably have taken out the stone and prevented that whole scenario.

In the meantime, I’m 30 points down from my prior score leaving me at -45 points.