Warmachine Civil War

Another weekly game and this week it was back to Warmachine and a bit of practice and getting to know the rules a bit more.

With the planned Marignano refight being put to bed last week, Dave K and myself were looking for something with a difference from last week and Dave plumped for Warmachine to try out his newly purchased rule set to go with his pretty new Khador forces, which suggestion I was happy to go along with.

A fairly small skirmish at 30pts each, we decided to go for a random scenario from the rule book, with the 'throw down' scenario duly being rolled. Basically a battle to control two zones in the centre of the battlefield, the first player to control both zones at the end of his turn after the third turn minimum, wins. 

The game was as is common a game of two halves, the two halves being one; the half that Dave struggled to throw above three on as many dice and two; the half he did manage to throw above three (a bit).

With two zones to go for and two players the inevitable happened and Dave got control of one zone on my right flank, and I got control of the zone on the left, pretty much simultaneously  Each of us going for the left first, with our centres being a bit cagey.

With the forces pretty equal (both Khador) but different in make-up and commanders numbers were beginning to pay off with Dave's loss of one unit of 5 Men O War and his second unit down by half in the centre to my loss of a unit of 3 Men O War and a Berserker Warjack we had to call it a day due to running out of time with equal honours and similar points on the table. Though it looked to be moving in my favour as Dave's centre was about to be beset by all of my forces before his left could do much about it which would mean that I could move on to his Warjacks and Warcaster if time allowed though undoubtedly I would loose some casualties in the process.

Another enjoyable game but more of another learning experience where we both picked up some more pointers. Certainly the more I play the game the more I like the rules ethos and tactical possiblities as a game. As is usual in these types of SciFant games the percentage of looses of a force are very high even for the winner, but mayhem and slaughter even in a small isolated skirmish is very much the order of the day for the genre.

Look forward to some more practice on this one. 

Warmachine - Trading Blow for Blow

Once again the troops assemble for a tussle in the world that is Warmachine.

My Khador forces still needing the practice and require to hone their skills, and Jim's Menoth Protectorate were much the same.

We had decided on a thirty point skirmish with a no holds barred 'fight to the finish' game, so lot's of blood and scrap metal was sure to ensue.

The forces advance towards each other
 - the Protectorate line abreast, Khador refusing the centre.

The game was a great free for all and basically a ding dong battle with each of the forces dealing out what felt like huge damage in turn. First my Windowmaker snipers got wiped out by a well placed flame thrower attack which I hadn't expected in turn two. Turn three and Jim fell into my refused centre trap and I managed to jump on his heavy warjack and one of his light ones and reduced the heavy one to scrap in one turn and nearly take out the lighter too with a Warjack, Ironfang pike man and Man O War combo.

Khador combo makes a hole in the Monoth line

Jim's Menoth forces then retaliated and bashed the living daylights out my Berserker Warjack who stoically held the right flank on his own (but only just) and took out the last of the snipers and made a big dent in the Destroyer Warjack.

Destroyer Warjack - On fire and on the way out

Khador retaliates and finishes off the first Light Jack, the Berserker makes a few swings but is really there to hold up a unit of knights on his own, the Juggernaut Jack plows into the nasty knight unit and takes one down, and the pikemen join in and drop another while my Warcaster Irusk drops an Airburst on the Menoth infantry which take 50% casualties and break.

Mid game - from both sides

Menoth once again swing into action, finish off the Destroyer Jack, the knights on the flank take out the Berserker (who even in death creates an obstacle) and the light jack moves out wide and manages to flame a third of the pikemen and the Exemplar Knights take out another couple while making a big dent in the Juggernaut.

The Berserker holds up and entire unit

Another round and another couple of Knights go down in the centre including one knocked down, another Airburst leaving a solitary Flame Infantryman and the Men O War close in for the kill to destroy the last light jack next.

Menoth hit back and the last of the pikemen go down and the Juggernaut takes a good hiding but the steel is taken out of the Menoth forces with a whole unit on the flank moving trying to get into the fight.

The end of the Menoth Warcaster and his forces nears

With the last gasp nearing I went for the kill. Another knight goes down, the Men O War charge the Jack taking it apart an my Warcaster loaded with focus sweeps round on the Priest Warcaster and off loads all his focus on his gun firing 10 shots at the priestly one and finally killing him with the tenth shot. End game, with a win for Khador but with only 5 figures still standing.

A good toe to toe, blow for blow, anybodies game game, but the early kills and the fire and forget Berserker occupying a nasty unit for what turned out to be the whole game sealing it for the Khador forces. 

Enjoyed the game immensely and once again picked up some more of the niceties of the rules, so the learning curve continues.

I enjoy the depth of tactics that the rule set gives it's games, and in fairness, the amount of tactical gamesmanship that it affords. It isn't just the UEMC 'I got the latest biggest baddeest thing, I win' sort of game, in that each forces troops are fixed and every force has nasty surprises and all are capable of winning, you've got to use them right and have a bit of luck too, I like that. Also the size of games is of a nice size too. More a skirmish than a battle, which gives lot's of scope for story telling, cinematically or otherwise, a thing I like in all my games. If the game tells a good story, it doesn't matter in you win or lose, it's the story that counts.

Looking forward to some more story telling soon.

Warmachine on Trial

Last week, my game of the week was a small game of Warmachine against my erst-while opponent Dave K.

Dave had recently purchased a starter force of Khador faction troops and wanted to have a trial game to get an idea of how the game played and whether it was really of interest.

Even though I'm a bit of a novice to the game myself, I was sufficiently up on the rules to give the system a run through, using my own Khador troops. So a very un-civil war ensued.

The two forces, small-ish for an introductory game, were not surprisingly evenly matched with my force led by Irusk and being a bit shooty, and Dave's force led by Sorcha being more thumpy. 

All in all, Dave enjoyed the game and saw the possibilities in the rules; easy to pick up but hard to master was his verdict, which is pretty near the mark I think. With a great deal of depth to the rules, surprising in a 'Fantasy' rule set perhaps, but certainly worth a visit now and again because of the tactical and strategic versatility of the rules.

More games to follow no doubt in the fullness of time. Might even get the troops painted up, even if it's just to differentiate between our black clad forces.

Warmachine - Khador vs Menoth

Gaming this week has been pretty slim but I managed to get a game on at t'club, of Warmachine with Jim.

Early moves as the Menoth forces surge forward towards
the Khador line 

Quite a fan of the Warmachine Mark I rules and liking the mix of tactics, sneakiness and a good mechanism for creating a narrative skirmish game with a surprising amount of depth, I had not played in quite some time but had picked up the Mark II rules and Khador force book cheaply fairly recently. A few bods at t'club have been playing Warmachine on and off for some time and I thought it about time to join in and see if the Mark II rules were much different.

Arranging a small(ish) skirmish using my Khador force against his Protectorate of Menoth we duly laid out the table and set too.

It can be said that the match was definitely a game of two halves. Early game; the Menoth forces surged forward eager to get into combat quickly, the Khador forces advanced in a more sedately fashion and pretty quickly bits of warjack were flying everywhere but suitably enhanced by my Warcaster they weathered the storm while my sacrificial Men O War drew the might of the Menoth warjacks awway from the main battle. The Menoth Knights in the center then slowly took apart my Iron Fang Pikemen.

Late game; getting into their stride the Khador Warjacks waded into the fray with a tag team developing between the Widowmaker snipers and the mighty Juggernaut warjack, the snipers weakening the enemy before the warjack slammed into them and finishing them off (with warcaster joining in where necessary). Right to the end where, in the space of two rounds the last of the knights went down, one big Menoth warjack was reduced from hardly a scratch to a pile of crap metal and another warjack again without a chip in his paintwork lost both arms, legs mangled was left functioning but harmless leaving Menoth with their warcaster and one functioning jack we called it a day.

End game - the Khador tag team closes the fist and
demolish the Menoth remnants

Fun game with lots of ups and downs and definitely painted a story while playing with a bit of thought required to bring out the possibilities of your force but enough luck of the dice to make it unpredictable.

Upshot is that the Mark II rules still get my vote as a game system, lots of fun. I like some of the models in the various ranges though as what usually happens in these games, they get bigger and more unlikely to keep up their sales, but all in all the game aesthetic does appeal (though steering away from the more OTT elements).

Will no doubt have some more games of Warmachine in the futeure and with this impetus, I might even get around to painting my Khador force.