Diary of a Journeyman (Retribution of Scyrah)

[DoctorScientist]

So after collecting for several months, I finally was able to get a couple actual games of Warmachine in. I was finally able to meet up with a group of players who were a bit less uber-competitive than the main group who plays around me, as well as a few other new players interested in learning from the same group. So here's my first ever non-practice games of Warmachine.

My List:
Ossyan (+6)
-Hypnos (9)
-Banshee (10)
-Sylys (2)
Max Mage Hunter Strike Force (8)
-UA (2)
Max Houseguard Halberdiers (7)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2)
Arcanist (1)

Total: 35

I don't know what exactly most of the units I faced are called, but I'll do my best.

Game 1: Vs. Cryx (Skarre1)
He had a couple arcnode bonejacks (one I remember was a ripjaw) a scavenger, cankerworm, 2 satyxis units (1 with swords, 1 with chain whips) a satyxis solo with a chain whip, and another solo who I think had 2 swords and some sort of spray attack. My opponent said that if he knew he'd be teaching a newer player he probably wouldn't have brought Cryx, but they were what he had with him, and I don't think he took a "I-beat-your-face" list, but I don't think he was intentionally dumbing himself down or anything for me.

I win the roll and allow him to go first. He deploys his whip satyxis along with the satyxis solo and cankerworm in the middle, with the ripjaw on my right, and the other satyxis unit and the scavenger along with his other solo on my left. Skarre deploys behind his mid unit. I put my MHA on the left, with my houseguard in the middle under shieldwall, with Ossyan, sylys, and my arcanist behind the wall and my warjacks to either side. The MHSF then uses advance deployment to put themselves in a forest.

Turn 1
In his turn, all his stuff moves forward, and nothing is really in range to hit me, so it goes to me.

In my turn, my stuff also moves forward, Ossyan casts quicken on the houseguard, and chronomancer on himself. The houeguard attempt to charge the satyxis in the middle, but even with quicken and reach are just out of range, so I unfortunately lose shieldwall. My warjacks both move up and attempt to shoot Cankerwork, but his high defense from sitting in cover is able to protect him. My MHA moves a little forward but mostly to the right, positioning herself to block off a lane. Finally, the MHSF pincushions the Ripjaw, destroying its arcnode.

Turn 2
Things get ugly quickly. He casts feedback on Hypnos, and charges my houseguard with his satyxis. He manages to kill I think 4 or 5 of them. A couple even manage to get in with my MHSF and kill 2. His stuff on the left continues to move forward. He also starts to do a little damage to Hypnos, with feedback in turn causing a couple points of damage to Ossyan. His Solo is now pretty much on my board edge, and his scavenger is in striking distance of my MHA...

Now in my turn I upkeep chronomancer, and the Banshee steps up to kill a bunch of satyxis. The houseguard add a couple more kills, and the MHSF even kill a couple but there are still 2 left. THey are within their melee range of a couple of my MHSF, so the others in the unit, rather than risk shooting into combat, instead decide to finish off the ripjaw. The MHA steps up to take a swing at the scavenger and misses completely, and I'm still unable to land a hit on cankerworm.

Turn 3
Feat turn! Skarre cuts herself for 5 damage, and now there's a crap-ton of armor floating around. His remaining 2 satyxis with whips leave combat with my MHSF (I wasn't within melee range) and kill my arcanist. The satyxis on the left move even closer and for good measure kill the MHA, and the lefthand solo steps up and attempts to use a spray attack on Ossyan but misses. The satyxis solo charges the Banshee, and causes some damage. The scavenger and Cankerworm then double team Hypnos and kill him, causing more damage to Ossyan in the process. He's now down to maybe 6 health. Skarre casts some sort of spell at him (can't remember what it was), boosts to damage......... and rolls triple 1s. Dodged a bullet there.

Having weathered the storm, I feat as well. All that matters now is killing skarre, since If I don't succeed, I won't get another turn. Ossyan attacks her with his chronophage cannon but misses, then adds an arcantrik bolt for some damage. The MHSF then moves in and fires its crossbows, thanks to phantom seeker I can shoot with a lot of them. Unfortunately, Skarre now has an insane amount of armor from her feat, and while I cause some damage, she still has 4 damage left when the MHSF finishes. With only 1 option left, the Banshee, I move him out of combat with the satyxis solo, reasoning that I can weather the free strike and I only need to cause 4 damage with a warjack that has 3 focus on it. He rolls his free strike and............double 4s, critical knockdown. And just like that victory is snatched away.

Turn 4
The scavenger flies in, clamps his jaws down on Ossyan, and gives him a vigorous shake. Game Over.

Post Game
Well, all in all not too bad for a first game that wasn't done with proxies and wasn't against an opponent who knew the rules exactly as well as I do. The critical knockdown was heartbreaking, but really, it was just kharma for his roll of triple 1s earlier, so I can't complain about it. It was pretty cool to have basically come within a roll of winning for my first game.

Learning Points:
-ACTIVATION ORDER! In my last turn I should have activated Sylys first and used arcane secrets to get an extra die on Ossyan's magic attack. Since Skarre had only 4 damage keft at the end, that extra die would have had a 50-50 shot of winning me the game. Being primarily a Warhammer 40k player, I know this is going to repeatedly bite me throughout my early warmachine career.
-Loving the MHSF. Phantom seeker is simply amazing. I was originally considering houseguard riflemen for the same points, but I can see why MHSF is almost universally regarded as better. Especially since phantom seeker is tactics rather than granted, so it doesn't matter if your UA bites it.
-I was originally debating between the Banshee and 2 units of stormfall archers. The archers look really cool and seem to have some cool rules, and the forums seem to like them. And I'm salivating over the idea of 4 dice to damage on feat turn. However, I don't own any, and I reasoned that since Chronomancer affects the battlegroup, it would pay to have more than 1 warjack so I can take more advantage of that. Although it is sort of frustrating that I can't have Chronomancer and cast Admonition on Ossyan. Choices.....

So I think I'll be taking this exact list a few more times and see what I can make of it. There are no things that I wish I hadn't taken, but there are some other things, like the archers, that I wish I could have fit in.

Also, any tips any of you have are always appreciated. I played my second game earlier tonight, I'll get a report on when I get a chance.

[Kalki]

Nice write up. Cryx feats are nasty. Just one observation, you mention that he cast feedback on hypnos which I presume is Skarre's backlash spell, anyhow since Hypnos has sacred ward he cannot be targeted by enemy spells. It's a good thing to remember

[SevenSins]

Nice rep and a good showing, the mage hunters with ossyan makes for some good threats

[DoctorScientist]

Thanks for the comments guys! Totally forgot about sacred ward. For some reason I thought that was Discordia. Ah well. Anyway, got 2 quick reports for you tonight. The first is a bit problematic, as the game happened a couple weeks ago and then I went on vacation, so am only just now getting around to writing it up. It was also against Skorne, of whom I have almost no knowlwdge whatsoever, so prepare for lots of stuff to be called "the thingy."

Game 2: Vs. Skorne (Domination Caster)
I forgot his caster's name but he did mention that it was the new caster from the domination book. He also had a heavy warbeast, that served as both an arcnode (forgot what the hordes term is) and 2 lights, 2 units of swordsmen. He also had 2 solos that would generate soul tokens if living models were killed near them, and each had 3 other guys with him, but I can't really remember what they did, since we didn't hear from them much during the game.

He wins the roll and has me go first. I deploy my halbs in the middle in a shieldwall, flanked on each side by my warjacks, with Ossyan and Sylys behind the wall. The MHSF uses advance deployment to get into the woods, and the MHA deploys on my left flank. He places his Heavy Warbeast in the middle, flanked by swordsmen, with his lights on the far flanks. His soul stealing solos plop themselves behind the swordsmen and the caster brings up the rear.

Turn 1
My army advances, I cast quicken on the Halbs, and move them up 8", keeping them in B2B for shieldwall. I also cast Chronomancer. I take a couple potshots with my MHSF at a unit of swordsman, but we are still pretty far apart so only 2 die. Still, now it's a unit of 4.

His army also advances. I'll be able to attack his swordsmen with my halbs next turn. A couple of his swordsmen are able to engage mt MHSF, and he is able to kill a couple of them. He also casts some power on Ossyan that will make him damage himself if he misses an attack.

Turn 2
I upkeep chronomancer and quicken, and allocate 3 focus to the banshee. Too late I see what my opponent's plan is: use the swordsmen as sacrificial units, absorb their souls when they die, and use those souls to fuel his caster's spells. I am able to do quite a bit of damage to both units of swordsmen, and I believe he only has something like 3 or 4 left at the end of the turn. But he now has a lot of souls. Now I also make a rather hilarious blunder. I use Sylys to get a bonus die on magic attack rolls. Then Ossyan activates and shoots the heavy warbeast with his chronophage cannon, doing some damage and dropping its defense. I then cast Arcantrik Bolt, but completely forgot 2 things: first, that bolt is 10" range, and second, that being out of range is considered a miss (again I say to myself: This is NOT 40K!!!)so I roll to damage myself and by virtue of Sylys, am forced to roll 3 dice. Triple 6s, I just one-shotted myself! *facepalm* fortunately for me though, my opponent is willing to let me take it back, since I'm still new to the game. Though I decide not to recharge the focus spent on the spell, that would have made me feel a bit cheesy. Anyway, after that whole farce, the Banshee charges his heavy warbeast, and absolutely demolishes it. This is great for a number of reasons: 1, he can't use his trample rule to brush aside my halbs and kill Ossyan, and 2, with his arcnode gone, his caster is gonna have to step up personally if he wants to cast his spells. The MHA steps up to the light warbeast but misses, and the MHSF tries to pincushion it. They cause some damage, but not enough to slow it down. Hypnos attacks one of the soul-stealer thingies but flubs his attacks (I rolled a lot of 1s...)

In his turn, things get pretty ugly. I'm at first suprised when he moves his swordsmen out of combat with my halbs and attacks Ossyan. I was wondering why he'd give me the free strikes, but then I realise that for him it's a win-win. He either gets souls, or he gets attacks on my caster. I decide to give him souls. His Caster then steps up to get in range to use his spells, and Feats. He now has tons of fury and soul tokens on him, and proceeds to fling spells all over the place. When all is said and done, Ossyan has 2 health remaining, but is still standing. He only has a couple other attacks he can make, none of which can affect Ossyan. First, his light beast kills the MHSF commander, one of the units the soul-stealer was with kills my MHA with some sort of ranged attack, and the soul stealer itself manages to inflict a good amount of damage on hypnos. Meanwhile, the banshee gets knocked down.

Turn 3
Finally, a tactical blunder that wasn't made by me. My opponent was under the impression that Phantom Seeker was Granted rather than Tactics, so he thought he could get rid of it simply by killing the MHSF commander. With Ossyan's death imminent if I don't win the game this turn, it's time to go for broke. I use Sylys to again get a bonus die to magic attack rolls. Ossyan Feats, and lines up a shot with his chronophage cannon. He connects, and with the bonus from feat and a boosted damage roll, is able to do a good bit of damage. My opponent uses his last fury point to transfer the damage to his undamaged light warbeast. The warbeast is almost slain outright, but is still standing. Ossyan then connects with Arcantrik Bolt, and brings him down to maybe half health. All that's left now is to riddle him with crossbow bolts from the mage hunters not engaged with the warbeast. Victory!

Post Game
Awesome! Despite my hilarious goof on turn 2, I'm gonna say this totally counts! Even if my opponent had realised that phantom seeker was not dependant on the UA being alive, I still don't think he could have escaped me, once he decided to commit his caster. He might have played it a bit safer had he known though. It almost didn't matter anyway, Ossyan only had 2 health left.

Learning Points:
-This combo is pretty much the best way I can think of for bringing about assassinations. Ossyan feats, hits the caster with the chronophage cannon, not only to do damage, but most importantly, to lower the caster's defense by 2. Then the MHSF steps up and finishes him off. I know the big problem Ossyan has is hitting things, contrasted with Ravyn, who's feat is similar but gives an extra die to attack rather than damage, so that minus 2 DEF from the chronophage cannon is so necessary.
-Rest assured, I will always remember that not being in range is an automatic miss.
-Chronomancer or Admonition? I can't have both of them cast on Ossyan at the same time, so which is more helpful? I'm sure it depends on the phase of the game. Any experienced Ossyan players want to help me out on this one?

Tonight I had a game Vs protectorate, but it has gotten pretty late, so we'll handle that tomorrow after work. Also, if anyone could enlighten me as to the name of the caster I was facing in thnis game, I'd appreciate it.

[PG_Dawnlord Ed]

Admonition. Chronomancer is unlikely to be worth the focus you spend on it.

[midas]

The Skorne Warlock, Herxeris?

[Falkman]

He also casts some power on Ossyan that will make him damage himself if he misses an attack.
[..]
I then cast Arcantrik Bolt, but completely forgot 2 things: first, that bolt is 10" range, and second, that being out of range is considered a miss (again I say to myself: This is NOT 40K!!!)so I roll to damage myself and by virtue of Sylys, am forced to roll 3 dice. Triple 6s, I just one-shotted myself! *facepalm*

Your opponent played this waaaay wrong. The spell in question is called Arcane reckoning, and it has to be cast on a friendly model/unit, not an enemy. And then when you cast a spell at that unit and miss the spell hits you instead. So there's no way he can put that spell on Ossyan, he would have to put it on his warlock for example, and then your spells would only bounce back if you cast them at the warlock and missed.

It also sounds like he misunderstood the Feat slightly.

[DoctorScientist]

Your opponent played this waaaay wrong. The spell in question is called Arcane reckoning, and it has to be cast on a friendly model/unit, not an enemy. And then when you cast a spell at that unit and miss the spell hits you instead. So there's no way he can put that spell on Ossyan, he would have to put it on his warlock for example, and then your spells would only bounce back if you cast them at the warlock and missed.

It also sounds like he misunderstood the Feat slightly.

Well in that case I feel a bit better about backtracking during my turn then! I think it was his first time using this particular caster (though he's been playing the game for a while) so it's possible he simply misread.

Anyway, here is game 3. It was against another newer player, wo has probably played more games than me, but he admits that they've all been against a friend of his who is also just starting out. He was running Menoth.

Game 3: Vs Menoth (Kreoss1)

He only had 25 points of minis built, so I took out Hypnos and the Arcanist. I'm sure people will call heresy for not using Ossyan's buddy, but the banshee has done far more work in my previous 2 games. He had Kreoss, 2 Heavy Warjacks, a light warjack, a unit of swordsmen with enormous shoulderpads (I forget what they are called, but they come with the 2-player starter set), and some sort of ballista. I win the roll and elect to let him go first. He deploys his ballista and light 'jack on my left flank, with Kreoss and one of his heavies in mid, and his other heavy with the swordsmen on my right. I deploy as I have before, with Ossyan crouching behind my Halbs under the shieldwall order, with Sylys close at hand, and the Banshee on the right hand side of the Halbs. The MHSF and MHA use advance deployment to get as close as possible to the enemy, the MHSF chilling in the woods on my left flank, while the MHA goes on the extreme left.

Turn 1
His entire army advances, no attacks to speak of.

I put a focus on the banshee, who runs. Ossyan casts quicken on the Halbs, who advance forward, remaining under shieldwall. The MHA runs as fast as she candown the lefthand side of the table, and the MHSF moves slowly forward, hoping to get in range, but at the same time not wanting to overcommit. In the end, only a few members of the squad have range to anything, but they are more than enough to rid the table of the ballista.

Turn 2
His forces continue to advance. Stealth keeps my MHSF safe for the time being, though he is able to remove a couple Halbs with a blast shot from one of his heavies.

Now it's time to cause some damage. I allocate 3 focus to the Banshee. The banshee charges his right most Heavy. Spending 3 focus to charge and get 2 additional attacks with his heavy void blade proves more than sufficient to destroy the opposing 'jack. The MHA charges his light warjack, and for the first time in my Warmachine career, she connects. Unfortunately I flub the damage roll and only deal 4 damage (yes, that's with 4 dice to damage, and the decapitation rule). So it's left to the MHSF, who, thanks to the 'Jack hunter rule, make quick work of it. The Halbs charge his other heavy and manage to bring it down to 2 damage boxes (in hindsight, it should have been destroyed, I forgot about brutal charge). I caused quite a bit of damage this turn, and was feeling fairly confident that I had it in the bag.

Turn 3
Not so fast bucko. Kreoss feats, and knocks down pretty much my entire army except for Ossyan and Sylys. Oh... so that's what his feat does. He proceeds to cast several spells at my halbs, killing several and setting the few survivors on fire. Meanwhile, his swordsmen assault my Banshee. Now, being knocked down and facing charging weapon masters, there's really nothing to be done but watch him explode.

Well, this is sort of a problem. It looks like the swordsmen will be able to charge Ossyan next turn, so thank god for admonition. I won't be able to shoot with the MHSF this turn (the won't be in range if the sacrifice their movement to stand up), so I save my feat. It turns out to not matter though, because Ossyan is able to kill Kreoss himself with a combination of his Chronophage Cannon and Bolt. Victory!

Post Game
That was pretty interesting. My habit of finding out what stuff does by headbutting it is starting to bite me, since I really had no idea about Kreoss's feat. Had I done less damage on my turn, that could have ended very badly.

Learning Points:
-The tide turns very quickly in this game. I had known before that timing your feat properly is often the difference maker, but I went from sitting pretty to almost checkmated in a turn, since I can't quite be sure if admonition would have kept Ossyan out of harms way if my opponent got another turn.
-I may shelve the MHA for now. Someone recommended swapping her out for a UA for the Halbs. I think I will give this a try. She seems too inconsistent for my liking right now. I plan on including 2 at 50 pts though.

[joelker41]

Halbs UA is an amazing investment for two points!

[Alex 4 Cologne]

Thanks for your reports - has been a good read.

[Arasaka]

Thanks for the reports, they were great!

Do people make notes as they play, or do I just have a terrible memory?

[Stuntiesrule]

In your skorne game the way his feat works he can't exceed his fury stat so he would have to cast then pop his feat to gain more fury. Also great reports.