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Game One
First game was my Nemo vs. Jen's Trolls. This is a variant off of an earlier list that I really enjoyed playing, but beefed up a little bit this time around. Here is what it looked like:
My Cygnar Army (746 pts, 25 VPs)
| Jen's Trolls (750 pts, 23 VPs)
|
The idea behind this list is to surround Nemo with spell casters and turn him into a focus battery, and then use that focus to either spam chain lightning or load up some heavies and jack up your opponent. With Strangewayes and Jr. casting spells each turn, and then having Nemo pull a focus off the Squire, the old man can have 10 focus for three rounds in a row starting on turn two. If you can somehow fit in Ayana & Holt into the list, you could get that up to a fearsome 11! That translates into the ability to put 5 focus on to your heavy of choice, and still having plenty of focus left over to play around with.
As for the rest of the list: The Thunderhead provides a nice threat with a potent ranged attack, strong melee, and the ability to clear out infantry in a hurry. The Centurion is less of an all around threat, but he's hard as a tack, stops charges, and his reach allows him to engage several enemies at once, setting the Sword Knights up with flank. Finally, Thorn is there to deliver the surgical chain lighting strike before yo-yo’ing out of harm’s way.
This list gives Nemo enough focus to run two heavies effectively, forcing your opponent to make some hard choices. The Sword Knights are fast becoming a staple for me, and with the UA they are absolutely sick. Five damage dice against a heavy 'jack or 'beast is a thing of beauty. Add in the Piper, and they can get off three attacks on that critical turn, and then be tough on the next turn if they are still engaged. Finally, the Long Gunners give some ranged punch with a POW 19 CRA, plus using suppressing fire early in the game is great for channeling your opponent's army. The long gunners end up being especially strong against the medium- and large-based troll army, as line of sight is abundant.
I'll admit I was pretty put off by the wall of dire trolls I was facing off against. I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to get through all of that. Plus, having Epic Hoarluk in the backfield meant that there was a potential 15 inch charge range waiting back there... truly frightening!
The first turn we both just advanced without much drama, but on turn two it got a little weird as Hoarluk’s bonded Earthborn caught up to the back ranks of the Kriel Warriors and began picking them up and throwing at me. Thorn took a nasty hit (forgot to yo-yo him after a failed chain lighting attempt) and three long gunners died to flying trolls. If I was going to survive, this was going to have to stop!
While I completely expected the trolls to get the massive charge off, they didn't through some stroke of luck, and I ended up getting the first charge off at the bottom of turn three. I lead with the Centurion, setting up flank, and then charged in with the Sword Knights. Hoarluk's bonded Earthborn didn't even survive the Major’s charge. Every time something would drop, it opened up new firing lines for the Long Gunner, who would then pound the next thing in the backfield.
After the initial clash, my dice finally started to warm up, and I was able to chew through the second earthborn with surprising speed. The Sword Knights killed off some Kriel warriors, leaving half the squad out of formation. I had broken through the first wave, and things were definitely looking up, although a pair of Dire Trolls and a unit of Gatormen is still something to be concerned with.
Around this point, things started moving really fast, and I lost track of what happened on which turn – I just remember rolling forward in a blue tidal wave, carried on the back of outrageously good dice rolls. In about two turns there was nothing left between my army an Hoarluk except for a single unit of gatormen.
The gatormen charged, and some serious damage to the Centurion, but not enough to take it out of play, which mean that he still provided flank for when my Knights would counterattack. The Centurion and the remaining Sword Knights made short work of the gatormen, with the exception of one survivor who got knocked out of melee range when he triggered the electrify the Nemo had put on the Centurion. With the backfield empty, I moved up a focus-laden Thunderhead and commenced pounding Hoarluk to death with lightning coil attacks.
That's Hoarluk laying on his back behind the tree at the top of the picture. I never expected the game would go this well – I got lucky with some great dice rolling starting in turn 3, but the list did its job as well. By the end, I had killed off 21 VPs and only lost 2. It’s is definitely a fun list to play – I love being able to effectively run two heavies. I definitely can’t figure out why every time I play this list people ask me why I’m not playing Epic Nemo instead. Original Nemo works just fine, thank you.
Game Two
My Cygnar Army (499 pts, 16VPs)
| Jen's Menoth (500 pts, 19 VPs)
|
Normal deployment, with the dug-in trenchers in a wide-spread formation at the advanced deploy line. My mistake the first time I played this list was trying to play Trenchers like Long Gunners. This time their job was to slow the enemy's advance, get in pot shots where they could, but most of all make sure that my Sword Knights got off the charge. To this end, I made sure they were deployed with enough space in between them that my knights could easily filter through them.
Siege finally clicked for me in this game. I was too focused on the AOE aspect of Siege the first time around, and using the feat with ranged attacks. This time I had an almost a perfect feat turn, combining Siege’s feat with (you guessed it) a Sword Knight charge! I scrapped one of the Castigators, got another within two points of scrap, and did some damage to the third. Unfortunately, I lost about half of my Sword Knights to the 'jack's Combustion effect, but that was okay... their work here was done. I almost killed Amon during the feat with a boosted ground-pounder, but rolled shit on the damage. I did manage to kill one of the allegiants, which gave me a warm, happy feeling.
Turn 3: Amon stepped up and tried to sandblast Siege, but couldn’t get the job done. Casigators moved up and did some more combusting, killing even more sword knights. On my turn I hit Amon with another ground pounder (he was tough) and missed with the rocket (provided courtesy of Reinholt). Now the trick was finding a way to finish him off. Jr. took a boosted hand cannon shot, but couldn't get it done. Finally, my Defender stepped up and shot him for an insane amount of damage. This time he rolled a 1 on his tough check, and that was game.
So, it was a good day for me. I feel like I'm finally coming into my own with my army, and I'm definately getting a handle on how to deal with big, tough targets, which is something I struggled with early on. I'm really enjoying trying out different units as well. Every time I play this game I'm amazed at the depth and variety that I find. When people describe it as "easy to learn, but hard to master" they aren't kidding around... Great stuff!
Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine
As always, a great batrep. Your style of prose is both informative and easy to read, and the pictures are an excellent touch. The quality of your blog is what motivated me to make one of my own.
A small practical question: how do you so awesomely format those army lists, especially the two column ones?
Posted by
Elliott |
11:31 PM
Wow, a pink Girl Troll army? Fantastic. Nice battle report dude.
Posted by
TheGreatBlah |
8:49 AM