Siege vs. Madrak
My Cygnar Army (499 pts, 16VPs)
| Jen's Trolls (498 pts, 18 VPs)
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I didn't get a chance to write most of this up while it was fresh, so some of the details are a bit hazy, but the flavor is right on. And I'm all about the flavor. I know Jen took some notes and pictures. If she posts either, I'll come back and clean this up, and maybe add some pics. Otherwise, enjoy it for what it is... (Update: Jen posted her battle report, and I stole her pics! You can read her troll propagandist version here.) Now, on to the gory details:
I'm not sure why, but I had a very difficult time adjusting to Siege, which seems somehow funny because I expected him to be a straight-forward beat stick based on how people tend to talk about him. It's not that hard to understand what he does, but getting the order of operations right to pull it all off optimally without getting in your own way was rough for me this time around. I'm also still struggling with how to best use the trenchers, and I'm just not getting very much out of them. The UA probably would have helped, but I can't figure out what I would have dropped to get them in there... In fact, this list didn't even have a Lancer (probably my first time ever running Cygnar without an arc node) and I really missed it.
The game itself was an ugly, bloody, messy affair (as most of my games against Jen tend to be), full of really bad dice rolls on both sides of the table. I didn't really get my army organized and working cohesively until almost turn 3. I had ended the last turn with Siege poorly positioned and somewhat vunerable, and I came dangerously close to getting whacked. My saving grace came when one of Impalers frenzied and charged the other Impaler, taking him out of the fight for that turn. Madrak took hit shot, ricocheting his axe off the defender (and taking it's arm off in the process), but missing with a bad boosted roll on Siege. Whew. I had the bushwhackers come around my back flank, "encouraged" by Juan Cinco, the most hated Fell Caller ever, and they manage to CRA the other arm off my Defender. This makes me sad.
Time to feat.
I had Siege's feat turn set up mostly correctly, but I didn't get as much out of it as I hoped. Siege laid a brutal boosted ground pounder attack on Madrak, but the troll used his stoopid scroll and shrugged it off. I did manage to kill off an Impaler, and I might have caught and killed a Chronicler in there too... I can't exactly remember when he died, but I do remember killing him. I had trenchers piled in tight around a grenade porter, all within higher ground, so I was able to fire off something like 6 AOE attacks at the Kriel Warriors. Unfortunately, I rolled terribly, most of them missed deviating off into nothingness, and I only managed to take out a few of the KWs. The other four trenchers shoot at Madrak, wounding him for 5 points. Finally, the Sword Knights charge the Axer and Madrak. The Axer dies and Madrak takes 7 points. God damn, I love Sword Knights. While it wasn't a bad turn, I was frustrated that I couldn't kill off more of the Kriel Warriors, and I still had a flank full of Bushwhackers that I was hoping I could just ignore long enough to get the job done.
Sword Knights: Make it happ'n, cap'n!
Top of turn 4 - amazingly, the last remaining Impaler fails his threshold check again, and charges into one of the Sword Knights that is engaged with Madrak. Amazingly, even with boosted attack dice, he can't hit him. Sword Knight unbolts his back-flap and cleans out a fresh pant load. Then Madrak feats... He kills off all three of the Sword Knights that have him engaged before he runs out of targets. About this time things get really crazy as the Kriels charge the Trenchers, who are bunched up tighter than you can imagine in Higher Ground. Thanks to some rough terrain, only one of them actually manages to make it to the trenchers, but as it turns out, one is all you need. He manages to crusher attack his way through SIX of them before whiffing for the first time. Three Bushwhackers take a shot at Siege, but miss. The other Bushwhackers shoot impotently at the backs of the Sword Knights. The Sword Knights cordially invite the pygs to suck it.
Back to me - I think I have Madrak screwed. He has nothing to transfer to, and he as already used his scroll. I move up just a little, giving myself a clear shot in case my ground-pounder doesn't work and I need to follow up with a rocket attack (courtesy of Reinholt). Siege pulled a focus off the Squire, so I have seven if I need it. Luckily, I wouldn't need it - I managed to land the ground-pounder and rolled high on the boosted damage. That was game.
So, what did I learn?
- You have to have a good sense of the order of things with Siege, and I kept getting in my own way.
- On Siege's feat turn your opponent only has 1/2 ARM on the first damage roll. Have a plan, and make sure you don't waste that on AOE splash damage.
- Don't let your Defender's big gun get blown off before the feat turn.
- Jen plays Bushwhackers better than I play Trenchers.
- I still suck with Trenchers.
- I don't suck nearly as much with Sword Knights.
- Madrak's scroll is the original suck. If you are going to take a run at him, make sure you bring enough to kill him twice.
- Blowing things up is cool.
Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine
Heh. Nice write up, as always. I got pics uploaded before I headed to work and then didn't have downtime to transcribe my notes -- had a fairly large shipment for a Monday, and that took a good portion of the afternoon.
Then there was more actual work and then I made tokens for the Trolls... all done now.
By the time I was ready to start writing, motivation was gone. But now that I'm home after an 11-hour day, I'll get to writing.
That will make for a scary number of blogs for me today. :P
Posted by
bobaferret |
11:21 PM
Propaganda?? It's the One True Version of the events! Cygnar imperialists in our valley, polluting our lands.
The Trollblood sacrifice is not unnoticed and shall be avenged! You'll regret you trespassed in our valley when the Rage of Dhunia is upon you!
(That is to say, you might have to face eDoomshaper on Friday. :P)
Posted by
bobaferret |
10:59 PM