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Deployment

Turn 1: I run, pushing my army upfield as quickly as possible. Thanks to eNemo's Energize spell, my 'jacks are finally able to keep up with the infantry (Even the Centurion!) The GMCA rolls snake eyes when he tries to take out Eiryss, and suddenly feels very exposed. Jr. throws an Arcane Shield on him while Nemo puts Polarity Shield on the Sword Knights. Rupert also pipes Heroic Call, making them tough.

Bobaferret opens her turn by rolling snake eyes with Eiryss, making us wonder if it is going to be one of those games. This ends up hurting her worse then I would have guessed - she was hoping to take Polarity Sheild off the the sword knights so Narn could charge his way all the way to Nemo. With that still up, he can't quite make it. The rest of her army just advances, and Boy Toy starts to shoot up Ol' Rowdy. Kaelyssa pops her feat giving everything in her control area stealth and denying me the charge next turn.

The end of Turn 1

Turn 2: Rowdy advances (again, with the help of Energize) into the Invictors and uses his quake hammer to knock all but one of them down. He proceeds to kill a pair of them. On the opposite flank, the Centurion kills off a pair of Sentinels. The Piper plays March to give the Sword Knights the extra movement they need to walk up the front lines, and I manage to kill off five more Sentinels and another Invictor, thanks to the Lancer providing Flank. The GMCA shoots Eiryss right in the face-hole, but doesn't quite kill her, so a Stormsmith has to help him finish the job. The other two Stormsmiths fail to kill Narn, so I have to commit an entire unit of Gun Mages to do the job (which ends up being okay - everything else has Stealth this turn anyway...)

Bobaferret retaliates by killing half of the sword knights and the UA leader with Sentinels and a nasty spray attack from Skarath. Aiyana casts Harm on Ol' Rowdy, and then everyone picks on him: He takes shots from Holt, a CRA from the Invictors, and a shot from Kaelyssa, piling on the damage. Thanks to dynamic capacitor, I am able to choose which column that takes the damage, and I manage to keep him alive (just barely!) with only one open box on each system.

End of turn 2. Only four invictors stand between Ol' Rowdy and Kaelyssa.

Turn 3: I really consider just trampling my way to her warcaster, but as I look at it, I don't think Rowdy could survive it. Still, I load him up with five focus (thanks to his bond), figuring I can always pull it back with Focus Matrix if I need to. If I don't do something with him this turn, he's dead for sure.

First, I kill off the Gorgon engaging the Lancer - If my Ol' Rowdy plan doesn't work, I'm going to use him to spell her to death after I pop Nemo's feat and reload him with focus... Hopefully it won't get that far. The Gun Mages advance, and use Ricochet shots to clean out the Invictors that lie in between Ol' Rowdy and the enemy warcaster. With the Invictors out of the way, Rowdy charges. At a DEF 16 Kaelyssa might be hard to hit, but with five focus I should be able to get it done. Thanks to Gung Ho, I charge for free, boosting the first attack roll. I hit with a critical, dealing 13 wounds and knocking her down. The second buckler attack now auto hits, and with a boosted damage roll it is enough to kill her. Ol' Rowdy FTW!

With only one box left in each system, Ol' Rowdy arrives with five focus to crush Kaelyssa!

Final thoughts: The extra mobility that eNemo and the Piper brought to my army was critical to engaging and killing off a good chunk of infantry in the second turn. The Gun Mage's ricochet shots were also huge in allowing me to open up the game-winning charge lane for the kill. Nemo's polarity shield kept me from eating an early charge, and more importantly, it denied Narn that little bit of extra movement he would have needed to get all the way to Nemo in turn 2.

As far as the Retribution: they are going to be amazing. It feels like they have managed to take the best part of each faction - they have the sword knight's "battle buddy" and Flank, great ranged attacks combined with good melee on the same model, they have weapon masters, and warjacks with strong melee and ranged options. They have stealth, and units with the Circle-like mobility to move through your army. The only downside I saw is that the Myrmidons seem soft - if you can deal a concentrated burst of damage (like a unit of sword knights with a UA can) they go down fast. I also found myself liking the models much more in person that I did from the previews - that is a good looking army. In all, I'm impressed, and I would almost consider picking them up if I wasn't pretty sure that everyone else and their dog will be playing them as well.

Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine