BR: 35pts eHaley vs. Xerxis

I played a game vs. my friend Skorne tonight and it was pretty educational overall.  It was the first time he played against eHaley and it was not a game that he'll forget in the near future.  This BR will be written in  my classic bullet point format and it will highlight the important plays.  Overall, I wasn't really happy with my performance but it has been a long while since I played Haley.

My list:

Points: 35
Major Victoria Haley (*5pts)
* Thorn (8pts)
* Stormclad (10pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
* 3 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (3pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)

His list:

Points: 35
Tyrant Xerxis (*5pts)
* Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Bloodrunners (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2pts)

• Turn 1 was pretty average.  I made him deploy first since I won the roll and he setup across the table for me in standard castle formation.  Xerxis casted Defender's Ward on the Bloodrunners and they went around flanking my B13 on the left.  Everyone moved up with the block of Cetrati in the middle in Shield Wall, the Bronzeback on his left and the Titan on his right.  Everyone else was behind him.
• Turn 1 for me was just moving all my dudes up.  Lynch lit up a Bloodrunner with Fire Beacon and Ryan dropped a Magestorm on him.  I placed Watts in front of Ryan so she wouldn't be charged next turn.  Thorn ran and arced a Time Bomb into to Cetrati and it didn't scatter too well.  eEiryss flanked his army on the right.
• Turn 2 saw his entire army moving up some more.  He upkept Defender's Ward on his Bloodrunners and they charged Watts.  Only one was in reach to hit him and he missed with his attack.  He had a crap ton of Fury on his Agonizer and that was just short of touching Thorn.  With his army up mid-field, I knew next turn was going to be big.
• Turn 2 my turn saw Haley pop her feat, covering his entire army in a Temporal Shift.  She put Temporal Acceleration on the Stormclad and made the Gladiator turn around with TK.  Haley put 3 focus on the Stormclad and 1 focus on Thorn just in case I needed to get somewhere.  At this point, I was noticing the rust in playing eHaley because I had to constantly look at her cards for a refresher.  I didn't play this as good as I should of, but in the end, the Stormclad charged the Bronzeback and stuck his sword up his spine.  The TK from Thorn (should of been Deadeye) on the Stormblades who assaulted the Cetrati and shot, but missed a few shots.  Even though they failed their charge, they still got their shots off and are in charge range of next round.  Thorn used Reaction Drive to move into charge range of something, but I had no good targets because the Cetrati didn't die as much as I wanted.  The B13 also shot and killed some Bloodrunners and Ryan shot a Magestorm into the Cetrati, but missed, scattering a little on top of the Cetrati a little in front of my Stormblades.  Eiryss moved into position to shoot at Orin but she missed with double 1s.
• Turn 3 for my opponent was really my extra turn.  I moved his army around in ways he didn't like and he couldn't do anything but take a beating next round.  He got in BtB with everything for the most part and then popped his Feat for +2 ARM.  In addition, he casted Defender's Ward on the Cetrati and Shield Walled with them for a ridiculous 24 ARM.  He also casted Inhospitable Ground and that left him with no Fury to transfer to.  His Gladiator also walked into combat with Eiryss, which should of never happened but I got too greedy at killing Orin.
• Turn 4 my turn was more difficult than it should of been.  The B13 killed more things, Ryan shot another shot into the pack of dudes but it didn't do anything.  My Stormclad was in range of his Agonizer and he couldn't be allocated focus.  Thorn was still good but he quite far away from the Stormclad.  I put a focus on Thorn to run and Haley kept everything for herself.  She TA'd the Stormclad through Thorn (who ran into range), arced a Time Bomb into the Cetrati and tried to boost for damage but got no results.  Eiyrss tried to leave combat but got hit by a free strike and died horribly.  The Stormblades assaulted and killed off 2 Cetrati despite their ridiculous armor and the Stormclad moved in range to swing at Xerxis' face for the game.  I rolled really high with the first two sword swings and that was enough.

Normally, I'm pretty good at this game, but in this particular game I think played like fucking sac.  Yes, this is my second game with Cygnar in 5 months, but excuses is for bitches.  I'll go over why I think this here:

• Instead of casting TK on a Gladiator (which was absolutely useless btw), I should of casted Deadeye on my Stormblades and focus fired on the right most Cetrati in front of me.  This would of hopefully produced more damage to take them down and then I could of charged Thorn into that god damn annoying Agonizer.  That would of put my Spear with reach in range of a lot of his models and only one Cetrati would be hitting back.  With that single move, I would of swept away one of his heavies, had another round of full focus on the Stormclad next turn, been in a good flanking position with my Stormblades should he turn his back on me to engage Thorn (the majority won't be able to attack me cause of Feat), and I would of gained a much larger lead.  That would of been the optimal choice of activations, but I went ahead and fucked it up.
• Oh, and I would of never lost Eiryss.  I got greedy, gambled and rolled double 1s.  That's what I get for gambling instead of playing smart.  He would not have Defender's Ward up if she was alive.
• Overall, sloppy ass game.  Even though I still won, I'm still pretty bitter because there was so many mistakes. If I played with the right activations, this game would of been more decisive.

BR: 35pts eCaine vs. eDenny

First game of Warmachine in a long time and boy do I miss it.  This game was a standard 35pt caster kill game vs. Cryx and overall, I think it went pretty well.  I'll tell you one thing though:  I was definitely pretty rusty.  Let me elaborate on rusty for a second; if you don't a wargame in a while, you start losing some essential things that makes you a good player.  I second judged my ability to guess range, double-checked on multiple activations and played a little slower than I usually do.  These are things you get from playing the game, and I feel bad for not playing my beloved Cygnar for so long.

Anyways, back to the game.  How did this game go?  First, the list:

Points: 35
Captain Allister Caine (*5pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
* * Hunter (6pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)

This is one of my many eCaine lists and this is the one I used today.  I also took the first turn and deployed my forces pretty close to eachother.  Rangers led the way as usual (AD'd), the ATGM stayed by a piece of cover/linear obstacle and Eiryss floated around the left flank.  Caine was deployed pretty offensively next to Ol'Rowdy and the B13 w. Gorman hung out to Caine's left.

My opponent's deployment was Nightmare and Deathjack to my left flank w. Cankerworm and his unit of Bane Thralls and Tartar floated around his right flank.  His infantry units were pretty far away from his jacks and were posted facing my ATGM.

Now for my abridged battle report:

• Both armies moved up towards each other with eDenny sitting in the back in fear of her life.  The Cankerworm peaks his head out a little too much and is in range of a Fire Beacon from Lynch.  With the help of a Ranger, he posts it right on the worm's head and the B13 open fire for some damage.  The Hunter, now seeing his prey, moves up and fire for some solid damage.  To finish the disgusting creature off, Caine puts himself out there and boosts his POW12s for a dead worm.
• I noticed my opponent had his Deathjack and Nightmare in pretty close proximity to each other.  I also noticed my Eiryss was deployed pretty aggressively.  I thought hmm.. why not?  She runs bravely through the terrain and within 5" of both jacks.  Defiantly, she stares them down as they ponder her actions.  After doing this, I ran Ol'Rowdy further up in "optimal" position.
• My power play played off and I baited my opponent's Deathjack into swinging at her.  She and her buddy Ranger goes down but not before I buy myself another round of shooting because no one ran.  Well, her Bane Thralls and Tartar ran, but without the support of their jacks.
• This is the power play that I intended with Eiryss.  She will die, yes, but in doing so it will force his jacks to either engage her and kill her or let me pick at his caster with Eiryss.  If he gets antsy and advances his Thralls without the help of his jacks, it'll be a turkey shoot because I can shift my ranged attention to one direction instead of two.  If my opponent moves up with his DJ to kill her, he will be range of Rowdy's charge next turn.  If he moved up with Denny and try to kill her with spells, but in doing so would risk her life in range of Caine's guns.  Either way, she needs to be dealt with because of her presence and no matter what decision my opponent made, I would of benefited somehow.  The best chance he had would be trying to kill her with Nightmare and then the free focus on DJ to apply pressure with his Thralls.  This didn't happen.
• Next round, I focus all my shooting at his Bane Thralls and stuff dies left and right.  Rowdy gets 3 Focus from Caine and he dismantles the Deathjack after the Hunter boosts damage on his face.  Caine moves over and shoots Tartarsauce in the face and Ryan puts up a Magestorm to block further Thralls from charging forward. More things die on his side and the damage is done and irrecoverable:  More than half the Banes were dead, Caine was completely safe (due to positioning and clouds), he lost both Canker and DJ in exchange for Eiryss, and Tartar was dead with Caine still having Feat.  We call the game here.

Post-game thoughts:

• Power plays are one of those things you do that forces your opponent to scratch his head in a thousand different ways.  He knows that whatever he does, something is going to happen and it's not going to be good.  Move Denny closer and she dies, move DJ and oh god Rowdy's right there, keep your army together and give me another round of shooting, or try to kill Eiryss with Nightmare needing 8s and if you miss, it's another round that you're behind.  I guess in a way, what I did was force a "check" like you do in Chess.  Eiryss and Ol'Rowdy being the key pieces.
• My opponent should of kept his army together and have them support each other.  If the jacks are one direction and the infantry in another, that's already a problem because there's not enough combined threat.  I was able to focus my attention to the left first, dealing with the jacks, before switching attention to the right, to annihilate all the infantry.  If my attention was split at a central force, there would of been a lot more difficult decisions to make.
• Another thing to note here is that if his infantry was closer around his jacks, he could of activated his Thralls to kill Eiryss instead of sacrificing actions on his jacks.
• This game just shows you that if you make one mistake, whether it was deployment or movement, you risk the chance of getting stopped cold in your tracks.  If your opponent is a good one, he will capitalize on your mistake and make you pay dearly for it.

WM: Retribution Tricks

Rahn
Playstyle: Movement manipulation via magic spells.
Feat: Magic spells gain +2 RNG and boosted attack and damage rolls.
Gimmick: Move your opponent's army around into favorable positions for you.
Units: Phoenix, Discordia, Battle Mages, Magisters

Rahn is all about the Feat turn.  When he pops Arcane Alignment, every magic user in his army gets +2 RNG to their attacks and they're automatically boosted.  That means more accuracy, more damage and a lot of rearrangement and death for the enemy army.  This is why most of Rahn's lists are based off of arc nodes, tons of Battle Mages and Magisters.  Obviously, the Phoenix offers the heaviest arc platform at a fairly affordable price and is Rahn's best friend.  The newer Discordia works very well with Houseguard Halberdiers because a reforming Shield Wall under Discordia's Imprint is just insane.  On feat turn, the Battle Mages spring into action to open up charge lanes and other opportunities via push and pull.  The army is very capable of pulling an enemy caster out into the open and to his death.  Rahn's spellpool is also fantastic:  Telekensis moves things around and turns targets around for backswings, Polarity Shield keeps your Halberds safe from charges and Force Hammer is a POW12 slam that can knock things down.  If any of your arc nodes get in trouble, Force Blast pushes enemy models back and the rest of your army can charge them afterwards for a quick kill.

Kaelyssa

Playstyle:  A very solid, balanced warcaster that has plenty of tricks to throw around.
Feat:  Everything in her control range gains stealth and cannot be charged.

Gimmick:  Allowing units to shoot through walls or killing the warcaster with Backlash.

Units:  Hydra, Mage Hunter Strike Force, Sentinels, anything really

Since Kaelyssa is one of the most balanced casters for Retribution, she can run with pretty much anything.  I've seen her do well with Dawnguard units, Houseguard units or Mage Hunter units.  Kaelyssa likes running with two full units of MHSF w/ Commanders just because she can.  The best thing about her  is her ability to give Phantom Hunter to one of her models.  The Hydra is a fantastic choice to give this to because he can shoot a POW15 shot from 15" through a wall and into your warcaster's face.  Her feat denies many opponents from getting the first charge and stealth keeps the army safe from shooting.  To sum it up, her feat is mainly a defensive one but can also be used to get your units into position.  Safety from both melee and ranged threat allows units like Sentinels to move into charge range next turn and force the opposing army into retreat.  Mage Hunter Strike Force(s) also add a great deal of threat not because of their stealth, pathfinder, AD, Phantom Seeker and 'Jack Hunter abilities (lol), but because any jacks with low DEF also fear Kaelyssa's Backlash.  If you think your warcaster is safe from damage because of their obscenely high DEF and ARM, Kaelyssa will just backlash a low DEF jack and go to town with her ranged units.  There's really nothing that Kaelyssa can't do and that's what makes her awesome.

Ravyn

Playstyle: Gunfighter, Virtuoso, Swift Hunter and Quick Work.  Oh, and her Feat.
Feat: Boosted ranged attack rolls for anything in her control range.

Gimmick: Aside from plowing through enemy shield walls, she can also feat for her army.

Units: Discordia, Invictors, MHSF, Stormfall Archers

Ravyn can tear through entire shield walls by herself.  Once she casts Vortex of Destruction and charges into the fray, she can absolutely wreck havoc on tightly packed infantry.  Gunfighter allows her to shoot into combat and Virtuoso allows her to also use her melee attacks.  On top of this, she has Reach and Thresher.  Quick Work gives her a free shot after she kills a model and Swift Hunter brings her 2" into melee range of another target.  With the free boosted damage rolls from Vortex and her excellent stats, not many infantry formations can hold against her.  When she pops feat, Invictors, Stormfall Archers and Houseguard Riflemen gets scary ridiculous.  The same applies to the 10" POW14 spray from Discordia.  Free boosted ranged attack rolls scares the crap out of most high DEF, low ARM warcasters and even Caine with Blur in cover has to worry about a CRA from a full batch of Invictors with mini-feat up.  Speaking of which, Ravyn also has access to Snipe which can give Invictors (stacks with their +4 RNG mini-feat) and MHSF outrageous range.  For Stormfall Archers, you can throw out Brutal Shots from "snipe" ranges.  Veil of Mists can give your units protection as well as allowing them to charge through friendly models.  For that reason, Sentinels also make notable additions to her army as well as Fane Knight Issyen.

Garryth

Playstyle: Melee assassination using a fragile warcaster.

Feat: Everything in his control area can't cast spells, use place effects or spend focus.

Gimmick: Get in and murder the enemy warcaster.

Units: Chimera, Phoenix, MHSF, MHA.

Garryth is a really hard warcaster to use.  He's fragile, precise and needs to execute correctly and perfectly to win battles.  I would say he's probably the most difficult warcaster I've used so far (in 4 armies).  For that reason, I don't have enough feedback for him yet.  I've been experimenting with his T4 list and so far I've been pretty successful.  The entire army save for the Chimera is stealthed and AD.  With +1 to the roll to go first, I basically run everything into position to do as much damage as possible.  Here's the list:

Points: 35
Garryth, Blade of Retribution (*5pts)
* Chimera (6pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Mage Hunter Commander (2pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Nayl (0pts)

WM: Cygnar Tricks

This will be the first of many mini-articles that I'm putting out for Warmachine.  The purpose of these articles is to teach players all the "tricks" that each faction can put out.  Keep in mind that I'll only speak from the factions and warcasters that I have experience with.  By experience, I mean combat experience either on the table or in Vassal.  You won't find any theory hammer here.

Oh and yes, I'm also going to need your input on how I can format this better.  For now, I'll start with the warcasters and what kind of units you'll see with them.

Siege
Playstyle: Massive ranged damage.
Feat: The first time a model takes damage in his control area, it's at half armor.
Gimmick: The complete and utter destruction of the opposing army on feat turn.
Units: Defenders, Stormclad, Rangers

On feat turn, Siege and his army can wipe out an entire opposing army.  Every single model taking damage will be at half armor means that ATGM will be doing straight dice to Khador 'jacks.  A Stormclad will be hitting at dice +9 and each POW10 Electro-leap will be killing any infantry around him.  Ground Pounder will also do massive amounts of damage to infantry coming in range of Siege and on feat turn, it's going to absolutely destroy shield walls.  Due to Siege's fantastic assortment of spells, he can make Defenders do magical AOE3 shots and give his ranged army constant cover and immunity to blast damage.  Mage Sight reveals stealth and Foxhole can drop enemy 'jacks into a hole and open LoS to the enemy caster for ranged assassination.

eHaley
Playstyle: Using spells to move units into advantageous positions.
Feat: She controls the order of activations of enemy models in her control range.  Those models effected have to forfeit their movement or combat action.
Gimmick: Jack Bullet or Bullet Jack.
Units: Defender, Stormclad, Stormblades, Lancer

eHaley has the ability to inflict massive damage to your opponents and then deny them any chance of retaliation.  Her Feat allows her to control the order of activations for your opponent's models and they have to either forfeit their movement or combat action.  That's absolutely huge; especially if nothing is in combat reach.  You can also use her feat to completely deny your opponent's chances of an assassination or successful jack kill.  With Telekensis and Temporal Acceleration, she can launch her Stormclad at her opponents with a threat range of 16" with Reach.  This is her ideal jack bullet and her other is the Defender.  By casting TA on the Defender and moving stuff around with TK, the Defender can claim a aiming bonus with two boosted shots at the enemy warcaster for an assassination.  Haley also likes to run with Stormblades because she has access to Deadeye and can increase their chances to hit dramatically.


eCaine
Playstyle: Ranged assassination and massive single-target damage.
Feat: For each shot that hits, Caine gets +1 accumulative damage to his POW12 guns.  Models that are boxed explodes for AOE3 POW10 blast damage.
Gimmick: 19" threat range from clear line of sight or 18.5" without for his ranged assassination.
Units: Rangers, Reinholdt, Squire, eEyriss

There's a lot of eCaine lists out there that play differently from each other.  Some take advantage of knockdowns to open up a shooting lane and others compensate Caine's shootiness with melee.  Whatever it is, the list almost always feature Rangers, Reinholdt, Squire and eEyriss.  The reason why is because Ranger's mark boosts Caine's RAT to an appalling 11 and eEyriss makes sure focus camping warcasters are no problem.  On Feat turn with 10 shots thanks to ROF Infinity guns, Caine can move 7" and shoot 12" for massive amounts of damage on a single-target.  It's pretty much capable of killing anything in the game with average dice, no exaggeration.  If line of sight or shooting lanes isn't an option for Caine, he'll just charge up 10.5" and then Gate Crash teleport 8" into your hiding warcaster's face.  Sure, it takes some focus to do so, but 7 shots with Feat is still enough to kill most warcasters in one go.  With this in mind, nothing in the game is truly safe from Caine as long as he's alive.

eStyrker
Playstyle: Infantry heavy, combat assassination
Feat: After everything activates, models in control range can advance 3" and make an additional melee attack.
Gimmick: 17" charge range, Positive Charge, Rebuke
Units: Ol'Rowdy, Stormclad, Lancer, infantry by choice

eStryker plays very differently compared to every other Cygnar warcaster.  He prefers heavy infantry lists, close combat warjacks such as the Stormclad or Ol'Rowdy, and frequently likes to assassinate in close combat.  With Velocity and a clear charge lane, Stryker has a 17" threat range with Overcharge.  Overcharge allows him to roll 1-3 D6 and exchange HP for raw damage.  With 2 dice, he's hitting for POW22 and using his focus to boost attack rolls on the enemy caster for an an easy kill.  Positive Charge makes the Stormclad MAT9 with POW21 and infantry models within the Stormclad's reach gain the same +2/2 bonus.  For this reason, you'll see eStryker lists running Sword Knights, Stormguard/blades and Precursor Knights.  It's quite easy for these infantry to charge in and do massive amounts of accurate damage when in range of a jack.  In terms of jacks, a Lancer is a must for Rebuke since denying enemy orders to a unit for a turn can be game-changing.  Ol'Rowdy is also a fantastic buy for a melee jack because of Stryker's affinity.

Kara Sloan
Playstyle: Accurate ranged superiority.
Feat: Everything in her control range gets boosted ranged attack rolls and models in her battlegroup gets to make additional ranged attacks.
Gimmick: She's RAT8 with a RNG14, POW12 Weapon Master weapon that can be extended to 16".
Units: Defender, Cyclone, Hunter, Stormblades

The first time Kara hits home with a shot, you're going to feel it.  Her POW12 Weapon Master gun can be boosted for 12+4d6 worth of damage.  With Reinholdt, she gets 2 shots of these from up to 16" range thanks to Fire Group.  The Defenders and the Hunters in her battlegroup can claim a lot more opportunities to shoot thanks to the extended range and on feat turn, they're definitely going to find their mark.  Kara's feat also allows everything in her battlegroup to make additional ranged attacks that can pummel enemy jacks into oblivion.  The rest of her army comp is pretty standard; ATGM with a Cyclone UA'd, B13 and/or melee units like Stormblades to take advantage of Deadeye.  With RAT8, Deadeye and Feat, Kara can preform a high-powered ranged assassination from even greater distances than Caine.

eNemo

Playstyle: Buffing his jacks to unbelievable levels.

Feat: Each warjack in Nemo's battlegroup in his control area gets up to 3 focus.

Gimmick: On feat turn, all of his jacks go buck wild with Energizer and plow through things.

Units: Hammersmith, Stormclad, Ironclad, Thunderhead

eNemo is THE warjack caster in the Cygnar army.  His Energizer can make all the warjacks in his battlegroup advance an extra 3"; his Fail Safe can make warjacks with disabled systems ignore their handicaps; Polarity Shield can keep enemies from charging and Lightning Sword turns any jack into a Stormclad with +2 STR and Electro-leap.  On feat turn, Nemo gives all his jacks 3 focus so he can have up to 9 by himself to do other stuff; like re-arranging all his upkeep spells and use Energizer.  To make things even more interesting, Nemo can allocate focus during his activation and retrieve any focus he put on his warjacks.  The applications to this is near endless as it gives Nemo plenty of spell versatility and strategy on how he wants to execute his turn.  To keep things even more interesting, Nemo's basic ranged attack now functions the same way as Voltaic Snare (as pNemo).  This in itself can cause massive problems for opposing jack armies.

Alright mans, this is all the experience I have with Cygnar warcasters.  Most of my experiences come with eCaine, Siege and eHaley  but I've recently been playing with eStryker and Kara Sloan.  I like them all a lot, but I find the first 3 to be my favorite (especially Caine).  In terms of power, everyone except for Kara is considered to be Cygnar's "Big 4"; meaning they're Tier1 casters.  Kara is viewed as a weaker version of Siege but I don't see it that way.  I think she brings a lot to the table and her playstyle is truly unique.

BR: 35pt eCaine vs. eFeora

Played a 35pt standard caster kill game vs. Patrick's Menoth tonight and it's the first time we've played in months.  He was fielding eFeora and I knew instantly this was going to be a tough game.  In this game, Caine doesn't have much to assassinate because of eFeora's Escort and placement, but you'll see that I do just fine.  This will be another game where target priority is more important than the caster kill.


My list looks like this (same as last week):
Points: 35
Captain Allister Caine (*5pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
* Defender (9pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Stormsmith Stormcaller (1pts)

His list looked something like this:
Points: 35
Feora, Protector of the Flame (*6pts)
* Redeemer (6pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Knight Exemplar Seneschal (3pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

I won the deployment roll and I went first.  Since I had nothing to do really, I put Blur on myself and moved everything up and over to the right side of the board.  The enemy 'jacks now had to funnel themselves between the top terrain piece and that wall obstacle in order to approach my army.

His next turn sees Escort cast and upheld on Ferora.  The large unit of Errants got in the forest and stayed out of line of sight of my army while the rest of his jacks approached the funnel in a tightly formed location.  The choir sang no shooting and the Seneschal moved up slightly with Gorman slightly behind him.  Good, I thought to myself.

Caine upholds Blur and moves into terrain.  He Magic Bullets the Defender and A&H makes the Defender's shot magical.  I move the Defender slightly into concealment and boost to hit the Seneschal since I saw the opportunity to kill him over damaging a warjack.  After the boosted hit and damage roll from Arlan's Power Booster and 'Jack Marshal, the Seneschal goes down.  The Defender's shot ricochets into Gorman 4" behind him and KOs him in one shot thanks to the JFK theory.  eEyriss also moves into the far right chimney and takes a sniper shot at a errant that's peaking out of terrain.  The shot lands between his eyes.

Next turn sees his army of jacks move up without any movement from his Errants.  Strange, I thought to myself.  His Redeemer fires into some of my units and magically scatters on top of Eyriss' head.  A good roll later and she's toast (literally!).  Another lands on Arlan and he catches fire while the other one lands on the Stormsmith, incinerating him.  Not good.. Arlan's on fire and he's the JM to my Defender.  A few more shots go by with the Reckoner and Vanquisher taking shots at the Defender and some damage boxes were marked.  Nothing has been taken out at this point.

On my turn, I roll for Arlan's fire roll and I put it out with a 1.  Phew.  The Defender didn't take any fire damage either.  A sole Ranger runs into position and marks all his 'jacks by the upper gravel.  Caine drops Blur because nothing's really going to hit DEF19 in concealment (or so he thought) and eats the Squire for 7 focus.  He moves up a bit and shoots the Redeemer a couple of times with boosted damage shots before Gate Crashing back to Reinholdt.  The Defender aims and fires with boosted damage rolls and the B13 joins in to kill the Redeemer.  Good job guys.

Seeing the Redeemer go up in flames, my opponent runs most of his Errant infantry up towards my lines.  I guess they were deathly afraid of approaching Caine and Ferora got pissed about it.  My opponent then takes his Reckoner and Vanquisher and goes to town on the Defender with shots of righteous fury.  The Choir sings praises to the battle and dice gods and the Defender takes a crap ton of damage.  Thankfully, poor allocation rolls kept everything in full function, but I only had half my boxes left after the shooting was done.  At this point, Ferora is still well protected from the cover left by the Redeemer wreck and her camped focus.  With Eyriss dead, assassination is clearly not going to happen I thought.

With the enemy on my doorsteps, I move my army into position with the help of my Rangers.  Two Rangers ran up and marked mostly all of the infantry along with some jacks.  Alright, let's see what I can do.  I moved up Aiyana and Holt and Aiyana makes them stealthed.  Holt shoots down 2 by himself, the B13 shoots up 4 and Caine mops up the rest.  Before returning to Reinholdt's side, Caine Magic Bullets the Defender and GGs back to safety.  Now that all of the Errants have been dealt with, the Defender returns fire on the Vanquisher and the ricochet shot bounces into the Vassal.  I roll like balls and he only takes 2 damage thanks to Iron Sentinel.  Ol'Rowdy, sensing the Defender's dire need of assistance, runs behind him; ready to counter-charge anything coming my way.

That's pretty much what happened next:  Choir sings for battle, Vassal puts Enliven on his Reckoner and then it came charging in.  Rowdy got up in his face but Enliven just moved the Reckoner out of Rowdy's reach after some damage and he started swinging.  The Defender took quite a beating and was down to 6 boxes left with the right arm and movement taken out.  The last attack from the Reckoner went into Ol'Rowdy and he took 5 points of damage.  Next came the Vanquisher that moved up behind the Reckoner.  Ferora then went up behind her two jacks and lined up a shot with her flamer at Ol'Rowdy and popped Feat.  She hit all the 'jacks and they all caught fire, but no serious damage was done to any of them.  Then she took the jacks that were on fire, put them out and put them on Ryan, Arlan and a Ranger.  With a good amount of focus camped, she Fire Steps into some cover and that was it for her turn.

Ryan and the Ranger burned to death but Arlan managed to survive his burns with 1 HP.  Sensing the end in sight, Arlan repairs 4 damaged boxes on the Defender and the Defender goes into action.  He goes up to the Reckoner and starts doing swinging.  After two hits, the Cortex is out and the Reckoner is at half health.  Next to activate is Rowdy:  Which moves on the side of the two 'jacks (as per picture) and slams his hammer into the ground; creating a tremor.  The two jacks fall on their face and now it's time for Aiyana and Holt to go to work.  Aiyana casts Kiss on the Vanquisher since it was largely undamaged and Holt puts 3 damage on it with his POW14 guns (+2 dmg).  Caine pulls from Squire one last time and moves up into shooting distance of both jacks.  He shoots into the Reckoner with Feat up until it's a smoldering ruin before lighting up the Vanquisher in a blaze of glory.  Effectively POW14 because of the kiss, all 10 shots hit their marks and the two Protectorate jacks go up in flames.  We call it here since it's pretty much clean up afterwards.

BR: 35pt eCaine vs. pGaspy

OK, a quick BR on a 35pt game of WM I played last night.  It was standard caster kill format with my eCaine list vs. Chad's pGaspy.  This game showcases the options offered in a Cygnar list and all the different tools a player can use to his disposal when fielding eCaine.  Even though the assassination run didn't go as planned, careful target priority on feat turn can still make for a devastating turn.

My army list:
Points: 35
Captain Allister Caine (*5pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
* Defender (9pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Stormsmith Stormcaller (1pts)

His army list:
pGaspy + Scarthrall
Full unit of Bane Thralls + UA
Spray Chicken
Cankerworm
Seether
Tartersauce
Small unit of Mechanothralls and Necrosurgeon

My first game back from many many long months of OT and boy, does it feel good to play again.

The gist of the game goes like this:

• Caine casts True Shot on himself and enables him to see through stealth, camo and concealment.  He upkeeps this the entire game practically vs. Chad's stealthed dudes.
• Turn 2 my turn is where the game actually began with the two forces ready to do battle.
• Rangers run order into range and Lynch Fire beacons some Cryx dudes.  Ryan Magestorms and kills a bunch of dudes (Chad not rolling enough Tough), and Watts kills one himself.
• Aiyana and Holt casts and shoots, but isn't very successful.
• Eyriss disrupts the chicken on his side and the Defender puts heavy damage on it.
• I forgot that Chad's dudes can just auto get up on his turn because of some special rule and Aiyana and Holt gets charged by angry Thralls and dies horribly.
• Some combat also kills a Storm Smith.
• His Seether moves up behind some of his remaining Thralls and his Warcaster sits behind the Seether.  His Cankerworm runs up to my right flank by the B13.
• Eiyriss moves up and attempts to sap Iron Lich of all his focus and fails to hit (needing a 6).
• The B13 mows down most of the remaining Bane Thralls and opens up a charge lane for Rowdy.
• Rowdy charges the Seether, boosts to hit for crit KD and isn't able to.  He inflicts a good amount of damage on the Seether.
• Rangers run into position for marked targets, doing else all game but redirect charge lanes and this.
• At this time, I know the assassination isn't going to happen so I change my plans to something more acceptable.
• Arlan PB's the Defender and the Defender aims and shoots at the Seether in combat.  He's essentially RAT10 with aiming bonus and Ranger's marking so his boost hits the 7s needed.  Arlan's JM bonus boosts the damage and the Seether takes another batch of damage.
• Caine draws focus from the Squire, Reloads from Reinholdt, moves up slightly and shoots 9 shots with Feat up.  After only missing 1, I kill the Cankerworm, the Seether in combat, Bane Lord Tartersauce and the rest of his Bane Thralls.  Caine was RAT11 with the Ranger's marks.
• Next turn, Chad's damaged chicken tries to arc stuff into Caine, just to run into Magestorm, takes POW12+10 and dies.
• Chad kills the B13 with his Iron Lich, pops feat to get all his focus back.  His normal Thralls attack Eyriss and fail to kill her because of her DEF16.
• The game is pretty much clean up from here with most of the Mechanothralls dying to Arlan's spray + Ranger's mark, Eyriss dying from a Mechanothrall after trying to move out of combat, and despite Iron Lich camping full focus, combined boosted damage shooting from the Defender, Caine and Ol'Rowdy wailing on him, he goes down.

Post-game thoughts:

• Aiming and Rangers' mark allow most of the Cygnar army to shoot into combat without penalty.
• Rangers are absolutely vital against high DEF armies because it allows all of you guys to shoot more reliably.  RAT11 Caine guarantees results.
• If you don't have an assassination lined up, or the risk is too high, always go for the max amount of damage on his army instead.  Most people think Caine is just assassination and that's it.  As long as you do irrecoverable damage to the rest of his forces in any given turn, it's just as good.
• After I knocked down the models in front of A&H, I thought I was safe from retaliation.  Too bad those Bane Thralls just got up right after and charged them.  That was bad play from me and they did not make their points back.  This just means that I have to know my opponent's units better and understand what they can or cannot do.