Warmachine Battle Report: Durgen Madhammer vs. Vice Scrutator Vindictus

Another night, another Colossal dropped in my face. Well, to be fair, my friend and I traded lists and played chicken before we pulled out our models. I was showing pKreoss and Vindictus. He was showing Durgan and Damiano. I figured if he dropped Durgan and the Earthbreaker, I might have a rough time with my Kreoss assassination list. If I had thought for a minute about the massive amount of Knockdown flying out of that list, I might have selected Kreoss because he had the Book with him. As it was, I went with my Missionaries of War, Tier Four Vindictus theme.

This game followed directly after my run in with Stryker3, so we kept the scenario on the table: Two Fronts. Time was going to be an issue and we both wanted more practice on the clock, so I pulled out my chess clock and allocated an hour to each of us.

I have a +1 on my initiative roll because of the theme force, won the roll, and selected second player and the same side I had just played. I did not want that Earthbreaker anywhere near the only spot of elevation on the table. I listen to podcasts, I know how badly that can go.

Here are the lists:

Durgen Madhammer – Rhulic Mercenary Warcaster

 - Earthbreaker

Reinholdt

Doogal

Thor

Gorman

Harlan Versh

Herne and Jonne

Nyss max

Pressgangers x2 max

Hawk

Rock bottom

Vice Scrutator Vindictus

- Reckoner

- Reckoner

- Reckoner

Reclaimer

Reclaimer

Choir of Menoth (4)

Holy Zealots (10) + Monolith Bearer

Exemplar Errants (10) + UA

Exemplar Errants (10) + UA

DEPLOYMENT

The Earthbreaker was predeployed right down the center. Two waves of pirates littered the center of the board. Harlan took one flank, Herne and Jonne took the other, and the backfield was littered with solos. I clumped my Zealots centrally with the Choir in back. The Reckoners advance deployed to the center, flanked by a unit of Errants on each side. Each unit had a Reclaimer tucked up behind it. Overall I was looking at a symmetrical deployment. Also … it is a lot of bodies to cram into my AD zone.

TURN 1, MERCS

The lead Pirates get Primed and everything runs forward, spaced out like a player who knows how to minimize incidental casualties from three inch AOEs. Harlan moves forward enough that I think I can Assault him, even with stealth. The Earthbreaker Redlines forward and stops near the back edges of the zones.

TURN 1, MENOTH

Vindictus allocates 1 focus to each jack, casts Defender's Ward on the unit of Errants on the opposite side of the field from Harlan (as in no where near his crazy gun). Then he casts Sacrificial Lamb, advances and feats. The choir advances and puts Passage on the jacks. The right flank of errants deploy in what essentially looks like a line of dudes cheering on a marathon runner as he lumbers by. The right Reckoner then attempts to Assault Harlan and comes up waaaaay short. I was doing my initial thoughts on the turn while seated (and failed to judge the distance properly). However, it does spook Harlan. The Zealots pray no spells and run forward, staying within the feat range. The other Errants advance. And the other two Reckoners take shots at Pirates. Between both units of Errants and the two useful Reckoners, they kill a couple Nyss and a handful of pirates. A bunch of pirates make their tough checks and are knocked down. The Reclaimers tuck in behind.

TURN 2, MERCS

With the Menites under feat protection, the Mercs spend this turn standing up, pushing in and jostling for position. Herne and Jonne come around the side of the burning house and gain the back edge of the zone. Harlan runs back to the fence for safety.

TURN 2, MENOTH

Well, the feat did what I needed it to do. It bought me a little more time to gain position and not have my ranks thinned by incredibly dangerous Primed pirates. I have fought against waves of Primed models before and I know I cannot let them get to me en masse or I am going to have a very bad day.

Vindictus upkeeps Defender's Ward and allocates a focus to each jack. Vindictus doesn't need to get any closer, so he casts Sacrificial Lamb and backs up. So far I have not needed True Path. The Pirates came to me and the layout of the scenario means the edges of the zones are close. I spend the turn trying to scalpel out Pirates without leaving too many of my troops dead. Most of the Errants on the right miss their ranged attacks because Nyss are tough to hit. A few die. The front unit of Pirates take a lot of heavy fire and when the smoke clears they are nearly wiped out. That's ok, because there is a second unit right behind them. A few of those guys get shot too.

The Zealots pray no spells, mini-feat, and run into the middle to jam. A few stay close to Vindictus for protection.

TURN 3, MERCS

This was the feat turn for Durgen. That means good luck for me getting decent charges next turn (with my jacks). The Earthbreaker lobs a bunch of knockdown and some killing shots. The Nyss hammer on the Reckoner. Herne and Jonne launch a ton of deviating AOE's. Harlan tries to take some shots and loses his streak after the first. The second wave of Pirates get Primed and they hammer on one of the Reckoners. The Zealots cause a bunch of issues by gumming up the works in that beautifully frustrating way that they do. When the smoke clears, each of the Errant units are down a number of warriors and those souls have been shovelled off to the Reclaimers. A couple of the Reckoners are starting to get a bit creaky. One has a broken mace and the Reckoner on the far flank has seen better days. I think there was a triple six somewhere in there on a damage roll that really hurt.

TURN 3, MENOTH

The only only enemy models contesting the zones are Herne or Jonne (whichever one has the big gun), and some Nyss. Vindictus has a small control area, so Priority is not going to come into play. However, I see an opportunity to score multiple points. Vindictus upkeeps Defender's Ward and allocates a couple to one of the nearby Reckoners. The Choir activates and puts Passage on the jacks. I had waffled on opening up a charge or trample lane to Herne or Jonne, but instead I settled for staying the course and killing models. The center Reckoner had three primed Pirates right in its grill. I spent some time in the tank trying to figure out how to spring the Reckoner by only detonating the middle one. I settle for declaring a charge run with the left flank of Errants. They murder the remaining two Pirates from the first wave, Herne or Jonne (the big gun), and one of the other Primed Pirates. The explosion only kills the middle one, but that leaves one more Pirate jamming the Reckoners. One activates and hammers the Pirate which explodes and breaks his gun. The other Reckoner shoots at the enemy objective doing less damage than I would have liked. And that was after getting loaded up by a Reclaimer.

Vindictus activates and runs through the forest into the now cleared left zone. The other Errants start rolling sevens and eights like they are being handed out on street corners. The Nyss start dropping and suddenly the right zone is also clear. The Reclaimer on that side moves into the zone to control. Then the Zelots activate and declare a charge run. Three Zealots charge the Objective and the rest run. Two of them run out of formation and chase after Vindictus. One of them does an end around the forest and one pushes most of the way straight through. They made their command checks. The three who made charges on the Objective bring it down with charge damage rolls. Menoth dominates the Friendly Zone, controls the Enemy Zone, and eliminates the Enemy Objective. Three points!

SCORE: MENOTH 3, MERCS 0

TURN 4, MERCS

The pressure is on now, and my friend remarks that he is staring at losing on scenario again. I am looking at the seven minutes on his clock and just over three minutes on my clock and wondering what the heck I am going to do for my last two points. Gorman tosses some corrosion to clear out the hero Zealots who defeated the auto-hit in melee Objective. Fun fact, he accidentally bounces corrosion on to the Earthbreaker.

The remains of the Nyss finish off the Reckoner although one of them dies to the Soul Storm whipping around the Reclaimer. Harlan moves into the edge of the zone as well and starts popping Errants, trying to reach the Reclaimer. An Errant dies, gets self-sacced thinking I can keep the Reclaimer out of LOS, but Harlan doesn't care and gets a shot on the Reclaimer anyway. Fortunately it misses. The Earthbreaker moves into the right zone, so getting points out of that is going to be impossible. The Earthbreaker fixes the Reclaimer issue in a permanent way.

On the other side, a pile of solos run into the left zone. The other half of Herne and Jonne, First Mate Hawk, and the Doogs. A couple Errants get scalpelled out. Durgen follows the Earthbreaker and my opponent passes turn. He has about two minutes left on his clock.

SCORE: MENOTH 3, MERCS 0

TURN 4, MENOTH

Time is of the essence. I throw some focus at one Reckoner, I activate the Choir and Battle. The Reclaimer dumps focus on the other Reckoner. The Reckoner with the working mace tramples towards the back of the zone, squishing the last Pirate on the way. He kills off the Doogs when he arrives. The Reckoner with the working gun Assaults Gorman and snuffs his candle. The right side of the board guns down Harlan. The Zealots activate and run. I move the Monolith Bearer first and cross the field. The two zealots out of formation move towards the Monolith Bearer but stop off near Vindictus. The Errants on the left cut down all of the remaining solos contesting the zone. Menoth dominates for 1. There are 51 seconds left on my clock.

SCORE: MENOTH 4, MERCS 0

TURN 5, MERCS

Lord Rock Bottom moves to contest. The Earthbreaker runs across the field towards the left zone but can't get in. From the picture I am reminded that a mechanic has been hanging out behind the Earthbreaker all game fixing all the scratches and Redline damage. Reinholdt and Durgan remain in the right zone. My opponent passes turn with over a minute left on his clock.

SCORE: MENOTH 4, MERCS 0

TURN 5, MENOTH

Fifty-one seconds. Drop DW, No allocations, Advance the Errants. I spend about 15 seconds dinking around looking at the EarthBreaker and its melee range. I get four guys on Rock Bottom. Clock is at about 15. Roll to hit. Hit. Roll Damage. Tough Check. Rock Bottom dies. Activate Vindictus and end turn. Dominating for 1. BEEEEEEEEP. Apparently I had about two second left when I finished my turn. Whew.

SCORE: MENOTH 5, MERCS 0

VICTORY FOR MENOTH!!

Thoughts about the match:

Whew. That was tight. We wasted a bunch of time here and there. I should remember how precious each of those seconds can be at the end. I did almost nothing on my final turn and it still took me forty-nine seconds to finish. This is not the first time I have faced the Earthbreaker. My strategy is to avoid it, if I can. God help me if someone drops two on me. Or the dreaded three Earthbreaker list? Good night. I think it might be the best Colossal in the game.

I have the benefit of having played this list a ton this year. I played sixteen games with this list at TempleCon (although using a second Reclaimer vs. a Seneschal is new). And I have played it more since. I love Vindictus. This game came down to recognizing the importance of chewing through the Primed models as quickly as possible and doing everything I could to prevent them from jamming me. I should have staggered my models more. Once again the Zealots come through with amazing jamming. And it sure feels good to score some control points.

Thanks for reading!

Warmachine Battle Report: Servath Reznik, Wrath of Ages vs. Lord General Coleman Stryker

I lined up across from a Cygnar player at a FLGS recently. He was excited about his finely painted Stryker3, I was excited that my USPS tracking notification indicated my Reznik2 was waiting on my front porch. This was the perfect time to proxy. Plus, I needed a break from tournament practice.

The scenario was Two Fronts. There was a hilly obstruction (part of it was elevation) and a forest on one side of the field. On the other side, a house was burning to the ground and a fence littered up a lane. Menoth wins initiative and elects to go first. Cygnar selects the side with the burning house and fence.

THE LISTS:

Servath Reznik, Wrath of Ages - Protectorate Epic Cavalry Battle Engine Warcaster

- Hierophant

- Reckoner

Avatar of Menoth

Gastone Crosse

- Vanguard

Nicia, Tear of Vengance

Vassal of Menoth

Wrack

Choir of Menoth (4)

Holy Zealots (10)

- Monolith Bearer

Horgenhold Forge Guard (10)

- Attendant Priest

Lord General Coleman Stryker - Cygnar Epic Cavalry Warcaster

- Stormwall

- Ol' Rowdy

Two units of Storm Lancers (heavy cav)

Major Katherine Laddermore (Dragoon solo)

Stormblade Captain (WM solo)

PRE-DEPLOYMENT

I drop Reznik dead center. My opponent drops the Stormwall directly across from him.

DEPLOYMENT

I am not too concerned with the forest because of the attendant priest, so I line the dwarves up right behind it. Gastone and the Vanguard are going to make for the hill to get some elevation and boosted defenses. The Reckoner, the Avatar, and Reznik are going to push straight up the center with Zealots and support in tow.

My opponent has a unit of Lancers on each flank and Stryker is flanked by the Stormwall and Rowdy. Tucked up in back are the Stormblade Captain and Dragoon.

TURN 1, MENOTH

The Hammer Dwarves get pathfinder and run into the forest. Nicia stays tucked up on the forest edge. Gastone forgets to allocate so he casts Moving Shadows and advances. The Vanguard advances. Everything advances, including Reznik. The Zealots run, but not the full distance, making sure to stay out of range of the Stormwall's guns. Zealots are praying no spells, the Choir is chanting no non-magical ranged attacks. The Vassal enlivens the Reckoner. Reznik puts up Lamentation and advances.

TURN 1, CYGNAR

Everything comes rumbling and galloping forward. The Lancers come around the burning house (which they probably lit on fire in the first place) and the other unit lines up a pretty charge for next round on the other flank. The Stormwall is coming right down the center of the field.

TURN 2, MENOTH

The Reckoner receives some focus, the Avatar rolls plenty. Gastone remembers to hand some out. Reznik upkeeps Lamentation and Gastone upkeeps Moving Shadows. The Hammer Dwarves get Pathfinder again and run, again. They tighten up into a scattered line of ARM 18 dudes. Nicia reverses course and sprints through the forest to give herself a little cover from the approaching Lancers. The Choir advance and put Passage up on the jacks. The Zealots pray no spells, mini-feat, and run run run to jam up the board. The Avatar raises gaze and follows the Zealots.

Reznik tucks in behind all of that after casting Death March on the Dwarves. The Reckoner advances and shoots the Stormwall for laughs, scratching some paint. The Vassal advances and puts Enliven on the Avatar. The Vanguard climbs the rock and does not have range on anything. Gastone hides below, out of sight. At this point I am trying to get whatever I can of the enemy closer to have an ok feat turn, even though I know this isn't the greatest pile of feat turn targets. I am trying to keep myself screened and protected and trying to set up a favorable piece trade.

TURN 2, CYGNAR

The effects of Lamentation are annoying my opponent. He upkeeps Escort. The left flank Lancers slice into the Dwarves, and between impact attacks and electro-horsehockey-leaps manage to kill five of them. Rowdy charges in and pounds the rest onto the ground, denying me Vengeance. Then proceeds to rolls so poorly on damage that he fails to kill any others. The Stormwall drops a pod and fails to hit anything with its guns. It does place some covering fire templates to protect one flank. The right flank Lancers charge the Vanguard and manage to knock out its Cortex.

TURN 3, MENOTH

I read Iron Aggression incorrectly and believe it will give me boosted attack and damage rolls. I feel like even with only three focus I can one round the Stormwall. All spells are upkept. Reznik puts some focus on the Reckoner. Reznik activates and declares a ride by attack. He advances, feats, murders a Lancer, explodes a second Lancer and casts Iron Aggression on the Avatar. The Zealots make a hole for the Avatar and a few of them are able to throw some bombs. The Dragoon is barely scratched, but the Stormblade Captain is annihilated.

The Vanguard murders the remaining Lancer. The Choir advance and Battle both jacks. The Vassal decides to give the Avatar a little backup by advancing and casting Enliven. This turns out to be pretty important because then the Avatar activates and charges the Stormwall. At this point I realize my mistake, that Iron Agression is only a free charge and boosted melee attack rolls. Everyone I relate this goof up to has had the same reaction: "That would be bonkers". I guess I am a little used to bonkers.

The Avatar has two initials and three buys. I roll one good damage roll, two sub-standard, and three average. The Stormwall is down to about twenty-ish boxes when the Avatar stops swinging and I am a little sad for him (the Avatar, not the Stormwall). I scan the rest of the table looking for more ways to scratch the Stormwall. The Dwarves have to hammer on Rowdy, but they roll complete crap for damage, denting and scratching the paint, but leaving him fully armed and operational. (so many puns in that sentence)

The Reckoner has some focus, he advances and shoots the Stormwall, boosting damage and blasting another solid chunk of it away. Gastone activates, casts Fire Group, advances up onto the hill and manages to juuuuuuuust plink off the SuperStructure of the Stormwall. Suddenly the odds of getting penned in by a stormpod have gone down considerably. There is hope yet!

Nicia murders a Lancer, misses the Quick Work shot and backs up again. I pass turn hoping to be able to survive the next turn with some of my pieces intact. At this point I have begun ignoring the other zone. My opponent does not appear to be interested in trying to score points in it. Overall the feat turn was not very effective, but against this army, I never expected it to do much work. However, the DEF debuff was very useful.

TURN 3, CYGNAR

I missed a picture, but that is because I was seriously preoccupied. Lamentation is still doing what it needs to do. I am not sure if he upkept Escort or not, but he definitely puts Fury on the Stormwall, then he feats. Without access to a lightning pod, my opponent decides to use the Dragoon to pen the Avatar. The Dragoon rides past the Avatar and gets dismounted in one shot from the free strike. There is not a good place where the dismount can go to fully prevent the Enliven. The Stormwall activates and in one shot hits the Avatar for something like sixteen points of damage. The entire right side of the Avatar is a crumped mess, but he still has his shield and movement. It limps away from the collosal.

The Lancers on the right are gummed up dealing with Zealots. Rowdy considers going after the Avatar but doesn't want to risk the rain of free strikes that would involve. The Lancers on the left charge through and get one on the Avatar and several on the Dwarves. They murder the rest of the Dwarves and free Rowdy up. The Lancer on the Avatar hits it with the mount and the lance and takes it down to one box. Rowdy activates, moves over, and finishes the Avatar. At least it took his entire army of activations to get the model.

Interestingly to me, all he has in the zone is the damaged Stormwall and the dismounted Dragoon. If I figure out a way to take down the Stormwall, I can probably score a point next turn.

TURN 4, MENOTH

The Stormwall has somewhere between twelve and sixteen boxes left. My Reckoner is engaged by Rowdy and one Lancer. Rowdy is dented up, but not very much. The Zealots are mostly dead from electro-leaps the turn before. I have Gastone, but the Vanguard has no Cortex. Moving Reznik up the field is a bad idea, as Stryker is just camping piles of focus, waiting for a chance to start swinging.

Reznik upkeeps Lamentation and allocates three focus to the Reckoner. The Choir activates and puts Battle on the Reckoner. The Reckoner activates and pounds Rowdy into a wrecked pile of scrap. Turns out four attacks at dice+1 can get things done.

The Vanguard activates and advances towards the Stormwall. It lands a shot and rolls well on damage, taking a chunk out of it. Gastone activates and should have advanced but didn't so he has to cast Fire Group again. With two focus, he takes his initial and boosts the damage blasting another excellent chunk out of the Stormwall. He buys an attack, hits, and rolls enough to put the Stormwall at two boxes.

Two boxes.

Ugh.

But wait.

Enter the Vassal of Menoth.

The Vassal steps up, mumbles something through the iron mask we keep locked over his heathen face, and drops an Arcane Bolt into the Stormwall for enough to destroy it.

I look at the table and realize I can't score if that Dragoon lives. I activate Reznik and declare a ride-by-attack. Reznik squeezes forward as far as he can behind the Vanguard and Vassal and manages to have reach on the Dragoon. SMACK. Dead Dragoon. Reznik backs off. Nicia martyrs herself for the cause by jamming two Lancers and I score my first control point in what feels like months.

SCORE: MENOTH 1, CYGNAR 0

TURN 4, CYGNAR

With both the Collosal and Rowdy out of the picture, the threat of the Reckoner is becoming a real thing. Stryker runs for the cover of the wreck marker. The Lancers on the right murder the remaining Zealots and hammer the back of the Vanguard but fail to destroy it. The Lancers on the left declare a charge run. The Lancer on the Reckoner does a screwing sideways charge, while the other two have to settle for ending Nicia. The Reckoner loses his gun, which was probably the best outcome my opponent could have achieved for that activation. The Lancers reform to press in on the Reckoner. The zone is contested and no points are scored.

SCORE: MENOTH 2, CYGNAR 0

TURN 5, MENOTH

Reznik keeps Lamentation going because why stop a good thing. He allocates a full load of focus to the Reckoner. The Choir steps up and Battles the Reckoner. The Reckoner shifts to its left and goes Pow, Pow, Pow with the Consecrator to clear the Lancers off the table and avenge Nicia. Reznik declares a ride-by-attack, advances, murders a Lancer, and advances to the rear. The Vanguard tries to shoot the remaining Lancers dead, but Gastone has to step in and finish him. The Zone is uncontested (poor Stryker) and Menoth scores another point.

SCORE: MENOTH 2, CYGNAR 0

TURN 5, CYGAR

With no models except Stryker and no way to contest, all my opponent can do is try to force me into an engagement. Stryker advances on the Vanguard but whiffs the attack, buys, hits, and whiffs on the damage. He decides to camp his remaining focus.

SCORE: MENOTH 3, CYGNAR 0

TURN 6, MENOTH

I am not too keen on having a full loaded warcaster with nothing to lose within melee distance of my caster. I need two points to close out the game which means I need to dominate the zone. Unfortunately, the Enemy Objective has priority which means it has to go. Oddly enough, it doesn't occur to me ... and did not occur to me until right now (as I am writing this) that I will go to four points if I kill the objective and therefore do not need to dominate at all. Except now it also occurs to me that I can't win without two points and I can't score more than one point unless that objective goes ... so I am right for the incorrect reasons! Summon the Choir!

Reznik drops Lamentation, loads the Reckoner and advances into the zone, the Choir Battles the Reckoner, the Reckoner charges the Objective. I deal nine damage on the first hit and ten damage on the second hit.

Reznik dominates the zone and Menoth scores enough to win.

SCORE: MENOTH 5, CYGNAR 0

VICTORY FOR MENOTH!!

Thoughts about the matchup:

The composition of my opponent's army was never going to give me a good feat turn. I am not sold on Hammer Dwarves with Reznik. They are probably headed back over to Vindictus where they shine like diamonds. Nicia and Reznik feel good together. And I need to remember that Iron Aggression isn't boosted damage rolls. Oh, that's right, on the last turn, Reznik dropped IA on the Reckoner for the free charge. The Assault failed to do damage and I again realized I had IA wrong in my head. Oh well, free charges are still great.

I am feeling the pain of no upkeep removal. Lamentation was a workhorse, but I might need to get Eiyrss into this to protect against Crippling Grasp and Parasite (there is a lot of Cryx action in my meta).

As always, thanks for reading!