A very busy weekend. I played five games, across three systems, won a game of each, lost a game of two. Warhammer 40k, Warmachine, and Infinity to the gills. Still in Malifaux withdrawal, but read on for the others.
Game one was versus James for my weekly Warmachine game. He ran Cryx, I ran Menoth(of course). True to form, no pictures, sorry. We play a scenario that had a area in the center to my left and a flag in the center to my right. The flag could be dominated for a point, the zone controled for a point, dominated for two. He set up heavy towards the zone, I in turn spread a bit, planning to block the zone and get my points from the flag. We both moved up, towards a respective goals, I fired feebly, move on. Turn two I had Cinerators in the zone with both heavy jacks nearby, and Kreoss on the flag in a forest. I started getting a point every turn, and continued until end. He took two points on his turns after knocking(read killing) my models out of the zone. On my final turn, I thought I was hosed. It was 4-4, and my closest Jack was engaged. I was thinking Malifaux, and that he could stop me from moving, and I almost conceded the game. After a second thought, realising in Warmachine you only get to bash the target, I decided to finish the game. My light jack was able to contest his for the last points, and I won the game. Another close one, and one I had written off, but a win. My general strategy for Warmachine has become engage as little as possible, and use what I have to get a point at a time till I win. Seems very un-page 5y, but since I seem to be the only one consistently running jack over infantry, I guess it evens out. Or something.
Game two was against Nabors with some Infinity. Thsi one was over before the shutter on my camera had a chance to click, so no pictures here. It was brutal and ugly. We set up, I gave him first turn. He started up his TAG. Four orders later, my TAG was laying dead in its own fluids. He did an order, took a structure off. Did another, another structure. A third saw me crit to hit him... but he critted too, and in a complete draw, nothing happened. Fourth order and smush, I am in retreat and loss of Lieutenant. Well, that was lightning quick ugly. Nothing to take from this game except roll better.
Reset and rematch. New mission objectives, I took first turn, and it was game on. This time went the opposite way, though he managed to snag a turn or two before it ended. I circled my TAG away from his, and brought it up his flank, gunning up the side to do my thing. I took out three of his models, inadvertently including his LT. Then I pulled back, not wanting to both wipe him out in an ugly turn, or, more likely, over extend myself and wind up dead. I tend to do the later more often, start very strong, not know when to stop, and turn a route into a loss. His turn, he used his two orders on his TAG, but unfortunately didn't do much. My turn, I circled my TAG, but when I got close, he spun to face me before I could make the last corner to open fire on his back. Awesome. That's when the Garuda does his thing. I dropped in behind the TAG, who decided not to face the smaller bot. Which than double tapped his AP shotgun into its back. Now he turns. My Marut, then makes his move, shooting his TAG in the back from the opposite side. Its a dirty trick I have used successfully many times. I took his TAG down, putting him into retreat and still being in loss of LT, we called it, a win to me. A better game from my side, but I doubt Nabors felt the same.
I'm not sure I could play Infinity competitively, as it seems that too many games come down to that one lucky first turn where you're dead and your opponent is left holding unused orders, and that would be a rough way to get bumped out of a tourney you played money to play.
Nabors hadn't had enough I guess, so we racked up a game of Warhammer 40k. I was running my Tau list from last week, he was running a foot heavy, tri-Storm Talon list. We played a tournament scenario from Genghiscon, round one specifically. This was how Tau should be played, with your opponent picking up the models. He ran an aegis line, which I think was a bad choice, since his play style generally leads towards forward assaults. Also, I can set back and pummel from afar, and also negate the walls cover saves. Which is was what I did. My first action was to send in the Ion Cannon templates on a unit of Space Marines, using markerlights to negate cover and blasting them down to a single man. I used the other squad of markerlights and my last Ionhead to try and do the same on his other flank but scattered horribly. Into his command squad. With his warlord in from, manning the quad gun. Who rolled double ones for the look out sirs, the another one for one of his saves, and since he was only toughness four, he instadied. Giving me First Blood and Slay the Warlord in one fell swoop. The rest of his cursed command squad didn't die quite as easily. His Vindicator was also a pain, even with my heavy melta action. I eventually ignore both and spent most of the game eating softer targets. We played a bit of a sand beach head, complete with bunkers, which I set up heavily to my advantage while blocking(literally) his when we took turns placing terrain. A unit of Kroot snipers in a bunker two inches from an objective is pretty sweet. In hind sight, I'm not sure they can capture, since I don't know if it affects the in vehicles thing. Either way, both Firewarrior squads where on other objectives, and his only remaining troop choice was tied up in a combat with stealth suits and crisis suits. I still don't get how my stealth suits continue to be masters of the prolonged combat, but they rocked it yet again. I won primary, secondary, and had all the tertiary objectives. I may have just had a minor victory on the primary, but since I had killed several of his flyers, and he hadn't touched my drone squads, I am pretty sure it was a strong win as well. A great game, I am liking the new Tau, but they are very like the old Tau, so it may just be carry over.
A glutton for punishment, or maybe feeling a need for revenge, Nabors went on to face Shaffer's Tau, which is all about the new toys. He dropped his aegis and his scouts, and picked up a pair of predators which seemed to do quite well, but unfortunately still got squeaked for a loss.
I, however, was mostly done with Tau for the day, and felt it was time to whip out the Eldar. I played Shay's(sorry if spelling is way off) Blood Angels. They are a successor chapter with white death company, very well painted, and a pleasure to look at. Had I not been suffering from apparent seizures all night I would have more pictures of all my games, but specifically from this one with two well painted armies on the table(his more so, mine less so). We played round two of the Genghiscon missions. Shay isn't a tournament player, and I think it showed in how he played, taking points from everything and combining them. He is a very good player, I just think it is lack of tournament experience that showed. As it was, he gave me a serious run for my money. We had diagonal deployments, which of course I screwed up, and Shay had to point out, which is special because, the correct deployment benefited me more. I deployed everything Eldar, with the Dark Eldar off board. He deployed his terminator squad and assault marines, with a unit of terminators deep striking, the death company in a storm raven and an empty storm raven. He then promptly seized initiative. This isn't as bad as usual, since he kept all of his long range fire power off the board, I didn't have any incoming fire to defend against, and could take the luxury of second turn. He then began the trudge across the board towards my forces. I moved my council into position so that they were out of charge range, but still ready to charge him on turn two. A guardian unit zipped across over his terminators heads, hoping to lure them away. Another unit of guardian with Prescience fired into the assault marines but didn't do a whole lot. I should point out that he did very well on his Deny the Witch rolls for the first two thirds of the game. On his turn, his terminators took the bait, but failed the charge due to terrain. His assault marines moved further towards me, and into perfect position for my charge. Also, all three of his reserves failed to arrive. I had used Scrier's Gaze the turn before, having no real targets in range for anything else, so on my turn I rolled three dice for my reserves, and kept them off the board as well. My Council dived in, while everyone else softened them up, save the bait squad, which zipped across to get out of dodge. I did some damage, not much, and combat was rather bland. On his turn three, both storm ravens arrived and opened up on my squads. I had a guardian squad dropped to a man, and fled, coming dang near my table edge. Still more combat, with he sergeant still locked in challenge with one of my Warlocks. On my turn, with eyes closed, I managed to double one rally my lone guardian. I did a rather uncalled for happy dance, but I'm not ashamed, it was double freakin' ones after all. All my reserves came in, and I did the one thing I should know better by now, I tried to use my fighter to take down his Storm Ravens. I don't think I even scorched his paint. The Hellions went to add their weight to the Seer combat, and proceeded to pull the priest out in the aftermath. I must say that Shay is the only opponent I have ever done this to, and I did it to him three times this game.
On his turn he dropped his terminators into my back field. This is also the turn he snagged first blood. That's right, it took us four turns to get first blood, that's just how the game went. He grabbed it twice this turn, finishing off the Guardian and taking down my Razorwing. It just isn't that kind of fighter. This was also the second turn I drug his Priest, making a run from his terminators. I really need to hit and run more with these guy, leaving all the models behind, shooting and charging back in. Both combat continued to flounder, the I was whittling down his assault squad. He then dropped in his Death Company, which added to the fight, which at that time was his sergeant versus my squad, though only just. My Hellions failed to drag off his priest again, but this was a good thing as I was now free to charge the large combat... and drag off his warlord. I don't care what anyone says, Hellions are awesome. Or at least fun. His Priest eventually joined that combat. The game ended on turn five. I had two squads of bikes left, and was able to take seize ground pretty easily, since he didn't have any troops left. But since I could only hold two objectives(and not know the final differential Chad will have), I marked that a minor victory. Only Kill Points, I was down, but just barely, taking a minor loss. He was in my zone and had first blood, I was along the center or my way, meaning, no tertiaries for me. The game ended 10-9 in his favour. Very close, and keeping me in my mid table zone. With Shaffer and Nabors still going strong, and Shay stating he would like to see how it continued, I said we should just play it out. Turn six was a nightmare. For him. I killed his warlord, consolidated onto more objectives, lived a lot, and finished his assault squad and his death company. It would have left me with a major win, minor win, and a tertiary, maybe two. It was a rocking turn for me. I had lost all of my council save embolden, my fortune farseer was dead, but my warlord still stood. My guardians managed to stick around, and the Hellions went rawr, though the Baron did die. We tasted turn seven as he tried to finish my Warlord, but it just wasn't to be. Shaffer and Nabors had packed up, so we didn't play the whole turn, as it wasn't important. Another great game against Shay, he is a great opponent. I really like his army as well. The fact that I have drug off his characters four times not withstanding.
I want to talk real quick about the psychic powers in this game. It was the first time I had taken all Divination instead of Prescience and Telepathy, and I definitely liked. I had Prescience, Misfortune, Scrier's Gaze, and Precognition. Prescience is a must and I never go to war without it. Misfortune is awesome, forcing rerolls on successful save is bad ass. Especially on terminators, it helps way more than you would think. Scrier's Gaze seems rather useless, as nobody uses mysterious terrain and I can't outflank. But that first turn when I had nothing better to do, and setting everything up for second turn reserve rolls was actually pretty awesome. Not a gotta have, but one I definitely won't mind any more. Precognition, how I have berated you, I am so very sorry. Precogntion on the surface does doom, guide, and fortune but only for the Farseer. Not that great. Except, the power is on my Warlord, and I can now afford to let my other Farseer die towards the end of the game, and my Warlord can keep himself alive. Sounds a bit harsh, but I do far worse in Malifaux. Anyway, I am losing interest in Telepathy any more, Divination just has too much to offer. I do think I rolled rather well, getting all very useful powers, even regetting Precognition after I dropped it for Prescience on my first roll.
Well, that is enough blathering for now, I am off. See you guys all later this week when I unveil Vanessa and a finished Ionhead.
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