I have decided to run Skorne for the league, as I am just getting into the faction and it seemed like a good way to motivate me to expand on my current collection, and maybe get some stuff painted! The hero model for Skorne right now is the ancestral guardian, and mine is currently an unamed hero. My opponent Dave (and now co-author on the blog, you can check out his first report here) is playing Cygnar with his hero Gun Mage Captain Adept: Gustav Montcalm!
I decided to bring Zaal this game, as he has some good synergy with the ancestral guardian, and my list looked like this:
Supreme Aptimus Zaal & Kovaas (*5pts)
* Cyclops Savage (5pts)
* Reptile Hound (2pts)
* Reptile Hound (2pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Immortals (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Ancestral Guardian (3pts)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
I would like to have some beast handlers in this list somewhere (Dropping either Orin or Saxon most likely) but unfortunately they are on order at the moment. This will be my first game with Zaal, and I'm excited to see how it goes because he seems like a very strong warlock.
As I said, Dave was bringing out Cygnar, and he was trying out the following Constance Blaize list:
Constance Blaize, Knights of the Prophet (*6pts)
* Gallant (9pts)
* Squire
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Precursor Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard (2pts)
Silver Line Stormguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Gun Mage Captain Adept (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
We did miss a couple of pictures throughout this report, because remembering things is hard, but I will do my best to fill in the blanks.
Dave won the roll and decided to go first. We were playing one of the scenarios from the league, which has a fortress in the center of the table. The fort has arm 24 and 80 boxes, and the goal is to destroy it and steal the loot from inside. While the fort is still alive it is firing shots out on the battle field, allowing each player to place two 3" AoEs on the enemy army that will deviate, and deal a pow 10 to anything hit by the blast.
Once the fort is destroyed there is a loot token placed in the middle, which must be picked up by a warcaster/warlock or one of the hero models and brought back to the deployment zone to win on scenario.
Cygnar Deployment:
Dave deployed Connie and Gallant in the middle of the line, with the precursor knights on the right and the stormguard on the left. The squire plopped down behind its warcaster, as squires do, Rupert went behind the precursor knights, and Aiyana & Holt, Gustav and the Journeyman all went to the left of Constance.
I decided to bring Zaal this game, as he has some good synergy with the ancestral guardian, and my list looked like this:
Supreme Aptimus Zaal & Kovaas (*5pts)
* Cyclops Savage (5pts)
* Reptile Hound (2pts)
* Reptile Hound (2pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Immortals (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Ancestral Guardian (3pts)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
I would like to have some beast handlers in this list somewhere (Dropping either Orin or Saxon most likely) but unfortunately they are on order at the moment. This will be my first game with Zaal, and I'm excited to see how it goes because he seems like a very strong warlock.
As I said, Dave was bringing out Cygnar, and he was trying out the following Constance Blaize list:
Constance Blaize, Knights of the Prophet (*6pts)
* Gallant (9pts)
* Squire
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Precursor Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard (2pts)
Silver Line Stormguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Gun Mage Captain Adept (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
We did miss a couple of pictures throughout this report, because remembering things is hard, but I will do my best to fill in the blanks.
Dave won the roll and decided to go first. We were playing one of the scenarios from the league, which has a fortress in the center of the table. The fort has arm 24 and 80 boxes, and the goal is to destroy it and steal the loot from inside. While the fort is still alive it is firing shots out on the battle field, allowing each player to place two 3" AoEs on the enemy army that will deviate, and deal a pow 10 to anything hit by the blast.
Once the fort is destroyed there is a loot token placed in the middle, which must be picked up by a warcaster/warlock or one of the hero models and brought back to the deployment zone to win on scenario.
Cygnar Deployment:
Dave deployed Connie and Gallant in the middle of the line, with the precursor knights on the right and the stormguard on the left. The squire plopped down behind its warcaster, as squires do, Rupert went behind the precursor knights, and Aiyana & Holt, Gustav and the Journeyman all went to the left of Constance.
Skorne Deployment:
I deployed with my gladiator right in the middle, the savage to his right, Orin and Zaal to his left. The nihilators deployed across from the stormguard with Saxon Orrick behind them to help them through the forest. The immortals went across from the precursors, with the AG behind them to give them a speed boost, and the reptile hounds flanking on the far left.
Cygnar Turn 1:
This turn we forgot to take pictures, but it was pretty typical of a turn one in warmachine. Most things ran forward to get in a better position for next turn, the journeyman cast arcane shield on Gallant, Gallant charged the fort (getting a point of focus from activating near the precursors) inflicting a few points of damage and Constance cast transference on herself.
As Dave's turn ended, he was able to fire off two shots from the fort, something that I forgot to plan for with my deployment. He placed both of the AoEs directly ontop of my clump of nihilators, and some low deviation distances ended up killing 4 nihilators, knocking one down (from making its tough roll) and putting a point of damage onto Saxon Orrick. Ouch. Fortunately, two of the nihilators were within the command range of my AG, so this did at least assist in powering up my hero with souls.
Skorne Turn 1:
We also forgot to take a picture at the end of my first turn, but you can see where my army was positioned in the next picture of Dave's second turn. Everything on my side ran forward, with the knocked down nihilator walking forward and trying to keep up with the unit.
Zaal cast awakened spirit on the gladiator, inviolable resolve on the immortals (because I didn't realize at the time that the weapons on the precursors are blessed, whoops), and used his soul converter ability to spend one fury and give a soul to the ancestral guardian and top him off at 3.
The gladiator cast rush on itself and tried to charge the fort and help out it's mechanical counterpart in bringing the fort down, but he was out of range. Finally, I took my two shots with the fort, managing to take out two of the stormguard.
Cygnar Turn 2:
At this point in the game, I think the fort said something offensive about Dave's ancestors, because he spent everything he had trying to bring it down. Aiyana activated first and put kiss onto the fort, trying to bring the armor down to a more manageable level (arm 24 is pretty insane).
Next Gallant, having received two focus from Connie and one from the precursors, began to smack the fort, doing quite a bit of damage to it. Next the precursor knights used their power swell mini feat and charged the fort, and also managed to do a large amount of damage. Finally Constance charged the fort and spent the rest of her stack doing as much damage as she could. At the start of the turn, the fort had around ~75 health left, and after all these attacks it was left with 19 (which is being tracked by the d20 in the middle).
Rupert moved forward and gave the knights tough, while the stormguard advanced cautiously, trying to stay out of the walking threat range of the nihilators (as they cannot be charged while base to base). With the turn done, the fort fired off two more shots at my nihilators, hitting the savage but doing no damage to it and killing one more of the nihilators.
Skorne Turn 2:
*Sigh* As much as I hate to say it, we missed the picture of my turn again. Need to find a way to remind us to take a picture every turn. Oh well, anyways, skorne turn 2.
I upkept both of my spells, realizing later this was a bad idea but I didn't see any reason not to at the time. Saxon Orrick went first and gave pathfinder to the nihilators. They activated next, just walking forward as I was hoping that at least one of them would be in range of the stormguard but the closest one was out by an inch or two, so I just had the rest shuffle around for position. Next I had the gladiator go and walk the rest of the distance up to the fort, and he began smashing it with his face (a very effective method for bringing down buildings). Dave had done somewhere around 60 points of damage, and there was no way I was letting some swans out damage the might of Skorne!
With that being said, I don't have enrage in this army, so the gladiator was sitting at pow 16 on his gauntlets. He spent all of his fury smacking it as hard as he could, managing to do around 10 damage to the fort. Next I had two immortals charge some precursor knights that were within range, had about 5 of them charge the fort and the rest just ran forward. The immortals were hitting at dice -9 (thanks to kiss from Aiyana, which stayed active on my turn!) and managed to put another couple of points onto the fort. One of the charging immortals killed its target and the other one missed its attack (or maybe the knight toughed? Either way, it didn't die). Since the immortals were unable to finish off the fort, my hero stepped up to show them how its done, charging the fort and finishing it off with one swing of its sword (and an awesome damage roll).
With the fortress destroyed, a colossal wreck marker is placed in the middle of the board along with the loot token. After that the rest of my army ran or shuffled forward, with the only other thing of note happening being Orin Midwinter sneaking up beside the gladiator and casting null magic.
Cygnar turn 3:
With the fort out of the way, the two armies were finally able to clash. Arcane shield was upkept on Gallant by the journeyman, and Constance upkept transference. She then gave two focus to Gallant and began the turn. Constance activated first, measuring her control area and then shuffling back about half an inch to be outside of the null magic bubble, cast crusader's call, and popped her feat. A&H activated next, and moved forward to try and cast kiss on the gladiator, but it was stopped by null magic.
Turns out that it didn't really matter, because as Dave activated Gallant and charged him at the gladiator, he remembered that Gallant gets purgation from Connie, meaning that the upkeep on the gladiator made him a very easy target (for which I was kicking myself, because I didn't need to have that upkeep there). Gallant easily kills the gladiator with a focus to spare, which he uses to squish Orin.
The storm blades charged the nihilators, killing 3 of the remaining grunts, with the guy on the far left making his tough roll three times like a boss. Finally Rupert gives the knights pathfinder and they charge the immortals, ignoring their IR buff (*sigh*) and killing four, and putting light damage onto the ancestral guardian (which killed one of the knights with defensive strike, go hero!) and ending the turn.
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| Final resting place of my gladiator... |
Well there were a lot of dead models on the Skorne side, but that is just how Zaal likes it! The immortals made their vengeance attacks, killing 2 or three of the knights, putting 4 damage onto the UA, and giving a few souls to Constance. Zaal pulled in fury from the reptile hounds and let IR drop (because apparently it is useless in this matchup) and he activated first. He cast hex blast onto Gallant, boosting to hit (just in case), getting the exact roll needed to hit and stripping arcane shield from the warjack. The spell did light damage, but taking off arcane shield was the important part. The savage walked forward, staying in melee range of the stormguard, and begins taking swings at Gallant. With the boosting from the feat the savage was able to do a good amount of damage to Gallant, crippling both of his arms.
The nihilators activated next, with the knocked down one standing up and getting ready for some carnage. He began swinging and took out 3 of the 4 models surrounding him, with the one effected by the feat managing to live. The second nihilator killed the one guy that he was in range of (because I forgot to move him) and gave Constance another sould token. Saxon Orrick stood still and took a shot at another stormguard that was standing by itself, and manages to crank the damage roll and take him out.
Next the immortals activate and shuffle forward to get in range of some more precursors. The one closest to my board edge used a feat token to boost the hit and damage roll on the knight in front of him, as I really needed that one dead. The rest of them just taken unboosted swings and manage to kill a couple more.
With my ancestral guardian freed up thanks to the boosting immortal, he walks forward and takes some fully boosted swings on Gallant thanks to the feat. After three swings (two purchased with soul tokens) Gallant goes down, and my hero looks defiantly at Gustav as he shows him what a real hero can do.
My reptile hounds move forward and each kill another precursor knight, ending the turn and leaving Constance on a total of 8 souls.
The nihilators activated next, with the knocked down one standing up and getting ready for some carnage. He began swinging and took out 3 of the 4 models surrounding him, with the one effected by the feat managing to live. The second nihilator killed the one guy that he was in range of (because I forgot to move him) and gave Constance another sould token. Saxon Orrick stood still and took a shot at another stormguard that was standing by itself, and manages to crank the damage roll and take him out.
Next the immortals activate and shuffle forward to get in range of some more precursors. The one closest to my board edge used a feat token to boost the hit and damage roll on the knight in front of him, as I really needed that one dead. The rest of them just taken unboosted swings and manage to kill a couple more.
With my ancestral guardian freed up thanks to the boosting immortal, he walks forward and takes some fully boosted swings on Gallant thanks to the feat. After three swings (two purchased with soul tokens) Gallant goes down, and my hero looks defiantly at Gustav as he shows him what a real hero can do.
My reptile hounds move forward and each kill another precursor knight, ending the turn and leaving Constance on a total of 8 souls.
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| 8 souls from the feat turn means a lot of armor next turn! |
With Constance sitting on a ton of focus, Dave decides that it is time to look at ending this game. He drops transference and the turn begins. The precursor knights receive a shield wall order, shuffle around and start hitting immortals, only managing to kill one. Constance activates next and charges an immortal that is beside the loot token, getting base to base with the token to be able to grab it next turn and killing the immortal.
Aiyana activates and casts kiss on the ancestral guardian, and then Holt proceeds to take both of his shots on the AG and manages to kill it. This causes the Kovaas to pop out in place of the AG, but Gustav quickly removes it from the table.
The stormguard shuffle around, with one moving ontop of Gallant's wreck marker in order to block the charge lane, and the other two both whiff their attacks. Finally the journeyman takes a shot at an immortal, killing it, and Rupert moves forward to give the precursors tough.
Skorne Turn 5:
At this point I knew I couldn't kill Constance (she was sitting over 30 armor) but I wanted to try and at least tie her up so that she couldn't just walk away next turn.
The immortals make their vengeance attacks, the one in the back moving forward and the other two each killing a precursor. Next Zaal activates, standing still to kill the stormguard in the wreck marker because he is in the way. Zaal ignores the cover on his shot, so I figure that I should be able to shoot him without a problem, but I boost anyways just to be sure. And promptly roll 1,1,1. Since I really need that model dead I have Zaal cast sunder spirit, boosting to hit again and this time managing to hit and killing the stormguard. With that the savage charges the precursor knight that is beside Constance, managing to kill it despite the free strike from the stormguard stripping him of his body.
The nihilators move forward, one killing the stormguard in front of it and the other just getting in range to kill Holt. Saxon Orrick stands still and shoots the last stormguard in the back, killing him easily. Finally the immortals and the reptile hounds shuffle forward and clean up all but one of the remaining precursor knights.
Cygnar Turn 6:
Even though most of Dave's army is gone, he is still in a pretty good position to win on scenario. Constance activates first and sacrifices her action to pick up the loot token. She then casts flashing blade a couple of times (I don't remember how many swings it took), killing the cyclops savage and the immortal that is in her melee range.
With that done she walks backward as far as she can, being slowed by the rough terrain of the wreck marker. The journeyman casts arcane shield on her and moves to the left, taking a shot at the most forward nihilator. The precursor knight and the squire move forward to jam my remaining models, and Rupert charges an immortal and manages to kill it (which brings eternal shame to the family of the immortal's soul).
Skorne Turn 6:
On my turn all I can do is try to kill Constance before she gets away with the loot. This probably should have involved the use of a last standed reptile hound, but I didn't think of it at the time.
The immortal uses its vengeance attack to smack the precursor knight in front of him, killing it. Zaal moves forward using hex blast and his shot to try and kill Constance. Hex blast hits, stripping arcane shield and doing a few points of damage. The shot doesn't do any damage, and after that I am not able to get anything else onto Constance so we call it.
Cygnar Turn 7:
Dave activates Constance, runs her back to his deployment zone and wins the scenario.
Thoughts on the game:
This was a first run with both our casters, and I think that overall we both played them well. There were no major mistakes on either side, and it ended up being pretty close. I'm really happy with Zaal's ability to keep a leg up on attrition by using his dead models to fuel the army, and next game I play with him I really want to try tossing last stand on something to see how much damage I can do.
As for the league, I got 6xp and Dave got 7, giving us both enough to purchase our first upgrade for our hero. I am most likely going to purchased the ability that gives the AG's weapon blessed, but unyielding also has a lot of potential (arm 20 in melee is awesome).
Thanks for reading, and hopefully I will have another report up soon!
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