Riven Bonds League Game 7: Mordikaar vs Issyria

Hello again! It is time for another report. It's been a while, but we're back with another game for the league, and another trial game with Skorne this time against Mat's forces of Retribution. I finally put together the models I needed for a solid 50 point list, in this case a Mordikaar list that I am really excited to try out. The only models from this list that I have used before are the nihilators and the beast handlers (Well and I guess the Swamp Gobbers from when I owned Circle a few years ago) so this was going to be a fun trial!

Void Seer Mordikaar (*5pts)
* Basilisk Drake (4pts)
* Basilisk Krea (4pts)
* Tiberion (11pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
* Tyrant Vorkesh (3pts)
Cataphract Incindiarii (Leader and 5 Grunts) (9pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Agonizer (2pts)

I think the list seems very strong against a lot of drops, and I think I am going to have a lot of fun playing it. It is very heavily borrowed from Martin Hornacek, because he is a very strong player that I have a lot of respect for, and I am still very new to Skorne so borrowing lists is very helpful. With that being said, I have Incindiarii in the list which he does not, which I think makes the list a bit more diverse giving it some ranged presence, but I'm sure he has a good reason for not taking them in his main list.

This list struggles against upkeep removal, remove from play and heavy armor. The first two because it messes with Mordikaar's attrition game, and it has issues with heavy armor because nothing in the list hits extremely hard, except for the Cetrati (of which there are only 7, with a small threat range) and Tiberion. While I definitely feel like Tiberion can handle a heavy without a problem, he might have issues with say.... a character heavy and a colossal.... theoretically...

 Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (*6pts)
* Hyperion (18pts)
* Imperatus (12pts)
Houseguard Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (7pts)
* Houseguard Halberdiers Officer & Standard (2pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Mage Hunter Commander (2pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Dawnguard Destor Thane (4pts)
Houseguard Thane (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

Oh look, a character heavy and a colossal! Who saw that coming?

I am always worried when I see Issyria on the other side of the table. I know that she generally dies off after her feat turn, but damn it's a good feat turn, and I usually end up not having an army left after it is done. This is of course speaking from Cryx and Merc experience, so I am hoping Skorne will be able to whether (weather? whatever) the feat better, but we will see how it goes.

We rolled off for scenario and ended up with two fronts. Mat won the initiative roll and chose to go first.

Retribution Deployment:
Hyperion pre-deployed slightly to the right side of the table (Mat's left side), with Imperatus and Issyria going in the middle. The halberdiers went to Imperatus' right, with the thane beside them and an arcanist beside each warjack. The destor thane when to the left of Hyperion, with the MHA deploying in front of him and the strike force deploying in front of the halbs.

Skorne Deployment:

I deployed with my battle group right in the middle. The cetrati went on the right side to try and contest my zone, while the nihilators and incindiarii went to the left side of the table to deal with the halbs that would be coming towards me, as they wouldn't be much help on the other side against the hyperion. The beast handlers went in the back, as support units do, and the agonizer went off to the right side so it could try and deny some focus allocation to the hyperion.

Retribution Turn 1:

As expected in warmachine turn ones, there was a lot of running. Basically everything ran forward except the thane which gave desperate pace to the halbs, the arcanists which each gave a focus to their warjack and Issyria who cast admonition on Imperatus and inviolable resolve onto the hyperion.

Skorne Turn 1:

Again, nothing super exciting, a lot of things ran. I considered taking some shots with my incindiarii but decided that it would probably better if I got them into a stronger position for next turn. The krea but up its animus and charged, the nihilators and cetrati ran. At this point Mat (and some on lookers) was giving me raised eyebrows, since I just moved my whole army into his threat range, but I had a plan! (Sort of). Mordikaar activates, walks forward and casts hollow onto the nihilators and dumped the rest of his fury onto the agonizer. Then he popped his feat, giving everything in my control area (which was everything except the incindiarii on the far left) +3 defense and poltergeist. The support staff ran forward, and I was done. (For the record the two empty bases on the field are a nihilator and a cetrati that fell off of their bases as I was unpacking them).

Retribution Turn 2:

Mat spent some time deciding if he should back up and let my feat drop, or if he should counter feat and try to get some work done. In the end he decided to counter feat, and started his turn by activating Issyria floating over to the left and popping her feat. She then cast crusader's call and gave Impy an ancillary attack, which he used to shoot a nihilator, hitting and killing it. The strike force activates, with a few of them standing still and the rest moving forward to take some shots at the nihilators. The feat helped them hit, and they ended up killing a few of the nihilators.

Next the halberdiers receive desperate pace from the thane, pop their mini feat, and charge my incindiarii. Thanks to the feat and some good rolling, they manage to kill all but one of the models in the unit, and the last one only survived because the halbs couldn't get a line to charge it. Then the halberdiers used reform to back up a bit and contest the zone, while a couple of them moved farther forward to jam my remaining models.

Imperatus and the hyperion both move forward and take some shots, but neither of them did anything game changing (I think the hyperion just put a couple of points of damage on the drake, but I don't remember exactly), although Imperatus did light Tiberion and a nihilator on fire after killing another nihilator. The mage hunter assassin charged one of my cetrati, easily killing it, and the destor thane moved forward and used its gun to kill a nihilator or two.

In total by the end of the turn I had lost 6 nihilators, giving Mordikaar 6 souls, as well as 5 incindiarii and a cetrati. I wasn't expecting to loose as many incindiarii as I did, but one lived which the most important part, and it was time for some payback.

Skorne Turn 2:

Neither of the fires go out, but the nihilator makes his tough roll and Tiberion takes no damage. Mordikaar leeches in his fury, upkeeps hollow and the turn begins. Mordikaar activates first, and uses all 12 of his fury to cast revives. He brings back three of the incindiarii that died, as well as the one cetrati that was killed by the mage hunter. The incindiarii activate, and take some shots. The one in melee takes a swing at the halb in front of him, hitting and killing it, and the rest of them shoot into the blob of halbs in the middle of the table, killing a few of them and lighting a few more on fire. The nihilators activate and shuffle around to make sure they don't have any friendly models in their melee range, and then they kill the three halberdiers in front of them.

The cetrati go next, receiving a shield wall order and shuffling forward. The revived cetrati takes a big hit on the destor, bringing him down to two boxes, and then Vorkesh proceeds to miss his attack. Two of the cetrati in front of the mage hunter try a CMA on her and miss, and another one swings by itself and misses as well (the fourth one couldn't get in melee range).

The drake walks forward, staying out of melee with the destor, and sprays a line down the strike force. He catches two grunts and the UA, boosts to hit on all three, and misses all three attacks. Next the agonizer starts screaming and running around in a way that only an agonizer can, ending up in the middle of the board and hopefully in range to deny focus allocation to both Imperatus and the hyperion. Tiberion and the krea both move forward to get in a better position for next turn, and both use their animi to try and help survive through the next turn. The beast handlers move forward but don't do anything, because I'm right where I need to be for fury, and the gobbers move up and drop a cloud to try and block LoS to Mordikaar.

Retribution Turn 3:

Issyria upkeeps both of her spells, and then we do some measuring to see if he can allocate focus or not. Both warjacks are within the agonizer's bubble, so there is no focus allocation this turn. Mat wants to get rid of the agonizer, so Imperatus activates first, and walks forward to kill the agonizer. He kills it easily, and then sidesteps backwards to get back into the zone, and to get away from Tiberion. With that out of the way an arcanist activates and gives hyperion a point of focus. 

Hyperion activates and charges forward (with a free charge from Mat's fuel cache objective), easily killing three cetrati with it's initials and a purchased attack. The mage hunter swings at a cetrati, but doesn't manage to kill it. The strike force moves forward, use some shots to clear out a few beast handlers, and take a few swings on the drakes, doing some light damage. The thane also takes a swing, hitting the krea but not crippling any systems.

The halbs move forward and kill two of the incindiarri. Finally Issyria activates, ancilliary attacks Imperatus, getting him to kill a nihilator, and then uses her spell that lets her move to fly away and hide.

Sorry for the dark picture here.

Skorne Turn 3:

Mordikaar leeches in his fury and upkeeps hollow again. He moves forward an casts ghost walk on the drake, as well as casting a revive to bring back a cetrati.

The krea activates and shuffles around the thane, staying in it's melee range and also getting in the way of hyperion (and contesting the zone). Using the flank bonus from the drake, the krea is able to easily kill the thane, and takes a swing at hyperion as well but doesn't do any damage. Next the nihilators move up and take some swings, killing a mage hunter or two and clearing a bit of room. The drake backs up (not taking free strikes thanks to ghost walk) and lines up another spray. Boosting to hit again, this one manages to kill the UA and two strike force members. 

Tiberion moves forward and uses his bump animus, while the incindiarii try to kill the halbs engaging them but both wiff their melee attacks. Two of the cetrati CMA the mage hunter assassin, finally killing it, and the other two charge the hyperion, doing a bit of damage to it. Finally, the gobbers move forward an pop a cloud (which happened after the picture below) and the turn moves over to Ret.

Retribution Turn 4:

On the retribution turn both warjacks get loaded with focus and the turn begins. The arcanists move forward and give their jacks concentrated power, and then Hyperion activates and squishes all four cetrati. He missed one attack, so he couldn't swing at the krea at all, but some strike force members charge it in the back, doing some more damage but not managing to kill it.

The other strike force take some swings in melee, and along with the halb standard bearer, try to make a bit of a wall for Imperatus. The other halb members manage to kill a nihilator and an incidiarii, and then Imperatus actiavtes. He walks forward into melee range of Tiberion, with a model behind him to prevent being bumped away, and begins swinging. 

In the end he did a ton of damage to Tiberion, and crippled two aspects, but is unable to kill him. With nothing else to attack Tibbers, Mat ends his turn and it's time for some revenge.

Skorne Turn 4:

At this point, things are looking pretty bleak for the forces of Skorne. Looking at the board, I'm thinking that my best bet at this point is to try and clear the zone on the left and then sprint Mordikaar over there. With that in mind, Mordikaar leaches his fury, drops hollow, and begins the turn.

Since I wanted to be able to run Mordikaar to the zone, I needed to have the beast handler heal Tiberion. Unfortunately this meant no enrage, but I would have to hope for the best. The handler moves up and brings Tiberion back to full functionality, and then Tibbers activates and goes to town on Imperatus. After taking all my attacks and filling up on fury, Imperatus was still alive, but my final hit was a crit. Using this I slammed Imperatus backwards, killing the standard bearer, and knocking down Imperatus. My nihilator moves forward and kills the strike force member in front of my drake, freeing him up. The drake then moves forward and sprays Imperatus, catching him and the thane in the spray. With some boosts I manage to kill both the thane and Impy, but then Imperatus uses his once per game ability to regenerate. Man I hate that ability.

Since I won't be able to clear the zone this turn, I go back into spell casting mode with Mordikaar, casting two revives to bring back some incidiarii. They kill one of the halbs and get ready to take some shots next turn. The krea kills a strike force member, leaving a fury spot open for transfers, and the gobbers back up and pop a cloud. 

Retribution Turn 5:

Nothing Super surprising happens this turn. Hyperion and Imperatus both recieve focus, and begin clean up duty.

Imperatus moves forward and kills Tiberion, while the hyperion moves forward and kills both basilisks. The remaining strike force members move forward and kill the gobbers, and a halberdier kills the last beast handler.

Skorne Turn 5:

On my turn, I'm down to a last ditch play to try and pull out a win. Mordikaar buys two revives, bringing back two more incindiarii, and they move forward as far as they can. One of them kills an arcanist that was in the way of drawing a line to Issyria, and then I begin lobbing AoEs at Issyria. None of them are able to drift the right way, so my turn ends and Imperatus walks up to Mordikaar, easily putting him into the ground.

Victory to Retribution!

Thoughts on the game:

Well, I am happy with the way the list performed. It definitely doesn't have the hitting power to deal with Imperatus and a Hyperion, but it was able to grind it out anyways. Revive is an amazing spell, especially with hollow, and I really enjoy being able to bring models back to whichever side of the battle field needs the support.

I'm looking forward to playing some more games with Mordikaar, and hopefully next time I can pull out the win!

As a side note, this game ended up taking over four hours, due to some distracting conversations going on throughout the game. After this I think we are going to start playing our games on the clock. Not only will in reduce game time, allowing us to get in extra matches, but it will also start preparing us for the death clock we will be seeing at the Southern Ontario Open.

Riven Bonds League Game 5: Kraye vs Kaelyssa

Its Dave back with another battle report from our Riven Bonds League play.  Tonight I had the pleasure of playing against Mat who's retribution was showcased in this blog's very first post.

I love playing Mat as he's a very technical player and the games are always tight and close fought.  Tonight we played 50 pts Kraye vs Kaelyssa usin the steamroller 2015 scenario #4 Incoming.  The lists for the game were as follows:

Cygnar - 50pts

Kraye
* Squire
* Stormwall
* Hunter
* Hunter
* Minuteman
* Rowdy
Aiyana and Holt
Gun Mage Captain Adept (Gustav Montcalm!)
Stormsmith Storm Caller
Arlan Stangeways

Bunker - Objective

Retribution - 50pts

Kaelyssa
* Wishnailer (Silly Willy)
* Banshee
* Phoenix
* Discordia
Sentinels Max
* UA
Battle Mages
Skyreth Issyen
Mage Hunter Assassin (Hero)
2x Arcanists

Fuel Cache - Objective

Deployment

We rolled off and Mat won electing to go first.  The table was fairly symmetric with a hill in the center and some scattered rocks but over all pretty open, so I stayed put on the side I was already on.  Kill box was in effect for this scenario so the wall on Mat's side wouldn't be that big of an advantage.

Mat set up with his solos and battle mages on my left flank ready to rocket downfield and threaten the objective.  His battle group set up centrally with the sentinels on the right flank.  I responded by assigning Gustav, A&H and the hunters to hold the left with the stormwall and minuteman responsible for the center and right portions of the battle field.  Kraye went center right hoping to take advantage of the rocks for some cover.

 Deployment

 

Turn 1:

 

Retribution turn 1 was your typical warmachine fare with everything running forward for position.  The arcanists power boosted two of the jacks to preserve Kaelyssa's focus pool and she put up Phantom Seeker on herself.  Sentinels executed an inverted wedge shaped advance trying to bait the vengeance trigger.  The battle mages grabbed the wall in preparation for the next turn.

 



Retribution Turn 1

To start Cygnar turn 1 I allocated 1 to each hunter and kept the rest for Kraye.  The hunters each moved forward putting their shots into the banshee at dice -6 for damage.  I managed one hit for 6 damage with the second hunter rolling snake eyes ... not a good omen of things to come.  Both of the light jacks light cav'ed back to stay out of danger.

After measuring my control range I knew the rest of my models would be out of range so everything else in my list moved forward for position.  A&H got stealth and the stormwall dropped a pod behind my lines for future triangulations and laid down some covering fire channel the sentinels out of the center.  Full throttle goes on the minute man and I pass the turn over.

Cygnar Turn 1

Turn 2:

Mat informed me that he was going to attempt to finish the game on this turn.  He allocates no focus and starts the action.  After receiving a focus from an arcanist the phoenix runs to engage my minute man but far enough away not be engaged by it in return.  He sets himself up for putting arcantrik bolts into Kraye through the arc node.  Silly willy gives Kaelyssa his spell boost and she tries her first shot.  The spell hits and at dice -6 she lays 3 damage into Kraye.  Realizing that this isn't going to work Mat switches gears into attrition mode, pops Kae's feat and moves on with his turn. 

The second arcanist moved forward and power boosts the Banshee.  Realizing what a pain the triangulations are going to be he attempts to kill the pod by slamming a hunter over it with his momentum cannon.  Unfortunately, even with a boosted attack roll, he comes up short of the 9 needed to hit with an 8. 

Nothing else was in range to do much damage so the solos on the left move up to the threaten the flank and sentinels run into the center of the board.

Retribution Turn 2

With everything starring me down I know I need a big turn here or I'm going to get badly out positioned.  For those of you who don't know what Kaelyssa's feat does it gives everything in her control range stealth and they can't be charged.  This shouldn't have been a problem if I actually had any semblance of a short term memory and realized that the feat was in play later.

I pull one focus from the squire allocate two to Rowdy, one to the minute man and three to the storm wall and upkeep full throttle on the minute man.  In an attempt to remove the sentinels from the game I aim to remove their UA and take vengeance out of the equation.  Arlan moves up and casts Evasive on the minute man allowing him to walk away from the phoenix without free strikes.  The minute man makes his way over to the sentinel UA and his body guard thanks to his leap ability.  Once he's in base to base contact he flak fields for ... 0 damage on the UA.  Yep, dice minus 5 and I come up snake eyes.  The body guard in defensive line doesn't fare so well though and bites the dust. The minute man tries his two melee attacks and only manages to do 3 damage to the main target.  Not a good start.

In the center the stormwall moves forward and pummels the phoenix into submission.  Electro leaps from the combat kill three more sentinels.  The wall drops a pod near the banshee and ends his activation like the champ he is.

The stormcaller moves forward and triangulates with both pods to disrupt the banshee and remove another sentinel.  At this point I'm snickering to myself as I've managed to remove 5 sentinels without triggering vengeance.  None of the abilities which have actually killed anything have been attacks. 

I move to attempt to put kiss of lyliss on the Fane knight and am 1/2 an inch out due to stealth.  Realizing that this means the hunters will be unable to reach him as well I shuffle for position, but wait ... Gustav realizes he's in range of the MHA.  Standing still and aiming with his snipe shot at range 16 the report of the gun sounds and ... the dice come up snake eyes.  Way to go champ.  Missed out on that sweet league achievement for +3xp.

I suddenly remember after the missed kiss that the feat is in effect and the focus I've allocated to Rowdy is useless (2 focus could've meant a mage sight AOE could've been placed instead).  Oh well.  He and Kraye shuffle arround and I pass the turn.

 

Cygnar Turn 2

 

Turn 3:

 

Seeing my obvious mistakes Mat is looking to capitalize hard on turn three.  He allocates 3 to Discordia and upkeeps phantom hunter for free on Kae with Silly Willy.

 

Starting off with his battle mages Mat is able to roll double 4's to knock down my hunter and double 5's to knock down and kill Aiyanna. 

 

SEE GUSTAV!?  THAT'S HOW ITS DONE!

 

The rest of the mages drag the poor hunter up onto the hill.

 

On the left the fane knight decides that its time to end the bumbling gun mage once and for and promptly cuts poor Gustav down.  The injuries Gustav sustained here would later become infected for a permanent -1 to his damage rolls.  Rapid strike from the knight puts a good deal of damage on the hunter behind the wall crippling his movement and the MHA assassin charges in and finishes him off.

 

Discordia receives a power boost from the arcanist and moves over to end the minute man.  The sentinels charge the stormwall putting a good chunk of damage into the left side but leaving all systems operational.  The other arcanist gives the banshee 1 focus removing disruption and the jack puts a boosted damage roll into the helpless hunter.  Kaelyssa locks the hunter down with an arcantrik bolt and moves behind the banshee and arcanist hoping that the LOS blocking will keep her safe.

 

She ... is ... mistaken.

 



Retribution Turn 3

Things are looking pretty grim at this point as I have no idea how to hold off the solos on my flank and I'm beginning to fear for Kraye's safety.  I figure its time to go all in and try to finish this off.  Pulling 1 from the squire and allocating three to the storm wall I start my turn. 

Kraye moves over onto the hill and casts Guided Fire giving his battle group boosted ranged attack rolls.  Using his carbine he snipes out the battle mage and arcanist blocking line of sight to Kaelyssa. 

Arlan moves forward and casts evasive on the stormwall.  The wall starts off by dropping a pod which removes the leftmost sentinel and the three battle mages in the line behind him.  The wall moves into the newly created opening and gains LOS will all of its guns on Kae and unleashes the barrage. 

Its 9's to hit and with all boosted attack rolls from Krae's Guided Fire.  I get 2 shots on the left chain gun and land one of them doing 3 damage.  The left cannon fires, hits and does about 7 damage on dice even.  The second cannon fires and misses.  I roll for shots on the right chain gun managing 3 shots.  The first shot misses.  The second shot lands and with boosted damage seals the deal.

Cygnar Assassination Victory.

Cygnar Turn 3

Stormwall Sees You!

Closing Thoughts

The list I ran isn't an original creation and props goes to Tabi-Chan from the PP forums for posting it in the Kraye thread.   I just had to swap the league model for Gorman and I was good to go.  If you read this Tabi, its an awesome list and I loved it.

This was my first time using Kraye and I have to say I'm in love.  I normally don't like rolling with low model count armies as it always causes me stress over every lost model.  Kraye super ability to get or at least threaten the alpha strike, coupled with the excellent ranged game from my jacks, went a long way to mitigating that though.  I could easily see him becoming one of my main caster choices.

The assassination at the end could've easily gone the wrong way I was just happy the dice gods were with me.  Mat was a superb opponent as always and I fully enjoyed the game.  This game netted Mat his first league game for 6xp and my 5th league game for 6xp as well. 

That's it for this report.  Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll have another one up soon.

 

 

 

Tournament Practice: Game 1

With the Southern Ontario Open quickly approaching, it is becoming time to start really practicing my two lists (especially since one of the lists is a brand new design that I hadn't yet played). I am fairly decided on my two lists at this point, although I am making the odd tweak here and there. The first list, and the one that I have the most practice with is Durgen Madhammer:

Durgen Madhammer (*6pts)
* Ghordson Earthbreaker (19pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Press Gangers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Goblin Tinker (1pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Harlan Versh (2pts)
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile (2pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Thor Steinhammer (2pts)

This is a list that I have a lot of fun with, and that I am comfortable dropping into a lot of match ups. It will be handling Cryx and Menoth for sure, and any other list that brings a lot of infantry (because there is nothing Durgen loves more than models to shoot!). With that being said, I probably should have played this list in my game tonight, but I wanted to try out my new list in order to get a feel for it. That list is being lead by Damiano and looks like this:

Captain Damiano (*6pts)
* Nomad (6pts)
Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (Alexia and 9 Risen Grunts) (5pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Kayazy Eliminators (Leader and Grunt) (3pts)
Kayazy Eliminators (Leader and Grunt) (3pts)
Tactical Arcanist Corps (4pts)
Kell Bailoch (2pts)
Ragman (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (9pts)

My opponent tonight was Mat who was bringing a Retribution force lead by Ossyan. I can't seem to get his list to balance out at 50 points, so I am either missing a model or he played 2 points under... Either way, here are the 48 points of Ret that I was able to come up with for his list:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan (*6pts)
* Banshee (10pts)
Houseguard Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (7pts)
* Houseguard Halberdiers Officer & Standard (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Mage Hunter Infiltrators (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander (3pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Mage Hunter Commander (2pts)
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Houseguard Thane (2pts)

A very strong ranged list, capable of wiping out a lot of models with two units of stormfall archers, and all the guns get super scary under the feat. As I said, I probably would have been better off with Durgen in this match up, but the game ended up as Damiano vs. Ossyan. The scenario we played was Outflank, which has two large circular zones evenly spaced on the table. You can score 1 point for controlling or 2 points for dominating either zone. The table that we were using had a large amount of hilly/rough areas, that we ended up deciding to just treat as normal open ground (as there was just too much of it for it to be a form of terrain).

I won the roll and chose to go first, as I wanted to get up the field as quickly as I could before I started getting filled with bullets (or crossbow bolts and arrows in this case).

*I apologize for the pictures... After the first two, they get pretty blurry. I will have to work on that for my next report.

Mercenaries Deployment:

Retribution Deployment:

Mercenaries turn 1:
As is common in warmachine turn 1s, a lot of things ran. Damiano advanced, cast death march on the kayazy assassins (+2 mat and vengeance) and cast sure foot on Snapjaw (+2 Def and no knockdowns for Snapjaw and models within 3" of him). Wrong eye and Snapjaw both cast submerge and charged forward, trying to position in a way that covered as many of the assassins with sure foot as I could.
Kell advanced forward to toe the zone and hopefully get in range for some shots next turn, and finally, Rupert advanced forward and piped the song of heroic battles, inspiring the kayazy assassins to sometimes live to fight another day!

Retribution turn 1:
Ret's turn one was a bit more exciting than my first turn. Ossyan advanced, cast quicken on the halberdiers (+2 speed and +2 def against ranged attacks) and shatter storm on one of the stormfall archer units (When they kill a model it explodes and kills more models). The mage hunter strike force advanced and fired some shots at the nyss hunters, managing to hit and kill two of them. Next the shatter stormed unit of stormfall archers advanced and fired off 4 AoEs directly at my big clump of kayazy, and managed to scatter them off into empty areas of the board every time (there were a lot of bad deviation rolls in this game). The second unit advanced and decided this time to shoot at the eliminators instead, and with blast damage they ended up putting 2 points of damage onto one eliminator and 3 points of damage to the other. Everything else either advanced or ran forward, with the halberdiers doing a shield wall order and advancing 10" (with quicken and desperate pace from the Thane), followed by a 3" reform... They move extremely fast for a unit that is walking.

Mercenaries turn 2:
After suffering fairly light casualties compared to what could have happened (8 AoEs flying towards my clump of low armor models could have done a lot more damage), it was my turn to kill some models. Unfortunately on the left side of the table, where the kayazy boat was sitting, there wasn't a lot for me to do. Mat had kept all of his models on that side back and out of the kayazy's charge range, so all I could do was shuffle around into a better position. This did mean, however, that I had a fairly strong foothold into the zone that he was going to have a hard time dislodging, especially when he wasn't committing many troops to that side of the board. Damiano upkept death march and sure foot, and advanced forward. He cast dead eye on the nyss hunters (for an additional die on ranged attack rolls) and then camped his remaining focus. The nyss hunters advanced and started taking shots.

The two nyss farthest forward were able to get within 5" of the mage hunters so they both took shots there. The first one missed, and the second one hit and killed a mage hunter. The remaining 6 Nyss hunters shot off three 2 man CRAs into the halberdiers, only managing to kill one due to some low damage rolls. The two eliminators on the right charged forward, both doing a combo strike attack onto a halberdier, and both killing their target. Wrong eye and Snapjaw again cast submerge and charged forward, the TAC advanced and put up smoke, and everything else ran up to try and get into a better position for next turn. Kell stayed in his spot toeing the zone as there weren't any non-stealth models currently in range, and moving forward would put him in the charge range of the infiltrators.

Retribution turn 2:
Ossyan upkeeps quicken and shatter storm, and gives two focus to the banshee. The banshee activates and moves forward to try and get both of the eliminators in its melee range, and takes a swing at the closest one with the short sword. He boosts to hit, but with mat 6 needs an 11 to hit the eliminator. The first hit misses, but a second boosted attack splatters the first eliminator. The strike force activates, a few of the ones in the back shuffle forward, and 5 of them stand still to aim. They all take shots at the nyss hunters, the UA manages to hit and kill one and 3 of the aiming strike force hit and kill as well, taking out four nyss.

The thane uses desperate pace on the halberdiers and then they activate and receive a shield wall order. They unit walks forward, and the UA uses their mini feat which gives them gang for a turn. A three man CMA takes out the remaining eliminator in the zone, and the other halberdiers are able to clean up the last four nyss hunters and clear out the zone. Finally the halbs use reform to get in a better position, and move base to base for their shield wall bonus. Ossyan activates and casts admonition on himself, and then walks behind the wall near the zone.

On the other side of the battlefield, the first stormfall unit shuffles backwards to try and stay out of range of the kayazy. They shoot their AoEs into the grouping of kayazy, wounding 5 assassins, but 2 of them make tough rolls (and are not knocked down due to surefoot). The second unit of stormfall archers does the same thing, but is unable to kill any assassins due to some poor deviations. The unit of infiltrators run around the flank, putting a model in the zone to prevent me from scoring and getting in a position to charge next turn.

The Retribution turn ends, and Mat scores 1 control point.

Mercenaries turn 3:
At the start of my turn, the assassins do their vengeance move, just shuffling closer to the infiltrators since they aren't in range to attack anything. Damiano upkeeps surefoot, lets death march drop, and gives 3 focus to the nomad... After a lot of measuring, I think that the nomad is a little bit out of range of the banshee, so I activate Damiano first to try and remedy that. Damiano takes a few steps forward, pops his feat and casts warpath (which lets a warjack in his battlegroup move 3" if a model in his ctrl area kills an enemy model). You can't see it in the pictures above, but one halberdier is sitting right infront of my TAC. I activate the TAC, and figure that one of them can handle a free strike under the feat (putting him at armor 19) so he walks away from the engaging halb, and is promptly splattered by a really high damage roll. I decide against trying that again, so the other two TAC members stay in melee. They inch to the side a little bit to get out of the nomads way and the first TAC takes a swing at the halberdier in front of him. He hits and kills it, allowing the nomad to advance 3", and then takes a shot at another halb with battle wizard. The shot misses and deviates into nothing. The final TAC member also casts a spell at a halberdier, and it again deviates into nothing.

With that done the nomad activates and charges, without the damage bonus from Ragman because I forgot to activate him first... sigh.... But I still have a fully loaded nomad under Damiano's feat, so I am feeling confident! Needing 6s to hit, the nomad swings and misses the charge attack. The buckler hits, dealing a couple points of damage, and then I buy two more attacks. They both hit and deal a bit of damage, but I end up not crippling anything. Alexia activates and crafts a rune thrall, which charges a halberdier and misses the attack.

On the other side of the board, Kell stands still (gaining two shots from dual shot) and at rat 10 shoots at an infiltrator and misses. He takes his second shot and manages to hit this time, killing the infiltrator and getting me a control point for this turn. The eliminators charge, the closer one making it in range of an infiltrator and the second one just running to engage. The charging one kills its target and sidesteps forward to be more in the way of the zone.

The assassins move more towards the middle of the zone, and the gators both submerge and also move closer to the middle of the zone. That ends the turn, and ties up the control points 1 - 1.

Retribution turn 3:
Ossyan upkeeps quicken and lets shatter storm and admonition drop. He then allocates 3 focus to the banshee, and starts his turn. Ossyan activates first and moves a few inches up the field. He casts admonition on the banshee and pops his feat. The banshee activates next, using a focus to purchase a head butt power attack on the nomad. He boosts to hit, and knocks the nomad down. The banshee uses its last attack to buy a sword attack on the nomad, which does no damage due to the extra armor from the feat.

With that, the stormfall archers walk up, using brutal shot and the feat for 4d6 shots and lobbing shots at the nomad. I don't remember exactly how many shots it took, but after the two units of stormfalls were done activating, the nomad was reduced to a steaming pile of foam wreck marker. The strike force advances and clears out a bunch of risen, leaving only 2 of them on the board, and the halbediers do a shield wall advance and are able to clear out the rest of the zone.

Next the infiltrators activate and walk into the zone to contest. One of them kills Kell, and after a few swings another infiltrator is able to kill one of the eliminators.

With that Mat ends his turn, making the score 2 - 1 for Retribution.

Mercenaries turn 4:

At this point I know that there is only one way I will be able to win this, and that is by scenario. I don't have enough models left on the right side of the table to do anything about the two units or warjack bearing down on me, so I decided to just abandon that side of the table and go for the domination on the other side. That means I have two things to do this turn... I need to clear out the zone on the left and stick a model in the zone on the right to prevent Mat from going up to 3 control points (and then dominating himself and winning).

Damiano upkeeps surefoot and drops warpath. Alexia activates first and the risen walk forward. One of the risen walks back towards my table edge and around to the right, being careful to stay out of melee range of the halberdiers. Next, Alexia uses her craft rune thrall action to turn that risen into a thrall, which then activates and runs into the zone to contest.

With that out of the way, I can focus on the other zone. The kayazy assassins advance forward and are able to kill the two infiltrators in the zone. This leaves Eyriss as the only model left contesting the zone. Snapjaw activates and walks towards Eyriss (he couldn't charge because she was in his back arc) and after some very careful measuring, we find that he is just a hair outside of melee range after he finishes his movement. Being very upset at not being able to eat Eyriss, Snapjaw riles for some fury and submerges into the ground.

This left the task of removing Eyriss to my final remaining eliminator, which turns around and walks up behind Eyriss. With the backstrike bonus and some solid rolls, she is able to kill Eyriss on the first swing and free up the zone. Finally, Damiano activates and runs towards the zone, getting there with a stack of 5 focus and a few inches of movement to spare. I end my turn and score 2 control points, making the score 3 - 2 for Mercs!

Retribution turn 4:

At this point Mat started looking to see how much damage he can get onto Damiano. He knows that he can't put anything in the zone that I won't be able to clear out on my next turn, so an assassination is going to be his best bet. 

He upkeeps quicken and gives a point of focus to the banshee. Next the halberdiers get a charge/run order and one of them runs up to Damiano, while another one smacks the rune thrall in the zone, being careful to stay out of melee range. Then the banshee walks forward around the wreck marker and shoots at the halberdier, boosting to hit. He hits the halb and it is slammed forward, hitting Damiano and knocking him down. The halberdier is killed by the shot, and Damiano takes a couple points of collateral damage. Now that Damiano is knocked down, the stormfall archers advance and start taking shots. Only a few of them were able to get in range with brutal shots, and they are able to bring him down to about 9 boxes. Next, the strike force advances but unfortunately only one of them was able to get in range. He puts some more damage on Damiano, bringing him down to 5 boxes, but with nothing else in range it looks like Damiano will be able to survive the turn.

The infiltrators activate and move forward into the zone, killing one of the assassins. Finally, Ossyan activates and moves forward into the zone, dominating for another two points, bringing Mat up to 4.

Mercenaries turn 5:

The turn comes back to me, and I activate Snapjaw. He moves forward and kills the two infiltrators in the zone. I then activate Wrongeye and have him run across to the zone on my right in order to contest it, and end my turn with Damiano dominating for the scenario win, with a final score of 5 - 4.

Thoughts on the game:

It was nice to pull out a win, but that game was way too close for comfort. If even another one or two models had been in range to take a shot at Damiano that probably would have killed him, and I didn't really feel like I had control over the game most of the time. My assassins weren't really able to do anything other than sit in the zone and have shots fired at them, but in the end that worked to my advantage because nothing big on the retribution side was ever committed to that zone, which is what let me get the scenario win.

I do think that Durgen would be a better choice in this match up, as he has the firepower in his list to shoot back and keep the attrition battle on a more even level. It is always good, however, to get practice in with some less favorable match ups in order to see what the list can and cannot handle, and to get some practice if you end up in that kind of game during a tournament.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I will have another report for you soon!