HGR Journal Entry No. 036 - Overloaded Auspexes...

Date: November 24, 2007
Venue: Salubri's Place
Attendees: Salubri, Midnight, Balian, Kyuzo, and Joel
Rules of Engagement: Warmachine/Hordes, HGR style
Highlights:

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Game1 - Balian(Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff) vs. Midnight(Archdomina Makeda)
500pts No Man's Land
Midnight wins via Objective

Finally bringing Makeda out of retirement for a 500 pt game vs. Sorscha. I forgot to factor in the effects of the spells I cast during this game - which prompted me to buy the Skorne tokens. I also forgot to cast my feat at the right time, then deciding as most my troops were dead anyway, to no longer cast it all. I did get the chance to use Makeda's 8 strikes (2 basic+6 additional) on a knocked down spriggan - eventually demolishing the whole thing after repeated strikes of increasing POW!

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Game2 - Midnight(Tyrant Lord Hexeris) vs. Salubri(Lord Commander Coleman Stryker)
750pts No Man's Land
Salubri wins via Assassination

Midnight: Fielding another 750 army! Hexeris is proving to be more interesting as a warlock especially in 750 pt games. I still have to get the hang of casting spells and calling Hexeris feat at the right time. I did get to replay death march and hexeris feat but to a lesser extent - his cavalry leader getting away! Stryker still proving to be a challenge but good game nonetheless =)

Salubri: Going up against Midnight's Hexeris is a daunting task. His ability to use my/his dead models right after they die makes his warhost even scarier. Especially when he's fielding a huge number of Beasts! It was clear to me from the start that assasination was not possible until I remove all the War Beasts in play. I opted to keep Stryker back and cast him into a support role. It proved to be effective with Centurion standing guard. The Hunter was probably one of the most valuable units I had here as it did some major damage as well as delaying his left flank. First time I ever used Stryker's cloud for an extended period. It was fun moving the cloud around though it did little damage to his units. Bloody business, this one!

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Game3 - Kyuzo(High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza) vs. Joel(Goreshade the Bastard)
500pts King of the Hill
Joel wins via Objective

Goreshade... yikes. And with a Deathjack too! Tried out an Amon-Ad Raza list, along with a couple of Dervishes for the first time to check out how well Synergy would work on them.

The Deathjack's advance deployment pretty much did the damage in taking the objective since they were able to take the hill early on while the rest of Joel's battlegroup as well as mine were advancing towards the center. By second turn, Joel made a good move by charging his Deathjack straight to my Castigator (who ended up as scrap one turn after and pretty much stopped my advance to contest the hill) while Goreshade and the rest of his minions took over the controlling duties of the objective. My Dervishes and Devout were able to keep his Slayer and Deathjack from running over to Amon, even destroying the Deathjack in the process. Some last turn heroics by Amon in taking out Goreshade by charging in through a gap but not enough attacks or damage was enough to take him out as he secures the hill.

In hindsight some lessons learned:

1. I think I got a better understanding in playing out the Devout warjack compared to last time I played it.

2. Made the early mistake of NOT moving Amon forward and let him get into Meditative Stance early. First turn should have been, move the warjacks first, THEN activate Amon and go Meditative Stance on the next turn.

3. Synergy rocks. Gone high as +8 with just the light warjacks. Too bad I made low damage rolls thus taking a couple of turns longer in destroying the Deathjack and hopefully look for other targets, maybe even Goreshade himself.

4. Amon DID have a chance in taking out Goreshade. Should have Tripped him with Oblivion first, THEN use the succeeding attacks with boosted damage after. Though the math involved an unboosted To Hit roll of 8, I had a better chance.

5. A slight modification to the list I used would be able to make the list more efficient. Take out the Devout and the rest of the troops and try to keep two heavies and the two dervishes in the battlegroup and the rest of the points for choir, wracks, and a couple of solos should make them more cohesive.

Charge to experience. Good game.

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Session ends 9PM

Went to Quattro and Starbucks after, for a change. Both Quattro and Starbucks were packed to the rafters. Let's suffice it to say most of the auspexes were overloaded way before the night was over. Some honorary mentions to Ms. One-Two, Ms. One(!), Ms. Pillowcase, Ms. Lifesaver, Ms. Pink and Perky who pretty much made the night for most of us.

Maybe some plans for the coming Holiday this November 30. Maybe 40k at Galleria? Abangan...

HGR Journal Entry No. 035 - Newbie Moves By Veterans...

Date: November 17, 2007
Venue: Midnight's Residence
Regulars Present: Midnight, Salubri, special participation of Joel, Kyuzo
Games Played: Warmachine/Hordes

Highlights:

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Game 1 - Salubri(Lord Commander Coleman Stryker) vs. Joel()
750pts

Well fought game with Joel. We ended up bum rushing each other in the center of the table with my Storm Lances getting the better of his Bane Knights(?) and Mechani Thralls(?) only to be wiped out by Purges during Deneghra's feat turn. The Helljack went on a duel vs. the Thunderhead with Joel ending up throwing the Cygnaran jack every turn but doing little damage because of it's disruption field. Pistol Wraiths did their job by pinning and killing some of my other units. One blooper I made was I declared to make an electro leap from the Storm Guard only to find out the nearest model within 4" was my own Storm Lance. I ended up killing a friendly! :D

Joel took the field by pinning down Stryker with multiple "sacrifice movement or action" from the pistol wraiths as well as Deneghra's spells.

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Game 2 - Kyuzo(High Exemplar Kreoss) vs. Midnight(Lord Tyrant Hexeris)
750pts Pendulum
High Exemplar Kreoss wins via VP after 5 turns

I made a few adjustments to my 750pt Kreoss list (taking into account what I learned from my last game against Salubri's Lord Commander Stryker), taking out a Revenger, Devout and a Reclaimer solo in favor of maxxing out Holy Zealot, Temple Flameguard and Exemplar Errants squads and adding in Vilmon and two Paladins. Kept the Castigator and Crusader (wish I could afford to field another warjack, but I guess this will have to do for now).

It was my first time to go up against Midnight's Lord Tyrant Hexeris and with six(!) warbeasts! My initial impression in deployment his config had multiple threats that I had to resolve decisively and not get bogged down in close combat.

midnight comments in italics.
as usual i deployed with my warbeasts in the middle and my fast moving units on the flanks. as i wasn't sure how kreoss would play, i felt this was the safest deployment. i was surprised to see a unit AD with ranged attacks to boot! the rest however i felt i could take on if i get them to split up by the house in the middle.

i immediately went for the house and waited for him to come and i would attack him one at a time. damned basilisks frenzied too early which left my praetorians on the right exposed.

The game was a comedy of errors on my part, most memorable of (honest) mistakes is taking note of damage points to my warjacks ("9 points on column 6...:P).

memorables for me include: moving titan gladiator on his units of diehard knights, then casting deathbringer on titan gladiator which wiped out his knights. on the downside, i took 6D3 damage points on the gladiator.
basilisk taking out the left and right arms of a crusader then decimating his grenade lobbing troops.
cataphract centratii also taking out his castigator's right arm, then the cyclops taking out the left arm. unfortunately it was not enough to render the jack inert - which would've given me enough vp's for the win!

Due to the time constraint, with no control points established by either side, the game was resolved via VP, with Kreoss edging out Hexeris 10-9.

yup, kreoss hid behind the other side of the house the WHOLE game. that's playing like you've got a pair

Wehehe... I must admit I played timid with Kreoss who went without a Devout in a long while. Between the choices a) Go around a disabled Crusader to take out the Basilisk Drake, b) Go behind a Castigator (with memories of being slammed by it in the last game against Salubri still fresh in my mind) and c) Wait behind the house, I chose the house as the most logical thing to do. :P

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Session ends 9:00PM.

HGR Journal Entry No. 034 - A Few Firsts...

Date: November 10, 2007
Venue: Salubri's Residence
Regulars Present: Salubri, Balian, Kyuzo, with special participation of Joel
Games of Choice: Warhammer 40k, Warmachine

Highlights:

Today was a day of firsts. It was Balian's first Warmachine game that from what I gather did not show much signs of newbie-ness. It was also the first Warhammer 40k game in a while with Joel contributing to the group's impression on the new Chaos Space Marines codex. And it was Kyuzo's first venture into a 750pt Warmachine game. Here's a couple of accounts made by the Regulars and the games we played that day. Enjoy reading and keep on gaming.

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Game 1 - Salubri(Commander Coleman Stryker) vs. Balian(Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff)

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Game 2 - Balian(Dark Angels) vs. Joel(CSM Plague Marines)

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Game 3 - Kyuzo(High Exemplar Kreoss) vs. Salubri(Lord Commander Coleman Stryker)
750pts Pendulum
Lord Commander Coleman Stryker wins via Assassination and Objective

Kyuzo report (some details ripped from Silence in Darkness blog):

I agreed to play a 750pt Warmachine game against Salubri's Lord Commander Coleman Stryker using my High Exemplar Kreoss. First time for me to play 750pts and against an epic warcaster at that. I lost that game, still had fun in the process, and did a bit of analysis of the outcome.


I think I did well in surviving Epic Stryker's feat by weathering out his battlegroup's extra attacks as well as keeping his Storm Lances stuck on the far flank by the Temple Flameguard. I tried to counter it by popping Kreoss's own feat on my turn to deal some considerable hurt back at the opposition. But I guess it wasn't enough and the casualties both sides inflicted created some avenues for some precise charge attacks. It was the Centurion slam on the Castigator resulting in Kreoss knockdown + the Stryker overcharge(?) that caught me flat footed. Simple error in judgement of charge distances and in placement of my remaining forces on the table. It's nothing a little more practice and gaming time can't fix. Good game against Salubri. Didn't disappoint.

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Session ends with dinner Quattro (for a change), with Balian and Salubri giving new meaning to the joys of line of sight while Joel and I got a bottlecap opener each instead.

HGR Journal Entry No. 033 - November Gaming...

Date : November 2, 2007
Venue : Pitshop/Pet Stop
Attendees : Adrian, Henri, Byron, Kyuzo, Midnight, Balian, Sigismund, Doc Lance, Mang, Pat

Games Played : Warhammer 40k, Warmachine/Hordes

Highlights :

Finally, some 40k games played after a long drought...

Came unprepared for it too, considering I was fresh out of the All Souls' Day madness. Met up with Balian and Midnight. Brought along whatever CSM models I got and hopefully I can whip up a list using the new CSM army list.

Had a good representation of Regulars. My game against Balian's Dark Angels was an interesting one, given the fact that I had to make some adjustments to my Emperor's Children list. No more siren-DP, no daemonic strength AC's, no blastmaster havocs, and to top it all off, no daemonettes! Argh. It was uphill from Turn 1. But it was fun. Can't wait for the new codex to come out as well as hopefully, my daemonettes will come back. Sigh.

Most those who went with me finished early, wanting to get a quick dinner before going home. It was a holiday and most of us were on Cinderella time. We left, with Sigismund still "educating" Byron using a virtually defunct Iron Warriors list, with the onset of the new CSM codex.

Salubri joined up shortly after that since dinner was near his house. The usual talks ensued with a few questions cropping up from both game systems for future clarification. Will post those at a later time.

Midnight report
It's been too long since I last used my space wolves and so when I heard about the games at pitshop, I just had to bring em out again for a ride.

Balian deployed most his troops as separate squads across the entire length of the table. Looking at all the plasma cannons and missile launchers on the other side, I had some serious doubts about getting to the other side. Good thing we ended up with recon and alpha level which meant we were only counting scoring units!

I got second turn and was extremely lucky that my tanks survived the Balian's shooting. We zoomed towards my left flank and waited for the next round of shooting. I could see his assault squad closing in on my hapless scouts - and knew these guys wouldn't last long. I just gambled that in moving the assault squad forward, my speeders may just be able to whittle them down later in the game. What a gambit - leaving my right flank with just the scouts and speeders to defend it. I kept reasoning to myself, if he takes out the scouts, I'll try to shoot him for 2 turns then run away to the other side.

Turn 4-5, my vindicator and 1 predator were dead as well as my scouts on the right flank. Luckily my come-from-behind scouts were able to tie up his units on the left flank (before saying hello to the Emperor!). Big bash on the left flank - SW HQs going up against DA elite squads. Fortunately my I5 boys were able to kill off the DA defenders. Speeders get away from the assault squads and run to the opposite side on the left flank.

Turn 6 was a mad dash for touchdowns! Balian was able to get 5 squads to my side on his last turn. But last minute shooting from my speeders was pretty lucky having managed to whittle down 1 squad to less than half. Final score SW 6 scoring units (3 troops, 2 speeder squads, and 1 predator) vs. 4 DA scoring units.