But a change of plan. See, one of the earliest battle boxes I had purchased was Magnus the Traitor. And I had actually just finished painting Magnus himself. So I took those figures as well as some Retribution in case I could get two games in.
Surprise! Turns out that in the switch over to second edition, that Magnus battle box is a bit more expensive in points so my buddy upped his own forces. But see, he didn't have any Warmachine forces ready so instead he pulls out his Hordes and the Gator forces. These guys are all hit up with some Flames of War primer and nothing else. I keep busting on him to finish them off. Pick out a few details and a wash and bam, done! I didn't even get on him for not having his 'front' marked. He thanked me by not getting on me for not having my front marked.
Eeek! First game and it's not even a traditional one? It's not even following the standard builds? I used the War Machine app for android and it worked pretty well. Took care of damage boxes and a few other bits. It was a good experience in terms of using it.
We had a bunch of scenery that you don't see here. It was from Warhammer 40K I believe. In my mind, Magnus and Caliban had both been wandering through some ruins and encountered one another and well, a caster kill was the order of the day.
The first round, for both of us, was a lot of movement. Magnus' forces here didn't have a lot of range and Magnus himself has some range but it's not that across the table style. The good thing about that, is it let me use some of Magnus spells on the Mangler, Iron Aggression and Temper Metal I believe. One of Magnus' abilities is free upkeep!
My friend and his gators didn't fare much better, but he did say he needed to start generating focus.
So as we start moving into combat, I forgot several things. For example, to use Iron Aggression when moving to engage the wrestler. Shame too as I could've used that boost. I also learned that the renegade light war jack only has a payload of one.
I also learned that the spell Obliteration is very powerful. A very good range and a good POW and it's AOE? The only bad thing is the amount of focus it takes. I figured it being my first game, go for it. Tom didn't' like that too much thought and had one of his bull snappers charge Magnus. My war caster was still by his renegade though so it had to pass by the renegade which rolled some impressive damage and then when it was Magnus own turn, he finished it off not with the sword, but with the mechanikal arm which also has a knock down effect.
Tom managed to completely smash the mangler between the wrestler and a few of the gator men and the bull snapper. But that mangler tied them up for a long time and again, with the obliteration spell, I was able to wipe almost all of the enemy off the table. The free upkeep of armor on the mangler managed to prolong it's life until Tom realized that his warlock had an ability to nullify continuous spells.
Tom also heavily damaged my talon. The whole shield thing was a little of throwing to me as it has to be taken into account but isn't a part of the permanent defense. Made sense thought as the wrestler quickly busted that Talon down to less than half its damage capacity. Ouch again.
The killing blow came for me when Tom had a clear line of sight from Caliban to Magnus and took it. A few fury induced attacks later and Magnus had been defeated. The shame of it all.
Overall it was an interesting experience. Next time I play I need to have a 'real' battle box together or a 'real' force. Having a few war jacks was fun but at the same time, Tom had more activations and was able to do more just by virtue or having MORE things on the table.
I also need to experiment a lot more with focus. After the first round or so, it was all used to blow things up and never on the war jacks in order to give them more attacks or other things of that nature. I'd also like to actually play against a War Machine army as opposed to a Hordes army. Tom has said he'll look into finding his Cryix forces as he has a pretty sizable force of them as well.
Until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment