Battle Report: Khador vs. Retribution

...so lars4life & I had an afternoon to kill, so we got together for a quick game of Warmachine - my Khador vs. his Retribution of Scyrah:

(Yes, this was a pretty ghetto-tastic game as far as models & terrain was concerned - we're both pretty new to Warmachine, so nothing is really painted to completion yet, and this was a a quick learning game, so we didn't drag out any battlemats or terrain).

We both threw together a 25-point list (which took almost all of our models).  Lars4life was excited to play with a couple new choices, and this was only the second time I'd ever played, the first being when we were at Adepticon.  Oddly enough, this game had the same "feel" to it - I was confused and struggled to keep everything straight at first, but by the end I was having quite a bit of fun.  I played Karchev as my 'caster (even though I screwed up and used the Butcher model - I didn't realize I'd grabbed the wrong card until halfway through the game).  I pretty much ran everything into melee as quickly as I could, since that's what Khador is about (plus I don't really have any ranged units yet, except for the bomard cannon on my Destroyer warjack - I've got Widowmakers coming in the mail, and I'm still looking for a Mortar Crew).  Lars4life pointed out that even though Karchev's stats read like a 'jack, it's probably not the best idea to fully invest him in hand-to-hand like I did:

It eventually turned into a huge rugby scrum, and lars4life took out my Warcaster in turn four.  I learned that the Mage Hunter Assassin is nasty, and I really have to make better use of my Man-O-War Shock Troopers - I pretty much threw them in there to fill out the list and took my sweet time getting them across the board, but it turns out they're tough as nails and really effective...

Battle Report: Red Scorpions vs. Ultramarines

...so lars4life & I made it to the FLGS last weekend to play a game - his Red Scorpions (using vanilla marine rules) vs. my Ultramarines.  we agreed on 1,000 points, since I'm still a n00b & he's still getting the hang of 5th ed. rules.  Unfortunately, we BOTH forgot our cameras (again!) so you'll have to make do with our crappy cell phone pics.

We rolled for the mission and got "seize ground", and rolled for number of objectives and got 5, although we both agreed we should cut it down to 4 since we were playing on a 4'x4' table and there wasn't a logical place to put the fifth one where it would be 12" from a table edge.  We took turns laying terrain and he deployed first - mostly because I asked him to watch my deployment and offer suggestions or point out any potential dumb moves on my part.

The table after terrain & objective placement:

The objectives are the orange disks in each quadrant.  (We both realized that we really need to make some objective markers!)


The units I brought:

-Two tactical squads w/ missile launcher & flamer
-Terminator squad, 4 w/ heavy bolter & power fist, one w/ bolter & power weapon
-Space Marine captain
-Chaplain
-Dreadnought w/ multi-melta & storm bolter
-Vindicator

lars4life's list was actually fairly similar:

-Two tac squads (w/ lascannons, I think?)
-Termie squad w/ assault cannon
-Commander Culn
-Venerable Dreadnought
-Two Razorbacks

Deployment:

We both used similar tactics, leading our troops out behind our vehicles while simultaneously trying to avoid offering side armor shots.

Hey, are you guys in there?

We didn't keep a turn-by-turn record of the game, so I'll just talk about some of the high points:

-lars4life's Terminator doesn't know when to quit: The only Terminator to survive my Vindicator (after he detached his commander) managed to walk all the way across the board and single-handedly destroy my Vindicator.

-Commander Culn is one bad mofo: 

Over the course of two rounds, Commander Culn managed to kill my chaplain and half my tac squad before he went down.

-Dreadnought slap fight!

I guarantee that the phrase "Dreadnought slap fight" will elicit laughs from lars4life & I for a while - our Dreads got into close combat with each other on round two, and then neither of us could do anything.  We both rolled like garbage during this combat for three rounds, resulting in our Dreads standing there slapping each other.

We got past round five, rolled, and the game ended.  The final tally was one objective controlled by each of us, one contested, and one open, so it was a draw.  (although to be fair, lars4life was giving me pointers on tactics the whole time we were playing - I had no concept of a "side armor shot" or how effective many of the weapons were against the different armor types, so if it wasn't for him helping he could have easily mopped me up by round three).  Overall it was a lot of fun, and towards the end I finally started to feel like I was finding my footing with the rules - we only had to ask for help with the rules a couple of times, and they were in fairly complicated situations.  Lars4life also had a co-worker join us to observe, and I think having him there asking questions was actually helping us learn the rules (kind of like someone quizzing you before a test).  He also bought a Chaos Space Marine codex before we left, and is already planning his first army...

Battle Report: Ultramarines vs. Red Scorpions

So lars4life & I managed to get out to our local shop yesterday and play a game - his Red Scorpions vs. my Ultramarines:

...since I'm a n00b when it comes to actually playing 40k, and he hasn't played a proper came in years, we didn't really worry about following the force organization chart or using any particular list - we just picked  identical units (1 tac squad, 1 terminator squad, and a dreadnaught) and started playing, mainly to work out the rules.  We spent half the game with our noses in the rulebooks, and had to call someone over for a ruling at one point, but it was a lot of fun - I've been wanting to play at the store for some time, but was kind of hesitant since I don't have much experience.  Needless to say, all they guys at the shop were friendly, and I even got a compliment on my Ultramarines' paint job.  I actually won the game, but this was mainly because 1) lars4life was playing his Red Scorpions as vanilla marines, and wasn't using any special characters, 2) he was plagued by lousy dice rolls when trying to bring in his reserves, and couldn't bring his Terminators in until round 3, and 3) we weren't really trying to use any tactics or strategy - we just ran in to combat so we could start working out the rules.  I have no doubt he could wipe the table with me if he was trying at all.

We're planning on playing again (and maybe one of us will remember to bring a camera next time, instead of using a crappy cellphone camera), and one of the guys at the shop was telling us about an upcoming tournament, as well as a campaign that is starting in January...