My first win (AKA, Magnus is all grown up)

Hello world!

It seemed good to me to create a blog, that is, a weblog, to chronicle my experiences as a wargame player. So I did.

I had my very first win last Thursday, my Magnus Agenda vs. my buddy's Trollbloods. I believe our lists went something like this...

PowerToast:

Magnus the Traitor
-Mangler
-Nomad
-Renegade
-Renegade

10x Long Gunners

Mystery Opponent #3

Grimmangus (MO3# likes to say his name as one word, which confused me a lot)

Impaler
Blitzer

4x Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes
-Stone Scribe Elder

6x Kriel Warriors
-Caber Thrower
-Standard and Piper

4x Farrow Bone Grinders

Fell Caller

Victor Pendrake


Now, this was only my 6th game of Warmachine, ever, and was in fact my second fight vs. MO#3. I wasn't too happy with my list, which consisted of every single model I own, feeling that it was a little too 'jack heavy. However, I was also certain that with a little bit of elbow grease, I could win this thing!

MO#3 won the roll to set up the first piece of terrain. By the time we were done, we had a a hill just west of the center line, close to my DZ, a ruin directly north of the hill, and a forest a bit further north from the ruin near MO#3's DZ. The rest of the terrain didn't come up during the game, as I opted to move to the west side of the board as quickly as possible, to make MO#3 play on my terms.

MO#3 took first turn, and deployed his Kriel Warriors in the front of his army, right on the center line. Behind them, he placed the Kriel Stone Bearer, and behind that, the Bone Grinders. To the west of this little clump of units he placed his Blitzer, with his Impaler just north of the Blitzer. Grim was somewhere near the middle. My first impression was that his army was very centralized, and I felt that I could easily pull him apart with come clever maneuvering.

I placed my Long Gunners behind the hill near my DZ, and then put Magnus and his battlegroup to the west of them, somewhat close to the board edge, planning to send Magnus up the west side and let the Long Gunners make a nuisance of themselves on the hill.

Turn 1: Trolls

MO#3 marched his Warriors right down the center line, towards my hill. His Blitzer and impaler broke off towards the trees, along with Victor, and Angus cast a nice spell on the Blitzer that let it shoot through woods or some such. A mostly uneventful turn.

Turn 1: Magnus

The Warriors were too close to my hill for me to feel comfortable putting my Gunners on it, so I advanced them to the east, instead, giving me a clear view of the Warriors. I found that I was out of range by a good deal, however, which made me feel pretty nice. MO#3 would have to chose to come after my Gunners next turn, bringing them into range, or let my Gunners have the hill to set up on.

Magnus took his battle group up the west side, letting the Nomad run and giving it Temper Metal. The Mangler waddled up behind his nomadic buddy, sporting a nice casting of Frenzy. The Renegades and Magnus all simply advanced, getting into position.

Turn 2: Trolls

MO#3 opted to send his Warriors at my Long Gunners, spreading them out a good deal by using his banner's wide formation ability or some such. They prayed for speed and got pretty close. They would definitely be able to charge next turn. The Fell Caller gave them 4+ tough, which made my gunners a little nervous. That being said, MO#3's army was starting to split. He kept his Stone Bearer in a central location, but was only able to affect a few of the back most trolls in the warrior unit with his aura. The Bone Grinders sat around, grinding bones. The Blitzer burst out of the forest and shot at my Tempered Nomad, causing very minor damage (3 to the 1, I think). The rest of the turn was MO#3 setting up to take Magnus's Battlegroup on.

Turn 2: Magnus

MO#3 had hid most of his army quite well, leaving Magnus's Battlegroup without many targets. However, I did manage to send an obliterater rocket into his Blitzer, boosting the damage and dealing a pretty good hit to the beast. The rest of my group was out of range, so I simply got close. I'd reget getting close next turn, but hey, live and learn, right?

On the other side of the board, my Gunners cleaned up. Mystery Opponent #2 showed up about this time, and helped me work out the CRA's for my gunners (I'm still a newbie!), and we managed to take out the banner and the piper, along with 3 warriors, leaving the priest, two warriors, and a caber thrower left for next turn. That 4+ tough was really gnarly!

Turn 3: Trolls

First, the Fell Caller yelled at his friends to stand up, and they did. Then, the Blitzer (who had been knocked down) walked up to my Mangler and threw him at Magnus. This made me sad. The Blitzer missed terribly, with the Mangler scattering onto nothing. This cheered me up somewhat, until Victor threw his Bola at the Mangler. He would have to spend two actions getting untangled next turn, which made me sad again. The Impaler threw a spear at the Nomad, and took off his left arm, and then Grim used Far Strike on himself and tethered the Nomad to the spot. But all was not lost!

MO#3's Kriel Warriors charged my Long Gunners, but only one of them made it into combat! The others fell juuust short or ran to engage. A single gunner fell to their thundering charge, which made me giggle.

Turn 3: Magnus

I decided it was time to hit and run this turn, but before I did that, I fired my second rocket at the Blitzer, knocking it down again. Magnus then charged the downed troll and ran it through with a two-handed strike, leaving Magus woefully exposed. So he popped his feat. His remaining Renegade moved towards the Gunners, seeking to assist on the next turn. The Nomad moved as far south as the tether would let him (not far) and the Mangler un-tangled itself.

Four of my Gunners were engaged, and I had all of them leave melee, because I'm cold and heartless. Miraculously, one of them survived, dodging a free strike in order to shoot his assailant in the face. If I recall correctly, only the Caber Thrower survived.

Magnus and his Battlegroup ran back into my DZ, ducking behind the hill. We would be able to assist the last 6 gunners next turn, if they survived the CABER OF DOOM.

Turn 4: Trolls

The Caber of Doom killed 3 of my Gunners, and the last troll missed me badly. Grim, the Fell Caller, Victor, and the Impaler moved towards the hill, chasing after Magnus. Victor took a shot at the Nomad with the compound bow and failed to harm it, and Grim tethered the Nomad again (gah!). Everything MO#3 had left was coming for Magnus...

Turn 4: Magnus

My Renegade killed the troll formerly known as Caber Thrower. The Long Gunners took a shot at the Stone Scribes, I think, but were way out of range. Everything else got into position to meet Grim head on as he came charging up my hill.

Turn 5: Trolls

Grim and his Impaler, Victor, and the Fell Caller arrived. Grim used his feat, which severely limited my movement for next turn. Everyone took shots at Magnus, dealing a total of 15 damage points that turn. Lucky lucky Magnus. At the end of the turn, I was lucky to be alive.

Turn 5: Magnus

Not much to do. Shuffled things around as best as I could to avoid the crit impale I knew was coming, and moved the Nomad to engage the Stone Scribes, which had been going west, and killed one of them. Magnus made his two initial attacks against the Fell Caller, killing him, and camped his full focus. My Long Gunners missed two CRA's against the Impaler as well. Sad day for the Agenda.

Turn 6: Trolls

This was the end for Magnus, or so I thought. Grim fired on Magnus, but failed to hurt him with his overboosted power field. The Impaler MISSED Magnus. Victor also failed to deal damage. The turn ended with Magnus having a completely open charge lane to a fury-less Grim Angus, so MO#3 decided to call the game, knowing that Magnus would decapitate Grim next turn.


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I sure did get lucky with this one. If it weren't for MO#3's terrible luck, Magnus would have been run through by a spear instead of being the one doing the running through. Still, a win is a win, and I'll take my first one no matter how it comes about!

Next time I'll take pictures so I can remember how things went down better. :P