This past weekend, there was a 35-pt 2-list event.  As I mentioned earlier, I took Legion.

The event had 20+ attendees, so there was a split into an upper and lower bracket after the first round.  There were trophies for the upper tier and coins for the lower.  I liked this approach, since it meant that the ‘game’ wasn’t over for anyone that didn’t manage to win their first game.

Anyway, I took notes and pictures of my turns during the games I played.

For those that want to skip to a particular game, here’s an index:

1. Thagrosh1 vs Skarre2
2. Thagrosh1 vs Hexeris2
3. Thagrosh1 vs Kaya2
4. Lylyth1 vs Rahn
5. Thagrosh1 vs Father Lucant

Let’s fire up the post-game over-analysis machine, shall we?

*whir*  *click*  *bzzzzzt*

Round 1: Thagrosh1 vs Skarre2

 

List Chicken:

My opponent had Skarre2 + Deathjack and Satyxis Raiders and Deneghra1 with Bane Thralls.  I (incorrectly) assumed the Raiders had stealth, and I knew the Bane Thralls had stealth, so I figured that both lists would give the Striders fits.  Thus, I chose Thagrosh.

Turn 1:

I deployed the Legionnaires and Spawning Vessel on my right, and the beasts on the left.  Everything ran, for the most part.  The Ravagore lobbed a shot at the Raiders (who I now knew didn’t have stealth), and left them a puddle of fun (the bright yellow template).  Thagrosh advanced and dropped Spiny Growth on himself and the Carnivean and put Dragonic Blessing on the Legionnaires.

Skarre cast Black Spot on the Legionnaires via the Arc Node, and then the Pistol Wraiths shot them all up.  Ouch.

Turn 2:

After Vengeance, my Legionnaires charged the Raiders and engaged the Arc Node to stop more spell shenanigans.  The Carnivean sprayed to clear the Ravagore, who then shot at a group of Raiders.  The Scythean charged in and killed one Raider girl and the Sea Witch, removing Power Swell.  Thagrosh was bogged down with the shallow water rough terrain, so I had him Mutagenesis forward via a stray Raider.  I then used his initial attack to kill a nearby Raider, which conveniently dropped an ash cloud, hiding him from the remaining Raiders.  Then he put up Spiny Growth for free and camped two.

Cankerworm tried to get my Objective, but came up half an inch short.  The Pistol Wraiths again killed lots of dudes, and DJ got even closer.  Skarre ended up near the Objective,used Perdition to move DJ forward, and popped her feat, protecting herself, DJ, Cankerworm and both Pistol Wraiths.  DJ charged Thagrosh, who managed to survive.  Somehow.

Turn 3:

The Scythean frenzied, and unfortunately whiffed it’s attack against the nearest Raider.  The Legionnaires received the charge/run order and tried to kill more Raiders and engage as much as they could.  Go go gadget tar pit!  The Ravagore threw up it’s animus and shot at the Objective, boosting damage against both the Objective (hey, it could get me a CP) and the blast damage against Skarre.  It’s not enough, but it’s something.  The Carnivean sprayed for everything it could, and the Pot spawned a Harrier which charged the Arc Node.  Thagrosh put up Spiny Growth and camped 7, not wanting to chance a free strike.  I figured Thagrosh + 7 transfers can tank DJ, right?

The Raider and Deathripper moved to clear a charge lane for Skarre.  She charged in, fully loaded, and knocked Thagrosh flat on his ass with her Great Rack.  She put in all her FOCUS and all but one of her HP (she can cut to boost), leaving Thagrosh on only 2-3 transfers.  DJ then activated and it took everything he can do to finally kill Thagrosh.

Loss.

Lessons Learned:

This was my first time playing this list, so I hadn’t yet practiced Deployment.  Putting the beasts on one side and the Infantry on the other meant I couldn’t apply pressure opposite DJ.

Since I could transfer the Free Strike, I shouldn’t have left Thagrosh there.  I had reasons for doing it though.  DJ blocked off lots of other attack sources, so I figured if I could take DJ, then everything else would have a super hard time getting to him and he’d survive.  I didn’t expect Skarre.

Anyway, I’m off to the lower bracket.

Round 2: Thagrosh1 vs Hexeris2

List Chicken:

My opponent’s two lists were Makeda2 with Molik Karn and Hexy2 with a Raider, Cannoneer and Brute backed by Incindiarii and Venators + UA.  Neither list was hugely swarming with infantry and I knew if he picked the list with Incindiarii, I may have issues taking out the medium infantry with the Lylyth list.  Thus, Thagrosh wins gain.

Turn 1:

I fix my deployment issue by splitting the beasts and deploying the Legionnaires more centrally.

All of his stuff runs.

All of my stuff runs.  The Ravagore shot at the Venators and came up short, but left them a fun puddle (silver ring).  Thagrosh passed out Spiny Growth to all the things, and dropped Draconic Blessing onto the Legionnaires.

Turn 2:

Yay, more Black Spot.  This time, it’s six Incindarii shooting me, though, and they have AOEs. The Cannoneer hurts, too.  One of the shots at the Scythean drifts back and kills the Shepherd.  That kinda sucks.

On the up-side, all those AOEs cleared all the infantry from my charge lanes.  The Ravagore shot the Cyclops Raider and then Thagrosh walked up to the hedge and was able to cast Bad Blood on it.  He then put Spiny Growth and Darconic Blessing on the Carnivean, since there were no Legionnaires left.  The Carnivean Assaulted and came up a tad short, but boosted on the Spray and took out an Incindarii and damaged another.  The Scythean charged in and killed the Bonded Brute, removing Hexeris’ channeling vector.  The overfull pot popped out a Harrier who charged the Cannoneer, mostly just to tie it up so it can’t shoot again.

Turn 3:

I don’t recall how the Scythean died, but if I recall, it wasn’t very healthy to begin with.

The Carnivean retaliated and killed the Canoneer.  The Ravagore trampled and bought a shot at the Incindiarii.  The Pot Stirrers tried to kill each other to help fill up the hot tub, but they were so busy, none of them ended up making it into the pool.  Thagrosh tried to Mutagenesis, but missed on range and I was so miffed, that I forgot to bring back the Scythean!

Turn 4:

The Incindiarii and Venators conspired with the Raider to take out the Ravagore.

I had reaved from it and thus ended up full at the top of my turn, since there were no incoming attacks to Thagrosh for me to transfer.  The Harrier frenzied, and killed the willbreaker (right after the picture below was taken) and the Carnivean managed to pass its Threshold Check.  Oy vey.  I didn’t have many models left, so I went for the kill.  Thagrosh cast Mutagenesis and killed the Extoller Soulward.  I double boosted the attack on Hexeris, but it didn’t kill him.  Having just one FURY left, I’m not comfortable buying another attack, so I put up Spiny Growth and camp the one.  The Carnivean walked over and sprayed, killing the Raider and missing Hexy since it couldn’t boost.

Turn 5:

Hexy put everything he had into Thagrosh, who tanked it all at ARM 20 and full health.  The three remaining Incindiarii all miss their attacks.  The Venators stay put to get a fourth CP for my Opponent.

Thagrosh leaches to full, and kills an empty Hexeris (he had no beasts, so used all his FURY in his offensive).  The Stinger pictured below is actually a proxied Harrier – I don’t recall how it got made or what role it had.

Victory!

Lessons Learned:

Deployment went much better this go around, I had beasts that could threaten both sides of the board.  Going second helped me set up good matches (Scythean vs Medium based, multi-wound infantry; Ravagore vs single-wound infantry).

I can’t believe I forgot my feat, like 3 times.  After this game, I made the point to use a FEAT token on my Opponent’s turn whenever they killed a heavy, so when I activated Thagrosh, I’d see it and remember.

I feel I played this much better, but I definitely felt the early loss of the Shepherd.  Some dojo in the car on the ride home makes me think that at this level, a min Spawning Vessel would do OK.  The spare point would get me a second Shepherd.

Round 3: Thagrosh1 vs Kaya2

List Chicken:

My opponent’s lists were Bradigus T3 and Kaya2 with a Feral, Riphorn, and Gorax augmented with a minimum unit of Warpborn Heavy Infantry + UA and Druids.  He also had a stone with UA.

If my Opponent took Bradigus, the Seraph and Ravagore wouldn’t have an issue seeing through the trees, but I wouldn’t be able to handle all the armor behind it.  If my Opponent drops Kaya, I’m looking at two supercharges heavies (Gorax Animus) and some infantry, but not too much.

I pick Thagrosh.  He seems best able to handle whatever list my Opponent takes.

Turn 1:

Everything ran, lots of Spiny Growth, Draconic Blessing went on the Legionnaires again.  The Ravagore shot fell way short, but at least it put up an obstacle.

My Opponent ran.

Turn 2:

I ran everything again, trying to engage and get myself some Vengeance moves.  I also put up Fog of War, since his Druids are getting close.  The Ravagore sniped out a stone so he couldn’t shift.  Hah!

My Opponent popped his feat and between the Warpwolf, Gorax and Riphorn, he killed the Pot (which removed all the pot stirrers) and all the Legionnaires.  Ouch.

Turn 3:

Thagrosh passed out Spiny Growth and put Draconic Blessing onto the Scythean.  I tossed the Scythean into the Warpborn Stalkers, and I managed to kill one, despite getting the whirlwind off.  I launched the Carnivean (the proxy base) at the Feral, but I came up about half an inch short.  The spray did a little damage, but it’s all beasts, so there are no deaths.  I popped a shot into the Druids with the Ravagore, but forget the Animus, so they’re not set on fire.

My Opponent killed the Carnivean with a super-charged Feral.  He used the Druids to pull the Ravagore forward, and then launched a super-charged Riphorn into it.  I lose both heavies, and only the Scythean is contesting the zone.

Turn 4:

Since I took some of the fury off the heavies when they died, the Scythean has one on it when I start the turn.  The Shepherd moved to pull the one off the Scythean, who managed to kill another Warpborn.  Thagrosh activated and brought back the tank.  He then passed out Spiny Growth, and camped.

Kaya moved up into the zone to try and Dominate, and put the Feral into the Scythean, but just can’t quite kill it.  My Opponent mostly spends his turn fixing his FURY issues, and getting ready to hit me next turn.  We were both short on clock,and I had less than he did, so I think he was trying to clock me.

Turn 5:

The Carnivean throws the Riphorn into the Druid UA to shut down his Counter Magic bubble.  Thagrosh tosses out a Mutagenesis at the Shifting Stone right next to Kaya, and manages to kill by boosting damage.  Thag connects with his initial attack (double boosting), but it isn’t enough.  Since her DEF is so high, I again decide I’m safest camping one with Spiny Growth.

It’s not enough.  Between Kaya and the Gorax, Thagrosh dies.

Loss.

Lessons Learned:

Losing the pot early meant I didn’t have a chance to spawn any lessers. A Harrier in this game would have been fantastic, since it’s Animus ( would have guaranteed the first hit, leaving enough FURY for a buy and boost.  In larger games, a Harrier may have it’s place in this list, rather than counting on the pot to make one for me.

During the Dojo on the way home, we come to the conclusion that I’m (perhaps) over extending Thagrosh with Mutagenesis.  Most of the time, it’s a 4 FURY spell, since I feel I have to boost the attack roll, so ensure it lands.  This leaves me very little once I get to my destination.

Round 4: Lylyth1 vs Rahn

List Chicken:

My Opponent’s lists were Ossyan with Hypnos and Rahn Fires Tier.

Both had decent amounts of infantry, Ret is known for it’s infantry, and I was looking at potentially being list locked for my last game if I didn’t go with Lylyth this game.  My mind was pretty made up.

Turn 1:

My Opponent is able to snipe shot half my Striders off the table, their stealth not doing much to mitigate blast damage.  Rahn put Polarity Shield on Hyperion, who then toed the zone on my right.

My Striders passed their break check, and fired back, killing half the squad that shot at them.  The Seraph slipstreamed the Forsaken (unnecessary, really) and riled for two more.  The Forsaken pulled all three off.  Lylyth1 slipstreamed the Ravagore, and cast Tenacity on herself.  The Ravagore advanced, droped a fun puddle in front of the Battle Mages in the middle of the board (silver ring).

Turn 2:

The Stormfall Archers on my right put a few shots into the Scythean, and the ones on the left took out two more Striders.  Hyperion walked forward, and shot the Ravagore.  That killed the Shredder and put minimal damage onto Lylyth.  It then whiffed with most of the arm shots since it only got the one focus from the Arcanist.

Lylyth advanced and shot Hyperion with her bow.  She then cast Parasite on it.  The Scythean can’t charge (Polarity Charge), so he walked forward and put 7 attacks into the Hyperion at dice +1.  I left Hyperion at about a dozen damage left.  I also managed to put 6 onto the Objective during the free whirlwind.  The Seraph slipstreamed the Forsaken again, and then put it’s strafe shots into Hyperion, boosting damage and killing the big robot.  The Striders hid behind the woods and shoot through it thanks to Hunter, and ook out two Battle Mages.  The Forsaken walked forward and dropped a Blight Bomb, killing two more.  The Ravagore shot at the clustered up Mages who had to walk around the previous turn’s template, and pasted the one it hit, and set several more on fire.

Turn 3:

Rahn put Force Barrier on himself, walked onto the hill and toed the wreckage.  This put him at DEF 22 vs shooting.  He popped Feat and Tele-Kinesis-ed the Scythean and Seraph, turning them around.  The Stormfall Archers on the right put three brutal shots into the Scythean, killing the beast.  The last one shot the Objective I had so kindly left damaged for him.  Oops.  The Seraph survived mostly unscathed, because the Battle Mages just can’t do too much to it’s high defense.  Several other Battle Mages tried to engage the Forsaken and Seraph.

The Seraph is left with one FURY after leeching, and passed it’s Threshold check.  Whew!

Lylyth cast slipstream and then advanced about 3 inches, to the edge of the hill she was on, because staying on the hill negates 2 of Rahn’s defense (making him only 20.  Only.). The slipstream pulls the Ravagore up onto the hill, and 2″ closer to Rahn. Lylyth then popped her feat and boosted a bow shot, needing 13 on four dice.  She missed.  She bought another shot and boosted again, but missed again.  She ended her turn, camping one.  The Ravagore stood still, popped its Animus and boosted against Rahn, again needing 13 on four dice.  It missed, also.  With Rahn’s feat up, he controled direction.  My streak of low rolls worked to my advantage this time, and the AOE only moved 1″, setting Rahn on fire.  Rahn’s also immune to Blast Damage, so I didn’t get the (likely boosted) POW 8 against him.

The Striders moved and one killed a Battle Mage engaging the Forsaken.  The other missed, but the last Mage near the Forsaken failed the break check.  The Forsaken moved and clawed down the Battle Mage engaging the Seraph.  The Seraph then turned around and happened to roll a 5 on the Strafe roll, getting me four shots.  It boosted and missed (needing 17 on 4), boosted and missed, boosted and finally connected.  I couldn’t boost damage since it was full, but I lucked out and rolled boxcars, dealing a significant amount to Rahn (who is not camping anything, I think).  I’m out of models to activate, so I pass turn.

Turn 4:

Fire doesn’t go out, I rolled boxcars again.  Rahn went up in flames.

Victory!

Lessons Learned:

For one, Stormfalls can reach ridiculously far.  Had I known that, I probably wouldn’t have deployed them as bunched up as I did (two groups of four).

Killing a colossal in one round is fun.

Having an Aangelius in this list would have been good.  The AP attack would have gotten around lots of Rahn’s defenses, because it’s Melee, and the Repulse afterwards would have moved him out from cover and probably off the hill, which would have made my shooting much more effective.  I’m not really a huge fan of the Angelius (I feel it suffers too much from Jack-of-all-Trades syndrome), but that’s a whole other discussion.

Round 5: Thagrosh1 vs Father Lucant

List Chicken:

My Opponent had Syntherion and Father Lucant with a pair of heavies, the beacon light, a Corollary, a unit of mechanics, a full unit of Reciprocators (shields and halberds) and a min unit of Eradicators.

Both lists are incredibly ‘jack heavy, and very tanky, so I felt I needed Thagrosh.  His list has the better mass armor cracking (+2 STR I can cycle onto two different targets), and the scenario was Incursion, so I liked his odds with the larger CTRL.

Turn 1:

Typical Thagrosh1 first turn, everything ran, lots of Spiny Growth, and Draconic Blessing onto the Legionnaires.

My Opponent split his forces around the trees, and advanced.  At the end of his turn, the flag on the left disappeared.

Turn 2:

I started to shift my forces off to the right by running everything.  The Ravagore sniped out one of the Reciprocators heading to take the right flag.

My Opponent threw his three-man unit of Eradicators at my Legionnaires, and killed several of them.  Their side-step pushed them deeper into my lines.  The rest of his army continued to position.

Turn 3:

The Carnivean threw an Eradicator to free up the Ravagore.  The Ravagore shot Lucant, which got Shield Guarded away.  The Legionnaires and Scythean managed to kill the other two Eradicators.  I put DB on Thagrosh, and passed out Spiny Growth as Thagrosh walked around the forest towards the left flag.  The pot spawned a Shredder, who didn’t do much.

My Opponent put Positive Charge onto the Inverter, and killed the Scythean.  His Reciprocators moved to control the flag.

Turn 4:

The pot advanced as much as it could.  The Legionnaires tried to put damage onto the Inverter but can’t break through its ARM.  The Shredder still didn’t manage to kill the Eradicator, so the Carnivean threw it again.  The Ravagore softened up one of the Reciprocators who is holding the flag.  Thagrosh charged a healthy Reciprocator, killing it.  He bought an attack on the wounded one, killing it.  This reduces the unit below half strength, so they can’t control (Thagrosh is within 4″ anyway).  I popped Thagrosh’s feat and summon the Scythean, and then put up Spiny growth on both Thagrosh and the Scythean.

My Opponent Positive Charged his other ‘jack and launched it at the Scythean again (who is closer to Lucant than the Carnivean).  He killed it again (the poor thing).  The Reciprocators didn’t do enough to Thagrosh.

Turn 5:

My Opponent has placed a mechanic rather close to Lucant, and Thagrosh is staring down a POW 20 Heavy.  The Ravagore backed up and shot Lucant, doing some damage.  The Carnivean charged and killed a Reciprocator that’s boxing in Thagrosh.  Thagrosh moved into the pocket the Carnivean made and shot Mutagenesis at the mechanic, coming up an eighth of an inch short.

The ‘jack kills Thagrosh.

Lessons Learned:

First, I really let those Eradicators jam me up.  I got stuck on them, and the 6pt unit tied up my entire force the whole game.  Not good.

Second, my movement with Thagrosh was really sloppy that last turn, and we took a look at where he was vs where he started,and I probably had another inch of movement I could have taken before I was getting into Free Strike territory.  To my credit, I thought Mutagenesis was RNG 10, not 8.  That mistake is a lack of familiarity with Thagrosh, but the over-arching point is that I let the clock get to me and I acted rashly and inaccurately.  Had I done so, and moved correctly, my Opponent and I were sure I would have killed Lucant.

Conclusions:

I had a blast!  This was more Warmachine in a day than I usually play in a month.

I learned a lot about List Chicken and opponent list assessment. I went in knowing that I had a high-arm skew and an anti-infantry / anti-high-ARM skew, so I knew what each list was focused at doing.  However, there were a few times where I didn’t know much about what was in my opponent’s lists, so I had to make a hasty, uninformed decision.  I need to be better about asking to see cards and take my time if I have to.

As for the lists themselves, I felt they were pretty solid.  As mentioned earlier, I think the Thagrosh list needs one more FURY management piece, and I feel the Lylyth list needs something more to help her FURY usage – I feel she really gets a solid use out of the Succubus, for instance.  Some of that will come with larger games, however I’m interested in continuing to refine these lists.

All in all, I’m rather happy with my 2-3 showing, considering I pretty much never go to tournaments.  I ended up taking fourth in the lower bracket, which I’m fairly happy with.

I enjoyed taking notes and pictures for these reports, so if you enjoyed reading them, please let me know below.  Additionally, if you have any suggestions on my lists or questions about my games, ask below!

Stay tuned for some painting updates!