Epic Farewells
“So, the ranger’s intel was good after all.” Major Victoria Haley’s artificial hand gripped the shaft of Echo, her mechanical war spear as her piercing blue eyes gazed across the battlefield. “They must have forced-marched for days to come so far south so quickly.”
“I’ve never known mercenaries to be willing to work with the Cryx like this. The pay must have gone up significantly.” Brisbane’s dark face scowled as he considered the implications.
“An unlikely alliance indeed,” a new voice interrupted. The three figures turned to find General Adapt Nemo slowly climbing the rocky hill to join them atop their lookout. Siege’s back straightened noticeably as he offered a respectful salute to the grizzled old man. Haley offered him a smile and a hand up as he navigated the last bits of shale to clear the top of the bluff. “Let’s just thank Morrow that we received word when we did, and not allow our advantage to go to waste.”
This is a sad week for the gamers of River City Warmachine, as our beloved press-ganger Bobaferret will be moving away to take on new adventures. The been called up to active duty, and will be heading out for Seattle to become the new Quartermaster! Our local store owner threw a going away party for her last night, and we used the event as an excuse to get one last game in. Not knowing how long it would be until we got to play again, we wanted to make this a game to remember…
Bobaferret and Fluffy had been talking about a 100-point mangled metal game for a while, and we had also been talking about a huge 100-point-per-player team game. Of course, being ingenious, we decided to combine them. Team game, 100-points each player, and Bobaferret and Fluffy would go single caster Mangled Metal. I got the lists where I could, and put the rest together from memory, but this was pretty close to what was on the table:
| The Armies of Cygnar | Cryx and Merc Challengers | ||
| Epic Haley - Defender - Lancer - Thorn - Thunderhead - Squire Siege Brisbane - Lancer - Ol' Rowdy Journeyman - Defender Reinholdt Rupert Carvolo Strangewayes Gun Mages - Officer - Cyclone 10 Stormguard 10 Sword Knights - Unit Attachment - Ironclad | Epic Nemo - Centurion - Centurion - Centurion - Centurion - Centurion - Charger - Charger - Charger - Charger - Charger - Defender - Defender - Defender - Ironclad - Ironclad | Goreshade - Nightmare - Harrower - Harrower - Seether - Seether - Seether - Seether - Seether - Stalker - Corruptor - Deathripper - Deathripper - Deathripper - Defiler - Defiler - Helldiver - Helldiver | Bart Montador - Buccaneer - Freebooter - Freebooter - Mariner - Mariner - Mule - Mule - Nomad - Vanguard Gorten Grundback - Ghordson Driller - Grundback Gunner - Grundback Gunner - Grundback Gunner Rorsh & Brine Wrong Eye & Snapjaw Dirty Meg Dougal MacNaile Rutger Shaw - Vanguard Thor Steinhammer - Rockram |
The battle took almost 5 hours to play out, and there is no way I can remember everything that went on well enough to put together a regular battle report. Instead, I've decided to do something a little more flavorful... Hope you enjoy it. (And sorry about the poor quality of the pics - I only had my iPhone!)
As the battle lines parted momentarily, Siege caught a glimpse of his antagonist through the chaos. Their eyes met for only a second before the withered elf hissed arcane words that summoned in a force of spectral warriors to charge into his troops, rending flesh. Siege knew that if they were going survive, he needed to do something fast.
Goreshade! Haley’s position gave her a panoramic view of the battlefield compared to Siege’s perspective from down in the trenches, and she watched the drama unfold with cold detachment. She spared a quick glance to her left flank, where Nemo’s battlegroup seemed to be holding their own against the advancing mercs. She looked back in time to see Siege shoulder his rocket launcher and spring into action. She traced an imaginary line between Siege and the enemy warcaster as she realized his plan. Eyes narrowing, Haley quickly scanned the battlefield, searching desperately. It took only a moment to locate that which she sought – a spectral woman, standing forlorn at the rear of the enemy's force. This was the Deathwalker, the key to Goreshade’s survival…
At this point in the battle, Goreshade’s army had already taken out my Thunderhead, a Lancer, an Ironclad and my Journeyman (leaving the Defender inert). He had two Helldivers burrowed in my backfield and a Stalker on my flank. I needed to end this fast or I wasn’t going to have an army left to battle back with. This was only my second two-warcaster game, so I hadn't done a lot of thinking about the kind of combos possible in this situation. I spent a long minute looking at the cards, and then hatched a plan.
Haley activated first. She moved Thorn forward and used him to arc Domination on one of the Seethers, which turned around and pulverized the Deathwalker, taking away Goreshade’s safety blanket (a lesson I learned in my first MKII field test tournament). She then cast Temporal Acceleration and Dead Eye on Siege. Next, Ol’ Rowdy activated and uses his Tremor special attack to knock everything around him down – which includes all of the Bane Thralls and ‘jacks that are blocking line of sight to Goreshade. Finally, Siege advances, pops his feat (halving armor for the first damage roll), casts Mage Sight to negate Goreshade’s stealth, and then rips off a rocket. Thanks to Dead Eye and a boost, he is rolling four dice to hit. Boosted damage against halved armor means he one-shots Goreshade. If that hadn’t worked, I still had two more shots (one from Reinholdt and a second from Temporal Acceleration!)
And then there were three.
A brilliant fireball lit up the horizon in the fading daylight, a white-phosphorus flash that etched an after-image of the battlefield with crystal clarity in Haley’s mind. In that instant the hordes of helljacks went silent… Some seized up where they stood; others crashed into the churned mud of the battlefield, carried forward by their own momentum. A ragged cheer went up from the remaining sword knights as they realized the full implication of this turn of events.
Victoria Haley had no time for such celebration. While one enemy warcaster may have fallen, two more still pressed hard on their left flank, where General Nemo and his phalanx of heavy armor had forestalled their advance. As she began to plan her counterattack, she caught sight of a Rhulic warcaster moving quickly forward. The enemy raised his forge hammer high and with a great battle cry he unleashed tremendous arcane power.
The earth itself bucked as a shockwave sent Nemo’s line of Centurions careening off to the side in a shower of mud and shattered stone, leaving the general completely exposed. The pirate warcaster raised his hand cannon and barked out the firing order. A roll of thunder echoed across the valley as an executioner’s squad of ‘jacks joined him in a single, massive volley. The last echoes were just fading from Haley’s ears as Nemo’s body hit the ground.
This was an unhappy turn of events. A well-played feat turn from Gorten opened up a huge gap in Nemo’s lines, and then Bart’s battlegroup coordinated to take the old man out. Bobaferret was out of the game.
And then there were two.
Fortunately for me, Bart had to leave himself a little bit out in the open to get the shot on Nemo. Using my newly discovered cocktail of Foxhole, Temporal Acceleration and Dead Eye, I manage to take out an already-wounded Bart, which rendered the bulk of the Merc force inert. My marshaled Cyclone had been pretty ineffective against such ‘jack-heavy armies, so I decided that it was time to get him into the mix a little more directly. Strangewayes put a focus on him, and he picked up Snapjaw and threw him into a pack of gun-bunnies, killing the 'gator and knocking the rhulic ‘jacks down. Lesson learned: Don’t underestimate the Cyclone in melee – he’s not just for shooting things.
Shrugging off hits that would have felled a normal man, he raised his rocked launcher and uttered an incantation, causing a sinkhole to devour the rhulic ‘jacks that sat between him and his prey. A grin split his face as his finger squeezed down on the trigger. “Gotcha,” he said, sending a rocket corkscrewing toward the stout form of the enemy warcaster.
A ball of fire blossomed where the enemy warcaster stood, raining mud and gravel down all around. As the smoke cleared, Siege was stunned to find his opponent battered, but still standing.
"This one just won’t die,” Siege grumbled, a hint of respect in his voice. He opened his mind and reached out to Ol’ Rowdy, hoping the veteran Ironclad would respond to him as well as it did for Lord Commander Stryker. Eager to please, the battered ‘jack charged forward, belching smoke like a runaway locomotive. Siege’s arcane energy surged through its cortex, infusing the great iron warrior with tremendous strength. Rowdy's quake hammer came down in a deadly, crushing arc, and brought the battle to an end.
Only the sound of Siege’s ragged breath broke the eerie silence. The air was pregnant with acrid smell of sweat and blood. Siege surveyed the scene in the dying half-light of dusk. The hulking masses of literally dozens of warjacks littered the field, wisps of smoke still drifting from their stacks as furnaces went cold. They had held the line, but at a tremendous cost.
Labels: Hordes, miniatures, MKII, wargaming, Warmachine
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