Battle Report - Marcus: The Man, The Legend

So yesterday night the stage was set for a downright mental game of Warmachine. I'd been knocking back Chimay Blue's to take the edge off, but you could still cut the tension with a knife. Marcus, was still unsure about his list until the game was played and boy was it a shit kicker. He picked it from a suite of anti-Gringo lists that he has on his iBodger, next time you see him give it a look. It's goddamn scary!

Marcus' List: ow v gringo inf clearance
Type: Skirmish (1 caster, 50pts)
Points: 50
Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador (*3pts)
* Destroyer (9pts)
* Spriggan (10pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Greylord Escort (2pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts) (4pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Koldun Lord (2pts)

As you can see, there are some real knobbers in this list. Namely Mr Spriggan, Greylords, Kayazy Assassins and the Old Bitch. All in all I wasn't expecting as much infantry as this so what a great day to make a list lacking mortars. Doh!

My List: IRUSK: TRADITIONAL PRIMEMINISTER
Type: Skirmish (1 caster, 50pts)
Points: 50
Kommandant Irusk (*6pts)
* Kodiak (8pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Manhunter (2pts)
Manhunter (2pts)
Widowmaker Marksman (2pts)
Yuri the Axe (3pts)

This list is about as stereotypical for me as it gets. My 2 point Kodiak is a happy chappy, and the rest is made up of a force of crack dickheads. The Nyss were added in to provide Pathfinding skirmishers that could also take on concealed enemies.

Battlefield: It was setup for the prior game so I kept it set up for ours. The thing I removed was a set of Yakhult canisters which were placed somewhere odd. I'll be using Marcus' Deployment edge as north for the purposes of orientation. For this battle report I've paint mashed some images to help out with what the fuck was going on. They each took me 16 hours on MSpaint so please be forgiving on the lack of shading, key or labels.



Marcus' Deployment: Marcus won the roll of so he chose the side to deploy on and the gained the first turn. He began by deploying the massive unit of Kayazy Assassins on the east flank behind a forest alongside the Great Bears. The Scrap Jack was deployed behind them. The Spriggan and Destroyer were deployed centrally along aside the Old Witch. Greylords and Koldun Lord deployed behind the sturdy jacks.


My Deployment: After seeing all those goddamn Kayazy Assassins on the east flank I decided to deploy as far away from those motherfuckers as possible. Nyss Hunters went on my far west flank after seeing that there was a opening where Marcus was most likely to deploy those goddamn Doom Reavers. As the Nyss went on my west, IFP up the middle, Great Bears also central with the Kodiak deploying with his toe in the forest. Now the tough part was my own Kayazy Assassins. Against the Old Witch, I knew they wouldn't play such a strong part as those jacks were an awful long way away and if I loaded them into the cramped west flank I'd be a sucker for AOE fire. Instead they deployed rather hastily behind my center.


Marcus' Advanced Deploy: The Doom Reavers took up position near the water feature with the Widowmakers deploying infront of the wood to move into better firing positions on first turn.


My Advance Deploy: I deployed my Widowmakers and Marksman within the wood to create a firing range on the center line, with two Manhunters deploying to back them up. Yuri, the ever prevailent knob had been put infront of my lines to make a beeline for the wood and try and stop those goddamn Doom Reavers.


Marcus' Turn 1: Weald Secrets went down on the Great Bears and Avatar of Slaughter on the Old Bitch. The Destroyer ran to the centre with the Spriggan who moved up to support. Kayazy Assassins ran down the east flank with the Widowmakers moving up to support. A lucky shot capped one of my Widowmakers. The Great Bears decided to show how big their dicks are and went tramping through the woodland with out a care backing up the ever dangerous Kayazy. The Doom Reavers ran up to take up positions infront of my lines by the wood.

My Turn 1: I started by running Yuri to intercept the Doom Reavers with Forest Walker. The Nyss moved up and started taking long shots to kill Doom Reavers. Only one shot struck home and downed a Reaver. Widowmakers took some pot shots at their rival Widowmakers alongside the Marksman. Again, the cover saved the lives of the Widowmakers and not a single shot struck home. IFP advanced in Shield Wall with the Great Bears moving up behind them to cover. Irusk cast Superiority on the Kodiak and moved to the center west behind the safety of the Great Bears. He then cast Iron Flesh on the Nyss and overboosted by two. The Kodiak ran 12" through cover to the east to intercept the Kayazy. Manhunters moved up to support. Kayazy Assassins not knowing what to do were used as second wave behind the IFP.


Marcus' Turn 2: Weald Secrets was dropped and Avatar of Slaughter was upkept. The Kayazy ran further down to support while the Widowmakers again traded fire. The Marksman's Stealth saving his bacon. The Doom Reavers surged forward intent on getting to grips with the slippery Nyss ignoring Yuri in the woodland. The Destroyer moved forward firing a long shot at the Widowmakers but it flew over their heads. The Scrappy moved through the woodland and the Old Witch used Unseen Path to appear behind her. She cast Iron Flesh on the Kayazy.

My Turn 2: I upkept Superiority on the Kodiak and dropped Iron Flesh. Seeing an opportunity to deal with the goddamn Doom Reavers, Yuri ran to outflank them to the west while the the Nyss moved up further to shoot them up. One Doomreaver was tagged but Tough saved him, the rest of the Nyss fire tagged one more Doomreaver who didn't survive. The Kodiak seeing the Great Bears decided to get the fuck away. The IFP once more advanced in Shieldwall with the Great Bears running behind to support. The Kayazy moved up behind the IFP creating some sort of retarded sandwich. The Widowmakers and Marksman seeing the Spriggan moving up with it's goddamn Flare Launcher moved more centrally and tagged the Destroyer with more fire to Column 1. Irusk moved up and cast Iron Flesh on the Nyss and laid down Inhospitable Ground for the impending Doom Reaver charge.


Marcus Turn 3: Marcus went and upkept Iron Flesh and Avatar of Slaughter on the Old Witch. The Kayazy came round in a large sweeping movement over the wall with the Great Bears moving to support. The Destroyer moved forward and fired at the IFP but it deviated further back and clipped the Kapitan. Luckily he was saved by the fact that the Destroyer didn't have focus to blow up his fat head. The Spriggan moved up to support the Destroyer and fired two shots that again flew wide. The Greylords moved up to support the jacks into centre line. More Widowmaker fire flew left and right but no real targets were killed. The Doom Reavers charged into the Nyss Hunters but were bogged down by the Inhospitable Ground. The lone Doom Reaver charged into the Nyss but the improved defence of the Nyss kept left them alive. I tested to see if Abomination made them shit themselves but they were fine.

My Turn 3: Seeing my opening I upkept Superiority and dropped Iron Flesh. Yuri charged from behind the Doom Reavers killing the Escort and dropping two more. The Nyss now extracted from combat fired a hail of shots at the Doom Reavers and downed the rest. The Kayazy used their mini-feat to jump over the cluster fuck to get infront on the Nyss Hunters. The Great Bears took positions behind the wall with Irusk putting Battle Lust on the IFP and doing his feat Undying Loyalty. Iron Flesh was recast on the Kayazy. The IFP charged into the Great Bears, Spriggan and Destroyer using their mini-feat Defensive Formation. They tagged the Destroyer and Spriggan causing critical knockdowns and killing one of the Great Bears.


Marcus Turn 4: Marcus upkept Avatar of Slaughter and Iron Flesh on the Kayazy. He paid focus to get the Spriggan standing up. The Spriggan got up and attacked the IFP.I don't remember much from this turn except making a whole mess of Tough rolls for the IFP. The Kayazy charged the IFP and the entire army focused it's entire hatred into raping the IFP. Even the Old Bitch got involved using her ability to Cull Souls and then Unseen Path away to ruin my IFP's shit. When Marcus' Turn ended there was only the Kapitan and Standard Bearer standing and one Manhunter was turned into a Flake 99 from Greylord magic.

My Turn 4: Noticing that Marcus in his frenzy to kick the crap out of my IFP had not used his feat made me a happy chappy. I began my turn by upkeeping Superiority on the Kodiak who later went on to steam one more Great Bear and a couple Kayazy Assassins. Irusk activated first and cast Battle Lust on the Kayazy Assassins and Great Bears. He then took a pot shot at the Spriggan which amounted to nothing. The Great Bears charged into Scrappy and the Spriggan. Scrappy was slightly mauled by one Great Bear but the Spriggan was almost wrecked. The Great Bears then charged and wrecked the Destroyer and the rest of the Spriggan. A series of Aimed two man CRA'S from the Nyss wrecked Scrappy. The remaining Manhunter charged into the Great Bears and took down one more. The Widowmakers took shots at the Greylords killing them and the Marksman tagged the Old Witch for a couple points of damage. Yuri charged into the Koldun Lord killing him also.


Marcus Turn 5: Again Marcus upkept Avatar of Slaughter this time with the aim to kill his way to Irusk and tag him with spells until he's head. She had a boat load of Focus from killing the IFP the previous turn so she was gonna try make this count. The Kayazy used their mini-feat to charge over to my Great Bears and the Kayazy Assassin. His Underboss showed my Underboss who's the real deal by kicking in his fucking teeth. Now the stage was set for the assassination run of doom. The Wardog charged into the Kayazy but was unable to kill his target. The Old Witch then began slowly eating her way through Kayazy Assassins and Nyss Hunters, killing Yuri first and then moving a massive 10" to range to shoot lonely Irusk. Unfortunately the slippery Kayazy had died well for the Motherland and she had used too much of her Focus to be able to cast the spell. Instead she rampaged through the Nyss Hunters and sat on a huge pile of Souls. She then used her feat Field of Talons and made my shit myself.

My Turn 5: I was absolutely flabberghasted. My Kayazy were wreck, my Great Bears knobbled and the rest of my forces severely depleted. The Nyss Aimed and tagged the saggy old cow with a set of two man CRA's which luckily rolled ridiculous numbers and killed her.


Post Game: The game was absolutely devastating. My brain was destroyed from all the thinking and goddamn maths. This was the first time in a long time I'd gone up against an army built to fight hordes of infantry and I have to say it was fucking amazing. If Marcus had used the feat one turn earlier, my shit and my day would have been fucking ruined. The Nyss aquitted themselves nicely with their move and fire ability, Iron Flesh making them really quite a pain to deal with. The IFP were cool because they are always the first to die and I was massively impressed by the Widowmaker Marksman as a POW 12 rifle may not seem like much until it's aimed at your opponents caster. Being -4 for damage rolls against most casters is pretty damn good.

On Marcus: He was an awesome guy to play and I heartily recommend facing him. Again his placement was down rock solid with excellent movement and counter-deployment. I have to say play him and have a laugh. His grasp of the game is extremely good and if it wasn't for the tense atmosphere I know he would have ruined my shit. Forgetting the Feat the first time I had charged wasn't that bad as it would have killed only a handful of models. The second time I would have been seriously fucked. Thanks for reading and you'll hear from me soon. :D