Oblivion Game 40 - MacBain (Irr) vs Karchev1 (Jaws)

 Oblivion Game 40 - MacBain (Irr) vs Karchev1 (Jaws)

 My oldest of foes, the steampunk Russians pre-1917 revolution (Originally mistyped "foes" as "phones". I will be taking no questions on this.). 

Theoretical list pair of Karchev Jack spam and Vlad Winterguard Rocket Mobs. No Voids? MacBain practice it is!

The me of three days ago was a fool, as the older and ergo wiser iteration the list needs to change. Also according to the "What song do you associate with Sugar?" I'm in the Boomer age group. Don't we all think of The Archies? Could I be wrong? Are The Beatles and...whatever replaced One Direction really that different? (It's BTS. The new one is BTS.)

On reflection, Croes don't work with the list format. The Countermeasure->Rush forward does not assist a range unit, especially one that wants to leverage Repo/Backstrikes. However, we really want a stealth unit, thus we survey our options and.......*sigh* bring out Kayazy Assassins. Full boat plus Underboss. Tried them in the 16-37 block with Gorten where they were a crushed grape when you were asked to provide a burstable item. Still, they are the only unit that fits my needs. They also cost a shade more, so Grogspar gets the deserved boot. The remaining pair of points are devoured by a Gobbo Tinker, because I just like having repair as an option and it's super funny to me that gets cover by hiding behind the cart...that he drags behind himself, thus all Gobbo Tinkers are some weird living non-Euclidean nightmare that belong in Grymkin. 

List ends up with MacBain+Galleon, Machorne + Freebooter, Kayazy Assassins max, Boomhowlers min, Eliminators max UA, stack of support solos.

Karchev is rocking 5 jacks (One Destroyer, the rest beatsticks), Sorchsa 0 with the Rager, Eliminators max UA, Full Sniper boat, Hermit, some miscellaneous Khador solos.

Spread the Net, I won the die roll and opted for second, taking the side with a back field defensive forest and the less inconvenient side of an obstruction in the centre zone. 

The right side has an awkward wall between the Khador Flag and Merc Rectangle, there's water/long grass/trenches that don't have an impact once the dice start hitting the table. Or missing if you throw with the same desperation/enthusiasm as myself (This has been ameliorated by a dice tray, but not completely solved).

 

Round 1: Clunkety Clunkness - Steelhead Ironhead proxy for a Khador Man-o-War solo.

We both flick Eliminators on each flank for a face off and the debate of contractor vs patriot for money.

By dint of the central obstruction, most of both forces are to the left of centre with a leaner conflict to happen on the right. It's a line of Khador jacks, so it doesn't lumber forward too quickly with a sprinkle of marksman amongst them.

They face off against Galleon/Boomies/Kayazy Assassins/MacBain.

The right will be 'Ol Grim/Marauder/Juggernaught vs Machonre/Freebooter/Tinker. 

I also have a bunch of solos in central spots to move (hopefully) where they want to. Countermeasures went on the Assassins, Failsafe on the Galleon, Fortune went on Orin for giggles.

Galleon scatter shots kill a Widowmaker, Eiryss pops a Dead shot to do 3 damage to Hermit. 

 

Top Khador 2: In Soviet Russia we plug a standardised joke here

Leftwise, the  Khad-liminators chill in the zone with the Destroyer, a Marauder and the Widowmaker unit. A Boomhowler and a couple Assassins die to the range shots.

Centre zone sees the right Khad-liminators run in, one engaging Eiryss1. Karchev gets Road to War Up, runs straight up the centre with the Devestator/Rager/Hermit/mechaniks.

Right side 'Ol Grim goes to the flag, hides behind a metal wall of Marauder/Jugger.

Merc, end of 2: The journey to disappointment starts with your first convoluted trip into a pie in the face skit

Feating all the way down the round order in #2! Feels like I've been playing much faster armies. Not broken up about it.

Plan is to feat and score, against this many jacks though you have to start chipping through them lest you end up being contested by stuff and unable to kill them, this MacBain iteration isn't punchy enough to not have a go ASAP.

The Devastator is positioned such that the Galleon lacks the speed to move far enough over to try to drag in Karchev (Intent being to draw out the Rager Shield Guard with an Eiryss Disruptor bolt), so that plan bounces (Galleon gets re-rolls, boosts to hit/damage, add in Jackhammer attacks and the various infantry models feel's like a good run). We'll just have to drag in and kill the Devastator.

For that to work out the Kayazy have to get out of the way, given they are the contesting models this means MacBain has to feat early.

MacBain keeps the Failsafe/Countermeasures going, allocates an extra to the Galleon and feats. Rolls a 1. Because the Mark 3 change was worse than it used to be *. The minimum roll usually gets consumed by Assassins + Boomhowler, then extras go on solos. I want Boomhowler models to block and stop Trample options, so ends up being only a pair of Assassins, Eiryss then Boomie models. Extras would have been Machorne/Lannyssa/Eilish. 

Left wise, my Eliminators hand back in reserve. I definitely did not forget to activate them. 

Kayazy Assassins run forward into the Khador Rectangle/centre zone. One without a feat token runs right up to Karchev's face. Good luck buddy.

Galleon then maneuvers into the right spot and fangs out his Harpoon, which hits the Devastator and gets nullified by the damned Hermit. Curses. Meant to kill him first. We use our mini-guns to kill the Man O War solo.

The Devastator living is a big issue, so feated on Boomies run into blocking positions. Camping 3, should be fine. Maybe?

Right side, Eliminator on Eliminator violence happens...sort of. Turns out Kayazy suck at killing each other and they fail to free up Eiryss from being engaged. She ends up risking the freestrike, given it can't kill her anyway. She Disrupts one of the right side jacks.

If Lannysa had a feat token, the move would be for her to go to the right and strip the Khador jacks pathfinder, using the blocking wall to safeguard my zone. As is, they'll trivially be able to get in the zone and dominate it, so instead of chilling and scoring MacHorner and her Freebooter have to strike early. Boss Machorne charges in, slams the jacks together. The Freebooter then goes in and with Trash/Dismantle manages to just straight up murder one.

Lanyssa hsould have Hunters Marked one allowed the Freebooter an extra attack from Jack Marshal. Self foiled again, ensuring protection from the Reptoids**.

Orin tries an optimistic lightning to kill Grim, does not bounce enough times alas.

I score a point on my flag, 1-0. 

Top 3 Khador: Copenhagen could not stop the metal

Much measuring. Much plotting. Bizarrely anti-mustache Khadoran propaganda comes forth and an assassination path is tracked out. 

Karchev backs up a bit and feats, gets winged by the Assassin for a couple points before he gets blatted. The Devestator moves up and throws an unkillable Boomhowler away. 

Left side Kayazy Eliminators go in, kill Assassins and trigger some Road to War. This lets the left side Marauder move up and charge into MacBain! It's initials land some damage, ultimately MacBain was pretty safe. The last attack misses and he dodges across a bit.

After that the Widowmakers futz around achieving little. Something kills Machorne, not even sure what at this point.

Right wise the Rager and Jugger biff on the Freebooter, surprisingly it lives with a handful of boxes.

No scores, I remain a point up.

Bottom Tri Force Merc: The 7-11 of Gophers

Karchev is pretty exposed, however enough pieces are in the way of the Galleon that he's quite safe, the rest of my rando models would struggle pretty hard to put him down. Attrition play it is.

MacBain upkeeps Counter Measures and loads up the Galleon. He Jackhammers it to get a fair whack of damage on the assassination run Marauder, then falls back to be behind the forest. 

Kayazy/Boomhowlers charge around, finishing off said Marauder, dinging the Devastator and killing Sorscha0 in the Khador rectangle (Underboss' leadership 9 is stretching enough you'd think it was about to do some speedwalking). Greygore also sang Cacaphony, as Spellcaster blocking is pretty finny.

The Galleon then moves up and trivially finishes off the Devastator.

Eliminators kill their opposing doubles, proving they are the Arnies rather than the Davito's (Or whicheer of those you think is better, Twins didn't really answer that). 

Eiryss1 pings Karchev with the disruptor bolt. Happiness commences. 

Rightwise, an ambushing Hutchuck goes into the corporeal 'Ol Grim, trivially kill him. The Tinker, showing bravery/naivety/madness, moves up toward the Khador heavies and welds the Freebooters arms back on. The booter then wails on the Juggernaught for a bit more damage plus knocking it down with a chain attack. 

I score on my flag again, now 2 up and not hating my position.

Top 4 Khador: Komrade, we named it "Destroyer", but that's not what it does

Khador clock isn't looking great, they try to get some scores in. Widowmakers, Eliminators and ultimately the Destroyer all try to clear out the rectangle contesting Kayazy Assassin. Somehow they all miss and it's looking pretty bad.

It takes both the Rager and the damaged Jugger to finish off the Freebooter, unfortunately at this point the writing is on the wall as not enough gets done and there was no longer a means of contesting my flag. I score at the end of Khador's turn, then on the bottom of 5 run MacBain to my rectangle and win on scenario.

Accursed Hermit. Always remember the Hermit. Assassins actually worked out, so that was nice. Their once a game remains.....eh.

* - I becoming an old man in the game. MacBain used to use his current amount of focus instead of a die roll, so you knew exactly how many feat tokens you were getting which allowed perfect planning->execution. A different poster (We used to have forums you know) put forth that the random number was better and we never convinced the other of our position. They were definitely wrong though.

** - Always remember: Reptoids bad, Raptors good. Greys somewhat dickish.

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Oblivion "Game" 39 - Macbain (Irr) vs Maddox (SD)

Oblivion "Game" 39 - Macbain (Irr) vs Maddox (SD)

Finished my gaming table, so yay! Games are allowed to be had! 

Am I happy with said table? God no. Did I realise immediately after finishing how I could have done it much better and simpler? Sad trombone yes (The normal trombone, not those weird happy ones).

Alas, we followed up our lacklustre craftsmanship with some truly lacklustre play, this time again Tornado Yorkshire.

TLDR: Opponent killboxed themselves, scored no points and I still got horrifically smashed.

Not a lot of value to a play by play, this'll be more anatomy-of-defeat deal.

MacBain remains a Galleon/Boomhowlers/Croes/Machorne+Freebooter/Eliminators/solo boat.

Maddox had double Storm cav/Hurricane/Storm Strider/Junior+Firefly/a few solos.

I won the die roll playing King of the Hill, took a side with a nice Obstruction to cower behind. The overall plan I'm actually happy with, Swans run up turn 1, I feat and Croe jam to rush scoring for 3-4 points on bottom of two then push on for a scenario win (Or ping Maddox if desperation/misplay opens her up to Eiryss1).

The mistakes were a multitude of tactical with at least one egregious rules error as well (That being for some bizarre reason I thought Eiryss1 strips upkeeps, which she does not). Really need to just sit down and re-read all the current cards, memories both true and false are leading me super astray and it's not cool to screw models that badly, it's lame for everyone playing the game. I want to win in spite of my tactical failings, not my rules ones. 

Bottom of 1: Bottoming (Retitle before putting on Reddit)

So this is the end of Round 1, Cygnar have advanced as a relatively symmetrical block. The cav units have armour buffs on each courtesy of Junior. Snipe on the Battle Engine. 

I'm moderately happy with the Croes fanning out with the blue feat tokens, otherwise I picked Boss Machorne, Eiryss 1 and And Boomhowler. MacBain's 5+d6 basically means you get the minimums of 4+ Croes and Boomie, then the die roll is bonus models were it's critical to pick the correct choices/positions depending on the matchup. What I needed to do was pick Eilish, who I've relegate to cowering in the back out of Puppet Mastering habit, and just run him full barrel up the board ready to pull off an armour buff next turn and clear out a cav unit. 

I'd also fallen for the novelty of putting Failsafe on the Freebooter, then putting Fortune on the Galleon for giggles. Definitely should have had those the other way round.  

At the end of the futzing around

4 points to zip. Each zone had 2-3 models, mostly Cav, for me to kill and have an undeserved victory. 

Yeah, none of that worked out, to many models had died/been poorly positioned to sort it out.

I'm loath to make list changes when the models involved can't be held to blame, however I do have to acknowledge the sheer sillyness of Grogspar being around for the Pitch lols. Got another game on the weekend, also weighing up if Machorne/Freebooter is actually good in my hands.

 

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Oblivion Game 38 - MacBain vs Lucas (+16-37 which no one will ever knooooooow)

Oblivion Game 16-37 which no one will ever knooooooow

 

What year is it? What horrors have been wrought? Where are the cheerios? Non standardised comedic beat. What is yeeeast?

So dropped from Warmachine for a while, still played the infrequent game but ultimately the love was lost (Also the games, though that's not abnormal for me). At about the point I was weighing up summoning the effort for the lowball please-buy-all-this-Cygnar-no-one-wants, some team tourneys happened.

Thing about team tourneys is dropping is exponentially harder, as to me it feels as though you are screwing over several people instead of just removing yourself from the scene. 

I lost every game of that opening team tourney. 50 points is being on a firm diet whilst out and about in a fine dining joint, though that doesn't matter if you opt to screw up Arkadius assassination runs every time.

Aaaannnnnd.....I'm back in. Or at least, willing to bash dollies together with enthusiasm and sheer bloody mindedness to the point I feel a modicum of competence, some of the decisions in those games were nonsensically poor and can make like mysterious stairs in a forest and be lost, except to the Rangers. Or whatever weird Bushfire job Angelina Jolie was playing (Ranked 385 out of 435 in the movie listings at present, wedged between Coyote Ugly and Fantastic Beasts and Were to Find Them).

I kept bashing the Minions together for a bit, lucidity left me for a moment as I tried to make Maelok Posse spam work for me. It didn't, so the next team tourney was Jaga/Rask, my normal team bros popping out the trees and alchemists. This time Trees didn't have to stand alone in the winning of games and we made it to the top pairing! Got smashed, but hey, finals tables in the largest tourney in the continent at the time (aka we were allowed to have 24 people in a room at that point for 3 man teams).

A couple more games after that, Minions were put down. 

I've determined that one of my keys to keeping my interest in the game is leaning into the fact that I don't like Archons. I think they are bad for the game and have nonsensical rules/point costs. Playing Will Work for Food lists, my Minions default, the pull of Archons felt oppressive. I really like Bone Swarms, they're cool, the Void being just a point more for so much extra was getting me down.

Back to Mercs it is! Gorten is my home, my heartland, my........dwarf. Doesn't take many Wall template placements for the heady architectural rush to be felt (I see you wish to stab me. It'd be a real shame if there was...some......CONSTRUCTION!).

Back to tinkering with lists it was. Lukas is apparently a thing, guess we try to solve for that?

Madness took hold. Weird shrieking cackles into the night. A 17th Spiderman was found. Magnus 2 Kingmaker was thrown down as though Mark 3 had been cast back to it's beginnings.

Yeah, it was bad, much regrets. Let's try MacBain instead. Seems the key to me wanting to play Merc casters right now is them having a minicrate model I haven't painted yet. 

Hoping I keep the enthusiasm going again, gained a lot of good times/relationships from the dollies, got a game I actually plan to write up and see if the train can go choo choo again. Except that Crucible Guard. The coins go clink clink?

 

Oblivion Game 38 - MacBain vs Lucas 

I only recently saw Iron Sky, locked away as I have been with.....real world stuff? Mixed feelings on Dystopian Wars? Pining for TI4 PoC?

Principles to keep me in check:

• Archons bad, don't enjoy playing them. Kill obsessively.
• Always play clock
• Don't take backsies
• Finish the Board Game Table before the next game
  

Played into code name Automated Hydrangea (AH), we've been trading wins for the 6ish games in the last 4 months, AH winning decisively in our last clash at a tourney in a round 7 where I lost the contesting game after burning away a clock advantage.

Potential Lukas drops. Gorten being placed back half his speed value every turn would be.....aggravating. I was hoping to make Magnus2 blast from the past work, there's probably something there but my current ideas were bad and need to be cleansed, hence we'll play MacBain! for a bit.

MacBain! is, by my supposition, garbage in the current game world with Voids for days. Lukas, though, didn't seem to have.....that much access to them? Maybe this can work? His feat isn't tough, so doesn't care if you strip it, can takes loads of anti magic solos. Soddit, let'd give it a go. Irregulars as I don't have a legion of Steelheads on hand.

Drake, Galleon, Croes, Boomhowlers, loads of solos/small units.

Plan is to hide behind the Galleon. Croes are the available Stealthy unit for Countermeasures (I actually tried a game with Kayazy Assissins with Gorten in the 16-37 blob. I tried that once). Boomhowler....1....don't look at me like that, he has Cacophony and Reveille! And some Goons! Sweet sweet RAT 4 Goons!). 

Weird stuff I just wanted to play is Grogspar, just there to punch Boomie forward and Boss Machorne with a Freebooter to score a second Rectangle if I need to.

Faced off against Lucas. Yeah, didn't even consider that he could come with Infernals, definitely feeling the corrosive effect of time on keeping up with such shenanigans, he has an Entropic solo so that's not ideal.

Has has a pair of shooty Crucible heavies, the arcnode light, Croes (Traitors!), the floating eyeball shooting unit,  the Heavy Hulk like infantry that knock off a damage dice, variety of solos.

Playing the week2 SR 2021 Beta, no funky terrain. Bunker, so we have defensive objectives/rectangles and a flag on each flank to fight over. I won the die roll and opted for second, giving me a very defensive tiny obstruction in my rectangle for MacBain! to Cower! bravely Behind!

I've really started leaning in to second pic for scenario play and the occasional good terrain pic, though the latter is down to where you play really.

I also have a wall on the left of little value and a forest on the right with some hiding options. 

An obstruction and some water sit in the centre of the table being snooty.

Infernal Lucas has a good trench in their rectangle and a forest I forgot about until I looked at the pictures.

 

Round 1: FORWARD, TENTATIVELY!

Menoth jacks standing in for Crucible Guard. 

My Croes Prey the Hermit, thinking he's a tool that has to die at some point anyway then we can flip to something situationally relevant. AH's Croes Prey Bosshorne's Freebooter.

Both sides run tentatively at each other, Croes front and centre, Eyeball unit vs Galleon on the left, Hulk infantry vs solos/Freebooter on the right.

AH doesn't get any real attacks in from memory, the Galleon flings out some shots however the wall in my backfield is.....awkward. 5" movement and a CD sized base does not make Wall sized obstacles a fun time. Think I manage to fang a couple Croes.

Eiryss knocks off the armour buff on the hulk unit on the right then gets body shielded by Kayazy Eliminators.

I opt to feat on the bottom of one, thinking being that I need time to kill some stuff before Lukas TK's me for days. Croes get Countermeasures, galleon gets Failsafe. The solo with Entropic is pretty far back, if he ran pell mell and got TK'ed he might cancel the feat on two Croes which isn't a big deal.

The herp-derp manouver from me was Boomhowler moving up, casting Cacaphony, then getting punch by Grogspar to get up the board for a mighy.....inch.

Top of 2: Accursed Infernal worshiping femme fatales

The Infernal Junior Master arcs a Dark Seduction onto my Croe, causing him to walk backward and get half his unit out of command. Urk.

Otherwise my feat blunts the incoming attacks fairly well, I lose half the Croes though one becomes a Thrall Warrior. The eyeball beasts are pretty unimpresive with their shots. 

The Hulkster unit runs up the right, the one in range of the Eiryss body blockers has a feeble go and misses, anotehr dings Boss Machorne for a few points.

Bottom of 2: S-s-s-s-s-scoring

The imperative is pretty clear, maximise point scoring. The centre flag is no more in the current beta, which I think is alright.

Left flag has three odd eyeballs in contest range, they get cleared by the basically stuck in place Galleon. The Thrall Warrior runs to score, happy days.

I find in Bunker I always have to pre-plan what is going to run in to contest the opposing rectangle, Eliminators are perfect for this so in one goes.

My Croes surge forward, ready to die for the greater good. Which is me. They try to pop Eilish, alas the Infernal Shield Guard solo pops down. They engage the Eyeball unit, my understanding is they have Gunfighter and hate their lives at this point.

The Boomhowlers clear out the forward enemy Croes, Cacaphony seems good so goes again.

The right flag is tricker, as the Hulkster unit has three near the flag and one in the zone. There were some Croes that Orin got with Lightning.

Boss MacHorne combo slams the zone fella into two of the others, killing the slamer and does some points to the slamees. The knocked down guys are low enough that the right side Eliminators and Eiryss kill them with auto damage (4 Anatomicals, 1 Deathbolt). Last one dies to the Freebooter, which I didn't feel great about as it seemed he was doomed to die to TK and enemy Croes. Lannysa, a model only in the list because I keep playing against Convergence Angel spam, runs up to score the flag. Alexia tried to help earlier by missing with a Hellfire.

MacBain hides behind the tiny Obstruction in my zone.

Things are looking good, scores go to 3-0.

Top of 3: We have only our eternal demonic masters to disappoint for an eternity

My Croes gete mauled by solos and the light jack, clearing the Infernal rectangle. 

The Shield Guard solo charges the left flag, trivially killing the Thrall Warrior and positioned to score.

Things then grind off the hell train rails. Lukas feats and moves to disintegrate the Merc objective, an unfortuante misplay as Orin is happily positioned to cancel. He then Disintegrates at the Freebooter, knocking off an arm.

The Jacks try pop off the objective, the blasts kill Orin/Alexia however dismal damage rolls leave it alive.

The attacks dried up far to quickly unfortunately,  and a misplacement of the right jack means the right flag wasn't contested. The turn ends on 4-2, I have a short round as the Galleon trivially clears the left flag and an ambushing Hutchuck runs in to score, an Eliminator runs in to contest the Infernal zone and I get up 7-2.

Unexpected objective solidness.

Possibly MacBain should have done more work, given the hiding spot potshots and energiser would have been doable. Given the blast available, Alexia and Orin were poorly placed. I know the Grogspar play is dumb, but dammit it'll be funny if it works once. 

Still treading water Magnus2 wise, so MacBain will limp along in the pairing for the moment.