Gorten1 - 2x Driller, 2x Blaster, 2x Gunner, Wrongeye w/Snapjaw, Rorsh w/Brine, Tinker, Ragman, Aiyanna + Holt, 2x Eliminators, Acosta
Objective: Bunker
Scenario, after a couple attempts of the randomiser trying to offer Linebreaker (How about...no...) is Incursion. From the best Gorten scenario to the worst. Dangit.
Into my ex-favourite caster from that other game, the one Thexus awkwardly asks about as we cuddle at night on the bed (Assuming all pairing casters + Players are essentially a sitcomish Polyamorous relationship).
Somewhere I probably wrote that McaBain is trash. The unfortunate truth is he's fine, but he doesn't do what I want him to anymore, in that he significantly improved in the details and overall is extremely unchanged (i.e. his skill cap is managed by how good you are at managing/selecting your upkeeps) but the pieces I liked with him are no longer applicable (Alexia1 no longer does hilarious Counter Measure bubbles, Kayazy Assassins are both trash and I veered away from in Mark 2 anyway, Gun Mages can't even be taken in Mercs).
The whole Grievous Wounds nightmare didn't really pan out.
Woe is me.
In any event, time to eat some words!
MacBain1 - Galleon, 2x Nomads, 2x Steelheads (Min), Trenchers + UA, Rangers, Orin, Kell
So I win the roll, and I find myself hating the table. Whoever runs these Slams things is a terrible person.
There's a wall off centre of the table, so that'll limit things pretty hard. One side gets some water, a central brown hill and a forest of doom on the right.
Other side has two forests.
I'm thrown back into my regret for the lack of Pathfinder. I decide to go second and pick the less foresty side, this is a mistake for a couple reasons that we'll get to later.
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MacBain 1: Some Hammerdwarves are Proxying as Steelhead Halberdiers.
Kell goes into the left forest. Trenchers head out to the left and behind the safety wall, Nomads and Steelheads behind. Galleon moves up to the right of centre of the board, Rangers crowd into the right forest. Everything sticks back from Bunny threat ranges, though for whatever reason I suffer sever discombobulation and struggle to add up 5+8=13.
The centre Nomad gets Failsafe, the Trenchers get Fortune, the righter side of Halberdiers (the Black Undercoat chaps) get Countermeasures.
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Gorten 1: The pangs of table side regret strike early. Still 9997 hours or so until I master fighting Kingmakers (Though given it's comparative local popularity we might get their eventually).
Essentially the issue is Kingmakers (MacBain/Damiano iterations anyway) projects a lot of board presence early on, which is awful when the play for me to normally make is to play for the centre and another flag to get the scenario game going, that ain't happening. The forests also aren't really that bad, it's partially why the list is loads of individual models rather than units.
Rorsh, Brine and Ragman move up on the left a little. This is the point wily Judgetron points out my lame error on Rorsh's range, which undoes two successful tough rolls. Brine and Raggles then cover the little pig.
The Crocs head toward the Rangers/Galleon side, though really they just add to the line of blob that is fort Gorten. Principal intent is to keep Gorten safe (Put up Solid Ground and Strength of Granite, one camp isn't safe) and if Orin pips forward for Electro leaps he can at most pop the forward pair of Eliminators via hitting his own model, rendering Acosta and the other Eliminators safe.
In my favour is that Galleon, while it'll maul a model of mine, at least doesn't drag in to get a free heavy each turn (well, force me to play around it anyway. Actual drags shouldn't be super common in my view).
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MacBain 2: Rangers spread around, one toes the right flag though can only score if I kill the right load of the unit. Galleon trundles up behind, shoots off half of the right Driller (Other one on the left has Strength of Granite).
The Trenchers pot around, alongside Kell they maul the shit out of Brine. Way more than I was expecting, I calculated expected damaging without accounting for two man CRA's that make armour 17 very sad. Like, super sad. They also with Ranger assistance pop the two forward most Elimiantors (So much for Orin fear).
MacBain feats, rolls minimum, puts it on the Counter Measured Steelheads and the forward Rangers.
Said Steelheads then run around, three of the feated one get in my face.
The other unit of Steelheads runs out to the extreme left.
Side (Under?) Note: MacBain's feat is worse now it's Random. Loads worse. There's about half a dozen threads of me arguing with another poster who feels the exact opposite with the same fervour, so to each their own.
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Gorten 2: This is the turn I'm most disgruntled with myself. Robain has done the correct counters to Gorten, Galleon is far enough to threat the centre of the board, the Nomads are safe from being killed, MacBain can't be reliably assassinated hugging the Galleon as he is.
The correct play here should be a mental slap to initiate what I'm meant to realise at the beginning of the game: This is an attrition game, not a scenario one. The goal should be to get my heavies to the Galleon or at least both Nomads with feat.
Instead I've unpacked in a tepid manner that suits throwing Gorten, feating, walking back and scoring two flags, when that plan isn't tenable at all.
I decide I have to save feat. The plan is for the Drillers to throw the Steelheads away, then spray from just out of Counter Measure range and pop half a dozen infantry or so.
Two problems here: Still reeling from my poor planning, I end up in an a self inflicted order of activation issue.
Acosta knocks down two of the forward Steelies no issue, one Driller gets in and throws with no worries. The other can't without moving two Bunnies out of the way, in which case they won't be in position to shoot anyway.
The net result is a bit half arsed.
The Bunnies all run to blocking/engaging positions, if they become urgently needed I can always include that thought when I feat.
Tinker repairs the damaged Driller for one point, alongside snappy they move to be just beyond Galleon's charge range.
The remaining Eliminator unit goes right, killing a Ranger.
Left wise, Ragman tries to pew pew a Steelhead and misses, Rorsh moves up sod all, Brine, charge with his Animus and I get very lucky, as I hit two Trenchers that fail their tough rolls and I get maximum Snacking rolls.
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MacBain 3: Counter Measures and Failsafe drop, Nomads get fuelled.
The Nomads go forward, and maul a Bunny each, the Trenchers hit Acosta though it takes far more attacks than it should courtesy of just dreadful dice, leaving him with 3 boxes.
The Centre Steelheads don't do to much from memory, I think they basically stand and flail with attacks.
Galleon blows up an Eliminator, puts the Driller down to 5 boxes, though I'm lucky and only lose the right arm.
The far left Steelheads charge Brine and Ragman, have no issues butchering both.
Kell advances to the left flag, pops the killing shot on Acosta.
MacBain goes to 1 CP.
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Gorten 3: I've got more pieces than expected, disappointing though Brine's death is. This is definitely feat turn, I've got to turn the positioning around and threaten the Galleon.
I activate the remaining Gun Bunny first, who goes and pops Kell. I had to do it early, as my intended feat push would put him in a spot in the forest that would be difficult for me to deal with.
Likewise, the remaining Red Eliminator and Snapjaw nom on the Steelies/Ranger on the right before I feat them away. I screw up with the Eliminator, killing a Ranger but missing on the last Steelehad in the blob, meaning she's left without being fully in the forest.
Gorten charges up to a Trencher, having a good line threading through my models. Attacks do nothing, I feat push everything back, I make sure the position clipped Galleon. I don't get Macbain, the right most Ranger or left unit of Steelheads.
Tinker repairs for three points this time, yay for Gradual improvement.
Spray Bunny goes to the middle flag, mauls a few Trenchers.
Rorsh goes mad Gun Ninja, kills the four Steelheads on the left.
The damaged Driller moves up toward the middle flag, intent being to go on the hill, be out of the Galleon run and jack Hammer range, whereas if the Galleon moves up to contest the middle flag he'll be in range of said Driller and Snapjaw.
The left Driller I charge up to kill a Trencher, as I was feeling like I needed to kill more stuff. Dreadful move, but I was already discontent with the length of my turn as it was, though times were broadly equal at this point I think.
Scores level at 1 apiece.
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MacBain 4: Galleon destroys the Eliminator annoying the right flag, tries to light up the Driller and rolls poor on damage again (In a simile to a dog, the opposing dice had a more fearsome Bark than Bite, though they were doing well enough for the most part), re-knocking off the right arm.
Gorten 4: So.....a few caveats from here...
First, I stopped here to play two games, so the memory got scrambled.
Second, under 15 minutes, so turns weren't particularly as planned.
Third, I wrote this bit out then my PC overheated and shut down without auto-saving.
All of the action from this point occurs between the left and right flag.
I resolve to just kill stuff and score points if I can. At some point I lose my slight clock advantage tanking over whether to send Snappy into the Galleon or not.
Aiyanna harms the centre Nomad, I send in the right Driller who still had a Cortex, leave it with three boxes and movement so the Gunner finishes it off.
The left Driller, lacking it's Drill arm and Cortex, flails impotently.
Ragman, Holt and Wrongeye finish off the Steelheads and the last Ranger on the right flag.
Snapjaw runs to the left, as I abandon the idea of killing the Galleon completely.
I don't score, as I didn't realise there was a contesting Trencher on the centre flag until to many attacks had been expended.
MacBain 5: Galleon goes to the right flag, I don't think it shoots anything? Or if so, it's not meaningful. Well, memorable after multiple brain fades at this point.
The remaining Nomad kills the Driller it previously kicked the shit out of. MacBain charges and destroys the right Driller, then energizers back. Orin kicks it up back.
The Trenchers finally pop their mini-feat, drop some clouds, I save the goddamn post before something happens. The clouds leave a gap from the centre flag to MacBain, though there isn't much I can do with it.
Ragman dies.
MacBain takes the lead, 2v1 CP.
Gorten 5: Roll dice! Slap a monkey! Headbutt the table!
Tinker runs to contest the right flag, Gobbers being renowned for their willingness to go toe to toe with Colossals.
Gorten and the Crocodiles charge in and finish off the last Nomad.
Spray Bunny attacks MacBain, does sweet sod all.
Scores level at 2 all as I score the centre flag.
MacBain 6: The Galleon shoots point blank at the Tinker, the blasts only injure him, then the Harpoon gets the boxcars to kill him. Boo.
It's Orin and MacBain vs the Crocs, Gorten, Aiyanna/Holt and a pair of Bunnies on the other flags. Seems untenable, so in comes the murder time.
Orin charges Gorten, its....he's an old man ok? He blows his stack, but POW 9 does nada.
MacBain Energizers, charges Gorten for a low odds assassination (Camping 3, fairly sure I'm quite safe). Leaves Gorten with 6 boxes.
MacBain gets up 3v2 CP, I think there was a last Trencher contesting the centre flag? I'm just not sure now. Maybe the scores level at 3, but irrelevant as I didn't spot it at the time.
Gorten 6: Wrongeye gets out of the way, Snapjaw, moves to be base to base with MacBain. The Gunner does a boosted Slam to knock him down, he has no camp but I have to stop him from Dodging away.
I miss the Slam.
It's awful play under time stress here. I could have used Wrongeye and not had the -2 MAT penalty for Slamming a larger base. I could have placed Snapjaw Properly for the back arc bonus. I could have potentially just killed Orin and scenario'd it.
In any case, I boost to hit rolls with Gorten, hoping to land the Crit Smite then finish off with Holt and the spray Bunny. I get hits but not crits.
I don't even get to Aiyanna and Holt's activations, I essentially tap the clock and auto lose on scenario, but realistically I clocked out anyway. Meant to activate all meaningful models and I knowingly didn't, so awful tourney play from me on that score.
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End of game state, technically there's a MacBain turn where he finishes off Gorten, but no matter.
So like....conclusions or something?
First off, I hope the other side battle report is a lot clearer than this rubbish.
I think the important thing after a long many turn game like this is to find the early errors, which for me is definitely not considering the opposing list at all, thinking just about my scenario strategy. After that the turn 2 was a poor counter to an opponent that made the right choices.
Obviously that assassination run was pathetic, could have easily made it a 98%er, instead poor choices made it a 75% and it didn't pan out.
Opposition wise, the only thing I think the MacBainians should have done differently is put Countermeasures on the Trenchers later in the game, though I can't pretend to know when that time would be most apropos with the need to get work done. Or charge the Galleon in at some point, though there were minimal pieces available to score the right flag at that point.
