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.
