Camp Zama Army Base Steamroller 35 point report.

 2 Japanese, a Colombian a Spaniard an American and a Kiwi walk into a bar... 

Apologies for not putting fancy lines and boxes with information inside these pictures, but the quantity was just to great after such a long day to get the report written and fancied up at the same time. So onwards with old school batreps.

Old school batreps.

As the title suggests on this day January the 17th saw U.S Army base Camp Zama host to a small but furious 35 point steamroller tournament.

6 players in total with the factions and top 3 places represented as follows.

1st place. Retribution: Yours truly. Issyria and Ossyan
2nd place. Circle: Epic Kaya and Kromac
3rd place. Cryx: Witch Coven and Mortenebra

Followed up by, in no particular order.

Trolls: pMadrak and something?
Trolls: eMadrak and something?
Minions: Rask and Caliban.

My lists were

• Lord Arcanist Ossyan
• Infiltrators with 3 Eyriss
• Imperitus
• Invictors with Unit Attachment
•  Artificer
• Arcanist
• Magister

• Issyria Sybil of Dawn
• Mage Hunter Strike Force with Unit Attachment
• Banshee
• Storm Fall Archers
• Storm Fall Arhcers
• Aiyanna and Holt
• Mage Hunter Assassin
• Mage Hunter Assassin
• Narn mage Hunter of Ios

I spent a lot of spare time during the week thinking about these lists and as always after many agonising hours of convincing myself not to play Garyth and pVyros (because believe me I really wanted to) I chose these lists not out of any calculated reasoning but because I quite literary could no longer agonise over 1: Covering every potential match up that I was expecting to encounter and 2) delivering enough answers and problems wrapped up in 35 points.

I really wanted to play Garyth and pVyros.

I believe that outside of the Mage Hunter Strike Force, but also including it, the Retribution of Scyrah is a faction that usually has answers to problems other forces create. Unless the problem is tough, it used to be stealth but now we just kind of roll over and take it when it comes to tough spam. Or I do at least. Because of this I ended up with lists that were designed to deal with as many potential problems as I could expect to encounter.

We just kind of roll over and take it when it comes to tough, or I do at least.

The Ossyan list...

Was supposed to have the Infiltrators running up the center or on the flanks, depending on what they were facing and basically getting in the way and screening the Invictors and allowing Imperitus to set up assassination runs. This never actually happened.

The one game I played Ossyan in went as follows.

Game 1 Ossyan vs pMadrak

Scenario: Recon

pMadrak? or E? Not sure big angry smurf with an axe.
Mulg, the biggest angriest smurf with a caber.
Warders
Burrowers
Kriel stone smurfs.

Trolls has the first turn and advanced up on the left flank through the patches of woods.

So shortly after my first turn I realized that I should have sent my Infiltrators screaming up the OTHER flank so they could get stuck into his Kriel stone. However I contented myself in the false belief that tying up a couple of his warders was a worthy exercise.

Imperitus also advanced directly into the kill zone of his burrowers, without Quicken or the Artificers force wall.

All the troll player was missing was longbows.

This overall was a terrible strategy, I was bottle-necked through the middle of the table through 2 forests and around the center objective. All the troll player was missing was longbows.

Burrowers pop up and don't do much damage to Imperitus but kill about 3 Invictors.

For Ossyan having his gunline engaged or otherwise blocking their line of sight on the second turn is pretty bad. He needs the space to bring those guns to bear to utilize the feat turn.

Never mind all I have to do is kill a couple Burrowers and with sidestep and admonition I can set up to still be a threat to Mulg without trading out.

Imperitus gets 3 focus, the magister charges in and combo smites a Pyg, it toughs, so does its friend. Imperitus hits it, it toughs. he hits it again, it toughs again, he hits it again, it toughs again. I panic. He hits a different one, it toughs, he hits it again then it dies.

It toughs again. I panic.

By this time I am well and very done with Tough. Yet the Invictors now who have failed to have a path cleared for them or a decent line of sight to his caster created now try to kill Pygs who continue to roll tough rolls.

Ossyan with a lack of imagination advances and shoots Mulg putting a Chronophage down on him.

 /rant Ok whatever, hey I said it before Ill say it again. PP get your shit together and fix tough, its wrong. /rant

So its at this point that I might stop calling them Burrowers and start calling them Borrowers, like borrowing luck, not just for themselves but for his whole army. The Warders just walk up and roll 7s to wipe out most of my flanking force the Burrowers almost kill Imperitus and the rest of his army chillax in the forest with Mulg sitting there waiting for something to do.

What he does do is after a Warpath move he advances up on Imperitus and falls short.

Normally when the key heavy character warbeast tried to kill your key heavy character jack and misses utterly you turn around and kill it and start to win the game, this however didn't happen.

• First of all Eyriss couldn't get close enough to shoot the Kriel stone and strip its fury without getting engaged by the Warders. So Mulg was arm 21. 
• Secondly I still needed to clear damn Pygs out of the way to get Imperitus in and thirdly I have absolutely no faith in Imperitus with 3 focus and Concentrated power to be able to kill Mulg, well anything at all for that matter but especially Mulg.

Yes thats right, I think one of our hardest hitting melee specialized jacks is still a limp wristed dandelion puff and for the most part still rely on my Infantry to do anything that seriously needs to be done. The problem was my Infantry was dieing in droves and I wasn't getting  much done.

It is my experience that Ret jacks are not beat sticks, they are more utility pieces, tools to apply pressure and open spaces or opportunities when they arise. Imperitus for me wants to stay alive and hold zones and put down assassination threats, he doesn't enable like the Banshee or Daemon does but gives a pretty good threat to enemy casterlocks.Not kill giant heavily armored meaty smurfing death machines.

So What happens is the Invictors make space for the Magister to Whipsnap Imperitus out so he has enough range to threat on Madrak. All I need is for him to not roll tough rolls, well that and to not roll another 7 and kill Eyriss with a free strike so she can Arcane Hemorrhage Madrak. Of course he doesnt tough, but he does roll that 7, and the assassination is doomed for failure. So Imperitus settles for killing most of his Kriel stone unit.

Unimpressed Mulg turns around and pounds Imperitus into the dirt. Actually he doesn't quite, because of Pheonix Protocol.


At this point in the game 2 things are worth mentioning.

1. The pictures are getting blurier and blurier as my deep rage over tough and my opponents ability to roll over 7s like they are 5s is boiling up inside me
2. My Arcanist fails its repair check. I didn't mention this because this always happens. This should not be something that always happens, repair (8) is good. But I can honestly say I remember one time in the last 7 that it actually managed to repair something, and that was for 1 point of damage. Seriously whats going on here?

But actually Madrak burns all of his fury finishing off Imperitus and at this point I am happy with what Imperitus has managed to achieve. In a round about way he gave me my only shot at winning this game by being just tanky enough to make Madrak burn all of his fury.

This was my only chance to snap a win from the smurfy jaws of defeat. Not a good chance mind you, if everything goes well, with above avverage odds of hitting I still have lets see. pow 13 4d6 3 or 4 power 12s with 3d6 2 more power 12s he has arm 16? 17? loads of boxes and sac pawn kind of thing and tough and blah blah blah...

Whatever 8s on 3d6, I can do this...

No I cant

still have 3 arcantric bolts and 3 or 4 Invictors to do this under feat damage, sweet as...

No its not...

The best part about this turn was using beat back to push a warder close enough for my Magister to slam said warder into the Artificer.

 Mulg used a protective fit to half kill Ossyan and then finished him off with a dismissive back hand.

A dismissive back hand.

0 Control points scored

Trolls win on assassination

tough is broken

I'm terrible at game.

Game 2 Issyria vs eKaya

After the resounding disappointment of the last game I went with my Issyria list to deliver MHA justice to face.

Such a pretty table mat.

eKaya
Goat that slams things lots
New Goat with shiny bits
Ravagers with UA
Witch Doctor of broken tough giving painfulness
Stones no UA
Ravager Chieftain White Mane
War Wolves?

So after deployment I realized I said I would go first.
I ponderd this...
15" charging Ravagers, why did I want to go first? I want him to spend his first turn running into my guns...

So my first amazing turn was spent advancing my front line only 2 inches and bringing the rest of my army up behind it.


And his amazing first turn was spent advancing into range of my guns as was meant to happen on his first turn.

Then my second turn wasn spent killing him with aforementioned guns.

Banshee gets a focus and puts it to use knocking down the Gnarlhorn.
So Issyria advances casts Crusaders Call and Feats and possibly smirks.
She ancillary attacks the Banshee and it slams knocks down and kills 2 Ravagers who of course TOUGH! (I will shortly completely get over my rage at tough but at this stage I was still pretty bitter towards it)

and possibly smirks...

The first Mage Hunter Assassin charges the Character or Shadowhorn Satyr (I honestly didn't know what it was I just knew it was going to suffer chain weapon justice) The first almost kills it and the second does kill it. The storm fall archers on the right step up and kill the Gnarlhorn and the archers on the left kill some Ravagers while the Strike force also kill some Ravagers.

It was after all a pretty ball busting turn for the Circle player so he went to do the only thing I thought he could do. Well no he had that option and the possibility of Charging his White Mane in for hilarity and good times. But he didnt. It seriously could have eaten its way through 2 units of elves tho.

Anyway Laris runs in so Kaya can feat and teleport in to kill Issyria, but first Issyria admonitions away from Laris, then he figures he can still go for a spell assassination except he cant teleport anywhere and not be effected by Banshee wailing.

So he opts for plan B which is  run  army away, adopt fetal position close eyes and wish for it all to go away. This was essentially forfeiture without forfeiting so I play long score scenario points and assassinate on the winning turn.

Thus Kaya taps her ruby red shoes and whispers there's no place like home.

5 Control points for Retribution

Assassination

and a bad reputation.

Meanwhile on another table...

I'm sorry Gator player you are undeserving of my ire.

Game 3 Issyria vs Mortenebra

Feat on first turn, try to win.

Twas a tier list.
Morty
Crab jack with stealth
more jacks
small jack
more small burrowing jacks
support to make jacks work better

I found it hard to hide my excitement when my opponent told me he had a extra 2" deployment from tier. To be honest my strategy for this game went as far as my last.

Feat on first turn, try to win.

So he did spend his first turn advancing into my threat ranges.

The Banshee couldnt bring up a decent threat and he didnt leave Morty close enough to get double charged by Assassins.

Still Issy advances, Admonitions herself Invoiable Resolves the Banshee and feats.

I kill the small jack, the crab jack and another and cripple the other 2.

He attempts an assassination run and Issyria Admonitions out of harm.

My army mops up the survivors while I try to score more points.

Narn fluffs about and fails to kill things, good work Narn.

Cryx kill the scenario objective for a point.

Retribution continue to fluff about and not kill Mortenebra scoring more scenario points.

Morty tries a last ditch assassination on Issyria and she Arcane Vortexes it and that's that.

Retribution Win

5 control points

loss of all pretence of being a "nice guy"

 

Boy am I glad Warmachine doesn't have sportsmanship. I love those guys but I hate myself.

I mean really, not to diminish the game at all but it was pretty straight forward. After I neutralized the jacks he had a considerable dis advantage for delivering an assassination or clearing out my infantry.

Venue was great, TO was great, everything was great. Not just because I won but it was very hassle free and I hope there can be more and larger tournaments soon in the same place.

I did feel pretty awful for wiping 2 armies off the table in a turn each with Issyria but its what she does. No its what she needs to do, because if she doesn't well its all wet paper bag downhill from there.

One thing about tough tho, whenever you are talking about tough or recounting any one of those ludicrous tough stories the general rule is to take the actual number exaggerate it by at least twice and add a couple.

 2 Japanese, a Colombian a Spaniard an American and a Kiwi walk into a bar... The bartender pours 2 sake a sangria a tequila a bourbon and gives the Kiwi prune juice. 

The Kiwi asks why he got prune juice

The bartender says "I heard you were having a problem with passing tough rolls"

Sorry.

Moros, Retribution Character light warjack: Initial thoughts, opinion.

 Well here we have it. Moros in all of its glory... all of it, right there. In that picture.

In Greek mythology, Moros^{[pronunciation?]} (Greek: Μόρος, English: doom, fate)^[1] is the personification of impending doom, who drives mortals to their deadly fate.^[2][3][4][5] He is one of the offspring of Nyx (Night), who had conceived him without male intervention, and brother of the Moirai (Fates). It was even proclaimed by the Fates that not even Zeus could question Moros (destiny), who like his mother, Nyx, was invisible and dark. To break with destiny was to reintroduce Chaos into the world. Even if Zeus issued a decree or made a promise he later regretted, he could not then change his decree because it was destiny. In which case, he was the only force that Zeus truly dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Aeschylus describes how Prometheus saved mankind from the misery of seeing their doom (Moros) with the gift of hope (Elpis). Moros' siblings Thanatos and Ker represented the physical aspects of death—Ker was the bringer of violent death and killing sickness, while Thanatos represented a peaceful, passing away.
Moros' name is also the origin^{[citation needed]} for the word "morose", meaning sullen, ill-humored or gloomy. The word is used to describe the victims of whom he revealed their fates to.

 

And thus we have the fate of our first Character Light Warjack.




First grab a Gorgon. Wait never mind what a stupid assumption to think you own a Gorgon.
Well, maybe you own the book or bought the card deck.

Lets see, take the Gorgon chassis give each of its weapons plus one power and give its gun plus 2 power.
Give it Stealth.
Give it Mirage when its in Garyths battlegroup.
Give it Grievous Wounds on the weapons.
Give its gun Paralysis.
Give it Duelist.
Give it +1 mat and rat.

Ok thats it. You might, like myself, soon realise how he is the "Personification of impending doom." This is impending doom specifically for the faction as my immediate thoughts are that this does nothing for the faction apart from bring the same old tricks in a brand new bag and is thus of little value.

Lets contrast the mythical potential of Moros with that of the reality.

The personification of impending doom, who drives mortals to their deadly fate.

Specifically mortals here, both Grievous Wounds and Paralysis wont work on non living targets. He can in theory happily kill Warlocks and Trolls and maybe cut up or lock down high defense beasts.

He is one of the offspring of Nyx (Night), who had conceived him without male intervention.

 

Or this Nyx.

This Nyx

 

But not this Nyx Assassin.

What becomes apparent is that in no part during the creation of Moros or upon completion was a big pair of balls at all involved. Thus Moros lacks Balls.

Because he is the offspring of night he has stealth.

 It was even proclaimed by the Fates that not even Zeus could question Moros

Not even god knows what this Jack is supposed to do.

 To break with destiny was to reintroduce Chaos into the world.

 He doesn't do anything new for the faction that we don't already do in some other capacity.

Even if Zeus issued a decree or made a promise he later regretted, he could not then change his decree because it was destiny.

Do not expect an errata.

He was the only force that Zeus truly dreaded. Because of this, Moros was also considered to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.

Most people know that this is a load of balls, as opposed to has balls. Thankfully being all powerful, all knowing and everywhere means he gets Mirage when he is in Garyths battlegroup.

Moros' siblings Thanatos and Ker represented the physical aspects of death—Ker was the bringer of violent death and killing sickness, while Thanatos represented a peaceful, passing away.

He doesn't kill anything! He is potentially an enabler.


This is the rub. Is he a better enabler than a Banshee? some cases, maybe. For the majority of the time no. If he had reform, perhaps. If he had sidestep or beat back or acrobatics or leap, maybe. If he had assault maybe.

Range 8 on a speed 6 chassis means a 14" threat that almost any of our casters can push to 16" and get to 19" with a Whipsnap. Yea cool ok, put 3 extra inches on all of those threats for the Banshee. Banshee doesnt have stealth but its a damn sturdy jack.

Low defense and armor means any guns that ignore stealth will ruin it. Looking specifically at Legion and Cygnar.

Grievous wounds but no reach or pathfinder or other movement augmentation. Honestly look at the jack, look at those legs. We all expected speed 7 and maybe more. I mean you think Garryth opens the box and pulls out the assembly kit and then sits in stunned silence as he realizes his custom issued jack actually is nothing like him. No pathfinder, no extra speed, no Arcane Assassin, no Weaponmaster. I reiterate this point. HE IS NOT AN ASSASSINATION PIECE. If you can kill Warlocks with this jack on a regular basis *without Rahn. I sir, take off my hat to you.

Ok but deep breath. Look at the miniature, isn't it sweet.

Lets have a quick think about specific applications for this jack with the Retributions Warcasters.

Garryth.

In my experience Garryth doesnt much want to spend time or focus on fueling jacks. I often pick a character jack or a chimera with Garryth either for the arc node or for a jack with higher base stats thats more reliabe. More often than not I take the Chimera because I want to spend as few points as possible on the jack and allocate them elsewhere.

Thank you Moros is a perfect fit in this place. You dont have to give it Mirage. Mirage would always be an option on this jack but with Garryth it gets it for free, so I can keep it on my Sentinels or Garryth himself. Works well.

If you can draw a line to the caster with both Garryth and Moros you have some focus efficient 3 power 12 shots if you initiate with Moros. That's good.

Garryth has great game against Warmachine, Moros gives him some play against Hordes.

Moros gets 8/10 sight wards for being just the kind of competent support that Garryth can tolerate.

Rahn

Hmm ok obviously Telekinesis enhances his assassination potential considerably. 4" increased threat and the extra mat from back strikes. However experience tells me 2 things. One is mat 9 still isn't a sure thing so you want to be knocking down that target first. So still want a Banshee or your blowing 4 to 8 focus to pull off the assassination run. Power 15 is fine for a handful of Warlocks but it will fail to kill some of the tougher ones.
Duelist and Polarity shield plus natural stealth make this an amusing jack to deal with. Throw on top of that Force Blast and good use of Telekinesis and you have a real pain in the butt of a jack to nuetralise, who for the most part is a considerable threat to Hordes armies with Rahn backing it up.

Moros gets 9/10 kittens for the mittens master.

Ravyn

Snipe-feat-go. Snipe-paralyze-go again. Locomotion for increased threat Viel of Mists to help delivery, Vortex of Destruction makes it hit very hard for its focus.
Like with Rahn and Garryth I tend to run light on the jacks with Ravyn, still looking to spend those points on more guns/swords/gun-swords/crossbows/bows.

Moros gets 7/10 gentle taps upon Ravyns chamber door.

Ossyan

Quicken, give this guy speed 8 and bonus defense against shooting and spells. yay I don't feel so hesitant to drop it against Legion and Cygnar now. Admonition so it can get up paralyze those heavies and then Admonition away when they walk up to hit it, cause they can, cause range 8 does not keep you safe from things.
Chronomacer....... chrono mancering your focus away, erm.
Ok well I see Moros doing ok backing up Hypnos. Between Void Lock and Paralyze you can keep a couple beasts a turn tied down. Throw Chronophage on top of that and you have some considerable control wrapped up with hard to target or kill jacks.

6/10 power fist bumps for letting that unit of stormfall archers hit without any problems.

Issyria

Admonition was a thing for Ossyan. With Issyan however its not quite as sweet. I'm sorry but Moros is not an ancillary attack target, not really. It doesn't have an arc node. It doesn't need blinding light to protect it from shooting. Crusaders call is a thing but all of our casters save Kaelyssa and eVyros can directly increase its threat.

2/10 thimbles of pixy dust to keep Issyria floating.

Kaelyssa

Ok phantom hunter can give this jack a good chance of letting a unit of strike force go to town on a caster. Getting polarity shield from the feat is a bonus. However I like my jacks with Kaelyssa to be easily targeted becase it baits out those spell/witch hunter interactions. You could conceivably tag a caster with Moros and switch over Phantom Hunter or upkeep it on Kaelyssa and go in for a rune bolt cannon assassination also. Witch hound and banishing ward go a small way to increase its durability but like I said being stealth its almost moot.

5/10 forum fanboys theorymachineing in their bunks.

eVyros?

Pathfinder, Deflection, Synergy.
yup that works.
loose 1 and a half Griffons and or tier? not so good. Tides of War movement to set up a super sweet assassination on the end of a synergy chain? priceless.
Thankfully I hate eVyros and Griffon spam so I actually think Moros is particularly good with Evy for 2 reasons.

1. Spend all of your focus and get an opening at the end of a 5 stack synergy chain this jack can potentially 1 shot Rask. Anything that can potentially kill Rask in one hit, or kill Rask at all is super legit in my books.
2. It helps pull off those ranged jack birds eye assassinations.

6/10 MOAR GRIFFENZ for the spam boat.

pVyros

Hmm pathfinder and +2 speed, nice. Bonus armor probably wouldn't give it Invoiable Resolve but I guess I could. What I really like here is I put way more credit into the Banshee initiated birds eye assassination than I probably should, but it works for me. Moros helps make this an even more sure thing. I like it. It doesn't work well with the feat however, no mid activation movement augmentation and no reach kind of sucks.

6/10 new Iosan houses joining the cause for the xenophobic mass murdering Hitlerelf.

Jack marshals?

Nope, character.

Elara?

Hmmmmm I guess? The thing is Counter Charge is actually bad. The only reason I like it is that Reach with counter charge becomes ok. Reach with a counter charge thats +2 mat is getting pretty good and putting on that path finder and doing it more than once for 2 more points than none of that with Moros is kind of my point.
Griffons please.

Units and Solos?

Mage Hunter Strike Force.

In any case where Moros ca
n hit a Warcaster/Warlock it gives the Strike Force sans snipe the same threat as a normal Ravyn list. I suppose that coule make him scary with Issyria or Ossyan.

Storm Fall Archers

Because almost auto hitting those Brutal Damage shots is worth 10 points, its easily worth 6.

 Mage hunter Assassin.

Takes a whole lot of the gamble out of delivering this extreme gamble piece. It means you are less likely to throw the Assassin at a 50/50 and more likely to hold it until Moros can lock it down, thankfully what Assassins want to charge are for the most part the same thing Moros can effect, lightly armored high defense targets which are normally the living kind.

What makes this jack shine.

Duelist.

A defense 14 jack in combat. With all of the movement buffs and stealth it shouldn't be hard to get this guy into combat and def 14 means you can quite happily throw it at a unit of Trolls or Banes and let it muck about. Better yet Grievous Wounds means its actually going to kill them. Def 14 puts it at that sweet spot for a lot of infantry and jacks and means its as much of an attrition piece in our faction than an assassination piece. However like I said its not actually an assassination piece, although it can but its really more of an enabler.

Thus Moros is actually just like Nyx Assassin
Early game you roam around and gank, cause you can.
Late game you buy wards and initiate team fights because you are otherwise worthless.
You can solo lane but you have some sweet synergy with Antimage (Garyth) and thankfully he can carry your heavy late game ass to victory.

Just think about it...