Brief Update. B Boxing in Tokyo

Lately I have been rough housing my way into a journeyman league at my LGS.
The games have not been recorded. I was told I score the same on a win or a loss so I have been having lots of fast and loose play with the experienced players and slow forgiving games with the learners.
Kaelyssa BB does seem so limiting even when playing against people who have no idea what they are doing, I can just see how much more potential they have.
Im actually coming to the conclusion battle boxes are not the best way to learn about the game. Getting a hang of the basics sure but actual game play not so much.

Anyway with Kae and my penalty and the fact that I dont get to play often I have decided that I probably wont be winning this.

But here is the run down of matches I have had so far.

Versus

Helga: loss
Sorsha: win
Denny: win
Helga: loss
Kreoss: win
Denny: loss
Kreoss: loss
Strakhov: win
Maelok: loss
Sorcha: win
Aurora: win
Exulon Thexis: win
Xerxis: win
Stryker: win
Madrak: win
Madrak: win
Stage 2
Exulon Thexus: loss
Stryker: loss
pButcher: win

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...

Rahn Vs Dr. Arkadius, 50 points, Batrep.

One of a large number, of battle reports sitting in my to do box.

This was my most recent game however. 

My opponent gave me the option of playing against Pigs or a real faction. 

I thought the fairest thing to do was dice it and let fate decide. I'm happy to get what I consider an easy game but expected at least Lord Carver when the dice chose Pigs.

Alas I went off to buy snack food and mull over a list while my opponent made his. Then, I returned knowing I would play Rahn and not much more. Unpackaged from its container was a rather beastly looking Pig force and standing out as brazen as a pair of shaven rat balls were 2 Goraxe.

"Dr. Arkadius I presume?"

Let's see here.

Dr. Arkadius  

Slaughter housers

3 War Hogs

Road Hog

Bonegrinders 

Targ

2 Goraxe 

5 Razor boars. 

End of Pigs turn 1 Squeeeee!

Adeptis Rahn Shyeel.

Imperitus

Chimera

Sylys

Battle Mages

Storm Fall Archers 2

Sentinels with UA

Arcanist

Magister

Artificer

Aiyanna and Holt.

Do not be mistaken.

I think this is a pretty bad Rahn list and I threw it up on the spot.

Well in a way. For example I almost never take Sylys with Rahn, normally Sylys improves on a Warcasters accuracy for an assassination or helps keep focus costs down. But I find with Rahn I'm seldom doing anything but Telekinesis and the odd force hammer that I'm not hurting for the spare focus and with foc8 and free boost on feat the pseudo boost is often redundant.

Imperitus is just there cause he is Imperitus. How is it not good? Telekinesis him and or the target that's 4 inches extra threat and done in the right order effective mat 9. 

The rest of the infantry is just what I figured a general brick cracking type of Rahn list could use.

Retribution turn 1

So there was a Forced Evoloutioned Road Hog staring me straight in the face, with a couple Razor Boars looking dangerously close.

Activation order

1. Chimera mirage forward.
2. Rahn allocates 0 focus.
3. Arcanist advances and gives the Chimera a focus.
4. Chimera runs to position between Road Hog and Razor Boar to have both inside Telekinesis  range.
5. Rahn activates, Feats Telekinesis' the Road Hog and Razor Boar forward and gives the Battle Mages Polarity Shield.
6. Aiyanna advances Kisses the Road Hog and Holt shoots it a couple times.
7. Road Hog Wild Aggressions into combat with my Magister.
8. I realize his beasts have Wild Aggression.
9. Artificer advances and Magno Blasts the Road Hog disengaging it from combat. Now the road hog is out of Dr. Arkadius' control. 
10. Storm falls Brutal Damage and put it down while another hits the Razor Boar and it Wild Aggressions into the edge of the forest.
11. Battle Mages advanced and force bolt 2 more Razor Boars pulling them in and Knocking them Down.
12. Storm fall Archers put Brutal into the Boars killing them.

What I did do.

Killed the Road Hog and 2 Razor Boars.

What I should have done.

Not forgotten about Wild Aggression.

What I didn't do.

Move enough stuff further up the board or clear myself out of the Kill Box.

First turn Feating was pretty ballsy but I think it paid off.

Pigs turn two.

What he did.

Primaled a Razor Boar and charged the Chimera. 

Ran his gun Boar close enough to Primal Shock Aiyanna to death. Quite horrifying.

Repositioned his forces.

Feated to get his Gun Boar closer and deliver the Razor Boar with a free attack.

What he didn't do.

Jam bacon down my throat. -I know polarity shield must have been a pain in the loin but I was expecting everything to run into my front line and then for him to feat and frenzy-

Holt passed his morale check and just half the Chimera got wrecked so it was still good for another turn.

Retribution turn two.

Imperitus assassination run.

In the hopes if this was a quick game I could have a second, I saw a pretty big opening for Imp and took it.

Activation order

1. Rahn gives Imperitus 3.
2. Chimera mirages out of combat.
3. Chimera advances to a safe distance to ark a Telekinesis at Dr. Arkadius.
4. Sylys gives Rahn Arcane Secrets.
5. Rahn rolls a boosted Telekinesis and grabs Dr. Arkadius and spins him round 2 inches closer. Rahn then Telekinesis' Imperitus forward.
6. Magister advances and whipsnaps the closest War Hog, moving Imperitus another 3 inches forward.
7. Arcanist gives Imperitus concentrated power. 
8. Imperitus charges Dr. Arkadius and connects. He sidesteps off the charge to be unengaged with the Goraxe. The Warlock has 2 transfers. Imperitus leaves him on 3 health and no transfers.
9. Storm Fall Archers roll like bosses on the right flank killing 2 Razor Boars.
10. Storm Fall Archers on the left fire star falls at the Goraxe setting him and Arkadius on fire.
11. Sentinels charge the War Hog and Gun Boar.
12. Battle Mages also charge the road hog and gun Boar,  between both units both beasts die.
13. The Artificer uses Pathfinder to charge the Slaughter Housers over the fence. The first attack misses but the second connects and he uses beat back to advance into a blocking position.

To be honest I can't believe Dr. Arkadius survives, not only a fully loaded Imperitus but the fire goes out next turn. The good news is he still has to kill a full health Imperitus in one turn with just 2 War hogs. 

Farrow: 2 points. 

Rahn Kill Boxes himself

Pigs turn three.

What he did.

• Goraxe kills the Chimera.
• 2 War Hogs one Primaled are used to kill Imperitus, just.
• It takes 3 Slaughterhousers to kill the Artificer.
• Dr. Arkadius sits in the wreck of Imperitus and casts Crippling Grasp on the Sentinels.
• Bonegrinders move into a blocking position.

What he didn't do.

I'm not sure if he had many better options. Crippling grasp on the Sentinels was sound and having to kill Imperitus essential. Taking out the Chimera was also good play.

Retribution turn three.

At this point it is concievable to play long and go for scenario, even with Crippling Grasp a full unit of sentinels hurt enough and the Battle Mages to help on Scenario. However I think it more prudent at this point to point the ailing warlock out of his misery so I go for a second assassination attempt.

Dr. Arkadius was on 4 transfers and in a wreck for cover with 3 hit points left.

Activation order

1. Sylys gives Rahn Arcane Secrets.
2. Battle mages walk into combat with the blocking piggies and with 2 attacks and beatback dispatch them and clear the lane for Rahn
3. Rahn Telekinesis' himself over the rock then advances.Then casts a Force hammer at 12 inches at Dr. Arkadius slamming him into Targ behind him.
4. Sentinels activate and kill a couple Slaughterhousers, 2 Sentinels kill a Battle Mage who is in the way of the second unit of Storm Fall Archers.
5. First unit of stormfall archers deliver Brutal Damage shots into Dr. Arkadius one misses and 3 connect the damage transfer kills a Goraxe along with a shield guard.
6. The second unit advance to use the space created by the Sentinel and unload, the second and third transfer kill a War Hog and the third Stormfall nets the kill.

Is this a good Rahn list?

The thing that gets me about Rahn is I'm never quite sure how to build his lists. You could go jack heavy or even light jack heavy he can use them, but then I find it lacking punch. Sentinels are great but he doesnt really help deliver them like eVyros, Ossyan or Gareth does.
Stormfalls are also cool but all of that blast damage redundancy kind of hurts, especially when your playing games on the clock and you want to spend 2 minutes thinking about how best to use Force Blast or Telekinesis and not rolling deviations on the Storm Falls.
Imperitus failed to do the job, but so far I'm not surprised, in the previous game it couldn't kill a Carnivean. Rahn could improve the threat but only almost as much as again pVyros, Ossyan, Garyth or even Ravyn. 2 Inches for 2 focus or with Rahn 4 for 4. If I didnt need to cast the second Telekinesis a Force Hammer for knock down would have been a safer play. Here is me thinking mat 9 p+s 19 jack with 4 attacks would be enough.
I think Rahn would still prefer a Pheonix or two Mage Hunter Assassins and maybe Infiltrators.

Fukuyama Warmachine Steamroller.

Did not happen for me.

I was prepping for this tournament for months ahead of time. I am quite disappointed that I didn't attend.  3 days before the event I canceled my place to let someone else get in.

Why? 

Well it was a culmination of events and work related stresses. I have not willfully abandoned a tournament since Flames of War back in 2010. 

First off there was some miss communication about time at home between me and my partner. I assumed or had previously thought until it was changed (not sure what happened first)

Thinking it was a one day 3 round steam roller I should be finsihed up by 5pm which gives me plenty of time for the 40 minute train ride back to the overnight bus to take me home.

Actually it was 5 rounds which means even with assassination all over my game play I would still miss the last round.

This wouldnt have been a problem if I had communicated to my partner that I wanted to take the bullet train home and not an overnight bus. I really cant sleep while traveling.

So there was scheduling issues, best of cases I would get in for 4 games and then have to bail. Potentially big dick move.

Secondly a Typhoon was rolling in. Typhoon number 19 was set to hit right on the day that I would be playing, not a great concern for me but I was worried about my partner again. She would spend most of the day cooped up inside either surrounded by geeks or a crammed Japanese hotel room. I felt bad about this situation.

Also my employers voiced concern about traveling during the Typhoon and expressed a desire for me not to go with the risk of the Typhoon. I'm doing a good job where I am and I'm sure the inconvenience of having to get someone to fill my position because I was injured or otherwise left unable to do my job, would greatly inconvenience my employers.

Lastly I thought I would be conveniently close enough to Hiroshima to do some sight seeing before playing some games. It was actually a 2 hour train ride between cities and playing in Fukuyama would mean I miss out on Hiroshima completely, or risk being exhausted.

Well lets be frank, I give no fucks about the typhoon. If it was just me I would bullet train down and back and Typhoon, Earthquake, Ebola or Volcano be damned there is Warmachine to be won.

The thing is I didnt want to duck out of my last game especially if I was winning and I didnt want to miss out on Hiroshima.

4 Days before the event I canceled my entry and told the girlfriend to can the tickets. But she couldn't get a re fund. So we figured what the heck lets try to dodge the typhoon, just go down take the train to Hiroshima and come back without the stress and tiredness of fitting in 4 games of warmachine in between.

My sincerest apologies 

To the event coordinators and participants, I really hope my spot was filled and I am sorry I missed it. I am however not sorry that I spent 2 days in beautiful Hiroshima and saw some more of this amazing country.

I wanted to do 3 things in Japan.

1. Find a well payed comfortable job that makes use of my education.
2. Experience a different culture and explore foreign lands.
3. Meet more wargamers and play Warmachine with them.

Considering...

I had to decline 3 friends invitations to play Warmachine, for the sake of going to the tournament which I canceled, despite my busy work schedule. I got to spend time with the one I love discovering parts of the world it has been my life long dream to see. I think I'll call this a great success.

Ossyan v eKaya 35 points batrep

 7

Minute

Turns.

 fml

 35 points

•  Ossyan
• Hypnos
• Halbs + UA
• Invictors + UA
• Artificer
• Arcanist
• Houseguard Thane
• Magister

Circle turn 1

•  eKaya & Laris
• Gettorix
• Pureblood
• Tharn Ravagers + UA
• Shifting Stones
• Winter Argus

I let the new guy who was learning and watching this game pick my caster. My opponent chose his. eKaya is a headache for Ret at the best of times but against Ossyan this was going to hurt, stealth heavies are so not cool.

Ret turn 1.

 Herp Derp

What I did

1. Quickened the Halbs.
2. Put Admonition on Hyperion.
3. Sat behind a hill.
4. gave Halbs Desperate pace with the Thane.
5. Ran the Halbs to engage and spread out.
6. Advanced with the rest of my stuff.

What I should have done

1. Quickened the Halbs.
2. Admonition Hyperion.
3. Advaned with Invictors, Mini feat, combine ranged attack on Ravagers.
4. Activate Thane give Halbs desperate pace.
5. Charge with Halbs engaging up to 3 Ravageres, with Mini feat potentially 6 Casualties.

Result: Here ravagers kill half my army and have a load of Heart Tokens because the pressure of having to take my first turn in under 7 minutes is way too much.

 

Circle turn 2

 He has me right where he wants me.

 Ravagers charge and kill stuff, eat many hearts.
Army advances into a nice threatening positon.

Ret turn 3

 Damage Control.

 What I did

1. Ossyan gives 2 focus to Hypnos, Feats, aims and shoots at a Tharn but fails to hit. hangs out.
2. Invictors advance and drop CRA's into the Tharn  killing a couple. Everything that can tough does touch at least once.
3. Houseguard Thane gives the Halberdiers desperate pace. 
4. Hypnos advances to withing 5" and Shoots at Laris Void Locking it.
5. Artificer is called upon to dispatch a Ravager hoping to clear a charge lane from my Halberdiers to the Pureblood. He fails due to tough.
6. Magister steps in to dispatch pesky ravagers blocking charge lane for Halberdiers, he also fails.
7. Halberdiers settle for charging the Ravagers finishing off all but the Chieftain. Forget to reform.

What I should have done.

1. Nothing. Fuck tough, its broken as shit .Fix please PP.

Circle turn 3

Everything is under control.

• Pureblood tramples over a few Halberdiers killing them
• Gettorix charges Hypnos who Admonitions to safety
• but is then charged by the Winter Argus.

Ret turn 4

 Might trick me once...

1. Ossyan puts Admonition on himself and wonders off to the right.
2. Invictors Melee up on the Pureblood while others CRA the Chieftan and a Shifting Stone.
3. Hypnos walks around the Argus and completely fails to achieve anything.

Circle turn 4

 But your not gonna... oh wait.

•  Winter Argus gets in the zone
• Gettorix charges Ossyan who Admonitions again.
• Laris charges the Thane and misses
• Pureblood forgets to activate.

Ret turn 5

Oh yea, that.

1. Hypnos gets into the zone and fails to do anything else.
2.  Ossyan backs around Gettorix and shoots him to soften him up for the Invictors. But this triggers Hyper Aggressive and Gettorix advances into Ossyan.
3. because the Invictors cannot shoot at either gettorix who is engaged, or Kaya who was stealth but is now engaged with Hypnos, they stand around and pull their dicks.

Circle turn 5.

 Wow so many mistakes.

Circle victory on assassination.

On both sides but mine were pretty epic. The pressure of 7 minute turns is something else all together different from chess clock or time pool.

The Circle player activated the rest of his army in an attempt to use a feat facilitated move to box Ossyan in so he couldn't admonition away. He was trying to move 0" but I had to tell him to forfeit his movement in order to simply not trigger my Admonition and kill me.

Garyth vs Cygnar, Siege. Battle report.

Cygnar vs Retribution

Quick Battle Report

Garyth vs Siege

50 points

Deployment

  I was actually pretty terrified of what I thought siege could do and generally imagined this as a terrible match up for me

Ret first turn

 Discordia advances and imprints, standing close enough for the Sentinels to come up and benefit from the imprint.

Dalia full advances and casts Haunting Melody, Skarath runs and riles for 1.

Garyth advances and puts Mirage on the Sentinels.

Elara casts Battle Charged

Cygnar first turn

 His entire army advances. I dont really know siege as much as I dont really know Cygnar.

Journeyman Defenders Wards the Trenchers.

Trenchers at the vanguard combine and kill 2 Battle mages between 6 of them. Other shots made at the Battle Mages behind cover miss.

One of the jacks shoots Discordia for some damage.

Ret second turn

Activation order.

•  Garyth upkeeps Mirage
• Mirage.
• Dahlia leeches and upkeeps
• Elara gives black Griffon 1 focus and green Griffon 2 focus.

The best way to deal with a gun line is by jamming it.

1. Sylys gives Garyth Arcane Secrets.
2. Garyth advances to the wall. I was actually pretty terrified of what I thought siege could do and generally imagined this as a terrible match up for me. This is why I didn't rush out and feat sooner but let Eyriss run interference.  Casts Death Sentence on the trenchers and shoots 2 with his hand guns.
3. Arcanist gives Discordia 1 focus.
4. Discordia advances, Imprints and then sprays down about 4 using Death Sentence to ensure accuracy.
5. Skarath advances and sprays down 3 Trenchers, boosting to hit.
6. Dahlia runs behind the objective
7. Green Griffon imprints for +2 spd and runs to engage the group of Gun Mages and some Black 13th
8. Artificer advances and gives Black Griffon a Focus.
9. Black Griffon runs and engages Jacks and more Swans.
10. Battle Mages advance and kill a Trencher each.
11. Magister kills another.
12. Sentinels get a run charge, 2 hit the front line and kill 2 more Trenchers while the rest huddle around Discordia.
13. eEyriss runs through the gap that is now created, she positions in a spot which gives Technological Interference with all of his Jacks.

Cygnar second turn.

What he couldn't do.

• Give focus to his jacks

What he did do.

• Kill a large chunk of sentinels with Ground Pounder
• Shoot at Discordia
• Shoot at Skarath
• Engage in melee combat with the Griffons.
• Charge his Journeyman at a Griffon
• Some shooting into combat 
• Knocked black Griffon down.

What he didn't do but I thought he could or should have.

• Kill Eyriss, either by dropping a ground pounder on her or using the Black 13th
• Use Black Penny, with anything
• Achieve anything useful in general.

Retribution turn 3

 Vengance, Vengence, Vengeance. 

• Skarath frenzies and charges and crit consumes the last remaining Trencher
• The green Griffon with 3 focus kills the Journeyman Warcaster
• Sentinels sweep up the flank killing the jack.
• Sylys activated and gave Garyth sexy whispers
• Garyth death sentenced the mechanics and shot a couple.
• Discordia sprays down a handful of the mechanic goblin things. (they looked menacing)

Cygnar turn 3

 What he couldn't do

• Give focus to his one remaining jack
• Achieve anything without disengaging his Gun Mages
• Use his light jack because the Journeyman died

What he did do

• Ground pounded more Sentinels to dust.
• Shot the Griffon with push back rounds out of combat and down the table.
• Repaired his jack.
• Left his caster far enough away that Garyth cant charge him.

 What he didn't do

• He still didn't kill Eyriss
• He didn't feat (not that he might have had any reason to at this point)

Retribution turn 4

 3 control points for Retribution.

What Garyth has been afraid of all this time.

I don't really know what siege does but I had a suspicion if he feated and hit Garyth with a Ground Pounder or something like it he was dead, very likely dead.
I probably could have gone for the kill but.

1. Its good practice to score scenario points
2. I didn't want to make it look like it was so easy
3. I was genuinely concerned about cracking armor 17 even with 4 pow10s and 2 pow 12s

•  Skarath Charges and engages more Gun Mages
• Green Griffon does the same.
• Battle Mages charge the Objective and fail to destroy it
• Garyth charges the objective and finishes it off.
• Sentinels and black Griffon mop up in center.

Cygnar turn 4

•  Gun mages get up and try to melee with Skarath
• Darius stands up and makes his attack hitting Discordia

 First lesson in the assassination game.

1. Knock them down, if you have any way of doing it then use it. 

Ret turn 5

 I could have given Discordia 2 and made sure he knocked Siege to the ground but I didn't.

Garyth charging has 8 melee attacks, at mat 8 and arcane assassin you would think this is a sure thing.

Its not.

Garyth charged Siege, hit with first attack rolled below 6 damage on 4 dice.

Miss.

Miss.

Miss.

Miss.

Miss.

Hit and some damage leaving him on 5 boxes

Hit and killed

 The dice gods saw fit to remind me in the first lesson of assassination and let me kill Siege with only my final 2 attacks.

 Retribution win on assassination and 4 control points.