Warmachine Battle Report - Menoth vs. Mercenaries - 35 pts

Jamar and John are back at it again, with Jamar's 4 Star Syndicate going up against John's Protectorate. Jamar's list:

• Magnus the Traitor
• Renegade x 2
• Mule
• Nomad
• Vanguard
• Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

John's list:

• The Testament
• The Avatar
• Blood of Martyrs
• Max. Exemplar Errants + UA
• Daughters of the Flame
• Min. Choir
• Errant Seneshal
• Hierophant
• Wracks

Deployment: John won the roll off and chose to go first. From top to bottom he deployed: Wrack, Wrack, Errants, Errant Seneshal, Hierophant, Wrack, the Testament, Choir, Daughters, Blood of Martyrs and the Avatar. From top to bottom, Jamar deployed: Snapjaw, Wrong Eye, Renegade, Mule, Magnus, Vanguard, Nomad and the second Renegade.

This time we're playing a scenario, though granted it's the most straight forward one out there: Killbox. The red markers are the boundaries of the kill box, which if either caster is not within at the end of their turn (starting on the 2nd player's second turn), they lose. The rocky area in the center is a hill.

Menoth turn 1: The Testament allocated 1 focus to the Blood of Martyrs and the Avatar generated 3 focus. The Errant Seneshal ran up onto the hill, followed by the Errant unit. The Hierophant advanced and used Harmonious Exaltation on the Testament, who then cast Hallowed Avenger on the Blood of Martyrs (allowing it to charge something if a friendly model was destroyed within 5"), cast Ashen Veil on the Daughters (providing concealment and living enemy models to be at -2 to attack rolls while within 2") and advanced. The Blood of Martyrs and Avatar both ran forward and the Choir followed and sang Passage on them.

Mercenaries turn 1: Magnus allocated 2 focus to the Mule, cast Snipe (+4" on ranged attacks) on the Mule and Iron Aggression (boosted melee attack rolls and can run/charge/slam/trample for free) on the Nomad and advanced. The Mule then fired a boosted shot at the Errant Seneshal, hitting, but not critting. An Errant grunt died in place of the Seneshal and another grunt died from the blast (the Testament getting his soul). Wrong Eye & Snapjaw advanced and used Submerge, preventing them from being targeted by range or magic. One Renegade advanced to behind WE & SJ and the other advanced behind the rocky outcropping near the bottom of the table. The Nomad ran out in front of said outcropping and the Vanguard moved in front of Magnus.

A Menoth perspective.

A Mercenary perspective.

Menoth turn 2: The Testament received an additional focus for the soul token, upkept both spells, gave 1 focus to the Blood of Martyrs and the Avatar received 2 focus. The Hierophant advanced and used HE on the Testament, who took a focus from Wrack (which blew up), advanced and revived the dead Errant. The Seneshal then charged the Mule, hitting and doing 8 damage and the Errants ran up. The Daughters then charged, one on the Mule (doing 2 damage), two on the Vanguard (doing 1 damage) and three on Magnus. The three on Magnus did a CMA on their charge, needing 5's, but missed. They hit with their second CMA, but failed to break his ARM 17 and thus did 1 damage via Anatomical Precision. The Blood of Martyrs ran onto the hill and the Avatar ran straight ahead and used Gaze of Menoth. Lastly, the Choir ran forward.

He's got 99 problems...

Mercenaries turn 2: Magnus upkept all spells for free via Resourceful and gave the Nomad 2 focus. Magnus activated, casting Obliteration at the Daughter he was facing (missing, but not being able to deviate due to proximity), hitting and killing all but one Daughter, who promptly failed her CMD check. Magnus then sacrificed his movement to aim with his scattergun, targeting the Errant Seneshal, hitting it, the Mule and another Errant. The Errant died, another Errant died for the Seneshal and the Mule wasn't damaged. Lastly, Magnus used his feat, allowing models in his battlegroup to advance or run at the end of the turn, ignoring freestrikes. The Renegade near the remaining Daughter aimed and shot the Avatar, doing no damage, but knocking it down. The Nomad then charged the Avatar, doing 10 damage, but not taking out any systems. The other Renegade advanced over to the Seneshal and hit it with it's shredder, with no one dying in it's place this time. Wrong Eye activated next, taking a free strike from an Errant for 10 damage, which he transferred to Snapjaw, crippling no aspects. He then killed the two Errants blocking Snapjaw's path and cast Submerge. Snapjaw activated next, advancing and, after missing several attacks and filling up on fury, killed 3 Errants. One of these Errants' demise triggered Hallowed Avenger on the Blood of Martyrs, which then charged the Mule, doing 12 damage and crippling it's mace. The Mule then moved a bit and swung at the BoM with it's mace, hitting, but unsupriseingly doing no damage. The Vanguard advanced and missed an Errant with it's shield gun and at the end of the turn Magnus' battlegroup ran, with Magnus getting to within the killbox (he was just out before) and the jacks moving about.

Menoth turn 3: The Testament didn't upkeep anything or allocate any focus, the Avatar generated 2 focus, using 1 to stand up and the last Daughter failed to make her CMD check again. First the Testament advanced and used his feat (friendly faction models become Incorporeal and ignore models when determining line of sight), affecting everything, but the remaining Daughter and an Errant or two. He then took a focus from another Wrack, which also exploded. The Choir advanced and used the Battle Hymn on the jacks. The Avatar then proceeded to advance through the Renegade to engage Magnus, hitting with the shield for 4, hitting with the sword for 10 and finishing him with its last sword attack.

Aftermath: Though it's not always the case, Johns higher model count helped him dominate the killbox and keep Jamar on his heels. Even more helpful though was his winning the starting roll and taking the first turn. If Jamar had instead gone first, he wouldn't have had the pressure of being between the rock (outside the killbox) and a hard place (John's army). While at first it seemed that the Daughters had not contributed much, they filled what is often their most useful role; getting into and tying up the enemy, ie, jamming. It was especially effective in this instance, as it made Jamar struggle just to stay in the scenario. By then he was so focused on getting Magnus freed up and into the killbox that he forgot the Testament's feat, seemingly making the Daughters the MVPs of this battle.