Warmachine Battle Report - Mercs vs. Mercs - 35 pts
Time for a new battle report, with Jamar's Searforge Commission taking on Beau's Ashlynn themed force. Jamar's List:
- Gorten Grundback
- Driller
- Gunner x 3
- Blaster x 2
- Max. Horgenhold Forge Guard
- Thor Steinhammer, marshaling a Rockram
- Orgun Bokur (Thor being his client)
Beau's list:
- Ashlynn d'Elyse
- Nomad
- Vanguard x 2
- Arcane Tempest Gunmages + UA, marshaling a Mule
- Arcane Tempest Gunmages
- Anastasia di Bray
- Taryn di la Rovissi
Deployment: The roll off was a tie, but Beau won due to having +1 to the roll thanks to Anastasia di Bray's Intelligence ability and he had Jamar deploy first. From top to bottom he deployed: Bokur, Thor, Rockram, Gunner, Blaster, Forge Guard, Driller, Gorten, Gunner, Blaster and the last Gunner. From top to bottom Beau deployed: Gun Mages, Vanguard, Vanguard, Taryn, Ashlynn, Nomad, Mule and the Gun Mages + UA. He began with Anastasia in Ambush.
As Jamar was playing a Searforge Commission list, his deployment zone was increased by 4". Beau was playing Ashlynn's tier 4 theme force, allowing him to bring Gun Mages, get a free UA and advance deploy his battle group. Destruction was the scenario chosen for this game, with the grind balls representing the monolith objectives. Each has 20 ARM, 20 health boxes, is stationary in regards to how hard it is to hit and if some one destroys the objective on their opponent's side they gain a control point and another one appears 16" to the left of the former objective's location. The new objective can be destroyed and yields a control point just like the original and the first person to 2 points or who gets the caster kill wins.
Searforge turn 1: Gorten gave a focus to all his jacks, excluding the topmost Gunner. Thor used his drive, Pronto, to allow the Rockram to make an advance and then ran somewhat behind the nearby rocky outcropping. The Rockram then ran infront of him, followed by the Bokur. Gorten's jacks all ran or advanced forward, as did Gorten and the Forge Guard.
Ashlynn turn 1: Ashlynn allocated 1 focus to each jack. The Blue Gun Mages advanced, one came up short firing a Thunderbolt shot (if it hits an enemy model it pushes them back D3" and knocks down on a crit) at the Rockram and the other 5 fired long shots ("4 increased range) at the Bokur, but did only 1 damage. Ashlynn cast Quicken (+2 SPD as well as +2 DEF against ranged and magic attacks) on herself and advanced, followed by both Vanguards running, the Pink one putting itself between the Rockram and the objective and the dark red one staying within Shield Guard range of Ashlynn. The Nomad ran behind Ashlynn and the Mule and the black unit of Gun Mages both ran up.
A Searforge perspective.
Ashlynn's perspective.
Searforge turn 2: The Driller and the central and lower Gunners each received a focus. Thor then advanced into cover, used Pronto again to maneuver the Rockram forward around the terrain feature and then used his Tune Up ability on it to make all its attack rolls boosted. The Rockram then charged the intervening Vanguard, hitting with its gun for 7 damage (no crit) and missed with it's hammer attack due to Set Defense. The Bokur then charged it as well, staying within 6" of Thor for the Client bonus' and did another 6 damage with its pole arm. The Gunner and Blaster near Thor advanced and shot, hitting nothing and the Driller ran forward to have a potential charge lane between the rubble. The central Gunner advanced and fired at Ashlynn, used it's powerful shot ability, (spending 1 focus boosts both attack and damage rolls) and rolled the necessary 13 to hit (Ashlynn was effectively DEF 19 from ranged/magic), but the red Vanguard took the hit via Shield Guard, taking 1 damage. The Gunner near the Forge Guard moved up and did the same, but missed with a 12. The Forge Guard ran forward in pairs to so that they benefited from Defensive Line (+2 ARM when base-to-base) and the Blaster near them advanced. Gorten then activated the Objective (the Monolith) near him, increasing it's ARM by 1 and running up behind some rubble.
Ashlynn turn 2: Ashlynn upkept Quicken, giving 2 focus to the Nomad, 1 to the dark red Vanguard and kept 2. Anastasia di Bray used the Ambush ability to come on the board behind the forest and ran to just behind the enemy objetive. Ashlynn then advanced forward to contact the rubble, in a position so that she couldn't be pushed to her left or towards Gorten's table edge by way of his feat due to the terrain piece. She then used her feat (all models in her CTRL area roll an additional two dice when making attack rolls and Ashlynn's controller chooses which two are dropped from the roll, basically making the enemy less accurate and her stuff more accurate/crit more often) and fired a fully boosted hand cannon shot at Thor, killing him. The pink Vanguard then attacked the Bokur, doing no damage, but then the red Vanguard charged and killed it. The black Gun Mage unit advanced a bit and fired on the Forge Guard, killing two.
Then the crits began.
The marshaled Mule (being able to use the same unique shots as the Gun Mages) aimed and fired a Thunderbolt shot at the Forge Guard behind cover, just next to Gorten and critted, catching four Forge Guard, Gorten and the central Gunner in the 4" AOE. Aside from the 3" push and knock down that was the crit effect from the Thunderbolt, the Mule's steam lobber (its gun) has critical Devastation, throwing all models under the AOE D6" away (in this case 5") from the Mule. Thus the effected models were pushed back 3", knocked down and then thrown 5" further. The Forge Guard directly hit was killed, as was one by way of the blast damage; the rest of the flung models were undamaged. Next, the Nomad charged the Driller, doing only 8 damage with two attacks. The blue Gun Mage unit then advanced, one shot the Rockram with a Thunderbolt shot and critted to push it 2" and knock it down (doing no damage). Another shot a Thunderbolt at the nearby Blaster, not critting, but pushing it back 3". The next shot at the Gunner, critting to push it 1" and knocking it down. The next shot the Driller, critting it as well, pushing it 2" and knocking it down. The rest were out of range of their targets. Lastly, Taryn advanced and was just short of the Driller with her first shot and fired her second shot at the Rockram, using Iron Rot which does D3 damage (2 in this case) to the hull of a warjack hit and did no damage with the actual shot.
Searforge turn 3: The Driller received 3 focus (using 1 to shake of knock down) and the Gunner and Blaster nearest to Ashlynn each received 1. Gorten sacrificed his action to stand and moved up and used his feat (enemy models in his 10" CTRL area can be pushed up to 8" towards any table edge and suffer -3 SPD, RAT and DEF and can't give or receive orders for one round), catching Ashlynn, Anastasia, the Nomad, 3 blue Gun Mages and one black one and moving them 1/2" to Gorten's left table edge. As Ashlynn was -3 DEF and pulled just out of cover the Gunner stood up and fired a fully boosted shot at her, but missed due to her feat. The Blaster advanced to make sure it was in range and fired a boosted shot, but also missed. The Driller then charged Ashlynn (loosing it's grappler to a free strike from the Nomad), boosted the hit, but missed by 1. The Blaster near Anastasia turned and attempted to spray her, but missed and the Gunner near Gorten moved to interpose itself somewhat between Gorten and the Nomad. The Forge Guard charged, two making it to the Mule, one coming up short, one charging a Gun Mage and the thrown one just advancing. The two hit the Mule, not crit slamming it, but doing 15 damage, crippling no systems and the one on the Gun Mage missed. Lastly, the Rockram stood up and tried to shoot, but was still being engaged by a Vanguard.
Ashlynn turn 3: Ashlynn upkept Quicken and gave the Nomad 3 focus. The black Gun Mage unit advanced, killed a Forge Guard in melee and two shot Gorten with critical brutal damage shots, but didn't crit and did no damage. The blue Gun Mages then activated, the ones effected by the feat sacrificing their movement to aim. Most shot at the Driller, doing no damage, but pushed it back into the Blaster behind it and knocked it down. One or two shot at the Rockram, but just pushed it back 2". The Vanguards advanced and attacked the Driller, but only did a few damage. Taryn shot the Driller, taking off its last 3 hull boxes and also shot the Rockram doing a couple hull damage. The Nomad advanced its 2" to engage the focusless Gorten and swung at him with the sword, needing 7's. It's first attack hit and rolled double 6's on damage doing 10 of Gorten's 18 health, however it's next three purchased attacks missed. Anastasia then advanced her 4" to use her Espionage ability to allow the Nomad to make an additional attack, but it missed yet again. The Mule made two attacks at the Forge Guard, hitting and killing one. Lastly, Ashlynn moved back her 5" and fired her hand cannon at the Driller, boosting the damage and removing 2 of it's 3 remaing boxes, leaving it with just a box of cortex remaining.
Searforge turn 4: Gorten allocated 1 focus to a Blaster and each of the three Gunners, keeping 1. Needing 13's to hit, the first Gunner advanced and fired at Ashlynn, hitting for 9 damage and leaving her with 5 health. The next Gunner advanced, taking a free strike from the Nomad for a good chunk of damage (not losing anything), fired and missed. The Blaster advanced, took a free strike from a Vanguard for some damage, fired and missed. The last Gunner advanced, took a free strike from the same Vanguard for some damage, fired and missed. Lastly, with Gorten sitting on 1 focus and at ARM 20, Jamar decided it was do or die and disengaged Gorten from the Nomad. He's hit by the freestrike, but only took 6 damage, leaving him with 2. He then fires Both Barrels of his dual hand cannon at Ashlynn, needing 14 to hit and rolls exactly that. Ashlynn tried to cancel out his shot with Quick Draw, but missed as he was in cover. Ashlynn had 5 health remaining, was ARM 16 at the time and Gorten's damage roll totaled 21, doing just enough dispatch the bobbed blonde.
Aftermath: Though the scenario never really came into play, it was a well fought game. They both had failed assassination attempts mid-game, though Beau had MUCH better odds of making it happen. While Beau's list (as is the case with many of the Mercenary options) had a toughish time getting through the Searforge armor, for the most part Beau still got the right models where he needed them, it's just the dice weren't with him. A funny note was that on Beau's last turn he was planning on not boosting the hand cannon shot on the Driller and camping 2 focus, to which I commented, "What good will an extra ARM do you at this point? You might as well finish off the Driller." While it was still his choice to reconsider and spend that focus to boost the damage, I promised I would state in the batrep that he would have survived with 1 health had he gone with his gut and kept that extra point of ARM instead of listening to me. That said, moving/staying behind cover or moving a Vanguard over for Shield Guard would, obviously have saved the day, though it's easy to say that in hindsight. We also didn't remember Quick Draw until Gorten was shooting, which could very well have swung it in Beau's favor had it been used on the Gunner that hit. To be blunt, Jamar got kinda lucky, but sometimes that's just how it plays out.