Warmachine. 20 points of Troll hunters for hire

Popped into the Miniature Empire for a pick up game today.

Both Ed and Damon were in attendance and were just finishing off a 25 point game.

Ed won.

With only 1 and a half hours left on the parking ticket I naturally asked to play Damon at 20 points.

My Force list is;

Ashlynn (+6 warjack points)

Mule 8 pts

Mule 8 pts

Gun Mages 6pts

Pendrake 2pts

Gorman 2pts

Damon wins the roll and sets up first with Trolls. He then makes the first mistake of the game by giving me a full run down of his new Sniper unit.

Not surprisingly I set up like this..........

you can see his snipers in the far corner if you REALLY squint!

Yes it makes me a dick but he normally plays Cygnar and I'm a bit bored of being shot off the board in the first turn.

And I have spent ages painting these blokes........

I have decided to go to town on the back of these fellas as it all I get to look at

I figured they might run away so put some effort into the front as well

Damon brings all his forces into the middle of the table and I run off the hill, casting "quicken" on the mages so they fully clear the Jacks. Gorman pops smoke to screen Ashlynn from the snipers.

The Trolls finally get to charge in ........

............. and proceed to pull my Mule (the wild rover) limb from limb!

Damon is very impressed with my special effect detachable weapons!

Its time to go nuts. Ashlynn charges the Trolls and pops her feat. Here come the criticals!!!!

Ashlynn leads by example and misses her charge attack on 4 dice!

Despite Ashlynn missing her charge attack she slashes and shoots left right and centre. Finishing off one Troll and severly hurting another. "The wild Rover" head butts another unconscious and the Mages go nuts with critical brutals! Pendrake knocks down one of the last remaining Trolls with his Bola, Gorman kills off the Troll Snipers with an acid attack before they make any real contribution to the game and my 2nd Mule "Old Smokey" sends both the Troll Warbeasts for a flying lesson with a critical hit!

So much for tough

The only down side is my Gun mage leader manages to hit my own jack and send it to the scrap yard "Thats coming out of your wages" Ashlynn shouts over her shoulder.

Damon uses his Fury to shake off the knock down and charges in with one of his warbeast. Thankfully with the feat up he can't hit a barn door and I am yet to take a casualty (except for the "blue on blue" I inflicted on myself)

The Trolls try to stomp Ashlynn but again her feat saves the day and with riposte and weapon master she soon removes them from the board.

Now the sneaky bit. By not moving my mages and granting them "beast lore" via Pendrake I manage to hit the Warbeast thats in Melee and push it out of combat. This leaves the remaining Mages free to open up on the warbeast. A number of critical brutals leaves the Warbeast looking like road kill.

This leaves Gorman to get into range and hit the remaining Warbeast with "Black oil". Thankfully the Caster is also within the AOE and is blinded as well!

"Old Smokey" charges in (JUST!!) and smashes the last remaining warbeast into a bloody pulp. 

"Hang on, can't we talk about this!"

With only his Caster left Vs my starting force (minus one Mule) Damon concedes and we shake hands on a real fun fast paced game.

LESSONS LEARNT

1) Timing is everything when it comes to popping your feat. I timed it just right. If had waited another turn I do not think there would have been much left to save after the Trolls had got to work!

2) Black oil is just as devestating against casters. It left Damon pretty much powerless for one turn. I must keep Gorman alive for as long as possible.

3) Stationary Mages have a pretty good chance of hitting most things and anything I can do to add an attack die is worth it. Must remember Trolls are NOT warbeasts when using beast lore from Pendrake.

4) Knock down can really hamstring an opponent and this army list seems to have a lot of that ability. Mules (critical), Mages (critical), Pendrake (with a bola). On a feat turn there should not be a lot left standing.