23-09-2009, 02:34 AM
Well, that was a blast!
I'll try and get my pics up soon, but tiredness is winning out tonight...
Anyway, let's start at the top.
Preparation!
The list was going to be the battle box, so I knew what I had to play with (Stryker, Ironclad, Lancer, Charger). This is a fun little bunch, with a few nice abilities (lots of knockdown, disruption on Stryker, deceptively high ARM), and some good, solid caster killing abilities (boosted POW12s from the Charger, the Ironclad's hammer etc etc)...
It's also all about knowing what the enemy could do, so I read through Prime Remix and Escalation the morning before... As far as the Retribution, I guessed I'd find out about them as I went =/
Game 1: vs. Vish, using the Retribution!
I lost the roll-off, and Vish made (let) me go first. I say let, 'cos I'd been doing some maths.
The 14" deployment meant I could run the Lancer forward 12", and hit anything within 2" of his front line with Earthquake on turn 1. This is good.
I deployed with the Lancer, Ironclad and Charger in b2b, left to right, with Stryker behind the Ironclad.
Vish was very spread out, taking advantage of outnumbering me, I guess.
I gave one focus to everything, and ran forward. Stryker advanced, and earthquaked one of the Gorgons.
Vish feated (no charging for me), and ran around a bit. He engaged the Lancer with the jack with the halbard and shield by running, and did the same to the Ironclad with the other Gorgon.
Stryker gave 2 focus to the Ironclad, one to the Charger, and one to the Lancer. The Ironclad (locked in place due to the Gorgon's force grip) tried to throw him into the nearby lake, but missed the boosted attack roll by 1.
The Charger advanced and boosted a shot at the arc node, but missed due to stealth.
The Lancer smashed the myrmidon in the face with his shield twice (frying cortex as he went), and did a few points of damage to the force field with his spear.
Stryker cast arcane shield, then advanced up behind the Ironclad (risky!). He then feated (+5 ARM for everyone!).
Vish gave 2 focus to the arc node, and one to the Gorgon lagging behind.
The Gorgon engaging the Ironclad moved to one side, to allow the node to slam him, but apparently power attacks were cursed on this table, as he missed his boosted roll by 1 (again).
Kaelyssa froze my Charger with a spell (rude!), and shot Stryker a little bit, though not as much as he would have, had be been knocked over by his own Ironclad...
The other Gorgon ran up and engaged the Lancer, though neither jack attacked for fear of loosing it's cortex.
Stryker gave the Ironclad 2 focus, and held the rest (upkeeping arcane shield).
He moved back away from the Ironclad a little, and fired his pistol at Kaelyssa, doing 6 or so damage (boosted to hit and damage).
The Ironclad Tremor-d, knocking down both myrmidon, and the forzen Charger (poor thing). He then bought 2 Quake Hammer attacks against the arc node, and flattened it.
The Lancer finished smashing out the myrmidon's cortex, and missed with it's spear.
Kaelyssa held her focus in an attempt to assassinate Stryker.
She froze the Ironclad with that damned spell again, then attempted to dispell his Arcane Shield, but missed the attack by 1 (again...).
She pinged a few shots off his armour, doing a point of damage or 5.
The knocked down gorgon got up, and moved up to engage Stryker.
The myrmidon engaging the Lancer stood off, not wanting to damage their very fragile corticies...
Stryker let Arcane Shield die, as I say a winning shot...
He gave 3 to the knocked down Charger, who had unfrozen at the start of Vish's turn. He then cast Earthquake at the frozen Ironclad, catching Kaelyssa in the blast. The also whacked the Gorgon in front of him with Quicksilver, doing a few damage points.
The Charger stood up, and fired two shots into Kaelyssa, boosting damage on both. She died by 1 damage point (admittedly my damage roll for the last shot was a 4, on 3 dice...).
Victory!
Game 2: vs. Matt, using Khador.
Again, Matt won the roll off, and let me go first. My deployment was virtually identical, whilst the big red jacks chilled out in a forest on the left flank (my left) of his deployment zone.
Turn one consisted of running the Lancer, and advancing with everything else. Stryker was hiding behind the Ironclad for fear of Sorscha's feat basically the entire game...
He cast Arcane Shield on himself, and chucked an Earthquake at the Juggernaut (which was a little out of range, unfortunately)... The scatter couldn't have been better, as it drifted in to the center of the Khador group, and hit everyone.
Matt moved his jacks up, the Destroyer staying in the forest, and cast Freezing Mist, giving the battle group concealment.
Stryker held all his focus. The Cygnaran jacks advanced forward, and Stryker earthquaked the Destroyer, easily hitting. Otherwise I turtled somewhat, waiting for the feat.
Sorscha gave one focus to the Jugger, two to the Destroyer, and upkept Freezing Mist, leaving her with 2.
The Jugger ran down my left flank, looking scary. The Destroyer stood up, and fired a shot at the Charger, missing heroically. The shot landed way off to my right, hitting nothing. Sorscha moved out of the wood, and Wind Rushed to get that lovely def 20.
Stryker held focus, and turtled more.
He chucked an Earthquake at the jugger, and missed, scattering into the middle of nowhere. He then disrupted it with his pistol.
The Jacks held place in the 'protect Stryker from being frozen' formation.
Sorscha gave 1 focus to the Destroyer, upkept Freeing Mist, and held the rest.
The Jugger advanced towards the Ironclad menacingly, unable to do anything else due to disruption.
Sorscha moved up, Wind Rushed, and feated, freezing all the Jacks.
The Destroyer landed a shot on top of the Ironclad, but did little damage.
Stryker camped focus and feated in response. He also shot the Jugger again, keeping it disrupted.
Again, Sorscha gave focus to the Destroyer (2, I think). She let Freezing Mist die off.
The bombard cannon continued it's lacklustre performance, missing the Charger, and almost hitting the Jugger.
The Juggernaut walked up to the Ironclad, and missed it with it's Axe. The fist did no damage.
Sorscha wind rushed into melee with the lancer, and landed a crit freeze on it. She then walked around the Ironclad, and engaged Stryker.
I thought long and hard about this turn.
Stryker gave 3 focus to the Ironclad, and held the rest (upkeeping Arcane Shield as he went).
The Ironclad desperately swung at Sorscha, looking for 14s... and missed with all his attacks (but there wasn't a lot else I could have done this turn, realistically).
Stryker boosted for a 14, and didn't get it. He then camped for ARM 19, total.
Sorscha held all her focus, going for the kill... Time was very short by now (5 mins, I think!).
The Jugger swung his axe at the Ironclad, and missed again. The fist barely scratched the blue paint...
Boosting to hit for the crit, Sorscha rolled away at Stryker, looking for 10s. Her first swing missed. The second (that's 3 focus gone now, folks) hit, and froze him to the spot. It did 1 damage. The next attack did 4 damage. The next, 3. The last attack rolled double sixes, I think, and left him with 6 boxes left...
Stryker allocated 3 focus to the Ironclad, who now only needed 10s to hit Sorscha, as she hadn't Wind Rushed...!
His first attack critted her, knocking her to the ground. The damage half killed her. The second hammer blow broke her into little pieces...
Victory again!
Game 3, vs. Mig, using Magnus!
As is now traditional, I lost the roll off, and was given first turn.
I did the same old same old.
Miggy set up in a bit of a mirror of me, but a little more spread out.
Again, first turn was 1 to the Lancer, 5 on Stryker.
The Lancer ran straight at them, everyone else advanced. Stryker knocked down everything except the Renegade, which was a little too far away, and cast Arcane Shield on himself.
Mig gave one focus to the Renegade, and held the rest.
The Renegade ran towards by battle lines, flanking towards the right.
Everyone else got up and advanced towards the left. Magnus cast Raining Steel at the Lancer, but rolled foul damage (I think it totalled a point on column 3...).
Stryker gave 2 focus to the Charger, and upkept his shield.
The Charger aimed and fired at the Renegade, missing the first shot, but hitting the second, and blowing the obliterator rocket off it (this made me very happy!).
Stryker knocked over the rest of the battle group with Earthquake again.
Magnus gave one to the Renegade (again).
The Renegade ran back to join the main jack group.
The rest of the force stood up and advanced, continuing to flank left. Magnus cast Frenzy on the Mangler (+2 mat), the feated, letting his whole battle group run again...
The flanking was complete, the Renegade engaged my Lancer, the Mangler engaged Stryker and the Ironclad, the Talon engaging the Ironclad, and the Charger was left a little high and dry on the right flank.
Again, this was a thinking (and risk management) turn. I gave 2 focus to the Ironclad, and held the rest.
The Ironclad tried to throw the Mangler, hitting it this time, but failing the strength test... He then brought an attack with the quake hammer, and almost smashed off it's open hand.
Stryker had been intending to earthquake Magnus at this point, but as the Mangler was still up and running (and engaging him... erk!), he advanced into it, and gave it a smack with Quicksilver, doing 4 more damage (somewhere un-useful), and disrupting it. He then feated.
The Charger moved back towards the battle, heading slightly back and left, giving him good lanes into Magnus and the Mangler for next turn...
The Lancer moved round to engage Magnus, and poked the Renegade with his spear, doing 3 or 4 damage, and missing with his shield.
Magnus gave 2 focus to the Talon, upkept Frenzy, and held the rest.
He moved the Mangler out of the Ironclad's melee range (taking a rather unpleasant free strike), and Circular Striked.
This somehow hit Stryker (needing 9s) and missed the Ironclad... But nevermind. It did 7 damage to poor Stryker.
The Talon advanced to engage Stryker, and stabbed at him, hitting but failing to damage the Warcaster.
Magnus smashed the Lancer to the ground using his Mechanical Arm, and did a few damage with foecleaver.
The Renegade layed into the KO'd Lancer with it's chainsaw-y thing, doing 2 single points of damage, and loosing his cortex in the process... Smooth.
Stryker gave 3 focus to the Charger, and 2 to the Ironclad, and upkept, leaving him somewhat naked...
The Ironclad smashed the Mangler in the face repeatedly, critically knocking him down, and smashing off his ball and chain, and wrecking his movement system in the process, but leaving it alive, just.
Stryker moved around the Ironclad and disrupted the Talon with a blow from Quicksilver.
The Charger aimed at Magnus (who was not engaged, as the Lancer was still knocked down), needing 7s to hit. I rolled straight, just to see what would happen. The first shot hit on 7, so I boosted damage, doing 5. The second shot hit as well, so I boosted damage, doing 4 more.
The Lancer stood up and stabbed at Magnus, but missed.
Magnus held his focus, as his jacks couldn't get it, any more... He let frenzy die.
The Mangler stood up and bashed at the Ironclad, but missed.
The Talon stabbed at Stryker, but missed.
The Renegade missed the Lancer.
This was somewhat depressing so far, I felt.
Magnus decided enough was enough, and he'd finish it off himself.
He left melee with the Lancer, narrowly avoiding the free strike (I missed by 1!).
The fired his shotgun at Stryker, boosting to hit. He missed, and as Stryker was in melee with the Talon, and so was the Ironclad, the shot managed to hit the Ironclad instead. The gun did no significant damage to the Ironclad.
Stryker upkept Arcane Shield, gave 2 focus to the Charger, and 3 to the Ironclad.
The Charger slammed the Mangler from behind, boosting to hit, and, for the first time on this table, it actually worked! He slammed the beat up jack 2 inches, landing him on top of Magnus, although no damage was done to either...
The Ironclad walked over to KO'd Magnus, and boosted damage for his first swing, which squished the mercenary easily...
Victory for the third time!
What an absolute blast, Jon did well to get this up and running in the little time he had, and it was cool to see the fun stuff that the Retribution can do.
It was also really cool to play 3 games against fully painted armies, with a fully painted army, especially the Stryker/Magnus grudge match we've been plotting for a while!
Don't know if there is much else to say to be honest, I'll try and get some pics up tomorrow, hopefully.
How were everyone else's games?
-Tom.
I'll try and get my pics up soon, but tiredness is winning out tonight...
Anyway, let's start at the top.
Preparation!
The list was going to be the battle box, so I knew what I had to play with (Stryker, Ironclad, Lancer, Charger). This is a fun little bunch, with a few nice abilities (lots of knockdown, disruption on Stryker, deceptively high ARM), and some good, solid caster killing abilities (boosted POW12s from the Charger, the Ironclad's hammer etc etc)...
It's also all about knowing what the enemy could do, so I read through Prime Remix and Escalation the morning before... As far as the Retribution, I guessed I'd find out about them as I went =/
Game 1: vs. Vish, using the Retribution!
I lost the roll-off, and Vish made (let) me go first. I say let, 'cos I'd been doing some maths.
The 14" deployment meant I could run the Lancer forward 12", and hit anything within 2" of his front line with Earthquake on turn 1. This is good.
I deployed with the Lancer, Ironclad and Charger in b2b, left to right, with Stryker behind the Ironclad.
Vish was very spread out, taking advantage of outnumbering me, I guess.
I gave one focus to everything, and ran forward. Stryker advanced, and earthquaked one of the Gorgons.
Vish feated (no charging for me), and ran around a bit. He engaged the Lancer with the jack with the halbard and shield by running, and did the same to the Ironclad with the other Gorgon.
Stryker gave 2 focus to the Ironclad, one to the Charger, and one to the Lancer. The Ironclad (locked in place due to the Gorgon's force grip) tried to throw him into the nearby lake, but missed the boosted attack roll by 1.
The Charger advanced and boosted a shot at the arc node, but missed due to stealth.
The Lancer smashed the myrmidon in the face with his shield twice (frying cortex as he went), and did a few points of damage to the force field with his spear.
Stryker cast arcane shield, then advanced up behind the Ironclad (risky!). He then feated (+5 ARM for everyone!).
Vish gave 2 focus to the arc node, and one to the Gorgon lagging behind.
The Gorgon engaging the Ironclad moved to one side, to allow the node to slam him, but apparently power attacks were cursed on this table, as he missed his boosted roll by 1 (again).
Kaelyssa froze my Charger with a spell (rude!), and shot Stryker a little bit, though not as much as he would have, had be been knocked over by his own Ironclad...
The other Gorgon ran up and engaged the Lancer, though neither jack attacked for fear of loosing it's cortex.
Stryker gave the Ironclad 2 focus, and held the rest (upkeeping arcane shield).
He moved back away from the Ironclad a little, and fired his pistol at Kaelyssa, doing 6 or so damage (boosted to hit and damage).
The Ironclad Tremor-d, knocking down both myrmidon, and the forzen Charger (poor thing). He then bought 2 Quake Hammer attacks against the arc node, and flattened it.
The Lancer finished smashing out the myrmidon's cortex, and missed with it's spear.
Kaelyssa held her focus in an attempt to assassinate Stryker.
She froze the Ironclad with that damned spell again, then attempted to dispell his Arcane Shield, but missed the attack by 1 (again...).
She pinged a few shots off his armour, doing a point of damage or 5.
The knocked down gorgon got up, and moved up to engage Stryker.
The myrmidon engaging the Lancer stood off, not wanting to damage their very fragile corticies...
Stryker let Arcane Shield die, as I say a winning shot...
He gave 3 to the knocked down Charger, who had unfrozen at the start of Vish's turn. He then cast Earthquake at the frozen Ironclad, catching Kaelyssa in the blast. The also whacked the Gorgon in front of him with Quicksilver, doing a few damage points.
The Charger stood up, and fired two shots into Kaelyssa, boosting damage on both. She died by 1 damage point (admittedly my damage roll for the last shot was a 4, on 3 dice...).
Victory!
Game 2: vs. Matt, using Khador.
Again, Matt won the roll off, and let me go first. My deployment was virtually identical, whilst the big red jacks chilled out in a forest on the left flank (my left) of his deployment zone.
Turn one consisted of running the Lancer, and advancing with everything else. Stryker was hiding behind the Ironclad for fear of Sorscha's feat basically the entire game...
He cast Arcane Shield on himself, and chucked an Earthquake at the Juggernaut (which was a little out of range, unfortunately)... The scatter couldn't have been better, as it drifted in to the center of the Khador group, and hit everyone.
Matt moved his jacks up, the Destroyer staying in the forest, and cast Freezing Mist, giving the battle group concealment.
Stryker held all his focus. The Cygnaran jacks advanced forward, and Stryker earthquaked the Destroyer, easily hitting. Otherwise I turtled somewhat, waiting for the feat.
Sorscha gave one focus to the Jugger, two to the Destroyer, and upkept Freezing Mist, leaving her with 2.
The Jugger ran down my left flank, looking scary. The Destroyer stood up, and fired a shot at the Charger, missing heroically. The shot landed way off to my right, hitting nothing. Sorscha moved out of the wood, and Wind Rushed to get that lovely def 20.
Stryker held focus, and turtled more.
He chucked an Earthquake at the jugger, and missed, scattering into the middle of nowhere. He then disrupted it with his pistol.
The Jacks held place in the 'protect Stryker from being frozen' formation.
Sorscha gave 1 focus to the Destroyer, upkept Freeing Mist, and held the rest.
The Jugger advanced towards the Ironclad menacingly, unable to do anything else due to disruption.
Sorscha moved up, Wind Rushed, and feated, freezing all the Jacks.
The Destroyer landed a shot on top of the Ironclad, but did little damage.
Stryker camped focus and feated in response. He also shot the Jugger again, keeping it disrupted.
Again, Sorscha gave focus to the Destroyer (2, I think). She let Freezing Mist die off.
The bombard cannon continued it's lacklustre performance, missing the Charger, and almost hitting the Jugger.
The Juggernaut walked up to the Ironclad, and missed it with it's Axe. The fist did no damage.
Sorscha wind rushed into melee with the lancer, and landed a crit freeze on it. She then walked around the Ironclad, and engaged Stryker.
I thought long and hard about this turn.
Stryker gave 3 focus to the Ironclad, and held the rest (upkeeping Arcane Shield as he went).
The Ironclad desperately swung at Sorscha, looking for 14s... and missed with all his attacks (but there wasn't a lot else I could have done this turn, realistically).
Stryker boosted for a 14, and didn't get it. He then camped for ARM 19, total.
Sorscha held all her focus, going for the kill... Time was very short by now (5 mins, I think!).
The Jugger swung his axe at the Ironclad, and missed again. The fist barely scratched the blue paint...
Boosting to hit for the crit, Sorscha rolled away at Stryker, looking for 10s. Her first swing missed. The second (that's 3 focus gone now, folks) hit, and froze him to the spot. It did 1 damage. The next attack did 4 damage. The next, 3. The last attack rolled double sixes, I think, and left him with 6 boxes left...
Stryker allocated 3 focus to the Ironclad, who now only needed 10s to hit Sorscha, as she hadn't Wind Rushed...!
His first attack critted her, knocking her to the ground. The damage half killed her. The second hammer blow broke her into little pieces...
Victory again!
Game 3, vs. Mig, using Magnus!
As is now traditional, I lost the roll off, and was given first turn.
I did the same old same old.
Miggy set up in a bit of a mirror of me, but a little more spread out.
Again, first turn was 1 to the Lancer, 5 on Stryker.
The Lancer ran straight at them, everyone else advanced. Stryker knocked down everything except the Renegade, which was a little too far away, and cast Arcane Shield on himself.
Mig gave one focus to the Renegade, and held the rest.
The Renegade ran towards by battle lines, flanking towards the right.
Everyone else got up and advanced towards the left. Magnus cast Raining Steel at the Lancer, but rolled foul damage (I think it totalled a point on column 3...).
Stryker gave 2 focus to the Charger, and upkept his shield.
The Charger aimed and fired at the Renegade, missing the first shot, but hitting the second, and blowing the obliterator rocket off it (this made me very happy!).
Stryker knocked over the rest of the battle group with Earthquake again.
Magnus gave one to the Renegade (again).
The Renegade ran back to join the main jack group.
The rest of the force stood up and advanced, continuing to flank left. Magnus cast Frenzy on the Mangler (+2 mat), the feated, letting his whole battle group run again...
The flanking was complete, the Renegade engaged my Lancer, the Mangler engaged Stryker and the Ironclad, the Talon engaging the Ironclad, and the Charger was left a little high and dry on the right flank.
Again, this was a thinking (and risk management) turn. I gave 2 focus to the Ironclad, and held the rest.
The Ironclad tried to throw the Mangler, hitting it this time, but failing the strength test... He then brought an attack with the quake hammer, and almost smashed off it's open hand.
Stryker had been intending to earthquake Magnus at this point, but as the Mangler was still up and running (and engaging him... erk!), he advanced into it, and gave it a smack with Quicksilver, doing 4 more damage (somewhere un-useful), and disrupting it. He then feated.
The Charger moved back towards the battle, heading slightly back and left, giving him good lanes into Magnus and the Mangler for next turn...
The Lancer moved round to engage Magnus, and poked the Renegade with his spear, doing 3 or 4 damage, and missing with his shield.
Magnus gave 2 focus to the Talon, upkept Frenzy, and held the rest.
He moved the Mangler out of the Ironclad's melee range (taking a rather unpleasant free strike), and Circular Striked.
This somehow hit Stryker (needing 9s) and missed the Ironclad... But nevermind. It did 7 damage to poor Stryker.
The Talon advanced to engage Stryker, and stabbed at him, hitting but failing to damage the Warcaster.
Magnus smashed the Lancer to the ground using his Mechanical Arm, and did a few damage with foecleaver.
The Renegade layed into the KO'd Lancer with it's chainsaw-y thing, doing 2 single points of damage, and loosing his cortex in the process... Smooth.
Stryker gave 3 focus to the Charger, and 2 to the Ironclad, and upkept, leaving him somewhat naked...
The Ironclad smashed the Mangler in the face repeatedly, critically knocking him down, and smashing off his ball and chain, and wrecking his movement system in the process, but leaving it alive, just.
Stryker moved around the Ironclad and disrupted the Talon with a blow from Quicksilver.
The Charger aimed at Magnus (who was not engaged, as the Lancer was still knocked down), needing 7s to hit. I rolled straight, just to see what would happen. The first shot hit on 7, so I boosted damage, doing 5. The second shot hit as well, so I boosted damage, doing 4 more.
The Lancer stood up and stabbed at Magnus, but missed.
Magnus held his focus, as his jacks couldn't get it, any more... He let frenzy die.
The Mangler stood up and bashed at the Ironclad, but missed.
The Talon stabbed at Stryker, but missed.
The Renegade missed the Lancer.
This was somewhat depressing so far, I felt.
Magnus decided enough was enough, and he'd finish it off himself.
He left melee with the Lancer, narrowly avoiding the free strike (I missed by 1!).
The fired his shotgun at Stryker, boosting to hit. He missed, and as Stryker was in melee with the Talon, and so was the Ironclad, the shot managed to hit the Ironclad instead. The gun did no significant damage to the Ironclad.
Stryker upkept Arcane Shield, gave 2 focus to the Charger, and 3 to the Ironclad.
The Charger slammed the Mangler from behind, boosting to hit, and, for the first time on this table, it actually worked! He slammed the beat up jack 2 inches, landing him on top of Magnus, although no damage was done to either...
The Ironclad walked over to KO'd Magnus, and boosted damage for his first swing, which squished the mercenary easily...
Victory for the third time!
What an absolute blast, Jon did well to get this up and running in the little time he had, and it was cool to see the fun stuff that the Retribution can do.
It was also really cool to play 3 games against fully painted armies, with a fully painted army, especially the Stryker/Magnus grudge match we've been plotting for a while!
Don't know if there is much else to say to be honest, I'll try and get some pics up tomorrow, hopefully.
How were everyone else's games?
-Tom.
