Warmachine Action 8.22.11

Overbo and I met in battle in the game only we play, but I thought I’d mention it on the blog since nothing else has been happening lately.

We played a 25 point game

High Executioner Reznik

VERSUS

Kommander Strakhov

Mike’s list had three heavy warjacks (two Juggernauts and a Kodiak), and a unit of three Demolition Corpsmen, a unit of Battle Mechanics, all lead by Kommander Strakhov accompanied by a War Dog. My Protectorate list was two heavy warjacks (a Reckoner and a Crusader), small units of Exemplar Bastions and Zealots, a unit of Exemplar Knights, and a minimal Choir, all lead by High Executioner Reznik.

As our forces moved to meet each other we both gravitated toward some terrain in the center of the table, trying to minimize our exposure to each others guns and charges until we had things set up the way we wanted to. I kept my cheaper infantry on the outsides of my formation, leaving the Zealots alone on one side of the building (the Monolith Bearer makes them very survivable, so I felt fine leaving them unsupported otherwise) we were jockeying around, sending everything to the other side of a wall with Knights on the other edge of my block. Mike ended up turning his forces into kind of a battering ram, with ‘Jacks up front followed by Demo Corps and his caster.

Once the Khador closed into charge range Mike popped Strakhov’s feat, giving his jacks long charges that would allow them to make big attacks. His three jacks split apart, one each going for a different unit of my outside infantry pincer with the third going up the gut. My Zealots soaked the charge of his one ‘jack, while the Knights experienced 50% casualties. His center attack was to be his knockout punch, with his Kodiak pounding on my Reckoner, then throwing the Reckoner back into Reznik.

The attack came off, damaging the Reckoner and knocking down both the ‘jack and Reznik, but it didn’t do much damage to Reznik, who used his focus to raise the Reckoner, give it an extra shot, then fuel the charge of the Crusader.

Fortunately for the Protectorate, Mike’s splitting his Warjacks so far apart left his much softer infantry exposed to counter-attack. Since the ‘jack that attacked the Zealots basically just ran through them, they were able to advance on their new target without getting hurt by the ‘jack, lobbing grenades into the faces of the Demo Corps and Strakhov, who were tightly packed together. That attack killed Strakhov’s hound and depleted the Demo Corps enough that the Reckoner was able to kill the last corpsman standing between it and Strakhov, then was able to put another round on the ‘caster himself. Finally, empowered by Reznik’s spells and two focus points, the Crusader ran through the hole in the Khador front line and trampled Strakhov into the dirt.

This was kind of a funny match-up because it was one of Khador’s more offensively-minded but least survivable casters (most Khador warcasters are pretty tough), versus a Protectorate caster that can take a serious beating and still deliver a knockout punch himself (Protectorate casters are more typically suited to letting the other units in their army take and receive the hits).

Neither of us planned our lists very carefully because we got distracted by cooking and barbecuing a bunch of hot dogs, but the game ended up working out kind of that way: Mike delivered what he hoped would be a knockout punch, but the tough warcaster weathered it and managed to get his army moving enough to exploit the opening that got left by swinging for the fences.