Battle Report, May 1 2016Went to Green Bay today and played a game of War Machine. Though I cannot honestly describe this as a real battle report, it does cover the basics.
I was involved in a scenario match, the one rolled being a three objective match, to last seven rounds. The armies were to be fifteen points. I played Skorne, my opponent played Khador. I rolled highest, but passed the initial deployment / first move to my opponent.
My army was lead by the mounted warlock Xerxis, with a titan Canoneer being bonded to him. This was nine points. Next I had a five member squad of minion Gatormen controlled by a Taskmaster; combined, this was eleven points. I know, someone reading this is going to say that this comes out to 20 points, but keep in mind the warlock or warcaster adds / removes points, and in this case Xerxis gives fives points for a warbeast... so, all told, fifteen points. My opponent asked if I would agree to going up two more points, to which I agreed by assigning a four man squad of beast handlers onto the Canoneer.
I couldn't tell you what I faced against. I believe he led his forces with Sasha, had a four man squad of Widowmakers, one heavy warjack, and a five member squad of some heavy infantry (their shields had a gun in them). Oh! That squad also had advance deployment, allowing them to be placed last.
Round one wasn't much, just getting into position. Objects were along the center of the table, one in the middle and the other two in the middle of both sides. My Gatormen were in my right corner, my warcaster and Canoneer just right of center. The opponent placed his Widowmakers on his left corner (upper right for me, above my Gatormen); his heavy warjack and Sasha in the middle; he split his heavy infantry into two teams of two and three... the two on his right corner (my upper left) and his three between Sasha and the Widowmakers.
Without doing rounds, this is what occurred. I moved my Gatormen up along the table's edge to within a couple inches of the objective, all the while taking pot shots from the Widows. While they suffered no casualties (being eight life points each), one Gatorman did suffer a wound. Ooh.
My opponent marched his infantry to the center marker, leaving Sasha behind, but still within her control range. He moved his warjack between the center objective and the one to my left, but closer to the center. The objective on my left he took with the two man group of infantry. I slowly marched Xerxis up, hugging to a ruined building and I marched the Canoneer to a rocky outcropping for cover. While marching forward, the warjack and my Canoneer took shots at each other.
Here's where things got fun.
My Gatormen decided that it would be better to safeguard the objective by slaying the Widowmakers first. I ran my Gatormen into that squad; but, because they were run, I could not attack. However, because the 'makers were now in melee, they couldn't leave without having a free attack done to them. The Widows tried to stab me with their swords, but only one penetrated the gator's hide, causing two points of damage. On my turn, the gator's wiped out the squad of 'makers, suffering no further damage.
My opponent, seeing what the gators just did, for some reason decided to move Sasha away from combat, running he to the left side of the table. He then moved the three heavy infantry from the middle of the table to act as a wall between the gators and Sasha; he placed his warjack on the center objective.
Here I used Xerxis feat ability: everything I control is consisted to be in my control area, and for one turn, all units in my control area gain a die for their attack and damage rolls.
The taskmaster assigned to the Gators used "enrage" to grant them a +2 to strength as they moved in against the Khador infantry. Having two melee attacks (bite and their weapon), I destroyed that unit with no damage received. Sadly, the remains two squad members, parked on the final objective, passed their morale check.
After taking another shot at his 'hack with my Canoneer, I charged the warjack with Xerxis, bringing it down to three boxes unchecked.
Preparing myself for a winning round... one more successful on the 'jack would have destroyed it for certain... my opponent smiles and declares himself the winner. All seven rounds were done, and he had that one objective on the left.
I bowed to his victory of course, but I walked away with the satisfaction that I devestated his forces, only having lost two beast handlers to his warjack's ranged attacks. And, with the sheer brutality of the Gatormen's attacks, I ordered a second squad.
Niw, if I can get the picture to upload, you'll see what a hungry squad of Gators looks like when they swarm some 'makers.
{EDIT - Opponent's army}
Sasha
four man squad of Widowmakers
five man squad of Shocktroopers
Destroyer (Khador heavy warjack)
Looking at the information provided on battlecollege.org, it looks to me that my opponent probably wasn't quite sure on how to use his troops effectively, or he didn't go for a unified force or something. Almost as if he saw each unit as a stand alone. I could be mistaken. Can our resident Khador player check these out and tell me if they make for a good force?