Wow, over a month since my last post. Sorry its been so long - summers been eating up most of my Warmachine time, and I've also been feeling a bit burned out on the game lately. I probably won't be posting often until the end of August, but with any luck things will pick up in September. In any case, here's a battle report for a game I did manage to get in last night. Since I've been beating this opponent pretty handily lately, I decided to play my standard Primal Lylyth list, which IMHO is my weakest:
Lylyth, Herald of Everblight
-Carnivean
-Seraph
-Shredder
Blighted Nyss Striders
-Officer & Musician
Full Blighted Ogrun Warspears
1 Spell Martyr
The Forsaken
He brought a new Searforge army he's been working on, led by Gorten Groundback:
Gorten Grundback
-Ghordson Driller
-Grundback Gunner
Full Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps
Min Horgenhold Forge Guard
Min Horgenhold Forge Guard
Brun Cragback & Lug
Gudrun the Wanderer
Ogrun Bokur
I'm not liking the look of this fight - my list is build to take on either a few really tough models or lots of flimsy ones. He's got a large number of pretty tough guys, so I'm going to have to be careful and whittle him down before he can get to me. Thankfully I've got the range advantage, so I think I have a decent shot.
Terrain
A quick note: the reason his deployment zone seems bigger (and has terrain in it) is he gets +4" since he's playing Searforge Comission. He wins the roll, but decides to let me deploy first.
Everblight Deployment
As usual, I'm outnumbers, so as usual, I'm going for a refused flank. The beasts form a line directly behind the forest, with Lylyth, the Forsaken, and the Spell Martyr behind them. The Warspears deploy to their right, past the forest so they can run up and help push into the right side of my opponent's army.
Searforge Deployment
He's struggling a bit to fit all his forces into the deployment area, especially due to the hill and forest. In the end, the High Shields and Forge Guard form a block between the two terrain pieces, with Gorten and his jacks behind them. Brun and Lug deploy in the forest, hoping to flank me.
Everblight Advance Deployment
Keeping with the refused flank strategy, I put my Striders as far up on the right as possible, hoping to get behind the High Shields to deny them the Shield Wall bonus and take them apart.
Searforge Advance Deployment
Not wanting his Ogrun to get shot up, he deploys them in front of Brun and Lug. I'm going to have to be careful, since thats a reasonably fast force on the right that could flank me.
Everblight Turn 1
My beasts all run forward, and Lylyth hands out Spiny Growth, Tenacity, and Slipstream to help. The Warmongers also run forward, but the Striders just walk, and 3 CRAs later, one of the Forge Guard units is taking a morale check, which they easily pass. First blood to Everblight.
Searforge Turn 1
His massive Dwarven brick advances, but its almost comical how slow they are in comparison. Its less funny when his left flank runs down towards me, though I'm not that concerned since it doesn't look like they'll get in the action for another turn or two. The High Shields CRA the Carnivean, dealing 4 damage despite Spiny Growth, but otherwise I'm unharmed. Gorten puts Strength of Granite on the Driller.
Everblight Turn 2
The Driller is hiding behind the wall, but I can probably get to him with my Carnivean if I can clear out some of the Dwarves. So I have better odds, Lylyth feats first, but is unable to put Parasite on the Forge Guard since she kills both the ones she shoots, keeping me from using Witch Mark! The feat isn't really necessary as my army continues to whittle his down with ranged attacks, finishing off the weakend Forge Guard unit and taking out a few High Shields. In the end, I decide not to risk the Carnivean and have him aim and spray at the Dwarves, taking out 2 Forge Guard from the second unit.
Searforge Turn 2
I can tell my opponent is getting frustrated with slowly getting picked at, so most of his army runs forward in an attempt to swarm me. Two forge guard are able to charge one of the Warspears that stepped up to kill High Shields, and turn the poor Ogrun into paste. The Ogrun, Brun, and Lug all run towards me, realizing they're not going to get into the action at this rate. While most look like sitting ducks for my army, Gudrun does engage the Seraph, which is a bit annoying.
Everblight Turn 3
This turn looks like its going to be the crippling strike. Lylyth moves up and kills one Forge Guard before putting Parasite on Lug. Sadly the Striders fail to kill enough Forge Guard to keep the Carnivean from drawing a free strike, but he survives it as he charges the Driller and rips it to pieces. The Seraph engages Gudrun, killing him the first time thanks to poison (first time its ever triggered for me!). While he's alive, he's knocked down, allowing my Warspears to freely charge Lug and kill him. The Shredder then moves up and eats the Bokur. Overall, things are looking good - Lylyth may be out of Fury, but she's safe behind my lines, while all he has left is Gorten, 2 Forge Guard, most of the High Shields, the Gunner, Brun, and Gudrun. To be safe, I move my Forsaken and Spell Martyr in front of Lylyth to block line of sight, the Forsaken pulling Fury off the Seraph to avoid Frenzy next turn.
Searforge Turn 3
Unfortunately, my opponent still has one trick left up his sleave. He charges Gorten into the Carnivean, giving himself Strength of Granite to kill the beast. He then uses his feat, dragging Lylyth out from her cover and right into his lines! To make matters worse, her DEF is lowered, and after a CRA from the High Shields and an aimed shot from the Gunner, its all over.
Aftermath
I made the same mistake I've made a thousand times: I risked a more powerful model to save a much weaker one. In this case, I had Lylyth use all her fury to put Parasite on Lug so the Warspears could finish him, when in reality, even if the bear survived, he would have killed 2, maybe 3 Ogrun. The lack of Fury kept me from transferring the killing blows to my Warlock. Still, it was shocking to see how effective Gorten's feat was. Even if I had survived, I all my models would have been at -3 speed, making it difficult to reform my forces. Overall, it was a great game. I even got my opponent to complain the Warspears, widely regarded as one of the worst Everblight units, were overpowered and should cost more points!
As mentioned to earlier, I probably won't be posting much for the rest of the summer. When fall does roll around, the PG at my store is thinking of running a Slow Grow League based on
official rules Privateer Press plans on releasing. It'll be a good opportunity to start that Warmachine army I was thinking about last year (wow, has it been that long already?). I think I have an idea of what I'm going to run, but I don't want to spoil the surprise for you guys. Hint: its one of the ideas I mentioned in the posts tagged "Warmachine".
And here's the interior, with much more space than before: 
The one big problem I ran into was where to keep my dice, measuring tape, cards, and markers. I came up with the idea to glue magnets to them and attach them to the sides of the case. I bought a deck box for the cards, which is also helpful for keeping them in order. You can kind of make them out above, but here are some close up pictures of the sides:
One one major problem currently is the foam is resting on a piece of cardboard since it isn't long enough to not fall into the inside of the case. Unfortunately, the cardboard is starting to bend (you can kind of see the effect in the first picture), but I'm hoping to replace it soon with something sturdier - just as soon as I find something sturdier thats easy to get and cut into the right shape!
