Warmachine Batrep: eSorscha vs Terminus

Spent the night hanging out in the beginning then got a game in with Coco, one of our resident Cryx players.  He and I have never played before and it was his first time playing 50 pts and Scenario.  We rolled and got Overrun which has a big rectangular control zone in the middle of the board.  You score at the bottom of the second if you control it and your enemy isn't contesting it.  Here are the lists:

50pts

eSorscha
Beast-09
Devastator
Winterguard Infantry
-Officer and Standard Bearer
-Two Rocketeers
Joe
Widowmakers
Great Bears
Kayazy Assassins (max) + UA
eEiryss
Gorman


Terminus (not sure about all the names and sizes)
Deathjack
Tartarus
Bane Thralls (min)
Bane Knights
Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
2 Pistol Wraiths
Withershadow Combine
and guy who makes friendlies advance an inch. 


Terrain has three ruins spread out across the middle and a wall on each of our sides of the board to our lefts.  Coco won the roll and let me go first.  I put the Battlegroup in the center with Winterguard on the right and Assassins on the left.  The plan is pretty much to advance everyone up to contest the zone and hopefully get some rockets into his army.


He deploys on my left in a very, very, big infantry ball.  There was a lot of dudes.  Mechanithralls in the front on the left with Bane Knights behind them with Terminus.  On the right is the rest of the army with Pistol Wraiths on the far right. 


Widowmakers advance deploy behind the wall on my left with Eiryss also on the left near a building.  I want to keep her away from those Pistol Wraiths.


Deathjack deploys in front of Tartarus and some Bane Thralls just to the right of center.


I move everyone up, Winterguard getting Desperate Pace from Sorscha along with Iron Flesh to get their DEF to 15 (I forgot to give them the Bob & Weave order to get their DEF to 17...)  Shot with a rocket that scatters and misses.  Joe gives them Tough.  Widowmakers get Shatterstorm and one takes a shot at his front line Mechanithralls but they're out of range.  Can't remember what Eiryss did.  Assassins run around the Widowmakers heading towards the Mechanithralls.  Battlegroup heads for the center.

The Cryx army all move up in formation.

Upkeep Shatterstorm on the Widowmakers and they go to work on the Mechanithralls now in range of their guns.  Can't remember exactly but I box a few and manage to forget the Shatterstorm effect ><.  Eiryss also takes one down and at least one Toughs.  Assassins charge and two manage to reach the front line taking out a pair of Mechanithralls.  The rest run up and try to get into melee.  Over on the right the Winterguard get Desperate Pace again and I forget to activate Joe first (again) to give the Winterguard boosted attack rolls.  So bad.  Rockets take some shots deep into the Cryx army but scattering shots don't do anything significant.  Bears meanwhile continue their advance within the Winterguard formation.  Beast moves up and Dev steps into the zone.  Sorscha heads to the wall to get some cover behind the Widowmakers and I decide to put Iron Flesh on the Assassins because they're going to get into the mix soon.  Gorman pops smoke (more for practice as Coco's army didn't have range).

Cryx slow advances and Necrosurgeon brings back some Mechanithralls.  Terminus puts Malediction on himself and Coco begins his plan to tear through the front Assassins and get Terminus' armor up.  With Iron Flesh the the Assassins are sitting at DEF 17 because of Malediction and Terminus only manages to kill one of them.

Over on the right Deathjack advances and casts Annihilation on a Rocketeer but misses.  Things not going well for Cryx.  Pistol wraiths on the right continue to stream down the flank.

With Terminus open for attack, Sorscha pops feat getting Terminus in her command range; now any damage above armor is doubled.  On the right, Desperate Pace goes on the Winterguard and with boosted attacks (Brad reminded me ^^) advance very close to the Cryx line.  Rockets fire deep into his formation and hit a lot of guys but with Tough rolls only a few get boxed.  The Winterguard then open up with sprays and are able to take down a few of the Bane Thralls and even do one damage to Deathjack.  Bears charge DJ and one fails the charge running into a Winterguard.  One does reach DJ and hits only with his first attack doing something like 6 dmg.  On the left Widowmakers take down more Mechanithralls and Eiryss goes for a lucky shot into melee at Terminus but misses (we both forget that the missed shot should hit my Assassin).

Assassins pop mini feat (allowing them to pass through models) and 5 of them are able to charge Terminus with another already in melee with him.  With Sorscha's feat the Assassin's are doing good damage.  The Underboss attacks third and with his second swing is able to bring Terminus to the ground.

The night had me rolling hot and Coco rolling really cold (not counting those tough rolls hehe).  The attack of Terminus on the Assassins was really unlucky as he had to roll 7s to kill and he only was able to get one.  His plan was to get his armor up, heal him and advance him in a march of death.  The unlucky rolls along with Sorcha's feat allowed the Assassins to hit harder than usual and get the job done.

Speaking of Assassins, after having them face Arcane Tempest Gun Mages for weeks against eHaley or AOEs with Siege, it was refreshing to have the board clear of that kind of stuff.  They had the opportunity to get safely into melee where they can really shine.  <3 my Assassins. 

As for the Winterguard, I was able to get more practice with them and the more I play them the more I like their versatility.  There's a lot of things they can do.  In this game, Joe mainly gave them Tough but he can also give them boosted attack rolls which is a good speech to give on the attack.  Those boosted attack rolls really help the rockets and sprays to hit.  I just have to remember to get my activations right.  Sorscha needs to go before them to give Desperate Pace and Joe needs to go before them as well to give them boosted attack rolls.   

Joe would be a great target for the Pistol Wraiths.  Without him, the Winterguard are very, very average.  Another good target would be the Standard Bearer who gives them their sprays or the Officer who can give them the Bob & Weave order for +2 DEF.  Wow, now that I think about it, I really have to keep those guys safe. 

Windowmakers were able to take a lot of shots in the game but next time I have to remember to do the Shatterstorm result which creates a 3" AOE on a model that's boxed.  That can have good effect on tight infantry formations.

So overall I'm liking eSorscha a lot as I feel she has a nice balance between killing armor (her feat) and killing infantry (Shatterstorm).  She also can give Winterguard +2 movement and let them reroll failed CRAs which is really nice.  So far she is my favorite caster to use. 

Coco and I are set for a rematch next week as we both enjoyed our game and have a better knowledge of what the other's army is like.  I don't think he'll roll as cold as he did today nor I as hot so it should be a good game.

Great to see a lot of the guys enjoying 50pts and Scenario Play too on the other tables.