Warmachine Batrep: pButcher vs Kraye 35pts

Tonight I planned to teach one of my friends Warmachine.  He recently moved down to Irvine and is staying with Ben.  So I packed up my bag and figure I'll let him try pButcher out with maybe some Great Bears and a Jack or something like that.  Well, I get to Ben's and our friend is on the phone so Ben decides to sneak a game in!

We decide to play 35pts Jacks and only Solos.  He brings;

Kraye
Squire
Hammersmith
Defender
Stormglad
2x Hunters

I've got:

pButcher
Behemoth-- proxied by the Marauder :(  
Juggernaut
Spriggan
Kodiak
War Dog
Widowmaker Marskman

I don't know why I brought the Marksman but I like him a lot and I figure he could flank and possibly get to Kraye.

The board had two wheat fields in the center of the board as rough terrain and two walls on the sides.  This is going to be really tough for Butcher, like REALLY tough.  All I have is the Behemoth who can shoot a pair of bombards but Ben is sporting a Defender and two armor piercing Hunters, not to mention  I've got two fields of rough terrain to traverse.  This is going to be brutal.

Opening of the game had me advancing behind my wall of Jacks while Ben focused all his efforts into trying to bring down the Behemoth.  I've been in this fight before and it's just a matter of time before the Defender takes down the Behemoth's subcortex.  But now I also had to face two hunters...  The Behemoth was operational for at least two rounds and got some shots off on the Defender and one of the Hunters.

I feated fairly early when I noticed I would be able to catch both Hunters.  Butcher advanced to one of the Hunters and cast Obliteration which wrecked it.  Behemoth walked up and lobbed a shot at the other nearly crippling it's gun arm.

My plan was to try and take out his long range guns so we'd have to fight in melee-- something my army is better equipped for.  Well, one Hunter down.

Ben now runs his Hammersmith who has some kind of spell on him that doubles it's speed.  It blocks and protects the surviving Hunter.  He swings Kraye down the right flank and the Defender starts to head over to the left.  My force is in a tight formation in the center and I'm slowly being encircled.  More shots rain down on the Behemoth and he's wrecked between the fields.  If I stay out in the open I'm going to eventually fall to all this fire so there's only one thing I can do.  Run!

Well, not that yet.  Kraye is dangerously close to my Kodiak so I load up fury on him along with 3 focus.  My plan is to push the Kodiak with the Spriggan and then charge Kraye.  Little do I know that Ben has put Pursuit on the Kodiak which means that once he advances, Kraye will be able to move away and he has parry.  :(  We later checked and the Kodiak would have made the charge.  So the Kodiak vented steam and didn't move.  Spriggan advanced a little and took a shot at Kraye who had either one or no focus camped and was able to do a miracle 5 wounds on him.  Butcher was a little exposed sitting on no focus so Jugg pulled back to block LOS from the Defender.  One good thing came out of that round.  My Marskman, who had redeployed to the center, advanced in shooting range of the other Hunter, getting a shot off around the Hammersmith.  He crippled his shooting arm!  So only the Defender was left for long range.

Ben pulls the Defender back and it shoots the Spriggan for good damage.  He swings his battlegroup back to his back edge now heading for the other flank.  Not the right time for the alpha strike.  Kraye is sitting in the back with no focus so I think of something sneaky.

Butcher charges the Spriggan and I check control but I'm out of range for Obliteration.  I would have been at dice-2 with a fairly gutsy chance to win the game.  That was a real bummer and next turn I know I'm going to take the alpha strike and it's going to hurt.  So I run the Kodiak, who stilll had Pursuit on him (poor Kodiak) and Ben asks, "are you sure?" and advances the Defender down the left flank.  Not good.  As soon as I activate my next model Ben gasps.  Dog runs to the Defender and engages it in melee.  What Ben wanted to do was take a boosted shot and pButcher who was already damaged sitting on 10 life (I somehow forgot that).  But now the Dog posed a problem for him.  We'll get to that in a bit.  Spriggan tries his best to advance and block charge lanes in front of Butcher and the Jugg runs into the fields to defend what he can too.  Butcher has Iron Flesh and 2 focus.  In front of him is Spriggan and the Kodiak.  Marskman is engaged by the surviving Hunter in melee.

Here it comes.  Kraye feats and this gives his battegroup boosted attack rolls :(  Ben takes a long time to think about his moves and what to do with the Defender.  He decides to take a free strike and backs away from the Dog.  Dog hits and does 5 damage.  I need to roll a 1,2, or a 6 to cripple is gun arm.  I roll a 2!!!  Dog is amazing!  What's cool and even more irritating is that Ben moved the Defender out of melee range of the Dog so the Defender can't do anything!! haha.

But here come the heavy hitters.  Stormclad charges the Kodiak who is already a little damaged and wrecks him.  Next comes the Hammersmith who charges Spriggan and hits on his first two attacks which allow him to get off his combo but Ben elects not to do that because Butcher is close by.  He buys another attack and after all is said and done, Spriggan has one cortex box and a few on his right arm :D

Kraye advances along his back edge away from the melee that is taking place.

Butcher goes with Full Throttle and backs up behind the Spriggan.  Dog runs back towards the Butcher getting to within 3" of him.  <3 the Dog.  I think I may paint him next because of this game.  Spriggan on 2 focus attacks the Hammersmith and with 2 attacks nearly brings him down.  But Juggernaut just makes the charge and with his axe is able to wreck it.  That was huge as the Hammersmith was the main thing I was worried about.

Ben goes and advances the Hunter into the Dog and kills him, then Light Calvary moving it into the Juggernaut (Kraye makes all his 'Jacks calvary).  At this point I offer a draw to Ben as it's getting late.  He does want to play it out but after further thought accepts.

I had Butcher, an untouched Juggernaut, and an almost dead Spriggan going against Kraye, an untouched Stormclad and a crippled Defender.  I liked my chances because I could slow advance with the Spriggan and as soon as Ben wrecks him, I'll counter charge with either the Jugg or Butcher.  But without Scenario or even Killbox or a timer, this game would have dragged on and I could have easily been lame and move Butcher to a wall or something so I thought a draw was fair and sporting.

The draw did feel like a victory though because of all the hammering I took in the beginning rounds.  It always happens against Cygnar gun lists with a heavy Jack list with pButcher.   There's no getting around it.  You'll feel awful, you'll take a beating, but more often than not, Butcher will make it to the End Game and then anything is possible with him once the heavy guns are off the table.  Perhaps that's why Ben took the draw.

He probably remembers this game pictured above where a fully camped Butcher with Iron Flesh ran through his entire army to bring down pNemo :P

Jack heavy is very hard to play with pButcher.  Against a shooty list, you have to run and be aggressive because you absolutely have to get into melee.  Take care of his anti armor weapons and eEiryss or things that have upkeep hate and Butcher should be good in the later rounds, if he survives until then.

I haven't played him with the Winterguard surprisingly but I'd like to run a list with Winterguard, Assassins, and Widowmakers.  Fury is good for both infantry and Jacks and he has Iron Flesh for DEF.  Feat turn will be killer too.

Our friend ended up watching the game and he's very interested.  He said it was actually fun to watch the game and is looking into either Trolls or Skorne.  All in all, a fun night.