Old Witch vs Borka 35 pts

Going into this match I was 0-10 with the Old Witch hungry for my first win with her.  Played against Steve tonight who brought out Borka.  His list looked something like this:

• Borka
• Mauler
• Bomber
• Kriel Warriors
• 2 trolls carrying a pillar
• 1 troll with a big rock
• some burrowing ones
• some other support models

I ran this 35 point list:

•  Old Witch
• Behemoth
• Scrappy
• Min Mechaniks
• Great Bears
• Widowmakers
• Widowmaker Marksman
• Manhunter
• Winterguard Rifle Corp
• Joe

We played Kill box and there were a few linear obstacles in the middle of the field; some crates.  I had a forest near my deployment zone on the right.  Steve had some giant crystal obstacles in his corner and we both had some ruined buildings in are other corners.

I forgot to bring my camera :( but will give you a summary of the battle.

Steve went first and ran everone up to the middle of the board.  It was a pretty intimidating sight as I was outnumbered.  His Kriel Warriors got Iron Flesh which got their Def up to 17.  They were deployed to my left.  In the middle he had his Mauler and the Bomber run up with support solos in the back.  Over on the right just in front of the woods he sent his burrowing dudes.

My I had the Widowmakers advanced deployed on the left and they took aiming shots at the front line Kriels and needing 8s they all missed!  The marksman was nearby and I think he was able to take one out but he feigned death so I wouldn't be able to target him.  Thought that was pretty cool.  Over on my far left my Manhunter stayed were she was just out of charge range of the Kriels.  I advanced my rifle Corp up and with boosted shots they killed maybe 4 of the burrowers and took some shots at the Kriels maybe downing one or two, not totally sure.  Scrappy ran to the left near the Widowmakers and OW teleported near him.  I was thinking that I might feat but I wouldn't catch the Mauler or the Bomber so I saved it.  She put Murder of Crows in front of the Kriels to block all charge LOS to the Widowmakers.  Behemoth also ran to the left.  Now there was a forest on my right and basic Augury tactics would say I should camp the Behemoth back there.  Not sure why I chose to not use the forest.  Maybe I was afraid of the burrowers because I wasn't quite sure what they could do?  Mechaniks followed Behemoth.

Bomber decides its time to throw some barrels and lobs two into the Rifle Corps taking out four, just one shy of a command check.  The Mauler moves up a little.  Over on the left the Kriel Warriors run around the Murder of Crows and a few engage my Widowmakers who were all base to base lol.  Another runs to engage my Manhunter.  The surviving burrowers burrow underneath of the forest and the rest of the Troll army move up just slightly. 


I would definitely be feating this turn and there were a bunch of things I could do.  I had the Kriels engaging my Widowmaker and Manhunter.  Scrappy was in charge range of the Kriels but I could also possibly advance him to the right where he could arc gallows to one of the Warbeasts.  My idea was to put Avatar on Scrappy and have him dance through the Kriel Warriors.  Hopefully that would take him close to the Murder of Crows where the OW could teleport to and Feat.  If she could do that, she would catch nearly the entire Troll army, be behind the Kriels and none of them could move or face a POW 14.  There was only one problem though; Scrappy didn't have Avatar on him so there was no way for OW to put it him, have him go crazy, and then teleport.  So I went with plan B.

Rifle Corp did what they could and cleared out some of the Kriels.  Manhunter missed her two attacks needing 7s.  Behemoth did more bombard shots on the Bomber with little damage.  Bears were in a bad position and fearing a big POW 16 from the Bomber, I spread them out and got them ready to counter charge stuff.  The Widowmakers opened a lane for Scrappy and they attacked the Kriels in melee but with MAT 4, yep not much happened.  So Witch moves a little, puts Avatar on Scrappy and Feats.   My thinking is that the Kriels don't have reach so even if Scrappy fails at his Avatar run, nothing can charge him or move towards him.  He charges a Kriel and I boost the first hit and needing 8s he misses.  I take some chances on unboosted 8s to hit and miss some.  He buys his last attack and kills the first one he charged but with the free attack fails to hit the second one.  

Unborrowed dudes pop up and charge a Mechanik and the Behemoth.  One Mechanik dies.  Bomber steps up taking the POW 14 (with little effect) and aims a bomb that deviates onto a Bear and a Widowmaker.  Bear survives but Widowmaker dies.  The second shot takes out more Rifleman bringing the unit down to two.  Mauler charges scrappy and annhilates him easily.  I may have forgotten to check for the Feat Turn POW 14.  Kriel engaged with Manhunter kills her and another on the Marksman kills him.  Supports along with Borka move around the center crates going way around the Murder of Crows.  The Trolls are closing in and the OW is backed into a corner.

Joe starts off next, calls boosted attacks and takes out one of the Pillar Trolls.  The remaining Rifle Corp take shots.  Can't remember the result but I remember what happens next because it's the stuff of legend.  Witch goes, puts Iron Flesh on herself and then the Great Bears charge.  One charges the Mauler and standing on the wrecked armor of Scrapjack proceeds to roll QUADRUPLE SIXES for damage!  With one swing he took out half of the Mauler's boxes.  The second swing also hits but isn't enough to bring the Beast down.  Another Bear charges the Bomber and takes out his Spirit.  Volkov runs inbetween both bears to keep everyone in command.  In hindsight, I should have charged him at the Mauler, which should have finished him, but I was worried that the other Bear would be out of command.  Mechaniks charge the Burrowers and the two remaining Tough!  Behemoth takes more aimed shots into the Bomber for little effect.  (he did this before the Bears charged).

Next turn the lone surviving Widowmaker falls to the fast approaching Kriels along with two of the Bears.  It's all up to the Mauler.  He charges into the OW with a few buffs and with his first swing misses!  He needs to roll 12s on three dice and buys his last attack.  It hits!  The Mauler then does an insane amount of damage and eats OW and heals a bit for a GG.

It was a really, really, enjoyable game on both sides, a truly epic fight.  Made a few mistakes here and there but overall I'm happy with the way I played and learned a lot in the process.  Here are some thoughts:

• starting with the Widowmakers.  I shouldn't bunch them up like that.  One problem was that they blocked LOS for the Rifle Corp.  And then when the Kriels ran to engage them.  It only took two Kriels to engage the Marksman and three Widowmakers.  Should defnitely space them out more.  And oh man was I waiting for the Widowmakers to hit so I could call Sniper!  But they all missed their shots :( And!  If they hit they would have had Swift Hunter too.  Like having them in my list.
• Manhunter was kinda meh.  She should have killed that one Kriel and would have been protected under OW's feat which would have allowed her to charge again.  But she died.
• Rifle Corps.  Really liked them.  Range 14 is awesome and with boosted attacks were able to hit most of the infantry.  Could have probably spread them out a bit more to help with the Bomber's AOEs.  Didn't use suppressing fire once but after talking with Steve post-game will try to use that next time.  It works well with Murder of Crows to control the board and it can allow the rest of my army to move up and get into position.  Also, it might be used to funnel troops which would be good for Behemoth's AOEs.  It felt good using the Rifle Corps and will definitely use them again the next time I bring OW out.  
• Behemoth.  Kept him pretty far back and sadly only used him for bombards.  I should play him more aggressively and get him into a position to charge.  Gotta make use of those armor piercing fists!  Also could have used the forest for cover and rain bombards all day from safety.  
• Getting better at positioning Scrappy for an Avatar run, especially on feat turn where he is safe to move up.  Turning point of the game was when I lost him to the Mauler's charge though.  Without Scrappy, Old Witch loses a lot of her options-- can't teleport for manueverability, tougher time using Gallows.  And just not having Scrappy sucks big time as there are no more opportunities for save Avatar runs.  So next time just gotta be aware of enemy threat ranges.  That was on my lists of things to be aware of and I forgot lol--" Don't let my 'Jacks get charged."
• Mechaniks didn't do anything in the game and I'll probably swap them and the Manhunter out for possibly the Ternion.  Clouds to grant prowl to OW and Scrappy and to maybe give the Widowmakers +4 DEF with Camo.  Sprays will also be helpful and also Ice Cages.  So I think they are definitely better than a Manhunter + Mechaniks.  Other option is maybe Aiyanna & Holt to help with dealing damage but I'll give the Ternion a shot.
• Great Bears spend the opening turns in the back and I swung them left to get away from the Bomber.  That one charge on the Mauler Steve and I will never forget.  Could have gotten the third to charge but other than that I feel my positioning was alright.  Ya, when the charge, I really need all three to hit.
• Old Witch.  I felt my positioning was ok in this game.  She was safe for the most part in the beginning and close enough to the front line to make use Murder of Crows and her feat.  She was backed into the Killbox corner though which limited her options late.  To do it differently, perhaps a bit of board control to lock down the center and get my models into position.  With Suppressing Fire in combination with Murder of Crows I might be able to hold Infanty back and save my feat for the following turn.  Taking the center aggressively and using this type of board control will keep the enemy away from the Old Witch and give her room to operate in the back.  

Thanks again to Steve for the game.  Was lots of fun!  Next week Tuesday our club starts the much anticipated Journeyman League and we're all looking forward to that.  I've also scheduled a game with Chris and his eSkarre list and I'm really looking forward to playing her.  Will give me something to study and prepare for this week :P

Warmachine Batrep: Old Witch vs pMadrak

Another loss with the Old Witch :(  I have somewhere close to ten games with her and haven't won a game yet.  She is pretty tough to learn and use effectively but I will continue to press on.  She is really fun to play though as she has a lot of tricky things she can do and is very different than the usual Khador caster. 

Played a 50pt game against Doug tonight and had a really fun game despite the loss.  I had:

Old Witch
Scrapjack
Behemoth
Devastator
Full Winterguard +UA+3 Rocketeers
Joe
Full Kayazy Assassins + UA
Gorman
Aiyanna & Holt

I can't remember the unit names that he had but here's their description

pMadrak
Mauler
Axe heavy
guy carrying big stone with three other guys
Ogrun Bokur type Troll
cheap tarpit unit with CMA and the pillar guy
heavy infantry unit with 8 boxes
cannon with 2 grunts
solo with scrolls
and a few more that I can't remember :P 

There were a lot of trolls.  Just going to give a brief summary of the game and what I learned/did wrong.

Doug advanced his army up on his first turn and on my turn I might have feated.  Can't remember but when I did feat I caught the Mauler and most of his front line units on the right.  His army was stopped dead cold as the Mauler couldn't charge and the rest didn't want to take POW 14s.  During the feat my Assassins ran up but I didn't have any other units move up to get ready to charge on the next turn.  This was a little mistake.  Sure I stopped his army from hitting mine but I wasn't in a good position to hit him back.  Only the Assassins were in charge range of some of his units.  If I had to do it again I would have ran the WG up and position them so they could do CRAs or sprays next turn.  I'd run the Assassins up more so most of them could get the charge up and I would trample the Behemoth and run both the Dev and Scrappy to get them into position along with the Bears who for most of the game were in the back.

I've just learned recently (from reading the card lol) that the Old Witch's feat not only gives POW 14s if you advance and end your activation in her control area but if you are caught in it, you can't run, charge, or make special actions.  So basically since your opponent can't charge you, if they don't have range, you can just run up and get into threat range to charge them on your next turn-- first striking.  But in this game only the Assassins were in position.  So I'll try to remember that next time.

After feat turn I ran the assassins into melee with some cheap tarpitting trolls to engage them and hopefully Killstroke next turn.  They were at DEF 19 in melee with Iron Flesh but those trolls got a lot of +2 MAT buffs and CMAs gave them MAT 11 or was it 13?  It was crazy and after charging them in, all my assassins were wiped out except the underboss.

Madrak moved up and the heavy infantry Trolls ran up and created a wall in front of him.  There was a opening to Madrak though and Behemoth shot some Bombards.  The first one was negated by the Bouncer (like the Ogrun Bokur) and the second shot was negated by one of Madrak's abilities which allows him to not take damage once per game.  So sad for the Behemoth.  Underboss charged Madrak for no damage.

After this his heavy infantry Trolls charged Behemoth and tied hm up for the remainder of the game with their high armor and tough rolls.  Next to the Behemoth, the Devastator was taking charges from the cheap tarpitting Trolls.

Devastator would get to use Rain of Death twice before eventually falling to some heavy hitting from that unit and that guy with the pillar. 

Srapjack got to charge and clean up some of the Trolls with Avatar of Slaughter but it was very difficult to do with the Trolls making Tough rolls. 

Winterguard tried to CMA those heavy infantry Trolls and after that did a ton of boosted sprays into the Troll carrying the stone and his unit.  Eventually they were able to take the stone out. 

So Doug continued to advance Madrak and his posse of heavy beasts, one getting a thresher on 3 of my WG. 

Eventually my front line would fall so I tried to do an assassination.  Aiyanna goes first and Harms Madrak.  Cool.  A Bear takes two free strikes to try and reach the Troll blocking a vital charge lane to Madrak.  He Toughs the first free strike but fails the second one and dies.  Not cool.  Joe activates with boosted attacks and gets that troll down to one life.  Then it takes almost the entire WG to blunderbuss that troll leaving one to do a blunderbuss on Madrak.  The Bouncer may have taken the hit for that one. 

So Scrapjack on 4 focus charges Madrak and does a ton of damage on his first attack but Madrak spends his last focus to transfer damage.  Scrapjack then has a tough time damaging so that leaves Witch left.  She teleports into melee with Madrak and does some damage.  With one focus left on her last attack she needed 10s to hit and 10s to kill.  She misses her bought attack and I concede :P 

It was a really fun game and a long grueling one too.  Some things to remember for next time:

• On Feat Turn, try to catch as many of the opposing army as possible to prevent charges.  Then aggressively position my units to be able to first strike on my next turn.  Only thing that can really hurt me is range so watch out of that.
• Play Bears more aggressively up front especially against SPD 5 Trolls.  
• Don't allow Behemoth to get charged.
• Devastator: ARM 25 is awesome but I wish I could attack more with him.  Perhaps I just gotta bulldoze stuff away and if it was scenario just have him contest a zone or flag.  Maybe bring back Spriggan for some P+S 18 goodness (and Bulldoze too). 
• Assassins-- I feel like they don't do enough damage with Old Witch.  Sorta makes me wonder if I should bring in Doom Reavers or even Iron Fangs.  But then again, with Gang and Harm from Aiyanna, Assassins would be at P+S 14 which isn't too shabby.  
• eEiryss would have been helpful to take away some of the ARM buffs on the trolls.
• if it comes down to assassination, consider putting Avatar on Old Witch the turn before I need her to assassinate.  Then I can run Srappy up, teleport and have Witch in melee with Avatar upkept.  
• Maybe try advancing my 'Jacks with Murder of Crows in front of them to prevent LOS and charges to them.