Ladyeyes' Circle Orboros Vs. AoM's Menoth

[Angel_of_Menoth]

Tanya and I played a 500 point game of Warmachine/Hordes last night. The actual armies came out a bit smaller because Tanya didn't have any way to rearrange her army to get rid of a 21 point gap. Being a gentleman, I took my Choir out of my list (I know, an act of heresy for a Menoth player).

Tanya's Circle list (479/500)
Kaya
Argus x 2
Warpwolf x 2
Tharn Bloodtrackers x 10

Jeremy's Menoth list (481/500)
Feora
Reckoner
Devout
Vilmon
Temple Flameguard x 7
w/Unit Attachment
Exemplar Vengers x 3

Tanya won the initial roll and chose to make me deploy first. The table was covered with a few small hills with forests on top of them overlapping the deployment zone edges, two forests not on hills in the deployment zones, and a rocky hill in the middle of the table. There were also some smaller walls forming linear obstacles and cover. My side of the table had the forest and the hill near the center of the table, with a small lane between them. I set up the Reckoner and the Devout in this lane, with Feora behind them. Vilmon and the Flameguard stood on the other side of the forest, forming a solid left flank. The Vengers deployed along the right side of the deployment zone, lining up to run forward around the forested hill.

Tanya set up her Warpwolves, flanked by the Argi (Arguses, whatever) on the right side of her deployment zone. Kaya was behind her pack, and the rocky hill was blocking any early charge from the Flameguard. The Bloodtrackers set up just past the deployment zone on her left side, taking aim for the cavalry unit directly across the table and declaring them their Prey.

I started the game running the jacks forward around the wooded hill and having Feora follow them while the Vengers galloped forwards onto the wooded hill to gain the defense buffs from elevation and concealment. The Flameguard ran to the foot of the rocky hill, with Vilmon running only slightly ahead of them.

Tanya ordered an Ambuscade against the cavalry, guessing that she placed the bloodtrackers far enough forward to be within range of her Prey. Even without the extra movement from being near Prey the extra 3" from the Ambuscade put the cavalry within reach of all but two of the Bloodtrackers' javelins. The first to throw her javelin proved the dealiest. She threw the javelin through the leader's face, killing him instantly. The other women killed a second Venger and left the third with only 2 damage boxes left. Kaya and the beasts advanced cautiously forward.

I made my Devout charge the leader of the Bloodtrackers, but even with a boosted attack roll, he failed to hit her. The Reckoner charged into the line of Bloodtrackers, missing both his assault shot and his attack with his mace despite the Bloodtrackers receiving -2 DEF from the incense within. Feora cast Engine of Destruction and charge the leader herself. She managed to wipe out the leader with her twin wrist blades, Truth and Consequence. The Flameguard moved around the hill into Shield Wall, and Vilmon left them to charge the Bloodtrackers himself. A low roll left Vilmon with 1 Flying Steel attack, but he used it to cleave another Bloodtracker in half. The final Venger attacked alongside the Reckoner, resulting in a third and final casualty for the Tharn women.

Tanya's turn saw the Bloodtrackers finish off their cavalry Prey, naming Feora as their new Prey. They were unable to touch Feora in combat, however. The beasts strafed across the field towards the large forest in the deployment zone. Kaya used Spirit door to teleport herself between her farthest Argus, Howly, and Furry, one of her Warpwolves. This gave her a clear line of sight to Vilmon's back, and she hit him with her Spirit Fang spell.

The Devout continued to be better at defense than offense, but Feora dispatched three of the four Bloodtrackers surrounding her. Vilmon moved a bit closer to Feora, but a low roll once again left him able to attack only one more Bloodtracker. The Reckoner shot Furry with a boosted cannon shot, but her +2 armor kept her damage down to 8. The Flameguard charged the other Warpwolf, hittimg him with a combined melee attack which set him on Fire and resulted in 11 damage, which allowed him to keep his aspects functioning.

Tanya charged Vilmon with Howly. The Combo-Bite left Vilmon at half strength when Furry charged him next, easily killing him. Kaya used spirit door to Howly to put herself within Reach distance of Feora. A pair of boosted attack and damage rolls left Feora with only 6 health boxes left, so Kaya popped her feat and used her newly leached Fury to crush the Priestess of the Flame's skull with Splinter.

Looking at it now, I should have popped Feora's feat when I first charged the Bloodtrackers. I wouldn't have had to spend the extra turns fighting them with Fire helping to kill them. So far, Tanya has clubbed me like a baby seal every time I have played against her Circle. I was very pleased with the way my list performed last night. I will definitely play it again very soon. I still fear the Bloodtrackers. They are one of the most dangerous units I have ever had to play against in Warmachine/Hordes.

[Demi_morgana]

what can I say? it's great to know Your menoth is not unbeatable
congrats Tanya!

[Angel_of_Menoth]

Oh, they get beaten quite regularly. But they always make you work for it. Bloodtrackers are just so unbelievably good.

[Skrit]

Nice one Tanya. Handy if both in a relationship play wargames and paint!^^

[Angel_of_Menoth]

She motivates me to paint better. Then she uses the most savage unit of women I have played against in any game to make me cry as I lost that entire unit of cavalry in pretty much one turn.

[Skrit]

Rofl!

[Angel_of_Menoth]

My list has been avenged. I played it again last night (with the choir included) against Seige and picked his force apart. It could have been a closer game, but I would have defeated him anyway. I am starting to like the Vengers.

[LadyEyes]

It's a guessing game for me... if I miss my distance guess with the Bloodtrackers, they get slaughtered pretty easily. And I won't take them against certain things. I'm going to have to get Ravagers before I can take any of the Khador players around here.

[Angel_of_Menoth]

I played Tanya's Circle army against last night. I brought Kreoss, a Devout, a Castigator, and a nice army of troops (TFG + UA, Exemplars, Senechal, Zealots + MB). Tanya brought Kaya, a pair of Warpwolves, an Argus, minimum units of both kinds of Tharn (Ravagers and Bloodtrackers), and the Lord of the Feast. The table had a bunch of rough terrain on it. I thought it was going to put me at a disadvantage because everything except for her beasts had Pathfinder, but Kaya and her pack ended up engaging my in the middle of a large patch of rough terrain, making it into a numbers game.

Tanya was plagued by poor dice rolls throughout the game, and we ended up stopping before I actually won because it had become pretty much impossible for Tanya to beat me. The Lord of the Feast should have been much more of a bad-ass, but he suffered from weak rolls (and fighting against Fearless knights). He's going to be a really fun model for her to get painted up, so I'm looking forward to his triumphant return.

My dice weren't amazing (and I missed a fair number of attack rolls), but they faired a bit better than Tanya's. Combined Melee Attack helped that a bunch, as did Weapon Master. The Devout's Defensive Strike is a seriously ridiculous ability. It triggers as soon as you end the movement portion of your activation within his melee range (and he's got Reach!), so even when you're already engaged with him, he gets to hit you during your turn with +2 to the attack roll and boosted damage (same as free strike). I didn't need to protect Kreoss from ranged attacks of spells, but the Devout shines there as well. At 69 points, ee's definitely going to find his way into all of my lists. This was my first time playing with Kreoss in a long time. I was getting disappointed with him, but now he's actually pretty fun to play with since I changed my play-style.

Tanya put forth a solid effort, but in the end, her streak of clubbing my skull was unable to be maintained. She took a unit for a test drive, saw where she could have improved, and we both agreed never to play on that pre-formed table again. I'm really enjoying get to play against her on Monday nights. I think Kreoss will be showing up again next week. Maybe he'll fight a proxied Krueger.

[Demi_morgana]

hey, that's no fair! Jeremy won!