Warmachine Journeyman League week 5

This weeks restrictions: 35 points - Caster Swap Allowed - Game length 90 mins. 2 games to be  played.

This Sunday after a week of procrastination on the issue I started painting my Cryx starter box. With about 20 minutes to spare before I had to leave I had managed to finish it. Deneghra, Slayer, 3 death chickens all painted and based. I’ll probably put some finishing touches on them later though, like verdigris and the green glow of Cryx. So I’ve now got 13 hobby points putting me way out in first place for painting stuff……. Except for the fact that Ian Wardle has gone mental and obviously has far too much time on his hands, he’s somehow managed to paint up 30 points worth of trollbloods!!!!!1! Nerd rage ensued when I found this out checking the scores when I got home :( I would have to buy loads of cryx to equal this insane amount of painting and its not worth of for a sew on badge.

My army for the day, starter box, Deathjack, banethralls and mechanithralls

 

Before I start with the 2 games I played that night I should point out that Carl also pulled out some stops and had bought, assembled and almost finished painting the Cryx Colossal, the Kraken. Fortunately for me I didn’t have to play him that night and don’t have to play him in the final week either. Phew.

Game 1

My first game was against Adam Eaton’s Menoth. I was a bit nervous about this game as Adam was effectively undefeated up until this point. He had lost 2 games but this was down to him not being there that night. I had been defeated twice, so simple mathhammer told me I should loose this as Adam is a good player and I know he’s got loads of experience playing the game.

I was the home player so I got to go first.

 I moved my guys up cautiously. I managed to get my Mechanithralls and Deathjack within charge range of the roght flank. I expected to take some flak but thought I’d still have some thralls left and deathjack a bit damaged but I’d be able to put him in combat with squishy guys and heal the damage. I thought wrong. Adam killed all the mechanithralls in one go. I did manage to get deathy into combat and killed 1 man :( Adam then charged in his heavy jack into Deathjack after his choir and caster managed to increase the jacks hit and damage rolls by 3. Deathjack died to that one charge from a super buffed but otherwise normal heavy jack :( I was not a happy bunny.

His caster heroically hiding behind a wall of metal

My Banethralls went up the other flank and managed to get into combat with his other heavy jack. 3 Banes charged in and a 4^th just ran in to surround it and stop it doing the weird running away thing that Adam had planned. 3 charging Banes with 4d6 damage didn’t do anything to it at all.

I managed to get my acid belching death chicken into range of his caster and shot it, I killed one of the choir, did some damage to his caster and got corrosion on the caster and the big dude in front of him. The phase two of my evil plan, Deneghra cast venom 3 times through the death chicken. Yay for arc nodes! Didn't kill him though. He had 6 health afterwards.

Adam then popped his feat which stopped me from doing any focus generating for a turn. Bummer. Deneghra cast her feat and ran away from the enemy.

We didn't get much more done than that. We ran out of time. A draw by default is better than a loss. It was the first game Adam hasn't won in the league. Woo, I didn't die :D

Game 2 

David Copperwheat's Skorne again. This table had a nice pond and wall to hinder movement unless you have ghost walk, which Deneghra conveniently does. David was the home player and had first turn.

I deployed with my main bulk in the middle, my mechthralls on the right and my banethralls on the left. David had deployed his shooty stuff on my left so I put the banethralls there to take advantage of their stealth and negate his shooting a little.


On my turn I ran everything except the banes up the right hand side to hide behind the wall. 

David couldn't do much with all my stuff behind the wall. I managed to get the charge and sent in my Mechanithralls and Deathjack into his big infantry line, smooshing them in the process. 

Both sides ended up bundling into this combat. My acid spray chicken dealt dealth along a long line of infantry all bunched up, catching one of my other chickens but not damaging it.  

David then made a fatal error. He'd kept his caster too close to me and I popped my feat, catching all the skorne. I lowered almost all of their stats by 2. He'd also moved the big beast in front of his caster away from it into combat with my Mechanithralls. David popped his feat which stopped me from allocating any focus. I then finished the game by getting Deathjack and a chicken into combat with his unprotected caster. My jacks had no focus but Deathy deals and absolute ton of damage anyway and managed to pulverise him. Game won. There was only 3 minutes left on the clock, too close for comfort.

Deathjack perfoms the coup de grace.

 
By the end of the night I had won 1 game and drew 1. This put me in 2nd place for overall points and joint 1st for game points. Ian's insane painting spree means he's pretty much guaranteed to win overall unless someone else decides to go nuts. It won't be me that's for sure.

The league score's at the end of this week are:

 

		GP	HP	JP
1	Ian Wardle	20	30	50
2	Michael Towers	24	13	37
3	Barrie Wardle	22	7	29
4	Carl Shaman	24	0	24
5	Adam Eaton	22	0	22
6	Dave Bartley	19	0	19
7	David Copperwheat	14	5	19
8	Martin Copperwheat	15	0	15

Game Points: W3/D2/L1
Hobby Points: Newly Painted Models
Journeyman Points: GP + HP
 
 1 More game to play next week against Martin Copperwheat, will he avenge his father? I know he's using Khador so I'll plan accordingly.