The Might of Menoth

Sam came round for a game of Warmachine to christen my completed terrain boards. It was to be a mighty clash of arms, with two grizzled veterans slugging it out. Kreoss brought to battle plenty of Exemplars and Flameguard, and put the Avatar of Menoth in the vanguard. Irusk concentrated on fielding his prettier units (i.e. painted), namely Widowmakers, Manhunter and Doomreavers and then a few fun units to fill things out, the Behemoth and Drakhun.

Below I'll fill in the details about each turn, and I've taken photos from each side of the board, which is how we mostly see the game, afterall.

Turn One:

Khador had the advantage for the first turn, and went first. the Doomreavers were uncharacterisitcally cautious, setting themselves up for a charge next turn. The Drakhun set himself up to charge next turn also. On the left, the Iron Fangs established their line with the (Superiority-d) Behemoth on their right. The Behemoth and Mortar units lobbed some shells at the Wrack in the wood on the left and scored a lucky hit to blow it up.

The Menites moved their Flameguard up to face up to the Iron Fangs, with Kreoss, Paladins and some Exemplars in support. On the left the Avatar and Exemplar Errants got ready for the arrival of the Doomreavers.

Khadoran view:

Menite view:

Turn Two:

Not much happened on the Khadoran left, mainly jockeying for position, although Kell earned a portion of his pay back, taking down some heavily buffed Flameguard. Things were far more intense on the right flank though. The Drakhun charged the Avatar, and missed by a mile, leaving himself open to the Avatar's counter punch, which was to prove fatal, both for his mounted and unmounted incarnations.

This is going to hurt!

The Doomreavers struck home though, demolishing most of the Exemplar Errants unit and putting a fair bit of hurt onto the Avatar, which very obligingly soaked up a lot of the 'reavers Berserk-ed-ness. Unfortunately, Sam had a spell on the Exemplar Errants that meant that the models who killed them would have to forfeit their action next turn. This was to be a recurring theme in the game.

Khadoran view:

Menite view:

Turn Three:

Lots happened here. The Iron Fangs charged the Flameguard, and I forgot to trigger Irusk's feat. As a result, the heavily buffed Flameguard inflicted some really heavy damage on the pikemen, who hade failed their defensive move of falling back into Shield Wall after combat - I hadn;t moved the Standard bearer quite far enough forward, meaning that some of the pikemen had to fall out of melee range of the Flameguard to form the wall - not surprisingly they were taken out, meaning the Shield Wall never formed. They did take out a chunk of the Exemplars though (along with Kell).

Flameguard are staunch!

On the right, the remaining Doomreavers finished off the Exemplar Errants before being trampled by an angry Avatar.

Khadoran view:

Menite view:

Turn Four:

This was to be the decider. The Behemoth had to pick his targets, and was thinking of trampling the Flameguard, but chose the Avatar instead, easily trashing it. The Greylords advanced on the annoying Paladins, and wiped them out.

Khadoran view:

Menite view:

Unfortunately, I'd left the Flameguard an open charge lane on Irusk. This, along with Kreoss charging the Behemoth and firing off a nasty spell at Irusk, finished the game. It was an all or nothing play by Sam, but it paid off handsomely.

Victory!

Conclusion:

Flameguard are tough, and I need a better strategy to take them out. At the moment it's Snipers, which I need to pursue a bit more ruthlessly. Irusk's feat on the Pikemen would have helped, perhaps it would have been enough.

It was fitting that the Flameguard won the game though, they really are tough when used well.

A land worth fighting over...

Happy New Year!

Over the Christmas and New Year's break, I've been working on finishing my second set of two terrain boards. Working on more than two at once is awkward - there's not quite enough room to comfortably work on more than that.

Yesterday I had them finished, just in time for a game with my friend Sam. It's amazing, but the game really was more fun with a complete set of terrain. Here's a few tips I picked up / discovered this time round:

• If you use a wash at any stage (my first layer of colour, for example) give it plenty of time to dry (several days at least). The wash is great for getting into all those nooks and crannies, but the large amount of water sitting there also soaks into the previous layers, and if you try to put on the next layer before the wash is dry, you can end up lifting up chunks of sand / kitty litter that have come loose.
• Use a larger range of flocks, and mix them up rather than keep them all separate. This leads to a more natural finish, and just looks better. I'm not suggesting throwing all your flock into a big bucket, but when applying it, don't think you need to completely cover any area with just one flock. Sprinkle the flock on, leaving a few gaps, then go back with other colour(s) to fill in the gaps.
• Choose a base colour for your flock. Once you've put down all the different typs of flock, use your base colour of flock to fill in any remaining "whitespace". I use Woodland Scenics blended turf for this.

Here's some photos of the completed boards, with and without added terrain.

And just a little Photoshop trickery: