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Well, played another game and beat Vlad. 500 points this time.

My army:
Darius w/ a Centurian and Defender
Journeyman w/ Hunter
Eiryss

frightnight's army:
Vlad w/ 2x Berzerkers and a Kodiak
6x Widowmakers
6x Iron Fang Pikemen
whatever that solo is - the guy with the two axes.

It was a pretty good game - we bumped up to 500 points. Frightnight was playing his iron fangs and widowmakers and berzerkers for only the second time (the first time was about an hour earlier). I was playing with everything but Darius and the Centurian for the first time. The game was mostly characterized by mistakes - I managed to win for a few reasons.

1) Got a big terrain advantage - managed to hide Darius somewhere he couldn't be easily charged.
2) The Centurian, once Fortified, was nigh unkillable. The Kodiak could literally do no damage to it. Eventually Vlad took it down though - but it took an enormous beating.
3) frightnight made the mistake of running his Iron Fangs into steam cannon range. A single shot took out five of them.

At the end of the game he had a Berzerker going after Darius while Vlad and the Kodiak went after the Centurian and another Berzerker took care of the Defender. The 'zerk going after the Defender was allocated a focus and detonated, an explosion that put more damage on Vlad and the Kodiak than on my jacks (no damage to the Centurian, and minimal damage to the Defender). Darius easily beat up on the hapless Berzerker attacking him - using the Tremor ability to knock it down and then smacking it again with a Dead Lift, sending it flying into some terrain - the resultant collateral damage, combined with a shot from the Hunter, disabled the 'jack. The Centurian was eventually trashed by Vlad (keerist that brittle frost spell is brutal), but not before it thoroughly pistoned the Kodiak into disabled.

So the game left frightnight lamenting the effectiveness of fortify on a Centurian (+2 armor to an already highly armored 'jack, can't be knocked down at all). I had it maintained literally the entire game. I wasn't terribly sympathetic given that Vlad has spells that literally take away most of my advantages (shooting). The Defender fired all of one shot against enemy Jacks this game - mostly it was relegated to popping widowmakers.

Is there anything to stop me from layering both Fortify and Arcane Shield on a Centurian? 27 armor seems hideously sick.

The solo is the manhunter.

Could he have just used the widowmakers to plink away at the centurion for
single damage boxes until the shield and spear were gone?

Oh wait, I forgot about those halfjacks. Ew.

6 Widowmakers vs. Darius focus. It would be a war of attrition, but you'd
get headway eventually.

Not sure what else you would do.

If it was just the Cent, sure he could plink it to death. But it wasn't just the Cent - the Defender and Hunter were both sputching Widowmakers. recall that even the Widowmakers are outranged by a Defender.

He actually used the Widowmakers to sputch Halfjacks, which is a pretty good use for 'em - you only need one damage and if you can pop all three of Darius's halfjacks in a single turn you can make some headway. Especially if you are about to put me in a position where I want to pop Darius's feat (e.g. destroy / badly damage multiple warjacks)

And to be clear - I think frightnight outplayed me. Yes Darius + Centurian is a scary combo - possibly the best combo for Darius - but if terrain wasn't so very ideal he'd easily outflank me and Vlad would kill fatty. Likewise if he had kept the Iron Fang Pikemen in Shield Wall instead of throwing them forward (thus making them very vulnerable to the Steam Cannon) he could have brought them to bear. Also sending a lone 'zerk against Darius was a bad idea - with their low defense I could just tremor and smash them. If he had both 'zerks gang up on a brittle frosted Centurian he'd have knocked it down much faster and left me in a pretty bad situation.

Also losing his Manhunter hurt. It was actually pretty awesome - I advance deployed Eiryss on one side of blocking terrain (can't remember what the Warmachine term for it is). He deployed the Manhunter on the other. I phantom bolted the Manhunter and rolled insanely high damage. frightnight and Wolf insist that Phantom Bolt just goes through the terrain, but I like the image of Eiryss just casually firing a shot up into the air and having it arc down onto the Manhunter's head.

In my 500 pt Darius list I only run one jack, the Cent.  The rest of my army is infantry support, sword knights, long gunners, Jr, Piper, Stormsmiths, and Gun Mage Adept.  I love the combo of Jr, Piper, and Sword Knights.  A fortified Centurion is pretty much unstoppable.   The turn you plan to get it into combat you drop Fortify and put Jack hammer on it.  With the Piston Spear and Jack Hammer, I destroyed a Death Jack in one turn, and still had two focus left over.  Don't forget Full Throttle allows you to charge +2" without spending the focus to charge, AND your attack rolls are boosted with that spell.  Not to mention Jack Hammer gives you another attck with whatever weapon you hit with.  If you're lucky enough to get a Crit (especially against Vlad), he won't live.  You get 2 hits per focus spent at P+S 18.........    

Another thing to do is take a risk.  In order to use all the spells to be "Sick" Vlad needs to use a lot of focus.  Darius with all his focus and full life is Armor 24 with 22 life/ health.  Vlad would be hard pressed to break through all that with limited focus.  You set up to lil uns about 2.5" in the front arc of fat boy.  If Vlad comes through, and doesn't kill Fat Man, blow both mines.  Two Pow 14 shots when he has no focus for extra armor can cause some harm.  Then you only have to hit with one hammer shot to kill him.  But it is a risk. 

Well, as one of Jeff's partners in crime, I'm going to co-opt his thread to elucidate about mine and our friend Wolf's adventures in our first Steamroller tourney this last weekend.

Man, am I irritated.

I took only one list, which was this:
Vlad w/Juggernaut, Kodiak
Iron Fangs w/leader attach
Widowmakers
Eiryss
Manhunter

Wolf took a Gorten list with the Highshields, 3 gunners, a driller, Herne/Jonne and a Bokur.

I ended up going 2-1, and he went 1-2.

First game, Hold the Center, was quick and easy. I played against a Cygnar list running Caine w/Defender, 2x Hunters and some others, but he left himself wide open for a warjack charge from my Kodiak, and one giant fist later, Caine went splat. Later when Wolf played him, the same result happened, this time from a boosted gunner.

Game two is the one that irritates me. Firstly, it was against a young guy I hate to play; he's sloppy (measures for one guy in the unit, then moves all of them), doesn't know the rules (ran with his Iron Fangs out of tight formation, then got really snotty about it when I called him on it as "everyone does it", and delayed the game a good five minutes trying to find rules that said he could and saying that it was a pile of crap that he couldn't) and, while I never got the chance to check it, I think he may move his models front edge to center.

He was also running a Khador list, this one was Irusk w/Destroyer, 2x mortars, full Steelheads and full Iron fangs, Manhunter. The mission was to take 3 objective markers, evenly spaced. He spread out in deploy, so I deferred my flank to him and rushed up the right side. He peppered me with ineffective mortar fire while pushing his Fangs up one side (effectively taking them out of the fight, as they never saw any action being out on the far side like that) and the halberdiers took the middle. After a turn or so, I got his hunter, and charged my Kodiak into the big ruined castle piece in the middle and vented steam to kill a few steelheads, and my Jugg to kill a few more.

Here's where I screwed up. Last turn I killed a couple more steelheads, while the Jugg turned to deal with the Destroyer which charged it in his turn. Eiryss shot a Phantom bolt into the steelhead on the objective, while the Manhunter tried a last ditch charge at a mortar team for craps and giggles. I held one objective, he had moved his fangs off the other (I figured in a vain attempt to kill Vlad as he had forgotten that this was the last turn) and none of his units were on the other. I win, right?

Wrong. As this was our first tourney, and the organizer (a nice but flighty guy) didn't bother to fully explain the rules to us, the objectives are like a flag-flip, so whoever touched them last controls them until the other player tags them. So he won. had I known this, I would've Boundless Charged the manhunter right on top of it, as Eiryss and the Kodiak had cleared everyone out around it. As it was, this punk went on to win the tourney.

3rd round was straight up kill the caster, and I played my first game against Cryx. He had a Skarre w/Leviathan, Harpoony Helljack, Atramentous, Pistol Wraith, Satyxis, Skarlock list. I'd never felt the combos of a Cryx list before, and fortunately, this wasn't the greatest list to feel them from. Still, I now know and fear the Satyxis/Feedback combo on Vlad, Skarre's ability to just hurt anyone in her control radius, and the amazing speed of the Cryx in general.

However, I got Eiryss and her manhunter buddy in good position and Disruptor'd Skarre for 3 turns, and he unwisely in deployment sent the Pistol Wraith and Atramentous crew out to deal with my Widows on the far side. They went down to the Widows, and Skarre was dealt with on a hideous charge by Vlad, who mimicked her Great Rack (bring your jokes now, mine is that he spent some time after the battle alone, continuing to mimick them; he was late for the next battle). Great Rack only takes a hit to knockdown. Holy crap was that an eyeopener!

We talked about his list as he was the most fun guy to play, and agreed that he should pull one of his Helljacks in favor of bolstering his Atraments, and getting a Bonejack or two. Possibly look into Bane Thralls to boost Skarre's Sacrificial Strike power. Also, he had a sweet conversion for Skarre, based on the Alexia model with some weapon swaps, and the giant horns from the IK range Satyxis. She looked like a kick-ass Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, as he gave his Satyx a purplish skin color.

Wolf almost ended up beating the Khador guy as he had Karchev down to 2 boxes (and in retrospect could've done it as he realized his Ogrun may have had reach on him) but lost 1-0 in VPs in a really close matchup.

So, due to one costly misunderstanding, I ended up losing the tourney, and walked away with nothing. And, as everyone else was playing different factions and it was only a 6 player tourney, I was the only one to walk away empty handed. Next time, I am going to DESTROY all those in my way, or at least if I lose, it won't be on a stupid technicality.

frightnight: pretty much right there is why I'm dubious about playing at OROBONOS. Steve's had a history of dubious judgements when it comes to his tournaments - recall the whole "This table is cityfight, that table is jungle fight" in the last 40k tournament we played there? Or him refusing to make a decision on whether your opponent should get in his last turn when the time limit of your final game ran out?

Played two games this weekend.

My list:
Darius
2x Centurian
Ironclad
Lancer

The first was against Wolf's Gorten list.
Gorten
8x High Shields
3x Gunner
1x Driller
Herne & Johnne
Ogre Bokur

We played the scenario where you deploy in up to three locations and have to hunt down the Warcaster. I deployed my battlegroup in one area, he deployed Gorten's battlegroup in front of me while the High Shields & Herne and Johnne went to my flank. Initially I went for Gorten, then detoured and went for the HIgh Shields after Gorten and his buddies hid behind cover and cut off my charges. This cost me a Lancer as I left it around to try to arc some spells and discovered that a Bokur can easily take a light warjack. What I really should have done is just run my jacks down his throat - when I finally did engage the two Centurians made short work of his warjacks and had Gorten cold. Wolf conceded the game before I could kill Gorten as I hadn't yet popped my feat and he was down to basically Gorten, the Driller, and Bokur.

My second game was against frightnight, and I got to meet Karchev. His list:
Karchev
2x Berzerker
6 Iron Fang Pikemen w/ unit attachment
4 Widowmakers
Manhunter
Eiryss

Game was King of the Hill. I knew I had to drag Karchev down quickly - I had nothing that could handle Eiryss and once she got into range Darius was never going to have another focus ever again. Turn one he got Karchev on the hill, turn two I got an Ironclad in Karchev's face. Quake knocked him over, and then he got chewed on by a Jackhammered Centurian.

Which did nothing of note. Not a single system disabled. Part of it was my awful damage roles - I managed to pull off fives and sixes which isn't going to do much against Karchev. The next turn his Zerks annihilated my Ironclad and chewed my Centurian up pretty badly. I had to pop Darius's feat to keep them alive, but then Eiryss got into range and I conceded - Karchev and his Berzerkers would tear down my warjacks again.

I made a lot of mistakes that game though, mostly with movement. I am not yet used to having to plan out my moves, so I run into situations where I have a warjack blocking where I want Darius to go, or I have a halfjack in the way or something. It's doubly annoying because for the most part I want Darius to go first to pop Full Throttle but he's surrounded and can't move. I also advanced out of Control range on Darius, which was stupid.

I do think this would have been a winnable game - instead of going straight for Karchev I should have focused on pulling down the two Berzerkers. Use an Ironclad to knock them down, have my two Centurians annihilate them in a single turn - the Zerk is a soft jack; it's not likely to survive 3-4 hits from a Piston Spear. Leaving the Berzerkers alive meant that Karchev was benefiting from that spell that ups his defense when he's in base to base with other jacks.

April 22 a local store is having a free play tournament, the first three prizes are Hordes stuff. It's 350 point Mangled Metal; I figure I'm going to bring the Turbo Light list (Darius 2x Centurians) and see how I do.

Played two games Saturday.

First was against a Khador list that looked something like this:
- Butcher
- Juggernaut
- Marauder
- 6x Man o' Wars
- 8x Iron Fang w/ unit attachment

My list was:
Darius
2x Centurian
Lancer
Ironclad

I've learned a bit more about playing Darius - for one, I use halfjacks more aggressively. Darius can place a halfjack within 3" (which effectively means almost 3" away) and Full Throttled the little buggers can move 8" and still System Lock.

There was a large terrain piece in the middle of the table; he set up in a long line - seemed like he planned to come around the terrain from both sides. So I just mined one side of it with halfjacks in the first turn, forcing him into a traffic jam. I sent one Centurian out on a hail mary to kill the Juggernaut and while I ripped it apart, I was just shy of disabling it. The Centurian ate it next turn, but nbd - they always come back.

I set up in a nice position, between the big terrain piece and the building with the Fortified Centurian and let him come to me. He did - throwing first the Iron Fangs, then the Man O' Wars, and the Marauder against the Centurian and his Lancer buddy. This is a suicidal game to play against my list - I am perfectly happy to grind through an entire army with a lone Centurian. He didn't use the combined melee attack of the Shock Troopers until it was too late; I'd killed enough that it was ineffective. Eventually he commited the Butcher to the fight, putting a bit of hurt on the Centurian. A few focus later and the Centurian killed the butcher.

Game 2 was practice for the tournament; 350 points of my usual list against frightnight's usual. I'd realized earlier that I"d been playing Full Throttle wrong - I thought it was +1 melee attack; it's actually +1 die to all melee attacks. Which means a Full Throttled attack can hit with 4 dice, which suddenly means Vlad is very hittable. i wanted to beat frightnight's list to get over the hump and get some confidence going into the tourney.

Well, I won. As usual we ran toward one another and had a big ole schmozz in the middle of the board. The Centurians beat up on his Jacks and took some hits in turn while Vlad chased Darius. The idea was to kill his Jacks before Vlad killed Darius; and in a pinch if Vlad did get to Darius (and D survived) I drop all upkeep spells, Full Throttle, and throw all the focus on Darius in hopes of killing Vlad.

Well, I didn't have to - I trashed his Jacks. I had a charge lined up with a Centurian that never happened, but I wanted to see if it would have worked - so we played that out. Two attacks later (one which hit for a whopping 36 damage) Vlad was dead.

To be fair frightnight was the victim of some atrocious rolls. His Kodiak lost an arm early, and I was using halfjacks to keep the Juggernaut's axe at bay with System Lock while the Centurians pounded it - twice he tried to counter by using the Jugg's free arm to armlock my spear and both times he failed the attack roll, needing only sixes to hit. Likewise Vlad hit Darius with not one but two Razor Winds- the first one missed entirely, the second one failed to do any damage despite being boosted. On the other hand his juggernaut lasted way longer than it should have, owing to a critical freeze on the Centurian - if he doesn't freeze the cent that turn then he dies and my jacks pulverize his Kodiak.

All in all it was a good game. Vlad is still a damned troubling game for me because there's simply no way for me to keep him off Darius. I ahve to stall as long as I can while I rip his jacks apart.

Each time James (the other Khador player) has played with us, he uses Butcher, and he seems to try to keep him out of the fight to be a general. I don't know why he does this, Butcher is tailor made to not cast spells, keep focus for armor and a couple of attacks, and just rip through your army essentially singlehanded.

I think one of my next purchases will be the Butch to try him out, seems like he's a very maligned caster and I really want to see what's what with him.

Also of note, I only needed a 6 or 7 to hit Darius with the spells I whiffed with as well. My dice just SUCKED.