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Greetings, my friend introduced me to Warmachine in order to get off the World of Warcraft crack.  What can I say but I fell in love with Warmachine.  I currently started my army as Cygnar and thanks to my friend he gave me the Cygnar battlegroup set that includes Stryker and his warjacks.  The first time I played I got hooked and now I have expanded my army to include Defender, Long Gunners and of course Trenchers. 

This is my problem and as I have stated I'm still learning this game.  My friend plays Cryx. and is currently kicking my butt.  I don't mind but this last battle we had lasted only 15 minutes.  This is my question.  My trenchers toss up their smoke and I also bought Epic Haley and have her cast her +3 DEF on my group to make it a bit more difficult for those ungodly Bonejacks of his.

Well I know that they are an Arcnode but if the bonechicken (just a simple name that he came up with) enters the smoke doesn't she lose line of sight? And if that is the case will/won't be able to cast that ungodly spell?

We searched the Prime Remix because this was the first time he encountered this situation.  With the chicken passing the smoke it was in range of my long gunners to attack.  But since he said it was an arc node he did the Skarre bomb which killed poor Haley in the matter of seconds.  Yes the game could have went on but with Haley gone my jacks became empty shells.

Couple of things:

1) You cannot see through smoke without a special rule that says so. Units can see into and out of smoke, and units in smoke gain concealment. So, if you or your target are inside a smoke template, they are targetable.

2) Skarre's Sacrificial Strike is not a spell. It cannot be arc noded. It cannot be stopped by Haley's Vortex Spear. There is no way to increase the range past 12" on it, so stay 20" away from Skarre with your warcaster at all times (unless you have a very powerfully armored warcaster, like Darius)

Posted By Keldrin on 07/18/2007 5:39 PM
Couple of things:

1) You cannot see through smoke without a special rule that says so. Units can see into and out of smoke, and units in smoke gain concealment. So, if you or your target are inside a smoke template, they are targetable.

2) Skarre's Sacrificial Strike is not a spell. It cannot be arc noded. It cannot be stopped by Haley's Vortex Spear. There is no way to increase the range past 12" on it, so stay 20" away from Skarre with your warcaster at all times (unless you have a very powerfully armored warcaster, like Darius)

1) hmmm this is good info.  Like I said I just started playing a couple of weeks ago and still learning.  I will have to read the book again regarding Concelment and cover. 

2.) The Skarre bomb spell cannot be arc nodded.  I think it was the Fly's Kiss that he did.  He said it was a spell that means instant death to units.  Very nasty one he did the Sacrifical Lamb and after round two had 12 focus stones.   GAH!!!

But like I stated this is a great game and looking for this weekend's bout. 

Thanks for the assist Keldrin. 

More annoying than sac strike is skarre churning out the focus factory that lets her
totally abuse those arc nodes and prevent retaliations in the event that a feated sac
strike fails to assassinate you.

If it gets really frustrating, see if you can switch armies so you can try your hand at it.

Go to the Privateer Press website and go to their tactics forums. There should be plenty of people there that should be able to help you defeat cryx.

Tell your friend to take it easy on the new guy. Skarre is one of the best casters for assassinating the other caster in the game - arguably the best. The Skarre bomb is a tactic that gives experienced players problems.

My suggestion is to play 350 pt Mangled Metal games - casters and jacks only. And go buy a Centurion and a Hunter. Field Haley or Stryker with the Centurion, Lancer, and Hunter (actually, just about any caster will do). Play about 3-5 games with just that, and learn how to manage your Focus, that's the most important part of the game.

Then expand to 500 pts and add units and solos back into the game. Also, I think Cygnar plays better at 750 points. So many of our units are expensive, you're going to be outnumbered. But, I'd rather be outnumbers 3-2 than 2-1. Also, at 750 pts, the other army may have enough stuff on the board, they start getting in their own way.

If your opponent is using Arc nodes, try using Storm Smiths and Stryker to disrupt the Bonejacks. That way he can't arc node. 
Also consider using Eiyrss the Mage Hunter (from prime),  she is awesomely powerful in this type of battle. She can disrupt the bonejacks, and she can even disrupt the enemy caster. If you add Reinholdt the Goblin to the mix, you can fire Strikers pistol twice a round or roll an extra dice to hit, when you really have to shut down a target.

A lot of tournament players will not use the storm smith or Reinholdt because they give up easy victory points, but if you and your buddy are basically playing assassination, they are fine.

Thanks everyone for your input.  I'm glad to say that I went to the forums and learned much.   Currently we are staying with a 500pt army until I learn more about focus managing and also we manage to get another player into our little battlegroup.  He started with  Menoth. 

NinjaRay, I took your advice and picked up Stormsmiths because Cryx seem to use a lot of those pesky arc nodes.
I also ordered Nemo and of course to try  him out Alistar Caine to widen the variety of my army. 

I'm proud to say that last week it was a bloody battle, we played a campaign of capturing a token and returning to it to base.  Of course the dice were not working for me that night and my threats of tossing them in the nuke machine was unheard.  But I did a lot of damage to his army by using Haley's Chained lighting I manage to keep my dice between 4-6 additional targets. 

I love this game.  I'm looking forward to painting and picking up my next shipment of troops.  

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