Battle Report!!! Reznik vs. Kaelyssa in 35 Pts of MkII Love

I want to start off this article with a few disclaimers.  This is not to minimize anything else you are about to read…but I think a few words need to be said.

1. Playing with a new faction is HARD.  Half the fun of Warmachine / Hordes is finding those completely insane combinations of forces that can drive literally any faction to above the curve performance.
2. Playing a new faction using COMPLETELY NEW RULES is freaking near impossible.  My opponent, TheGreatBlah, is a dyed in the wool Troll player.  He used to have a small Pirate force, but it was one of those “Bart / two Mariners and a Mule” lists that involves standing in place and hoping for crits.  If you are not used to the focus allocation mechanic…it becomes very very easy to leave your jacks swinging in the breeze.
3. TheGreatBlah is a great player and our press ganger.  He is also a heck of a good guy.  More times than not he beats me into the dirt, but our games are always fun and most times close.

That being said…

I freaking violated those elves  :-)

This is where Reznik took Kaelyssa for her whuppin...right behind there...

Here was my list…Reznik’s Roughnecks

High Executioner Reznik

Hierophant

Sunburst Deliverer Crew (x2)

Bastions (5 member)

Choir (6 member)

Avatar of Menoth

Fire of Salvation

Visgoth Rhovan and His Boys

He brought….

Kaelyssa, Night’s Whisper

Griffon (x4)

Chimera

Manticore

Mage Hunter Strike Force (full unit)

Narn

Eiyanna and Holt

Eiyrss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Damn it...I am all out of focus...AGAIN?!?!?!

I know for certain that this is a suboptimized list.  The Mage Hunters are not yet released and were being proxied.  The use of so many myrmadons was probably not his first choice, but he wanted to fill out to a 35 point level.  Kaelyssa is a 7 focus caster, but given the focus hungry nature of most myrmadons, running 5 lights and a heavy is a lot to ask unless the heavy is a Hydra…and he wasn’t.

My list was based upon the reworked spell list of MkII Reznik.  MkI Rez had some very major flaws.  I have detailed them in other posts, but  the fact that all his spells were battle group spells.  This really held him back from being effective with any kind of infantry and forget about bringing the Avatar and the FoS (dispel ruined his day).

My list takes advantage of three major aspects.

(1) Iron Aggression – Boosted melee attack rolls for free – plus charge, run, slam, and trample for free.  This is PERFECT for the Avatar.  The Avatar already had a good MAT but with a Choir and this spell, he is 10+3d6 to hit.  He is going to hit anything he wants and then follow it up with P+S19 that starts things within an inch of what just died.

(2)  Ignite – This is PERFECT for Bastions.  Bastions are MAT 7, good, but not spectacular.  Ignite gives +2 to MAT and DMG rolls.  That makes the Bastions MAT 9, with a potential P+S21.  On the charge they are delivering 21+4d6…with Reach.

(3) The Fire of Salvation’s imprint.  You spend 1 focus to get all your attack and damage rolls boosted.  He isn’t going to miss, and what you just hit is on fire if it is not dead.  3d6+20 with the Choir.

The game opened with Retribution coming forward quickly.  The Griffons are sick fast.  Narn and Eiryss moved way forward running after their advanced deployed.  I think that my opponent was expecting their stealth to do more to me.  4″ AOE’s don’t care about stealth.  One shot from my left Sunburst and Eiyrss was no more.  I shot my second Sunburst at some Mage Hunters…drifted into one…but it didn’t quite do enough damage (needed a 4 and rolled 3).  The Avatar then activated the Gaze, and ran toward Narn.  I couldn’t have him get behind my lines.  The Fire of Salvation moved forward and occupied the center left, and the Bastions ran right disbursing so that anyone trying to come in was going to get a huge suck of Free Strike.

I think this is where the game all came apart for Retribution.  One Griffon charged the Avatar and managed to take out the shield.  Narn charged the Avatar thinking he could sprint after his attack.  Narn didn’t destroy anything so no Sprint.    A second griffon charged the FoS, and failed to do any damage.  The Mage Hunters all attacked the Bastions and only managed to piss them off.  I had to kill one of them, but the other 4 were at full boxes save on.  P+S 21…mmmm

It was then my turn.  I drifted a Sunburst shot into the Mage Hunters killing 2.  The Avatar turned on the Gaze, killed Narn, and then reduced the Griffon in range to 2 boxes.  Choir activated and did the Jack Fight Song.  The FoS activated, activated its imprint and boxed the Griffon.  The Bastions activated, two charged a second Griffon, one charged a third, and the fourth hung back to make sure I kept unit cohesion.  The Griffon that was charged by the two bastions evaporated immediately.  The third Griffon was heavily damaged, and then subsequently boxed by Rhovan’s body guards.  Reznik moved up and popped his feat.  The Manticore was going to get any focus and neither was the Chimera.

On the Retributions last activation, What was left of the Mage hunters killed 2 more Bastions, and put points of damage on Reznik…and thats about all.  Kaeylssa attempted to cast a spell on the Avatar, but then she realized that it had Sacred Ward…and that was that.

I'm Freddy Mercury...and I approve of this Reznik win...

I put 3 focus on the FoS, rolled 3 focus for the Avatar…moved around Holt but stayed in his front arc to keep from ending up with a lucky free strike.  I boosted my attack roll, and hit Kaeyliss for 16 wounds.  Bought a second attack and evaporated her with a mighty blow.

Summary

It’s games like this that bring you back to the table.  Reznik is my favorite caster model.  The rework that MkII has brought to him means I get to play with him MUCH more.  The old Executioner’s spell list is magnificent.  He takes a properly laid out list and makes them able to hit ANYTHING and kill it right dead…right now.

I probably would have had more issues had there been higher armor infantry on the table.  The Sunbursts would have been less effective on the blast damage.  Mittens would have been tough.  Given that his guys can be made immune to blast damage, some of my key kills would not have happened.

Invictors or Sentinels would have really given me issues.  Their higher numbers probably could have overwhelmed my Bastions and opened up holes to CRA Reznik.  Invictors would also have been helpful in opening holes to charge SPD 8 Griffons into my midst…and they would have been much more effective against ARM 17 vs 21.

I don’t hold this game up as any example of Retribution sucks or Menoth is the best…as I said…the list I played against was suboptimal.  That will not last long.  The models for Retribution are being released very frequently and their effect will be noticed quickly.  That being said, it feels GREAT to have Menoth performing at the high end of the curve.  Thanks for the gumball Privateer!