Warmachine and the witching hour

Things you should never have to say on a weeknight................. "Mate its 2am, just roll the die. I have to be up for work in 4 hours!"

It's been nearly a month since Al and I had played our game of Smash mouth warmachine and I guess being crushed under your own Jack never sits well with any player!

As it was Al had obviously spent the last month plotting as sheets of paper cascaded from his carry case as he opened it!

As it was this was a brutal, exhausting, ding dong of a battle which left both of us broken!

Once again Al goes for a Jack heavy force (which now makes sense now I've played as Magnus). A misunderstanding of the rules means Al gets his tier 4 benefits and all spells are already cast. This will be a game changer.

I go with a more infantry based force, which I plan to use as fodder for Alexia so she can do all the dirty work while Ashlynn hangs back assisting with spells and dashing in to finish off any of Als forces which makes it through the barrage of fire.

Once I see all the Mariners and Renegades lined up on the opposite side of the table I know this is my best bet against all that long ranged fire power!

"You sure we're both playing 30 points?"

Knowing I am going to have to run my Jacks at the very edge of Alexias control zone I decide to marshal both Jacks to other figures.

The Mule is marshaled to the Gun mage captain and the Freebooter is Marshalled to the Devil dogs!

The bad news is it makes them less effective but I will get to camp on 6 focus or use more then one spell a turn.

The plan is a simple one, make a bee line at Magnus with Alexia and my infantry, collecting corpse tokens as I go and then get Alexia to grips with Magnus and go nuts buring off all the risen to buy and boost as many attacks as possible!

"No triple six, no triple six!"

Step one CHARGE!!!!!!!

As planned I run my forces up the middle while sweeping my Mages round the flank. I was thinking of forcing the Renegades to open fire to allow Ashlynn to close the gap but the inclusion of Two Mariners on Al's side makes me decide against this.

Al toggles "Snipe" between his Mariners and takes full advantage of the 18" range to pop off my forces.

Thankfully he concentrates his fire againt the risen rather then Alexia.

Having a load of Zombies bearing down on me would make me focus my attention to!

The risen are falling like flies but are granted "tough" thanks to Rupert which helps their longevity.

Al finally opens fire with both Renegades to stop my Risen swarming his forces and then retreates Magnus and his Mariners behind a screen of Steelheads.

My Devil dogs shoot the Steelheads in the face from 4" away and the volley is satisfactually devastating with lots of corpse tokens collected!

What was intended as a diversery attack by my Mages actually manages to break through Al's forces. I am split between trying to destroy one of Al's Jacks or neutering both Mariners by blasting away at the figures the Jacks need as loaders in order to fire.

I decide to neuter the Mariners as the odds of getting enough Criticals is minimal! At least it winds Al up every time he tries to fire one!

Al decides its time to play his killing blow and pops his feat!

Unfortunately he has misread the wording of the feat and can only move his battlegroup (not all his figures) AFTER they have activated!

This means they only get to move, not double move AND activate!

The good news is in his consternation he does not move Magnus and his protecting Jacks away form the encroaching Mages and Mule.

"He, He, can't shoot me!"

I am forced to retreat with my Freebooter to save Alexia and then remember we are only playing 3 turns (it's about 1:30 am at this point so things were getting kind of hazy!).

I push forward with the remaining Devil dogs to try to finish off one of the Renegades.

Turn three (2am) and time to go for the killing blow. The Boker Al has bought is proving to be a nightmare and has completely neutered Eiryss all game. I break forward with the surviving Mages and shoot one Mariner out of the way with "pushback" before opening up with the remaining Mages with critical brutals. 

I fail to finish off Magnus so bring up "Old Smokey" to do the job but fail to get the job done as I had to decide to boost to hit OR damage. I failed to get the critical and finish off the Emo, Magnus.

With Al's final volley of fire he manages to finish off both Alexia AND Eiryss giving him the final points victory.

Curses!

"Bloody magic bullets! Wheres my Jack gone?"

LESSONS LEARNT

1 and only 1 thing) DON'T STAY UP UNTIL 3AM PLAYING SILLY TOY SOLDIERS WHEN YOU ARE TEACHING AUSTISTIC KIDS WITH SEVERE BEHAVIOURAL AND LEARNING DIFFICULTIES THE NEXT DAY! 

THEY SMELL WEAKNESS AND EAT YOU ALIVE!