Game Play: The Opening - Deployment

Deployment

Now that it's been decided which turn you will take, it is now time to deploy. Much like the opening move in a chess game there should be strategy behind how your deploy your models.

Most games that I see deploy much like the following picture.


Both armies are laterally spread out with the warcaster/warlock centrally positioned. What usually results is a paper rock scissors duel. There will be quite a bit of repositioning as flanks fail or as holes develop. In all it's the standard but, in my opinion, is far from the best method for deployment in many circumstances.

I feel that this sort of central deployment allows a faster army to exploit your flanks. It also forces you to "Have" to change direction to confront said flanking attempts. I often prefer an off center deployment to deny one of the flanks. I'll most typically chose this option if going second.

Another boon of the denied flank tactic is that it forces elements of your opponents army to spend precious turns attempting to reposition. I remember one game where I took the win by simply out playing my opponent positionally. Admittedly I was out matched. My small Mortenebra force comprised of a few jacks, the Deathjack, Nightmare, Malice and Cankerworm. I had a few sirens and a necrotech too.

He brought the eMadrak pain with a full unit of burrowers, fennblades, and Kriel warriors with the UA and a two or three WA's. Had an axer, swamp troll and I believe an Earthborn Dire Troll. Add in a fell caller and I was outnumbered by some 30 models.

He deployed centrally, Madrak in the middle with his troops spread out in a long line of death. The fenns were to my left and the Kriels on the right. With beasts hanging close to Madrak.

I deployed first centrally as well. After seeing the final set up I knew that I couldn't possibly take on that many kriels all in one go because the counter charge would be devastating. In a bold move I AD'd the DJ on my right flank, just in Morty's control range; then on my turn I ran him forward tempting the kriels to take him on.

I then ran the remaining jacks to my right flank and set up a defensive posture near a hill. What this did was two fold. Firstly it moved me out of range of the hated burrowers and effectively took the fennblades out of the game for a few rounds.

Some of the louder trolls on the main forum would consider a complete re posturing due to the burrowers as a "win," however in this case not only did it deny the burrower's pop up turn, it also kep a huge chunk of his army out of the game. This was actually the move which saved me the game as I was then able to break his army down a piece at a time.

Positionally, if I had remained in the center I would have been destroyed. Sure, I would have taken a large amount of kriels with me, but not enough to sway the game into my favor.

In chess there is a defined center and through piece development you make concerted efforts to take and hold the center in order to achieve a better position. Unlike chess, warmachine has a fluid center which can be redefined depending on the type of game played. Caster kill granting the most fluidity.

Keep this in mind as you establish your position and make play for your "tactical center."

***More to come***

Game Play

I've been playing miniature war games for what seems like an eternity.

I've been playing chess for even longer than that.

There is a similarity that is unmistakable. Both games have phases, strategy, tactics and combinations.

Much like Chess the game of Warmachine (this includes Hordes too) is also comprised of phases.

1. The Opening

2. Middle Game

3. End Game

The opening while often glazed over by the majority of players is, in my opinion, one of the single most important phases of the game. I claim that the opening section of the game consists of

a. turn selection

b. deployment

c. first turn.

When I say turn selection I'm simply referring to the opportunity to play as player one or two. About 1/2 the time you don't get to choose, but when the moment presents itself it's incredibly important to know which choice is best.

As a Cryx player I will chose to always go first as a non shooty faction I see no reason to sit back and see what the other player is going to do before I commit. I'd much rather set the pace. With loads of infantry, generous amounts of stealth and units which regenerate I have ample reason to make the first move.

A Cygnar army with excess amounts of sissy might feel better able to dish out the pain by allowing their opponent to move first and force them to move into firing range.

Also, the first player, again in my opinion, will be playing defense for the middle game as they have more than likely reached the objective and struggle to maintain their grip on it. A glass cannon army like legion might not want to take the hit first and opt to alpha strike the position instead.

So basically I've spent several paragraphs attempting to explain the importance of turn choice and really the only definite answer is "it depends." It depends on your army structure, scenario and list build.

It is, however, important to realize that turn selection does play an important role in the game. While many a person can quote "page 5," and say that the choice to go first is always the best choice. I contend that in some situations playing second is beneficial, and vice versa.

Either way you're bound to play first or last, best to be aware of the difference in tempo and plan ahead for it.

More to come.....

Cryx Win It!

The last LGS event prior to Summer Rampage is officially over.

It was a long three week campaign which resulted in a Cryxian conquest. That's right folks. I took it, the whole shebang.

Game 1 vs Trollbloods. We roll and get 750. Mortenebra vs Calandra. I won initiative, ran everything forward, move up Mortey, put a few upkeep's on the DJ & NM both.

Trolls. He runs up. Tries to get as close to me as possible. Puts gobber smoke in front of Calandra and feats. The nightmare advances.

Turn 2 Cryx. Mortenebra casts Deathrace on the DJ, terminal velocity, and feat. DJ charges the champs and reigns death upon the extremely tough Champs (tough on 3+.) The nightmare advances due to death race avoiding free strikes thanks to the upkeep spell. The NM is inside the gobber smoke and has a charge lane to Calandra. The NM activates, charges the big fat gypsy lady, she dies.

Game 2 vs John the Mennite (JTM). We roll and get 500 points. Skarre vs the Harbinger. I win initiative. Run everything forward but the skarlock. Use the focus factory.

Menoth: he runs the avatar forward, uses the gaze of Menoth. Choir puts no shooty on the avatar. His bastions advance. Harby casts martyrdom.

Cryx turn 2: Tartarus curses the avatar, charges and deals a lot of damage. Bane knights charge and wipe the avatar out. A pistol wraith kills the choir leader but harby take a few licks to keep him around. Skarlock generates more focus and everyone else moves forward. The dj is poorly positioned in the trees, my bad.

Menoth: He charges Tartarus with the bastions and the sauce survives. A bane knight is hit but doesn't die, another shifts dealing a ton of damage causing the Harby to take some more damage. Harby feats, casts martyrdom again.

Turn 3 Cryx. Skarre goes first. Moves forward so as not to have the Harby in los. Feats and sac strikes the bastion leader boosting damage. Harby martyers. Tartarus curses, threshers and doesn't take any damage from the witches feat. Bane knight charge, 2 die to the feat, the rest decimate the bastions. Harby takes some more damage from martyrdom but has to let a few bastions die. Everyone else then moves forward and positions so as not to have los to the witch. Dj is still in terrible position but casts Blood rain, corrodes a bastion. The pistol wraith continues on the right flank.

Turn 3 Menoth: a bastion dies to corrosion. JTM can't martyr because he hasn't cast it yet. It's not looking so hot for John. A devout charges the DJ and does no damage. Bastions kill Tartarus and a bane knight or two allowing a few shadow shifts. Harby moves forward behind the bastions and casts cataclysm and kills a bane knight. I shadow shift into Harby with P+S 16 weapon master and kill her dead. Martyrdom did most the work for me.

Game 3 vs Cygnar. We roll and get 750. My Mortenebra list vs epic Stryker. I win initiative. Run everything up except Morty. She moves, puts sacral ward on the dj and the ghostly armor spell on the nightmare.

Cygnar turn 1. I wasn't very smart and put the Cankerworm too close to the sword knights. The piper gave them an insane charge range and they chopped the little guy into pieces. Ayana and Holt almost knocked out a node and the Black 13 killed 1/3 of my bile thralls and a Necrotech. Stryker advances, casts a spell at a pistol wraith behind cover and misses. The Nightmare advances through a forest towards Stryker.

Turn 2 Cryx. Upkeep spells with skarlock and combine. Morty moves up, feats, casts deathrace on the DJ and terminal velocity. The Deathjack charges the b13. They die, deathrace triggers, nightmare advances trying to get a bead on Stryker. Rowdy counter charges but only deals 5 pips to column 4. (Whew.) Nightmare activates and moves into melee range with Stryker. Stryker dies.

The tournament is over and I win!

It was a fantastic series of games. The first place prize is a free paint job by the LGS owener's wife. She's pretty good so I'm way excited. I'm going to have her paint Molik Karn.

-Cheers-

The Birthday Blessing Keep Pouring In.

This'll be a quick "...my break is almost over so I gotta spit this out super uber fast..." post. I'll expand further later.

I RECEIVED A FULL UNIT OF BLOODGORGERS FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!! Yaaahooooo!

Repentance

OK OK, he Bastions really do look awesome. I made a post that was sort of a knee jerk reaction on the main forum about the five man unit costing close to $50 which I thought was just stupid. I made the assumption that the Bastions were similar in size to a Troll champion, or a blood gorger to be exact. So in my mind I felt that a unit of six metal figs for $54 is much more understandable than a five man unit of plastic figs for $45. It averages out to about $9.00 per fig. I prefer pewter so $9 is ok while $9 for plastic is not. What I didn't realize was that the bastions are huge, more on the size of Man-O-wars and Cetrati. With that size comparison in mind I do realize now that the Bastions being plastic is a good thing and really does save the player money. Whether or not you agree with the $90 rumored price they would have been had they been metal (way over priced if you ask me.)

So, that being said, I would LOVE for a 10 man unit of Fenn Blades to be released in plastic (I don't see two man blisters being plastic so they might as well release a full unit box set.)

For some reason when figs come in bulk, material is immaterial. I remember the good ol' days when I played Orcs and could buy goblins in batches of 30 for $40. Man those were good times. It'd be nice for the same to happen for Trolls.

I don't have much hope for Cryx in plastic as our last unit was just released and the blessed BloodGorgers are wonderful, magical metal.

-Cheers-