Thoughts from the weekend games

So, still playing in a jouneyman league, and still playing pMagnus.  We're up to 25 points, so I have started putting in some units, trying them out, and making notes.  I'll pretty up my chicken scratches a little here, but here's basically the synopsis of the games from this weekend:

Saturday - pMagnus vs 3Makeda.

I was runningthe Magnus battlebox, plus Gorman, and min units of Steelhead halberdiers and cavalry.  He was running 3Makeda, a Brute, two savages, paingivers, gators and a task master.

First, Black Oil is great.  It literally saved the game for me - I managed to Oil 3Makeda, and stopped her from charging Magnus.  I think from now on, if I can fit Gorman into a list somewhere, he'll be there.  He's just too useful, and if I can get Snipe on him, then I will do so.

Backswing.  I used the Obliterator on a few targets, not intending to do much damage (and I didn't), but to simply knock them down.  The cavalry charged in, and while I remembered the assault order, and the impact hits, I forgot about the +2 to hit (not that it mattered, since the targets were knocked down), but I forgot to take my backswings.  Hopefully, I remember next time.

Magnus - I think I need to lead the charge with the mechanikal arm, and boost the hit roll against high Def targets.  I'll do less damage, but the knock-down affect is too handy to pass up.  Bad dice (on his part), and that knock-down let me take down 3Makeda, but he was wining the game up to that point.

Sunday
pMagnus vs pLylyth
Dropped the steelheads for a full unit of Long Gunners and Kell, ran his tier list.  My opponent was running the Legion battlebox, plus Typhon.

I can't claim to have really learned anything from this game.  I put Snipe on the Renegade, and pretty much just ran my army forward.  He moved everything up on is turn.  I wanted to put the hurt on Typhon, so I shot at it with the Obliterator.  Missed (even boosted), and it deviated right on to pLylyth, who had not kept any fury on her.  She took the hit, I moved up Kell, shot her, moved up the Long Gunners, and used CRA to shoot her.  Missed one of the CRAs, but the other hit her, and managed to kill her.  We both looked at each other, and said "Good game?"

So yeah, I won that game, but my dice were made of awesome and win.  I have no idea what the outcome would have been if I had landed the shot on Typhon as I intended.

PMagnus vs Bloody Barnabas
Same as before.  Barnabas had a croak hunter, gators, and a bull snapper.   This went about as expected - Barnabas with Swamp pit could pretty much advance into charge range, and, frankly, Long Gunners are not melee stars.  Or even competent.  I lost, and killed only a few models.  (In all fairness, most of the posse was badly wounded, but I could not put those last 1-2 points on any of them for the life of me.)

First step in a new direction

The first step is always the hardest one.  Unless it is off a sheer cliff, in which case it will likely be the only one.  Anyway, since I am tying to break the habit of not winning, I am trying some new things in my games.  I'm not talking models (although that will certainly be part of it), but rather, I am going to take better notes on my games - my list, my opponents list, what I did right, and (most importantly) what I did wrong.

So, yesterday, I got in a 25-pt game.  I wanted to try some stuff for the journeyman league this week, and my opponent wanted to try the newest incarnation of Makeda.  I'll post more on it tonight (and hopefully another game or two today), but I do feel reasonably confident that making a note to myself to not, for example, forget about Backswing on Steelhead Cavalry is probably going to be useful.  Obviously, if I play them enough, it will become second nature to me, but I need to decide on at least a faction in the next couple of months if I really want to get some quality games with them before AdeptiCon next year.

(Yes, I am looking toward next year.  Believe it or not, while I may have some impulse control issues when it comes to amassing quantities of lead and plastic, I am more than capable of taking a long-term planning approach.  And, right now, my sights are set on Lombard, IL next year.)

Lord Carver, the beatstick

So, I got in two games tonight with Lord Carver, and managed to win one of them.  It's a little late for a report, but a quick recap of each may suffice.

Game 1: Khador
3Vlad, a Conquest, doom reavers, cavalry - it was a fun game, but it did not look good for me for a good chunk of the game.  Fortunately, 3Vlad came charging in, and failed to kill a badly wounded gun boar - which kept him in charge range of Carver.  I pretty much ignored the Conquest for the entire game, and while it did some damage to my pigs, it did not decimate them as badly as I had feared.

Game 2: Cygnar
pStryker, Stormwall, Boomhowler, Black 13th - long, hard slog of a game.  My dice pretty much crapped out on me, but I was outplayed, pure and simple.  Better dice might have made a difference - it seems to me that, once I start trying to kill something, when bad dice occur, rather than continue with my plan, I commit extra resources to kill one piece, even when it is not as crucial to the game as something else.  At the end, Carver charged the Stormwall, and took out one side on his ownsome.  But too little, too late - and the Stormwall turned him into a small bloody smear of bacon on the next turn.

I feel more confident with Carver now - I need to get in some games with Barnabas, and more games with Carver once I have a Road Hog to play around with.