Battle Report: Skorne (Makeda1) vs Crucible Guard (Bennet)

This was a game that a friend and I played at my house the night before Warmachine MK4 was announced. It was casual, our kids were playing loudly together, and there was a lot of distraction.

Skorne (Masters of War)

• Archdomina Makeda
• Aptimus Marketh
• Baslisk Krea
• Razor Wurm
• Razor Wurm
• Aradus Soldier
• Nihilators (max)
• The Wastelander (proxied by a thrall warrior)
• Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)

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Crucible Guard (Magnus Opus)

• Major Aline Bennet
• Vindicator
• Suppressor
• Gorman Di Wulfe
• Crucible Guard Rocketmen (max)
• Crucible Guard Rocketmen Captain
• Rocketmen Gunner
• Rocketmen Gunner
• Rocketmen Gunner

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Deployment 

Terrain included one side with rubble and two open graves, so lots of cover. In one zone was a lava (burning earth) hazard, and the other zone abutted a gallows obstacle and a windstorm. That zone also had a wall on the other side, far off on the flank. All other terrain was too far spaced to be much of a factor.

After the discord bot I'd created rolled Split Decision for the 3rd or 4th time running, I began questioning the randomness of the software. We re-rolled scenario, and got Recon II.

As seems to be always the case, my opponent won the roll due to a re-roll granted by his theme, and chose to go first. I chose the side with the graves and rubble, for cover against all his shooting.

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Crucible Guard Turn 1

Crucible Guard runs forward, putting up down range on the massive rocketman unit and arcane propulsion on a heavy. Bennet feats and puts a new rocketman unit into play, and it's very nearly able to take shots at advance deployed models before any Skorne models have even activated.

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Skorne Turn 1

One razor wurm sees an opportunity, and after getting concealment from the objective, it charges the rocketman solo, risking the lava. The boosted attack misses and the rocketman dodges back. If it had hit, the razor wurm could have activated drag below and moved back to safety. Instead, the razor wurm puts up spiny growth for an extra two armor.

The aradus soldier and the baslisk krea run, Makeda hides behind the gallows, Marketh takes to the rubble, the nihilators get quicken and run forward, being careful to stay mostly out of range, and the other razor wurm hides behind a wall.

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Crucible Guard Turn 2

Gorman throws an acid bomb at the flanking nihilators and corrodes one, then repositions back onto the flag.

The rest of the rocketman army focuses fire on the razor wurm in the lava, which has concealment and is thus DEF15. It's hard to hit, and my opponent's rolls are terrible. At one point, he kills it and then we remember that it has spiny growth, which we'd failed to take into account, so we rewind and give it back six boxes for the three hits. He then re-kills it.

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Skorne Turn 2

Time for an alpha. Makeda feats and puts up carnage, giving her army +2 to hit in melee. The razor wurm behind the wall charges and eats Gorman and drags him below, moving back to the wall.

In what I consider my best move of the game, Aptimus Marketh spells slaves The Lash at a rocketman, boosting with a dead nihilator soul, and kills it. This allows the aradus soldier to move two inches, putting it within charge range of the suppressor. The soldier charges and four fury later, barely manages to kill the suppressor.

The nihilators charge, killing some rocketmen, and one of them knocks down his buddy. Two of the nihilators are out of range, and run, one engaging Bennet and the other engaging a rocketman. I only later realize that these two are now out of formation and thus cannot make free strikes.

Marketh scores a flag, and the razor wurm scores the zone it's barely touching.

(Skorne 2, Crucible Guard 0)

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Crucible Guard Turn 3

When we realize that two nihilators are out of formation and can't make free strikes, Bennet flees, hiding behind her vindicator.

The vindicator fires withering humor at the aradus soldier, and the rocketmen descend, doing a surprising amount of damage with gravity bombs. Other rocketmen shoot out a few nihilators, but Makeda's feat keeps many alive. A rocketman flies around the lava and takes a shot at Marketh, but misses.

(Skorne 2, Crucible Guard 0)

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Skorne Turn 3

The soldier has two aspects out, so I note that I need to activate Makeda first to heal them.

But first, with four fury on the aradus soldier, two on the krea, and two on the razor wurm, Makeda is only able to leech four from the soldier. Both the krea and the razor wurm frenzy. The razor wurm eats a rocketman, and the krea eats a nihilator.

Makeda activates and casts Carnage, then jackhammers the soldier, missing since it can't boost. Marketh aims and boosts a shot into a rocketman, killing him. The nihilators charge, killing some rocketmen.

This is when we realize that I forgot to heal the two damaged aspects on the soldier, despite telling myself to remember to. My opponent graciously allows me to rewind, and I remove Makeda's two last fury to heal those aspects. Then, the soldier moves up and snacks on a bunch of rocketmen.

Skorne scores the flag and one zone.

(Skorne 4, Crucible Guard 0)

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Crucible Guard Turn 4 

After a rocketman moves up and shoots Marketh to death, the rest of the rocketmen shoot the aradus soldier to death, despite its carapace. Both zones and the flag are now contested.

(Skorne 4, Crucible Guard 0)

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Skorne Turn 4

Seeing that one point grants victory, Skorne targets the rocketman in the zone. What makes it difficult is that the rocketmen have dodge. Three beast handlers run to surround the rocketmen, then the krea charges and boosts, killing him.

The Wastelander runs to the flag, and Skorne scores both the flag and the zone. The rest of the army chooses not to activate.

(Skorne 6, Crucible Guard 0)

(Skorne Victory!)

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Final Thoughts

• On turn two, my opponent spent his whole turn trying to take out the razor wurm, but his rolls were terrible - he couldn't roll a 7. I nearly named this game Razor Wurm Time Walk. Sounds like Hot Tub Time Machine.
• I've never used The Lash before, largely because it costs three fury. But it's far easier when Aptimus Marketh uses it. It allowed the super-slow Aradus Soldier to get the movement it needed to charge and kill the Crucible Guard heavy.
• We rewound to enable a couple of my key moves. Without the rewinds, I'd likely not have won.
• He's a five point model, but The Wastelander is great. He's naturally DEF17 against shooting, and I can stack cover and the krea's force aura on top of that. Any shot that misses is reflected back to the shooter. If a shot somehow does manage to hit, I can shield guard it, and Makeda1 gives field marshal: shield guard.

Hot Takes on Warmachine MK4

I've had a few hours now to digest the Warmachine MK4 rules, and here are my newborn hot takes.

Command Cards

New to Warmachine MK4 is the concept of command cards. Before a game, you choose a hand of five cards, which can do various things from grant pathfinder, extra range, stealth, reposition, et cetera. The basic cards are free, but cards with more potent effects are available if you pay for them with the points you'd otherwise be using for your army list.

My read on this is that the command cards will take a similar role to what objective abilities once did. They'll be able to grant pathfinder or magic weapons at a key moment, and help solve problems that models in your list might not otherwise be able to get around.

No Free Strikes, No Facing

Eliminating free strikes and facing might simplify some things, but it's going to really take some getting used to. When a model leaves melee, instead of being attacked, it now must forfeit its combat action.

This kind of feels like D&D's disengage action. Not having to worry about facing will simplify things, but it will feel odd for a while.

Unit Movement

Units no longer have a leader, and there's no command range, no formation, and no more press forward action. You choose to run or to charge. 

The way they move now is supposed to speed things up. One model moves, then you place all the other models within two inches of it. All models in the unit that started unengaged get to attack, but only models attacking targets engaged by the model that initially moved get the charge attack bonus.

"Remember that a model in a unit that was engaged prior to being placed as a result of its unit charging must also forfeit its Combat Action that activation unless it is placed within the melee range of any models that were previously engaging it"

Again, this whole process by which you move one model and place the rest is going to take getting used to. 

It seems like it could lead to some odd outcomes, like charging a model up to a small obstruction and placing unit members on the opposite side. On second thought, I think you need to place models in the unit with line of sight to the model that moved, so maybe that's not an issue.

Another thought on this change: any effect that grants a single model pathfinder or gives a single model extra speed will now be able to speed up the entire unit.

Swappable Heads and Arms

Warjacks and warbeasts will now come with supplies to magnetize them and switch parts. It's an interesting idea. It really does seem like they're planning to produce fewer warjacks overall, but include so many different arm and head options that you can recombine them to form warjacks that fill the roles of all the jacks that existed previously in MK3.

For example, the four different heads on the Cygnar Corsair warjack will give the jack either an arc node, shield guard, advance deployment, or dodge.

Arms are swappable too, giving you the ability to put ranged weapons, melee weapons, or shields on your warjacks, as well as choosing more or less expensive parts to alter the warjack's point cost.

They've also announced that warjacks and warbeasts will be more powerful, and all of them will have what amounts to dual attack.

Terrain Changes

Hills and elevation are back, although the complex method by which line of sight is determined from a hill seems to have been simplified. Ladders and stairs are also included in the terrain rules, which should let me build some fairly cool terrain, given that falling damage is also now back. When an enemy model climbs up to the roof of a building, I can force hammer it off the building and it will take fall damage. Maybe I'll build a flat-roofed terrain with an acid pool to push somebody into.

Rough terrain no longer halves movement. Instead, it requires a flat two inches of extra movement. That should make it easier to calculate and speed up play.

Armies and Cadres

Themes are gone. Instead, they're breaking factions apart into "armies" that seem to roughly correspond with what used to be theme forces. The primary differences here are that you can no longer play themeless, and that casters are now locked to specific armies.

There will be "cadres" which can join multiple armies within a faction, but which are which have yet to be revealed.

Game Formats

One of the biggest questions players had alongside all this is whether we'd be able to continue to use the thousands of dollars in models we've accumulated over the years. The answer? Yes. Kind of.

The "unlimited" format will allow all MK3 models, but some MK4 content, such as swappable warjack parts and customizable spell racks for warlocks and warcasters won't be included. I'm actually not even sure whether command cards will be allowed in the unlimited format.

The "prime" format will include mostly the new models, but will allow a curated selection of legacy models. That list has yet to be announced.

There's also a couple different game types. Whereas "assassination" is exactly the game we've always been used to playing, there's also a "execution" game type, wherein only a caster can kill a caster. If another model brings your warcaster or warlock to 0 boxes, it becomes "vulnerable", which sounds like a temporary knockout.

Miscellany

There are a lot of other changes that are difficult to group. Sprays and AoE attacks no longer use templates - sprays affect models in a straight line, and AoEs affect X models within X inches of the target. There is no more deviation. Electroleaps are now 3 inches instead of 4 inches. Running models, instead of doubling movement, will add five inches. There are also no more half inch melee ranges - all models have at least a one inch reach.

But what about my faction?

We don't know everything yet, but the four announced MK4 factions are Cygnar, Khador, Orgoth, and Dusk. Dusk appears to be a mash-up of the destroyed remnants of Retribution and Cryx. This, from what I gather, means that Retribution, Cryx, and likely Menoth are gone, having been destroyed by infernals. 

It sounds like Convergence has likely been rolled into Cygnar, and Mercenaries will likely remain in some way, although it's hard to say whether merc casters will still be a thing or whether it will just be mercenary solos and units joining other armies. Crucible Guard is also an unknown.

The former Hordes factions are something they've said they'd announce in 2023, but it seems likely that not every faction will survive. With only four full factions, plus grymkin, infernals, and minions out there, it seems safe to say that we'll lose grymkin and infernals, and keep probably two of the main factions. 

There's more information every day, so I think I'll post this before it becomes irrelevant or outdated.

Terrain: The Rhulic Bunker

 

The terrain piece which eventually came to be the Rhulic bunker was initially inspired by a different terrain piece I'd seen while scouring Google images of fantasy wargaming terrain. I liked the largish section of porch that models could stand on, the small corner on that porch which offered a limited amount of cover, and the fact that the building was asymmetrical. The plan was that the roof would be restricted terrain, whereas the porch would be walkable, and models could enter that terrain from any angle, not needing to use the stairs. Trying to keep it simple.

  

 

I used plywood rather than balsa for this project. It's far more difficult to cut, but ends up creating a far sturdier product. The six sections that made the main body of the building were measured and cut, and held in place temporarily by white masking tape while the superglue dried. You can see a small bit of green stuff securing the small portion of the roof in place in this photo, and more green stuff at the edge of the stairs.

 

The porch is held up by three small sections of a square wooden dowel, cut to rough the size of a die. The stairs are made from pieces of a smaller wooden dowel.

 

 

I added the roof and painted it brown, then applied a thin layer of clay to the top of the porch. I used a roller to add a cobblestone pattern to the porch, and after it had dried, I gave it a dark wash to make the cobble pop.

I also added two painted pieces of scatter terrain: barrels at the bottom, and crates on top of the porch. I also added a dowel to the roof to act as a chimney. You can see Ossrum standing atop the roof, inspecting my work.

 

 

I painted the chimney red, added grey mortar lines, and painted a black square on top rather than hollowing it out. I also added a door to the back and some windows.

 

 

The windows are made from painted strips of wood, and are really just the frame, with the wall painted black inside. The door has support beams made from that same wood, and a frame made from the same dowel as the stairs.

I used the dowel to add a fortifying wall to the roof, and placed a cannon up top for Ossrum. It's the same cannon I once placed atop my Khador Bunker back in 2018, but since hills have been retired, so has that bunker. Hence, I painted the cannon the same mustard color as Ossrum and mounted it here.

 

 

 

After viewing photos, my friends ended up deciding that the Rhuls would be holding raves inside this place, so I named it the Dijon Rave House, owing to the mustard-colored features. I made a wooden sign and painted "DRH" on it, then used a jewelry chain to hang it.

The finished piece had a front door, ladder, and anvil sign added. I'm pretty happy with that anvil sign. I found a nickel-sized metal disc lying around after recent construction on my house, and used it for this sign, free-painting the anvil, but leaving a small strip of unpainted metal around the outside.

Battle Report: Skorne (Makeda1) vs Crucible Guard (Bennet)

This was a game played at the FLGS, where my friend was playing his new faction, Crucible Guard, for the first time ever, hence the unpainted models, and the small 15 point game.

Skorne (Masters of War)

• Archdomina Makeda
• Agonizer
• Baslisk Krea
• Molik Karn
• Nihilators (max)

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Crucible Guard (Magnus Opus)

• Major Aline Bennet
• Vindicator
• Suppressor
• Rocketmen (max)

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Deployment

The scenario we'd rolled was Split Decision, which has a zone for units, and three flags. Neither of our armies had solos, so scenario looked difficult.

The terrain was unusual for us, placed using a new method. It was very dense, with two lakes on one side, a crater in the zone with a flag in its center, and multiple houses and forests. Added to that were numerous single trees, placed as scatter terrain.

My opponent won the roll due to a re-roll granted by his theme, and chose to go first. I picked the side with the hidey spot behind the house and forest near the flag and objective.

---

Crucible Guard Turn 1

The rocketmen fly forward, moving well past the objective and flag.

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Skorne Turn 1

The nihilators circle up around the baslisk krea, within its three inch force aura bubble, getting +2 defense and armor against shooting. Makeda also gives them quicken, for another +2 DEF, bringing them to DEF 17 against shooting.

Molik Karn and the agonizer run forward.

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Crucible Guard Turn 2

Rocketmen fly up around the side of the building and drop a bunch of gravity bombs on Molik Karn, doing decent damage. The suppressor boosts a shot into a nihilator, killing him and leaving the krea with withering humor.

Bennet feats, bringing in another unit of rocketmen and a solo.

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Skorne Turn 2

I'm expecting lots of rocketmen to fly over the cabin, so the agonizer moves up and screeches gnawing pain, lowering nearby enemies' strength by two.

Makeda feats and casts carnage, to give her allies +2 to hit, and they go to town. Nihilators go to town, killing half the new unit of rocketmen.

The krea puts up its force aura, and hits the suppressor with spiritual paralysis. Molik Karn attacks the original rocketmen, but is unable to roll a seven and only kills two.

Each caster scores a flag.

(Skorne 1, Crucible Guard 1)

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Crucible Guard Turn 3 

The three rocketmen in the zone take shots at the DEF17 nihilators, but Makeda's feat keeps all but one alive. The vindicator takes a boosted withering humor shot at a nihilator, also catching the krea in the blast. The nihilator toughs. The suppressor has arcane propulsion from Bennet, and flies over the building and beats on Molik Karn from the rear arc, but has -2 STR due to the agonizer.

Bennet flies up and sets Molik Karn on fire.

(Skorne 1, Crucible Guard 1)

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Skorne Turn 3

Molik Karn's fire goes out. Makeda activates, knowing that she'll need to do things before Molik Karn can take out the suppressor. She casts carnage and charges the suppressor, confident that Molik Karn can do the job with a MAT9, and not wanting to waste a free charge. But I forgot that Molik Karn was missing two aspects. After buying an attack, I remember that I had wanted to jackhammer instead of buying an attack and I slap my forehead. After casting jackhammer, I notice that Molik Karn is missing two aspects, and so I spend Makeda's last fury fixing one of them, and leave her naked, on zero fury.

Molik Karn activates, but with one less damage die, he fails to kill the suppressor.

The agonizer moves up to the building and screeches spiritual affliction, preventing enemies from casting spells within 8 inches, and this easily catches Bennet in its area.

Nihilators kill a bunch of rocketmen, leaving just one in the zone.

(Skorne 1, Crucible Guard 1)

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Crucible Guard Turn 4 

The suppressor and rocketmen kill Molik Karn, then turn to Makeda. She ends up on fire, but transfers all the damage to the agonizer, killing it.

The rocketman in the zone kills one of the two nihilators.

Bennet scores her flag.

(Skorne 1, Crucible Guard 2)

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Skorne Turn 4 

The last nihilator kills a rocketman and screams I'm the king of the mountain!

The krea moves up and activates force aura to protect Makeda.

Makeda, still on fire, kills the suppressor and one rocketman, but fails to sidestep back to the flag.

Skorne scores the zone, Crucible Guard scores a flag.

(Skorne 2, Crucible Guard 3)

---

Crucible Guard Turn 5 

The rocketman ace moves into the zone and shoots the king of the mountain nihilator to death.

The rest of the rocketmen shoot at Makeda and miss.

(Skorne 2, Crucible Guard 4)

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Skorne Turn 5

I'm realizing that there's no way for me to win on scenario, so this is my turn to position for a clutch assassination. Makeda gives herself quicken, and charges a rocketman, sidestepping after killing it. The krea moves up with its force aura, protecting Makeda.

(Skorne 2, Crucible Guard 5)

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Crucible Guard Turn 6 

After the fire damage, Makeda now has only three hits remaining. But she's DEF 21 due to the krea's force aura, quicken, and the concealment she got from the objective. Nonetheless, Bennet kills her with a flamethrower.

(Crucible Guard Victory!)

---

Final Thoughts

• In such a low-point game, Bennet's feat is very strong. I was effectively running my 15 point army against my opponent's 33 point army.
• Not healing Molik Karn's aspects on turn 3 was my biggest mistake. If I'd done so, he could have killed that suppressor, and I'd have stood a far better chance.

Battle Report: Skorne (Morghul1) vs Khador (Old Witch 1)

Skorne (Masters of War)

• Master Tormentor Morghul
• Aptimus Marketh
• Cyclops Savage
• Cyclops Savage
• Cyclops Savage
• Titan Gladiator
• Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)

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Khador (Armored Corps)

• The Old Witch of Khador
• Scrapjack
• Destroyer
• Marauder
• Man-O-War Shocktroopers (max)

---

Deployment 

The scenario we'd rolled was Recon II, which favored jacks and beasts.

The terrain had a large lake, tall grass, and a bush obstacle on the left, and a house, two forests, and rubble on the right.

I won the roll and chose the side with the house to hide behind. My opponent decided to go first.

My opponent chose the wreckage objective, as always, and I chose fuel depot for pathfinder - useful with the giant forest nearby.

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Khador Turn 1 

Scrapjack runs behind the bush. The rest of Khador runs up as best it's able. Man-O-Wars get Iron Flesh.

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Skorne Turn 1 

A cyclops gets rush and abuse and runs up into position to charge next turn. Aptimus Marketh and Morghul hide behind the building, and the titan sneaks around.

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Khador Turn 2 

The destroyer and man-o-wars roll obscenely well and shoot out the lead cyclops entirely.

My opponent forgets that Aptimus Marketh's shots are ghost shots, and puts up a murder of crows in front of the house.

---

Skorne Turn 2 

A cyclops gets enrage, abuse, and admonition, and charges into the shield wall, killing the objective and one man-o-war. Beast handlers try to move to contest the zone but can't get there through the forest. The last remaining cyclops blocks for Morghul. The titan backs up to avoid being charged.

Each player scores one zone.

(Skorne 2, Khador 1)

---

Khador Turn 3 

Man-O-Wars surround and destroy the cyclops. One Man-O-War's arm falls off. The marauder toes the zone, inviting a charge.

The Old Witch feats to prevent anyone from entering her zone. Khador scores that zone.

(Skorne 2, Khador 2)

---

Skorne Turn 3 

The titan gets enrage and admonition and kills the marauder. A cyclops charges and kills a single Man-O-War, leaving a second on one box. One of the hits was a crit because I needed a five to hit and rolled a 3, then future sight boosted and rolled a second 2. Morghul hides behind the building. Beast handlers were unable to contest the zone because of Old Witch's feat.

(Skorne 3, Khador 3)

---

Khador Turn 4 

Man-O-Wars do their thing and destroy another cyclops. Old Witch puts up a murder of crows in front of the house.

(Skorne 4, Khador 4)

---

Skorne Turn 4 

Aptimus Marketh shoots a man-o-war. Then the beast handlers press forward. Two run into the zone, one charges the man-o-war with a single box, missing. The titan kills two man-o-wars, but realizes too late that he's now left the zone, and it doesn't get scored.

(Skorne 4, Khador 4)

---

Khador Turn 5 

Scrapjack runs up, Old Witch channels gallows and pulls the titan B2B with scrapjack, the man-o-war runs around behind the titan, and then the destroyer destroys the titan.

(Skorne 4, Khador 5)

---

Skorne Turn 5 

Morghul gives himself admonition and moves to score the flag. Marketh shoots at the destroyer, needing a 5 to hit, and misses. Beast handlers charge.

(Skorne 5, Khador 5)

---

Khador Turn 6 

Scrapjack charges and kills Aptimus Marketh. The destroyer walks over and kills the beast handler in the zone, and Yuri the one-armed man-o-war charges and kills another beast handler, ending right next to Morghul, contesting the flag.

Khador scores two.

(Skorne 5, Khador 7)

---

Skorne Turn 6 

Two beasts handlers run to engage Old Witch. One attacks Yuri the one-armed man-o-war. Morghul moves up along the zone and feats.

(Skorne 5, Khador 8)

---

Khador Turn 7 

Due to Morghul's feat, Khador cannot spend focus this turn. We misinterpreted the feat slightly in that it should have affected only non-warcaster models.

Yuri kills the beast handler harassing him. The destroyer takes a single unboosted attack on Morghul, needing a 9 to hit, and of course he hits. A miss would have let Morghul dodge two inches away and secured a victory.

Old Witch kills a beast handler and leaves the zone.

(Skorne 5, Khador 9)

---

Skorne Turn 7 

With only two models on the board, and ready to lose on points if there were another round in the game, an assassination is my only choice. It's doable, as long as the free strike misses. Morghul walks away from the destroyer, and its free strike needs a 7 with the rear arc bonus. Morghul dies.

(Khador Victory!)

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Final Thoughts

• Swingy dice were, as always a factor. After the game ended, we rolled out the assassination out of curiosity. Morghul would have managed to kill Old Witch.
• I had a habit in this game of sending in beasts one by one and having them killed one by one. With buffs that cost two fury and a five fury caster, it isn't possible to buff all my beasts at once, but perhaps I need to stop relying on admonition to keep my beasts alive, as it has never once worked.