Warmachine Lessons Learned

I was able to play a few games of Warmachine Sunday at a friend's house with a bunch of other guys.  Here are a few of the hard-knock lessons I picked up.

1. Cryx cheats.  Not really, but many of their rules are so different from the other factions that it feels like it some times.  My Cygnar are fairly straight forward; shoot and counter-punch.  Cryx have so many power combos, buffs and debuffs they can call on that it can be hard to follow.  More exposure to them on the table, as opposed to just reading the book, will help.

2. The wrong build can make your day difficult.  I had an eCaine gunmage list the first time around against his eSkarre, witches and Deathjack.  They held their own until Deathjack trampled my Black 13 and ate Caine.  The second game saw my eNemo lightning list against pGoreshade and a ton of Bane Thralls.  Every model in his force could have Stealth, effectively nullifying my shooting.  If I had the lists switched, I think things would have been much easier.  Deathjack's charge targets would be limited with Nemo's Polarity Field and Caine, the Gun Mage Adept and one of the Black 13 could have shot his stealthed Bane Thralls to pieces before they closed.  I think the two list tournament format is awesome.

3. Be careful how I use my casters.  both games ended because I left my caster too close to my opponent's forces.  They were ripe to be picked off.  I was trying to get Caine in position for an assassination run and ended up getting him eaten while Nemo should have used his Jacks as charge blockers more effectively.

4. On second thought, Cryx does cheat.

5. Pay attention to what your opponent can and CAN NOT do.  In the third game we played, a two on two between me and Brian and Adam and Jeremy, we tried setting up an assassination run with Caine by dragging Adam's Phoenix (which I HATE to face) into combat with a mass of Bane Thralls.  The Thralls had already attacked that turn, but he would have been locked in combat.  We decided not to because Adam could just use telekinesis to pull the Phoenix out of combat to charge Caine before my turn.  However, we didn't realize Rhan was out of range for his spells and that the Phoenix could not be used as an Arc Node while in combat.  Consequently, the Phoenix channeled a spell for Rhan that Slammed my Charger into Caine, knocking them both down, taking away his awesome def of 17. 

There is SO much to keep track of in Warmachine it is daunting.  One of these days I'll get it figured out. 

Later