Last week I wasn’t able to make a post discussing a list that I have, in fact I failed to make a post at all. There were two reasons for that, first is that my real life simply got in the way and second is that I did not have a list I was confident enough to talk about. This brought about an important concept when it comes to building a list for yourself which I missed or failed to understand when I first started playing Warmachine. The concept of “grinding games”, so I won’t be discussing a list again this week but I will next week. This week I would like to talk about the concept of “grinding games” with a list.

When I first started out playing Warmachine I had a Mk2 battlebox that had Stryker1, a Lancer, an Ironclad and a Charger. I then escalated rather quickly to buying a minimum unit of Long Gunners second hand. Then I bought a unit of ATGMs with the UA, then Defenders, then Hunters and so on and so forth. Escalation to increase your types of models is never bad provided that you have the proper finances to do so. However this is the point where I felt that the concept of “grinding games” would have aided me.

Having a decent array of models at my disposal to build different lists with and multiple casters to play around with as well, I found myself jumping from one list to another. One caster to another only playing one or two games with each list before moving on a new list. I found myself doing this because I was becoming frustrated with my lists not performing the way I wanted to. Being frustrated with a list for not performing well is not uncommon, however my approach to dealing with the frustration in hindsight was not optimal. The optimal way I think for one to address the frustration of lists not performing as expected is to keep playing a single list, even if it is not performing the way you expect. When you play games with the same list over and over even when you lose over and over you still learn things. This is what “grinding games” is all about, playing games not just to win but to learn why you lose.

How many games one should grind before one makes changes typically depends on the player, but what I personally do is play around 5 games with a list before I make changes to the list. The 5 games gives me enough experience with the models in the list as well as the caster to make informed decisions of what needs to be changed in the list, what are the inherent weakness to the lists and what are its strengths. I then make changes and play another 5 games without changing the list and repeat the process. I do this until I am satisfied with how the list performs.

Grinding games may not be for everyone. I just wanted to share my personal experience when I was starting out in the hopes that it can help other new players who may be having the same frustrations as I once did.

Last Wednesday, May 2. I discussed my match against Dehnegra3 in the 8 man tournament that I won last April 28. Now it’s time to breakdown my finals match. This match was between my Stryker1 “Storm Surge” list and another “Black Industries” list with Gaspy3 as the warcaster. If you want to see what my exact list is there is a post in this page that talks about it in detail, including my philosophies to building that list.

As before I want to talk about why I decided to use the “Storm Surge” list over the other list. Since this is the final I already knew who my opponent was and what list his brought, note I said list meaning he only has 1. Knowing the list composition and the theme “Black Industries” made using the “Storm Surge” list a given. My opponent was running basically a Slayer spam list. “Black Industries” theme would give these heavy jacks “Carapace” meaning +4 ARM against shooting and free strikes. So much like in my first match using a list that is pure ranged attacks would have been stupid for my part.

I again won the roll off (lucky) and opted to go first. I Deploy pretty much the exact same way as I did in round 1. Tempest Blazers were Deployed to the right, Stormwall center Stryker behind it and on the left the Swordknights with the Stormblades behind them.

My opponent deployed his caster in the middle and had his slayers spread apart in a line. There would be no easy scoring in this game. Any points I wanted to score I had to fight over it tooth and nail.

Turn 1, standard fare. I buff my Tempest Blazers with “Snipe”, the Sword Knights with “Arcane Shield” and everything ran forward.

My opponent ran one of his arcnode bone chickens forward to be able to cast “Hex Blast” on the Blazers, two of which almost dies and survived with just 1 life each, they also lost Snipe. He then casted his buffs which raised the ARM of the Slayers to 19, dropped his feat and everything ran forward. He was careful enough to make sure that none of my melee units could get a charge into his jack, this included Stormwall.

Turn 2, I realize my first mistake as the Lancer was out of Stryker’s control and could not power up. This heavily influenced my plan for turn 2 which I will discuss in detail later. With a wall of jacks that I cannot damage this turn and the Lancer unable to run due to not having focus I did the one thing that gave my list its name sake. I surged forward. Stryker moved forward, dropped his feat and re-cast “Snipe” on the Blazers and “Blur” on himself. The Sword Knights still had “Arcane Shield” on them, they got “Heroic Call” from Rhupert and ran forward practically base to base with the Slayers in front of them. The Blazers now with “Snipe” again shot at the bone chicken that arced the Hex Blast and took out its arcnode. They then reposition back to the farther end of the right zone. Stormwall ran forward and engaged another bone chicken and one to two Slayers.

My opponent then loads up his slayers with focus and begins to take Stormwall apart. With the 6 Slayers charging Stormwall and using “Combo Strike” he was eventually reduced to a scrap heap. A few more Slayers kill the first line of Sword Knights and he then moves his caster back and runs a Slayer and a few other units to screen him.

Turn 3, it was an all or nothing move for me now. I had an assassination vector and had to take it as I already knew that I would eventually lose an attrition game without Stormwall. The destruction of Stormwall left an open space on the table in front of Stryker. An open line of sight to the Slayer that was screening Gaspy. The position was close enough that the 5” AoE of Earthquake would clip Gaspy as well the other screening units. This would mean that the Tempest Blazer can shoot the knocked down caster with “Brutal Shot” and the hit were all but guaranteed. There was two issues with this vector, one was that Gaspy was ARM 17. Even with “Brutal Shot” I would need high damage rolls to kill him off with 5 shots, second issue was that Gaspy was sitting on 4 focus. I needed more shots to kill Gaspy. Lucky for me there is some truth to the old notion that Cygnar never lacks for ranged attacks. My Stormblades could reach Gaspy with their range attacks with Snipe. That was the plan and the execution went better than expected. The game and the tournament ended with me pulling off an assassination run.

This was another lucky game for me, lucky in a sense that an assassination vector became available. Without Stormwall it would have been an uphill battle for me to win the attrition game against that many Slayers. However I think that my win was also due to my opponent being unfamiliar with my list and my particular playstyle with that list.

I did make one major mistake in the game, the Lancer being out of control in turn 2 was a very big deal. If I had not made that mistake I could have ended the match sooner and with a higher chance of success. Since my opponent's caster was in reach of an earthquake if my Lancer could have ran. His caster has I belive just 1 focus on him and was in range of Stormwall's guns. The Blazers were also in range.

Overall however as one of the more veteran players pointed out, winning in this game is a mix of proper determination, games grinding and luck. I’m just glad I got the mix just right this time.

Again, if you guys have question or reaction feel free to let me know

In my post last Monday April 30 I broke down my game against Bloody Barnabas which was round 1 of the 8 man tournament I won last Saturday April 28. This time I will break down round 2 which was a match between my Hayley1 “Temporal Tempest” list and Dengerha3 “Black Industries” theme list. If you want to see exactly what my list looks like I have a post discussing my rational behind the list.

My idea for using Hayley1 in this list was that I was expecting my opponent to use a Ghost Fleet theme and that I needed to bring as many magical attacks as I can to stand a chance. So I was surprised (again) when he brought out a different list. His list was basically a spam of Shrikes with 2 Scavengers that were marshaled by Iron Lich Overseers, 2 Stalkers and Nightmare.

I won the roll off and decided to go first, I deployed in a similar fashion as my first game. Tempest Blazers to the far right for zone contest and scoring. The Lancer beside the Tempest Blazers so it could follow them in case I need to arc Deadeye on the Blazers. Stromwall was in the middle, the rest of my army was to the far left, that was the Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (ATGM) the Cyclone that was being marshaled and the Gun Mage Captain Adept (GMCA). Hayley sat between the Stormwall and the Gun Mages.

My opponent then deployed his entire force to match my Gun Mage forces. During the advance Deploy phase I deployed Eyriss1 to the left as well where she can take advantage of the trenches that were part of the table terrain. The 2 Stalkers were then also deployed to the left.

Turn 1 was standard fair, I gave Stormwall Arcane Shield and ran him forward. The rest of my army also ran forward. The Blazers making a bee line for the zone on my right with the Lancer following as best it can. Hayley after casting Arcane Shield moved forwards. The Cyclone ran forward as well, the Gun Mages all ran forward but not the full distance. I wanted to make sure the Stalkers could not reach them with their bounding leap. Eyriss1 however ran forward, far enough for a stalker to reach her but close enough for the Gun Mages to walk to her position. Eyriss was bait (a very expensive bait as other may say).

My opponent’s turn saw him buff his army as well as take the Eyriss bait. He sent a Stalker to deal with Eyriss and to my surprise sent the second Stalker towards the Gun Mages. The rest of his army ran straight towards my Gun Mages.

Turn 2 for me was the turn to try and break as many of the jacks as I could. I gave 2 focus on Stormwall and activated Hayley first. She moved to ensure that as many of the Gun Mages would be affected by her feat while catching as many of the enemy jacks in her Temporal Barrier and to not give points away via killbox. Needless to say she dropped her feat and casted Temporal Barrier.

Next to move was the GMCA, he was not affected by Hayley’s feat however so he forfeited movement to aim. He shot the Stalker that killed Eyriss using "Flare" and "Brutal Shot". Hitting the jack hard and ensureing the other ATMGs can secure hits as well. The ATGMs then activated, 3 walked towards the damaged Stalker. 2 walked towards the fresh Stalker and 3 forfeited movement to aim. Each Gun Mage had 2 shots thanks to the feat and the Gun Mages that went within melee of the Stalkers would gain boosted damage dice thanks to the theme benefit of "Pistoler". Once all their shots had been spent the 2 Stalkers were dead and a Shrike was heavily damaged.

The Cyclone did not perform as well as expected since it only rolled 1 shot per gun, I also forgot to make a 3rd shot from the feat. It managed to destroy the wounded Shriek.

Stormwall Fired 3 main gun shots thanks to feat as well as a few chain gun shots destroying 2 more Shrieks. He then placed a pod on the zone to the left simply to create an annoyance as the opponent will have to break it to score on that zone at the end of his turn.

The Lancer ran again to sit on the center zone, the Blazers position as far right as possible while still staying within the zone to score.

My opponent’s turn saw him focus his attention to taking out as many of the Gun Mages as possible, wiping out the entire unit along with the GMCA. He also sent 1 Shriek to run and engage Hayley. Having focused on the left side of the table he left the center zone and the right zones uncontested.

End of my opponent’s turn gave me 2 points and gave him none.

Turn 3 for me was just a matter of buying time, Stormwall killed the Shriek that was sent to engage Hayley. Hayley ran for the right side of the board Cyclone moved to the left zone to contest. The rest of my forces on the right side of the board stayed where they were.

End of my turn gave me another 2 points brining me to a total of 4 and my opponent scored none.

My opponent now focused on clearing the left zone to score and sent models to contest the center zone.

End of my opponent’s turn I scored 1 point bringing me to 5 and my opponent scored 1 point.

Turn 4 was just a matter of Stormwall launching a pod to contest the left zone to prevent him from scoring since the lancer was still contesting the center zone and right zone was uncontested.

I ended my turn and scored 1 point, my opponent scored none bring the final score to 6 to 1. Being 5 over my opponent I won by objective.

This game for me was smoother than my first game. I could not see any point in where I made major mistakes that could have costed me the game. I will admit now that I did play into “meta” knowledge in this match. I knew my opponent and knew that he favored assassination over objective wins. This was why when I saw him deploy his entire army to the left I knew that if I kept Hayley on that side while keeping her safe would allow me play the objective game provided she lived. It was not a zero risk plan mind you, the sheer number of Shrieks and the Stalkers meant that I needed to get rid of the Shrieks closest to Hayley as well the Stalkers to ensure that I did not lose via assassination. Had I failed to kill both Stalkers or enough Shrieks the game would have ended differently.

On Friday I will breakdown my final match in the tournament which was between Stryker1 and Gaspy3. Again if you have comments or question please don’t hesitate to ask in the comment section below.