Lady Goat v Damiano

A note for local people, there is a serious illness in my family and due to that I can't guarantee my presence at things for the near future.

On Sunday I played against Uli and brutally crushed him in possibly the most one sided match in the history of warmachine, however Uli had made a few mistakes in list selection and a few more mistakes in game play so yesterday we replayed the game with Uli taking a better list and remembering that the words printed on his cards were abilities that he could use to do things, the lists:


Mercenaries (Me)
Highborn Covenant
PCs: 50 / 50
50 models

[00] Captain Damiano (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[09]  >> Rocinante
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[02] Bosun Grogspar
[02] First Mate Hawk
[02] Doc Killingsworth
[02] Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier
[06] Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
[02]  >> Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)
[08] Sea Dog Crew (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster
[03]  >> Sea Dog Crew Rifleman (3 Riflemen)
[06] Press Gangers (9 grunts)

Circle Orboros (Uli)

Standard Army

PCs: 50 / 50

33 models

[00] Morvahna the Dawnshadow (0 / 5 WB)

[02]  >> Druid Wilder

[09]  >> Pureblood Warpwolf

[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker

[04]  >> Gorax

[01] Gallows Grove

[01] Gallows Grove

[03] Tharn Ravager White Mane

[06] Wolves of Orboros (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Wolves of Orboros Chieftain & Standard

[02] Shifting Stones

[01]  >> Stone Keeper

[06] Tharn Ravagers (3 grunts)

[02]  >> Tharn Ravager Chieftain

[02] Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

[03] Totem Hunter

[01] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

I won the starting roll and elected to go first (always go first with pirates). Being able to advance deploy the bulk of my army I was able to choose the match ups that I wanted. The sea dogs would face off against the Ravagers and the Press Gang against the wolves. The pirates ran screaming forwards with the solos almost exclusively on the left with the sea dogs (though rockbottom stayed in the middle so he could pay off both units). The gun mages ran up behind the Press Gang and Damiano threw out Sure Foot on one of the Press Gang and Death March on the Sea Dogs. Alexia also went on the left. Gorman threw some smoke in front of Damiano. 

The wolves rushed the zone on the right but the Tharn (which had not been advanced deployed, Uli already failing his pledge to use the abilities on his cards) ran to the edge of the zone on the left but not all the way into the zone. The Totem Hunter (which had selected Hawk as its prey) went on a flanking manuevre and Uli put Carnivore up on the wolves of orboros and cast fog of war giving everything concealment. Both warpwolves moved into the teleportation triangle and Uli was careful to keep at least one member of each unit back so that in the case of pirate wipe out there would still be at least one member left allowing him to resurrect the unit. Lastly the swamp gobbers put up a cloud in front of Lady Goat. 

Pirates always have a great scenario game so it was time to put that to use and get some field position. Also everything I killed would not be able to fight next turn so that would count for something. I upkept both spells and allocated two to Tipsy McStagger (also known as Rocinante) and Damiano kept two. Rockbottom spent two coins and gave both units Payday. Damiano gave deadeye to the gun mages and they moved up behind the press gang to try and clear them a path so they could get deeper into the Wolf unit. The Gun Mages killed 6 wolves and Eiryss chipped in for a 7th taking Carnivore off that unit. The press gang then charged killing another two wolves, a stone, and put a little bit of damage on the Stalker and failed to kill the Gallows Grove. The Sea Dogs then charged and killed all but two Ravagers including the White Mane. Rocinante moved up and had a shot at the Gallows Grove which had stealth (thanks to Fog Of War) and scattered onto the Grove a shifting stone and one of the living Ravagers. Despite boosting the damage rolls on the tree and the Ravager neither was fatally wounded. Piper gave the Sea Dogs tough the solos moved up, Alexia got into prime corpse collection range (she managed to get one of the Ravager corpes as well). In a shocking turn of events Gorman chose to drop smoke in front of Damiano. 

Feat turn. Uli and I spent a bit of time working out order of activations here and the best target for Carnivore. The totem hunter advanced and jumped getting a risen in its melee, after killing it it used the sprint move to move to the far corner of the yellow zone. Lady goat activated, purified off death march and sure foot and then dropped carnivore on the Wolves, everything came back but the shifting stone (non-living). The two Gallows Groves teleported right into the middle of my tough units. With their aura stopping tough the Ravagers charged and got as many of the no longer tough sea dogs in melee as possible they wiped out over half the unit but the unit was fearless so did not need to make a command check. The Gorax also charged in and killed two sea dogs. There is a bit of noise about ravagers being not an optimal choice with Goatvanna because carnivore stops heart eater from working. However being able to place a Gallows grove when she feats and being able to re-roll any misses means that they will kill every living model in melee range, brutal charge lets them take down heavies if needed (and they can reroll damage rolls too which helps a lot against heavies), advance deployment is one of the best abilities a melee unit can have (RTFC - read the fucking card) along with reach and they have both. That and she brings them back with 8 boxes. In the green zone the wolves charged and healed Goatvanna back 8. The Stalker also moved towards the zone and killed a few press gang. The white mane moved to engage some gun mages and the pureblood sprayed and killed 3 gun mages. Lanyssa had a shot at Rockbottom but he toughed and was in range of Bosun Grogspar so he was not knocked down. 

Uli was pretty confident after his turn but while I felt that he was pulling ahead in attrition, he had neglected the scenario. The plan was to wipe out everything on the left side of the table. Tipsy McStagger got 3 focus, Damiano got 3 (stupid purification). Tipsy walked over to the totem hunter, smacked it with its battle blade then quick shot a Ravager dead. Damiano moved up into the yellow zone and feated and cast Death March on the sea dogs. Rockbottom shuffled through the shallow water in the centre and gave payday to the sea dogs, he also put some damage on the Gorax and a Ravager with his spray. Grogspar moved up and used his hook to pitch a Ravager into Lanyssa killing both her and the Ravager (he also put a little bit of damage onto the pureblood who the Ravager also landed on). The sea dogs charged and wiped out the rest of the Ravagers and the nearby shifting stone. Grogspar killed the Gallows grove, Alexia and Hawk killed the Gorax. The risen penned in the warpwolved and filled in the gaps so they could not even trample towards the yellow zone. There were now no circle models on the entire left hand side of the table. On the other side of the table the gun mages aimed and the unengaged gun mages shot at the white main pushing it out of combat and killing it with some spectacular rolls from two gun mages. The other two killed wolves in the zone. The press gang moved around and killed some more of the wolves in the green zone and killed the last Gallows Grove. Unfortunately one wolf remained alive in the zone stopping me from claiming 3 points. The piper gave tough to the risen this turn and Gorman again chose to go out on a limb and throw some smoke in front of Damiano. 

I am a derp and have no picture of the battlefield. I do however have one of the casualties from that turn only:

At that point time was upon us (we spent way to long fart arsing around and picking up people from uni and getting lunch) so we called it a win to Damiano (based on tie breakers). Uli checked and nothing could get into the zone giving me another 3 points minimum. Technically he might have been able to get something into the zone in two turns but it was unlikely to be enough with Alexia, Hawk, Rocinante and Damiano all still alive and swinging and there was always a chance that I could clear the green zone as well. 

Thoughts on the match - Damiano is a fantastic caster but Lady Goat has answers to him. It's the jam in addition to the hitting power that keeps him in the game. Uli did not watch the scenario closely enough but played the attrition game very well. Sans scenario Uli was probably slightly ahead on attrition (stupid lady goat feat). Fog of War is ridiculous is circle, way too much stealth out on the table. Makes the Reeves worth taking as well (especially since you can feat and use sick 'em with the war wolves). Morvhana heals a lot of damage. Pirates are awesome in SR2013.