With our league starting up next week, this was most likely to be the last America Hill game we'd be playing for awhile. In addition it may be my last battle report for a while. While I'm playing a league game I'm not going to be able take the time to take pictures of everything between turns. So don't be expecting a new post every week.

This time around we went with some changes to the hill rules. To emphasize getting to to the hill even more, we required

• At the end of each turn, the player with the most models on the hill gains 1 VP.
  • A unit counts as 1 model, regardless of the number of members on the hill
  • In the case of a tie, VPs are awarded to all players tied for most models on the hill
• At the end of a turn where a player has his warcaster/warlock on the hill, the controlling player rolls 1d6 and gains the following bonus:

1. Immediately activate the Yellow Woldwomper
2. Immediately activate the Blue Woldwomper
3. Immediately activate the Red Woldwomper
4. Place any one model currently on the hill or within 3” of the hill within 6” of its current location. Model may not be placed more than 4” above the table surface. There must be room for the model’s base at the destination.
5. Place 1d4 3” cloud effects in play anywhere completely within the warlock/warcaster’s control radius. These clouds remain in play for one round.
6. Place 1 3” fire storm template anywhere within completely within the warlock/warcaster’s control radius. The warcaster/warlock must make a magic attack roll against each model in the AOE ignoring LOS, cover, concealment, elevation, Stealth, Invisibility, or intervening models. Each model hit suffers an unboostable POW 12 damage roll and the Fire continuous effect.

We also decided to fight it out on a large molded plastic terrain board and had to use a smaller hill for the center of the table. Most of the rocks and rubble provided cover, and we let people move out of their deployment areas without movement penalties on the first turn because it would have been too unfair to a couple players.

James, the Cryxian player, opted to go last so I wound up going first. We deployed and set up in the following order:

Protectorate (Myself)

• Kreoss
• Crusader
• Crusader
• Vilmon
• Paladin
• Paladin
• Choir

Cygnar (Patman)

• Siege
• Centurion
• Lancer
• Junior
• GMAC
• Reinholdt

Trollbloods (Prorpger)

• Grissel
• Dire Troll Mauler
• Pyre Troll
• Scattergunners

Prprpger was trying out some Trollblood models he didn't own, so Madrack was standing in for Grissel and he had a couple bonejacks for use as Scattergunners.

Cryx (James)

• Skarre
• Helldiver
• Helldiver
• Bane Thralls
• Mechanithralls
• Skarlock
• Necrotech

Turn 1

Protectorate
When setting up, I noticed that Skarre had no arc nodes so I decided to throw Vilmon over in that direction to force James to have to deal with him with Skarre. I started the turn by running both Crusaders forward, then Kreoss put Protection of Menoth on Vilmon and moved forward. Vilmon activated Impervious Wall and ran to the hill, claiming it in Menoth's name. The Paladins moved up to flank Vilmon and the Choir advanced in the rear and put Ward on the Crusaders.

+1 VP Menoth for models on the hill.

Cygnar
Cygnar's gunmen moved forward but were just short of range to the choir near Kreoss. The Centurion moved towards the hill and the Lancer ran, getting on the hill. Siege lobbed a Shockwave through it at Vilmon and hit, doing 2 points of damage and pushing him 6" back off the hill. Junior cast Arcane Shield on Siege.+1 VP Cygnar for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
The Mauler raced to the hill, getting his base up on it. The Pyre Troll then advanced and boosted an attack and damage roll against the lancer, dishing out about 5 points of damage. Then the rest of the troll troops walked forward, with Grissel dumping off some fury so she could leech next turn.

+1 VP Cygnar, Trollbloods for models on the hill.

Cryx
Seeing Vilmon knocked back off the hill and closer to her, Skarre decided to take care of the Paladin. After giving a focus to each Helldiver so they could run onto the hill she cast a fully boosted Hellfire at him, then walked up towards the hill.

After Skarre finished, the thralls spread out massing forward. The Mechanithralls spread out on my flank and the Banes positioned themselves to face Prprpger. The Skarlock Sac Lambed a Mechthrall, rolling a 4 for focus.

+1 VP Cryx for models on the hill.

Score

• Protectorate: 1 (+1 Hill)
• Cygnar: 2 (+2 Hill)
• Trollbloods: 1 (+1 Hill)
• Cryx: 1 (+1 Hill)

Turn 2

Protectorate
I felt dirty, but, well, it was either this or eat a Skarre Bomb next turn. Kreoss put three focus on his left crusader then walked up and feated, catching the Centurion, Lancer, Mauler, and all of the Cryxian forces except four Bane Thralls in the very back. He then walked forward. The focused Crusader then charged the knocked down Skarre (who had spent all her focus killing Vilmon), Inferno Mace insuring she was done for the day.

The other Crusader moved forward to catch the edge of the hill and the Choir moved up to block access to Kreoss before singing Ward on the Crusader on the hill. My left Paladin charged the Mechanithrall leader, killing him and the right Paladin stepped out towards the Cygnar line to serve as a distraction.

+1 Protectorate, Cygnar, Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cygnar
Siege moved a bit towards Kreoss, putting Explosive on himself and Jr. He used Ground Pounder to take out the Choir around Kreoss, killing the only one not in the template by using the Exoplosivo attack on the one next to him. GMAC shot and killed the Paladin. The Centurion continued its advance towards the hill. Jr moves towards the trolls to put some threat on that side of the table. He shoots a Scattergunner (with Explosivo), killing one.+1 Protectorate, Cygnar, Trollblood for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
The Scattergunners move up and start spraying banes, killing two, missing a few because of stealth, and actually rolling low enough to fail to kill a couple. The Mauler stands up and Walks to the middle of the hill, and the Pyre Troll walks onto the hill and boosts a shot at the Lancer, missing but doing minimal damage on the scatter. Then Grissel goes, walking towards the hill and putting Hoof It on the Scattergunners, who shuffle up so a couple of their members are on the hill as well.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cryx
With most of his forces knocked down, his Banes surround my Crusader and his Mechanithralls surround the Paladin. The one Bane able to attack takes five points out of the Crusader.+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Score

• Protectorate: 10 (+2 Hill, +5 Skarre, +2 Helldiver x2, )
• Cygnar: 5 (+2 Hill, +1 Paladin)
• Trollbloods: 3 (+2 Hill)
• Cryx: 1

Turn 3

Protectorate
With Siege and his gunmen so close, I needed to keep focus on Kreoss to try to live out the turn, but need to clear the hill a bit. So Kreoss placed two focus on the Crusader on the hill and kept the rest. Said Crusader slammed the Mauler, but only knocked it back one inch, killing a single Scattergunner. I needed him to go further back but it didn't work out for me. The Paladin actually missed a Mechanithrall with his MAT 8 but the Crusader hit with both attacks, rolling too poorly on his open fist but killing one with his mace. Kreoss activated, telling the last choir boy to run before walking to the edge of the hill and casting Protection of Menoth on himself. Then the choir boy ran to the hill to give me three models on it.

Finally, someone got a caster to the hill. I rolled on the chart and got a 4. With Cygnar going next, I decided to move the Centurion 6" away from Siege so it couldn't get focus and couldn't attack Kreoss. That Piston Spear would have been painful.

+1 VP Protectorate, Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cygnar
The Centurion wound up just out of Siege's control area, so it wasn't able to get any focus this turn. Siege started by feating then channeled shockwave through the lancer at a nearby Scattergunner, sending them bouncing off each other and killing three in the process. Then dropped a ground pounder on Kreoss and the last Choir member, killing the choir boy but missing Kreoss. He then tried shooting Kreoss but missed when we realized Kreoss was within 2" of the Woldwomper, thus engaged by it and in melee. GMAC and Jr. tried to shoot him as well but both missed. The Centurion walked up onto the hill, bashing the Pyre Troll with his shield but missing with the spear.

With the loss of the choir, the trolls owned the hill with 3 models.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
Prprpger had a good turn, despite the Pyre Troll frenzing on the Centurion and doing no damage. He started out by having Mauler stand up and walk to the top of the hill. The Scattergunners walked around the Mauler, shooting a Bane Thrall and otherwise getting between the Crusader and Mauler. Then Grissel walked to the Centurion, put Calamity on it, and whacked it with her maul, deafening it. After that she used Hoof It on herself and walked away and up onto the hill, ignoring free strikes.

With Grissel finally on the hill, he rolled on the chart and got to activate the Woldwomper next to the Centurion. With the jack still deafened and unable to take free strikes, Prprpger walked the Woldwomper back behind it and between bypassing its shield and Calamity still being up, the Woldwomper wrecked the Centurion.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cryx
The Mechanithralls on the Paladin finally killed him. The Necrotech walked up and immobilized the Crusader and the two surviving banes did a few more points of damage to it (one actually missed its melee attack).

Score

• Protectorate: 11 (+1 Hill)
• Cygnar: 6 (+2 Choir)
• Trollbloods: 9 (+3 Hill, +3 Centurion)
• Cryx: 2 (+1 Paladin)

Turn 4

Protectorate
Kreoss dropped his upkeep spells and charged Siege, making sure to engage the GMAC as well with his reach. Thanks to Spellbreaker's Dispel ability, the first hit nullified Arcane Shield and Kreoss was able to kill Siege (though it cost all his focus to do so). The crusaders flailed at the various infantry around them without killing any and I ended my turn.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cygnar
Rineholt fled with his caster dead, dying to Kreoss's free strike. Jr charged Kreoss and hit him (boosting), doing 8 points of damage. His second attack hit but didn't get through armor. The GMAC sidestepped around JR to get out of melee without taking a free strike (using Jr. to block melee access to him), but couldn't hit Kreoss with the defensive bonus for being in melee.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
Grissel leeched the only two fury she had on the table from the Pyre Troll and Feated, then put the Mauler's animus on himself. The Mauler then charged Kreoss (taking a free strike from a Woldwomper but not loosing an aspect) and ate him.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cryx
We had to pick up and turn in at this point, so the Cryx player didn't bother with his last turn.

Final Score

• Protectorate: 19 (+5 Siege, +2 Lancer, +1 Rineholdt)
• Cygnar: 6
• Trollbloods: 23 (+3 Hill, +5 Kreoss, +6 Crusader x2)
• Cryx: 2

My Thoughts

Protectorate
Vilmon was a huge distraction, and I think he knocked the Cryxian player off his game enough to leave Skarre out infront of the Crusader. I'm going to enjoy using him in the league. I got lucky when I accidently engaged the Woldwomper with Kreoss's reach - that extra defense saved his butt when Siege feated.

Cygnar
I don't think Patman realized how powerful having a caster on the hill was. When I was able to move the Centruion out of his control area, that really hurt his plans for the following round and really blunted its use. He spent most of the game trying to eliminate my ranks and he did a good job with most of it, but in the end Kreoss's melee ability proved why it's so underrated. MAT 7 POW 14 Reach that dispels upkeeps? Yes, please.

Trollbloods
Talk about getting the roll when he needed it, by activating the Woldwomper on turn 3 Prprpger was able to kill the Centurion instead of just deafening it, taking VPs I would have otherwise earned when I killed Siege. That 3 point swing would have made the difference in the end.

Those damn trolls are resilient. Prprpger's growing fond of them as well, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him fielding a Trollblood army before too long.

Cryx
James had a bad day. He was getting himself ready for a big turn 2, unfortunately looked too far past turn 1 and made a mistake. I felt a little dirty killing him after he only got one turn, but I think he'll be more concious of his placement when he plays in the league after having suffered that, so I hope it was more of a good lesson than a jerk Protectorate player.

America Hill
The terrain on this table sucked. We really should have put down more terrain between the armies to force most of the fighting to take place on or around the hill. The rules however worked pretty well. Accumulating hill VPs on a tie meant people who dedicated forces to it would pull ahead of those who didn't, even if they were fighting each other for most models. And the randomness of the Hill benefits meant that no one would get two extra Woldwompers fighting them but at the same time the benefits that were given proved very effective. There's defintely an incentive to get to the hill quickly. And with the game going past caster kill, you could risk him/her to do so if you wanted.

Although we took a week off from the free-for-all game, Renwolf, Patman, Jgoewert and myself wound up playing a multiplayer team game, 350 points per person. Turns out a couple of arch enemies but aside their religious differences to do something important - try to beat up on some Cygnar.

Team 1: Cygnar

• Stryker (JGoewert)
  • Ironclad
  • Gun Mages
  • Stormblades
• Siege (Patman)
  • Defender
  • Lancer
  • Journeyman Warcaster
  • Gun Mage Captain Adept
  • Rineholdt

Team 2: Fanatic Alliance

• Krueger (Renwolf)
  • Woldwarden
  • Argus
  • Gorax (proxied by the primed Argus)
  • Lord of the Feast
  • Shifting Stones
• Feora (Myself)
  • Crusader
  • Devout
  • Revenger
  • Choir
  • Wrack x3

Turn 1

Cygnar
Cygnar's advance was pretty strait forward. The Gun Mages got a 6" snipe from Styker and Jr. put Arcane Shield up on the Stormblades. The GMAC ran into the woods and Stryler's Ironclad moved to the leftmost flank. Everything else on their side of the table walked forward. A trio of Gun Mages fired an Arcane Inferno at the closest Shifting Stone and managed to destroy it, taking away their teleportation capability.

Fanatic Alliance
Feora's jacks ran up 8" and she moved up behind them, camping on the remaining 3 focus. The choir moved up and put Safe Passage on the warjacks. Krueger's beasts ran up to the little woods in front to hide from the Cygnaran guns.

Turn 2

Cygnar
With no targets in range, John's Gun Mages spread out to have a larger field of fire on the following turn. The Ironclad ran forward and Stryker moved up and tossed an Earthquake at the Circle units but couldn't catch anything in the deviation. The Stormblades ran up again to get out in front. Jr. put Arcane Shield on the Lancer, which ran out in front of the Protectorate army. Siege threw two shockwaves which ripped back through the Menite forces and killed the warpriest and a pair of acolytes. Siege and Rineholt stayed back behind their cover. The GMAC ran over to the far left flank near Stryker.

Fanatic Alliance
A turn of two feats. Renwolf and I decided to try to throw both our feats out there to finish off the infantry and create a big enough point discrepency on the board to carry us through to the end. The Crusader Advances towards the Lancer. The Devout followed up and took a boosted attack and damage roll at the Cygnaran arc node, not doing much. The Revenger ran up as well, but couldn't attack yet. Feora moved forward and shifted to the left and feated, catching all the Stormblades but the leader as well as Jr and the Lancer.

Renwolf shifted his Woldwarden out to the left of his forest and his other beasts advanced further in. Then Krueger walked into the forest and let loose his feat, spreading the templates out across the Gun Mage line. He burned through his fury boosting attack rolls, but wound up killing 5 of the 6 Gun Mages.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of our own models, just of the aftereffects of the feats.

Turn 3

Cygnar
Fire went out on Jr and the Lancer but took care of all the Stormblades but the leader.

Siege throws a Rift spell at the Revenger, who was just out of engagement range of the Lancer, doing some damage and leaving the rough terrain template down in its wake. The Defender took a shot at Feora but missed. Jr shifted over and tried to shoot the Devout, but the penalty for firing into melee caused the shot to go wide. The last Gun Mage fired at the Devout, but missed due to it being in combat with the Lancer. The Stormblade charged the Devout (who whiffed on the Defensive Strike) and did a few points of damage to it.

On the other side of the table, Stryker lobbed an Arcane Blast at the Lord of the Feast that didn't deviate on to anything. He then shot his gun at the Argus, doing a few points of damage. Then a three-focus Ironclad charged the Argus, pounding it into a two-headed paste. GMAC shot the Lord of the Feast for 5 damage, but he had 8 and was still alive.

Fanatic Alliance
Renwolf shifted his templates around, using one to do a point to Stryker and kill the GMAC and the other to take out the last Gun Mage (it couldn't quite catch the last Stormblade).

The Crusader walks up and tries to Armlock the Lancer's shield, but even with boosting rolls like crap and can't get a grip. The Devout holds on to his one remaining Cortex box and holds his attack while the Revenger walks up to engage (and be engaged by) the Lancer, but holds off attacking this turn. Feora casts Blazing Effigy on the Crusader, killing the Stormblade but rolling (boosted) poorly on the Lancer and doing only a couple points. Without focus and with Siege still having not feated, she shifts away and to the left, trying to keep from getting shot.

The Woldwarden circles through the woods and tries to chain attack the Ironclad, but even with boosted attack rolls misses the first attack. The second connects for significant damage, though. The Lord of the Feasts circles around and does a couple more points as well, then one Shifting Stone moves between the Ironclad and the Lord of the Feast while the other heals him for a couple points. Krueger then moves back and casts Tornado at the Ironclad, throwing it back into the obstruction. He boosts the roll and does enough damage to finish of its hammer and its movement, neutering it for the rest of the game.

Turn 4Cygnar
Ack, I forgot pictures this round!

The Ironclad gets up and moves towards the Circle forces. Stryker Earthquaked the Woldwarden, knocking it down. Then he charged Siege for extra movement, failing his charge but getting away from the flank. The Defender takes up position on a hill and fires at Feora, but misses. Jr. Shifts to the edge of his cover and takes a shot at her as well, but she's just out of range. Siege slips out and fires twice at the Revenger, doing a fair bit of damage but not taking out any systems.

Fanatic Alliance
Feora pulled a focus from her wrack in the Circle's woods, causing it to explode and doing a eight points of damage to the Gorax in the process. Oops. She uses those two to cast Ignite on the Revenger then backs away further. I couldn't afford to risk her getting shot up on a Siege Feat turn. The Crusader boosts an armlock on the Lancer, grabbing its spear (and taking a Cortex damage in the process). The Revenger then Charges Siege without taking a free strike, since the Lancer no longer had reach. He lands one good blow for five damage, but it's enough to get in the caster's face. The Devout moves up past the Lancer and the surviving choir boys just go make a nuisance of themselves.

The Lord of the Feast walks up and throws his bird at Stryker, getting lucky and hitting. He teleports behind the warcaster and takes two melee attacks, doing about doing about six more damage. Krueger walks up and tries to Forked Lightning Stryker but misses. Fortunately it hits the Lord of the Feast instead (not killing him), then bounces to Stryker for a few more damage.

Turn 5
We were packing up as we played this round (store was closing) so there's only one picture.

Cygnar
Stryker turns around and cuts down the Lord of Feast, but has to spend a good deal of his focus doing so. He spends the last of it Arcane Blasting the Gorax, the Feats to try to protect himself from the Woldwarden.

Jr. tries to Arcane Bolt a choir boy and misses, then shoots him. Siege feats as well, then takes a swing at the Revenger (with Lucky Charm) and disables it. The Defender lobs a shot at the Devout and totals it as well. The Lancer doesn't activate this turn.

Fanatic Alliance
Last turn and we need to kill a caster to win on VPs. Feora casts Engine of Destruction and moves up, then sprays Junior twice but can't hit on two boosted attack rolls. :/ So she dumps the last to focus to put Ignite on the Woldwarden. The Crusader takes a swing at the Lancer and misses.

The Woldwarden moves up and pounds Stryker, finishing off his last six damage points in one attack. Krueger moves over and Forked Lightning's Jr. for good measure, and we ended the game.

Final Score

Cygnar
2 Revenger
2 Devout
2 Argus
1 Half the Choir
1 Lord of the Feast
----------
8

Fanatic Alliance
5 Stryker
3 Ironclad
2 Gun Mages
2 Storm Blades
1 Junior
---------
13

My Thoughts

Cygnar
I'd almost think they feated a turn or two too late -- they may have been able to do more damage to us at range had they done so earlier. Keeping their Casters separate meant that we couldn't double team them well, but neither were in a position to benefit from the others feat as well. Still, it was a rough game. Patman's Shockwave Bowling of my Choir Warpriest ended my chants early, which would have made quite a bit of difference had I had them around. The Lancer pulled its weight as well, jinxing my die rolls against it all night.

Fanatic Alliance
The fact that Cygnar brought a few units and both our casters feats are great anti-infantry feats meant we brought the paper to their rock this game. We tried to rush in before we got shot up, but just couldn't quite close the gap fast enough and Cygnar started to take us apart as we went. I had to play defensively with Feora to keep her from going up in flames. Luckily we were able to reach Stryker on the last turn and finish him off. I always comment on how deceptively tough he is to nail down with 16 DEF and 15 ARM. He's no Caine, but he can still be tricky.

It was a cold and dreary night, but none of us cared because we were all crammed in the back room of the local gaming store, crowded around a table moving our little pewter figures around foam we called “hills” and felt we called “forests.” Somewhere in the midst of our madness we had a wild and crazy Warmachine/Hordes King of the Hill style game between myself, Eye Tyrant, Prorpger, and Patman while Superduck (aka the Breadstick King) watched on).

We decided to have a 350-point four-way King of the Hill style match. Instead of scoring on every turn, each player would earn a victory point if they had more models than anyone else on the hill at the end of their own turn starting with the second turn. The board was dominated by the hill in the center, but there were a few other terrain pieces scattered around the board. Only the hill in the middle and the forest between the Patman and my own deployment areas got any use. The hill itself had some rough edges but to be fair we decided the whole thing was a smooth surface and a model only had to get on part of it to be “on the hill.” Prorpger threw a plastic American Flag that was sitting around on the hill, giving it its name. Which was fine until we realized this must be Early America Hill since there were only four stars and three stripes on the flag. Regardless, the battle was soon joined...

After sitting around the table I won the initiative roll so started the game. The armies in the order we would take turns were:

Everblight (myself – I wanted to try the swordsmen so I was spotted 3 points)

• Vayl
• Carnivean
• Seraph (Played by a Vanquisher while my Seraph is being assembled)
• Shredder
• Blighted Swordsman x6

Circle (Eye Tyrant)

• Baldur
• Waldwarden
• Warpwolf
• Argus

Menoth (Prorpger)

• Kreoss
• Avatar of Menoth
• Reckoner

Cygnar (Patman)

• Siege
• Centurion
• Lancer
• Junior Warcaster
• Gun Mage Captain Adept
• Reinhold (Played by a Stormsmith)

I need to preface this by saying I made a pretty bad mistake with the digital camera. I turned the flash off to get clearer pictures, but I forgot that when the camera’s in auto mode it increases exposure time to compensate, resulting in some blurry pictures. I’ll know better next time but unfortunately some of these pictures aren’t all that great.

Turn 1

Everblight
Vayl moved forward and slipstreamed the Carnivean into the forest to get it near the Cygnar deployment lines. The GMAC had set up near my troops, and I didn’t want him taking pot shots all game so I decided to Assault him first turn. I didn’t want to get my Carnivean killed doing so though, so I decided to go ahead and pop Vayl’s feat first turn. It wouldn’t have the impact it could have later in the game but it was my first game and I wanted to try it out. After feating and throwing out a few Spiny Growths, she ended her activation. The Carnivean then Assaulted the GMCA, killing him with his breath weapon. The Blighted Swordsmen ran to the hill, the first two getting the front edge of their bases on it. The Seraph and the Shredders advanced as well and I was done.

Circle
Baldur’s fuzzies run on the hill and the Warden walks towards my troops, triggering Cat and Mouse. I take the opportunity to move the Carnivean back to my side of the forest, safe from reprisal from the Cygnaran forces. The Warden then throws out an Earth Spikes, hitting a swordsman and killing him.

Menoth
The Avatar runs onto the hill with his self-generated focus. The Reckoner advances and shoots the Warpwolf, scoring a critical hit and doing some severe damage to the beast. Kreoss follows behind and throws down Protection of Menoth on the Avatar.

I finally remembered to take pictures here:

Cygnar
Junior casts Arcane Shield on the Centurion and it advances towards the Avatar. The Lancer runs up onto the hill towards my troops. Siege fires a Ground Pounder and then a second shot (using Reinhold) at my blighted swordsmen, killing three more.

Score:

• Everblight: 1 (GMAC)
• Circle: 0
• Menoth: 0
• Cygnar: 0

Turn 2

Everblight
The Seraph wings its way up on the hill and shoots at the Warpwolf, hitting a couple times but falling just short of finishing it off. The two remaining Swordsmen charge the Lancer with the benefit of Chiller and total it. The Shredder edges on to the hill, giving me three models/units on the hill and a VP. Vayl and the Carnivean move up, but keep the edge of the forest between her and Siege.

Circle
The Warpwolf Regenerates and the Argus moves up to Doppler Bark the avatar. The Woldwarden walks up onto the hill and hits the Seraph once for some pretty good damage. Baldur gets to the hill and feats, then heals the Warpwolf for four. There’s now four Circle models in the hill, giving them a VP for that.

Menoth
The Reckoner shoots the Warpwolf again, doing some damage but not getting the second Crit. The Avatar uses Gaze of Menoth, much to the annoyance of everyone on the hill. Kreoss then repositions a bit behind the Reckoner to try to stay out of reach. Baldur’s feat meant Prorpger’s army wouldn’t have been able to move up and capitalize on Kreoss’ feat, so he didn’t use it.

Cygnar
Patman pounces. Siege feats and moves up, staying out of Baldur’s control area. He feats, then rains a ground pounder down on the Blighted Swordsmen, Seraph, and Shredder but misses them all. He then shot something else but I can’t remember what. Finally he cast Explosivo on Jr. Jr took a boosted shot at a Swordsman, killing him and his remaining unit member in the explosion. The Centurion, fully loaded on focus, charges up and around the Reckoner to get the spear on Kreoss. He gets the oh-so-important critical hit on the charge attack, all but guaranteeing Kreoss’s death. With Kreoss’s ARM dropped by Siege’s feat the first attack split Kreoss’s armor like a lobster shell and the second attack skewered the soft insides. Kreoss’ death deactivated the Reckoner, scoring Patman a load of VPs.

Score:

• Everblight: 4 (+1 from hill, +2 Lancer)
• Circle: 1 (+1 from hill)
• Menoth: 0
• Cygnar: 10 (+2 for swordsmen, +5 for Kreoss, +3 for Reckoner)

Turn 3

Everblight
Able to see Baldur from where it is, the Seraph takes some shots with the aiming bonus. The die gods decided Baldur was to live and the dice came up three boxes short. The Shredder moved up on to the hill next, angling because of Baldur’s feat. With Siege’s feat having been used, Vayl and the Carivean break cover and advance on the hill outside Baldur’s control radius.

Circle
The Argus tries to Slam the Avatar back off the hill but misses on the attack. The Warpwolf gets the +2 STR warping and charges, tearing into the Avatar furiously. When it’s all said and done the Avatar is left with three boxes, but they’re enough to keep his hull and right arm (with his sword) in tact. Baldur puts up the Woldwarden’s animus and sits on three fury defensively. His three models on the hill nets him another VP.

Menoth
The Avatar generated 3 focus and stood up (having been knocked down by Throat Ripper). Those three focus were enough to cram Burning Wrath down the Warpwolf’s throat, scoring Prorpger a kill.

Cygnar
After upkeeping Arcane Shield on the Centurion, Junior charged it and by some good die rolls managed to actually kill the Avatar. Siege walks up to just out of melee range with the Argus and attempts to Shockwave it back towards Baldur but doesn’t push it far enough. With the Woldwarden full on fury, he decides to take two shots (with Rinehold), one to kill the Argus then one to try and finish Baldur but the first shot on the Argus doesn’t quite finish it off. Patman thought about shooting the Argus again to kill it, but doing so would mean on my turn Baldur wouldn’t have anything to transfer to and I’d be in a better position to kill him, so he left it on the table for me to deal with. The Centurion advanced towards the hill to end the round.

Score:

• Everblight: 4
• Circle: 2 (+1 Hill)
• Menoth: 3 (+3 Warpwolf)
• Cygnar: 14 (+4 Avatar)

Turn 4

Everblight
I actually had a great chance to kill Baldur. Vayl advanced to within 8” of him and put Chiller on the Seraph, raising it’s effective MAT to 9. The Shredder was forced to go rabid and circled around the Woldwarden staying out of melee range to finish off the Argus. Then the Seraph circled the Woldwarden (ignoring the free strike) and prepared to impale Baldur... until I realized Vayl forgot to heal him and he was missing his Spirit and Mind. That mistake cost me the ability to force forcing and one attack die. I still could have hit on a 5, but I rolled a 3 and missed. The Carnivean ran up to engage the Woldwarden, positioning itself so that if it wanted to move to attack Vayl it would receive two free strikes and a Dark Sentinel attack to boot and ended my turn.

Circle
The Woldwarden turned and smacked the Seraph around, taking out its last few boxes. Baldur then charged Siege. Tritus was a pretty mean weapon, but Siege’s ARM proved a bit too high and Baldur couldn’t quite finish him off.

Cygnar
With Baldur at 3 wounds left, it was just a matter of hitting him before he died. Siege had take a few swings, but once he connected the rest was trivial. In addition he scored a VP for most models on the hill at the end of his turn.

Score:

• Everblight: 6 (+2 Argus)
• Circle: 4 (+2 Seraph)
• Menoth: 3
• Cygnar: 20 (+5 Baldur, +1 Hill)

At this point we decided to call the game. The mall was almost closing, and a quick tally showed I had the Carnivean, Shredders, and Vayl left on the table and Patman had the Centurion, Siege, Rineholdt, and Junior (10 VPs) and Eye Tyrant had his Woldwarden (3 VPs). Even if I ran the table on my turn I’d at best tie the game (with the 1VP for models on the hill). It would have required above average die rolls, and any mistake would have meant the game. So we decided to pack up and clear out before the security guards came by the store and hassled the owners.

My Thoughts

Everblight
I hung back too far and didn’t get into the game enough to really kill much. I don’t’ think I got a lot of use out of Vayl’s feat, but considering Baldur’s feat was up through the middle turns I probably wouldn’t have gotten much more later in the game. As it was I kept GMCA off my flank, which was good enough. Last thing I needed was my beasts getting thunderbolted around the table or my Shredder and Seraph Blazed to death. Blighted Swordsman are mean... with fearless the last few will always stick around and with Weaponmaster they can really wreck someone’s day. Or at least their Lancer.

I think that had I healed the Seraph I would have had a shot at winning, but I just didn’t think to look at his card before the turn and didn’t. Oh well, next time I’ll remember.

Circle
Eye Tyrant had a streak of bad luck. He did a lot of damage to multiple models/units, but just didn’t finish many off, denying him VPs. He really should have gotten the Avatar at the very least, which would have bumped him up to second place. Baldur’s feat would have been extremely useful in this scenario except that there were so many targets out there. Patman was able to attack Prorpger without having to enter Baldur’s feat, so while it did keep anyone from taking the hill they wound up just directing their attention elsewhere.

Menoth
Taking the turn after Eye Tyrant hosed Kreoss on the second turn. Baldur’s feat meant he couldn’t get to the hill to capitalize on his feat, so he held off. In hindsight using it would have knocked the Centurion down and saved him, but I don’t think he expected the jack’s reach to make it around the Reckoner. It was a gamble to hold off on the feat, and unfortunately he lost that wager. But now he’s faced a Centurion and can draw on the experience later.

Cygnar
Patman was really frustrated when his GMCA died first thing then he lost his Lancer to the Swordsmen, but in the end he didn’t need them to finish everyone off. The Centurion served him well and Siege’s gun just proved a pain to anyone on or near the hill for three turns. Rinhold did what Rinehold dies and the Arcane Shield battery actually brought down the Avatar (with just a little help from the Warpwolf). All in all he rolled well and pulled off the win.