Victory for the Motherland

Played my first non-battle box game last night against Etna's Vassal, the man who bears some responsibility for my return to wargaming in general and Warmachine in particular. I was concerned going in on two fronts: first because it was my first game with infantry, and second because he was playing Skorne and I had never faced a Hordes army before. It turns out I didn't need to be concerned as I won handily, losing only a Juggernaut and a Manhuntress. Army lists were as follows.

The Valiant Armies of Khador
PSorscha
Juggernaut
Destroyer
Widowmakers
Greylord Ternion
Winter Guard Mortar
Manhuntress
Man O War Kovnik
Kodiak (marshaled by the Kovnik)

The Scurrilous Armies of Skorne
Archdomina Makeda
Titan Gladiator
Cyclops Savage
Cyclops Brute
Praetorian Swordsmen
Cataphract Centrati
Paingivers
Agonizer

That's my best guess at his list going by what I remember and the PP Skorne gallery page. I was initially dismayed at the amount of infantry EV was fielding. Infantry was, as noted, a big concern of mine going in and I was worried about being swamped. It turns out that I did end up swamped by infantry and it wasn't such a bad thing, though that owes as much to EV's poor dice rolling (consecutive rolls: 3, 2, 2, 2 on 2d6) as it does to solid Khadoran armor plating. In the end I think the game turned on a couple events. One, his Titan came up a couple inches short of charging my Destroyer, which led to my Greylords freezing it in place and the Destroyer following up with liberal amounts of axe to mouth. Second was the aforementioned poor dice rolling, where 5 charging swordsmen left the Kovnik standing with 1 unmarked box, and another 4 swordsmen scratching the paint a little on my Kodiak.

EV surrendered after the death of two of his three warbeasts with his warlock exposed, staring down the barrel of Sorscha's feat and an angry Destroyer fingering it's axe and eyeing the locks mouth. I learned a lot about how fury works and I think I have a firm grasp on the mechanics of it now. He had a lot of models still in the game and I was less convinced he was screwed than he was, but we were under something akin to time restraints and he was in store for some serious axe to mouth action, so it probably would have worked out as he expected anyway.

I was very pleased with the Kovnik/Kodiak pairing. It was my first time using either one and they worked together as well as I had hoped they would. The Kovnik's Drive ability seems tailored to the Kodiak's method of assualt, allowing me to boost the initial attacks and also the throw attack with his 'jack marshal bonus. Unfortunately I couldn't manage a 7 on 3 dice to land the throw, but it was glorious when it worked in my mind. I was underwhelmed by the Widowmakers, though they played a big role in taking down the Titan. I was downright disappointed in the mortar, which has been highly touted all across the interwebs but failed to do anything at all to any target it happened to hit.

Though it wasn't as complete a victory as I would have liked, a win is a win. I'm 1-0 for the Motherland, so no visits from the Butcher just yet. I may try out Vlad in my next game as I've only used Sorscha to this point and I want to get a feel for what other casters are like. I may also swap out the mortar, though I'm not sure what I'd do with the points just yet.

On the painting front things are not progressing as quickly as I had hoped. School has interposed itself between myself and my hobbies once again, so painting time has been scarce. I've been enjoying OwlandMoonGuy's blog over at bolterandchainsword.com, especially how he tracks his painting progress. Since I haven't gotten a camera together for pictures yet, text will have to do. In rough order of priority, the status of my projects is thus:
Sorscha - 65% done
Manhunter - 75%
Destroyer - 45%
Juggernaut - 20%
Widowmakers - 5%
Ternions - based and primed
Mortar - 10%
Winter Guard Infantry - primed, needs basing

When I got the bulk of my Khadorans from EV he had already painted a Kodiak, Devastator and Vlad, so those are finished. I also picked up a wardog yesterday and am fixated on painting it up like a friend's English Bulldog, so that will probably shoot to the top of the priority list once I get it assembled and based. As of now it sits in the blister though.

Post #2 complete, one more than I'd realistically thought I'd get done. Hopefully next time I'll have pictures up and running.