Got Game? Part 1 of a few

I'm currently entertaining several thoughts on how the game of Warmachine and Hordes can be approached after those last two posts on my games. It has been helpful to reflect on my process through recalling how the games went down and already I feel I can approach things differently, not just feeling frustrated that I'm going through the motions without having much influence on outcome.

But in order to further contemplate this I want to actually dig a bit deeper and examine the process I undergo before the game and in the beginning stages. I can't help but feel I am missing something here, where the opening moments of my games follow a fairly typical process of running units up and occupying real estate, with little plan in mind as to how I will proceed from there. I play chess in a fairly similar way, where I move pieces and up with little plan, but actually RELY on my opponent to make the first commitment (barring any sort of naive moves where lack of experience may have left pieces exposed) before I can start to pull together a plan of action. Thinking on the fly like this can be a good skill to foster, but the problem is I have to work from a position where I am behind. And I play in a gaming group that is experienced enough to not allow that to happen often.

So in order to put this under the microscope further, I want to do a couple of posts on army lists that I feel have "worked" for me in the past, and really see what it is about the list and the faction and my own process that both lent to me feeling comfortable while playing, and actually led me to win several of my games.

First up, I want to talk Terminus

rawr

In 2013, I faced a dilemma in that I felt I should know the game well enough to start winning more games. I was playing a faction (Cryx) that everyone was moaning to me that was over-powered, yet I kept throwing myself under the bus in my games with little to show for it. Then I came across a very handy article on a certain Danish blog and everything seemed to fall into place. Here was a Warcaster I loved the model of and had been told was hard as nails (a claim called into question when I got him killed way too many times), and now I have a breakdown of what enables him, and how his game should look like on the table.

Using Lamoron's guide, I made the following list:

Lich Lord Terminus 
- Skarlock Thrall
- Erebus 
Bane Lord Tartarus 
Darragh Wrathe 
Warwitch Siren 
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist 
Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan 
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw
Max Bane Thralls with UA
Min Bile Thralls 
The Withershadow Combine 

Everything in the list is there to keep Big T safe, contribute to his feat turn, and/or to hasten his delivery. I was still playing in a pre-Butcher 3 world, so there were few Warnouns that could match his threat range, hitting power, and durability. The first and last turns of the game should be the only turns Terminus ever has to spend focus, leaving him to camp his stack, march up to the middle of the board, let the feat turn T up to 11

Something something it's over something

A plan so simple it was idiot proof - I remember one game where Terminus was on fire, corroded, and left on 2 boxes after a chips-in assassination attempt. After the fire went out, he healed back up, feated, gorged himself on souls and had a leisurely stroll around the board chasing the opposing warcaster. I also recall Garryth killboxing himself to stay away from the big man. Terminus just asked such a big question, was very forgiving when I left him slightly exposed, and gave me all sorts of Machiavellian joy when I plonked him on the table and basically dared opponents to try and box him.

But further to all this, this experience with Terminus was my first time working with a list that had elements that had very deliberate reasons for being there, and with that also came a very clear plan of play, particularly for the opening moments of the game. Deployment would consist of Terminus placing centrally, biles often beside him to try and get to clumps of infantry, and banes opposite the big targets that would pose an actual threat to Terminus. The first turns of the game would follow from there, with the units moving to counter their chosen targets, and Terminus gaining board space to get his threat range working. EVERYTHING in the list was expendable, barring Big T himself. And perhaps this is where i may have learnt some bad habits.

Going back to the beginning of this post, learning to play with a caster that was so forgiving, meant I wasn't able to properly gauge how to trade units and models in the game appropriately. While Terminus did not give too shits if Erebus died, Tartarus was gone, and the biles all sniped off the table, other casters would need these elements to gain attrition advantages, or to keep a threat present to be able to control parts of the board. Throwing my units haphazardly at my opponent's army only worked so far, as it help distract from Terminus' assassination run. This is a luxury rarely afforded.

There were still some valuable lessons to be learnt from using Terminus last year though; my list composition vastly improved, I was able to eke out a few more synergies that I had previously over-looked. The importance of a plan to the initial deployment and turns of the game also became apparent to me, thought this is the main lesson I want to work on and develop from here.

Last musings; Since last year, I promised myself that I would remove the training-wheels that was Terminus and take what I learnt to other lists and casters/locks. This was partly because my practice games with friends were met with some resistance, but also because there were other toys I wanted to play with. And also I thought I was a big boy now. This resulted in a bit of mixed bag - I was regularly placing around the mid-teens to 10th at events, not breaking onto the podium. A sign that I had moved on from wallowing in the bottom half of the results table, but not quite reaching the lofty positions of wargaming glory.

Not quite 9000

Recently I've adapted my Terminus list some what, too mix things up a bit and utilise new toys:

Lich Lord Terminus 

- Kraken
Darragh Wrathe 
Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan 
Bane Lord Tartarus 
Warwitch Siren 
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist 
Min Bile Thralls
The Withershadow Combine 
Min Satyxis Blood Witches with UA
Min Bane Thralls 

The idea is to use the Kraken as another massive and hard to kill threat. Also as something that can actually stand in Terminus' way to block LOS etc. In that way it serves a similar roll that the Bane Thralls used to, with some added pros and cons. Its also fun to use colossals. Everything else is just Terminus' delivery system, as per usual. I've only managed to bring it out for a spin once, and my opponent was not too pleased about it - Gaddamn, I love that big limp-wristed twerp.