Let's Get Ready to Rumble! | Warmachine Journeyman League

Welcome back to our Staff Journeyman League series! Don’t know what this is? You can read up on the introduction to the Staff Journeyman League here! Today we’re bringing you our first battle report!

Russ Charles (Brineblood Marauders) vs. Carl Matthews (Winter Korps)

Lost Patrol | 30 Points

Today’s showdown brings together two absolute masters of disaster. In the Brineblood blue corner we have Russ Charles, lead sculptor, and one of the key talents behind SFG miniature visuals. Russ is an artist at heart, and today he’s going to paint Carl into a corner that he just can’t get out of.

In the Winter Korps red corner we have Carl Matthews, program manager, and SFG’s resident smack talk champion. Carl’s so quick on the draw to call out his opponents, he’s halfway through cutting a promo before the round’s even public. It doesn’t matter what your name is, Carl doesn’t even know.

Carl wins the roll off and, completely in-character, chooses to go first BEFORE asking me what happens next. Russ chooses to stay put rather than switch sides, cleverly conserving his creative energy to unleash at the right moment.

I assist them in setting up the terrain and scenario before leaning back and grabbing my popcorn, prepped to watch the fireworks with camera at the ready. Russ has chosen three terrain pieces closest to his deployment zone to become objective terrain.

Deployment

Carl Deploys his warcaster, Yana, centrally, Great Bear to her left, Man-O-War Wrecking Crew to the right, supported by Sergeant Krol.

Russ deploys his warlock, Admiral Boomhowler, similarly centrally, flanked by her two warbeasts in the form of a Deepborn Dire Troll and a Reef Troll. Russ then places his Marauder Crew just off to the right of his battlegroup.

No, ignore the playmat case I forgot to move out of the way in the background, IGNORE IT!

Turn One (Carl)

Yana casts Superiority onto her Great Bear, and Iron Flesh onto the Wrecking Crew before moving up. Her Wrecking Crew move up to support her on the right. The Great Bear moves up on the left heading towards the centre of the table.

“Boss, what’s that giant Khador symbol doing on the ground over there?”

Turn One (Russ)

Admiral Boomhowler casts Avenging Force on herself and Fortify onto the Deepborn Dire Troll before moving up. The Reef Troll and Deepborn both move up into defensive positions around Boomhowler to make the most possible use out of Fortify.

The Marauder Crew advance to take up position behind a wall. They’re not quite sure yet how they’ll take down the advancing Great Bear but, with some liquid courage and elbow grease, they intend to find a way.

Yes, I too am jealous of how obnoxiously well Russ can paint his minis

Russ scores two control points at the end of his turn.

Turn Two (Carl)

Carl sees an opportunity to leap on Russ’ left hand objective that’s currently uncontested. He orders his Wrecking Crew to hotfoot it up the table to claim it. Krol moves up in support.

Everything in my Khador-obsessed being is screaming at me to intervene when Carl moves Yana AWAY from Russ’ battlegroup in favour of staying at a safer distance and supporting his Great Bear. Being the completely objective referee that I am, I sit in my chair, quietly seething.

Russ scores another two points at the end of Carl’s turn.

Turn Two (Russ)

Getting straight down to business, only upkeeping Fortify, Admiral Boomhowler sends the Deepborn Dire Troll into the Wrecking Crew, supported by Boomhowler herself. However, abysmal damage rolls on top of the Wrecking Crew’s Iron Flesh improved armour cause only one of the Wrecking Crew to fall.

Russ triggers Boomhowler’s feat, relying on the bonus defence to keep her and her battlegroup safe from retaliation.

The Marauder Crew continue to stalk the Great Bear, wary of its destructive power. Russ scores another control point to take him up to five.

Turn Three (Carl)

The Wrecking Crew are unable to land any hits on Boomhowler with their Vengeance attacks, thanks to her incredibly high defence granted by her feat.

Knowing he needs to force the situation, Carl advances his Great Bear towards the Marauder Crew to threaten the objective they defend while Yana advances to a more central position just behind the Great Bear.
Krol and the Wrecking Crew combine to put the hurt onto Boomhowler and her trolls, however, most of Carl’s attacks miss due to their increased defences.

Krol questions the wisdom of the choice he’s about to make… and then does it anyway

Russ scores another control point to take him up to six.

Turn Three (Russ)

Time to go bear hunting. Great Bear hunting, to be precise. The Marauder Crew charge headlong into a fray of their own making against the Great Bear, who rolling its shoulders as it braces for impact. The Marauder Crew take several deep chunks out of the Great Bear’s paintwork, but otherwise fail to make a notable impact outside surrounding the heavy warjack.

Great Bear, pictured in its natural environment just prior to engaging in whack-a-mole with nearby wildlife

Fortify is on the Deepborn; don’t worry, I checked

Russ scores two more control points taking him up to eight.

Turn Four (Carl)

Ah hah! Russ, in his laser focused attempts to destroy the Wrecking Crew, has left the nearby objective undefended. Carl flips the nearby token to reveal… a decoy! This isn’t the location of the lost patrol.

I mean, it makes sense, it’s only a shallow pond, it’s not where I’d choose to hide. Or… get lost I guess? Anyway…

Carl carefully examines Boomhowlers position. If he can free up the Great Bear, and get Yana to destroy something to trigger Conferred Rage, he might be able to get the Great Bear over to Boomhowler and introduce her to its big friendly mace.

After looking at the various ways he can achieve this, Carl settles instead for having the Great Bear go to town on the Marauder Crew while Yana takes up a central position nearby.

Krol and the Wrecking Crew take the fight directly to Admiral Boomhowler, but they just can’t seem to land enough attacks to bring her down.

Kroll: “What ARRR these guys made of?!”

Russ scores one more control point, taking him up to nine.

Turn Four (Russ)

With Yana finally joining the battle, Russ see’s his first chance to take her down. The Deepborn Dire Troll disengages from the Wrecking Crew and Krol using Avenging Force and lines up for a charge.

Colliding with the force of an earthquake, the Deepborn smashes into Yana and unloads a hail of withering strikes. Fortunately for Yana, her naturally high armour and remaining focus points are enough to hold off the Dire Troll’s attacks.

Regrouping to press his scenario advantage, Russ moves his remaining Marauder Crew back over to a far objective to keep ticking up his control points.

I heard that discretion is the better part of valour, and apparently, so did these Brinebloods

Russ scores two more control points, taking him up to eleven.

Turn Five (Carl)

It’s now or never, that Dire Troll needs to eat dirt. Carl’s problem is that he’s gotta chew through Fortify on top of the Deepborn’s naturally good armour.

Yana allocates some focus to the Great Bear and upkeeps her spells. Both of them unleash all their fury (well, focus, technically), into the Deepborn taking out its mind and body. However, they don’t quite manage to get those last few health boxes.

Carl, realising his mistake, laments his decision to spend focus on his upkeep spells.

Russ scores one more control point, taking him up to twelve.

Turn Five (Russ)

Putting Yana out of her now focusless misery, Admiral Boomhowler heals the lost aspects of the Deepborn Dire Troll, allowing it to annihilate Yana with another round of devastating melee attacks. Victory goes to Admiral Boomhowler!

Russ, being the consummate gentleman that he is in the face of SFG’s smack talk champion was incredibly reserved about his win.

Conclusions

Russ and Carl both had a blast playing the Lost Patrol. They felt the consistent control point uptick added a really fun element of pressure to the game. Carl needed to press the attack to locate the patrol. Russ needed to hold off Carl’s assault, knowing at any moment Carl could find his way to the correct objective and end the game!

But, those are just our experiences. Did you enjoy following along with our battle report? Would you like to give this scenario a try? Play it at home and let us know what you think in the Discord or Facebook community group!

Until next time, this is Perkins and Charles, signing off!