Warmachine - Khador vs Menoth

Gaming this week has been pretty slim but I managed to get a game on at t'club, of Warmachine with Jim.

Early moves as the Menoth forces surge forward towards
the Khador line 

Quite a fan of the Warmachine Mark I rules and liking the mix of tactics, sneakiness and a good mechanism for creating a narrative skirmish game with a surprising amount of depth, I had not played in quite some time but had picked up the Mark II rules and Khador force book cheaply fairly recently. A few bods at t'club have been playing Warmachine on and off for some time and I thought it about time to join in and see if the Mark II rules were much different.

Arranging a small(ish) skirmish using my Khador force against his Protectorate of Menoth we duly laid out the table and set too.

It can be said that the match was definitely a game of two halves. Early game; the Menoth forces surged forward eager to get into combat quickly, the Khador forces advanced in a more sedately fashion and pretty quickly bits of warjack were flying everywhere but suitably enhanced by my Warcaster they weathered the storm while my sacrificial Men O War drew the might of the Menoth warjacks awway from the main battle. The Menoth Knights in the center then slowly took apart my Iron Fang Pikemen.

Late game; getting into their stride the Khador Warjacks waded into the fray with a tag team developing between the Widowmaker snipers and the mighty Juggernaut warjack, the snipers weakening the enemy before the warjack slammed into them and finishing them off (with warcaster joining in where necessary). Right to the end where, in the space of two rounds the last of the knights went down, one big Menoth warjack was reduced from hardly a scratch to a pile of crap metal and another warjack again without a chip in his paintwork lost both arms, legs mangled was left functioning but harmless leaving Menoth with their warcaster and one functioning jack we called it a day.

End game - the Khador tag team closes the fist and
demolish the Menoth remnants

Fun game with lots of ups and downs and definitely painted a story while playing with a bit of thought required to bring out the possibilities of your force but enough luck of the dice to make it unpredictable.

Upshot is that the Mark II rules still get my vote as a game system, lots of fun. I like some of the models in the various ranges though as what usually happens in these games, they get bigger and more unlikely to keep up their sales, but all in all the game aesthetic does appeal (though steering away from the more OTT elements).

Will no doubt have some more games of Warmachine in the futeure and with this impetus, I might even get around to painting my Khador force.