Mad Pat and Matt's Learners Duel

Wednesday several of us on this blog went up to the Reaper Game Store for their weekly Warmachine night. I figured I'd post my thoughts, impressions, and some pictures.

**And now peanut gallery comments from Mad Pat!!!

Chris, LofArabia, Me, and Mad Pat all showed up. NickTompkins9 was also there, teaching us the rules and providing tips and pointers.

First, about the location:

REVIEW: Reaper Game Store
http://www.reapergamestore.com/

For those that don't know, Reaper Miniatures is headquartered out of North Texas (speficially Denton). They are makers of the Dark Heaven line of D&D compatible miniatures and monsters, and possibly one of the top 5 US-based miniatures companies ... and depending on your points of view about what constitutes a miniature, most likely one of the top 2 or flat out top dog US maker in terms of product breadth and scope.

Attached to their million dollar manufacturing facility is a Game Store that sells their product, Magic the Gathering, Pathfinder, board games, Warmachine, dice, or just about anything else you might need to enjoy your hobby (and what they don't have in stock, they can order). Magic is played there at the store pretty much every night. Pathfinder organized play events are also featured.

Well, on Wednesday night, the Warmachine guys invade.

The downstairs is the store and manufacturing facility, but there is a "second floor" area (complete with restrooms) just over the lunch/break room and game store. And this folks, is what the generous folks at Reaper give over entirely to Warmachine on Wednesday Nights. ... seriously how many other manufacturers do YOU know that would let their customers come to their home shop/R&D facility and play a competitor's game system?

THREE eight foot tables (with shelving underneath the tables for your stuff) and dozens and dozens of pieces of fully painted terrain of many kinds are made available to those who come to play. Tokens/markers, pens, tape measures, paint, brushes, primer, and a place to paint/prime (if needed) are all available; you just have to ask.



In the unlikely event we run out of space, there's also several tables downstairs in the shop and lunchroom. Table space is NOT an issue.

(OH! And if you come up on Saturdays, one of Reaper's staff artists is also there for the "paint club" and will be happy to teach you tips and tricks to improve your painting or even just provide a place for you to go and paint your stuff alongside other gamers. How cool is that!?)

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BatRep: Game 1

This game went quick. Mad Pat and I set up (his Cygnar vs my Menoth). We're still building our armies so it was just a 15 point Duel.



Turn one was basically walking around, not much happened. Turn two we learned a lot about the rules as it involved some of our first and actual "Combat" - there were spells cast, and my Repenter set stuff on fire (I'm Menoth after all) ... Nick helped us through that. By turn 3 it was pretty much all over except for the screaming. Mad Pat made a tactical error exposing his Warcaster to a direct charge from my Revenger. It didn't end well for Cygnar... game over in Turn 3.

** I have to add that Nick was really patient with both of us and did his best to give us tips and tricks.  Even though he did profess his love for the might of Cygnar, he tried to help Matt out along the way. -MP

From my side:


From Mad Pat's side

** Ya this was my first lesson in Protect the caster.  Often when I play games protecting the leader model isn't as big a deal.  Even if the mission requires killing off the leader its not the end of the game in most cases...this was a whole other matter. -MP

... obviously Mad Pat hasn't had a chance to paint his guys yet. That'll be soon I'm sure since we all know that painted models fight better.

** I'd like to point out there is at least a base coat on 50% of my models!! One of them even has a second color.  That's not bad for me this time of year on top of Moving My House! -MP

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BatRep: Game 2

Mad Pat and I just reset and played again. We're mainly learning rules after all. This game went a lot longer as both of us protected our Warcasters. Turn 1 was just walking around. This photo is from Turn 2 after Cygnar's move. As you can see, my Crusader is turned around. We did this to represent Knockdown (bloody knockdown effects!!!) ... Menoth is about to reply...



Menoth replied with pKreoss knocking everybody down and then my Choir enhanced 'jacks beating the snot out of his 'jacks...



My Crusader is here obliterating a medium Cygnar jack in a single turn... I don't remember what it was. All I remember was the "gush" sound made by the steam and parts flying everywhere as it went from "undamaged" to "wreck" so very suddenly.

** It was my poor Charger a LIGHT jack, but I do have to say it was pretty impressive watching your HEAVY rip both arms off before crushing the rest of it to finish it off.  Both of us kinda stepped back and admired the shear amount of damage inflicted in one combat action. -MP

We didn't take any more photos and honestly forgot how many more turns it lasted. It was a warjack slugfest the whole time. However, when we called it "done" due to time... objective neutral observers awarded the win to Menoth (most of Cygnar's jacks were no longer functional, and Stryker had taken a lot of damage. All three of Menoth's Jacks still were able to fight (beaten up badly but still fighting). The Choir was still basically intact lending their buffs, and my warcaster (pKreoss) only had taken 1/3 of his health as damage.

 ** There was some brief discussion of sure possibly maybe I could pull out a miracle, but it wasn't going to happen.  I did take glee in the fact that there at the end as Matt set my Caster and one of my Light jacks on fire he also set his Crusader on fire, which was just fun!- MP

Overall... it was hella fun.

It was a blast, and ohh there will be a rematch soon!!! - MP