Gift horses, gifted to myself

My buying habits are a little crazy right now with the holiday season, but I think I'll be good with my recent purchases to keep me busy through a few months. After my game last night, I picked up a set of Khador Uhlans and Kovnik Markov. Plus, waiting for me at home were the Man-of-War Drakhun and the Widowmakers I ordered online. I have a serious back log of painting to do now.

Last Thursday was my usual Warmachine night, but I hadn't played in a few weeks. I met up with a buddy of mine, Caleb, at the FLGS. We actually played a two-versus-two match with some other guys at the shop. Everyone dragged 25 points out. My partner was another Khador player. Instead of intermixing our armies, it was pretty much one-on-one until someone died to support the other. So Caleb was my opponent with this more-or-less:

pDenegra
-Ripjaw (2)
-Slayer
-Spell Cast-astic guy attached
Mechani-Thralls (10)
Pistol Wraith
Machine Wraith
Nerco-surgeon

To match, brought this:

eVlad
-Kodiak
Iron Fang Pikemen (6)
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Greylord unit (3)
Koldun Lord
Demo-corp (3)

The plan was to use Transference, Hand of Fate, and eVlad's feat to just smash face. Here's what actually happened: first turn just got my line to jump forward; Caleb tried to Cripple my Pikemen through an arc node but was short by an inch, so I tried to charge it with the whole unit and almost one-shot it a CMA combined with Hand of Fate, which resulted in a very damaged light jack early.

Here's where things got nuts quickly. He moved the damaged jack just enough to free up one of the Pikemen who had a decent looking line to the caster. So, popped feat, got 5 guys all jacked up and tried to take out the witch. Pikemen slides in, gets within melee range, but his buddy gets a free-strike for breaking combat and with one die gets killed by the light jack. Super-Pikeman nails her, uses Transference to boost the melee damage, and causes 11 points of damage. This is turn 3 or 4, by the way. I used one of the other feat boosts on a Greylord - charge in, with battle wizard, kills four Mechani-Thralls with the melee/spray combo. A few other guys smack around some Mechani-Thralls, and my Koldun Lord takes out a Pistol Wraith. Little did I know, this made his Necro-surgeon the scariest model on the field.

My noble Pikeman gets crushed by a Slayer. Deneghra pops her feat (everyone gets sickly). Thralls come back and my Kodiak gets possessed by a Wraith. Koldun Lord gets eaten by a light jack but he took out the Pistol Wraith in the previous turn. So my scary turn gets turned on me completely and I end up behind the ball. Everyone being sickly means no charges or double attacks with the Great Bears. My Kodiak couldn't shake the Wraith, so in an act of pride, the Great Bears attack it from behind to kill the Wraith inside. No one dances with my girl but me, so that guy had to go. I knock out both its arms leaving legs intact. The Wraith pops out, then the cortex gets damaged, so the Kodiak is now a blocker. Until it gets smashed to pieces by combo-strikes the next turn.

Major threat now becomes the Slayer who finds his way to Vlad. Knocks Vlad down to 5 boxes with two attacks. Vlad hulks-out and destroys a healthy Slayer by himself using Martial Paragon and additional attacks. Here's where I lost the game. After the attacks destroyed the jack, I didn't move him far enough away. Next turn, Deneghra spells him with a boosted hit, beats his armor and does 6 damage.

Insane game and I'm really starting to learn the combos that work. eVlad might have to be my caster for a while now. I was incredibly impressed with the way he can do almost anything. The only weak point of the list was the Kodiak. I'm not sure if its because I used him incorrectly or if Caleb managed to control him out of being a threat, but its probably going to get phased out. I might throw in a Destroyer for the AoE or replace another unit for range other than the Greylords.

On a side note, I started writing this Friday and thought I had posted it. In the time between, I've managed to assemble the Drakhun, three Uhlans, Kovnik Markov, a unit of Windowmakers on resin bases, and an Assault Kommando Flame Thrower. So I've been busy.

I also managed to paint-up the Drakhun watching Monday Night Football. Photos coming later. I got a game set for tonight, so I'll try to take pictures and get a battle rep up too.