It feels like I lose a lot of games, and it’s true. In this final week of our Call to Arms league, I tried playing Siege – the first time for me in Mark I games, and used him three different times. My first two, I lost to two Hordes armies: the first Skorne, and the second, Trolls. More on those in a moment.
In the third game I used Siege against Khador, led by Vlad, which if you’ve read any of my recent posts, you know I’ve had a tough time against the Prince of Umbrey.
And. This. Time. I. Won.
I must apologize to my good friend Airport for my celebration after the game, my arms raised in triumph. It’s been a long, hard struggle finding a way to defeat Vlad, and this time it wasn’t a scenario win, but a good ol’ caster kill. So apologies, my friend, for cheering so after the game.
However, this story doesn’t begin there, and in fact it has a rather ugly beginning, because my first game was against Skorne…boo! I had really hoped to avoid playing them any more than I had already, but fortune was not smiling on me that night and as it happened I had to face the desert-dwelling uglies one more time. It was a beast heavy Makeda list. Two cannoneers, a bronzeback, and Molik Karn are the ones that stick out in my mind. Also a Krea and some pain givers. And, of course, two extollers (Mike always takes extollers now, and so would I if I played Skorne, but I do really, REALLY hate them).
I thought I had a good list (and I still do think so) but my only experience using Siege came in the Mark II field test, and some of the ways Siege worked in Mark II are different than in Mark I. My list…
Markus Siege Brisbane
Defender
Squire
GMCA
JWC
Hunter
Stormsmith x3
Black 13th
Long Gunners (8) with officer and standard
Precursors (8) with officer and standard
Reinholdt
Rupert Carvolo
746/750 pts, 26 VPs
Our scenario was Viva la Resistance, which required me to get my models into the center rectangle to win. Siege is a bit of a slow caster, with a speed of 5. He, along with other ranged shooty options, were going to advance behind the shield walled precursors. Slow, slow, slow. I can’t Arcane Shield the unit, and in order to maintain SW, they can only advance normally.
I did get the precursors into the center by the end of turn 2, but Mike would quickly wipe them out, as Makeda waded into them and claimed the scenario victory. In the end it would be one of the least painful losses I’ve suffered to Skorne, but I think I’m developing some sort of psychological curse when I play against them, in that whatever plan I had going into the game suddenly exits my brain, along with any small bit of rules knowledge and strategy.
My second game I played against Frank and his Trollbloods, led by Grissel. This was the first time I had gone up against her. His list had the usual Troll elements that I’ve come to expect… Champions + Hero, Kriels w/ all the accoutrements, stone bearers with elder, and long riders (other things I’m not remembering off the top of my head).
I used the same list as above, figuring what the hell, practice makes perfect. But my head was still spinning from the game against Skorne, and I made a mistake I swore I would never make again. I put the Black 13th behind a hedge row and subsequently got them pinned by a very fast moving unit of buffalo riders with reach. The riders were positioned close enough that I could not cross the hedge and get in between them, and I was outside of my 1/2 inch melee range, engaged but not engaging. Not sure of my options at that point, I tried to disengage, drawing the free strikes that killed them. More on this in a moment.
Siege would then be besieged on all sides. The long riders closed in from one flank, and the champion hero from the other. There was one humorous moment when, with nothing else to lose, my stormsmith charged the champion hero from behind, but as my luck would have it, lost the attack roll. Siege survived a fair amount of pounding but eventually fell.
Frank and I discussed the game afterwards. He instructed me on the fine art of “taking it.” He wondered why I had tried to disengage the Black 13th and gotten them killed. I told him I didn’t want them to just “stand there and do nothing.” But standing there and doing nothing would have occupied the long riders a bit longer, he said, and his riders wouldn’t have gotten the +2 bonus for the free strikes. I had not thought about that. He also pointed out to me Siege’s spell “Illumination” which could have eliminated the cover bonus the riders were getting, and then Siege could have cast Shockwave to push one of the riders out of the way, freeing one of the Black 13th to get a shot off.
Now, this is not an unknown tactic to me, but like I said, my brain was still spinning from my whomping from Skorne, and I just didn’t think of it. But discussing the game really helped. It put my mind back on track, and I would have a difficult time sleeping that night because all the possibilities came crashing back to preoccupy me. I began to think about my next game, against Airport and his Khador…
Thinking of my next game, I had wanted to change some things in my list. First of all, I find that Reinholdt is infinitely more useful with Siege than the Squire. I had taken both of them the first time and was constantly getting in the way of myself – move Reinholdt first, making sure then that Siege is in base to base with the gobber speculator but then where dose the Squire go, etc.? So in my new list I would get rid of the Squire.
The stormsmiths would also go, because an idea began to form in my mind: what if Siege had an arc node? What if I could Shockwave through a Lancer? It was an intriguing thought, so I added one. I would also have to downsize my precursor unit to a minimum of six, but still kept the officer and standard (kneel being very important and all). This time, I would would keep junior close to Siege and Arcane Shield him (ARM 20, yuck!), and he would still control the hunter. This time, however, I wouldn’t worry so much about preserving the hunter, instead using him as a piece placed out there as a distraction. It worked and held up the Airport’s IFP for at least a round (they quickly spear-chucked it).
Into the third turn I would have Siege close enough that Vlad – hiding behind his berserker – was in Siege’s control area. If you’ve ever used Siege, or played against him, you know the drill… Siege popped his feat, cast Foxhole so that Vlad was on the back edge of it, dropping the ‘zerker into the hole in front of him, and with Reinholdt’s reload trick, Siege popped Vlad with two boosted rockets.
I’m going to make sure that I finish painting Siege this week. Even though I played poorly with him in my first two games, I’m beginning to get a better feel for him and he deserves to be finished in a proper sort of way, painted, based, sealed and his card in a premium hard-plastic sleeve. Pictures will be forthcoming.
Red
In the third game I used Siege against Khador, led by Vlad, which if you’ve read any of my recent posts, you know I’ve had a tough time against the Prince of Umbrey.
And. This. Time. I. Won.
I must apologize to my good friend Airport for my celebration after the game, my arms raised in triumph. It’s been a long, hard struggle finding a way to defeat Vlad, and this time it wasn’t a scenario win, but a good ol’ caster kill. So apologies, my friend, for cheering so after the game.
However, this story doesn’t begin there, and in fact it has a rather ugly beginning, because my first game was against Skorne…boo! I had really hoped to avoid playing them any more than I had already, but fortune was not smiling on me that night and as it happened I had to face the desert-dwelling uglies one more time. It was a beast heavy Makeda list. Two cannoneers, a bronzeback, and Molik Karn are the ones that stick out in my mind. Also a Krea and some pain givers. And, of course, two extollers (Mike always takes extollers now, and so would I if I played Skorne, but I do really, REALLY hate them).
I thought I had a good list (and I still do think so) but my only experience using Siege came in the Mark II field test, and some of the ways Siege worked in Mark II are different than in Mark I. My list…
Markus Siege Brisbane
Defender
Squire
GMCA
JWC
Hunter
Stormsmith x3
Black 13th
Long Gunners (8) with officer and standard
Precursors (8) with officer and standard
Reinholdt
Rupert Carvolo
746/750 pts, 26 VPs
Our scenario was Viva la Resistance, which required me to get my models into the center rectangle to win. Siege is a bit of a slow caster, with a speed of 5. He, along with other ranged shooty options, were going to advance behind the shield walled precursors. Slow, slow, slow. I can’t Arcane Shield the unit, and in order to maintain SW, they can only advance normally.
I did get the precursors into the center by the end of turn 2, but Mike would quickly wipe them out, as Makeda waded into them and claimed the scenario victory. In the end it would be one of the least painful losses I’ve suffered to Skorne, but I think I’m developing some sort of psychological curse when I play against them, in that whatever plan I had going into the game suddenly exits my brain, along with any small bit of rules knowledge and strategy.
My second game I played against Frank and his Trollbloods, led by Grissel. This was the first time I had gone up against her. His list had the usual Troll elements that I’ve come to expect… Champions + Hero, Kriels w/ all the accoutrements, stone bearers with elder, and long riders (other things I’m not remembering off the top of my head).
I used the same list as above, figuring what the hell, practice makes perfect. But my head was still spinning from the game against Skorne, and I made a mistake I swore I would never make again. I put the Black 13th behind a hedge row and subsequently got them pinned by a very fast moving unit of buffalo riders with reach. The riders were positioned close enough that I could not cross the hedge and get in between them, and I was outside of my 1/2 inch melee range, engaged but not engaging. Not sure of my options at that point, I tried to disengage, drawing the free strikes that killed them. More on this in a moment.
Siege would then be besieged on all sides. The long riders closed in from one flank, and the champion hero from the other. There was one humorous moment when, with nothing else to lose, my stormsmith charged the champion hero from behind, but as my luck would have it, lost the attack roll. Siege survived a fair amount of pounding but eventually fell.
Frank and I discussed the game afterwards. He instructed me on the fine art of “taking it.” He wondered why I had tried to disengage the Black 13th and gotten them killed. I told him I didn’t want them to just “stand there and do nothing.” But standing there and doing nothing would have occupied the long riders a bit longer, he said, and his riders wouldn’t have gotten the +2 bonus for the free strikes. I had not thought about that. He also pointed out to me Siege’s spell “Illumination” which could have eliminated the cover bonus the riders were getting, and then Siege could have cast Shockwave to push one of the riders out of the way, freeing one of the Black 13th to get a shot off.
Now, this is not an unknown tactic to me, but like I said, my brain was still spinning from my whomping from Skorne, and I just didn’t think of it. But discussing the game really helped. It put my mind back on track, and I would have a difficult time sleeping that night because all the possibilities came crashing back to preoccupy me. I began to think about my next game, against Airport and his Khador…
Thinking of my next game, I had wanted to change some things in my list. First of all, I find that Reinholdt is infinitely more useful with Siege than the Squire. I had taken both of them the first time and was constantly getting in the way of myself – move Reinholdt first, making sure then that Siege is in base to base with the gobber speculator but then where dose the Squire go, etc.? So in my new list I would get rid of the Squire.
The stormsmiths would also go, because an idea began to form in my mind: what if Siege had an arc node? What if I could Shockwave through a Lancer? It was an intriguing thought, so I added one. I would also have to downsize my precursor unit to a minimum of six, but still kept the officer and standard (kneel being very important and all). This time, I would would keep junior close to Siege and Arcane Shield him (ARM 20, yuck!), and he would still control the hunter. This time, however, I wouldn’t worry so much about preserving the hunter, instead using him as a piece placed out there as a distraction. It worked and held up the Airport’s IFP for at least a round (they quickly spear-chucked it).
Into the third turn I would have Siege close enough that Vlad – hiding behind his berserker – was in Siege’s control area. If you’ve ever used Siege, or played against him, you know the drill… Siege popped his feat, cast Foxhole so that Vlad was on the back edge of it, dropping the ‘zerker into the hole in front of him, and with Reinholdt’s reload trick, Siege popped Vlad with two boosted rockets.
I’m going to make sure that I finish painting Siege this week. Even though I played poorly with him in my first two games, I’m beginning to get a better feel for him and he deserves to be finished in a proper sort of way, painted, based, sealed and his card in a premium hard-plastic sleeve. Pictures will be forthcoming.
Red
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