A Newfound Appreciation For The Depth Of Warmachine / Hordes

Last night, I gained a much greater appreciation for the depth of the game play in Warmachine / Hordes.

The thing is I thought I knew how to play Cryx.

Certainly not on a serious competitive level, but even with mixing my list up a bit, I had certain strategies & combos worked out that gave me at least a 50-50 chance of winning against Donna's Protectorate. Even when she brought in Feora in to replace Severius, the adjustments I had to make didn't feel so big.

By contrast, now that she's playing Circle Orboros, I feel so out of place with Cryx.

She adjusted so quickly to the difference in play style from her slow, buffed-up Protectorate to her ultra-fast, auto-healing Circle. I am not a fan of Warpborn Skinwalkers, especially with the Alpha giving them Gang. Just brutal.

It's her first time playing with any type of unit attachment. I'm realizing now that I need to swarm the Alpha & get him off the table as quickly as possible.

I took great pleasure in using Hellslinger Phantom's "Incendiary" shot with his Wraithstorm Pistols to light Protectorate models on fire. In some cases, that fire destroyed them in their next Maintenance Phase; burning away what was left of their health after the initial shot hurt them. The same goes for Bloat Thrall's "Despoiler" lobbing corrosion into her infantry.

Whether it's her Pureblood Warpwolf being forced to heal d3 or Skinwalkers healing d3 for free at the start of their activation, they are a serious pain to deal with.

The distance they can cover was a serious shock to my system. With her Protectorate, the fastest models were SPD 5. With her Circle, SPD 5 is the SLOWEST & most of what she's fielding is SPD 6 - 7. That's multiplied when she's charging in her Pureblood & his SP10 "Death Howler" with Assault.

Against her slow moving Protectorate, I would move my Mechanithralls up & by the start of my turn 2, I was able to charge them in, Combo Strike to get what hits I could, but mostly use them to tie up some of her key models. Sort of a mobile wall of cyborg zombies. That would buy time for my Slayer, Ripjaw, & Hellslinger Phantom to come in and swarm on one of those key models. I'd pick off one of her heavy hitters & then swarm on the next one.

It didn't always work perfectly, but it worked more often than it failed. Once I got one or two of her key models removed, it would usually snowball from there with me gaining momentum with attrition that built until the end.

Instead, she's using her Skinwalkers, War Wolf, & Pureblood (among others) to blaze through my Mechanithralls and then swarm my key models (Slayer, Hellslinger, etc mentioned above).

All this rambling to say something that I'm sure most players already know: there's so much more to this game than what you see "on the surface".

As a martial artist, it's a similar feeling to when I have a particular take down / throw / submission that I feel is really dialed in & then I face someone who has the perfect counter / defense to it. It's humbling, but not at all in a negative way. It's invigorating. It's motivating. These last few plays where I got waxed didn't hurt my enjoyment, but actually made me appreciate & love the game even more. I'm excited to take a deep dive into my Cryx to figure out new strategies. As a matter of fact, I purposely do NOT want to switch out any models from my current list. I want to find new ways to look at my current list & adjust to counter what her Circle is bringing to the table.

In Jiu-Jitsu, there's the saying that "you either win or you learn". These last few plays of WMH have most certainly been learning opportunities for me & I'm excited to see how I can grow as a player because of it.