Warmachine MK4 Batrep

I was hoping to get 2 batreps finished in November to start to build up a backlog. Unfortunately, the issues with my throat / voice kept me out of commission for most of the month due to not being able to record the audio narration. I tried to cram the last few days of November / first few days of December to get the Nov batrep finished, but had another (really good / happy) delay: our second grandbaby was born yesterday.
I still plan to get another batrep finished in December along with trying to get some extra work done to start a backlog so that any kind of delays in the future won't cause me to get off of my "one batrep per month" schedule.
Scenic Steamroller variant: disgruntledwargamer.com/sceni...
The Scenic Steamroller variant calls for d3+3 pieces of terrain to be scoring pieces. However, Donna & I found that in smaller point games, that can make scenarios VERY live. We spoke to Thomas & got his blessing to use d3 terrain pieces when playing small games (25 pt MK3 / 50 pt MK4).
Some sound Effects from: Pixabay
"Drums Of The Deep", "Enter the Maze", "Desert City", "Strength of the Titans"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
#Warmachine, #PrivateerPress, #Batrep, #BattleReport

[@steamsorcery9573]

Batrep After Action Review + Editing Notes AAR Jason: It was fun running Xekaar with a pack of beasts. Getting that "Grand Slam" at the top of 2 to send the Pureblood flying back into Kaya was a key moment. Not only did it let me get my heavy in a good position in the forest, but it made Donna waste 2 fury having to discard for Kaya & force Remus so they could both stand up. The Cyclops Savage hung in there a lot longer than I expected. The Beast Handlers did what they could to heal him, but even still he managed to survive several attacks that I worried would take him out. I was hoping to do a little more with the Scarab, but honestly for 3 points he cost, he more than made up for his value by plugging the gap between the forests to prevent the Rotterhorn & Moonhound from getting easy charges into Kuros early on. That led to Donna choosing to risk the Rotterhorn by flying him into the Raider's face keep him from getting easy shots, which thanks to Xekaar being a Weapon Master, the gamble did NOT pay off for her. Donna: Of all the times not to use Kaya's repo...and it ended up costing me the game. I knew it was getting late in rounds and being down a point, I wanted to keep Kaya in the forest so she could help stop the bleeding. I thought I was far enough back that Xekaar wouldn't be able to see me, but when we measured it in Skorne turn 5, I was - just - inside the 3" boundary of forest LOS for Xekaar to see and he had just enough speed with his 2" weapon reach to get to her. With Lumi dead & Remus full on fury, I had no choice but to let Kaya take all the damage. I also lost sight of the fact that I could have moved Remus into the forest all along. When I charged him in, for some reason I didn't think I could get him into the forest with where the Agon was standing, but looking back now, I could have had him just toeing the edge of the forest. That would have kept the score in check even after Neoma got killed by Xekaar. Editing Notes: I had a bad bout with strep throat about a month ago. It left my voice shot for most of the month of November. That meant that not only did I lose a lot of editing time in the month, but even once I was able to talk a bit more again, you can still hear some issues with my tone here and there in this one. Someone complained that my voice was monotone & boring. So, I tried to throw some stuff in this time to counter that. I'm sure some of you will hate it, but it is what it is. Oh and it goes without saying that my Gators are Cajun. I mean, I - AM - from South Louisiana after all... This was the first batrep filmed with my newest camera & lenses. I tried a few things filming in 4K and the drawback was that I was restricted to only a certain type of autofocus, which caused the camera to switch focus & reset back to the original focal point at times as my hand would reach in front of the camera to place tokens, move models, etc. I didn't realize this until after I'd filmed it all. I have a fix for that going forward. Someone else suggested that I dive deeper into my narrative approach to retelling the game play. In order to make this work & still convey the math of the play, I tried to add more information to the rolls such as showing what the dice + / - values were in text as well as including the model's name over their damage box / spiral when showing the hits taken / healed.

[@robertchmielecki2580]

I am surprised that you don't use legal mk4 model rules. It was ok for previous "quasi-legal" reports, before the release of the app, but now the model rules have been available for more than a month already. Why use the mix of obsolete model rules and current game rules, then? Thanks for the report :) ! Quality and commentary are great, but the fact that armies are not representative of what they actually are takes away from the experience.

[@steamsorcery9573]

@@robertchmielecki2580 the app being available is irrelevant if my wife & I don't own enough of the models who have rules yet. Of the 4 factions we play, only 1 of the warcasters / warlocks we own (Protectorate - Severius) has rules in the new app so far. I'm in the process of trying to buy / build / paint enough models to round out our lists to be "proper" MK4 Prime lists, but until I'm able to get that finished, we're going to play what we own & have painted.

[@robertchmielecki2580]

@@steamsorcery9573 Sorry to hear that. This is definitely a problem with this edition. Some players I know can't play at all due to that (and actually have no idea when they will be able to start). Out of my 3 armies only Cryx is playable and it's only because I have a sizeable collection of it. I hope this can be resolved soon, as, to be honest, it's a major bummer :(

[@steamsorcery9573]

@@robertchmielecki2580 To be clear, my wife & I play what we want to play and most of our future plays will likely be in the MK4 Unlimited format. I'm not upset about what's available so far in the app. We just want to make a Prime list each for the chance to dive into that aspect of MK4 to see what fun we can have. I've never played Banes in my Cryx and she's never played Tharn. So, it'll be a fresh look at factions we've played for a year or so now.

[@Ceefaproductions]

2:40 Ah, I see you too are an aficionado of the subtle art of competitive wargame table design

[@UKdraxion]

I'm looking to get back into Warmachine and this series is a great way

[@Direwoof]

I wish i had ppl to play with! Kind of dead up here in northern cailfornia.

[@Thepaintingwick]

The production value of this batrep is crazy. Fantastic work.

[@steamsorcery9573]

Thank you!

[@petrowegynyolc7108]

Outstanding quality, and hats down for the background music choice!

[@torymiddlebrooks]

What a neat presentation

[@stephenwilliams5004]

OK, I am sold. I want more of Eduardo Dominguez Gutierrez III (aka Eddy). That little scarab needs to be in more Battle Reports.

[@enderblazefuision]

And his friends! love to see a swarm shred

[@youtubeunderground2990]

Good to see the Skorne Empire win one! Legend has it the lone gatorman finished off the skinchangers by himself!

[@michaelgrey1351]

Well hello, new favourite batrep channel...

[@paulportelli2286]

Great batrep really helps understand the new rules with unit movement and the narrative games is awesome

[@aglumm9469]

great report. I love your storytelling spin on it. Makes it easy to immerse yourself in the story

[@theworldsays4264]

I used to do tournaments, but narrative with friends is the best way to play.

[@iancampbell5578]

Excellent presentation! Looking forward to more Mk.4 battle reports!

[@steamsorcery9573]

Thank you!

[@thomasgrable1746]

Well done! Nice battle report. I love how the armies look, and I particularly like the paint job on the Lord of the Feast.

[@steamsorcery9573]

Thank you! The whole time I was painting him, I was stressing over whether different elements looked right or not, especially the silver NMM on his chainmail etc. Once I got it finished and on the table, I was humbly surprised & happy with how he turned out.

[@dicemaster1346]

This is absolutely brilliant. I love your storytelling and narrative.

[@thegoatman9231]

Once again you've outdone yourself. This is another great fight, and we got gators! Tbh I wanted a whole posse with a big ol' gator monster but I love it either way. but Trollkin when tho?

[@robertgreen433]

the sound effects are on point. Love your Narrative Bat Reps, keep up the good work!

[@murphyjackson530]

Woah… you play with a narrative 🥲 this is beautiful. I’ve been looking to pump myself up more for mkIV and this is just what I needed. Thanks!

[@steamsorcery9573]

Thank you!

[@KevleVid]

Thanks for another great report and congratulations on the addition to your family!

[@cronanevermore2033]

These are just fun as heck.

[@reddragontabletopgames]

And the next Battle Report. Thanks a lot!

[@N3MOII]

Love what you guys are doing with these, the narrative aspect is too often neglected for the mechanical. Everyone enjoying mk4 so far?

[@steamsorcery9573]

We had been playing a modified version that we called MK3.5 since July, because we didn't have enough models built & painted to make proper MK4 lists yet. So, we played MK4 rules with MK3 cards. I put a lot of time in December working on getting models built & painted so that we can run MK4 Prime lists for Circle, Cryx, & Protectorate. We're working on the next batrep now that will be Proctorate "Exemplar Interdiction" vs Circle "Devourer's Host" to be published later this month.

[@jacobcurrence7366]

Crazy question. Did the gators keep their prayers? I didn’t see the prayers on their MK 4 rules.

[@steamsorcery9573]

They didn't, but the actual play of this was before we had their new cards in the app. The way I make my batreps is that I record a static cam over the table of every game my wife & I play. Then, later on I'll select one of the plays that I think has a good story to how the game played out on the table. I write a narrative script based on notes from the static cam recording & record a re-enactment of the game with audio narration, special effects, etc. So, some my first few batreps (and the next 1-2 most likely) are from games that were played prior to having the app. Technically, based on what's allowed so far in the app, I wouldn't be able to run the Gators with Skorne right now. That'd have to wait until we get enough cards in the app to run proper "Unlimited" games & not rely on just playing "Prime".

[@steamsorcery9573]

As to the prayers, they lost them but they get "Bloodthirst" as an innate ability - which they'd previously gotten from "Predator's Prayer".

[@jacobcurrence7366]

@@steamsorcery9573 that makes sense! I still love the narrative style they are done in and the way abilities, spells, focus, and the like are described.

[@lukaDeadEye111]

Heyo, just wanted to ask, why did the pureblooded warpwolf not attack with his fists and then do the howl? He has dual attacks, i don't know if anything changed since this battrep, but i believe he could swing twice with his fists and then howl

[@steamsorcery9573]

I'm confused what attack you're referencing. He did use dual attack all 3 times he attacked (13:52, 21:55, and 28:00). He howled and then clawed at models that were in his melee range each time. Bear in mind that in my earlier batreps, I didn't show attack rolls; only damage rolls. So on claw attacks he missed, I described it in the verbal narration and showed a special effect for it, but did not show the failed rolls.

[@lukaDeadEye111]

@@steamsorcery9573 Ahhhh, so the claw attacks were AFTER, and for some reason i thought they were "bought" with fury, when thet were probably boosted to hit and damage

[@GregHowley]

I'm not able to build a Skorne list with Gatormen in the MK4 app. In fact, I don't see MK4 rules for Beast Master Xekaar at all. Are you fudging the list rules or am I missing something?

[@steamsorcery9573]

We started playing MK4 back in July when the beta rules first dropped, using our MK3 cards, long before the app ever dropped. When the app came out, we realized we didn’t have models built & painted to play proper MK4 lists, but wanted to keep playing while I worked to get enough models built / painted for both of us to have a 50pt list. I just finished getting caught up with that last week. We recorded a batrep using those lists a week ago that will be my next video. All my videos going forward will have actual MK4 lists including the new Orgoth, Cygnar, Khador, & Dusk as I’m able to get enough of their models built & painted.

[@GregHowley]

@@steamsorcery9573 Got it. I'm dying to play a lot of legacy models I own, so I got excited for a minute.