Hordes Action: The Shame of Madrak

Ever since Mk II Warmachine has taken over our Privateer Press gaming time, there has been little to no talk about Hordes in the group. That is until Ken suddenly got the urge to take his Skorne out of the case and on to the table again. To answer the call, I whipped up a 500-point Trollblood force and we threw down.

Skorne army deployed: Morghoul, Titan Cannoneer, Titan Gladiator,
Basalisk Drake, Basalisk Krea, Paingivers x 4, Paingivers x 4, Swamp Gobbers x 2.Trollblood army deployed: Madrak, Dire Troll Mauler, Troll Axer,
Troll Impaler, Troll Champions x 5, Fellcaller, Alten Ashley

The game was a pretty straight-forward affair. Both of us seemed to have the same idea; get the heavy hitters into combat and hope to take down the enemy warlock. It's funny how quickly one can get rusty with a ruleset. I made a couple of really dumb moves during the game, not the least of which was forgetting to rile my beasts and leaving Madrak with only two fury to reave for the next turn.

The troll force advanced and tried to set themselves up for a counter-charge.


As the enemies closed it became clear that a straight charge into combat
wasn't going to be feasible. Thanks to the Fellcaller's Open Road ability,
the champions ran through the forest and engaged the Skorne left flank.


The Dire Troll found itself heavily outweighed and outclassed.


Needless to say, the Titans killed the Dire Troll and left
Madrak and his light beasts to do the work.


Without hesitation (and without anyone capable of doing the
job better) Madrak charged into the heavy beast.


With the help of the Champions and Madrak's feat,a unit of Paingivers,
the Titan Gladiator, and the Drake were all dispatched. The tide of
the battle seemed to be shifting.


After much hard-fighting, Madrak found himself open to a charge
by the Skorne Warlock. Thanks to some poor dice-rolling on Ken's
part, Madrak survived the assassination attempt, but then failed to
assassinate Morghoul on the following turn.


With only two damage points left and no opportunity to transfer
damage, Madrak found himself easy prey for the Skorne warlock.

The game went relatively quickly. Neither Ken nor I had any particularly devious plan or combo to end the game, so it pretty much came down to a slugfest in the middle of the table. I over-extended my Dire Troll early in the game and lost him as a result. In the end, a classic warlock-on-warlock melee ended in the only way it could - one victorious caster and one dead caster. Unfortunately, mine was the latter.

Going back to Mk I gameplay certainly made me realize how dependant I have become on the Mk II rules for Warmachine. I really can't wait for Hordes to catch-up.

Thanks for reading,
JET