Warmachine Battle Report: Retribution vs. Convergence Rematch

August 12, 2019 Ben 6 min read

Retribution Forces

Garryth 2

-Sylys Wyshnalyrr

-Hydra

-Discordia

-Phoenix

-Moros

-Gorgon

-Gorgon (proxied by chimera)

Eiryss1

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Arcanists (Proxied by battle mages)

Convergence Forces

Iron Mother (Orion)

-Corollary

-Assimilator

-Monitor

-Conservator (cygnar jack)

-Diffuser

-Galvanizer

Reflex Servitors

Attunement Servitors

Elimination Servitors

Elimination Servitors (accretion servitors)

Elimination Servitors (houseguard riflemen)

Optifex Directive

Retribution Deployment

I won the roll off and chose to go first. I think that was the right choice for Garryth on a dead scenario like Invasion, but I’m still messing around with this Forges of War variant, so I’m not totally sure. I went for a mirrored deployment with an eye on trying to nestle Garry in that little nook between the forest and my objective. Eiryss went front and center to hopefully get an easy servitor kill to proc Road to War. Garryth starts with Road to War up, and Occultation goes on the left Phoenix, both for free with the theme benefit. Occultation is almost useless, as ground pounder from the Assimilators and the Monitor’s True Sight ignore stealth, but I figured at least it makes things interesting for the servitors.

Convergence Deployment

My opponent decided to go for a refused flank strategy. My thought at that point was that I could shut him out of scenario, and maybe even sneak around the house to threaten his caster by arcing a Mortality through the left Phoenix.

Retribution Turn 1

Basically everything runs up. I’m still learning efficient unpacking with my arcanist units, so I got a little gummed up trying to give Discordia an extra focus to put up her protective bubble.

I sent a little Phoenix/Gorgon/Arcanist pod up the left flank to threaten Iron Mother’s little bunker but stayed back out of ground pounder range. Disco and Manticore pressure the gap, but not as hard as I probably should have. Moros lurks behind the forest. I’m never sure what to do with him vs non-living armies, but he’s still a decent shield guard/late game piece.

I don’t know what I was thinking with the right phoenix.

The right Gorgon moves up, supported by some arcanists to pressure that zone and start eating one servitor per turn.

Convergence Turn 1

Mother and her Corollary head up to bunker behind the house. My opponent makes a pretty cool play and shoves the Conservators up in my face, making me REALLY wish I’d pushed the right Phoenix into the gap as well.

The ranged Vectors move up to threaten the zones for next turn and take some pot shots. The last game we played Eiryss won for me by disrupting a charging jack on Garry’s feat, so this time I think my opponent over-allocated resources trying to get lucky scatters on to her.

The servitors on my right continue to lurk annoyingly, waiting to contest on the bottom of 2.

Retribution Turn 2

Note: At the beginning of this turn I told my opponent, “I shouldn’t feat this turn. I should save it until turn 3.” Then I feated.

My left Gorgon moves up and sprays down the shield guards around the conservators and moves back with Road to War.

Garry puts a solid armor-piercing shot into the front Conservator, and then Witch Marks Mortality on to it. (I should have just hard-cast Mortality onto the other conservator instead. I didn’t need the extra damage help, and the second one survived on a few boxes.)

The left Phoenix walks up and finishes the damaged Conservator and then Road to Wars back a bit.

My other heavies try to shoot down Conservator #2 and leave it on 8 or 9 boxes, so I disrupt it with Eiryss and call that good.

On the right the Arcanist unit moves up to threaten scoring and the Gorgon gets ready for pest control.

Convergence Turn 2

Diffuser moves up and puts a beacon shot into Discordia. This lets the disrupted conservator charge in to get in the way without having to use focus. I didn’t see that coming.

Iron Mother channels Backlash through the diffuser on to the Phoenix in the zone, and then as many servitors as possible chip into it, and as assimilator moves up to finish it off. By the end of all that Garryth was on something like 8 boxes.

The monitor puts Moros into the dirt, and the second assimilator drifts an AOE at Garry to try to finish him off, but doesn’t get the necessary deviation.

One servitor on my right moves up to contest.

Score: 0-0

Retribution Turn 3

I was really low on clock here due to lazy time management the rest of the game.

Objective heals Garryth for 2.

Gorgon kills the servitor on the right.

Garryth, Gorgon, and Disco mostly shoot an Assimilator off the table, and Garry repositions behind the Objective. Critically, they left the Assimilator on 2 boxes, so Eiryss had to finish it, meaning she did not disrupt the last Assimilator.

The Hydra kills the objective, giving the remaining Phoenix a Road to War move. Phoenix gets a janky charge on the Monitor but leaves it alive on a few boxes.

I score the right and center zones, and killed the objective.

Score: 3-0 Ret

Convergence Turn 3

Lots of milling about and hitting things, but the moral of the story is that Assimilator gets a lucky drift and Backlash goes up on the Hydra, and everybody chips into it until Garryth dies.

Convergence Victory!

Post game thoughts

I think my initial assessment of scenario as primary win condition was spot on. I think it was my game to lose, and I got greedy trying to get the most out of my caster’s gun. If i’d sat on a 3 camp each turn and healed or reduced damage while camping Garryth out of LOS I could have scored out on my next turn. There was no need to contribute so directly.

My opponent did a great job of capitalizing on my mistake, and gave me a healthy respect for Backlash. I’m also realizing that when my armor is that low I probably can’t count on the objective to help much unless I have a ton of shield guards around, because he could have shot at the objective with blasts and boosted on my caster.

I really missed the other version of this list, with a Manticore to trigger Road to War and a Magister to give Veteran Leader to the mechanics and do the occasional push/pull (and grab flags). I’ll definitely be switching back to that list for the next game.

I don’t think Garryth in Forges will be my convergence drop anyway since Forges tries to do what Destruction Initiative does better, but it’s always nice to play out the bad matchups and see what you can get.