The Battle Barn

Went up to White Caps comics this past Tuesday and got a game of Warmachine in. Decided to try out a different caster than what I normally try. Here's my list:

Siege
2x Defenders
Min squad of Trencher Commandos with 1x Scattergunner (spray weapon)
Squad of Rangers
Black 13
Squire
Reinholdt
pEiryss

His list from what I remember:

eMagnus
Mangler
Mule
Max squad of Halberdiers
Boomhowler & Company
Some guy that gave his halerdiers pathfinder
Gorman? Alchemist guy
Some stealth sniper guy
Some dude that can shut down spell casting

I won the turn to go first, and basically just ran everything up towards the middle of the field. With little melee, my tactic was to have him in range on turn 2, and slowly back away until I saw an opening for an assassination run. His turn 1 he moved a bunch of stuff upwards towards me.

Turn 2, one of my rangers ran around the trenchers and right next to his halberdiers. The rangers have a cool rule, where if they are within 5" of a model, anyone shooting at that model get's a +2 RAT. With my trenchers activating next, they were able to get in range and really put the hurt on that squad. Some amazing rolling on my part took out half the squad and a sniper guy hiding with them. Lucky for me, they then failed their rally check, which meant they wouldn't be doing anything on my next turn. Some shooting from the B13 took out Boomhowler in that squad, drastically reducing the effectiveness of it. Some shots at his jack from Siege and that was the turn.

His Turn 2 was pretty weak. His Mangler ran up, killed about half my trenchers and a ranger. The remainder of Boomhowlers company ran to engage a Defender and the B13. That was really about it.

My Turn 3 was the do or die moment. Looking at the board, I was fairly confident I could set up the assassination. I had a Defender up on a hill which had LOS and range to Magnus, and he had no focus on him this turn. A ranger ran up to within 5", negating some of the cover bonus he currently had. Wanting to thin out the ranks a bit, the B13 basically destroyed the rest of the Boomhowler company. My remaining trenchers charged his halberdiers and locked them up. Thus the moment of truth was on me. Siege walked up a few inches, so that everyone was would be affected by his feat. Popped feat, and killed 2 solos hiding by Magnus. The Defender on the hill now took his shot that would decide the game. 2 Focus on him, I used one to boost the to hit roll. I needed a 10 to hit him, which wasn't horrible on 3 dice. If I hit, it was pretty much a given that magnus would be splattered. And of course....I miss

My mistake, I came to realize, was moving Siege up. Magnus has a spell called Mobility, which gives him pathfinder. So the wall he was hiding behind didn't prevent him from charging into Sieges face, and slamming him into the ground a few times, losing me the game.

It was fun though. I had a list that worked very well together, with lots of snyergy amongst the units. My one big mistake was moving Siege up on his feat turn. Had I not, I probably could have survived the following turn, as half his army was dead already, and I would have taken him out by attrition more than likely.