WARMACHINE: The Decisions You Make
Sometimes the quickest way to victory is not the shortest route. That’s one of the things you should always keep in mind when making any decision on the battlefield.
In Warmachine, the quickest way to victory would be destroying your opponent’s warcaster. Once the opposing warcaster dies, the game ends and you win. In fact, some lists are designed for the sole purpose of carrying out the task of “assassinating” the enemy leader! While this is an excellent way to threaten the warcaster and possibly win the game, this is not the best option in certain scenarios.
Once in a while, you’ll be presented a scenario where you can either kill the enemy caster or do serious damage to his army. Killing the caster is an instant win for you, but if you get hasty and fail at the assassination, your own warcaster might get left in the open for retaliation. Choosing the right tactic will win you the game and choosing the wrong one could mean certain death. You must factor in many “what if” scenarios in your head and make the right decision based on reward vs. consequence. Although the rulebook clearly states that you should “play like you got a pair”, it doesn’t say anything about playing blind. Making the safest choice that will benefit you the most will always be the superior option. Think of it like min-maxing your player turn. On the rare occasion that both caster kill and army destruction options arise and you don’t know which one to go for, this quick article might help you in your decision. Keep in mind that this is based off a real game I played a few weeks back.
The Scenario:
Pretend you’re playing eCaine and you have range to his caster with max shots and feat up. In every other situation, you want to go for the kill because Caine is an excellent single-target assassination warcaster. There is a problem though: You don’t have Rangers in the area to boost your RAT and your eEiryss died earlier to a lucky sniper shot. To make matters worse, the caster that you’re thinking about shooting up is pVlad. His entire army has advanced into your comfort zone and you need to make something happen. Vlad already has DEF15, but with Blood of Kings up, Caine would need 9s to hit DEF18. The rest of his army consists of two half-damaged warjacks who are really easy to hit for Caine because they’re DEF10 and Great Bears are ready to hack and slash next turn. What do you do?
The Decision:
You should kill his warjacks. The player with the last warjack on the field will always have the advantage. Since most casters in the game have relatively high defense and overstocked power fields, chances of killing them on one try is a very risky business. You should never attempt to assassinate if the numbers to hit and do damage are not in your favor. In this case, Caine would need above average rolls to hit and thus his Feat would be weaker if he wanted to boost to hit. Khador warjacks on the other hand, have a lot less defense than warcasters but have a lot more armor and health. They do, however, have systems that you can cripple and render them useless for the rest of the game should you box them. When it comes down to it, you have to ask yourself this question: Would you rather risk the chance to potentially kill his caster or would you rather have solid damage done to his warjacks?
The Result:
I decided not to get greedy and moved eCaine back and shot from max range with full shots and Overkill [Feat]. I kept my lesser damaging shots on the Juggernaut until it was destroyed before switching to the Behemoth and severely crippled it. My Defender, with a boosted shot from Arlan put him down shortly after. After my other units took care of his Great Bears, I positioned my Ol’Rowdy to cover up Caine’s vulnerbility by running up in front of him. The next turn, pVlad was in full retreat with the rest of his ragtag army and it was pretty much clean up after that.
The Moral:
Even though the game took several to finish after his jacks went down, it was that one decision that decided the fate of the game. Getting greedy and not fully analyzing the situation is not the best way to handle things. You should keep your cool, decide what is best for you and execute with cold precision. Putting down 2 jacks instead of trying to kill his warcaster was the better decision in this case. Without his tools of war, he had nothing to threaten the rest of my army and I came out on top. If I have failed in my assassination, Caine would of been charged by his ‘jacks next turn and die horribly. I did what I thought was safe and it paid off very well in the end.
That’s all I got for now guys. Have you guys got any battle stories where the game came down to that one decision? Or maybe you’re the risky type that goes for the caster kill every game. Whatever the story is, let me know here or check out my blog for other battle reports.
