1st Foray Into Hordes Mk II

I played my first game of Hordes during my lunch break on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun but its definitely clear I need to secure a better understanding of the rules. Unfortunately no pictures as it slows things down too much and my lunch break has a time limit.

I took my Trollbloods warpack against Steve's Skorne warpack. It was a pretty close game but Steve's familiarity with Warmachine and what is in my opinion, a better set of models for pitting against another warpack, Steve managed to win.

We set up some terrain (carrots from my lunch as a forest, salt & pepper shakers, etc.) and started our first game. He advanced his Titan and Morghoul through the carrot forest and sent his two cyclops guys around. On my turn I moved my impalers up into range with their animus and shot both of them at the titan doing quite a bit of damage. I had the axer move to intercept the two cyclops. Madrak cast Stranglehold on the Titan as well to hold him in place on the next turn.

On the second turn, one cyclops charged madrak, the other charged the axer. The axer took quite a bit of damage (after Madrak transfered the damage he took) and had his body crippled. On my turn, Madrak and the axer managed to kill off one of the cyclops. My rolls were terrible though and he should have died much sooner. I did force my axer to regenerate and heal his body so it was no longer crippled.

On the third turn, the Titan slammed one of my impalers and knocked him really far back. He then spent fury on additional attacks into Madrak. Morghoul popped his feat to keep me from forcing my warbeasts and transferring damage. On my turn Madrak leached all of the fury he could and almost finished off the titan (4 health left, damn my rolling sucks). The axer couldn't be forced so he only managed a little damage against the other cyclops.

On Skorne fourth turn, Morghoul charged Madrak and using his fury on additional attacks knocked him down to about 3 health left. The cyclops went next doing just enough damage to Madrak to finish him off and I failed my Tough roll. End of the game.

Things I learned:
My turns were too long. I need to go into these games having a much better grasp of what I can do.
I need to remember that Madrak also has a ranged weapon. It's really good and I had completely forgotten about it.
I hadn't realized that Madrak had a really fantastic upkeep spell and I should have cast it on the first turn.
Madrak's feat is not very good for facing other warpack armies. It relies on being able to kill guys in one attack and keep moving through them to mow down large groups. That doesn't work really well against only warbeasts.
Definitely a fun game. I'm looking forward to playing more.