Rough terrain

One of the most common mistakes I have made and I see other make is how they move though rough terrain. 

Rough terrain effects you as long as your base is in the terrain, but I usually see people declare there movement intention, measure how much rough terrain there is between the active model and open ground then double that distance to see how much movement was wasted moving though the rough terrain. This is however incorrect, as this does not take account for the length of the models base. A 50mm base is almost 2"s long (I think it's a few MM short). This means a large based model must add two more inches to the distance travels, costing the model 4 more inches of movement.

This pictures shows someone measuring 3" of rough terrain when 

attempting to leave the terrain.

The picture Below shows the Ironclad correctly including his base length to the measurement.

So the the Ironclad moved 5 inches to get completely into open terrain, this cost the Ironclad 10 inches 

of it's movement.

I recommend using extra bases or models that are not in the game to help measure out the real distance spent in rough terrain. I hear Litko and other businesses make plastic colored bases that might be easier to grip and cheaper to use then the beveled bases Privateer uses for there models. I have a fair amount of extra bases from Privateer and then gluing something easy to grab to it's top. I'm not sure what I'll use, but when I've figured it out, I also plan on painting them with standard facings and using them for stand-ins for models that can't be placed where it should because of modeling problem (large weapons or super cool dynamic poses that lead to models that are larger then there base).

I'll post photos when I finish making those marker/bases.

Mangled Metal summery

The gunline.

So the Mangled Metal tournament I've been organizing happened today and we had a great turn out. 18 players competed today and more appears after the tournament started, to watch and play pick up games. I ended up getting some many questions during my first two games, I decided to drop to the bottom of the pack and play the newer players and help them have a good play experience.
My Two Lists where:

ENemo
3 Chargers
Centurion

Kraye
2 hunters
Centurion

I'm first two games however where tense,

First round I played Eric, a old friend of mine. I played ENemo Vs. Goreshade the Bastard. Shadowmancer does a great job of Hosing 3 Chargers. I managed to get an Assassination kill while I was losing the attrition battle. This was a tight battle, Goreshade was running the Deathjack and Reaper, and the Reaper is pretty sweet in Mangled Metal.

My second round, I play Henry, a very skill player. I played Kraye versus Borka with a Bomber, Prye, and Implaler. This match sucked becasue Windwall owns my list, I did send in the Cent with Full Tilt and under the Horsepower feat, and he killed the Keg Pgy and almost killed the bomber. Almost is not really that good aginst Hordes as the Bomber got healed enough and buff by the pyre troll, who also walked up and Arm locked the cent's shield. The bomber still didn't kill the cent but did leave it with 3 damage left. No longer having a plan, I charged Kray in to the Bomber and missed it three times in a row (on a Cav charge too), then the Two hunters shot at the bomber (now out side of windwall) and missed. After that my opponent cleaned me up. Some where in there I also killed the pyre, but that was partiality due to the Impaler frenzying and hitting him.

Third Round I played Mahir, a local player that's been playing since the start of Mark 2. He's a solid Cygnar player. He played PNemo to my ENemo. This list was PNemo, Hammersmith, Ironclad and Lancer. I played ENemo the rest of the day and I didn't want to give newer players a weird introduction to Cygnar, due to Kraye's Cav special rules. But that worked out well for me, I really enjoyed playing ENemo. In out game we both maneuvered/stumbled into a Voltaic snare/Galvanic Bolt war. The Good news for me was that I brought guns to this immobilize battle. Also I now love "Fail Safe", it's my Jailhouse repair skill. One of my Chargers got it's cortex wreaked by an Ironclad, so I cast Fail Safe on it, popped ENemos feat, filled it up and watched it finish of the Ironclad after the Centurion failed to scrap it. This keep the Charger operational and ended up getting me the kill on PNemo.

Round Four I played Eli and his Protectorate force. He played EFeora with Blessing of Vengence (the character Arcnode), Castigator, and Repenter(3 Rof missile lancher light). I played Enemo again. This was a tight game with me feating on turn one for a 3 charger salute on the Blessing of Vengence. It survived, but lost both arms, I missed a few shots, and Nemo spammed buffs. The Cent gets Fail Safe as a default and everyone had some energizer fun. Eli spammed Bonded Repenter rockets all over the place and started fires, the Castigator joined in and pretty soon all my jacks where ablaze. His jacks where high enough army that I was having problems killing them and while attempting to do so, Feora rolled up, popped her feat after spamming more rockets at my battle group, Feora Sprayed Nemo with her flamer thrower and missed, then hit him with a boosted convetion and moved fire on to him with his feat. After her feat turn Nemo had 1 health left, and rolled for the fire to go out and it did, until we remember caustic flames don't go out and then we roll dice -4 on Nemo and the roll of 3 on the two dice meant he lived! So I alloted 3 focus to two chargers and gunned Feora down.

I had a great time, I think everyone else had fun. Best turn out in a long time for Warmachine/Hordes event in quite a while.

First place went to Lance playing Skorne
Second to Rich playing Circle
Third to Henry playing Trolls
Fourth to Johnny playing Legion
Fifth to Jeff playing Legion
 (at least I think that's it, we also had random prizes and I was cleaning up while Jeff our TO was handing out the Awards).
But It looks like Mangled Metal should have been called Fang and Claw because Hordes rocked the house.

I think the Faction break down was.
3 Cygnar
1 Cryx
2 Menoth
3 legion
4 Circle
2 Trolls
1 Skorne
Two armies I seem to have forgotten. I have pictures so I should be able to figure it out in a little while.

Edited
Here are some pictures.

More Mangled Metal thoughts

So I've been thinking about Mangled Metal and played a few test games with GoreShade the Bastard, two slayers, a Deathripper, and a Stalker. It was interesting to play, The Banethralls from Goreshades feat are very useful but I'm not as happy with Shadowmancer as I'd have hoped.

I think I'll test out Cygnar tonight. I'm going to be playing Kraye with two Hunters and a Centurion. I figure this list has insane speed and maneuver elements, I should be able to grind down my opponent with Light Cav Hunters, while the Full Tilted Cent can keep up with a Running Kraye (if I'm getting boxed in or in a Danger zone). The Cent waits until he can get the charge on the Caster or last Jack, then I pop Horse Power for the kill. Also if the Cent is engaged I can call a ride by, kill the target then fall back 8". Mage Sight allows me to attempt to deal with Stealth. I can generate a fair amount of shooting, but not really enough to justify using Guided Fire, unless Kraye is also shooting.

I'm trying to Figure out who my second caster will be, after Kraye, they all seem to pale. PHaley is my current choice, as she's very tough to Spell kill and can counter high speed rushes, but I'm not sure what Jacks to support her or what I'm trying to do to win.