Tough luck

My list was:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Seether
- Slayer
- Deathripper
- Ripjaw
Machine Wraith

Opponent had:

Amon
- Crusader
- Dervish
- Devout
- Repenter
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth

We had no scenario other than caster kill. Protectorate started game.

Seether with Scything Touch one-rounded Crusader with +2 armor spell. Parasite on Choir of Menoth and Asphyxious' feat killed all but one choir member. That one was shot down with possessed Repenter.

Amon had a camp of five focus points. Asphyxious had cast Parasite on him. Because Crusader died that easily I thought I'd make Amon quite careful if I'd damage him with Slayer. So, Slayer charged Amon and out of a whim I did Combo-Strike. Damage roll was so high that even with damage reducing effect the High Allegiant was one-shot. Oh, wait! No he wasn't. He passed his tough roll.

Next turn what's left of Protectorate wrecks both heavies and one of the arc nodes. But Amon is at one hit box. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, Asphyxious missing three times and scoring only two attacks - both which were prevented by a successful Tough roll. Then one of the arc nodes come to bite with boosted attack roll, but it's a miss. As a last resort Machine Wraith possesses Repenter and the light warjack goes and takes a swing at its master. Missed.

And then Asphyxious was alone in the middle of, albeit smallish, enemy army. And died. As a small consolation Amon was not able to deliver the killing blow. He missed even more attacks than Asphyxious did.

Warmachine Demo

Last Wednesday I did a small demo game of Warmachine for a starting Protectorate player.

Demo forces were:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Leviathan
- Stalker
- Nightwretch

and

Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- Defiler
- Ripjaw

Which makes a total of 11 points per side.

I tried to make the demo forces fairly balanced against each other, and I think I succeeded at least somewhat. Leviathan would be able to dish out damage from afar, but not end the game right away by getting lucky shots against Deneghra. Stalker would be relatively safe from Crippling Grasp and Parasite. Deneghra on the other hand had enough arc nodes to afford to lose one by accident. And even if Slayer would die to just about anything, Ripjaw would be able to deal damage in this small game size.

Opponent took Asphyxious.

Since it was a demo game I chose not to play too safely, and pushed on aggressively instead. Opponent probably got good taste of the combo mechanics of Warmachine, when Ripjaw dealt charge damage to Nightwretch with dice + 7...

Slayer fell to Leviathan shots and I charged Leviathan with Deneghra. Damage rolls were excessively poor, so that was a little bit of an anti climatic moment. Leviathan on the other hand shook off Shadow Bind and hit Deneghra once, bringing her to two damage boxes remaining. Asphyxious made short work of her. In fact there was a chance that Deneghra might have died to the POW 5 damage roll from Asphyxious' feat... now, even if I wasn't playing WAAC in this demo game, that would have been embarrassing.

Kangasala 50pts Steamroller (first two games)

Last Saturday the big day finally came.

It's a good thing, because I was starting to get tired of playing Asphyxious1/Venethrax!

So, tournament was held in Kangasala. It was 50 points, 1-2 list DC [1] and used Active Duty Roster season 2.

I'm quite fond of playing less used warcasters, and what's better than getting a real incentive to use them?

Taking advantage of that my lists were:

List1:
Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Ripjaw
- Nightwretch
- 2x Slayer

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 2x Brute Thralls + Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius
- Harrower
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Saxon Orrik
Gorman diWulfe

Objective: Fuel cache

Specialists:
Stalker
Nightmare
Ogrun Bokur
Orin Midwinter
Machine Wraith

List 2:
Lich Lord Venethrax
- Seether

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Maximum unit of Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters
Ogrun Bokur
Satyxis Captain
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Specialists:
Corruptor
Warwitch Siren
Maximum unit of Bile Thralls
Madelyn Corbeau

This was a 30 player tournament. Surprisingly there were only three Cryx players, me being one myself.

Game 1:

So needless to say, first game was obviously against Cryx.

I don't remember what was the caster pairs opponent had, but I considered Venethrax to be good enough for both of them. Opponent ended up choosing following Deneghra1 list:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- Nightwretch
- 2x Deathripper

Maximum unit of Bane Knights
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Withershadow Combine
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
2x Warwitch Siren

Objective: Arcane Wonder

I used Active Duty Roster to switch Bane Thralls for Bile Thralls.

Scenario was Recon, and Venethrax started game. First picture is from the end of Deneghra turn 1. I thought that Lamentation might bring better defences against Deneghra if I only could somehow get rid of the arc nodes. Satyxis had ran forward pretty much as far as possible. Enemy Deathripper got engaged by a Satyxis Raider by accident. That was a major bonus considering Deneghra was free to cast Venom three times, or two with various boosts.

Turn 2 Venethrax used feat, which turned out to be somewhat of a lackluster (are there any other kind of Venethrax feat turns?) as enemy was advancing from two fronts. To make matters even worse, damnable Bane Thralls seemed to have something equal to 2+ Tough rolls. Only one Bane Thrall actually died, and another was knocked down.

Sea Witch used Power Swell so that they'd be able to crack through Slayer and Deathripper armor.

I had thought of shooting a couple of Bane Knights with Nyss Hunters, but decided against it because they were packed together so closely - even if I managed to turn somebody to Charnel Flame template, it wouldn't truly block Knights' advance... and I'd only trigger Vengeance.

Deneghra turn 2 Bane Knights charged Nyss Hunters, mostly just to engage them.

Four Satyxis on the left perished under Bane Thralls and a Pistol Wraith. Skarlock and a Warwitch Siren unleashed Venom over Satyxis, but on a hill they were quite capable of dodging the corrosive fluids that were flying left and right. One Venom, however, caught the Sea Witch and killed her and broke Satyxis Raider coherency.

Venethrax turn 3 Satyxis wrecked Slayer and tried to do something to Deathripper. By now Feedback had given quite a few damage points in to Deneghra.

Next two Bile Thralls advance to Purge, one takes down the Deathripper (and the two Satyxis engaging it...) and the other one purged over Bane Thralls and caused a number of successful Tough rolls yet again.

Nyss Hunters attack Bane Knights and roughly take half off the unit. There might be one ninja Knights on the right that's not seen in the picture.

Since Deathripper and the two Satyxis went away, Seether charged the Warwitch Siren. Somehow it felt like a good idea to give a little bit more additional threat saturation than just Venethrax on the middle, when Deneghra hadn't even used The Withering yet...

Deneghra turn 3 she does use her feat, though. She was afraid of coming too close to the action (probably because of having lost about half of her hit boxes to Feedback?) so she got only Venethrax, Seether and all the remaining Satyxis under it. That obviously spelled certain doom for Satyxis.

Gorman lobbed Black Oil over Seether, and Deathripper with three focus points advanced to dismantle the heavy warjack. Withershadow Combine also walks closer to Seether and shoots it with Dark Fire bolts. All this brings Seether down to some three or four damage boxes remaining.

Pistol Wraith shoots a few Bile Thralls away.

Venethrax turn 4 Venethrax was all but useless with his might 10" control area and penalties to everything. So he just stays there, giving the other Cryx a stern look.

Bile Thralls purge quite a few Bane Thralls away this time. Opponent probably expended all luck on Tough rolls over turns 1-3.

Since Bane Thralls were pretty much the only thing contesting the middle zone, I tried to destroy the enemy objective to get a scenario game going. It required quite a lot of shuffling because of difficult charge lanes, but in the end Ogrun Bokur and Snapjaw scored the kill.

Then I was about to activate Seether, and realised that I had Seether with less than five damage boxes remaining, and enemy Withershadow Combine were waving their hands in anticipation towards it. This would not do.

But I had already activated all but Satyxis Captain. She'd have to do it before enemy Combine does it.

And she succeeded. That might have cost me the game had she failed.

Remainder of the game was short. Opponent rushed in to contest, and I had to clear the zone. Clearance was successful, so the game was 5-0 for Venethrax.


Game 2:

Second game was against Convergence of Cyriss with:

Lucant

- Cipher
- Corollary
- Inverter

Maximum unit of Reciprocators
Maximum unit of Obstructors
Minimum unit of Reductors
Optifex Directive
2x Clockwork Angels
Attunement Servitors
2x Enigma Foundry

I picked Iron Lich Asphyxious for the job, but I somehow thought it would be good idea to switch Harrower for Nightmare and Saxon Orrik for Orin Midwinter. Somehow it escaped my thinking at the time that Harrower could have actually taken souls from the small based infantry, and that Cipher shot rough terrain batches.

Scenario was Incursion, and I believe Convergence started game. First picture is poorly focused and from the end of Cryx turn 1. I didn't have much of a plan yet. Mostly I was anticipating a feat round for Lucant.

Turn 2 was not a feat round for Lucant. In fact Convergence pulled back a little on the western front, and didn't press all that aggressively on east either. Two nasty 4" AoE's of rough terrain took most of my chances to get any kind of meaningful alpha strike off, however.

On my turn I'm absolutely certain Lucant will use feat next turn, so I have to use this turn to charge and engage as much of enemy forces as possible. It failed spectacularly. Most of my attacks missed or dealt no real damage. Nightmare charged the Reciprocators, and with three focus points did not kill even one ARM 20 target. And now I had thrown away the one and only model that might be able to do damage if Lucant uses feat... pro move, here.

Slayers at least did a little bit more. Two six point warjacks killed four models. At least the eastern flag was contested now.

Necrosurgeon built three Mechanithralls, so I did get about five Mechanithralls to actually charge despite the rough terrain. They killed one servitor, one Clockwork Angel and one Reductor.

Though why am I listing the kills here? All of them would just be coming back...

Turn 3 casualties were surprisingly few. Necrosurgeon was still alive and well, so Mechanithralls didn't count. Only Nightmare and possibly Pistol Wraith died permanently. And still Lucant didn't use feat! Well, I guess the damage done by both parties involved was rather laughable, so I guess there was no need to seize a turn of nigh invulnerability.

On my turn Slayers, Warwitch Siren, Orin Midwinter and even the oft neglected Scrap Thrall conquered eastern flag, so I would score 1-0 for Cryx this turn.

Other than that, Mechanithralls just shambled about and Asphyxious advanced under full focus camp. Skarlock cast one Breath of Corruption cloud to the middle just for kicks - and hopefully to block one wound infantry advancement.

Turn 4 is rather annoying. Opponent didn't have too much time left on his clock, so he went hellbent on assassination of Asphyxious. First he had to clear the charge lanes, and then successfully charge with two heavy warjacks. Cipher had easy enough charge lane, but Inverter needed a bit more work. Eventually one Mechanithrall or Stitch Thrall or something was left standing in-between, so Inverter had to charge that guy. Asphyxious was just out of 2", so assassination attempt failed and opponent's clock ran out.

I would've wanted to play that game properly, since the situation was rather interesting - not clearly in anybody's favor, though I think I was slightly on the losing side because of the strong attrition that Enigma Foundries brought.

But tournaments are tournaments. Oh, and the last picture looks like that since I was too slow to take a picture. We had already began removing models from board.

A Greedy Ending

Week ago I played a 50 point game of Warmachine.

Yet again we practised for a tournament that actually starts tomorrow. Oh my.

Game was against Protectorate, so I played with Iron Lich Asphyxious. On hindsight I should have taken Venethrax because of reasons.

Anyway, my list was:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Ripjaw
- Nightstalker
- 2x Slayer

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 2x Brute Thrall + Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius
- Harrower
Gorman diWulfe
Saxon Orrik
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Skarlock
Pistol Wraith
Wawritch Siren

Opponent had:

Northern Crusade tier 2
Hierarch Severius
- Judicator
- Reckoner
- Blessing of Vengeance

Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Rhoven & Honor guard
Covenant of Menoth
Hierophant
Vassal Mechanic
2x Vassal of Menoth

Scenario was Outflank and Protectorate started game. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 2.

So far Reckoner has shot movement off from Harrower. I tried to seize eastern zone since there were only Gius and Cassian contesting it. My plan relied on giving three focus for Ripjaw and Power Boost a Slayer to one focus with Warwitch Siren. Slayer was successful, but Ripjaw was not. Boosted charge attack either missed or dealt laughable damage despite being P+S 14 with Armor Piercing and Scything Touch.

Severius has shot Pistol Wraith dead with Admonisher, and I guess we're ready for turn 3 by Protectorate.

It was turn when he used his feat and butchered nearly every infantry model I had, plus Slayer and Ripjaw. It was a terrible turn for Cryxian attrition game, and Severius was way too far to pull off any kind of assassination anyway. Though now that I'm looking at the picture I guess I could have tried to assassinate Severius with four Hellfires if I had succeeded in bringing Nightwretch within 10" of Severius and in Nightwretch's line of sight. Difficult to judge distances from picture, but it would have probably been my best course of action anyway in an actual tournament.

But no. NO.

I do what I always do. In a desperate situation I look for an unlikely way to cause as much damage as possible. My plan this time was try to destroy both Blessing of Vengeance and Reckoner and teleport to safety.

My pro play move was to charge Blessing of Vengeance and swing it twice with Asphyxious and get pushed back by repulsor shield within reach to Reckoner. But first I tried to soften up Blessing of Vengeance with a combo-striking Slayer, and then Reckoner with Mechanithralls. Since unit leader had been dying all over the place during enemy turn, I was unsure about the unit coherency. And, yes. Of course both Brute Thrall and the Mechanithrall close by were out of the pesky CMD 6 of Mechanithralls. Brute was perhaps two millimetres off, but enough for a 6" measurement piece to move freely between the two models. Combo-Strike by the Slayer was rather unimpressive, too.

I died a little inside.

Well. Most likely I would be losing this game, but damn it! If my minions are this useless, Asphyxious would be taking down the two warjacks all alone! Well, Skarlock did cast Scything Touch on him. At least one minion was doing it's job correctly, which isn't surprising - Skarlocks are pretty much extensions of the warcaster's will, anyway.

Asphyxious charged Blessing of Vengeance and deals good enough damage, but doesn't break the shield. He is pushed 1" back and buys one more attack against Blessing of Vengeance and wrecks it. Alas, it was yet again a very close call, but it turned out that Asphyxious wasn't within reach of Reckoner. It was a very awkward situation where Asphyxious barely did have Line of Sight to Reckoner and his back arc was easily within 2" Reckoner, but reach measured from front arc was not.

Oh well. Since there was no place I could safely teleport and be out of reach of Reckoner, I decided to teleport out of charge distance of Judicator and facetank Reckoner with only three focus. Easy!

Well. I guess I should have used feat anyway. Perhaps cast Parasite on Reckoner to bring Asphyxious up to ARM 25, and see if a colossal and Reckoner would bring Asphyxious down. Probably, but at least not as easily as a Reckoner kills ARM 19 Asphyxious. But I was greedy again - I wanted to believe in miracles and save feat for a turn where I'd be able to fully utilize the 14 focus points.

That turn never came.

Counter-Seduction, and other modern warfare tactics

Last Thursday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine.

I was going to try out Iron Lich Asphyxious from my possible Asphyxious/Venethrax ADR pairing for an upcoming tournament.

List was:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- 2x Slayer
- Nightwretch
- Ripjaw

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 2x Brute Thralls + Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius
- Harrower
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Gorman diWulfe
Saxon Orrik

Opponent played:

Harbinger of Menoth

- Devout

Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Daughters of the Flame
Knights Exemplar
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard + Attendant Priest
Vilmon
Hierophant
Knight Exemplar Seneschal
Covenant of Menoth

Scenario was Incursion, and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Protectorate turn 1. Harbinger has already activated her feat. Damn. Hard decisions would need to be made now.

Turn 2 Nightwretch advanced to contest western flag and took a POW 14. One of the Slayers advanced to contest middle flag and took a POW 14. Harrower tried to act as some sort of a nuisance and charged to Knights Exemplar and Horgendhold Forge Guard. The charge was a bit of a failure, as I had hoped to get three Forge Guards and one Exemplar within thresher range. Only the Exemplar and one Forge Guard were there even when the charge was aided by Escort.

Not much else happened. Asphyxious tried to cast some Breath of Corruptions to discourage possible charges by Daughters of the Flame and with a good deviation instantly kill them. There were no good deviations, however. Both shots fell in front of Bastions, who just laughed at the green clouds.

Protectorate charged in with Daughters of the Flame. Only one actually got to make attacks, but those attacks were against Gorman diWulfe, who perished under the blade. No, actually two Daughters made a real charge. There is one attacking Slayer. And now I remember. Those were the damage that Necrotech promptly failed to fix on the following turn... Well at least no systems had been broken by a lone Daughter and Harbinger's feat.

Vilmon charges and wrecks Nightwretch, but luckily opponent couldn't bring anyone to control the flag.

Then I don't quite understand what happened there with the Harrower. I mean... it survived five Forge Guard attacks and one Knights Exemplar. I think it still had Cortex left and possibly the ranged weapon. Not that either one mattered much since it was out of Aiakos' control area.

Turn 3 I needed to make some sort of a real move. The best I could think of was to not back up at all and move Asphyxious forward with full focus camp. He possibly allocated a couple of focus points to various Slayers, and advanced to cast Parasite on Daughters of the Flame. Then after he had spent all of his focus he used feat to bring him back to seven.

The feat didn't even kill that many Daughters. Boo. And Temple Flameguard were under Iron Zeal that turn, so feat wouldn't even be able to damage them. Boo.

But Mechanithralls did. Astounding number of 10+ were rolled for hits. I vaguely hoped Harbinger would overuse her Martyrdom ability, but that didn't really happen. Only one Daughter was left alive, who then was being Martyrdomed for all eternity.

Harrower killed one or two Forge Guards. Probably one, which was enough to cause rage in the Seneschal close by. Pistol Wraith tried to shoot Death Chill to the Seneschal, which was when I learned that Covenant with that pesky passage in that dusty old tome prevents Stationary as well as Knocked Down. Activation well spent.

Warwitch Siren gave focus for Ripjaw, who marched to attack an Exemplar Bastion. I don't remember the damage any longer, or even if Siren actually gave that focus for Ripjaw and not, for example, a Slayer.

A Stitch Thrall valiantly entered to contest Vilmon's flag.

Then it was Protectorate's turn. Forge Guards destroy Harrower wreck, but Knights Exemplars make an astounding job of not being able to hit Pistol Wraith with even two tries. Third Exemplar misses Slayer. To make up for the poor performance of his brethren last Exemplar scored a hit against Ripjaw and took off it's arc node.

Knight Exemplar Seneschal is about to charge Slayer, but remembers that "oh crap, I don't have long enough swords", so he just comes to hang around, trying to look casual and cool.

Temple Flameguard charge in and set Asphyxious on fire. One also kills Necrosurgeon, which was a blow, but a deserved one. I had placed her in such a bad position. Scenario goes 1-0 to Protectorate.

Turn 4 Pistol Wraith shot both Exemplars who had charged it. Go figure.

Aiakos either charges or advanced & leaps to attack Forge Guards, dispatching two of them and still camping three focus.

Mainly I had been hoping I'd find a way to charge Asphyxious (who's fire effect didn't continue, by the way) to Harbinger, but that required a lot of successful attacks by many models so that Harbinger wouldn't just martyrdom the ones who were in Ashpyxious' way. Mechanithralls did fine job again at landing solid hits, but Flameguard were not that bad at rolling Tough either. However, the model that screwed everything up was Skarlock. It advanced and cast Breath of Corruption so that it would land on all three Flameguards blocking Asphyxious. Obviously it missed and deviation landed the cloud effect so it completely blocked Asphyxious' line of sight to Harbinger. Not that it had been likely that I'd remove all three before it was Asphyxious' turn to activate, but now there was zero use in attempting that at all.

He camped eight focus instead, then.

Necrotech succeeded in repair roll and repaired one (1) point of damage. I just had to write that down. Their mechanical aptitude almost equals that of my own.

Slayer and Ripjaw punch holes into Bastions. Another Slayer and a Warwitch Siren kill Exemplar Seneschal.

Protectorate then. Flameguard sets Asphyxious on fire again, and quite a few Mechanithralls die to their spears. Exemplar Bastions wreck Ripjaw, but Slayer manages to dodge most of their attacks again.

Harbinger takes a run closer to lower flags. She camped nine focus points I think.

Vilmon kills contesting Stitch Thralls again and scenario goes 2-0 for Protectorate.

Turn 5 things start to look relatively good. Against all odds I had not lost Slayers yet, and Cryxian damage output this turn was enough to remove all but one Exemplar Bastion. Quite a few Flameguards die too and the very last Stitch Thrall advances trembling to sacrifice itself to altar of Vilmon. I bet that's not a battle story Vilmon tells to his paladin friends at a tavern table when they are bragging to each other about the greatest kills.

A slayer tries to beat the last remaining Knights Exemplar, but fails to do that. Aiakos has to advance and leap to make better work than a five ton construct build for battle. Pistol Wraith advances and shoots remaining Forge Guards.

To get the last model away that's contesting lowest flag Warwitch Siren advances to base contact with Exemplar Bastion, who then proceeds to take a swing at no other than Harbinger of Menoth. Unfortunately no damage was made.

Thanks to one extra focus from earlier soul token Asphyxious was ARM 24. And when things suddenly look good you have a high risk of becoming overconfident. That's exactly what happened here. Arm 24 Iron Lich Asphyxious advances to dominate middle flag, though there were enemy models near enough to contest. Either way, scenario went to 2-1 for Protectorate thanks to Pistol Wraith. Oh, I think Asphyxious had taken two points of damage from fire continuous effect.

So. Protectorate goes for the assassination. This turn Vilmon charges some other target than Stitch Thralls - he charged Asphyxious. And missed. Yup. Definitely not a tale to be told.

Then there was this funny moment when I got to taste my own medicine. My sweet medicine called Seduction. That... that sounds wrong. On purpose.

Just when Warwitch Siren had seduced Exemplar Bastion to attack Harbinger, Madelyn Corbeau advanced next to Warwitch Siren and seduced her. Somehow Madelyn convinced Siren to attack Necrotech. A hit was scored, but P+S 11 wasn't enough to kill the necromechanic.

Then literally everything charged Asphyxious. Except maybe for the Hierophant and Covenant of Menoth. Arm 24 was too much for all other models except for Harbinger, who charged in. And she got close enough to land two automatically hitting POW 20's with a damage boost. Darn. First roll is on the lower side, but one good roll would take Asphyxious out now. But it didn't. Asphyxious was at seven hit boxes remaining. But then we remember about such insignificant details as the actual charge attack.

It didn't kill Asphyxious, but it dealt two more points in. And Asphyxious was on fire. Rolling 9+ is, like, entire light years more likely to roll than 11+ on two dice.

So then.

I roll if fire expires. It doesn't.

Opponent rolls for damage, and first die to land is a six. Dice settle, and it's a six and a two. Asphyxious is at one hit box remaining.

Asphyxious stands there blinking for a while before realizes he isn't dead. Quickly he fixes his face and twirls his mustache and says: "Excellent! Everything is going according to my plan! What a skilled master-class caster bait yet again, old man Asphyxious... yet again! You're the best!"

And then he skewers Harbinger. Fun fact: Harbinger does still float even when impaled by soulsplitter.

Ragman ain't no bragman

Last Thursday I played two 35 point games of Warmachine.

Both were played with same list, which was:

Iron lich Asphyxious
- 2x Nightwretch
- Ripjaw

Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
2x Pistol Wraiths
Madelyn Corbeau
Ragman
Gorman diWulfe

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Opponents were two different lists, however.

First game was against Convergence of Cyriss. It was a special game, since it was against Aurora. It's special, because now I have played at least one game against every Convergence warcaster, and I have to confess that the very core of my soul is that of a set collector and a bingo player. Convergence has been filled for now. Hooray.

Next closest factions are Retribution of Scyrah (missing Vyros1 and soon Thyron) and Legion of Everblight (missing Lylyth3 and Kallus, and soon Saeryn2.)

But I digress.

First game was against Convergence with following list:

Aurora, Numen of Aerogenesis
Maidens of Gear tier 4
- Corollary
- Conservator
- Cipher

5x Clockwork Angel units...!
Optifex Directive
Steelsoul Protector
Attunement Servitors
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex

Objective: Fuel Depot

Scenario was Incoming, and Cryx started game. It was a lucky thing I did, as Aurora and the Clockwork Angels seem to be quite fast - even before counting in the fact that opponent forgot about Advance Deployment of the Angels!

First picture is from the end of Convergence turn 1, and I continue off from there by trying to kill as many Clockwork Angels from near my friendly zone as possible. But as luck would have it... I killed only one or two.

Things went at least a little better on my enemy zone, though at first I had kind of wanted to throw Breath of Corruptions to my friendly zone to mitigate charges from the onslaught of winged maidens. Though I only killed one or two maidens there also, the smashing success was Pistol Wraith causing Death Chill to the Conservator.

Convergence killed most of the Nyss Hunters, and, considering what was left of my troops, pretty much secured their enemy zone. One Nyss defied death long enough to contest the zone. Generally speaking... flare is nasty.

Both Pistol Wraiths also died to various attacks. They had both been shooting, so they were corporeal. Not that it mattered much, because for some reason most of the Clockwork Angels' attacks are magical in nature.

Turn 3 it was rather difficult to assess the situation. Was I losing? Was I winning? After this turn who would have the upper hand in attrition? There weren't any too tight clumps of enemy infantry to be Breathed upon, so I went for assassination instead. Madelyn Corbeau moved Gorman for 3", and then Gorman advanced 6" to lob some Black Oil on Aurora. I had estimated distances poorly (to my benefit this time), and that 9" was more than enough to cause -4 DEF & various other penalties for Aurora.

An arc node advances into position, and finally Asphyxious advances. He casts Parasite on Aurora, and then Hellfire. Damage roll is absurdly high and kills Aurora in one shot.

Well... the game was over before I had the chance to actually get to know Aurora personally. But those Clockwork Angels. Yikes.



Game 2:

Second game was against Cryx, against no other caster than the notorious Warwitch Deneghra, who had:

Warwitch Deneghra

- Leviathan
- 2x Nightwretch

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Withershadow Combine
2x Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock

Scenario was Outflank, and Cryx started game. Ahhahhah. Get it? Cryx started game! (Please, make me stop before I lose the rest of my dignity.)

Anyway, Iron Lich Asphyxious started game. There has already happened quite a lot before I remembered to take first picture. It should be the end of Asphyxious turn 2.

I tried to seize the zone on the right, and a lucky deviation from Breath of Corruption sniped off the standard of Bane Thralls. I tried to remain as far from Deneghra as possible, and Outflank scenario seemed to encourage that.

Black Ogruns and a stray hen were contesting Deneghra's zone. At least the Ogruns were good for something, even if they're not good at something.

Turn 2 Deneghra casts Crippling Grasp on Nyss Hunters, and they start dying all over the place. Luckily for me not that many were within opponent's reach, and not that mane Bane Thralls were alive any more.

But then to the Black Ogruns.

Skarlock cast Crippling Grasp on them after Bane Thralls and Pistol Wraith were done with the Nyss, and just that one spell was enough to wipe the whole goddamn unit. Well... to be honest, Leviathan, Pistol Wraith, Withershadow Combine and Warwitch Siren may have also had something to do with their departure. Well. At least they succeeded in their Command check.

Turn 3 for Asphyxious, then. Madelyn Corbeau moved Gorman up front, who then proceeded to lob Black Oil over Warwitch Siren and two members of the Withershadow Combine. Combined efforts of the Nyss, Pistol Wraith, Ripjaw, Nightwretch and even the Ragman manage to clear the zone on the right from enemy models. During the three times I've played this list this was the first time Ragman actually had any kind of an impact within a game.

I tried to bring the leftmost Nightwretch to Asphyxious' Control Zone, but failed to do that by something like three millimetres. That was probably the final deciding factor if I'd use my feat now or later. Asphyxious had to advance those three millimetres, and started flinging spells. Tremulus and Warwitch Siren died easily enough, but somehow Admonia remained completely uninjured. Perhaps she used Tremulus and Siren to screen the hits?

Ripjaw acted as a node for two Hellfires that went to enemy arc node that was hiding behind the building. I'm not sure on this, but did the two spells really wreck the light warjack? Maybe, as it probably had some earlier damage from Breath of Corruptions that were aimed at Bane Thralls. Then Asphyxious teleported to dominate the zone on right.

Deneghra needs to make a fairly desperate turn. She advances, uses her feat and casts Ghost Walk on Skarlock. Most of the Nyss and Asphyxious weren't under her feat, but everything else was.

Skarlock ran through the building in the middle to contest the zone I had in my possession.

Enemy Pistol Wraith shot Gorman and Ragman off the board, but the remaining models failed to wreck my Nightwretch. I think it was left with something like three damage boxes remaining or something. Enemy Nightwretch on the left had been Death Chilled a turn earlier by my Pistol Wraith.

Turn 4 dispatching the Skarlock wasn't a problem. It wasn't even a challenge. More important was trying to block the advances any other models that'd be coming to contest next turn. I had been considering to use Vice Lock on Leviathan, but after all it was Deneghra's feat turn. No special attacks for me. I still tried to block a little bit of movement by walking Ripjaw right next to the helljack.

My Pistol Wraith and a Hellfire later the enemy Nightwretch on left was destroyed.

Then it's Deneghra's turn again, and Leviathan easily runs to my zone. The free strike even missed. My Nightwretch on the left was finally wrecked. Enemy Pistol Wraith shoots Madelyn Corbeau off the board. Only character models were good enough prey for this guy.

But then it was pretty much a question if I'd manage to kill the Leviathan in time. And damn it was hard! It literally went to the last possible attack I was able to make with Asphyxious, and even that wasn't a given - it required 8+ to succeed. But 8+ it was with three dice.

As much as it tears me, I think I'll have to ditch Ragman from this list and pick a Skarlock instead. I just can't seem to be able to use Ragman effectively, and there's not that much synergy for him in this list after all.

Menoth's Yowl

Last Thursday I played a 35 point Warmachine game.

I may go to a tournament that's being held on 1st of August, and there's Venethrax and Iron Lich Asphyxious in Cryx Active Duty Roster. So this month goes with those two warcasters.

But the actual game.

My list was:

Iron lich Asphyxious
- 2x Nightwretch
- Ripjaw

Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party

Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
2x Pistol Wraiths
Madelyn Corbeau
Ragman
Gorman diWulfe

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Opponent was playing:

Vindictus
- Reckoner

Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard + Attendant Priest
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Epic Eiryss
Anastasia diBray
+2 points I can't figure out. Was there some solo that died before first picture was taken? Or did the list fall short?

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Anyway. Scenario was Two Fronts, and Cryx got to start despite of Anastasia's +1 to starting roll. Yet again the oppressive deathclock made me forget about the camera, so first picture is taken when Protectorate has already started second turn.

Cryx used their second turn to shoot various targets with a Pistol Wraith and Nyss Hunters, and even one Black Ogrun advanced forward to drag Exemplar Bastions... which, by definition, is a stupid idea since they cannot realistically be dragged. Vindictus hadn't used his feat just yet, so I tried to remove a bit of infantry.

My grand plan was to shoot a couple of Breath of Corruptions to block any meaningful advance by Horgenhold Forge Guards, but once I had positioned Asphyxious to do just that, it became apparent that Attendant Priest had given them "no spell targeting" prayer. Oh joy. Well, Asphyxious shot a couple of clouds at Bastions, then, and hoped for good deviations so that at least their charge would be mostly blocked.

First Bastion was just within range, though, so the attack didn't deviate anywhere. Second Breath was cast upon same farther Bastion, but it deviated right over the first Bastion. What a waste.

So, it's Protectorate's second turn now. So far Eiryss had shot Madelyn Corbeau, who had to use Sucker! -skill to redirect the hit to... well... Gorman. Now that was some expert positioning right there on my part!

Temple Flameguard just charge around aimlessly, and look at that. One charged Black Ogrun. What's the worst that could happen? Well, Black Ogruns fail their terror check from Menoth's Howl, and I'm left wondering why I even bother with the Party Pirates.

At least Nyss pass their check, though only barely.

Next picture seems to be from the end of this particular Protectorate turn. The rest of the turn was Attendant Priest giving magic weapons for Horgenhold Forge Guard, Vindictus using feat and casting True path, and the aforementioned dwarves wrecking my objective and Pistol Wraith. Oh, and Anastasia appeared from out of nowhere, too.

Turn 3 was terrible for Cryx.

I probably balanced out every bad roll from earlier "continuously above average dice roll" games against this opponent. Or perhaps it just felt like it - now that I look at the picture, at least some Temple Flameguards and Anastasia have died.

But the Bastions were completely impervious to any and all damage (and even attack) roll I was able to make. Multiple Combined Ranged Attacks by Nyss Hunters - nothing.

And the greatest failure of all. Asphyxious himself decided to show his unworthy minions how things are handled here. He charges Bastion and misses. He buys an additional attack and boosts attack roll, and misses. He buys one last desperate attack, and misses. Then he teleports away. Talk about focus efficiency. But there was an occurrence that might keep me going in this game - Terror check that Asphyxious caused to Horgenhold Forge Guard was failed.

And at least Black Ogruns rallied.

Turn 3 Protectorate easily destroyed the Nightwretch that was contesting my friendly zone, and Vindictus ran around to where the orange proxy base is. Protectorate was at three control points now.

All the Black Ogruns miraculously survived any attacks that Bastions were trying to make. Temple Flameguard were so few in number that they didn't do much either - right flank was pretty much mine, now. But would it matter in a situation like this?

Come Cryx turn 4, I ran so tight on clock that if this was an actual tournament game, I'd just have to try an assassination. So that's what I tried... Dice rolls would need to be quite phenomenal to assassinate Def 17 (on a hill) Arm 20 (with focus) Vindictus, but let's see how it goes.

Black Ogrun shuffle themselves into better position, and then Asphyxious charges a Bastion, and tried to shoot Vindictus with Hellfire. Well, it was a horrible miss, so I ditched whole assassination plan and tried to injure Bastions instead by shooting Breath of Corruptions left and right, and finally teleporting away.

Fun fact: Black Ogruns had miraculously survived a round of melee against Bastion. They weren't so lucky when Asphyxious came to "help" them. Best damage rolls were against my own models. Sigh...

Nyss killed enough Temple Flameguards to cause a massive casualties test on them, which failed. What's this? Three failed command checks in just one game?

They weren't, however, weapon masters enough to wreck the enemy objective. Armour piercing Ripjaw also wasn't armour piercing enough, so yeah. That was my game. Had I succeeded in destroying the objective, I'd have gone to three control points, too, and then, if I prayed Toruk hard enough, Madelyn, Ragman or Nightwretch would survive a round of beating in the enemy zone.

But either I didn't pray hard enough, or Toruk just didn't care. First system the Nightwretch lost was Movement, and that was my best bet in hoping a dice screw for opponent.

Oh well.

Ragman and Madelyn didn't really do much for me in this game. Perhaps I should drop them and get, perhaps, Skarlock and Saxon Orrik or something. Or learn to play and plan better in the long run.

Asphyxious vs Proxbloods

Last Sunday I played two 25 point games of Warmachine. Well, actually they were 26 points, but that way opponent didn't have to break the initial idea of his list too much by taking proxies for models he never intends to use, so better this way. There's a lot of proxies going on here, so pictures might be even more confusing than usual.

Trollbloods played both games with:

Chief Madrak Ironhide
- Dire Troll Mauler (Rhinodon and/or the proxy base in pictures)
- 2x Impalers
- Axer

Minimum unit of Krielbearers (Boomhowler grunts + Stage 1A Krielstone Bearer from another dimension)
Runebearer (Boomhowler himself, I think?)
Whelps (Gobber mechanics)

First game I played was:

Orchestrations of Annihilation tier 3
Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon (additional soul)
- Malice (additional soul)

2x Minimum unit of Mechanithralls + Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Scrap Thralls (additional corpse)
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Necrotech (free)
Pistol Wraith (additional corpse)
Machine Wraith (additional giggles)

Scenario was Supply and Demand, and trollbloods started this game. As I was trying out the tier list, I didn't have access to either Satyxis Raiders or Erebus. I couldn't figure a good target for Ashen Veil, so Asphyxious just slapped in on himself. Scything Touch is on Malice. Trolls were in a brick blob contesting the zone, but Malice was able to yank Dire Troll Mauler with a boosted Harpoon shot.

Damage rolls were disturbing, and Malice killed the Dire Troll all by itself. I had been thinking of charging the troll dead with a couple of Mechanithralls, but instead I got to run all over the place, trying to block entry to Asphyxious who is currently feating in the picture.

Pistol Wraith with an aiming bonus succeeded in Death Chilling the Axer, so I was pretty confident after my turn ended. However... I had never seen Madrak's feat in effect. I mean, sure... of course I was aware that most of my infantry would just die to the feat, but it'd be highly likely that Asphyxious would have a huge number of souls after that, and if I only had Asphyxious and Malice alive, maybe along with just a few Mechanithralls and whatnot, I'd have enough killing power to deal with enemy beasts.

Well... uh. There is a "before" and "after" picture, and all the destruction was caused by two Impalers and Madrak. Also, the Impaler on the right took off Malice's melee weapon.

Damn it. I was pretty much crippled if Asphyxious failed to kill Madrak, who was Defense 16, Arm 18, one Fury for transfers and the perseverance scroll unused. Asphyxious did have 15 Focus for use that turn, though.

Bile Thralls scored a couple of random points to Madrak, but most importantly they killed enough krielstone bearers so that Madrak dropped back to Arm 16.

After a lot of shuffling around Asphyxious finally charged Madrak, and 15 Focus did it's thing. Again Asphyxious couldn't have done it with his normal 7 focus, even when he didn't miss any of his attacks. And Madrak didn't pass Tough.



Game 2:

This game I had the following list:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Leviathan
- Cankerworm
- 2x Nightwretch

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
... oh, and it's one point short.

Scenario was Supply and Demands, but Cryx started this time around. Last game I had so many warrior models on board, and this time I had only a handful. Literally - if I didn't care for the chipping paint job, I could probably balance the nine models to one hand. It felt... scary. Especially as I had seen how many infantry models Madrak's feat can clear - though to be honest, nobody forced me to place them so tighly packed.

First picture is from the end of Trollbloods turn 1, and the Surefoot brick has taken nasty position on a hill. The empty base is proxy for Dire Troll Mauler here because Rhinodon just didn't want to balance.

On my next turn I try to kill the Axer with a fully loaded Cankerworm, Parasite and Scything Touch. It almost succeeded, the Axer was left with only a few damage boxes remaining. But, well... in the end it just didn't succeed, and I lost nine points worth of models thanks to such a random charge. Also it wasn't even a good bait or piece trade or anything - opponent was way too far for Cryx to counter assault.

Bad choices on my part just continued, though I was quite sure I was doing something I shouldn't be doing. But that Axer had slurred a personal insult against Asphyxious by refusing to die, so next turn I did absolutely everything I could to take the Axer down. I gave up a Nightwretch, Skarlock and Asphyxious' feat to deal the last remaining ~4-6 points to Axer.

Madrak also used his feat, and yet again I had packed the infantry I had too closely together. Four out of six Bane Thralls died to a charging Impaler. And yet again a feated Impaler rips off my heavy warjack's melee arm! They must use melee arms as some sort of trophy.

So. Impaler or Mauler has to go. Bane Thralls would decide - one went to beat Mauler and one went to Impaler. The one who got to Mauler only tickled the big guy, so Asphyxious goes to kill the Impaler instead. He really tries to save up focus for Arm boost, but rolls damage quite poorly. Impaler pops up a Whelp at some point, which Asphyxious also kills to gain an additional soul token.

I don't remember what Leviathan did that turn, but probably pretty much same it did whole game - missed things and cried its loneliness.

I also don't remember who or what killed Bane Thrall from front of Dire Troll Maulerodon, but the end result is that Mauler charges Leviathan, hits with both attacks and double-handed throws Leviathan at Asphyxious (with Chain Attack). Finally Leviathan didn't have to feel lonely, and for the first time in game it did something! It dealt damage to Asphyxious because it landed on top of him.

Madrak advances and throws the axe at Asphyxious as he is crawling out of reach of way too clingy Leviathan. Asphyxious is down to five hit boxes, and I guess an oversight from opponent (and pity from Madrak) made Stranglehold go unused this turn. I guess Madrak looked at the thing going on with Asphyxious and Leviathan and he thought that Asphyxious was Strangleheld enough already.

Next turn Warwitch Siren tries to charge Madrak, but doesn't hit. Bane Thrall runs next to Madrak, and Asphyxious who had shaken himself up walked to Madrak. Asphyxious had eight focus to deal with the warlock. The pillar was as well as Surefoot made Madrak equivalent of Def 18, so Asphyxious needed twelve to hit. First attack is a hit, and as a consequence every attack from then on was a hit, too. Hitting with first attack was probably what killed Madrak.

I don't know. Madrak the Thornwood Chieftain doesn't seem that bad against Cryx, as clearing infantry doesn't seem to be a big problem for him. And that's what Cryx is feared for, I guess. The infantry. Not the Leviathan.

The Oldest vs the Newest (an exaggeration)

I played a 35 point game against Convergence of Cyriss.

I decided to take Iron Lich Asphyxious in for a spin, and I came up with following list:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Reaper
- Slayer
- 2x Nightwretch

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls
Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren

Much to my amusement I noticed that all but two models were printed in the original black & white Prime from 2003! And Warwitch Siren is the only model that didn't exist in Mk1.

Convergence had almost same list as last time, but with a couple of improvements:

Syntherion tier 2:
- Corollary
- 2x Diffuser
- Mitigator
- Assimilator
- Monitor
- Cipher

Attunement Servitors
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex

Anyway, Cryx won starting roll but went second, as I didn't really want any kind of shooting vectors on a mountain. This time we played with a scenario, which was Close Quarters, which has Killbox in effect. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1. Hot Shot was on Cipher, Reconstruct on Mitigator and Synergy on Syntherion. Scything Touch is on Satyxis Raiders.

I was willing to take a risk with the Satyxis there, as I was quite sure that Ground Pounder with RAT 5 wouldn't kill too many Def 16 Satyxis. And, well, it didn't.

But I had not taken into consideration the horrible Def lowering capabilities Convergence had. A flare template from Attunement Servitor lowered Satyxis' natural defense to 12, and then Syntherion cast Magnetic Hold on one of the flared Satyxis. Force Barrier doesn't affect spells, so it was an easy hit. Ground Pounder and various other attacks killed four Satyxis, which wasn't too bad. But -2 spd from Magnetic Hold that prevented charges hurt most.

A lucky deviation from Cipher destroyed two Bane Thralls, and it was Cryx's time to act.

Satyxis advanced what they could and destroyed one Attunement Servitor.

Slayer tried to come bait vectors a little, though I was unsure if such a trade would be any good. A Nightwretch in the middle shot a second Attunement Servitor, and then Skarlock re-cast Scything Touch on Reaper. Nightwretch on the left shot third Attunement Servitor and placed itself easily within 10" range of the arc node optifex. A hellfire from Asphyxious would deal with it.

Reaper advanced and shot harpoon against Mitigator, dragging it and wrecking it. Again I hadn't paid any attention which model had Reconstruct on... So Mitigator just spawned out of Reaper's melee range.

Hellfire went to Mitigator instead, then, and Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex wiped the sweat from his/her brow.

Convergence activates, and Syntherion uses his feat this turn.

Diffuser on right attacks a Satyxis and shoots the homing ripspike to Slayer.

Then Monitor charges Slayer, and charge attack would have caused critical erosion if double 1's could score a hit. Additional attacks against Slayer didn't wreck it, and I guess this is what messed up Convergence's battle plans pretty badly.

Of course I don't know what opponent had in mind, but once it dawned on me that Diffuser could give +2" charge range, I had worried about the safety of Reaper. I doubt four Bane Thralls would have made up for the disappearance of two heavy warjacks.

But instead of charging Cipher played safe and further reduced my Bane count to three as well as dealing minor damage to Nightwretches.

Diffuser tried to shoot a boosted and aimed, re-rollable shot at Nightwretch on a hill, but missed.

There is one full round between pictures now, but Cryx turn went so that Nightwretches desperately tried to shoot Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex out from the way of Reaper's harpoon, but Def 15 (with Iron Sentinel) caused some problems for them. Both arc nodes had to try shooting before it went down.

Reaper yanked another light vector, but damage rolls weren't good enough to wreck it.

Slayer, on the other hand, rolled atrocious damage rolls against Monitor and wrecked it.

Last remaining Satyxis tried to tickle the vectors on the right, and did just that. Tickle. As a side note, Feedback isn't really worth anything against Syntherion with his auto-repair.

Next it was Convergence.

Assimilator and Diffuser on right continued to stomp Satyxis. I don't remember exactly what Cipher did, but since there's still three Bane Thralls in the picture, I assume it tried to shoot all of my support models away in one go - after all Necrotech, Skarlock and Warwitch Siren were quite badly clumped.

Corollary came forward to block Banes from charging Cipher.

Cryx turn again, and it started to look like game over for Convergence here, when Parasite to Cipher and Scything Touch on Reaper wrecked Cipher and both Diffusers went down with various charges.

Next turn Reaper charged Syntherion and economically destroyed him - there was not even one point of excess damage.

Biggest turning point in the game was unquestionably when Monitor botched the charge attack. Looks like critical double 1's have a really big impact on 35 point game with really low model count army.

Anyway, I'm starting to build up a serious loathing for Reconstruct spell, and Magnetic Hold seems like a powerful spell. Now, if I only played even just one faction Eiryss works for... but alas, I don't.

Power Boost my brain next, Warwitch Siren

Tuesday I played Warmachine again with the same opponent who played last game.

This time we randomised a scenario which proved to be Rally Point.

I continued playing Cryx, and my 25 point list was:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Erebus
- Nightwretch
- Nightwretch
- Cankerworm

Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall

Opponent had:

Stryker1 (I still don't remember the title...)

- Lancer

Journeyman Warcaster
- Ironclad

Black 13th
Minimum unit of Storm Lances
Stormsmith
Squire
Reinholdt the gobber speculator

Again there are some proxies in the pictures. Nemo is Stryker's journeyman warcaster (how wrong is that, fluffwise?) Mechanic unit leader is Reinholdt and a gobber mechanic is Squire. Black 13th is formed from Caine the Ryan, and Watts & Lynch, the Long Gunners.

Cryx started second, and first picture is from the end of Cygnar's turn 2. Thus far Cankerworm took a horrible damage roll from a non-charging Storm Lance, and the ranged attack from another Storm Lance killed a Scrap Thrall, and ensuing electro leap took Necrotech with it. B13 took over half damage boxes away from Erebus, though no systems went down yet.

That was a bad start. Really bad.

Next turn I try to take out the Storm Lances by giving Cankerworm two focus and casting Parasite on the cavalry unit.

Cankerworm obviously misses the first attack, but buy another one and kills one Storm Lance. Sadly that could have easily been two. Well, then Cankerworm tries to advance with affinity from Asphyxious to engage Lancer, but 6" movement wasn't just enough.

Warwitch Siren gives Power Booster to Erebus, who then runs to engage B13. Erebus tried to run so that Ironclad wouldn't be able to charge it, but next turn I learned that B13 has Gunfighter. So Erebus pretty much ran just to kill itself.

Except this time around Black 13th didn't roll so exceptionally high damage rolls, and only a few damage rolls exceeded armour. Ironclad ran right next to Erebus. Stryker then activated, advanced, shot the Nightwretch with the disruption pistol and used his feat. Lancer & Storm Lances try to wither Cankerworm away, but the pesky thing loses only its head (the armor piercing attack).

Ring you see in picture is Mage Storm from Cryan.

Next turn pretty much all I tried failed.

Erebus took its two tries against Black 13th, but missed both. Cankerworm hit the Storm Lance, but did only two points in. Storm Lance on the hill actually died to Hellfire either from Asphyxious or Skarlock.

Asphyxious missed the Storm Lance in melee, but I still thought that a bile thrall could come and Purge it away. So Asphyxious used his feat and teleported to enemy zone. The bile thrall in question looked like it was short from Purge range, so I decided to use he spray attack instead. Well, now. RAT 3 missed, what a suprise. To my consolence yeah, the bile thrall was out of purge range.

Well it was desperate plan anyway, but still it wasn't too absurd. I could have started dominating on that turn.

Next turn Ironclad downs Erebus in two hits.

Black 13th don't overperfom because one of them misses an attack against Nightwretch. It still has arc node intact. However... Stryker activates, walks up, casts Earthquake and shoots the wretch. Damage roll is quite poor and it still has arc node, but the bonejack is disrupted and knocked down. Not a good thing, really.

Much to my amazement Cankerworm survived a charge from Lancer and initial attacks from the lone Lancer. With one damage box remaining in Movement system. That hilariousness stays for quite a while...

Anyway, it could have been a lot worse. And I saw actually a pretty decent opportunity to kill Stryker.

Nightwretch on the hill runs as far as it only can, and then Asphyxious casts Breath of Corruption on Reinholdt, who was standing right next to Stryker. Stryker takes some 8 points of damage. Rest of focus go into beating up Lancer, but not much is done.

Then two bile thralls walk as far as possible. One purge deals a few damage points, but the last purge is just out of range. Damn.

Oh, and Cankerworm manages to kill the Storm Lance. Finally.

Then Cygnar shoots Warwitch Siren, and Stryker himself charges and puts the disrupted Nightwretch out from misery. Lancer scored only one decent hit against Asphyxios.

The lone Stormsmith tries to disrupt the last Nightwretch, but I lucked out when he failed the skill check.

So now I had yet another chance to kill Stryker! Awesome!

Nightwretch advances as far as possible, and then Asphyxious advances and casts two Breath of Corruptions on Stryker. The damage rolls weren't too good, and Stryker is still left standing with 4 hit boxes remaining. Looks like I forgot to take a picture from this turn, but you can all see the Nightwretch's wreck on which Stryker is triumphantly standing. Damn. Did the poster boy really destroy two of my arcnodes by himself?

Black 13th shoot Skarlock, and when it's my turn again I only have Asphyxious with about half damage boxes remaining and Cankerworm with only one damage box. The bonejack had survived all these turns.

I was so severely outnumbered, that I attempted final, desperate assassination.

Asphyxious charged stormsmith (missed, how else) and there was now a couple of options. Either I cast a fully boosted Hellfire at Stryker (one chance, needed to roll 13+ to hit) or two Breath of Corruptions (two 33% chances to hit by deviating only 1-2 inches).

I chose the Breath of Corruption way, but neither spell hit.

Next turn Asphyxious was standing all alone against the whole enemy army.

Ironclad attacked Asphyxious and even with full hit boxes it would have one-hitted Asphyxious. Ouch.

Looking back at the game I think I should have sacrificed one Nightwretch to kill Ryan and the other guy from Black 13h with a Breath of Corruption, but I wasn't entirely sure if 3" template would cover both of them. Probably yes. I was thinking that I need to get rid of Storm Lances quite fast, because they'd be a hard and mobile nut to crack on Stryker's feat turn. Black 13th would still die to a boosted Breath of Corruption. Before I got there, however, my arc nodes started getting disrupted. And I actually realise now when I'm writing this that, heh.. yeah.

Ahhahhahhah.

Warwitch Siren knows how to take disruption away. I'm such a fool.

Anyway, a really close game again.

I believe next I will be playing Skorne.

Artifice of Intention

A 35 point game of Warmachine, Cryx vs Khador.

My list:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Ripjaw
- Nightwretch
- Seether

Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Gorman diWulfe
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Machine Wraith
Satyxis Raider Captain

Khador had:

Epic Irusk
- Juggernaut

Maximum unit of Man-o-War Bombardiers
Maximum unit of Man-o-War Shocktroopers
Minimum unit of Battle Mechaniks + Officer
2x Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Epic Eiryss


Khador got the start, and Tactical Supremacy was cast on Man-o-War Shocktroopers. On Cryx side Skarlock had cast Scything Touch on Satyxis Raiders, and Asphyxious took a flying start by just running with all focus. First picture is taken from the end of Cryx turn 1. Scenario was, by the way, the Process of Elimination.

Next turn Khador mainly advances, and Irusk uses his feat. That was actually rather good choice, since Satyxis could and would have charged everywhere on my next turn.

Mortar fire doesn't do much. Skarlock and Gorman both take a few damage points from blasts, and one bile thrall bites the dust.

Well then it was my rather restricted turn. Satyxis Captain gave Desperate Pace to Raiders, who then advanced and used Power Swell. I was hoping for a little more damage since five Satyxis got within melee range, but only one Man-O-War fell. Well, technically two, because he was knocked down from a succesful Tough roll.

Ripjaw tries to position itself as close to Eiryss as possible, but not within 5" of her. I have done that mistake too many times with my arcnodes.

A lucky Breath of Corruption deviation kills Eiryss soon after, and then Nightwretch tries to damage objective on the left. It succeeds by doing 2 damage.

Next the mechaniks of Khador repair 10 points of damage away from Shocktroopers, so Power Swell achieved even less. Impenetrable wall of armor advances in a straight line, and Artifice of Deviation then blocked any possibility to charge Juggernaut with Seether. Mortars were shooting at bile thralls. One shot missed its target, and deviation brought the blast over Gorman. That was the end of Gorman. I guess he's not my superman any more who survives all attacks, no matter the odds.

Now, this time I really wanted to wipe out the Shocktroopers. First Ripjaw activated and walked close to them. Asphyxious cast Parasite to them. Then a Bile Thrall walked up to use Purge. However, I couldn't position that damnable bile thrall so that only casualty would have been the lone Satyxis. I had to turn it so that rightmost objective and Ripjaw took the acid explosion too. Luckily it didn't break Ripjaw, but on the other hand, it really did nothing to Man-o-Wars either. Only a couple of damage points here and there.

Satyxis Raiders charge Shocktroopers then. Parasite and Chain Weapon reduced their armor effectively to 14, and thanks to Scything Touch the base P+S on Satyxis was 11. So yeah, this time they died, except one who passed two or three Tough rolls. Bile Thrall purge and one Lacerator attack that was directed against Mechanik Officer brought him down to 1 hit box. Oh, and one Satyxis Raider took an awkward charge at Man-o-War Bombardiers just to tie them up a little. This worked suprisingly well, since she one-shotted the Bombardier in question.

Since Seether couldn't do anything productive, I positioned it so that I might next turn start scoring points by destroying rightmost objective.

As it turned out, Khador had pretty much the same plan, except inversed. At the start of turn Mechanik Officer melts down.

Man-o-War Bombardiers with Battle Lust destroy the left objective, but luckily they don't wreck Nightwretch. Battle Mechaniks tie up Satyxis Raiders, and one arrogant wrench-toting jungle creature dared to actually hit Satyxis on the left and kill her. I guess she took a little too long to savor her personal victory, and never saw that wrench hitting the back of her head...

I don't remember any more what killed Satyxis Raider Sea Witch. I can only hope it wasn't those charging Mechaniks...!

Then Artifice of Deviation blocked Seether's charge, again... I really started to miss Ghost Walk or Veil of Mists during this match!

Then it was Cryx turn. I was starting to fear that I would actually lose attrition and scenario, so I decided to try assassination and, failing that, try to claim rightmost control zone.

Satyxis Raider Captain charged the Bombardier who was engaging Nightwretch, and she succeeded to dismember the guy in the suit well enough for Nightwretch to run within 10" of Irusk.

Then Seether charges to objective, but it rolls abysmal damage rolls. So I really want to succeed at the assassination, now. However, before that the co-joined efforts of all remaining Satyxis and Ripjaw manage to bring the last remaining Shocktrooper down.

Asphyxious activates. He has 6 focus remaining. I decide I will try the risky way, and shoot unboosted Hellfire at Irusk. Miss. Asphyxious repeats all of this. Even the "miss" part. Looking back, maybe I should have just tried two fully boosted Hellfires, but I was certain that at least even one out of all tries would hit and I could boost the damage roll. Not today, Iron Lich, not today. Asphyxious charges objective and does annoyingly little damage. Then Asphyxious uses his feat and I try one last unboosted Hellfire at Irusk. Miss.

Then I just buy two extra attacks against objective, and with last two remaining focus Asphyxious casts Teleport to move into better position. The extra attacks? Naah, they didn't do much. After a charge attack and three attacks from Seether and one charge attack and two attacks from Asphyxious, the objective was still standing defiantly.

I'm starting to get a little desperate, so even bile thralls try to shoot the thing with their sprays. I don't remember if they did anything.

And last, but not least, even Skarlock activates and casts Hellfire on the objective! This was literally the last possible attack against it, and failing this it would be a certain scenario defeat to me.

A heavy stone fell from my shoulders when the damage roll was actually above average, and the objective was destroyed.

So... the ARM20, 15 damage boxes objective took:
One point of corrosion damage.
P+S 16 +3d6, 2x P+S 16 + 2d6 and 3x P+S 12 +2d6.
P+S 15 + 3d6, 2x P+S 15 +2d6 and POW 14 +2d6.
... before it was destroyed. I really could have used those resources somewhere else, too...

Opponent doesn't have too much of a trouble clearing left control zone, so this Khadoran turn victory points would come to 3-3.

Mortars shoot all the Satyxis and Mechaniks away, as well as one of the bile thralls.

Juggernaut charges Ripjaw, but misses charge attack. But even the slap of an open fist wrecks Ripjaws movement system.

Bombardiers charge Nightwretch and one of them hits (and crits), but doesn't wreck the thing. If memory serves, the Arc-Node is gone, however.

Then Cryx turn starts.

And the most dreadful thing that can happen in a miniature game (apart from cat-accident) happened: A dispute.

This is how things started: Ripjaw advances so that Seether can attempt a charge against Juggernaut. Then it does Armor Piercing attack and scores some damage. Asphyxious charges Juggernaut (behind Ripjaw) and wastes all of his Focus into attacks and boosts, but doesn't manage to wreck the thing.

Skarlock runs to contest leftmost zone. Bile Thrall advances so that purge hits Nightwretch, Juggernaut and two Man-o-Wars (pretty much doing nothing against all of them).

Then when Seether activates and I declare a charge against Juggernaut, opponent informs that Juggernaut was supposed to be a little farther away attacking Ripjaw, but the model wouldn't have balanced on the downward sloping trench.

The opponent is an honest fellow and I didn't have (and still don't) have any reason to doubt that this was the actual intention. It hadn't, however, been told during Juggernauts activation, so to me the positioning looked like a conscious risk of getting in a charge from Seether, as I wasn't observing so meticulously what the maximum charge distance for Juggernaut would've been. The 5" AoE is Artifice of Deviation, so it was really so-and-so if charge for Seether would've been feasible or even within the boundaries of reality if Juggernaut would have stood a little further.

In a friendly game I'm not against take-backs even to this extent, but the problem here was that I would've probably planned my turn totally different if there had been no real chance of trying a charge with Seether. First of all, I could've ran to contest left zone with Seether instead, and cast Scything Touch on Asphyxious with Skarlock. Also I would've probably tried to cast Parasite on it too to make most out of the limited number of attacks I had at my disposal - now I had just to bring it down with the number of attacks, because I always had Grab & Smash coming from Seether.

In the end Seether got to make its charge (and continuing my trend of low damage rolls didn't do enough damage to wreck it) and threw the model away from control zone, and scenario points gave the victory to Cryx.

Endings like this, however, leave a little sour feeling. I know that this is the way things would have played, for example, in a tournament. But still it makes me feel that I got a victory because of a positioning mistake that actually wasn't even "real", just an illusion. Also, because of the things mentioned above, if I had lost because I accepted undeclared intention as a fact, I would've probably felt a little cheated out of victory, too.

In a way it was a lose-lose situation, probably for the both of us.

But still it was very exciting game up until this slightly sorry ending. But such things happen, nothing you can do about it, except to do everything perfectly always and in any given situation. And I doubt that's possible for anyone.