Different Kind of Skorne

Alright, let's write these two 50 point games of Warmachine up before my Next Big Project.

My lists were:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Aradus Sentinel
- Bronzeback Titan
- Cyclops Shaman

Praetorian Swordsmen (max) + Command Attachment

Venator Flayer Cannon
Aptimus Marketh
Ancestral Guardian
Void Spirit

List 2:

Lord Arbiter Hexeris
- Aradus Sentinel
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Krea
- Titan Sentry

Venator Reivers (min) + Command Attachment
Ancestral Guardian
Bog Trog Trawler

Notice anything two missing from both lists? Yeah. And did I regret the lack of Agonizer and Beast Handlers. But I wanted to use some models I haven't used yet during Mk3... namely Ancestral Guardian and Aptimus Marketh.

Opponent had:

Father Lucant, Divinity Architect

- Corollary
- Diffuser
- Galvanizer
- Prime Axiom

Perforators (min)
Eradicators (min)

Opponent used same list twice, and scenario was Breakdown in both games.

In first game Aradus Sentinel, Cyclops Shaman and a Sunder Spirit was enough to take down Galvanizer. But this meant Axiom could easily drag Aradus to it's demise. On the other hand I managed to devastate zone on the left. However, I had placed Bronzeback those critical 3 millimeters too far and Axiom could charge it.

There was not much left for me, then. I decided I might stand chance if I would kill the Prime Axiom, and I did quite respectable damage in to it. It did have Parasite cast on it, though.

Now, Ancestral Guardian had zero souls on it and was perhaps about the same distance off from Axiom as Bronzeback had been too close.

A single P+S 13 could have completely wrecked the colossal with a good roll, or destroy some critical systems with a mediocre roll. Or completely fail with a poor roll, of course. But it was not to be. Lord Tyrant Hexeris went splat next turn.


Game 2:

Second game Hexeris had learned from his mistakes and went epic.

I tried to protect the battlegroup a little better against drags this time, and succeeded. This time opponent devastated zone on the left. I did get to score points from the zone on the right first, but damn those servitors from Axiom kept contesting my zone. I was fairly sure I wouldn't be able to grind scenario because of that.

Titan Sentry charges Diffuser during Lucant's feat turn to keep Convergence busy next turn. Of course I would have wanted to deal some damage in, too, but I wasn't blessed with that many hits.

I secure my zone anyway and watch Titan Sentry die. Remainder of Venator Reivers contest enemy zone far longer than I expected. But not long enough.

Then I do some beat back shenanigans with Bronzeback Titan to get to Prime Axiom, but missing two attacks on Galvanizer made the attempt rather pitiful.

Then I watched Bronzeback die.

Krea charges Corollary, but misses. Eventually finishing moves were pretty much the same as in last game: Hexeris tries to charge Prime Axiom in the vain attempt to dismantle it enough for him not to die next. But nothing like that ever happened, at least not in this game.

Hexeris went splat again, and since there isn't Hexeris3 yet we couldn't continue games.

Yeah, that's the reason.

I will never play Skorne again without Agonizer or Beast Handlers.

Journeyman no more

Last two games of my Journeyman League participation. League ended quite a while ago, and first game dates almost a whole month back.

Since both games were with and against the same list, I'll slap both games here though there was at least a week between the two.

My list had evolved into:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Wold Guardian
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax Rager

Shifting Stones
Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Tharn Ravager Shaman
Maximus
Druid Wilder
Gallows Grove

Objective: Bunker

Both games were Recon scenarios.

Both games were against Convergence of Cyriss:

Forge Master Syntherion
- Prime Axiom
- Cipher
- Monitor
- Galvanizer
- Diffuser
- Corollary

Optifex Directive
Attunement Servitors
Elimination Servitors
2x Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex

Both games had some similarities in how they played out.

First game I rushed to the flag on right, trying to drown opponent in meat, trusting that opponent wouldn't have enough attacks to get rid of everything.

Ravagers were pretty much struggling to destroy even one light vector, but at least they were passing their Tough rolls well enough.

Morvahna had relatively easy time to score points, when opponent got only servitors from Axiom to contest the flag. At one critical point opponent forgot about it, though, and that probably was what tipped tough game in my favor.

In the end where was Cipher contesting the flag when Circle had four control points. Wold Guardian had only Body branch still functional. Most Ravagers were facing completely wrong way. Looked like Morvahna would have to wreck the heavy vector and get back to flag with Reposition. Morvahna was quite injured, so she didn't have that much life left for various boosts and/or re-rolls. But she succeeded.

Game 2:

Second game I took a huge risk by running Morvahna to flag on the right on turn two or something. She did have seven transfers, though.

I wonder how different the game would have played if I had not charged Syntherion with Morvahna when he came a little too close.

And heck, Syntherion is a tough one to assassinate. Morvahna was uninjured and had seven fury points. And last possible attack with only one hit box remaining on Morvahna finally killed the clockwork warcaster.

How much hut would a Hutchuck chuck if a (oh come on, I'm not going there...)

Well, it must be something like three weeks or so since these games were played.

It was a caster swap week in Journeyman League, and I took Morvahna2 in.

My list was:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax Rager

Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Shifting Stones
Hutchuck, Ogrun Bounty Hunter
Blackclad Wayfarer

Objective: Bunker I think... not sure any more.

Scenario in both games was Extraction.

First game was against Cryx with:

Lich Lord Venethrax
- 2x Slayer
- Reaper
- Harrower
- Deathripper

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Skarlock
Necrotech
Soul Trapper

I opened the game by bringing Hutchuck to the table and lobbing knockdown grenade on a Slayer. Then Blackclad Wayfarer had easy time landing in Hunter's Mark. Ravagers charged in, but did overall very little.

I was wondering if I would be able to start some sort of scenario play, but I was not able to bring in enough meat to block Cryxian advances. Yet again - my initial battlegroup was not very optimal for wrecking even Arm 17 targets. Not that I actually got my battlegroup into action, but that's beyond the point... I was afraid. That's the point.

Well, I nibbled at the helljacks what I could, but attrition started to look like I had already lost.

But then opponent makes a blooper by activating with Venethrax, and bringing him to a certain position. Then Reaper advanced and got counter-slammed over Venethrax.

He had not activated all of his models yet, so promptly everything that could came to block Gnarlhorn's charge lane to Venethrax. If it hadn't been for a couple of Druids and their new and de-proved Wind Bolts, Gnarlhorn would most likely have been denied it's charge.

Considering Gnarlhorn's track record at failing in absurd situations, I wasn't expecting a caster kill. But that may have been a karma of Mk2, for this time around the Primaled satyr killed enemy warcaster. Yay.

Second game was against Convergence with:
(There's quite a bit of guesswork here, since I don't have Reconstruct on opponent's army list. )

Forge Master Syntherion
- Modulator
- Cipher
- Monitor
- Corollary
- Diffuser
- Galvanizer

Optifex Directive
2x Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex
2x Elimination Servitors
Attunement Servitors

I started pretty much the same as I did last game - Hutchuck enters field and knocks stuff down, which Ravagers then charge aided by Hunter's Mark.

This time it was even worse of a move than it was last time - after all, a couple of Ravagers aren't going to wreck heavies and Syntherion has this auto-repair thingy going on for him.

However, scenario game started to look a lot more promising. Opponent didn't have that many attacks to remove so many medium base models (and the smaller ones also, of course) so I started to snatch a control point here and there. But somehow a vector always managed to sneak close to contest things when they shouldn't have.

Came the time when all Ravagers were dead (twice) and I had completely lost the western front. I did have three scenario points I think.

At least I vaguely remember counting that if I somehow destroy enemy objective and the contesting Cipher on the same turn, I would win.

It wasn't lack of effort that kept the Cipher in game. My damage rolls all over the board were terrible, and I would have needed a little bit above average ones to actually stand any kind of a chance. But no. It took almost all of Morvahna's Fury to destroy Cipher, and then there was this Corollary that a Druid had missed with a Wind Bolt. There it was, still contesting.

Morvahna died to her own re-rolls in vain attempt to remove Corollary.

Additional league games

And the Journeyman League continues, slightly sloppily when it comes to my activity at least.

But once I got to a gaming night, I played thee 10 point games.

I expanded my list with:

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax

Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder
Gallows Grove

First game was against General Ossrum, who had added Basher to the list. Basher broke off the base just before we started game, so it is the empty base with some cork in it.

This game went a little better than the first one. Not much, but at least I got to do something other than advance and die.

I tried to open up the game so that I'd block enemy heavies to the right side of the board, while wrecking things on the left and hopefully getting to Ossrum in time. However, Basher got to kill Gorax.

Also, Gnarlhorn Satyr was not able to kill one enemy light warjack, though it had Curse of Shadows on it. Well, sure, Ossrum had his feat on, but come on.

Basher destroyed any pillars that were protecting Gnarlhorn, and Energizer got Driller to position where it could easily go and make some minced meat out of the Satyr.

Ossrum had no Focus points, so I guess I really needed to make caster kill now. Mohsar charged in to cast Curse of Shadows on Ossrum but missed. Ossrum had Bullet Dodger on, so it advanced away from Mohsar's cast range. I accidentally thought of making some pillars to block Ossrum's advance, so Winter Argus was free to try and kill an uninjured enemy def 16 warcaster with two RAT 4, POW 12 attacks.

Failed. And Mohsar died.

Game 2:

Second game was against Cryx:

Lich Lord Venethrax
- 2x Slayer
- Deathripper

6x Mechanithralls
Skarlock

I was way too scared of Terminal Velocity in this game. And it didn't exactly help either that I didn't bother to ask about the Venethraxs' new feat's details. I was under impression that it forbade forcing when it instead didn't allow for to leech.

That was one ouchy touch turn.

But I did put up a valiant fight, though. Piece by piece I was removing Cryxian stuff from the board until there was only one Slayer left. Venethrax had been sitting on the flag, grinding scenario points whole time.

But it wasn't a scenario victory, no.

Slayer charged Gorax with Terminal Velocity and got within 1" of Mohsar. First attack brought Mohsar to one or two points remaining or something like that. Then Mohsar died.

New and improved Crevasse is quite a nice spell, though.

Game 3:

Last game was against Syntherion, who had added Corollary and some servitors to his list.

I chose to make a grand opening in this game and sent Gnarlhorn Satyr to its death, trading a 12 point beast to 7 or 8 point warjack. But I made that on purpose this time, as I thought Syntherion would now have to dedicate quite a bit of his resources to deal with a heavy and also Winter Argus, buying me time to start to score scenario points.

It almost worked. However, there was always some nasty enemy model that was able to run to contest my flag from one vector (pun...?) or another. And I had ran out of models to contest enemy flag.

A rare game, where both players went to 5 control points.

However, next Mohsar lost last remaining model from his army list - the Blackclad Wayfarer. Mohsar's game was doomed.

So that was three losses. Oh dear.

Journeyman League

A Journeyman League with slightly modified rule set started in my home town.

My initial list was:

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax Rager

0-point games were played with Mangled Metal rules.

My first game was against:

General Ossrum
- Ghordson Driller
- 2x of those tiny jacks with a single shot cannon
- 1x of the warjack with spray weapon

... and oh boys, was I rusty.

First turn I started to think about my fury management once I had already activated two of my beasts that only ran. So I had to cut up, what, four points on my turn 2?

Well, it was quite tough match up anyway. As there was no scenario pressure, I had to keep going at them, all the while getting shot to pieces. At least the salt pillars were a nuisance for Ossrum and protected me somewhat.

Once Driller got to charge Gnarlhorn Satyr and I had not seriously damaged even one of their jacks, I started to figure out a way to give me even a tiniest sense of accomplishment, as winning the game looked unlikely.

I ended up wrecking the Driller with Mohsar. Yay.

Game 2:

Second game was against Convergence of Cyriss:

Syntherion
- Monitor
- Diffuser
- Galvanizer

Oh, this game brought me back fond memories of playing Mk2 with Mohsar against Khador.

I used my feat on turn 1.

I was less afraid of the shooting aspect of enemy forces this time, and pushed forward much more aggressively.

Syntherion, however, got Magnetic Hold on Gnarlhorn Satyr, which made me feel a lot less confident.

All Gnarlhorn did was to walk over to Diffuser and beat it to the ground. I expected to lose it next turn.

Reconstruct was on Monitor, so I'd have to somehow wreck it twice with light warbeasts. Perhaps with Curse of Shadows.

However, a sort of miracle happened. Monitor did not kill Gnarlhorn, and neither did Galvanizer who came to help. Attack rolls by opponent were terrible. Syntherion spent all of his focus points that turn, so now I would have to try to assassinate him.

Mohsar charged Monitor and cast Curse of Shadows on Syntherion. Gorax gave Primal to Winter Argus, and Winter Argus then walked to back arc of Syntherion, who promptly died.

A quick rundown of Skorne vs Convergence

Yay! I have received a word that my camera is alive and well and not, for example, lying in a nameless bank of snow somewhere in southern Finland.

But this game was played without the camera, so I'm writing it up as soon as possible before it escapes my memory.

So, it was a 50 point game of Warmachine and my list was:

Void Seer Mordikaar
- Tiberion
- Archidon
- Basilisk Krea

Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Minimum unit of Beasthandlers
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer
Aptimus Marketh
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Void Spirit

Objective: Bunker

Opponent had:

Iron Mother Directrix
- Corollary
- Cipher
- Inverter

Maximum unit of Obstructors
Maximum unit of Reductors + Tranverse Enumerator
Optifex Directive
2x Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex
2x Enigma Foundry
Reflex Servitors
Attunement Servitors
Steelsoul Protector

Objective: Bunker

Scenario was Incoming and Skorne started game. Hollow was kept on Praetorian Swordsmen throughout the whole game either by Aptimus Marketh re-casting it or Mordikaar upkeeping it.

Mordikaar used his feat on turn two. Cetrati secured Skorne friendly zone rather nicely. The spray unit from Convergence (Reductors, I think) was facing them, so I wasn't too afraid of that flank.

On the other side of the board (the left side, Skorne enemy zone) was Praetorian Swordsmen versus Obstructors.

Five Swordsmen and one Cetrati die, though they all have +3 def. Iron Mother didn't even have to use her feat to accomplish that. Five dead Hollowed warrior models start to feel like a casualty even if it fills Mordikaar way above his limit with fury points.

Skorne turn three enraged Tiberion with Lightning Strike and Puppet Master charges Mitigator that was behind a wall. Bronzeback couldn't have done that because of the lack of reach. I'm continuously comparing Tiberion's performance to that of a Bronzeback's... probably because I've been using Bronzeback for so long. Four inch retreat didn't feel that great, but Convergence four legged warjacks aren't the epitome of a rapid response force either.

Skorne friendly zone is cleared of Convergence models and Mordikaar sets in.

On the left I make a gambit to try to remove whole unit of Obstructors with Praetorian Swordsmen and their minifeat, aided a little by Archidon. Gambit fails and I don't even clear the enemy zone.

Luckily opponent doesn't press too hard to Skorne friendly zone and Mordikaar is able to snatch one sneaky point during Convergence turn.

Agonizer had denied focus allocation, which caused Archidon to survive one extra turn in the middle of enemy lines. Swordsmen weren't that lucky and took heavy casualties.

Skorne turn four Skorne went to three control points, and Tiberion was able to wreck Inverter and back up 4" with Lightning Strike.

Since killing the Obstructors and Reductors was pointless now due to lack of my attack numbers, I tried to kill some other random models instead, like Algorithmic Dispersion Optifexes, servitors and Transverse Enumerator. Void Spirit was handy in denying soul tokens from Enigma Foundry that was backing up Reductors.

Iron Mother uses her feat now, but doesn't get much mileage out of it as she only has one warjack remaining. She shoots Agonizer down personally and juggles enough focus points to Cipher so that it slaps Archidon dead with only one attack. Well, the flying lizard had been softened up a little by Obstructors. Who were almost back to full unit strength.

I don't think anyone entered to contest Skorne friendly zone, so I did a little miscalculation when I thought I needed to just kill objective next turn and dominate one point from Skorne friendly zone. Looks like dominating would've been enough.

Anyway. It was a scenario victory for Mordikaar.

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.

One should not chew on stainless steel

Last Thursday I played a 35 point game of Warmachine.

I took my Circle of Orboros for a spin. It's been quite a while since I last played them.

And the reason is simple. I don't know who to play! Statistically Morvahna2 is lagging behind in the number of games played, but I'd rather save her for tournaments than casual games.

And I did what I usually do when I don't know which Circle warlock I'd want to play. Most often it's Kaya the Wildborne. I don't know why... it just happens.

Anyway. My list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Winter Argus
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax

Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder
Feralgeist

That's 15 models that includes four which have no attack whatsoever, and quite a few with negligible attack potential. So I was quite worried when I saw what was against me.

Axis, the Harmonic Enforcer
Sustained Attack tier 3
- Corollary
- Inverter

Maximum unit of Obstructors + Enumerator
Maximum unit of Obstructors
Maximum unit of Reductors + Enumerator
4x Enigma Foundry

That's 35 models that would just be coming back no matter what. But in the end this game would become one of the more interesting ones I've played. So.

Scenario was Outflank, and Circle started game. I don't want to imagine this game if Convergence with 30 Advance Deployed infantry models would have started. First picture is from the end of Convergence turn 1.

Turn 2 Circle dedicates Griffon to contest eastern zone. Then I'm wondering if I might actually be able to destroy one unit of Obstructors. I guess it might have been doable, but I was too greedy. First Warpwolf Stalker warped for Berserk and charged. I wanted to catch all four leftmost Obstructors and possibly one or two Reductors within Stalker's reach, but only four Obstructors were there in the end. Oh well.

Then Winter Argus advances and attempts to spray some Obstructors and killed a few. Since one Obstructor had been in a nasty position to get hold of, Blackclad Wayfarer advanced and for some unfathomable reason sprayed the other unit of Obstructors. Swamp Gobbers run to protect Blackclad Wayfarer.

Kaya advances and casts Spirit Door twice to call back both Warpwolf Stalker and Winter Argus. She was at zero Fury for transfers, but opponent didn't have that much shooting. At least not POW 13 sprays that had re-rolls for missed attack rolls.

Convergence turn 2 Axis uses his feat. Reductors advance and start to spray. I only three sprays got to Kaya. Out of six attack rolls only one hit - but dealt eight points of damage. Gnarlhorn Satyr took heavy damage, and teleportation possibilities for Shifting Stones became limited when one stone got destroyed.

Enigma Foundry builds some new Obstructors to the unit on the right, and then the aforementioned unit charges and kills Scarsfell Griffon. Two of the newly build robots even reached a second Shifting Stone and the Stone Keeper - and there went a second stone. Now that I look at the picture... did that unit also kill Blackclad Wayfarer? That's seven points plus some fractions from the stones already. Damn.

Thankfully the Reductors blocked any meaningful charges for Obstructors on the left, so they just Shield Walled themselves and beat down one Swamp Gobber.

Turn 3 I do something I should have done a turn earlier: Feralgeist runs to contest the eastern zone. Stone Keeper also teleports there and uses his attack spell on a cluster of metalheads in the middle. A couple of Reductors die, which is perfect.

Druid Wilder gives Sprint to Warpwolf Stalker, who warps for Berserk and advances to take a maximum toll on Reductors - though it had only Spd 4 thanks to Axis' feat. Afterwards it sprinted back, and Winter Argus sprayed some winter on Reductors. Since first spray killed everything that was within reach anyway, it opted to force it's own animus.

Kaya cast Spirit Door on Warpwolf Stalker and healed Gnarlhorn for a couple points of damage.

Then it's Convergence.

An Enigma Foundry scuttles forward on the left, its tiny greedy clockwork hands sweating with anticipation for building yet another batch of robots. But it stopped in a place where Gnarlhorn Satyr was able to counter slam it - and slam distance was no less than full 8", which brought it into contact with Inverter. Worth the giggles.

However, I was fairly certain now that Gnarlhorn would just die. Gnarlhorn Satyr has failed me so many times before and I didn't expect this to be any different. But much to my amazement Gnarlhorn casually shrugged off almost every enemy attack. Was it trying to make up for its earlier games? Or does it have an attitude that it will not even try unless outnumbered 4 to 1? I do not know. But I know that at the end of the turn Gnarlhorn was still very much alive. Well... not very much. A tiny bit alive.

On the right side of the board a Swamp Gobber and Stone Keeper somehow manage to stall Convergence - even if they have to valiantly sacrifice their own lives doing it. Thanks to Circle's high defence the game had not been such a cakewalk for Convergence that I had been afraid of. After all Axis doesn't have any ability to raise the odds for attack rolls. The small based infantry was stuck with their MAT 6, RAT 5. Though to be honest - getting 8+ shouldn't be that hard than it sometimes looked like it was... but hey, not my time to complain here.

Turn 4 a Shifting Stone teleports to the middle of enemy infantry and Feralgeist runs to forest, taking great care to still contest the zone.

First Winter Argus eats an Obstructor and their Enumerator. Gnarlhorn Satyr makes an incredible trample right next to Inverter. We spent multiple minutes checking the trample line, because it just looked too good to be true - all five small base infantry models were trampled over. Then the Satyr continued to buy extra attacks against Inverter, not accomplishing much there.

Then Druid Wilder casts Primal on Warpwolf Stalker, and Stalker charges Inverter with Strength warp. Inverter is smashed to bits.

I don't remember what Kaya did, though. She charged somewhere, cast Spirit Door on Stalker and then Gnarlhorn, used her feat and cast Spirit Door on herself, too. Perhaps she just advanced, tried to kill last Obstructor near Winter Argus and failed to do that? Oh well. Doesn't matter, really.

Axis runs to eastern zone, and if Feralgeist was capable of fear, I think it might have felt something akin to that emotion.

Tons and tons of Obstructors start to flood into the western zone, and Gorax really did luck out there when multiple MAT 6's rolled misses against its DEF 12.

Turn 5 Warpwolf Stalker has no other option except to frenzy, so the little guy next to it is demoted to a makeshift chewing toy. But Winter Argus, Gnarlhorn Satyr and Gorax make exceptional job at clearing the zone of enemy models. Druid Wilder's charge to an Obstructor is less impressive, and she probably has to pay for it with her life. I can't quite believe scenario just went 2-1 for Circle.

That joy for being ahead in scenario doesn't last long, as Axis shoots Feralgeist dead with Battering Ram.

But then. The attack rolls of small based MAT 6 infantry. What could have resulted in three dead warbeasts with a bit of luck turned into a massive farce when hits and damage were next to nothing against Gorax, Gnarlhorn Satyr and the back arc of Warpwolf Stalker. I guess only massive amount of overkilling and dedicating all attacks to a single warbeast may have killed at least one. Especially Gorax and Gnarlhorn had been trolling hard throughout the whole game.

Anyway. Scenario went 3-2 for Convergence.

Turn 6 Warpwolf Stalker warps for berserk and clears a huge swathe of troops from my zone. Winter Argus sprays some more. Gorax kills one last troublesome Obstructor, and then Gnarlhorn is free to trample to contest eastern zone. Kaya personally dispatched last contesting Obstructor from my zone.

Scenario was 4-3 for Circle.

Sadly Axis has quite impressive amount of tricks to push enemy models around. One Battering Ram pushed Gnarlhorn Satyr out of the eastern zone. Now only a random Obstructor needed to contest western zone, and scenario went 5-4 for Convergence.

Uh oh. What a game. What a game.

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.

Day 1 of Steam & Fury

A week ago I played in a 50 point warmachine tournament. It had Active Duty Roster option (season 1), so hey. Why not? Lists needed to be sent quite early for validation, so there was no possibility for last moment changes. Which was bad, as I was building my lists a day before the deadline in a slight hangover... Well. Who want's to ignore stealth, anyway?

So. I opened the tournament with a smashing victory before the first round had even begun. There was uneven number of players and I got the bye. I chose I had played the game with Hexeris because I would be playing with Mordikaar for sure. Possibly not so much with Hexeris, and now there was no obligation to play with Hexeris at all.

First real game was against Trollbloods.

I'm not 100% certain of opponent's list, as I'm not that familiar with their models. With Forward Kommander I came up with:

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender
- Mulg

2x Maximum units of Warders
Maximum unit of Fennblades + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Krielstone Bearers + Elder
2x Fennblade Kithkar
Fell Caller hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Trollkin Champion Hero

My list was:

Void Seer Mordikaar
- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- Cyclops Shaman
- 2x Reptile Hounds

Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrari
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Void Spirit
Feralgeist

Looking back now I think I should have switched Agonizer into something more useful. Scenario was Close Quarters. It was really nice to get to play against Madrak2, since I've played versus him... perhaps... only once? Ever?

I thought that Slaughterhouse might come in handy against trollbloods, but for some reason I deployed Reptile Hounds far away from each other. I guess I thought I might spread the Take Down farther that way, but then again... these were heavily armoured trolls I was facing. P+S 8 will only go so far, and with Slaughterhouse on you still need to deliver the killing blow to ignore tough and remove from play.

My plan was just to engage trolls with and survive one round of beating with Mordikaar's feat, especially with the Bronzeback. But trollbloods are such a rare encounter for me that I had completely forgotten that Fell Callers can give +2 to attack rolls for troll units. That seriously lessened the survivability of my warbeasts and coupled with some real good damage rolls, the Bronzeback died while under Mordikaar's feat. So the game was a downward spiral from there on. If I just somehow might reach Madrak himself with a Ghost Walked Archidon there might still be a game.

But things went as expected.

Madrak cleared most of my warbeasts and Praetorian Swordsmen with his feat. Rufus played dead. Mulg advanced with Warpath and trampled to Mordikaar, but somehow fails to kill him. So there's one last chance of a really awkward assassination if everything was perfectly executed and opponent failed every roll he'd be doing!

Well. Sad as it was, I cast Ghost Walk on Mordikaar and tried to advance past Mulg. But a Beast Handler or one of the last Praetorians was just blocking his advances, so my chances dropped from 2.5% to zero.

It's possible I clocked out in this game trying to navigate the last turn, but it didn't really bother me as the situation was very, very clear.



Game 2:

Next I was against Circle of Orboros. And I faced no other than the dreaded Bradigus with his tier list.

Opponent had:

Bradigus
- 2x Wold Guardian
- Five thousand Wold Watchers

2x Sentry Stone & Mannikins
3x Shifting Stones

Before I learned a thing or two during the game, I thought my best bet would be Mordikaar, because Hexeris wouldn't have a feat against Bradigus. And +3 Def seemed like a nice pre-emptive measure against a disturbing Synergy chain. How wrong was I...

Anyway, my list was:

Void Seer Mordikaar
- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- Cyclops Shaman
- 2x Reptile Hounds

Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrati

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Void Spirit
Feralgeist

Scenario was Fire Support. Skorne started game. I took the Reptile Hounds again, because I didn't think I'd be needing Basilisk Krea, and there would be no reason to boost attack rolls for the hounds. All targets were automatically hit, or had DEF 9.

First picture is from the end of Circle turn 1.

Turn 2 I try to open the game and trust my DEF 17 Archidon would survive or at least require some serious dedication from the opponent to get down. So Archidon was enraged and given Puppet Master, and I hoped it would take down one Woldwatcher. Well... it didn't. It wasn't too far off, and I can probably blame a failed Puppet Master re-roll, which turned a result of 1,2,2 to 1,1,2. Anyway, I had used Mordikaar's feat so the rest of the army advanced aggressively.

Circle turn 2 I learn some new shenanigans about this game. Push Power Attack is a melee attack that hits automatically, and as such it triggers Synergy. That was terrible news for me. But even worse news that was for the Archidon, who promptly died to some +5 attack & damage synergy chain.

Skorne turn 3 I desperately launched enraged, Ghost Walked and Train Wrecking Bronzeback Titan at a Woldwatcher that was standing in a forest template, thus in LOS. Here was a tiny glimmer of hope. Two war gauntlet initials and a head butt destroyed the Woldwatcher, and tusks and one additional attack destroyed the sentry stone. Now was the true test for Bronzeback: four Fury left for attacks, and a def 9, arm 20 target to destroy.

True to Bronzeback's newfound tradition of failing all the true tests, it just didn't roll enough damage to kill Wold Guardian - even with five attacks. Oh dear. Even if Bronzeback would have killed the Guardian, Bronzeback would still have needed to survive next round of beating from various Wold Watchers and a second Wold Guardian for me to stand a chance.

The rest of the game pretty much played itself. Somehow I did manage to struggle to survive, but I didn't inflict real casualties for Circle. I also realised how good counter that list was for Mordikaar. First was that unsporting synergy trickery that mitigated Mordikaar's feat. Second gruesome aspect was the remove from play quality of Woldwatchers' melee and ranged weapons. They pretty much ruined Hollow.

Oh well. I did score one control point when Void Spirit charged enemy objective and during the course of two turns destroyed it.

Finally Bradigus comes personally to deal with Mordikaar once all transfer targets had been mauled by the constructs.

Game 3:

Last game for Saturday was against Convergence of Cyriss. Good thing I've had some practice against Convergence thanks to our local Convergence player.

Anyway. Convergence list was:

Father Lucant
- Prime Axiom
- Inverter
- Corollary

Maximum unit of some small base infantry with shields and chain weapons... Obstructors?
Maximum unit of Reciprocators
2x Optifex Directive
2x Enigma Foundry

Well. No matter what, there was Purification to screw both of my warlocks. However, yet again Mordikaar seemed my best option, since there weren't too many models in the opposing army for Hexeris to have an effective feat.

My list was:

Void Seer Mordikaar

- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea

Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Swamp Gobbers
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Void Spirit (why?)
Feralgeist

Scenario was Incoming. I think Skorne started the game, and the first picture is from the end of Skorne turn 2. I don't have a picture from the end of Convergence turn 2, which is a shame since some important positional stuff happened there.

First, the Reciprocators got Shield Wall order and took Set Defence. All of them came to contest the leftmost zone, and Enigma Foundry followed them closely.

Prime Axiom and Obstructors took a rather big foothold on the rightmost objective. Basilisk Drake died pitifully, as did some Praetorians, but somebody was left alive to contest the zone. Lucant didn't use his feat just yet, and so it was Skorne turn 3.

Willbreaker gave Puppet Master for Cataphract Cetrati, and then they go to beat some Reciprocators. Their damage rolls are enough to take down three of them, which was unexpected. And there it was, now... an opening for scenario game. It's possible that Mordikaar shot a couple of last damage boxes from one of the Reciprocators, though. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe Mordikaar used his feat now.

Then enraged Archidon needed to take down last two Reciprocators, and succeeds.

On the right I just try to contest long enough to grind five control points. Looking back now I probably shouldn't have even done any attacks with the Swordsmen to save me some time, since what was automatic one damage points to a colossal? A couple of the small based infantry members died, though. But Enigma Foundry would just bring them right back. So it was the Agonizer who was the actual hero here when it denied focus allocation for Inverter and Prime Axiom.

Turn 3 Lucant uses his feat and comes to contest the left zone with Enigma Foundry that has absurd armour value. Inverter comes mid field (pun intended... but is there even a pun?) and Obstructors and Prime Axiom continue to duke it out with Praetorians in the right zone.

Turn 4 there's this ARM 22 Enigma Foundry with ten damage boxes that needed to be taken care of.

Before I fully realised what I'd be doing with my turn, I started with the "easy" activations, like Basilisk Krea, who used her animus. I had been thinking of just running Mordikaar to enemy zone.

Cataphract Cetrati get the Puppet Master again and proceed to wreck the Enigma Foundry. I was quite sure I'd be able to destroy it, but when the bugger was left with just one damage box remaining, I needed to re-evaluate my plans.

I wanted to charge the enemy objective with Archidon and not waste it's activation on the Enigma Foundry, so this is what I came up with: Bronzeback performs a double handed throw on Basilisk Krea, and then Mordikaar charges a Cetrati, casts Essence Blast and takes the last damage box from Enigma Foundry. Success.

Archidon was free to charge enemy ARM 22 objective.... which triggered Watcher, and next to no damage was done to the objective. Die on the objective tells it was five damage. Really? All the earlier effort of throwing Krea's all over the place was... for this?

Anyway. Skorne was at three control points now.

Next turn opponent obviously throws everything he can to contest their friendly zone, which isn't much, but still a heavy vector and perhaps a servitor. Lucant kills Archidon, and the rightmost front is the same as ever.

Turn 5 I'm fairly confident that I can kill the heavy vector... but funnily enough it proved to be a lot more trickier than I initially thought. Both Basilisk Krea and Bronzeback Titan were facing completely wrong directions - neither could see the Inverter!

Last remaining Cetrati did what they could, but it was not enough. Mordikaar had quite a lot of Fury thanks to Hollow, so he decided to give it a go, too. But first he cast Ghost Walk on Basilisk Krea, who had shaken herself up.

Well, damage was okay I guess, but as it was not entirely excessive I aborted the wrecking of the vector and opted for another plan. Mordikaar cast Paralytic Field on himself.

Then Bronzeback activated and used Train Wreck on Basilisk Krea. And then Beast Handlers take the Fury point off from Krea.

Krea advanced and needed to land two or three successful hits on Inverter to push it away from the zone - and that's what she did.

Last few activations I had to make could have spelled my doom, as I had forgotten about the Watcher. Luckily I didn't run any random models within 6" of Lucant just for the fun of it as Corollary might have been able to come to contest the zone.

So that was the Saturday of Steam & Fury. Nice games overall even if I got my own butt handed back to me in the form of some kind of nuggets in the first two games. But they were both new experiences in their own way, and against rare (for me) warcasters and warlocks.

Road to Steam & Fury

Last Thursday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine. Now I'm starting to practice up my Skorne, which I'm taking to a tournament in about two weeks or so.

My list was:

Void Seer Mordikaar
- Basilisk Krea
- Cyclops Shaman
- Archidon
- Bronzeback Titan

Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Swamp Gobbers
Agonizer
Willbreaker
Void Spirit

Opponent had:

Forge Master Syntherion

The Great Machine tier 4
- Corollary
- Mitigator
- (free) Galvanizer
- Cipher
- Assimilator
- Inverter
- Monitor

2x Optifex Directives
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex
Attunement Servitors
Transfinite Emergence Projector

Scenario was Incursion, and Convergence started game. First picture is from end of Skorne turn 1 with a couple of activations done by Convergence in turn 2.

Hollow is on Praetorian Swordsmen, and Mordikaar put four Fury to Agonizer. So Mordikaar was at zero Fury. But I was sure that being on a hill and inside Paralytic Aura would be enough to keep the warlock alive.

Convergence has Hot Shot on Cipher, Synergy on Syntherion and Reconstruct on Inverter. Magnetic Hold that was cast on Praetorian Swordsmen missed its target even with a boost.

Some Praetorian Swordsmen died during turn 2, but it was mostly just about advancing.

Skorne turn 2 was Mordikaar's feat. With better management I could have scored at least two control points, probably three. But SPD 4 Bronzeback just doesn't run that far, and after I had activated Praetorian Swordsmen I realized that I couldn't bring anyone else to control rightmost flag. Oh well. At least Void Spirit scored that one point.

Mordikaar had cast one Revive, and gave Agonizer two Fury after it had cried "no focus allocation" agony.

Cetrati advance in shield wall, and Basilisk Krea follows them with her aura. Cyclops Shaman spreads the aura even further by casting it, too. And that's about it.

Turn 3 Mitigator scores a double 6 hit against Cataphract Cetrati. Whee. Next Transfinite Emergence Projector advances, and shoots three Cetrati dead with two POW 10+5d6 sprays. They were the only real casualties that turn, but even so they were a lot more than I expected. Cipher also tried to snipe off the pesky Agonizer that had forbidden focus allocation for Galvanizer and Inverter. Tormented baby titan suffered some 4-5 points of damage.

On my turn 3 I didn't want to leave Transfinite Emergence Projector alive because of the firepower I had just witnessed. But how much beating such a battle engine could take? I didn't know for sure, so I dedicated Basilisk Krea and Archidon for the job, both enraged. I couldn't figure out a good way to remove the servitor on the left, right next to Mitigator. I didn't want to waste Cetratis for that, so Void Spirit quit controlling the left flag and killed the servitor. Now Archidon was free to charge the battle engine without suffering a free strike from Mitigator.

Praetorian Swordsmen made some automatic damage points to Assimilator. Half-jokingly I was taking wagers on how many heavy warjacks Bronzeback would be able to take down in one turn. But as often is the case, you really shouldn't boast about anything prematurely. Sure, Bronzeback was Enraged and Mordikaar had cast Train Wreck on it, so heavy damage was to be expected. But damn that Reconstruct. I had completely forgotten about it's existence. So Inverter survived. Monitor broke down to pieces, but it took one attack more than anticipated thanks to just some two or three damage boxes remaining. And the last attacks Bronzeback was able to make against Monitor didn't even destroy it even if Praetorian Swordsmen had already softened it up. Meh.

I guess I shouldn't complain, but hey. It's the Bronzeback. Though I guess Bronzeback didn't forget about Reconstruct... I did. But I'm not going to look in the mirror, no! Always blame the minions.

Mordikaar had also cast Revive to bring back one Cetrati, and filled Agonizer with Fury. Agonizer was also controlling the middle flag. As it turned out, Galvanizer was less than half an inch too far to contest.

Turn 4 it was probably Syntherion himself who shot down the Agonizer, and then the vectors started to induct Focus for Inverter and possibly Assimilator, too. It looked rather worrying prospect for Bronzeback - a POW 20 knockdown hit followed by automatically hitting attacks by two heavies. But for some reason the Macropummeler attack feels like Lascannon from another game, another time. The attack that mattered the most missed here. And that was even with a boost.

As a consequence Bronzeback survived, so game was probably over barring some surprise assassination.

But as I was practising for a tournament, I had been measuring my time. And if it had been a real tournament game, I was in a real hurry, as I had only eight minutes or so left in my clock when my turn began. Threshold checks by Archidon and Basilisk Krea ate up that clock unnecessarily, as they both failed their checks and frenzied, and attacked each other. Still better love story than Twilight.

So. If it'd been in a tournament, I needed to hastily arrange all three flags for me, as I couldn't realistically pull off an assassination in this situation. Galvanizer looked like it might be within 4" of the middle flag and there were no models to control flag on the left. Both warbeasts had used up their activations in their fierce embrace.

Rightmost flag was the easy one. Willbreaker ran to the flag and Swordsmen/Bronzeback destroyed the contesting Assimilator.

Enraged Cyclops Shaman charged Galvanizer, and failed to kill (or so I thought - I hadn't counted the enrage bonus to damage rolls) the light vector.

Cetrati ran to leftmost flag, one into base contact with flag and another within 4" of the flag. The one that had been engaging Galvanizer had been too far and didn't get within 4" of the flag.

Mordikaar advanced into base contact with the middle flag. Then he cast Essence Blact on the Cetrati who was farther than 4" from left flag, and Revived another dead Cetrati right back, this time within 4" of the flag.

So it all depended if Galvanizer was within 4" of the flag. Well, it wasn't - and it was, in fact, a wreck marker because of the enrage bonuses for Cyclops Shaman.

Two and half minutes left in clock.