A bird? A plane? Or a superman? No, all of them!

So this is my final shot at my magnetising project.



I thought a swirl of souls would look stupid if the whole base wasn't filled with them so I expanded Malice's base a little.

I guess I don't have much else to tell. It is completed for now, until they bring on another upgrade piece.

Trees thrive in the desert

Played two 15 point games today against Skorne with Cassius & Wurmwood.

We played with the same lists, which were:

Wurmwood
- Megalith
- Woldwyrd

Minimum unit of Wolves of Orboros
Swamp Gobbers

And opponent played:

Morghoul
- Titan Gladiator
- Cyclops Savage
- Cyclops Brute

Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor

There's some "proxying" going on so I put some explanations in the pictures. First game I won the starting roll (am I getting better at it?)

I rushed forward with everything I got while opponent was more cautious. I got Wurmwood inside forest, which was nice enough.

Next turn I moved forward and caught Gladiator with Stranglehold.

Woldwyrd took a few shots at Gladiator too as Morghoul had cast Admonition on it. Damage rolls weren't that impressive, however.

Opponent cast Rush on both cyclops' and moved forward with Morghoul and used his feat.

Cyclops Brute charged Woldwyrd but didn't break anything. Savage charged Megalith and didn't really damage it that much and Bloodrunner Master Tormentor killed only one of the two Wolves she managed to charge.

I forgot to take one picture at the end of opponents next turn, so, looking at that picture, Megalith advanced and beat what it could out of Savage.

Wolves of Orboros charged Savage and it was left with 1 damage point. Cassius moved to kill the Cyclops Savage, managed to do that (and found out that I didn't actually gain a soul for Wurmwood as Cassius' melee weapon is a "remove from play" effect) and then yanked Wurmwood closer. Then Cassius used his feat, creating a 10" forest around Wurmwood.

Opponent then reacted by trampling a Rushed Gladiator next to Megalith. It was actually pretty clever move that I never thought of... It seems that a heavy warbeast/warjack with a trample can actually get its weapons to bear even during Cassius' feat turn. Scary.

Well, Gladiator didn't manage to kill Megalith and neither succeeded Brute and Morghoul himself to bring Woldwyrd down.

Megalith beat up the Gladiator and after Wolves of Orboros charged it Admonition was used. Megalith also used its animus because Morghoul was close enough to suffer the -2 defense penalty.

Then Woldwyrd shot Morghoul. It would have worked out pretty damn fine if it still wasn't a ranged attack that was Shield Guarded by the close-by Brute.

Wyrd took a last shot at Morghoul and rolled amazingly high for its attack roll, scoring a hit which dealt some damage.

Cassius was feeling bold enough to charge Morghoul himself.

One lucky roll that would have killed Morghoul outright was transfered away.

Second one wasn't. End of Morghoul.

Game 2:

In next game we decided to swap our sides because we played with same lists to get some variation to tactics there.

As it turned out, I didn't start an amazing streak of winning starting rolls because I lost it now anyway.

Both of us pretty much ran as far as we could. Round 2 did, however, teach me something about Rush + Abuse.

Opponent actually did pull off a charge with his Cyclop Savage against my Woldwyrd.

Luckily the damage rolls were rather poor, but the branches weren't. Spirit broken and no way of healing. Losing almost half of my fury generation on round 2... sucked.

Well, it was obviously a trade-off, but as fury 5 warlock still had enough beasts to generate 6 fury with one beast left for transfer and my fury 6 warlock would be able to generate 4 fury and still be able to transfer... It seemed okay trade to me. If I was in opponents pants, that is. Which I wasn't.

My wolves of Orboros charged the Savage first. One of them, however, charged Bloodrunner Master Tormentor who had failed its charge. But because one of my models was blocking my charge line I had to charge a bit awkwardly, which brought my model within 6" of Titan Gladiator. It triggered Admonition and the hulk jogged forward.

Megalith had to come in to finish Savage.

Then I took the two souls from Wurmwood to fuel Cassius. He moved forward and tried to launch Stranglehold at now-close-enough Gladiator. Cassius even boosted the attack roll and still missed.

Well, he tried to Strangle the titan again, this time without attack roll boost. Managed to hit and boosted damage. Damage roll was exactly 8, meaning Gladiator took no damage and wasn't strangled. With two remaining fury Cassius moved Wurmwood and used feat.

Brave gobbers ran to block possible trample shenanigans.



Well, the gladiator did trample.

However, this time it was abused and enraged.

And it landed on Megalith. Megalith took rather severe beating and was left with 3 damage boxes in the Spirit branch.

Cyclops Brute just came in and killed someone. No biggies.

But Morghoul used his feat and that buggered me.

On my turn I could only leach 3 fury from Megalith so had to cut 3 from Cassius himself. Megalith also self-healed only one point of damage so I had to choose if I wanted to use only 1 die either on attack rolls or damage rolls. I chose attack rolls as I had already forgotten Morghoul had used his feat...

Megalith needed 5 with one die to hit the Gladiator. And it did. Actually, both of the attacks hit which was kinda hilarious.

Cassius charged the titan too and after two attacks it was standing only with one damage point. Then he cast Unseen Path to bring him to safety. To block a clear charge the brave gobbers bellowed some smoke into the thick of action (represented by the cloud template).

Wolves of Orboros charged Brute and Gladiator.

Wolves finished Gladiator just nicely but the cyclop took no damage.

Then it was the turn where opponent really crippled me.

Beast Handlers charged the wolves next to cyclop, killing one of them. After that Morghoul came forward and cast Abuse on the brute, who marched on, taking one free strike from the remaining Wolf of Orboros.

And there he killed Megalith.

Which, funnily enough, meant that I hadn't generated any fury at all for one round earlier and wouldn't generate any more during that game, except from the souls of the fallen. Because of Morghouls feat Megalith had no fury on it to leech.

But Wurmwood had 5 souls on it.

So it was my all-or-nothing turn coming up.

I ran one wolf next to beast handlers who were blocking line of sight to Morghoul.

Then Cassius activated and took all 5 souls from Wurmwood and moved about next to the gobbers.

He cast Hellmouth on the Wolf and it caught all three beast handlers and Morghoul under it. Cyclops Brute had been maxed out on fury so it wasn't a transfer target. That one gave 8 points in to Morghoul.

Cassius had 5 fury still, which were used for attack roll boosted Stranglehold, which needed 11+ to hit. I rolled exactly 11. Then it was time to boost damage. Another 8 points in which was more than enough to kill Morghoul.

Had any of those close calls failed at the last assassination run...

Rummikub at friends

Yesterday we played a 4-player Rummikub board game at friends place.

It's been quite a many years since I played Rummikub last time. Actually five to six years... Ah well, off with the nostalgia!

As Rummikub is a game of toying around with numbered badges it's rather difficult to write a decent "gaming report" out of it.

We played three rounds. I ended two of them which was enough to make me the overall winner.

But anyway... about the game itself, it's a game that gets better with more players. Four seemed to be real nice number of players as the situation on the board was changing a lot before it was your own turn again.

Also the possibilities in constructing the sets you can almost-but-not-quite grasp and count in your head... Thrilling.

Taking another shot at magnetising

Well, ages ago I posted a picture of my so-called "omni-jack".

I haven't touched that project for ages, because I wanted to get Malice magnetised in the same go.

Now I got Malice and here is a picture of all the pieces: (don't mind the pig)



This assemble can be played as either a Slayer, Reaper or Malice. I have constructed a Corruptor from earlier Helljack box.

The souls that were to be attached to Malice made me go with two bases. I wanted the defining soul pieces to be present in my Malice, but it would be too difficult and probably ugly to magnetise them all to basic chassis.

Now, Malice will go on the epic Asphyxious mimicking base and other variants to snowy base.

I'm quite happy how it all turned out. Currently I'm painting the chassis, I'll probably take one more shot when all the pieces are painted.

Now I'm worried about the new leaked promise of another character jack coming up in Wrath expansion... If it's yet another upgrade pack I wonder if I need to do a third base...

Bronzeback Barbeque

Well, it just happened that we played another game with the same friend in Vassal pretty soon.

It was a 35 point game and this time I was sporting my sorry Hexeris:

Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordmen + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Thrullg
Totem Hunter
Aptimus Marketh
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor
Orin Midwinter

And my opponent had:

Feora
- Reckoner
Avatar of Menoth

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard
Visgoth Juviah & Honor Guard
Knights Exemplar
Madelyn Corbeau
Wracks
Vassal of Menoth

It looks like my earlier win on the starting roll was just some exception so that I couldn't be sure if some messed up law of karma looks over it. I lost the starting roll.

Anyway, opponent thought it to be more advantageous for him to let me start.

Bottleneck map didn't look too promising regarding Feora's feat but I rushed everything I got forward.

Right flank included nearly all the solos, Totem Hunter (who's prey was Madelyn Corbeau), Thrullg and Bloodrunner Master Tormentor. Center of the map had Praetorian Swordmen and Orin Midwinter.

Warbeasts, Hexeris and beast handlers dragged on a little bit.

Opponent moved Reckoner and tried to shoot Thrullg who was far away and had the benefit of cover from a building. Missed.

Avatar ran at the left side of map and Flameguards backed off from Bloodrunner Master Tormentor. Can't blame them, really. All in all opponent seemed to try to make me come to a bad position. And I guess he succeeded in that?

Well, on my turn I come as much forward as I dare with everything, trying desperately to maneuver my slow warbeasts. Or, well, basilisks aren't that slow but they're not a real threat to Reckoner or Avatar either.

Not much to tell about that turn. Soul Slave was on Bronzeback and Death March on praetorian swordsmen. Opponent had cast Hex Hammer and was upkeeping it.

Then opponent started activating stuff. And I got a short but painful lesson on Juviah Rhoven's stealth ignoring action. Reckoner shot both Totem Hunter and Bloodrunnes Master Tormentor away with it 2 focus and Ancillary Attack from Vassal of Menoth.

Avatar picked up some potatoes in the fields, probably waiting for an opening.

Feora cast a Wall of Fire to protect Flameguard. Everything else shuffled closer.

Then it was my turn. And, well, Skorne delivered the pain.

Hexeris was the first one who activated. He moved as close to the enemy as he could, used Dark Dominion and launched a hit-roll boosted Obliteration at closely packed flameguards and knights exemplar, killing two knights and three flameguards who in turn killed a couple flameguards, one knight exemplar, a wrack and Madelyn Corbeau.

I left Hexeris sitting with one fury.

Then Orin Midwinter killed two more flameguards with a chain lighting who turned around and poked some remaining knights exemplar.

Basilisk Drake sprays one flameguard who turns around and kills the last one of his unit. The last flameguard tries to kill even more exemplars but fails there.

Then I decided to charge with Praetorian Swordmen. Two charged Avatar on the fields and two Reckoner, others didn't have any targets in range.

A lucky damage roll (5,6,6) dealt 7 points to Reckoner, after which the swordmen in question side stepped to Choir of Menoth and killed one of the choir boys. Choir boy turned around and tried to beat the priest but didn't score a hit. What a shame...

The ones who charged Avatar dealt automatic 1 point to it.

So, my round of slaughter: 10 Flameguards, 3 Knights Exemplar, Madelyn Corbeau, one Choir Boy and 4 points of damage dealt to Avatar and 7 to Reckoner.

But then it was opponents turn to punish me back.

Avatar trampled one swordman dead. Then Feora activated and cast Blazing Effigy on engaged Reckoner. Suprisingly, it was no longer engaged and 3 more swordmen died. Then she advanced a bit and used her feat, getting under: 6 praetorian swordmen + officer, Hexeris, basilisk Drake, Bronzeback Tital, two beast handlers, Thrullg and Orin Midwinter.

One of Rhoven's honor guards kill the flaming praetorian who was engaging choir. After that choir sings battle hymns to Reckoner.

Reckoner then charges Bronzeback Titan. After spending 3 focus on mauling it the bronzeback was still standing with 7 damage boxes, all branches still intact! Well, vassal gave Reckoner Ancillary Attack. Which dealt exactly 7 points of damage. So I lost my heavy hitter, Reckoner in middle of my army with all models getting -2 to attack rolls while within 2" of it... nice.

Anyway, my opponents round of slaughter: 8 praetorians, Bronzeback, Orin Midwinter, 3 points to Thrullg (still on fire) and 3 points to Hexeris (still on fire).

Well.

Crushing that Reckoner took the combined efforts of everything I got. Thrullg, Drake, enraged Krea and Hexeris all beat it down.

Remaining Praetorians didn't manage to do anything and Aptimus had to run to protect Hexeris from nearly clear charge lines.

Opponent then killed one praetorian swordman and Aptimus Marketh and moved all other models away from Feora's charge line.

Feora activated and cast Engine of Destruction.

To Hexeris' defense I must say that he made Feora buy an additional attack, initial attacks didn't kill him though he had taken 5 points of damage earlier.

So, it's a loss again for Hexeris...

But I don't feel that bad because the game was pretty awesome. This is the first game I've played where Hexeris' feat actually was useful as it resulted in deaths of at least 1 knight exemplar, Madelyn Corbeau, 4-5 flame guards and a wrack.

Also, opponent managing to pull out Engine of Destruction assassination... well, I guess everyone needs to experience that even once during WM/H career.

Quite a hellmouthful

We played a game of Warmachine in Vassal today with a friend who lives some hundred kilometres away.

I knew I was facing Protectorate and being an "imaginary set collector" I obviously picked up Cassius the Oathkeeper as my warlock because he's the only one of my currently played warlocks/warcasters who haven't played against Protectorate.

My list was:

Cassius the Oathkeeper
- Megalith
- Woldwyrd
- Argus

Tharn Bloodweavers
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Lord of the Feast
War Wolf

And opponent had:

Epic Kreoss
- Fire of Salvation

Maximum unit of Exemplar Errants + Unit Attachment
Knights Exemplar
Maximum unit of Bastions
Aiyana & Holt
Exemplar Seneschal
Madelyn Corbeau


Apparently I have better chance of winning starting rolls if I play in Vassal.

The map had a little forest in one side and I decided to deploy there though generally that side would have been worse for Protectorate's slow moving force. But I just didn't want to depend solely on my Swamp Gobbers for protection.

I had spread my army wide, though I must confess, it's still difficult for me to get the hang of Fury value of 6. No other warcaster/warlock I have ever played has had that low magic score...

Anyway, I don't have pictures now to demonstrate anything.

But first round both closed in a bit yet staying out of range of anything that can be expected.

However, then on my second turn I tried to do the unexpected things.

I used Argus' animus on Lord of the Feast, teleported it close to enemy lines, threw Raven at Bastions and placed Lord in the back arc where it caused a terror check on Ayiana & Holt and obviously used the 360 degree thresher. Attack rolls, however, weren't too favorable. Lord even managed to miss one Bastion. Neither of the prime targets, Aiyana or Holt weren't even hit, though Bastions did soak up 10 damage points in total.

Megalith tried to cast Stranglehold on nearby Fire of Salvation but failed to damage it.

Then about everything I had huddled into the smoke cloud Gobbers had put up.

There was Megalith, Woldwyrd, Wurmwood, Cassius, Argus, one of Bloodweavers and the gobbers of course.

Opponent moved Errants closer and started taking shots at Wolves of Orboros, killing three of them.

Fire of Salvation ran to back up the Errants, moving as far as possible from Bloodweavers who were able to dispel the armor buff Fire of Salvation had.

Sneaking and skulking Knights Exemplar charged Lord of the Feast with fatal results. Fatal to Protectorate, though.

Two Exemplars managed to deal only 6 points of damage, which meant one bastion and Aiyana & Holt were still engaged.

Aiyana & Holt tried to disengage by killing the horror but didn't succeed.

Finally opponent had to dedicate Knight Exemplar Seneschal to kill Lord of the Feast, who finally put the final blow in.

Bastions who were finally freed only advanced a little.

Opponent had positioned himself rather badly and I was about to prepare a huge onslaught of the most utter carnage ever seen in the games of Warmachine. However, had I counted all the rolls of 1, 2 or 1, 1, 2 the soaring numbers would have been hilarious.

First, my Bloodweavers charged nicely lined up Bastions and butchered all but one of them. That was about the only thing that worked out.


Megalith cast Stranglehold on Fire of Salvation and managed to damage it. Then it was slammed away, the bugger, but slam distance was 1, meaning there was no collateral damage to nearby Exemplar Errants.

Then I pulled an awesome Hellmouth shenanigan. I had 11 fury so I advanced, took tree with me and Unseen Pathed Cassius in front of the tree, in range to cast one attack roll boosted Hellmouth at tightly packed Knights Exemplar. I got all 6 under the template.

Only 3 of them died.

On top of that earlier, before the feat, I had brought Woldwyrd forward and shot Exemplars twice. RAT 6, pow 10 versus defense 12, arm 15. No casualties.

Well, I didn't feel too disappointed then yet. I cast Unseen Path and used Cassius' feat.

Only after I charged Wolves to Exemplar Errants. I used Power Swell just in case. However, even with MAT 8 & P+S 9 + 4d6 only two Errants died though five Wolves got into contact. No, opponent couldn't deny me target by cleverly picking models with their Self Sacrifice. I just rolled that badly.

Opponent's turn.

Seneschal and Holt kill three Bloodweavers.

Epic Kreoss uses his feat that indirectly butchers two more Bloodweavers and six Wolves of Orboros. All in all it could have been a lot worse.

Then was my try to deal as much damage as I now could with my thinned out forces.

First of all things looked delicious as Cassius was within 8" of a Bastion who had lots of people within 3" of him... I launched two Hellmouths against it. Obviously the other one missed though I needed only 5's to hit.

All in all, Master Holt, one Knight Exemplar and Knight Exemplar Seneschal "died".

Sole surviving Bloodweaver killed Madelyn Corbeau and Argus launched itself against Bastion and Seneschal next to it. It ate Bastion which revived Seneschal, whom it bit too and killed him... again.

Remaining Wolves of Orboros didn't do anything else except tied up Errants. Fire of Salvation was beat up by War Wolf and Megalith so that only 5 points in column 4 were left.

(Still it hit Megalith back for 6 points of damage...)

Errants mopped up all remaining Wolves except the Officer. Kreoss started camping up all his focus.

The last Knight Exemplar charged Argus but didn't manage to hit it.

Then on my turn Argus frenzied. My beasts had run too hot and I couldn't leach everything away. It had tasted human flesh and no amount of the stuff could suffice any more! Triple 1's in damage, however. Nearbly Bloodweaver had to charge and kill the exemplar.

Well, then Cassius was pulling off shenanigans at the Errant front. Wolf Chieftain standed nicely in the middle of errants.

So Cassius got all the souls from Wurmwood and cast off Hellmouth at the chieftain.

Three errants got under and all the damage rolls were boosted because at this point I had lost any and all faith on "lucky" (ie, average) rolls. All except Chieftain, of course. Who actually survived the blast!

Anyway, after Megalith crushed Fire of Salvation opponent didn't really have much in terms of gaming pieces. Kreoss, three errants and Aiyana.

On opponents slow-grind turn errants did nothing but Kreoss killed Argus.

Now we're going fast forward: Megalith advanced and managed to cast Curse of Shadows on Kreoss. Bloodweaver next to him did some damage. Errants were reduced to soil.

Then Megalith, after dismantling Fire of Salvation, went off and finished Grand Exemplar Kreoss. First boosted attack roll was 6, 6, 6. Damage roll from charge was 5, 6, 6. Kreoss was left with 2 hit points. Next claw and one boosted damage roll later game was over.

Anyway. Damage rolls were pretty amazing. I'm almost inclined to think there's something wrong in electronic dice... I mean... I even won the starting roll?

Also, rolling next to nothing but 1 & 2 for one whole turn was rather distressing. But I sure love Cassius' play style!

Justice is served when sisters fight it out

Wraith Witch Deneghra versus Major Haley!

Need more to be said? Well, the lists involved were:

Deneghra
- Nightmare
- Ripjaw
- Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Orin Midwinter
Ogrun Bokur (Deneghra being the client)
Warwitch Siren
Satyxis Captain
Skarlock

and

Haley
- Thorn

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + Officer
- Cyclone
Stormblade Infantry + Unit Attachment
Arlan Strangeywayes
Squire
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Need I even say that opponent won the starting roll? Also, pictures include lots of proxying until the real blues arrive to the stage.

Anyway, I was like, super-scared of Eiryss (it didn't help much that I supposed it to be the prime version), but I still felt courageous enough to not give any focus to any warjack and ran Deneghra as much forward as you can see in the picture.

Satyxis Raiders didn't move too much and I built up a strong loathing of Cyclone in the first round of the game.

Ripjaw ran into the forest, helped by Ghost Walk from Skarlock and Power Booster from Warwitch.

I felt that I needed at least to try to make a situation where I would be quite able to counter Haleys feat with Deneghra's.

However, opponent didn't close in and maybe it was for the best, eventhough I was plain in the open I was unassailable enough without the use of Haley's feat.

Well, as I had all of my options available I tried to cherry-pick some key models from opposing army by sacrificing my Ripjaw, who was again Ghost Walked and Power Boosted (warjack support that's nearly Protectorate-like!)

I was too afraid of losing 4 focus for nothing so I tried to play safe and cast Hellmouth so Eiryss was dragged into it. The elf just didn't die, though. She was left alive with just one wound. All I ever got out of sacrificing my Ripjaw were three dead Stormblades.

As much as I would have loved to launch my Satyxis to tie up opponents entire army I just had to resort to charging some random models I could see. In hindsight running would have been a lot better options as I could have tied up Eiryss (now I was half an inch short). The only one who actually got to make a charge attack missed the Stormblade officer.

Well, opponent backed up still. Haley dominated my Ripjaw and brought it to middle of her army. You can guess the result even if you can't see the wreck marker in picture that clearly...

Stormblades assaulted Satyxis and three of them got killed. Then Cyclone messed up the charge lanes of my beloved Satyxis again so they did very little in my turn.

As I couldn't force opponent to use Haley's feat yet I rinsed & repeated what I did earlier. Ran an arc node somewhere in there and cast Hellmouth on Squire. This time results were devastating. Haley lost 10 health boxes as well as Cyclone lost its marshal.

I really hoped sacrifices were worth it as now I didn't have arc nodes any longer (well, theoretically I had but I just couldn't make myself believe Nightwretch would survive for a turn...)

Come next turn.

As expected, Nightwretch was reduced to scrap metal and Eiryss repositioned herself.

Nightmare charged remaining Stormblades and killed them. Satyxis ran to tie up opposing forces.

Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Orin Midwinter who advanced full distance he could and took cover from wall. He cast Null Magic and Haley was well in range.

Then I ran Deneghra fast forward, camping all 7 focus she had.

Ogrun Bokur positioned himself so he could offer his generous shield to any of the 2 solos and a warcaster close to him.

Well, then.

First off, Arcane Tempest Gun Mages move or aim for taking shots at Orin. One could move so far that it got a clear shot at Orin without him gaining cover.

Shot hit home and Ogrun Bokur did what it gets paid for. Luckily, though, as damage roll was enough to kill Orin nearly twice.

The other two missed their shots, scoring just enough to miss by one.

Then it was time for me to nealry pee my pants.

Eiryss came in, needing 9 to hit Deneghra in woods she managed to roll enough.

Off went her 7 focus.

Then Cyclone lumbered forward in rough terrain of my former Ripjaw and rolled 5 initial attacks. Orin was in cover, though, meaning Cyclone needed double 6's to hit.

It didn't hit.

So Haley backed off, unable to move her with Telekinesis beyond the linear obstacle and then charging off focusless Deneghra.

She didn't use her feat even now. I don't know if opponent forgot about it or if there was an evil cunning plan of sorts.

But anyway, here's what happened.

Warwitch ran somewhere in there.

Deneghra charged the warwitch and used her feat. She had allocated Nightmare three focus earlier. Then she cleared some models with one Hellmouth shot in the back of Arlan Strangewayes (who didn't even die from it).

As we later saw whole clearing wasn't even necessary - Nightmare gaines prey movement bonus from nearby Thorn and 11" + reach was more than enough to get Nightmare to Haley.

However, as the distance wasn't that clear Nightmare charged Arlan instead. I really didn't want to fail a charge completely. But as it happened, one initial attack and two focus were enough to punish Haley for her invincibility in the backstory.

Embrace the irony, too. Nightmare ripping Haley in two halves.