Hellaena charges into melee!

Today I played two small games of Warmachine.

I played my Cryx against Khador. They were 15 point games.

Opponent played both times with same list, which was:

Butcher
- Destroyer

Minimum unit of Iron Fang Pikemen + Unit Attachment
Widowmakers
War Dog

First game I played with Asphyxious for a change (Iron Lich version).

Asphyxious
- Reaper
- Cankerworm
- Nightwretch

Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech & Scrapjack

Opponent won starting rolls in both games and let me start in both games.

First, I realised how outnumbered I was. Luckily I had Breath of Corruption around and Tartarus with thresher attack.

First picture is from the end of opponents first turn, where Iron Flesh was cast on pikemen. Destroyer took a shot at Nightwretch, but it landed short. However, it deviated so that both Nightwretch and Asphyxious was under.

And it was four points in to Asphyxious there and then.

On my next turn Asphyxious casts a Hellfire on a charge line blocking widowmaker.

Widowmakers failed their command check, and they failed it on every turn until the end of game.

Then Cankerworm, loaded with three focus, charged in. Armor piercing did a lot of damage, but to exactly worst of columns: number 3. So nothing broke. With two focus left Cankerworm bought an attack with Replicator, hit, and boosted damage. The damage roll was crazy, something like 4, 5, 6 or something. And that resulted in the loss of cortex and melee arm for the warjack.

On opponents turn Butcher himself wrecked Cankerworm with ease.

Iron Fleshed pikemen advanced in shield wall.

On my turn Tartarus cursed the pikemen and charged them, engaging three. Two of them died.

Nightwretch repositioned itself so that Asphyxious could cast Breath of Corruption on a gathering of two pikemen, one of them being the officer. Both damage rolls were boosted and both pikemen died.

I tried everything within my power to kill the standard bearer, but failed.

Ah well, but then. The latter picture is quite imposing, really. It's a bit hazy, yet you can see an intimidating silhouette of a khadoran warjack... AND Butcher!

Butcher decided it was best to use his feat. Fury was cast on remaining pikemen and then he slapped Tartarus dead. Butcher did an amazingly horrible damage roll, highest number was 3 and it was the only 3. Yet undamaged Tartarus died.

Two pikemen who could charge Reaper left only harpoon intact.

Oh, and aiming Destroyer scored a hit on Necrotech, killing it. As blast damage doesn't gain an additional die under Butchers feat, nothing else was to be expected.

But expect the unexpected. Asphyxious was dealt two more damage by Destroyer's blasts.

Then it's Asphyxous' turn to use feat.

First, I needed to disengage Nightwretch. I tried something a little bit risky, and allocated it two focus.

Then it went and bit the engaging pikeman with attack and damage roll boosted. After that Asphyxious cast Hellfire on the Butcher's dog. It's somewhat curious how one dog draws so much fire from the opposing side...

Then Asphyxious charges the pikemen and kills both of them with remaining focus. Now as I figured this would be the last turn I saw Butcher without Iron Flesh on himself, I decided to use Asphyxious' feat. With the focus Asphyxious cast a boosted Parasite on Butcher and tried to do some damage with a breath of corruption just for kicks. Didn't do anything.

Opponent then takes an aggressive stance.

Destroyer shoots Reaper to bits and Butcher charges Nightwretch. Butcher rolls damage poorly again and Nightwretch is left with only one box remaining in cortex. After that Butch casts Iron Flesh on himself.

Asphyxious had two souls from earlier turn which were turned into focus now.

So, really, either Asphyxious killed Butcher now, or he died trying. Sustained attack fortunately helps in such situations, but still, one focus went to upkeep Parasite and he was left with eight.

First attack misses even with boost.

Second attack hits with a boost and deals 7 points in with a damage boost. Four focus left, I decided that if I rolled good damage next I would go all for it, but if I botched Asphyxious would teleport away.

I rolled rather high and proceeded to make last attack, where Butcher eventually died.

Game 2:

I played second game with Witch Coven of Garlghast with following list:

Coven
- Erebus
- Ripjaw
- Deathripper

Pistol Wraith

And if I felt outnumbered the last time, now the feeling was overwhelming.

But, still. As I said earlier, opponent gave me the start again. First picture is taken from the end of my second turn, where Occultation has been cast on Erebus and Infernal Machine on Deathripper. Pikemen were obviously Iron Fleshed again.

Last game had instilled some sort of a fear in me about that particular Destroyer, so I thought it best to screen the witches with Veil of Mists. Just in case, as the witches don't quite take such hits quite as well as Asphyxious.

Second picture is from the end of my next turn. For some reason Butcher tried to shoot the Pistol Wraith down with Obliteration. It didn't work, actually.

I reply by shooting the war dog with pistol wraith. Now, if pistol wraiths are fallen ghosts of skilled and overly proud duelists, I find it a bit curious that there the enemy warcaster is throwing spells at him, yet the wraith shoots down Butchers dog.

Anyway, Deathripper positions its arc node so that the witches try to shoot Butcher down with stygian abysses. Second shot did critical shadow bind and all was well. Last focus was used to cast Infernal Machine on Erebus and Nightfall was used.

However, I had positioned my troops a little bit too close so the darkness wasn't that much of a boon to me.

Opponent activated Butcher first, who cast Iron Flesh on himself, Fury on Iron Fange Pikemen and used his feat too.

Widowmakers happened all to be within 5" of Ripjaw.

So they got aiming bonus and wrecked Ripjaws arc node and weapon system.

Pikemen advanced at different targets and despite -2 MAT & RAT from Nightfall they destroyed most of Deathrippers damage grid (though arc node was still working just fine) and killed pistol wraith.

Pikemen engaging Erebus missed their attack, though.

And then you'll see something you won't see every day and as an afterthough, I should have lost (or not, if you want to support wacky moves...)

Anyway. What I planned: Upkeep Infernal Machine, cast Ghost Walk on Deathripper, give 3 focus to Erebus, cast Veil of Mists on Erebus & pals, cast one attack roll boosted Stygian Abyss at Butcher to lower his defense. After I had cast Ghost Walk on deathripper I realised that I actually needed 11 focus to do all this.

So.

I aborted my plan and just cast Veil of Mists to allow a charge for Erebus.

Now, I couldn't get Erebus to ignore free strikes as witches had only one focus left.

The usual "A heavy warjack with MAT 9 at opponents warcaster's face" mentality got me to charge one of the pikemen with a witch. Attack roll boost later the pikeman was dead.

Then Erebus charged Butcher, which was where I realised that Butcher currently had arm 21. Combo-strike was "only" P+S 22. And Butcher had defense 17, Erebus MAT of 9.

I really had only one chance here, because one of my witches was sitting in the middle of enemy army and I had one P+S 22 attack to finish off Butcher.

Luckily I had managed to damage Butcher earlier and the damage roll was more than enough to kill Butcher, but damn that was risky. I needed something like 10-11 with 3 dice to kill him. Those are odds that usually wouldn't make you want to risk one of your witches unless it was a last ditch attempt...