The End of Everblight (as we know it)

A couple of days ago I played a game of Warmachine.

I had decided it was time for me to awaken Venethrax from his slumber, and thus my 35 point list came to be:

Venethrax
- Harrower
- Cankerworm
- Ripjaw

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Gorman diWulfe
Warwitch Siren

And, as I arrived to my friend place I learned soon enough that I was facing epic Thagrosh. Well, usually I've only lost to him, but this time I had brought Cryx's premiere Hordes and Legion warcaster with me.

So, his list was:

Thagrosh the Messiah

- Carnivean
- Typhon
- Shredder

Maximum unit of Warspears
Warmonger Chieftain
Spell Martyr
Shepherd

So it was time to slay some soulless dragons, because there wasn't too much actual souls to cull for Venethrax.

I won the starting roll and first picture is from the end of opponents first turn. I had placed Dragon Slayer on Venethrax, though I was pondering if I could get some mileage out of Lamentation. But I decided not. My warcasters as of late have died enough to random assassinations from afar, so I decided to focus on armor.

On my next turn I just moved forward. I dared to push my troops forward, because I had the necrosurgeon going on. I figured that I would lose a couple of critical points from my army, but hopefully not all. And if I could take one or two beasts in the following turn, all the better.

There is one war spear too much in the picture, though. Venethrax killed it with his last focus after taking the picture, since I was sure that def 17 arm 18 warcaster wouldn't die, not this time.

Opponent then used Thagrosh's feat. Warspears charged Harrower and did small damage. Typhon, on the other hand, sprayed Harrower so badly that with combined efforts from all sides Harrower had one box in cortex and two boxes in movement left (or the other way around) at the end of opponents turn. By the way, I just have to mention this. Gorman took all the three sprays from Typhon, but just laughed maniacally because of his immunity to fire.

And feat movement + attack dealt something like 12-14 damage to Cankerworm, but no systems went down.

Now, Thagrosh also cast Scourge on a nearby mechanithrall via Spell Martyr, knocking down Ripjaw. Then Carnivean assaulted and sprayed Ripjaw down to one point left in head and two points left in cortex. Also, the spray took down Necrosurgeon and three bile thralls and whatnot. Advance from feat was used to bring Carnivean back to safety so my remaining mechanitralls wouldn't just butcher it to pieces.

So.

On my next turn I decided to pull of Venethrax's feat just for laughs.

I allocated two focus for Harrower and two focus for Cankerworm.

Gorman advanced and threw black oil on the thick war spear formation.

Ripjaw stood up and walked to the water. I needed to get it out of the way of one bile thrall purge. As it came ou

t, I couldn't get Ripjaw away from the purge, so it melted into the little pond. Kids, don't swim in that water!

Venethrax did nothing else except advanced and used his feat, turning every model that dies into a cloud effect even Eyeless Sight cannot see through.

Then Harrower showed what it can do with all weapon systems broken.

It killed 3 models and damaged one.

Granted, they well all blind, but still pretty good achievement from a model with mat 6+1d6 and damage 16+1d6. Shows again how well Harrower can perform, though it costs equal to many of other factions' character jacks or beasts.

Mechanithralls charged, one reached Carnivean, one reached Shredder and two went into melee with a war spear that was engaging Harrower. Shredder died to a single lucky combo-strike and the war spear bit the dust too.

Cankerworm bit Typhon and performed well; they dealt damage to each other pretty much equally. I don't remember the roll any more, but I think it did 12-14 damage to Typhon back with an armor piercing attack. Took off Typhon's Spirit, if memory serves. That was promptly healed by shepherd, though.

It looks like I'm missing a picture from opponents next turn here.

But what happened was that Typhon destroyed both Cankerworm and Harrower and even did some damage to the big guy himself, Venethrax.

Carnivean sprayed down a whole swath of mechanithralls, a bile thrall and Tremulus. So suddenly I was without warjacks and only a handful of def 12/arm 12 models by Venethrax's side.

But I had Gorman diWulfe. 'Nuff said.

First Venethrax charges Typhon (and misses the charge attack. Whee. Go, go, dragon slayer!), but brutally murders it with two attacks. He reaves, and is back on full focus again.

Then Gorman diWulfe throws black oil on Carnivean and resulting 4 combo strikes with charge bonus kill the beast. I think it was Maelovus that killed the shepherd. So next turn Thagrosh was all alone against what was left of Venethrax's forces.

Thagrosh did pretty well, though.

It shows every model alive (or, well, active) on the field in the last picture. One mechanithrall, two withershadow member and Gorman diWulfe. Plus Venethrax, obviously.

So, it all boiled down to if Venethrax (armor 25) could take a headlong charge from epic Thagrosh with full fury.

I guess chances were statistically on Venethrax's side, but good rolls with p+s 18 could actually hurt a model with that high armor.

Well, the dice weren't on the blighted ogrun's side.

Next round Venethrax skewers the Messiah.

So I guess Venethrax can come back to the Cryxian islands, his work on main continent is done.