Dead on 7+

Finally I get to write down a game that has been dragging on for a few days.

I forgot my camera when I left for Salo, and of course I hadn't taken the pictures out for my laptop.

Anyway, it was a 25 point game of Warmachine.

I knew I was almost certainly facing Kreoss, so that affected my choice of army. It was Skorne, with epic Hexeris leading the way. Reason for this? Well... I try to have all of my warcasters and warlocks to play against Kreoss. If you ask for reasoning behind that, there is no good answer other than I like to collect sets... hah...

My list was:

Epic Hexeris
- Rhinodon
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea (bonded)

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen
Minimum unit of Paingiver Beasthandlers
Minimum unit of Farrow Bonegrinders
Aptimus Marketh
Agonizer
Feralgeist

And opponent was playing:

High Exemplar Kreoss
- Crusader
- Repenter
- Revenger

Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants
Maximum unit of Paladins (= 2x Paladins + Vilmon)
Vassal of Menoth

So... what the heck is that? Protectorate list without soft targets? Or tons of AoE's for notorious "Pop & Drop" -tactics? Surely it was doomed to fail!

We were playing Gauntlet scenario from Steamroller 2012. First picture shows first turns of any action - in the first I have sacrificed one of Praetorian Swordsmen for Ashes to Ashes. Boosted damage rolls did only a couple of damage to paladin's, but killed three errants without any boosts. Go figure.

Ashen Veil was cast upon Swordsmen, but Hexeris didn't upkeep it on that turn, and after Ashes to Ashes shenanigans Aptimus Marketh cast it back on them.

Then opponent makes a fatal mistake on not casting Defender's Ward! That's blasphemy, right...? Yeah, right. Kreoss upkept Lamentation and cast two Cleansing Fires on veiled Swordsmen, and Repenter launched it's spray upon Skorne warriors. Result was 5 dead praetorians, so not much hitting power left in that unit any more.

Well, it's my turn then.

I thought that this was my turn to use Hexeris' feat, because next turn my forces would probably be knocked down and Hexeris under Lamentation, too.

And what a turn of total mayhem it was! Skorne triumphantly crushed Protectorate forces under their feet!

Farrow Bonegrinders shoot use Magic Bolt on one of the damaged paladins and kill him. Also, a spray from basilisk Drake takes down Vassal of Menoth who was hiding behind Crusader. Ashes to Ashes kills all but one Exemplar Errant, and at least one Hellfire was cast upon Repenter. Last two Fury was spent on casting Black Spot on lone remaining errant just for giggles.

Aptimus Marketh cast Hellfire on Repenter too, and then remaining Praetorians charge. Two charge Repenter and two charge Revenger. Both who charged Revenger missed, but both who charged Repenter hit. And thanks to a couple of damage rolls of 14+ on 3 dice the warjack was turned into a 40 millimetres of rough carton.

Look at that situation, now. What could Kreoss possibly do any more? Using his feat would probably only buy one more turn for Protectorate or something. Pitiful believers. Down with their god!

Then it's opponents turn.

Whoops! All Skorne models in that picture except for Krea and Hexeris was knocked down when my turn started. Accurately so, in fact. Bone Grinders weren't knocked down.

How did that happen?! I mean casualties, obviously Kreoss used his feat. He also killed one of the Praetorians "engaging" Revenger.

Revenger then charges Basilisk Drake and makes a few froglegs out of it. Crusader mauls Rhinodon and... err... what bad pun I can insert here? Cooks up some turtle soup?

So easy was the downfall of Skorne. With only two models that could do anything useful, I had to bring Hexeris himself to the thick of melee.

Two praetorians still alive forfeited their action and tried to engage Kreoss. Basilisk Krea and Hexeris wreck Revenger together with some really crappy rolls.

It was probably not enough to save Hexeris' arse, but we would see.

Opponent charged one Praetorian engaging Kreoss and managed to kill it. Crusader smacked Krea down for some roasted frog.

Then it was down to this:

Caster versus Caster. The stuff of legends.

Two hits and the master mortitheurge was down.

I hope this will serve everyone as a reminder that a completely different list that isn't optimized as per the "forum wisdom" can actually win games. I've played a few times against this particular gamer with him having only minor changes to the list that used in this game too, and I've always had the same problem. Warjacks don't go down fast enough. With a good alpha strike I can drop one to two warjacks, but then will always come Kreoss' feat and whatever I did the alpha strike with will most certainly go down too, because there are still warjack on opponents side of the board.

Title, by the way, comes from the fact that whenever I got to make Ashes to Ashes against enemy, no matter what model it was in the whole army list, I needed at least 7+ to kill.