Match Up From Hell

Yesterday (I think it was yesterday? Yeah, must've been) I played a game of Warmachine, or actually Hordes.

I don't know why I ever chose Cassius.

I knew which faction I was facing (Legion) and I knew which warlock would be against me. I still chose Cassius.

It's probably the fact that I want to actually try everything out, and to see and prove "theorymachine" happening in action. I also believe that despite of match up, you will always have something to do to possibly win a game. It might not be inside the box, probably it's not in the near vicinity of the box or even on same continent, but still it is there.

Scenario was "Supply and Demand" from Steamroller 2012.

My list was:

Cassius the Oathkeeper
- Megalith
- Feral Warpwolf
- Woldwatcher

Tharn Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Lord of the Feast
Lanyssa Ryssyll
2x Gallows Grove

And opponent had the following nightmare:

Epic Lylyth
- 2x Ravagores
Striders + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Raptors
Anyssa Ryvaal
Shepherd

Opponent won starting roll, and first picture is from the end of my first turn. When I was taking pictures I think I should have looked at the pre-look picture, because in two first pictures I've pictured only half of my army.

Anyway, I decided to leave Wurmwood out of the fight. Completely. I parked it behind a large hill and it never moved during game.

Cassius is a little South East from Bloodweavers in the picture. You just might see a red menace on the horizon. That menace erupted into Decimation on opponents next turn, and, well.

It's really a shame that my army doesn't show in the pictures. Instead I have to do a text-based tally on what opponent did.

Lylyth's first shot took down Lord of the Feast. It was shield guarded by Woldwatcher, though. Lylyth's second shot took down Lord of the Feast. Shot triggered by Snap Fire destroyed one of the Shifting Stones I think.

First Ravagore activates and shoots Cassius. Twelve points of damage, which were transfered to Megalith. But Cassius was on Fire now, thanks to Ravagore's animus. Second one hits too, and deals "only" 8 points to Cassius. These blasts also killed off one Bloodweaver.

Second Ravagore activates and shoots Cassius too, but this one is a little bit too far away and the shot automatically misses. However, the shot deviates something like 3 inches straight forward - and Cassius still falls under the template. Boosted blast damage deals a few points in. Additional shot from feat goes in to the middle of Bloodweavers, killing two.

Striders activate and shoot down Gallows Grove and do some damage to Warpwolf.

Raptors activate and shoot down the second Gallows Grove and, thanks to a very good attack roll, Lanyssa Ryssyll too.

I think Anyssa didn't do any casualties that I remember. Grand total is still a bit overwhelming:

1x Shifting Stone (preventing teleports)
Lord of the Feast
3x Bloodweavers
2x Gallows Groves
Lanyssa Ryssyll
At least 12 points to Megalith
About 7-9 damage points to Feral Warpwolf
11 damage points to Cassius + Fire (which dealt 5 points of damage on my next turn...)

Damn, I hate epic Lylyth's feat even when we did play it correctly this time.

Though picture is taken from the end of opponents next turn, I'll tell few things about my turn.

First, Wurmwood had been close enough to get three souls from my casualties.

Woldwatcher advances and just manages to shoot one Raptor into a forest.

I parked all of my warbeasts about in the middle of the field and healed them as much as I could. Cassius healed himself and went to control Fuel Depot on my side of the board. Bloodweavers just ran, one of them getting itself to base contact with enemy fuel depot. Scather clouds made it impossible for two remaining weavers to engage any Striders, which was a bummer.

Anyway.

That was the best I could do. Score one scenario point and just hope for the best.

On opponents turn Lylyth cast Pin Cushion on Feral Warpwolf, and then opponent uses all of his forces to total it and kill two Bloodweavers, forcing morale check on the last (who fails it) and then. Uh. I think at least Woldwatcher lost its Spirit there, too.

Many, if not all, people in this world know that "hope" is not an effective weapon.

My turn failed miserably.

First, I was going to do the ol' good trick of teleporting a shifting stone in thick of enemy models and casting Hellmouth on it. Anything but double 1's to hit.

You can guess it. Snake eyes.

I had positioned Cassius so that Megalith might just be inside his control area if it trampled next to enemy objective. Eight inches were, however, too short distance and Megalith had to stop where you can see it in the picture.

Had that succeeded, I would've scored second scenario point and with amazing rolls even damaged Lylyth with Stranglehold! Now I just killed two or three Striders.

Well, opponent then kills Megaliths with two Ravagores, Woldwatcher with a charging Raptor (which was somewhat funny. The Nyss riding the elk didn't do any damage at all. The elk itself, however, destroyed the whole thing).

Striders shoot at least one of the gobbers. Remaining gobber doesn't actually fail morale check, which was nice. The filthy little swamp dweller grinned maniacally and drew his... umm... melee attack? and saw only red... Sadly, he didn't get a second kill mark to his base. Boo hoo.

Other Raptor had charged Cassius but failed to kill him.

Anyssa, then, helps things a bit by missing Cassius and shooting the engaging Raptor dead.

So I had Wurmwood, one swamp gobber and Cassius on board. When situation is this grim, it calls for an impressive showdown.

And here it is:

Cassius "charges" one Ravagore, though the charge obviously fell was too short. I rarely use this stupid spell casting shenanigan (I think this was second time well... ever?) but I was fairly sure it wouldn't win me the game any more, only make things cooler.

So, Cassius charged full 9" and cast Hellmouth on enemy objective. This gave something like 6-7 points in to Lylyth. Oh yeah! I got to deal damage to Lylyth with Cassius!

However.

Then, well, his activation ended. Because his charge had failed.

Lylyth activates, moves where you see her in the picture, and does the very same thing she did to Baldur when he was still non-epic. Filled Cassius with blighted arrows.

I guess that was a relief, when you consider the fact that Cassius had already been 3-4 rounds on fire.