And the Prize for Much Distress and Attrition goes to.... Hyperion!

A few days ago I played against Retribution of Scyrah.

I had a tough choice between bringing either Mortenebra or Goreshade the Bastard, and eventually I wanted to see how Mortenebra would do against another Colossal, since last time didn't go too well...

Also she had less games against Retribution than Goreshade had.

Anyway, my list was:

Master Necrotech Mortenebra & Deryliss
- Harrower
- Slayer
- 2x Helldivers
- Stalker
- Ripjaw

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 1x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Warwitch Siren
Gorman diWulfe
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall

Opponent had:

Ossyan
- Discordia
- Hyperion

Maximum unit of Houseguard Halberdiers (AKA bog trog ambushers lead by a mannikin)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce + Commander
Epic Eiryss
2x Mage Hunter Assassins
Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker

Cryx started the game, and first picture is taken from the end of Cryxian second turn. We played Steamroller 2013 scenario "Incursion", and it screwed the game up a bit when the disappearing flag was the one on camera's left side. Now I'm looking at the picture, I see it doesn't show my Stalker a little behind Scrap Thrall on the right.

Anyway.

I had moved up so that I would at least contest the middle flag. Because rightmost flag was so vulnerable (from my point of view) opponent could choose to either try to play scenario, or attrition & assassination.

On opponents next round he decides to skip the flag and bring the hurt instead. And it was truly brought - Slayer took 11 shots from the Mage Hunter Strike Force members and was left with about 5 damage boxes. That was kind of a scary thing, since I needed Slayer alive for a little bit longer if I ever wanted to do anything against Hyperion...

So, both flags were now contested by both armies. Not much else happened that turn, except a lucky deviation from Hyperion's main cannon killed off two Mechanithralls. But that doesn't count because of Necrosurgeon.

Next turn was when all the brutalising began.

Fully loaded Harrower with Spectral Steel and Overrun on it, and Terminal Velocity having been cast, charged into ranks of Houseguard Halberdiers. After initial thresher attack Overrun was triggered, and the warjack moved even deeper into the enemy lines. However, it had to move away from the benefits of Terminal Velocity, but I was confident that 3 focus + 3 souls would do all kinds of nasty things.

And they did. Total tally of that whirlwind of doom was: 2 Mage Hunter Strike Force members, Officer & flag bearer of Halberdiers and 5-6 rank-and-file halberdiers. Don't know if it was worth the 10 points Harrower costs, but at least it was awesome to pull off. Halberdiers also fail their massive casualties test, and spend rest of the game running away.

Next Mechanithralls charge whatever are left of Houseguards, and kill off a few, leaving total unit count to two members.

One mechanithrall ran to engage Eiryss.

Necrotech and Mortenebra had repaired a whopping 10 points from Slayer, so it could take a few hits again.

I decided to put Helldivers to engage Mage Hunter Strike Force members, because I wanted to make as few of them able to shoot next turn as possible.

Ripjaw moved to score a point from middle flag.

If I was happy about my army's performance at this point, it all changed during Retribution. They lived up to their faction name, I think.

Eiryss moves from Mechanithrall, who doesn't hit her with a free strike. Damn. Then Eiryss shoots Spectral Steel away from Harrower.

Then Ossyan does stuff, and launches his feat.

And, uh, well. All hell breaks loose in form of Mage Hunter Strike Force that mostly claims Aiming Bonus. Down goes Harrower (with at least one damage roll of 5,5,6,6) and down goes Slayer, who was already hurt, though. That's 16 points away from my army list, and to make matters worse, what the heck would punch hard enough to destroy Hyperion any more?!

Oh wait, charging Mechanithralls, of course!

Then Hyperion activates and turns to face those aforementioned thralls. Big cannon and one thresher cannon later (Hyperion had Shatterstorm on, by the way) there were two Mechanithralls standing, and Necrosurgeon had managed to snatch only two tokens.

To add an insult to injury, opponent shoots one of Helldivers to wreck with Discordia's spray, and the other one is left with around 5 boxes too, though all systems still functional.

However, I scored another scenario point from middle flag. Hyperion tried to shoot Ripjaw, and even dared to score a hit against a Def 15 model inside cover, but damage roll did nothing important.

Time for "all or nothing" turn.

I had lost the attrition, and there would be no way I could fulfill my dream of wrecking a colossal, so I needed to play weird shenanigans to try to get a scenario victory.

Since I had already secured middle flag, I would need to control one flag and dominate another to win in one round.

Withershadow Combine put up Puppet Master on Mortenebra, and Ripjaw shuffled itself a bit to get the cowardly houseguard halberdiers within range of Mortenebra's spells.

Deryliss cast Overrun on Mortenebra herself.

Warwitch granted a focus to Stalker.

Mortenebra moved and cast Void Gate on a houseguard halberdier, and it died and triggered Overrun. Mortenebra advanced to dominate the rightmost flag and cast Terminal Velocity.

Stalker charges the Mage Hunter Assassin who is still contesting rightmost flag, and manages to miss its charge attack. Second attack hits, though, and Warwitch focus is spent on a damage boost, just in case.

So it's a scenario victory for forces of Cryx! Somehow it seems that Mortenebra has gained the focus that Stalker used. Such a sloppy placement.

But anyway.

Ruined tower in center acted both ways in this game. It was a perfect defensive position for Mage Hunter Strike Force. They would be in perfect safe for whole game and everything that was important would be in their shooting range, too.

But since Mage Hunter Strike Force can't actually move through terrain, it created somewhat of a bottleneck, that at least this way worked to my advantage. I guess this is one of the reasons why tournament documents discourage placing terrain close, or on top of objectives.

Get Off My Lawn You Damn Hermits!

Last game I played during my weekend trip was the Kingdom Builder.

We got to play it only once with three players, but a few first impressions were:

- Very easy to understand rules (as in: you're able to quickly grasp the basics even on your first try)
- Amazing amount of different play styles and options that change from game to game.
- "On the go" planning. A player needs to quickly consider what you can do in your turn that might help your grand plan. But in no way it is certain you can do exactly what you want on your next turn.

So, there are three victory condition cards. They tell rules how you score points.

In this game we had:
Knights (score points from your biggest continous row of villages)
Merchants (score points from connecting locations)
and... Hermits (score points from separated villages)

I claimed all special abilities that were available. Just because I like collecting things. They were the boat, tower, Stonehenge and stables.

I started to build my kingdom with knights and merchants mostly, because I wasn't too familiar with the game and those two seemed to be easiest ones.

And in the end I scored some good points and was placed first before last player had counted his points from Hermits. And there were about 10 hermits too many, and thus I lost any bragging rights from winning a new game against more experienced players.

Game play was quite fast, and I can see a lot same kind of "getting hooked" effect in this game as in 7 Wonders.

Lightning in my palm

When returning home from Helsinki I stopped by at a couple of friends.

There I had the pleasure of getting acquaintanced with two new games. Or at least one real game and one... something. Also, there was some playing with a horse and a rocking horse with their enchanting 4-year old offspring, but that's another story.

I try to write up about the real game tomorrow, and now I just say that I played the game called "Lightning Reaction Reloaded".

It's one of these gameish trinkets where you have to press a button fast, or you'll get an electric shock.

Truth be told, I've never been known for my reaction speed.

I did beat the opposing player a couple of times when he had to concentrate on something the 4-year old was doing. Other than those, it was a shock for me.

We played with increasing shock level, and last level was, uh, that one felt in my hand for a long time.

The masochist in me liked this game very much.

But I'm not sure how I should write the statistics for this game. I mean, one "game" takes less than a minute to complete, and the only victory and loss is in form of getting punished/not getting punished.

I guess I'll just score the instances I've played this game?

What's that rattle?

Last weekend I had a few games of Razzle.

It's a casual game with time limits and reaction speeds and everything. Everything I hate, right?

Well, not really.

After all, words have a special little place in my heart, and I guess it's nice even if you have to form them under duress.

We played with only two players, though I guess the game doesn't have a limit how many can play it.

We played three rounds, and I won one round, and the residing champion beat me up twice.

Even during those three shortish rounds, I noticed a certain trend in my word-forming practices. I always aimed at long words, even when it wouldn't give any special bonus points-wise.

Same trend is, I guess, apparent in other games I play, too. I usually try to construct something unsuitably large and find perverse pleasure in keeping it all together. And I can usually get carried off from some "main purpose" of the game and try to pursue victory with some personal rules.

Anyway. That was my first encounter with Razzle.

And Thus Circle Scattered Like Fallen Leaves... In A Typhoon!

Last night I felt crazy enough to go and try to have a game of Warmachine on Vassal.

This time around I played against a random machinist from the great internets. And I'm glad that I did, because random encounters like these can really shake you up from what you've used to play against.

Now it was Bartolo Montador, AKA Broadsides Bart. Never played against him, not during Mk1 or Mk2.

I had decided to pile up some games for Kaya, and my 50 point list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Gorax
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Warpwolf Stalker

Minimum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Overseer
Blackclad Wayfarer
Lord of the Feast
Druid Wilder
War Wolf
Feralgeist

Reinforcements:
(Tharn Bloodweavers)
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Lanyssa Ryssyl

And opponent had a following Four Star Syndicate army:

Broadsides Bart
- Galleon

Maximum unit of Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters
Minimum unit of Steelhead Halberdiers
Lady Aiyana & Holt
Epic Eiryss
Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw
- Bull Snapper

Reinforcements:
2x Kayazy Eliminators
Gorman diWulfe
Kell Bailoch

We played A Flag Too Far scenario from Steamroller 2012, that's why lists include reinforcement options.

Circle started the game. Kaya cast Occultation on Wolves of Orboros (since they were going to directly face Nyss Hunters). When opponent played his/hers first round, I half realised why indeed Galleon is such a nasty piece with Bart.

After all, there is possibility of running Galleon up front, then casting Broadside and Batten Down the Hatches. Broadside might be used on the harpoon attack, dragging warjacks and more horribly, warbeasts out of control range.

Of course these shenanigans weren't in range just yet, but my other eye had opened to this combo. Later my other eye would open, too, but we're not there yet.

Anyway, Spiny Growth from Bull Snapper and Batten Down the Hatches meant ARM 24 Galleon right up there. First picture is from the end of Circle's second turn, where I decided that I really have to try to take out the Snapper.

And it succeeded. Lord of the Feast was teleported by Shifting Stones to front of Galleon, and then he threw the bird at the colossal. Pseudo-thresher killed two halberdiers and dealt some damage to Bull Snapper, and bought attacks from heart tokens killed the beast.

Cool. Only ARM 22 colossal to take down any more.

Then opponent does a rather devastating turn.

Opponent calls in reinforcements, who thankfully mess up their dice rolls. Only two dead Ravagers and one blind Ravager. Could've been worse.

Aiyana gives the Kiss of Lyliss to Gnarlhorn Satyr who had been peppered a little by Nyss Hunters, and then Snapjaw charges it. The goat went down in short order, and Feralgeist jumped inside of the dying milkmachine. However, Snapjaw had only bought two Fury, so that was pretty much futile attempt.

Halberdiers kill off Lord of the Feast, and fully loaded Galleon with Hot Shot on lumbers forward and starts to take shots at my gathering of troops. Dougal MacNaile had done his trick and given +2 Range.

This is where my second eye opened to the horrifying combo that Bart + Galleon is. I had somehow thought that Hot Shot gave boosted attack rolls. This was a time where I found out that it actually gave boosted damage rolls for ranged attacks.

Boosted pow 7's killed Stone Keeper, Druid Wilder and dealt some damage in to Kaya herself. Also, a boosted pow 7, boosted pow 13 and a boosted pow 15 killed Stalker completely. Feralgeist jumped in again.

And to make matters even worse, Bart used his feat Typhoon, cast Batten Down the Hatches and Broadsides (actually it might have been this attack that ultimately finished off Stalker. Don't remember.) and then he charges Galleon.

Soo... pretty much both of my "heavy" hitters gone in one round, and opponent still had undamaged ARM 22 colossal right there.

Also opponent had Typhoon on that prevented just about all retaliation I could try to do.

But I did call in my reinforcements. And I did forget to activate half of them.

White Mane tried to charge one of the Nyss Hunters, but just failed to get in reach. Wolves then ran to engage as many Nyss Hunters as possible without entering Typhoon.

Blackclad Wayfarer forfeited movement and teleported into middle of Nyss Hunters, trying to tie them up a bit.

Tharn Ravagers charge around, and they did something good for a change, killing two Eliminators (from different units) and finishing off a halberdier who had wandered too close.

Griffon ran to woods near my secondary flag. If I ever could do anything in this game any more, it'd have to have something to do with scenario victory.

But this so much was not the case.

Galleon goes to control primary flag and shoots the crap out of all ravagers it could see. Luckily it couldn't see too many of them, when Kell Bailoch had already killed one.

Only Ravager Chieftain alive any more. And as it couldn't make free strikes on Kayazy Eliminators, one of them ran straight to secondary flag. Damn.

That was outright 2 control points for opponent.

Also, Wolves of Orboros are butchered up by Nyss Hunters and Snaojaw and Eiryss. Eiryss actually dispels their Occultation, in a way that's an insult to injury.

Some stray shot from Combined Ranged Attacking Nyss' also kill Warpwolf Stalker again, and feralgeist jumps out.

Having my whole army devastated so, time called for desperate actions.

Wolves of Orboros under Power Swell, War Wolf and Gorax managed to kill off Snapjaw.

Griffon killed three Nyss Hunters that were close to my secondary flag.

I had this original plan of using Spirit Door to teleport Kaya to secondary flag, but I had nothing left to clear the surroundings of my primary flag. So Kaya had to attempt it all by herself. She charged Eiryss and killed her.

Then she spent rest of her Fury trying to kill nearby Nyss Hunters with Spirit Fang, but the green one dodged any and all fangs with Def 19 (in melee). Though it wouldn't have worked anyway, since even Master Holt was contesting my primary flag.

Well, that was pretty much it.

Feralgeist ran to contest opponents secondary flag, and shifting stones teleported to contest opponents primary flag.

But that didn't really save Kaya, or prevent opponent from scoring scenario points.

In a way, opponent won by both Caster Kill when Nyss Hunters CRA'd Kaya dead, and by Scenario when Galleon had cleared off the shifting stones and shot Feralgeist down (Aiyana had given magical weapons for the colossal).

I hope that doesn't count as a double loss, heh.

The Coast and Hero Pack 2 painted

Last two playing pieces for A Touch of Evil: The Coast and Hero Pack 2 expansions were finished exactly today.

Keeping up to the traditions, I took a group-hug picture out of them.

Somehow I'd think Doctor Edwards would be a little more popular person, but I guess no-one likes his almost-but-not-quite-witty remarks.

What else is there to say?

They compare well to earlier AtoE miniatures, but have all the problems of soft plastic, as earlier. Though only Argot Blackwells sword and Liliana's dagger are disturbingly bendy.

But as long as just gaming pieces are considered, they're still premium.

And Thus Circle Scattered Like Fallen Leaves in Autumn Wind

Couple of days ago I played my actual first game of Warmachine in 2013.

Choice was quite straightforward which warcaster/warlock I would play, since Kaya is the newest kid on the block for me.

My list was (50 points for a change):

Kaya the Wildborne
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Gorax
- Argus
- Scarsfell Griffon

Tharn Bloodweavers
Minimum unit of Ravagers + Chieftain
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder
Lord of the Fail
Feralgeist

And opponent had:

Ossyan
- Discordia
- Hyperion

Maximum unit of Houseguard Halberdiers (AKA bog trog ambushers lead by a lone wolf of orboros...)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce + Commander
Epic Eiryss
2x Mage Hunter Assassins (one of them being a mannikin.)
Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker


We played The Gauntlet scenario from Steamroller 2012 rules set.

Circle started the game, and Kaya had cast Occultation on Ravagers. Ossyan had Chronomancer on, and Quicken on Houseguard Halberdiers.

First picture here is taken from the end of Circle's second round, where lots of things went wrong.

First Lord of the Feast wanted to go and throw his raven against Discordia. Well, turned out it distance was about one centimetre for the raven to fly. What a useless bird.

Next, since opponent didn't have any Arcanists around, I decided to try to charge Hyperion with Brutal Charging Ravagers. Blackclad Wayfarer advanced and cast Hunter's Mark upon the colossal.

Only two ravagers got to make their attacks against it, third one was missing only a few millimetres (which was thankfully easy to measure up, all because of those nifty little melee range templates.)

Ravagers that were obviously out of range tried to charge closest halberdiers, but since Hunter's Mark was not affecting them, their charges fell short.

Because of so much failures Kaya dropped Occultation from them and cast it upon herself. Arm 13 with unengaged Mage Hunter Strike Force around who can get +2 to their already high speed scared me enough. Even a lucky random pot shot could deal respectable damage to my warlock.

Opponents next turn had a heavy toll on my forces. Ossyan used his feat though, giving an additional die on ranged damage rolls to friendly models in his control range. All in all I guess it could have been a lot worse, but here's what happened:

Hyperion rolls full 3 attacks with both thresher cannons. They kill all but tharn ravager chieftain, who was in melee with halberdiers. Big cannon misses Blackclad Wayfarer though, so that was a small blessing.

But then halberdiers charge around, mostly against Blackclad Wayfarer and Lord of the Feast and the aforementioned ravager chieftain. I tried to be clever and counter-slam one of the halberdiers who charged wayfarer, but that trick nearly cost me the beast. The attack roll missed, and goat was now a prime target for Mage Hunter Assassin (the woody version) who was hiding in ruined tower.

And it didn't even save Wayfarer.

Discordia then activates, and eventhough it had to move a bit silly to get in range of Ossyan's feat, it did more than enough. It did a staggering damage roll against Gnarlhorn Satyr and killed off precious feralgeist. Spray also aligned just nicely not to take any houseguards with it.

Then the mage hunter assassin (the woody version) charges the beast, but does a not-very-staggering damage roll, and scores only one point in, which is doubled to two. If there had been only two pips more on the damage roll that was something like 2,2,3,3, it would have died.

Then, lucky me, mage hunter strike force didn't do very much. They only killed one bloodweaver and took about one half of damage boxes from Scarsfell Griffon and Gorax, with about 33% of the unit not being able to take any meaningful shots. Lucky me.

On my turn, Kaya decides its time to use her feat.

But first, Druid Wilder casts Lightning Strike on Warpwolf Stalker, who warps for berserk and kills a huge swathe of halberdiers, not even getting maxed on fury. Five halberdiers + mage hunter assassin.

I guess this was the moment where I found some wolf-love for Stalker when paired up with Kaya1. Pack Hunters really makes those berserk chains hit home.

And then, having cleared whole melee range, it sprinted back to relative, or at least illusioned, safety.

Kaya is the next to activate, and she casts Primal on Gnarlhorn Satyr and heals up its Mind branch, that had burned in magical fire of Discordia's gun. That's how it goes. Get scorched in magical fire, become mindless.

Then Kaya charges a few halberdiers, and missing most of her attacks, she just manages to nail those elves with her sharp, pointy stick. Actually it's not even sharp. She casts Spirit Door and teleports behind Warpwolf Stalker.

Argus goes next and chews two halberdiers that killed Lord of the Feast.

Gnarlhorn Satyr goes last and tries to beat up Discordia. I don't want to ever remember those rolls again, it even pains me to write of Gnarlhorn's performance upon Discordia. I mean... it had Primal on. That meant MAT 10 beast, with P+S 17 horns attacks and 2x P+S 16 claw attacks, and after charge, three Fury for extra attacks.

Field Generator and one of the hands was all that ever broke. Charge attack had this beautiful 1,2,3 roll, and one of the attacks was even miss. You can figure out the attack roll, if Satyr was MAT 10 and Discordia was DEF 12.

It did something like this against the very same players Ravagore when he was playing Legion of Everblight, and I was playing Kaya.

Maybe its angry because I call it a goat.

Well, then Bloodweavers and Scarsfell Griffon fool around. Net result: dead mage hunter assassin and about two strike force members.

And then... it's opponents turn.

And really, there is no skipped turn in pictures. That one is really the situation in the end of opponents next turn.

First: Discordia dispatches Gnarlhorn Satyr.

Ossyan himself shoots Gorax dead. The template on the ground is the chronophage thingy. Now when I'm checking it I see it goes away if the model who has it dies, so we played that one wrong, but I doubt it would have mattered too much. I would probably had Argus alive.

Ossyan had Chronomancer going on, and Hyperion rolled maximum number of attacks for both thresher cannons again. Starburst Cannon and two thresher cannon attacks killed off the Stalker, and if memory serves, it rolled g-g-godlike hit rolls anyway, and could use the focus for boosting damage.

Right-sided thresher cannon, in some miraculous ways, kills Argus. Had there been no chronophage template, those other three shots would have probably went to Stalker anyway, so I cannot blame this loss on that.

Soooo...

What's the thing you do when everything has been lost? Okay okay, I know, you go to a dark, dark corner and cry rivers of blood, but I still wanted some damage in to the Hyperion.

Also, Scarsfell Griffon was able to get to Ossyan. With MAT 8 and three attacks, I could make an assassination, right?

Well...

Charge attack missed. Though the two other attacks hit and dealt a little damage (maybe a total of 6 or 7), it really was a futile attempt. Shouldn't have called the Griffon a bird during game, really. Now it's angry too, just like my Gnarlhorn Satyr.

Kaya charges Hyperion, and spends all of her fury on attacks against it, except one. On hindsight I should've used that one too, because there was no use for it, because Griffon was maxed out on Fury.

Then it's opponents turn. Last turn, may I say.

Discordia and halberdier officer deal some damage to Kaya so that she's down to 7 boxes.

And lo! Defiantly Kaya is holding up her magical stick against the fists of a colossal. Bad choice Kaya, bad choice. Next time try "Duck and Cover" when you're against a colossal in melee.

One attack hit, and there was no actual need for opponent to roll for damage, she died to the base P+S already.

Proxy warning in the great pine woods of Kuhmo

And the tradition (third or fourth year in a row - that counts as a tradition, right?) continues!

Though my write-ups didn't, at least on time.

But two games of Warmachine were played during the last week of 2012 against my old friends Protectorate, with this time challenger being my forces of Circle of Orboros.

Both were 35 point games, but different from previous years, we played scenarios now.

First one was Gauntlet from Steamroller 2012, and my list was:

Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Scarsfell Griffon

Shifting Stones
Tharn Bloodweavers
Minimum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Farrow Bone Grinders
Swamp Gobbers
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Gallows Grove

Opponent was playing with following list:

Intercessor Kreoss
- Reckoner
- Redeemer
- Revenger
- Repenter

Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith Bearer
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Vilmon
Wracks
Vassal of Menoth

Okay, and, well. The Corruptor that I had brought with me served as a proxy for Intercessor here, do not laugh there! Stop! Right now! Empty medium bases are Wracks. I've written some hints to pictures what the models represent.

I think Circle got to start this game, and first picture is from the end of Protectorate's first turn.

Holy Zealots have Holy Ward on (fitting, no?) and Redeemer had managed to kill one Bloodweaver with 4 attacks. Those deviation rolls weren't particularly impressive.

Since I was against an army that could launch their warjacks forward suprisingly fast, I decided it was time to use Wurmwood's feat.

Pureblood Warpwolf put on Wraith Bane on itself, and moved forward to spray some Holy Zealots and Vilmon. Vilmon died to fully boosted attack and damage rolls.

Then everything just pretty much advanced, and last but not least Cassius pulled off some movement shenanigans and shrouded most of Circle's army with forest.

Opponent did something suprising. Everything backed off, with only the farthest toe of a single holy zealot contesting Gauntlet zone.

So, it was a trap, but a trap you cannot choose to not walk into. When you can gain 50% of victory condition by killing a model that's worth way less than 1 point, you just do what you gotta do, even if it costs a heavy beast to you.

I ran Bloodweavers full speed ahead to engage Redeemer. After all... it would shoot most of them dead anyway. Pureblood Warpwolf did a horrible spray against Holy Zealots and Lanyssa Ryssyll shot the middle Wrack down with a spell.

And thus Circle scored first control point, but upcoming Protectorate turn was scary.

Intercessor used his feat, here, and Death Sentence was upon Gnarlhorn Satyr, Ignite went to Repenter and Holy Ward... I don't actually remember that one, it was probably on Reckoner.

Repenter nearly killed off uninjured Pureblood Warpwolf. Saving grace was probably the fact that it was uninjured: Holy Zealots who threw bombs at the wolf missed every one of their shots. Pureblood was left with 6-8 hit boxes.

All but two of Bloodweavers were killed, and the last ones failed their command check.

What can I say. Opponent had four uninjured warjacks by this point, and I had mostly destroyed only Holy Zealots and Vilmon. Oh, and one wrack. There was no way I would win any kind of attrition any more, and Kreoss himself was sitting way back.

But since two control points meant a victory in SR 2012 Gauntlet, I decided to try that one. Scarsfell Griffon slammed Repenter out of Pureblood's way, and then Shifting Stones healed Pureblood.

Pureblood advanced and made a two-handed throw on Reckoner, throwing it against Gallows Grove. Then Pureblood bought two attacks against the knocked-down Repenter.

Since I got loads of Fury on Cassius and Wurmwood, I decided to attack Repenter with warlock itself. Damage rolls were continously a little below average, and I was saving Fury for casting Unseen Path. Cassius cast Curse of Shadows on the warjack, and bought one more attack. However, damage roll was something like 5,5,6. Suddenly it looked like Cassius could do the finishing blow all by himself. Which he did.

Second Control Point for Circle, and end of game.

In the last picture the Repenter and Reckoner have already been moved, but Reckoner didn't get destroyed. It should be around where the white die is.



Game 2:

Second game was Incursion, and my list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gorax
- Scarsfell Griffon

Shifting Stones
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder

Opponent had:

High Executioner Reznik
- Crusader
- Reckoner
- Revenger
- Repenter

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard
Rhoven & Bodyguards
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth
Wracks

This game was pretty short, and I'm including only one picture. A word about proxies in picture: Zealots are Flameguards, Castigator is Reckoner, Rhupert is Reclaimer, and torso of Amon functions as Vassal of Menoth.

Picture is taken from the end of Circle's second turn, where Kaya used her feat. Protectorate probably started the game.

Prior to picture, Reckoner had tried to take a few shots at Scarsfell Griffon, but despite needing five to hit, missed its Ancillary Attack. Rhoven had made it ignore stealth. Temple Flameguard repositioned themselves, since Warpwolf Stalker was on their side of the board, and that's not a good match-up.

It did make Circle score first control point, though.

But anyway, Circle's second turn I attempted to wreck Crusader with Kaya's feat. Gnarlhorn Satyr charged it and wrecked its fist and movement. Then Warpwolf Stalker charged it, but charge was about an inch short.

Kaya positioned both herself and all the beasts to block Reckoner's line of sight, because, well, a one excessive damage roll would take its toll against Kaya's ARM 13, even when she had one Fury left for transfers.

Next round wasn't good for Protectorate.

Revenger positions itself a bit, and then Reznik activates, and moves close to Circles lines, and scores a good feat. All of the beasts are drained of Fury, though Kaya herself is just out of Judgement Day.

He casts Perdition on Blackclad Wayfarer, rolling badly for damage and leaving the druid alive. And then Perdition triggers, and we notice the small devil in the details: the member of battlegroup must move towards closest model.

And that was Wolf of Orboros.

To make matters worse, Crusader activates then (it would have had real possibility of getting into contact with Gnarlhorn Satyr if there hadn't been that particular requirement on the spell), moves behind Wolves, triggering one free strike. Damage roll was something like 5, 5, 6.

If Crusader's day wasn't bad enough, it was just within 6" of Gnarlhorn Satyr, which counter-slammed it through a couple of Wolves of Orboros and quite a lot of Temple Flameguards.

Repenter tried to save situation by launching a rat 7, pow 14 spray against Kaya, Gorax, shifting stone and Warpwolf Stalker, and the spray did set Kaya on fire, as well as dealing 8 points in. Those were transfered to Gorax.

However... Game was pretty much over, then. A couple of millimetres had made Gnarlhorn Satyr arrive within charge distance of Reznik, and there was nothing serious left to activate that could tie up the satyr.

Kaya took damage from fire continous effect, as well as cut herself to full Fury. This left her with 5 damage boxes left.

Druid Wilder moved up and cast Primal on the Satyr.

Satyr charged Reznik. End of story.