March, my thralls, March!

A game versus Cygnar.

Since I played against same list as in earlier post, I won't bother to rewrite it.

I took Goreshade out this time with following 35 point list:

Goreshade the Bastard
- Harrower
- Nightmare

Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Warwitch Siren
Satyxis Raider Captain

We randomised Incursion scenario, and we were practicing playing with a deathclock for upcoming little event. However, deathclock made me kind of forget to take pictures during game; only one badly focused one was taken.

Cryx won starting roll, but I chose to pick side & go second, as there really was some rock, paper & scissors match-ups going on. I wanted my Bile Thralls far away from Gun Mages, and I wanted Satyxis to hug Gun Mages.

Nightmare chose Ol' Rowdy as its prey.

Flag that disappeared was the one farthest to right. That was obviously the flag that I had positioned all Satyxis Raiders to... oh well. At least they still got disgusting charge range, and were claiming elevation bonus on hill. Defense 18 against shooting makes them rather survivable, as I was about to see.

Picture is taken from the end of Cryxian second turn, where scoring would've been possible for the first time.

What had happened was that Nightmare had charged Greygore Boomhowler's and killed, well... one, and was teleported to Stitch Thrall via Soul Gate. This unit actually served no other purpose in the list except being a Soul Gate beacon.

Harrower scored a lucky shot against a Greygore grunt, and a bile thrall used it's spray on one grunt that was knocked down after Nightmare had been partying around. Killed. What a sniper.

Satyxis Captain used Desperate Pace on Raiders, who used Power Swell and charged plenty of targets. One more Boomhowler grunt died, as well as a gun mage. Damage done to Defender was pathetic, and didn't even Feedback anyone, since the 'jack was being marshaled. Well, hindsight makes things sound so well-planned. I didn't actually keep in my mind that Defender was marshaled when I declared those charges...

All in all, damage done by Satyxis even under Power Swell was a lackluster this time, but sure they were tying up a large portion of opposing army. However.

Satyxis were almost last unit to activate, when I notice that yeah, I'm playing against epic Caine again, and there isn't all that big distance between casters... Panicking, Necrosurgeon, Stitch Thralls and Deathwalker try to take up space around Goreshade to prevent possible Gate Crash attempt. Goreshade was focusless, Soul Gate had taken 3 focus, Shadowmancer another 3 and one had been allocated to Nightmare.

Well, there never was any gate crash attempt, and possibly couldn't have been, either. But assisted by Madelyn Corbeau and Squire's additional focus, and Reinholdt's additional shot, Caine plunged forward, used his feat and cast that particular True Sight spell on himself.

We messed up a little and later back-tracked one shot a little (we did remember true sight ignored stealth, but didn't remember it also ignored concealment from forest?) but net result was that Goreshade came down to four or five damage boxes. Despite Caine not having his full amount of focus. And two of the damage rolls were really bad. Nightmare on the board was not my warjack, it was that horrible threat range Caine has.

But. Assassination had failed. Caine was standing in the middle, protected only by few models that had run close by, trying to block charges.

Four purges later there were a lot less models about, and Caine had taken some nine damage points in or so. Nightmare had been allocated three focus, and Goreshade had cast Shadowmancer. I had messed up Necrosurgeon's placement, though, so I wasn't able to run Deathwalker within 5" of Caine.

I would've loved to end his life with P+S 22 combo-strike, but 9+ to hit is always 9+ to hit.

Boosted charge attack did hit, though, and scored more than enough to paste the gunslinger.

It was a fast and furious game, and I certainly hope that some day in the future I learn to screen my warcaster when playing against epic Caine. This was such a close call again, though I did have Deathwalker within 3" as a one-time life-insurance for Goreshade. Still it makes you a bit scared when your caster starts taking 9 points hits home.