Aftermath vol1: A Failed Assassination

After Ropecon I stayed in Helsinki for a while and got to play a few games of Warmachine during that time.

First game was against Retribution of Scyrah. Games were 35 points with no specific scenario.

My list:

Mortenebra & Deryliss
- Erebus
- Harrower
- Stalker
- Ripjaw

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls

Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Warwitch Siren

Opponent:

Ossyan
- Phoenix
- Discordia

Maximum unit of Mage Hunter Strikeforce + Commander
Arcanist
Epic Eiryss
2x Mage Hunter Assassin
Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

This time Cryx won starting roll and first picture is taken from the end of Retribution's first turn.

Second turn saw a crazy long charge by Harrower. Mage Hunter Strike Force had already taken nasty position behind the impassable house, so I decided to charge them before they just shot my precious helljack down.

Mortenebra advanced a little and cast Terminal Velocity. Deryliss cast Overrun on Harrower, who then charged closest Mage Hunter Strike Force member in sight.

Since Discordia had Admonition on I had a couple of choices - either I try to run up to Discordia and start beating it or then I could park the helljack in range of a couple of Strike Force's and Eiryss. But if I had went to Discordia, it would have just ran away and Harrower would have been outside of Terminal Velocity's range.

All in all this shenanigan didn't do too much - three or four dead Mage Hunters and dead Eiryss. But at least it was an opening move that couldn't be ignored.

Opponent then had Narn charge some bile thralls and/or bane thralls and then sprinted next to Mortenebra. Mage Hunter Assassin from right also tried to take a shot at Erebus, but missed its mark. Obviously I lost Harrower, but I saw an opening for a possible assassination, and it went thus:

Overrun on Erebus, Terminal Velocity and Recalibration on from Mortenebra, then Warwitch Siren goes and sprays away one particularly important Mage Hunter Assassin, then Erebus would kill Mage Hunter Assassin next to it to trigger Overrun. Then Stalker would move with Overrun and charge 12" to Ossyan, loaded up with 3 focus. After all it would have been 5x pow 12's with attack roll boosts and one damage boost, all re-rollable.

Things were, however, screwed when Warwitch Siren couldn't land a 7+ on that particularly important Mage Hunter Strike Force member, despite being able to re-roll.

Ah well.

Then I just tried to run everything and block enough assassination vectors to protect Mortenebra. Stalker did impressive job at charging Phoenix, but sadly I ran Bane Thrall next to Phoenix after I had charged with Stalker. Systems would've been broken then, I dare say.

Much to my suprise Mortenebra didn't die next turn, and not too many models actually died either.

I lost all but one bane thrall and Stalker lost one claw and possibly movement to upcoming fire continous effect, and Ripjaw was shot down with Ossyan's feat.

I saw a potential assassination, again. And it went thus:

Deryliss would cast Overrun on Mortenebra itself. Warwitch Siren would spray a couple of troublesome models away, and then lonesome Bane Thrall would charge Warwitch Siren away from Mortenebra's charge lane.

Then Mortenebra would cast Terminal Velocity and charge a Mage Hunter Strike Force member, kill it, trigger overrun and go stomp Ossyan with one initial attack and four focus.

It worked well until Mortenebra was against Ossyan.

First attack hit home and dealt respectable damage in with a damage boost. But then she missed a bought attack and with last possible attack she hit but rolled 1,2,2 for damage. Sometimes cracking a def 15 arm 16 can be so damn difficult. Arm 16 because Ossyan was camping one focus.