On Monday we played yet another game of A Touch of Evil.
This time we were against Dreamweaver, and heroes who were facing her were Frederic Léon, the foreign diplomat and Brother Marcus.
The wimpy minions of Dreamweaver were major cash cows for both heroes. A huge abundance of Shadow Beasts made it sure that heroes had very few Sleepless tokens. I think the maximum number of Sleepless tokens for any hero was 4 during this game.
Huge amount of Investigation was particularly nice for these two heroes who both had ways of spending them outside of town shop. Brother Marcus succeeded in avoiding a few horrible Mystery cards (Something Wicked was the worst, hands up or down or in any direction) and Frederic Léon's Intrigue ability gave the team a disturbing amount of Event cards.
Luckily this time there was no rule that gave Villain bonuses from hero knock outs... Brother Marcus was severely beaten in a regular basis by Sandmen and Shadow Beasts. Because both Minion types were moving every turn on the board the situation went pretty much so that Brother Marcus took care of the village by the coast, and Frederic Léon was facing the nightmares of Shadowbrook.
At one point quite early in game we were actually both knocked out at the same turn. Technically that would mean a loss for Heroes in a cooperative play, but since there was a recommendation even in the rulebook that when playing with only 2 heroes that lose condition would better be left out. So we continued.
And what a struggle it was! Late in the game Frederic got "If I just could reach..." card and took Captain's Logbook from Shipwreck discard pile. The amazing thing in that item is that at the start of every hero turn Frederic would draw an event. That combined with Frederic's Intrigue formed into a really respectable deck of Events.
However our worst enemy, the Shadow Track, did its thing again. First it was just there somewhere in the middle stage... and then, out of nowhere, in the last red stage.
Luckily by this time Brother Marcus had ventured to Echo Lake map, trying to buy Oath of Devotion. Lair card that was bought showed that Dreamweaver resided at the Inn. Wow... I just realised we had twice in a row the same Lair at showdown. I wonder if the inn at Echo Lake is a meeting point for supernatural villains...?
Probably last possible turn dawned on Heroes (Shadow Track was at 1) so Brother Marcus, unhealed and non-vowed had to rush to Inn and start a showdown.
Well, it succeeded, despite there being Evil Is On The Move card in effect (cancel Lair card on 5+)
Only three Elders were evil elders and two Village Elders had amazing secrets (Inner Strenght on Reverend Harding or Magistrate Kroft) and a new secret from The Coast, the one that gave +2 cunning & combat and gave Event card in between Showdown fight rounds, and it was on Sophie the Midwife.
Heroes had a thundering first round of combat, and Dreamweaver herself had a really poor one. However, Dreamweaver had 11 Fight Dice.
After second round Brother Marcus went down. After all he had started showdown with only one wound remaining.
Frederic Léon managed to get over 10 Fight Dice on multiple rounds, but finally he got only 9 per attack. Dreamweaver had only 6 wounds remaining on herself when Frederic rolled his second last attack. Only two hits. Last Knocked Away or "You go first!" was played and Frederic had to score 5+ four times on 9 dice.
And there they were, exactly 4 successes.
I don't think we rolled the last attack for Dreamweaver, but by then she too had 9 fight dice and Frederic had only one wound and his personal militia remaining. It's a shame, actually, that we didn't roll the attack. Would have been curious to know if both heroes died in the desperate fight against the Queen of Nightmares.
Anyway, it was a victory for Heroes.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Curses and Screams (A Touch of Evil)
I had a friend visiting me for a few days, and eventually we ended up playing board games.
We played A Touch of Evil on Saturday and Sunday.
First game was against the Sunken Seven.
Characters were Argot Blackwell and Captain Hawkins.
Sunken Seven was a very different villain to fight against, and I guess that's always good. We were, however, terribly unlucky because after a couple of March of Darkness and such the board had maximum number of haunted markers already, which in turn lowered Shadow Track way too fast.
I was a bit unsure how a few rules would play out with weird villain like this. The only minion spawn result from villain sheet was tagged as Event/Minion, which made me wonder how it would react to various results. We played so that both tags would trigger the result.
During whole game we killed The Outcast twice and The Innocent once. Also one Drowned Dead was spawned during the game, so Argot and Captain Hawkins were quite starved of Investigation Points.
We got a few good items and almost no event cards when Shadow Track started to approach red zones. Realising we had no time to build up, well, anything, we tried to start a Showdown.
Alas, it was not to be. Shadow Track took a few "drop D3" effects in and game was over in the loss of Heroes.
Game 2:
On Sunday our adversary was the Banshee.
Heroes who were fighting her were the Scarlet Shadow and Sara, the Bright Witch.
One thing we did good: Villain gained a +1 wound marker every time a hero was knocked down. Only Scarlet Shadow was knocked down once.
Somehow it just happened that Sara could not move out of the Shadowbrook Village. If I remember right she visited Manor maybe twice and Abandoned Keep once, other than that she was just visiting different offices and church to train her spirit. Random fights with Minions kept her having damage on, so she had to run to the doctor all the time.
Scarlet Shadow was visiting the Coast and gained some amazing items from locations in there.
Again, however, Shadow Track went crazy. We started to plan on starting Showdown in about 3 turns when Shadow Track was still in 6-7. Just after one round it was down to 3 or so, and nobody was even close to the area where Villain resided (The Inn).
However, the game did us a favor when someone rolled double 1's on the Cooperative Mystery Phase Chart. Had that not happened, we couldn't have started a showdown for sure...
We did quite good in the showdown. We had a couple of important event cards (thanks to Sara farming them in town) such as "You go first!" and Knocked Away. We actually had a decent chance of winning, but alas, dice weren't with us. After a furios struggle the Banshee was left standing with three wounds remaining, and both Heroes were dead.
We played A Touch of Evil on Saturday and Sunday.
First game was against the Sunken Seven.
Characters were Argot Blackwell and Captain Hawkins.
Sunken Seven was a very different villain to fight against, and I guess that's always good. We were, however, terribly unlucky because after a couple of March of Darkness and such the board had maximum number of haunted markers already, which in turn lowered Shadow Track way too fast.
I was a bit unsure how a few rules would play out with weird villain like this. The only minion spawn result from villain sheet was tagged as Event/Minion, which made me wonder how it would react to various results. We played so that both tags would trigger the result.
During whole game we killed The Outcast twice and The Innocent once. Also one Drowned Dead was spawned during the game, so Argot and Captain Hawkins were quite starved of Investigation Points.
We got a few good items and almost no event cards when Shadow Track started to approach red zones. Realising we had no time to build up, well, anything, we tried to start a Showdown.
Alas, it was not to be. Shadow Track took a few "drop D3" effects in and game was over in the loss of Heroes.
Game 2:
On Sunday our adversary was the Banshee.
Heroes who were fighting her were the Scarlet Shadow and Sara, the Bright Witch.
One thing we did good: Villain gained a +1 wound marker every time a hero was knocked down. Only Scarlet Shadow was knocked down once.
Somehow it just happened that Sara could not move out of the Shadowbrook Village. If I remember right she visited Manor maybe twice and Abandoned Keep once, other than that she was just visiting different offices and church to train her spirit. Random fights with Minions kept her having damage on, so she had to run to the doctor all the time.
Scarlet Shadow was visiting the Coast and gained some amazing items from locations in there.
Again, however, Shadow Track went crazy. We started to plan on starting Showdown in about 3 turns when Shadow Track was still in 6-7. Just after one round it was down to 3 or so, and nobody was even close to the area where Villain resided (The Inn).
However, the game did us a favor when someone rolled double 1's on the Cooperative Mystery Phase Chart. Had that not happened, we couldn't have started a showdown for sure...
We did quite good in the showdown. We had a couple of important event cards (thanks to Sara farming them in town) such as "You go first!" and Knocked Away. We actually had a decent chance of winning, but alas, dice weren't with us. After a furios struggle the Banshee was left standing with three wounds remaining, and both Heroes were dead.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Failhorn Satyr
About a week ago I also played a second game of warmachine. It was played straight after the last game, but I didn't have the strenght, endurance and/or willpower to write it up in one go.
But anyway, it was a 25 point game.
I played with:
Kaya the Wildborne
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon
Lord of the Feast
Druid Wilder
Blackclad Wayfarer
Opponent had:
Magnus the Traitor
- Mangler
- Renegade
Minimum unit of Croe's Cutthroats
Minimum unit of Kayazy Assassins
Epic Eiryss
Gorman diWulfe
Circle got to start again, though this time it was my own choice. I didn't want to give Magnus such a huge head-start, though scenario was Destruction.
Again the threat of very troublesome AoE's made Kaya cast Occultation on herself. First picture is taken from the end of Mercenary turn 1.
I proceeded in trying to shoot Lord of the Feast's raven to Renegade on a hill and scored a lucky hit. Lord of the Feast didn't want to balance right, so his back arc is actually his front arc. He managed to thresher all of the Croe's Cutthroats in his melee range and did some damage even to Renegade.
Then Warpwolf Stalker charged the Renegade and wrecked it. Good thing: The warjack was destroyed before it got time to shoot the horrible knockdown template of doom. Bad thing: my 10 point beast, along with 4 point solo, were just standing there, waiting to die.
And die they did.
Mangler obviously made minced meat out of Warpwolf Stalker, Def 14 wasn't enough to save it. However Magnus was left in a bad position after killing Lord of the Feast, as it left a clear charge line for Gnarlhorn Satyr to Magnus. Surely a heavy warbeast would take a focusless warcaster down?
Druid Wilder cast the Gnarlhorn animus on Gnarlhorn itself, and then it charged Magnus. I was wondering if I should have done a grand slam instead, but hey... it was def 14 arm 17 target with 17 damage boxes. What could go wrong?
Charge attack scored a good, solid hit that dealt 10 points in. Claw attack that had its damage roll boosted was a little less inspiring, dealing only 5 points in. Well, I still had one initial attack and two Fury left.
Third initial missed, though it needed only 6+ to hit. Not a big deal, still two Fury left. Gnarlhorn buys another attack and I decide not to boost attack roll, because this way I'd boost damage or if I failed to hit I would still have yet another 6+ chance to hit. Ah well, the bought attack was a miss. But I still got one chance, and if Gnarlhorn manages to score a hit Magnus would be dead on 4+ with two dice. You guessed it. Miss.
Well... Now situation looked a bit difficult. But I still got one random chance to do an attack to Magnus, and that was with Blackclad Wayfarer. He went and positioned itself so he could spray Magnus. I forgot Magnus had upkept Blur, so I needed something like 10+ to hit, so it was a miss. Gnarlhorn happened to be under the spray template, so I needed to make an attack roll against it. But not a biggie, it's only pow 12...
Blackclad Wayfarer rolls doubles. Gnarlhorn Satyr is rewarded for his miserable performance by being knocked down on top of everything.
This is not the first time Gnarlhorn Satyr has failed me horribly like this. In fact it does that on a pretty regular basis. And it's not that the model would be bad or anything, I think its rules are awesome, but when it comes to important rolls and activations it's a guaranteed failure.
Next turn Mangler stomps another heavy warbeast (it had destroyed now 18 points worth of models. Not bad?) and remaining Croe's Cutthroats execute the Blackclad Wayfarer. Magnus backs up and heals himself a little. Then Gorman activates and throws black oil to Scarsfell Griffon. It's a miss, but luckily the template doesn't deviate so that Kaya would be blinded.
Then some Kayazy assassins charge, but they don't too terribly much, except kill Scarsfell Griffon to 5 boxes left or something like that. But Kaya evades Kayazy assassins, and that's whats important.
My turn started with Kaya, Druid Wilder and a blind griffon. There was, however, a possibility for a lucky assassination. Kaya advanced and cast boosted Spirit Fang on Magnus who was sitting on def 17 arm 17 and 4-5 hit boxes remaining.
Kaya needs 11+ to hit on 3 dice. She misses... twice. Now Kaya is in a better place and doesn't need to hit any longer.
I still find Kaya's defiant pose hilarious in situations like these.
But anyway, it was a 25 point game.
I played with:
Kaya the Wildborne
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon
Lord of the Feast
Blackclad Wayfarer
Opponent had:
Magnus the Traitor
- Mangler
- Renegade
Minimum unit of Croe's Cutthroats
Minimum unit of Kayazy Assassins
Epic Eiryss
Gorman diWulfe
Circle got to start again, though this time it was my own choice. I didn't want to give Magnus such a huge head-start, though scenario was Destruction.
Again the threat of very troublesome AoE's made Kaya cast Occultation on herself. First picture is taken from the end of Mercenary turn 1.
I proceeded in trying to shoot Lord of the Feast's raven to Renegade on a hill and scored a lucky hit. Lord of the Feast didn't want to balance right, so his back arc is actually his front arc. He managed to thresher all of the Croe's Cutthroats in his melee range and did some damage even to Renegade.
Then Warpwolf Stalker charged the Renegade and wrecked it. Good thing: The warjack was destroyed before it got time to shoot the horrible knockdown template of doom. Bad thing: my 10 point beast, along with 4 point solo, were just standing there, waiting to die.
And die they did.
Mangler obviously made minced meat out of Warpwolf Stalker, Def 14 wasn't enough to save it. However Magnus was left in a bad position after killing Lord of the Feast, as it left a clear charge line for Gnarlhorn Satyr to Magnus. Surely a heavy warbeast would take a focusless warcaster down?
Druid Wilder cast the Gnarlhorn animus on Gnarlhorn itself, and then it charged Magnus. I was wondering if I should have done a grand slam instead, but hey... it was def 14 arm 17 target with 17 damage boxes. What could go wrong?
Charge attack scored a good, solid hit that dealt 10 points in. Claw attack that had its damage roll boosted was a little less inspiring, dealing only 5 points in. Well, I still had one initial attack and two Fury left.
Third initial missed, though it needed only 6+ to hit. Not a big deal, still two Fury left. Gnarlhorn buys another attack and I decide not to boost attack roll, because this way I'd boost damage or if I failed to hit I would still have yet another 6+ chance to hit. Ah well, the bought attack was a miss. But I still got one chance, and if Gnarlhorn manages to score a hit Magnus would be dead on 4+ with two dice. You guessed it. Miss.
Well... Now situation looked a bit difficult. But I still got one random chance to do an attack to Magnus, and that was with Blackclad Wayfarer. He went and positioned itself so he could spray Magnus. I forgot Magnus had upkept Blur, so I needed something like 10+ to hit, so it was a miss. Gnarlhorn happened to be under the spray template, so I needed to make an attack roll against it. But not a biggie, it's only pow 12...
Blackclad Wayfarer rolls doubles. Gnarlhorn Satyr is rewarded for his miserable performance by being knocked down on top of everything.
This is not the first time Gnarlhorn Satyr has failed me horribly like this. In fact it does that on a pretty regular basis. And it's not that the model would be bad or anything, I think its rules are awesome, but when it comes to important rolls and activations it's a guaranteed failure.
Next turn Mangler stomps another heavy warbeast (it had destroyed now 18 points worth of models. Not bad?) and remaining Croe's Cutthroats execute the Blackclad Wayfarer. Magnus backs up and heals himself a little. Then Gorman activates and throws black oil to Scarsfell Griffon. It's a miss, but luckily the template doesn't deviate so that Kaya would be blinded.
Then some Kayazy assassins charge, but they don't too terribly much, except kill Scarsfell Griffon to 5 boxes left or something like that. But Kaya evades Kayazy assassins, and that's whats important.
My turn started with Kaya, Druid Wilder and a blind griffon. There was, however, a possibility for a lucky assassination. Kaya advanced and cast boosted Spirit Fang on Magnus who was sitting on def 17 arm 17 and 4-5 hit boxes remaining.
Kaya needs 11+ to hit on 3 dice. She misses... twice. Now Kaya is in a better place and doesn't need to hit any longer.
I still find Kaya's defiant pose hilarious in situations like these.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Has it been a week already?
Yeah, looks like.
Exactly a week ago I played two games of Warmachine.
First game was against Khador, and it was a 35 point game.
I played with Circle of Orboros after a while.
My list was:
Kaya the Wildborne
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax
Tharn Bloodweavers
Druid Wilder
Blackclad Wayfarer
Lord of the Feast
Opponent had:
Epic Irusk
- Juggernaut
Maximum unit of Assault Kommandos + at least 1 flame thrower
Minimum unit of Kayazy Assassins + Underboss
2x Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Epic Eiryss
Gorman diWulfe
+1 point I can't figure out.
Circle got to start the game. Megalith and Wurmwood act as objective markers for scenario, which was Incoming from Steamroller 2013. First picture is taken from the end of Khadoran first turn.
Eiryss had ran to block any crazy shenanigans Lord of the Feast would try to pull off. Gnarlhorn Satyr tried to counter-slam the elf away, but without a boost her amazing Defense was too much.
Kaya had cast Occultation on her, since the threat of a succesful hit from winter guard mortar was rather discouraging...
Then it looks like I've skipped one whole round from taking pictures. Anyway, what happened on Circle's turn: Warpwolf Stalker came to smash Eiryss and finally succeeded. Even with Kaya's Pack Hunter special ability didn't give guaranteed hits on Eiryss. But she was gone at last and with remaining two Fury Stalker put Lightning Strike on Lord of the Feast.
Lord of the Feast advanced and threw the raven to Juggernaut. A hit was scored, and Lord killed two or three Assault Kommandos and sprinted right next to mortars.
Army itself advanced in midfield so I'd be able to bring whole army to either zone, if needed.
But then it was opponents turn. It took lots of manpower to dislodge Lord of the Feast. Assault Kommandos, Gorman diWulfe and Irusk himself spent their activations in getting rid of him. I think Gorman had failed its command check, when Lord of the Feast sprinted next to mortars.
Then mortars take a couple of hits on Gorax... if memory serves, at least one of them scored a direct hit, and encouraged by that Kayazy Assassins charged all over the map, trying to kill Gorax. The warbeast was left alive with 1-3 damage boxes due to slightly less than average rolls. One assassin that got a charge off to Scarsfell Griffon missed. The other assassin had just ran to give gang bonuses.
On Circle's next turn I started wondering if I could actually try to win by scenario. I decided to try, because I would fairly surely lose any attrition game, because Battle Lust would turn even mortar crew a melee threat capable of destroying my warbeasts.
So, first Warpwolf Stalker started bashing Kayazy Assassins. Then Druid Wilder did a full advance and cast Gnarlhorns own animus on the beast itself. Satyr then charged objective (since it was first players third turn) and it was just within 11" charge range with only half an inch to spare. There was very little room for wiggle for Gnarlhorn to charge and stay within Kaya's control range. However, it succeeded and with last possible attack Gnarlhorn managed to break the objective.
Then Scarsfell Griffon casts its own animus and flies past Kayazy Assassins.
Finally Kaya activates, advances, heals Gorax, uses her feat and teleports to Griffon. And now she dominated the enemy zone. After this move Gnarlhorn was way out of control range, but the beast would be dead meat anyway.
Opponent plays pretty good turn next, where Irusk cast Tactical Supremacy on himself and charged around and used his feat. Feat caught all but Bloodweavers inside.
When my turn began again, there were four enemy models on enemy control zone and five models in my friendly zone. By dominating either of these I would win by scenario. So, Scarsfell Griffon started beaking Kayazy Assassins that were tying up Kaya. Oh my, this is horrible, I just realised... Kayazy Assassins engaging Kaya? This is such a bad play on words, I know...
Anyway, Griffon manages to destroy the two happy campers thanks to Pack Hunters. Kaya then advances 5" and with Reach on her weapon she manages to engage both remaining enemy models in the zone. The question would be, however, if MAT 6 and 6 Fury would be enough to kill Gorman diWulfe and Kommando Flamethrower?
Yes, it was. But it was far from easy, and if she had missed the last boosted attack against Kommando Flamethrower, the game would have most probably had a very different ending. But here and now, Kaya won by scenario.
I think I'll actually write the second game a bit later, I'm getting tired.
Exactly a week ago I played two games of Warmachine.
First game was against Khador, and it was a 35 point game.
I played with Circle of Orboros after a while.
My list was:
Kaya the Wildborne
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax
Tharn Bloodweavers
Blackclad Wayfarer
Lord of the Feast
Opponent had:
Epic Irusk
- Juggernaut
Maximum unit of Assault Kommandos + at least 1 flame thrower
Minimum unit of Kayazy Assassins + Underboss
2x Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Epic Eiryss
Gorman diWulfe
+1 point I can't figure out.
Circle got to start the game. Megalith and Wurmwood act as objective markers for scenario, which was Incoming from Steamroller 2013. First picture is taken from the end of Khadoran first turn.
Eiryss had ran to block any crazy shenanigans Lord of the Feast would try to pull off. Gnarlhorn Satyr tried to counter-slam the elf away, but without a boost her amazing Defense was too much.
Kaya had cast Occultation on her, since the threat of a succesful hit from winter guard mortar was rather discouraging...
Then it looks like I've skipped one whole round from taking pictures. Anyway, what happened on Circle's turn: Warpwolf Stalker came to smash Eiryss and finally succeeded. Even with Kaya's Pack Hunter special ability didn't give guaranteed hits on Eiryss. But she was gone at last and with remaining two Fury Stalker put Lightning Strike on Lord of the Feast.
Lord of the Feast advanced and threw the raven to Juggernaut. A hit was scored, and Lord killed two or three Assault Kommandos and sprinted right next to mortars.
Army itself advanced in midfield so I'd be able to bring whole army to either zone, if needed.
But then it was opponents turn. It took lots of manpower to dislodge Lord of the Feast. Assault Kommandos, Gorman diWulfe and Irusk himself spent their activations in getting rid of him. I think Gorman had failed its command check, when Lord of the Feast sprinted next to mortars.
Then mortars take a couple of hits on Gorax... if memory serves, at least one of them scored a direct hit, and encouraged by that Kayazy Assassins charged all over the map, trying to kill Gorax. The warbeast was left alive with 1-3 damage boxes due to slightly less than average rolls. One assassin that got a charge off to Scarsfell Griffon missed. The other assassin had just ran to give gang bonuses.
On Circle's next turn I started wondering if I could actually try to win by scenario. I decided to try, because I would fairly surely lose any attrition game, because Battle Lust would turn even mortar crew a melee threat capable of destroying my warbeasts.
So, first Warpwolf Stalker started bashing Kayazy Assassins. Then Druid Wilder did a full advance and cast Gnarlhorns own animus on the beast itself. Satyr then charged objective (since it was first players third turn) and it was just within 11" charge range with only half an inch to spare. There was very little room for wiggle for Gnarlhorn to charge and stay within Kaya's control range. However, it succeeded and with last possible attack Gnarlhorn managed to break the objective.
Then Scarsfell Griffon casts its own animus and flies past Kayazy Assassins.
Finally Kaya activates, advances, heals Gorax, uses her feat and teleports to Griffon. And now she dominated the enemy zone. After this move Gnarlhorn was way out of control range, but the beast would be dead meat anyway.
Opponent plays pretty good turn next, where Irusk cast Tactical Supremacy on himself and charged around and used his feat. Feat caught all but Bloodweavers inside.
When my turn began again, there were four enemy models on enemy control zone and five models in my friendly zone. By dominating either of these I would win by scenario. So, Scarsfell Griffon started beaking Kayazy Assassins that were tying up Kaya. Oh my, this is horrible, I just realised... Kayazy Assassins engaging Kaya? This is such a bad play on words, I know...
Anyway, Griffon manages to destroy the two happy campers thanks to Pack Hunters. Kaya then advances 5" and with Reach on her weapon she manages to engage both remaining enemy models in the zone. The question would be, however, if MAT 6 and 6 Fury would be enough to kill Gorman diWulfe and Kommando Flamethrower?
Yes, it was. But it was far from easy, and if she had missed the last boosted attack against Kommando Flamethrower, the game would have most probably had a very different ending. But here and now, Kaya won by scenario.
I think I'll actually write the second game a bit later, I'm getting tired.
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