Deathspur Assassination

I have this ideology, or bias (depending on point of view), to try something new with almost every list I play. Something has to be different, even if the change is a very little one. Only during tournaments I play with exactly same lists, and sometimes if I get to play two games in a row I may play with the same list to save some time.

It's probably not very wise thing to do, as chances are I will never actually "master" any list I play. But that's the way I want to roll, so to say.

Well, this time I was going to play a 50 point game. I chose Kaya as my warlock, and this "new" thing in my list was, well... they were the Druids of Orboros with Overseer. As I was thinking what I wanted to include in my list, I realised that I had never used the staple of many Circle armies with Kaya - the Druids of Orboros.

So, my list turned out to be:

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

Tharn Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Lord of the Feast
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder

I didn't exactly know what to expect, since I had not played this particular opponent for ages. I knew the possibilities were Protectorate of Menoth, Khador and Legion of Everblight.

What I faced was a thing out of my darkest nightmares - Saeryn.

So, enemy list:

Saeryn
- 2x Scythean
- Ravagore
- 2x Angelius
- Shredder

2x Shepherd

Forsaken
3x Spell Martyrs

The nightmarish thing here was that I had two heavy warbeasts and opponent had five. In a situation like this even Lord of the Feast loses a lot of his potential, and while Druids of Orboros are always nice, they're a bit less so when their cloud effects are completely ignored and there are no real targets for Devouring and even if you manage to pull one or even two heavy hitters to your army's charge range, enemy still has 3-4 heavy beasts, or maybe even more if one of them had Respawn. At least Elemental Protection was there to offer them some survivability, but there was this nasty problem of Blight Bringer being corrosion type damage. Damn, damn, damn.

Luckily I had brought my mainstay unit of Bloodweavers with me. They're very capable of taking out one heavy warbeast per round if they get to charge.

Anyway, this time I forgot my camera back at home. I tried to take some pictures with my phone, but most of them are just rubbish. I'm still uploading them here just to illustrate, but if my photoshooting skills haven't been entirely agreeable in the past, now they're even less so.

Scenario was randomised to be the trusty old "Incursion", and the usual flag disappeared, that is, the middle one.

Legion started the game, and first picture is from the end of Circle turn 2. What has happened so far: One of the Scytheans had advanced far enough for Druids to try to pull the thing within charge range. And... it succeeded. Blackclad Wayfarer cast Hunter's Mark on the Scythean, and Gnarlhorn Satyr charged in. For the first time in ages it did something good: it killed the dragonspawn without actually failing at everything.

The reason why Legion hadn't advanced more was probably the fact that I sacrificed Lord of the Feast right on turn 1. After all there were so few good targets for it that I thought trying to destroy some beast support was the best it could ever do. It killed the Forsaken and one Spell Martyr. And of course it slowed down the advance. Worth it? Maybe...

It's a shame I had positioned Argus so sloppishly, since it was less than an inch away after a full 14" run from the flag on the left. I had been too busy in arranging the destruction of Scythean to have a clear, straight path for Argus to run.

Anyway, I had to charge with Scarsfell Griffon to one of the Angelius' that was contesting rightmost flag. Had I not done that, opponent would have easily started scoring points during next turn. Shifting Stones and Stone Keeper with them had started to slowly move themselves to contest rightmost flag, it started to look like that the only thing I could do on that front was to contest the flag as long as I could with a couple of stones. Looking back now, I see that opponent did start scoring points no matter what. Oh well...

Gnarlhorn had been placed back to safety with Spirit Door, and the Scythean had been killed around the spot where is the cog template that represents a scather shot from Ravagore.

And then it just had to happen, the dreaded feat of Saeryn.

Luckily the only real casualties for me were Blackclad Wayfarer, four Druids of Orboros (along with their Overseer - so much for the beastmaster) and the Scarsfell Griffon. By "real" casualty here I mean models that were removed from the board. Kaya was set on fire via blast from Ravagore, the excessive damage roll was transfered to Gorax, and a charging Angelius nearly brought Warpwolf Stalker to its grave. And next turn there was absolutely nothing I could do to any of the enemy warbeasts.

Well, here is what I tried to do.

Since Saeryn's battlegroup couldn't be targeted with melee attacks, Argus, probably for about the first time ever, got to use its spray attack! It yodled at Ravagore, and scored a hit. Then remaining Druids of Orboros tried to push it away, and they pushed quite nicely indeed. Now there was no worry of Ravagore running in and getting Blight Bringer on it.

Then Kaya activated and cast Spirit Fang on Scythean, and scored a couple of damage points in. Which was enough, since -2 SPD meant no charge for the beast. Kaya also used her feat, and healed a couple of beasts and cast Spirit Door on herself, moving to dominate a flag. On the right side Shifting Stones teleported to contest flag there.

Gorax and Gnarlhorn Satyr just positioned themselves to form a wall of flesh in between Legion of Everblight and Kaya. Looking back, again, their positioning was quite stupid. After all, Scythean could now easily get Bloodbath going on. Well, it didn't, because it missed one of its initial attacks, but that doesn't really change the fact that my positioning was bad.

Warpwolf Stalker just remained there, because I didn't want Angelius to charge anywhere. I was thinking of moving it with Spirit Door, but even with Kaya's feat she just didn't have the Fury for it.

Next few pictures are disturbingly shaken.

But thanks to the missed attack roll, both Gnarlhorn Satyr and Gorax survived the onslaught of the Scythean. Both were just about to die, though.

Saeryn tried to cast a Hellfire at Kaya through a Spell Martyr, and Ravagore tried to shoot her. Since she was already on fire, it didn't use its animus. One of them hit and one of them missed, I don't remember which did what. The damage was, however, transfered to Argus.

Well, then. Druid Wilder casts Gorax's animus on Gnarlhorn, and then Gnarlhorn proceeds to beat the snot out of Scythean (after druids of orboros had healed the broken branches, though). The Curse of the Gnarlhorn strikes again. Despite having MAT 10 and P+S 17 and two P+S 16 attacks and 4 Fury to use, it had to force itself to full 4 Fury to kill the Scythean. I don't think a single damage roll (except maybe the last?) was above 6 on two dice.

Argus has a lot better dice, since it manages to kill Shredder without breaking a sweat even with its Body branch destroyed (Argus had something like 4 damage boxes remaining from all the transfers).

Next Kaya tries something desperate. She charges the Ravagore, just hoping for astonishing damage rolls that maybe wouldn't kill the beast, but hopefully knock it down and maybe break a branch or two. None of that happened, the grand total with two attacks with damage boosts was about 3 or 4 damage in.

Then she cast Spirit Door to go back and dominate the flag. And now Circle was at 4 control points and Legion was at 1 control point. If that Argus just had had enough movement to bring itself to the flag on turn 2... A bitter, salty tear is shed here as I write.

Bloodweavers make amazing job, too. They all charge at Angelius who had Respawn on. First Bloodweaver used Dispel on its attacks, and the rest attacked with MAT 8, P+S 11 +4d6. Thanks to amazing damage rolls the last two Bloodweavers didn't even need to attack.

Well then it's Legion of Everblight's turn, and something very embarrassing happens. Since there isn't too many options for enemy either (and Kaya had one Fury left for transfering), my opponent decided the best course of action is to attack Kaya (who has about 6 damage boxes remaining from being on fire for three turns and cutting her for two Fury last turn) with Saeryn's ranged attack option, the Deathspur.

So... Saeryn advances and starts throwing about those stars. Kaya is behind a wall, and sits effectively at Def 20. First attack misses, but second does not. And with a damage boost later, Kaya just dies to the first damage roll she suffers from Saeryn's awe-inspiring P+S of 8. Deathspur has Grievous Wounds special ability on them, so Kaya couldn't transfer the damage away. But still... Kaya died to P+S 8 boosted damage roll, and not to P+S 15 boosted damage roll from Ravagore that she wouldn't be able to transfer away.

That is nearly as embarrassing(/awesome?) as inflicting the final wound on Madrak Ironhide with Anatomical Precision from Cephalyx Mind Slaver that I managed to do back in Mk1 edition of Warmachine.

So, all in all, a really close and exciting game. Looking back at the last round of the game, just by casting Occultation on Kaya and moving her a little farther away would've saved her bacon from Deathspur at least, since Saeryn doesn't have Eyeless Sight. But things like that are quite difficult to see before you know what happens.

Artifice of Intention

A 35 point game of Warmachine, Cryx vs Khador.

My list:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Ripjaw
- Nightwretch
- Seether

Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Gorman diWulfe
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Machine Wraith
Satyxis Raider Captain

Khador had:

Epic Irusk
- Juggernaut

Maximum unit of Man-o-War Bombardiers
Maximum unit of Man-o-War Shocktroopers
Minimum unit of Battle Mechaniks + Officer
2x Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Epic Eiryss


Khador got the start, and Tactical Supremacy was cast on Man-o-War Shocktroopers. On Cryx side Skarlock had cast Scything Touch on Satyxis Raiders, and Asphyxious took a flying start by just running with all focus. First picture is taken from the end of Cryx turn 1. Scenario was, by the way, the Process of Elimination.

Next turn Khador mainly advances, and Irusk uses his feat. That was actually rather good choice, since Satyxis could and would have charged everywhere on my next turn.

Mortar fire doesn't do much. Skarlock and Gorman both take a few damage points from blasts, and one bile thrall bites the dust.

Well then it was my rather restricted turn. Satyxis Captain gave Desperate Pace to Raiders, who then advanced and used Power Swell. I was hoping for a little more damage since five Satyxis got within melee range, but only one Man-O-War fell. Well, technically two, because he was knocked down from a succesful Tough roll.

Ripjaw tries to position itself as close to Eiryss as possible, but not within 5" of her. I have done that mistake too many times with my arcnodes.

A lucky Breath of Corruption deviation kills Eiryss soon after, and then Nightwretch tries to damage objective on the left. It succeeds by doing 2 damage.

Next the mechaniks of Khador repair 10 points of damage away from Shocktroopers, so Power Swell achieved even less. Impenetrable wall of armor advances in a straight line, and Artifice of Deviation then blocked any possibility to charge Juggernaut with Seether. Mortars were shooting at bile thralls. One shot missed its target, and deviation brought the blast over Gorman. That was the end of Gorman. I guess he's not my superman any more who survives all attacks, no matter the odds.

Now, this time I really wanted to wipe out the Shocktroopers. First Ripjaw activated and walked close to them. Asphyxious cast Parasite to them. Then a Bile Thrall walked up to use Purge. However, I couldn't position that damnable bile thrall so that only casualty would have been the lone Satyxis. I had to turn it so that rightmost objective and Ripjaw took the acid explosion too. Luckily it didn't break Ripjaw, but on the other hand, it really did nothing to Man-o-Wars either. Only a couple of damage points here and there.

Satyxis Raiders charge Shocktroopers then. Parasite and Chain Weapon reduced their armor effectively to 14, and thanks to Scything Touch the base P+S on Satyxis was 11. So yeah, this time they died, except one who passed two or three Tough rolls. Bile Thrall purge and one Lacerator attack that was directed against Mechanik Officer brought him down to 1 hit box. Oh, and one Satyxis Raider took an awkward charge at Man-o-War Bombardiers just to tie them up a little. This worked suprisingly well, since she one-shotted the Bombardier in question.

Since Seether couldn't do anything productive, I positioned it so that I might next turn start scoring points by destroying rightmost objective.

As it turned out, Khador had pretty much the same plan, except inversed. At the start of turn Mechanik Officer melts down.

Man-o-War Bombardiers with Battle Lust destroy the left objective, but luckily they don't wreck Nightwretch. Battle Mechaniks tie up Satyxis Raiders, and one arrogant wrench-toting jungle creature dared to actually hit Satyxis on the left and kill her. I guess she took a little too long to savor her personal victory, and never saw that wrench hitting the back of her head...

I don't remember any more what killed Satyxis Raider Sea Witch. I can only hope it wasn't those charging Mechaniks...!

Then Artifice of Deviation blocked Seether's charge, again... I really started to miss Ghost Walk or Veil of Mists during this match!

Then it was Cryx turn. I was starting to fear that I would actually lose attrition and scenario, so I decided to try assassination and, failing that, try to claim rightmost control zone.

Satyxis Raider Captain charged the Bombardier who was engaging Nightwretch, and she succeeded to dismember the guy in the suit well enough for Nightwretch to run within 10" of Irusk.

Then Seether charges to objective, but it rolls abysmal damage rolls. So I really want to succeed at the assassination, now. However, before that the co-joined efforts of all remaining Satyxis and Ripjaw manage to bring the last remaining Shocktrooper down.

Asphyxious activates. He has 6 focus remaining. I decide I will try the risky way, and shoot unboosted Hellfire at Irusk. Miss. Asphyxious repeats all of this. Even the "miss" part. Looking back, maybe I should have just tried two fully boosted Hellfires, but I was certain that at least even one out of all tries would hit and I could boost the damage roll. Not today, Iron Lich, not today. Asphyxious charges objective and does annoyingly little damage. Then Asphyxious uses his feat and I try one last unboosted Hellfire at Irusk. Miss.

Then I just buy two extra attacks against objective, and with last two remaining focus Asphyxious casts Teleport to move into better position. The extra attacks? Naah, they didn't do much. After a charge attack and three attacks from Seether and one charge attack and two attacks from Asphyxious, the objective was still standing defiantly.

I'm starting to get a little desperate, so even bile thralls try to shoot the thing with their sprays. I don't remember if they did anything.

And last, but not least, even Skarlock activates and casts Hellfire on the objective! This was literally the last possible attack against it, and failing this it would be a certain scenario defeat to me.

A heavy stone fell from my shoulders when the damage roll was actually above average, and the objective was destroyed.

So... the ARM20, 15 damage boxes objective took:
One point of corrosion damage.
P+S 16 +3d6, 2x P+S 16 + 2d6 and 3x P+S 12 +2d6.
P+S 15 + 3d6, 2x P+S 15 +2d6 and POW 14 +2d6.
... before it was destroyed. I really could have used those resources somewhere else, too...

Opponent doesn't have too much of a trouble clearing left control zone, so this Khadoran turn victory points would come to 3-3.

Mortars shoot all the Satyxis and Mechaniks away, as well as one of the bile thralls.

Juggernaut charges Ripjaw, but misses charge attack. But even the slap of an open fist wrecks Ripjaws movement system.

Bombardiers charge Nightwretch and one of them hits (and crits), but doesn't wreck the thing. If memory serves, the Arc-Node is gone, however.

Then Cryx turn starts.

And the most dreadful thing that can happen in a miniature game (apart from cat-accident) happened: A dispute.

This is how things started: Ripjaw advances so that Seether can attempt a charge against Juggernaut. Then it does Armor Piercing attack and scores some damage. Asphyxious charges Juggernaut (behind Ripjaw) and wastes all of his Focus into attacks and boosts, but doesn't manage to wreck the thing.

Skarlock runs to contest leftmost zone. Bile Thrall advances so that purge hits Nightwretch, Juggernaut and two Man-o-Wars (pretty much doing nothing against all of them).

Then when Seether activates and I declare a charge against Juggernaut, opponent informs that Juggernaut was supposed to be a little farther away attacking Ripjaw, but the model wouldn't have balanced on the downward sloping trench.

The opponent is an honest fellow and I didn't have (and still don't) have any reason to doubt that this was the actual intention. It hadn't, however, been told during Juggernauts activation, so to me the positioning looked like a conscious risk of getting in a charge from Seether, as I wasn't observing so meticulously what the maximum charge distance for Juggernaut would've been. The 5" AoE is Artifice of Deviation, so it was really so-and-so if charge for Seether would've been feasible or even within the boundaries of reality if Juggernaut would have stood a little further.

In a friendly game I'm not against take-backs even to this extent, but the problem here was that I would've probably planned my turn totally different if there had been no real chance of trying a charge with Seether. First of all, I could've ran to contest left zone with Seether instead, and cast Scything Touch on Asphyxious with Skarlock. Also I would've probably tried to cast Parasite on it too to make most out of the limited number of attacks I had at my disposal - now I had just to bring it down with the number of attacks, because I always had Grab & Smash coming from Seether.

In the end Seether got to make its charge (and continuing my trend of low damage rolls didn't do enough damage to wreck it) and threw the model away from control zone, and scenario points gave the victory to Cryx.

Endings like this, however, leave a little sour feeling. I know that this is the way things would have played, for example, in a tournament. But still it makes me feel that I got a victory because of a positioning mistake that actually wasn't even "real", just an illusion. Also, because of the things mentioned above, if I had lost because I accepted undeclared intention as a fact, I would've probably felt a little cheated out of victory, too.

In a way it was a lose-lose situation, probably for the both of us.

But still it was very exciting game up until this slightly sorry ending. But such things happen, nothing you can do about it, except to do everything perfectly always and in any given situation. And I doubt that's possible for anyone.

A Demo Game

Wow, I managed to break my long tradition of two demo games per year. Now the record is three.

This time I knew I was going to give a demo game to a player who didn't have actual miniature game experience, so I tried to keep army lists quite simple.

The lists were:
Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- Ripjaw
- Deathripper

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Reaper
- Nightwretch
- Defiler

So that was a nice 10 points for each player.

I got the list with Deneghra.

Anyway, what was nice to see is that the core of this game hasn't changed. Of course the 100% knowledge of the game becomes more and more complex with every release to the point that complete mastery becomes pretty much impossible. But, really, the core mechanics are pretty nice and functional. And why wouldn't they be.

So, the game went on quite nicely and smoothly. It ended to the victory of Deneghra, who survived with only one hit box left! And even then the game ended because opponent lost all warjacks, so it wasn't even a caster kill. I think this must've been the best demo game I've given, because it played quite aggressively and things were happening all the time. And damage was done. Oh yeah, damage was done.

Well, we'll see if this city gets another player soon. I sure hope so.

30 points vs 35 points

Some time ago I played a game of warmachine.

It was supposed to be a 35 point game, and I played with following list:

Epic Asphyxious
- Corruptor (Yes, you read right. I need to feel better for playing epic Asphyxious and not downright filthy.)
- Nightwretch
- Cankerworm
- Helldiver

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment

Bane Lord Tartarus
Warwitch Siren
Gorman diWulfe
Bloat Thrall

And opponent had:

Strakhov
- Black Ivan

Maximum unit of Assault Kommandos + 1 flame thrower
2x Kayazy Eliminators
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Epic Eiryss
Gorman diWulfe

When I'm playing Cryx I've really started to see Assault Kommandos in a different light. Again here that often dismissed infantry unit was immune to Warwitch Siren, Bloat Thrall and even Caustic Mists. And, well, even to that particular ammo of Corruptor, but I don't think that really counts for anything.

Anyway. After the game we noticed that this Khador list was, in fact, 5 points short. In the original list there were Great Bears of Gallowswood that didn't make it to the board.

Game started with Cryx taking the first turn. Scenario was Into the Breach, and large blast template marks the middle point of control zone. First picture is taken from the end of Khador's first turn. I'm including that picture, since upcoming pictures have completely atroctious camera angles.

Anyway, second picture shows how I (having learned some lesson from my fooling around in Ropecon 2013) marched Bane Thralls this time in front of whole flank to the right. And the second half of that second picture... wow. Opponent did pretty good job of wrecking whole damn unit of Bane Thralls. Only Officer and two thralls survived out of full 12. One thing caught me completely off guard.

Black Ivan had bulldoze. That combined with Overrun and Strakhov's feat is rather devastating gimmick indeed. Chances would be that I would still have at least 2-3 thralls more if Bulldoze hadn't pushed the flag bearer of Bane Thralls out of the 1" pick-up radius of other grunts. I think I got to make only 2-3 tough rolls whole game before I lost the flag to this fancy trick. Maybe my next lesson to learn is to always keep flag so far away from any and all even unseen threats?

Widowmakers advanced and shot a couple of bane thralls and Kayazy Eliminators walzed through 4 thralls.

However, I was actually quite content with this huge loss. I was ready to use Spectral Legion any time now, and opponent would lose almost all serious attack power on my turn... or would he?

First Warwitch Siren advanced and seduced Kayazy Eliminator (again?) and all four of them were in a nice clump next, and one Bane Thrall was free to charge.

I doubted I had enough killing power for Black Ivan, so I decided to probably sacrifice Bane Lord Tartarus. He cursed Black Ivan and advanced, aligned himself properly and unleashed Thresher. Two thralls were created to the back arc of Black Ivan. Funnily enough Tartarus himself missed the attack roll against the cursed Ivan.

Bane Thralls charge Black Ivan next and with plenty of unsuccesfull rolls (and one really succesful!) the warjack is still pretty much standing with nothing important destroyed. Crap, crap, crap! It's then Asphyxious' time to activate, and he charges Black Ivan - that monstrosity just needs to die. Two attacks and it's finally gone, and Asphyxious teleports away, camping one focus.

Then Bloat Thrall shot the huge AoE all over Eliminators and... well, none of them died. Not even those two that were having -2 ARM from Dark Shroud. However one of my own Bane Thralls died, which ironically needed exactly same damage roll as to kill one Eliminator outright. Drats.

Things actually started to look a little worrisome right now. I can only imagine my distress had the Great Bears been on board! But of course, different decisions would've been made then and game would probably have played differently. At least that's what I try to keep telling myself.

On opponents turn Def 15 saves Warwitch Siren from assassination attempt by a Kayazy Eliminator. I think it was a charge attack so that the other Eliminator had to run, so Siren had to dodge only one combo-strike or two ordinary strikes.

Bane Lord Tartarus and all Bane Thralls are destroyed by various attacks, but Bane Thrall Officer defied all fate behind a wreck marker and was left standing with one hit box (and under Fire continous effect). Khador scored two Control Points this turn by dominating control zone.

Bane Thrall officer died to the Fire, by the way.

Well, then is my turn, and I try to use a little bit of Cryxian crowd control techniques. Nearly all Assault Kommandos had cramped up in attempt to kill Bane Lord Tartarus (damn I wish he would've lived... or... continued being undead, how that one needs to be expressed?), and even Gorman diWulfe was in that huge blob of warm, tender flesh. So.

My grand plan was that I would somehow would get rid of both Kayazy Eliminators in middle of my lines, then run Bloat Thrall next to the gathering of souls, advance Nightwretch so that I could launch Death Knell on Bloat Thrall and boost damage to the thrall. That way AoE 4 Death Knell would kill what it may and it would be followed with even larger AoE pow 14 death blast.

But I just couldn't figure any way to remove those Eliminators, as even the Corruptor was blind with Black Oil.

So I had to use the Bloat Thrall to clear the way for Nightwretch. This time it managed to kill two already corroded Eliminators, yay.

Next Cankerworm advanced to act as a loving homing beacon for Death Knell. Nightwretch advances into position. Asphyxious activates, puts down his soul gathering template and casts death knell through nightwretch to Cankerworm. Attack misses but deviates just so that that damned Gorman is out of the template. And what's even more annoying is that two damage rolls fail to kill, despite blast damage coming in with... what... pow 11 or 12? Assault Kommandos were in Shield Wall. That order was indeed a good call this time. Asphyxious got 4 souls from this affair.

Well, then. I lose everything but Nightwretch and Asphyxious. Technically I didn't lose Cankerworm or Corruptor, but they were both Blind from Black Oil.

So. I'm actually losing this game unless I do something drastic.

Time to call in Spectral Legion.

Nightwretch advances out of a good charge lane (and actually survives a free strike from one of the Eliminators) and then Asphyxious charges an Assault Kommando. He kills three of them and burns, well, pretty much ALL of his remaining focus to kill one pesky Kayazy Eliminator, saving only enough for a teleport. Obviously attempt to kill the Eliminator just fails.

Then he uses his Feat and table is filled with Bane Thralls once again. It's a pity I didn't take a picture before removing the models.

Anyway. Only four thralls make it to Strakhov. Suprisingly, however, first thrall hits! And rolls a godlike damage roll, leaving Strakhov with only two hit boxes remaining. Well, I still got 3 tries to roll a 9+ for a guaranteed kill. Second one is a miss. Third one is a miss. Fourth one hits! P+S 11 with 4 dice vs Strakhovs armor of something 17 or so. There are no markers next to him, but he was camping some focus. After all... where would have he actually used them?

Damage roll doesn't exceed his armor. To add an insult to injury, damage roll is exactly equal to his armor. It was something like 1,1,2,2 or 1,2,2,2.

Now wasn't that sweet?

Luckily rest thralls manage to kill some important pieces such as Gorman diWulfe.

Opponent then wrecks Cankerworm, who had been standing valiantly until this late game in the middle of enemy forces. Requiescat in pacem, until Asphyxious reconstructs it.

Strakhov heals a couple of damage points and goes to hug wreck marker. Enemy doesn't actually have too much models on board any more, but neither do I have too many attacks available. I do a little math, and I figure that I will actually lose to scenario unless I manage to assassinate Strakhov somehow.

So.

I am thinking of trying to spell-assassinate Strakhov next, but I didn't think I brought Nightwretch close enough to get through Stealth (Strakhov had been upkeeping Occultation on himself for whole game - wise move, actually, since I would've probably tried to assassinate and/or Parasite him at various points of the game - especially on the feat turn) and Strakhov in cover is outside of Asphyxious' league, I dare say.

Last remaining Assault Kommando had ran to engage Nightwretch.

On my upcoming turn it seemed like my only chances were to kill everything on the control zone and start dominating for points. However... if even one of enemy models remained that would just hand over the loss to me. So many dice rolls had already barely failed in this game that I thought that it'd be so much against all odds if this last chance would be ruined also.

Asphyxious allocates a focus point to Corruptor and Nightwretch. Corruptor advances and strikes the Assault Kommando down (while free-striking Eliminator doesn't strike Corruptor down) and then Nightwretch runs to Strakhov.

Asphyxious activates and advances so that he can attempt one last fully boosted Excarnate on Strakhov. Hits, and damage roll is excessive.

Phew.

Only logical reason for Eliminators, Gorman, Strakhov and to some extent even Black Ivan (it took almost every possible attack to nail the warjack down so the resources couldn't be directed to any other target) surviving for so long is that the spirit of the missing Great Bears of Gallowswood was magically supporting their performance. Wait... that's not logical at all... Another possible explanation is that some form of greater dice gods and kharma and whatnot punished me for using Corruptor.

Anyway, I hope we get to play another game some time with same lists, this time bears included. Game was a really good one and exciting, but still opponent was playing 5 points down, and it bugs me.

Language Barrier (Smallworld)

Uh.

I know I can express myself somewhat well in English language. At least if I'm given the time.

However... things become a bit complicated when you have to explain rules of a game in an understandable manner without your native language to another person in a language, that isn't that persons native language either!

This was the set-up of a 4 player game of Smallworld a little while ago.

At first things really seemed a little desperate, but luckily this game is much easier to play than to explain. Telling by example works quite nicely in Smallworld.

Trying to keep everyone constantly updated with plethoras of new rules was so hectic, however, that I didn't really have time to keep as detailed notes about this game as I usually try to do. I didn't, for example, get to write down the race combos used. I remember that Commando Barbarians were quite force to reckon with, and the early game was dominated with Pixies and Orcs beating the crap out of each other.

Final scoreboard was: 92, 82, 80 and something. That, however, doesn't tell anything since the scores can't be associated with the race combos used.