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.
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