What Happened? (Warmachine)

This game was played last week.

I played Cryx with following 35 points list:

Mortenebra & Deryliss
- Harrower
- Slayer
- Ripjaw
- Cankerworm

Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Warwitch Siren

Opponent had:

Stryker1
- Stormclad
- Ironclad

Maximum unit of Long Gunners
Black 13th
Journeyman Warcaster
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Arlan Strangewayes
Squire
1x Stormsmith

My first thought: Mortenebra doesn't a heavy armor like, as Yoda would say.

Cryx started this game, and first picture is from the end of Cryx turn 2. Things didn't look good here - charge made by Satyxis Raiders against Stormsmith and Black 13th had utterly failed. None reached their targets in melee, though the models which ran could at least run to engage.

I was taking high risks during this turn, as I charged both Ripjaw and Cankerworm to Stormclad. I really wanted to do at least some damage before Stryker would use his feat, and though Ripjaw and Cankerworm both did quite okay damage, the columns were something like 3 and 6, so absolutely nothing broke down.

These were really bad mistakes on my part, because obviously now Stryker used his feat and Arlan Strangewayes came in for repairs. Some sort of miracle happened when Stormclad missed enough attacks to leave Cankerworm alive, but otherwise it was a disaster. Only good thing was that Journeyman Warcaster went a little greedy and charged Cankerworm to finish it off, but failed.

Next turn Cankerworm succeeds to punch Journeyman dead.

I see no other option except to take drastic measures and walk Mortenebra to her doom. She tries to cast Void Gate over the two Cygnaran warjacks to prevent them gaining focus, but thanks to cover from Ripjaw's wreck, the attack misses. At least Ironclad wouldn't gain focus next turn. Or so I thought...

Slayer charges objective on the right. Nope, doesn't kill. Then Necrotech charges the same objective. Nothing. I felt all my hopes sink, this was it. No chances, not at anything. But Deryliss was still unactivated, so it advanced as far as it could and cast Doom Spiral on the objective. I think the objectives were arm 18, and it had two damage boxes remaining, so Deryliss needed at least 8 to destroy it. And 8+ it was.

Next turn Lanyssa casts Hunter's Mark on Harrower and Ironclad charges it. So much for my waste of 5 focus. Harrower is destroyed in just two hits, though I believe it had taken some damage earlier, possibly from Long Gunners. They also shot 10 damage to Mortenebra.

Cankerworm is wrecked, too, and most of Satyxis Raiders get killed. Most importantly the sea witch managed to get herself killed, so I didn't even get to use Power Swell.

I guess opponent got a little carried off in slaughtering the Satyxis, since after Black 13th had forfeited their movement for aiming bonus, no models could get to contest the right control zone. So now Cryx got third control point.

As my turn started, I slowly realised that the game was in fact over. Mortenebra just had to run to dominate right control zone, and that gave her the scenario victory.

I think this was a classical case of a game where I won the scenario, but opponent won the game. At least that was how it felt. However, I did have a wacky possibility of an assassination on this very last round with Mortenebra herself, since Deryliss didn't die. She would've needed to kill Def 16 arm 19 undamaged Stryker with a maximum of five boosted attacks, or even less if she wanted to boost damage. The risk taker in me wanted to try just that, but the rational player in me took control and moved Mortenebra to dominate Cryx to five control points. Game over.