I've had this thing going on for a long time now that I won't play with a model that's not been painted. When I had less models I wasn't so strict about it, but now when I got hundreds of points worth of models, this principle ensures me that I continue to play with my older models and also have the motivation to finish new ones.
But the Kraken has been sitting on my painting table for over a year now. I decided that what the hell, now it's time to try this one out, after all its almost painted.
So, I conjured up a funny list:
Lich Lord Asphyxious
- Kraken
- Nightwretch
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Bane Lord Tartarus
Satyxis Raider Captain
2x Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Ogrun Bokur
Ragman
Gorman diWulfe
And opponent had:
Army of Annihilation tier 4
Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight
- Carnivean
- Ravagore
- Scythean
2x Maximum unit of Warspears + Chieftain
Maximum unit of Spawning Vessel
The Forsaken
(free) Warmonger War Chief
Legion started the game, and damn it was a horrifying speed the legion closed in. Both warspear units had picked Kraken as their prey, and the unit in middle had this +2 STR & Terror spell on them.
Anyway, first picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1. Satyxis had run to stall the Legion a bit, because I didn't want to run with my whole army to get slaughtered, and yet I didn't want to leave all zones completely uncontested. A pleasant suprise was the astounding RNG of 16 on the Kraken's supersystem gun. I could start shooting on turn 1, though the funniest thing happened - attack hit, but even with a damage boost it didn't kill a Warspear.
Needless to say, all of the Satyxis but the Sea Witch got killed. Now, looking back, I'm not sure if that was a good idea, as I unintentionally fed the spawning vessel enough to create a lesser warbeast.
But all in all, legion could only touch their own zone.
Next the Blood Witch tried to be bold and went to tie legion heavy warbeasts and bloodthirsty warspears. Being there all alone must take some guts...
Bane Thralls just ran forward and Tartarus tried to hide behind. After all Warspears didn't ignore Stealth.
Kraken tried to shoot down yet another Warspear again, yet it failed to kill even with a damage boost. Again.
Asphyxious tried to cast Excarnate on Spawning Vessel. It was a long shot, and didn't pay off at all. Not even a single damage point.
So Cryx had inflicted zero casualties on Legion of Everblight, and it was already second turn.
There is some luck on my side next, as Sea Witch defies all attempts to get herself killed. Ravagore has to step in and kill her after Forsaken doesn't do the job. Also the Stinger that was spawned last round frenzies and bites the spawning vessel. Damage roll was quite high, but sadly it didn't wreck the cauldron. That would have been funny.
Anyway, a shredder is spawned and it comes to engage Nightwretch.
Middle unit of Warspears charge Kraken, but only two got withing melee range. And that was what saved Kraken, since it nearly got wrecked by this charge. Boxes from left field were all gone and almost half of the boxes from right were filled, too. Supersystem and left arm were the only systems that broke down, though.
Other warspear unit and scythean kill bane thralls, but since I was playing epic Asphyxious that wasn't a big concern. Scythean killed three with Take Down animus on, so that was something.
The picture from Cryx turn 3 hasn't focused well, but the important things were that both Necrotechs failed their repair rolls, meaning I wouldn't get off a Kill Shot. That was a bummer.
Bane Thralls perform badly against Warspears on the right, but three of them soften up Scythean a little.
Tartarus curses Warspears and charges them, killing two.
Ragman puts on Death Field and Kraken manages to kill one of the Warspears with its broken tentacle and the other one with second initial attack. Three focus go into extra attacks against Scythean, and the last attack (phew) removes the beast from play.
Ogrun Bokur comes to engage Warspears. Fun fact: the shield DOES do more damage than the halberd.
Gorman diWulfe blinds Ravagore, and feeling courageous because all of this Asphyxious advances forward, camping 3 focus and upkeeping Hellbound.
Nightwretch breaks off from the melee with Shredder and tries to shoot down the spawning vessel. Nope, it's still standing.
Ogrun Bokur did what he was hired to do - almost. Forsaken unleashed all her fury at Ogrun Bokur, but still he was engaging the warspear unit. This lead to an interesting situation, when Thagrosh advanced and cast Obliteration on Ogrun Bokur. This attack killed its target, and as a consequence Warspears were free to charge Kraken. That was the end of Kraken.
Both heavy warbeasts came to block any attempts to use Asphyxious's feat on Thagrosh.
But still - there was a chance!
I tried to clear a path for Asphyxious to charge Black Oiled Ravagore, but nothing really worked out so he had to take two free strikes from p+s 17 Warspears. That brought him down to 5 hit boxes or so. Or maybe the damage done was 5 boxes. I'm not entirely sure, since it was a while since this game was played.
Anyway, after Bane Thralls had activated and tried to do things Asphyxious charged the Ravagore. I decide to go full win-or-lose here and not save any focus for Teleport.
The situation here was that Carnivean was maxed out on Fury, Ravagore was at two Fury and the spawned Stinger had advanced to Thagrosh's control range. So I needed to take out Stinger and Ravagore, bare minimum. Excarnate, a shot from Nightwretch and a charge by Satyxis Raider Captain got rid of Stinger and attacks by Asphyxious and one bane thrall and one satyxis raider from Spectral Legion killed Ravagore.
So, would 3 Satyxis Raiders and 4 Bane Thralls be able to kill Thagrosh?
Turned out that they couldn't. And the result was none other than Thagrosh being left alive with one hit box remaining. If I'm looking for lessons here, it's probably that you don't play Asphyxious2 without a unit of bane thralls AND bane knights. But I'm not looking for such annoying lessons.
And then I lose games. To one box remaining.
Bitter? Hell no.
Thagrosh himself comes and destroys Asphyxious in melee. I had dropped Hellbound from Asphyxious for this assassination run, but if I had upkept it, Asphyxious would've still needed to survive 3x p+s 17 RAT 9-10 ranged attacks and uninjured Carnivean.
Anyway, it was an interesting game. I wasn't entirely disappointed with Kraken, as it had quite an impact on the game and could have achieved a lot more had the dice been a little better for it. After all two dead Warspears could've been everything it would have needed to survive.
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