Before I leave the town I try to write down the last two games of our Touch of Evil campaign.
First game was played against the Vampire, who we thought to be one of the easiest villains. And that it pretty much was, yet again. It seems like the design intent is for Vampire to drag the game on for so long that Remains in Play Mystery cards wear players down. Vampire has no rules of its own to haste Shadow Track, and its minion chart does that only on result of 1. And the effect isn't especially horrible.
Well, Frederic Léon and Abigail Sturn had gotten a sort of hunch that this wimpy and easy Villain was tormenting Shadowbrook. Or maybe the Vampire was just bored of its own meaningless existence and decided to come and kill itself right there and then.
During the extraordinarily long game Abigail Sturn got the Villain smashing event card again, the one that made 1's hit enemies too, and against any beast or vampire 1's were two hits. I actually felt pity for the Vampire.
Abigail has ability to use Cunning instead of Combat in battles, so she bought all possible Town items that added Cunning and were preferably Books (for her another ability).
Frederic Léon had some bad luck and spent quite some time being Knocked Out thanks to various minions.
Things actually got interesting when we were nearing the end. Lady Hanbrook had both Darkest Secret and Shadow Puppet secrets - meaning that she couldn't be singled out during Showdown, and Shadow Track would drop by one at the start of every Showdown Fight Round!
Also the Vampire's minions put some effort into their actions near the end of game, and one way or another Heroes were denied of starting a Showdown.
But, alas and woe and all that, Vampire could not hide forever, and was butchered up. Even the twisted bravery of Hanbrook could not save him/her/it.
Both Lady Hanbrook and Lord Hanbrook had the Darkest Secret, so I guess they were a sort of vampire aristocracy.
Game 2:
Well, then we played against the next easiest villain, Spectral Horseman. Heroes that were drawn were Argot Blackwell and Liliana, lost soul AKA Villain Killer.
I was expecting an easy and quick game because of the Horseman being the Villain and our Heroes were pretty good.
But sometimes fate is fickle...
Order of the Crimson Hand were pretty active in this game. Any time a Hero visited a Corner Location, a dice must be rolled to see if Crimson Hand attacks. Every time a Hero ended in same space with Militia, they rolled to see how badly the militia gunned them down. And all Town Items cost 2 extra Investigation points. And then some other cards were niceties such as whenever Event was drawn, a dice was rolled to see if Mystery Card was drawn instead, and any time 1 was rolled for movement a Mystery card was drawn no matter what.
All of that combined with invulnerable Barghest Hounds (Argot did kill about ten Barghest Hounds during game. However the only Barghest Hound token that was removed was because of March of Darkness to town square... damn those 4+'s!) made for a really tough game. I guess a lesson was learned here: Never underestimate your foe. Or at least it's minions. Or at least the Order of the Crimson Hand.
Heroes did manage to start a Showdown, though. Shadow Track was at 3 when they did so, and it proved out to be that two of Evil Elders were Shadow Puppets!
One of those Evil Elders (either Harbormaster or Mayor Carver) survived despite effective 4 Dice being wasted on him.
So... did we just lose two of the better heroes from our hero pool to arguably one of the easiest villains in the game? Yup, that we did.
Campaign record:
Dead villains: Bog Fiend, Vampire
Dead Heroes: Liliana, Argot Blackwell
Stashed investigation: 2
Monday, April 28, 2014
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Terror Mission Specialists
Though I should be doing totally different things, I finished up two new additions for my X-Com Alien Plague faction for Deadzone.
Muton with heavy plasma shall be Stage 3A HMG specialist. Initially it felt a little wrong... the most powerful assault weapon in Ufo Enemy Unknown as a fire support weapon in Deadzone?
But the alien arsenal is so limited in original game that there was little choice. However I figured that Mutons aren't the most accurate race, so their heavy plasma might in fact function more as a fire support. Another alien race with heavy plasma can be some other weapon for Plague units if there's need in the future.
Celatid was pretty easy sculpt. I'm not entirely happy with the paintjob, though, since I feel I left it a little too purple. Should be more pink.
Celatid shall use the rules for plague swarm. I added the extra bits from one of the Stage 2A's to the Celatid, because the base would have looked very empty without all the little critters from actual plague swarm model.
Muton with heavy plasma shall be Stage 3A HMG specialist. Initially it felt a little wrong... the most powerful assault weapon in Ufo Enemy Unknown as a fire support weapon in Deadzone?
But the alien arsenal is so limited in original game that there was little choice. However I figured that Mutons aren't the most accurate race, so their heavy plasma might in fact function more as a fire support. Another alien race with heavy plasma can be some other weapon for Plague units if there's need in the future.
Celatid was pretty easy sculpt. I'm not entirely happy with the paintjob, though, since I feel I left it a little too purple. Should be more pink.
Celatid shall use the rules for plague swarm. I added the extra bits from one of the Stage 2A's to the Celatid, because the base would have looked very empty without all the little critters from actual plague swarm model.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Peaceful Bog Fiend and Campaign Rules
So, in last Touch of Evil blog post I mentioned that we started a two player campaign of sorts.
Rules are thus:
Goal of the campaign is to beat every single villain.
Additional rules:
- Villain can be chosen, it is not randomised.
- Once a particular Villain is defeated, it remains dead and cannot be played again during campaign play.
- When Heroes defeat a Villain, they gain 1 Investigation point out of the game. These Investigation points are stored, and there is no upper limit in how many can be stored. This Investigation point may be used in two ways:
1) A starting hero takes it to his or her starting investigation.
2) It is used for both players to draw two Heroes and choose which one to use against the chosen Villain.
- If the Villain is victorious, Heroes used in that game suffer a horrible death and may not be used again during campaign.
Personally I dislike most rules that alter the actual game rules, so I'm quite happy about these campaign rules. The only way it alters actual in-game mechanics is if Heroes choose to take additional starting Investigation. Other rules affect only which Heroes are available and how they are chosen. Even those effects aren't amazing, but might give a slight chance against such Villains as Necromancer that are insanely difficult with only two players.
Anyway, here is a very brief first campaign game (well, it was posthumously declared as a campaign game, since it was only after this game that we started to wonder if there might be any sort of light campaign rules easily written down)
Game 1:
Maria de la Rosa & Liliana, the lost soul vs Bog Fiend.
This game was rather weird. Bog Fiend seemed rather teethless, but so did the Heroes. It felt more like a game of Heroes vs Remains in Play. And when I think of it, three expansion maps dilute the power of Bog Fiend and Unspeakable Horror, as the locations where Swamps and Rituals are spawned are much more abundant.
Anyway, Maria de la Rosa seemed to gain a huge number of Wound markers from various sources, and Liliana found the Book of Darkness. Maria didn't get much Fight Dice, but Liliana managed to get her Spirit stat to somewhere around 8. She also got the Remains in Play event that made any 1's rolled hits against minions, and two hits against Beasts and Vampires. Bog Fiend was a Beast.
Very late in the game Heroes started to get quite unlucky in starting Showdown in a timely manner. Well... this didn't matter too much, as a Suprise Showdown was rolled from Cooperative Mystery Chart.
This was probably the first time ever when Heroes won the whole game in a surprise showdown. And on top of that... they won in one round.
Liliana, the lost soul had an item that let her re-roll any failed Spirit checks one per Fight round. And then she also had that Event card that made the 1's as two hits against Bog Fiend. Dice were rolled, and for Liliana, they just kept rolling. It was a very anti-climatic ending, and there is no other way to interpret this except that Bog Fiend was pacifist all the way, and approached Heroes to propose some sort of agreement or compromiss for peaceful mutual existence. And that's when Heroes set the fish-guy on fire.
Rules are thus:
Goal of the campaign is to beat every single villain.
Additional rules:
- Villain can be chosen, it is not randomised.
- Once a particular Villain is defeated, it remains dead and cannot be played again during campaign play.
- When Heroes defeat a Villain, they gain 1 Investigation point out of the game. These Investigation points are stored, and there is no upper limit in how many can be stored. This Investigation point may be used in two ways:
1) A starting hero takes it to his or her starting investigation.
2) It is used for both players to draw two Heroes and choose which one to use against the chosen Villain.
- If the Villain is victorious, Heroes used in that game suffer a horrible death and may not be used again during campaign.
Personally I dislike most rules that alter the actual game rules, so I'm quite happy about these campaign rules. The only way it alters actual in-game mechanics is if Heroes choose to take additional starting Investigation. Other rules affect only which Heroes are available and how they are chosen. Even those effects aren't amazing, but might give a slight chance against such Villains as Necromancer that are insanely difficult with only two players.
Anyway, here is a very brief first campaign game (well, it was posthumously declared as a campaign game, since it was only after this game that we started to wonder if there might be any sort of light campaign rules easily written down)
Game 1:
Maria de la Rosa & Liliana, the lost soul vs Bog Fiend.
This game was rather weird. Bog Fiend seemed rather teethless, but so did the Heroes. It felt more like a game of Heroes vs Remains in Play. And when I think of it, three expansion maps dilute the power of Bog Fiend and Unspeakable Horror, as the locations where Swamps and Rituals are spawned are much more abundant.
Anyway, Maria de la Rosa seemed to gain a huge number of Wound markers from various sources, and Liliana found the Book of Darkness. Maria didn't get much Fight Dice, but Liliana managed to get her Spirit stat to somewhere around 8. She also got the Remains in Play event that made any 1's rolled hits against minions, and two hits against Beasts and Vampires. Bog Fiend was a Beast.
Very late in the game Heroes started to get quite unlucky in starting Showdown in a timely manner. Well... this didn't matter too much, as a Suprise Showdown was rolled from Cooperative Mystery Chart.
This was probably the first time ever when Heroes won the whole game in a surprise showdown. And on top of that... they won in one round.
Liliana, the lost soul had an item that let her re-roll any failed Spirit checks one per Fight round. And then she also had that Event card that made the 1's as two hits against Bog Fiend. Dice were rolled, and for Liliana, they just kept rolling. It was a very anti-climatic ending, and there is no other way to interpret this except that Bog Fiend was pacifist all the way, and approached Heroes to propose some sort of agreement or compromiss for peaceful mutual existence. And that's when Heroes set the fish-guy on fire.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Beat them down (A Touch of Evil)
We continued our Touch of Evil streak with playing against the Necromancer, who is probably the most dreaded villain for two players cooperative mode.
This game was just like all the other Necromancer games - players were facing a huge pressure all of the time, and slowly succumbed to the never ending wave of zombies.
Heroes we had were Argot Blackwell, the master hunter and Anne-Marie, the school teacher.
Maybe there could have been a little chance, if zombies weren't rolling at least one six in every single god damn fight round.
Zombies denied any possibility for Anne-Marie to try and find any book items, and zombies were lowering shadow track pretty steadily, despite all efforts to punch them in the face. A total of four Corner Location cards were drawn during whole game, and one of them was the "collapse" from Abandoned Keep that forced Argot Blackwell to take some damage and draw another card.
Maybe one day Necromancer will fall... but that day was not today.
Next we started playing a sort of campaign, and those games will be referenced a little later.
This game was just like all the other Necromancer games - players were facing a huge pressure all of the time, and slowly succumbed to the never ending wave of zombies.
Heroes we had were Argot Blackwell, the master hunter and Anne-Marie, the school teacher.
Maybe there could have been a little chance, if zombies weren't rolling at least one six in every single god damn fight round.
Zombies denied any possibility for Anne-Marie to try and find any book items, and zombies were lowering shadow track pretty steadily, despite all efforts to punch them in the face. A total of four Corner Location cards were drawn during whole game, and one of them was the "collapse" from Abandoned Keep that forced Argot Blackwell to take some damage and draw another card.
Maybe one day Necromancer will fall... but that day was not today.
Next we started playing a sort of campaign, and those games will be referenced a little later.
Scrabbled
Okay, this is just a quick note that two games of Scrabble were played at a restaurant yesterday.
I'm not going to pretend I can write an exciting battle report out of games of Scrabble.
I'm not going to pretend I can write an exciting battle report out of games of Scrabble.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Sirgoyle attack (Touch of Evil)
A friend paid a surprise visit.
We often play A Touch of Evil with this particular friend, and, well, this visit was no different.
First day we played two games, and we cherry picked the villains. First game was against the Siren, and second was against the Gargoyle. They were the only villains that had no recorded plays in this blog.
Harlow Morgan, the inventor and Lucy Hanbrook were the heroes who found themselves battling against the irresistible lure of siren's song.
Harpies were rather annoying, but started to go down rather easily when Lucy got Combat stat of 3.
Harlow Morgan was being badly harassed by the harpies, and things didn't go in any better direction when a lycanthrope bit him. He did finally manage to get off with the curse, but being constantly knocked down and paying up the 6 investigation points to Doctor Manning for performing a curse surgery gave him next to no character progression.
Also the villain didn't have any kind of mechanic that would have created discard piles, so he could transform an old map and healing herbs into, say, a musket.
Lucy Hanbrook found The Book of Darkness from Lighthouse, which was quite a game-changing item for a hero that regenerates.
When the showdown finally started (with Shadow Track being on 2) Lucy had, what, 10 wounds.
Neither hero could amass a huge amount of Fight Dice, and there where what... six evil elders? Against just about any other villain the 10 wounds might have been enough to desperately win the final battle. However, when the villain rolls 19 dice against you ten wounds are not enough.
Heroes did manage to kill all evil elders and even brought the Siren to some 7-8 wounds remaining, but really... that wasn't even a close one.
A honourable "wtf" mention goes to a random jerk, who stumbled into the showdown and challenged Harlow Morgan into duel of honour. I mean... really? We're fighting a supernatural villain here, could you just wait a little with that duel, please?
Game 2:
Second game was against Gargoyle, and heroes were the overpowered Karl, the soldier and Eliza, the witch hunter.
Punching through the swathes of Gargoyle's minions was a piece of cake for Karl. Eliza had a bit worse luck, but still overall heroes were rocking whatever the Gargoyle was able to throw at them. But seems there was an even greater threat than that of Gargoyle. Order of the Crimson Hand absolutely brutalised the game of heroes.
There were a total of 3 Order's Influence cards in play, and all of them were drawn early in the game. One was where Reverend Harding was influenced - every time hero stopped in a town location, on 1-2 order of the crimson hand would attack him or her. Mayor Carver was being influenced, too, and all town items cost an additional 2 investigation. And last, but not least, in fact the most game-changing influence was that of Jessica, the widow.
Whenever any source would move the Shadow Track, it would move one additional step to the same direction.
Karl and Eliza didn't even get to start a Showdown. One more turn and they would have, but, still, game ended in Shadow Track dropping below 0.
(as a side note, there were quite a few other Remains In Play cards on the board, too, but none as crippling as those. Except, well, The Hour Is Late, but that one heroes were able to get rid of. Screw you, mystery deck!)
We often play A Touch of Evil with this particular friend, and, well, this visit was no different.
First day we played two games, and we cherry picked the villains. First game was against the Siren, and second was against the Gargoyle. They were the only villains that had no recorded plays in this blog.
Harlow Morgan, the inventor and Lucy Hanbrook were the heroes who found themselves battling against the irresistible lure of siren's song.
Harpies were rather annoying, but started to go down rather easily when Lucy got Combat stat of 3.
Harlow Morgan was being badly harassed by the harpies, and things didn't go in any better direction when a lycanthrope bit him. He did finally manage to get off with the curse, but being constantly knocked down and paying up the 6 investigation points to Doctor Manning for performing a curse surgery gave him next to no character progression.
Also the villain didn't have any kind of mechanic that would have created discard piles, so he could transform an old map and healing herbs into, say, a musket.
Lucy Hanbrook found The Book of Darkness from Lighthouse, which was quite a game-changing item for a hero that regenerates.
When the showdown finally started (with Shadow Track being on 2) Lucy had, what, 10 wounds.
Neither hero could amass a huge amount of Fight Dice, and there where what... six evil elders? Against just about any other villain the 10 wounds might have been enough to desperately win the final battle. However, when the villain rolls 19 dice against you ten wounds are not enough.
Heroes did manage to kill all evil elders and even brought the Siren to some 7-8 wounds remaining, but really... that wasn't even a close one.
A honourable "wtf" mention goes to a random jerk, who stumbled into the showdown and challenged Harlow Morgan into duel of honour. I mean... really? We're fighting a supernatural villain here, could you just wait a little with that duel, please?
Game 2:
Second game was against Gargoyle, and heroes were the overpowered Karl, the soldier and Eliza, the witch hunter.
Punching through the swathes of Gargoyle's minions was a piece of cake for Karl. Eliza had a bit worse luck, but still overall heroes were rocking whatever the Gargoyle was able to throw at them. But seems there was an even greater threat than that of Gargoyle. Order of the Crimson Hand absolutely brutalised the game of heroes.
There were a total of 3 Order's Influence cards in play, and all of them were drawn early in the game. One was where Reverend Harding was influenced - every time hero stopped in a town location, on 1-2 order of the crimson hand would attack him or her. Mayor Carver was being influenced, too, and all town items cost an additional 2 investigation. And last, but not least, in fact the most game-changing influence was that of Jessica, the widow.
Whenever any source would move the Shadow Track, it would move one additional step to the same direction.
Karl and Eliza didn't even get to start a Showdown. One more turn and they would have, but, still, game ended in Shadow Track dropping below 0.
(as a side note, there were quite a few other Remains In Play cards on the board, too, but none as crippling as those. Except, well, The Hour Is Late, but that one heroes were able to get rid of. Screw you, mystery deck!)
Saturday, April 19, 2014
About half way into Nexus Psi
I started to play Deadzone Nexus Psi campaign recently.
Since the host here who took part in Deadzone Kickstarter had early access to Nexus Psi campaign, we started to play that one out.
I played Plague faction, though I had my X-Com alien project with me. So my troops were essentially some kind of mix of Mutons and Ethereals and some unknown plague they had unleashed upon humans, or something.
Rebs were the unfortunate faction that got stranded on Nexus Psi with this alien threat.
Anyway, my initial strike force roster was:
3x Stage 3A generals (two ethereals and one plagued human)
5x Stage 3A troopers (three mutons and two plagued humans)
6x Plague Hounds
4x Stage 3A heavy machine gunners (3x plagued humans and 1 muton)
4x Stage 3A boom sticks (4x plagued humans)
6x extra ammo
I don't have the details about Rebs, but I think the initial clearances were Yndij sergeants, Teratons and Grogans.
We managed to play three games in about four and half hours. In my book that's a really fast pace, especially if you include the fact that I was still quite a beginner when it comes to actual rules, so I had to ask a lot, and most of the campaign mechanics had to be explained to me. Then in between the games there is this updating of strike team roster.
Anyway.
The first game was... well, it was quite uneventful. Really. There were zero casualties on either side, and those damnable agile Yndij's managed to snatch intel marker from the center of board rather easily.
One of the plague hounds got to bite the Yndij a little, but this time the bark was worse than the bite.
Game 2: Shattered Hopes
Next the Rebs were desperate to gain control of the landing pad strategic location.
Dunno where I picked up that one.
I had deployed my leaders very stupidly - grogan with Desolator got an aimed clear shot against one of the ethereals, and Teraton was able to teleport into melee with another ethereal, which were my only leader models. I guess one major factors in how the game played was the fact that Teraton didn't kill or even injure the last remaining ethereal. Grogan on the other hand brutally slaughtered his target.
Once it was my turn, I brought one of the plague hounds (who had AP 2 melee mutation) to help ethereal in melee with Teraton. I had already told about my dream of raising a 10 point plague hound, and the start was promising - it bit an injury to Teraton!
Two Blaze Away actions with extra ammo by two HMG specialists wiped out a human infantry and a rebel sorak. But now I'm getting too far ahead already. First things first. Stage 3A HMG specialist took a Blaze Away attack at the infantry and the sorak, and afterwards he went to adjacent cube to pick up a medikit that was booby-trapped.
The story of this particular HMG specialist didn't stop here. He fell from atop of a building and was pinned or suppressed, but otherwise uninjured.
A random Yndij approaches and throws a frag grenade to the specialist. Again he takes no damage, but the shockwave throws him one cube closer to the Yndij. Enough? No, never! Next Yndij sergeant throws another frag grenade at the very same specialist, and again... no damage, but one cube closer to the first Yndij.
After the games had been played I learned that I was only a certain deviation away from a sure defeat. Well, luckily the grenades pushed my guy to wrong direction, but really... damn it must have sucked to be that HMG specialist.
Thanks to some amazing dice rolls Rebs start to slowly whittle away. At the Teraton side of things I bring a muton (stage 3A trooper) in combat with Teraton, and try to escape with ethereal. Break-off is unsuccesful and on top of that Teraton whacks the ethereal to injured status.
At the start of next turn Teraton finally kills off the ethereal, and plague is left with awesome maximum command of 1-1.
But that seems to be all that's needed and required. The plague hound shreds Teraton in melee, and another plague hound kills a human infantry and possibly Yndij sergeant.
When there was only grogan standing, Rebs finally abort mission. It felt weird to have such a clear victory, but I guess this is one of those situations where ignorance is a bliss - I never saw how close the defeat actually was!
Plague had lost two leaders and a plague hound. One of the ethereal makes a full recovery, another loses a point of ranged accuracy and the hound just... dies. Oh, here is probably essential to tell that we were playing with modified system where resurrection roll is free, and you can buy an additional die with 3 reputation.
Considering the casualties that Rebs suffered, I think that's a pretty good house rule, though maybe full recovery should be only on 7-8, with result of 6 giving some kind of penalty... Maybe choose either Slow (-1 point) or Vulnerable (-2 points) and dead if already has both? I don't know. Of course my perception might be skewed by the fact that Plague has access to medical supplies in the campaign.
Two plague hounds were amazing, however. One of them got the skill Brawler, and another one has melee skill of 4+ now. Ten point dog, here I come!
Game 3:
Next scenario is a Dreadball scenario where Rebs have to rescue a star player, and plague has to kill her/him/it. I'm not sure why plague has such hatred against Dreadball, but whatever the reason, I fully support it.
This game was a bit awkward to play. I mean... plague had 95 points and rebs had 70 points. All things considered maybe that wasn't too big of a deal because scenario didn't require actual killing, but still... playing with so many extra points without any real handicap feels just... wrong.
Well, the star player dwarf proved to be in the very first location Rebs ever checked. And of course it was the location that was farthest away from plague.
No problem, though! Stage 3A Ethereal just makes a command action, and plague swarm uses Sprint as a short action. Then it activates, uses move, and uses sprint again as a short action. It kills the Kraaw Warrior, and additional attack injures the dwarf star player. Sweet! Except... that may have been an illegal move?
Clarification: it was indeed an illegal move, Agile doesn't work that way.
Anyway, the end of story is short.
Teraton makes a speedy approach at the star player dwarf and plague swarm, and charges into melee. Despite being Really Tough the plague swarm is splattered all over the arena.
Dwarf takes a speedy run towards rescue zone, but then a plague hound with AP1 melee mutation sprint-move-sprints into him and rolls some funny numbers, and so Dreadball officially ended in Nexus Psi.
Since the host here who took part in Deadzone Kickstarter had early access to Nexus Psi campaign, we started to play that one out.
I played Plague faction, though I had my X-Com alien project with me. So my troops were essentially some kind of mix of Mutons and Ethereals and some unknown plague they had unleashed upon humans, or something.
Rebs were the unfortunate faction that got stranded on Nexus Psi with this alien threat.
Anyway, my initial strike force roster was:
3x Stage 3A generals (two ethereals and one plagued human)
5x Stage 3A troopers (three mutons and two plagued humans)
6x Plague Hounds
4x Stage 3A heavy machine gunners (3x plagued humans and 1 muton)
4x Stage 3A boom sticks (4x plagued humans)
6x extra ammo
I don't have the details about Rebs, but I think the initial clearances were Yndij sergeants, Teratons and Grogans.
We managed to play three games in about four and half hours. In my book that's a really fast pace, especially if you include the fact that I was still quite a beginner when it comes to actual rules, so I had to ask a lot, and most of the campaign mechanics had to be explained to me. Then in between the games there is this updating of strike team roster.
Anyway.
The first game was... well, it was quite uneventful. Really. There were zero casualties on either side, and those damnable agile Yndij's managed to snatch intel marker from the center of board rather easily.
One of the plague hounds got to bite the Yndij a little, but this time the bark was worse than the bite.
Game 2: Shattered Hopes
Dunno where I picked up that one.
I had deployed my leaders very stupidly - grogan with Desolator got an aimed clear shot against one of the ethereals, and Teraton was able to teleport into melee with another ethereal, which were my only leader models. I guess one major factors in how the game played was the fact that Teraton didn't kill or even injure the last remaining ethereal. Grogan on the other hand brutally slaughtered his target.
Once it was my turn, I brought one of the plague hounds (who had AP 2 melee mutation) to help ethereal in melee with Teraton. I had already told about my dream of raising a 10 point plague hound, and the start was promising - it bit an injury to Teraton!
Two Blaze Away actions with extra ammo by two HMG specialists wiped out a human infantry and a rebel sorak. But now I'm getting too far ahead already. First things first. Stage 3A HMG specialist took a Blaze Away attack at the infantry and the sorak, and afterwards he went to adjacent cube to pick up a medikit that was booby-trapped.
The story of this particular HMG specialist didn't stop here. He fell from atop of a building and was pinned or suppressed, but otherwise uninjured.
A random Yndij approaches and throws a frag grenade to the specialist. Again he takes no damage, but the shockwave throws him one cube closer to the Yndij. Enough? No, never! Next Yndij sergeant throws another frag grenade at the very same specialist, and again... no damage, but one cube closer to the first Yndij.
After the games had been played I learned that I was only a certain deviation away from a sure defeat. Well, luckily the grenades pushed my guy to wrong direction, but really... damn it must have sucked to be that HMG specialist.
Thanks to some amazing dice rolls Rebs start to slowly whittle away. At the Teraton side of things I bring a muton (stage 3A trooper) in combat with Teraton, and try to escape with ethereal. Break-off is unsuccesful and on top of that Teraton whacks the ethereal to injured status.
At the start of next turn Teraton finally kills off the ethereal, and plague is left with awesome maximum command of 1-1.
But that seems to be all that's needed and required. The plague hound shreds Teraton in melee, and another plague hound kills a human infantry and possibly Yndij sergeant.
When there was only grogan standing, Rebs finally abort mission. It felt weird to have such a clear victory, but I guess this is one of those situations where ignorance is a bliss - I never saw how close the defeat actually was!
Plague had lost two leaders and a plague hound. One of the ethereal makes a full recovery, another loses a point of ranged accuracy and the hound just... dies. Oh, here is probably essential to tell that we were playing with modified system where resurrection roll is free, and you can buy an additional die with 3 reputation.
Considering the casualties that Rebs suffered, I think that's a pretty good house rule, though maybe full recovery should be only on 7-8, with result of 6 giving some kind of penalty... Maybe choose either Slow (-1 point) or Vulnerable (-2 points) and dead if already has both? I don't know. Of course my perception might be skewed by the fact that Plague has access to medical supplies in the campaign.
Two plague hounds were amazing, however. One of them got the skill Brawler, and another one has melee skill of 4+ now. Ten point dog, here I come!
Game 3:
Next scenario is a Dreadball scenario where Rebs have to rescue a star player, and plague has to kill her/him/it. I'm not sure why plague has such hatred against Dreadball, but whatever the reason, I fully support it.
This game was a bit awkward to play. I mean... plague had 95 points and rebs had 70 points. All things considered maybe that wasn't too big of a deal because scenario didn't require actual killing, but still... playing with so many extra points without any real handicap feels just... wrong.
Well, the star player dwarf proved to be in the very first location Rebs ever checked. And of course it was the location that was farthest away from plague.
No problem, though! Stage 3A Ethereal just makes a command action, and plague swarm uses Sprint as a short action. Then it activates, uses move, and uses sprint again as a short action. It kills the Kraaw Warrior, and additional attack injures the dwarf star player. Sweet! Except... that may have been an illegal move?
Clarification: it was indeed an illegal move, Agile doesn't work that way.
Anyway, the end of story is short.
Teraton makes a speedy approach at the star player dwarf and plague swarm, and charges into melee. Despite being Really Tough the plague swarm is splattered all over the arena.
Dwarf takes a speedy run towards rescue zone, but then a plague hound with AP1 melee mutation sprint-move-sprints into him and rolls some funny numbers, and so Dreadball officially ended in Nexus Psi.
Puppet, but not a master
I played a game of Warmachine recently. Or... over a week ago, if I'm being honest here.
It was a 50 point game, and I had this absurd and funny idea of using Kraken with Venethrax.
Here was my list:
Lich Lord Venethrax
- Kraken
- Reaper
- Nightwretch
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Bloat Thrall
2x Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Ragman
Ogrun Bokur
Opponent had:
Temporal Barrier Haley
- Centurion
- Lancer
Maximum unit of Storm Lances
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + Officer
- 2x Charger
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Journeyman Warcaster
Stormblade Captain
Squire
Gorman diWulfe
Scenario was Destruction. Well, it wasn't all that apparent at the start of game, but really. That match-up and scenario. I can spoil that game was not short, as Haley makes enemy sluggish with Temporal Barrier and Venethrax has absolutely zero quick-and-dirty tricks for him, and even the scenario had four large based models at the centre blocking any possible charges... oh my.
I thought that I'd want to have Lamentation going on to counter Temporal Barrier. Hiding behind Kraken I thought that would be easy. Kraken also had Soul Harvester.
I don't actually remember if Cryx or Cygnar started game. First picture might be from the end of Cygnar turn 1 or 2. However it is, Cryx starts the second turn.
Haley had cast Temporal Barrier, but still it looked like Kraken might be within range to start beating Lancer with advance + 4" melee range.
Well, turned out that there was almost quarter of an inch too much distance. A beautiful shot from the big cannon killed Squire, though, so it wasn't all bad.
Kraken was now, however, going to bite the dust if I didn't start some rash actions.
All the rest of Cryxian troops pretty much ran forward to block as many charges as possible against Kraken. All in all it felt like a pretty bad turn, but I was in for a surprise next turn.
Haley uses her feat, obviously. Aiyana casts the +2 damage kiss on Kraken. Gun Mages kill most of the Mechanithralls, and Chargers attempt to shoot Reaper. They do pretty well, since the ranged weapon drops. The Mechanithralls, on the other hand, seem to have some kind of blessing on them. It takes Haley, Gun Mages, Junior Warcaster and whatnot to kill them to the last. Oh wait - there's still one remaining! Behind the Reaper!
Next Storm Lances charge. Thankfully some important charge lanes to Kraken were blocked and only one Lance got to charge the colossal. One Storm Lance charged Reaper, and I was sure Mechanithralls were now done for. After all only one attack needed to hit Reaper to make Electro Leap to last remaining Mechanithralls.
All the attacks missed. Well, I didn't feel sorry. Not yet.
Lancer advanced to melee with Kraken, and then it was Cryx turn again.
Venethrax activated first and used his feat.
Withershadow Combine activates and Tremulus gives Puppet Master to Kraken, and Admonia goes to abolish Arcane Shield from Storm Lances.
Kraken then kills Storm Lance and with resulting Kill Shot it shoots Lady Aiyana, despite needing absurd rolls to hit. To make matters even worse - Master Holt fails massive casualties command check. With remaining attacks Kraken nearly wrecks Lancer warjack, but not quite.
Ogrun Bokur advances and gets Client bonus from being close enough to Venethrax and attacks Lancer, but fails to kill.
Reaper and four Mechanithralls destroy two Storm Lances.
With all magic weapons except those of Haleys and Journeyman Warcasters gone, Pistol Wraith feels courageous enough to run forward.
Then it's Cygnar turn, and remaining two Storm Lances, what's left of Lancer and Centurion unleash their full fury upon Kraken, and this is where I start to feel sorry. Damage rolls were pathetic, and if memory serves only left tentacle was broken. Chain Lightnings and Electro Leaps took all of my support away, though, so there was no more repairing Kraken at least.
Gun Mages and Chargers underperform seriously. One Mechanithrall is left alive... again. And it was being shot to back arc.
Gorman diWulfe almost manages to win the game again, when he advances and throws Black Oil on Lancer, whose Movement system had been broken down. That was bad news for Kraken next turn.
Something kills Admonia, which was a setback. I don't remember who or what did it, but I believe it was one of the Gun Mages.
But then it's Cryx turn.
Pistol Wraith advances and shoots Gorman diWulfe with one well placed shot. Second shot goes to Journeyman Warcaster, and it's a kill again. At this point I'm not feeling sorry anymore - I feel bad. It was really looking like my opponent couldn't roll above 7+, and I couldn't roll less than 7+.
Well, Journeyman bit the dust and off went the Arcane Shield from Centurion.
Blind Kraken wrecks blind Lancer.
Two mechanithralls and Reaper wreck uninjured Centurion with pretty good rolls. And then... just because I can, Withershadow Combine gives Puppet Master to somewhere and Maelovus takes a random pot shot against Stormblade Captain. And... it's a kill.
Venethrax, aided by Ragman's Death Field, advances into forest and whacks two Storm Lances dead.
It's certainly not looking good for Cygnar, but on the other hand, Kraken wasn't in too good shape either and if the big guy would go down, there wouldn't be much to talk about of Cryx forces either.
Finally all of the Mechanithralls go down, and one of the Chargers run to block Kraken's advance. Pistol Wraith also dies to one of the many options.
Next turn there's some amazing dice rolling going on again. An aimed shot from Nightwretch and a boosted Dark Fire from Maelovus wreck the Charger on right, and Reaper and Venethrax wreck the other one.
Kraken charges objective, but fails to destroy it.
How many critical brutal damages can Arm 18 Venethrax take? Well, I don't have the answer, because Gun Mages and Master Holt dealt at most five damage points in.
Kraken then charges Haley, but doesn't hit even once.
Venethrax charges Master Holt and kills him, and now it's Arm 18 Venethrax again against critical brutal damages, this time targetting his back arc.
But two Gun Mages just don't roll enough to kill Venethrax. All opponent has remaining is two Gun Mages and Haley, so he concedes.
It was an interesting game that went all kinds of funny, but it was a bit frustrating since neither force could deal the final blow at any point during match. I believe Cygnar would have been triumphant here if there had been even a couple lucky rolls going their way, but no. Only averages and 5 or less with three dice.
It's very possible this was the last practice game I can play before playing in a tournament at the start of next month. Well, at least I know for sure that since it's using Deathclock, I'm not bringing Venethrax + Kraken there.
It was a 50 point game, and I had this absurd and funny idea of using Kraken with Venethrax.
Here was my list:
Lich Lord Venethrax
- Kraken
- Reaper
- Nightwretch
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Bloat Thrall
2x Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Ragman
Ogrun Bokur
Opponent had:
Temporal Barrier Haley
- Centurion
- Lancer
Maximum unit of Storm Lances
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + Officer
- 2x Charger
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Journeyman Warcaster
Stormblade Captain
Squire
Gorman diWulfe
Scenario was Destruction. Well, it wasn't all that apparent at the start of game, but really. That match-up and scenario. I can spoil that game was not short, as Haley makes enemy sluggish with Temporal Barrier and Venethrax has absolutely zero quick-and-dirty tricks for him, and even the scenario had four large based models at the centre blocking any possible charges... oh my.
I thought that I'd want to have Lamentation going on to counter Temporal Barrier. Hiding behind Kraken I thought that would be easy. Kraken also had Soul Harvester.
I don't actually remember if Cryx or Cygnar started game. First picture might be from the end of Cygnar turn 1 or 2. However it is, Cryx starts the second turn.
Haley had cast Temporal Barrier, but still it looked like Kraken might be within range to start beating Lancer with advance + 4" melee range.
Well, turned out that there was almost quarter of an inch too much distance. A beautiful shot from the big cannon killed Squire, though, so it wasn't all bad.
Kraken was now, however, going to bite the dust if I didn't start some rash actions.
All the rest of Cryxian troops pretty much ran forward to block as many charges as possible against Kraken. All in all it felt like a pretty bad turn, but I was in for a surprise next turn.
Haley uses her feat, obviously. Aiyana casts the +2 damage kiss on Kraken. Gun Mages kill most of the Mechanithralls, and Chargers attempt to shoot Reaper. They do pretty well, since the ranged weapon drops. The Mechanithralls, on the other hand, seem to have some kind of blessing on them. It takes Haley, Gun Mages, Junior Warcaster and whatnot to kill them to the last. Oh wait - there's still one remaining! Behind the Reaper!
Next Storm Lances charge. Thankfully some important charge lanes to Kraken were blocked and only one Lance got to charge the colossal. One Storm Lance charged Reaper, and I was sure Mechanithralls were now done for. After all only one attack needed to hit Reaper to make Electro Leap to last remaining Mechanithralls.
All the attacks missed. Well, I didn't feel sorry. Not yet.
Lancer advanced to melee with Kraken, and then it was Cryx turn again.
Venethrax activated first and used his feat.
Withershadow Combine activates and Tremulus gives Puppet Master to Kraken, and Admonia goes to abolish Arcane Shield from Storm Lances.
Kraken then kills Storm Lance and with resulting Kill Shot it shoots Lady Aiyana, despite needing absurd rolls to hit. To make matters even worse - Master Holt fails massive casualties command check. With remaining attacks Kraken nearly wrecks Lancer warjack, but not quite.
Ogrun Bokur advances and gets Client bonus from being close enough to Venethrax and attacks Lancer, but fails to kill.
Reaper and four Mechanithralls destroy two Storm Lances.
With all magic weapons except those of Haleys and Journeyman Warcasters gone, Pistol Wraith feels courageous enough to run forward.
Then it's Cygnar turn, and remaining two Storm Lances, what's left of Lancer and Centurion unleash their full fury upon Kraken, and this is where I start to feel sorry. Damage rolls were pathetic, and if memory serves only left tentacle was broken. Chain Lightnings and Electro Leaps took all of my support away, though, so there was no more repairing Kraken at least.
Gun Mages and Chargers underperform seriously. One Mechanithrall is left alive... again. And it was being shot to back arc.
Gorman diWulfe almost manages to win the game again, when he advances and throws Black Oil on Lancer, whose Movement system had been broken down. That was bad news for Kraken next turn.
Something kills Admonia, which was a setback. I don't remember who or what did it, but I believe it was one of the Gun Mages.
But then it's Cryx turn.
Pistol Wraith advances and shoots Gorman diWulfe with one well placed shot. Second shot goes to Journeyman Warcaster, and it's a kill again. At this point I'm not feeling sorry anymore - I feel bad. It was really looking like my opponent couldn't roll above 7+, and I couldn't roll less than 7+.
Well, Journeyman bit the dust and off went the Arcane Shield from Centurion.
Blind Kraken wrecks blind Lancer.
Two mechanithralls and Reaper wreck uninjured Centurion with pretty good rolls. And then... just because I can, Withershadow Combine gives Puppet Master to somewhere and Maelovus takes a random pot shot against Stormblade Captain. And... it's a kill.
Venethrax, aided by Ragman's Death Field, advances into forest and whacks two Storm Lances dead.
It's certainly not looking good for Cygnar, but on the other hand, Kraken wasn't in too good shape either and if the big guy would go down, there wouldn't be much to talk about of Cryx forces either.
Finally all of the Mechanithralls go down, and one of the Chargers run to block Kraken's advance. Pistol Wraith also dies to one of the many options.
Next turn there's some amazing dice rolling going on again. An aimed shot from Nightwretch and a boosted Dark Fire from Maelovus wreck the Charger on right, and Reaper and Venethrax wreck the other one.
Kraken charges objective, but fails to destroy it.
How many critical brutal damages can Arm 18 Venethrax take? Well, I don't have the answer, because Gun Mages and Master Holt dealt at most five damage points in.
Kraken then charges Haley, but doesn't hit even once.
Venethrax charges Master Holt and kills him, and now it's Arm 18 Venethrax again against critical brutal damages, this time targetting his back arc.
But two Gun Mages just don't roll enough to kill Venethrax. All opponent has remaining is two Gun Mages and Haley, so he concedes.
It was an interesting game that went all kinds of funny, but it was a bit frustrating since neither force could deal the final blow at any point during match. I believe Cygnar would have been triumphant here if there had been even a couple lucky rolls going their way, but no. Only averages and 5 or less with three dice.
It's very possible this was the last practice game I can play before playing in a tournament at the start of next month. Well, at least I know for sure that since it's using Deathclock, I'm not bringing Venethrax + Kraken there.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Tartarus Uncurses Scaverous
Last Thursday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine.
Since both of us are going to a tournament in one month, we were practicing Death Clock a bit.
All in all the game turned out to be a pretty basic tournament game.
Anyway, my list was:
Lord Exhumator Scaverous
- Seether
- Nightwretch
- Ripjaw
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Skarlock
2x Warwitch Siren
Iron Lich Overseer
- Harrower
Opponent had:
Siege Brisbane
- Centurion
Rangers
Black 13th Strike Team
Maximum unit of Greygore Boomhowler's & Jonas Murdoch
Minimum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard
Journeyman Warcaster
- Hunter
2x Stormblade Captain
Squire
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
Professor Pendrake
Reinholdt
Scenario was Outflank, and Cryx started play. First picture is taken from the end of Cryx turn 2, which is a bit of too late. Anyway, what has happened so far: Arcane Shield is on Greygore Boomhowlers, and in the current picture Skarlock has juggled Death Ward from Seether to Scaverous. Last turn Rangers had advanced in a really broad formation to cover most of right control zone. One ranger had come close enough to mark Nightwretch and a couple of bile thralls.
Hunter scored a hit to Nightwretch, but damage roll was quite poor. Cortex went out, though, so the chicken still had head, but wouldn't be running. Then Seether charged one of the rangers, Scaverous advanced where you can see him and killed one ranger with Excarnate. I'm not entirely sure, but this might have been the very first time I did excarnate + bile thrall purge suprise. Broad formation of Rangers protected them from all kinds of spray and AoE attacks, but one well placed bile thrall that essentially appeared 7" from unit leader and then walked 5" cleared all but one of them. Sadly it passed massive casualties test, and in a way a unit of rangers and bile thralls are similar: even with only one member remaining, they're a threat.
Then it's almost game over.
Whatever happened on the left front was pathetic. The lone ranger (well damn. No pun intended) ran in middle of bile thralls and easily within 5" of Scaverous. Hunter takes another shot at Nightwretch, who still endures. Black 13th advance and one of them is in range to shoot at Nightwretch, who still endures, but with only a couple of damage boxes remaining. That was one lucky chicken.
Centurion advances and uses Polarity Field. Siege advances and uses his feat. Reinholdt had reloaded him, and then Siege took two shots at Scaverous. So, there was a very real possibility of Scaverous biting the dust. Again. I don't remember the first damage roll, but the vital statistics were that Scaverous was camping 3 focus and had Death Ward on him. Using some elementary algebra here tells me that the boosted roll must have been exactly 13 on three dice, since last shot would kill Scaverous if it rolled 13 for damage, and I remember Scaverous was left with 5 boxes.
Next attack rolled 11 for damage, so Scaverous was left with only two hit boxes.
But... Scaverous survived. That's what counts.
Since we were trying out Death Clock, there was no time for any kind of running, so this was it. Either Scaverous would kill Siege now, or Cygnar would get a second turn of mauling the poor deader.
Siege was camping 3 focus. It was really annoying that Scaverous had lost both arc nodes, as now I would have to get even more desperate.
But this is how it went: Skarlock activated first and cast Ghost Walk on Scaverous.
Scaverous uses feat and casts Telekinesis on himself. Then he charges Siege, and boosts attack. Charge deals 4 points in. Then Scaverous casts Telekinesis first on Centurion and then on Siege. Then he casts Icy Grip on Siege, buys another attack and boosts damage. This one deals 3 points in.
But the 2" from Telekinesis didn't look like it had brought Siege close enough for two bane thralls to charge.
The one Greygore that was blocking one of the bane thralls was removed by a Seduction from Warwitch Siren. Then the sorry affair that was the whole left flank continues... and continues... and continues.
There was this one trollkin right in front of Harrower that I wanted to go away. Removing him would open up a much better line for Tartarus to come and curse Siege. First Harrower attacks, and the trollkin passes Tough. Harrower takes another attack from marshalling, and the trollkin passes Tough. Iron Lich Overseer activates and rolls enough damage to cause a Tough check. Which is passed.
Running out of options even Necrotech tries to land the final blow to the trollkin, but Pow 10 vs arm 19 is not the best of chances. Necrotech rolls to exactly 19.
Turns out I had been stressing over this way too much, since Tartarus was able to go around other trollkin, and Siege was still clearly within 9" of Tartarus, though it was a clear half an inch and not more.
Anyway, then Bane Thralls get charge order, and two bane thralls with effective MAT 10 from curse and back arc bonus charge def 12 Siege (from Icy Grip). So it was dice -7 from damage rolls, and Siege had 11 hit boxes remaining. Statistically... no big deal. Siege is dead meat. And first attack scores the perfect average, and deals 7 points in. So last attack could even go rather badly. Still I was worried. This was the exact situation where the Curse of Scaverous usually kicks in.
I roll for damage, and there is double 1's, 5 and 4. My heart stopped beating for a second or two. But turns out the roll was just enough to kill Siege, since it dealt four points of damage. And it was the last possible attack I could make, barring one bile thrall purge that might have carried to Siege. Problem was just that Scaverous had Arm 17 and two damage boxes, and he would have been under the purge, too...
But yeah. Pretty standard tournament game. "Hey, a decent chance at assassination! Uh, failed. I guess I die now."
I guess it was good practice, then.
Since both of us are going to a tournament in one month, we were practicing Death Clock a bit.
All in all the game turned out to be a pretty basic tournament game.
Anyway, my list was:
Lord Exhumator Scaverous
- Seether
- Nightwretch
- Ripjaw
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Skarlock
2x Warwitch Siren
Iron Lich Overseer
- Harrower
Opponent had:
Siege Brisbane
- Centurion
Rangers
Maximum unit of Greygore Boomhowler's & Jonas Murdoch
Minimum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard
Journeyman Warcaster
- Hunter
2x Stormblade Captain
Squire
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
Professor Pendrake
Reinholdt
Scenario was Outflank, and Cryx started play. First picture is taken from the end of Cryx turn 2, which is a bit of too late. Anyway, what has happened so far: Arcane Shield is on Greygore Boomhowlers, and in the current picture Skarlock has juggled Death Ward from Seether to Scaverous. Last turn Rangers had advanced in a really broad formation to cover most of right control zone. One ranger had come close enough to mark Nightwretch and a couple of bile thralls.
Hunter scored a hit to Nightwretch, but damage roll was quite poor. Cortex went out, though, so the chicken still had head, but wouldn't be running. Then Seether charged one of the rangers, Scaverous advanced where you can see him and killed one ranger with Excarnate. I'm not entirely sure, but this might have been the very first time I did excarnate + bile thrall purge suprise. Broad formation of Rangers protected them from all kinds of spray and AoE attacks, but one well placed bile thrall that essentially appeared 7" from unit leader and then walked 5" cleared all but one of them. Sadly it passed massive casualties test, and in a way a unit of rangers and bile thralls are similar: even with only one member remaining, they're a threat.
Then it's almost game over.
Whatever happened on the left front was pathetic. The lone ranger (well damn. No pun intended) ran in middle of bile thralls and easily within 5" of Scaverous. Hunter takes another shot at Nightwretch, who still endures. Black 13th advance and one of them is in range to shoot at Nightwretch, who still endures, but with only a couple of damage boxes remaining. That was one lucky chicken.
Centurion advances and uses Polarity Field. Siege advances and uses his feat. Reinholdt had reloaded him, and then Siege took two shots at Scaverous. So, there was a very real possibility of Scaverous biting the dust. Again. I don't remember the first damage roll, but the vital statistics were that Scaverous was camping 3 focus and had Death Ward on him. Using some elementary algebra here tells me that the boosted roll must have been exactly 13 on three dice, since last shot would kill Scaverous if it rolled 13 for damage, and I remember Scaverous was left with 5 boxes.
Next attack rolled 11 for damage, so Scaverous was left with only two hit boxes.
But... Scaverous survived. That's what counts.
Since we were trying out Death Clock, there was no time for any kind of running, so this was it. Either Scaverous would kill Siege now, or Cygnar would get a second turn of mauling the poor deader.
Siege was camping 3 focus. It was really annoying that Scaverous had lost both arc nodes, as now I would have to get even more desperate.
But this is how it went: Skarlock activated first and cast Ghost Walk on Scaverous.
Scaverous uses feat and casts Telekinesis on himself. Then he charges Siege, and boosts attack. Charge deals 4 points in. Then Scaverous casts Telekinesis first on Centurion and then on Siege. Then he casts Icy Grip on Siege, buys another attack and boosts damage. This one deals 3 points in.
But the 2" from Telekinesis didn't look like it had brought Siege close enough for two bane thralls to charge.
The one Greygore that was blocking one of the bane thralls was removed by a Seduction from Warwitch Siren. Then the sorry affair that was the whole left flank continues... and continues... and continues.
There was this one trollkin right in front of Harrower that I wanted to go away. Removing him would open up a much better line for Tartarus to come and curse Siege. First Harrower attacks, and the trollkin passes Tough. Harrower takes another attack from marshalling, and the trollkin passes Tough. Iron Lich Overseer activates and rolls enough damage to cause a Tough check. Which is passed.
Running out of options even Necrotech tries to land the final blow to the trollkin, but Pow 10 vs arm 19 is not the best of chances. Necrotech rolls to exactly 19.
Turns out I had been stressing over this way too much, since Tartarus was able to go around other trollkin, and Siege was still clearly within 9" of Tartarus, though it was a clear half an inch and not more.
Anyway, then Bane Thralls get charge order, and two bane thralls with effective MAT 10 from curse and back arc bonus charge def 12 Siege (from Icy Grip). So it was dice -7 from damage rolls, and Siege had 11 hit boxes remaining. Statistically... no big deal. Siege is dead meat. And first attack scores the perfect average, and deals 7 points in. So last attack could even go rather badly. Still I was worried. This was the exact situation where the Curse of Scaverous usually kicks in.
I roll for damage, and there is double 1's, 5 and 4. My heart stopped beating for a second or two. But turns out the roll was just enough to kill Siege, since it dealt four points of damage. And it was the last possible attack I could make, barring one bile thrall purge that might have carried to Siege. Problem was just that Scaverous had Arm 17 and two damage boxes, and he would have been under the purge, too...
But yeah. Pretty standard tournament game. "Hey, a decent chance at assassination! Uh, failed. I guess I die now."
I guess it was good practice, then.
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