InCurseon

Last Thursday I played a 35 point Warmachine game.

I'm currently stacking games for Morvahna the Dawnshadow, and my list was:

Morvahna
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Gorax
- Winter Argus

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Tharn Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Reeve Hunter
2x War Wolf

Opponent had:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- 2z Deathripper
- Defiler

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech & Scrap thrall

Scenario was incursion, and Circle started. Fog of War is on, and Carnivore is on Wolves of Orboros just for giggles. Cryx took a risk in having heavy presence at middle and leftmost flag, and unluckily that didn't pay off. It was exactly the leftmost flag that disappeared.

A War Wolf runs to control the rightmost flag, and Wolves of Orboros make an awkward charge against Bane Thralls. Bloodweavers charge Deathripper, but only one of them actually gets the charge. One extra weaver runs into melee to provide gang bonus for the charger. Last and least War Wolf charges the Defiler, too. Damage wasn't too excessive, but Cryx was quite badly blocked from rightmost flag.

Next Deneghra advances an unleashes The Withering. All Circle warbeasts and Morvahna is under that dreaded feat, as is everything else except for about half of Wolves, War Wolf on the rightmost flag and Blackclad Wayfarer.

Damage in itself wasn't very bad, though Gnarlhorn Satyr was knocked down with Scourge and then a Bane Thrall charged the goat and took 4/5 of its damage boxes away with just one swing. However chances were that I'd lose all of my warbeasts next turn, or at least I was afraid of that.

War Wolf scored first control point.

So, why not go for the assassination? Satyr shaked off the knockdown, Gorax advanced and used Primal on Gnarlhorn Satyr and then Shifting Stones teleported the Satyr to Deneghra's back arc. Gnarlhorn had three Fury left to use, effectively MAT 8 with Primal and back strike bonus, but in Deneghra's feat.

Something felt amiss, though. I should have done something earlier, but I could not remember what. Gnarlhorn activates and starts beating Deneghra. Oh, right... Then I remembered. Gnarlhorn had lost both Body and Mind aspect. Thanks to Morvahna's re-roll Gnarlhorn was still able to land nine points of damage in, but damn it. I need to do some kind of big, visible neon sign tokens I can place next to my warbeasts that remind me of lost aspects.

Winter Argus froze a nearby Deathripper and prepared to die.

Gallows Grove teleported in middle of Bane Thralls with the unit attachment. Wolves of Orboros who weren't under the feat charged Bane Thralls and a Deathripper. Five thralls died.

Morvahna advanced 6" and then another 5" with light cavalry movement. She had stopped to upkeep anything and healed for six boxes, keeping one Fury left for transfers. I had already been way too greedy with re-rolls and used them where they weren't absolutely necessary.

War Wolf scores second control point.

Bane Thralls kill all of the Bloodweavers, so they wouldn't be coming back with Morvahna's feat any more.

It starts to be quite nasty situation for Cryx, so Deneghra goes for assassination. Now that Defiler had been dislodged from melee, it advanced to align some sprays Morvahna. First Venom deals seven damage, which Morvahna could still take in and not die. I don't remember if second spray hit or not or what was the damage dealt and where it was transfered, but Morvahna was still standing.

War Wolf scored third control point and Cryx scores first.

Next Morvahna just runs to dominate right flag, which gives scenario victory.

I did gain a huge advantage in the flags, and Cryx wasn't aggressively trying to contest the rightmost flag. But the attrition game was interesting, I almost would have liked to see how that would have turned out here. After all, I still hadn't been able to kill Tartarus, and I lost my heavy warbeast. All my serious hitting power was lying in the hands (or cleft spears) of Wolves of Orboros, and Morvahna still hadn't used her feat.

But again playing Morvahna left a little bit sour taste in my mouth. Mental mouth, that is. She has such a huge amount of tricks available to her - and not just some fluffy little gimmicks, no, they're all powerful tricks. This was just third game with new Morvahna, and I'm already hoping for some sort of nerf.

Heavy armour is probably difficult to handle with her, since she doesn't directly raise the damage potential of the army all that much. Sure, re-rolls do that too, but it's not a direct bonus to Strength or lowering armour of enemy models. Maybe I was just lucky with her in the game against the Protectorate, where she personally destroyed Reckoner and Arm 22 Reznik.

But I guess that's enough of complaining about the warlock I'm currently playing. I should be happy - not whiny.