Thursday, July 31, 2014

The Amazing Fail

First Warmachine/Hordes game I played in Ropecon was kind of unplanned for.

There was a team tournament going on, and I was wandering around the Warmachine tables at the time when last round of team tournament was about to start. One team had lost a player, which meant a bye. I don't know how byes function in a team tournament, but I thought why not? After all it was only one round.

So I threw a list together as fast as I could. It wasn't especially planned out, and it turned out to be:

Epic Krueger
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax

Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Tharn Bloodweavers
Gallows Grove
Lord of the Feast
War Wolf
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Gatorman Witch Doctor

My opponent was another Circle of Orboros player. And a good one. Ah, well, he had Kromac for his warlock of choice, which was nice since I haven't played against Kromac ever before.

His list was:

Kromac the Ravenous
- Megalith
- 2x Warpwolf Stalker
- Gorax

Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Una the Falconer
- Rotterhorn Griffon
2x Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Druid Wilder

Scenario was Incursion. Leftmost flag disappeared.

It seems I have skipped one whole turn in taking pictures. Anyway, after the first picture it's Kromac's turn. Kromac is close enough to deny most of my spellcasting with Bestial. One Warpwolf Stalker was contesting middle flag under the cover of cloud effect from (enemy) Swamp Gobbers.

Another Warpwolf Stalker had ran to contest rightmost flag, but it couldn't get anything to trigger Prowl.

I'm actually quite happy about my next turn, as I think I made some good choices there game-play wise. Lord of the Feast throws raven at Megalith and attempts to kill Stone Keeper or shifting stones hiding behind the construct. Sadly he fails miserably, though he takes out one Blackclad Wayfarer.

Then Pureblood Warpwolf sprays center Stalker.

Krueger tries to pull Stalker from the right to charge range of Tharn Bloodweavers, but the drag roll is an utter failure. One full inch. That could have been devastating with 2 inches, and with 4+ inches there would have been a really good chance of knocking out the beast with Bloodweavers. But only one Bloodweaver got to charge Stalker, though one more ran to trigger Gang. War Wolf tried to charge Stalker, too, but one infantry model and one 1 point solo does not a dead warbeast make.

I don't remember if Krueger used the last two Fury to cast Telekinesis on Gnarlhorn Satyr or if he cast Bounding on it instead. If it was Telekinesis, then Gnarlhorn cast it's own animus on itself and then charged center Stalker, not quite killing it.

And then... since Druid of Orboros looked quite worthless unit in this bestial match-up, they charged. They didn't even do that bad - they killed Gallows Grove and a Shifting Stone. I don't remember if the two Druids who charged Stalker killed it or did Gnarlhorn activate after them and destroyed Stalker instead. However it was, the end result was a dead Warpwolf Stalker.

Again there seems to be a full round in between the pictures. The picture is as dark as the turn I played, because I tried to take a picture without flash.

But Kromac first.

Rightmost Stalker obviously kills a ton of Bloodweavers and the War Wolf.

Rotterhorn Griffon got Primal from Gorax and attacked Gnarlhorn Satyr. Megalith charges Pureblood Warpwolf, but fails to kill.

Kromac uses his feat and goes personally to whack the Gnarlhorn Satyr away, and backed off a little with Warpath movement. He had one Fury left for transfers.

Looked like there was quite a few potential assassinations for me, then. And there's no kill like overkill, right? RIGHT?

So, my plan: First Krueger uses Telekinesis on himself and advances full 6" and shoots Kromac with as many bolts of lightning as possible. He had to spend one or two Fury to heal Pureblood's aspects, though. However, it would be so-and-so if Krueger would get line of sight to Kromac, and there was one model standing in-between the maximum potential movement for Krueger. Not a problem, though.

Then Gorax would activate, use Primal on Pureblood and kill the model that was blocking Krueger's advance. Krueger would do his tricks then, and Primaled Pureblood would be teleported next to Kromac then.

So, Gorax activates, uses Primal on Pureblood Warpwolf. It advances next to Stone Keeper, and kills him.

Right after I do this I remember such funny on inconsequntial rules like unit coherency and the Command value of 4 on Shifting Stones. Oh my god, what the hell I was thinking? And of course I realised what I had done just five seconds after when it was too late.

So, instead of having a Primaled Pureblood right next to himself, Kromac faced only a shot from Krueger. Well, there might have been a tiny possibility to assassinate Kromac if Krueger unleashed five Fury worth of ranged attacks. Three POW 12's and a charge from two Druids of Orboros and warping for Ghostly with Pureblood Warpwolf, disengaging and spraying Kromac.

First shot misses.

Well, to be honest, I deserved a severe punishment from the powers of dice gods for my ultimate mistake. I don't remember if the second attack hit, but Krueger didn't really accomplish anything. Seeing how all chances of a decent assassination were going down the drain, Krueger used his feat to offer even a small measure of protection.

Pureblood Warpwolf didn't even try to spray Kromac, one POW 14 wouldn't kill him. Instead Pureblood attacked Megalith, who doesn't die just yet. Scarsfell Griffon has to come and finish the job Pureblood couldn't.

Horrible.

Just horrible.

I will have nightmares about this turn for many years.

Well, thanks to Krueger's feat he didn't die next turn. Enemy Gorax was teleported next to Scarsfell Griffon, and it kills the bird and uses Warpath to move away.

Rotterhorn Griffon kills what's left of Druids of Orboros, and looks like Kromac is going to try dominating rightmost flag.

My clock was starting to run out. I guess I wouldn't have had to go into a full-derp mode, but I didn't have the time in my clock even to attempt attrition game.

Well, my Pureblood frenzied from Primal.

Kromac had left five Fury left for transfers, but I tried to kill him anyway.

Krueger advances and tries to cast two Gallows on him, as Bestial had not been cast last turn. I figured that if I got decent drags, I might have got Gorax to charge Kromac as well as possibly doing melee with Krueger himself.

Again drag was 1-2, and I don't remember if the second unboosted Gallows even hit Kromac.

Gatorman Witch Doctor advances and uses Sacrificial Strike on one of my Swamp Gobbers and kills an enemy Swamp Gobber with the strike. Last remaining Swamp Gobber (who passes massive casualties test) charges Kromac in last and futile gesture of defiance.

Kromac runs to dominate rightmost flag and wins game with control points.

Damn that mistake was annoying. But looking on the bright side of things, I doubt I will forget about unit coherency with teleportation with Shifting Stones any time soon.


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