Power + Strength 29

Last Saturday I played a 50 point game of warmachine, again with Asphyxious the Hellbringer.

My list was:

Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- Kraken
- 2x Helldiver

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
2x Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Bane Lord Tartarus
Satyxis Raider Captain

Opponent had:

Lord Commander Stryker
- Stormclad (bonded)
- Ol' Rowdy
- Lancer

Maximum unit of Stormguard

Black 13th
Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
Stormblade Captain
Stormsmith Stormcaller
Epic Eiryss
Gorman diWulfe
Harlan Versh
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Reinholdt

So the match-up was exactly the same as in last game, though lists were quite a bit different. Scenario was Incursion, and the rightmost flag disappeared. It's already gone in the first picture. Cygnar started game. Looked like getting to leftmost flag was going to be tough for me, and once Black 13th unleashed their Mage Storm and Stryker cast Rebuke on Bane Thralls I was actually horrified - opponent would actually start scoring points easily on his next turn. I'd be able to get a Scrap Thrall to contest the flag. Oh yeah.

This time Eiryss took an aimed shot at Satyxis Raiders and made them lose their precious Ashen Veil. That 12" range on Eiryss always takes me by suprise, somehow I always assume without thinking it's 10".

But otherwise I might be able to do a nice and tricksy turn next, and with a little bit of luck and correct positioning I might be able to do a nice feat turn for Asphyxious - either opponent would give a lot of souls to Asphyxious and destroy Kraken or he would not, and then there'd be a Colossal warjack in the middle of enemy army next turn.

Well, as it turned out I neither had even a little bit of luck, and my positioning sucked big time.

First Asphyxious allocated 3 focus to Kraken, cast Mobility and then Scything Tough on Kraken, advanced and used his feat. I didn't want Kraken's charge to fail because of Asphyxious, so I left my warcaster quite far to the right. Then Vociferon runs so that he'd be able to snatch souls from Stormguard - even if opponent would choose not to feed souls to Asphyxious, he'd have 10 Focus for use next turn.

That much was succesful, as Satyxis used Power Swell and killed Stormguards. Yet there were still too many of them standing, so Tartarus launched himself on the Stormguard, killing two more.

Kraken charges Stormclad. My grand plan here was that Kraken would make a P+S 20 + 3d6 attack at Stormclad, then boost an attack against Harlan Versh, make a Kill Shot at Gorman and then make one additional P+S 21 + 2d6 attack at Stormclad, probably not wrecking the jack, but with either Cortex or arms gone it wouldn't really do much.

Charge attack at Stormclad: miss.

Boosted attack at Harlan Versh: miss.

Buy additional attack at Versh: a lucky hit even without boost. Kill shot at Gorman, obviously a miss, and blast damage did perhaps one point of damage to Gorman.

Somehow I imagined a charge of a colossal go a little bit differently.

Opponent doesn't even bother to deal with Kraken - this time Stryker is not damaged, so he does a full 3 dice overload, after which he casts Velocity, and charges Asphyxious at P+S 29, instantly one-shotting focusless Asphyxious - so even if Kraken would have fared a little bit better, nothing would have really changed in the end result. Except for me feeling a little bit better, though. Kraken has ever since been sitting in a corner with a cone of shame on top of it.

Shake That Bone, Dwarf (No, I don't know where that came from and I don't even want to know)

Last Thursday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine against Cygnar.

Lately I've played almost exclusively Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon, as I'm trying to get a feel for this particular warcaster.

I think I've began to find the core I'll be building Asphyxious3 list around wirh.

This time it was:

Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- Erebus
- Cankerworm
- Ripjaw
- 2x Helldiver

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Bane Lord Tartarus
Satyxis Raider Captain
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Warwitch Siren

Once I get the models I'm smuggling in Saxon Orrik and one more Helldiver.

Opponent, on the other hand, was playing:

Lord Commander Stryker
- Ol' Rowdy (Bonded)
- Lancer

Acrane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers + Officer
Maximum unit of Stormguard
Maximum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard + Jonas Murdoch
Journeyman Warcaster
2x Stormblade Captain
Squire
Epic Eiryss
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Scenario was Into the Breach, and Cygnar started game. I kept forgetting to take pictures, so there's now one full round inbetween all pictures. First one is from the end of Cryx turn 1. Ashen Veil is on Satyxis Raiders and Scything Touch on Bane Thralls. Arcane Shield from Journeyan Warcaster is on Stormguard.

We played the fields as rough terrain that gives concealment to small and medium bases and doesn't block Line of Sight.

Eiryss is on the hill on the right, and a couple of Satyxis Raiders ran to engage her - that 16" run + reach is quite amazing to tie up things. Also Eiryss in melee with -2 to attack rolls is a lot less likely to remove Ashen Veil than an aimed RAT 9... and on Cygnar's turn she missed.

Stormguard with Tough and Fearless from Rhupert attacked Satyxis too, and I believe Ashen Veil was the saving grace here again. Lancer had come to engage main body of Satyxis and Stryker had cast Positive Charge on it, and still most of the Stormguards missed. Which was good, as those electro leaps might have easily doubled the number of dead Satyxis.

Ol' Rowdy came to contest the zone on left, and Gun Mages took shots at Ripjaw and Cankerworm, pushing them around a bit with Thunderbolts.

As Cygnar wouldn't be able to fix damage to warjacks I decided to launch Erebus at Ol' Rowdy (who had Imprint on), but that required quite a bit of shuffling around. Erebus took 3 focus from Asphyxious, Asphyxious upkept both Scything Touch and Ashen Veil and cast Mobility. Erebus charged Ol' Rowdy and made Combo-Strike... and missed. Oh dear. This might become messy.

Well, Erebus bought a new attack, hit and boosted damage and destroyed the hammer. All was not lost, maybe, perhaps?

Ripjaw, Helldiver and Cankerworm advanced to the zone and tried to tease Arcane Tempest Gun Mages, failing mostly.

Satyxis used Power Swell and charged. Two wanted to take care of Eiryss, three charged Lancer and the rest either charged Stormguard or ran. I think they killed Eiryss, Stormguard Captain, a couple of Stormguards and destroyed Lancer's arc node. Not bad.

Satyxis Raider Captain relocated herself to leftern front as Desperate Pace wouldn't be needed any longer. Bane Thralls continued to crawl - no other word can describe their movement. Forest was a lot bigger problem for them than I had initially anticipated.

I'm not entirely sure about the next Cygnar turn, as I noticed that an entire round is missing from the pictures. At least Erebus got wrecked by a combined effort of Ol' Rowdy and Horgenhold Forgeguard. On the right Stormguard and Lancer continued to struggle with Satyxis, not wiping them out just yet.

Gun Mages probably had to deal with the engaging bonejacks, but I honestly don't remember what they did.

My following turn is a bit hazy too, but Asphyxious dropped all upkeeps, advanced and used his feat and killed a Horgenhold Forge Guard and cast Carnage with Blood Boon. I think the Forge Guard passed one tough roll, so Asphyxious had to spend one Focus to ensure the kill, leaving him sitting at Arm 23 in middle of Forge Guard and within easy charge range of Ol' Rowdy.

Cankerworm advanced and tried to take a bite at Ol' Rowdy, but didn't wreck it. All Cryxian character warjacks seemed to be dying all over Ol' Rowdy. By the way, it might have been that it was Cankerworm's bite that dropped Rowdy's hammer.

But the rest... I just can't figure out what happened. Obviously Bane Thralls have had to form some sort of protective layer for Asphyxious there, and it might have been this turn where Tartarus advanced from the woods, cursed Horgenholds and threshered Stormguard, creating three Bane Thralls. But something seems wrong there... mostly the fact that Tartarus is still standing in the last picture!

Well, it's possible that Tartarus survived because opponent tried a devious plan to assassinate Asphyxious. Ol' Rowdy attempted a one-handed throw at Cankerworm and was going to throw Asphyxious' personal character bonejack back at his face. Attack roll is a hit, and then warjacks make a strength test. Ol' Rowdy rolls 1, Cankerworm rolls 6.

As far as I remember opponent had been looking that there might have been a good chance of getting Stryker to charge Asphyxious, but that would have meant expending a lot of Focus for Velocity - so throwing the bonejack at Asphyxious would have entirely negated the need to boost to hit. Well, that plan was ruined now and Ol' Rowdy had already wasted two of Stryker's Focus, so Stryker just wrecked Cankerworm and used his feat, I think? Or maybe it was last turn?

However that went, the Horgenhold Forge Guard formed a meatwall in between Asphyxious and Stryker.

I don't remember how many souls Asphyxious had gained from his feat, but I'd figure it was either four or five. Twelve seems like a familiar number, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Anyway, there were two Forge Guards directly blocking Asphyxious advance and/or charge, a couple more were threatening with a free strike and some random model was possibly blocking Line of Sight to Stryker. Forge Guard had Tough + Fearless from Rhupert going on for them. If Stryker would have had full hit boxes left I would have probably ditched whole assassination attempt, but Satyxis had given quite a few boxes of damage for a head start (another reason why Stryker didn't try a 3 die overload charge assassination) with their Feedback ability.

Shop was also closing quite soon, and the game would have to end soon anyway.

Easiest part was advancing Warwitch Siren to one of the Forge Guards, seducing him and going to beat another Forge Guard who was threatening with a free strike. Bane Thralls removed a block of Forge Guard from the middle of map and one ran to engage Stryker, but none could reach the rhulic who was blocking Asphyxious. Only model that was able to reach him was Satyxis Raider Captain, who then failed to kill thanks to a succesful Tough -roll. Chances of an overkill-assassination were rapidly dwindling.

As nothing else could even remotely get a swing at the Forge Guard, Asphyxious had to cast Bone Shaker on him - which luckily killed the dwarf. I believe Asphyxious then charged Murdoch, or cast Mobility and advanced, but either way the end result was that Asphyxious failed to kill Murdoch at first attempt, and had to buy an attack to get to use Blood Boon for casting Carnage.

The reason I was so obsessed with Carnage was the fact that three MAT 6 + 3d6 attacks could miss critically a Def 18 target, where two MAT 8 + 3d6 attacks seemed to me a better choice. Not sure if it's mathematically correct, but damn it if I believe in mathematical probabilities in this game any longer.

Bane Thrall lowered Stryker's armor, but he had Arcane Shield on and camped some Focus. I can see the Arcane Shield marker and one focus in the picture, which would have meant Arm 20 lowered to Arm 18. Well, whatever the actual details were the first attack was a hit, but the damage roll... the damage roll was a smashing success.

Deadcom Mixed Crew Mission

I got a couple other games I need to write up, but I have to write last game of Deadzone up first. It's suprisingly difficult to remember actual happenings in a game system you're a bit unfamiliar with. So Deadzone it is.

This game was played last Friday, and it was a 100 point one-off game of Enforcers vs Plague. Twist here was that Enforcers used models from Sedition Wars starter box, which look mistakenly like X-Com agents in personal armour.

I was playing Plague with my converted X-Com aliens.

Game was played with two maps joined together to make a wide playing field. Code-13 rules were used, too. They're a ruleset for bigger games and it makes mission more difficult to accomplish.

My Strike-Team was nearly full of aliens with only one Plague Hound being the exception.

2x Ethereal 'generals' (one had Slow mutation)
2x Chryssalids (Stage 2A, one had AP1 mutation)
4x Mutons (Basic troopers) consisting of:
- 1x with Frag Grenade + Tough mutation
- 1x with Frag Grenade
- 2x with AP ammo
1x Muton with Heavy Plasma (HMG specialist)
1x Silacoid (Plague Hound. I know, I know...)
1x Plague Hound (Plague Hound)
1x Silacoid (Plague Swarm)

Mission: Head-Hunt (kill enemy specialists, expensive models and leaders)

I've tried to reverse-engineer opponent's list from pictures, but there is probably some mistakes:

Enforcer Sergeant
5x Enforcers
1x Enforcer Sniper
1x Enforcer Incinerator
1x Enforcer with Fusion Gun
And someone, somewhere had Extra Ammo?

Mission: Hold (survive and kill any enemy models, getting more victory points from expensive models)

This time around I remembered to take some pictures from the game. First picture looks like it's from the start of turn 2 on Plague's initiative. I wrote models' names to picture to ease spotting a little bit. Some fancy arrows to various locations are also included. Whee.

Earlier Sniper had taken a shot at a Muton hiding in the green building at aliens' side, killing it instantly. Mutons nearly paid back when a few random shots at opposing Sergeant injured her. It's a little bit of a shame. It would have been 5 victory points in the very first turn (she was the Strike Force commander as well as her cost was 11+. I don't think that killing a Leader and killing a Commander stacks, because that would have been ridiculous - seven victory points just from killing one model?)

Anyway, turn 2 started with pinning down an enemy trooper close to the Leader model with Blaze Away! -actions, and then sprint + move with Celatid into melee with the trooper. Despite being Enraged, having moved into the cube, Fight +1 card, having natural AP 2 and hitting on 3+ a knocked down model the Celatid couldn't even injure that agent. In fact if the Swarm would have hit only on rolls of 1 and 2, the story would have been entirely different. Oh well.

An enraged Muton with the Tough -mutation charged another trooper, faring as badly as the Celatid. Later in that turn a Silacoid charges to help Celatid, again with horrible results. I guess they stayed true to their origins. After all, Muton terror missions were quite pleasant in the '94 UFO: Enemy Unknown because Silacoid and Celatid were so easy.

Well, a rain of grenades and sniper shots and whatnots killed both of the terror units.

Another model that was loyal to the computer game was/were the Chryssalids. An Ethereal leader passed a succesful Command action and moved Chryssalid on the right, then Chryssalid used Sprint action and played Move card (my only Move card during the whole game, mind you) and butchered Fusion Gun wielder.

That was nice enough, but alien casualties were quite high during that turn when the regular trooper in melee with tough Muton escaped succesfully - in fact so succesfully that he got to make a short action. The action was Shoot, which outright killed his former melee adversary. At the end of turn 2 aliens had killed just one enemy model.

X-Com Enforcer agents, on the other hand, had killed four. Such a ratio would be difficult to explain to the big brain on Mars.

Things started to look a little better during turn 3 when the rightmost Chryssalid did what Chryssalids do best. It killed two models in a row, and another Chryssalid on the left really wanted to do the same to a regular trooper and sniper, but somehow it came out a bit like this.

Funny thing, by the way, that both Sniper and the Incinerator killed more aliens using their pistols than their main weapons. I guess, then, that they were Vincent and Jules from that clip? Also I might be exaggerating with Sniper.

The Chryssalid on right had been left in a bad position - everyone would shoot at it next, but it only made the Chryssalid angrier (by triggering Rampage).

I don't remember how the situation resolved at the leftmost Stage 2A Chryssalid. I can't find the agent from any of the unedited pictures, so perhaps it died to Break Off -action? No idea.

Looked like aliens were slowly starting to gain the upper hand despite a horrific start, and this was mostly due to Chryssalids adamantly refusing to die. Sniper finally died, and if I'm reading the pictures right, Enforcers (X-Forcers?) had only three models left in their whole Strike Force, and aliens are closing in from every possible direction - surely this was the end? Not quite!

Agents score a hit on an Ethereal, who panics, goes berserk and shoots every other alien dead with a hidden Heavy Plasma, and then it drops a primed alien grenade to its own feet, killing itself.

Enforcers had scored 13 victory points, end of mission. If I remember right they survived for five rounds and killed eight models.

In the end aliens had scored only 9 points. They could have won by either killing the regular trooper and Incinerator, or the already injured Sergeant.

So it was quite close game after all.

This game took suprisingly long. Judging from earlier experiences we might have played three 70 point games in the same time, or two 70 and one 50. I guess the 30 extra points, 3 extra victory points to score for a win and two mats start to add up to the length of the game. It's a shame I didn't have my Sectopod finished just yet, but it's funny how actually playing a game sparks interest in finishing projects - last two days I've done more work for it than during past few weeks.

Assimilating a Shadow

Last Sunday I played a 35 point game at my place.

I was against Convergence of Cyriss, and both lists involved were:


Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- Cankerworm
- Ripjaw
- 2x Helldiver
- Erebus

Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch

Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Satyxis Captain
Warwitch Siren

Opponent had:

Forge Master Syntherion: The Great Machine tier 4
- Corollary
- 2x Diffuser
- Galvanizer (free)
- Cipher
- Monitor
- Assimilator

Optifex Directive
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex
Attunement Servitors
Elimination Servitors

Scenario was Process of Elimination, and Convergence started. Reconstruct was on Assimilator, Hot Shot on Cipher and Synergy was obviously cast.

Cryx had Ashen Veil on Satyxis Raiders and Scything Touch on Erebus. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1.

Various shots from Convergence dropped Erebus' left arm, and Attunement Servitors landed a Flare shot on Satyxis Raiders. Syntherion attempted to cast Magnetic Hold on Satyxis through Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex, but concealment from Ashen Veil saved the raiders this time around.

If I start to play Asphyxious the Hellbringer more, I'm quite sure that my downfall will be trying to get an amazing feat turn. I took a huge risk by casting Mobility with Asphyxious, charging Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex, casting Carnage with Blood Boon and then Asphyxious used his feat.

Erebus advances to wreck Galvanizer, but rolls damage rather poorly and doesn't get to make any attacks against the objective. Well, it's possible that Erebus could have got an attack after wrecking Galvanizer, but I had forgot about the missing arm, and activated Erebus before Necrotech. Why do I even bring those Necrotechs in my lists, because I always forget to use them in a timely manner?

Satyxis Raider Captain tries to shoot some kind of servitor from the way of other Satyxis, but just misses. I had hoped to get a little more Satyxis to charge Diffuser, but it was not to be. Satyxis did use Power Swell anyway, because I thought that all Satyxis would die next turn. Also I wanted to score a scenario point, but looks like four Satyxis with additional damage die aren't enough to deal 15 points to an Arm 18 target. Two Satyxis charges Diffuser anyway, though it meant Elimination Servitor would get free strikes. Servitor killed the other one.

Damage roll against Diffuser was impressive, but P+S 9 attack even with four dice isn't going to wreck a light warjack. At least all three servitors died.

Cankerworm advances and kills two more servitors, and then uses affinity movement to go and engage Cipher. And that was pretty much everything. Cryx had only Ripjaw on the left zone and it worried me a bit.

Asphyxious had charged so far that doing anything meaningful and not giving souls to Asphyxious was a nightmare. So Syntherion feats and hopes to deal enough damage that a bucketload of souls wouldn't be enough for Asphyxious to win the game.

I was happy to break my earlier record of 11 souls from Asphyxious' feat, but now as I'm writing this I realise that in matter of fact Asphyxious gained exactly same amount of souls from feat - the one soul that brought soul count to 12 was from Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex Asphyxious had killed in melee! Bummer. But I guess I'm not allowed to complain here, really.

But, to be honest, those 11 souls weren't free. Cryx lost 18 points worth of warjacks, as well as Vociferon and an arbitrary number of Satyxis Raiders. And Convergence scored a scenario point from the objective Satyxis had failed to destroy.

Next turn both Helldivers are allocated three Focus, but Asphyxious dropped Ashen Veil either last turn or just now.

Helldivers overperform and roll above average enough to destroy both Diffuser on right and Corollary.

Then Satyxis charge all over, but they absolutely fail at everything. No hits were scored to Diffuser in middle, and no damage was scored to Cipher. I think two attacks hit Monitor and dealt damage, though. Satyxis Captain charged Monitor too and showed her crew how damage should be rolled. It was something like 4,5,5,6.

Asphyxious charges Monitor and casts Scything Touch on himself. He had 11 focus left even after casting spells and allocating focus, so Monitor was every kind of dead, and Asphyxious still had a lot of focus to spare - which he used to overboost his power field. A heavy warjack that close to your warcaster with only small based models in between can be hazardous for a warcaster's health, even if the warcaster in question is undead.

Warwitch Siren charged Assimilator on the left zone and scored a hit - pretty much negating Assimilator in the upcoming round.

Then it's Convergence. The one thing Assimilator could do was to destroy another objective.


Syntherion relocates himself to left control zone, and Cipher tramples through Satyxis. With some +3 or +4 synergy chain going on it scored a hit on every Satyxis, and on top of that it wrecked Helldiver.

But as forces were spreading quite thin on both sides, it was Cryx turn soon enough. The surviving Helldiver took a free strike from Optifex Directive, who dared to score seven points of damage. Warwitch Siren scored a hit against Assimilator again, which now, looking back, was one of the most influential roll during whole game.

Satyxis Raider Captain and Asphyxious (who upkept Scything Touch) wrecked Cipher, and two last remaining Satyxis Raiders went to tickle Diffuser. In terms of control points it was 2-2 now, as Asphyxious started dominating right zone.

Syntherion finally kills the annoying witch, but removing a Helldiver with only ranged attacks from Assimilator (and perhaps Convection? I don't remember) was too much. Diffuser, however, could go to contest right zone.

Satyxis Captain and Asphyxious (wow... that Satyxis Captain should be Asphyxious' accomplice instead of Vociferon) wreck the Diffuser, and Asphyxious shoots Hex Blast on Optifex Directive nearby. Helldiver doesn't do anything useful, except to contest left zone so control point situation is 2 for Convergence and 4 for Cryx.

Next round Assimilator and Syntherion beat the snot... umm... necrotite residue? out of Helldiver, but Convergence can't get anyone to contest right zone. So points are 4 for Convergence and 6 for Cryx, which gives the scenario victory for Cryx.

So... both warcasters had carved a little piece of land of their own, and were giving each other the evil eye and shouting harsh words from their respective zones, but neither really being able to leave and kill the other.

Damn it was a brutal game for both sides. And those are the best kinds of games, no?

Failing CMD with Cryx? Almost every game

Last Thursday I played a 35 point game of Warmachine.

Ropecon cut my attempt at stacking games on Asphyxious the Hellbringer, but finally it's time to get him up to fifteen-ish games.

My list was:

Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- 2x Helldiver
- Ripjaw
- Cankerworm
- Erebus

Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch

Satyxis Raider Captain
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Warwitch Siren

Opponent had:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight
- Ravagore
- Scythean
- Carnivean

Maximum unit of Blighted Ogrun Warspears
The Forsaken

Scenario was Rally Point, and Cryx started game.

First picture is from the end of Legion turn 1, and start of Cryx turn 2... before checking for Continuous Effects.

Three heavy warbeasts looked intimidating, as only Erebus and Asphyxious himself had a decent chance of knocking them out. Cryx didn't have access to anything that could remove warbeasts from play - Bone Shaker does that only to warrior models.

Well, I thought that even if some Satyxis died, they'd kill just about all Ogruns with Power Swell, and then Everblight would have only five models to activate per turn. Satyxis had Ashen Veil on, and Scything Touch was on Erebus.

Dreams on Power Swell went down the drain when Continuous Effect Fire from Ravagore who used its animus burned the Sea Witch.

To make matters even worse - Satyxis decided to charge anyway. After all they'd be annoying to remove with effective Def 16 in melee thanks to Ashen Veil.

They roll 9 for their Terror check.

Base CMD of Satyxis is 8.

Ah well. Maybe I might at least get Thagrosh to use his feat next turn, when Erebus with three focus and a focus-less Cankerworm attacked Scythean. Funnily enough Cankerworm advanced ~0.25" into Thagrosh' -2 Strength aura.

Erebus charges Scythean under effects of Mobility and unleashes a combo-strike and some additional attacks - and Scythean is left with two hit boxes and Critical Corrosion from Scything Touch.

That was a really bad turn, but Asphyxious was quite middle in the field with his feat on. I opponent did anything with warbeasts and Thagrosh, he would surely bring the hell next turn. Different question would be if he'd bring it enough to kill at least 3 heavy warbeasts so the attrition game would be on equal level, as Cankerworm and Erebus would surely die.

It's Legion of Everblight next, and I guess it was some sort of relief that only one Satyxis Raider died. Ashen Veil is a disgusting spell on them, I fully agree.

Scythean assaults Erebus, and leaves Erebus with only five boxes remaining.

Thagrosh heals Scythean a little and leaves four or five Fury for transfers.

Scythean fails its activation quite miserably, and Cankerworm is left fully functional.

Ravagore shoots Necrotech all sorts of dead.

All of this yielded 11 souls for Asphyxious.

Game breakers in this game were the Helldivers. Both were allocated two Focus to double insure a succesful slam attack on Ravagore who'd knock down Thagrosh. Thagrosh with 4-5 transfers might very well have survived an Asphyxious with 12 Focus for attacks if Asphyxious needed to boost attack rolls.

Well, first slam was succesful, and it was in fact perfect. Ravagore was slammed full 3" away meaning that its base wouldn't be left over Thagrosh's - and perhaps move Thagrosh away from Asphyxious' reach.

Asphyxious cast Mobility and charged Thagrosh.

All things considered - Asphyxious couldn't have assassinated Thagrosh if he had only been on full Focus. Asphyxious had three Focus remaining when the last attack landed on the prophet.

Alfapet

Oh, I almost forgot.

A couple of days ago I played Alfapet with three players.

It's a nordic Scrabble variant with pretty much exactly same rules as Scrabble, but the board is a little bit different. There are special spaces for minus points, and corner locations give as much as five times the points you'd normally get from a word.

Well... what else can I say?

Ropecon Steamroller 35 - Kaya the Wildborne

The main event for me was Steamroller tournament on Sunday. There was a 50 point Iron Gauntlet style tournament, too. However, I wanted more games in and in Iron Gauntlet I would have played only three games and in Sunday's tournament I would get four.

I'm writing this tournament in two parts, and since I played two games with Kaya the Wildborne and two games with Morvahna the Dawnshadow, I thought I'll make one post for each warlock instead of a chronological order.

Tournament was 35 points with 40 minute deathclock, and otherwise rough schedule, too.

This post will handle my Kaya games.

My list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Feral Warpwolf
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Winter Argus

Tharn Bloodweavers
Swamp Gobbers
Druid Wilder
War Wolf
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Feralgeist


First game was against Minions, and it was the very first game in this tournament. It was Blindwater Congregate lead by Rask. The list:

Rask
- Bull Snapper
- Ironback Spitter
- Swamp Horror

2x Maximum units of Gatorman Posse
2x Croak Hunters

Scenario was... Incursion. Three times in a row Incursion with exactly the same flag disappearing. I dare to say Incursion is biased.

I believe Blindwater started game, and first picture is from the end of Minion turn 2. Rask has used his feat, so there wouldn't be too much charging around.

I thought I might warp for Berserk with Stalker and trample to beat Gatorman Posse. Stalker spent all available Fury on him to desperately buy attacks against crocodiles, but no. Not today. Three Furies worth of attacks yielded just two dead gatormen.

Feral Warpwolf warped for speed and tried to do the same, but could not get within melee range of anything. That qas quite disappointing. Tharn Bloodweavers try to make up for it by running to engage all the Gators. Maybe that would buy me time next turn, or maybe not.

If I'm not entirely mistaken, the Winter Argus sprays one of the Croak Hunters dead and uses its animus. Lanyssa Ryssyll then advances to engage the other Hunter, but doesn't kill the frog.

Then I get to do something I've always dreamed of with Kaya... I cast Spirit Door four times in a turn. First to pull Stalker back to safety, then Feral, then on Kaya to teleport to friendly flag and then on Feral Warpwolf again to block line of sight. I actually scored one control point this way, but as Kaya was going to be entirely without Fury, I didn't bring her to dominate.

Then it was Blindwater Congregation again, and Gatorman Posse (both of them) kill Bloodweavers entirely, as well as charge Winter Argus and Warpwolf Stalker. Damage rolls were high, and re-rolls against living targets really help against Defense 14-15. But worst thing was that Swamp Horror single-handedly killed Feral Warpwolf.

Stalker wasn't quite contesting the middle flag, so Minions scored one control point. It was 1-1 now.

I try what I can. Lanyssa tries to free Winter Argus from melee, but fails. Druid Wilder advances to the farthest corner of Kaya's control area, and Winter Argus then takes a free strike and goes to kill one gatorman who was engaging Warpwolf Stalker. I realised that I wouldn't be able to spray them both dead. First, it would have been difficult to get to Wilder's command range, and second the Gatormen were on a hill. Badly positioned spray could have also killed Warpwolf Stalker who had only a few damage boxes remaining.

So, instead Warpwolf Stalker just whacks the one Gatorman still engaging him dead. Stalker would have really been needed to deal with Swamp Horror, but as it also had Spiny Growth on, Warpwolf Stalker might have actually broken systems.

So... the question was - could Kaya and Scarsleff Griffon kill an Arm 19 heavy warbeast alone?

Hah, of course they cannot.

Swamp Gobbers charge Gatorman Posse and Feralgeist comes to contest middle flag. Come what may.

Gatormen and Bull Snapper kill War Wolf and Scarsfell Griffon. Much to my suprise Kaya's defense 16 was too much for Swamp Horror - she survived!

Ironback Spitter spits Warpwolf Stalker dead. So... I have three models remaining now. Don't remember about Lanyssa though.

Nothing important happened on Circle's last turn - Winter Argus contested middle flag, and then Kaya died.



Game 2:

Second game with Kaya the Wilborne was against Circle of Orboros. Opponent had following list:

Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood, Tree of Fate
- Gorax
- Warpwolf Stalker

Druids of Orboros
Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
Maximum unit of Farrow Bone Grinders
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
2x Gallows Grove

Scenario was Close Quarters. Since Nyss Hunters don't ignore Stealth, Kaya found good use for her Occultation spell. I had quite a lot of Stealth going on there, as Stalker warped for Prowl. I think Cassius started game, and first picture is from the end of Kaya's turn 1.

Nyss Hunters mostly just came to harass Kaya's warbeasts on left, and that was it.

Then it's Kaya's turn, and War Wolf charges and kills one of the Nyss Hunters. The problematic one. Then Stalker warps for Berserk and tramples. Trample misses both Nyss Hunters, though. And its performance there at the enemy flag isn't very convincing either, as only one Nyss and one Shifting Stone breaks down.

Tharn Bloodweavers kill the two trampled Nyss Hunters in the woods and a Gallows Grove that came too close. Scarsfell Griffon teases Nyss Hunters... but damn it, there were still so many of them alive! Perhaps opponent used two minimum units? (Har har.)

Winter Argus attempts to spray one more Shifting Stone away, but even with two boosted POW 12's it didn't break.

Kaya calls Warpwolf Stalker back and hides behind a cloud from Swamp Gobbers. Feral Warpwolf tries to look menacing there at the friendly flag.

Next turn Cassius almost kills Kaya with two boosted Hellmouths. That 3" sure is a long distance... eww. Anyway, this meant that opponent used almost all of his resources there, and other casualties were quite low. However, dehydration from terrible climate and tiredness from the weekend started to kick in during this game - despite my low model count my clock was already running out.

Hastily Warpwolf Stalker warped berserk and trampled again, this time clearing a whole bunch of models. Scarsfell Griffon continued to torment Nyss Hunters, and Winter Argus tried to get a critical hit on Warpwolf Stalker. Didn't get it with three dice, but it did freeze a Shifting Stone with only two. How cool is that?

Kaya used her feat and destroyed a Shifting Stone and Gallows Grove, teleported away and healed beasts what she could. Feral Warpwolf ate the last shifting stone there at my friendly flag, and then I just hoped for best.

Warpwolf Stalker died to Warpwolf Stalker, hah. Opponent was running out of time, too. Still Cassius got time for one more Hellmouth, which dropped at least Feralgeist and Lanyssa Ryssyll.

Looked like I would still have one more turn, but I just couldn't figure out a way how I'd get to Cassius or Wurmwood. Now if only Scarsfell Griffon had had reach... Oh well. Feral Warpwolf kills enemy Stalker, and that all that's worth mentioning. Next turn opponent kills all Kaya's beasts so she has nothing to transfer to, and then Cassius and Wurmwood play some leapfrog together, and suddenly Kaya is fertilized into a wood.

I think both of these games with Kaya were more entertaining than those two with epic Morvahna even if I lost them. Well, one of the contributing factors is probably that I've never played against Rask or Cassius, and I always take a special pleasure in fighting against new warcasters and warlocks.

Ropecon Steamroller 35 - Morvahna the Dawnshadow

So, this is the second part of my 35 point Steamroller tournament at Ropecon.

This has both games I played with Morvahna the Dawnshadow, and her list was:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Shaman + Chieftain
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer

With a list like that I hoped I wouldn't clock myself out that easily.

First game was against Protectorate of Menoth. Heck, next one was, too.

Opponent had a list something like this:

High Exemplar Kreoss
- 2x Reckoner

Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith Bearer
Minimum unit of Deliverers
Rhoven & Bodyguards
Maximum unit of Choir of Menoth
2x Vassal of Menoth

If I'm reading the picture right, Circle got to start the game. Holy Zealots are under the effect of Greater Destiny.

Because there was a forest quite close there in the middle, I felt confident enough to push aggressively despite of the threat Kreoss' feat has. Circle's second turn starts with a charge from Ravagers. They try to tie up Zealots - after all Ravagers just might survive in melee against non-charging Zealots. One Ravager even gets to tease Deliverers, and Shaman assaults Kreoss. And hits. And deals five-six points damage in or so. Toten staff really overperformed there.

Pureblood Warpwolf stayed on watch at the left side, and everything else parks behind the forest hoping for mercy.

Kreoss didn't use his feat yet, which meant a nightmare for me the turn after mine. An annoying meat wall of infantry formed in-between Ravagers and Reckoners. Vassals were dealing out ancillary attacks and Enliven, so the heavy warjacks were out of my reach in every way possible. Luckily though damage done wasn't too bad overall. Pureblood was shot by Reckoners, I think, but it didn't go down. Three Ravagers were the only actual losses.

Since scenario had killbox, either Morvahna would back off now and give control points to Kreoss, or get knocked down next turn. I decide to go in for an assassination. I don't remember how much Kreoss was camping focus, if any, but with Morvahna's re-rolls I would most probably get in a POW 14 spray from Pureblood Warpwolf. And it did, but I no longer remember the damage done.

Gnarlhorn turns into a lumberjack and kills off Gallows Grove.

Morvahna charges objective, uses her feat to place Gallows Grove on Kreoss' back arc. First boosted Sunder Spirit kills Kreoss, but after the game we noticed that Morvahna couldn't have claimed back strike bonus - after all, the point of origin of spell hadn't been in the back arc of Kreoss from the beginning of Morvahna's activation.

Nobody could remember the actual hit roll, but it wasn't a near miss situation. As the attack would have most probably have hit anyway, I won't have a guilty conscience over this - but it does take away some of the enjoyment from victory.

Game 2:

Next time I picked Morvahna was versus Protectorate of Menoth again. And it was the right choice, really, as opponent picked Grand Exemplar Kreoss. I have really bad experiences from Grand Exemplar Kreoss against Kaya the Wildborne.

List was something like:

Grand Exemplar Kreoss
- Fire of Salvation
- Avatar of Menoth

Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Hierophant
Covenant of Menoth

Circle got to start the game, and scenario was Balance of Power. First picture must be from the end of Circle's second turn.

Exemplar Errants had Sacrosanct on them. Thanks to Sacrosanct and Self Sacrifice Ravagers were pretty much useless against them when it came to either healing Morvahna with Carnivore, or killing more than one model per turn.

Well, two charging Ravagers destroyed Movement from Fire of Salvation.

Next turn all but one Ravager die to all the weapon master infantry Protectorate has. Avatar of Menoth steps in to the scenario zone, as well as one Bastion. The Avatar was the hardest part here, but otherwise situation didn't look too bad. I could probably start to score for scenario.

Apparently it seems that this is last picture from the entire game. Oh well. Now there's a good chance I'll forget things.

I think Gorax used Primal on Pureblood Warpwolf, who then went to beat Avatar. Gnarlhorn Satyr killed the one Bastion who was contesting the zone, and I believe that Morvahna herself went and finished Avatar (I may remember this one wrong, but I remember I was at least thinking it during game), used her feat to bring back all the Ravagers to block Protectorate yet again, and then she used light cavalry movement to back off a little, but still dominating the area.

Oh, it might have been a charging blackclad wayfarer who wrecked Avatar! I promised a promotion to that guy.

Pureblood Warpwolf died to Fire of Salvation and some Bastions. Gnarlhorn Satyr survived, thanks to the Tharn Ravager screen. I don't remember who or what came to contest the zone, probably some Bastions were able to sneak their toe into scenario zone. Perhaps even Fire of Salvation? If it has speed 5, then maybe.

Gnarlhorn at least unleashed its full fury on Bastions, and if there were any Ravagers left they probably stalled Exemplar Errants. But it's useless for me to make vague guesses - the most important thing here was dominating the zone for second turn. Circle was at 4 points.

Next turn Kreoss uses his feat, and I believe all but Gorax and Shifting Stones died, though there weren't too many models standing at the opposing side either. Nothing could reach Morvahna, who was just within the zone, in the south-east corner.

Next turn all Morvahna had to do was to mop up any and all contesting Choir members. This was the last game for the steamroller tournament, as well as for Ropecon.