I had finished painting a third Helldiver, so obviously I had to make a list that utilises it.
Here was what I came up with:
Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- 3x Helldiver
- Nightmare
Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Maximum unit of Soulhunters
Withershadow Combine
Darragh Wrathe
Satyxis Captain
Warwitch Siren
Pistol Wraith
Objective: Effigy of Valor (Why? Because I don't trust CMD 9 anymore.)
Opponent had Legion of Everblight. What was sad, however, was the fact that Asphyxious wouldn't be getting trillion zillion souls from a ton of Legion warbeasts, no.
List was:
Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight
- Archangel
- Carnivean
Maximum unit of Warspears + Chieftain
Blackfrost Shard
Maximumm unit of Croak Raiders
Shepherd
Objective: Arcane Wonder
Scenario was Two Fronts. There have been a lot of fronts lately... Anyway, Legion started game. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1, where failing hard has already begun. I had just told the opponent how fun it is to make that 14" charge with Satyxis Raiders, though sometimes holding them back for one additional turn might actually be a better option. But here we go again, charging to 14" and running to engage to 18" - with Ashen Veil on them for maximum annoyance.
In the middle of the activation of Satyxis Raiders I notice that Satyxis Captain hasn't, well, activated yet. So what could have been a charge against three to four Croaks and tying most of the unit up came off as no charge attacks and engaging what... four of them? I made a mental note of playing a little better the upcoming turns. And I guess I did. But sometimes you need a little more than just playing a little better...
Turn 2 from Legion isn't that bad, though. Only four Satyxis die to attack made by tons of frogmen, the Archangel, Carnivean and the Ogrun Warspears. Important bit here is that it doesn't cause a Command check for them. I'm starting to feel like Cmd 9 equals Cmd 7 for me. Sea Witch is set on fire, though.
On my turn the fire wears (thankfully) off.
Since it was second players second turn, I saw a real opening for scenario play. I brought Asphyxious as far forward as possible, cast Scything Touch on Soulhunters and Ashen Veil on himself. Asphyxious even used his feat to discourage opponent from bringing beasts closer. It's possible I was a bit over-cautious and paranoid there, but hey. So many times I have overextended my warcaster. This game would not be one of those... maybe.
Honourable mention goes to Pistol Wraith during this turn. It advanced a bit and wanted to shoot the Warspear dead who was contesting my friendly zone with his toe. First attack hit, no problem. Damage roll, however, was 1,1. Oh well. Maybe second shot would at least soften the Ogrun up for something else to kill it? Yes, it's a hit! Damage roll. However. Was 1,1. Well done! Then Pistol Wraith attempted the third Death Chill attack. Attack roll is 1,3. And Wraith needed fives to hit. Really?
Withershadow Combine activated next. Tremulus gave Puppet Master for Soulhunters, and Maelovus and Admonia tried to shoot the Warspear that had been impervious to any damage and to any effect at all that Pistol Wraith had tried to do. Turns out the iron liches aren't any better in shooting Def 12 targets.
Satyxis use Power Swell and charge around. Four Satyxis charged the Croak Raiders, and two charged Ogrun Warspears. One of the Satyxis brought herself within 4" of the objective so they wouldn't need to take a dreaded command check. If I'm counting right I made seven attacks with MAT 6 against DEF 13. Two attacks (2) hit. Both scored a kill, though. But still. Then there were two Satyxis that had charged a Warspear that was contesting my friendly zone. That Warspear also had Spiny Growth on. One Satyxis didn't get charge bonuses, so she rolled her attacks first. It's possible she scored one or two damage points with two attacks. The last Satyxis suffered Set Defence penalties, so I didn't really expect her to hit or do anything. Rolls had been so horrible anyway. But damage roll came up as 5,5,6,6 or something comparable. Was this the turning point?
Next Satyxis Captain charges enemy objective. I think the attack did seven points of damage. Plasma Nimbus took Satyxis Captain's life, though. Good riddance.
Incorporeal Soulhunters charge next. Only one gets to the objective, which was nasty as I had somehow hoped I'd get two.
One Soulhunter charges the Warspear who had dodged Pistol Wraith and the Withershadow Combine.
I spent the Puppet Master on destroying the enemy objective. I think it was left with one damage box or something, and one of my dice had been a one. At least re-roll helped here and the objective was a wreck.
Next it's time to make cavalry charge attack against the last Warspear who was contesting zone. It's a hit, YES! The Warspear has been actually HIT. My moral was immediately raised... only to be crushed miserably with the poor damage roll. It did damage, but not enough to get a kill.
On the verge of tears I make light cavalry movements, and the heroic Soulhunter took two free strikes from various Warspears. Needless to say, the horsie became an undead sausage.
Now. I still had Darragh Wrathe. I had been planning on bringing him up and casting Beyond Death, but instead he had to try to shoot the thrice damned Warspear with Hellfire. And finally... finally after five failed attacks the Warspear went down. And I got two scenario points.
Darragh and one Helldiver tried to block Line of Sight to Asphyxious.
Turn 3 for Legion. I had to double check that there has not been one full round in between the pictures, but no. All that devastation came from just one turn of Legion activations.
Satyxis took a severe beating, and only one of them survived. Much to my amazement she succeeded in her Command check.
With great trouble Legion manages to clear their friendly zone of Cryx models, so it became a scenario race at this point. All the Soulhunters died, too, but it warmed my bittered soul that my objective did not die just yet.
Asphyxious got three souls from his feat.
Then it's time for me to contest enemy zone somehow and clear my own to get to three scenario points. Should be easy. Should. There's only two Warspears and Scythean with Spiny Growth in my friendly zone. And Scythean is Nightmare's Prey.
Nightmare is allocated three focus.
Darragh and two Dark Fires from Withershadow Combine should do the trick against the middle Warspear, and Nightmare should be able to dispatch Scythean and possibly the Warspear, too. If not the Warspear, Asphyxious could come to help.
Tremulus casts Puppet Master on Nightmare, and Admonia and Maelovus shoot the middle Warspear with little to no damage. It HAS to be that position. There must be something magical in it, something sinister and menacing.
Darragh then trod close to that Warspear fellow, and he had P+S 13 and 12 attacks. I don't remember the actual damage rolls, but I do remember that after these four attacks the bastard was alive with five hit boxes.
It's looking a bit grim, but I decide to sacrifice one of my Helldivers for the greater good. It has to take one free strike from a Warspear, which very likely would cause a lot of damage. But Helldivers have such an annoying damage grid that it's difficult to destroy any of the systems - and I didn't care about Cortex.
Warspear does a meager damage roll of fifteen points in and breaks Helldiver's head. At that point I wasn't sure if I was laughing or if I was crying - or if those two were very much the same thing in situations like these.
Nightmare advances into melee with Scythean and somehow manages to roll damage so nicely that it cannot buy any additional attacks after killing the warbeast - and tusks didn't kill the other Warspear in the zone. It somehow looked like Warwitch Siren might be able to charge the Warspear Nightmare had failed to kill, but I guess in my desperation I was thinking about the total threat range and added Reach on top of that. Charge fell so much short that looking at it in the picture embarrasses me.
I couldn't figure out a reliable way of getting rid of both Warspears with Asphyxious and stay safe from Archangel's retaliation, so I gave up on getting that third scenario point. Asphyxious tried to come and kill the most defiant Warspear, and just to stay on the safe side he boosts attack roll. It's a hit, but it's a bitter one.
In the enemy zone I had brought one Helldiver to contest the zone and try to eat a Blackfrost Shard member.
Now there's a full round in between the pictures, looks like.
Turn 4 Archangel wrecks Nightmare and Thagrosh uses feat to bring Scythean back. Tons of Croaks and Thagrosh are more than enough to wreck the Helldiver who was contesting, so point situation was now 2-2. Beautiful thing here was, however, that my own objective was still alive. At least I had one model, too, that rivalled the Warspears in endurance!
Cryx has its hands full with removing only three Warspears. Most of the trouble came from the fact that they were engaged.
I get my second really good roll in this game when Vociferon... yes, Vociferon charges a Warspear. And no less than one-shots it. My MAT 5, P+S 8 model succeeds where multiple necro scythes and darkest magics had failed.
Asphyxious kills one of the Warspears and combined efforts of Warwitch Siren and Darragh Wrathe kills the last one. Darragh dealt the killing blow, so it triggered a free spell, which was Beyond Death.
Scores: 3-2 in favor of Cryx.
Turn 5 Legion crushes the last Helldiver I had that was able to contest enemy zone. Yet the Croaks and Archangel somehow start to roll absurdly poorly. Not that I complained at all when my luck had been what it had been...
Croaks, Blackfrost Shard and Archangel manage only to destroy Darragh Wrathe. Scores go 3-3 and my objective is still standing.
On my turn Asphyxious leisurely walks to Archangel, kills Shepherd with initial attack, casts Scything Touch on himself with Blood Boon and starts hacking and slashing the Archangel. Venethrax would've been proud - Asphyxious single-handedly one-rounded the Archangel. Well okay, I may exaggerate a little. It took him all of his focus. And he had nine.
Warwitch Siren ran to contest enemy zone, and score was 4-3, in favor of Cryx. It's almost too painful to think what those scores had been if one particular Warspear would have had the dignity to die at one certain point of the game... Now all rested on the shoulders of Warwitch Siren. And, well, my objective.
Turn 6 I don't remember what Blackfrost Shard did, and why they didn't come to contest? There was some reason for that, but I can't remember what it was. Vociferon's free strikes, perhaps? Objective had been Kissed, that's for sure at least.
Croaks throw some oil and darts at Effigy of Valor and destroy it, so it's 4-4 now.
Thagrosh succeeds in killing Warwitch Siren, so scores would be 5-5, unless opponent got something to contest my friendly zone. Well, there was the Scythean there, though.
Now, looking back, I might have tried to block Scythean from entering my zone with Withershadow Combine. But when they activated there was still this small distraction on 120mm base standing on my zone, and I had been thinking I'd need Puppet Master and any random damage I could do to kill the dragon.
Oh well.
It was a tough and close game, and not only that... it was depressingly hilarious in all its absurdness. After all opponent managed to make his share of bad rolls at some critical moments, too, so there were times when this epic battle looked more like a pillow fight than anything life threatening.
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