Fist game was last Sunday.
To some of you the armies involved may look familiar. Yes. They're both my own armies. We got a "new" old player who's about to start Cryx, but since his army is still in an unnamed freighter somewhere out there in the big world, I loaned my Cryx for this game.
My list is vaguely the same as earlier, though I made it a little more useable in the warbeast department.
My list was:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Argus
- Rotterhorn Griffon
- Riphorn Satyr
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Objective: Arcane Wonder
Opponent had:
Pirate Queen Skarre
- Seether
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 1x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Skarlock
Objective: Bunker
... and that's all. The way War Room handles warjack points caused opponent to build a 29 point list instead. Well. That's probably a mistake you make only once. High model count managed to make Cryx army look "big enough", so it didn't raise my suspicions either.
That being said, the game was far from a one-sided faceroll anyway. Circle of Orboros started game and first picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1. Morvahna cast Regrowth of Wolves of Orboros and Harvest on herself.
The platform in the picture blocks camera's Line of Sight to Bile Thralls, who ran to top-east corner. We had agreed that the walls were obstructions that give cover as one would expect, but the platform was accessible otherwise from all directions.
Anyway. Turn 2 Wolves of Orboros continued to move to east, as far from Bile Thralls as possible. They're just too cancerous for Regrowthed targets that mere sight of them gives instant tumors.
Rest of my advancement was cautious, too. I went to contest the zone and wanted to place Riphorn Satyr so it would be able to wreck enemy objective next turn and that no Seethers and/or Bane Thralls would charge it just yet. Morvahna cast Restoration on the goat. Druids put up some Vortex clouds and anti-magic field.
I wasn't expecting Skarre to use her feat just yet, but I think it was the right moment to do exactly that. Wrecking the objective was kind of out of question now. Skarre cast Hellfire on Riphorn Satyr, which was interesting since I had anti-magic field on. I need to make a better reminder token for that... Otherwise Cryx just advanced, though a couple of Bane Thralls charged Wolves of Orboros. A Bile Thrall purged Druid of Orboros dead and caused corrosion on Argus and a Shifting Stone. Or perhaps not... somehow I don't remember anyone using purge. Did RAT 3 really hit DEF 14?
Turn 3 Morvahna upkept all spells and brought three Wolves of Orboros back. White Mane and Blackclad Wayfarer tried to fill Morvahna with fury by killing soft targets. Soft armor 17-18 targets. Well. They were not enough, so Argus ate some rotten Bile Thrall flesh also. Morvahna finally activated and used her feat. She cast a couple of devastating Eruption of Lives and was left with no fury points for transfers.
Since opponent didn't have anyone to repair Seether, I thought that maybe with a little bit of luck Riphorn would be able to tear off an arm and throw the jack away with chain attack. Shifting Stones teleported Riphorn to brawl with Seether. Plan was a half-success. Damage was laughable even when I boosted it on a couple of occasions. I got mixed up in my calculations and had forced Riphorn full when I resolved chain attack. Satyr had no Fury left to boost, so everything relied on a 7+ with two dice. This time it worked - and I'm glad it did, since total damage being done was five or less.
Druids of Orboros tried to shoot some random thralls, and they managed to kill two. Then Wolves of Orboros activated and started poking Bane Thralls. And that's all they did, really. Harmlessly poked around. Two Bane Thralls who were outside of Morvahna's feat went down easily enough, but then either every attack missed or didn't deal enough damage to punch through Arm 15 and 20. So... Morvahna didn't get any forest templates from her feat. A feat well spent!
Bane Thralls must have had some sort of spell on them - outside of the game, I mean. Three thralls killed Riphorn Satyr, and not a single thrall missed attack roll against Wolves of Orboros.
Last remaining Bile Thrall purged Gallows Grove and a Druid of Orboros dead. This time I'm positive that Argus took the corrosion.
There were only two Mechanithralls contesting the middle zone, so turn 4 I made all efforts to start securing scenario victory. With Riphorn gone and Wolves of Orboros stuck in an endless fight against Bane Thralls, there weren't many models for me able to cut through even the pesky Arm 17 of Seether.
Argus and Blackclad Wayfarer cleared the zone, and then Morvahna charged the objective herself. It took quite a few attacks to chew through it, so she wasn't able to cast any actual spells. In the end Shifting Stones teleported her to safety inside a druid's Vortex cloud.
Rotterhorn Griffon charged Brute Thrall and killed it after spending all available fury. Yay...
Scenario was 3-0 for Circle now.
There wasn't much else for Cryx other than to try and stuff the zone full of random models and hope Circle would have a major dice screw next turn.
No dice screw, and 5-0 scenario victory for Circle.
Granted, Cryx was playing six points down against a warlock who does attrition pretty well in right circumstances. I should have probably left Seether alone on turn three and saved Riphorn to actually counter Seether and not throw it around like basket ball. After all Seether wouldn't have been able to charge anywhere itself either from behind the obstacle. But I got to make throw attack, the joy... almost a throw move.
Game 2:
Finally I had to admit that I'm wasting Rotterhorn's potential here, and I don't want to give me impression that it's a poor model. With a heavy sigh I dropped it from my list and got the following list instead last Tuesday:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Argus
- Riphorn Satyr
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
2x Gallows Grove
Reeve Hunter
War Wolf
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Opponent had:
Warwitch Deneghra
- Nightwretch
- Defiler
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Withershadow Combine
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
2x Pistol Wraiths
Scenario was Close Quarters, and opponent let me go first. The usual turn 1 happened again, Regrowth on Wolves and Harvest on Morvahna. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1. Cryx ran forward. Three Mechanithralls try to bait my forces into charging and over-extending. And they succeed. I clump a big chunk of Wolves and various other models closer to enemy friendly flag. Only two of the Mechanithralls die thanks to certain double pip.
Morvahna cast Restoration on Riphorn Satyr. Druids cast Vortexes and put up anti-magic field.
Cryx turn 2 Deneghra plays a little too safe when she uses her feat. Morvahna is out of her control area plus most of the Druid of Orboros. I had been afraid that Deneghra would advance straight forward and use Withering to deny me casting anti-magic field next turn. Yeah. Even after all these years I always initially think Withering forbids special actions also... which it doesn't. But hey. At Least I got a little bit of extra thrill.
Mechanithralls and Pistol Wraiths make impressive job in reducing Wolf count. From a full unit of twelve models only four remains. Bane Thralls who are up there in the picture miss their attacks against War Wolf and Ravager White Mane, so Wolves remain the only real casualty.
Turn 3 most of them just jump right back, though. This meant Morvahna was at zero fury even before activations began. To fill her fury pool I tried to teleport Riphorn Satyr so that it might be able to kill Maelovus and Tremulus and a lone Mechanithrall. Eight inches weren't quite enough to do that, so instead Riphorn was teleported to kill three Mechanithralls. Such fine use for a nine point warbeast.
Gallows Grove in north teleports itself to deny tough rolls from three Bane Thralls. White Mane kills one, but War Wolf is just as good at killing Banes as Banes were killing it. I think I activated Druids of Orboros first to score a few kills from easy targets, and of course to add anti-magic to the equation. No, actually that's not what happened. Druids knocked down and pulled Defiler to melee with Wolves of Orboros. It has had to be Blackclad Wayfarer who sprayed single Bane Thrall or something.
Morvahna finally activated and used her feat. She cast Eruption of Life twice - once on Bane Thralls and once on Pistol Wraith.
Wolves of Orboros charged (except for the two or three who were under Withering) and formed a nice wall of forest between Cryx and Circle. Well, except for the Riphorn Satyr who felt a sudden gush of loneliness and isolation when there were no friendly models in sight - only the dead, and the trees. Anyway. One of the Wolves managed to kill the second Pistol Wraith, who were greatest threat to anti-magic field.
Cryx then charges with Bane Thralls (who had Ghost Walk from Skarlock) but they fail to have any meaningful impact. Honourable mention goes to the three Bane Thralls who all miss their attacks against War Wolf.
The scary moment was when Withershadow Combine activated. I had been telling me throughout the game that "don't bring Wolves and Riphorn Satyr both close to Admonia". Well. What can I say. I really, really wanted to charge Mechanithralls, I guess. There went Regrowth and Restoration. Morvahna took two damage from the removal.
Deneghra cast one Scourge on Argus, but it missed and deviated back. It did take one Druid with it.
Turn 4 was rather brutal. Riphorn kills both Tremulus and Admonia, and Wolves of Orboros used Power Swell to take care of the Defiler. They also blew up Cortex from Nightwretch. Morvahna re-cast Regrowth on Wolves of Orboros and Restoration on Riphorn Satyr.
We didn't continue the game after Circle turn 4, since there didn't seem to be any potential even for an awkward assassination.
No comments:
Post a Comment