A Pictureless Warmachine Tournament

I still haven't received any word about my camera, so I guess I'll have to write these down as soon as possible now.

So, last weekend I took part in a 50 point Warmachine tournament. Fortunately all of the games were memorable in their own way.

My lists were:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Gorax
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Woldguardian

Shifting Stones + Stone keeper
Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain + Shaman
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Tharn Ravager White Mane

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gorax
- Riphorn Satyr
- Warpwolf Stalker
Druids of Orboros + Overseer2
Shifting Stones + Stone keeper
Tharn Bloodweavers
Minimum unit of Ravagers + Chieftain + Shaman
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Reeve Hunter

Objective: Bunker


First game was against Retribution of Scyrah, and Issyria.

Issyria had Hyperion, Mage Hunter Strike Force and both Sentinels and Invictors.

I had picked Morvahna the Dawnshadow as my list. Scenario was Incursion.

I started playing scenario game after the full unit of Ravagers tied up Mage Hunter Strike Force and, to some extent, Hyperion. Issyria's feat took down Pureblood Warpwolf (plus tons of infantry, but they would just be coming back). Game looked pretty good, especially when I was looking at the scenario points. I would go to four points at the end of my turn, and opponent had got only two.

That was the extent of my strategic thinking, though.

Opponent also scored third point as I got my fourth. Now opponent would only need to get two points on Retribution turn, which was easy as I hadn't been dedicating too much contestants to the middle flag. Not that I even had that many contestants left any more.

But still. Game ended in 4-5 scenario victory for Retribution.

Game 2:

Second game was against Khador. Warcaster was Sorscha2, and there was the full nightmare of Winter Guards in the list, as well as Beast-09 and Iron Fang pikemen. I was playing Morvahna again. I think the scenario was Incoming.

Opponent rolled tough really well at the beginning of the game, and Ravagers weren't able to make much of a dent to the Winterguard detachment. I don't have any right to complain about those tough rolls. My Wolves of Orboros were passing tough rolls quite well also.

I started grinding scenario points again, as enemy was clogged down with Ravagers and even Wolves of Orboros to some extent. Shatterstorm and Freezing Grip were scary spells, though, but opponent wasn't able to completely devastate my game with them. At one point opponent forgot to cast Boundless Charge on Beast-09, and so it didn't come to wreck Woldguardian.

It was a bloody game and most of the infantry from both sides was either dead or frozen. Opponent still had Great Bears of Gallowswood and Greylord Ternion going on for him.

I'm at three scenario points when Beast-09 charges in to the zone I had been dominating. Beast failed to kill Pureblood Warpwolf, but the Spirit was broken.

If I would've paid closer attention to things, I would've probably been able to take a scenario victory. But as it happened, I wanted to heal Pureblood's spirit. That meant Morvahna had to activate first. And, well... though her damage output is pretty decent, she wasn't able to drop uninjured Beast in one round. Thanks to Sorscha's bond Morvahna froze in place. Nice.

Well, Pureblood did kill the Beast and I was at four scenario points.

Morvahna had a couple of Fury left for transfers, but she was DEF 5 and had something like two or three damage points left.

I was a little bummed that I had lost two games at four control points.

Game 3:

Then I was against Skorne, Mordikaar more specifically. Mordikaar had Aradus Sentinel, Cyclops Raider, a unit of Nihilators and a full set of Immortals. There was also a minimum unit of Incindiarii. Scenario was Outflank.

I took Mohsar as my list. Opponent used feat a turn too early, so the effects of +3 defense were mitigated quite a bit. My own feat usage was a little underwhelming, too, as I only got the Aradus with four fury under my feat. I almost had the Cyclops Raider under too, who had two or three. Aradus failed threshold check, and the distraction bought me time to start playing scenario game once more.

I pretty much gave the left side of the table to Skorne. There were only the remnants of Ravagers duking it out with Immortals. This gave me quite good presence on the right side, and I dominated four points relatively easy. The last point was the tough one yet again, when tons of Skorne started pouring into the zone to deny me that precious last point.

If I would've lost Riphorn Satyr to all the attacks opponent threw against it, the last turn would've been a lot more difficult. But now I had Riphorn Satyr and Warpwolf Stalker removing the enemy infantry. I felt so secure that I played a little bit of foolishly and trampled through my own models to get to the remaining Nihilators. Soon enough there was only Gatorman Witch Doctor remaining, and I charged the croc with Mohsar himself.

Game 4:

Last game was againt epic Lylyth with three Ravagores and Zuriel, and two Deathstalkers. I took Mohsar and the scenario was probably Recon.

This was kind of an annoying game. But sometimes you need such humbling experiences so that you won't become overconfident about eye gauging (gouging?) distances.

Opponent had zero fury points on Lylyth, and to me it looked like I'd be able to get her under Mohsar's feat. I decided to try a wacky approach, and run a Druid of Orboros within reach of Lylyth, and then deny transfers for Lylyth for two complete rounds. With Sands of Fate I would've tried to come and tickle her a little and then be off. Next turn hopefully at least a couple of Legion beasts would fail their THR check.

I did get Lylyth under Mohsar's feat, but the Druid of Orboros was less than two millimetres away. Damn. Also, only Naga Nightlurker failed THR next turn. If only one of the Ravagores or perhaps Zuriel had failed, my Riphorn Satyr could have survived. But not like this. Lylyth obviously tried to play safe and went deeper into the forest she was hiding in.

Next turn is depressing. I figured out that I'd be able to kill Zuriel and a Ravagore easily, plus with some good rolls another Ravagore would go down.

My plan was to shoot Hunter's Mark on a Ravagore in the woods near Lylyth and then charge in with Warpwolf Stalker with Primal. Blackclad Wayfarer advanced to cast the spell, but there was less than a millimetre in between Stealth range. Great. Well, at least I'd kill Zuriel and a Ravagore.

Druids would need to pull Zuriel just a little, one or two inches, so that at least three, possibly four Bloodweavers would be able to charge Zuriel. Obviously the druid pulled the full 3" so that a scather template made it impossible for one flank of Bloodweavers to even attempt a charge.

A couple of other Druids tried to come and pull the Ravagore that had been my original target from the woods. That was a miss, so a second druid would be way out of stealth range.

Two Bloodweavers that charge Zuriel don't really do much damage there, so instead of charging one Ravagore with four Ravagers, I charge the Ravagore with three and get one of the Ravagers to soften up Zuriel so that I wouldn't need to use Primal on Warpwolf Stalker.

Two millimetres attack again, and one of the three Ravagers didn't get within reach. And even with good rolls two Ravagers just aren't enough to kill a Ravagore.

To smear some salt into the many mental injuries, Warpwolf Stalker fails to kill Zuriel. I forget what model I used to finally kill it, probably Mohsar.

Damn it. I had wonderful opportunity to play a scenario game once more, but I threw it away in pursuit of greater glory. It was too late now, and being out of range by just a couple of millimetres on many different critical points in the game cost me everything.