Scaverous vs High Exemplar Kreoss

Last Wednesday I played a 25 point Warmachine game against an aspiring Protectorate of Menoth player.

My list was:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous
- Ripjaw

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + Brute Thrall + Skarlock Overseer
Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius
- Reaper
Skarlock
Pistol Wraith
Soul Trappers
Ragman

Opponent had:

High Exemplar Kreoss
- Avatar of Menoth
- Reckoner
- Repenter

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Minimum unit of Deliverers

We didn't play any scenario, and the intimidated Kreoss cornered himself. No problem. Reaper could go and drag him out of his hole.

I had Death Ward on Mechanithralls so that they wouldn't all just die to Deliverer shots. Kreoss had cast Defender's Ward on Repenter, as Avatar had accidentally ran too far before Kreoss activated.

First picture is from an interesting situation, where Avatar had attempted to slam Reaper. Idea behind this was to catch Aiakos under the slam and kill him. Slam fell short just by something like two millimetres. Well. Not everything went sour for Protectorate that turn - Reckoner assaulted Scaverous and dealt nine points of damage. Repenter scorched Ragman.

Next turn Scaverous used feat. He used Ripjaw as an arc node and turned Reckoner and Repenter around so that they wouldn't charge next turn. Then he cast Feast of Worms on Reaper to get that -2 Arm for Avatar. Then he cast Telekinesis two more times on some Mechanithralls to ensure they'd reach Avatar.

Reaper and Mechanithralls wrecked Avatar. Skarlock cast Death Ward on Scaverous. Pistol Wraith and Mechanithralls had already caused a massive casualties check for Deliverers, who had failed.

Now its time for Kreoss to use his feat. Reckoner tried to advance and shoot Scaverous, but Scaverous had not been under Kreoss' feat. Shot missed.

Repenter scorched a couple of Mechanithralls and the Brute Thrall.

Well. I had plenty of options now. I took the most interesting one instead of the safest. Hey, I was playing against a new guy. Of course he has to see wicked combo chains! So I went for Kreoss, who had two focus points boosting his Arm score to 17.

So. Every model I had tried to remove one choir member that was in between Reaper and Kreoss. None succeeded, so Scaverous had to cast Telekinesis on him. Then he cast Telekinesis on Reaper and Icy Grip on Kreoss. Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Reaper, who then charged Kreoss with +2" movement from Escort.

Miraculously the charge attack hit (I've been having trouble with those lately...), and after that every attack hit. Out of the four attacks I was able to make, there was only one really damn poor damage roll. Others were at least average. But... I was playing Scaverous.

It had thought my the Curse of Scaverous had been lifted, as last couple of games with him haven't been that terrible.

But there it was again. Kreoss survived with only one hit point.

Mechanithralls then made some kind of attempt to block Reckoner from reaching Scaverous.

That didn't help, though. Mechanithrall in front of Scaverous was just far enough to stop Reckoner from getting within 2", but there was the Assault shot. The shot required 11+ to kill. And it was 6,5,4 or something along the lines of that.

Meh. The curse is back, but at least it made for quite an exciting introductory game.