With bitterness I bid farewell for my Warmachine & Hordes MkII statistics.
This is a fond recap of my Mk2 career with arbitrary highlights and statistical anomalies.
General breakdown:
The total number of Mk2 games was 439. This figure includes all demo games and other styles of play that couldn't make it to proper statistics. This is 309 games more than during Mk1. Total win/loss percentages for Mk2 were 54,21% wins and 45,79% losses, not including draws and the statistically impossible game modes.
Protectorate was #1 main adversary with no other faction coming even close. They were against me 102 times in Mk2. A special mention goes to High Exemplar Kreoss with 38 games played. That's more games against him than complete factions of Retribution, Convergence, Mercenaries, Circle of Orboros, Skorne, Trollbloods and Minions. I have to admit that once I saw this trend, I kind of started to stack games against Kreoss1 on purpose. I wanted each of my warcaster to have at least one game played against him. And that was accomplished.
Second most games I played against Cygnar (58) and third was Legion of Everblight (50)
Legion was by far my most difficult match-up, with net result being 20 wins and 30 losses.
From factions that I played against at least 30 times, the best record was against Khador with 28 wins and 17 losses.
I never lost any game against Butcher1 (played against him five times) and I never won even one game against Baldur1 (three games)
Out of all 159 released warcasters and warlocks I got to play at least one game against 109 out of them, translating to 68,5%
Protectorate was closest to completion on getting to play against each faction warcaster - only Thyra and Reznik2 were never against me. Legion of Everblight was second, missing only Kallus and Lylyth3. Technically I did play against each and every one of Convergence warcasters, but their caster pool is so low in number that I don't think they are fair to count. Retribution was also missing two (Vyros1 and Thyron), but they also have much less warcasters than even Hordes faction.
All games were spread over fifteen different cities plus Vassal.
Faction breakdowns:
Cryx
Cryx was my most played faction with a total of 216 game played. It was my starting faction in 2007 when I began playing Warmachine Mk1. My faction loyalty is adamant, as is my warcaster loyalty. Once I add a warcaster or warlock to my army, I never take it out of rotation. This probably explains why Cryx was most played faction. I have the most warcasters for it. Eleven, to be exact. As I just added a Deneghra3 to my caster pool, the average number of games per Cryxian warcaster ended up being only 19,63.
Out of the 216 Cryx games 167 was against Warmachine with 97 wins and 69 losses, and 49 games against Hordes with 28 wins and 20 losses. Both numbers are a bit off, as there was one draw in both systems. They were a result of running out of time in a game store.
There is this one warcaster I have to mention. He goes by the name of Lord Exhumator Scaverous. He was such an amazing failure. Countless are the games where victory was denied in some unexplainable and unlikely way. I even started to believe there was a curse or something on him. As a result he has the worst track record out of all of my 21 warcasters and warlocks. Only Dominar Rasheth would be able to reach same level of failure with equal number of games played, and that's only if he lost four games in a row.
Most diverse faction match-ups were with Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon, who got to fight it out with eleven different factions. Only Wurmwood matchess Asphyxious3, but it has more games played than Asphyxious3.
Asphyxious1 was my Protectorate specialist with games against six different Protectorate warcasters. Iron Lich Asphyxious also had best win/loss record out of each of my factions. Which is somewhat interesting, considering that I've played Deneghra1 & 2, Asphyxious2 and Morvahna2. Maybe I took these more notorious ones to tournaments more often because I was ashamed for playing them in the local scene.
Circle of Orboros
Circle of Orboros had 142 games played of which:
100 was against Warmachine, with 60 victories.
41 was against Hordes, with only 13 victories. Legion of Everblight seemed to be nemesis for my Circle, with only two wins against them and fifteen losses.
One was a three player game that couldn't be placed inside normal statistics.
Circle was my most played faction with any particular warlock, averaging 23,66 games per warlock.
Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood, Tree of Fate was my most played Mk2 warcaster/warlock with a total of 27 games played.
Mohsar holds a shared record with Hexeris1 with having the most games played against a particular warlock or warcaster. Funnily enough, both have the same adversary: four games against High Exemplar Kreoss. Mohsar was also
Mohsar was also my Legion of Everblight specialist, with games against five different Legion warlocks. His professional capabilities can be questioned, though, since he only ever won one game against Legion.
Morvahna1, on the other hand, had the most experience against Cryx with games against six different Cryxian warcasters.
Skorne
Skorne got a humble number of only 73 games played. They were the least played faction in every imaginable way, averaging only 18,25 games played per warlock. Well, Skorne is more of a side project for me anyway. I never tried to, you know, competitively compete with Skorne. I guess it tells something that I have neither Titan Gladiator nor Molik Karn in my collection.
Out of those 73, 53 games were against Warmachine factions. Scores were pretty even, 26 wins and 27 losses.
Hordes had the rest twenty games, with eight wins and twelve losses.
All in all I don't think my Skorne fared that badly, considering my eclectic and holistic list design practices.
There were no record holders in Skorne, other than the shared title of a particular nemesis.
Now... for Mk3. I know I'm already getting Agathia for Cryx, since I kind of pre-ordered the battlegroup box. I've been wanting to make a gatorman army for a long time, and also a Cephalyx army. But my inclination to have equal number of games played with each of my warcasters has been such a burden that I haven't even tried to start new factions. Perhaps Mk3 can shake up some completely unnecessary, statistical habits by offering a fresh tabula rasa for numbers.
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Virus vs Bacteria
I played a couple Deadzone games yesterday. Both games were Plague vs Veer-myn with two different point sizes and scenarios with hidden objectives.
My two lists were:
150 points scour mission:
Stage 3A leader with energy shield
2x Stage 2A
2x Stage 3A, one with frag grenade and one with smoke grenade
3x Stage 3Z zombies
Stage 3A specialist with grenade launcher and smoke grenade
Plague Swarm
Hidden objective was a reminiscent of infiltration missions that I had come to fear in last edition of Deadzone.
200 points search and destroy:
Stage 3A leader
2x Stage 2A
2x Stage 3A, at least one with smoke grenade
5x Stage 3Z zombies
Stage 3A specialist with grenade launcher
Plague Swarm
Helfather with holo sight (should read them crazy rules a little better...)
Plague Strider with flame thrower
Hidden objective was to kill enemy leader. Only 2VP area scored point for me.
In the first game opponent had pretty much full melee Veer-myn army. And gosh, were they fast!
In the first 150 point game there were at least two nightmares and night terror, piper (some kind of kickstarter exclusive?) and an assortment of troops.
My side of the board had a lot of items tokens that you're supposed to pick up in scour mission. I had won initial recon check and was able to leave one Stage 2A to ambush.
But before I remembered to take a second picture, the ambusher had already died without accomplishing anything at all. Two big rats equipped with drills exposed themselves next on the left side of the board, and I somehow thought that Stage 2A and Plague Swarm would know how to fight in melee. They had completely forgotten how to wield their own claws. Perhaps they were baffled by the extra ammo crates they were carrying and tried to shoot the nightmare rats by squeezing a single bullet into their hide one at a time.
The grenade launcher Stage 3A specialist scored a kill with an indirect shot. A courageous trooper rat tried to challenge my leader in melee, but was overrun by zombies.
I think I got a third kill somewhere, but I really can't remember where it was. Some rat swarms did die here and there, but who counts rat swarms? One Stage 3A trooper infiltrated via enemy deployment zone before just about everything I ever held dear was dead or dying.
Last picture is just before the Stage 3A ethereal leader flees the scene. Injured, both physically and emotionally. I think I got to ten victory points or something.
Game 2:
In the second game veer-myn were lead by a Brood Mother. There were still a ton of huge melee rats, but this time they were supported by things like chem-fire throwers and grenade launchers of their own and what else.
I forgot to take pictures for quite a while. So far the chem-fire thrower in melee with plague swarm has shot Stage 3A leader and another random muton dead (or perhaps it was the melee trooper, who went to hunt the grenade launcher muton who isn't quite there in the picture.)
Sectopod Strider is already a smouldering wreck. It got a clear charge to enemy leader model, yet whiffed every roll it was called to make. The fact that it took damage from a non-armour piercing 6+ shooting attack with it's armour value of 4 and survival 4+ tells everything one needs to know about the Strider's performance.
Stage 2A's were also failing their miserable existence. Looked like the only proper soldiers I had were the zombies. They scored almost all of plague's kills.
Plague Swarm was at least doing something - it took out the chem thrower and assassin-like trooper rat. But I believe that was just because it had been fixed up by a zombie medic - it must have poured a little bit of it's own essence into the surgical field operations on plague swarm!
I had lost my faith in actually killing veer-myn models, so Helfather started to climb up the tower where was the objective that gave two victory points.
A couple of zombies were completely tying up Brood Mother and other hulking rat beasts. One of the nigtmare rat monsters that had dispatched Stage 2A on the left had started to climb up the victory point tower, but plague swarm has already killed it in the picture. Helfather starts to shoot veer-myn broodmother and a lucky fire damage roll deals two damage before Brood Mother manages to take it out.
Then Helfather slowly grind enough victory point to give win for Plague.
What a weird game. It had looked such a game-over only a few turns earlier. I guess the Strider rush and useless Stage 2A brawls slowed and tied up veer-myn to get some time for the real heroes to show up - the zombies. And of course the plague swarm. Some kind of a veer-myn with grenade launcher was also continuously missing grenades against Helfather, which immensely helped to get those few remaining victory points.
My two lists were:
150 points scour mission:
Stage 3A leader with energy shield
2x Stage 2A
2x Stage 3A, one with frag grenade and one with smoke grenade
Stage 3A specialist with grenade launcher and smoke grenade
Plague Swarm
Hidden objective was a reminiscent of infiltration missions that I had come to fear in last edition of Deadzone.
200 points search and destroy:
Stage 3A leader
2x Stage 2A
2x Stage 3A, at least one with smoke grenade
5x Stage 3Z zombies
Stage 3A specialist with grenade launcher
Plague Swarm
Helfather with holo sight (should read them crazy rules a little better...)
Plague Strider with flame thrower
Hidden objective was to kill enemy leader. Only 2VP area scored point for me.
In the first game opponent had pretty much full melee Veer-myn army. And gosh, were they fast!
In the first 150 point game there were at least two nightmares and night terror, piper (some kind of kickstarter exclusive?) and an assortment of troops.
My side of the board had a lot of items tokens that you're supposed to pick up in scour mission. I had won initial recon check and was able to leave one Stage 2A to ambush.
But before I remembered to take a second picture, the ambusher had already died without accomplishing anything at all. Two big rats equipped with drills exposed themselves next on the left side of the board, and I somehow thought that Stage 2A and Plague Swarm would know how to fight in melee. They had completely forgotten how to wield their own claws. Perhaps they were baffled by the extra ammo crates they were carrying and tried to shoot the nightmare rats by squeezing a single bullet into their hide one at a time.
The grenade launcher Stage 3A specialist scored a kill with an indirect shot. A courageous trooper rat tried to challenge my leader in melee, but was overrun by zombies.
I think I got a third kill somewhere, but I really can't remember where it was. Some rat swarms did die here and there, but who counts rat swarms? One Stage 3A trooper infiltrated via enemy deployment zone before just about everything I ever held dear was dead or dying.
Last picture is just before the Stage 3A ethereal leader flees the scene. Injured, both physically and emotionally. I think I got to ten victory points or something.
Game 2:
In the second game veer-myn were lead by a Brood Mother. There were still a ton of huge melee rats, but this time they were supported by things like chem-fire throwers and grenade launchers of their own and what else.
I forgot to take pictures for quite a while. So far the chem-fire thrower in melee with plague swarm has shot Stage 3A leader and another random muton dead (or perhaps it was the melee trooper, who went to hunt the grenade launcher muton who isn't quite there in the picture.)
Sectopod Strider is already a smouldering wreck. It got a clear charge to enemy leader model, yet whiffed every roll it was called to make. The fact that it took damage from a non-armour piercing 6+ shooting attack with it's armour value of 4 and survival 4+ tells everything one needs to know about the Strider's performance.
Stage 2A's were also failing their miserable existence. Looked like the only proper soldiers I had were the zombies. They scored almost all of plague's kills.
Plague Swarm was at least doing something - it took out the chem thrower and assassin-like trooper rat. But I believe that was just because it had been fixed up by a zombie medic - it must have poured a little bit of it's own essence into the surgical field operations on plague swarm!
I had lost my faith in actually killing veer-myn models, so Helfather started to climb up the tower where was the objective that gave two victory points.
A couple of zombies were completely tying up Brood Mother and other hulking rat beasts. One of the nigtmare rat monsters that had dispatched Stage 2A on the left had started to climb up the victory point tower, but plague swarm has already killed it in the picture. Helfather starts to shoot veer-myn broodmother and a lucky fire damage roll deals two damage before Brood Mother manages to take it out.
Then Helfather slowly grind enough victory point to give win for Plague.
What a weird game. It had looked such a game-over only a few turns earlier. I guess the Strider rush and useless Stage 2A brawls slowed and tied up veer-myn to get some time for the real heroes to show up - the zombies. And of course the plague swarm. Some kind of a veer-myn with grenade launcher was also continuously missing grenades against Helfather, which immensely helped to get those few remaining victory points.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
(Step)daddy issues
Last Tuesday I played a game that was most likely my last game of Warmachine Mk2.
It was a 35 point game with following list:
Deneghra, the Soul Weaver
- Ripjaw
- Defiler
- Malice
Maximum unit of Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges
Withershadow Combine
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Orin Midwinter
Swamp Gobber River Raiders
Opponent had:
Iron Lich Asphyxious
- 2x Deathripper
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 1x Brute + Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Warwitch Siren
Saxon Orrik
So, would the latest incarnation of Deneghra win against the father figure of her past? Scenario was Incoming, and Asphyxious started game.
Since I've been so successful (read: not) in intimidating my opponents by running Deneghra full 18" forward on turn 1, I thought I might do that yet again. On the right flank there were pretty much just MAT 5 Mechanithralls.
Turn 2 Asphyxious proceeds to seize my friendly zone, and jam their own friendly zone with mechanithralls and def 15 arc nodes.
On my turn 2 I try to clear my enemy zone, but thanks to Orin Midwinter missing Arc Lightning, that plan was foiled. Deneghra used her feat this turn and cast Mortality on Bane Thralls, Mechanithralls and a Deathripper, plus giving Ghost Walk for Drudges.
I had this great plan of dragging Deathripper to Malice and dealing crippling damage in with the harpoon and melee attack, then possessing it and walking it so that Withershadow Combine would make a new bonejack for me. Turned out that harpoon and melee attack destroyed the enemy arc node before I had the chance to use possession... oh well.
Drudges and River Raiders kill some Bane Thralls. That's it.
Turn 3 all but one Drudge thrall is decimated. Tartarus makes two additional Bane Thralls. Enemy Mechanithralls don't accomplish much, but the Brute Thrall nearly wrecks Defiler. One box was left in Cortex.
I really, really do my best to clear the zone again. But yet again Orin Midwinter misses (though now he had power tokens for boosts... must be going senile, this old man.)
Deneghra hits the Brute Thrall and deals enough damage to get it down to one hit point. Then she takes Malice's soul and turns it into three focus points for the very same helljack. Malice tramples, and I have ambitious plans of killing all the Mechanithralls, Skarlock Commander and a contesting Stitch Thrall. Otherwise it went fine, but boosted trample attack roll against Skarlock Commander turned out to be 1,1,2.
Withershadow Combine kills Necrosurgeon and removes Scything Touch from Mechanithralls.
Ripjaw kill Tartarus with armour-piercing bite.
Turn 4 I lose a bunch of stuff. Admonia, Defiler and Ripjaw are all dead now. But despite everything opponent tried to do - a lone River Raider defied all odds and survived contesting my friendly zone. What a champ!
But now game would get tough. I could try to clear zone and score two points, then next turn wreck enemy objective and clear zone again. Come to think of it... why didn't I do just that??
Well, my old weakness kicked in, I guess. I saw a difficult but possible chance at assassinating Asphyxious, who had five focus now.
Malice advanced to kill Saxon Orrik, and succeeds.
Skarlock gives Ghost Walk and Tremulus gives Puppet Master for Deneghra. Deneghra takes soul off from Malice and charges Asphyxious. She casts Mortality on Asphyxious, and succeeds. She risks everything by not taking attack boosts (and misses only one attack!) but Asphyxious is left un-alive with two hit boxes remaining. The Puppet Master re-roll had been used on a '1', which re-rolled into '2'. Damn. I tried advance with the lone River Raider out of melee range of two or three Bane Thralls and Warwitch Siren. They all miss! What a champ!
Now, you need to hit Def 17 Asphyxious and kill him either with Pow 10 or P+S 6 attack. Do it! Do iiiit! Well, nope. Boo.
Asphyxious then kills Deneghra once and for all. It didn't really help that Warwitch Siren got Shadow Bind on my warcaster, and then there were Bane Thralls around giving Dark Shroud.
Well, kind of exciting and aggressive game. Fine enough to ragequit Mk2.
It was a 35 point game with following list:
Deneghra, the Soul Weaver
- Ripjaw
- Defiler
- Malice
Maximum unit of Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Orin Midwinter
Swamp Gobber River Raiders
Opponent had:
Iron Lich Asphyxious
- 2x Deathripper
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 1x Brute + Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Warwitch Siren
Saxon Orrik
So, would the latest incarnation of Deneghra win against the father figure of her past? Scenario was Incoming, and Asphyxious started game.
Since I've been so successful (read: not) in intimidating my opponents by running Deneghra full 18" forward on turn 1, I thought I might do that yet again. On the right flank there were pretty much just MAT 5 Mechanithralls.
Turn 2 Asphyxious proceeds to seize my friendly zone, and jam their own friendly zone with mechanithralls and def 15 arc nodes.
On my turn 2 I try to clear my enemy zone, but thanks to Orin Midwinter missing Arc Lightning, that plan was foiled. Deneghra used her feat this turn and cast Mortality on Bane Thralls, Mechanithralls and a Deathripper, plus giving Ghost Walk for Drudges.
I had this great plan of dragging Deathripper to Malice and dealing crippling damage in with the harpoon and melee attack, then possessing it and walking it so that Withershadow Combine would make a new bonejack for me. Turned out that harpoon and melee attack destroyed the enemy arc node before I had the chance to use possession... oh well.
Drudges and River Raiders kill some Bane Thralls. That's it.
Turn 3 all but one Drudge thrall is decimated. Tartarus makes two additional Bane Thralls. Enemy Mechanithralls don't accomplish much, but the Brute Thrall nearly wrecks Defiler. One box was left in Cortex.
I really, really do my best to clear the zone again. But yet again Orin Midwinter misses (though now he had power tokens for boosts... must be going senile, this old man.)
Deneghra hits the Brute Thrall and deals enough damage to get it down to one hit point. Then she takes Malice's soul and turns it into three focus points for the very same helljack. Malice tramples, and I have ambitious plans of killing all the Mechanithralls, Skarlock Commander and a contesting Stitch Thrall. Otherwise it went fine, but boosted trample attack roll against Skarlock Commander turned out to be 1,1,2.
Withershadow Combine kills Necrosurgeon and removes Scything Touch from Mechanithralls.
Ripjaw kill Tartarus with armour-piercing bite.
Turn 4 I lose a bunch of stuff. Admonia, Defiler and Ripjaw are all dead now. But despite everything opponent tried to do - a lone River Raider defied all odds and survived contesting my friendly zone. What a champ!
But now game would get tough. I could try to clear zone and score two points, then next turn wreck enemy objective and clear zone again. Come to think of it... why didn't I do just that??
Well, my old weakness kicked in, I guess. I saw a difficult but possible chance at assassinating Asphyxious, who had five focus now.
Malice advanced to kill Saxon Orrik, and succeeds.
Skarlock gives Ghost Walk and Tremulus gives Puppet Master for Deneghra. Deneghra takes soul off from Malice and charges Asphyxious. She casts Mortality on Asphyxious, and succeeds. She risks everything by not taking attack boosts (and misses only one attack!) but Asphyxious is left un-alive with two hit boxes remaining. The Puppet Master re-roll had been used on a '1', which re-rolled into '2'. Damn. I tried advance with the lone River Raider out of melee range of two or three Bane Thralls and Warwitch Siren. They all miss! What a champ!
Now, you need to hit Def 17 Asphyxious and kill him either with Pow 10 or P+S 6 attack. Do it! Do iiiit! Well, nope. Boo.
Asphyxious then kills Deneghra once and for all. It didn't really help that Warwitch Siren got Shadow Bind on my warcaster, and then there were Bane Thralls around giving Dark Shroud.
Well, kind of exciting and aggressive game. Fine enough to ragequit Mk2.
Friday, May 20, 2016
Mk2 Full Circle (not Orboros)
Yesterday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine.
My list was:
Deneghra the Soul Weaver
- Harrower
- Malice
- 2x Nightwretch
10x Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudge Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Ogrun Bokur
2x Pistol Wraith
Soul Trappers
Swamp Gobber River Raiders
Skarlock
Ragman
Opponent had:
High Exemplar Kreoss
- 2x Reckoner
4x Choir of Menoth
10x Holy Zealots + Monolith Bearer
10x Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Eiryss1
Tristan Durant
- Redeemer
Covenant
Rhupert
2x Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic
This match was going to be of a special significance for me. Since edition change is looming, I needed to get get a game with Deneghra3 against Kreoss1. Every other warlock and warcaster in my possession (20 total, not including Deneghra3) have played at least one game against him. I wouldn't be able to leave Mk2 without this game. But here it was.
Scenario was Recon, and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Protectorate turn 1. I had ran to flag with Deneghra. She had Grave Wind on, yet only a focus camp of three. This prompted an assault from one Reckoner, which missed the attack. Big risk here I know, but hey. I wanted to run to a flag on turn 1A at least once in a lifetime.
Turn 2 a Pistol Wraith kills one of the Temple Flameguards to get a soul for Deneghra. If I would have got a couple of souls more from different sources, I might have not used feat with Deneghra. But she does and allocates focus for Malice and Harrower. She tries to cast Mortality on Temple Flameguard, but misses twice.
Well, at least a whole bunch of them die afterwards.
Drudges run forward for some target practice... where they're the dummies.
Turn 2 Protectorate uses minifeats on both Holy Zealots and Temple Flameguard. Latter also gets Defender's Ward, and charge to Pistol Wraith, Harrower and Nightwretch. Nightwretch loses arc node. Harrower gets only minor damage.
I don't remember what Reckoners did. I guess they just missed their shots or something.
Holy Zealots fight the Drudges, but front line was very adept at passing tough checks.
Turn 3 I get this crazy idea of dragging Kreoss closer to my lines and charging him with Deneghra, after everything else had tried to shoot him. But Zealots with Greater Destiny and anti-magic, Covenant with anti-magic caused my some headache. Eventually I couldn't figure out any way to kill or move the Zealot that's on the left. Thanks to him I might not get a proper angle to drag Kreoss. But I decided to have a go at it anyway.
Malice with three focus, a soul and Puppet Master walked maximum distance as close to Kreoss as possible, yet trying to stay out of reach of Temple Flameguard officer.
I did manage to estimate the reach pretty well - there was perhaps a safe zone of two millimetres. But Kreoss was also out of 8" by less than half centimetre.
Nooooooo!
Well, then I maximised my efforts at scenario play. I did succeed in removing models from within 4" of the flag, so Deneghra made a point. Control point. Two remaining Swamp Gobbers tie up additional Holy Zealots, and one reels itself in to Covenant of Menoth. And deals no less than maximum amount of damage to it with two attacks! Admonia had taken off Defender's Ward on Temple Flameguard.
Turn 3 it's time for Creator's Wrath. The pens in picture mark the divider between knocked down and standing models.
Notable losses were Admonia and Drudges' officer. Hello there, Cmd 3 unit coherency! Oh, and I guess you can call Malice a notable loss, too. And objective.
Kreoss casts Defender's Ward on himself and has a few focus points for armour. Covenant denied getting knocked down, as opponent figured I might fling Mortality and Scourge on him through an arcnode anyway. Scenario goes 2-1 for Protectorate.
Turn 4
I'm trying to get maximum amount of souls for Deneghra before I attempt an assassination. Maximum amount just wasn't very impressive - two souls was all she got.
Tremulus gives Puppet Master to Harrower. Arc node runs into position.
Deneghra activates and advances closer to her death. That's what would happen next if assassion failed, there in the middle of everything. But I wanted to use the venom breath spray thing.
But first Deneghra casts Mortality on Kreoss, and allocates three focus for Harrower. Then she attacks with Scourge, plus the spray. This does some damage, but the numbers were slightly lower than I had hoped for.
Next Harrower activates and comes to shoot Kreoss with its Ghost Shot POW 14 cannon. Boosted attack is a hit, and boosted damage rolls 6,6,2. Harrower still had Puppet Master on. We did some math there, and game literally hinged on one roll of 4+.
Roll comes up exactly four.
Wow.
Come to think of it, the real winner here had been Admonia, who did one damage in to Kreoss with her upkeep removal ability. Your sacrifice was not in vain.
My list was:
Deneghra the Soul Weaver
- Harrower
- Malice
- 2x Nightwretch
10x Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudge Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Ogrun Bokur
2x Pistol Wraith
Soul Trappers
Swamp Gobber River Raiders
Skarlock
Ragman
Opponent had:
High Exemplar Kreoss
- 2x Reckoner
4x Choir of Menoth
10x Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Eiryss1
Tristan Durant
- Redeemer
Covenant
Rhupert
2x Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic
This match was going to be of a special significance for me. Since edition change is looming, I needed to get get a game with Deneghra3 against Kreoss1. Every other warlock and warcaster in my possession (20 total, not including Deneghra3) have played at least one game against him. I wouldn't be able to leave Mk2 without this game. But here it was.
Scenario was Recon, and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Protectorate turn 1. I had ran to flag with Deneghra. She had Grave Wind on, yet only a focus camp of three. This prompted an assault from one Reckoner, which missed the attack. Big risk here I know, but hey. I wanted to run to a flag on turn 1A at least once in a lifetime.
Turn 2 a Pistol Wraith kills one of the Temple Flameguards to get a soul for Deneghra. If I would have got a couple of souls more from different sources, I might have not used feat with Deneghra. But she does and allocates focus for Malice and Harrower. She tries to cast Mortality on Temple Flameguard, but misses twice.
Well, at least a whole bunch of them die afterwards.
Drudges run forward for some target practice... where they're the dummies.
Turn 2 Protectorate uses minifeats on both Holy Zealots and Temple Flameguard. Latter also gets Defender's Ward, and charge to Pistol Wraith, Harrower and Nightwretch. Nightwretch loses arc node. Harrower gets only minor damage.
I don't remember what Reckoners did. I guess they just missed their shots or something.
Holy Zealots fight the Drudges, but front line was very adept at passing tough checks.
Turn 3 I get this crazy idea of dragging Kreoss closer to my lines and charging him with Deneghra, after everything else had tried to shoot him. But Zealots with Greater Destiny and anti-magic, Covenant with anti-magic caused my some headache. Eventually I couldn't figure out any way to kill or move the Zealot that's on the left. Thanks to him I might not get a proper angle to drag Kreoss. But I decided to have a go at it anyway.
Malice with three focus, a soul and Puppet Master walked maximum distance as close to Kreoss as possible, yet trying to stay out of reach of Temple Flameguard officer.
I did manage to estimate the reach pretty well - there was perhaps a safe zone of two millimetres. But Kreoss was also out of 8" by less than half centimetre.
Nooooooo!
Well, then I maximised my efforts at scenario play. I did succeed in removing models from within 4" of the flag, so Deneghra made a point. Control point. Two remaining Swamp Gobbers tie up additional Holy Zealots, and one reels itself in to Covenant of Menoth. And deals no less than maximum amount of damage to it with two attacks! Admonia had taken off Defender's Ward on Temple Flameguard.
Turn 3 it's time for Creator's Wrath. The pens in picture mark the divider between knocked down and standing models.
Notable losses were Admonia and Drudges' officer. Hello there, Cmd 3 unit coherency! Oh, and I guess you can call Malice a notable loss, too. And objective.
Kreoss casts Defender's Ward on himself and has a few focus points for armour. Covenant denied getting knocked down, as opponent figured I might fling Mortality and Scourge on him through an arcnode anyway. Scenario goes 2-1 for Protectorate.
Turn 4
I'm trying to get maximum amount of souls for Deneghra before I attempt an assassination. Maximum amount just wasn't very impressive - two souls was all she got.
Tremulus gives Puppet Master to Harrower. Arc node runs into position.
Deneghra activates and advances closer to her death. That's what would happen next if assassion failed, there in the middle of everything. But I wanted to use the venom breath spray thing.
But first Deneghra casts Mortality on Kreoss, and allocates three focus for Harrower. Then she attacks with Scourge, plus the spray. This does some damage, but the numbers were slightly lower than I had hoped for.
Next Harrower activates and comes to shoot Kreoss with its Ghost Shot POW 14 cannon. Boosted attack is a hit, and boosted damage rolls 6,6,2. Harrower still had Puppet Master on. We did some math there, and game literally hinged on one roll of 4+.
Roll comes up exactly four.
Wow.
Come to think of it, the real winner here had been Admonia, who did one damage in to Kreoss with her upkeep removal ability. Your sacrifice was not in vain.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Drudge sightings (Undercity 5)
So, two scenarios left in the Undercity campaign booklet. After this game, that is, which was played yesterday.
Thanks to experience boost in 4.5 we did indeed take every possible villain as an epic version in this scenario.
Very first event was some Ambushers, which spawned extra villains. Milo Boggs, the alchemist (I'm slowly starting to remember the names!) had an amazing turn with AoE acid bombs, the cinder bomb and throwing knife. They fell six enemies, and he could even spare a smoke bomb somewhere.
Removing villains didn't seem to be much of a problem, and Pog and Doorstop closed one entryway on turn two already. One unlucky villain spawn closed the gate that acted as a shortcut for the VIP the heroes needed to escort. I was worried that this would turn out to be another easy scenario for heroes. Thankfully I was wrong. Scenario design was good, as it required the heroes to be everywhere at once. Or if it didn't exactly require that, it greatly encouraged such a course of action with two side quests on the opposite sides of the board, yet not too far.
Anyway. Pog and Doorstop started to move themselves to the door of VIP's laboratory, while Candice the Gun Mage moved attempted to enter control room and re-open the gate. Trollkin went to the second side quest and close the entryway almost next to it. Milo Boggs stayed middle field, clearing entryways from villains as soon as they spawned.
Suddenly a lot of villains spawned from the entryway near the control room. Candice risked her life for the gate handle, taking volley after volley of aimed crossbowfire. Trollkin, then, well, he kind of unleashed a rampaging warjack on the board, which attacked Milo Boggs right away, knocking him down.
Both entryways had been closed and VIP alchemist had spawned to Pog and Doorstop.
Suddenly there was challenge.
Pog sent Doorstop for rendezvous with Milo Boggs, who had escaped certain death quite a few times already. Concussion grenades were amazing at buying a little extra time for Doorstop to arrive.
Trollkin wanted to come and help, too, but Milo had been luring the warjack away from him. Candice was overwhelmed by continuous villain spawns from entryway 3-4 and started to retreat. Milo had been slowly dissolving the rampaging jack with acid bombs, and Doorstop had landed a couple of solid hits on it. When trollkin finally entered the combat, warjack had only three wounds remaining. Charge attack dealt two damage in, and trollkin used Beat Back card to backtrack a little. Axe attack dealt last required damage, and trollkin used Overtake to backtrack even more.
Now Pog and Doorstop with their escort peeked out of the gate, but things were heating up on the exit side of the board, where Candice was finally shot down. Her sacrifice would not go unremembered.
Well, except that trollkin forgot right away that he was supposed to go and revive her.
Tons of drudges finally started to show up, but the horde wasn't enough to stop heroes from escaping with the escort still alive. Candice had fallen again to one health remaining (or two, don't remember any more), Doorstop had also been suffering heavily throughout the game. Milo Boggs would start next game with one health less than usual.
I think the escape was made in the second last turn. So there was a lot more twist in this scenario. Though of course greediness added it's own challenge here, as the rampaging warjack would have been completely avoidable.
Pog and Doorstop found the mechanika goggles from their own side quest, which he generously gave for trollkin.
Heroes got an amazing amount of 18 experience points from this scenario. Well, at least three of them came from killing the rampager.
Hero statistics:
Trollkin: has misplaced message and mechanika goggles
No experience in bank
Upgrades: Extra Hardy, Walk it off, Vendetta, Legendary Hero, Guardian, Great Strengths: Rapid Strike, Rusher
Milo Boggs: has Cinder Bomb
1 xp in bank, starts next scenario with one less health
Upgrades: Mad Bomber, Grenadier's Bandolier, Skulk, Concussion Grenades, All in the wrist, anatomical precision
Thanks to experience boost in 4.5 we did indeed take every possible villain as an epic version in this scenario.
Very first event was some Ambushers, which spawned extra villains. Milo Boggs, the alchemist (I'm slowly starting to remember the names!) had an amazing turn with AoE acid bombs, the cinder bomb and throwing knife. They fell six enemies, and he could even spare a smoke bomb somewhere.
Removing villains didn't seem to be much of a problem, and Pog and Doorstop closed one entryway on turn two already. One unlucky villain spawn closed the gate that acted as a shortcut for the VIP the heroes needed to escort. I was worried that this would turn out to be another easy scenario for heroes. Thankfully I was wrong. Scenario design was good, as it required the heroes to be everywhere at once. Or if it didn't exactly require that, it greatly encouraged such a course of action with two side quests on the opposite sides of the board, yet not too far.
Anyway. Pog and Doorstop started to move themselves to the door of VIP's laboratory, while Candice the Gun Mage moved attempted to enter control room and re-open the gate. Trollkin went to the second side quest and close the entryway almost next to it. Milo Boggs stayed middle field, clearing entryways from villains as soon as they spawned.
Suddenly a lot of villains spawned from the entryway near the control room. Candice risked her life for the gate handle, taking volley after volley of aimed crossbowfire. Trollkin, then, well, he kind of unleashed a rampaging warjack on the board, which attacked Milo Boggs right away, knocking him down.
Both entryways had been closed and VIP alchemist had spawned to Pog and Doorstop.
Suddenly there was challenge.
Pog sent Doorstop for rendezvous with Milo Boggs, who had escaped certain death quite a few times already. Concussion grenades were amazing at buying a little extra time for Doorstop to arrive.
Trollkin wanted to come and help, too, but Milo had been luring the warjack away from him. Candice was overwhelmed by continuous villain spawns from entryway 3-4 and started to retreat. Milo had been slowly dissolving the rampaging jack with acid bombs, and Doorstop had landed a couple of solid hits on it. When trollkin finally entered the combat, warjack had only three wounds remaining. Charge attack dealt two damage in, and trollkin used Beat Back card to backtrack a little. Axe attack dealt last required damage, and trollkin used Overtake to backtrack even more.
Now Pog and Doorstop with their escort peeked out of the gate, but things were heating up on the exit side of the board, where Candice was finally shot down. Her sacrifice would not go unremembered.
Well, except that trollkin forgot right away that he was supposed to go and revive her.
Tons of drudges finally started to show up, but the horde wasn't enough to stop heroes from escaping with the escort still alive. Candice had fallen again to one health remaining (or two, don't remember any more), Doorstop had also been suffering heavily throughout the game. Milo Boggs would start next game with one health less than usual.
I think the escape was made in the second last turn. So there was a lot more twist in this scenario. Though of course greediness added it's own challenge here, as the rampaging warjack would have been completely avoidable.
Pog and Doorstop found the mechanika goggles from their own side quest, which he generously gave for trollkin.
Heroes got an amazing amount of 18 experience points from this scenario. Well, at least three of them came from killing the rampager.
Hero statistics:
Trollkin: has misplaced message and mechanika goggles
No experience in bank
Upgrades: Extra Hardy, Walk it off, Vendetta, Legendary Hero, Guardian, Great Strengths: Rapid Strike, Rusher
Milo Boggs: has Cinder Bomb
1 xp in bank, starts next scenario with one less health
Upgrades: Mad Bomber, Grenadier's Bandolier, Skulk, Concussion Grenades, All in the wrist, anatomical precision
Swamp Gobber River Raiders
Yesterday I finished up these fellows.
It's been a while since I did minion models. Maybe that's why I went a little overboard with the mushrooms.
I was unsure if these guys would ever see a game in Mk2, but tomorrow they will. Oh yes, they will.
It's been a while since I did minion models. Maybe that's why I went a little overboard with the mushrooms.
I was unsure if these guys would ever see a game in Mk2, but tomorrow they will. Oh yes, they will.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Undercity Web Extra 4.5
Yesterday Undercity campaign was being continued.
Scenario was a web extra from Privateer Press' home page.
It was difficult to judge it's difficulty. Board layout was long. LONG. There was next to no chance for diagonal movement. Four boss models. Vitality 4 regular monsters. Yet farrows and stock villains were fighting against each other as well as the heroes.
First event also activated bosses, so farrow warlord was blocking trivially easy access to first control room.
Pog, Doorstop and the trollkin charged warlord after gun mage and alchemist had softened it up. Troll had used Mighty ability and Mighty Blow feat card. Vitality 6 boss died like a filthy pig. Uh. That 'pun' was so bad... I'm dreadfully sorry. I truly am.
Well, since trollkin killed farrow warlord, it spawned back at the start of next round. Of course it spawned almost exactly where the first one had fallen...
Pog & Doorstop were dedicated to open up the first control room, and everybody else took running to first bottleneck gate space. Farrow Slaughterhousers and Razor Boars tore the heavy warjack into pieces, and it spawned at the worst possible space yet again - the entryway 1. Trollkin had been blocking attacks against gun mage in the space right next to entryway 1. And as luck would have it, the warjack activated and charged trollkin, knocking him down.
This worried me a little bit, since I felt we had been advancing rather sluggishly by then. Oh well, thanks to the Great Strength ability that gave knockdown immunity this setback would delay me only for one turn.
The fresh farrow warlord was following Pog and Doorstop as they were trying to re-join the main adventuring party.
Next all of the heroes speed through the first gate and succeed in setting up farrow warlord and heavy warjack against each other.
Trollkin opened up the second control room. By now the bone grinder boss had been killed and re-appeared on the first half of the board. Jack marshal lieutenant also died to farrow villains, and got into a more threatening position, to the entryway 3, which was right next to side quest.
Gun mage had rushed to check the side quest, and managed to dislodge a cinder bomb. But she was under heavy fire by the lieutenant and crossbow thugs and whatnot.
Alchemist speeds up to finish the scenario, and trollkin plus Pog and Doorstop make the lieutenant go splat.
If I remember right, the gun mage had only one health remaining when the scenario ended in the victory of heroes. Other than that, well... there had been no true casualties or loss of resources.
Somehow feels like the scenario had not been play tested through. Scenario gave tons of experience, yet the challenge wasn't all that great. Extra experience for each battle ready hero was completely unnecessary for this scenario, and there was way too much time for heroes to walk through streets. We didn't really hurry, and still had at least three turns to spare once game ended. Side Quest wasn't an option to consider - it fell right in the greedy hands of heroes along the way. Only the gun mage took enough damage not to start next game fully healed.
Oh well. I guess we'll be using only epic villains and bosses from now on.
My hero statistics:
Trollkin
No xp in bank
Vendetta, Guardian, Legendary Hero, Great Strengths: Rusher, Rapid Strike
Misplaced Message
Alchemist
6xp in bank
Skulk, Concussion grenades, Mad Bomber, Grenadier's Bandolier
Cinder Bomb
Scenario was a web extra from Privateer Press' home page.
It was difficult to judge it's difficulty. Board layout was long. LONG. There was next to no chance for diagonal movement. Four boss models. Vitality 4 regular monsters. Yet farrows and stock villains were fighting against each other as well as the heroes.
First event also activated bosses, so farrow warlord was blocking trivially easy access to first control room.
Pog, Doorstop and the trollkin charged warlord after gun mage and alchemist had softened it up. Troll had used Mighty ability and Mighty Blow feat card. Vitality 6 boss died like a filthy pig. Uh. That 'pun' was so bad... I'm dreadfully sorry. I truly am.
Well, since trollkin killed farrow warlord, it spawned back at the start of next round. Of course it spawned almost exactly where the first one had fallen...
Pog & Doorstop were dedicated to open up the first control room, and everybody else took running to first bottleneck gate space. Farrow Slaughterhousers and Razor Boars tore the heavy warjack into pieces, and it spawned at the worst possible space yet again - the entryway 1. Trollkin had been blocking attacks against gun mage in the space right next to entryway 1. And as luck would have it, the warjack activated and charged trollkin, knocking him down.
This worried me a little bit, since I felt we had been advancing rather sluggishly by then. Oh well, thanks to the Great Strength ability that gave knockdown immunity this setback would delay me only for one turn.
The fresh farrow warlord was following Pog and Doorstop as they were trying to re-join the main adventuring party.
Next all of the heroes speed through the first gate and succeed in setting up farrow warlord and heavy warjack against each other.
Trollkin opened up the second control room. By now the bone grinder boss had been killed and re-appeared on the first half of the board. Jack marshal lieutenant also died to farrow villains, and got into a more threatening position, to the entryway 3, which was right next to side quest.
Gun mage had rushed to check the side quest, and managed to dislodge a cinder bomb. But she was under heavy fire by the lieutenant and crossbow thugs and whatnot.
Alchemist speeds up to finish the scenario, and trollkin plus Pog and Doorstop make the lieutenant go splat.
If I remember right, the gun mage had only one health remaining when the scenario ended in the victory of heroes. Other than that, well... there had been no true casualties or loss of resources.
Somehow feels like the scenario had not been play tested through. Scenario gave tons of experience, yet the challenge wasn't all that great. Extra experience for each battle ready hero was completely unnecessary for this scenario, and there was way too much time for heroes to walk through streets. We didn't really hurry, and still had at least three turns to spare once game ended. Side Quest wasn't an option to consider - it fell right in the greedy hands of heroes along the way. Only the gun mage took enough damage not to start next game fully healed.
Oh well. I guess we'll be using only epic villains and bosses from now on.
My hero statistics:
Trollkin
No xp in bank
Vendetta, Guardian, Legendary Hero, Great Strengths: Rusher, Rapid Strike
Misplaced Message
Alchemist
6xp in bank
Skulk, Concussion grenades, Mad Bomber, Grenadier's Bandolier
Cinder Bomb
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Dark Alchemy solo campaign
Well, since I bought the Dark Alchemy mini-expansion for Frostgrave, I have to play the campaign at least once, no? Also the board was all set up, as we continued the actual Frostgrave campaign just a day before.
I'm not a big fan of solo wargaming, though. Or who knows, I don't think I've ever actually tried. Only a couple of solo games of A Touch of Evil come to my mind.
So, my initial warband for this three scenario mini campaign was thus:
-Soothsayer Wizard with Staff
Spells:
Combat Awareness (12), Wizard Eye (8), Will Power (10)
Blinding Light (12), Teleport (12), Fast Act (10)
Push (12), Steal Health (14)
- Apprentice with Staff
- 2x War Hound
- Thief
- 2x Infantryman
- Javelineer
- Captain with leather armor, hand weapon, shield and Furious Attack trick of the trade.
I didn't want to tailor the wizard into beating the campaign too easily. I didn't read the scenario rules (except for the first one before I realised I don't want spoilers), but still picking Teleport as one of my spells seemed a bit cheesy. Perhaps it wouldn't be that bad if I didn't have any proper damage dealing spells? Steal Health is the only spell that deals any damage at all, and it's capped.
Alchemical Monstrosity
In first scenario I chose following party:
- Wizard
- Captain
- Javelineer
- Infantryman
Game started with initiative 10 for my wizard. Javelineer and Infantryman took one flank. Javelineer got sight of Alchemical Monstrosity and lobbed a spear at it. Roll was good, but so was the monstrosity's, too. Captain took another flank, and wizard unsportingly abused Teleport right away and teleported to one of the doors. Roll was 10, so he or she had to Empower it a bit. Alchemical Monstrosity lurches forward to Javelineer.
Then initiative rolls "1".
Angry giant rat appears and attempts to gnaw on my wizard, but wizard rolls 19. Monstrosity, on the other hand, kills Javelineer right away with just one attack. Damn. So much for buying a little extra time.
Infantryman runs to hide in a building, outside of Monstrosity's line of sight. Wizard tests if the door on left would let them out - it didn't. All he or she could do now was to go into contact with one of the treasure tokens nearby.
Next turn initiative is seven. Wizard beats one more rat, and then Alchemical Monstrosity goes after Captain. Captain picks up a treasure and tries to run out of sight.
Now initiative is five. Blech. Alchemical Monstrosity takes a double move to engage Captain, and Wizard beats one more rat. On his or her own turn wizard advances a bit closer to duel of Captain and Monstrosity and tries to cast Combat Awareness, but fails. Infantryman picks up a treasure.
Then it's time for me to finally to get 8+ initiative. Wizard ditches captain all alone when I check Monstrosity's hit points. Brave captain, your sacrifice shall not be forgotten. Monstrosity hits captain for ten points of damage.
I win initiative. Infantryman opens up the escape door. And a miracle happened! Despite being wounded, Captain staves off the Alchemical Monstrosity, dealing in no less than four damage points!
Then it's time for initiative to go to enemies. Giant rat almost ties up the wizard, as it rolls nine, and wizard rolls eight plus fight value. Treasure lowered that by one, so it was a tie. Rats had such a low armour that they died, while wizard took no damage from the simultaneous hit. Monstrosity butchers Captain and moves closer to wizard.
I won last initiative, which ended the game. I carried off two treasures, which incidentally was also the number of survivors.
Warband found 10 gold (nine thanks to Captain), two potions and a magic weapon/armor.
Potions were Potion of Healing and Explosive Cocktail.
Weapon was Staff with +1F modifier. Couldn't have been better!
I got enough experience for one level, which went into improving Push by one.
Skeletal Run
Second scenario started with following party:
Soothsayer with Staff +1F, Potion of Healing and difficulty 11 Push-spell.
Thief with Explosive Cocktail
War Hound
Infantryman
Game started easily enough. First wizard cast Combat Awareness on the Infantryman, and then tried to Push the skeletons a little bit farther. Of course one inch more would have put wizard out of burning reach of the skeletons, but nope. Good thing infantryman was able to force one of them dead. I thought I might as well force combat with wizard against the other skeleton but, well. That wasn't a very clever thing to do. Wizard was down to five hit points remaining. Next turn, though, the skeleton was blown to bits and wizard drank healing potion.
Lots of skeletons spawned at the back end of the board. During my journey there wizard cast Combat Awareness on him- or herself, and thief. Infantryman and thief were carrying treasures.
Skeletons are dying left and right, but then there was this one particular martial artist. It was being engaged by +5(+9 with support) Infantryman, +4(+6 with support) and +3 fight value thief. Now, by then wizard only had eight hit points and infantryman had also taken few stray points in. But still... the skeleton killed infantryman and wizard, and dealt some damage in to thief.
Suddenly I felt far less confident in finishing this scenario with top scores. If I was going to finish it at all, that is. All the skeletons that were shambling at the back edge unanimously decided to come to the board edge my both survivors were attempting to get into and escape.
Thief tried to lob explosive cocktail on a couple of skeletons, but they were burning already and didn't care.
Before I'd get to activate War Hound, at least one skeleton would engage it. Thief looked like he was doomed, no matter what happened.
But as far as the War Hounds in this game go, this one was not an exception. It bit the engaging skeleton in half and sped of the board.
Even thief shaped up and killed a couple of skeletons. If it wasn't for one damn skeleton that spawned exactly where it shouldn't have, I believe thief might have escaped with a treasure.
But as it was, no treasure for me. Also, wizard would start next scenario with only ten hit points. And a smashed leg.
Wizard got 130 experience from kills and spells, and upped fight stat.
Spreading Flames
Last scenario I took wizard, apprentice, infantryman and thug. I didn't quite like the fact that if you're so inclined, you can run off the board on turn one. I guess the point in this scenario is just the amount of personal challenge and risk you're willing to take.
For some reason this was fastest scenario to play. It was a bit anticlimatic, too. On first turn wizard cast teleport to get close to treasure token on the hill. Three other soldiers moved to lure one Fire-Slinger away from guarding the closest treasure. This Fire-Slinger accomplished nothing with it's attack.
Turn 2 wizard moved in contact with treasure and picked it up. The three bravos wrecked Fire-Slinger. Apprentice got Combat Awareness off to infantryman.
The two Fire-Slingers moved to shoot wizard, but didn't do any damage. Last Fire-Slinger entered the smouldering field and would now have sight for my soldiers.
Turn 3 wizard casts Blinding Light on closest Fire-Slinger, and rolls 20 for casting roll. Ha-ha, useless Fire-Slinger. Wizard exits board.
Thug picks up treasure and infantryman enters fight with the Fire-Slinger in the cloud.
Fire-Slingers come to shoot thug, and unfortunately manage to make him wounded. The Fire-Slinger with Blinding Light rolled 20 for Will-test. So much for my moment of triumph.
Turn 4 infantryman finishes a Fire-Slinger, and starts speeding up mid-field. Wounded thug continues to move treasure token, and apprentice valiantly steps between Fire-Slingers and him.
Turn 5 infantryman takes aim at a treasure token at 32" mark. Thug moves. Apprentice enters melee with closest Fire-Slinger, since they're worse fighters than shooters. Or so I thought. The thing butchers my apprentice.
Turn 6 infantryman picks up treasure token. Fire-Slinger shoots thug dead.
Turn 7 infantryman exits board.
Scenario gave 130 experience points. For completeness sake treasures were 30 gold coins and four potions.
Burning batches of ground seemed inconsequential. I rolled one or two for initiative a couple of times, but really they just did nothing. Better system might be that you place additional circular area token instead of moving the original. That way the flames would actually spread, and not just move around.
So. What to say, on the whole? Campaign took around five hours to play, though I did write this report at the same time. First scenario was the most exciting one. Twenty hit points on the Alchemical Monstrosity means that you're not going to one-hit it even with an amazing roll and the playing area was so tiny that you couldn't easily outrun the enemy either.
Second scenario was, uh, I don't know. Maybe I was overconfident there and paid a harsh price for it. I was picking up treasures, which slowed me down. But if one skeleton wouldn't have rolled 18's and 20's many times in quick succession, I'm not sure if there would have been enough challenge in the scenario. Maybe that's the thing, though. So many usually worthless skeletons are bound to roll good one time or another. Their extra burning rule was nice addition. It put some pressure on the warband, as damage was slowly trickling in. Lack of different enemies made the encounters a little boring, though.
Last scenario was lackluster. It needs a loss condition and something extra. Perhaps the flames might really spread, as I proposed earlier. Another "climatic" event comes to mind that if the player didn't kill Alchemical Monstrosity, it bursts from the centre of the board at the start of turn six, or something.
Overall there was very little warband progression. For true solo gaming it was too slow, though I guess three to five levels is a good start for a new warband that has to catch up more experienced warbands a little.
Hunt for the Golem mini campaign could be relatively easily converted into co-op/solo format. It kind of already is. Story there seems a bit goofy. "Now, we both wizards are here to study that arcane marvel, but also we're fighting, because of reasons."
Addendum:
Heck, I wrote this conversion myself in a brief moment of dodging responsibilities. Go and take a look if you're so inclined.
I'm not a big fan of solo wargaming, though. Or who knows, I don't think I've ever actually tried. Only a couple of solo games of A Touch of Evil come to my mind.
So, my initial warband for this three scenario mini campaign was thus:
-Soothsayer Wizard with Staff
Spells:
Combat Awareness (12), Wizard Eye (8), Will Power (10)
Blinding Light (12), Teleport (12), Fast Act (10)
Push (12), Steal Health (14)
- Apprentice with Staff
- 2x War Hound
- Thief
- Javelineer
- Captain with leather armor, hand weapon, shield and Furious Attack trick of the trade.
I didn't want to tailor the wizard into beating the campaign too easily. I didn't read the scenario rules (except for the first one before I realised I don't want spoilers), but still picking Teleport as one of my spells seemed a bit cheesy. Perhaps it wouldn't be that bad if I didn't have any proper damage dealing spells? Steal Health is the only spell that deals any damage at all, and it's capped.
Alchemical Monstrosity
In first scenario I chose following party:
- Captain
- Javelineer
- Infantryman
Game started with initiative 10 for my wizard. Javelineer and Infantryman took one flank. Javelineer got sight of Alchemical Monstrosity and lobbed a spear at it. Roll was good, but so was the monstrosity's, too. Captain took another flank, and wizard unsportingly abused Teleport right away and teleported to one of the doors. Roll was 10, so he or she had to Empower it a bit. Alchemical Monstrosity lurches forward to Javelineer.
Then initiative rolls "1".
Angry giant rat appears and attempts to gnaw on my wizard, but wizard rolls 19. Monstrosity, on the other hand, kills Javelineer right away with just one attack. Damn. So much for buying a little extra time.
Infantryman runs to hide in a building, outside of Monstrosity's line of sight. Wizard tests if the door on left would let them out - it didn't. All he or she could do now was to go into contact with one of the treasure tokens nearby.
Next turn initiative is seven. Wizard beats one more rat, and then Alchemical Monstrosity goes after Captain. Captain picks up a treasure and tries to run out of sight.
Now initiative is five. Blech. Alchemical Monstrosity takes a double move to engage Captain, and Wizard beats one more rat. On his or her own turn wizard advances a bit closer to duel of Captain and Monstrosity and tries to cast Combat Awareness, but fails. Infantryman picks up a treasure.
Then it's time for me to finally to get 8+ initiative. Wizard ditches captain all alone when I check Monstrosity's hit points. Brave captain, your sacrifice shall not be forgotten. Monstrosity hits captain for ten points of damage.
I win initiative. Infantryman opens up the escape door. And a miracle happened! Despite being wounded, Captain staves off the Alchemical Monstrosity, dealing in no less than four damage points!
Then it's time for initiative to go to enemies. Giant rat almost ties up the wizard, as it rolls nine, and wizard rolls eight plus fight value. Treasure lowered that by one, so it was a tie. Rats had such a low armour that they died, while wizard took no damage from the simultaneous hit. Monstrosity butchers Captain and moves closer to wizard.
I won last initiative, which ended the game. I carried off two treasures, which incidentally was also the number of survivors.
Warband found 10 gold (nine thanks to Captain), two potions and a magic weapon/armor.
Potions were Potion of Healing and Explosive Cocktail.
Weapon was Staff with +1F modifier. Couldn't have been better!
I got enough experience for one level, which went into improving Push by one.
Skeletal Run
Second scenario started with following party:
Soothsayer with Staff +1F, Potion of Healing and difficulty 11 Push-spell.
Thief with Explosive Cocktail
War Hound
Infantryman
Game started easily enough. First wizard cast Combat Awareness on the Infantryman, and then tried to Push the skeletons a little bit farther. Of course one inch more would have put wizard out of burning reach of the skeletons, but nope. Good thing infantryman was able to force one of them dead. I thought I might as well force combat with wizard against the other skeleton but, well. That wasn't a very clever thing to do. Wizard was down to five hit points remaining. Next turn, though, the skeleton was blown to bits and wizard drank healing potion.
Lots of skeletons spawned at the back end of the board. During my journey there wizard cast Combat Awareness on him- or herself, and thief. Infantryman and thief were carrying treasures.
Skeletons are dying left and right, but then there was this one particular martial artist. It was being engaged by +5(+9 with support) Infantryman, +4(+6 with support) and +3 fight value thief. Now, by then wizard only had eight hit points and infantryman had also taken few stray points in. But still... the skeleton killed infantryman and wizard, and dealt some damage in to thief.
Suddenly I felt far less confident in finishing this scenario with top scores. If I was going to finish it at all, that is. All the skeletons that were shambling at the back edge unanimously decided to come to the board edge my both survivors were attempting to get into and escape.
Thief tried to lob explosive cocktail on a couple of skeletons, but they were burning already and didn't care.
Before I'd get to activate War Hound, at least one skeleton would engage it. Thief looked like he was doomed, no matter what happened.
But as far as the War Hounds in this game go, this one was not an exception. It bit the engaging skeleton in half and sped of the board.
Even thief shaped up and killed a couple of skeletons. If it wasn't for one damn skeleton that spawned exactly where it shouldn't have, I believe thief might have escaped with a treasure.
But as it was, no treasure for me. Also, wizard would start next scenario with only ten hit points. And a smashed leg.
Wizard got 130 experience from kills and spells, and upped fight stat.
Spreading Flames
Last scenario I took wizard, apprentice, infantryman and thug. I didn't quite like the fact that if you're so inclined, you can run off the board on turn one. I guess the point in this scenario is just the amount of personal challenge and risk you're willing to take.
For some reason this was fastest scenario to play. It was a bit anticlimatic, too. On first turn wizard cast teleport to get close to treasure token on the hill. Three other soldiers moved to lure one Fire-Slinger away from guarding the closest treasure. This Fire-Slinger accomplished nothing with it's attack.
Turn 2 wizard moved in contact with treasure and picked it up. The three bravos wrecked Fire-Slinger. Apprentice got Combat Awareness off to infantryman.
The two Fire-Slingers moved to shoot wizard, but didn't do any damage. Last Fire-Slinger entered the smouldering field and would now have sight for my soldiers.
Turn 3 wizard casts Blinding Light on closest Fire-Slinger, and rolls 20 for casting roll. Ha-ha, useless Fire-Slinger. Wizard exits board.
Thug picks up treasure and infantryman enters fight with the Fire-Slinger in the cloud.
Fire-Slingers come to shoot thug, and unfortunately manage to make him wounded. The Fire-Slinger with Blinding Light rolled 20 for Will-test. So much for my moment of triumph.
Turn 4 infantryman finishes a Fire-Slinger, and starts speeding up mid-field. Wounded thug continues to move treasure token, and apprentice valiantly steps between Fire-Slingers and him.
Turn 5 infantryman takes aim at a treasure token at 32" mark. Thug moves. Apprentice enters melee with closest Fire-Slinger, since they're worse fighters than shooters. Or so I thought. The thing butchers my apprentice.
Turn 6 infantryman picks up treasure token. Fire-Slinger shoots thug dead.
Turn 7 infantryman exits board.
Scenario gave 130 experience points. For completeness sake treasures were 30 gold coins and four potions.
Burning batches of ground seemed inconsequential. I rolled one or two for initiative a couple of times, but really they just did nothing. Better system might be that you place additional circular area token instead of moving the original. That way the flames would actually spread, and not just move around.
So. What to say, on the whole? Campaign took around five hours to play, though I did write this report at the same time. First scenario was the most exciting one. Twenty hit points on the Alchemical Monstrosity means that you're not going to one-hit it even with an amazing roll and the playing area was so tiny that you couldn't easily outrun the enemy either.
Second scenario was, uh, I don't know. Maybe I was overconfident there and paid a harsh price for it. I was picking up treasures, which slowed me down. But if one skeleton wouldn't have rolled 18's and 20's many times in quick succession, I'm not sure if there would have been enough challenge in the scenario. Maybe that's the thing, though. So many usually worthless skeletons are bound to roll good one time or another. Their extra burning rule was nice addition. It put some pressure on the warband, as damage was slowly trickling in. Lack of different enemies made the encounters a little boring, though.
Last scenario was lackluster. It needs a loss condition and something extra. Perhaps the flames might really spread, as I proposed earlier. Another "climatic" event comes to mind that if the player didn't kill Alchemical Monstrosity, it bursts from the centre of the board at the start of turn six, or something.
Overall there was very little warband progression. For true solo gaming it was too slow, though I guess three to five levels is a good start for a new warband that has to catch up more experienced warbands a little.
Hunt for the Golem mini campaign could be relatively easily converted into co-op/solo format. It kind of already is. Story there seems a bit goofy. "Now, we both wizards are here to study that arcane marvel, but also we're fighting, because of reasons."
Addendum:
Heck, I wrote this conversion myself in a brief moment of dodging responsibilities. Go and take a look if you're so inclined.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Frostgrave campaign game twelve
Scenario was Dark Cauldron, number eight from Thaw of the Lich Lord.
Summoners were fighting over the zombie pot.
Jack succeeded in casting Reveal Secrets. I started planning on grabbing four treasures, then. I could get into contact with all four treasures close to my side, and pick up three of them. Oh boy.
If it all could have been as easy... None of my spells succeeded that turn. Two death cultists engaged War Hound, and opponent's wizard or something shot Captain very dead.
Next turn Jack tries to cast Elemental Ball to clear the melee that had my War Hound and two death cultists involved. Failed. Next Adon tries to cast Elemental Ball somewhere where there was a couple of enemy warband members close to each other. Failed.
Hey, let's not give up just yet!
Well, my apprentice gets tied up in melee with war hound and knights and what else. Jack casts Possess on bard and goes to help Ranger, who got into a fight with zombie from the cauldron. Bard brutally slaughters some hapless enemy warband member.
Enemy apprentice binds that bard, though. Since she's a demon now. Nooooo! After Jack dealt with the zombie, it was time to turn his blade against the bard. This bard is notorious for killing everything almost as regularly as War Hound. And make no mistake - she dealt damage in to Jack. Next turn, though, Jack gets angry and lops off her head.
Apothecary and a Treasure Hunter are speeding to the board edge with treasures. One Treasure Hunter had already escaped. Looked very much like I was going to get three treasures after all. Adon the Apprentice was reeling with only two hit points remaining, but that didn't stop him from defending himself twice from knight, and almost nailing enemy wizard, who entered melee combat. If it wasn't for those meddling Fate Stones... ah well.
Ranger was fighting valiantly against a greater demon. Enemy warband had long since toppled over the cauldron. There was no longer anything to win, but still everything to lose.
Any stray bullets and/or arrows didn't drop any of my treasure haulers and once they had passed over the border, Jack cast Leap on himself and leapt to safety.
During the course of the entire game I succeeded in casting two spells. My warband killed one zombie and one death cultist.
190 experience points gave two levels. Treasures were 100 gold (90 after captain), third Sword of Undead Slaying, Hand Weapon with +1 Fight modifier and Grimoire of Shield. No too bad. Still I decided finally to sell a two-handed weapons with +1 extra damage modifier. Gained another 90 gold, captain another 10. With these I dismissed Ranger that was badly injured, and got a new Ranger. Bard will just have to wait for a game. Traitor.
Adon the Apprentice rolled a smashed leg.
This was the worst performance of Cruor et Caedis, ever.
Roster details:
Jack Saturn is level 35 with 3525 experience.
He has levelled fight by +3, Will by +3, and health by +5*.
Fleet Feet spell has been improved by +5*, Elemental Ball by +3, Leap by +2, Possess by +1, Spell Eater by +1, Imp by +1 and Fog by +3.
He has learned Plague of Insects, which has been improved by +2.
He has learned the Reveal Secret spell, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned Willpower spell, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned Plane Walk spell.
Home base is Inn with Crystal Ball, Sarcophagus of Healing, Carrier Pigeons (+1 gold) and Kennels
Vault has Magical two handed weapon (+1 damage modifier), 3x Sword of Undead Slaying, Magical bow (+2 damage modifier), Club of Battering, Hand Weapon (+1 Fight)
Amulet of the Ghoul King
Book of Rangifer
Ring of Power (1)
Eyes of Amoto
Fire Heart Gemstone
Horn of Hellfire
Grimoire: Poison Dart, Control Construct, Furious Quill, Enchant Weapon, Shield
Quiver of the Soul Seeker
Scroll of Planar Tear.
Unspent gold: 798.
Warband roster is worth 1420 gold (level 35 apprentice is 550) and includes:
Apprentice has Smashed Leg
Barbarian
Marksman
(re-hired) Ranger
2x Treasure Hunter
Apothecary
(miss next game) Bard
War Hound
Rangifer
Captain: Stat increase: +1 Move (cost so far: 138 gold), leather armor, sword of undead slaying and dagger, Amulet of the Ghoul King, 100 experience
- Tricks of the trade: Sprint, Furious Attack (+3F before attack rolls are made)
Summoners were fighting over the zombie pot.
Jack succeeded in casting Reveal Secrets. I started planning on grabbing four treasures, then. I could get into contact with all four treasures close to my side, and pick up three of them. Oh boy.
If it all could have been as easy... None of my spells succeeded that turn. Two death cultists engaged War Hound, and opponent's wizard or something shot Captain very dead.
Next turn Jack tries to cast Elemental Ball to clear the melee that had my War Hound and two death cultists involved. Failed. Next Adon tries to cast Elemental Ball somewhere where there was a couple of enemy warband members close to each other. Failed.
Hey, let's not give up just yet!
Well, my apprentice gets tied up in melee with war hound and knights and what else. Jack casts Possess on bard and goes to help Ranger, who got into a fight with zombie from the cauldron. Bard brutally slaughters some hapless enemy warband member.
Enemy apprentice binds that bard, though. Since she's a demon now. Nooooo! After Jack dealt with the zombie, it was time to turn his blade against the bard. This bard is notorious for killing everything almost as regularly as War Hound. And make no mistake - she dealt damage in to Jack. Next turn, though, Jack gets angry and lops off her head.
Apothecary and a Treasure Hunter are speeding to the board edge with treasures. One Treasure Hunter had already escaped. Looked very much like I was going to get three treasures after all. Adon the Apprentice was reeling with only two hit points remaining, but that didn't stop him from defending himself twice from knight, and almost nailing enemy wizard, who entered melee combat. If it wasn't for those meddling Fate Stones... ah well.
Ranger was fighting valiantly against a greater demon. Enemy warband had long since toppled over the cauldron. There was no longer anything to win, but still everything to lose.
Any stray bullets and/or arrows didn't drop any of my treasure haulers and once they had passed over the border, Jack cast Leap on himself and leapt to safety.
During the course of the entire game I succeeded in casting two spells. My warband killed one zombie and one death cultist.
190 experience points gave two levels. Treasures were 100 gold (90 after captain), third Sword of Undead Slaying, Hand Weapon with +1 Fight modifier and Grimoire of Shield. No too bad. Still I decided finally to sell a two-handed weapons with +1 extra damage modifier. Gained another 90 gold, captain another 10. With these I dismissed Ranger that was badly injured, and got a new Ranger. Bard will just have to wait for a game. Traitor.
Adon the Apprentice rolled a smashed leg.
This was the worst performance of Cruor et Caedis, ever.
Roster details:
Jack Saturn is level 35 with 3525 experience.
He has levelled fight by +3, Will by +3, and health by +5*.
Fleet Feet spell has been improved by +5*, Elemental Ball by +3, Leap by +2, Possess by +1, Spell Eater by +1, Imp by +1 and Fog by +3.
He has learned Plague of Insects, which has been improved by +2.
He has learned the Reveal Secret spell, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned Willpower spell, which has been improved by +1.
He has learned Plane Walk spell.
Home base is Inn with Crystal Ball, Sarcophagus of Healing, Carrier Pigeons (+1 gold) and Kennels
Vault has Magical two handed weapon (+1 damage modifier), 3x Sword of Undead Slaying, Magical bow (+2 damage modifier), Club of Battering, Hand Weapon (+1 Fight)
Amulet of the Ghoul King
Book of Rangifer
Ring of Power (1)
Eyes of Amoto
Fire Heart Gemstone
Horn of Hellfire
Grimoire: Poison Dart, Control Construct, Furious Quill, Enchant Weapon, Shield
Quiver of the Soul Seeker
Scroll of Planar Tear.
Unspent gold: 798.
Warband roster is worth 1420 gold (level 35 apprentice is 550) and includes:
Apprentice has Smashed Leg
Barbarian
Marksman
(re-hired) Ranger
2x Treasure Hunter
Apothecary
(miss next game) Bard
War Hound
Rangifer
Captain: Stat increase: +1 Move (cost so far: 138 gold), leather armor, sword of undead slaying and dagger, Amulet of the Ghoul King, 100 experience
- Tricks of the trade: Sprint, Furious Attack (+3F before attack rolls are made)
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Farewell, MkII tournaments
So, there was a 50 point, three round Warmachine tournament last Saturday.
This was supposed to be the swansong of my Mk2 Warmachine tournaments. Sure, it is going to be the last one for me. It just turned out to be a... a swangurgle or something.
I had stayed up for sixteen hours (and counting) when the tournament started and was building up a nice little hangover. Seemed like a good idea at the time...
I had two lists, but since it was DC [0] I ended up playing with one list only.
Deneghra the Soul Weaver
- 2x Nightwretch
- Leviathan
- Nightmare
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 2x Brute Thrall + Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon
Withershadow Combine
Ogrun Bokur
Orin Midwinter
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Soul Trappers
Objective: Bunker
First tournament round was against:
Anson Durst
- Devout
- 2x Reckoner
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Daughters of the Flame
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Unit Attachment
Aiyana & Holt
Orin Midwinter
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic
Wracks
Objective: Fuel cache
Looks somewhat familiar match? Yeah. Thirty three percent of the games were against people from my home town.
I forgot to take pictures for quite a while. But that only makes the first picture even more impressive.
Deneghra charged somewhere, I forget where actually, but engages Anson Durst anyway. She has Arm 26 and nine souls coming up next turn. Deneghra got the soul train moving in this game, and damn did it encourage whimsical recklessness in me.
Protectorate didn't try to assassinate. Probably because Aiyana didn't score a kiss on Deneghra, and only one Reckoner looks like it might get bonuses from Choir. So instead they cleared the zone and started controlling it.
Temple Flameguard were rolling attack rolls so badly it wasn't even funny anymore.
Nightmare wrecked its prey target Reckoner. I'm not sure what Deneghra did. Looks like she attacked Anson Durst. Maybe.
The other Reckoner somehow failed to cause lethal damage to Nightmare. I think only cortex went missing. Damage to Mechanithralls was overwhelming, though. Temple Flameguard proved to be the tarpitter tarpit unit.
Anson Durst started closing in to Protectorate friendly zone. After all Deneghra wouldn't be able to contest my friendly zone and I was running out of models to contest. Plus Deneghra wasn't gaining too many souls.
I had to try to kill Durst. All of my activations went into trying to get one soul for Deneghra to allocate focus for Nightmare. After Necrotech repaired cortex, of course. And for once Necrotech didn't fail.
Durst has Arm 20 and Def 15 (from Wall of Steel), but I don't remember if he had taken damage earlier in the game.
Deneghra couldn't kill Anson, so ghostly Nightmare with Puppet Master was the only chance I got. And it had to charge Devout, because Anson wasn't in line of sight. POW 12 hit from Eruption of Ash cloud and a successful Defensive Strike removed Nightmare's left or right claw, so that was one attack less yet again.
But the lone remaining Wicked Claw was enough to penetrate the Wall of Steel and crumble the Rock of the Faith.
Game 2:
Second game was against Trollbloods.
Game was rather short. I had never played against Grim Angus2 before, so I didn't know what to expect. I tried to harass some Highwaymen on the left with Mortality cast from Deneghra's feat. Deneghra had Grave Wind on and six Focus points (I had forgotten to activate Nightwretch on first turn, so I had to allocate one to it for running.
Next turn Grim Angus used his feat and cast Mortality on Deneghra. I would have really needed Grim Angus to miss, but no. Spell was a hit.
Fire Eaters dealt some impressive damage in to Deneghra, but I wasn't that worried until the PYGS activated! They needed 7+ to hit even with aiming bonus and Mark Target bonus. And looked like they couldn't miss. Or roll less than 10 for damage rolls either.
In short, it very much looked like Deneghra would die by getting shot to pieces by Pyg Burrowers. The shame! The humiliation! Fortunately a couple of them missed when Deneghra had four or so damage boxes left. Ogrun Bokur took a second last Pyg shot - and good thing he did. Damage roll was double sixes.
Last Pyg missed and I was relieved.
Deneghra survives a volley from Highwaymen on the right, and even a shot from Glacier King. But Glacier King has Rate of Fire 2, which is enough to kill Deneghra. At least the killing blow came from another huge base model...
Game 3:
By last round I had some serious trouble keeping myself awake at all. I was against Circle of Orboros. Baldur the Stonecleaver was their caster, and there were at least Wold Guardian, Woldwarden, Megalith, Woldwatcher and Woldwyrd around.
Since Wold's don't that that high P+S in their attacks, I thought I'd risk it all by charging in the middle of enemy army with Deneghra, and trampling Nightmare in to wreck Wold Guardian.
So, Deneghra used her feat and charged Wold Guardian, cast Mortality on it and rolled a pathetic damage roll.
Nightmare gets three focus points, though. Skarlock is just a little too far from Nightmare to cast Ghost Walk on it, so Nightmare was to use Imprint to go ghostly. This meant it would only get one attack against Guardian. It was enough to disable Spirit branch, though.
Now.
Things I didn't consider: Baldur has strength bonus available for battle group. Another lapse in my tactical genius was Megalith being able to lower Def by a grand total of five. Megalith started by charging in to Deneghra, and yet again the one attack that should not have hit, did. Weight of Stone got Deneghra down to Def 14. Second fist missed, and Megalith was pushed away from melee range.
Oh, and Sentry Stone had drained one focus point away from Deneghra's overboost, so she only had Arm 22.
Woldwatcher charged Deneghra and rolls something absurd for damage. Woldwarden doesn't quite manage as well, and even gets pushed away from melee range by poltergeist.
Wold Guardian tries to attack Nightmare, but I think it didn't hit even once.
Opponent doesn't have that many activations left any longer. Deneghra had eight or so damage points remaining. Woldwyrd is teleported into contact with her, and attacks with gunfighter. Attack hits and Deneghra is left with something like four hit boxes. Wyrd buys another attack and kills Deneghra.
Well, it was a tired, hungover gamble. And despite all penalties for me and bonuses for Circle it wasn't that far from succeeding. After Woldwyrd opponent would have had only a single unit of Woldstalkers left to activate.
This was supposed to be the swansong of my Mk2 Warmachine tournaments. Sure, it is going to be the last one for me. It just turned out to be a... a swangurgle or something.
I had stayed up for sixteen hours (and counting) when the tournament started and was building up a nice little hangover. Seemed like a good idea at the time...
I had two lists, but since it was DC [0] I ended up playing with one list only.
Deneghra the Soul Weaver
- Leviathan
- Nightmare
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 2x Brute Thrall + Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon
Withershadow Combine
Ogrun Bokur
Orin Midwinter
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Soul Trappers
Objective: Bunker
First tournament round was against:
Anson Durst
- Devout
- 2x Reckoner
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Daughters of the Flame
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Aiyana & Holt
Orin Midwinter
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic
Wracks
Objective: Fuel cache
Looks somewhat familiar match? Yeah. Thirty three percent of the games were against people from my home town.
I forgot to take pictures for quite a while. But that only makes the first picture even more impressive.
Deneghra charged somewhere, I forget where actually, but engages Anson Durst anyway. She has Arm 26 and nine souls coming up next turn. Deneghra got the soul train moving in this game, and damn did it encourage whimsical recklessness in me.
Protectorate didn't try to assassinate. Probably because Aiyana didn't score a kiss on Deneghra, and only one Reckoner looks like it might get bonuses from Choir. So instead they cleared the zone and started controlling it.
Temple Flameguard were rolling attack rolls so badly it wasn't even funny anymore.
Nightmare wrecked its prey target Reckoner. I'm not sure what Deneghra did. Looks like she attacked Anson Durst. Maybe.
The other Reckoner somehow failed to cause lethal damage to Nightmare. I think only cortex went missing. Damage to Mechanithralls was overwhelming, though. Temple Flameguard proved to be the tarpitter tarpit unit.
Anson Durst started closing in to Protectorate friendly zone. After all Deneghra wouldn't be able to contest my friendly zone and I was running out of models to contest. Plus Deneghra wasn't gaining too many souls.
I had to try to kill Durst. All of my activations went into trying to get one soul for Deneghra to allocate focus for Nightmare. After Necrotech repaired cortex, of course. And for once Necrotech didn't fail.
Durst has Arm 20 and Def 15 (from Wall of Steel), but I don't remember if he had taken damage earlier in the game.
Deneghra couldn't kill Anson, so ghostly Nightmare with Puppet Master was the only chance I got. And it had to charge Devout, because Anson wasn't in line of sight. POW 12 hit from Eruption of Ash cloud and a successful Defensive Strike removed Nightmare's left or right claw, so that was one attack less yet again.
But the lone remaining Wicked Claw was enough to penetrate the Wall of Steel and crumble the Rock of the Faith.
Game 2:
Second game was against Trollbloods.
Game was rather short. I had never played against Grim Angus2 before, so I didn't know what to expect. I tried to harass some Highwaymen on the left with Mortality cast from Deneghra's feat. Deneghra had Grave Wind on and six Focus points (I had forgotten to activate Nightwretch on first turn, so I had to allocate one to it for running.
Next turn Grim Angus used his feat and cast Mortality on Deneghra. I would have really needed Grim Angus to miss, but no. Spell was a hit.
Fire Eaters dealt some impressive damage in to Deneghra, but I wasn't that worried until the PYGS activated! They needed 7+ to hit even with aiming bonus and Mark Target bonus. And looked like they couldn't miss. Or roll less than 10 for damage rolls either.
In short, it very much looked like Deneghra would die by getting shot to pieces by Pyg Burrowers. The shame! The humiliation! Fortunately a couple of them missed when Deneghra had four or so damage boxes left. Ogrun Bokur took a second last Pyg shot - and good thing he did. Damage roll was double sixes.
Last Pyg missed and I was relieved.
Deneghra survives a volley from Highwaymen on the right, and even a shot from Glacier King. But Glacier King has Rate of Fire 2, which is enough to kill Deneghra. At least the killing blow came from another huge base model...
Game 3:
By last round I had some serious trouble keeping myself awake at all. I was against Circle of Orboros. Baldur the Stonecleaver was their caster, and there were at least Wold Guardian, Woldwarden, Megalith, Woldwatcher and Woldwyrd around.
Since Wold's don't that that high P+S in their attacks, I thought I'd risk it all by charging in the middle of enemy army with Deneghra, and trampling Nightmare in to wreck Wold Guardian.
So, Deneghra used her feat and charged Wold Guardian, cast Mortality on it and rolled a pathetic damage roll.
Nightmare gets three focus points, though. Skarlock is just a little too far from Nightmare to cast Ghost Walk on it, so Nightmare was to use Imprint to go ghostly. This meant it would only get one attack against Guardian. It was enough to disable Spirit branch, though.
Now.
Things I didn't consider: Baldur has strength bonus available for battle group. Another lapse in my tactical genius was Megalith being able to lower Def by a grand total of five. Megalith started by charging in to Deneghra, and yet again the one attack that should not have hit, did. Weight of Stone got Deneghra down to Def 14. Second fist missed, and Megalith was pushed away from melee range.
Oh, and Sentry Stone had drained one focus point away from Deneghra's overboost, so she only had Arm 22.
Woldwatcher charged Deneghra and rolls something absurd for damage. Woldwarden doesn't quite manage as well, and even gets pushed away from melee range by poltergeist.
Wold Guardian tries to attack Nightmare, but I think it didn't hit even once.
Opponent doesn't have that many activations left any longer. Deneghra had eight or so damage points remaining. Woldwyrd is teleported into contact with her, and attacks with gunfighter. Attack hits and Deneghra is left with something like four hit boxes. Wyrd buys another attack and kills Deneghra.
Well, it was a tired, hungover gamble. And despite all penalties for me and bonuses for Circle it wasn't that far from succeeding. After Woldwyrd opponent would have had only a single unit of Woldstalkers left to activate.
Monday, May 9, 2016
Soul Weaver vs Durst
This was a practice game for a tournament that was held last Saturday. Game was played, oh, I don't remember when.
My 50 point list (still) was:
Deneghra the Soul Weaver
- 2x Nightwretch
- Leviathan
- Nightmare
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 2x Brute Thrall + Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon
Withershadow Combine
Ogrun Bokur
Orin Midwinter
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Soul Trappers
Objective: Bunker
Opponent had:
Anson Durst
- Devout
- 2x Reckoner
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Daughters of the Flame
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Unit Attachment
Aiyana & Holt
Orin Midwinter
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic
Wracks
Objective: Fuel cache
So it would be the duel of Orins. Scenario was Recon. I think Protectorate started, or I'm being very cautious with my advances in the picture. Oh, by the way, the blue and red proxy base in the middle are the Reckoners.
Grave Wind is on Deneghra, and Durst has at least Wall of Steel and Deflection going on for him. I had packed as many Mechanithralls next to Bunker as possible, though one Critical Fire from Zealots could've made me rather sad. I was worried about it back then, but if it was Protectorate turn 2A, the Bunker was still untargetable.
So, turn 2 Protectorate put Temple Flameguard on Iron Zeal, and ordered a Shield Wall. Holy Zealots used Greater Destiny, fervor, and advanced to lob some bombs. There were a few terrifying deviations - Orin Midwinter was left with one or two hit boxes remaining. Some Mechanithralls die, as well as one Brute and two Stitch Thralls. Not only to Zealots, though.
Always up for weird moves, I decided to start scoring, or die trying. Skarlock cast Mortality on Zealots first.
Tremulus gave Puppet Master for Leviathan, and the rest of the Combine shot Zealots successfully. Orin Midwinter advanced and cast Lightning Bolt on farthest Zealots, but the remaining arc jumped in wrong direction. Two arcs resulted in three kills, though, so I don't think I can complain. Even Skarlock Commander used Dark Fire to take down one Zealot. Rest of the Mechanithralls just shambled about, trying to clog sewage.
But hey! Now there were only a bunch of Def 15 models contesting the flag on left. Well, strictly speaking there were only two. One Daughter of the Flame was standing right in front of Leviathan, though. I needed to activate Deneghra before I had secured the flag.
So she allocated focus for Leviathan and ran in base contact with the flag.
Leviathan needed to trample to get to Daughter that has Prey marker in front of her AND it target to clear charge lane for Ogrun Bokur. One focus for power attack: trample. An attack boost against the trampled Daughter was a success, but then Leviathan needed to score 9+ with two dice. It was a miserable failure and Puppet Master needed to roll both dice again. This time attack hit its target.
Then effectively MAT 10 Ogrun Bokur charged the last Daughter. Five plus can still definitely fail. But it didn't.
Phew. There were a lot of moving parts in this scheme with next to no back-ups if models failed some critical rolls. Usually things get screwed over at one point or another if there are multiple absolutely necessary rolls only one model can make.
Then it was Protectorate turn 3, and the dice stopped smiling. I guess I took all of it last turn. The amount of work opponent had to put in removing seven Mechanithralls made me feel bad. Important pieces had to suffer no actual threat that turn. Another Reckoner shot Ogrun Bokur off, at least I think so. I can't figure out anything else that would be able to do that.
Devout (who had used the spell shield thingy) charged Leviathan. Next came Anson Durst, who used his feat. He had to spend all focus he had to remove Leviathan. But at least Leviathan got blown to pieces in style, when Eruption of Ash triggered.
Cryx turn 3. Devout was contesting my precious flag, and I doubted I'd be able to take it down as it had Arm 22. I had a pretty useless turn at least in kill count. I just cleared my flag and Mechanithralls took, what... one Temple Flameguard down, who had Mortality from Skarlock? Mechanithralls' main function was to engage enemy in melee so getting those scary aimed Reckoner shots wouldn't be that easy.
Protectorate turn 4 all but one Brute Thrall dies. I mean, from the unit. Not from the board.
Necrosurgeon survives against all odds, but objective does not. Durst needed only to back a little and start dominating. Scenario went 2-3 for Protectorate. Deneghra got one point, as opponent rather wanted a spell immune Durst. Now Durst only had to dominate middle zone one additional time.
So, on my turn I throw just about everything to the middle zone and pray Protectorate wouldn't have enough tools to remove them.
Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Necrosurgeon, who then advanced to build three additional Mechanithralls. Placing them was tricky, as their leader now was a CMD 5 Brute Thrall...
Well, anyway. I wanted to destroy enemy objective, so Tremulus cast Puppet Master on Mechanithralls. Deneghra then cast Ghost Walk on them and Mortality on enemy objective. Mechanithralls charge the fuel cache. Grand plan would have failed without Puppet Master.
So scenario was 4-3 for Cryx. Opponent deemed it easier to clear zone than to kill Def 15 Arm 25+ Deneghra.
Clearing the zone from half-way to top went well enough, but Reckoner didn't manage to kill Nightmare and Temple Flameguard failed their most important roll - the attack roll against Skarlock. All of the Protectorate models were activated except for the warcaster.
Durst charges in and plans to kill Skarlock with Eruption of Ash from destroying Nightmare, probably Admonia next with Necrotech dying to the blast. Def 15 Nightwretch would be the kingmaker here if dice would roll at least only a little below average rolls.
Well. I think Durst missed three attacks against Nightmare, and then the Eruption cloud either didn't roll high enough to kill Skarlock, or Skarlock wasn't under the template. Durst then released the flame the Flameguard was guarding, and hit the soldier in the back. This created another Eruption that killed Skarlock. By now I think he only had one spare focus to attack Admonia, or perhaps he had none. However the final details were, only one POW 12 wasn't enough to wreck Nightwretch, or that POW 12 never came.
Next Deneghra only needed to wreck Devout to get the final control point. Which she did.
My 50 point list (still) was:
Deneghra the Soul Weaver
- 2x Nightwretch
- Leviathan
- Nightmare
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 2x Brute Thrall + Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon
Withershadow Combine
Ogrun Bokur
Orin Midwinter
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Soul Trappers
Objective: Bunker
Opponent had:
Anson Durst
- 2x Reckoner
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Daughters of the Flame
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Unit Attachment
Aiyana & Holt
Orin Midwinter
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic
Wracks
Objective: Fuel cache
So it would be the duel of Orins. Scenario was Recon. I think Protectorate started, or I'm being very cautious with my advances in the picture. Oh, by the way, the blue and red proxy base in the middle are the Reckoners.
Grave Wind is on Deneghra, and Durst has at least Wall of Steel and Deflection going on for him. I had packed as many Mechanithralls next to Bunker as possible, though one Critical Fire from Zealots could've made me rather sad. I was worried about it back then, but if it was Protectorate turn 2A, the Bunker was still untargetable.
So, turn 2 Protectorate put Temple Flameguard on Iron Zeal, and ordered a Shield Wall. Holy Zealots used Greater Destiny, fervor, and advanced to lob some bombs. There were a few terrifying deviations - Orin Midwinter was left with one or two hit boxes remaining. Some Mechanithralls die, as well as one Brute and two Stitch Thralls. Not only to Zealots, though.
Always up for weird moves, I decided to start scoring, or die trying. Skarlock cast Mortality on Zealots first.
Tremulus gave Puppet Master for Leviathan, and the rest of the Combine shot Zealots successfully. Orin Midwinter advanced and cast Lightning Bolt on farthest Zealots, but the remaining arc jumped in wrong direction. Two arcs resulted in three kills, though, so I don't think I can complain. Even Skarlock Commander used Dark Fire to take down one Zealot. Rest of the Mechanithralls just shambled about, trying to clog sewage.
But hey! Now there were only a bunch of Def 15 models contesting the flag on left. Well, strictly speaking there were only two. One Daughter of the Flame was standing right in front of Leviathan, though. I needed to activate Deneghra before I had secured the flag.
So she allocated focus for Leviathan and ran in base contact with the flag.
Leviathan needed to trample to get to Daughter that has Prey marker in front of her AND it target to clear charge lane for Ogrun Bokur. One focus for power attack: trample. An attack boost against the trampled Daughter was a success, but then Leviathan needed to score 9+ with two dice. It was a miserable failure and Puppet Master needed to roll both dice again. This time attack hit its target.
Then effectively MAT 10 Ogrun Bokur charged the last Daughter. Five plus can still definitely fail. But it didn't.
Phew. There were a lot of moving parts in this scheme with next to no back-ups if models failed some critical rolls. Usually things get screwed over at one point or another if there are multiple absolutely necessary rolls only one model can make.
Then it was Protectorate turn 3, and the dice stopped smiling. I guess I took all of it last turn. The amount of work opponent had to put in removing seven Mechanithralls made me feel bad. Important pieces had to suffer no actual threat that turn. Another Reckoner shot Ogrun Bokur off, at least I think so. I can't figure out anything else that would be able to do that.
Devout (who had used the spell shield thingy) charged Leviathan. Next came Anson Durst, who used his feat. He had to spend all focus he had to remove Leviathan. But at least Leviathan got blown to pieces in style, when Eruption of Ash triggered.
Cryx turn 3. Devout was contesting my precious flag, and I doubted I'd be able to take it down as it had Arm 22. I had a pretty useless turn at least in kill count. I just cleared my flag and Mechanithralls took, what... one Temple Flameguard down, who had Mortality from Skarlock? Mechanithralls' main function was to engage enemy in melee so getting those scary aimed Reckoner shots wouldn't be that easy.
Protectorate turn 4 all but one Brute Thrall dies. I mean, from the unit. Not from the board.
Necrosurgeon survives against all odds, but objective does not. Durst needed only to back a little and start dominating. Scenario went 2-3 for Protectorate. Deneghra got one point, as opponent rather wanted a spell immune Durst. Now Durst only had to dominate middle zone one additional time.
So, on my turn I throw just about everything to the middle zone and pray Protectorate wouldn't have enough tools to remove them.
Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Necrosurgeon, who then advanced to build three additional Mechanithralls. Placing them was tricky, as their leader now was a CMD 5 Brute Thrall...
Well, anyway. I wanted to destroy enemy objective, so Tremulus cast Puppet Master on Mechanithralls. Deneghra then cast Ghost Walk on them and Mortality on enemy objective. Mechanithralls charge the fuel cache. Grand plan would have failed without Puppet Master.
So scenario was 4-3 for Cryx. Opponent deemed it easier to clear zone than to kill Def 15 Arm 25+ Deneghra.
Clearing the zone from half-way to top went well enough, but Reckoner didn't manage to kill Nightmare and Temple Flameguard failed their most important roll - the attack roll against Skarlock. All of the Protectorate models were activated except for the warcaster.
Durst charges in and plans to kill Skarlock with Eruption of Ash from destroying Nightmare, probably Admonia next with Necrotech dying to the blast. Def 15 Nightwretch would be the kingmaker here if dice would roll at least only a little below average rolls.
Well. I think Durst missed three attacks against Nightmare, and then the Eruption cloud either didn't roll high enough to kill Skarlock, or Skarlock wasn't under the template. Durst then released the flame the Flameguard was guarding, and hit the soldier in the back. This created another Eruption that killed Skarlock. By now I think he only had one spare focus to attack Admonia, or perhaps he had none. However the final details were, only one POW 12 wasn't enough to wreck Nightwretch, or that POW 12 never came.
Next Deneghra only needed to wreck Devout to get the final control point. Which she did.
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