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.