(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.