"But I'm safe from blast damage!"

A while ago I played a 75 point game of Warmachine. Actually, make that two. Or make that one. However you wish. One and a half. One point twenty five. Enough rambling.

Both games (game and a non-game) were with same lists and scenario.

My list was:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous
- Seether
- Erebus
- Ripjaw
- Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Withershadow Combine
Aiakos
- Desecrator
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Machine Wraith
2x Soul Trapper
Ragman
Swamp Gobber River Raiders

Opponent had:

Severius2
- 2x Reckoner
- Redeemer
- Blessing of Vengeance

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Idrian Skirmishers + Command Attachment
Rhoven & Bodyguard
Covenant of Menoth
Hierophant
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic

Scenario was Recon. I won't bother with the first game too much. I somehow thought it was a very good idea to bring Scaverous that much front. My objective was Bunker, so I was, uh. Safe from blast damage. Whee.

Assassination still comes from rather far away with Severius2. Though I don't think he actually even cast Awareness and blasted Scaverous with two Hex Blasts instead.

Game 2:

Okay, another try.

This time I decided to keep Scaverous a little bit better 'screened', though what the heck does that help against anything that has access to Awareness?

I tried to shoot scather template to block Idrians even a little, plus used arc node to cast Feast of Worms "somewhere", that landed on Idrians, giving Scaverous a soul or something. I think Protectorate started this game and the first picture in the doubled up scene is from the end of Cryx turn 2. Protectorate had shot Seether off the board. I sacrificed Ripjaw to cast Feast of Worms deep in the enemy line of supports. I forget how much actually happened, but quite a few choir members died. Scather falls to a slightly bad position, not doing much against single wound infantry now.

Next Severius uses his feat and everything dies. I lost objective (to shooting, actually. I lost Bunker to shooting.) most Black Ogruns, Aiakos (which made Desecrator inert), Warwitch Siren and Soul Trapper.

When I try to reply to this aggression, everything fails. Even Machine Wraith misses it's back strike attack against Blessing of Vengeance. I decided to launch Erebus forward anyway, both to contest the zone and to act as some sort of a dummy for Protectorate to beat instead of focusing on Scaverous.

Withershadow Combine casts Telekinesis on inert Desecrator and Scaverous comes to re-activate it. He casts Feast of Worms on enemy objective.

Next Protectorate has its fair share of bad luck when Reckoner misses back strike attack against Machine Wraith, and Redeemer fails as miserably against Pistol Wraith. Erebus is slammed out of the zone, though.

Machine Wraith and surviving Black Ogruns make Protectorate over-reach a little; Severius really wants to start playing some serious scenario game and he empties his focus pool relatively close to my troops.

This was my only chance, but it was quite a slim one. Severius had Holy Ward on himself, and he was on top of a hill also.

Admonia upkeeps the Feast of Worms, and then Pistol Wraith advances to shoot the hierarch a little. Wraith does some damage in, but doesn't succeed in Death Chilling its target.

No matter how I try to shuffle things, I can't find any other shot I could make other than from Desecrator, which would need 13+ to even hit in the first place. Covenant had denied spellcasting and I didn't have that many attacks available to deal with it...

So, Withershadow Combine gives Puppet Master for Desecrator, who then advances and shoots the biley cannon forth. I don't remember if I had to use Puppet Master or not, but in the end the attack hit and killed Severius.