Bane Rivalry

So a while ago I played these two 50 point games of Warmachine.

My lists were:

Game 1:

Goreshade the Bastard
- Corruptor
- Reaper
- Seether
- Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan
Bile Thralls (min)
Soulhunters (min)
Black Ogrun Boarding Party (min)
Machine Wraith
Necrotech

Game 2:

Lich Lord Venethrax
- Nightmare
- Malice
- Slayer
- Desecrator
- Ripjaw
2x Warwitch Siren
Necrotech
Machine Wraith

Opponent played this list in both games:

Bane Witch Agathia
- 2x Deathripper
- 2x Slayer

Bane Warriors (max)

Scenario was The Pit in both games.

There were some striking similarities on how the games played out.

In the first game Goreshade and Agathia had to settle it which one was more professional Bane Manager. Both players started scoring points from the flags until Goreshade seized the zone, getting my Cryx to four control points. I would win if I managed to dominate or control the zone or dominate my flag, so opponent decided to attempt an assassination. Vanish is quite a sneaky spell when it comes to that.

Charge attack missed as far as memory serves. Rest of the attacks did mediocre results. It was pretty much game over for Agathia when she left Goreshade at four or something hit boxes remaining with Deathwalker still alive. Deathwalker would have died and Goreshade would have been at one hit box, a Satyxis Blood Witch with that auto-hitting POW 6-7 would have been first legendary caster kill for my Mk3. But not this time. Victory for Goreshade.

Second game I switched to Venehthrax with heavy battlegroup emphasis. Again Agathia seized her flag, but I chose a most greedy route. I tried to conquer whole zone in the middle turn after turn.

It was a huge risk which could have paid off. I had some unlucky dice with Nightmare, when it couldn't wreck it's prey target (who, admittedly, had Hellwrought on) Malice and my Slayer wrecked second Slayer from opponent (I had had to suffer a feated, unlucky alpha strike that didn't destroy even one helljack from me. However, situation looks far better for me than it actually was - Desecrator and Malice were almost smoldering wrecks already, and Nightmare had lost at least one arm. Only Slayer was fully functional.)

So I ran out of attacks to clear the zone, all the while I had not really bothered to contest enemy flag. This was Venethrax' downfall.

Well, I would have needed to try some other kind of approach anyway, because if we consider model count, me getting random models to contest enemy flag was far more difficult than Agathia bringing models to contest mine.

One victory and one loss, good enough I guess.