Length of seventeen focus

These are two 50 point games of Warmachine against Trollbloods that were played recently. Trolls had the same list in both games, but I tried a different list in the second game. Both games were played with Recon scenario.



Ragnor Skysplitter, The Runemaster
- Dire Troll Mauler
- Troll Axer
- Troll Impaler
Trollkin Sluggers (max) (pre-errata)
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) + Stone Scribe Elder
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Trollkin War Wagon

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Game 1 list:

Lich Lord Asphyxious
- Desecrator
- Corruptor
- Slayer
Bane Warriors (max) + Command Attachment
Bane Lord Tartarus
Warwitch Siren
Necrotech
Soul Trapper

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Game 2 list:

Asphyxious the Hellbringer
- Harrower
- Corruptor
- Nightmare
Mechanithralls (max) +2x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Warwitch Siren
Necrotech

Objective: Bunker

First game was quite straightforward Asphyxious2 game, at least for me: Bane Warriors ran first to get themselves killed, while heavier targets tried to hide behind Caustic Mists. Opponent was hesitant to bring models too much forward. I guess it was an oversight when there was only the objective and a krielstone grunt contesting middle zone at the start of my turn 3. Well, it didn't really help that one major contestant had lost it's activation to a failed threshold check - Dire Troll Mauler had eaten a krielstone bearer grunt to help with some sort of problems with anxiety or stage fright.

As hopeful as I had been with the acquisition of Tough for Bane Warriors once more, the War Wagon was a terrifying piece to negate that precious Tough - as knockdown happens before damage is being done, it negated Tough altogether.

Impaler had been really proficient at rolling for criticals. I don't think it rolled any non-critical attacks in this game?

Anyway, once an ARM 17 warjack goes down to def 5, Sluggers are suddenly rather a scary prospect. But there must be some sort of hidden ammunition type special rule for them. Every time they rolled three shots, there was only one or two points of damage, or none at all. And every time only one shot was rolled, they must have been some sort of depleted uranium shells from the grim distant future, because of their high damage.

But there were no warjack casualties. Desecrator and Corruptor both had suffered heavy damage, but weren't quite dead yet. Necrotech kept their systems functional.

I didn't even go for actual enemy models during Ragnor's feat - I dedicated everything to destroy the objective. Which succeeded even if it wasn't easy. Bane Thrall with it's Dark Shroud gave the required extra punch for Slayer to destroy objective. And then Cryx went straight to three control points.

Next opponent caused some impressive damage on Cryxian forces, and I lost any desire I could have had at playing any kind of attrition.

There was Mauler, Impaler and Slugger contesting the central zone. I had Tartarus, Asphyxious, movement-less Desecrator and Asphyxious' feat. It was all-out onslaught, which did succeed in removing trollblood troops and giving Lich Lord those remaining control points.

Game 2:

Last game had evolved Asphyxious2 into Asphyxious3.

Beginning wasn't that grand, when I advanced Corruptor to take a shot at War Wagon. I had thought that I might have done some 4-5 damage points in, perhaps, and then make enemy deal with the heavy warjack and any Mechanithralls I would be running up the middle zone. But opponent didn't need to expend any extra resources at all - everything was just shot off the board. Damn that knockdown cannon. Oh, and the Necrojector shot was triple 1's.

Then I brought Asphyxious up to feat, and had Mobility up. Nightmare had Ashen Veil.

I had trusted Nightmare to deal with War Wagon, but damage rolls were pretty terrible. Charge attack even missed the DEF 9 target.

Hellfire from Vociferon missed one krielstone grunt that was contesting the zone.

Harrower, Necrotech and Brute Thrall were what it took to remove enemy objective - and then I noticed I had completely forgotten about that contesting krielstone grunt. Mentally I had already dealt with it with the Hellfire. Three control points denied.

I lost pretty much everything on next turn. Buffaloes knocked Nightmare down, and suddenly Ashen Veil stopped doing, well, anything at all. Dire Troll Mauler wrecked Harrower and Axer came to finish off Nightmare. At least post-nerf recursion had kept Mechanithralls on the board. During course of the game six extra grunts had been reconstructed to offer some bullet practice targets for Sluggers.

At least that turn yielded ten extra focus points for Asphyxious - and opponent forgot to use feat. Well, at least that still kept me in game, though gaining advantage over such memory lapses don't feel clean.

There were only a Slugger and a krielstone grunt contesting the zone. Absolutely everything I threw against them failed miserably.

Mechanithralls weren't doing anything either. I guess it fits some sort of archetypal "worthless minions, must I do everything by myself" trope.

Asphyxious had to cast Mobility to get to Dire Troll Mauler, which was annoying. He then charged and bought an extra attack against Slugger, killing him and casting a boosted Hellfire at the krielstone grunt via Blood Boon. At least that much succeeded.

Then he cast Calamity on Dire Troll Mauler and started swinging his blade.

All the attacks had terrible rolls. Six was the most common damage roll for the attacks that even managed to hit a def 10 target. I wonder if Asphyxious was hitting the troll with his sword's handle instead of the blade.

Ten focus and the charge attack was what it took to kill a def 10, arm 18 heavy warbeast with MAT 6 and P+S 16. Asphyxious had zero focus point in camp.

But karma (sometimes) has this fickle way of balancing things out.

Opponent wasn't much better at rolling dice on his next turn. First, and most importantly, Ragnor missed the knockdown spell. He got scared then and ran off to the hills all the while listening to Iron Maiden.

War Wagon scored only one Mechanithrall kill. Spray missed both the Siren and Vociferon, and I don't remember at all what it was that the knockdown cannon tried to shoot. Axer scored only one hit against Asphyxious that dealt something like six or seven damage points. Impaler had been busy removing remaining Mechanithralls, and the whole unit was indeed wiped out that turn.

But - Asphyxious was miraculously alive, and there were only War Wagon and Axer on the zone. And Ragnor had still not used his feat.

Asphyxious destroys War Wagon and casts Calamity on Axer via Blood Boon, and proceeds to finish the light warbeast, bringing Cryx yet again to five control points.

Now, this game was solely won because of opponent forgot to use his feat twice in a row. Though, of course he had left the scenario zone way too uncontested in both games. But whatever the case, I felt kind of weaponless in both games. Enemy had a low model count, but still I was unable to reduce that count all that much. Corruptor that I usually take as a form of crowd control mechanic felt rather useless now, when POW 10 AoE would be stopped by a 5+ tough roll, and even if it did succeed, krielstone aura made it require 7+ or 8+ to kill any extra models.