Tuesday, May 30, 2017

"Must I do everything by myself?"

Two 50 point games of Warmachine from a couple of weeks ago.

Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- Kraken
- 2x Stalker

Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges (max)
2x Necrotech
Scrap Thralls
Warwitch Siren


First game opponent played with:

Tyrant Xerxis
- Tiberion
- Titan Gladiator
Cataphract Cetrati (max)
Nihilators (max)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)

Scenario in both games was... I don't know what it was. A reminiscent. Friendly flags gave one point for dominance, enemy flags one for control and two for dominance. Center zone one for control and two for dominance.

First game was a historical one.

I approach carefully, but not carefully enough. Five Cetrati one-rounded my Kraken under Xerxis' feat. Those damage rolls... 6,6,6,6,4. 6,6,6,4,4. Lowest roll was only slightly above average. Fortunately for me opponent sent Tiberion in to beat some Drudge Thralls - I suppose he didn't expect I'd overcommit Asphyxios, or if I did, it would be his downfall.

Asphyxious had seven extra focus points from Nihilator souls only. This turn he used feat and charged Tiberion. He also killed a nearby Nihilator to cast Calamity on Tiberion. It took nearly all focus he had, but finally Tiberion was dead. Cloak of Ash was on Asphyxious.

Xerxis was slowly grinding scenario points at his flag. Tactical Supremacy on himself made it possible for him to kill whatever I ran to contest flag and back-track for the score. A hilarious happenstance was when Xerxis made a combo-smite at my Stalker, which brought the warjack into contact with Scrap Thrall. Stalker had only one hit box remaining. Either thrall survived collateral damage roll or the explosion didn't destroy Stalker, but surely I was sweating my spleen off there.

Anyway, Gladiator tries to Grand Slam Asphyxious away from the zone, but misses. This causes one Drudge Thrall to remain on the zone, contesting it. All other models had died.

Asphyxious had seven extra focus again next turn. Again he killed Nihilator or something and cast Calamity on Gladiator.

And then.

I had big plans - Asphyxious would become a hero. With Gladiator dead along with some Cetratii, with nicely camped focus he'd be an unstoppable and yet invulnerable force of destruction.

Four double 1's. One 1,2. Plenty of 1,4. Come on, Asphyxious! COME ON!

Finally he came on and killed the warbeast, but had only one focus point left. Only the charge attack roll dealt more than five points of damage in one go. And he was, after all, at dice -1 to damage.

Opponent cleared up some other models of mine, trying to buy some time for Xerxis to grind a few more control points.

Next turn Asphyxious doesn't have that many extra focus points, three, four or something like that. Nonetheless he casts Calamity on Cetrati and kills a bunch of them. Stalker and some Drudges kill the last ones. Main body of Drudges and this particular Stalker had been tied to Legends of Halaak near my friendly flag.

Eventually all models but Xerxis are dead, at which point we conclude that mathematically Xerxis cannot win any more even if I somehow failed to contest his flag. Xerxis then charges last remaining Stalker and concedes.


Asphyxious kill total: Gladiator, Tiberion, three to four Cataphract Cetrati and some Nihilators - roughly 45 points... with that kind of attack and damage rolls. That's close to a personal record - only thing that even remotely compares was this one ancient Mk2 tournament where Venethrax was charged by tons of Circle warbeasts that should have killed him, but somehow did not.

Game 2:

Opponent had:

Master Ascetic Naaresh
- Agonizer
- 2x Cyclops Brute
- Razor Worm
- Tiberion
- Titan Gladiator
Legends of Halaak
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)

This game was a distracted failure in every aspect at least when compared to last one.

Long story short: I was far too obsessed over Agonizer. First I sent a leaping Stalker at it, leaving it with four damage points or something. Of course Spirit was fine.

Kraken tried to take some random useless shots - I think the grand plan here was trying to get Agonizer under blast damage. Well, Kraken was now easily within Tiberion's charge range.

I didn't feat, which was a grave mistake. I mean - of course opponent would send all of his beasts against Kraken and assorted models. Why did I not. Why.

Tiberion did not break Kraken, which was a relief. Naaresh had used feat, so I was hard pressed to remove Tiberion this turn. First and foremost Asphyxious shot Agonizer with Hellfire. That seemed like a good idea at the time. How many warcasters have Agonizer killed like this? Countless... Asphyxious did use his feat now, though.

Anyway, Kraken and some Drudge Thralls and whatever I could land on it failed to kill. Not by many boxes, but still failed.

Gladiator and Tiberion both trample next to Asphyxious. To my consolation even Cloak of Ash would not have saved me from these attack rolls.

Anyway, Gladiator took one fully boosted swing at Asphyxious, hit and dealt some damage.

Now, if Tiberion only would have healed him back to full health with his Fury points... Tiberion's damage roll dealt 17 points in. Asphyxious3 has eighteen boxes. Much grief and many sadnesses.


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