Inviolable Parasite

Played a ten point game of Warmachine against a new and returning player. As he had played only a couple of games during Mk2, the game was more of an introduction rather than a bloody battle for victory.

My list was:

Lich Lord Asphyxious
- 2x Slayer
- Defiler
Minimum unit of Satyxis Raiders

Opponent had:

Grand Exemplar Kreoss
- Crusader
- Castigator
- Repenter
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanik

I started the game, and Asphyxious cast some Caustic Mists to block LoS. There was a building in the middle that acted as a sort of divider. And I decided to do just that - challenge from both sides of the house.

Satyxis Raiders put a dent on Crusader on turn two, and Slayer advanced behind a Caustic cloud on the other side of the building. Far enough that plain old walk wouldn't be enough to engage it.

Opponent put Castigator to act as a bouncer, but Slayer wanted to perform. (Get it? Eh eh.) I mistakenly thought that the helljack was able to knock out the Cortex of Castigator - a mistake that proved fatal, when P+S 19 automatically hitting attacks started pouring in.

Crusader had been finished by another Slayer, but as Kreoss was using his feat now, Repenter engaged in melee.

Then we has Asphyxious personally attacking the Castigator, casting Parasite on Kreoss and using Excarnate to pluck off one choir member. Then he used feat and tried to assassinate Kreoss with Satyxis Raiders. It failed miserably. The lucky critical knockdown had been used already on Crusader earlier in this match. Not a single lacerator was able to score 8+, but two horns did - but didn't do even a single point of damage.

Opponent shoots Cleansing Fire on Asphyxious and scores a whopping eight points of damage. If opponent had been pondering whether to charge Defiler or Asphyxious, I guess this tipped the scale towards my warcaster. Charge attack dealt nine points in, but last attack opponent was to make missed.

Kreoss had both Parasite and Inviolable Resolve on himself. Asphyxious was still rolling damage at -1, and hitting on 8+ required boosts.

All three boosted attacks Asphyxious could do resulted in a hit, and it was the very last attack possible that downed the Menite warcaster.

Kaya and Venethrax in stop motion

It's finally here.

This game was played over a month ago, but the format I chose to present it took a while.

Lightening conditions gave some trouble and it shows. Many of the frames have been individually adjusted in order to reduce flickering. And because I had to go image editing, why not take it a little further? I tried new things like edit away blu-tack or dice that were used to support Kaya and Venethrax during their climb and fall. And it worked out pretty well.

Anyway. Here it is.

Memory lapse

Well I completely forgot about this one, didn't I?

It's the traditional small Christmas game of Warmachine, which was played exactly on the 24th.


My list was:

Asphyxious the Hellbringer
- Malice
- 2x Helldiver
Bloat Thrall
Scrap Thralls

Opponent had:

Reznik1

- Crusader
- Castigator
- Repenter
Unit of Knights Exemplar
Wrack

Now, opponent used mk2 card for Crusader so he gained a few extra points. Whoopsie.

But I suppose anything goes on a board that has line of Skinks for a linear obstacle.

Game was short, as 10 point games tend to be. Malice failed to break anything of importance from Crusader, which obviously meant the end of Malice. But it did, at least, require Reznik to come and finish it.

Now Reznik was close enough for Asphyxious to charge, and it was post-feat turn for me anyway. Reznik had three or so focus points to remove damage, so it wasn't a guaranteed kill even if Asphyxious had about 13 focus points.

Assassination was around three damage points short, so even corrosion that Bloat Thrall had managed to land on him wasn't enough.

Asphyxious went all kinds of deader next.

Black Oil

A couple of days ago I played this 10 point game of Warmachine.

It was to teach the game a bit more for a beginning player.

My list was:

Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon

- Malice
- Helldiver
- Defiler
Gorman diWulfe
Soul Trapper

And opponent had:
Captain Victoria Haley
- Stormclad
- Lancer
Rangers

My opening move was to harpoon Stormclad to Malice. Stormclad had Arcane Shield and Calamity on, so it was effectively Arm 20. Malice needed 7+ to punch through that armor, but even with damage boost it did not succeed. Whoopsie. To discourage retaliation Asphyxious used feat.

Stormclad charged Malice and wrecked every single system except cortex. Gorman lobbed black oil on Stormclad, and Malice took a swing at the cygnaran warjack. Attack hit even with on die, and damage was boosted to two dice.

Defiler teases rangers. Asphyxious had gained two extra focus from his feat and decided to charge Stormclad. Warjack gets wrecked.

Next Haley uses her feat which results in a dead Defiler and Helldiver.

Malice succeeds to drag Lancer to Cryx, and Asphyxious gets the job done again. With Blood Boon he casts Calamity on rangers and Vociferon kills two rangers with a Hex Blast.

Cygnar has a couple of rangers and Haley left, so there ain't many options available. Haley charges to Gorman diWulfe just for the sake of it.

Asphyxious...

Uh. So, Asphyxious nearly single-handedly destroyed Stormclad, Lancer and Haley. Rest of the army got three rangers. Well of course he had good support to do that, but still it's an amusing thought.

Next we're up for a 25 point game.

Cryxmas Games

Kuhmo traditions continued with two small Warmachine games. These were played around 24-26th days of December, so they are no longer in fresh memory.

Lists were ten points and first game was:

Wraith Witch Deneghra
- Erebus
- Nightwretch
- Ripjaw
Gorman diWulfe
Bloat Thrall

Versus

High Allegiant Amon

- Crusader
- Dervish
- Devout
- Repenter
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Wrack

First game I kind of wanted to make this super-stunlock maneuver I've been dreaming of. That means a Blind, Shadow Bind, Knockdown and Stationary all on one model.

Well it didn't come to that, but in small point sizes as this it definitely affected matters when you get, for example, 50% of enemy army blinded.

Don't mind the stegadon, by the way. It's an obstacle. Not a proxy.

Arm 21 crusader could have been a great trouble for me to chew through even when it came to have a go at the bonejacks. But Erebus still is only p+s 16. So instead I decided to ignore Crusader altogether and try to score assassination. Amon was behind Devout and there was Repenter blocking Erebus from charging Devout. Deneghra used Dark Banishment on the Repenter and lobbed it some six inches away. But this was an all-out attempt to win. Deneghra was focusless and within Crusader's melee range. Erebus better succeed.

And Erebus did succeed. When the boosted attack against Amon hit, the Protectorate warcaster went stationary. Of course everything hanged on 5+ tough roll once again, because it wasn't until the last possible attack that finally dealt enough damage to Amon. This time tough roll failed.


Second game was:

Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- Slayer
- 2x Helldiver
- Deathripper
Gorman diWulfe
Machine Wraith

Versus

High Executioner Reznik

- Crusader
- Revenger
- Repenter
Minimum unit of Exemplar Bastions

This somehow turned into long fight of attrition. Crusader was trying to flank Cryx, which distracted Asphyxious with twelve or thirteen focus points for a turn. During this time Cryx lost Slayer and Helldiver and what else.

But Cryx gained the upper hand, and finally there was nothing else except a lone Bastion and Reznik on board. Reznik ran to engage Asphyxious and had five focus points for camping.

I think Gorman succeeded to blind him. Asphyxious burned out attacking Reznik, and still Reznik was not dead.

I don't remember if it was Vociferon that finihed Reznik or Deathripper, but whatever the case, Reznik fell after taking quite a beating.

Battlefield Comes to Life

... and it isn't pretty.

I've been practicing stop motion animations lately, and I had this thought how it would look like if I animated a Warmachine match.

It came out rather crude, but it was quite fun to make it. The 140+ frames spread out to a minute and a half didn't turn out so well and it's a bit too hectic to make much sense. For a slightly more enjoyable experience I suppose one would need to take a different take each time a model changes facing, as well as maybe try to make some sort of damage overlay for each hit.

While we are at it, leaching and allocating focus would give a greater pause between turns if each leached or allocated point was it's own frame.

But yeah. Considering my experience (or the very lack of it) result isn't that bad. Let's see if Blogger know's how to Avi, or do I need to youtube this thing posthumously.



Yup, new to these things. But there's the video now.

Oh, and the actual battle report. It was a fast game with Hexeris using feat to clear Mechanithralls off the board, and then warbeasts and warjacks failing to do anything useful.

I decided Hexeris needed to attack Asphyxious when he had only one focus point left for damage mitigation. Two attacks hit Asphyxious, but then I didn't score 8+ with three dice with two attempts. Maybe that's fair, because Asphyxious forgot to take souls from Archidon and Titan Sentry.

Asphyxious hit with his first attack, which spelled doom for Hexeris even if Asphyxious tried really hard not to kill the skorne warlock. Twice there were double 1's for damage, and twice damage roll was something like 1,3.

But once more Hexeris went splat.

Tough luck

My list was:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Seether
- Slayer
- Deathripper
- Ripjaw
Machine Wraith

Opponent had:

Amon
- Crusader
- Dervish
- Devout
- Repenter
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth

We had no scenario other than caster kill. Protectorate started game.

Seether with Scything Touch one-rounded Crusader with +2 armor spell. Parasite on Choir of Menoth and Asphyxious' feat killed all but one choir member. That one was shot down with possessed Repenter.

Amon had a camp of five focus points. Asphyxious had cast Parasite on him. Because Crusader died that easily I thought I'd make Amon quite careful if I'd damage him with Slayer. So, Slayer charged Amon and out of a whim I did Combo-Strike. Damage roll was so high that even with damage reducing effect the High Allegiant was one-shot. Oh, wait! No he wasn't. He passed his tough roll.

Next turn what's left of Protectorate wrecks both heavies and one of the arc nodes. But Amon is at one hit box. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, Asphyxious missing three times and scoring only two attacks - both which were prevented by a successful Tough roll. Then one of the arc nodes come to bite with boosted attack roll, but it's a miss. As a last resort Machine Wraith possesses Repenter and the light warjack goes and takes a swing at its master. Missed.

And then Asphyxious was alone in the middle of, albeit smallish, enemy army. And died. As a small consolation Amon was not able to deliver the killing blow. He missed even more attacks than Asphyxious did.

Additional league games

And the Journeyman League continues, slightly sloppily when it comes to my activity at least.

But once I got to a gaming night, I played thee 10 point games.

I expanded my list with:

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax

Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder
Gallows Grove

First game was against General Ossrum, who had added Basher to the list. Basher broke off the base just before we started game, so it is the empty base with some cork in it.

This game went a little better than the first one. Not much, but at least I got to do something other than advance and die.

I tried to open up the game so that I'd block enemy heavies to the right side of the board, while wrecking things on the left and hopefully getting to Ossrum in time. However, Basher got to kill Gorax.

Also, Gnarlhorn Satyr was not able to kill one enemy light warjack, though it had Curse of Shadows on it. Well, sure, Ossrum had his feat on, but come on.

Basher destroyed any pillars that were protecting Gnarlhorn, and Energizer got Driller to position where it could easily go and make some minced meat out of the Satyr.

Ossrum had no Focus points, so I guess I really needed to make caster kill now. Mohsar charged in to cast Curse of Shadows on Ossrum but missed. Ossrum had Bullet Dodger on, so it advanced away from Mohsar's cast range. I accidentally thought of making some pillars to block Ossrum's advance, so Winter Argus was free to try and kill an uninjured enemy def 16 warcaster with two RAT 4, POW 12 attacks.

Failed. And Mohsar died.

Game 2:

Second game was against Cryx:

Lich Lord Venethrax
- 2x Slayer
- Deathripper

6x Mechanithralls
Skarlock

I was way too scared of Terminal Velocity in this game. And it didn't exactly help either that I didn't bother to ask about the Venethraxs' new feat's details. I was under impression that it forbade forcing when it instead didn't allow for to leech.

That was one ouchy touch turn.

But I did put up a valiant fight, though. Piece by piece I was removing Cryxian stuff from the board until there was only one Slayer left. Venethrax had been sitting on the flag, grinding scenario points whole time.

But it wasn't a scenario victory, no.

Slayer charged Gorax with Terminal Velocity and got within 1" of Mohsar. First attack brought Mohsar to one or two points remaining or something like that. Then Mohsar died.

New and improved Crevasse is quite a nice spell, though.

Game 3:

Last game was against Syntherion, who had added Corollary and some servitors to his list.

I chose to make a grand opening in this game and sent Gnarlhorn Satyr to its death, trading a 12 point beast to 7 or 8 point warjack. But I made that on purpose this time, as I thought Syntherion would now have to dedicate quite a bit of his resources to deal with a heavy and also Winter Argus, buying me time to start to score scenario points.

It almost worked. However, there was always some nasty enemy model that was able to run to contest my flag from one vector (pun...?) or another. And I had ran out of models to contest enemy flag.

A rare game, where both players went to 5 control points.

However, next Mohsar lost last remaining model from his army list - the Blackclad Wayfarer. Mohsar's game was doomed.

So that was three losses. Oh dear.

Scaverous vs Reznik in the new edition

Yesterday I played first game of the new edition of Warmachine.

Traditionally we've played a game or two on my summer visit to Kuhmo with another player who's from here, but this time around we weren't present at the same time.

So it was time to blow the dust from Vassal engine and play a 10 point game.

I played:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous 1

- Erebus
- 2x Deathripper

Minimum unit of Bile Thralls

Opponent had:

High Executioner Servath Reznik 1
- Castigator
- Devout
- Dervish

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
2x Allegiant of Fist

We didn't use any scenarios in such a small game. Protectorate started. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1. So far Death Ward is on Erebus and Ignite is on Castigator (like it needs to ignite things any better...)

Second turn Protectorate advanced under spell shielded warjacks and warcasters, and defense 18 Allegiants of Fists.

Such magic protection was an intimidating prospect. I was afraid I wouldn't get any use out of Scaverous' feat at all until it was already too late. Witch Hound stopped me from planning any kind of an assassination with Erebus (I didn't think I'd be able to pull it off without -2 arm on Reznik) so instead I decided to waste my feat to destroy the Choir of Menoth. Lovely plan, but somehow I grossly overestimated the reach of AoE 4. Oh well. Used my feat to kill three choir boys.

Perhaps it was worth it anyway, since Feast of Worms gives soul tokens nowadays.

Bile Thralls activated next and did some futile sprays. I was sure I'd kill one Allegiant with a purge attack, but damage roll came up as double 1's. My warcaster's new ability, Knowledge of the Damned, came into good use in the first game with him.

I knew that charging Erebus to Castigator might be a very bad idea. Too often Cryxian jacks take an good chunk of health boxes away from an Arm 19 target, but fail to disable any important systems. But this time was different. Perhaps the dawn of new edition, or something. Charge damage roll was 10, second initial 9, first extra attack 6 and last attack 10. This wasn't enough to wreck the jack, but it was stationary now and - most importantly - had lost it's cortex.

Turn 3 Reznik casts Engine of Destruction and charges Erebus. Death Ward acted more like a Death Warrant because of Purgation. But still Reznik didn't destroy Erebus with three attacks. Reznik used his feat. Devout had already activated and had tried to injure Deathripper, but had failed in doing so. Lone choir priest gives extra damage for Dervish, who comes and punches Erebus twice, hitting with both attacks. Last attack scores the kill. Last remaining Allegiant knocked some six points off from Deathripper on the right, or something.

Exactly what I feared had now happened: I had lost Erebus, and opponent kind of nothing. Stationary Castigator without cortex had at least made Reznik commit himself far. So, now Reznik died or Cryx lost. Fortunately Reznik was within charge distance of Scaverous, who had eight focus this turn. Scaverous charged in and would hit with 6+. Scaverous went without attack boosts the whole run, and didn't miss a single time. Damage rolls (which I boosted) were quite excessive. A camp of two didn't help against rolls of 14+ and so.

But this simple and innocent game only led to the true test. I have to start thinking how to engineer my new and improved excel sheets...