Soul Weaver vs Grand Scrutator

Over a week ago on Sunday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine.

My newest Deneghra looks painted enough to be used in games at home. So my list was:

Deneghra the Soul Weaver
- Harrower
- Malice
- 2x Helldiver
- Deathripper
- Stalker

Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Party Pirates
Maximum unit of Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudge Thralls
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Ragman

Opponent had:

Grand Scrutator Severius
- Judicator
- Reckoner
- Blessing of Vengeance
- Repenter

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith Bearer
Covenant of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Wracks
Rhupert

Scenario was Incursion and Protectorate of Menoth started game. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1.

Deneghra has cast Grave Wind on Stalker, which has ran far to the right.

On second turn Cryx scores first control point from flag on the right. Blessing of Vengeance wasn't even contesting it, but Stalker slammed the arc node away nonetheless. Pistol Wraith went to control the flag, and Black Ogruns tried to block Line of Sight to it. Perhaps I'd get a second point on Protectorate turn.

Drudges run to engage Holy Zealots who are under Greater Destiny.

Both of the heavy warjacks contest middle flag at maximum distance.

Turn 3 Reckoner destroys Harrower, and some kind of spell from Severius kills the Pistol Wraith. Sad thing, because no protectorate models came to actually contest the flag. Holy Zealots kill most of the Drudge thralls.

Deneghra uses her feat on Cryx turn three, and it's played incorrectly. Deneghra can use her souls to allocate focus to warjacks inside her command range, not in her control area. Luckily Helldiver who charged Severius didn't kill the old man - finding out later that you won because you played a rule incorrectly is annoying.

Stalker, Helldiver and Deathripper also cheated some extra focus points for them, but that mix up was definitely worth it. First Stalker tries to head-butt Blessing of Vengeance down - only to find Blessing of Vengeance was within command range of Covenant of Menoth, who had cancelled knock down effects. Deathripper only got to make one attack, as Blessing of Vengeance killed the Black Ogrun with Defensive Strike that I would've used to block repel. Helldiver didn't really do anything either. Three warjacks with nine focus points were able to deal three damage in...

Deneghra had cast Mortality on Reckoner and Repenter, and had legally given three focus points for Malice.

Ragman advanced a little too close to Severius, who had used his feat to prevent spellcasting. Malice failed to disable Reckoner with four attacks that were the equal of P+S 18. Better play with Ragman would've done the trick, but, oh well.

Two charging Drudge Thralls destroy spray from Repenter. A scrap thrall scores second control point for Cryx.

Turn 4 Judicator wrecks both Helldivers, and Blessing of Vengeance cripples Stalker. Reckoner who had something like four or five damage boxes left wrecked uninjured Malice.

Blessing of Vengeance still didn't quite get within 4" of flag on the right, so I score third control point on my turn with Ragman. Situation was pretty hopeless because I had lost Malice. Severius had taken ten or so damage points, so that in mind Skarlock casts Grave Wind on Deneghra, who then charges Reckoner. Damage was triple ones.

Would Def 17, Arm 23 Deneghra face tank Reckoner, Judicator, Severius, Repenter and whatever Protectorate would be able to throw against her?

At least she had a really good start, when she had taken only a few stray points in from Reckoner, Repenter and channeled spells from Severius. Being so fixated over Deneghra made opponent forget to bring someone to contest flag on the right, so I'd go to four control points on Protectorate turn. That would be automatic victory for Cryx if Protectorate fails to kill Deneghra.

But now here was the real test. A charging Judicator who had received Battle Hymn.

Deneghra went down to four hit boxes remaining from the charge attack. Judicator had one focus remaining, which was used to boost attack roll. Judicator needed to roll 8+ with three dice to score a hit. And 8+ it was. Well. A roll of one plus one or one plus two would still save Cryx. But it was not to be, presumably because I had allocated focus too far. Karma does stuff like that. Really, it does.

Adventures of Failhorn Sat... oh, wait, wrong faction

Today I played a 50 point Warmachine game.

My list was:
Master Necrotech Mortenebra
- Harrower
- Malice
- Helldiver
- Ripjaw
- Deathripper
- Stalker

Maximum unit of Black Ogruns
Withershadow Combine
Warwitch Siren
Ragman
2x Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Scrap Thralls
Soul Trappers

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Opponent had:

Saeryn & Rhyas
- Zuriel
- Scythean
- Seraph

Maximum unit of Hex Hunters
Blackfrost Shard
Maximum unit of Croak Raiders
Spawning Vessel

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Scenario was Fire Support and Legion started game. Everything pretty much ran forwards. Rhyas gave Croaks Occultation.

And then it was my turn to get stressed over Croak Raiders. Range 14" threat with the damage buff, and 16" threat with the darts that caused continuous fire. I had planned on running Mortenebra close to my objective with full camp, but that would've opened up the possibility of POW 12 + 3d6 damage rolls at the start of Mortenebra's turn, regardless of stacked focus! Making a screening out of Black Ogruns was also bad idea, because Croaks would've only caught 2-3 of them under the oil gourd, which meant 2-3 dead Black Ogruns...

In the end I just advanced cautiously so that no frog was within oil gourd range of Mortenebra. But I did the mistake of moving my heavy warjacks out of my deployment zone. Harrower had Spectral Steel on. I placed Malice and Harrower base-to-base contact to block Line of Sight to a Soul Trapper, Necrotech and whatnot.

Turn 2 the Croaks activated first. They set one Black Ogrun on fire (who died to the continuous effect next turn), and then, uh... Uh huh.

A Croak throws oil gourd on Malice. One frog misses the dart attack. Another one hits and rolls 6,6,4 for damage. That troubled me slightly. Hopefully next damage rolls would be at slightly more manageable levels. Well, they weren't. Next one was 6,6,6. Gah.

Third one also hit. And the damage roll was 6,6,6. WHAT IS HAPPENING IN HERE?

The rest of activations were mostly just positioning. But my morale and combat effectiveness had suffered a heavy blow.

But do not fret! There is always a way! Game is not lost until it's lost. I figured I might be able to make some overrun shenanigans to get Harrower to kill Scythean and any other nearby models. Mortenebra allocates three to Harrower and one to Stalker. Deryliss casts Overrun on Stalker, who advances into contact with two Croaks and kills them. The spawning vessel takes the corpse, and my Soul Trapper takes the soul. Efficient recycling. Overrun triggers and Harrower advances closer to Scythean.

Black Ogruns attempt to scare the Croaks, but they pass their command checks. Soul Trappers give two souls for Harrower and Tremulus casts Puppet Master upon it. Then it advances so that thresher special attack reaches one from the Blackfrost Shard, one Croak and the Scythean. Harrower uses souls for attack roll boosts against the infantry models, and kills them both. Now it would be six attacks against Scythean, hitting with 5+ and dealing damage at dice -2! Fun time.

Fun.

Time.

Out of the six attacks, two missed. I used Puppet Master to re-roll one of those into a hit. So, out of the five attacks that scored a hit, there were three rolls of 1,2 for damage. The two other attacks both rolled five or four damage points in.

One of these games, it seems.

Well, Helldiver who got focus point from Warwitch Siren attempted to do something to the Scythean, but the heavy warbeast wasn't even close to being finished off!

There was a glimmer of hope, though, when somebody killed fifth Croak Raider, which made them roll for massive casualties and they failed. This gave me a little bit more confidence with Mortenebra, who tried to advance so that she'd be able to cast Void Gate on the Scythean to hopefully protect Harrower to some extent. Luckily I measured her control area and noticed Zuriel was easily within slipstream + charge range to Mortenebra... abort the plan! The Void Gate was cast on a Black Ogrun instead. Reasoning: you can't force warbeasts inside the AoE effect.

Turn 3 Legion breaks my objective with Hex Hunters. Croaks get within 4" of the effigy and rally themselves.

Blackfrost Shard gives Kiss of Lyliss on Harrower, and then Rhyas charges it and spends all of her fury on Flashing Blade attacks. She doesn't score any critical rolls, but wrecks Helldiver and leaves Harrower alive with about six boxes remaining. Last Flashing Blade attack had missed Harrower.

Next Scythean activates and proceeds to wreck Harrower. It must have been love at first sight between those large based targets, because it really looked like neither wanted to kill the other! One initial attack missed, and twice it scored also 1,2 on damage rolls. Last attack it was able to make dealt the killing blow, though. "Nooo I don't want to kill you, dear Harrower! Noo!" "Well... stop hitting me?" "I caaaaaan't..."

Zuriel destroyed Stalker. Spawning Vessel made a Shredder, who went rabid and killed Ragman, my only source of Remove from Play effect. Legion got two control points.

Then it's my turn. Mortenebra allocates three focus points for Deathripper. Deryliss casts Spectral Steel on it, and then it goes to tear furyless Rhyas into shreds! And succeeds! Ahhahhah. At least I did something. Now, of course I knew that she'd be back next turn, but still... it was a sort of achievement. Black Ogruns also managed to scare the Croaks again, but after the roll was made we noticed at some point that they were indeed 4" from Effigy. Blackfrost Shard got failed their massive casualties test, though.

Rest of my activations were useless shuffling around. I didn't realise that by killing Rhyas I indirectly caused a ton of threshold checks for the enemy beasts next turn. All of them except Zuriel frenzied.

But, as I said, I was afraid of the enemy beasts with Mortenebra. She tried to cast Void Gate on Maelovus (missing because of stealth), hoping for a good, safe spot where she could travel to. The AoE drifted away from Mortenebra, though, so I tried to enter the next safest spot: behind Admonia and Soul Trapper. Neither of the warbeasts within charge distance had reach.

The spot I had chosen to hide in was just out of Killbox, though. So Legion went to four scenario points, and next turn Legion had only to clear either one of the flags and take a point. This was no problem for them.

Losing Malice so early in the game to disturbing damage rolls made it a difficult game, and the astonishing performance of Harrower against Scythean didn't help the least. If Harrower had succeeded, opponent would have needed to take care of Harrower with something else. That would always have been less attacks directed to, say, Stalker. Or the very least my objective would still have been standing, as Seraph was the one who dealt the killing blow to it. Maybe I wouldn't have chickened out then and hand over two scenario points for the opponent. Who knows.

Voodo Dolls

Then a week ago I played two games of Warmachine.

I knew I would be playing against Skorne which I assumed would have a lot of beasts since opponents collection is new.

In my excel statistics my Wraith Witch Deneghra had never played against Skorne, and she is lagging behind on number of games played. And as probably we all know, she received a nerf that brings her feat to much more tolerable levels. It was all but written in stone which warcaster I would pick, then.

And this was my 35 point list:

Wraith Witch Deneghra
- Defiler
- Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Opponent had:

Master Tormentor Morghoul
- Aradus Soldier
- Titan Gladiator
- Cyclops Brute
- Cyclops Savage

Minimum unit of Beast Handlers

Maximum unit of Nihilators
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Agonizer

Objective: Bunker

Scenario was Two Fronts, and Cryx started game.

Game ended quite prematurely when Morghoul gave all of his remaining Fury to Agonizer. Enemy Arm 13 warlock was there with no Fury for transfers. I was still a bit hesitant to launch Deneghra all over the Skorne. Of course pre-errata there would have been zero reasons to hold back, but now I had to actually consider what would happen if the dice failed me.

But I decided to try nonetheless, since Deneghra could go Incorporeal. Only enemy model who had magical weapons was Morghoul himself.

Warwitch Siren gave focus for Defiler, who then ran into position. Deneghra advanced and used her feat. Then she cast Hellmouth on a Def 10 Beast Handler via Defiler, who dragged Morghoul to his doom. Deneghra boosted the damage on enemy warlock, and it was enough to bring Morghoul to, what... two boxes remaining?

I had originally been planning on using the last remaining two Focus for +2 Arm, but since Morghoul was ripe for picking, or at least seasoning by Venom, I decided to give it a go. We'd have time for another game if it ended here.

But 7+ is a fickle thing to roll on 2d6. This time it worked, and damage was enough to kill Morghoul.

Game 2:

I really wanted to see how much starting roll affects Wraith Witch Deneghra's play. Same scenario, same sides and same lists, but Skorne started. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1.

Aradus Soldier had Admonition on it.

Not taking chances any more, opponent activated "no channeling" cry on Agonizer and ran it forward. Then Skorne have me a jump scare when Abused and Rushed (or only Abused?) Cyclops Savage charges Black Ogrun unit leader. I somehow didn't remember Mortitheurge Willbreaker also has Beastmaster ability, so control area wasn't an issue in this charge. Thankfully I hadn't wasted Focus foolishly for giggles, and Deneghra had six on her for armour. Still she took seven points of damage, which is enough to discourage some of the more daring actions. Like advancing and using a feat, for example.

Oh wait.

Deneghra did go incorporeal, advance and used feat. This time she didn't get whole Skorne army under her feat. Quite a few Nihilators would be free to charge next turn. Then Deneghra casts Hellmouth on the Mortitheurge Willbreaker. Mortitheurge and a Swamp Gobber die. The last gobber fails command check and flees. But as Deneghra didn't have that many damage boxes left any more I panicked and camped the two remaining Focus. I probably boosted the attack roll.

The reason I got so worried was Morghoul's Torment spell. Scoring 11+ to hit and 11+ to damage was well within the realms of possibility. Not that 13+ is that uncommon, but it still feels much safer for a required roll to lose your game.

Then I considered that if Deneghra is knocked down somehow (I guess I failed to remember she was incorporeal... slammed models would just go right through her.) Morghoul might still risk the 13+, so I started building a meatwall around her.

The Cyclops Savage needed to be taken down first. And damn was it hard. Wrong Eye doesn't kill it, and neither does Warwitch Siren. Bile Thrall takes an aiming bonus and shoots at the Cyclops, but still no death for the beast. Five damage and a corrosion on Black Ogrun did happen, though.

Bile Thralls also sprayed one Nihilator dead who was right behind Agonizer. That was a bummer, since I really wanted to spam Influence on it with Wrong Eye and kill Agonizer with style. From side view it looks like the other Nihilator behind Agonizer might have had the baby titan in Reach, but I didn't want to risk that much for style. Wrong Eye went to whack the Cyclops Savage instead, and succeeded.

Nightwretch advances in front of Deneghra and shoots at objective. Black Ogruns charge next. Two tried to destroy the objective, which was left at one box remaining. Two go to block LoS to Deneghra, aligned behind Nightwretch in such a manner that if something... say... a Titan gladiator, perhaps? was to slam the bonejack, it would just knock the Ogruns down and not Deneghra. Who wouldn't have been knocked down anyway. C'est la vie.

Banes just generally failed at anything they tried to do. I think Skarlock had cast Ghost Walk on Black Ogruns in case everything would have failed and Ogruns would have needed to take free strikes from it in order to block LoS to Deneghra.

Turn 3 everything except Cyclops Brute shakes off Shadow Bind. Abused and Enraged Aradus Soldier casually breaks Snapjaw in just a few hits. Those jaws... they hurt.

Morghoul uses his feat, and Titan Gladiator positions itself (presumably) to protect Morghoul and still be in range to smash things next turn.

Nihilators kill a couple of Bane Thralls.

I'm quite confident I can take the Aradus down with Bane Thralls, Black Ogruns and last and least with the Wrong Eye. How wrong I was.

First Bile Thralls get rid of Nihilators and take a couple of shots at the Aradus. That was a complete waste thanks to Arm 23 vs shooting. But hey... corrosion.

Skarlock gives Ghost Walk for Bane Thralls, who then get a charge order. Only two get into contact with Aradus. One misses. Yay. At least death toll on Nihilators and Agonizers was satisfying.

Black Ogruns charge next and two get to Aradus. Rest try to wrestle with the objective. The succeed... the ones with Aradus don't. I'm starting to get a little desperate here, and send Warwitch Siren to attack the Aradus. She scores a hit and Shadow Binds it.

This might be the first time in recorded history when I had a real opportunity to use Wrong Eye's Voodoo Doll spell. I actually had wild fantasies of getting it on both the Titan Gladiator and Aradus Soldier. Damage rolls had been so poor against the Aradus that I couldn't rely on Wrong Eye taking it down even with four Fury. So. Voodoo Doll on it, and Spirit was gone. Gladiator required a 8+ to hit, which failed. But you can dream, right?

Deneghra runs to my friendly scenario control zone, camping full focus. Morghoul's feat made pretty much any other action pointless.

So. Scenario was now 2-0 for Cryx.

Turn 4 Cryxian casualty rate is high. Disturbingly high. If first impressions are what sticks with you, then I will be forever afraid of even a Spiritless, Shadow Bound Aradus. Every initial attack hit and killed. Especially the loss of Bane Thrall Officer was a harsh one. Their formation was now completely messed up, as the actual unit leader had been merrily beating Nihilators on the other side of the board.

Titan Gladiator removes all three Black Ogruns who had been busy with the objective. Morghoul charges a Black Ogrun and sprints to dominate his friendly zone.

Cyclops Brute kills Warwitch Siren and Wrong Eye.

Beast Handler goes to contest my friendly zone along with the Swamp Gobber who was finally able to act again.

Game was 2-1 for Cryx.

Now that I'm looking at the picture I don't realize why I didn't bring Nightwretch to contest Skorne zone? Had Nihilator beaten it so badly that I didn't believe it would make it through one Nihilator and one Beast Handler free strike? I don't remember. It's also fully possible I didn't even think of it when I activated the bonejack... Wait. It gets worse.

I try to bring two Bile Thralls to contest enemy zone, but Spd 5 just doesn't cut it. And I couldn't run, because I needed the unit leader to Purge my zone clear. Now. Here's the fun fact: as an added bonus the Purge took the two guys who were engaging Nightwretch. Well spent activation with the Nightwretch there. Did it try to bash a Beast Handler or what?

Deneghra healer herself and moved to relative safety of my objective.

Game was 3-2 for Cryx. I'm looking at you, Nightwretch! No, don't reflect my own image back to me. Damn. I need to use more matt varnish.

Turn 5 Cyclops Brute throws the game. It fails a Threshold check and Titan Gladiator was closest target for it to charge.

I don't know how the game would have played if it had succeeded, but now opponent wouldn't be able to get anyone to contest my zone.

As a final defiant gesture Morghoul runs to stare Deneghra intensively and menacingly.

As warlocks and warcasters don't contest zones, game went 4-2 for Cryx and 5-2 right next on my turn.

Well. What to say. I like it how after the errata Wraith Witch Deneghra actually has to consider defending herself during her feat turn even against a full melee army. I imagine it will be much more distressing aspect against a list that has arcable spells and/or magical shooting on warjacks and warbeasts that you earlier could ignore if you got within right distance to use Web of Shadows.

The Derp is strong in this one

Well. What can I say.

I really can't blame Black Ogruns this time... too harshly, at least.

I played two games of Warmachine last Friday.

Since my Lich Lord Asphyxious has been lagging behind in play count for some time now, I decided to give him a go. After all the games were supposed to be tournament practice. And it's been over than a year since I played him last time.

My list was (50 points):

Lich Lord Asphyxious
- Defiler
- Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius
- Desecrator
Bane Lord Tartarus
2x Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
Gorman diWulfe

Objective: Effigy of Valor


And first game was against:

Anson Durst
- Judicator
- Reckoner
- Devout

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
Regular Paladin
Hierophant
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic
Wracks
Gorman diWulfe

Objective: Something

Scenario was Fire Support and Protectorate started the game.

There isn't much to tell about this game. On my second turn I guess I got so carried away when I was too merrily blocking charges by Temple Flameguard to various targets - including Black Ogruns.

I don't understand why the situation isn't how I fixed the picture. I couldn't bear to watch my Caustic Mists where they were, so I had to cut & paste one to position that would have changed entire game.

Oh, how I wish changing past mistakes was as easy as in Microsoft Paint... but it isn't. Reckoner shot Asphyxious. There might have been a small chance for game to continue if Reckoner missed the first shot that needed 12+ to hit. It didn't miss, though. And to twist the knife in vein I had also placed Asphyxious so close to Effigy of Valor that AoE 3"'s from Judicator were easily clipping him.

Let's never speak about this again, ever.

Game 2:

Since last game was such a disgrace, we played another one. There was a little more into it than to the last game. Not too much, but a little.

My list didn't change, but opponent changed list for:

Northern Crusade tier 2
Hierarch Severius

- Judicator
- Reckoner
- Blessing of Vengeance

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Visgoth Rhoven & Honour Guard
Covenant of Menoth
Hierophant
2x Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic

Scenario was Recon, and somehow Cryx started game despite the tier bonus for Protectorate. First picture is from the end of Protectorate turn 1. Blessing of Vengeance has Enliven on it, and it was used to cast Fear of God to Black Ogruns, and if I'm counting right, something has killed two Black Ogruns. Oh! Now I remember. Black Ogruns were killing each other from repeated Influences.

Turn 2 Bane Thralls ran forwards, ignorant of any possible threats to them. Black Ogruns shooed the Blessing of Vengeance away from their lawn. Then Desecrator shot its scather template to a random Flameguard. Now, I wouldn't make the same mistake again that I did in last game. I'd block every damn LoS vector there ever was to Asphyxious, and then I cast my own Fear of God to Temple Flameguard in the form of Caustic Mists and a scather template. Take that, you Protectorate swine! Hahaha! Now what you're going to do, old man Severius? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW?

Well.

Uh.

You know what's different between Arcing Fire and Awareness?

I do, now. Awareness ignores even those intervening models that are within 1" of the target.

Reckoner could and would have two-shotted Asphyxious again. That's bad enough. I did double check the technicalities of that spell, though. But it was during Protectorate turn 2. Not Cryx turn 2.

But that's really not how the game ended, though I wish it was.

I wanted to bring Bane Lord Tartarus to the LoS blocking safety of the objective and Desecrator, and far enough that if Rhoven made Reckoner ignore Stealth it'd have to come close enough to get wrecked by, well, everything and/or anything.

Take a close look at Tartarus. Especially his facing. Especially his place there in the back arc of Asphyxious.

Blessing of Vengeance ran forward. Rhoven applies stealth ignoring for Severius, and Severius starts spamming Influence on Tartarus.

Technically I did succeed in protecting Tartarus till the end of the game, which is fairly important for Lich Lord Asphyxious.

Striking Black Ogruns

This game was played last Tuesday.

It was a 50 point game, and I wanted to give my earlier list another chance. I didn't make any alterations to it at all, because I didn't think my loss last time was because of the list. It was because of reasons.

Goreshade the Bastard
- Nightmare
- Leviathan
- Harrower

Maximum unit of Black Ogruns

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + Commander + 2x Brute Thralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Cephalyx Overlords
Warwitch Siren
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Saxon Orrik
Gorman diWulfe

Objective: Fuel cache

Opponent had:

Anson Durst
- Judicator
- Sanctifier
- Devout

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Hierophant
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic
Wracks

Scenario was Two Fronts, and Cryx started game. First picture is taken from my deployment. My game board is 8" too short, so it means both players need to take 4" off from their deployment. Usually this has been no problem for me, but this time my Mechanithralls, and especially the Necrosurgeon, were literally (un)living on the edge.

First real picture is from the end of Protectorate turn 1.

Turn 2 I want to give Nightmare optimal charge lane to enemy objective for next turn. I couldn't figure any especially good use for Black Ogruns, so they just formed a meat wall between enemy and helljacks. Little did I know what was to come...

Anyway. Mechanithralls on the right advanced to take a beating from Temple Flameguard (profit), or not take a beating from Temple Flameguard (profit). As an added bonus Skarlock Commander landed a solid hit with Dark Fire against the closest Flameguard member.

Protectorate.

Protectorate.

It's painful to write this turn. Too painful, man.

Judicator advanced and shot every gun it got all over Cryx army, but did rather poorly. Not even one Black Ogrun died even after taking a couple of flamethrower bursts right in the abs. Rest of the Protectorate just walks a bit forward, except for Temple Flameguard. Temple Flameguard charge, and fail to destroy my friendly objective. Nice! A big gathering of fleshy troops whose sacrifice was for nothing. I don't think there were any real casualties for me that turn. Any. Real. Casualties.

Black Ogruns failed their Terror check that was caused by Temple Flameguard.

There. I said it.

I just don't... uh. What to say? I've been giving Black Ogruns quite a lot of board time even if they seem to be the laughingstock of Cryx troop choices. I give them all the love and all the caring they could never expect from anyone else. And this is how they pay it back. I guess they went on a strike for better working conditions or something.

Turn 3 Temple Flameguard are all but destroyed, and THEY succeed in THEIR massive casualties test. Slaughter also triggered Hallowed Avenger on Sanctifier, who charged Nightmare I think. It's also possible that it picked some other target because it looked so close, but the end result was that suddenly in middle of my turn a wild Sanctifier appeared. What was left to activate from me was not enough to destroy the Protectorate heavy warjack or even seriously injure it, so Gorman diWulfe came around and threw some Black Oil over it.

Goreshade cast Shadowmancer (as he had done every turn of the game) and cast Soul Gate to bring Nightmare to safety. Black Ogruns at least succeed in rallying themselves.

Protectorate started to dominate their friendly zone, since removing a couple of Black Ogruns from contesting wasn't a big deal. Temple Flameguard still fails to destroy the objective.

Turn 4 I seem to be unable to think two activations forwards, and that causes a lot of trouble in placement. I have to sacrifice a lot of activations to get rid of one pesky Stitch Thrall who was standing in Nightmare's way. Then Nightmare makes its free charge (from objective) against the Sanctifier, and I guess Harrower and Nightmare and a couple of Black Ogruns were enough to destroy the warjack.

There's not much to tell about the right side of the battle. Mechanithralls died, mechanithralls spawned right back and dealt a little bit of damage here and there to the Bastions.

Bastions got real angry about the tickling they had to endure, and they charged. Two got to charge Nightmare. One of them was within Deathwalker's -2 strength aura. Nightmare was still completely uninjured. First attack dealt fourteen points in. Second attack (with -2 str) dealt fourteen points in. Now everybody can go and count how many damage boxes a Slayer chassis warjack has. Or you can just look at the picture.

My objective is finally slain.

Turn 5 it looks like game is over unless I figure something to win instead. And my plan was to kill Deathwalker, charge in with Goreshade and make her anew from an Exemplar Bastion, run her as close to Anson as possible, use feat and charge Anson with Bane Thralls.

Well. I wasted a lot of time in planning around that Deathwalker thing. But I killed her by running her out of Goreshade's command range. Lots of shenanigans later Goreshade does succeed in bringing her back. That's the moment when I remember that she has already activated. Pro play right here.

Only three Bane Thralls get to charge Anson Durst. With -2 Def it might have been possible, and it still was if all Banes rolled 7+ to hit.

First Bane Thrall hit Anson and dealt something like eight damage points in. That triggered Retaliatory Strike from Anson, which hit and destroyed the Bane Thrall. Eruption of Ash caused the second Bane in line to suffer POW 12 damage roll, so suddenly I got only one Bane Thrall remaining for attacks. Well. He didn't do it.

And Protectorate had four scenario points. So Protectorate would win outright if they destroyed two Bane Thralls and one Black Ogrun from the zone. There was also a focusless Goreshade out there in the open, but scenario victory it was.

And now I'm going to have a stern talking-to to my Black Ogruns.

Rock in gore

Last Friday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine.

Seems like I just haven't had enough of Black Ogruns yet. Just wait until I include them with Mortenebra.

But that wasn't what I did last Friday. My list:

Goreshade the Bastard
- Nightmare
- Leviathan
- Harrower

Maximum unit of Black Ogruns
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + Commander + 2x Brute Thralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Cephalyx Overlords
Warwitch Siren
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Saxon Orrik
Gorman diWulfe

Objective: Fuel depot


Opponent had (to my delight):

Anson Durst

- Reckoner
- Templar
- Devout

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Aiyana & Holt
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic
Reclaimer
Wracks
Epic Eiryss
Gorman diWulfe

Scenario was Recon and Protectorate started. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1. So far Saxon Orrik has run to engage Eiryss in combat, and Nightmare has been poorly positioned right next to objective.

Turn 2 Temple Flameguard advance cautiously and use their minifeat. Aiyana & Holt and Reckoner shot off a Black Ogrun, and Eiryss missed Saxon.

Goreshade allocated one Focus to Nightmare, and then Nightmare used a free charge from Fuel Depot to go and wreck enemy objective. Well, as I had placed it in base contact with the objective, it couldn't align itself to charge directly towards the enemy objective. It missed its mark by about a quarter of an inch - half inch.

Leviathan shot a bit of damage to the objective - probably three if the die is a reminder of that. Saxon Orrik scores a lucky hit against Eiryss and kills her outright. Emboldened by this, Mechanithralls run to overwhelm their flank. Goreshade casts Shadowmancer less surprisingly, and calls Nightmare back from it's failed charge. Black Ogruns just screened.

Turn 3 is Ansons feat turn, and Protectorate turtles up, slowly delivering the warjacks forward. But that didn't seem too bad. I'd be able to re-make Nightmares fail charges for all eternity and just call it back. That ought to have some impact on the enemy heavies.

Cryx turn I, as a Cryx player, shoot a target very dead with real ranged weaponry. I'm not kidding anyone. Leviathan gets a real high damage roll against objective, and then Black Ogruns advance to make a combined ranged attack against it. Wow. Scenario game started to look pretty good option here.

Harrower charges some Flameguards, and kills two of them. Cephalyx Overseers sprayed twice on Aiyana & Holt, and one of the attacks succeeded in removing the real target - Aiyana.

Saxon Orrik gives pathfinder for Mechanithralls, who then charge and run to engage enemy models. No big surprises there. They even killed one Flameguard.

Goreshade activates and casts Shadowmancer and Soul Gate to move Harrower to the woods. I don't know what on earth caused me to make such a fatal move. I could have easily moved farther to the right, but no. Goreshade just HAD to make some sort of a "here I am, you can't catch me and I'm all kinds of invulnerable if you do! You know why? Because I got BLACK OGRUNS in front of me!" show. After all, even if middle zone had been an important place for Goreshade to be I could have always measured control area so as not to place Goreshade inside Ansons personal threat range.

that blunder is even worse if you think how I also failed to remember opponent had Boundless Charge.

Ah well.

Turn 4 opponent just has to remove two Black Ogruns which, sadly, isn't a very difficult thing to do. Then Anson charged focusless Goreshade. Deathwalker gave me a tiny hope if opponent would just miss a couple of attacks. But even Deathwalker with her -2 str aura and the "heal one point once you die" thing was not enough to save me from placing Goreshade poorly.

Damn. Otherwise I think I would have had a pretty strong game.

Gorman oiling tall, muscular pirates

Last Thursday I played a 35 point game of Warmachine.

By then I knew for sure that I wouldn't be playing in an upcoming tournament that weekend, so I really didn't know what to play.

And because I didn't know what to play, I wanted to test Black Ogruns yet again. I didn't feel that bad for picking Wraith Witch Deneghra because after all opponent would be going to a tournament... it would be essential practice for him. And I got the Black Ogrun there.

Then we unpacked our models and I noticed that I had no need to feel guilty about my warcaster of choice. I was against Haley2. Uh oh. That came as a real surprise as I had thought this player had sold all of his Cygnar.

... and my GPU from my older laptop just wrecked itself. That means this write-up has to be endured without pictures, since they were on the old computer and of course I have already cleaned camera's memory card.

My list:

Wraith Witch Deneghra
- 2x Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Black Ogruns
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius
- Leviathan
Pistol Wraith
Ogrun Bokur (client Deneghra)
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren

Opponent had:

Haley2 the Haley2
- Stormclad (bonded)

Maximum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers + Officer
Black 13th
Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
Eiryss2
Gorman diWulfe

Scenario was Close Quarters and Cygnar started game. There was a hill and a forest in the cryx half of the table, and a crater and linear obstacles over there at Cygnar. Stormclad advanced in front of the whole Cygnar army. I was afraid of it's threat range, so I tried to advance in a huge blob of models. If it dared to charge in, it'd have to deal with the remainder of my forces.

Turn 2 Stormclad charged with the aid of Haley's bond and Temporal Acceleration. It somehow manages to miss two of it's attacks, and that leaves Leviathan alive with about four damage boxes remaining. Only fully functional system was movement system. Eiryss ran to my friendly flag, right next to a nightwretch.

Though I wanted to save Deneghra's feat for later, I used it on turn 2. First Deneghra goes incorporeal, walks in the forest to attack Stormclad and hopes for 11+ on damage. Just one point would be enough to trigger Dark Banishment. But no... first attack is a fail. She buys a new one, because feat or no, Deneghra cannot leave a heavy warjack standing right next to her! Second attack scores the required damage, and Stormclad is moved up to mid field.

Nightwretch takes aiming bonus and tries to shoot Stormclad. At the start of my turn I remembered to NOT take aiming bonus and move it from the way of Ogrun Bokur instead. When it came time to activate the bonejack, I guess I just vaguely remembered something about an aiming bonus... oh well. Now Ogrun Bokur wouldn't be able to charge Eiryss, but at least he could walk to take a swing at her. Miss, obviously.

Skarlock casts Curse of Shadows to Stormclad, and then four Black Ogruns charge the cygnaran heavy. There were three non-existent damage rolls, and one really good.

Then Bile Thralls come to spray at Stormclad, but they don't do much. At least they hit. Lastly Pistol Wraith shot Death Chill to Stormclad.

A bonejack, two solos, two units and a warcaster hadn't done enough damage to make Stormclad easy to finish for Aiakos, so instead he advanced and jumped to Eiryss.

Turn 3 Haley uses her feat. She also teleports Gorman a bit forward, so it can lob Blind Oil at Stormclad. Now all of my Black Ogruns were blind... oh joy. But seriously. Let's count up all the debuffs here. Stormclad had Curse of Shadows, Death Chill, Black Oil and Deneghra's feat, and the Black Ogruns got Haley's feat and Black Oil. That was a huge pile of "nobody does anything."

Black 13th shoots Deneghra down to some five boxes remaining or something.

My turn Deneghra advances deeper into forest, hopefully to block Line of Sight to her. With rest of my models I do nothing, except with Ogrun Bokur, who lands the killing blow to Stormclad.

Then game devolved into some sort of cat & mouse play, where Deneghra was the mouse this time. Damage was impressive against both teams, though only models that really did any damage to enemy were the Bile Thralls. They took off quite a chunk of enemy infantry.

Haley started grinding control points from her friendly flag... and that was it. There wasn't much I was able to do - when your warcaster has five or so damage boxes, even with full camp those few remaining Horgenhold Forge Guards look quite oppressive.

I have to confess I turned on my broken laptop in safe mode just to look at the pictures. I couldn't remember anything from this game otherwise.

Ragman ain't no bragman

Last Thursday I played two 35 point games of Warmachine.

Both were played with same list, which was:

Iron lich Asphyxious
- 2x Nightwretch
- Ripjaw

Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
2x Pistol Wraiths
Madelyn Corbeau
Ragman
Gorman diWulfe

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Opponents were two different lists, however.

First game was against Convergence of Cyriss. It was a special game, since it was against Aurora. It's special, because now I have played at least one game against every Convergence warcaster, and I have to confess that the very core of my soul is that of a set collector and a bingo player. Convergence has been filled for now. Hooray.

Next closest factions are Retribution of Scyrah (missing Vyros1 and soon Thyron) and Legion of Everblight (missing Lylyth3 and Kallus, and soon Saeryn2.)

But I digress.

First game was against Convergence with following list:

Aurora, Numen of Aerogenesis
Maidens of Gear tier 4
- Corollary
- Conservator
- Cipher

5x Clockwork Angel units...!
Optifex Directive
Steelsoul Protector
Attunement Servitors
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex

Objective: Fuel Depot

Scenario was Incoming, and Cryx started game. It was a lucky thing I did, as Aurora and the Clockwork Angels seem to be quite fast - even before counting in the fact that opponent forgot about Advance Deployment of the Angels!

First picture is from the end of Convergence turn 1, and I continue off from there by trying to kill as many Clockwork Angels from near my friendly zone as possible. But as luck would have it... I killed only one or two.

Things went at least a little better on my enemy zone, though at first I had kind of wanted to throw Breath of Corruptions to my friendly zone to mitigate charges from the onslaught of winged maidens. Though I only killed one or two maidens there also, the smashing success was Pistol Wraith causing Death Chill to the Conservator.

Convergence killed most of the Nyss Hunters, and, considering what was left of my troops, pretty much secured their enemy zone. One Nyss defied death long enough to contest the zone. Generally speaking... flare is nasty.

Both Pistol Wraiths also died to various attacks. They had both been shooting, so they were corporeal. Not that it mattered much, because for some reason most of the Clockwork Angels' attacks are magical in nature.

Turn 3 it was rather difficult to assess the situation. Was I losing? Was I winning? After this turn who would have the upper hand in attrition? There weren't any too tight clumps of enemy infantry to be Breathed upon, so I went for assassination instead. Madelyn Corbeau moved Gorman for 3", and then Gorman advanced 6" to lob some Black Oil on Aurora. I had estimated distances poorly (to my benefit this time), and that 9" was more than enough to cause -4 DEF & various other penalties for Aurora.

An arc node advances into position, and finally Asphyxious advances. He casts Parasite on Aurora, and then Hellfire. Damage roll is absurdly high and kills Aurora in one shot.

Well... the game was over before I had the chance to actually get to know Aurora personally. But those Clockwork Angels. Yikes.



Game 2:

Second game was against Cryx, against no other caster than the notorious Warwitch Deneghra, who had:

Warwitch Deneghra

- Leviathan
- 2x Nightwretch

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Withershadow Combine
2x Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock

Scenario was Outflank, and Cryx started game. Ahhahhah. Get it? Cryx started game! (Please, make me stop before I lose the rest of my dignity.)

Anyway, Iron Lich Asphyxious started game. There has already happened quite a lot before I remembered to take first picture. It should be the end of Asphyxious turn 2.

I tried to seize the zone on the right, and a lucky deviation from Breath of Corruption sniped off the standard of Bane Thralls. I tried to remain as far from Deneghra as possible, and Outflank scenario seemed to encourage that.

Black Ogruns and a stray hen were contesting Deneghra's zone. At least the Ogruns were good for something, even if they're not good at something.

Turn 2 Deneghra casts Crippling Grasp on Nyss Hunters, and they start dying all over the place. Luckily for me not that many were within opponent's reach, and not that mane Bane Thralls were alive any more.

But then to the Black Ogruns.

Skarlock cast Crippling Grasp on them after Bane Thralls and Pistol Wraith were done with the Nyss, and just that one spell was enough to wipe the whole goddamn unit. Well... to be honest, Leviathan, Pistol Wraith, Withershadow Combine and Warwitch Siren may have also had something to do with their departure. Well. At least they succeeded in their Command check.

Turn 3 for Asphyxious, then. Madelyn Corbeau moved Gorman up front, who then proceeded to lob Black Oil over Warwitch Siren and two members of the Withershadow Combine. Combined efforts of the Nyss, Pistol Wraith, Ripjaw, Nightwretch and even the Ragman manage to clear the zone on the right from enemy models. During the three times I've played this list this was the first time Ragman actually had any kind of an impact within a game.

I tried to bring the leftmost Nightwretch to Asphyxious' Control Zone, but failed to do that by something like three millimetres. That was probably the final deciding factor if I'd use my feat now or later. Asphyxious had to advance those three millimetres, and started flinging spells. Tremulus and Warwitch Siren died easily enough, but somehow Admonia remained completely uninjured. Perhaps she used Tremulus and Siren to screen the hits?

Ripjaw acted as a node for two Hellfires that went to enemy arc node that was hiding behind the building. I'm not sure on this, but did the two spells really wreck the light warjack? Maybe, as it probably had some earlier damage from Breath of Corruptions that were aimed at Bane Thralls. Then Asphyxious teleported to dominate the zone on right.

Deneghra needs to make a fairly desperate turn. She advances, uses her feat and casts Ghost Walk on Skarlock. Most of the Nyss and Asphyxious weren't under her feat, but everything else was.

Skarlock ran through the building in the middle to contest the zone I had in my possession.

Enemy Pistol Wraith shot Gorman and Ragman off the board, but the remaining models failed to wreck my Nightwretch. I think it was left with something like three damage boxes remaining or something. Enemy Nightwretch on the left had been Death Chilled a turn earlier by my Pistol Wraith.

Turn 4 dispatching the Skarlock wasn't a problem. It wasn't even a challenge. More important was trying to block the advances any other models that'd be coming to contest next turn. I had been considering to use Vice Lock on Leviathan, but after all it was Deneghra's feat turn. No special attacks for me. I still tried to block a little bit of movement by walking Ripjaw right next to the helljack.

My Pistol Wraith and a Hellfire later the enemy Nightwretch on left was destroyed.

Then it's Deneghra's turn again, and Leviathan easily runs to my zone. The free strike even missed. My Nightwretch on the left was finally wrecked. Enemy Pistol Wraith shoots Madelyn Corbeau off the board. Only character models were good enough prey for this guy.

But then it was pretty much a question if I'd manage to kill the Leviathan in time. And damn it was hard! It literally went to the last possible attack I was able to make with Asphyxious, and even that wasn't a given - it required 8+ to succeed. But 8+ it was with three dice.

As much as it tears me, I think I'll have to ditch Ragman from this list and pick a Skarlock instead. I just can't seem to be able to use Ragman effectively, and there's not that much synergy for him in this list after all.

Menoth's Yowl

Last Thursday I played a 35 point Warmachine game.

I may go to a tournament that's being held on 1st of August, and there's Venethrax and Iron Lich Asphyxious in Cryx Active Duty Roster. So this month goes with those two warcasters.

But the actual game.

My list was:

Iron lich Asphyxious
- 2x Nightwretch
- Ripjaw

Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party

Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
2x Pistol Wraiths
Madelyn Corbeau
Ragman
Gorman diWulfe

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Opponent was playing:

Vindictus
- Reckoner

Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard + Attendant Priest
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Epic Eiryss
Anastasia diBray
+2 points I can't figure out. Was there some solo that died before first picture was taken? Or did the list fall short?

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Anyway. Scenario was Two Fronts, and Cryx got to start despite of Anastasia's +1 to starting roll. Yet again the oppressive deathclock made me forget about the camera, so first picture is taken when Protectorate has already started second turn.

Cryx used their second turn to shoot various targets with a Pistol Wraith and Nyss Hunters, and even one Black Ogrun advanced forward to drag Exemplar Bastions... which, by definition, is a stupid idea since they cannot realistically be dragged. Vindictus hadn't used his feat just yet, so I tried to remove a bit of infantry.

My grand plan was to shoot a couple of Breath of Corruptions to block any meaningful advance by Horgenhold Forge Guards, but once I had positioned Asphyxious to do just that, it became apparent that Attendant Priest had given them "no spell targeting" prayer. Oh joy. Well, Asphyxious shot a couple of clouds at Bastions, then, and hoped for good deviations so that at least their charge would be mostly blocked.

First Bastion was just within range, though, so the attack didn't deviate anywhere. Second Breath was cast upon same farther Bastion, but it deviated right over the first Bastion. What a waste.

So, it's Protectorate's second turn now. So far Eiryss had shot Madelyn Corbeau, who had to use Sucker! -skill to redirect the hit to... well... Gorman. Now that was some expert positioning right there on my part!

Temple Flameguard just charge around aimlessly, and look at that. One charged Black Ogrun. What's the worst that could happen? Well, Black Ogruns fail their terror check from Menoth's Howl, and I'm left wondering why I even bother with the Party Pirates.

At least Nyss pass their check, though only barely.

Next picture seems to be from the end of this particular Protectorate turn. The rest of the turn was Attendant Priest giving magic weapons for Horgenhold Forge Guard, Vindictus using feat and casting True path, and the aforementioned dwarves wrecking my objective and Pistol Wraith. Oh, and Anastasia appeared from out of nowhere, too.

Turn 3 was terrible for Cryx.

I probably balanced out every bad roll from earlier "continuously above average dice roll" games against this opponent. Or perhaps it just felt like it - now that I look at the picture, at least some Temple Flameguards and Anastasia have died.

But the Bastions were completely impervious to any and all damage (and even attack) roll I was able to make. Multiple Combined Ranged Attacks by Nyss Hunters - nothing.

And the greatest failure of all. Asphyxious himself decided to show his unworthy minions how things are handled here. He charges Bastion and misses. He buys an additional attack and boosts attack roll, and misses. He buys one last desperate attack, and misses. Then he teleports away. Talk about focus efficiency. But there was an occurrence that might keep me going in this game - Terror check that Asphyxious caused to Horgenhold Forge Guard was failed.

And at least Black Ogruns rallied.

Turn 3 Protectorate easily destroyed the Nightwretch that was contesting my friendly zone, and Vindictus ran around to where the orange proxy base is. Protectorate was at three control points now.

All the Black Ogruns miraculously survived any attacks that Bastions were trying to make. Temple Flameguard were so few in number that they didn't do much either - right flank was pretty much mine, now. But would it matter in a situation like this?

Come Cryx turn 4, I ran so tight on clock that if this was an actual tournament game, I'd just have to try an assassination. So that's what I tried... Dice rolls would need to be quite phenomenal to assassinate Def 17 (on a hill) Arm 20 (with focus) Vindictus, but let's see how it goes.

Black Ogrun shuffle themselves into better position, and then Asphyxious charges a Bastion, and tried to shoot Vindictus with Hellfire. Well, it was a horrible miss, so I ditched whole assassination plan and tried to injure Bastions instead by shooting Breath of Corruptions left and right, and finally teleporting away.

Fun fact: Black Ogruns had miraculously survived a round of melee against Bastion. They weren't so lucky when Asphyxious came to "help" them. Best damage rolls were against my own models. Sigh...

Nyss killed enough Temple Flameguards to cause a massive casualties test on them, which failed. What's this? Three failed command checks in just one game?

They weren't, however, weapon masters enough to wreck the enemy objective. Armour piercing Ripjaw also wasn't armour piercing enough, so yeah. That was my game. Had I succeeded in destroying the objective, I'd have gone to three control points, too, and then, if I prayed Toruk hard enough, Madelyn, Ragman or Nightwretch would survive a round of beating in the enemy zone.

But either I didn't pray hard enough, or Toruk just didn't care. First system the Nightwretch lost was Movement, and that was my best bet in hoping a dice screw for opponent.

Oh well.

Ragman and Madelyn didn't really do much for me in this game. Perhaps I should drop them and get, perhaps, Skarlock and Saxon Orrik or something. Or learn to play and plan better in the long run.

Ropecon Warmachine Tournament

I took part in Warmachine main tournament at Ropecon. It was 50 point event that used "Masters" rule set. Top 8 players would qualify for next days event.

Game 1: Scaverous vs Protectorate of Menoth

Feora, Protector of Flame
- Judicator
- Castigator
- Reckoner

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith
Aiyana & Holt
Covenant of Menoth
Wracks
+ 5 points I can't figure out. My guess is Hierophant + Vassal + Mechanic.

Cryx started game and scenario was Destruction. Even if the tournament had Divide & Conquer 0, I thought I'd play with Scaverous list at least once. I was hesitant to bring any of the more important models forward. A fully loaded Reckoner with all the Protectorate buffs would've made a heavy dent to Kraken, and after that there would have been a Judicator to take care of...

So somehow advancing on my toes and shooting AoE's seemed like a good idea. But the first turn is taken from the end of Cryx turn 2. I actually noticed my mistake when I switched the clock for opponent. I didn't have anyone to contest the zone other than my objective. Yay. Pro play.

Opponent took full advantage of that, and wrecked my objective with Castigator.

Also, it's my suspicion that this wasn't the first time opponent was playing epic Feora. Her feat was so beautifully orchestrated that in the end all of my models in he control area were set on fire even before she got to move the fire effects around, and despite casting spells and allocating focus and whatnot she still camped 8 Focus. She entered the zone, and look at that. Suddenly Protectorate had 3 control points.

I guess I had some sort of chance for assassination there, as Feora was easily within the range of most of my army. There were just a couple of... obstacles. First, Feora with ARM 25. Second, ton of Holy Zealots that were untargetable by spells and who wouldn't take damage from anywhere else except for spells.

There was at least three Zealots who blocked charge for Kraken, and they were spread over a large area. Taking them out with a single Feast of Worms was out of the question.

In the end I opted to use Scaverous' feat and cast Feast of Worms on Feora, and telekinesis on Gorman diWulfe, throw Black Oil over Feora, shoot her with everything I got and then trample to her with Kraken. But it had failed from the get-go. Even the damage roll Kraken made was insulting, something like 2,2,1. Second picture must be after resolving continuous effects on Protectorate's turn.

Looking back now I wonder if I could have made this "assassination" some other way. I don't remember the exact position of my models, but I think at least Warwitch Siren got burned by Feora's fire. But maybe I could have moved incorporeal Pistol Wraith close to two Zealots and taken them out with Feast of Worms, and slammed the third away with Ogrun Bokur? Most probably not. The loss of Warwitch Siren cut down my options quite a lot.

Having not learnt any lessons, there was only Kraken contesting the zone when it was opponent's turn. Arm 21 Kraken just isn't going to survive a full onslaught of Reckoner, Castigator, Judicator and whatnot.

Feora dominated for second turn, and it was a scenario victory for Feora there.

I swore I'd never-ever play this list again.



Game 2: Warwitch Deneghra vs Legion of Everblight

Bethayne & Belphagor

- 2x Angelius
- Shredder

Maximum unit of Hex Hunters + Bayal
Blackfrost Shard
Striders + Unit Attachment
Shepherd
3x Spell Martyrs
2x Strider Deathstalkers

Scenario was... Fire Support? Anyway, I was against Bethayne, who is a new acquaintance for me. Come to think of it... I got to play against three different warlocks I had never played against before during Ropecon. Lovely.

Anyway... I don't remember who started. Probably Cryx again, judging from the suicidal positioning of Deneghra if the picture wouldn't be from the end of Legion turn.

Deneghra uses her feat this turn, catching all but, what, three Striders and a Shepherd. Though it wasn't without risks... Aimed and boosted RAT 3 shots just might hit Deneghra, and Angeliuses did ignore her stealth.

But before all this happened, Warwitch Siren seduced one of the Hex Hunters so that once Deneghra activated she got back strike bonuses. Feat and a boost later Hex Hunters had Crippling Grasp on them. Arcane Wonder allowed Deneghra to even cast Parasite on Belphagor.

Then I kind of waste a lot of my feat potential - all thanks to Black Ogruns. I just HAD to go and drag Belphagor to one of the Ogruns. The rest Ogruns then shot their harpoons at Belphagor, but nobody ever hit it again.

Boosted harpoon from Malice at least hit it, but didn't kill or drag, because lane slightly clipped the Black Ogrun who dragged the warbeast in the first place. At least Defiler could shoot Belphagor... Technically, at least. That goddamn warbeast was immune to Defiler's gun, and Defiler didn't even succeed to kill the Black Ogrun! Finally I resorted into charging the Black Ogrun with Bane Thralls so that Belphagor would stop gaining melee bonus. Nightwretch and Aiakos thankfully were able to score those last few damage points Cryx needed to score a kill. But that was pretty much the straight damage output of Deneghra's feat - Belphagor, a couple of Hex Hunters and Black Ogrun.

At least the feat gave me quite strong position. Legion mostly just backed off with the heavy warbeasts at least. Hex Hunters came to engage Malice a little, and Bethayne moved closer to Legion's objective on the hill. Striders, inside Deneghra's feat or outside of it, killed quite a few Black Ogruns. In fact... looks like they killed all but one.

I'm always a little (or a great) bit scared when I play against Legion. Statistically Legion of Everblight is my nemesis, and as I didn't fully know what to expect from Bethayne, I decided to try an awkward assassination. I guess my other option would have been to remove one of the Angeliuses with Malice & company, back off with Deneghra and then reap whatever infantry models I could. But as I said... I was afraid of Legion, and a cornered beast is the most desperate and most dangerous one.

Deneghra allocated one Focus to Defiler and upkept Crippling Grasp just in case this long stretch would fail. Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on the Defiler, who then ran into position. Deneghra cast a boosted Scourge on Bethayne, needing 11+ to hit. It was 11+, so Bethayne was knocked down.

I don't remember who or what killed some engaging Hex Hunters in the middle, but I see Malice has gained at least one additional soul.

I was quite sure Escort 8" advance + 8" range in Malice's harpoon would get to Bethayne, but there still was two blockers on the hill. One was Spell Martyr and the other was a member of Blackfrost Shard. I was getting rather desperate, as the only attacks against either were a RAT 5 shot from Aiakos, a RAT 5 shot from Black Ogrun and possibly... maybe a spray from Warwitch Siren if moving around a Hex Hunter wouldn't take too much movement away.

Since Blackfrost Shard member had damage boxes (and stealth?) I thought my best bet was DEF 15 Spell Martyr. Black Ogrun missed it. Aiakos missed it (he didn't even have any focus to boost, since one went into upkeeping Escort and rest was allocated to Malice) so Warwitch Siren was my only chance now.

Turned out that I had been over-estimating the amount of movement Warwitch lost when walking around a Hex Hunter, so Spell Martyr was in range. So. I needed 8+ or only a miracle would save my overextended forces from retaliation next turn. And 8+ it was, and damage roll wasn't double 1's either.

Malice walked up front, shot harpoon at Bethayne and had three focus and two souls to kill her. It was more than enough, so game over.

I guess I was a bit lucky in this assassination. I had two 10+'s on two dice and one 8+ chance on two dice to succeed, and this was after a 50/50 roll of succeeding at knocking down Bethayne. I do have this bad tendency of going and trying random assassinations at tournaments. This is mostly because of deathclock. There is nothing more boring than losing or winning with deathclock... in my mind it's better to lose to a badly executed or far fetched assassination attempt.

Though sometimes they work. Sometimes.



Game 3: Warwitch Deneghra vs Cygnar

Temporal Barrier Haley

- Stormwall

Gastone Crosse
- Galleon

Tactical Arcanist Corps
Journeyman Warcaster
Dougal MacNaile
Squire
3x Stormcaller
Gobber Tinker

Scenario was Incursion, and Cygnar started game. Opposing list was disturbing. I'm not sure if I have played against two colossals ever before. Though I was familiar enough with Haley1, I was unsure again what to expect. Throwing my whole army at one colossal might destroy it, but getting there under Temporal Barrier felt nigh impossible. But at least scenario was really good for Deneghra against an army with very low model count.

First picture must be from the end of Cryx turn 1.

And... ugh. Double Powder thingy from Dougal and Fire Group from Gastone cost me Malice right away. Gun Ports didn't do that much, but a turn later they would be easily able to get to the soft targets. Not that I valued Bile Thralls in this match-up too much. But in the end it did open a very real scenario game for me when enemy colossals were unleashing their awe-inspiring firepower at my forces.

Deneghra activated, used her feat and cast Crippling Grasp on Stormwall via an arcnode. She was quite dangerously close to enemy even when she had used her feat, so I thought it to be better to camp for four focus. Amazing blast damage rolls wouldn't kill her, then.

Cankerworm killed Stormsmith Stormcaller on the right, and Machine Wraith started to control the flag.

Black Ogruns shoot the second Stormcaller from middle flag, and then I almost mess everything up. To me it looked like the Tactical Arcanist closest to Galleon might be within 4" of the middle flag, so Aiakos advances, jumps and shoots harpoon at the guy. It's just that... I place Aiakos really damn badly. Somehow it escaped me that once I drag TAC member to Aiakos, he'd be left at the other side of the flag, since there was no space for his base! And... that's exactly what happened. Aiakos scored a hit, dealt damage but didn't kill. Hooray. Well, at least there was no longer any question if that particular Arcanist was contesting the flag...

So. I had two options left - Defiler and Nightwretch. Luckily Tactical Arcanists didn't have reach, so their DEF was only 10. Obviously Nightwretch went in first as I didn't really want to spray Aiakos dead with a lucky shot. And I didn't have to resort to that - Nightwretch scored the kill. Two control points.

There wasn't much Cygnar could do here. Galleon advanced 3" closer to rightmost flag and shot harpoon at Cankerworm, scoring a hit and killing the snake.

Arcanists came to contest middle flag and I believe Stormwall shot a pod there, too. Stormwall had only 1" of movement that turn, so it couldn't come and contest middle flag. But in the end Cryx went to three control points.

Rightmost flag was secured, so Cryx would get to at least four control points on my turn. I was rather surprised that, at most, I needed to kill two TAC's and possibly a storm pod. I don't remember how much of my infantry was left after last turn's shooting, but whatever it was, it was enough to clear middle flag and win the scenario.

Ropecon Warmachine Casuals

First game on Friday was against Skorne. I played the modified Deneghra list to see if it was any faster to play or if it worked better.

Opponent played:

Master Ascetic Naaresh

- Bronzeback Titan
- Titan Gladiator
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
- 4x Reptile Hound

Maximum unit of Gatormen Posse
2x Maximum units of Beast Handlers
Swamp Gobbers
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Paingiver Task Master

Scenario was Fire Support, but I forget which objective opponent was using. I'm not sure what turn it is in first picture. The only way I can make any sense out of this all is that picture is from the end of Cryx turn, and it's Skorne turn 2 going on as I almost forgot to take picture so Gatormen Posse has already activated.

Blood thirst or whatever the rule is that causes +2" charge distance against living models for Gatormen caught me by surprise. But even with +2 STR from Task Master only one Black Ogrun died. Titans ran so that Krea might safely cast her animus and charge a random target and still give +2 def & arm versus shooting.

I think Naaresh used his feat pre-emptively here to give +3 arm and strength for his battle group. One of the reptile hounds on the left ran next to Malice, and the other one charged it. Two attacks later Malice had lost its melee arm at least.

It looked like I'd have to use Deneghra's feat this turn. I was, however, fully aware of counter charge from Bronzeback, that would trigger before I had time to use the feat. So Warwitch Siren had to charge Bronzeback first and Shadow Bind it. When you got MAT 5 there's a big difference in between DEF 10 and 12... oh well. Siren hit, anyway, so no worries about that.

Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Deneghra, who then walked up front and used feat. She cast Crippling Grasp on Gatormen Posse via an arcnode. I think she also cast one Venom at the Gators, leaving her at zero Focus. She had foolishly allocated two for Cankerworm.

Necrotech tried to fix Malice, but rolled 9+

The two reptile hounds at Malice just refused to die. It took every model I was able to take there to finally kill both nuisances. Well, at least Malice got two additional souls.

Bile Thralls sprayed over Gatormen, and then Black Ogruns charge them. Still one remained, but with -4 to most stats.

Skorne turn 3 (I think?) the opponent mostly just backed off. Gladiator cast Rush on itself and took full 4" step backwards. Oh, and by now Naaresh had lost quite a few damage boxes to beast handlers, thanks to some disturbing damage rolls on their part.

One thing that puzzles me in the picture is that what happened to one of the Reptile Hounds on the left? The one that had been engaged by Scrap Thrall? Surely it did not die to a POW 8 free strike?

Cryx turn 3 Warwitch Siren Shadow Bound Bronzeback again, and Deneghra cast Parasite on it. Bane Thralls then made short work out of the beast.

This time Necrotech succeeded in repairing Malice's arm. I had great plans of Malice walking up front and shooting Titan Gladiator to him, and then killing the beast with charging Black Ogruns and Armor Piercing Cankerworms, but thanks to Basilisk Krea it all failed miserably. Black Ogruns tried to kill the last Gator and form a meat-wall to protect Malice from Gladiator's retaliation, and Cankerworm just ran to function as some sort of threat saturation.

Skorne turn 4 Paingivers whipped Naaresh for good - Naaresh had, during the course of the game, fallen to just two damage boxes remaining. Playing with a pair (see the pun?), opponent ordered yet one more Paingiver to whip Naaresh. A really high damage roll would've meant his death, but it was not to be. With just one damage box remaining Naaresh charged Black Ogrun and Cankerworm, killed the Ogrun and injured Cankerworm, and then cast Cyclone to move away. Blood Drinker brought him back to two or three damage boxes.

Basilisk Krea removed the other Ogrun, and now Titan Gladiator had a free charge lane to Malice. But as Malice was ARM 20 now from all the souls. Still I would have expected Malice to die, but somehow that just didn't happen. Basilisk Drake tried to finish Cankerworm, but failed in that. Both warjacks were, however, in very bad shape and would die to just about anything.

Well. Come Cryx turn, it looks like Titan Gladiator is the only beast Naaresh was able to transfer damage. So Bane Thralls, Malice, Warwitch Siren, Cankerworm and Aiakos take care of the Titan.

Deneghra was the only model now that could realistically make any attacks against Naaresh. I had only two Venoms to accomplish my goal, so there was a real chance of losing just because I HAD to try to get a caster kill.

I did not have to pay for my insolence, for first fully boosted Venom took the last damage boxes off of Naaresh.

I decided to keep this list for tournament, though if this had been a real tournament game, I'd have ran out of clock. But I still felt the list had better synergy than the earlier attempt.


Game 2:

There was this Iron Arena thingy going on, after the first game I played a second one right away. I decided that I'd try my other tournament list to see how it functions on the actual table.

And right after I had taken all the figures from storage foams I saw how much the list sucked. Well, yeah, I did have the Corruptor there so the list had no chance to shine whatever the case... but... Oh well. I was up for the challenge.

I was against Trollbloods, and I was pretty much horrified when I saw the opponent's list. Not only my list was really bad, but it also had good counters to any tricks I'd be able to do. It was Calandra's theme. There may be some inaccuracies in this list as Forward Kommander doesn't have Calandra's Evolutionary Elementalism theme force rules.

Evolutionary Elementalism tier 3
Calandra Truthsayer
- 4x Storm Troll
- 4x Slag Troll
- 2x Pyre Troll
- Winter Troll

Maximum unit of Krielstone Bearers + Unit Attachment
Runebearer (I think?)

Trollbloods probably started, and first picture is from the end of Cryx turn 2. Scenario is Two Fronts.

Well. Perhaps there might be some sort of chance if I'd be able to take out enough Slag Trolls before Kraken dies. Kraken and Scaverous were probably the only meaningful models I had, as Storm Trolls were electro-leaping Bile Thralls away and managed to die somehow early in the game. A surprise bonus was that Corruptor was immune to the main damage dealers opponent had - the Slag Trolls. Yay, Corruptor. Who didn't have much of a target for arc nodes or AoE attacks.

But so far Kraken has been loaded full with Focus, and Scaverous has cast Telekinesis on one of the Storm Trolls so that there was no chance of it blocking charge lane for Kraken. On the right side Gorman diWulfe advanced and threw Black Oil on Slag Troll and Pyre Troll. Afterwards Pistol Wraith shot Death Chill on the Slag Troll, so at least one of the dreaded Kraken-killers would be out of action for next turn.

Then Kraken was supposed to kill another. Well... Supposed to. Calandra had cast Star-Crossed, which caused enough attacks to miss that the tentacles probably just looked like delicious spaghetti that was flailing in front of the Slag Troll, trying to seduce him into a food orgies, despite him being on a diet.

Truth be told, opponent really had to spend a lot of resources to bring Death Warded Kraken down. It took Calandra's feat, some Fate Blessed rolls, three Slag Trolls shooting twice at Kraken, a Pyre Troll and a random number of Storm Trolls. And the damage rolls were rather on the high side. But... it did happen. Uninjured Arm 21 Kraken was one-rounded by light warbeasts.

But the game was pretty much lost there, so I tried to do some sort of assassination just for giggles. But Corruptor was too far, Pistol Wraith was too far, and Scaverous only got to make one Excarnate on Calandra.

Needless to say... though it was a difficult list to beat with my list, this game scared me in regards for next days tournament.