Night Witch Tournament

Last weekend I was in a (this time) planned Warmachine/Hordes tournament.

It was a 50 point Steamroller game with four rounds.

My lists were:

List 1:

Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood
- Gorax
- Woldwatcher
- Shadowhorn Satyr
- Warpwolf Stalker

Shifting Stones
Tharn Bloodweavers
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Lord of the Feast
Druid Wilder
Blackclad Wayfarer
Bloodweaver Night Witch
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Gallows Grove

List 2:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Gorax
- Riphorn Satyr
- Pureblood Warpwolf

Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain + Shaman
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Blackclad Wayfarer
Bloodweaver Night Witch
Gallows Grove
War Wolf

I had finished painting Bloodweaver Night Witch just a day ago, so I wanted to include her in both of my lists so that I wouldn't have the dilemma of "I should play this list because of the matchup, but I want to play Night Witch!"

So. First game was against Skorne. I chose Cassius as my warlock, though opponent had Titan Gladiator and Tyrant Commander handing out Pathfinder. Oh well. Enemy list was something like:

Supreme Archdomina Makeda
- Molik Karn
- Bronzeback Titan
- Titan Gladiator
- Basilisk Krea

Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Cataphract Incindiarii
Maximum unit of Nihilators
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer

Scenario was Fire Support. I forget who started game.

Even when I had quite a few models immune to fire damage, the Incindiarii were a pain. They managed to set Cassius, Wurmwood and tons of other models on fire anyway. I was really lucky in setting the fires out - about 66% of the fires got extinguished instead of the regular 33%. Lord of the Feast took down three Incindiariis, but that didn't seem to slow them down.

I was terrified of Molik Karn. Perhaps a little too much. Molik went for a little killing spree against Druids of Orboros and used his animus to back off.

The first picture is taken from the situation where Night Witch and Warpwolf Stalker have charged Molik Karn and killed him. Stalker rolled dice absolutely terribly. Under Primal it was MAT 8 and rolled damage with dice +2, and still Molik Karn would have survived if it wasn't for the couple odd points Bloodweaver Night Witch had done. I had been pretty sure I would have been able to get at least one, hopefully two attacks against Bronzeback Titan, but no. Not today.

Bloodweavers charged Bronzeback and dealt some damage in.

Opponent had been playing really slowly (it was his first tournament) and had around six minutes left on his clock after his next turn. Titan Gladiator had not been able to kill Warpwolf Stalker and Bronzeback Titan forgot to put his animus on, so his kill count for that turn was two Bloodweavers only.

I could have also played attrition or scenario game, since three Incindiarii and a couple of Nihilators were the only infantry opponent had.

And still I wanted to assassinate Makeda. Makeda had two Fury points left for damage transfers. Titan Gladiator was at maximum Fury. I tried to kill Bronzeback Titan first, but had no luck there.

Cassius hopped next to Makeda and tried to cast Curse of Shadows on her, hitting on 9+, and obviously that's a miss. Second Curse of Shadows miraculously hit, but Cassius had been reduced to just one unboosted initial attack that required 9+ to hit. It was a miss.

Well. I still had Shadowhorn Satyr leaping in with Primal on it. Shadowhorn required 7+ to hit, but had six attempts after Bounding Leap. I decided I needed to risk it and go for unboosted 7+'s since Cassius had failed to make any damage in to Makeda.

Out of the six attacks only two hit, and first one did very little damage. Second roll was high, I think, but it was transfered away.

Now, okay, 7+ can do things like this. Two hits from six tries isn't that far below average. However... out of the four Shadowhorn attacks that missed, none would have hit even if required score would have been 6+.

Suddenly my successful rolls for fire expiration made perfect sense, yet again. Furyless Cassius was cracked in two like a dry branch.

During lunch break I swore that if the rest of the games roll as badly as this one did, I'd get rid of this batch of dice. They've been failing so terribly lately (though making stupid mistakes haven't really helped to even the odds in case of bad dice...) and I was just about done with them. Superstitiously I shuffled all of the dice in the box and re-arranged them randomly to make sure I wouldn't be using the same bad dice that are on top of the box all the time.


Game 2:

Second game was against Trollbloods, and I chose Morvahna for my list.

Opponent had something like:

Chief Madrak Ironhide
- Troll Axer
- Mulg the Ancient

Minimum unit of Krielstone Bearers + Elder
Maximum unit of Fennblades + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Long Riders
2x Fell Caller Hero
Fennblade Kithkar
Horthol

Scenario was Incoming and Trollbloods started.

I thought that hiding Ravagers behind a wall and inside a forest would be kind of okay defence against Long Riders. I was kind of horrified when they got their MAT equal to eleven, or something? That was a whole lot of dead Tharn Ravagers right on turn two.

Circle second turn I decided to use feat to bring back the six or so dead Ravagers all around Longriders - without cavalry charge bonuses they'd be less frightening... right? Pureblood tried to spray Krielstone unit dead, and despite needing only 7+ with three dice to hit, I had to re-roll most of the attacks with Scales of Fate. And to make matters worse, out of the four Krielstone Bearers that got damage in, three passed Tough check. Morvahna casts Death Knell on the same lot, but, well. All Tough checks passed when I managed to breach their armor.

Wolves of Orboros advanced a little to bait Fennblades into charging, though I'm not sure if that manoeuvre qualifies as a successful bait, because that was exactly what they wanted to do in the first place anyway. I had also brought many too far ahead so that they received more losses than I had anticipated when it was Trollblood turn again. At least Madrak didn't use his feat yet, so Mulg killed only Pureblood Warpwolf, Gallows Grove and possibly Blackclad Wayfarer.

Trying to remove the key support piece had now pretty much cost me the game, unless I killed Madrak, who had two transfers or something like that. He had overextended himself, though, so I would be able to teleport Riphorn Satyr behind him.

I shuffle quite a bit on my turn and try to make it possible for Riphorn Satyr to throw Madrak closer to Morvahna with Chain Attack - in case that Mulg would be, like, close to killing Riphorn.

However, once chain attack triggered Riphorn still looked alive and well, so I chose to head-butt Madrak instead to the ground. Mulg had mercifully missed a protective fit. Riphorn managed to chew through all Madrak's transfers and bring him down to four hit points before dying to the Rune Club.

Only model that was able to reach Madrak then was Morvahna with Sunder Spirit. I had three attempts. I was pretty sure it'd be something like, one miss, one doesn't cut through armor and one passed Tough. So much faith I had in my dice. But the first Sunder Spirit was enough.


Game 3:

Third game was against Skorne, again. We drove two hundred and fifty kilometres to get a match with player from my home city.

He had:

Lord Arbiter Hexeris
- Titan Gladiator
- Bronzeback Titan
- Cyclops Brute
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea

Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Nihilators
Maximum unit of Croak Raiders
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Agonizer
Task Master
Extoller Soulward

Scenario was Two Fronts. Since opponent would become list locked for the final round if he didn't choose Hexeris for this game, I was fairly confident in choosing Cassius for this match. Again I had a lot of fire immune models, and enemy had Croaks and Ashes to Ashes.

Circle started, and first picture is from the end of Skorne turn 1.

Circle shot Lord of the Feast to Croaks and kills three of them plus one Nihilator. Not sure if worth four points, but the pleasure I get from just one dead frog counts at least for two. Two additional Croaks die in the middle.

Hexeris had cast Arcane Reckoning on Croaks, and this lead to first time in recorded history when that spells makes a casualty. I didn't remember that spell, and somehow didn't register that Croaks were in a trench. All the 2d terrain looks the same... Anyway. A druid killed itself with Force Bolt. Though we were not completely sure if that was possible, since unit leader had already put up Counter Magic. So possibly Arcane Reckoning wouldn't have done absolutely anything yet again.

Anyway, Cassius uses his feat. The various markers show the general area of the forest in second picture.

Opponent brings some remaining Croaks and Swamp Gobbers to contest Circle friendly zone and relocates his forces to Skorne friendly zone.

Turn 3 berserking Warpwolf with Sprint clears the zone, and Cassius starts dominating. I didn't realise until it was too late that I had placed Bloodweavers rather... foolishly, considering opponent had a spray basilisk nearby. Oh well.

Bronzeback Titan with Rush tries to charge a Druid of Orboros after Basilisk Drake had cleared the way, and thankfully the charge fell short. On my turn one Bloodweaver, Shadowhorn Satyr with Primal, Warpwolf Stalker who warped for strength and Cassius kill the Bronzeback Titan. Ech.

Circle friendly zone is cleared again, and Cassius dominates second scenario point.

Up until now things had looked really good for me. Warpwolf Stalker had taken some stray damage points in from different sources, and now a charging Cyclops Brute with enrage and Rush managed to kill the heavy warbeast. Drake and Titan Gladiator came to contest Circle friendly zone, and Shadowhorn Satyr would frenzy for sure next turn.

Hexeris had charged in to finish off Woldwatcher and casts Ashen Veil on himself.

Even if I somehow managed to clear Circle friendly zone again with some Force Bolt pushes, I'd get to three control points only... and then enemy warbeasts would be so deep inside the zone that my scenario game would stop right there and then. So, an assassination it would be.

First Druids of Orboros and Blackclad Wayfarer try to clear some Nihilators in front of Hexeris. Blackclad Wayfarer did a couple damage points in to Hexeris, even.

Next Shifting Stones teleport Bloodweaver Night Witch to the back arc of Hexeris. This was the moment I had been dreaming of for whole tournament and a couple of practice games. Except, that, she had to score a hit against a def 17 target (def 15 in back arc). She dealt three points of damage to herself with her ability to boost attack or damage rolls, so first attack was most likely the only shot she would get. But it hit, and Hexeris got Grievous Wounds in.

Now Cassius needed to finish the job with eleven fury points, four of which were needed for placements.

It took the very last attack Cassius was able to make, but this time he scored the kill.


Game 4:

Last game was against Legion of Everblight, and I chose Morvahna for the job.

Opponent had:

Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight
- 2x Ravagore
- Zuriel
- Naga Nightlurker
- Nephilim Bolt Thrower
- Shredder

2x Shepherd
2x Strider Deathstalker
Succubus
Anyssa Ryvaal

Scenario was Recon and Circle started game. First picture is from the end of Circle turn 2.

I'm quite happy that probably for the first time ever I played against Lylyth2 like you should: rush to her with everything you got as fast as you can. And it was nice to see that it was effective. Lylyth had to use her feat on turn two to defend herself and not to assassinate my caster. Damage was impressive, though... Riphorn Satyr has one box of health remaining in the Spirit branch.

Turn 3 Pureblood Warpwolf enters zone and deals crazy damage to objective and Lylyth herself. I think objective took thirteen points and Lylyth twelve (which was transfered to Shredder, though)

Riphorn Satyr runs to engage enemy beasts, Warwolf does the same and actually everything does the same, except for Morvahna who does full feat and has only one hit point remaining afterwards. Blackclad Wayfarer wrecks the objective, and Circle goes to three control points.

Opponent does respectable job again in clearing dirty hippies from the board. Only models that get to contest the zone are a Shepherd, Succubus and... a Ravagore.

Then it's Circle turn. Pureblood Warpwolf is left with two fury points, but it has quite good Threshold anyway. With eight or less I'd most likely win the game relatively easily.

It soothes my pain a little that Pureblood Warpwolf wouldn't have succeeded in the check even if it had to make it with zero fury... eleven was rolled. Blackclad Wayfarer was eaten.

This sucks.

Oh well. Let's see. I needed to keep Shepherd alive so that Morvahna would be able to Ram her to get within reach of Ravagore after being teleported with Shifting Stones.

Succubus would need to be taken down somehow, and I chose Wolves of Orboros for the job. I charged Succubus with three Wolves of Orboros and thanks to not thinking very straight one ended up blocking an easy charge for one Ravager. I wanted to make sure that the Succubus died, so I brought every Wolf there I could. First Wolf killed Succubus, though. Oh well.

Morvahna then got teleported, and she rammed Shepherd dead and started attacking Ravagore. She had healed some damage during enemy turn, but not enough to be completely careless of her own health.

There was one really good damage roll, and a lot of sub-par rolls. Though at least every attack did some damage in. Well, except once she re-rolled one 1,1,1,2. Luckily damage to her was only one.

In the end of the day, Ravagore was alive with three damage boxes remaining. Now... if I would have trusted that two Wolves get the job done with Succubus, Ravagore would have had an easy lane to charge enemy warbeast. Now, Bloodweaver Night Witch tried to kill one Wolf of Orboros out of the way, but still the Ravagore ended up being half an inch away from reach range.

Furyless Morvahna at one hit point in the middle of enemy army.

Well, funnily enough every Legion warbeast frenzied except for the one Morvahna had in melee. But still... even if Morvahna had Def 19 in melee, Lylyth gets to RAT 10 with aiming bonus.

It was so close. So close.

Well, even if Morvahna would have killed the Ravagore, I would have been in fourth place of the tournament. So that moronic Ravager block didn't cost me winning positions.

Still it sucks.

And I even need to keep using the same dice, because their fails weren't so egregious in the latter games of the tournament. Maybe they heard my threats.

(un) Friendly Reminder

Last Thursday I played two practice games for tournament that's held this weekend. Both games had the same list:

Cassius and Wurmwood
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Shadowhorn Satyr
- Woldwatcher
- Gorax

Tharn Bloodweavers
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobber Bellows
Lord of the Feast
Night Witch
Druid Wilder
Blackclad Wayfarer
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Gallows Grove

Objective: Bunker

Opponent had:

Archdomina Makeda

- Molik Karn
- Bronzeback Titan
- Titan Gladiator
- Cyclops Brute
- Basilisk Krea

Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Nihilators
Aptimus Marketh
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Objective: Bunker

First game had Incursion scenario. Circle started game, and the picture is from the end of Circle turn 2 where Cassius has desperately used his feat to try to block Molik Karn from doing things. There had been about three millimetres in between Molik Karn and Cassius when Cassius had attempted to cast Stranglehold on the cyclops chieftain.

There is nothing else to say, really.

Molik Karn didn't even need to use side-steps to walk within 2" of Wurmwood.

We played another game after this sorry affair.

Game 2:

Lists were the same, but we switched sides. Skorne started and scenario was Fire Support. I think these lists were quite balanced against each other. Both had counter options for moves opponent would be able to make. Skorne had completely absurd walking distances with Pathfinder available, but I had Stranglehold and Pathfinder removal, plus the 10" forest feat with me. Makeda had a a feat to bring back Nihilators, but I had some remove from play -effects. I had ways to lower MAT and relatively high defense, and opponent had Carnage. And so on.

First picture is from the end of Circle turn one. Woldwatcher shot one of the Nihilators into a forest.

Turn 3 opponent rushes forward with Nihilators. They kill a couple of Druids of Orboros. Molik Karn came close. Too close.

Turn three was also the turn when Cassius used his feat. But before that Lord of the Feast threw his crow at a Nihilator. He jumped in to make his thing with Nihilators and hopefully make a dent at Basilisk Krea. Well. Just as in last game, he hit with zero attacks against infantry models. Sometimes MAT 8 takes you only so far. Sometimes, like, two times in a row.

Druids of Orboros pull Bronzeback Titan a total of four inches closer. Gorax or Wilder cast Primal on Warpwolf Stalker, who then warped for Strength and proceeded to attack the warbeast. I think Stalker wasn't in Agonizer range, because it was able to kill the Bronzeback.

Rest of the army killed off Nihilators, Bloodweavers taking out Defender's Ward in the first place.

Now Cassius tried to be smart and cast Stranglehold on Molik Karn through Gallows Grove, without exposing himself too far just yet. Stranglehold hit Karn and dealt some stray damage points in. Molik missile never again. Or at least next turn.

Lanyssa Ryssyll fell a little short from getting Molik Karn within Winter Storm. The only reasonable thing to do was to use Push power attack on her with Woldwatcher.

Turn 4 Makeda uses her feat. Nihilators kill Lanyssa with the aid from Carnage. After that Titan Gladiator used Rush on itself and walked to attempt a double handed throw against my Warpwolf Stalker. This was one of the first times, or perhaps even the first time I have witnessed the throw target resisting a double-handed throw. Though it wouldn't have worked without Primal and warping for strength.

Bloodweavers and Hellmouths and whatnot all over the place destroyed the rest of the Nihilators, so Makeda wouldn't be able to return any models into play with her feat. Not that there were too many Nihilators that had been honestly destroyed.

Two Bloodweavers did some damage in to the Titan Gladiator, and Warpwolf Stalker had done it's frenzy attack against it. But those were quite not enough to kill it. Agonizer was giving -2 to damage rolls. Druid Wilder cast Primal on Shadowhorn Satyr - which would still be making attacks only with P+S 14 and 13 despite Primal! But this goat is not Gnarlhorn Satyr, no. Shadowhorn advanced, used Bounding Leap and killed Titan Gladiator - with one blow!

Cassius Strangled Molik Karn yet again.

Turn 5 Skorne got rid of Gallows Grove, which could possibly get Molik Karn out of Stranglehold's reach.

But this turn Molik wouldn't be able to do anything meaningful. Cyclops Brute tried to attack my warbeasts, but killed none. I don't remember what Krea did, except that it died on my next turn.

Circle turn 5, or so called "why, oh why did I do this" turn. Woldwatcher shot one Beast Handler into a forest, and the rest of Druids of Orboros cast Vortex clouds. This turn it looked like I had expended all of my good damage rolls, though, when Warpwolf Stalker, frenzying Shadowhorn Satyr and a stray P+S 9, weapon-masterish Bloodweaver didn't kill Brute. Should've used Primal on Stalker, I guess...

I advance Cassius and try to kill thr Brute with Stranglehold, but that accomplished nothing. He moved Wurmwood to safety.

Attrition game was looking good, but it doesn't really matter, when Makeda removes a couple of Bloodweavers from Molik's way, has Carnage on and Aptimus Marketh casts Savagery. Then Molik made a casual walk to Cassius and kills him.

Well, okay, it wasn't that casual. Cassius had been less than half an inch too close to Molik Karn. But that's all what it takes...

It's not entirely impossible that after these experiences I'm starting to fail to enter killbox in future games whenever enemy has Molik Karn.

Adventures of Winhorn Satyr vol I

Last Friday I played a practice game for an upcoming tournament. I didn't quite know that I'd be going to a different tournament the very next day... but that's another story.

Anyway, my 50 point list was:

Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Shadowhorn Satyr
- Gorax
- Woldwatcher

Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Tharn Bloodweavers
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
Shifting Stones
Lord of the Feast
Bloodweaver Night Witch
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder
Gallows Grove

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Opponent had (I think):

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight:
- Blightbringer
- Naga Nightlurker

2x Maximum unit of Warspears + Chieftain
Minimum unit of Warmongers
Minimum unit of Spawning Vessel
Warmonger War Chief
Forsaken

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Scenario was Destruction and Circle started game. First picture is from the end of Legion turn 1. Thagrosh had a little accident just before the game and as a result lost his upper torso. He didn't waist his feat on bringing it back. Oh god. That pun.

Turn two I decided to use Cassius' feat already. Hey, why not? I figured I could take one hit from Blightbringer with Wurmwood - especially when guarded by Woldwatcher. This might give me a chance at playing scenario. Lord of the Feast throws his teleport bird at the Spawning Vessel and slaughters all of the chefs. So, damage from Legion is negligible on turn 2, and only three Ogruns come to contest the zone. Well, three Ogruns and a Shredder from Spawning Vessel.

It was all too easy to dominate for three points on Circle turn three. Or... was it?

I need to buy new dice. The amount of total of threes was astonishing. In next write-up I'm going to complain even more about hitting on 6+. But let's not get ahead of things.

Only models that did really well were the Bloodweavers and Druids, who pushed two Ogruns out of the zone. Warpwolf Stalker, Shadowhorn Satyr, Lanyssa, Woldwatcher, Blackclad Wayfarer, Gorax and Cassius with a couple of souls would be more than enough to get rid of the three, right? Right? Well, it was, eventually. Once absolutely everything else had already activated, there was only Shadowhorn Satyr and Gorax left to activate and opponent still had Shredder and objective. Gorax used Primal on Shadowhorn Satyr, who trampled over Shredder (killing it) and also wrecked the objective. Whoa. The thing has worse P+S than Gnarlhorn Satyr, and yet it managed to save the day (or what could still be saved)? I think this guy deserves its own tag. Even if it serves no purpose, at least it's there to add to the shame of my Gnarlhorn Satyr.

But really. With only a couple good rolls (or heck, a couple of mediocre rolls more instead of the abysmal ones!) I could have got so much better turn. I had originally planned to dominate for three scenario points, but I felt like I couldn't risk it as I had achieved only the bare minimum with maximum efforts. Shadowhorn would frenzy next turn, and there were far more Ogruns around than I had hoped for.

Turn 3 Legion wasn't exactly the dice rolling champ either, as Woldwatcher and Druid Overseer and a couple of Bloodweavers were the only casualties. Both heavy warbeasts took heavy damage, but at least they were still alive...

But now there was a gargantuan sitting on the zone that I had failed to dominate. Game became an admirable grindfest from there on. Satyr frenzied and attacked Blightbringer. Stalker thinned down Ogruns and sprinted away. Rest of my army tries to scrape at the Ogruns, but don't really accomplish anything. Cassius casts Curse of Shadows on Ogrun Warspear unit. Legion then kills Shadowhorn Satyr and a number of my infantry. Miraculously Gorax survives all of this.

Cassius continues to upkeep Curse of Shadows on Ogruns. Remaining Bloodweaver make a dirty charge at the Warspear chieftain, killing him. Then Cassius juggles Curse of Shadows to Blightbringer and even managed to damage it with Stranglehold, making it to forfeit either action or movement. Then Warpwolf Stalker charged it and killed a nearby Ogrun to trigger Sprint. Night Witch killed at least The Forsaken.

Gorax dies next, but Night Witch somehow escapes death. I'm starting to have wild fantasies about making the final blow to Blightbringer with Hellmouth. That would mean opponent would get Naga back with the feat... or a Shredder, why not.

Night Witch pokes Blightbringer to make it un-healable, and Warpwolf Stalker did the "ogrun for Sprint + attacks at Blightbringer" trick again. Blightbringer was left at four hit boxes remaining. Warpwolf didn't Sprint back to Shifting Stones, but rather tried to hide behind the gargantuan.

Then Thagrosh activates and kills Blightbringer with his own... claw! Not sword, mind you. That one removes from play, while claw doesn't. Thagrosh feats Blightbringer back and Warspears shoot Stalker dead. Damn it.

Now there was no longer any chance of winning the game. I conceded after figuring out for ten minutes for anything at all. But no.

Originally I had been thinking of walking or charging with Blood Witch through Blightbringer (which had Curse of Shadows) and hopefully hitting Thagrosh with second attack. That would've denied damage transfers. Warpwolf Stalker would've killed Thagrosh then, if able.

After losing Curse of Shadows on Blightbringer and Warpwolf Stalker, none of this was possible. I could have tried some weird Hellmouth/Stranglehold assassination if Night Witch could have landed the "no transfer" hit. Very unlikely, but not completely impossible, unlike this situation now.

Exciting game nonetheless. Little did I know that next game I'd play would be against the Prophet of Everblight again in about eleven-twelve hours, or so... but that's for a bit later.

Debut of Captain Orange

Ages ago on Tuesday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine.

I played with Circle of Orboros with following list:

Cassius the Oathkeeper
- Riphorn Satyr
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Woldwatcher
- Gorax

Minimum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Minimum unit of Farrow Bone Grinders
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
2x Gallows Grove
Druid Wilder
Lanyssa Ryssyll

Opponent had:

Darius
- Stormwall
- Centurion
- Ol' Rowdy

Black 13th

2x Stormsmith Stormcaller
Journeyman Warcaster
Gorman diWulfe
Ragman
Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Epic Eiryss

Scenario was Close Quarters and Cygnar started game. There are a couple of important proxies in the pictures - huge base is obviously Stormwall. Orange medium base on the other hand represents Darius. Gobbers are storm pods.

First picture is from the end of Circle turn 1. On the other hand I tried to stay far from the Stormwall AoE's, and yet I wanted to present some sort of a threat. But I was sorely suffering from the symptom that's being called a "clustercoitus" in the internets. Well, technically that's not true. The actual term is far less... clinical. Anyway. Everyone was in the way of everyone.

Turn 2 Cygnar advanced a little bit and laid down a curtain of damaging AoE's. Stormwall had Arcane Shield.

I decided to charge with Ravagers anyway, and lost one in the process. Only one got to make any attacks, and those were against Black 13th. The Ravager killed two of the gun mages. Repair those, Darius!

The rest of my forces just gathered into a huge blob of meat and soul, and Cassius used his feat. He also cast Stranglehold on Ol' Rowdy.

I had intuitively thought that Lanyssa's Winter storm does not affect colossals, because, well, nothing affects colossals. But Winter storm does. Damn it. That would have made the game to look very different if I would have advanced more with Lanyssa and use the spell in question... but alas, I didn't.

Turn 3 Stormwall tramples right next to my heavy warbeasts. After that Darius spams Jackhammer with all of his focus points, which results in dead Riphorn Satyr. What kept me somewhat in the game was the fact that defence 14 made Warpwolf Stalker survive the onslaught.

The situation is a bit tricky now. And I guess my greatest failing as a competitive player is not making up my mind with different plans, and stick to it. I had two options: try to assassinate Darius now. There might not be another chance to do that even if I would be able to bring Stormwall down. Another one was try to beat Stormwall dead.

I made a compromise: I'd beat Stormwall with everything I got, and then decide what to do with 11 fury points Cassius would have. What happened was that Primaled Stalker, Woldwatcher, Wolves of Orboros with Power Swell and Tharn Ravager chieftain charged it. They did okay-ish... but did not destroy the colossal Arm 22 warjack. It had only a few damage points left, so I was torn between trying to assassinate Darius and finish the colossal off with Cassius.

I chose to attack the colossal. Now. If I had originally planned just to kill the colossal and bother with Darius later, I could have activated Cassius first and cast Curse of Shadows on it. This way I might have had some resources to attacks something else.

Turn 4 Darius starts scoring points from his own flag, and his warjacks just shuffled around - because they could. My warpwolf would be frenzying next turn.

I had a clear charge lane to Darius with Cassius. He was camping something like five focus points, though. So instead Cassius charged either him or Ol' Rowdy, I forget which. He casts Curse of Shadows on Darius, and jumps back to safety with Unseen path. Woldwatcher advances to contest the enemy flag. Wolves of Orboros tried to kill Gorman and perhaps tickle Centurion.

Turn 5 Gorman survives a free strike from Wolf of Orboros, and he lobs Black Oil on Warpwolf Stalker. Centurion then butchers the warbeast. I don't remember how Darius spent the rest of his focus, but an educated guess would be on Jackhammer to Ol' Rowdy. There must have been some pretty awful dice rolls involved, because Woldwatcher didn't die. However, Journeyman Warcaster cast Arcane Shield on Darius.

So now I needed to kill the orange medium base. I did have the tools for it, I just used them a little bit foolishly. First I tried to shoot Darius with everything I got - that included Arcane Bolt from the remaining Bonegrinders and Ice Bolt from Lanyssa. Lanyssa was hoping for a lucky critical hit. After the game it was pointed out that had they killed Journeyman Warcaster instead, that would have meant Arm 16 Darius for me to handle. Well. Killing the journeyman would have required at least 7+ hit from both, and 8+ to instantly kill with Ice Bolt, and 9+ with Arcane Bolt. But perhaps combined...

I see one more desperate chance to aid Cassius in his endeavour. First Woldwatcher advances so it quite doesn't leave Ol' Rowdy's melee range. Gorax then performs a two handed throw on it, and tries to throw the wold on Sylys Wyshnalyrr, who had ran to protect Darius. Initially I estimated that perhaps Gorax would clip Darius on a direct hit and if Gorax would miss, deviation still had a chance to knock Darius over. But a direct hit it was, and Darius did not get knocked down. Even Sylys had the insolence not to die to the collateral damage roll.

Well, that was all I could do.

Next Cassius and Wurmwood used cool party tricks and shenanigans to get next to Darius, and started beating. I would roll damage with -7 and Darius did have twenty two damage boxes. I decided to roll without attack boosts, because I had enough fury points for either two fully boosted attacks (and perhaps one completely unboosted), or three or four damage boosted attacks if I skipped the attack boost and rolled 7+ to hit.

Two attacks hit and made Darius go somewhere around eight hit boxes left or something. So at least the six additional damage points it would have meant for me wouldn't have made a difference... if that's of any consolation.

But it was all a phantasm, really. There was only some orange glow on the ground where Darius was supposed to be.

You can't kill what does not exist.

End of Riven Bonds

A week and a half ago I played to Riven Bonds league games. They were the last games of our two month long league attempt - or at least they were, for me. Games were 35 points.

I used same list in both games, and it was:

Cassius the Oathkeeper and Wurmwood, Tree of Fate
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gorax
- Woldwatcher

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment

Minimum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
2x Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer Hero

Objective: Effigy of Valor

First game was against Protectorate of Menoth, and the list was:

Hierarch Severius
- Vanquiher
- Reckoner
- Blessing of Vengeance

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Hierophant
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth
Paladin Hero

Objective: something

Scenario was Fire Support, and Circle started game. First picture is from the end of Protectorate turn 1. So far Severius has cast Fear of God on Tharn Ravagers. Oh joy. They just lost most benefits their Unit Attachment gives.

It was scary to realise how Awareness mitigated Cassius' feat. I decided to use the feat right there on turn 2 to get at least some use out of it. While Severius' battlegroup might see through the forest, they wouldn't be able to get Pathfinder from anywhere! But first some random models tried to tickle Blessing of Vengeance first - namely, Blackclad Wayfarer and Pureblood Warpwolf with their sprays. Then Cassius activates, casts a Hellmouth on Blessing of Vengeance via Gallows Grove, taking a few Flameguards with the spell. And finally a Ravager walks within reach distance, and takes a swing at Blessing of Vengeance. Now look at that... the thing nearly broke. I don't remember how much damage was actually dealt, but Arc Node malfunctioned from just the Pureblood and Wayfarer sprays. Too late to save the Ravagers, though.

Severius used feat and converted five or so models from my side to fight for his. I hadn't considered that there might have been a possibility of assassination - despite having next to no Pathfinder, Severius could make full use out of my Pathfinder. Lucky me that none of the Ravagers had Line of Sight to Wurmwood, or there could have been a rather embarrassing ending. But since Wurmwood had already collected some souls for armor, and Ravagers would not get the boosted damage from charge, they just killed each other. Hey... I forgot to collect heart tokens from Ravagers to Ravagers. How... heartless.

Anyway, other than that the turn was fairly uneventful. Vanquisher and Reckoner didn't reach their full potential. What was left of Blessing of Vengeance ended the life of Gallows Grove.

Turn 3 I started stressing out from the two heavy warjacks. Most of my army had already been set on fire, and Primaled Pureblood had a chance of taking out Vanquisher with some assistance from other models, but then Reckoner would just make some very tender dog steaks out of my only "heavy" hitter. Perhaps there might have been some possibilities with correct play and target prioritising, because I did out-threat Protectorate in just about every way. But screw that. I took the easy way out and tried to assassinate.

First Blackclad Wayfarer advanced into melee with Vanquisher and casts Hunter's Mark on Severius.

Then Cassius charges Vanquisher and casts Hellmouth on a choir member, pulling Severius closer to Pureblood Warpwolf. I nearly did panic when I actually pulled Reckoner to a position that might have blocked charge from reachless Pureblood. Cassius boosts damage, and even casts Stranglehold on the old man, too. Damage rolls were pretty good, and I thought I might have a chance of finishing Severius with spray from Pureblood... if it would hit.

But since it was all-in assassination attempt with no hold backs, I brought Woldwatcher intro fray just for fun. It'd probably miss anyway. Oh, it didn't. Well, surely POW 12 wouldn't be enough to finish Severius. Oh... 5,5,6 or something like that.

Fertilizer from Woldwatcher kicks in and... Is this how new Gallows Groves are being made?

Game 2:

Second game was against Convergence against a warcaster I've never played. Whee. That's always a special joy for me.

Anyway, the list was:

Axis, the Harmonious Enforcer
- Converser
- Inverter
- Corollary

Optifex Directive
Maximum unit of Reciprocators
Maximum unit of Eradicators
Accretion Servitors
Steelsoul Protector Hero (with Shrapnel Field. Ouch.)

Convergence started game, and scenario was Close Quarters.

This second game took considerably longer, which often seems to be the case with Convergence. My lists just aren't that good at cracking single, large targets with damage boxes and some armour.

First picture is from the end of Circle turn 1, and there's not much to tell. Convergence advanced slowly and steadily. I'm not entirely certain on this, but I think Iron Aggression was on Inverter.

Turn 2 the wall of steel continues to push forward. Axis casts the razor wall spell or something like that, and uses feat defensively. All but the Wolves of Orboros are caught. Important bit here is the -2SPD that prevented Circle from charging.

Well, I reply in kind and use Cassius' feat. This time opponent had easy access to Pathfinder, but had difficulties with LoS blocking element of forest terrain. But all in all everything that happened on the right side of the board was just shuffling and repositioning. If anything happened, it happened on the left, where Wolves of Orboros charged these... things. Damn it. I just checked which unit it was, Reciprocators or Eradicators.

Oh well. Wolves used Power Swell and killed two. I think it was combined effort by Woldwatcher and Pureblood that killed the third one. Yay. Three casualties. Cassius snatched a control point from friendly flag.

Turn 3 Convergence struggles to make any meaningful attacks, too. Inverter got Pathfinder from Optifex Directive and trampled to Gorax. What was one of the bigger impacts to the game was that macropummeler attack missed with double or triple ones. This caused Gorax to survive that turn with four or so damage boxes remaining.

Converser killed a swamp gobber and Gallows Grove.

The shield wall medium based unit engaged Tharn Ravagers and started something that might pass as good British slapstick humor. Because that was what happened there for the next turns. They were slapping each other. With sticks. Nobody died, unless someone else intervened.

Some outrageous damage rolls by charging Ravagers, Gorax and I don't know who else... Cassius himself, perhaps? Wrecked Inverter. Primaled Pureblood on the other hand was next to useless against Converser. Well, damage was fine but systems didn't break. Woldwatches has probably shot an Optifex into a forest, judging from that random 3" AoE behind Convergence's front lines.

To me it looked like Converser was more than contesting the flag, so Cassius abandoned his position. Wolves of Orboros kill the rest of the leftmost medium base unit. Oh, and that Ravager Shaman there was just lending his toten staff for Wurmwood last turn to keep the tree from falling over.

Turn 4 some ravagers finally die to combined melee attacks by the other medium base unit. Pureblood Warpwolf and Gorax defy death, though I don't think more than one of the infantry models tried to attack it. Pureblood not dying was an unexpected bonus, but it'd waste its activation next turn to a mandatory frenzy.

On my turn Wolves started to control enemy flag, and Converser died.

I wasn't sure if the closest enemy infantry model that's closest to the camera was within 4" of the flag, and trying to dominate a flag when there's enemy warcaster almost right next to you is usually a bad idea. So Cassius chickened out and stayed on the hill.

Turn 5 Convergence finally kills Pureblood Warpwolf. This is done personally by Axis, and seeing all those misses was quite painful, even as the opponent of my opponent.

Tharn Chieftain dies, and it looks like one medium base infantry model is still contesting my friendly flag, and the nearly unkillable Steelsoul Protector might be within 4", too. So it didn't help me much that I controlled a third scenario point during opponents turn, and scored fourth on my own turn. I was torn between trying to assassinate or trying to going for scenario victory. And as it has been over a week since this game was played, I have to admit that I don't actually remember how game ended. Did Cassius charge Axis and kileld him, or was Convergence unable to contest their flag? I don't know if we'll ever know for sure.

Only a flesh wound

Last Tuesday I got to play against Feora, who seems to be a little bit of a rare catch these days. I'm talking about her first incarnation.

It was a 50 point Riven Bonds league game, and my list was:

Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood, Tree of Fate
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gorax
- Woldwatcher

Maximum unit of Cylena & Nyss Hunters
Tharn Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Minimum uni of Farrow Bonegrinders
Blackclad Wayfarer Hero
2x Gallows Grove
Reeve Hunter
Tharn Ravager White Mane
War Wolf

Opponent had:

Feora, Priestess of Flame
- Reckoner
- Templar
- Avatar

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Minimum unit of Flameguard Cleansers
Daughters of the Flame
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Paladin Hero
Hierophant
Vassal of Menoth
Wracks
Madelyn Corbeau

... and that's a lot of heavy armor to be cracked. I didn't feel like I had enough high-powered attacks to bring the jacks down.

Well, the scenario was league scenario 2: Scrap Heap.

Protectorate started game, and first picture is from the end of Circle turn 1. Feora has Hex Hammer in play, which is quite annyoing spell against Circle.

Turn 2 Feora advances forward and uses feat, catching only the front line of Nyss Hunters and two Farrow Bone Grinders, plus Reeve Hunter who either died to the continuous effect or curtain of fire unleashed by Cleansers.

Daughters of the Flame ran to engage right flank.

I saw I kind of needed to get rid of Avatar of Menoth. Tough task, and even if Gnarlhorn would succeed, it'd be a piece trade I'd be losing. There were, however, a couple of Daughter of the Flame blocking the charge.

Gorax removed one of them easily enough and cast Primal on Gnarlhorn Satyr.

But then there was one Daughter in a difficult position - the one next to Woldwatcher. At first I activated Woldwatcher and was going to attack the Daughter, but mid-activation I realised that if Woldwatcher did manage to kill her, she'd explode into a forest that Gnarlhorn Satyr wouldn't ignore. And then I'd just have a frenzying satyr in my own ranks next turn...

Anyway, first I needed to get Avatar a little closer. Shifting Stones teleported Cassius forward, who then pulled all souls from Wurmwood. Cassius cast Hellmouth on a nearby Flameguard Cleanser, killing a few cleansers for sure - but most importantly, getting Avatar a little closer. Then he cast Unseen Path, and Hex Hammer had dealt four damage to Cassius.

I couldn't figure out a way to kill the Daughter in front of Woldwatcher, so Gnarlhorn Satyr just charged and suffered a free strike. After all, how much damage is P+S 9 going to do? Well... enough to break Mind branch. Ouch. Well, thanks to Primal the Satyr had MAT 8, so he'd be missing only on a roll of 1, so I thought it wouldn't be that bad. Out of all the attacks Gnarlhorn did, only one missed. And Avatar was left with four damage boxes left. Well played, Daughter of the Flame. Well played.

Tharn Ravager and War Wolf attempt to dislodge themselves from Daughters of the Flame, but miss all their attacks. Now that Gnarlhorn isn't blocking the way, Bloodweavers kill the heroic Daughter of the Flame, and relocate themselves to the right side of the board. I thought they'd be my best answer for the Daughters.

Nyss Hunters take some random shots, killing a couple of Cleansers and scratching the armour of a Bastion or two. Nothing much, really.

Turn 3 Protectorate scores first scenario point. Madelyn moves one Exemplar Bastion up, who then charges Pureblood Warpwolf, and the rest just run forward to engage Nyss. The Bastion breaks Pureblood's Mind branch. Reckoner assault a Gallows Grove into splinters, and Daughters of the Flame kill enough Bloodweavers to cause a command check... which failed, of course.

Oh my.

Situation looked grim indeed, but Cassius had not used his feat yet. That'd always buy an additional turn of shenanigans. But still I needed some rolls to succeed this turn... one of the most notable ones being a charging Woldwatcher wrecking the remains of Avatar... which never happened. How damn difficult it can be to deal four points in to DEF 7, ARM 19 target with two P+S 12 + 3d6 damage rolls? Or... let me rephrase. How damn difficult it is to deal even one additional damage point to DEF 7, ARM 19 targets with two P+S 12 +3d6 damage rolls? Impossible, looks like.

Avatar still being alive gave me quite a lot of distress, and even if Cassius used his feat, I'd be still losing the Woldwatcher. Perhaps a MAT 10 P+S 13 hit would destroy the Avatar, instead? Tharn Ravage White Mane charges Avatar, and deals no damage.

There's no hope any more, other than assassinating Feora right here, right now.

First Blackclad Wayfarer advances through Wall of Fire and casts Stone Spray in such a way that Feora is hit. And Feora is indeed hit, but it wasn't a critical hit, and didn't deal any damage. Bummer.

Next Pureblood Warpwolf warps for Ghostly, advances a bit and regenerates Mind branch fully operational. Unlucky for the pooch was that a Bastion was engaging it... so I didn't have a chance to inflict a POW 14 + 3d6 hit on Feora.

Then Nyss activate and shuffle around. Cylena herself somehow manages to take in a free strike from a Bastion, and whole unit lost Combined Ranged Attack, then. Not that too many would have been able to shoot Feora anyway.

Cassius pulls five souls from Wurmwood and starts tree-hopping into Feora, and lands attacking her with seven Fury.

I should have seen that the attacks rolls against Avatar were an omen. Cassius doesn't fare much better against the Protectorate warcaster. I don't remember for sure, but seven Fury yielded only about five damage points to Feora. Just to make things interesting Cassius uses his feat. Just in case Protectorate plays as terrible turn as I did.

Madelyn Corbeau moved the Paladin Hero 1.5" in the forest, which brought Cassius to his sight. Paladin charges Cassius and ends his life with just one attack, gaining the Mage Slayer milestone for Protectorate, as well as Vengeance. It was probably Bastions that killed Blackclad Wayfarer.

Injury roll was "7", only a flesh wound. Not on Cassius, though. He lost so much more than just his life. Down went also his dignity.

On the fence

Oh dear, these write-ups are severely lagging behind some imaginary make-believe schedule.

Anyway, last Thursday I played a 50 point Warmachine game.

My list was:

Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood, Tree of Fate
- Megalith
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Woldwatcher

Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Tharn Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones
Minimum unit of Farrow Bonegrinders
Swamp Gobbers
2x Gallows Grove
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Reeve Hunter
War Wolf
Lanyssa Ryssyll

Opponent was playing:

Lord Commander Stryker (that's the second incarnation)
- Lancer

Maximum unit of Storm Lances
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers + Officer
Black 13th
Nyss Hunters + Jonas Murdoch
Stormsmith Stormcaller
Journeyman Warcaster
Stormblade Captain
Squire
Epic Eiryss
Gorman diWulfe
Rhuper Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Scenario was Two Fronts, and Cygnar got to start. First picture is from Circle turn 1. I had placed Wurmwood rather front even if there were Stealth ignoring shooting available for opponent... But I believed that, if needed, Arm 16 would weather POW 10 shots enough, especially when there was one Shield Guard model close by.

Turn 2 I was takene by surprise, when opponent launched pretty much all-out assault. First Nyss Hunters assault all over the place and kill all Ravagers who are outside of a forest. Storm Lances assault and kill War Wolf. I don't remember what Gun Mages tried to shoot, but judging from the picture they failed to do much.

Stryker uses feat, and ties up whole leftern flank with Def 16 elves. Def 15 saves Ravagers, as none of the ravagers died. Hit rolls were pretty abysmal there.

Situation on left would have been hellish for me, but Hellmouth made up for that. I filled Wurmwood with souls, and then I was going to proceed with double Hellmouths. Well, the first one is a double 1's for hit. In essence Cassius paid 8 Fury for that one Hellmouth, but it was a really good one as it took most of the Nyss away. Cassius used feat, too.

White Mane tried to free Ravager unit with a charge, but with MAT 10 failed to hit a Def 16 elf. Oh well. I wasn't in a position to complain, though. Only two Ravagers got to charge stuff beyond the two or three remaining Nyss on the left, but it was enough to kill Murdoch and someone from Black 13th.

Reeve Hunter ran to engage Storm Lances after Megalith had beaten the lone Lance on Circle side of the board.

Turn 3 was annoying for Cygnar, I believe. That 10" forest bubble made most shenanigans impossible. Looks like I haven't taken a picture from the end of Cygnar turn 3, but I think it was mainly positioning aside from Black 13th shooting Ravagers and two Storm Lances charging Megalith and objective marker, which was wrecked. The objective, not Megalith.

This turn Cassius cleared Gun Mages with a Hellmouth. All Circle forces charged forward and it looked like a clear game then and there. Cassius started dominating friendly zone, and Cygnar had only, what... Warcaster, Lancer, a few solos and two units with only one member alive.

The distance between Cassius and Stryker2 looked safe. On opponents turn, however, I found out I had been remembering the wrong spell all along... Stryker2 has Velocity, which grants up to 6" movement instead of that some other spell that granted only 3".

Stryker rolls for overload, and he jumped up to somewhere P+S 34 or something. And stupid me had left Cassius with only one Fury for transfer.

At least that absolute maximum threat range charge from Stryker burned a lot of his Focus, so Cassius needed to survive only a handful of attacks. Cassius was behind a wall, so it was essentially Stryker's MAT 7 vs DEF 16.

I don't remember how much Stryker had Focus available, but obviously he needed to boost to hit. Either the charge attack missed, or the second attack missed. Either way, first attack that hit would have one-shotted Cassius, so the damage had to be transfered.

Stryker had possibly only one Focus left then, and bought one last attack either with attack roll boost or no boosts at all. Damage roll wasn't boosted, that much I remember. On 9+ with two dice an Arm 16, 20 hit box warlock would go "splat" from only one hit.

Cassius was left with two hit boxes.

And then it was pretty much game over there. Pureblood ate Stryker.

Opponent had mostly infantry on board, and I had Cassius on board, so I guess I had advantage when it came to lists themselves.

But that threat range. Damn that threat range. If it wasn't for that linear obstacle, Cassius would have just died and Stryker would have had spare Focus after.

Madrak Ironhide, the Thornwood Fertilizer

Last Tuesday I played two 26 point games of Warmachine. Bastard point cost is again because of reasons.

Anyway, opponent played both games with:

Chief Madrak Ironhide
- Dire Troll Mauler
- 2x Impalers
- Axer

Minimum unit of Krielstone Bearers

Whelps
Stone Scribe Chronicler

My first game was:

Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood, Tree of Fate
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Woldwatcher
- Gorax
- Argus

Tharn Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Minimum unit of Farrow Bone Grinders
Gallows Grove

Scenario was Close Quarters in both games. Trollbloods started game if I'm doing my maths right. However, I have skipped first round entirely as the progress was rather slow - troll brick slowly rumbled forwards, and Circle was too scared to close in.

Trolls got to start dealing the pain and hurt, but, well. Main interest here was that an Impaler critically slammed Gnarlhorn. Next turn was a bit more interesting for Circle. I was quite confident that I'd be able to assassinate Madrak this turn, as I would be able to charge him with Gnarlhorn Satyr, Woldwatcher, Cassius and a primaled Argus.

It was somewhat distressing to notice in the middle of your all-out assassination that, in matter of fact, no warbeast would actually be charging Madrak, thanks to Talisman of Subdual.

Before this dawned on me, I had already pulled Madrak closer with Hellmouth. Since I was figuring that Gnarlhorn would need more space for him, Cassius actually charged the shifting stone he had failed to kill with a boosted damage from Hellmouth. Well. That was one tough stone, I must admit, since even charge attack from Cassius did not destroy it. Only extra attack did. And then. Cassius did no damage in melee to Madrak, probably thanks to Scroll of Perseverance.

It's a special feeling when you see everything you attempt to do unravel before your eyes, and then dissipate into nothingness. Cassius said "screw it" and spent last two Fury to cast Unseen Path on himself and move to relative safety. For some reason or another I didn't use Wurmwood's feat. If I want to try and save my face I'm saying that it was because I still wanted to attempt an assassination with Gnarlhorn Satyr and Woldwatcher. But if I'm honest, I just forgot.

Well, since Gnarlhorn Satyr is not able to charge Madrak, it charges some other troll and uses remaining attacks at Madrak. But charge had cost one Fury, and the Satyr had had to shake itself up from the critical slam. I don't remember if Madrak even had to resort to transfering damage.

It had all started good, when primaled Argus dealt a lot of damage in to Madrak, and Madrak didn't transfer those away.

Bloodweavers and Bone Grinders had been beating themselves (stop hit yourself!) to provide Fury to Cassius in this grand assassination of self-esteem.

Trolls obviously killed Gnarlhorn Satyr, Argus and what was left of Bloodweavers. I think Madrak used his feat this turn, but it didn't do as much as I've seen it does.

So. On my next turn I had inflicted zero casualties to Trollbloods, and I had lost 17 points worth of models.

No other chance to aim for what I started last turn - even more attacks against Madrak.

I don't remember if Woldwatcher managed to do anything useful against Madrak. But Wurmwood was full on souls, but stood in-between Cassius and Madrak. That meant 9 Fury worth of attacks against Def 16, Arm 18 Madrak with some damage boxes.

Hmm. Now I'm wondering if Madrak used the scroll last turn or no, or if he just had that much Fury camped up. But Cassius required at least three attacks to hit and damage.

Not a single attack missed, and Madrak didn't pass Tough. Cassius fertilizes a forest out of Madrak.



Game 2

Second game I played was with following list:

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Wold Guardian
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Swamp Gobbers
Gallows Grove

Scenario was again the Close Quarters, but Circle got to start this time around.

First picture is from the end of Circle turn 2 I think, because Trolls are reacting next. Impaler scores a critical slam again - this time against Wold Guardian. But as it was standing right next to Gnarlhorn Satyr, the goat was knocked down again. The slam master of Hordes (perhaps even including Warmachine?) spent both games grazing the grass.

Damage rolls were amazing, though. Boosted super slam damage against Wold Guardian didn't even punch through it's armor, as dice came out something like 1,1,2,3. Collateral damage did nothing to Gnarlhorn Satyr, and the original ranged attack dealt nothing. Well, Wold Guardian did have it's animus on, but still it's adding insult to injury.

Well then!

I must say I didn't do any better.

I thought that a primaled Gnarlhorn Satyr and Wold Guardian and some random damage rolls would be enough to kill Def 14, Arm 20 Dire Troll Mauler. Perhaps it could have been a possibility, but again Gnarlhorn had had to shake itself up, and sometimes Def 14 is too much for a Mat 8 beast. And it even succeeded in missing another attack. Only one attack dealt some damage, which spawned a Whelp, that blocked charge lane of Wold Guardian.

Mohsar dealt with the Whelp personally. He sprayed it dead and went to safety with Sands of Fate. Wold Guardian charged Dire Troll Mauler, and missed one of it's available attacks, don't remember if it was the actual charge attack.

Oh, Wolves of Orboros had earlier charged around a little bit, but I was scared to bring too many of them into the fray because of the earlier experiences against Madrak.

Gnarlhorn Satyr was killed instantly, but Wold Guardian took a little bit longer to deal with. In fact it survived with Body and Mind unbroken, but of course Spirit was knocked off.

So it was bad, I was in very much same situation as I was in last game. But it wasn't all hopeless - this time I remembered to use Mohsar's feat, and it was nice to actually see it do things for once. Big things. But first Gorax charged Impaler on the hill, and Wolves of Orboros used Power Swell and attacked all over. The result of all this was two Impalers with 2-3 hit boxes remaining. Whee.

Both warlocks were dominating their friendly flags, just for the record.

But the damage output of Circle had been miserable during whole game.

Trollbloods luckily did a lot more damage. In fact they did 10-12 damage points to Madrak. All warbeasts except one Impaler that didn't have any Fury failed their Threshold checks. Mauler attacked Wold Guardian, who still didn't go down. Axer attacked Madrak with the results above, and Impaler took one Wolf of Orboros down.

Madrak uses his feat this turn, an takes care of Wold Guardian - personally. Let's just not compare the personal achievements of the warlocks in this game, yes?

Free Impaler didn't do much as Carnage had not been cast. Krielstone Bearers charged into battle, which was kind of funny.

Ah well. Anyway. Trollbloods didn't really do much that turn, but I was still woefully behind in attrition game. So I attempted the very same thing I did last game - warlock vs warlock assassination!

First Wolves of Orboros charge, and one of them goes against Madrak, who doesn't have a single Fury left for camp.

Mohsar enters the Wolf with Sands of Fate and uses Maltreatment on Gorax to get one extra Fury.

So, would Mohsar with 7 Fury kill Madrak with some 5-6 boxes remaining, without Sure Foot?

First attack is a hit and deals enough damage to bring Madrak to one hit box remaining. Next attack is prevented by Scroll of Perseverance. Third attack is a miss, and Mohsar has only one Fury remaining by then. So. Mohsar needed 9+ to hit and 9+ to deal the one last damage box remaining, and after that Madrak needed to fail Tough roll.

Unlikely, yeah. There was a tiny amount of excitement, though, when last attack actually scored a hit. Sadly damage roll wouldn't have punched through Madrak's base armor, as entire damage roll came out as 16.

For once it was a good thing Mohsar was blind - his last moments would have been a horrible sight to behold. So many teeth...

Proxy warning in the great pine woods of Kuhmo

And the tradition (third or fourth year in a row - that counts as a tradition, right?) continues!

Though my write-ups didn't, at least on time.

But two games of Warmachine were played during the last week of 2012 against my old friends Protectorate, with this time challenger being my forces of Circle of Orboros.

Both were 35 point games, but different from previous years, we played scenarios now.

First one was Gauntlet from Steamroller 2012, and my list was:

Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Scarsfell Griffon

Shifting Stones
Tharn Bloodweavers
Minimum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Farrow Bone Grinders
Swamp Gobbers
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Gallows Grove

Opponent was playing with following list:

Intercessor Kreoss
- Reckoner
- Redeemer
- Revenger
- Repenter

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

Okay, and, well. The Corruptor that I had brought with me served as a proxy for Intercessor here, do not laugh there! Stop! Right now! Empty medium bases are Wracks. I've written some hints to pictures what the models represent.

I think Circle got to start this game, and first picture is from the end of Protectorate's first turn.

Holy Zealots have Holy Ward on (fitting, no?) and Redeemer had managed to kill one Bloodweaver with 4 attacks. Those deviation rolls weren't particularly impressive.

Since I was against an army that could launch their warjacks forward suprisingly fast, I decided it was time to use Wurmwood's feat.

Pureblood Warpwolf put on Wraith Bane on itself, and moved forward to spray some Holy Zealots and Vilmon. Vilmon died to fully boosted attack and damage rolls.

Then everything just pretty much advanced, and last but not least Cassius pulled off some movement shenanigans and shrouded most of Circle's army with forest.

Opponent did something suprising. Everything backed off, with only the farthest toe of a single holy zealot contesting Gauntlet zone.

So, it was a trap, but a trap you cannot choose to not walk into. When you can gain 50% of victory condition by killing a model that's worth way less than 1 point, you just do what you gotta do, even if it costs a heavy beast to you.

I ran Bloodweavers full speed ahead to engage Redeemer. After all... it would shoot most of them dead anyway. Pureblood Warpwolf did a horrible spray against Holy Zealots and Lanyssa Ryssyll shot the middle Wrack down with a spell.

And thus Circle scored first control point, but upcoming Protectorate turn was scary.

Intercessor used his feat, here, and Death Sentence was upon Gnarlhorn Satyr, Ignite went to Repenter and Holy Ward... I don't actually remember that one, it was probably on Reckoner.

Repenter nearly killed off uninjured Pureblood Warpwolf. Saving grace was probably the fact that it was uninjured: Holy Zealots who threw bombs at the wolf missed every one of their shots. Pureblood was left with 6-8 hit boxes.

All but two of Bloodweavers were killed, and the last ones failed their command check.

What can I say. Opponent had four uninjured warjacks by this point, and I had mostly destroyed only Holy Zealots and Vilmon. Oh, and one wrack. There was no way I would win any kind of attrition any more, and Kreoss himself was sitting way back.

But since two control points meant a victory in SR 2012 Gauntlet, I decided to try that one. Scarsfell Griffon slammed Repenter out of Pureblood's way, and then Shifting Stones healed Pureblood.

Pureblood advanced and made a two-handed throw on Reckoner, throwing it against Gallows Grove. Then Pureblood bought two attacks against the knocked-down Repenter.

Since I got loads of Fury on Cassius and Wurmwood, I decided to attack Repenter with warlock itself. Damage rolls were continously a little below average, and I was saving Fury for casting Unseen Path. Cassius cast Curse of Shadows on the warjack, and bought one more attack. However, damage roll was something like 5,5,6. Suddenly it looked like Cassius could do the finishing blow all by himself. Which he did.

Second Control Point for Circle, and end of game.

In the last picture the Repenter and Reckoner have already been moved, but Reckoner didn't get destroyed. It should be around where the white die is.



Game 2:

Second game was Incursion, and my list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gorax
- Scarsfell Griffon

Shifting Stones
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder

Opponent had:

High Executioner Reznik
- Crusader
- Reckoner
- Revenger
- Repenter

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard
Rhoven & Bodyguards
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth
Wracks

This game was pretty short, and I'm including only one picture. A word about proxies in picture: Zealots are Flameguards, Castigator is Reckoner, Rhupert is Reclaimer, and torso of Amon functions as Vassal of Menoth.

Picture is taken from the end of Circle's second turn, where Kaya used her feat. Protectorate probably started the game.

Prior to picture, Reckoner had tried to take a few shots at Scarsfell Griffon, but despite needing five to hit, missed its Ancillary Attack. Rhoven had made it ignore stealth. Temple Flameguard repositioned themselves, since Warpwolf Stalker was on their side of the board, and that's not a good match-up.

It did make Circle score first control point, though.

But anyway, Circle's second turn I attempted to wreck Crusader with Kaya's feat. Gnarlhorn Satyr charged it and wrecked its fist and movement. Then Warpwolf Stalker charged it, but charge was about an inch short.

Kaya positioned both herself and all the beasts to block Reckoner's line of sight, because, well, a one excessive damage roll would take its toll against Kaya's ARM 13, even when she had one Fury left for transfers.

Next round wasn't good for Protectorate.

Revenger positions itself a bit, and then Reznik activates, and moves close to Circles lines, and scores a good feat. All of the beasts are drained of Fury, though Kaya herself is just out of Judgement Day.

He casts Perdition on Blackclad Wayfarer, rolling badly for damage and leaving the druid alive. And then Perdition triggers, and we notice the small devil in the details: the member of battlegroup must move towards closest model.

And that was Wolf of Orboros.

To make matters worse, Crusader activates then (it would have had real possibility of getting into contact with Gnarlhorn Satyr if there hadn't been that particular requirement on the spell), moves behind Wolves, triggering one free strike. Damage roll was something like 5, 5, 6.

If Crusader's day wasn't bad enough, it was just within 6" of Gnarlhorn Satyr, which counter-slammed it through a couple of Wolves of Orboros and quite a lot of Temple Flameguards.

Repenter tried to save situation by launching a rat 7, pow 14 spray against Kaya, Gorax, shifting stone and Warpwolf Stalker, and the spray did set Kaya on fire, as well as dealing 8 points in. Those were transfered to Gorax.

However... Game was pretty much over, then. A couple of millimetres had made Gnarlhorn Satyr arrive within charge distance of Reznik, and there was nothing serious left to activate that could tie up the satyr.

Kaya took damage from fire continous effect, as well as cut herself to full Fury. This left her with 5 damage boxes left.

Druid Wilder moved up and cast Primal on the Satyr.

Satyr charged Reznik. End of story.