Breach of Contract

This game was played over a week ago. I had originally planned to play Deneghra3, but I forgot both the miniature and a few warjacks at home, so in haste I threw this list together:

The Witch Coven of Garlghast
- Erebus
- Slayer
- Leviathan
- Nightwretch
- Defiler
- Deathripper
The Withershadow Combine

Cephalyx Overlords
Bile Thralls (min)
Necrotech
Pistol Wraith
Soul Trapper
Swamp Gobber River Raiders

I am not entirely sure about the enemy list, but it was something like this:


Operating Theater
Exulon Thexus
- Subduer
- Warden
- Wrecker
Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges (max)
Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges (max)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (max) & Cephalyx Dominator
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt & Cephalyx Dominator
Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges (max)
Cephalyx Overlords
3x Cephalyx Agitator

Scenario was Take and Hold and Cephalyx started game. For whatever reason Cephalyx had turned their weapons against their Cryxian paymasters (or bodymasters?)

In the first picture I have sent Slayer to kill one of enemy monstrosities. Witch Coven has used their feat, so I had a relatively safe turn coming from the opponent next. Even Slayer gave tremendous difficulties for low MAT & RAT models.

Opponent had been failing Tough rolls far below average, and still there were so darn many mind slaves on board. Even with Bile Thralls and my own Cephalyx Overlords I was running low on the number of attacks to kill that many models in time. My choice of warcaster didn't actually help in this matter either - Coven doesn't really have any tools to remove large number of models.

Forest was an easy hiding place for Exulon Thexus, but Maelovus had been casting Ghost Walk on various arc nodes, who had then ran to channel spell at the enemy warcaster. Arc node #1 caused a few damage points in thanks to Puppet Master. Most of them were removed via Psycho Surgery, though.

I don't have the actual details on my memory any more, but Exulon had kept failing at something on his feat turn, so he only had one focus point left for damage block. Most of my Bile Thralls had been lined up to die under psychic sprays of different Overlords.

I was too afraid of losing Erebus and then having nothing to deal with monstrosities, so I tried assassination.

It took a little bit of shuffling to get Defiler to run for channeling position, but after that was done two damage boosted Stygian Abysses with re-roll from Puppet Master was enough to give me the victory.

The Invincible Siren

I played these two 25 point Warmachine games about a week ago.

Opponent played with the same list; I, however, switched casters in-between. Scenario was the same in both games. Deployment sides also. Plus deployment.

Opponent had:

Iron Lich Asphyxious

- Slayer
- 2x Deathripper
- Helldiver

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 1x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Warwitch Siren
Pistol Wraith

My first list was:

Witch Coven of Garlghast
- Nightmare
- Harrower
- 2x Deathripper
Pistol Wraith

Since Asphyxious has Breath of Corruption and I had to keep all of the witches rather close to each other, I started worrying about getting blasted with the POW 12's from first turn onward. Asphyxious started the game.

One enemy Deathripper runs forward to kill Pistol Wraith.

Witch Coven shoots the enemy Necrosurgeon dead with Stygian Abyss. It isn't very surprising that Coven used Nightfall. Arc nodes would still be a problem, though, but I didn't want to dedicate Nightmare for destroying one pesky Deathripper. Instead both heavies try to kill Mechanithralls. I was sure they wouldn't hit my helljacks under Nightfall. My own Deathripper goes and bites enemy Deathripper. Arc node survives, which worries me a little. I had quite a high bet for either destroying movement or the arc node with one free strike...

Then the Iron Lich. Asphyxious casts Parasite on Harrower but misses. He casts another, this time boosting attack roll, and it's a hit. Quite a few Mechanithralls are eligible for a charge. I was not very amused when only two attacks made by Mechanithralls (one didn't even get the charge bonus) and it took over half of the system boxes. Could've been worse when only ranged weapon was destroyed.

Deathrippers start a bite fight and Helldiver and Pistol Wraith run to threaten the coven.

So, either I take care of the aggressors or try to get Asphyxious. Of course I go in for the kill. My forces shuffle for quite a bit first, as there were three small based models blocking a charge to Asphyxious. Witches tried to remove enemy Warwitch Siren from the board and then charge Asphyxious, but that was not to be. Attack roll missed. I completely forgot about Nightmare's Ghostly ability in terms of free strikes, but oh well. I did remember it for the rough terrain...

So, I had to trample Nightmare to Asphyxious. Mechanithralls died just fine to the trample, but Warwitch Siren proved her resilience when Nightmare actually hit - but didn't deal even a single point of damage.

Asphyxious, on the other hand. That guy exploded all over the place.

Game 2:

My list in the second game was:

Master Necrotech Mortenebra & Deryliss
- Corruptor
- Reaper
- Cankerworm

Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Machine Wraith
Soul Trapper
Swamp Gobber River Raiders

And damn that Deryliss is bugged at the time of writing.

First picture is from Mortenebra's feat. Asphyxious didn't have any focus left from two Breath of Corruptions, so I thought I might be able to seriously damage Asphyxious and probably take out both arc nodes and what else. Corruptor shot one of the Mechanithralls into an arc node, and Mortenebra cast boosted Doom Spiral on Asphyxious, dealing eight or something like that damage in.

Reaper and assorted models wrecked one Deathripper, Machine Wraith, Cankerworm and Soul Trapper another.

Mechanithralls charge Cankerworm, but around one attack hit. Which, again, dealt crazy high damage. Warwitch Siren sprayed Deryliss and a River Raider dead. Asphyxious used his feat and sat on full camp of seven focus.

Corruptor shot Pistol Wraith into an AoE 5, giving a POW 10 to Warwitch Siren. Who survived. Really? Two games in a row?

I decided to rip Asphyxious' battle group into shreds and dragged Slayer next to Reaper. However, Reaper did next to no damage to Slayer. I had considered finishing it with Doom Spiral, or at least sealing its coffin ever more tightly. But... nope. I was certain that two heavy jacks just got wrecked there and then.

Next turn Mechanithralls swarmed my friendly flag, so I would have hard time trying to dominate some points, and Asphyxious had already started that. I think he went to three points now.

Siren Shadow Binds Reaper. Helldiver softens it pretty roughly, and Slayer finishes the helljack with tusks.

And then.

Out of five attacks Slayer could make, it missed four. Despite needing only 6+ to hit.

Well okay, I screwed up last turn by dragging Slayer right next to my vital parts and not having insurance against bad dice, but this... this. Wrecking Slayer with Mortenebra and killing the already injured Asphyxious with Corruptor felt like cheating.

Asphyxious does have impressive camp, but still... Corruptor just cannot make those few remaining damage points. And I had spent all of Mortenebra's Focus points. Tables had been turned so fast that the tableware didn't fall.

Asphyxious comes to cast Hellfires at Mortenebra and misses each and every one of them. Warwitch Siren misses Mortenebra. Everything and their dog misses Mortenebra. Well, one Mechanithrall may have hit her in the back, but didn't score a kill. Looks like the porcelain was in pieces on the floor after all.

A focusless Asphyxious with about three damage boxes fell to one hit.

Suddenly a warmachine tournament

Last weekend I went on a completely unexpected Warmachine tournament. It was a team tournament, and the team from out city lost a player just a day before the tournament. On Friday 8PM I didn't yet know that I would be going to a tournament 7AM next day.

I also had to make lists in less than twenty minutes. Here's the what I came up with:

List 1:
Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- 3x Helldiver
- Nightmare
- Stalker
- Deathripper

10x Cylena Raefyll Nyss Hunters
10x Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Withershadow Combine
Satyxis Raider Captain

Objective: Effigy of Valor

List 2:

Witch Coven of Garlghast
- Defiler
- Ripjaw
- Kraken

6x Bane Thralls & Unit Attachment
5x Soulhunters
Darragh Wrathe
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Looking back now, I would have definitely tweaked the Deathripper out of Asphyxious list. When I was feverishly building his list I didnt remember Vociferon was an arc node already.

First game was against Legion of Everblight. I took my Asphyxious list and opponent had something like this:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight
- Blightbringer

2x Maximum unit of Warspears + Chieftain
Maximum unit of Nyss Raptors
Maximum unit of Spawning Vessel
Warmonger War Chief
Shepherd

Scenario was Recon. Both Ogrun units made Satyxis their Prey target. I took one of the Ogrun units as Nightmare's prey.

Blightbringer and a couple of Warspears shoot movement and one claw away from Nightmare. Meh. I decide to make at least some use out of the warjack and walk it to beat two Warspears that came within walking distance.

Satyxis Raiders take Desperate Pace and charge deep within enemy lines in an attempt to tie up as many enemy models with Ashen Veil as possible. I expected casualties, so Sea Witch used Power Swell.

Now... there was a particular reason I took Effigy of Valor with this list. The reason was that I don't trust CMD 9 the least. However... I was so excited over my threat range that I forgot to keep one Satyxis within 4" of my objective. I had to take two Terror checks, as I had also tied up the Warmonger War Chief.

well. I didn't have to stress over two checks, as the first one failed right away. I laughed and I smiled, but it was a bitter laugh and a bitter smile. They managed to regroup right away, though.

I needed to make some moves now or Satyxis would just be killed for no use at all. My move was to enter middle zone with Asphyxious and use his feat. He was camping at Arm 23, if memory serves.

One of the Helldivers stayed above ground to block attacks opponent would be able to make against Asphyxious.

Satyxis survived well enough, considering the vast amount of attacks they were soaked in. But they received enough casualties to call for a Massive Casualties check. Which... how could it be otherwise? ... failed. Nothing attacked Asphyxious.

Next turn Asphyxious had ten or eleven focus points. Two or three came from the feat, and one from Vociferon who had collected the soul of an ogrun.

I had big plans of starting to dominate this turn. Nightmare killed a Warspear close to it, giving more souls for Vociferon. Stalker charged a Warspear and killed it. Then it was Asphyxious, who charged objective. Damage roll was laughable. He bought extra attack against a damaged Warspear nearby. Attack missed. Oh wait, Asphyxiosu has Puppet Master on him! Let's re-roll the one, and keep the four! Attack is still miss. He bought one more, and finally killed the Warspear, and cast Ashen Veil on himself with Blood Boon. Asphyxious had Def 17 in melee against all enemy attacks and Arm 25.

All but one Satyxis Raiders die next turn. Warspears clearly took some advice on how to roll attack rolls from Asphyxious. Four Warspears kill the Stalker. First successful hit destroyed movement system, so it wasn't exactly a hard thing to do.

Next turn Asphyxious finally dominates three points. This time cover-ignoring Nyss Hunters and two Dark Fires from Maelovus and Admonia failed to kill one Warspear that was contesting middle zone in behind the Stalker wreck. Third Helldiver and what was left of Nightmare killed one Warspear on the right, but there were two in the zone. All depended on P+S 9 Satyxis Raider Captain now. Oh, the lone survivor from Satyxis Raider unit had ran as far away from action as possible so that Warspears wouldn't change their Prey target to Asphyxious.

Did Raider pass a command check and score a kill with dice minus seven? Yes she does!

It's a shame that there was one Warspear behind the Stalker wreck. Asphyxious had to go there, kill that ogrun and kill the objective. If that guy had died, I would've moved Asphyxious to the right to block Blightbringer from entering the zone.

Asphyxious survives yet another turn right in the middle of whole damn enemy army. Nightmare is gone, all the Helldivers are gone, Satyxis Raider is gone and there's tons of ogruns and raptors and gargantuans in the middle zone. So...

So Asphyxious kills an ogrun in front of himself with a spell, casts Mobility and charges one Raptor close to the flag on the left and dominates a point from there. What was left of Nyss Hunters tried to go and block enemy army from charging Asphyxious.

This time Asphyxious had only Arm 18 and Ashen Veil, but still managed to survive somehow. I have only Deathripper, Admonia, Maelovus and Asphyxious on board. And one Satyxis Raider in the farthest corner of the bord. Shredder from Spawning Vessel and two Raptors are contesting the flag.

I make a cunning plan of killing Shredder with Deathripper, then killing one of the Raptors in melee with Asphyxious and casting an offensive spell at the other Raptor with Blood Boon, or if Raptor B was too far away to be within reach, kill A with boosted Bone Shaker and hopefully kill B with Raptor A or an unboosted Bone Shaker.

Well. Deathripper does something like four damage points in to the Shredder, and Asphyxious misses Bone Shakers entirely.

Opponent ran out of clock next, so it was a bit of a hollow victory. However, winning with deathclock didn't feel as bad as it usually does because my dice rolling had been so terrible in some crucial points in the game. True, I can only blame myself for the failure of Terror check by Satyxis, but looking at general bell curves I'm fairly sure Cmd 9 shouldn't fail over fifty percent of the time on Satyxis Raiders and Black Ogruns.

Still it was an exciting game. It's not often you spend three turns with your warcaster within charge distance of pretty much whole enemy army, plus one extra turn lethally close anyway - and survive.



Game 2:
Second game was a Cryx vs Cryx. Opponent had all sorts of soul collecting shenanigans, so I took Witch Coven list that had far less living models in it.

I can't figure out the entirety of enemy list, but it was something like:

Lich Lord Terminus
- Reaper

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
2x Minimum or maximum or some kind of units of Bile Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Warwitch Siren
Madelyn Corbeau
Saxon Orrik
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw
+ something

Scenario was Incursion, and Terminus started game by casting Malediction on himself and running forward with everything.

Soulhunters and Darragh Wrathe took care of the flag on the right so that I started scoring points from it right from the start. Kraken did fine job in destroying one of Reaper's arms with just one shot. That was about the end of my luck, however. Well, I had been a little too greedy, too. I had been too sure that skill 7, POW 10 Warwitch Siren would be able to take down a Def 10, Arm 13 Bile Thrall. She did score a hit, but damage roll wasn't enough to get through armour.

Well. At least Bile Thrall had corrosion now, that ought to at least stop it in its tracks if it manages to pass Tough roll. Obviously the corrosion expired. Now Bile Thrall was just able to come and Purge over one the Witch Coven members. I had wanted to spread Nightfall as far as possible, and it did screw up most other attacks except those from Bile Thralls. Now it was a dead witch on 8+. Damage roll was seven. So on my next turn it was a dead witch on 3+.

Fortunately opponent's bile was just as ineffective as mine had been - the corrosion expired. But this got me all kinds of scared. I had also lost Skarlock and Warwitch in the very same Purge. There were enough Bane Thralls and, well, Terminus in the middle, so I might lose Kraken next turn. If I lost Kraken, nothing would damage Terminus. So, Witches loaded up Kraken and cast Infernal Machine on it. Veil of Mists allowed for passage through three Bane Thralls, and 4" chain strike range brought Terminus easily within charge range. Witches also cast Curse of Shadows on Terminus, who had six focus points to overboost powerfield.

So, Terminus had Arm 22, and Kraken had MAT 8 and P+S 18. Attacks would hit on 6+. I figured that I'd have best chances if I'd take two damage boosted attacks from initials against Terminus, and buy one extra nonboosted attack. But that 6+ has been so elusive lately. Charge attack misses. Second initial attack hits and I boost the damage. Total damage with one boosted and one regular attack was nine or something. But Terminus was still standing.

Next enemy Admonia disbinds Curse of Shadows and Infernal Machine. Witches are quite lucky and survive a few charges by Bane Thralls. Terminus then charges Egregore and Kraken gets to make a free strike. I was excited when the attack hit and scored high damage. But not enough, not today. Terminus arrived to Egregore with two hit boxes remaining. I don't think I have to say anything more. Terminus with six focus points next to Egregore with none.



Game 3:
Last game was against Retribution, and what a game it was... an experience, yes.

Scenario was Close Quarters, which meant a Killbox. Opponent had Ravyn and Issyria as the list pair. Issyria didn't actually have a lot of shooting in it, so I was really considering that I'd choose Witch Coven for this game. It was the killbox that eventually made me go Asphyxious. Game was against Ravyn tier list, and damn it. I should have chosen Witch Coven regardless. Their list had at least a little bit of stealth. Soulhunters with Occultation could have been a thing here.

Oh well.

Ravyn list was:

Ravyn
- Banshee

2x Maximum units of Mage Hunter Strike Force + Officer
Maximum unit of Mage Hunter Strike Force + Eiryss
2x Stormfall Archers
Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen
Narn

At least Cryx got to start despite +1 from theme force bonuses.

I tried to rush Satyxis Raiders with Ashen Veil to tie up enemy front line. I should have rushed whole army front then, though. After all, who was I going to shoot with Nyss Hunters? Satyxis Raiders, perhaps Stalker and Helldivers were what kept me in the game for a little while. Opponent got so scared of the Helldivers that he gave me two control points by moving Ravyn out of killbox. Once he realised that Helldivers were so far away from Asphyxious that I wouldn't really be able to allocate focus for them, Ravyn came forward and by then my army was already pretty much decimated. Most 8+ attacks the Mage Hunter Strike Force had to score against Satyxis did hit home, and on top of that Satyxis even failed their command check.

That's three failed command checks by Satyxis in two games.

As a futile final gesture Asphyxious charged forward to kill some Mage Hunters. He cast Ashen Veil on himself with the Blood Boon.

Then Banshee shot Asphyxious knocked down and Skeryth finalised him.

Brutal game. Ravyn definitely seems like one of those warcasters that you need to play more often to know how you're supposed to play against her. There is no time for hesitation that I showed in this match.

Last ditching

I think I'm writing these two games into same post to gt them off of my chest. And they do share a common theme.

First game was last Friday against Cygnar.

We were playing at my place, so packing and transporting Kraken didn't seem that intimidating, so Kraken it was, then.

Game was again 42 point size, and my list was:

Witch Coven of Garlghast
- Kraken
- 2x Nightwretch
- Defiler

Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
2x Necrotech & scrap thrall
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
Gorman di Wulfe
Ragman

Objective: Fuel depot

Opponent had:

Epic Caine
- Ol' Rowdy

Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers + Officer

Rangers
Maximum unit of Greygore Boomhowler's & Co
Aiyana & Holt
Squire
Professor Pendrake
Gorman di Wulf
Taryn di la Rovissi
Reinholdt

Objective: Bunker

Scenario was Incoming, and Cryx started game. Damn it looked bad from the get-go. I didn't seem to have enough infantry removal tools available. Well, a minimum unit of Bile Thralls, sure... but even with Occultation on them Cygnar might just shoot them off.

Caine has cast True Sight on himself, and continued to upkeep it... I've heard Caine2 is quite good at delivering a ranged attack assassination against formidable warcasters. And my warcaster had Def 16, Arm 12 with eight boxes.

Anyway, Caine is the white figure in the pictures. First picture is from the end of Cygnar turn 1.

Cryx turn 2 Witch Coven obviously used their feat, dropping Line of Sight down to 5" for enemy models. Mostly things on my part were just positioning, though I did try to snipe Eiryss dead with a spray from Defiler. That didn't turn out so fine.

Cygnar continues to press forward aggressively. Rangers shot half of the Bile Thralls dead, and Caine shoots Defiler a bit before he Gatecrashes away. Afterwards Ol' Rowdy comes and finishes the job.

Turn 3 I boasted about making assassination with charging Kraken against focusless (or perhaps there was one focus boosting power field?).

This was achieved by getting rid of rangers and trollkins that were blocking route to Caine. Rolls were quite nice, and by that I mean that attack and damage rolls were enough to kill arm 11-16 single wound models. Usually at least one model is left alive whose removal becomes a real pain.

Anyway. Everything went perfectly and I only had to cast Ghost Walk and Infernal Machine on Kraken and charge Caine and kill him with a single attack. Fuel depot objective even gave Kraken free charges. So, Caine was splattered all over the walls and ... wait a minute.

Out of two tries Kraken failed both attempts to land a hit on Caine, who was behind a wall, effectively making him Def 19 in melee. Though Infernal Machine of course upped Kraken's MAT to 8, too, so it needed 11+ to hit. When both boosted initial attacks failed, Kraken bought one last attack and declared it on Victor Pendrake. Damn I'd be taking at least something with me! Alas... that was a miss, too.

So I had to revert to my original plan. Problem was that I did not have any original plan, so Warwitch Siren power boosted an arc node, who ran as near to Caine as I dared... getting within 5" of Eiryss would have caused some problems yet again.

Last activating witch coven member shoots one fully boosted Stygian Abyss on Caine and deals excessive damage, but doesn't cause critical effect. Now looking back again, obviously I should have done this spell slinging first, because if Stygian would have caused Shadow Bind on Caine, Kraken would then need only 8+ to hit.

And then I prepare for the worst.

Caine shoots Kraken off board, and even has some focus to spare. It did take the feat away, though. But considering that I had killed only some rangers and a couple of trollkins, the situation looked grim. It looked doubly grim when the Greygore grunts tore down arc node from my last remaining bonejack.

Turn 4 I come up with an awkward assassination attempt, which was rather suicidal. Selene and Morgaen ran as fast as they can, and Egregore floats right behind them. Hellaena advances and starts flinging Stygian Abyss at Caine's general direction. I had placed the other witches poorly - Morgaen could not see Selene, so perfect conjunction was broken.

Stygian Abyss hits, though - and this time with critical Shadow Bind. Not that it mattered much, I had all the focus still available for a damage boost, and I think I needed 6+ from three dice to kill Caine.

I roll 5.

Well, Coven did have focus for one more Stygian Abyss with attack boost, but not damage boost. At first Caine was essentially Def 21 versus shooting, as he was behind a wall. Second Stygian Abyss hit its target, again with a critical effect. Shame they don't stack.

I'm not sure if Caine had one focus or no focus at all. If he had, double ones would have saved him. If not, even double ones would kill. So it was game over, and it came to very last attack I was able to make that turn. Could have easily failed.




Game 2:

Right next day on Saturday I played another game with 35 points.

I continued to stack games for Mordikaar, but having learn from earlier experiences you simply don't make a list for Skorne and/or Mordikaar without Bronzeback plus a unit of Cetrati.

So this was what I came up with:

Void Seer Mordikaar
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Krea
- Basilisk Drake

Minimum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Swamp Gobbers... sad, sad swamp gobbers...
Aptimus Marketh

Opponent had:

Butcher Unleashed!

- Marauder

Doom Reavers
Maximum unit of Iron Fang Pikemen + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Iron Fang Uhlans
Widowmakers
Iron Fang Kovnik
War Dog
+ two mystery points that, after consulting my opponent posthumously, were found to having been spent on Gorman di Wulfe, who never showed up in the actual battle.

There was no scenario, except for slightly modified old school Killbox (warcaster/warlock completely within 14" of table edge wins the game for opponent)

I actually almost forgot to take any pictures and first one if from the end of Skorne turn 2.

What has happened so far is that Iron Fang Uhlans with Silence of Death have knocked off Bronzeback's spirit branch. Ouch. And, funnily enough, since I had mentally flagged Bronzeback as useless for a round, I forgot to activate it completely... sigh. Of course it could have backed off a little, as Uhlans have Reach only during charge attacks.

The tragedy of Swamp Gobbers started this turn. As a preface to the story, Doom Reavers mostly just ran to engage my left flank. On my turn 2 Basilisk Drake and Cetrati kill all but one Doom Reaver. Mordikaar advances a little, away from an incoming platoon of Iron Fangs. Since he has a ranged attack I think "why not?" and try to blast the last remaining Doom Reaver. I boost attack roll just in case... and I hear that Doom Reaver has a Def 17. What?? How? He's in melee. I was sitting on a chair so that the forest blocked my view to the tiny gobbers... They were, sadly, in melee with that last Reaver. Attack roll is high enough to hit and POW is enough to kill the reaver, but one of the gobbers takes blast damage - and it's a kill. And the lone gobber fails his massive casualties test... So much for gaining additional kill count for them.

Praetorian Swordsmen (who have Hollow) were doing automatic damage points with their mini-feat to Uhlans and even the Marauder. However, only one Uhlan dies.

Turn 3 Iron Fang Pikemen charge and use their own mini-feat. One of them triggers counter charge from Bronzeback, which was its only hitting attack during whole game. Otherwise Pikemen only kill only one Cetrati. Butcher and Widowmakers take a heavy toll on Praetorian Swordsmen, which is fine by me. What's not so cool is that Iron Fang Uhlans manage to deal one hit (no damage) to Bronzeback Titan, denying the heal of spirit branch for yet another round!

On my turn every damn attack by Bronzeback is a miss.

I'm obsessed in getting the Uhlan killed. In hindsight it was probably for the best that it took Aptimus Marketh to do that. Otherwise I could have attempted something as crazy as casting Ghost Walk on Mordikaar, and Mordikaar charging focusless Butcher. After all, Mordikaar had at least 13 Fury to use that turn (after having only upkept Hollow), and it's not impossible that there are some additional soul tokens that just didn't make it into the picture.

My assets go to removing Iron Fangs instead. Mordikaar brings back one Cetrati and two Swordsmen, casts Ghost Walk on himself and moves into the forest. He was scared that Butcher would laugh at his jolly lanterns. Mordikaar uses his feat now. Swamp Gobber tries to rally. Fails.

Turn 4 Butcher does what Butcher does best. He starts butchering. And the results are quite impressive even during a round of +3 Def for me.

First he advances and solidifies his position so that he couldn't be pushed away by Poltergeist. Poor Bronzeback Titan, who only generated one Fury during whole game and hit only once, fell to his axe. Bronzeback endured quite a lot of punishment and managed to drain Butcher out of Focus. But then he used Red Haze and Energized himself for 3", cast Impending Doom and look at that... there was now Mordikaar within his reach. One Flashing Blade later Mordikaar was at four hit boxes remaining. But thankfully that was the end of it.

Payback time. Well... it sounds grand. Payback. But again it was the very last attempt at assassination I could make, and would it fail, game would end.

But first Basilisk Drake tries to spray off some models to clear path for charging Cetrati. Results are a bit underwhelming, as only one Iron Fang dies. It's possible that Butcher also took some four points of damage.

Swamp Gobber runs away, provoking three free strikes and getting skewered to the very first by an anonymous attacker. Sorry guys... no kill counters for you in this game. In fact... you didn't get to make even a cloud.


Aptimus Marketh walks a bit and attacks Butcher. Marketh has two souls from Beast Handlers that had died to Butcher. Boosted attack scores a hit and boosted damage scores some points in. First the Uhlan and now this. Have I been using Aptimus Marketh wrong the whole time I've had him in my collection? Is he actually a melee solo?

Next Mordikaar activates and he Revives one Cetrati. The rest of Fury goes to fully boosted attacks against Butcher, and they do drop him down to three damage boxes remaining. Well, I'm lying here. The very, very last and lonesome Fury was used to make an additional attack at neighboring Iron Fang, as I needed 11+ to hit Butcher and then dice -7 damage. And it was the right choice, as Mordikaar scores a hit and a kill.

Then Basilisk Krea tries to stare Butcher paralyzed.. and hot damn! She succeeds! And it looked like that with some luck I'd be able to get three Cetrati to Butcher, two with charge bonus.

The reason I had not attempted this first was the fact that I had been hoping that I'd somehow figure out a way to thin down the ranks of Iron Fangs and get more certainty to Cetrati charge. But nope. Also she had to take one free strike in the way, but luckily it either missed or did zero damage. Probably missed, as boosted P+S 13 doing zero damage to Arm 16 target might have been a little more memorable occassion.

But anyway. It was Def 7 (9 with the dog) Butcher now.

And my three Cetrati charge in. The revived one is the only one who gets there without any free strikes, but doesn't get charge bonus either. Undamaged cetrati has to take two free strikes, but the very first one causes instant death. Oh well. One last gets to try a charge from an awkward angle, and as a consequence he doesn't make it into melee with Butcher.

So, Cetrati needs to hit on 2+ and kill on 10+ with three dice.

2+ it is, and last attack I'd realistically able to make had about 50% chance of success to win or lose the game.

The Cetrati rolls no more and no less than exactly 10.

Well, it was a tough and desperate attempt. And opponent was playing two points short, even. Had Butcher just camped all focus from his feat it'd have been a lot longer game that probably would have ended in the opposite result. The loss of Bronzeback had meant that ARM 22-24 would have been all but impervious to damage I'd be able to make. Charging, reviving Cetrati, perhaps... but taking the complete unit down wouldn't have been that difficult.

The Witching Hours

Huh, now, something needs to be done to this backlog of games.

So, here are the two games from almost two weeks ago.

Both were played with the same list against the same list.

Games were 25 points, and I was playing Cryx with following list:

Witch Coven of Garlghast
- Nightmare
- Ripjaw
- Deathripper

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & stitch thralls
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren

And opponent had:

Lylyth, the Primal version
- Carnivean
- 2x Shredders

Maximum unit of Warspears + Chieftain
2x Strider Deathstalker
The Forsaken


In the first game scenario was Supply and Demand. Funny thing that a small based fury/focus 5 warcasters might actually dominate the center zone without opposing objective being destroyed.

I was a bit worried about the matchup, since Lylyth herself was able to ignore stealth, and scenario had Killbox going on.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, however, game ended rather quick.

I thought it'd be a worthwile piece-trade if I charged Nightmare to Carnivean and tie up most of enemy army next turn. Carnivean had been Nightmare's prey, and after Carnivean had bit the dust new prey was Lylyth herself.

Next turn legion of everblight rolls damage rolls against Nightmare rather poorly, and only movement and one arm blow up.

Three focus, Infernal Machine, Veil of Mists and Ghost Walk later Nightmare is right next to Lylyth and kills her. She had one or two focus for transfers, but a very common oversight didn't save the warlock - all of her warbeasts were maxed out on Fury.

Since the game was over so fast, we decided to play a new game.


Game 2:

Scenario was Incoming this time.

Game also lasted a lot longer now. In the first picture only one of the two Strider Deathstalkers are shown in the far left, but there they both are, flanking.

I was pretty sure that I'd be able to kill first one and then the other with Stygian Abysses, but that was not to be. Sometimes FOC 9 attacks miss, and sometimes POW 12 damage rolls don't quite kill arm 11 targets.

Also, sometimes you just run your arc nodes out of your 18" control area.

Well, anyway, Witch Coven's second turn was pretty normal - advance and use feat. This prompted a reaction from Legion I did not expect - they backed off a little. How annoying! Well, at least that gave me strong foothold to scenario game. I just rush everything forward next turn and combo-striking mechanithralls manage to destroy enemy objective. Deathripper in the picture is still hunting the Strider Deathstalkers...

Next Lylyth tried to shoot Nightmare to get automatic hits with spells, but dice are once again against any plans to wreck the bad dream. Lylyth then has to spend the precious Fury for a boost, and this time she manages to land a solid hit with Parasite.

Assaulting Carnivean and a rabid Shredder fail their damage rolls against Arm 15 Nightmare, though Lylyth's feat gives quite a number of hits. But there are only so many warjack systems you can break with an ample supply of 1's and 2's.

Warspears try to whittle down mechanithralls and contest Cryx zone. As an added insult the Necrosurgeon seems to be impervious to any and all attempts to damage her, so the actualy loss of mechanithralls aren't a big issue.

Witch Coven finally nails down the last Deathstalker after third round of trying. Nightmare loaded up with three focus kills both Carnivean and the Shredder with absurd damage rolls. A crapton of mechanithralls maul down the other Shredder too, and suddenly Lylyth doesn't have any warbeasts.

Warspears try to do one last defiant charge to take down Nightmare and anything else, but they don't do much. Game store was about to close by then, and we decided to end the game. Only an amazing turn of events could have won the game for Legion any more.

I still believe the match-up could have been a lot tougher, but the smaller the game point size is, the greater impact dice screw has. In both games Nightmare was the key piece that just refused to go down or even have any important systems broken to pieces. Granted, Nightmare's destruction in both situations wasn't 100% certain, I actually didn't expect it to go from full health to a wreck in one turn in either game. But without a cortex or loss of both arms in any of these games would have had a very different impact, and in both games damage done was enough to accomplish either one of these goals.

But why am I "if"fing? I guess I just feel a little bad by having the dice go in my favor for once. Weird. I doubt you should feel sorry about winning.

Seizures

A few days ago I played a game of Warmachine on the Vassal virtual tabletop for all kinds of games.

It was a 25 point game and my list was:

Witch Coven of Garlghast
- Harrower
- 2x Nightwretch
- Stalker

Minimum unit of Mechanithralls + 1x Brute Thrall
Skarlock
Bloat Thrall

Opponent had:

Caine1
- Avenger

Maximum unit of Greygore's Boomhowlers + Murdoch
Black 13th
Journeyman Warcaster
Ragman
Squire

Scenario was a non-factor in this game. Cryx got to start, and the second picture shows the downfall of Cryxian forces.

Here is a very good tip for all warmachine players: Always double check rules for models that you encounter for the first time. Here's what happened:

I wasn't entirely sure if Harrower was within charge range of Avenger, but I decided to try anyway. It was close, the charge fell short for about half an inch. However, that was a risk I thought I could take, since I would use Coven's feat anyway. Effective def 14 Harrower in melee would be quite hard for opponent to entirely wreck, and just about the only system that really needs to stay intact for Harrower is the melee arm. Nightwretch also had arced Curse of Shadows on the Avenger, but that didn't really help anyone else but the opponent (the trollkin were able to assault through Avenger).

Avenger, however, has this nasty little effect on its weapon that's pretty much Paralyze for warjacks. Base def drops to 7 on a succesful hit, and the first attack was a hit. A serious blunder on my part to let that happen, since it was pretty much a death sentence for Harrower now.

On my next turn mechanithralls kill two trollkins, and even Bloat Thrall thwacks one of them in melee. A nightwretch arcs three Stygian Abysses at Black 13th - funnilly enough the ones that weren't boosted to hit were the ones that actually hit.

Situation was really tough, but I thought that there would always be a sudden death play mode for Witch Coven.

Next turn Caine uses his feat and kills all but the stealthed models within his range AND the mechanithrall that was in cover and in melee. That one was taken out by Boomhowlers.

Avenger tried to take a pot shot at focusless witches, but luckily it missed its deviation entirely.

Nightwretch on the right is destroyed, but the another wretch on left still has movement and arc node going on for it.

So, this is the sudden death moment right now.

Skarlock attempts to advance and cast Ghost Walk on the nightwretch, but the spell falls short by at least one entire inch. My chances of success just dropped by about 33%, give or take.

Witches have to cast Ghost Walk and Veil of Mists all by themselves that leaves only five focus to do the assassination with. I thought it's better to try to get a critical hit, so I boost attack roll. It's a hit, but not a crit. Caine takes some points of damage, because I somehow think I got better chances by shooting another Stygian Abyss at him. After all I would have needed quite crazy dice to kill him with one boosted POW 12. Looking back I probably should have tried exactly just that, but of course, then I didn't know what I would roll...

I don't remember any more if the second Stygian Abyss hit or missed, but the net result was about 6 points of damage to Caine, and then Cygnar got to start its turn with two Witches out of Stealth.

Their def 16 made two of them survive, but that's not enough in case of Witch Coven of Garlghast.

I don't usually concede, but now I did. I had no other models left other than two witches and Egregore, and there was absolutely no chances at trying anything with scenario. Game had went on for quite long, too, because of some connection issues to Vassal server.

But I guess the hard way is the best way to learn about new models, right?

We put a Vassal in your Vassal so you can Enliven while you Enliven

Since it's been difficult to get a game in my hometown right now, I decided to start Vassal once again.

I would've wanted to go with epic Asphyxious, but you know... epic Asphyxious carries a sort of stigma with it.

I made a somewhat whimsical list for Witch Coven of Garlghast that I really wanted to try. It felt different enough that I ditched any plans I had for epic Asphyxious.

It was (a 50 point list):

Witch coven of Garlghast
- Harrower
- 2x Slayer helljacks
- Ripjaw
- 2x Nightwretch bonejacks

Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Satyxis Raider Captain
Bane Lord Tartarus
Skarlock
Gorman diWulfe

I was against the forces of Menoth, controlled by someone from United Kingdoms. And the usual praise I often give to Vassal at this point is the fact that you easily get to play Something Completely Different.

This time it was:

High Reclaimer
- Reckoner
- Devout

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith
Maximum unit of Croe's Cutthroats + Attendant Priest
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt + Attendant Priest
Madelyn Corbeau
Wracks
Hierophant
Vassal of Menoth

This was probably the second time in Mk2 that I got to play against High Reclaimer, and last time the match was so exciting that I have been waiting to get a second chance for a long time now.

Scenario was randomised to be Into the Breach. I won starting roll and decided to go first - I thought positioning would be the key here, since I had no over-excessive ways to remove infantry from board.

On opponents first turn I was horrified again that burning ash spell is only 1 focus. First picture shows the situation I started my second turn.

Since Holy Zealots hadn't gone into Greater Destiny, I tried to navigate through the smoke cloud by advancing Satyxis that had been given Desperate Pace by satyxis captain. Their effective speed of 9 + reach got them into good positions, and awkward Combined Melee Attacks later they had killed about 5 models.

First I had tried to trample with Harrower to kill 3-4 Croe's Cutthroats, but it got only within melee range of 2, and missed the extra attack I could buy.

Slayers advanced closer, and last but not least the Coven advanced as far forward as possible, and used Nightfall. I actually thought I'd be able to get more enemies under feat, but no, such key pieces as enemy warcaster were out.

-2 MAT & RAT effect from Nightfall actually did save Harrower. Fully loaded Reckoner missed one attack because of it. Actually when Reckoned ended it's activation Harrower had lost only ranged weapon, and I was almost giddy, because I was having fantasies about an assassination there. Then Vassal of Menoth activated and used ancillary attack on Reckoner... Boom, gone were movement and cortex, and the warjack itself was standing with about 3 damage boxes left.

However, I guess such a straightforward assassination wouldn't have worked, since opponent was really good at protecting High Reclaimer. Places where I could fit a large base close to the caster were nonexistent. Also Devout made it impossible to cast random Stygian Abysses at the Reclaimer.

Holy Zealots went into Greater Destiny and tied up Satyxis (strange... shouldn't that go the other way around?)

Plenty of the horned warriors died to Ashes to Ashes.

On my next turn Infernal Machine was upkept on Harrower, who made a thresher attack. It snatched two souls from Croe's Cutthroats, and boosted damage against Reckoner with a soul it had got from last turn. Damage roll was excessive. Oh, and two Satyxis Raiders happened to fall to the thresher, too. Anyway. Then Harrower buys another attack against Reckoner with a soul, and boosts damage, and another crazy damage roll. Both arms were gone.

Next a Slayer walks up and finishes the job Harrower began after Gorman diWulfe throws acid bomb on people who were blocking straight lane for that particular helljack.


Witch Coven cast Curse of Shadows on Exemplar Bastions, and Infernal Machine on rightmost Slayer. Or, actually I think it was Skarlock who did the Infernal Machine, but that's a minute detail.

I was terrified with the thought that High Reclaimer would use his feat next turn and bring back all kinds of stuff to kill one witch, so Coven walked back, and I even broke Perfect Conjunction so that one of the witches would not suffer back arc penalties in case of a random charge.

Rightmost Slayer advanced through an Exemplar Bastion that was standing about in the middle of the trench and killed both Lady Aiyana and Master Holt.

So, all in all it was quite good turn, but there was still High Reclaimer's feat to be involved.

I usually push way too aggressively with my warcaster(s) and die foolishly because of that. So now that I actually backed off I was pretty much saved (at least for a turn) because of that. Maybe this is learning or something crazy like that. However, High Reclaimer rolled five models back, and back came Lady Aiyana & Master Holt, two Bastions and a Croe's Cutthroat.

Harrower was obviously devastated, as well as middle Slayer. It didn't quite break, but if memory serves, it had nothing but Cortex left.

Last of the Satyxis died to Ashes to Ashes, and Tartarus was killed by charging Devout.

Just a round before everything looked quite okay, and then, suddenly, I had lost all attrition.

Slayer on the left, however, luckied out. It took heavy damage from two charging Exemplar Bastions, but damage that came in broke no systems thanks to columns rolled.

This was my chance. Curse of Shadows denying free strikes from Bastions, Veil of Mists to ignore Vassal of Menoth and Infernal Machine for speed & MAT boost for the only functional helljack plus 3 focus was enough to bring High Reclaimer down.

I need to say again how awesome this game was, and how it could have ended either way, and there were big swings in perception "who has the upper hand".

What played in my favor was probably the fact that this was not a Killbox scenario. I couldn't have ran back where I did with Coven unless I wanted to give in Control Points.

Witch Hound versus Witches

A couple of days ago I played a game of Warmachine first time for a little while.

It was a 35 point game, and I wanted to try out something different again.

I decided on a following list:

Witch Coven of Garlghast
- Harrower
- Nightmare
- 2x Deathrippers
- Nightwretch
- Stalker

2x Warwitch Siren

I was against Retribution of Scyrah.

Opponents list was:

Kaelyssa
- Phoenix
- Discordia

Maximum unit of Mage Hunter Strikeforce + Officer

2x Mage Hunter Assassins
Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios
Epic Eiryss
Sylys Wyshnalyrr

I did not really even realize at the beginning of the fight how funny match-up this was from rules perspective. After all, I had five Witch models in my army, and Kaelyssa was a dedicated Witch Hound. Actually I learned this in a rather costly manner...

Anyway, I won starting roll, and first picture is taken from the end of opponents first turn. And yeah, that's a heavy wreck marker already there.

I had run a little too much with Harrower, and Mage Hunter Assassin was just barely able to charge it. The distance sure looks quite big in the picture, but situation there isn't accurate, because the assassin wouldn't balance on obstacle. Anyway it was tough to make a judgement there, but if it looks to me it's a game of few millimetres that can account for a badly positioned tape measure, shaking of hands, breeze of wind or anything... I at least try to let it go in favor of the measurer. Makes game a bit faster if you don't need to spend 5 minutes to make as exact measurement as possible with zero marginal for error.

But yeah, the 2 point model did again the thing it's notorious about. It was 14-16 damage points in to Harrower. Then Strike Force finished it. I guess I should have put Occultation on Harrower instead of Nightmare.

Metal ring is Rift, and green template is Veil of Mists, by the way.

On my next turn I was contemplating if I should run Nightwretch next to Kaelyssa and start shooting Stygian Abysses at her. She had, however, used her feat to give Stealth to whole army and not being able to be charged at. Phoenix with its reach made me unsure if I could place Nightwretch not in melee AND within 5" of Kaelyssa.

So I decided to use Coven's feat instead, thinking it would protect my army enough to get an alpha strike. After all, Nightmare with Infernal Machine can charge anyhing within 13". Now it just advanced to smack Mage Hunter Assassin off the wall. Also fully boosted Stygian Abyss dropped Narn and the other Mage Hunter Assassin too. But that was all I could do.

To add a little bit more hate to Mage Hunter Strike Force, we figured out that they ignore LOS restrictions of Witch Coven's Nightfall. Okay, cool... At least they suffer the -2 to RAT.

Despite that they still shot off one arm from Nightmare, meaning no more P+S 24 Combo Strikes at prey. Which was Phoenix, at the moment.

Kaelyssa, who had Phantom Hunter on, helped Strike Force a little too once they had shot off its movement system, too. Eiryss disrupted Nightwretch.

Well, it was my turn again, and now I learned the beauty of Witch Hound. One of my Warwitch Sirens advanced full 7" and sprayed on Mage Hunter Strike Force, getting both Kaelyssa and Phoenix under, too. Luckily the shot did some damage to Kaelyssa, because only one dead Mage Hunter would just have felt bad, when it triggered two moves for Kaelyssa's battlegroup.

Phoenix shot against the Warwitch, and disgustingly scored a hit against her DEF 15. That was one dead witch.

Next witch hound move was Discordia advancing and spraying over my another Warwitch Siren and Deathripper. You can guess it right, another dead Warwitch. After all, it's the name of the ability...

Nightwretch took a pot shot at Phoenix, and did actually quite respectable damage in. However, regenerating force field pretty much nullified what the brave chicken had done.

As Discordia had moved in to spray, there was something to do for me. Half-broken Nightmare with Infernal Machine went and tried to beat up Discordia with 3 focus, but didn't really do well. If I remember right, no damage roll was over six on two dice. Something else happened, though. Terror from Infernal Machine caused Mage Hunter Strike Force to fail their command check. That was the best thing my heavy warjacks ever did in this game.

Then opponent got to punish me again. A little earlier I had been quite confident in the game, but realizing all the possibilities that witch hound screwed over made things... interesting.

Oh, and it didn't exactly help me either that Nightmare and leftmost Deathripper were wrecked and Stalker was set on fire, Nightwretch disrupted again by Eiryss, and Mage Hunter Strike Force regrouped.

I had one fully functional piece and warcaster left in my army, then, and opponent had lost only... what? Three solos and one mage hunter from unit? But because the functional piece was an arc node, and I was playing Witch Coven, it was all that was needed, right?

So I did what I needed to do. Last deathripper advanced, and a fully boosted Stygian Abyss was shot at Kaelyssa, who took lots of damage in. The hit was also a critical one, so she was Shadow Bound. However... this triggered Witch Hound, again, and before I knew it, my precious turkey was engaged in melee.

Nightwretch was disrupted, so I guess Eiryss had bought her points back in this game by removing 1/3 of Coven's arc nodes.

Coven cast Veil of Mists on the melee where burning Stalker was to allow it escape to engage Mage Hunter Strike Force. It didn't kill even a single one of them.

Sooo... that was it for me, then. Opponents turn again.

Mage Hunter Strike Force nail a huge Combined Melee Attack against Stalker and wreck it in one hit. Kaelyssa and Eiryss destroy Nightwretch finally.

Phoenix comes and tries to destroy last remaining Deathripper, and, funnily enough, it is set on fire by Phoenix's thermal blade and almost wrecked for good. However... it had three boxes left in column 4. One arc node and two movement or cortex or whatever there is.

I still had a chance! Ghost Walk on Deathripper, get Kaelyssa in Line of Sight, Stygian Abyss and return home victorious!

Well, then comes my turn.

Deathripper burns to ashes.

So... situation is, I have no models other than my warcaster, who can't even go into "tank" mode.

A really ridiculous idea comes up in my mind. One of my witches advances and loses Perfect Conjunction. Egregore then runs as far as possible. Another witch advances then to get Line of Sight to Kaelyssa.

She casts a fully boosted Stygian Abyss (for five focus...) and deals 6 points in.

Kaelyssa had only 3 boxes left.

I don't know if this win was epic or stupid. But no matter how much I read the cards, and after the game searched rules forum on Privateer Press' home forums, I couldn't find anything that made this move illegal.

But it sure does feel illegal, so if anyone spots an error there, I'd be grateful to know about it. Anonymous commenting should be allowed in this blog.

However, I think it was played completely within rules, and thus it becomes one of the weirdest wins I've ever had. I guess this, where enemy loses only 4 models during match, is where Cryx commanders say: "It's all going according to the plan!"

Victory with a sorry doubt

Few days ago I played a 35 point game of Warmachine.

It was against a local player whose existence I hadn't been aware of. Amazing that suprises like these pop up now and then in this city.

Anyway, I played with Witch Coven, since it has been quite a long while I played them.

My list was:

Witch Coven of Garlghast
- 2x Nightwretches
- Ripjaw
- Stalker
- Erebus
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Minimum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Skarlock Thrall
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall

And opponent had:

Epic Caine
- Ol' Rowdy
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + Officer
- Defender
Minimum unit of Greygore Boomhowlers
Arlan Strangewayes
Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

What grieves me is the fact that while I had my camera with me and took pictures, the memory card inside had become corrupt or something, pictures wouldn't open on my laptop. I tried formatting the card and it seemed to work, but all in all... looks like I will be needing a new memory card for my camera rather soon?

What bugs me even more is the fact that now, while remembering back at the game, I'm not entirely sure if I played with a maximum or minimum unit of Satyxis Raiders. I sure remember there were quite a bit of them and they wrecked a few jacks especially on their Power Swell turn, and I wonder if a minimum unit could have done those things.

My sincere apologies if I did field maximum unit of them, because I really didn't have the points. I would've been missing Skarlock and Necrotech in that case... Though Skarlock nearly killed one of my witches.

It's difficult to remember that far back with no pictures, but what I do remember is that Witch Coven were sitting like scared hens as far from action as possible. Last time I played epic Caine he almost nailed epic Asphyxious from the other side of playing board, having only about half an inch too short distance.

Nightfall worked wonders in not getting the witches killed. However, once Nightfall had come and gone and Caine forced to fall back, a curious thing happened.

Caine cast Magic Bullet on Defender, who used Snipe attack to kill Skarlock. Magic Bullet went through Hellaena, and it's a pow 12 hit. Coven had one focus left, so if opponent had rolled 9 for damage the game would've pretty much ended there. Luckily she took only 5 points in, but this scared the heck out of me. Not only I needed to have the coven as far as possible from enemy, but also not a single model within 4" of any witch, either!

I remember Arcane Shield being on Greygore's Boomhowlers first, and then on Ol' Rowdy. Witch Coven used Curse of Shadows on both occassions to lower the bonus an bit, and in case of Boomhowlers' it let Satyxises to charge through to Defender.

The game ended in Bile Thrall making one purge that damaged Caine, and then Stalker that had Infernal Machine came and finished him.

But really, if I played with a maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders, the whole feeling of triumph over epic Caine is kind of... taken away.

Maybe it calls for a re-match?

Brutal life and undeath of a nameless Warwitch Siren

I was inspired to try out Witch Coven + Erebus combo again because of last comment I got in this blog. This time it was a 35 point game, and I was facing Cryx.

Well, I knew I was facing Cryx. I think I was suffering from some kind of mental illness when I was constructing my list, because it was:

Witch Coven of Garlghast
- Erebus
- Corruptor...!
- Deathripper
- Ripjaw

Cephalyx Overlords
Cephalyx Mind Slaver and Drudge Thralls... maximum unit!
Warwitch Siren
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Skarlock Thrall

I try not to tailor my lists against a faction even when I know which one of them I'm going to fight. Of course I try not to take outright bad choices that just don't have any kind of use against a certain faction. I cannot explain, however, how the heck did the Corruptor sneak in. I mean, it's a bad helljack in so many ways, but especially against Cryx it loses even the few tricks it might have... And now, in hindsight, I'm not all that disappointed at its performance during game!

Then, opponents list had:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Harrower
- Deathripper
- Defiler
- Cankerworm

Minimum unit of Bane Knights
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Bane Lord Tartarus
Skarlock Thrall

I won the starting roll this time around. First picture is taken from the end of opponents first turn, and, well, what can I say. A couple of lucky deviations from Breaths of Corruption knocked off the head from Ripjaw and nailed two of cephalyx overlords and a drudge grunt. And I was left with decisions on how to remove the opposing defiler. I didn't really feel I could go and smack it in melee, as there was a line of bane knights and a host of bile thralls waiting up for a counter attack.

Knowing well the threat that was Tartarus I wanted to dispatch him first.

However, with first Stygian Abyss cast on Tartarus, it was shadow bound and even with a damage boost it took no damage. Then I aborted my plan to kill him and took another fully boosted Stygian Abyss at the enemy arc node, hoping for a critical, which never came.

Ripjaw went to pit stop at Necrotech. Corruptor took an aimed shot at the defiler and boosted attack roll and damage roll. With aiming bonus it scored just the minimum to hit the sneaky bonejack. Resulting damage roll wrecked it.

On opponents turn the shadow bound Tartarus cursed at the deathripper in front of him. Being bind with one's one shadow doesn't stop him or her cussing like a sailor, it seems. Emboldened by Tartarus' harsh words bane knights wreck the deathripper.

Bile thralls advanced close, but not really close enough to get rid of easily.

Now, I figured it was my time to use Coven's feat.

First the remaining Cephalyx Overlord advanced as far as possible and sprayed two bile thralls dead. They needed to be removed, as even just one could really mess up everything even during Coven's feat...

Skarlock killed one more with Stygian Abyss.

Drudge Thralls charged one (Hey, they did something useful, right?). Stygian Abyss cast through Ripjaw killed one, and finally Corruptor nailed the last one. (See, that's two important things it had done during game!

Then warwitch siren tried to spray the nice line of bane knights to death (or at least to corrosion), but was too greedy and targetted wrong guy, which resulted in getting two under and about three "not-just-under". And she missed one of the knights too, killing only one, which is the worst possible kill count when it comes to triggering vengeance.

Now, warwitch siren's sad story doesn't end here.

Next turn, Tartarus activates, walks next to Warwitch, curses her and scores a hit despite Nightfall and kills the witch.

So, in essence, the siren just triggered vengeance, because Tartarus made a bane knight out of her.

Bane knights advance and try to beat up Erebus a little, failing to do that. Breaths of Corruption that were slinged from just outside the range or Nightfall took a couple of drudges with them. Nodeless deathripper bit one drudge away too and aiming Harrower with its ghost shot deleted the lone remaining cephalyx overlord.

On my next turn Erebus did a nice killing spree of 4 bane knights. However, I would feel a bit more impressed, if one double 1's wouldn't have caused it to miss one critical thrall, when kill count would have been 5. The reason why this buggers a little is the fact that there were 4 knights within normal melee range to start with. Overtake only made my attacks angled a bit differently, not exactly raised it's kill count. Ripjaw and Necrotech killed the last bane knight the Erebus couldn't, and Skarlock killed the last of the unit. Which was nice, as it was having a straight enough line to one of the witches...

Last, corruptor tries to shoot at Tartarus, scores a hit but does only three or so damage. So, the banes delayed me yet another turn, though opponents forces were spread rather thin.

Tartarus charges my skarlock, getting both Erebus and Corruptor easily inside the thresher. Six points to Corruptor and seven to Erebus. One random Breath of Corruption lands straight on the Cephalyx Mind Slaver. Hello, my remaining Cmd 4, no-CMA drudges!

If I thought that mopping up Tartarus with Corruptor and the one nodeless Deathripper with Erebus would finally get me to chewing the juicy center that was... umm... an Iron Lich? Doesn't exactly sound juicy. Anyway, to answer the question, I was all kinds wrong.

"A view for kill" by Cankerworm.

I had to dedicate most of my forces again to a random target. Because two Stygian Abysses didn't make a critical hit and not enough damage either, the Corruptor was brought forward within 5" of the worm. While it didn't break Canker, it was severely damaged. Drudge thralls tried to form a meatwall, which was really the best use of drudges now with their officer gone.

Cankerworm took the highway, but Corruptor was relentless and pursued it (with Infernal Machine on it) to take a one final shot at the Cankerworm. And killed it. Damn, there! Think of it! Corruptor wrecking two bonejacks, bile thrall and Tartarus! And only Tartarus in melee, too. You can't ask Slayer to do the same!

Okay, well, I'm still not sold on the price tag of Corruptor, but I guess it's not insta-lose model either, given (or making) right circumstances.

The game had been going on for a really long time already, and mostly it felt like cat & mouse with neither knowing who was the cat and who was the mouse. Asphyxious took more losses, but he still hadn't used his feat and Harrower was doing just fine on the hill, shooting at random targets.

Anyway, eventually I got a charge off with Ghost Walking, Infernal Machined Erebus against Harrower and Erebus left it with only a couple of points remaining in Cortex. Opponent resigned, as it was getting late and while Asphyxious with unused feat is always a dangerous asset, it's quite unlikely to score the win in such a situation, even when it's quite doable to lenghten the game a lot.

Last picture, taken just as Erebus almost destroyed Harrower and before Asphyxious teleported off the board... Awesome game, though I still find it a bit difficult to breathe, as the whole board is still reeking with the remains of the 10+ Breaths of Corruptions cast during the game.

Hellaena charges into melee!

Today I played two small games of Warmachine.

I played my Cryx against Khador. They were 15 point games.

Opponent played both times with same list, which was:

Butcher
- Destroyer

Minimum unit of Iron Fang Pikemen + Unit Attachment
Widowmakers
War Dog

First game I played with Asphyxious for a change (Iron Lich version).

Asphyxious
- Reaper
- Cankerworm
- Nightwretch

Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech & Scrapjack

Opponent won starting rolls in both games and let me start in both games.

First, I realised how outnumbered I was. Luckily I had Breath of Corruption around and Tartarus with thresher attack.

First picture is from the end of opponents first turn, where Iron Flesh was cast on pikemen. Destroyer took a shot at Nightwretch, but it landed short. However, it deviated so that both Nightwretch and Asphyxious was under.

And it was four points in to Asphyxious there and then.

On my next turn Asphyxious casts a Hellfire on a charge line blocking widowmaker.

Widowmakers failed their command check, and they failed it on every turn until the end of game.

Then Cankerworm, loaded with three focus, charged in. Armor piercing did a lot of damage, but to exactly worst of columns: number 3. So nothing broke. With two focus left Cankerworm bought an attack with Replicator, hit, and boosted damage. The damage roll was crazy, something like 4, 5, 6 or something. And that resulted in the loss of cortex and melee arm for the warjack.

On opponents turn Butcher himself wrecked Cankerworm with ease.

Iron Fleshed pikemen advanced in shield wall.

On my turn Tartarus cursed the pikemen and charged them, engaging three. Two of them died.

Nightwretch repositioned itself so that Asphyxious could cast Breath of Corruption on a gathering of two pikemen, one of them being the officer. Both damage rolls were boosted and both pikemen died.

I tried everything within my power to kill the standard bearer, but failed.

Ah well, but then. The latter picture is quite imposing, really. It's a bit hazy, yet you can see an intimidating silhouette of a khadoran warjack... AND Butcher!

Butcher decided it was best to use his feat. Fury was cast on remaining pikemen and then he slapped Tartarus dead. Butcher did an amazingly horrible damage roll, highest number was 3 and it was the only 3. Yet undamaged Tartarus died.

Two pikemen who could charge Reaper left only harpoon intact.

Oh, and aiming Destroyer scored a hit on Necrotech, killing it. As blast damage doesn't gain an additional die under Butchers feat, nothing else was to be expected.

But expect the unexpected. Asphyxious was dealt two more damage by Destroyer's blasts.

Then it's Asphyxous' turn to use feat.

First, I needed to disengage Nightwretch. I tried something a little bit risky, and allocated it two focus.

Then it went and bit the engaging pikeman with attack and damage roll boosted. After that Asphyxious cast Hellfire on the Butcher's dog. It's somewhat curious how one dog draws so much fire from the opposing side...

Then Asphyxious charges the pikemen and kills both of them with remaining focus. Now as I figured this would be the last turn I saw Butcher without Iron Flesh on himself, I decided to use Asphyxious' feat. With the focus Asphyxious cast a boosted Parasite on Butcher and tried to do some damage with a breath of corruption just for kicks. Didn't do anything.

Opponent then takes an aggressive stance.

Destroyer shoots Reaper to bits and Butcher charges Nightwretch. Butcher rolls damage poorly again and Nightwretch is left with only one box remaining in cortex. After that Butch casts Iron Flesh on himself.

Asphyxious had two souls from earlier turn which were turned into focus now.

So, really, either Asphyxious killed Butcher now, or he died trying. Sustained attack fortunately helps in such situations, but still, one focus went to upkeep Parasite and he was left with eight.

First attack misses even with boost.

Second attack hits with a boost and deals 7 points in with a damage boost. Four focus left, I decided that if I rolled good damage next I would go all for it, but if I botched Asphyxious would teleport away.

I rolled rather high and proceeded to make last attack, where Butcher eventually died.

Game 2:

I played second game with Witch Coven of Garlghast with following list:

Coven
- Erebus
- Ripjaw
- Deathripper

Pistol Wraith

And if I felt outnumbered the last time, now the feeling was overwhelming.

But, still. As I said earlier, opponent gave me the start again. First picture is taken from the end of my second turn, where Occultation has been cast on Erebus and Infernal Machine on Deathripper. Pikemen were obviously Iron Fleshed again.

Last game had instilled some sort of a fear in me about that particular Destroyer, so I thought it best to screen the witches with Veil of Mists. Just in case, as the witches don't quite take such hits quite as well as Asphyxious.

Second picture is from the end of my next turn. For some reason Butcher tried to shoot the Pistol Wraith down with Obliteration. It didn't work, actually.

I reply by shooting the war dog with pistol wraith. Now, if pistol wraiths are fallen ghosts of skilled and overly proud duelists, I find it a bit curious that there the enemy warcaster is throwing spells at him, yet the wraith shoots down Butchers dog.

Anyway, Deathripper positions its arc node so that the witches try to shoot Butcher down with stygian abysses. Second shot did critical shadow bind and all was well. Last focus was used to cast Infernal Machine on Erebus and Nightfall was used.

However, I had positioned my troops a little bit too close so the darkness wasn't that much of a boon to me.

Opponent activated Butcher first, who cast Iron Flesh on himself, Fury on Iron Fange Pikemen and used his feat too.

Widowmakers happened all to be within 5" of Ripjaw.

So they got aiming bonus and wrecked Ripjaws arc node and weapon system.

Pikemen advanced at different targets and despite -2 MAT & RAT from Nightfall they destroyed most of Deathrippers damage grid (though arc node was still working just fine) and killed pistol wraith.

Pikemen engaging Erebus missed their attack, though.

And then you'll see something you won't see every day and as an afterthough, I should have lost (or not, if you want to support wacky moves...)

Anyway. What I planned: Upkeep Infernal Machine, cast Ghost Walk on Deathripper, give 3 focus to Erebus, cast Veil of Mists on Erebus & pals, cast one attack roll boosted Stygian Abyss at Butcher to lower his defense. After I had cast Ghost Walk on deathripper I realised that I actually needed 11 focus to do all this.

So.

I aborted my plan and just cast Veil of Mists to allow a charge for Erebus.

Now, I couldn't get Erebus to ignore free strikes as witches had only one focus left.

The usual "A heavy warjack with MAT 9 at opponents warcaster's face" mentality got me to charge one of the pikemen with a witch. Attack roll boost later the pikeman was dead.

Then Erebus charged Butcher, which was where I realised that Butcher currently had arm 21. Combo-strike was "only" P+S 22. And Butcher had defense 17, Erebus MAT of 9.

I really had only one chance here, because one of my witches was sitting in the middle of enemy army and I had one P+S 22 attack to finish off Butcher.

Luckily I had managed to damage Butcher earlier and the damage roll was more than enough to kill Butcher, but damn that was risky. I needed something like 10-11 with 3 dice to kill him. Those are odds that usually wouldn't make you want to risk one of your witches unless it was a last ditch attempt...