Warmachine Demo

Last Wednesday I did a small demo game of Warmachine for a starting Protectorate player.

Demo forces were:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Leviathan
- Stalker
- Nightwretch

and

Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- Defiler
- Ripjaw

Which makes a total of 11 points per side.

I tried to make the demo forces fairly balanced against each other, and I think I succeeded at least somewhat. Leviathan would be able to dish out damage from afar, but not end the game right away by getting lucky shots against Deneghra. Stalker would be relatively safe from Crippling Grasp and Parasite. Deneghra on the other hand had enough arc nodes to afford to lose one by accident. And even if Slayer would die to just about anything, Ripjaw would be able to deal damage in this small game size.

Opponent took Asphyxious.

Since it was a demo game I chose not to play too safely, and pushed on aggressively instead. Opponent probably got good taste of the combo mechanics of Warmachine, when Ripjaw dealt charge damage to Nightwretch with dice + 7...

Slayer fell to Leviathan shots and I charged Leviathan with Deneghra. Damage rolls were excessively poor, so that was a little bit of an anti climatic moment. Leviathan on the other hand shook off Shadow Bind and hit Deneghra once, bringing her to two damage boxes remaining. Asphyxious made short work of her. In fact there was a chance that Deneghra might have died to the POW 5 damage roll from Asphyxious' feat... now, even if I wasn't playing WAAC in this demo game, that would have been embarrassing.

Ropecon Warmachine Tournament

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

Game 1: Scaverous vs Protectorate of Menoth

Feora, Protector of Flame
- Judicator
- Castigator
- Reckoner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Game 2: Warwitch Deneghra vs Legion of Everblight

Bethayne & Belphagor

- 2x Angelius
- Shredder

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Though sometimes they work. Sometimes.



Game 3: Warwitch Deneghra vs Cygnar

Temporal Barrier Haley

- Stormwall

Gastone Crosse
- Galleon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ropecon Warmachine Casuals

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

Opponent played:

Master Ascetic Naaresh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Necrotech tried to fix Malice, but rolled 9+

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Game 2:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

List Reference

I played five games of Warmachine in total at Ropecon - plus one Colossal Mania.

I'm placing my lists here into this blog post because I only used these lists - both in tournament and casual games.

List 1:
Warwitch Deneghra
- 2x Nightwretch
- Defiler
- Cankerworm

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock
Machine Wraith
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall

Objective: Arcane Wonder

So... I did some last minute changes to my list to lower model count. Since clock had been a problem in the practise games this felt like the right thing to do. But I ended up including banes...


List 2:
Lord Exhumator Scaverous
- Kraken
- Corruptor
- Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Bile Thralls + Skarlock Commander
Warwitch Siren
Madelyn Corbeau
Gorman diWulfe
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Pistol Wraith
Ogrun Bokur

Objective: Bunker

All I can say about this list is "oh god what was I thinking?"

I was so worried about the Black Ogruns that I didn't playtest this list at all. Luckily I played one practise game at Ropecon so it didn't come as such a shock in the actual tournament that this list was so bad that even Scaverous' own mother would be ashamed of seeing him in front of such an army.

Practise makes regret

Before I was off to Ropecon 2015, I played once more with experimental drag themed list for Deneghra1.

List consisted of:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- 2x Nightwretch
- Defiler

Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius
- Reaper
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock
Machine Wraith
Madelyn Corbeau
Ragman

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Opponent had:

High Executioner Reznik
- Vanquisher
- Templar

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Initiate Tristan Durant
- Reckoner
Hierophant
Reclaimer
2x Vassal of Menoth
Wracks
Madelyn Corbeau

Scenario was Destruction. We practised with Death Clock. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 3, I think. As usually happens, I kind of forget to take pictures when there's clock running.

So far Reaper has dragged a Vanquisher to its demise, and I'm quite certain that this is the turn Deneghra used her feat. Bastions had had Crippling Grasp on them, but Reznik shot Hex Blast on them. I was a little bit too afraid of Witch Hound when I was attempting to spray targets, or maybe casting Scourge. Somehow it escaped my mind that Reckoner doesn't trigger Witch Hound, because it's in Tristan's battle group.

Protectorate turn 3 was uneventful, thanks to Deneghra. Temple Flameguard had some models able to charge, and they yielded some bile thralls and Bastions killed a black ogrun.

Cryx turn 4 I thought I figured a good way to get a clear charge/trample/whatever lane to Reckoner with both of my heavy warjacks - drag the front Bastion away, and kill it. Well. It might have worked without the damage re-allocation process of Bastions. Now the initial target suffered no damage, so no drag either. Other possibility is that I placed the ogrun dedicated for this so poorly that Bastion didn't move at all because it was right next to Reckoner.

Ragman advanced into a position to cast Death Field, and then various models wrecked Protectorate as hard as they could. Annoying thing here was the fact that my side was so damn crowded that I didn't get to make too many charges. The greatest disappointment was that the enemy objective just refused to die, no matter what I threw against it. Had I destroyed it with other models, Slayer could have charged plenty of Bastions, but now I needed it to finalize the objective and only one Bastion.

I was afraid of dominating the zone with Deneghra, so she backed off a little. Perhaps controlling it would suffice.

Well. Reaper didn't do much to Reckoner, not even with Dark Shroud from Ragman, so that helljack just signed its own death sentence.

Next turn Templar gets me caught by surprise by trampling and beat-backing right next to Deneghra. Only one attack hit, but it was doing something like dice +5 damage already. Deneghra got to four damage boxes remaining or so.

Reckoner and pals wrecked Reaper.

I was running low on clock, so I somehow tried to destroy both heavy warjacks and hope for a scenario victory. Turned out that I got neither, and clocked myself.

Movements were so pain to try to optimize that it ate a lot of time. I tried to tear down the Templar with Deneghra and mechanithralls, and when they failed, every ranged weapon at my disposal tried to shoot the remaining damage points off. Nope. Not today, little one. Well, at least the flail had been destroyed.

Slayer and Aiakos fared just as badly against Reckoner.

We still played the game till bitter end, which came fast. Templar had lost cortex and flail arm, so it boiled down to if Templar could roll 8+ to hit with two attempts (iron aggression + one initial attack + ancillary). It could. Boo!

Both games with this list were difficult with the clock, and I had been continuously blocking my own movements. So I constructed two different Deneghra & Scaverous list pairings and played one game on Friday at Ropecon with the modified Deneghra.

Lucant vs Deneghra

Played a 50 point Warmachine game last Friday. I played another game before Ropecon, but writing that up just will have to wait.

I'm testing around an idea that's probably a stillborn tragedy... but that doesn't stop me bringing a dead fetus to a tournament.

So, my list:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- 2x Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls

Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius
- Reaper
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
Madelyn Corbeau
Ragman
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Machine Wraith

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Opponent had:

Father Lucant
Iron Giants tier 4
- Cipher
- Monitor
- Inverter
- Corollary

Maximum unit of Eradicators
Maximum unit of Reciprocators
Minimum unit of Perforators
2x Enigma Foundry

Objective: Fuel cache

Scenario was Two Fronts. Strangely that's been a bit of a rare scenario for me here in my home town. Anyway, Convergence started game. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1, though Convergence has already made a few activations. I was measuring my own time with a chess clock, and worrying about time always makes me forget taking pictures.

Cipher shoots a couple of rough terrain batches to middle of the board. Slayer takes surprising damage from Perforators, and I believe Lucant used Clockwork Reinforcement this turn.

Cryx mainly repositions, too, because engaging didn't feel like a good idea. Deneghra cast Scourge on... Eradicators, I think? Only two got under the template, though, but that would be two less chargers at least.

Bile Thralls just huddle forward and try to look like a threat. And, well, that's it.

Turn 3 I'm missing a picture from the end of Convergence turn. But mainly just Nightwretch on the right and my objective got destroyed. Lucant has at least Deceleration on, which was making my ranged game suffer throughout the whole game.

I had grand plans of crippling Reciprocators (they're the shield wall unit, right?), but in the end everything else died. Deneghra walked up and used her feat, nearly getting whole enemy army under. Just a few Eradicators on the right were a bit off.

She cast Crippling Grasp on the Reciprocators, and left two Focus to boost armor.

Bile Thralls advanced and made three or four purges, killing all the Perforators. Enigma Foundry took some damage also, but nothing to write home/blog about.

Black Ogruns then attempted to start messing up shield wall formation, but then reality dawned on me in a cruel way. Field Marshal: Shield Guard made any dragging against Reciprocators nearly impossible. Instead the Ogruns shot a couple of Eradicators, and Mechanithralls charged the rest. Reaper went and killed possibly two Eradicators on the hill.

It was a good turn, after all. Getting two medium based units dead before Enigma Foundries started manufacturing additional troopers was a harsh blow for Convergence.

Turn 4 Lucant cast Purification with his diminished focus pool, but it was more than enough to make yet another casting of Crippling Grasp useless. Other than that there was not much for Convergence to do. Reciprocators advanced in shield wall and killed a couple of Mechanithralls. Enigma Foundry on left kept on contesting the control zone.

My clock was starting to run out. Though we weren't actually playing the deathclock, I decided to do what I'd have to do in a tournament. Slayer charged Lucant, and hoped he'd go down. If this had been a real tournament game, I'd have lost there and then, because Slayer just couldn't take the few remaining damage boxes off of Lucant. I think Lucant was left alive with four or less boxes.

The rest of Cryx then proceeded to maul the shield guard infantry, but failed to kill the very last one. Thing's didn't look too bad as of yet.

Turn 5, however, Convergence breaks both Slayer and Reaper and most of the Mechanithralls. Suddenly there was not enough attacks to cut through Convergence heavy warjacks. But to me it looked like that there was a charge lane for Deneghra to assassinate Lucant. And because Deneghra had Parry on herself anyway, she wouldn't need Ghost Walk to get to Lucant, right? So Skarlock can cast Ghost Walk on Black Ogruns just for giggles? Right?

Well, somehow it escaped my thoughts that Parry doesn't ignore rough terrain. Deneghra had to cast Ghost Walk on herself for premium price instead of a free cast by Skarlock. Luckily Lucant was already so damaged that four Focus points were enough to kill him, but damn it. How can I ever hope to fare in the upcoming tournament if I'm already making mistakes like these without the dehydration and sleep deprivation that's bound to happen at Ropecon?

Party like a pirate

Here's two Warmachine games played within the course of one week (and a day). Lists for both participants are almost the same. Both games were 35 points.

Since I've locked my league faction to Circle of Orboros, I wanted to take Cryx out for some fun and games. I've been wondering if it's any good to stack as much drag options to Cryx army as possible, plus other kinds of movement shenanigans. I guess I will be testing some aspects of the idea in 35 point games until I eventually play with a full 50 point list in Ropecon tournament later this year.

But enough with that. My list was:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Reaper
- 2x Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Black Ogruns
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
(Necrotech) & Scrap Thrall... funny thing, really. I made a big fuzz about remembering the Scrap Thrall and moving it around... yet I forgot to deploy Necrotech at all.
Pistol Wraith
Saxon Orrik
Gorman diWulfe
Madelyn Corbeau

Opponent had:

Forward Kommander Sorscha2
- Beast-09

Maximum unit of Winterguard Infantry + Unit Attachment + 2x Rocketeers
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Greylord Ternion
Kayazy Eliminators
Kovnik Joe
War Dog
Gorman diWulfe
Epic Eiryss

Scenario was Incursion. Cryx started, and didn't do much else other than running. Khador has Iron Flesh on the Winterguard Infantry. Cryx had just ran forward.

Turn 2 a Nightwretch ran into position to cast Crippling Grasp upon Winterguard Infantry. Idea here was that perhaps their DEF would became tolerable when combined with Crippling Grasp and Deneghra's feat. But first Deneghra needed to hit with the spell. And she hit.

Other than that Cryx turn was just positioning.

I was fairly sure I'd lose the Nightwretch who ran to cast spells on Winterguard, but much to my amazement it survived - but everything else died. I'm exaggerating of course, but I failed to see that if Beast-09 charged a black ogrun, my other Nightwretch would be within Beast's reach, too. So I lost both of the arcnodes in one turn. But that was not all. Combined ranged attack against Warwitch Siren killed her, and random sprays from Winterguard and Greylords killed all but one remaining Black Ogrun.

Before that Eiryss had shot off the Crippling Grasp - otherwise Winterguard wouldn't have been able to make special attacks. Kayazy Eliminators ran to rightmost flag.

Turn 3 situation is quite grim, but perhaps Deneghra's feat alone might turn the tide? Let's see. Deneghra activated, moved into base contact with center flag, used feat and sprayed all over the battlefield, and was left focusless. Deneghra failed to kill one of the greylords, and I was being paranoid about Sorscha's feat. You know... it just might happen that one magic skill 7 and POW 12 would kill Deneghra. After all it required only a damage roll of 10.

Then Saxon Orrik gives pathfinder for Bane Thralls. Then it looks difficult to get one Bane Thrall into contact with Beast-09, so Skarlock slaps Ghost Walk on them. A bit of a waste...

Gorman lobs blind grenade on a Kayazy Eliminator, and then Bane Thralls charge. They kill the Eliminator and injure Beast. Reaper has to come and finish the job on Beast, and luckily it did - otherwise I'd have a DEF 5 duck sitting in the middle of my army.

Instead of contesting left flag with Pistol Wraith, the ghostly solo advanced and shot the last remaining greylord very dead. Second initial attack dropped a Winterguard. Last Black Ogrun charged last Winterguard that might be contesting middle flag, and killed him. Scrap Thrall runs to engage a group of Winterguards.

There wasn't much to do for Khador. Sorscha advanced behind Great Bears of Gallowswood, and Winterguards formed a firing squad that removed last Black Ogrun and the Pistol Wraith. Kayazy Eliminator charged one bane thrall dead.

Turn 4 looked like I needed to assassinate now or never. First Gorman diWulfe advanced to throw blind oil on Sorscha, but was interrupted by counter charging War Dog.

Skarlock gave Ghost Walk for Bane Thralls, who then charged the War Dog dead. They also attempted the same to Great Bears, but failed miserably. Because Bane Thralls couldn't remove a bear who was blocking lane to Sorscha, I ditched the attempt to assassinate. Reaper just charged to destroy the bears, but it was just as efficient as Bane Thralls. Deneghra got scared of the upcoming sprayfest from Winter Guards, so she cast Ghost Walk on herself and abandoned the center flag. Now everything was left to fate.

Khadorans kill all the Bane Thralls and Skarlock. I don't remember how badly Reaper was mauled, but my guess is that pretty damn bad - possibly it's a proxy for wreck marker.

Gorman survives a shot by Eiryss. He takes only four points of damage. That's my Gorman! Key to my victory.

But then Sorscha advances and casts Cyclone and ends her turn at the flag on the right - just engaging Gorman. She also casts Iron Flesh on herself.

Turn 5 Deneghra kills Sorscha, slicing her steaming intestines to the ground while smiling sadistically, and Khadoran army covers in fear and flees away.

Well, at least in some parallel dimension. Since Skarlock died, Gorman had to take a free strike from Sorscha. He had expended all of his luck when facing Eiryss, so he just died. Then Deneghra needed to kill Sorscha all by herself. She didn't score even one hit.

Then Sorscha applies hammer to Deneghra's skull.


Game 2:

Second game I played with a little more refined list. I really don't understand why Saxon Orrik was in earlier list, when Deneghra has Ghost Walk. It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Anyway, my second list:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Reaper
- 2x Nightwretch

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
2x Warwitch Siren
Gorman diWulfe
Madelyn Corbeau

Opponent had:

Forward Kommaner Sorscha2

- Beast-09

Greylord Ternion
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Maximum uit of Winterguard Infantry + Unit Attachment + 3x Rocketeers
Kayazy Eliminators
Kovnik Josef
War Dog
Epic Eiryss

That comes out as 34 points, as there was no suitable 1 point models to fill the last remaining point. Opponent didn't own Gobber Tinker or the infamous Speculator.

Scenario was Outflank, and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 2, and what has happened so far is that Cryx just ran forwards, and Khador has Iron Flesh on Winterguard Infantry. Both players had a nasty bottleneck blocking early movement, but Khador had AoE's - and Cryx didn't.

Khador spread its forces all over the board. They were still close enought for Deneghra to get them all within her feat (well, except for Eliminators and last remaining Winterguards), but I didn't have too many options where I could place Deneghra to do that. Most notable thing probably was Eiryss shooting Reaper disrupted.

But turn 3 that was exactly what I did, anyway. I had decided to kill Beast-09 this turn, but those pesky Winterguards somehow found their way to block drag from Reaper. So before feat a Nightwretch advanced into position, and then Deneghra unleashed The Withering, followed by a Scourge on the winterguards and Beast-09. It was a direct hit even when Deneghra couldn't spare to boost the attack roll. Both winterguards died, and Deneghra cast Ghost Walk on the Reaper.

A Warwitch Siren uses Power Boost to give Reaper a focus point, and then Reaper advanced and dragged Beast-09 to its doom. And got to say... that warjack bond on epic Sorscha is rather nasty, since it's not tied to melee range. So it works even if Beast is knocked down. So Reaper became stationary.

Since it looked like I'd get a maximum of two Bane Thralls to charge Beast, Skarlock didn't bother to cast Ghost Walk on Bane Thralls. It cast Parasite on Beast instead. Bane Thralls charge/run, and in the end only one Bane Thrall makes it into melee with Beast. The other thrall missed a few critical, but quite clear millimetres.

All this took off Beasts open fist, and nothing else. Scared of what Beast might do next turn as I was, I ordered Gorman do lob Black Oil on Beast. So there was a huge blob of pretty damn useless metal right there. Beast-09 that was knocked down and blind, and Reaper and two Bane Thralls who were stationary and blinded.

A Warwitch Siren charged to kill a bear, but failed... or should we say that the bear succeeded at a Tough roll. At least she scored a hit and shadow bound the bear. And again I was terribly scared of Magic Skill [7] of the Ternion, whose POW from the sprays wouldn't be lowered by Deneghra's feat. Instead of charging or advancing and shooting, Black Ogruns just ran. One ran to engage one of the potential sprayers, and the rest formed a screen for Deneghra.

And when it was Khador turn I finally realised that all of my stress I had built up during both of these games had been for nothing. That frost bite spell spray is a special attack, which are spesifically forbidden by Deneghra's feat. Oh dear.

Next turn Sorscha casts Shatter Storm on Winterguard Infantry, advances and casts Cyclone, and uses her own feat. This was a grave mistake, when all of the stealth ignoring sprays weren't allowed. Only the rocketeers could try to injure focusless Deneghra with blast damage, but all two boosted RAT 3's missed DEF 12 Black Ogrun they were targeting. One of the deviating AoE's even had the arrogance to drift on Sorscha, and deal one point of damage to her. The unit itself blasted Reaper away in two Combined Ranged Attacks. Even during Deneghra's feat it isn't too difficult to hit a frozen, blinded heavy warjack.

Then Eiryss tried to come and shoot Deneghra, too, but even she missed.

At that point it was pretty much game over. Madelyn Corbeau advanced Gorman a little, and Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Gorman. Gorman then advanced and threw black oil on Sorscha. Black Ogruns did a combined melee attack on Sorscha and pulled her closer. Damage roll for the CRA was pretty high, so Deneghra had to just make one fully boosted attack to end the game.

But now is time for some butting!

Because I think it'd have been interesting to see how game would have developed, if it wasn't for the oversight of bringing Sorscha forward and then being unable to do much. In first game Khador had been able to shoot a lot of people dead(er) from my side before Deneghra used her feat. It's reasonable to assume that Reaper would have taken heavy damage from Winterguard even without Sorscha's feat, but perhaps the heavy wouldn't have been completely wrecked.

If I could have taken Beast and Eiryss down next turn and cast Crippling Grasp on Winter Guard to block the grapeshot sprays, Cryx would have still had a strong game even if my options at mass infantry removal were quite limited. Well, I guess getting rid of Beast was the least important of those three goals. Failing to kill Eiryss or missing Crippling Grasp on Winterguards would both have most probably spelled Deneghra's doom, since at least some boosted RAT 5 would have to hit DEF 16 Deneghra, and Winterguards would have been only dice -4 against her armor. With (or heck, possibly even without) Sorscha's feat there would have been a real chance for a casterkill.

Though of course if killing Eiryss of hitting with Crippling Grasp would have failed, I'd have blocked as much Winterguards as possible with the remainder of my forces. But hey, butting can go on forever. So I better stop now.

Incursion 2014

Over a week ago I played three warmachine games, and this is one of those.

This one was Cryx, and I took Deneghra with me.

We had actually created two lists to practice for "tournament style" playing, and my other list had Wraith Witch Deneghra as the warcaster.

Game was 35 points, and here was my chosen list:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Malice
- Nightwretch
- Defiler
- Helldiver

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 2x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Cephalyx Overlords
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren

And opponent had:

Prime Caine
- Defender

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + Officer
- Hunter
Minimum unit of Greygore Boomhowlers + Jonas Murdoch
Junior Warcaster
Arlan Strangewayes
Squire
... and perhaps something I forgot?

This write-up is quite brief. First picture is also taken after Caine had used his feat... so there is pretty much nothing left on the table. Scenario was Incursion, and Cryx got to start the game.

Deneghra ran forward on first turn, so she gained a pretty damn convincing board control position for upcoming turns. Cygnar also had was taking a risk that didn't pay off - it was the left flag that disappeared. So opponent had to start rushing things to right side of the board, but Deneghra in the middle made that quite difficult.

In short - Cygnar wasn't able to bring anything to contest rightmost flag, when Cryx started scoring points from it starting Cygnar's second turn. Last picture shows Deneghra's position when she got to use her feat.

I'm not entirely sure what would have happened if we'd have had to play attrition game instead. Caine's feat took away pretty much all of my infantry, and a couple of lucky strikes against Malice had almost brought the helljack down. Defender had not yet taken any damage at all.

It's not a good idea to sit on an ammunition depot when it's being shot at with a flamethrower

Few days ago I played a couple of Warmachine games.

I knew I was most probably facing High Exemplar Kreoss, so I wanted to play with Warwitch Deneghra. She was last of my warcasters/warlocks that hadn't played against Kreoss1 - and now I have collected a sort of a "set" in my personal Funny Families cavalcade in Warmachine/Hordes.

However, I do hate list tailoring, so I tried a couple of wacky things. We were playing 25 points, and my list was:

Warwitch Deneghra

- Ripjaw
- Deathripper

Maximum unit of Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudge Thralls (YES!)
2x Warwitches
Skarlock
Iron Lich Overseer
- Slayer

And opponent had:

High Exemplar Kreoss
- Crusader
- Repenter
- Revenger

Maximum unit of Exemplar Errants
Vilmon
Wracks
Vassal of Menoth

We played two games, and first scenario was Ammunition Run. Cryx got to start, and I kind of accidentally found out how fast army composition I had. Two warwitches could make the two bonejacks run, and Overseer could run around with Slayer. Since Deneghra doesn't have any important spells to fling during first round, she was able to run, camping all 7 focus.

Running at such high speeds is a little dangerous, though. Next turn Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Deneghra, and Deneghra went forward to dominate my objective. She tried to cast 3x Venom + Influence on Exemplar Errants, but she had just walked into Kreoss' control area, right into Lamentation. Oh, poopy.

What's even more embarrassing is that on Protectorate's second turn, Crusader charged objective and destroyed it. Deneghra was set on fire and took 5 damage in, since she had emptied her focus. Repenter and its spray was easily within 8" of Deneghra, so the jack tried to come and burn the witch a little. However, she took 12 points in from that damage roll, and she had only 11 left.

All this felt a little too familiar. I guess my witch never learns.


Game 2:

Same lists, but we switched sides and scenario. Scenario was Incoming.

Cryx got the start again, and this time around I actually tried to plan around my newly found speed. Opponent had made a curious two-flank deployment where exemplar errants & Vilmon were going to contest zone on left and Kreoss himself was on right side with full entourage of warjacks & Vassal of Menoth.

I had this grand plan of bringing one arc node, one warwitch siren and possibly slayer & iron lich overseer to get the left zone for Dragonfather.

However, it didn't quite work that way. First of all, Ripjaw's Venom sprays killed only a few exemplar errants, and then Vilmon himself was upon Ripjaw. Ripjaw lost its head first, so I couldn't really do anything to Vilmon, and rest of Cryxian assets were way too far away to do anything. Then I wanted to aggressively push my own zone and hope for a caster kill. To make things really really bad a lucky Cleansing Fire destroyed Deathripper's arc node straight away.

Drudge Thralls actually made some good tough rolls in this game when Repenter was shooting at them. Too bad that they still had to survive from upcoming Fire continous effects.

Second picture gives a partial scene from the end of Protectorate's second round. Because I really had to try to get through Lamentation now I got no useful arc nodes I used Deneghra's feat.

To be honest it did very little on my own turn - Parasite + Feat + charge from Drudge Thralls wrecked Repenter, but everything else failed miserably. Deathripper with one focus was going to bite Revenger (really far in right in the picture, just left out from picture) but missed. It bought another attack, but p+s 13 doesn't really do much vs armor 17 only with two dice. A Drudge Thrall didn't do much better.

Kreoss with 10" control range didn't want to use his feat just yet, he just upkept Lamentation and backed off a little. He probably gave some focus to jacks too who mauled drudges and even MAT 4 Revenger managed to hit Deathripper too.

It seems I didn't include a picture from the end of Protectorate's turn, but the follow-up picture is where I attempted an assassination. Since Kreoss had upkept Lamentation, casting boosted Crippling Grasp on him took all 7 focus from her. I truly hoped it'd be worth it.

Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on drudges and two got to charge Kreoss. The other one missed and the other one hit and did some damage in. Then Warwitch Siren charges Kreoss too and scores a hit, dealing WHOPPADOOYAEYEI damage. Kreoss was still left standing with two hit boxes.

And here is a little rant that goes with this: Guess what is the damage difference from combo-striking Mechanithralls, that are cheaper and faster and deal more damage than Drudge Thralls and have the same MAT? Yup, that's right, their difference is 2. So if I had used a full unit of mechanithralls with one brute thrall, Kreoss could've been dead with exact same rolls.

I really want to like drudge thralls, they dance YMCA so beautifully too, but how can anyone like them with performance like this?

Ok, let's continue.

Kreoss obviously used his feat now, and I was almost sure Deneghra would go down again. I had ran one of the Warwitch Sirens close to Deneghra to prevent a possible trample, but I wasn't sure if that would ever be enough.

Revenger (I think Revenger isn't seen in any of the pictures? - oh wait, there it is, in the very last.) killed Drudge Thrall that was blocking Crusader, and then Crusader attempted to charge def 5 arm 14 Deneghra. Luckily the heavy warjack just couldn't squeeze far enough in between another drudge thrall and warwitch siren, so its charge failed.

Afterwards we noticed that the often overlooked Arcane Bolt from Vassal of Menoth could have been the key to victory, if it would've dispatched a Drudge Thrall.

But then it was Cryx turn again. Deneghra upkept Crippling Grasp and shaked herself up, Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Deneghra and then she charged Kreoss.

Looks like Kreoss is missing from the picture, though. Duh, he's dead!

"I'm, like, completely ignoring you."

A couple of days ago I played a bit Warmachine.

It was a 35 point game with Steamroller 2012 scenario The Gauntlet.

I played following list with my Cryx:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- Ripjaw
- Defiler

Cephalyx Overlords
2x Warwitch Sirens
Iron Lich Overseer
- Reaper
Necrotech
Pistol Wraith
Ragman

And opponent had:

Epic Caine
- Ol' Rowdy

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + Officer
- Defender
Minimum unit of Greygore Boomhowler & Co.
Squire
Epic Eiryss
Madelyn Corbeau
Reinholdt

Opponent won starting roll, but decided to let me go first and pick side instead. Not a bad choice, when he'd get to score scenario points first. Also, his guns outranged mine. Which wasn't exactly a suprise, as I was playing Cryx.

First picture is taken from the end of Cygnar's first turn, and follow-up picture from the end of my second.

I decided to use Deneghra's feat there and then, because there was a real possibility of me not having enough of an army to make The Withering count on later turns. Only models that weren't under feat were jack marshaled Defender and Ol' Rowdy.

Damage I did was not very impressive. Two models dead from opposing side. However, Crippling Grasp was on Gun Mages, which meant that later I might actually hit against their otherwise godlike Defense.

Opponent didn't manage to do much, which usually happens during The Withering.

However, Defender missing corporeal Pistol Wraith with triple 1's and Ol' Rowdy failing to knock down Warwitch Siren with Tremor were some sort of an insult to injury, since both were unaffected by Deneghra's feat.

Eiryss, however, didn't mind much about the feat and disrupted Slayer.

On my next turn Pistol Wraith shot Gun Mage officer down and second shot tickled either a Boomhowler's company, or another model in Gun Mage unit, don't remember any more.

Eiryss messed up a Venoming of Caine as Ripjaw moved within 5" of her. Luckily Defiler could make up for the moronic move of Ripjaw, and the venom that could have melted Caine's heart made sludge out of Eiryss only.

Then, maybe next time when I face Ol' Rowdy I remember he has Counter Charge. Hapless Iron Lich Overseer moved on top of the little hill and wanted to claim one soul from the mercenary trollkin for Reaper to use later.

Well, turned out I didn't need to bring Ol' Rowdy to my lines with Reaper, it came just by itself, and made Overseer a sorry heap of scrap metal and necrotite fumes.

Though all was not lost! Ragman positioned himself so that both Slayer and Reaper would gain benefits of Death Field. However, Slayer attacked with Combo-Strike and rolled 4 or 5 for damage. With two dice. Yay.

Then Reaper came in with one focus loaded by a Warwitch Siren, and made two amazing damage rolls with two Helldriver attacks, leaving only Movement and Cortex intact on Rowdy. Could be that Movement was down too, but I'm not certain.

Well, I was afraid that this would be the turn when Caine used his feat upon Deneghra. She was sitting on two focus, so she was Defense 16 Armor 16 with 16 damage boxes left. Wow. I didn't realise that until now when I was writing this.

However, that was not to be. Caine did use his feat, but he opted to decimate pretty much everything but the Cryxian heavy warjacks and models with Stealth.

But he was without Focus now, and he just could not get rid of Arc Node of the Defiler.

With unsporty measurement of Control Area I found out that Caine was just within 12" of Deneghra, which is the range how far she can charge.

Problem was the one trollkin standing in between. She would have to charge exactly straight to Caine, he'd be left out of reach if she tried to shuffle even a little bit.

Looking at the pictures I can see that I had the keys to victory there, but order of operations was, again, messed up.

My two warwitches tried to poke Boomhowler to death, one with melee weapon (didn't hit) and one with Venom (hit but did no damage).

Then Slayer destroyed what was left of Ol' Rowdy, and Reaper tried to move into melee with the thrice damned trollkin.

If I was actually a good player, I would have first destroyed Rowdy with Slayer, moved Reaper up and dragged the trollkin out of way with Reaper.

Anyway, then Deneghra cast Scourge on Caine from about 1.75" away, which was autohit. Having failed to remove the trollkin from charge lane, Deneghra cast Venom on Caine instead, and did good damage in, something like 10 or the like.

Then Deneghra moves bravely as far away as was possible. I left her tip-toeing the Gauntlet zone, though as a hindsight, I should have gone to hug the Killbox instead and give opponent one damn control point.

Then comes opponents turn. Caine shakes himself up, moves forward and casts Gatecrasher, and just manages to get to Deneghra's back arc.

I find last picture to be somewhat hilarious. Both warcasters look like they're doing everything in their power to not notice the other.

Last two games in WM tournament at Ropecon 2012

Then, next I was playing against Cygnar.

This time it was epic Haley on the opposing side of the board.

I find it somewhat difficult to write about this game, because I don't want to be a jerk who writes bad things about some individuals.

Gaming experience was somewhat unpleasant and left a sour taste to mouth after the match. I mean. Just about every possible rule was played wrong, and to the benefit of opponent. Some of the rules interpretations were, in fact, outrageous.

I used my Deneghra list in this match.

Anyway, opposing list was something like this:

Epic Haley

- Stormwall
- Thorn

Maximum unit of Long Gunners + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Field Mechanics
Squire
Storm Strider
+ some other 2-point option I can't remember any more.

Scenario was A Flag Too Far, and used reinforcements.

Now, I did think 4x pow 12 covering fire templates were a bit... much. Somehow I didn't want to double check that one, though even by this time it was apparent that opponent was reading the cards very shoddily.

Anyway, what gave me a nice chance was Pistol Wraith. It Death Chilled the Stormwall for ages, which also blocked the movement for Storm Strider. I could actually attempt scenario victory.

I brought in my reinforcements as fast as I could to swarm up the leftern flank.

Next picture is probably from Deneghra's feat turn.

It was blatantly obvious to me now that the covering fire templates were played wrongly, when three of them were placed on board, when Stormwall used only one cyclone cannon for them. However, three templates were pretty much the same as two templates where they were located so I just let it be and focus on other rules corrections that popped up all the time.

I started scoring points there, and things looked pretty damn good, actually. Sure I could do nothing to the 120mm bases there, but they were far from my objectives.

Opponent shot down my scoring models and Junior Warcaster took down my savior, the Pistol Wraith. He also brought his reinforcements and got rid of Bane Thralls and started to threaten with scoring control points.

However, I managed to score one point more on my next turn by running Satyxis Raider Captain to primary flag.

Well, now, on opponents next turn Satyxis Raider Captain was shot down by the lone long gunner next to building.

And then Stormwall trampled through my Nightwretch to contest my primary flag, meaning I could no longer score points from it.

I did ask my opponent if he was certain that colossals could trample through medium bases. I would have probably insisted on seeing the rule in a little bit more detail, but someone on next table was sure they got a special rule for that. I was fairly certain that this was not the case, but I hate drama. Looking back at the game I should have asked to see the rules and cards a lot more than I did, but this would have lead only to a longer game and probably angrier atmosphere.

What can I say. Live & don't let this happen again. Maybe after this it will be easier to call TO (tournament organiser) over in situations like these.

Game 2:

Last game was Command & Control scenario (if I remember right - the control zone in circle and need to contest flag with warcaster/warlock).

I was facing Retribution, so my choice of list was pretty clear. Deneghra, again.

This was my first time getting to taste the joy that is Ravyn's tier list.

Opponents list was something like:
Ravyn
- Banshee

2x Maximum unit of Mage Hunter Strike Force + Officer

2x Stormfall Archers
Maximum unit of Invictors
Epic Eiryss
+ models I can't figure out.

Game was brutal.

First picture has already combat raging all across the board. Soulhunters had charged in to kill epic Eiryss and tie up potential turn 2 feat from Ravyn.

And it worked, too. Just somehow the angry elves weren't able to kill the Soulhunter who was engaging Eiryss. My next turn looked like a perfect spot to use Deneghra's feat. Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on her, and she emerged from the woods and used The Withering on just about every enemy model. Only a couple were left over. Ravyn was under.

I attempted assassination. Pistol Wraith advanced as far as it could on left flank and took a shot at Ravyn, and dealt respectable damage. However, as it turned out, as the wraith turned corporeal it was engaged in melee and couldn't shoot second shot at Ravyn.

One of Helldivers attacked her too. Sadly nothing else could reach her at the moment.

Opponent weathered Deneghra's feat quite nicely. The elves even did casualties - even under Deneghra's feat Banshee managed to wreck what was left of Ripjaw.

Then came my next turn, and I had another chance at assassination. However, Helldiver engaging Ravyn was as good as dead. It had unmarked damage boxes left only in Movement system. Which was good, because it could burrow away and get rid of Ravyn's melee bonuses.

Ravyn was brought down to 2 or 3 hit boxes remaining, but the bugger escapes Cryxian grasp.

Ravyn backed up and went to contest one objective flag. This made me realise I could actually only bring Deneghra to contest center zone. I also tried to fling a few spells at Ravyn, because focus wasn't much of use to Deneghra against Mage Hunter Strike Force.

Ravyn had healed herself with focus. And she didn't die. Still she didn't die. Huge tarpit of a melee raged above, and it was slowly turning against me. Only really operational and functional piece was Erebus, other warjacks were either wrecks or left only with very few hit boxes.

So.

I tried one last desperate action. Deneghra tried to cast away all Mage Hunters engaging her with a Venom and then making a hopeless charge against Ravyn.

I don't remember how the game actually ended in detail.

After two turns from this last picture I either succeeded in killing the Mage Hunters and did a charge at Ravyn, or then Ravyn just charged Deneghra with Vortex of Destruction up.

Either way, Deneghra lost.

And...

Truly. Now, with Scaverous being the only warcaster who got a victory for me in a tournament, I realised his curse wasn' broken. It was merely mocking me.

Is there life after purge?

I played a game of Warmachine yesterday too.

It was against Protectorate of Menoth and I had brought my Cryx with me. It was a 35 point game and my list was:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Erebus
- Slayer
- 2x Nightwretches

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Darragh Wrathe
Ragman

Opponent had the following list:

Epic Kreoss
- Avatar of Menoth
- Crusader
- Repenter

Minimum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum Choir of Menoth
Nicia

We played the good ol' Mosh Pit scenario. And I must warn again that in case you see any drudge thralls on opponents side of the board they are singing hymns for the protectorate warjacks until choir arrives from the mail.

Also, Satyxis Captain tries to disguise herself as Nicia.

I won starting roll and rushed to mosh pit already. Picture is from the end of opponents first turn.

Inviolable Resolve had been cast unsuprisingly on Avatar.

I decided my best bet would be to try to get Ragman into position to give Slayer Dark Shroud, load up the warjack with 3 focus, give 1 focus to Nightwretch and cast Ghost Walk on Slayer too.

That way, with some luck, I might drop either the sword or the shield from Avatar.

Well, first Nightwretch scored a hit, but pow 14 + 3d6 couldn't penetrate Avatars armor value of 23.

Then Ragman went to cast his spell and Slayer charged Avatar, attempting a combo-strike.

Slayer was less than half an inch away from gaining the Dark Shroud from Ragman and it botched its combo-strike. If I remember right it dealt something like 8 points in, which in itself wasn't bad, but I needed a little above average rolls to do any real damage. And I got a little below.

A new attack did some damage in too, but whole sorry affair merely tickled the Avatar of Menoth.

You can see Satyxis Raider alias Nicia peeking in that picture. Darragh Wrathe had cast Beyond Death and there was a little moment of thrill next turn when opponent tried to figure a way to charge Deneghra with Nicia. Charge attack with poower + strenght 10 + 4d6 followed with two p+s 10 + 3d6's could really have threatened Deneghra, who was focusless and had armor 14.

Darragh Wrathe's Beyond Death dropped a lot of threat from trying to pull off such a charge, so things went on differently.

Opponent retaliated by using Kreoss' feat.

Avatar rolled only 2 focus for it, yet it wrecked both Slayer and Nightwretch.

Crusader decided to charge one mechanithrall because it was so-and-so if it could reach Erebus.

It slapped one mechanithrall dead and hit Erebus real good. And, to be honest, during whole game I didn't need Erebus' defense 14 nor Overtake. But arm 18 over Slayer's 17 saved it when it was left with 5 or 6 hit boxes from about 4 attacks.

Now, thinking back, had I lost Erebus there I would've been really screwed as it still had Cortex and one arm intact.

Then it was Deneghra's turn to feat.

First Deneghra cast Ghost Walk on mechanithralls and then cast Crippling Grasp through arc node to the Crusader.

Picture doesn't show but bile thralls killed all but one bastion by purging all over.

Bile Thralls, half-hearted Erebus and aiming Nightwretch wrecked Crusader and five combo-strikes from Mechanithralls mopped up Avatar. Satisfying feat turn I guess.

Once Repenter had sprayed all over the place and a lucky random temple flameguard killed necrosurgeon, troops were spreading thin. Though now when I think of it, I think we forgot to reduce MAT and STR of the flameguard who killed Necrosurgeon.

Anyway, Kreoss decided to start tanking. I think we also forgot to stop Kreoss from running, but that didn't really change things all that much.

On my next turn I tried to cast Crippling Grasp on Kreoss through nightwretch, but I had ran it just into melee with Kreoss. I guess I should've tried to live with the elevation bonus.

Not much else to report, as the remainder of mechanithralls and temple flameguard were stuck in endless melee.

Then opponent makes a ballsy move of running Kreoss, camping all focus except upkeeping Inviolable Resolve on himself, where you can see him in first picture:

In second picture I moved nightwretch to get a back strike bonus against Kreoss in melee. Then Deneghra cast Crippling Grasp on him and ran away, giggling.

Erebus, that had been allocated 3 focus, smashed all it could at Kreoss and dealt plenty of damage.

However, Kreoss, despite being crippled, just turned around and destroyed the poor warjacks.

Then, on my next turn, the sole surviving mechanithrall comes to combo-strike Kreoss and Darragh tries to cast Hellfire on him. Kreoss is having about 5 boxes left.

In last picture, however, I made a funny little mistake. Deneghra re-aligned her position to get a good charge next turn, as she couldn't charge from where she was earlier.

Out of Mosh Pit.

So it was Kreoss' time to wipe out everything or die trying.

There was a big fight between Repenter (who had lost its flame thrower) and Nightwretch, but sadly Repenter just didn't kill Nightwretch.

Kreoss himself, however, dismounted Darragh and killed the mechanithrall. He did even get additional attack on dismounted Wrathe, but rolled damage miserably and Darragh took only couple of damage boxes.

Anyway, brave last stand.

Focusless Kreoss that had around 3 hit points was a foe worthy of Deneghra's personal attention, so she charged in and skewered the grand exemplar.