Krueger the Stormlord vs Intercessor Kreoss

With this game I'm introducing a new tag to this blog: failhorn_satyr.

That warbeast, Gnarlhorn Satyr, has a long history of failing at just about everything it tries or is designated to do. It's becoming more and more hilarious each time it happens. So, today I checked all of my games played with Circle and tagged the most egregious examples of what it means to be a Failhorn Satyr. I didn't tag too obscure games where it was quite likely that Gnarlhorn Satyr failed somehow, so the actual number of Failhorn Satyr sightings are higher than those documented.

Now, joking aside and a little bit of honest speaking, too. Some of the Failhorn taggings are actually my very own blunders and poor choices. But the thing here is that Failhorn Satyr either fails personally, or I make foolish mistakes with it myself. Sometimes both.

So. Today I played a 50 point warmachine game. My list was:

Krueger the Stormlord
- Riphorn Satyr
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Bog Trog Ambushers
Druids of Orboros
Minimum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Lord of the Feast
Blackclad Wayfarer
2x Gallows Grove

Opponent had:

Intercessor Kreoss

- 2x Reckoner
- 2x Vanquisher

Maximum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
2x Vassal of Menoth
Wracks
Vassal Mechanik
Rhupert Carvolo

Scenario was Two Fronts and Protectorate started game. First picture is from the end of Circle turn 1. Holy Ward is on Temple Flameguard, and Krueger has put up Stormwall.

Turn 2 Protectorate pretty much ran again, which makes me terribly worried. Their warjacks were continuously shielded from magic, so there was no pushing or pulling them. And now there were Reckoner deep in my friendly zone and Vanquisher about there also. One Reckoner was a couple of inches deep in my enemy zone surrounded with two Temple Flameguards, Vassal of Menoth and Vassal Mechanik. And Vanquisher right there in the neighbourhood. My friendly zone was lost, but it looked like there was an opening in trying to win by scenario.

Bog Trogs enter play and kill Rhupert, that's all.

Gnarlhorn Satyr charges the objective. Destroying it would ease getting a charge lane to Reckoner with Riphorn Satyr. Buuuut... Gnarlhorn Satyr does what Gnarlhorn Satyr seems to do best. I even put the dice for the final damage roll to the picture. Objective had three damage boxes left. It was two fury points down (or up?) though, as it had used Bounding on Riphorn Satyr.

Next Krueger uses Telekinesis on Riphorn Satyr and then he charges the objective. He needed 9+ to destroy it. Failing that, he'd be on fire. This time Krueger finishes objective. Then he uses feat, but pushes and pulls so that Reckoner in the zone doesn't move. Sadly one Temple Flameguard still remains in the zone. Last he casts Stormwall and hopes for the best.

Riphorn Satyr then charges Reckoner. In the picture Riphorn is the orange proxy base. Charge attack hits. It uses boosted horns to strike that Flameguard, but rolls 10 when it needed 11 to hit. Looking back now, I should've left the horns last. Second initial claw hits Reckoner and Riphorn performs double handed throw against a Temple Flameguard nearby. I had already lost at least five minutes in figuring out what the heck to do to the Flameguard grunt in my enemy zone. But then, while performing the throw, I realised that larger targets fly over smaller ones.

The answer to my problems came kind of by accident. As enemy warjacks had been shielded from spells, they were free prey to Lord of the Feast. He threw his bird at a Vanquisher and teleported so that he had a choir member within reach, a couple of Flameguards along with their officer, and as an added extra bonus, a Vassal of Menoth. The "kind of" accident here was that I had wanted to mess up with enemy formation somehow, though I was unsure if that particular model was regular unit leader or the officer. Of course one could have asked...

With a few extra attacks generated from the menite corpses, the officer died. This, in turn, placed exactly that Temple Flameguard out-of-formation that I had stressed over for nearly ten minutes.

Ravagers screen Krueger, and that's all. One Druid under Vortex cloud was contesting my friendly zone along with a Gallows Grove.

Turn 3 Protectorate attempts shenanigans, but this is apparently foiled by a Flameguard who had not moved. Trying his best he tried to contest my enemy zone, but only got Reckoner, Vassal of Menoth and three Temple Flameguards there.

If dice would screw me over hard enough, I guess I could have failed to remove the infantry models from there somehow. But this was not the case, when Ravagers did exemplary job at clearing them.

But let's not get too far ahead. Before any of this happened, there was start of turn with all the things you associate to that. Namely, threshold checks.

Gnarlhorn Satyr had been pushed back two inches, though now I suspect that I forgot about anti-magic field. However, closest target was now Krueger.

It was a relief when Gnarlhorn Satyr missed, despite needing 9+ to hit. So thank you, Gnarlhorn Satyr, for being consistent, at least!

Game ended in scenario victory for Circle, when Riphorn Satyr forced animus and pushed the Reckoner away from zone.

Adventures of Failhorn Satyr vol XVII

Last Tuesday I played a 35 point game of Warmachine.

I've had enough of Cryx for a little while, probably focusing on Circle of Orboros.

My list was:

Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Riphorn Satyr
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Rotterhorn Griffon

Druids of Orboros
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove

Opponent had:

Master Necrotech Mortenebra
- Harrower
- Slayer
- Helldiver

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Warwitch Siren

Scenario was Two Fronts and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Circle turn 1. Morvahna has no Fury at all since she cast Regrowth on Wolves of Orboros and Harvest on herself. Spectral Steel is on Harrower.

Turn 2 Cryx advanced forward aggressively. Though a couple of various thralls were able to charge random targets, no real damage was done.

Circle turn 2... Circle turn 2 was lovely to play. My only gripe was that I just HAD had to use my newly painted warbeasts, Rotterhorn Griffon and Riphorn Satyr. Rotterhorn might be okay there, but Morvahna's forests can make Satyr movement difficult.

Also I really wanted to see Riphorn Satyr in action, so I planned around on charging it to Slayer. Being enthusiastic about new stuff makes false impressions if you go to make piece trades with a nine point beast against a six point warjack...

Anyway. Morvahna was one of the first models to activate. Blackclad Wayfarer cast Stone Spray over Mechanithralls first to fill Morvahna back to full Fury. Gallows Grove repositioned itself better, and then Morvahna activated. She advanced forward to middle of the board, used her feat and started casting Eruption of Life. I cast that three Fury spell three times that turn, killed a Mechanithrall that was engaging Rotterhorn Griffon and was left with no fury at all.

As a side note I'm not entirely sure why on earth I placed Gallows Grove on the left. Well, actually I know why I did that. There was a forest, and a tree likes to hide in a forest. What escaped my attention was that if I really needed Stealth against enemy with not much real shooting, I could always trigger Prowl from Druids of Orboros vortex clouds...

Then rest of the infantry models activate and clear a few Bane Thralls and Mechanithralls. That one critical Mechanithrall was left alive. Bummer. Four Bane Thralls get destroyed, and then Riphorn Satyr charges Slayer. Arm 17 warjack with a light warjack damage grid wasn't a problem for a Fury 4 heavy beast with three P+S 16 initial attacks and Grab & Smash.

By now Morvahna got a couple of fury points from Harvest for transfers. Shifting Stones teleported her to safety.

Turn 3 Cryx uses Mortenebra's feat. Mortenebra charges Riphorn Satyr and does mediocre job in damaging it - even when she forgot to cast Terminal Velocity with the last three focus points she had saved for it. Sometimes you just get bloodthirsty like that.

It didn't actually ruin anything that much as Mechanithralls were able to kill Riphorn Satyr, and Harrower had enough movement to charge a Wolf of Orboros and a Shifting Stone. Bane Thralls don't do anything too impressive, though one had ran into contact with Riphorn before Mechanithralls charged.

Then.

Mortenebra didn't have any focus points on her, but she was in cover behind the wall.

I guess I could have tried to assassinate her with two Eruption of Lives and P+S 11 light warbeast. That just seemed too unlikely, so I tried to play safely and grind my way to victory with unending wave of Wolves of Orboros.

But annoying things started to happen. Well, to be more accurate, they continued to happen. Every goddamn time I give even a tiny amount of responsibility for Gnarlhorn Satyr, it fails. It's a good thing I've been keeping this blog going on for quite some time. I have the data to prove that there is something wrong in my Gnarlhorn Satyr. But I'm getting ahead of things a little.

First Wolves of Orboros activated and charged here and there. I dedicated only two to Harrower as I could and would use Power Swell this turn. They dealt a respectable amount of damage. I don't remember how much, but 7-9 or so would be my guess. More than enough to secure that at least one or two systems would break even if Gnalrhorn would roll badly.

Gnarlhorn. I wanted to believe in you. I put all my faith and all my trust in you. I was like Gandhi, who instructed to offer trust in an individual no matter how many times that individual betrays you.

But you worthless carcass of a goat did not even break the ranged weapon.

I even forced the fourth fury in desperate hope to cripple the fighting capabilities of the warjack even for a tiny amount.

But that was not the greatest failing. It was only the most outrageous one because of the history.

I got afraid of Helldiver and moved Morvahna as far as possible. I didn't pay attention to Rotterhorn Griffon, who had already activated an secured a location to contest my friendly zone.

Morvahna had three fury left for transfers, but she had no transfer targets.

Next turn Helldiver one-shotted Morvahna.

The Battle of Three C's

Last Saturday we played a 50 point game of Warmachine with three players.

Needless to say, this is a personal tragedy for my excel sheets, though playing a multiplayer game first time for a very long time was an interesting idea. But... statistically, who was my opponent? Which faction would I win if I won the game? To which factions and casters I would lose to, if I didn't win?

Eventually I decided that this game would go to the "weirdo games" block I have in my spreadsheets that I have reserved for things like Who's the Boss, 2v2 plays and things like that.

Anyway, I took Circle with me. Moreover, I took Morvahna the Autumnblade because I thought that Regrowth spell might be annoying indeed in a multiplayer game.

My list was:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Megalith
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Woldwatcher
- Winter Argus

Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane
2x Gallows Grove

Idea in the list was to be well protected against spells and shooting and having enough models for a prolonged match.

Then there was Convergence lead by Iron Mother Directrix (why did I mistype that first as Dominatrix?)

It was a tier list somewhere up to tier 2 or so.

Iron Mother Directrix
- Prime Axiom
- Cipher
- Monitor
- Assimilator
- Mitigaotr
- Corollary

Optifex Directive
Accretion Servitors

And then we had Cygnar with epic Haley, whose feat is no less terrifying in a multiplayer game.

Major Haley
- Stormclad
- Lancer

Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers + Officer
Maximum unit of Storm Lances
Maximum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard
Journeyman Warcaster
Squire
Eiryss (the ordinary version)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Gorman diWulfe

We played on 4ft x 6ft board with deployment areas vaguely 24" apart. Scenario was Mosh Pit with a 16" rectangle. Starting on 3rd turn, if a turn ended with no enemy models inside the zone, you win the game. Turn order was Convergence first, Cygnar second and Circle last.

I've taken pictures so that two faction will have completed their turns in between the pictures. First picture is taken from the end of turn 1, so Convergence starts turn next.

Turn 1 was had Arcane Shield cast on Storm Lances, Regrowth on Wolves of Orboros, Restoration on Woldwatcher and Harvest on Morvahna. Tactical Supremacy was probably on too, but I forget the target.

Turn 2 sees a little action. Convergence took small pot shots at Horgenhold Forge Guards who were passing their Tough (from Rhupert) godlikely. Eiryss was infiltrating Convergence, you can see her way up there in the picture.

Circle tries to pull Assimilator within charge range of Gnarlhorn Satyr, and they almost succeed. Or how to say it... they succeed too well? Three Druids that were shooting force bolts at the Assimilator all pulled the vector full 3", which engaged the vector. Last druids couldn't hit it any more because it was in melee. Gnarlhorn attempted to charge anyway, with Bounding. Still the charge failed for about a quarter of an inch. So now I had just pulled a heavy vector in middle of my army without being able to deal with it...

I had also spent all Fury from Morvahna, as I was sure I'd be able to kill at least one Storm Lance with sprays from Winter Argus, charge from White Mane and a charge from Wolf of Orboros. Turned out I couldn't. So Morvahna was entirely Furyless. I got so afraid that Woldwatcher ran next to Morvahna. At least she'd be safe from direct shooting now.

Turn 3 Convergence obviously smashes the foolish goat who tripped on a wood in a forest. Convergence also continued to harass the Horgenholds, who continued to roll Tough when damage rolls accidentally punched through their armor. Oh, and the Lancer went down to Prime Axiom's tow cables.

Cygnar killed Wolves of Orboros with Storm Lances and stuff. Eiryss tried to shoot Iron Mother, but missed. This time.

Morvahna decided to use feat, and filled Wolves of Orboros back to full strength with Regrowth. That went okayish. What didn't go okayish at all was the sad attempt at dismantling Assimilator. Everything I threw against it (including Megalith) just failed.

Turn 4 Convergence thankfully deals with Gorman diWulfe, but those damn dwarves still refuse to die.

Haley uses her feat that messes up absolutely everything. Miraculously Megalith survives a round of beating from Stormclad and Assimilator, but without being able to advance to engage Stormclad, Megalith would need to survive two rounds. Hah. Not going to happen. This time Eiryss doesn't miss, and Iron Mother would be focus-starved next turn.

So next round is pretty fast and straightforward. Megalith succeeds to beat Assimilator down, and to make it more appealing for Convergence to drag the Stormclad away, Megalith also uses its animus. Morvahna brings back wolves to engage gun mages, but for Circle that was pretty much everything.

Turn 5 starts with Convergence under Haley's feat and Iron Mother Directrix disrupted by Eiryss. Notable thing here was probably when Iron Mother went and beat Eiryss down personally in melee even without boosts. She wasn't in Haley's control area.

Stormclad finishes Megalith, and Gun Mages kill Wolves of Orboros in droves. As Circle had only Woldwatcher as a warbeast, Morvahna went into vengeful frenzy mode. I put all my efforts into killing Haley. Morvahna dropped upkeeping Harvest and brought back the maximum of six Wolves or Orboros, and they all charged Eiryss. Full 6 member Combined Melee Attack missed. Sad panda.

Turn 6 Convergence pretty much secures the middle zone. It's a bit hilarious that it's turn 6 already and I can still see some Forge Guards alive. What's not hilarious at all is that in the last picture I can see Morvahna nowhere alive. She died to two electro leaps. I think she had something like 7 hit boxes left from various bits and bobs.

Well, since it's a three player game, I did got to play with the Wolves of Orboros anyway. And they really wanted to at least deal some damage to Haley. And I think they did something like four points. Or maybe more. But doesn't really matter, as Convergence cleared the middle area from enemy models on turn 7.

It was kind of refreshing to see how three player game changes things. Of course you can't talk much about balance, but spells like Harvest and feats that affect enemy models instead of your own models have way bigger impact in the game in terms to power. It's a shame Convergence has so few truly living models, as it would have been nice to fill Morvahna with Harvested Fury from opponents fighting each other.

But the game took a long time to play. A very long time.

Madrak Ironhide, the Thornwood Fertilizer

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

Anyway, opponent played both games with:

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

Minimum unit of Krielstone Bearers

Whelps
Stone Scribe Chronicler

My first game was:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Game 2

Second game I played was with following list:

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Wold Guardian
- Gorax

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

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

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

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

Well then!

I must say I didn't do any better.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

InCurseon

Last Thursday I played a 35 point Warmachine game.

I'm currently stacking games for Morvahna the Dawnshadow, and my list was:

Morvahna
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Gorax
- Winter Argus

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Tharn Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Reeve Hunter
2x War Wolf

Opponent had:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- 2z Deathripper
- Defiler

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech & Scrap thrall

Scenario was incursion, and Circle started. Fog of War is on, and Carnivore is on Wolves of Orboros just for giggles. Cryx took a risk in having heavy presence at middle and leftmost flag, and unluckily that didn't pay off. It was exactly the leftmost flag that disappeared.

A War Wolf runs to control the rightmost flag, and Wolves of Orboros make an awkward charge against Bane Thralls. Bloodweavers charge Deathripper, but only one of them actually gets the charge. One extra weaver runs into melee to provide gang bonus for the charger. Last and least War Wolf charges the Defiler, too. Damage wasn't too excessive, but Cryx was quite badly blocked from rightmost flag.

Next Deneghra advances an unleashes The Withering. All Circle warbeasts and Morvahna is under that dreaded feat, as is everything else except for about half of Wolves, War Wolf on the rightmost flag and Blackclad Wayfarer.

Damage in itself wasn't very bad, though Gnarlhorn Satyr was knocked down with Scourge and then a Bane Thrall charged the goat and took 4/5 of its damage boxes away with just one swing. However chances were that I'd lose all of my warbeasts next turn, or at least I was afraid of that.

War Wolf scored first control point.

So, why not go for the assassination? Satyr shaked off the knockdown, Gorax advanced and used Primal on Gnarlhorn Satyr and then Shifting Stones teleported the Satyr to Deneghra's back arc. Gnarlhorn had three Fury left to use, effectively MAT 8 with Primal and back strike bonus, but in Deneghra's feat.

Something felt amiss, though. I should have done something earlier, but I could not remember what. Gnarlhorn activates and starts beating Deneghra. Oh, right... Then I remembered. Gnarlhorn had lost both Body and Mind aspect. Thanks to Morvahna's re-roll Gnarlhorn was still able to land nine points of damage in, but damn it. I need to do some kind of big, visible neon sign tokens I can place next to my warbeasts that remind me of lost aspects.

Winter Argus froze a nearby Deathripper and prepared to die.

Gallows Grove teleported in middle of Bane Thralls with the unit attachment. Wolves of Orboros who weren't under the feat charged Bane Thralls and a Deathripper. Five thralls died.

Morvahna advanced 6" and then another 5" with light cavalry movement. She had stopped to upkeep anything and healed for six boxes, keeping one Fury left for transfers. I had already been way too greedy with re-rolls and used them where they weren't absolutely necessary.

War Wolf scores second control point.

Bane Thralls kill all of the Bloodweavers, so they wouldn't be coming back with Morvahna's feat any more.

It starts to be quite nasty situation for Cryx, so Deneghra goes for assassination. Now that Defiler had been dislodged from melee, it advanced to align some sprays Morvahna. First Venom deals seven damage, which Morvahna could still take in and not die. I don't remember if second spray hit or not or what was the damage dealt and where it was transfered, but Morvahna was still standing.

War Wolf scored third control point and Cryx scores first.

Next Morvahna just runs to dominate right flag, which gives scenario victory.

I did gain a huge advantage in the flags, and Cryx wasn't aggressively trying to contest the rightmost flag. But the attrition game was interesting, I almost would have liked to see how that would have turned out here. After all, I still hadn't been able to kill Tartarus, and I lost my heavy warbeast. All my serious hitting power was lying in the hands (or cleft spears) of Wolves of Orboros, and Morvahna still hadn't used her feat.

But again playing Morvahna left a little bit sour taste in my mouth. Mental mouth, that is. She has such a huge amount of tricks available to her - and not just some fluffy little gimmicks, no, they're all powerful tricks. This was just third game with new Morvahna, and I'm already hoping for some sort of nerf.

Heavy armour is probably difficult to handle with her, since she doesn't directly raise the damage potential of the army all that much. Sure, re-rolls do that too, but it's not a direct bonus to Strength or lowering armour of enemy models. Maybe I was just lucky with her in the game against the Protectorate, where she personally destroyed Reckoner and Arm 22 Reznik.

But I guess that's enough of complaining about the warlock I'm currently playing. I should be happy - not whiny.

Ambush That Didn't Last For Long

A little bit over a week ago I played this game of Warmachine.

My list was (25 points):

Kaya the Wildborne
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Argus
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Bog Trog Ambushers
Druid Wilder

Since I had finally painted a full unit of Bog Trogs I wanted to use them right away. Because it was a 25 point game, many things had to be sacrificed... I was quite worried of playing Kaya with only one heavy warbeast.

My worries didn't ease at all when I saw opposing list:

Lieutenant Caine
- Avenger

Maximum unit of Greygore Boomhowler's & Co + Jonas Murdoch
Black 13th
Journeyman Warcaster
Ragman
Squire

I felt I had way too few attacks to deal with such a horde. And most of them had 4+ tough roll.

Scenario was Supply and Demand, and Circle got to start the game.

First picture is taken from the end... no, at the start of Circle's second turn. Because there are Bog Trogs on the board. And this is the last picture where you see them... but now I digress.

Opponent was a bit unfamiliar with the Ambush rule, so I got to pull off a nice charge against Black 13th and various support solos. I would've been able to get a few of them to attack Caine himself, but I didn't think they would actually kill him. So I focused on the support. Two of the Black 13th died, and Squire too.

Next turn Caine stands still for aiming bonus and uses his feat. Not even a single Bog Trog survives. So, pointwise thinking, my 8 points didn't even manage to kill 6 points off the board, so now I was outnumbered even worse. However, their sorry little ambush stalled Cygnarans a little, and there's no point value for that.

Avenger misses Gnarlhorn Satyr, which was quite a relief. The goat counter-slammed one advancing trollkin dead, and was shot for something like 33% of it's health boxes just by Boomhowler's alone.

So next turn I was forced to a piece trade. Or maybe I wasn't, but I sure felt like it!

Druid Wilder cast Primal on Gnarlhorn, who then charges Avenger. I was planning on wrecking Avenger and then taking a couple of swings the the objective. But as Gnarlhorn has a long history of failing at everything it tries to do, it managed to miss twice against def 12 target. With MAT 10, yes.

Well, on the plus side, one really high damage roll made up for those missed attacks and it did got to buy one attack against objective. But one wouldn't be enough to destroy it. Four points in.

Griffon had flown through the forest and killed the last remaining Black 13th and started to claw at a trollkin, who passed two tough rolls. Well, that doesn't matter, since I can still come with the Argus to finish off that trollkin. And either it passes all five tough rolls, or then Argus couldn't get through the trollkins armor. I don't remember exactly how it went, but the end result was that the trollkin was still standing (well, lying) and my beasts had forced themselves at least five times.

Griffon was teleported away with Spirit Door (Spirited Away?) and I noticed I was already dominating the control zone, so thing weren't entirely bad though they were not that good either.

Caine casts the spell that slammed its target on Gnarlhorn, but he rolls high enough to kill the wounded goat.

Otherwise the turn was quite merciful, since Argus returned the favor on the invulnerable trollkin. Def 15 made wonders for me. There is a small "glitch" in the picture, however. The objective is actually the wreck marker of Avenger and vice versa. We switched their positions, because one of the trollkins was impossible to balance on a heavy warjack model.

When I'm looking at the last picture, I got the feeling that there must be one round missing. I can't, however, remember how things went exactly. I remember charging objective with Gorax and Wilder but not managing to destroy it, but finally shooting it down with a Spirit Fang. What I don't get is how I managed to not kill those two trollkins that were contesting control zone... Perhaps one of them just kept on getting the 4+ on tough rolls?

Well, I guess the details are not that important here, because in the end it turned out to be a clear scenario victory for Circle. When I come to think of it, most of my victories with pKaya have come from scenarios. Again in this game without the scenario it would have been a bittle struggle of attrition.

Even when opponent had only Caine, three Boomhowlers, Ragman and Junior Warcaster for him, they would have been more than a match for Kaya and two light warbeasts.

Deathspur Assassination

I have this ideology, or bias (depending on point of view), to try something new with almost every list I play. Something has to be different, even if the change is a very little one. Only during tournaments I play with exactly same lists, and sometimes if I get to play two games in a row I may play with the same list to save some time.

It's probably not very wise thing to do, as chances are I will never actually "master" any list I play. But that's the way I want to roll, so to say.

Well, this time I was going to play a 50 point game. I chose Kaya as my warlock, and this "new" thing in my list was, well... they were the Druids of Orboros with Overseer. As I was thinking what I wanted to include in my list, I realised that I had never used the staple of many Circle armies with Kaya - the Druids of Orboros.

So, my list turned out to be:

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

Tharn Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Lord of the Feast
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder

I didn't exactly know what to expect, since I had not played this particular opponent for ages. I knew the possibilities were Protectorate of Menoth, Khador and Legion of Everblight.

What I faced was a thing out of my darkest nightmares - Saeryn.

So, enemy list:

Saeryn
- 2x Scythean
- Ravagore
- 2x Angelius
- Shredder

2x Shepherd

Forsaken
3x Spell Martyrs

The nightmarish thing here was that I had two heavy warbeasts and opponent had five. In a situation like this even Lord of the Feast loses a lot of his potential, and while Druids of Orboros are always nice, they're a bit less so when their cloud effects are completely ignored and there are no real targets for Devouring and even if you manage to pull one or even two heavy hitters to your army's charge range, enemy still has 3-4 heavy beasts, or maybe even more if one of them had Respawn. At least Elemental Protection was there to offer them some survivability, but there was this nasty problem of Blight Bringer being corrosion type damage. Damn, damn, damn.

Luckily I had brought my mainstay unit of Bloodweavers with me. They're very capable of taking out one heavy warbeast per round if they get to charge.

Anyway, this time I forgot my camera back at home. I tried to take some pictures with my phone, but most of them are just rubbish. I'm still uploading them here just to illustrate, but if my photoshooting skills haven't been entirely agreeable in the past, now they're even less so.

Scenario was randomised to be the trusty old "Incursion", and the usual flag disappeared, that is, the middle one.

Legion started the game, and first picture is from the end of Circle turn 2. What has happened so far: One of the Scytheans had advanced far enough for Druids to try to pull the thing within charge range. And... it succeeded. Blackclad Wayfarer cast Hunter's Mark on the Scythean, and Gnarlhorn Satyr charged in. For the first time in ages it did something good: it killed the dragonspawn without actually failing at everything.

The reason why Legion hadn't advanced more was probably the fact that I sacrificed Lord of the Feast right on turn 1. After all there were so few good targets for it that I thought trying to destroy some beast support was the best it could ever do. It killed the Forsaken and one Spell Martyr. And of course it slowed down the advance. Worth it? Maybe...

It's a shame I had positioned Argus so sloppishly, since it was less than an inch away after a full 14" run from the flag on the left. I had been too busy in arranging the destruction of Scythean to have a clear, straight path for Argus to run.

Anyway, I had to charge with Scarsfell Griffon to one of the Angelius' that was contesting rightmost flag. Had I not done that, opponent would have easily started scoring points during next turn. Shifting Stones and Stone Keeper with them had started to slowly move themselves to contest rightmost flag, it started to look like that the only thing I could do on that front was to contest the flag as long as I could with a couple of stones. Looking back now, I see that opponent did start scoring points no matter what. Oh well...

Gnarlhorn had been placed back to safety with Spirit Door, and the Scythean had been killed around the spot where is the cog template that represents a scather shot from Ravagore.

And then it just had to happen, the dreaded feat of Saeryn.

Luckily the only real casualties for me were Blackclad Wayfarer, four Druids of Orboros (along with their Overseer - so much for the beastmaster) and the Scarsfell Griffon. By "real" casualty here I mean models that were removed from the board. Kaya was set on fire via blast from Ravagore, the excessive damage roll was transfered to Gorax, and a charging Angelius nearly brought Warpwolf Stalker to its grave. And next turn there was absolutely nothing I could do to any of the enemy warbeasts.

Well, here is what I tried to do.

Since Saeryn's battlegroup couldn't be targeted with melee attacks, Argus, probably for about the first time ever, got to use its spray attack! It yodled at Ravagore, and scored a hit. Then remaining Druids of Orboros tried to push it away, and they pushed quite nicely indeed. Now there was no worry of Ravagore running in and getting Blight Bringer on it.

Then Kaya activated and cast Spirit Fang on Scythean, and scored a couple of damage points in. Which was enough, since -2 SPD meant no charge for the beast. Kaya also used her feat, and healed a couple of beasts and cast Spirit Door on herself, moving to dominate a flag. On the right side Shifting Stones teleported to contest flag there.

Gorax and Gnarlhorn Satyr just positioned themselves to form a wall of flesh in between Legion of Everblight and Kaya. Looking back, again, their positioning was quite stupid. After all, Scythean could now easily get Bloodbath going on. Well, it didn't, because it missed one of its initial attacks, but that doesn't really change the fact that my positioning was bad.

Warpwolf Stalker just remained there, because I didn't want Angelius to charge anywhere. I was thinking of moving it with Spirit Door, but even with Kaya's feat she just didn't have the Fury for it.

Next few pictures are disturbingly shaken.

But thanks to the missed attack roll, both Gnarlhorn Satyr and Gorax survived the onslaught of the Scythean. Both were just about to die, though.

Saeryn tried to cast a Hellfire at Kaya through a Spell Martyr, and Ravagore tried to shoot her. Since she was already on fire, it didn't use its animus. One of them hit and one of them missed, I don't remember which did what. The damage was, however, transfered to Argus.

Well, then. Druid Wilder casts Gorax's animus on Gnarlhorn, and then Gnarlhorn proceeds to beat the snot out of Scythean (after druids of orboros had healed the broken branches, though). The Curse of the Gnarlhorn strikes again. Despite having MAT 10 and P+S 17 and two P+S 16 attacks and 4 Fury to use, it had to force itself to full 4 Fury to kill the Scythean. I don't think a single damage roll (except maybe the last?) was above 6 on two dice.

Argus has a lot better dice, since it manages to kill Shredder without breaking a sweat even with its Body branch destroyed (Argus had something like 4 damage boxes remaining from all the transfers).

Next Kaya tries something desperate. She charges the Ravagore, just hoping for astonishing damage rolls that maybe wouldn't kill the beast, but hopefully knock it down and maybe break a branch or two. None of that happened, the grand total with two attacks with damage boosts was about 3 or 4 damage in.

Then she cast Spirit Door to go back and dominate the flag. And now Circle was at 4 control points and Legion was at 1 control point. If that Argus just had had enough movement to bring itself to the flag on turn 2... A bitter, salty tear is shed here as I write.

Bloodweavers make amazing job, too. They all charge at Angelius who had Respawn on. First Bloodweaver used Dispel on its attacks, and the rest attacked with MAT 8, P+S 11 +4d6. Thanks to amazing damage rolls the last two Bloodweavers didn't even need to attack.

Well then it's Legion of Everblight's turn, and something very embarrassing happens. Since there isn't too many options for enemy either (and Kaya had one Fury left for transfering), my opponent decided the best course of action is to attack Kaya (who has about 6 damage boxes remaining from being on fire for three turns and cutting her for two Fury last turn) with Saeryn's ranged attack option, the Deathspur.

So... Saeryn advances and starts throwing about those stars. Kaya is behind a wall, and sits effectively at Def 20. First attack misses, but second does not. And with a damage boost later, Kaya just dies to the first damage roll she suffers from Saeryn's awe-inspiring P+S of 8. Deathspur has Grievous Wounds special ability on them, so Kaya couldn't transfer the damage away. But still... Kaya died to P+S 8 boosted damage roll, and not to P+S 15 boosted damage roll from Ravagore that she wouldn't be able to transfer away.

That is nearly as embarrassing(/awesome?) as inflicting the final wound on Madrak Ironhide with Anatomical Precision from Cephalyx Mind Slaver that I managed to do back in Mk1 edition of Warmachine.

So, all in all, a really close and exciting game. Looking back at the last round of the game, just by casting Occultation on Kaya and moving her a little farther away would've saved her bacon from Deathspur at least, since Saeryn doesn't have Eyeless Sight. But things like that are quite difficult to see before you know what happens.

Failhorn Satyr

About a week ago I also played a second game of warmachine. It was played straight after the last game, but I didn't have the strenght, endurance and/or willpower to write it up in one go.

But anyway, it was a 25 point game.

I played with:

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

Lord of the Feast

Druid Wilder
Blackclad Wayfarer

Opponent had:

Magnus the Traitor
- Mangler
- Renegade

Minimum unit of Croe's Cutthroats
Minimum unit of Kayazy Assassins
Epic Eiryss
Gorman diWulfe

Circle got to start again, though this time it was my own choice. I didn't want to give Magnus such a huge head-start, though scenario was Destruction.

Again the threat of very troublesome AoE's made Kaya cast Occultation on herself. First picture is taken from the end of Mercenary turn 1.

I proceeded in trying to shoot Lord of the Feast's raven to Renegade on a hill and scored a lucky hit. Lord of the Feast didn't want to balance right, so his back arc is actually his front arc. He managed to thresher all of the Croe's Cutthroats in his melee range and did some damage even to Renegade.

Then Warpwolf Stalker charged the Renegade and wrecked it. Good thing: The warjack was destroyed before it got time to shoot the horrible knockdown template of doom. Bad thing: my 10 point beast, along with 4 point solo, were just standing there, waiting to die.

And die they did.

Mangler obviously made minced meat out of Warpwolf Stalker, Def 14 wasn't enough to save it. However Magnus was left in a bad position after killing Lord of the Feast, as it left a clear charge line for Gnarlhorn Satyr to Magnus. Surely a heavy warbeast would take a focusless warcaster down?

Druid Wilder cast the Gnarlhorn animus on Gnarlhorn itself, and then it charged Magnus. I was wondering if I should have done a grand slam instead, but hey... it was def 14 arm 17 target with 17 damage boxes. What could go wrong?

Charge attack scored a good, solid hit that dealt 10 points in. Claw attack that had its damage roll boosted was a little less inspiring, dealing only 5 points in. Well, I still had one initial attack and two Fury left.

Third initial missed, though it needed only 6+ to hit. Not a big deal, still two Fury left. Gnarlhorn buys another attack and I decide not to boost attack roll, because this way I'd boost damage or if I failed to hit I would still have yet another 6+ chance to hit. Ah well, the bought attack was a miss. But I still got one chance, and if Gnarlhorn manages to score a hit Magnus would be dead on 4+ with two dice. You guessed it. Miss.

Well... Now situation looked a bit difficult. But I still got one random chance to do an attack to Magnus, and that was with Blackclad Wayfarer. He went and positioned itself so he could spray Magnus. I forgot Magnus had upkept Blur, so I needed something like 10+ to hit, so it was a miss. Gnarlhorn happened to be under the spray template, so I needed to make an attack roll against it. But not a biggie, it's only pow 12...

Blackclad Wayfarer rolls doubles. Gnarlhorn Satyr is rewarded for his miserable performance by being knocked down on top of everything.

This is not the first time Gnarlhorn Satyr has failed me horribly like this. In fact it does that on a pretty regular basis. And it's not that the model would be bad or anything, I think its rules are awesome, but when it comes to important rolls and activations it's a guaranteed failure.

Next turn Mangler stomps another heavy warbeast (it had destroyed now 18 points worth of models. Not bad?) and remaining Croe's Cutthroats execute the Blackclad Wayfarer. Magnus backs up and heals himself a little. Then Gorman activates and throws black oil to Scarsfell Griffon. It's a miss, but luckily the template doesn't deviate so that Kaya would be blinded.

Then some Kayazy assassins charge, but they don't too terribly much, except kill Scarsfell Griffon to 5 boxes left or something like that. But Kaya evades Kayazy assassins, and that's whats important.

My turn started with Kaya, Druid Wilder and a blind griffon. There was, however, a possibility for a lucky assassination. Kaya advanced and cast boosted Spirit Fang on Magnus who was sitting on def 17 arm 17 and 4-5 hit boxes remaining.

Kaya needs 11+ to hit on 3 dice. She misses... twice. Now Kaya is in a better place and doesn't need to hit any longer.

I still find Kaya's defiant pose hilarious in situations like these.

Raging Bull does sound more menacing than Raging Goat

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

I'm trying to get some games in with Kaya the Wildborne, so I took her as my warlock.

My list was:

Kaya
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Druid Wilder
Blackclad Wayfarer

And opponent had:

High Exemplar Kreoss
- Crusader
- Repenter
- Revenger
- Dervish

Minimum unit of Deliverers
Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants
Wracks
2x Paladins of Order of Wall
Vilmon
Vassal of Menoth

We randomised a scenario from a few possible choices, and turned out we were playing Close Quarters from Masters 2013 rule set. First picture is probably taken from the end of Circle's second turn. Things had already started happening there. Deliverers knocked off Blackclad Wayfarer with a rocket volley, and shifting stones teleported Pureblood forward to punish deliverers for their wicked deeds. And to prevent retaliation the big bad wolf was yanked backwards to safety.

Had I still had Blackclad Wayfarer, I would've probably tried to cast Hunter's Mark on Crusader and make a ridiculous slam with Gnarlhorn and use feat to pull back the goat too.

Well, the satyr actually got to slam on opponents next turn, when Crusader advanced just within 6" (damn that's a long distance...) and counter-slam triggered.

Collateral damage knocked down Kreoss and Crusader, and destroyed a wrack. Following explosion killed Vassal of Menoth that had just survived collateral damage from the slam. Crazy performance, but I wasn't sure if it was worth it.

Repenter and Revenger both came to beat up the heavy warbeast, but dice gods weren't really on opponents side. Charge attack from Repenter came out as triple 1's, and a single attack from Revenger didn't do much better.

Next turn Druid Wilder moved to hug a flag and cast Primal on Gnarlhorn Satyr. I didn't expect it to survive another round, but I thought it could destroy Repenter and deal some damage to Revenger. Now, Gnarlhorn Satyr continued its long trend of sub-par damage rolls. 2x P+S 16 attacks and 5x P+S 17 attacks just managed to wreck Repenter.

Because I might have scored points this turn, Scarsfell Griffon charged the one Exemplar Errant that looked like being within 4" of opponents flag. Charge falls about a full inch short.

Pureblood is teleported again full speed forward, and this time it tries to kill paladins with its spray. Dice weren't really good here either, but to be honest, all paladins were under Stone and Mortar -stance. However, only Vilmon dies, a paladin is slightly damaged and one of the deliverers is completely missed.

Wolves of Orboros ran to engage as many errants as possible, but really, things could have went a little better this turn. Now as a hindsight I guess I shouldn't have been so scared of Kreoss' feat and move a little closer with Kaya, use her feat and pull back Gnarlhorn too. But since satyr was frenzying next turn anyway I foolishly thought that it'd be good to have a large target tying up one flank. For some reason I didn't pay attention to the fact that Kreoss still had his feat...

Next turn Kreossindeed launches the full wrath of Menoth. Pureblood, Griffon and Kaya are out of Kreoss' control range, though, so that was good news. Bad news was that Gorax and Gnarlhorn both died mercilessly, and opponent had lost only Repenter.

Ah well. Next Circle's turn I got to use Kaya's a little bit more humble feat.

Shifting Stones teleported Pureblood behind paladins that were turned into living chew toys. Griffon charges remaining deliverers and delivers their souls to urcaen.

Wolves of Orboros use Power Swell and try to kill exemplar errants that are hiding in the woods, and despite doing good enough job, they cannot dislodge them from contesting flag.

Kaya uses her feat and calls back her remaining beasties with Spirit Doors.

However, on opponents next turn Kreoss moves so close that it isn't possible to dodge that weeping song any more. No more Spirit Door for me, then.

In fact, it was less than half a centimetre away that Kreoss would have started dominating flag. Shifting Stones were just close enough to deny those precious points for opponent.

Wolves of Orboros still try to kill exemplar errants who are denying me my precious points, and they kill all but one. The one who is still contesting. Self-Sacrifice is such an aggravating rule...

Anyway, Kaya charges the remaining errant herself and puts him down for good. And thus she dominated 3 control points.

Pureblood Warpwolf warps for strenght and charges Crusader. Gnarlhorn had in its days made an amazing damage roll against it, but still Pureblood couldn't wreck it. Everything else except cortex broke, though.

Scarsfell Griffon tried to charge Dervish, but its charge falls short... again. Good job, birdie.

On opponents turn the griffon actually acted as a launching pad for Dervish, which combo-striked respectable damage in to the winged beast, and walzed even closer to contest flag.

At the other flag Kreoss, Crusader and Revenger destroyed two shifting stones that were contesting, making Kreoss dominator on the left side. Control points were 3-3, then.

So, if I could destroy the Dervish, I would dominate 3 points more.

At least Kaya doesn't do it herself, though she manages to knock it down. Wolves of Orboros don't do it, nor does Scarsfell Griffon do it. All this combined might brings it down to one to three hit boxes, so when pureblood warps Ghostly and proceeds upon the contesting warjack, it was a handshake time. (I don't actually remember if we actually did shake hands, though.)

Now that I'm looking at the picture, I see I haven't actually teleported the last shifting stone to contest enemy flag, which I technically should have done to actually win by scenario, but it was forgotten in all the hassle.

Nice game all around.

Soon I try to write another one from last Friday, but it's 2:55 AM right now, that'll just have to wait.

And Thus Circle Scattered Like Fallen Leaves in Autumn Wind

Couple of days ago I played my actual first game of Warmachine in 2013.

Choice was quite straightforward which warcaster/warlock I would play, since Kaya is the newest kid on the block for me.

My list was (50 points for a change):

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

Tharn Bloodweavers
Minimum unit of Ravagers + Chieftain
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder
Lord of the Fail
Feralgeist

And opponent had:

Ossyan
- Discordia
- Hyperion

Maximum unit of Houseguard Halberdiers (AKA bog trog ambushers lead by a lone wolf of orboros...)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce + Commander
Epic Eiryss
2x Mage Hunter Assassins (one of them being a mannikin.)
Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker


We played The Gauntlet scenario from Steamroller 2012 rules set.

Circle started the game, and Kaya had cast Occultation on Ravagers. Ossyan had Chronomancer on, and Quicken on Houseguard Halberdiers.

First picture here is taken from the end of Circle's second round, where lots of things went wrong.

First Lord of the Feast wanted to go and throw his raven against Discordia. Well, turned out it distance was about one centimetre for the raven to fly. What a useless bird.

Next, since opponent didn't have any Arcanists around, I decided to try to charge Hyperion with Brutal Charging Ravagers. Blackclad Wayfarer advanced and cast Hunter's Mark upon the colossal.

Only two ravagers got to make their attacks against it, third one was missing only a few millimetres (which was thankfully easy to measure up, all because of those nifty little melee range templates.)

Ravagers that were obviously out of range tried to charge closest halberdiers, but since Hunter's Mark was not affecting them, their charges fell short.

Because of so much failures Kaya dropped Occultation from them and cast it upon herself. Arm 13 with unengaged Mage Hunter Strike Force around who can get +2 to their already high speed scared me enough. Even a lucky random pot shot could deal respectable damage to my warlock.

Opponents next turn had a heavy toll on my forces. Ossyan used his feat though, giving an additional die on ranged damage rolls to friendly models in his control range. All in all I guess it could have been a lot worse, but here's what happened:

Hyperion rolls full 3 attacks with both thresher cannons. They kill all but tharn ravager chieftain, who was in melee with halberdiers. Big cannon misses Blackclad Wayfarer though, so that was a small blessing.

But then halberdiers charge around, mostly against Blackclad Wayfarer and Lord of the Feast and the aforementioned ravager chieftain. I tried to be clever and counter-slam one of the halberdiers who charged wayfarer, but that trick nearly cost me the beast. The attack roll missed, and goat was now a prime target for Mage Hunter Assassin (the woody version) who was hiding in ruined tower.

And it didn't even save Wayfarer.

Discordia then activates, and eventhough it had to move a bit silly to get in range of Ossyan's feat, it did more than enough. It did a staggering damage roll against Gnarlhorn Satyr and killed off precious feralgeist. Spray also aligned just nicely not to take any houseguards with it.

Then the mage hunter assassin (the woody version) charges the beast, but does a not-very-staggering damage roll, and scores only one point in, which is doubled to two. If there had been only two pips more on the damage roll that was something like 2,2,3,3, it would have died.

Then, lucky me, mage hunter strike force didn't do very much. They only killed one bloodweaver and took about one half of damage boxes from Scarsfell Griffon and Gorax, with about 33% of the unit not being able to take any meaningful shots. Lucky me.

On my turn, Kaya decides its time to use her feat.

But first, Druid Wilder casts Lightning Strike on Warpwolf Stalker, who warps for berserk and kills a huge swathe of halberdiers, not even getting maxed on fury. Five halberdiers + mage hunter assassin.

I guess this was the moment where I found some wolf-love for Stalker when paired up with Kaya1. Pack Hunters really makes those berserk chains hit home.

And then, having cleared whole melee range, it sprinted back to relative, or at least illusioned, safety.

Kaya is the next to activate, and she casts Primal on Gnarlhorn Satyr and heals up its Mind branch, that had burned in magical fire of Discordia's gun. That's how it goes. Get scorched in magical fire, become mindless.

Then Kaya charges a few halberdiers, and missing most of her attacks, she just manages to nail those elves with her sharp, pointy stick. Actually it's not even sharp. She casts Spirit Door and teleports behind Warpwolf Stalker.

Argus goes next and chews two halberdiers that killed Lord of the Feast.

Gnarlhorn Satyr goes last and tries to beat up Discordia. I don't want to ever remember those rolls again, it even pains me to write of Gnarlhorn's performance upon Discordia. I mean... it had Primal on. That meant MAT 10 beast, with P+S 17 horns attacks and 2x P+S 16 claw attacks, and after charge, three Fury for extra attacks.

Field Generator and one of the hands was all that ever broke. Charge attack had this beautiful 1,2,3 roll, and one of the attacks was even miss. You can figure out the attack roll, if Satyr was MAT 10 and Discordia was DEF 12.

It did something like this against the very same players Ravagore when he was playing Legion of Everblight, and I was playing Kaya.

Maybe its angry because I call it a goat.

Well, then Bloodweavers and Scarsfell Griffon fool around. Net result: dead mage hunter assassin and about two strike force members.

And then... it's opponents turn.

And really, there is no skipped turn in pictures. That one is really the situation in the end of opponents next turn.

First: Discordia dispatches Gnarlhorn Satyr.

Ossyan himself shoots Gorax dead. The template on the ground is the chronophage thingy. Now when I'm checking it I see it goes away if the model who has it dies, so we played that one wrong, but I doubt it would have mattered too much. I would probably had Argus alive.

Ossyan had Chronomancer going on, and Hyperion rolled maximum number of attacks for both thresher cannons again. Starburst Cannon and two thresher cannon attacks killed off the Stalker, and if memory serves, it rolled g-g-godlike hit rolls anyway, and could use the focus for boosting damage.

Right-sided thresher cannon, in some miraculous ways, kills Argus. Had there been no chronophage template, those other three shots would have probably went to Stalker anyway, so I cannot blame this loss on that.

Soooo...

What's the thing you do when everything has been lost? Okay okay, I know, you go to a dark, dark corner and cry rivers of blood, but I still wanted some damage in to the Hyperion.

Also, Scarsfell Griffon was able to get to Ossyan. With MAT 8 and three attacks, I could make an assassination, right?

Well...

Charge attack missed. Though the two other attacks hit and dealt a little damage (maybe a total of 6 or 7), it really was a futile attempt. Shouldn't have called the Griffon a bird during game, really. Now it's angry too, just like my Gnarlhorn Satyr.

Kaya charges Hyperion, and spends all of her fury on attacks against it, except one. On hindsight I should've used that one too, because there was no use for it, because Griffon was maxed out on Fury.

Then it's opponents turn. Last turn, may I say.

Discordia and halberdier officer deal some damage to Kaya so that she's down to 7 boxes.

And lo! Defiantly Kaya is holding up her magical stick against the fists of a colossal. Bad choice Kaya, bad choice. Next time try "Duck and Cover" when you're against a colossal in melee.

One attack hit, and there was no actual need for opponent to roll for damage, she died to the base P+S already.

Found from the dungeons (Warmachine)

Oh wow, last game write-up was still in the draft folder and not published. Well, I got to fix that one now.

Some time ago, probably almost two weeks, I played this game of Warmachine/Hordes. I had finally assembled Scarsfell Griffon and almost painted it, and I wanted to try out Kaya1 for the second time.

This was an exaggerated "huge" let down on my standards of not playing with unpainted models. Oh well.

My 35 point list was:

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

Minimum unit of Tharn Ravagers
Tharn Bloodweavers
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder

And enemy was playing with the epic Lylyth list familiar from a couple of last games. Except this time with more awesome paintjob!

I think first picture is from the end of my first turn, and opponent won the starting roll. This was one of the rare games where opponent didn't cast Shadow Pack. I guess he wasn't afraid of Spirit Fang which would drain 66% of Kaya's focus with full boosts...

Anyway, I was able to cloak all of my infantry under stealth with Occultation (as Bloodweavers have it naturally), so I just rushed them as far as possible. Either Striders would close in, or the big guys would unleash their AoE's upon them. Either way, it would hurt, but at least my beasts would be safe.

For some reason only the Dice Gods know, opponent pretty much failed to kill anything meaningful next turn. One Bloodweaver died and Blackclad Wayfarer was left with one hit box remaining.

Overjoyed by the sudden amount of infanty I had at my disposal, they all charged/ran at the front line of Raptors.

Spd 7 and spd 6 + reach was enough to get two Raptors engaged and dead. I tried to position my beasts so that coupled with Hunters Mark from Blackclad Wayfarer and Gnarlhorn's animus would be enough to charge something. Also, Kaya jumped to the roof area of that particular terrain piece on which Griffon is standing. After doing that I had already fallen in love with the beast.

I ended my turn, and was just a little bit afraid of the upcoming feat.

Combined efforts of last remaining raptor and Anyssa killed one ravager. Then Lylyth used her feat, and did something unspeakable.

Amazing hit rolls (and in one case a damage roll) killed four bloodweavers and one ravager. The ravager was one-shotted from full health to zero health. Okay, it was a ravager, but still quite an achievement from a single arrow.

Reason why it was actually amazing was the fact that most of Lylyth's targets were gaining elevation from hill, and some of them were even in melee. The lone bloodweaver even failed her command check.

That somewhat outrageous performance relieved pressure on Ravagores, so they took all their shots at Pureblood Warpwolf. And the three hits they scored was enough to kill the wolf. I did not find this hilarious.

Striders took a bit CRA at Gnarlhorn Satyr and rolled too much damage in there too.

All in all, it was a horrible turn for me as the Circle player. Had not Lylyth wrecked so much face in, I guess I would've had either more infantry alive or a 9-point beast still standing.

With spine crushed, Circle still had some teeth intact.

Blackclad Wayfarer advanced and cast Hunter's Mark on a Ravagore. Kaya activated, cast Gnarlhorn's animus on Gnarlhorn itself and Scarsfell Griffon. After healing Gnarlhorn with one point (I think Striders knocked off exactly Spirit branch with their CRA), used her feat, and healed Gnarlhorn even more and put up Occultation on herself.

Wilder ran so it might make Gnarlhorn's charge possible.

And then the beast charged. Damage rolls were slightly below average, but only slightly, so I cannot complain too much, especially when I would've needed slightly above average rolls to kill the target.

Ravagers charged, with unit leader trying to reach damaged Ravagore. Even with Hunter's Mark on the charge fell half and inch short.

Griffon went to tease Striders a little. Nothing else, really.

Opponent then destroyed Gnarlhorn as was to be expected, but it went down so easily that the painted Ravagore was able to charge my last tharn ravager on the hill.

This time around Lylyth didn't perform so well, as she shot down her own Raptor by accident. I guess that's just Legion's way of saying "I like you".

Striders took a full CRA against Griffon, and when they reformed one of them decided to come and engage the lionbird. I hope they eventually reach marriage status. Oh dear, that was so bad pun again that I ask for euthanasia.

Well, then it was my turn to cope with two light beasts and two solos and a lone unit member against a 29 point army. Because all that has entirel died from enemy was the minimum unit of Raptors.

Kaya dislodged herself from the roof and cast Gorax's animus on itself, and Gorax charged Ravagore to back arc. If memory serves, the damage rolls were exceptionally good, the little beast was truly trying to make up for the failures of bigger guys. Alas, the Ravagore was undamaged, so nothing was accomplished, really.

Blackclad Wayfarer charged the damaged Ravagore and cast the stone spray spell, doing little to the hulk in front of him, but nailing down Blighted Nyss Shepherd.

Birdie beast killed a couple of Striders, and a round later I realised that I had had forgotten Pack Hunters ability from Kaya alltogether.

However, this particular melee was the only melee where it'd possibly have mattered, as one attack from Griffon was a miss. All other attacks made by my beasts were either outside of Kaya's control range, or were hits.

Funnily enough, opponent just couldn't take the life of poor Gorax on the hill. Looked like it's destiny would be to actually suffer the payback of Primal in the form of automatic frenzy.

Well, that was mostly because Ravagore on hill frenzied and had only one attack.

Striders butcher up the thing they had never seen before, but at the campfire mutually agreed that it tasted like chicken.

Next Kaya runs to the best safety there ever is against a shooty army - melee. Either something really out-of-ordinary should happen for me to get a jump at Lylyth, or I would lose very soon. Or hide all around the map for three hours, which didn't feel like a good plan.

Gorax frenzies and bites Ravagore a little.

Well, then it's opponents turn. Striders back away from melee, and Kaya kills maybe one of them. CRA deals something over 10 points of damage, so it's transfered to Gorax (who at that particular moment had 2 boxes left).

Then Lylyth activates and gets a caster kill.