JMG Warmachine Tournament IV (Lord Nope Hexeris)

So there was this Warmachine Tournament.

I had two lists for this tournament, but played only one.

[Theme] Masters of War
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Agonizer [6]
- Archidon [10]
- Tiberion [22]
- Titan Gladiator [15]
Feralgeist [2]
Cataphract Cetrati (max) [18] + Tyrant Vorkesh [0(6)]
Legends of Halaak [8]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]
Praetorian Swordsmen (max) [13] + Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard [4]
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer [0(6)]


First game was against Circle of Orboros, Krueger1.

Primaled Ghetorix fails to take out Tiberion, which results in a dead Ghetorix. Bloodtrackers had Legends of Halaak as their prey target, and I tried to move them to other side of the board. This was when I learned about the new minifeat that allows to pick a new Prey target. Oh well. At least Bloodtrackers were rolling exceptionally low damage rolls against them.

Hexeris' feat gave me, what, two or three extra kills in this game. So yay for that. I can already give a spoiler: they were the only kills I got with Dark Dominion during whole tournament.

Then Primaled Warpwolf Stalker destroyed Tiberion and lowered Titan Gladiator down to one hit box remaining. Krueger shot that one off. I was down to Archidon in my heavy warbeast department, and it was somewhere completely off.

I had gained a good lead in scenario game, but losing both serious heavies might change that.

Time started to be short for both players, which resulted in a panicking Krueger flying to my rectangular zone. But he had Def 17 - what was I to do?

I tried to snatch the last remaining control point, but just couldn't clear the circular zone on right. And over-excited I had also brought Archidon to full Fury.

Loki took off Agonizer, so Hexeris had no transfer targets. Krueger charges in and attempts to assassinate Hexeris, but fails to do so. Hexeris had cast Parasite on Krueger, and it was this +1 ARM that saved Hexeris. Shortly after opponent ran out of clock.

A close victory for Hexeris. But little did I know, yet...


Second game was against Grymkin.

It was a good game against The Heretic.

I saw an opportunity to score two scenario points, but this relied on hitting a MAT 8 attack against DEF 13. Failed, of course. So that was only one point for me.

My single greatest mistake was bringing a shield-walled unit of Cetrati within charge range of Skin & Moans. They were obliterated, and I didn't even get the scenario point.

Tiberion survived like a champ against Cage Rattler with Fury, and against another Cage Rattler that had no Fury. Just for the sake of it, when last Cage Rattler died Feralgeist jumped in.

I lost my lead of 3 control points in one round, and that decided the game for me. I only could try to grind up some control points for tiebreakers. But Archidon failed to repeat it's performance, and did next to no damage to enemy objective.

Hexeris stood right next to Skin & Moans full on corpses, and had no Fury.

This was something even Hexeris could not endure. Lost.



Third game was against Circle of Orboros, and again against Krueger1.

I almost lost on top of 2A. Storm Raptor is a horrifying assassination tool. Saving grace here was Tiberion's Immovable Object. Krueger attempted to throw Tiberion to Hexeris with a Tornado. Otherwise those resources could have gone to killing Hexeris.

My warcaster almost died to electro leaps. And lastly Lord of the Feast threw it's bird at something, and Tiberion used shield guard. But thanks to new and improved reach of 2", Lord was easily within range of Hexeris. But miraculously Hexeris survived - with three hit boxes to boot!

This was devastating for Circle player, and he lined every warbeast at his disposal to protect Krueger.

However, thanks to Krueger's feat and such, I could only destroy two Warpwolves and Storm Raptor, and my warcaster was at two hit boxes remaining - he had cut himself to gain one fury point.

I was prepared to lose now. Tiberion was at full Fury, so was not an eligible transfer target. Archidon died, but at least gave two extra fury points for Hexeris by doing so.

Primaled Shadowhorn Satyr did it's shenanigans and came to finish off Hexeris.

This cost me Titan Gladiator, but - how can it be? Hexeris was alive.

Had Combo-Smite brought Gorax to Krueger, I would have attempted to kill him. But Gorax moved only half an inch, which was not enough to knock Circle warlock over. So I just killed the Shadowhorn Satyr and Warpwolf Stalker.

I thought I was safe, but then Krueger flies closer and casts a Tornado at Hexeris. It hits and slams Hexeris to wall, meaning POW 13 + 4d6 damage roll or something like that.

I only had Agonizer as transfer target. Opponent hoped high enough damage roll that overspill damage would kill Hexeris, but it left him standing with one hit box remaining.

I'd prefer winning where it would feel like I played well, but I have to say game was hilariously exciting. Surviving against such odds has a certain tingling sensation in it, but really. Hexeris got lucky big time here.


Fourth game was... against Circle of Orboros. I got to play against Kaya3. And what a terrifying game it was.

I had my moment on the right sided rectangular zone, where I killed a griffon or two. Praetorian Swordsmen cleared the flag scoring blackclad. But other than that, nothing else worked - and opponent had excessively high damage rolls against Tiberion. Who died.

Also, against Titan Gladiator. Who died.

Only Cataphract Cetrati were performing well - they were passing Tough roll in such a way that it probably made the average from all of these game about right. I had not been passing those rolls earlier, but here I passed more than I failed.

But hey, with only an Agonizer I was facing five heavy warbeasts. I had pretty much given up here, and left Hexeris quite there in the open. Not exactly suicidal, but not trying to protect himself either.

Kaya cleared any free strikes that a nearby Gnarlhorn Satyr would've had to take. Then Circle filled up the Synergy chain, and Gnarlhorn Satyr launched itself against Hexeris, who only had Agonizer for transfers.

Those rolls, though.

The goat missed pretty much every attack. One attack wrecked Agonizer's spirit. Another attack Hexeris took in. Hexeris had at least seven damage boxes left after MAT 9, P+S 19 or something like that Satyr had had it's moment with him. And Kaya was withing charge range of Hexeris.

Legends of Halaak combo-smited Gnarlhorn away so it wouldn't get a free strike against Hexeris. The Legend with Naginata dealt some 10 points of damage to Kaya, which were transfered away.

Then Hexeris charges in and kills Kaya.

Just.

What.

Is.

This.

And I even placed third in the tournament.

Personally, this has to be the most absurd tournament I have ever attended when it comes to probabilities.

Or maybe this was my Skorne collection's way of saying: "Please play more with us!"

JMG Warmachine Tournament

So here's my games in JMG Warmachine Tournament that was held last weekend.

It was a 75 point tournament with 1-2 list and D&C 0. I had a Mortenebra1 list with some satyxis in it, but none of the opposing lists allowed me to play it in even remotely secure way. So I'm listing only the Deneghra3 army.

[Theme] Infernal Machines
Deneghra, the Soul Weaver
- Corruptor
- Deathripper
- Inflictor
- Leviathan

2x Pistol Wraith
Necrotech
Scrap Thralls
2x Soul Trapper
Bile Thralls (max)
Mechanithralls (min) + 2x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Soulhunters (max)

Game 1 was against Trollbloods.

I may have a mistake in this reconstruction of opposing list, but it should give a general idea what the list was about:

[Theme] Band of Heroes
Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain
- Dire Troll Mauler
- Earthborn Dire Troll
Fell Caller Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Kriel Warriors (min) + Caber Thrower (1) + Standard & Piper
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) + Stone Scribe Elder
Trollkin Champions (min) + Skaldi Bonehammer
Trollkin Champions (min)
Trollkin Fennblades (min) + Officer and Drummer
Trollkin Warders (max)

So I couldn't pick Mortenebra list. And removing Tough is always nice against Trollbloods. So Deneghra3 it was bound to be.

Thanks to my Spd 9 cavalry, Madrak had to pop his feat on turn 1. Good enough. Deneghra cast Mortality on Fennblades on turn 2 and then Soulhunters walked into melee. They weren't able to do that much, especially when I didn't pay attention where unit leader was. One Soulhunter walked out of coherency, thus losing any attacks it could make.

Deneghra's feat was able to remove both warbeasts and some random trollbloods from the board. Warders with their Shield Guard messed up my game play continuously. I seemed to categorically forget that rule on them. Trolls sure took their time in chewing through Soulhunters. There was some terrible dice rolling involved, I have to admit. Staying three rounds face-to-face in melee combat against Fennblades who had their Vengeance triggered every turn, Warders and even some Champions with Guided Hand and Fell Calls was quite impressive.

But in turn they were not able to do any damage. Ambushing Mechanithralls made a dent to Fennblades, but nowhere near enough. Attrition was soon lost.

Eventually I was starting to run low on my deathclock, too, so I decided to try assassination when I had the chance.

This involved Deneghra shuffling around for what seemed like an eternity - all because I remembered Mortality cast range incorrectly. I thought it was 8" when it was 10". Opponent had accidentally put his figures so that Deneghra couldn't get a charge off against Madrak - there was no space for her base, no matter how I tried to fit a proxy. In the end Deneghra succeeded to cast Mortality on Madrak, but nothing else.

Two Bile Thralls were able to Purge Madrak. Then Leviathan walked into melee with Madrak and got a total of one attack in, with a damage boost. 13+ would have killed the warlock, but I got only 10.

Even 12 would have given a chance for Madrak to die to corrosion. Oh well. Deneghra was very dead this turn. Good game anyway.



Game 2 was against Grymkin. Both Grymkin lists were warbeast heavy, so I thought Mortenebra would struggle in every imaginable way.

Opponent had a list something like this:

[Theme] Dark Menagerie
The King of Nothing
- 2xCage Rager
- 3x Crabbit
- Rattler
- 4x Skin & Moans
4x Gremlin Swarm
Lady Karianna Rose

There were two large impassable terrains making for quite a choke-point near flag on the right. But both casters had access to ghostly, which alleviated all but problems with Line of Sight.

I did make some random damage to few of the heavy beasts - I had originally wanted to kill one Cage Rattler with ambushing Mechanithralls and Ghost Walking Soulhunters, but I didn't get as many Mechanithralls to the warbeast as I wanted, and had placed my models so that Ghost Walking Soulhunters were not able to get it within melee range.

Corruptor had taken a shot against another Cage Rattler. So when Soulhunters killed one of the Crabbits, opponent popped this arcana that nullified damage that had been done. All I managed to do with Mechanithralls was to feed Grymkin warbeasts with corpses.

Skin & Moans was able to remove Leviathan from board, and another failed to do the same against Corruptor - didn't even break one system.

Inflictor killed a Rattler and Bile Thralls managed to purge one injured Skin & Moans dead, which made opponent pop this arcana that killed quite a few bile thralls as a "thank you" for killing battlegroup member.

In the end it was a really exciting game.

I even made extra scrap thralls with Necrotech that actually were a game-changing models - they were able to contest zones and flags during my own turns.

I would have most likely lost to deathclock, had not Deneghra died first. We both had amazing number of control points, something like 8-7 or whatever.

If I would have had a little more experience against Grymkin perhaps I would have done some things differently, but still I'm quite happy how this first game versus the fairy folk turned out.



Game 3 was against Circle of Orboros.

It's difficult for me to write about this game. It stings and it pains me so much.

I was far too aggressive and made a stupid mistake of bringing Deneghra up so far that Warpwolf Stalker with Primal was able to charge one of her warjacks, that had Hunter's Mark from Lanyssa. Sure, one miss from the Warpwolf would have saved my game, but it required 9's to hit and Morvahna2 was close enough to use Scales of Fate on it.

It was somewhat intentional caster-bait sort of thing - to intimidate opponent to not knowing what to do. But yeah, obviously it was a bait gone horribly wrong when my warcaster died during second turn of the game.



Game 4 was against Cryx, and opponent had Dark Host with Asphyxious2. Asphyxious had three stalkers and an arc node. Mortenebra would have been a terrible choice here.

I made some really foolish mistakes here - forgetting to bring anyone to contest middle zone, for example, so opponent got pretty much free control points.

Anyway, two Stalkers came to wreak havoc on Bile Thralls, who in turn purged both warjacks dead. But this had cost movement for them, as well as many members of the unit. Necrotech was able to repair some of the losses, though.

I was hesitant to engage with Soulhunters, so I kept backing with them, keeping out of charge range of Bane Riders.

I did get a relatively nice feat turn with Deneghra - Mortality went on at least three units, and Corruptor was able to use his 5" AoE effectively. Ghost Walking Bile Thralls killed some stray Bane Knights and whatnot.

Ambushing Mechanithralls and Soul Hunters managed to kill three Bane Riders, so it didn't feel too bad to trigger that vengeance.

I had managed to remove enemy presence from right side of the board, but the battle was raging on the left, and I was losing there. Game was intense. I believe I would have won in the long run because I had easier time to score control points, so I didn't feel all that annoyed when opponent ran out of clock.


So three out of four games were close ones. And the one that wasn't was a completely goofed up by me, so it didn't have this "I had no chance to win against a list like that" -feeling. So it was a very nice tournament for me, despite a negative win/loss ratio.