Asteroid belt

 Had two games of Warmachine. Format was Brawlmachine, and scenario in both games was the new Asteroids.

In first game I had:

Aphyxious the Hellbringer [+24]
- Reaper [11]
- Ripjaw [6]
- Slayer [10]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [5]
Pistol Wraith [4]
Bane Warriors (min) [8]
- Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [5]

Opponent had:

Commander Coleman Stryker [+30]

 - Hammersmith [12]

 - Ironclad [12]

 - Lancer [8]

Black 13th Strike Force [7]

Rangers [7]

Stormguard Infantry (min) [9]

With Mobility up, my both heavies enter the rectangular zone. They are greeted by Stormguard that are screening enemy warjacks. Rangers on right are opposed to Bane Warriors, and Black 13th is flanking from left. Pistol Wraith tries to relocate itself away from their magical pistols. Nothing especially fancy.

But then... it seems there are some things I never really learn.

One of them is trying to make an initial opening by pulling an enemy warjack with a harpoon drag.

Feels like that misses 75% of the time.

And now my heavy warjack had only exposed itself to enemy charges. I tried to bring Asphyxious to front and use feat in an attempt to deter opponent from wrecking Reaper, or at least pay a price for doing so.

At least Hex Blast from Vociferon did exceptional job, frying three out of six Stormguards.

Ripjaw charges Black 13th and kills their double pistol model.

Stormguards then charge Reaper, and take almost half of its hit boxes away. Ironclad who comes to assist is far less effective, and leaves Reaper standing with cortex and melee arm still functional.

Lancer tries to free Black 13th from Ripjaw, and kind of succeeds. Bonechicken loses its head, meaning it wouldn't hit with free strike even if it rolled a six. Gun mages try to shoot Vociferon, but do not hit or damage. 

Stryker uses feat, making my next turn difficult.

Asphyxious had gained exactly one (1) focus point from his feat.

Ripjaw moves a bit so that it contests cygnaran flag. Bane Warriors destroy enemy objective and bring back all dead Bane Warriors via minifeat. 

Heavy warjacks and Asphyxious deal with the remaining Stormguards. Asphyxious is left with three focus for damage mitigation.

Three focus points just wasn't enough, as Stryker got Earthquake on Asphyxious. Black 13th and even rangers dealt in enough damage to take out two focus points, so there really was no chance for the iron lich when Ironclad parked itself within melee range. Loss for Cryx.

Game 2:

My list in second game:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris [+28]

 - Agonizer [5]

 - Aradus Sentinel [12]

 - Cyclops Raider [9]

 - Titan Gladiator [13]

Mortitheurge Willbreaker [2]

Swamp Gobber River Raider [1]

Thrullg [3]

Venator Slingers (min) [8]

Opponent had:

Kaya the Wildborne [+32]

 - Feral Warpwolf [14]

 - Gnarlhorn Satyr [10]

 - Wild Argus [6]

 - Wild Argus [6]

Gallows Grove [2]

Lord of the Feast [5]

Gatorman Posse (max) [13]

Circle approached with Gatormen, Gallows Grove and Lord of the Feast on the left, and the rest coming from the middle.

My battlegroup was also nearing the rectangular zone while Slingers and Cyclops Raider were bracing against the Gatormen.

Winter Argus managed to freeze Aradus Sentinel for a while. Circle warbeasts did clump up rather nicely there, so Aradus took a walk and sprayed some respectable damage in to both arguses and Feral Warpwolf. Attack on Kaya missed even with a re-roll from Puppet Master.

Gatormen had ran closer, so I though I might try to get some mileage out of Hexeris' feat. 

It didn't turn out so well, as the one and only Gatorman the slingers succeeded to kill passed its Tough roll - no Dark Dominion for me.

Cyclops Raider takes an aimed (and thus stealth-ignoring) shot against Lord of the Feast, and removes the solo single-handedly. Dark Dominion for me. 

Swamp Gobber River Raider tries to act a hero, and harpoons itself to enemy objective, poking in a point of damage into Feral Warpwolf. Hexeris had cast Parasite on it, though.

Gladiator just tries to look menacing, and protect Agonizer that was providing strength penalty.

Turns out Winter Argus is able to spray the lesser warbeast dead, and as a result Wild Argus and Feral Warpwolf butcher Aradus Sentinel. Gatormen remove half of slingers - although only because they couldn't reach for more.

I try to pick the pieces that are left - Feral Warpwolf is left alive with one hit point remaining, despite the efforts of Thrullg and Cyclops Raider. Titan Gladiator charges Gnarlhorn Satyr dead.

Slingers shoot one Gatorman down, and Hexeris charges another. For some odd reason I try to shoot another Gatorman with Sunder Spirits... and didn't even succeed.

Hexeris' downfall was completely unnecessary. Winter Argus could slam him, and then Kaya spammed Spirit Fangs on him until he was torn to shreds - as he had only one transfer available. Loss for Skorne.

Sacred Parasite

Played a 50 point game of Hordes.

My list:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris [+28]
- Agonizer [6]
- Aradus Sentinel [14]
- Archidon [10]
- Bronzeback Titan [17]
Ancestral Guardian [5]
Mortitheurge Willbreaker [4]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]
Praetorian Swordsmen (max) [13]
- Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard [4]

Opponent had:

Mohsar the Desertwalker [+27]
- Gorax Rager [7]
- Wild Argus [7]
- Wild Argus [7]
- Woldwrath [37]
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max) [15]
- Warpborn Skinwalker Alpha [4]

Scenario was Throw Down from main rulebook.

Skorne was woefully outnumbered on the left side of the board. Aradus Sentinel wouldn't be holding the zone alone against six Skinwalkers. Also I had some worries about the zone on the right, as Praetorian Swordsmen seemed like they'd have to face the Woldwrath. Instead, they faced Pillars of Salt.

I placed Skorne warbeasts in the middle, so they'd have the option to go either way, without having the necessary speed to get there. One Skinwalker charged Aradus Sentinel on turn 2, which triggered Counter-Charge from Bronzeback Titan. Which did two points of damage.

The counter-charge for giggles was more costly than anticipated. Woldwrath was now within charge range, and shooed the elephant off the board despite being in the Agonizer's strength penalty aura.

Without a dedicated beat-stick what was I to do to this Arm 20 gargantuan?

Nibble it to the death with non-dedicated sticks, of course. Hexeris cast Parasite on Woldwrath and shot it with Sunder Spirit. To my defense, I did ask if the Woldwrath had Sacred Ward. It's a bummer when mistakes like this happen, since Parasite made all the difference in this equation - Archidon and Aradus Sentinel were able to scratch the gargantuan down.

Had we played with Sacred Ward, I guess I should've tried to remove the Skinwalkers with Parasite, Archidon and Sentinel's spray.

Praetorian Swordsmen were chewing through Salt Pillars. Archidon died to Skinwalkers. Mohsar used his feat, invalidating Aradus Sentinel for a turn.

Then I pulled off an amazing charge with Praetorian Swordsmen. They used Power Swell, and were able to kill a Skinwalker, Gorax Rager and Wild Argus. Wild Argus even received a damage roll of 6,6,6,5. Ouch.

Circle didn't have many options left after that, and opted to try to assassinate Hexeris who had two fury points for transfers. Two Skinwalkers did their thing, and then Mohsar teleported to Hexeris and paralyzed him with Doppel Bark. But the flurry from magic stick was not enough to bring the Lord Tyrant down.

Hexeris then slashed the old man in two halves.

Long past due

Amidst Christmas hurries I managed to squeeze in a 50 point game of Warmachine about a week ago. My list was:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris [+28]
- Agonizer [6]
- Aradus Sentinel [14]
- Archidon [10]
- Cyclops Shaman [8]

- Rhinodon [12]
Bog Trog Trawler [3]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Praetorian Swordsmen (max) [13]
- Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard [4]
Paingiver Beasthandlers (min) [5]


Opponent had:

Kaya the Wildborne [+32]
- Feral Warpwolf [16]
- Gnarlhorn Satyr [12]
- Wild Argus [7]
- Wild Argus [7]
- Winter Argus [8]
Lord of the Feast [6]
Totem Hunter [6]
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max) [15]
- Warpborn Skinwalker Alpha [4]

Scenario was one from main rulebook, Mosh Pit style scenario with 12" circle in the middle of board.

Skorne advanced in a brick towards the zone. Skinwalkers engaged my front line, and Circle warbeasts went in the back.

Praetorian Swordsmen used Power Swell, which on the hindisght was probably unnecessary. They took out Lord of the Feast and a few skinwalkers. All but one remaining Skinwalker were brought down by Aradus Sentinel and Rhinodon. I had wanted Rhinodon to do a bit more damage to Gnarlhorn Satyr, but the turtle had trouble hitting def 12.

Primaled Gnarlhorn takes down Rhinodon and Wild Arguses come to tease Aradus and Archidon. Here situation looks dire for Skorne, but relief comes from unexpected sources - heavy warbeasts miss and fail non-stop against Circle light beasts, but Extoller Soulward shoots Gnarlhorn dead, and Praetorian Swordsmen kill Feral Warpwolf. What just happened...?

Losing her heavies, Kaya takes full offense all by herself. She smacks a few Swordsmen dead, but in return is killed by MAT 9-10 swordsmen.

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!"

Masters of Steel

So, I managed to get a grand total of one practice game for last Saturday's warmachine tournament.

I would be taking Skorne with Masters of War and Winds of Death.

My list was:

[Theme] Masters of War
Lord Tyrant Hexeris [+28]
- Agonizer [6]
- Archidon [10]
- Tiberion [22]
- Titan Gladiator [15]
- Aptimus Marketh [5]
Feralgeist [2]
Cataphract Cetrati (max) [18]
Legends of Halaak [8]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]
Praetorian Swordsmen (max) [13]
- Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard [4]
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer [0(6)]

And yup, it's illegal. I accidentally fielded Beast Handler unit that had been forgotten during list construction. Now, I can't feel too guilty over this because I also have unused choice of free Command Attachment or Tyrant Commander unit.

I noticed how Aptimus Marketh was rather useless in this list, as he was only able to cast Sunder Spirit. So he'd have to go at least.


Opponent had (probably):

[Theme] Legion of Steel
Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova [+28]
- Devastator [14]
- Juggernaut [13]
Iron Fang Kovnik [0(4)]
Kapitan Sofya Skirova [0(5)]
Ragman [4]
Uhlan Kovnik Markov [7]
Great Bears of the Gallowswood [9]
Iron Fang Pikemen (max) [15]
- Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard [0(4)]
Iron Fang Pikemen (max) [15]
- Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard [4]
Iron Fang Uhlans (max) [20]


I didn't know what to do. As I'd be pretty much forced to take the alpha strike, I decided to rush Tiberion to what looked like a nice bottleneck to me. But all manner of filthy Cryx tricks made by Zerkova managed to navigate most of Khador army to attack the character beast. Well, at least it did take some resources to remove - unit of Iron Fang Pikemen, Sofya Skirova or Iron Fang kovnik, Juggernaut and Great Bears of Gallowswood.

Legends of Halaak were pretty much wasted, as opponent had Ghost Walk to make them immune to free strikes.

I did get good mileage out of Hexeris' feat - it removed quite a few pikemen.

Feat cleared path for Titan Gladiator to attack Juggernaut, but it didn't amount to much.

I had started dragging behind on scenario points and eventually lost the scenario game. I don't remember how I actually lost - maybe Hexeris got killed somehow. But a loss it was.

Battlefield Comes to Life

... and it isn't pretty.

I've been practicing stop motion animations lately, and I had this thought how it would look like if I animated a Warmachine match.

It came out rather crude, but it was quite fun to make it. The 140+ frames spread out to a minute and a half didn't turn out so well and it's a bit too hectic to make much sense. For a slightly more enjoyable experience I suppose one would need to take a different take each time a model changes facing, as well as maybe try to make some sort of damage overlay for each hit.

While we are at it, leaching and allocating focus would give a greater pause between turns if each leached or allocated point was it's own frame.

But yeah. Considering my experience (or the very lack of it) result isn't that bad. Let's see if Blogger know's how to Avi, or do I need to youtube this thing posthumously.



Yup, new to these things. But there's the video now.

Oh, and the actual battle report. It was a fast game with Hexeris using feat to clear Mechanithralls off the board, and then warbeasts and warjacks failing to do anything useful.

I decided Hexeris needed to attack Asphyxious when he had only one focus point left for damage mitigation. Two attacks hit Asphyxious, but then I didn't score 8+ with three dice with two attempts. Maybe that's fair, because Asphyxious forgot to take souls from Archidon and Titan Sentry.

Asphyxious hit with his first attack, which spelled doom for Hexeris even if Asphyxious tried really hard not to kill the skorne warlock. Twice there were double 1's for damage, and twice damage roll was something like 1,3.

But once more Hexeris went splat.

Different Kind of Skorne

Alright, let's write these two 50 point games of Warmachine up before my Next Big Project.

My lists were:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Aradus Sentinel
- Bronzeback Titan
- Cyclops Shaman

Praetorian Swordsmen (max) + Command Attachment

Venator Flayer Cannon
Aptimus Marketh
Ancestral Guardian
Void Spirit

List 2:

Lord Arbiter Hexeris
- Aradus Sentinel
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Krea
- Titan Sentry

Venator Reivers (min) + Command Attachment
Ancestral Guardian
Bog Trog Trawler

Notice anything two missing from both lists? Yeah. And did I regret the lack of Agonizer and Beast Handlers. But I wanted to use some models I haven't used yet during Mk3... namely Ancestral Guardian and Aptimus Marketh.

Opponent had:

Father Lucant, Divinity Architect

- Corollary
- Diffuser
- Galvanizer
- Prime Axiom

Perforators (min)
Eradicators (min)

Opponent used same list twice, and scenario was Breakdown in both games.

In first game Aradus Sentinel, Cyclops Shaman and a Sunder Spirit was enough to take down Galvanizer. But this meant Axiom could easily drag Aradus to it's demise. On the other hand I managed to devastate zone on the left. However, I had placed Bronzeback those critical 3 millimeters too far and Axiom could charge it.

There was not much left for me, then. I decided I might stand chance if I would kill the Prime Axiom, and I did quite respectable damage in to it. It did have Parasite cast on it, though.

Now, Ancestral Guardian had zero souls on it and was perhaps about the same distance off from Axiom as Bronzeback had been too close.

A single P+S 13 could have completely wrecked the colossal with a good roll, or destroy some critical systems with a mediocre roll. Or completely fail with a poor roll, of course. But it was not to be. Lord Tyrant Hexeris went splat next turn.


Game 2:

Second game Hexeris had learned from his mistakes and went epic.

I tried to protect the battlegroup a little better against drags this time, and succeeded. This time opponent devastated zone on the left. I did get to score points from the zone on the right first, but damn those servitors from Axiom kept contesting my zone. I was fairly sure I wouldn't be able to grind scenario because of that.

Titan Sentry charges Diffuser during Lucant's feat turn to keep Convergence busy next turn. Of course I would have wanted to deal some damage in, too, but I wasn't blessed with that many hits.

I secure my zone anyway and watch Titan Sentry die. Remainder of Venator Reivers contest enemy zone far longer than I expected. But not long enough.

Then I do some beat back shenanigans with Bronzeback Titan to get to Prime Axiom, but missing two attacks on Galvanizer made the attempt rather pitiful.

Then I watched Bronzeback die.

Krea charges Corollary, but misses. Eventually finishing moves were pretty much the same as in last game: Hexeris tries to charge Prime Axiom in the vain attempt to dismantle it enough for him not to die next. But nothing like that ever happened, at least not in this game.

Hexeris went splat again, and since there isn't Hexeris3 yet we couldn't continue games.

Yeah, that's the reason.

I will never play Skorne again without Agonizer or Beast Handlers.

Brief Note vol 2

Alrighty, this game dates back a little before Ropecon. I'll write an extra short summary here so that I can start building up the Ropecon writeups with a clean conscience.

I played against Wurmwood with following list in a 50 point game:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Agonizer
- Basilisk Drake
- Cyclops Savage
- Rhinodon
- Titan Sentry
Thrullg
Feralgeist
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)
Praetorian Swordsmen (min)
- Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Opponent had Wurmwood with at least Gnarlhorn Satyr, Pureblood Warpwolf and Gorax, a couple of Sentry Stone units and a unit of Wolves of Orboros.

A good obliteration wreaked havoc among Wolves of Orboros, and my warbeasts decimated front on the right. Opponent had Pureblood in a forest harrying Praetorian Swordsmen when it would have needed to be killing my warbeasts. Well, it was more of a practice game for a beginning Circle player. Wurmwood tends to have quite a high learning curve.

In short: Hexeris won a game.

Dice: the most cruel lash of them all

Since errata and all that, it was good time to give first game for my Skorne in new edition. Since Hexeris1 with whom I started Skorne, he was all but solidified choice for my list. Of course he receiving quite a few changes in errata had a kind of an impact here. Anyway, it was a 75 point game.

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Agonizer
- Archidon
- Basilisk Drake
- Tiberion
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)
Praetorian Swordsmen (max) + Command Attachment
Venator Reivers (max) + Command Attachment
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Hutchuck, Ogrun Bounty Hunter

Effigy of Valor

Opponent probably had:


Theme: Operating Theater

Exulon Thexus
- Subduer
- Warden
- Wrecker
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt + Dominator
3x Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges (max)
Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges (max)
2x Cephalyx Overlords
2x Cephalyx Agitator

Effigy of Valor

Scenario was Entrenched and Skorne started game. Death March is on Praetorian Swordsmen and Soul Slave on Archidon. I bunched up my infantry in the middle and tried to use Hexeris' feat way too early. Which was turn 2. I had thought that I might have chances of removing some 8-10 drudges at least, but damn they were good at passing Tough checks this time. Hexeris' feat gave Skorne only one extra... knockdown.

Opponent dealt less damage than I had anticipated. Only a few Swordsmen died, but opponent secured two scenario points - one from dominating their zone and one from destroying my objective. Could have been three, though, because opponent had no-one to control it.

Next turn I wanted to have an assassination or something, and used Tiberion to kill a monstrosity and Praetorians who used Power Swell to kill another - which had been knocked down by Hutchuck. Exulon went down with the bomb, too. Praetorians got the monstrosity down to one hit box remaining after Basilisk Drake had sprayed around a little with it's eye. Spray attack was sacrificial pawned on the last monstrosity, too.

But Sacrificial Pawn works while knocked down, so Venators removed the knocked down monstrosity and had pawned damage roll on the last one.

Hexeris with Puppet Master cast two damage boosted Sunder Spirit's at Exulon, and dealt seven points in total. Exulon had two focus points remaining and Deceleration on. Now Hexeris had no fury, three beasts on maximum fury and only a few contestants on both zones. Whee.

Because of some bad dice rolls (namely with Telekinesis and three misses on equal to Magic Skill 8 ) Hexeris survived. But first things first. Master Holt took shots at Hexeris, one of which was shield-guarded by Tiberion. Not sure what triggered such a terrible hatred and frenzy on Tiberion, because next moment he attacked Hexeris, dealing enough damage to bring Hexeris to nine boxes remaining. Cause was Rampager from Exulon Thexus, of course. Immovable object is not that immovable any longer.

Well, then Exulon Thexus was sitting there in the middle of Skorne army with no focus points, already being injured. At three control points, though.

I felt like I should have lost the game. I made so many ridiculous mistakes (wasting my feat, not contesting my zone with, for example, immovable Tiberion, fooling around in the middle with no transfers...)

Opponent conceded, as there was no chance for def 14 arm 14 target to survive Venators, Basilisk Drake, Hexeris with seven fury points and what was left of Archidon.

Day 2 of Steam & Fury

These are the last two games at a tournament I played in a tournament in Vaasa. Since on Sunday there were only two games I'm writing them first.

First I was against Cryx, and I really wanted to play at least one game with Lord Tyrant Hexeris.

Opponent had:

Goreshade the Cursed
Heresy of Shadows tier 2
- Kraken

Maximum unit of Bane Knights
2x Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment

Bane Lord Tartarus
2x Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Scrap Thralls

So... that must have been the greatest number of Banes I've personally played against.

I tinkered my list into:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- 2x Basilisk Drake

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Venator Reivers + Unit Attachment + a rat (looking at the pictures I noticed Flayer Cannon range finder has sneaked in!)
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Orin Midwinter

Scenario was Incursion, and Cryx started game. No surprises from Skorne side - Death March was on Praetorian Swordsmen and Soul Slave on Archidon. Witch Doctor had cast Zombify on... somewhere. Cryx had Phantom Hunter on Kraken, Occultation on Bane Knights and Sudden Death on Bane Lord Tartarus.

Cryx turn 2 was depressing. Even if I own a Kraken myself, that 16" range caught me by surprise. I lost both Gatorman Witch Doctor and Orin Midwinter to just one blast. Well... Orin wasn't so important, but the loss of Zombify really hurt my game. Other than that the Banes were just advancing cautiously, bringing themselves to barely contest the flags.

As pretty much everything had Stealth (and for some reason I didn't remember to put Extoller Soulward on my specialists...) and Kraken was guarded by one Necrotech, I wanted to get at least some mileage out of Venator Reivers. So they used minifeat and shot the Necrotech. Last remaining Venators made a combined shot against the colossal. Kraken had blocked my LOS to the other Necrotech, so seven points were a bit wasted there.

Hexeris probably shot Obliteration and killed a bane thrall.

Cryx turn 3 I suffered far less casualties than I was expecting. But on the other hand Goreshade was holding back. A minimum number of various Banes charged my lines and others tried to remain a safe distance away. I guess they were afraid of Hexeris' feat, and rightly so... And I wonder if I should have used feat anyway. I just wasn't sure if Goreshade's feat created new banes or if it brought back destroyed ones. Turns out it was the latter, so perhaps I should have used feat. That would have been four Bane Knights and about seven Bane Thralls that wouldn't be coming back. But greedy as I was, I wanted more. I wanted them all.

And from there the game degraded into Banes multiplying themselves with Praetorian Swordsmen, Basilisks and Tyrant commanders. Hexeris' feat, while not too bad, just did not remove enough banes to severely hamper their advance. That's painful to write. Hexeris' feat was not enough to remove banes to seriously injure them. Of course there was unnecessarily many tough rolls being made and the new realization that if you kill the bane unit leader and it gets promoted to somewhere else in the unit, the newly promoted unit leader will not be able to make attacks if you later kill it for your feat.

Any and all hope was lost when yet again I was too greedy - I wanted enraged Archidon to charge Kraken and kill Tartarus, who was in the middle of my army. Looked like I'd get Tartarus within Archidon's melee range, but no.

Only the leftmost flag was kind of secured for me, so once it looked like I'd lose the game I started to score scenario points at least for possible tie breakers later in the tournament. Hexeris was there in the middle of action, beat backing Banes and whatnot off from within 4" of the flag. Basilisk Drake scored three points before Skorne finally succumbed to the swarm of banes.


Game 2:

Last game was a second time ever match versus Cephalyx. Since Forward Kommander doesn't have the Exulon tier available for construction, the list may have some inaccuracies.
Opponent had:

Exulon Thexus
Tier level over 9000
- Wrecker

Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters + Dominator
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt + Dominator
2x Maximum unit of Mind Bender & Drudges
2x Minimum unit of Mind Slaver & Drudges (in ambush)

2x Cephalyx Overlords
+ possibly two Agitators?

Hexeris was pretty much out of the question, though his feat could have been quite devastating against such an infantry horde. But such a feat in a horde like that could very well ve devastating for my deathclock, too. Banishing Ward might also be a lifesaver.

So, Mordikaar it would be. And my list was:

Void Seer Mordikaar
- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- Cyclops Shaman
- Basilisk Drake

Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Void Spirit

Scenario was Recon, and looks like Cephalyx started the game. First of all I was terrified about the number of models opponent had. For some crowd control I swapped Basilisk Krea for Basilisk Drake, but I silently wondered if that'd be enough.

Hollow was on Praetorian Swordsmen and Banishing Ward on Cetrati. Witch Doctor was zombifying Cetrati also.

Turn 2 Cephalyx spilled over far worse than the banes of last game. There weren't any real casualties for me. Only the Nyss were shooting a bit, but Mordikaar doesn't care too much for dead Praetorians. So I would be able to make the alpha strike! Against a meatwall, sure, but alpha strike nonetheless! And after that I would be in a fairly defendable position thanks to Mordikaar's feat.

Void Spirit tried to go and eat the unit leader of rightmost Slaver unit. I don't remember what came out of it. Cetrati took Shield Wall and killed, what, one drudge grunt and one nyss? Cyclops Shaman stared down a drudge grunt, and Gatorman Witch Doctor zombified Cetrati again. That was all I'd be able to do on right.

Bronzeback probably went and destroyed one nyss hunter and beat backed to a safer position.

Mordikaar activates, casts Revive, possibly two, a Ghost Walk on Praetorian Swordsmen and finally casts Banishing Ward on himself. There were so many magical sprays that I thought it might be worth it.

Then Ghost Walked Swordsmen charge all over the place aaaand see what's missing? The feat. The goddamn +3 def feat that was the reason I left Mordikaar with only one Fury left for transfers. Why? Whyyyy?

Once I realise I forgot to use feat I try to form some sort of meatwall for Mordikaar, but there's mostly just Archidon for that job.

Then it's turn 3 for the Cephalyx after my pro play.

Exulon Thexus advances and uses his feat and messes every formation up, and removes all the Nyss Hunters from melee. Then he casts two Hex Blasts on my objective, and a boosted blast damage roll to Mordikaar was astonishing. More rolls like this and it all would be over very soon with minimal pain.

Then Nyss activate and advance to get line of sight to Mordikaar. Bronzeback manages to counter charge one of them and tie one Nyss to melee, and hopefully block Line of Sight for others. Nope, they all got Line of Sight easily enough.

Damage rolls weren't that great, though, and Mordikaar survives.

Then the POW 12 sprays start pouring in. Every Cephalyx with a spray and their dogs advanced forward and sprayed either the Archidon or my objective - all of them catching Mordikaar under easily. About half of the sprays hit, and the grand total is that Mordikaar is left with only one Fury and one hit box. But finally... finally it was the last Cephalyx spray to activate. Mordikaar was saved. Even the objective survived with, what, two damage boxes or something.

And then Aiyana & Holt & Cephalyx Dominator activate... Oh come on! How many of these guy are in the list? I didn't know it then, but Cephalyx Dominator doesn't have a spray attack. So, in fact, it was the miracle of my objective not getting destroyed that made it possible for Mordikaar to survive. Of course I wasn't aware what else opponent would be able to throw at me, but first Holt needed to shoot the objective out of the way, and then Mordikaar twice some how. But even the first attack didn't destroy objective, only the second one did. Arcane wonder.

Then last drudges and whatnots activate, and opponent ends his gigantic turn with a bit less than half a minute on his clock.

So it was a matter of principle for me next. After such an extraordinary survival from almost certain doom it would have been easy for me to run as far with Mordikaar as possible, and win next turn on clock. But I have always complained everywhere how much I hate either winning or losing with the clock, and clock is good only for keeping tournament schedule going forward in a good pace. The actual situation on the board, however, was far from a victory for me.

Perhaps the inner WAAC demon would have been stronger if I had been with five victories and zero defeats then at the final table. But I chose to play as if there was no clock, and try to assassinate Exulon instead.

There was the Wrecker monstrosity and a nyss hunter in the way of Bronzeback to get to Exulon with perhaps two beat-backs against the objective.

My plan was thus: Willbreaker casts Puppet Master on Archidon, who gets enraged and charges the Wrecker, causes a critical pitch and throws the monstrosity away. With the remaining Fury it should be able to kill the nyss. Bronzeback gets Train Wreck from Mordikaar.

Well. First attack made by Archidon fails completely even with Puppet Master re-roll. No critical pitch for me. Extra attack and attack roll boost scores exactly what I need, and an enraged throw carries far. Perhaps full 3" backwards would have ruined everything, but that didn't come to be.

However, the last attack without a boost didn't hit the Nyss Hunter, so Bronzeback was forced to trample through and buy two attacks to get to Exulon. Would Bronzeback be able to kill the DEF 14 ARM 14 warcaster with P+S 19 and three Furies?

Yes, this time it was. First attack without a boost hit and dealt enough damage for Bronzeback to instant kill Exulon with an additional attack. So Bronzeback bought one more attack and boosted attack roll.

Yay. I didn't have to regret for "not playing the clock", though I would have deserved to lose because of that "whoops where's my feat? Three activations back, it seems!"

So. That was it. Two honest victories, one bye and three losses. I guess that's statistically better result than what I was aiming for, as I wanted two victories and four losses. With lists like these hoping for anything better would only cause depression, anxiety and hair loss. However I liked the ADR system very much. Being able to kick out the Krea (what's happening?!) most of the time from my lists was a big boon.

Enter Venators - Venators have left the building

Last Thursday I got to play a 50 point Warmachine game.

This time around I played with my other tournament list, which with a little tinkering with specialists looked like this:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Archidon
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea

Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer
Minimum unit of Venator Reivers + Unit Attachment
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Aptimus Marketh
Gatorman Witch Doctor

Opponent had:

High Executioner Reznik

- Reckoner
- Vanquisher
- Avatar of Menoth

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Hierophant
Reclaimer
2x Vassal of Menoth
Wracks

Scenario was Two Fronts, and Skorne started the game. First picture is from the end of Protectorate turn 1.

Iron Aggression is on Reckoner, and Ignite on Temple Flameguard. Skorne had Soul Slave on Archidon and Death March on Praetorian Swordsmen.

Turn 2 my newly acquired Venator Reivers advance and use their minifeat to add +4" range for their attacks. I wanted to take out Hierophant, and possibly tickle Bastions a little before moving back with Reform. But the curse of unfinished models must be true. First three venator CRA missed Hierophant with double ones. Second three man CRA hit, but dealt only something like three damage boxes. Wow. Such performance.

Other than that, Witch Doctor gave Zombify to Praetorian Swordsmen and Tyrant Commander gave them pathfinder. Then Praetorians ran, so a couple of them would engage Temple Flameguard and most probably trigger Vengeance. Bronzeback ran a little, and took concealment from the forest.

There seems to be a full round in between the pictures. Protectorate, however, mostly just advanced during their turn 2. Vanquisher shot a its towards Venators, but was out of range. Two tries (another from Ancillary attack) scored one perfect deviation, which caused the death of three Venators. Bastions charged objective and ran forwards. At least the objective didn't get destroyed right away.

Reznik shoots a Hex Blast to Venators' general direction, and just look at that. A whole unit of Venators didn't get to kill anybody, and got wiped by just a couple of attacks. Well... now I'm being unfair. Whole unit didn't die. The standard bearer survived.

Turn 3 seemed like it was the best timing for Hexeris' feat. Avatar had advanced so that I was wagering that Bronzeback might be able to get to Avatar, if it managed to charge a Temple Flameguard member and beat back to Avatar. So that's what I tried. But the concealment I took from the forest proved to be Bronzeback's downfall. Footslogging in the forest was enough to make the charge fail. Well played.

Witch Doctor gave Zombify to Swordsmen again, and Tyrant Commander gave Pathfinder for them. Then the tyrant charged Avatar and hoped for a good enough damage roll.

Basilisk Drake attempted to put some pressure to the leftern flank I was losing hard. The two damage rolls it got to make against Bastions were really good. First one scored something really absurd, and second attack would have killed a second Bastion also if it was not for their special rules of having the choice to divide damage. Oh my. I forgot to make feat move with the dead Bastion. I doubt it would have changed anything, though.

Swordsmen then use their minifeat and butcher a whole bunch of Temple Flameguards, who in turn transformed into zombies. It was okayish feat I guess, though it ate a lot of time from my clock.

Then there was operation "Save the Bronzeback". Enraged Archidon charged Avatar and hoped for some good damage rolls. Damage rolls were terrible, but scored a Critical Pitch. Archidon threw Avatar away, and managed to land it on a spot that made a charge to Bronzeback difficult at least for as long as Archidon was alive. If Avatar rolled only two focus, there might still be a game for me. Maybe. Possibly.

Agonizer cried for no arcnodes and no focus allocation, and ran forwards.

Turn 3 Avatar didn't roll two focus. It rolled four. So it removed Archidon with ease, and even had focus to activate Menoth's Gaze. Vanquisher set Agonizer, Bronzeback and Tyrant Commander on fire. The attack dealt seven points of damage to the Agonizer, which was somehow fitting. Tormented baby titan crying from unimaginable pain - what could be worse? A tormented baby titan on fire crying from unimaginable pain.

Bastions somehow manage to fail both at destroying the objective and killing the Venator standard bearer. Maybe this was a message for me - don't trust shooting. Only do melee.

But then Reznik charged the objective dead and cast Hex Blast on the Bastion that failed to kill the Venator. Attack hit and boosted blast damage killed the Venator. He wasn't a hero, after all.

Though situation on the right wasn't that bad, Protectorate scored three scenario points from this maneuver.

Turn 4 I followed my dreams and lived life to the fullest, not listening to the shallow expectations of society. In another words... I screwed up. I was so fixated on getting Bronzeback to Avatar and smash the holy vessel to smithereens that I noticed a little bit too late that I wouldn't be able to get anyone to contest my friendly zone. At the start of the turn I made a quick inventory of the situation - Beast Handlers, Basilisk Drake (provided it could get away from melee somehow) and Basilisk Krea all would be able to enter the zone. So no problems there. None at all.

Then Beast Handlers activate, and enrage Krea and Bronzeback. So much for running to contest. Praetorian Swordsmen continue to harvest Flameguards, and they punch some holes into Reckoner. Nothing fancy.

Tyrant Commander strikes a Flameguard dead, and then Bronzeback activates, destroys the objective and Avatar despite some lousy attack rolls. Whee. I succeeded. Now, let's get back to the more pressing matters at my friendly zone...

Well.

There was nobody to dislodge Drake from melee.

Krea had been enraged, so it couldn't run. It had to charge.

Protectorate went to five control points.

Obviously I dedicated way too few models to contest the zone. Of course it didn't help that the Vanquisher killed most of the unit in one activation. But with more modest casualties there on turn 2 perhaps I could have delayed the inevitable loss of the zone with one turn, or something. Who knows. Badly deployed and badly played. Hopefully I'll do a little better this weekend.

Impervious Shield Wall

It's been a week since this game was played. And I played another game today, so I hope I won't mix these two up.

My 50 point list was:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- Cyclops Shaman
- Basilisk Krea

Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer
Maximum unit of Bog Trog Ambushers
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Gatorman Witch Doctor

Opponent had:

Lieutenant Caine
- Ol' Rowdy

Maximum unit of Stormguard
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers + Officer

Minimum unit of Storm Lances
Black 13th
2x Stormblade Captain
Journeyman Warcaster
Stormcaller
Harlan Versh
Gorman diWulfe
Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Rhupert
Mage Hunter Eiryss

Scenario was Supply and Demand, and Cygnar got to start the game. First picture is from the end of turn 1.

Harlan Versh has Snipe and Storm Lances have Blur. Arcane Shield was on Stormguard.

On the Skorne side of things, both Basilisk Krea and Cyclops Shaman has Paralytic Aura on. Death March is on Cetrati and Soul Slave on Archidon.

Turn 2 seems I've forgotten to take a picture from the end of Cygnar turn. Well. Harlan Versh nearly kills Archidon all by himself, which is quite horrifying. Storm Lances charge Cetrati and two get into melee. Or perhaps one ran to engage. However it went, they didn't cause any serious damage to Cetrati. Though it's likely that Black 13th activated first and shot Cetrati with brutal damage shots. And not even one dead Cetrati.

Ol' Rowdy moves to annoying position. Annoying because of the Counter charge. Hmm. I wonder if you can Counter charge a Counter charge? And afterwards make a full activation? Just as a side thought, didn't matter here.

Skorne pulled Bog Trogs from ambush, because there wouldn't be any better turn for that in any case. Scenario was bad for ambushers. They killed two members of Black 13th.

Then I wondered if I should feat or not. My plan was to bring Archidon forward, and then if Ol' Rowdy chose to counter charge, I wouldn't feat. If Ol' Rowdy didn't counter charge, I would shoot Obliteration on the Stormguard, hopefully eating the unit dead from within. Looking back now it was a good thing I didn't get to use feat. The result would have been disappointing most certainly. Anyway, Rowdy counter charges. Damn it took long time to explain that.

Cyclops Shaman charges Ol' Rowdy for no apparent reason. Possibly I wanted to make an ancillary attack with evil eye and contest the zone better.

Ol' Rowdy was just within charge range of Bronzeback Titan, so Ol' Rowdy suddenly disappeared from the battlefield. Yet again I, however, underestimated badly how far I would be able to move Bronzeback with beat back. It would have been nice if it got to Stormguard especially after having spent only two Fury, but alas. It stopped at least an inch short, literally in the middle of enemy army.

Cetrati struggle with the two Storm Lances and don't manage to kill last Storm Lance, so the Tyrant Commander had to come and help. Rest of Skorne just shuffles around, not doing much. Hexeris at least has Krea's aura on, as does the basilisk itself.

Turn 3 Gorman blind oils the Bronzeback. But all in all Bronzeback miraculously survived from the charge of Stormguard and everything else opponent tried to throw againt it. I believe there was some incredible attack and damage rolls going on that turn. Mortitheurge Willbreaker and one Cetrati and one Bog Trog looks like the only actual casualties that turn. Models with damage boxes, however, had been injured. And Bronzeback was blind.

But for Skorne it was time for feat.

Hexeris used feat and charged in to Stormguard. They weren't passing their Tough rolls all the time, so I did get quite a few extra attacks from the Stormguards. A lucky roll killed the Stormblade Captain, who tried to take a shot at Caine, but missed. Anyway. As Hexeris was in a really bad position there, I thought it best to save three Fury for transfers. But I didn't play best, and bought yet one more attack, and thanks to beat back he got to engage Harlan Versh. I don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Bronzeback just crawls in the wreck of Ol' Rowdy to get out of the way for other troops, mainly the Cyclops Shaman. Cyclops was enraged by Beast Handlers, and then it cast Train Wreck on itself and charged a Stormguard. I was afraid of charging Caine, because he might be just outside of Shaman's threat range. But with a beat back move he would be most certainly be in. Well, the charge attack missed. Not that a light warbeast would one-shot a warcaster anyway.

Cetrati and Bog Trogs just charged in, killing what was left of Black 13th and taking a few Gun Mages down too. Eiryss, however, survived. Krea used it's animus and charged something, possibly Gorman diWulfe. Zombify had been cast on Beast Handlers, and that was it.

Turn 4 starts. All enemy models move away from Hexeris' melee range. Gorman moves away from Tyrant Commander's melee range, but gets killed in the process even with defense bonus from hitting over an obstacle. That was pretty much a life saver.

Caine casts Deadeye on Gun Mages, and uses feat, walks a bit and shoots as many shots against Hexeris as possible. Then he teleported away, and out of the Killbox. Feat didn't do much, as most of targets were under Krea's animus and possibly even engaged in melee.

Gun Mages tried to shoot Hexeris next with critical brutal damage, but there were quite a few misses and non-critical hits. I think even Journeyman Warcaster tried to shoot Hexeris, but I forget the result.

It looks a bit grim for Cygnar when turn 4 started for Skorne. I figured if I destroyed the objective and dominated the zone, it would be a scenario victory. It seemed easier than trying some weird shenanigans to get to Caine. It really seemed so.

Bronzeback Titan lurches forward and tries to beat Eiryss. It boosts all initial attacks and buys extra attack and boosts it. Nope. Not even one 9+ on four tries. Cyclops Shaman kills a Stormguard who had been left contesting the zone.

Well, I got two Cetrati within reach of Eiryss. Other Cetrati had to beat some Gun Mages. The Gun Mages died to MAT 9 hits, but Eiryss survives from two. Really? Really??

Bog Trogs wouldn't be able to charge Eiryss anyway, so they charged the objective. I had really counted on them destroying the pesky arm 18 target, I mean, seven of them got into contact with it. I think I did two big CMA's, and damage dealt was horrifying. For me. Ugh.

Well, perhaps Tyrant Commander would do the trick, after all he's a P+S 12 Weapon Master model. And sure, he did more damage than the Bog Trogs combined, but yet the objective stood. I don't remember how many boxes it had, but it wasn't much.

So. Basilisk Krea and Hexeris are the only models left to activate, and there's a def 16 target in melee and behind a wall, and an arm 18 objective with a few damage points left.

I did something I should have done very first - Krea activated, moved as close to Eiryss as possible and used her animus. She even tried to shoot the paralysis on her, but missed.

Hexeris has six Fury. He charges Eiryss, and with all bonuses and penalties combined it was MAT 7 attack versus DEF 16. Please, dice, I really get it. I do. I have to respect you and believe in you, and not take you for granted. But please. Roll first 9+ on 3 dice that turn.

And it's a hit. Thankfully I didn't have to roll damage, since even triple 1's would have killed Eiryss.

But then there's still the objective. Hexeris shoots it with Obliteration. He had one Fury for boosted damage, so the objective should easily die to average rolls, but I believe my hands were shaking from other things than caffeine on those rolls, as whole turn had been such a terrible affair.

But he does hit, and boosted damage takes the few remaining damage points out. Absolutelty nothing could have made any kind of attack any more against the objective. But anyway, that was the "easy" scenario victory. I still see nightmares from that final turn and wake up in cold sweat.

Cry like you have never cried before! (It just might save us...)

In attempt to try out something new, I tried out a theme list for Hexeris in a 50 point game.

Well, I got only to tier level of 1, because the following requirements are quite harsh. But the tier 1 bonus looked nicest anyway, since I'd be able to fill Agonizer in very first turn, and get all the upkeeps going on.

So, my list was:

Kingdom of Shadows tier 1
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan (soul slave)
- Cyclops Shaman
- Basilisk Krea
- 2x Basilisk Drake

Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment (death march)
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Extoller Soulward
Ancestral Guardian
Agonizer

I was against Convergence of Cyriss.

Carrier Group tier 4
Iron Mother Directrix
- Prime Axiom
- Monitor
- Assimilator
- Mitigator
- Diffuser
- Corollary

Optifex Directive
+ servitors. Lots of different servitors.

Scenario was Rally Point. Convergence won starting roll. Tactical Supremacy was cast on Monitor.

Thankfully I had used tier list, because filling Agonizer with Fury was easy enough now even if I went second. Cetrati just ran forward, backed up by Krea who had her animus on. Hexeris put four Fury on Agonizer, cast Krea's animus himself, too, and left one for transfers. First Bronzeback ran, but I could not risk of losing Bronzeback so early. Absolutely nothing would severely harm the Prime Axiom if the titan died.

So. Cyclops Shaman ran to block any drags to Bronzeback.

Turn 2 Mitigator knocked down Bronzeback and Cyclops Shaman, and as a consequence Shaman was shot to pieces. Amazing number of Praetorian Swordsmen died too. At least Extoller Soulward got souls. To use, well, against Optifexes. I guess Aptimus Marketh would have been a better choice here, after all.

On my turn I royally screw up with Bronzeback. I had somehow been estimating that with three beat backs Bronzeback should be able to get to Mitigator, and perhaps even Monitor. But also I knew I had to destroy one of the servitors from the middle to get as long charge as possible. Elementary mathematics would have told me that it would leave me with only two beat backs, but it's been such a long time since I was in elementary school. That's my onle defense, really.

So, it'd be a miracle if Bronzeback survived now. But at least I'd make it as difficult for opponent as possible, and Agonizer with four Fury ran forward, catching all but assimilator and corollary within its cries of agony. Cetrati advanced in shield wall, and two or three got their toe to enemy zone.

Turn 3 Convergence beats Bronzeback and Agonizer down, but it takes pretty much all available arsenal to do that. Last few points to Bronzeback were actually shot by some eliminator servitors.

Praetorian Swordsmen lose all but their unit leader. Not that there were too many of them still alive, though.

My turn looks a little bit weird. I remember that my grand plan was to charge one of the servitors in my enemy zone, beat back two of them dead and shooting Soulfire to one hiding in the woods. Well, all this succeeded and Skorne got two control points from that.

But I can't remember what had done damage to Mitigator... Basilisk Drake shot the light vector down with his gaze, but surely not one POW 14 could one-shot a light warjack? Only possible explanation is that two POW 14's did exactly that, if I shot Mitigator one turn earlier with exactly the same drake.

Cetrati then charged, or only two of them charged and the rest ran to block Line of Sight to Hexeris. If I remember right they did some respectable damage to Assimilator, but not enough to make it useless.

Drake on the left wrecked another light vector. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but that's what it did. It's a bit shameful when Basilisk Drakes wreck more heavy armor than Bronzeback during a game.

Krea cast her animus, and then it was next turn.

Turn 4 Convergence attempts to assassinate Hexeris, but one of Prime Axiom's tow cables miss, so Hexeris was safe at least from melee assassination. I vaguely remember that some attack hit Hexeris and deal something like four points of damage, and after that Convergence just tried to beat the army down. But four Cetrati were the only models that died completely. I think that the Basilisk Drake on the right lost a branch or two, but nothing that a beast handler couldn't repair.

But again I was losing the attrition here. If Hexeris only managed to survive, I might have had chances of either wrecking all the heavy warjacks, or with some luck the colossal, but not both. Though it would have been hilarious to get to use Krea's flank with Drakes meaningfully probably the first time ever.

Thanks to Hexeris' beat back securing the control zone was very easy, just one attack at the Assimilator and Skorne was essentially at four control points. It was the undamaged objective that was the tricky one. So I put all firepower to the objective I possibly can. Hexeris even uses his feat! Then he casts Obliteration on the objective, and rolls absurdly high damage roll, which made things a lot easier. Hexeris also boosts damage against an Optifex Directive, who dies and turns into a zombie and goes to whack the objective. Zero damage. Yay, such a glorious feat!

But then there were one Drake I could get 100% sure within the range of the objective, and another that might be within the range.

Didn't have to see if the second Drake could have sprayed the objective, first one hit and dealt the few remaining damage points to it.

In some way Bronzeback Titan was essential in this scenario victory, too. It's sheer spite kept it alive for attack after an attack, which eventually forced a couple of contestors away from my enemy zone. Also if the servitor in the woods would have been an inch or two deeper in the woods none of this would have been possible, or at least unfeasibly difficult.

Of course I might have ran something close to the servitor and cast Obliteration on my own model and killing the servitor with blast damage, but. Eh.

Anyway, my love for tormented baby titans continues to grow. There's something in the cry of an Agonizer that puts even the cold, mechanical heart of convergence away from balance. Or perhaps it was the emotional scene itself, where Agonizer runs behind the Bronzeback Titan, crying pitifully: "Daaaddyyy! Don't gooo! You can't reach your target you'll just dieee! Nooooo!"

Hyper Aggressive

Last Sunday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine.

As I had just finished Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer for Skorne, I wanted to try the unit.

My list was:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer
Maximum unit of Paingiver Beast Handlers
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Feralgeist
Gatorman Witch Doctor

Opponent was playing Cygnar, with this list:

Kara Sloan

- 2x Hunters

Maximum unit of Storm Lances
Rangers
Maximum unit of Greygore Boomhowlers + Murdoch
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Journeyman Warcaster
Rhupert Carvolo
Alten Ashley
Epic Eiryss
Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Reinholdt

Scenario was Incoming. Skorne won starting roll, and had to go first. However, Cygnar had such long range shooting available, that I was scared to fully run even on my first turn! Aided by Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer, the Cataphract Cetrati marched in shield wall. Deathmarch was cast on Praetorian Swordsmen, and Soul Slave was on Archidon. Basilisk Krea and Hexeris are spamming Krea's animus like it's the end of days.

And, well... only Archidon took a nasty hit from the Hunter on right, but that was all. Oh no, it wasn't. Feralgeist was also shot to pieces by something I forget, but who had magical weapon from Aiyana.

Turn 2 gives a difficult choice - either I let Cygnar start scoring scenario points from friendly zone, or rush forward and get a brutal alpha strike on my face. I thought that it'd be worth it to advance in shield wall and krea animus and give Cygnar one control point, and next turn have a shield wall unit + Bronzeback contesting the zone.

Then I made a masterful tactical choice of bringing Archidon up front and Bronzeback slightly farther back, so Archidn would act as an meat wall that enemy would need to deal with first before taking shots on Bronzeback. Aw, hell. Who am I kidding, here. In reality, all those shenanigans was just a 7 point Archidon piece trade to 3 point Eiryss. I'm just trying to make it look a little better.

Hexeris cast Soulfire through Archidon to Eiryss, and cast Krea's animus. Cetrati advanced in a shield wall, and zombified Praetorian Swordsmen ran to my friendly zone.

Cygnar runs Rangers first, and Bronzeback declares a counter charge against one of them. Misses the shot, which is both a blessing and a curse - Bronzeback would gain melee bonuses, but Ranger now gave bonuses against many of the Cetrati plus Tyrant Commander.

Kara Sloan used her feat and used it to destroy my objective marker and Archidon. However, Archidon survived against all odds - at least for a little while longer. Greygore Boomhowlers assaulted Cetrati, which in itself was of no consequence. All either missed or didn't crack through armor. Two Cetrati took some damage, and that was it. But. My grand plans of contesting my enemy zone with Cetrati suddenly looked rather difficult to make come true. To no-one's suprise they had used the 4+ tough Fell Call.

On my friendly zone three successful tough rolls saved the day. Charge from Storm Lances was stopped in their tracks to the first line of Praetorian Swordsmen. Losing something like eight swordsmen would have been a real possibility thanks to crapton of electroleaps both from assault shots and melee weapons, but now damage was quite minimal. I have to say Praetorian Swordsmen roll tough way better than my Bane Thralls.

Turn 3 was Hexeris' feat turn. Willbreaker gave Puppet Master to Bronzeback, and then Hexeris activated. He cast Train Wreck on Bronzeback, and I think he tried to cast Soul Fire on a Greygore Boomhowler grunt, but either missed or grunt passed tough check. I think he also cast Train Wreck on the Basilisk Drake just for giggles and left two Fury for transfers.

Krea activated next and just advanced and cast its own animus, and stared nearest Storm Lance into paralysis. I think the Lance was already engaged by Swordsmen, but I didn't care if she'd hit or miss.

Basilisk Drake shot it's spray next, and it might have killed one Boomhowler grunt.

Then. I had huge expectations from Bronzeback here. He was supposed to learn to dance and walz through rangers and Boomhowlers and finally end the song contesting my enemy zone. And - that trunkless elephant is a really good dancer! All his dancing partners lost stamina way before he did, or maybe he just stepped on their toes and, well, kind of crushed them. Not the toes. The whole partner. A honourable mention goes to one of the Boomhowler grunts, who refused to die even after Bronzeback started to solo dance trepak from Nutcracker over him. The trollkin passed, what, three Tough rolls from Bronzeback before Bronzeback lost its balance landed mid-air on a nearby ranger. As a consequnce Rangers failed their command check.

After such a phenomenal dance the road was, well, not entirely clear but at least clearer for Cetrati to come and contest the zone. Two managed to enter the enemy zone. Those two also poked their spears at the trollkin Bronzeback had failed to kill, and still it continued to pass tough rolls. Last attack, however, finally killed him.

Hexeris' animus didn't help at all dealing with the Boomhowlers, as they had Arcane Shield on. Few did fail their tough rolls at the first attempt, but didn't manage to punch through their friends' armour.

On the right, then, Hexeris' feat yield a bit more. Praetorian Swordsmen used their minifeat and punched automatic points at the Storm Lances, which soon turned one of them into a zombie. The zombie Lance killed another Storm Lance outright, who continued the chain, but at least didn't score more kills.

Alten Ashley died to a combo-strike from a Swordsman, and Alten took a swing at Rhupert. Didn't kill him, though. What a pity.

Ranger who succumbed to Hexeris' feat killed a former member of his own unit, but the next zombie didn't have much chances of damaging anyone. He did try to attack the Storm Lance, but dice -10 for damage isn't odds to place bets on. It wasn't the best feat from Hexeris I've had, but it definitely wasn't the worst either. At least I got to make some attack rolls, which killed extra models.

What else? Tyrant Commander had ran to engage the paralysed Storm Lance. Oh, and because everyone had been blocking each others' movement last turn, Gatorman Witch Doctor was in a bad position and couldn't reach Praetorian Swordsmen, so he cast Zombify on Beast Handlers.

On opponents turn I realised how greatly those few passed tough rolls last turn saved my game - only three Storm Lances were alive any more, and yet they alone killed every single remaining Praetorian Swordsmen, except one who actually survived and one who was shot down by Master Holt.
Aiyana had cast Kiss of Lyliss on Cetrati, which this turn assured that the two contesting Cetrati died miserably. Rhupert ran to opponent's enemy zone, and suddenly opponent was at 100% certain 3 control points, and more if Bronzeback died somehow.

Hunter on the right, however, skipped shooting and ran to a very annoying position right next to my Basilisk encampment.

Kara Sloan had a lot on her hands now. She'd have to kill nearly uninjured Bronzeback with two shots. She took one against it, and though the damage roll was okayish, it wasn't enough to make second shot a possible kill shot. This, however, triggered Hyper Aggressive, and Bronzeback advanced as much forward as possible, yet still within enemy zone.

Turn 4 I decide to try to pull an all-out assassination. I didn't even try to protect Hexeris any way from a possible retaliation if assassination fails - after all clearing two light warbeasts, a couple of infantry models and possibly Tyrant Commander who had two damage boxes left from opponent's enemy zone would be nearly as easy as killing a warlock with one or no Fury at all.

Beast Handlers enrage Bronzeback, Willbreaker gives Puppet Master to Hexeris, who then activates and advances to provide control area for Bronzeback. He also casts Soul Slave on Bronzeback, and right after an unboosted Obliteration on Journeyman Warcaster, which hits and kills, and boosted blast damage kills Aiyana, too. Path to Sloan was clear now, so Bronzeback charged and killed her. If journeyman had not died, Bronzeback would have had to trample, and Aiyana would've probably got a free strike against Bronzeback. While usually not a worrying , Bronzeback had only a couple of boxes left in Body branch thanks to previous damage. A big risk.

Oh. OH. Now that I'm checking things, turns out Aiyana doesn't have a melee weapon at all.

Anyway, I forget to make the chain attack, so it takes the last bit of Fury 5 to bring the def 16 arm 17 (from focus camp) warcaster down thanks to one triple one miss. I'm in no position to complain, however, since I had been rolling attack rolls very well through the whole game. So well, in fact, that I got to taste my own medicine very soon...