"If I just... could... reach!"

Last Wednesday I played a 35 point game of Warmachine.

My list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Riphorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Rotterhorn Griffon

Minimum unit of Bog Trog Ambushers
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder
Feralgeist

Enemy had:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- 2x Deathripper

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + Skarlock Commander... I think opponent forgot to put Brute on table, since list is one point short.
Necrosurgeon
Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren

Scenario was Recon. Cryx probably started, and first picture is from the end of Circle turn 1.

Cryx turn 2 the disturbing horde lurches forward. Asphyxious comes to take pot shots with Hellfire against Kaya. If dice started rolling well, Asphyxious might have used feat and score an assassination. Kaya had only two Fury for transfers. But if that was opponent's plan, he ditched it after first Hellfire missed and Breath of Corruption didn't land on her.

On my turn I was fairly intimidated for obvious reasons. I was outnumbered three to one if we don't count my models that had no attacks at all. I decided to use Kaya's feat this turn and call in the Bog Trogs. Their most important target, Necrosurgeon, was slightly too far away. At least one Trog killed the Warwitch Siren, and one took down a stitch thrall.

Warpwolf Stalker warped for berserk and charged stitch thrall in the middle. This triggered a berserk chain that accomplished nothing. Stalker starts to buy attacks against the Deathripper, managing to miss some attacks even with Kaya's Pack Hunter ability. Finally one attack hit, and Stalker had capacity for one more attack. I decided to go a risky route, and attacked Bane Thrall. Berserk carried through the two Bane Thralls back to Deathripper. I think the attack hit but didn't wreck.

Riphorn Satyr finishes the bonejack and kills one Mechanithrall. Yay. Rotterhorn then uses its own animus and charges forward. My plan with the bird was mostly wishful thinking, but I tried to take three Mechanithralls down by charging the unit leader. This provoked a free strike from Mechanithrall, which hits and breaks Spirit branch. And it appeared my wishful thinking had been way too optimistic - the Griffon could only reach its charge target, and 2" from Shrill Shriek didn't even carry to anybody!

Well. At least Rotterhorn Griffon missed both of it's initial attacks, and the Shriek killed that Mechanithrall. Shrill Shriek success. That was a pretty costly unit leader, though.

Scarsfell Griffon charges the other arc node, and with its flurry of low-powered attacks it managed to drop the bonejack to only movement system remaining.

I had been too eager with the Rotterhorn Griffon anyway. I was supposed to use it's animus on Blackclad Wayfarer before it charges off to its doom, but in the heat of things I forgot. Saxon Orrik had last turn nearly killed Druid Wilder, so I wanted to kill him. That military rifle could become problematic. Blackclad Wayfarer tried to spray Saxon down, but 8+ was beyond my dice roll skills.

Finally Kaya activates, uses all fury to bring both heavies to safety, advances and uses feat to call Rotterhorn back and heal it with one fury point. I had only the objective and a swamp gobber contesting the zone.

Turn 3 Cryx starts playing for scenario. Tartarus curses Scarsfell Griffon, and Bane Thralls charge. Two get to objective and break it. Astonishing combination of misses and low damage rolls kept Scarsfell Griffon still in game. One Swamp Gobber died to the Bane Thralls, and it wasn't the one who was contesting. A hero gobber! Last turn it had caused a Tough check for a Bane Thrall.

But then Asphyxious comes around and ruins everything by shooting a Hellfire to the melee. Of course it missed, but Bane's stealth surprised the opponent. I guess he attempted to kill the Bane Thrall and free Gobber from melee, and kill it with a second shot. So he opted for a 33% kill chance by attacking with Breath of Corruption. The cloud lands on the gobber, and Cryx went to three scenario points.

Circle turn 3 I try to figure out what to do. Exposing both of my heavy warbeasts wasn't an idea I liked too much, and exactly that I needed to do if I'd try to prolong the game somehow. I didn't have enough attacks to whittle down the infantry, even with Berserk from the Warpwolf Stalker. Moreover, Riphorn had been placed poorly, so it's contribution to game at this point would be minimal. Unless...

Riphorn pushes Kaya. Then Rotterhorn Griffon pushes Kaya. I wanted to align Kaya so that she'd be able to get within 5" of Maelovus with a charge attack against whatever. This succeeded, and she tried to shoot Maelovus down with one fully boosted Spirit Fang. That's 8+ to hit with three dice and 9+ to kill with three dice.

To really rub it in, damage roll was exactly 8. Curses.

Had Maelovus died, I think I could have shifted a Warpwolf Stalker who warps for strength within reach of Asphyxious, who had only one focus point boosting the armor.

Well. There was not much left to do. Blackclad Wayfarer took a free strike from Saxon Orrik in an attempt to perhaps clear a different teleport lane for Warpwolf Stalker. He survived, but either spray was too short or attack didn't hit to the main target - a Bane Thrall next to Maelovus.

Scarsfell Griffon takes three free strikes from Bane Thralls and one from Deathripper to just see how far it might go. I don't know what I tried to accomplish with that, as it couldn't reach to any location where it might be of use. Maybe I wanted to kill Tartarus. I don't know.

Well, there still was one hope - that 8" from Warpwolf Stalker would be enough to place it right behind of the Bane Thrall, or perhaps base-to-base to Maelovus and Bane Thrall.

Turns out it isn't enough to do that.

Bummer, bummer, bummer. It was game over for Circle now.

One should not chew on stainless steel

Last Thursday I played a 35 point game of Warmachine.

I took my Circle of Orboros for a spin. It's been quite a while since I last played them.

And the reason is simple. I don't know who to play! Statistically Morvahna2 is lagging behind in the number of games played, but I'd rather save her for tournaments than casual games.

And I did what I usually do when I don't know which Circle warlock I'd want to play. Most often it's Kaya the Wildborne. I don't know why... it just happens.

Anyway. My list was:

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

Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder
Feralgeist

That's 15 models that includes four which have no attack whatsoever, and quite a few with negligible attack potential. So I was quite worried when I saw what was against me.

Axis, the Harmonic Enforcer
Sustained Attack tier 3
- Corollary
- Inverter

Maximum unit of Obstructors + Enumerator
Maximum unit of Obstructors
Maximum unit of Reductors + Enumerator
4x Enigma Foundry

That's 35 models that would just be coming back no matter what. But in the end this game would become one of the more interesting ones I've played. So.

Scenario was Outflank, and Circle started game. I don't want to imagine this game if Convergence with 30 Advance Deployed infantry models would have started. First picture is from the end of Convergence turn 1.

Turn 2 Circle dedicates Griffon to contest eastern zone. Then I'm wondering if I might actually be able to destroy one unit of Obstructors. I guess it might have been doable, but I was too greedy. First Warpwolf Stalker warped for Berserk and charged. I wanted to catch all four leftmost Obstructors and possibly one or two Reductors within Stalker's reach, but only four Obstructors were there in the end. Oh well.

Then Winter Argus advances and attempts to spray some Obstructors and killed a few. Since one Obstructor had been in a nasty position to get hold of, Blackclad Wayfarer advanced and for some unfathomable reason sprayed the other unit of Obstructors. Swamp Gobbers run to protect Blackclad Wayfarer.

Kaya advances and casts Spirit Door twice to call back both Warpwolf Stalker and Winter Argus. She was at zero Fury for transfers, but opponent didn't have that much shooting. At least not POW 13 sprays that had re-rolls for missed attack rolls.

Convergence turn 2 Axis uses his feat. Reductors advance and start to spray. I only three sprays got to Kaya. Out of six attack rolls only one hit - but dealt eight points of damage. Gnarlhorn Satyr took heavy damage, and teleportation possibilities for Shifting Stones became limited when one stone got destroyed.

Enigma Foundry builds some new Obstructors to the unit on the right, and then the aforementioned unit charges and kills Scarsfell Griffon. Two of the newly build robots even reached a second Shifting Stone and the Stone Keeper - and there went a second stone. Now that I look at the picture... did that unit also kill Blackclad Wayfarer? That's seven points plus some fractions from the stones already. Damn.

Thankfully the Reductors blocked any meaningful charges for Obstructors on the left, so they just Shield Walled themselves and beat down one Swamp Gobber.

Turn 3 I do something I should have done a turn earlier: Feralgeist runs to contest the eastern zone. Stone Keeper also teleports there and uses his attack spell on a cluster of metalheads in the middle. A couple of Reductors die, which is perfect.

Druid Wilder gives Sprint to Warpwolf Stalker, who warps for Berserk and advances to take a maximum toll on Reductors - though it had only Spd 4 thanks to Axis' feat. Afterwards it sprinted back, and Winter Argus sprayed some winter on Reductors. Since first spray killed everything that was within reach anyway, it opted to force it's own animus.

Kaya cast Spirit Door on Warpwolf Stalker and healed Gnarlhorn for a couple points of damage.

Then it's Convergence.

An Enigma Foundry scuttles forward on the left, its tiny greedy clockwork hands sweating with anticipation for building yet another batch of robots. But it stopped in a place where Gnarlhorn Satyr was able to counter slam it - and slam distance was no less than full 8", which brought it into contact with Inverter. Worth the giggles.

However, I was fairly certain now that Gnarlhorn would just die. Gnarlhorn Satyr has failed me so many times before and I didn't expect this to be any different. But much to my amazement Gnarlhorn casually shrugged off almost every enemy attack. Was it trying to make up for its earlier games? Or does it have an attitude that it will not even try unless outnumbered 4 to 1? I do not know. But I know that at the end of the turn Gnarlhorn was still very much alive. Well... not very much. A tiny bit alive.

On the right side of the board a Swamp Gobber and Stone Keeper somehow manage to stall Convergence - even if they have to valiantly sacrifice their own lives doing it. Thanks to Circle's high defence the game had not been such a cakewalk for Convergence that I had been afraid of. After all Axis doesn't have any ability to raise the odds for attack rolls. The small based infantry was stuck with their MAT 6, RAT 5. Though to be honest - getting 8+ shouldn't be that hard than it sometimes looked like it was... but hey, not my time to complain here.

Turn 4 a Shifting Stone teleports to the middle of enemy infantry and Feralgeist runs to forest, taking great care to still contest the zone.

First Winter Argus eats an Obstructor and their Enumerator. Gnarlhorn Satyr makes an incredible trample right next to Inverter. We spent multiple minutes checking the trample line, because it just looked too good to be true - all five small base infantry models were trampled over. Then the Satyr continued to buy extra attacks against Inverter, not accomplishing much there.

Then Druid Wilder casts Primal on Warpwolf Stalker, and Stalker charges Inverter with Strength warp. Inverter is smashed to bits.

I don't remember what Kaya did, though. She charged somewhere, cast Spirit Door on Stalker and then Gnarlhorn, used her feat and cast Spirit Door on herself, too. Perhaps she just advanced, tried to kill last Obstructor near Winter Argus and failed to do that? Oh well. Doesn't matter, really.

Axis runs to eastern zone, and if Feralgeist was capable of fear, I think it might have felt something akin to that emotion.

Tons and tons of Obstructors start to flood into the western zone, and Gorax really did luck out there when multiple MAT 6's rolled misses against its DEF 12.

Turn 5 Warpwolf Stalker has no other option except to frenzy, so the little guy next to it is demoted to a makeshift chewing toy. But Winter Argus, Gnarlhorn Satyr and Gorax make exceptional job at clearing the zone of enemy models. Druid Wilder's charge to an Obstructor is less impressive, and she probably has to pay for it with her life. I can't quite believe scenario just went 2-1 for Circle.

That joy for being ahead in scenario doesn't last long, as Axis shoots Feralgeist dead with Battering Ram.

But then. The attack rolls of small based MAT 6 infantry. What could have resulted in three dead warbeasts with a bit of luck turned into a massive farce when hits and damage were next to nothing against Gorax, Gnarlhorn Satyr and the back arc of Warpwolf Stalker. I guess only massive amount of overkilling and dedicating all attacks to a single warbeast may have killed at least one. Especially Gorax and Gnarlhorn had been trolling hard throughout the whole game.

Anyway. Scenario went 3-2 for Convergence.

Turn 6 Warpwolf Stalker warps for berserk and clears a huge swathe of troops from my zone. Winter Argus sprays some more. Gorax kills one last troublesome Obstructor, and then Gnarlhorn is free to trample to contest eastern zone. Kaya personally dispatched last contesting Obstructor from my zone.

Scenario was 4-3 for Circle.

Sadly Axis has quite impressive amount of tricks to push enemy models around. One Battering Ram pushed Gnarlhorn Satyr out of the eastern zone. Now only a random Obstructor needed to contest western zone, and scenario went 5-4 for Convergence.

Uh oh. What a game. What a game.

Argus, Argus Everywhere!

Last Wednesday I played a 15 point game of Warmachine and a game of Deadzone, but that's a blog post for another time, another place.

My list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Argus
- Winter Argus
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax

Blackclad Wayfarer Hero (Electrical Augmentation, Crown of the Wild, Wilting Totem)
Feralgeist

Opponent played:

High Exemplar Kreoss
- Dervish
- Revenger

Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Paladin Hero

We didn't play any scenarios, but used Mangled Metal rules so that game ends either by caster kill, or killing everything else but the caster. In the first picture Protectorate has ended a turn. Let's call it turn 1, as I don't remember who actually started.

Paladin Hero in in Stone and Mortar stance and has Defender's Ward also cast on him. Kreoss had cast Lamentation on turn 1 and upkept it throughout the whole game.

To open the game somehow Winter Argus advanced and attempted to Critical Freeze the Paladin - and succeeded doing that!

I think it was Scarsfell Griffon, who charged one of the Bastions dead after Blackclad Wayfarer had cast Hunter's Mark on it.

Kaya cast Spirit Door to get the Griffon back, and since freezer operation had succeeded, she didn't cast another one.

I don't have a picture from the end of Protectorate's turn, but mostly it was just Revenger charging Winter Argus and not killing it. Dervish ran to engage.

Turn 3 starts with a great botch on my part. By now I should remember such trivialities as Repulsor Shield. Oh well. Anyway, Gorax cast Primal on Scarsfell Griffon, who charged Revenger next. Damage was okay, but I got to make only one attack. Fun fact: griffon could have charged a bit farther, and blocking the push with Winter Argus.

Winter Argus then blocks push with Griffon and tries to bite and chew the light warjack, not doing much. Kaya decided to pull Winter Argus back and leave the bird to die. Thanks to useless Primal the Griffon would just frenzy next turn.

Blackclad Wayfarer probably had already tried to Critical Knockdown the Revenger, but it's not possible to score two critical hits in one game. True story.

Argus paralysed a Bastion. Whee. I guess the Bastion was paralysed because it saw someone actually fielding arguses.

Next turn Kreoss used his feat. At least I think so, though judging from the pictures it's possible it was saved for later. Scarsfell Griffon dropped dead instantly, and Blackclad Wayfarer died, too. Revenger charged Gorax, but somehow managed to fail the kill.

Turn 4 spelled doom for Revenger. Gorax almost tore it to pieces even without animus. But not quite, and that's where Winter Argus had to come and align its sprays against Kreoss, slightly clipping Revenger but not hitting Gorax.

Regular Argus paralysed three Bastions. The sight of Argus and Winter Argus in the same battle was too much to bear.

But say what you may. Both arguses were the last warbeasts I got alive. Take that, mainstay Gorax and situational Scarsfell Griffon!

Gorax fell to Bastions. Feralgeist had offered some utility during this game, but it's performance was far from exceptional.

Turn 5 Winter Argus and Kaya try to maul Dervish dead, but sad as it is... they fail. Kaya uses her feat and spends all Fury from her second pool to teleport to safety. I was pondering if I should try to assassinate here by moving Winter Argus forward and Critical Freezing Kreoss with first spray and boosting damage, and boosting damage for the second spray - and then casting one damage boosted Spirit Fang. It was a lot to expect from three boosted POW 12's. But in the end I didn't even try, because it looked so difficult to get Winter Argus within spraying distance. Damn that Reach.

Circle lost only regular Argus and the Feralgeist next turn. Oh my! Did I actually get one more chance of attempting some outrageous assassination?

Not really.

Turn 6 Winter Argus was nearly dead, and engaged by Paladin, and any path to Kreoss was blocked by medium bases. So I opted to inflict as much casualties as possible as a gesture of futile defiance.

Kaya and Winter Argus did manage to wreck Dervish and kill the Paladin hero.

After Bastions fail to kill Winter Argus, Kreoss personally ends the game by killing the pup.

It was a fairly long game for a 15 pointer, and I guess I have now learned my lesson that you never ever run Circle with just light warbeasts and nothing else.

My hero got second Arm Fracture injury, meaning that he is only marginally stronger fighter than Swamp Gobbers now.

But experience was enough to get Potent's Mark upgrade. Crown of the Wild + Potent's Mark seems to be a rather disgusting combo, to be honest.

Instant promotion, ennoblement and coronation

Last... Thursday, was it? Yes, I think it was Thursday, when I played two 15 point league games of Warmachine/Hordes.

We have a new player here, who has just acquired a small collection of Cryx.

My list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Scarsfell Griffon

Swamp Gobbers
Blackclad Wayfarer
Totem Hunter

Opponent had:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- Defiler
- Deathripper

Skarlock
Pistol Wraith

We didn't play other scenario than straightforward caster kill.

I'm not sure which one of us started the game, but first picture is from the end of Circle turn X, so it'll be Cryx activating next. Earlier Deneghra had attempted to cast Crippling Grasp on the Warpwolf Stalker, but as it was within a cloud effect and on a hill she'd have needed 11+ to hit. Not impossible with three dice, but it was a miss.

Stalker obviously beat Defiler into scrap metal, but what was a little bit more surprising was that Scarsfell Griffon did the same to Deathripper.

Next turn Deneghra used her feat, and Slayer single-handedly did the same to Stalker what it had just done to Defiler.

Pistol Wraith shot down my league hero model, which was (to my knowledge) first recorded league model kill in history. At least our history.

There was not much to do on my turn, then. I tried to bring all models I could to block a clear charge to Kaya from Slayer helljack, but -2 SPD and no run made for a rather lousy screen. Kaya saved three Fury for damage transfers.

Slayer trampled right next to Kaya, and scored one hit without a damage boost, and still scored nearly ten points of damage. Those were transfered to Scarsfell Griffon, who thankfully didn't break any life branches.

Next there was difficult choices to be made.

I might advance with Kaya first and attempt to score critical knockdown on Deneghra, but that meant a free strike from Slayer. Of course damage would have been transfered to Griffon, but a damage roll of 3d6+3 straight in could very well kill the Griffon.

Having faith in MAT 8 of the Griffon, the bird charged in first. Then Totem Hunter attempted to attack Deneghra, which was done in wrong order now when I think of it. Finally Kaya advanced to attack Deneghra, but all of Kaya's rolls are absolutely atrocitious - she barely hit Deneghra, and when she did, there was next to no damage. I vaguely remember that Kaya had only P+S 9, so perhaps she had Crippling Grasp on herself?

Anyway, Kaya used her feat and spent all Fury on extra attacks, and last possible attack made by her scores critical knockdown effect - and, funnily enough, leaves Deneghra lingering with just one hit box remaining.

That's it, then... oh wait. There is one more model that can make an attack, and now that Deneghra was knocked down, MAT 3 wouldn't be a problem...

Swamp gobber charges one of the most notorious warcasters of Cryx, and needs 10+ to kill. And it rolls exactly 10.

Uh oh.

No matter how well I may perform with my league hero during the remainder of league, I already know who the real hero was... is.


Game 2:

Second game was almost the same list, but Blackclad Wayfarer had rolled -2 arm for injury. I deemed that too bad an injury, and sent Sepoh Thalasland to detoxification treatment. He was replaced by Lanyssa Ryssyll.

Opponent, however, played a very different list:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Defiler

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
2x Pistol Wraith
Skarlock

First picture from this game is from the end of Cryx turn X.

Totem Hunter had chosen Defiler as his prey, so he charged his prey. He didn't kill, but I think both Cortex and spray gun were destroyed. Warpwolf Stalker also attempted to charge the Defiler, as I saw little to gain from attacking Mechanithralls. Charge failed miserably - 11" carries far, but not that far.

Kaya repositioned Stalker to slightly better position, and that was it.

Cryx just rushes forward, and Deneghra is camping all of her Focus. Pistol Wraith on right scores a lucky hit against Def 17 Lanyssa and kills her.

I want to get rid of the Pistol Wraiths, and Warpwolf Stalker does exactly that to the corporeal wraith. Next one is a bit more challenging, since it is still incorporeal, and only Kaya has magic attacks. She charges Wraith and kills it, and teleports Stalker to screen her from charging Mechanithralls.

Totem Hunter survives a free strike from Defiler, and slams Necrosurgeon dead with his shield. Polearm weapon wrecks Defiler, so all in all it was a pretty good turn.

But then Deneghra uses feat, casts Crippling Grasp and Scourge on Warpwolf Stalker, and Mechanithralls charge Stalker dead. Totem Hunter isn't being charged because none of the thralls had Line of Sight, but when one dies to a free strike, two others turn to engage him.

Next turn Totem Hunter kills the two Mechanithralls and sprints 5" to engage Skarlock.

Kaya stands up and kill three Mechanithralls, and teleports to the relative safety of Scarsfell Griffon. And, well, that's it. Though I think I may have had to use Kaya's feat here, because Griffon has none.

Deneghra then personally kills the Griffon, and Mechanithralls charge to Deneghra. Six attacks later Kaya is still standing, but one thrall scored a hit and made Kaya to fall down to five boxes remaining.

Kaya cuts herself down to one hit box remaining, and even if Mechanithralls have only MAT 5, I didn't dare to risk a free strike with Kaya and go repeat the scene from last game. Instead she kills a Mechanithrall in front of her and attacks Deneghra with Spirit Fang. She scored 10+ for a hit, and some damage, too.

Deneghra was Totem Hunter's prey by now, and he was my only chance now. Though Deneghra suffered -2 DEF from Spirit Fang, I couldn't expect gobbers to have a double kill.

So, Totem Hunter charges and survives a free strike made by Skarlock.

I was rather disappointed when attack roll was 1 and 2. But after counting it about five times or so, it looked like attack was a hit anyway, thanks to prey bonus, back strike bonus and penalty from Spirit Fang. Damage roll was 5, 5, 5, which was more than enough to kill Deneghra.

Well.

The games were both quite close calls. Especially in the last game Deneghra's facing was the determining factor between victory and defeat... or, well, of course I would have had two MAT 3, P+S 5 attacks more it Totem Hunter had missed, if Swamp Gobbers were in range...

Ropecon Steamroller 35 - Kaya the Wildborne

The main event for me was Steamroller tournament on Sunday. There was a 50 point Iron Gauntlet style tournament, too. However, I wanted more games in and in Iron Gauntlet I would have played only three games and in Sunday's tournament I would get four.

I'm writing this tournament in two parts, and since I played two games with Kaya the Wildborne and two games with Morvahna the Dawnshadow, I thought I'll make one post for each warlock instead of a chronological order.

Tournament was 35 points with 40 minute deathclock, and otherwise rough schedule, too.

This post will handle my Kaya games.

My list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Feral Warpwolf
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Winter Argus

Tharn Bloodweavers
Swamp Gobbers
Druid Wilder
War Wolf
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Feralgeist


First game was against Minions, and it was the very first game in this tournament. It was Blindwater Congregate lead by Rask. The list:

Rask
- Bull Snapper
- Ironback Spitter
- Swamp Horror

2x Maximum units of Gatorman Posse
2x Croak Hunters

Scenario was... Incursion. Three times in a row Incursion with exactly the same flag disappearing. I dare to say Incursion is biased.

I believe Blindwater started game, and first picture is from the end of Minion turn 2. Rask has used his feat, so there wouldn't be too much charging around.

I thought I might warp for Berserk with Stalker and trample to beat Gatorman Posse. Stalker spent all available Fury on him to desperately buy attacks against crocodiles, but no. Not today. Three Furies worth of attacks yielded just two dead gatormen.

Feral Warpwolf warped for speed and tried to do the same, but could not get within melee range of anything. That qas quite disappointing. Tharn Bloodweavers try to make up for it by running to engage all the Gators. Maybe that would buy me time next turn, or maybe not.

If I'm not entirely mistaken, the Winter Argus sprays one of the Croak Hunters dead and uses its animus. Lanyssa Ryssyll then advances to engage the other Hunter, but doesn't kill the frog.

Then I get to do something I've always dreamed of with Kaya... I cast Spirit Door four times in a turn. First to pull Stalker back to safety, then Feral, then on Kaya to teleport to friendly flag and then on Feral Warpwolf again to block line of sight. I actually scored one control point this way, but as Kaya was going to be entirely without Fury, I didn't bring her to dominate.

Then it was Blindwater Congregation again, and Gatorman Posse (both of them) kill Bloodweavers entirely, as well as charge Winter Argus and Warpwolf Stalker. Damage rolls were high, and re-rolls against living targets really help against Defense 14-15. But worst thing was that Swamp Horror single-handedly killed Feral Warpwolf.

Stalker wasn't quite contesting the middle flag, so Minions scored one control point. It was 1-1 now.

I try what I can. Lanyssa tries to free Winter Argus from melee, but fails. Druid Wilder advances to the farthest corner of Kaya's control area, and Winter Argus then takes a free strike and goes to kill one gatorman who was engaging Warpwolf Stalker. I realised that I wouldn't be able to spray them both dead. First, it would have been difficult to get to Wilder's command range, and second the Gatormen were on a hill. Badly positioned spray could have also killed Warpwolf Stalker who had only a few damage boxes remaining.

So, instead Warpwolf Stalker just whacks the one Gatorman still engaging him dead. Stalker would have really been needed to deal with Swamp Horror, but as it also had Spiny Growth on, Warpwolf Stalker might have actually broken systems.

So... the question was - could Kaya and Scarsleff Griffon kill an Arm 19 heavy warbeast alone?

Hah, of course they cannot.

Swamp Gobbers charge Gatorman Posse and Feralgeist comes to contest middle flag. Come what may.

Gatormen and Bull Snapper kill War Wolf and Scarsfell Griffon. Much to my suprise Kaya's defense 16 was too much for Swamp Horror - she survived!

Ironback Spitter spits Warpwolf Stalker dead. So... I have three models remaining now. Don't remember about Lanyssa though.

Nothing important happened on Circle's last turn - Winter Argus contested middle flag, and then Kaya died.



Game 2:

Second game with Kaya the Wilborne was against Circle of Orboros. Opponent had following list:

Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood, Tree of Fate
- Gorax
- Warpwolf Stalker

Druids of Orboros
Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
Maximum unit of Farrow Bone Grinders
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
2x Gallows Grove

Scenario was Close Quarters. Since Nyss Hunters don't ignore Stealth, Kaya found good use for her Occultation spell. I had quite a lot of Stealth going on there, as Stalker warped for Prowl. I think Cassius started game, and first picture is from the end of Kaya's turn 1.

Nyss Hunters mostly just came to harass Kaya's warbeasts on left, and that was it.

Then it's Kaya's turn, and War Wolf charges and kills one of the Nyss Hunters. The problematic one. Then Stalker warps for Berserk and tramples. Trample misses both Nyss Hunters, though. And its performance there at the enemy flag isn't very convincing either, as only one Nyss and one Shifting Stone breaks down.

Tharn Bloodweavers kill the two trampled Nyss Hunters in the woods and a Gallows Grove that came too close. Scarsfell Griffon teases Nyss Hunters... but damn it, there were still so many of them alive! Perhaps opponent used two minimum units? (Har har.)

Winter Argus attempts to spray one more Shifting Stone away, but even with two boosted POW 12's it didn't break.

Kaya calls Warpwolf Stalker back and hides behind a cloud from Swamp Gobbers. Feral Warpwolf tries to look menacing there at the friendly flag.

Next turn Cassius almost kills Kaya with two boosted Hellmouths. That 3" sure is a long distance... eww. Anyway, this meant that opponent used almost all of his resources there, and other casualties were quite low. However, dehydration from terrible climate and tiredness from the weekend started to kick in during this game - despite my low model count my clock was already running out.

Hastily Warpwolf Stalker warped berserk and trampled again, this time clearing a whole bunch of models. Scarsfell Griffon continued to torment Nyss Hunters, and Winter Argus tried to get a critical hit on Warpwolf Stalker. Didn't get it with three dice, but it did freeze a Shifting Stone with only two. How cool is that?

Kaya used her feat and destroyed a Shifting Stone and Gallows Grove, teleported away and healed beasts what she could. Feral Warpwolf ate the last shifting stone there at my friendly flag, and then I just hoped for best.

Warpwolf Stalker died to Warpwolf Stalker, hah. Opponent was running out of time, too. Still Cassius got time for one more Hellmouth, which dropped at least Feralgeist and Lanyssa Ryssyll.

Looked like I would still have one more turn, but I just couldn't figure out a way how I'd get to Cassius or Wurmwood. Now if only Scarsfell Griffon had had reach... Oh well. Feral Warpwolf kills enemy Stalker, and that all that's worth mentioning. Next turn opponent kills all Kaya's beasts so she has nothing to transfer to, and then Cassius and Wurmwood play some leapfrog together, and suddenly Kaya is fertilized into a wood.

I think both of these games with Kaya were more entertaining than those two with epic Morvahna even if I lost them. Well, one of the contributing factors is probably that I've never played against Rask or Cassius, and I always take a special pleasure in fighting against new warcasters and warlocks.

Rusty Old Man and Hippie Tharns

And last Tuesday I played two games of Warmachine with Circle of Orboros.

They were both 35 point games, and here is my list for the first game:

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Megalith
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Argus

Druids of Orboros

Minimum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones
Gallows Grove

And opponent had:

Haley prime
- Centurion

Maximum unit of Long Gunners + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard + Jonas Murdoch
Journeyman Warcaster
Squire
Ragman
Gorman diWulfe

Scenario was Fire Support. Now when I'm looking at the picture, I notice a horrifying error - there is seven members in the Wolves of Orboros base unit. I was never that good in math during school, but I didn't know I was that bad.

Anyway, Circle started game and first picture is taken from the end of Cygnar turn 1.

Pureblood Warpwolf had Mirage. On my next turn Pureblood advanced, used its animus and started spraying up the forge guard. I don't think it missed even one shot.

I didn't know what the heck to do with Wolves of Orboros, so I attempted to run them as far as possible, trying to engage even a couple of Long Gunners. Well, one Wolf got to engage them, so all in all it was a royal mess-up. But that's fine for a dirty cheater.

Ah well, then Gallows Grove teleports and Mohsar casts Crevasse on Gorman diWulfe, killing him. This was where I realised how awesome Gallows Groves are with Mohsar as he gets to ignore whole lot of stuff with Eyeless Sight. Mohsar also put up a pillar of salt in front of Pureblood Warpwolf.

I was quite confident at this point, but I guess I forgot to think that it'd be enemy turn next, and from now on I'd have to deal with Temporal Barrier.

Despite all of Centurion's best efforts it just couldn't destroy Pureblood Warpwolf next turn.

All but two Wolves of Orboros die to shooting by Long Gunners, and because of my mistake that should've been just one Wolf remaining.

Journeyman Warcaster shoots down Gallows Grove, and that was the worst of it.

Well, if I'd be able to destroy Centurion on my next turn the rest of Cygnar would have hard time destroying at least Megalith. So, Mohsar activates, tries to charge but that was just denied because of Temporal Barrier. He then just advances, casts Curse of Shadows on Centurion and shoots his spray, and then teleports over a Druid of Orboros.

Pureblood Warpwolf warps for strenght and starts beating. However, it is the last attack that drops shield. Movement is also gone, but not either Cortex or the spear.

Megalith advances and casts Crevasse on Centurion, but either deals no damage or doesn't break cortex or spear. Damnit. I was about to bring Megalith closer to melee, but then I realised that Mohsar would probably get shot by an impressive Combined Ranged Attack by Long Gunners. It had to back off to block Line of Sight to Mohsar.

Then Pureblood Warpwolf is butchered, and so is Argus and almost all of the druids of orboros, and the remaining Wolves.

Haley had not cast Temporal Barrier, but this was of little consolence.

Megalith charged to Centurion, destroyed it with one attack and continued to kill whatever was within its reach (or, in game terms, within 0.5" melee range) and then it cast Crevasse to some random model. I was wondering if I should try to assassinate Haley with Sands of Fate shenanigans, but when I counted up useable Fury I could have got in only a couple of attacks, and Haley was after all def 16 arm 19 target at the moment.

I don't remember exactly where an when control points were scored, but the situation there was that in the last picture Cygnar has three control points, and Circle goes to 2 from dominating a flag.

Mohsar had something like 5 damage boxes left and Megalith had also taken some damage, but still if Cygnar could just get rid of the two Shifting Stones I ha brought to contest left flag, Cygnar would win with scenario.

And, well, there was a warcaster and almost a full unit of Long Gunners over there.

I guess the major turning point in the game was my inability to destroy either cortex or melee weapon from Centurion. Also I should've probably been more aggressive with Megalith and go to harass Long Gunners.


Game 2:

Since last game went to the last minutes of deathclock, we decided to play another game with same board, same sides and same scenario to reduce set-up time.

This time my list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Feral Warpwolf
- Scarsfell Griffon

Minimum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain + Shaman
Blackclad Wayfarer
Lord of the Feast
Druid Wilder

Opponent had:

Siege Brisbane
- Defender
- Ironclad

Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Maximum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard
Journeyman Warcaster
- Hunter
Squire
Reinholdt, the gobber speculator

This game was hilarious in a few ways.

Circle got to start the game again, and picture is taken from the end of Circle turn 2.

Here Lord of the Feast outrageously outperformed yet again - it destroyed half of Horgenhold forge guard and gave a few damage points to Siege himself. However, when you look at the right side of the board you can see that Ravagers don't even want to fight. They're pacifists, really, though they look like big brutes. I mean, everyone hates them. And the few of us who don't hate them and take them to battle... then they fail even where they're supposed to be good at.

Three ravagers got a clear charge against Black 13th. Three MAT 9 P+S 15 + 3d6 attacks later not even a single blow had landed in its target. Well, sure, they did need 6+ on two dice to hit. Maybe they were just really unlucky and didn't misbehave on purpose.

Well, then was a "yikes" turn.

Siege dropped a foxhole on the two warpwolves, taking away Kaya's screen. And, heh... Yeah. Something you don't see quite often happened.

Kaya took 23 points in from a single attack made by Defender. Kaya did have one Fury left for transfers, and thank the Devourer wurm she did.

Hunter tried to shoot Kaya too, but didn't kill her.

Ironclad tries to charge Pureblood, but fails to get within range.

So, Kaya survived.

Next Pureblood advances and makes a double-handed throw against Ironclad to throw it away from Kaya's charge lane.

Blackclad Wayfarer casts Hunter's Mark on Siege and scores a hit.

Three ravagers in melee had been butchered by Black 13th puny little members. However, now Shaman, Chieftain and the unit leader charge in. MAT 10 and two MAT 9 attacks and a possible electro leap later... only one hit and kill, scored by the MAT 10 chieftain. No, this couldn't be bad luck any more. Those Ravagers weren't even trying.

However, then Kaya measures control range a bit and sees that she's easily able to charge to Siege.

Second attack even scores a critical knockdown. Well, Kaya isn't exactly a pro when it comes to caster kills against any heavier targets. But Lord of the Feast had scored a couple of damage in, and Kaya hadn't used her feat, so she had about 12 Fury for use. I don't remember if she upkept Occultation or healed Feral or Pureblood.

Last damage roll was outrageous, something like 5,5,6.

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.

Frozen Wolves (Warmachine)

Then right the next day (from last game) I played against Khador.

Since every warcaster and warlock have already played against Khador, I wanted to stack even more games to Kaya to make her as played as my other Circle warlocks.

Nice otherwise, but it was a sheer moment of horror when I saw what I was against.

It was the prime version of Sorscha with a full unit of Croe's Cutthroats with Valachev.

And of course now I went even more beast heavy than I usually go, at least points-wise.

Anyway, my list (it was a 35 point game):

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

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment

Druid Wilder

Opponent had:

Sorscha the original version
- 2x Juggernaut

Maximum unit of Kayazy Assassins + Underboss
Maximum unit of Croe's Cutthroats + Valachev
Harlan Versh
Orin Midwinter

Circle got the start, though Khador won the roll. I guess opponent didn't want Circle to go into forests, and there were a lot less LOS blocking terrain on the Circle's side.

First picture is from the end of Khador turn 1.

Next turn I would've liked to charge Feral Warpwolf into one of the juggernauts, but that wouldn't succeed unless Pureblood Warpwolf cleared two Kayazy Assassins from the way with the spray attack. Neither roll hit, even with a boost.

Ah well. Feral Warpwolf then charged the Kayazy Assassins instead, and killed three of them. Afterwards Kaya called both Feral and Pureblood back to relative safety.

Next Sorscha casts Tempest so that Gnarlhorn Satyr was knocked down. Then all the Cutthroats closed in and took shots at Gnarlhorn Satyr. Damage rolls weren't exactly high or anything, but they did some damage nonetheless. Even pow 10 with three dice is bound to give something in to an ARM 18 target that's missed only on double 1's. Then they backed off a little with Zephyr from Valachev.

Kayazy Assassins charged/ran to melee with the warbeasts and Wolves of Orboros. Not many of them got to charge, but of course Circle's main body was now engaged with Def 16 targets.

Then it was my turn again, and what an annoying turn it was! The knocked down Satyr who had lost its Spirit branch blocked every good action I could take.

I ended up with activating Kaya first, taking Gnarlhorn off from blocking things and then Pureblood Warpwolf sprayed with an aiming bonus the couple Kayazys that were blocking Feral's charge. Feral took 5 points of damage from that spray, too. And then when the Feral charged one of the juggernauts with STR warped up, nothing happened. Yeah, it did at least average, if not even above average damage in, but the columns were so evenly spread out that not even one system broke down.

Also Kaya had already activated, so I wouldn't be able to get the warpwolf away from there. So it was a piece-trade where Circle didn't get its half of the trade.

Wolves of Orboros and Scarsfell Griffon were trying to kill the Kayazy Assassins, but Def 16 was just too high for them to handle. Maybe two of the Assassins died in that melee to Combined Melee Attacks by the infantry; none died to MAT 8 Scarsfell Griffon.

I had a really bad feeling now of things to come. I mean... it was granted that Sorscha would use her feat now.

And yeah.

I think my only saving grace was that Croe's Cutthroats weren't rolling that good, again.

Feral Warpwolf just laughed down with its ARM 16 against automatically hitting melee attacks by juggernaut. The juggernaut had enough Focus even to take a swing at the center objective, which defied the odds and didn't get destroyed.

As Kaya was behind the heavy warbeasts, she didn't get under Sorscha's feat.

Gnarlhorn Satyr just refused to die when Cutthroats started raining death over it. Thanks to many unsuccesful rolls, I believe, Pureblood Warpwolf stayed pretty much alive, so much in fact that not a single branch broke down.

Then another juggernaut lumbered forward and smacked my beautiful little lionbird with a couple swings. It also moved in base contact with the objective marker, blocking any LOS to Sorscha herself.

So... my turn started with a frozen Pureblood warpwolf, about five or so frozen wolves of orboros, and two functional wolves of orboros, the other one of them being the flag bearer.

Circle was so mauled and beaten up at this point that there was absolutely no question about winning the game in any honorable way.

There seemed to be one "all or nothing" approach, and that's what I tried.

Pureblood shook off the Stationary effect, warped for Ghostly, walked up a bit and sprayed at the objective marker. In this scenario they were only ARM 15 models, and would explode and deal pow 12 damage roll to all models within 2" and set them on fire.

Thankfully Pureblood managed to destroy it (well, it didn't have many damage points left anyway, but crappy rolls that ruin everything aren't completely unheard of) and as an added bonus one of the Kayazy Assassins was just within 2" of the objective. Sorscha didn't have any focus on, so she took some damage from the pow 12 hit, too.

And then came the question if Kaya could land a critical hit against Def 18 Sorscha early enough with 10 Fury available (6 on herself and 4 with her feat from the Pureblood)

After having burned up 4 Fury, Kaya got in one hit, but it wasn't a critical one. Damage was quite nice, however. Two Fury left she bought extra attack... miss. Of course. Well, then Kaya got 4 Fury from her feat, bought extra attack, boosted, and finally scored a critical hit.

I don't remember if I boosted damage and bought one auto-hitting attack that finished Sorscha, or if I just used the Fury to buy auto-hits. End result was, however, that Sorscha died.

Victory in this one was a real stretch. I actually felt that I shouldn't have won because I took such heavy damage. However, this game was probably a perfect example of one of the nice aspects of Warmachine and Hordes - even if you take a severe, crippling beating like the Teletubbies used to back in the time, there might still be a sudden chance to win.

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.