Premiere Grenadiere

Last Tuesday I played this 75 point game of Warmachine. Since I had just finished painting new Gorax Rager and Wild Argus, I wanted to give them at least one game on the tabletop. Even if I loathe the new Gorax Rager sculpt, technically it's a beauty when compared to the old metal one. I pretty much bought the new Circle Battlebox just to get rid of my old metal Gorax. Anyway, here are the lists:

Krueger the Stormlord
- Gorax Rager
- Wild Argus
- Woldwyrd
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Rip Horn Satyr

Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Tharn Ravagers (max)
Tharn Ravager Shaman
Bloodweaver Night Witch
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Hutchuck, Ogrun Bounty Hunter

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Opponent had:

Agathia
- Nightwretch
- Reaper
- Slayer

Bane Warriors (max) + Command Attachment
Mechanithralls (max) + Skarlock Commander
Satyxis Blood Witches (max) + Hag
Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Warwitch Siren

Objective: Bunker

Scenario was Recon and Circle started game.

Turn 1 wasn't much else other than running closer for a hug for both sides. Krueger tried to cast a couple Lightning Storms to block Mechanithralls and Blood Witches from positioning correctly, but area that was covered by the templates was rather small. Both deviated to same direction, with only 1" difference in distance.

Turn 2 Slayer had Hellwrought on it. New and improved Woldwyrd with Wraith Bane left it with only four hit boxes. Krueger cast this old Stormwall, I forget what name it has nowadays. Wind...storm? Anyway, that one which gives -5RNG for enemy models. One Lightning Storm takes a couple of Blood Witches with it.

Hutchuck made his lamest limp so far - he arrived on scene, and missed the knock down grenade with double 1's. He had tried to lob it over a Bane Warrior to knock down Nightwretch.

Tharn Ravagers charged Nightwretch anyway, I thought that two additional Bane Warriors from their minifeat might be a worthy trade for the only Cryxian arc node. Only one Ravager hit and dealt tons of damage, but to exactly wrong columns. Only systems that were left were the arc node and movement.

Then Cryx activated. Windstormwall messed the activation of Reaper, and that retaliatory spellcasting attack from Woldwyrd killed Skarlock Commander that was using Battle Wizard. Bane Thralls got three extra members from two Ravagers and Hutchuck - so the bounty hunter entered play, missed with double 1's and got turned into an extra model for enemy weapon master unit. Good use of 6 points, I must admit.

Turn 3 would have nearly clocked me out if it was a tournament. I got whole enemy army except for one Bane Warrior under Krueger's feat.

First, however, Night Witch kills two Mechanithralls and a Satyxis with a killing spree. Shifting Stones teleport Rip Horn satyr to wreck Nightwretch and assorted Bane Warriors. Ravagers kill as many Bane Warriors as they can (all the contesting ones was my main objective) and then Gorax uses Primal on Pureblood Warpwolf. Warpwolf assaults Reaper and the assault spray kills Tremulus. Reaper has lost all but cortex, so Pureblood gets extra attacks against enemy Bunker. Both damage rolls give five points of damage. I wasn't excessively happy about that.

Krueger activates, advances and uses feat. Then he attack enemy objective with his lightning bolts, and damn those last five boxes were a nasty bunch. They took all three shots, with boosts to boot. Sure it was dice -6 with two dice, but I had hoped that one bolt could have been directed against either Reaper or Slayer. Oh well. At least it was three control points.

Woldwyrd messes up big time. I had planned on it to finalize Reaper and Slayer, but even wrecking Slayer proved to be a job that it barely succeeded. I guess that's how it goes sometimes. Last turn - 24 damage in. The next turn: five was out of reach.

I was quite confident in this game now, but Cryx offered some terrifying resistance. Both Pureblood and Rip Horn were destroyed along with the Woldwyrd that was mauled beyond uselessness (lost spirit and either mind or body), and quite a few Bane Warriors had entered the zone to contest. Agathia also used her feat, so all enemy models had Stealth now.

Sweat pearls started to form up when Ravagers got ill from eating Bane hearts - every attack missed except for one - and opponent passed Tough roll.

Shifting Stones teleported Gorax to kill three Bane Thralls. I hadn't passed a single Tough roll in whole game, and looked like the only way I got through enemy Tough was knocking them down first.

Blackclad Wayfarer was a game-saver when the spray killed Warwitch Siren, plus Reaper and a Bane Warrior.

Gorax or Argus or something killed a contesting Blood Witch, and all Krueger was left to do was to charge last remaining Bane Warrior.

When I lost both of my heavy warbeasts it was quite apparent that I had no longer any chance at playing attrition game. Had Krueger not succeeded in destroying the Bunker, most likely I would have lost under the overwhelming swarm of witches and banes.

Krueger the Stormlord vs Intercessor Kreoss

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

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

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

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

Krueger the Stormlord
- Riphorn Satyr
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Gorax

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

Opponent had:

Intercessor Kreoss

- 2x Reckoner
- 2x Vanquisher

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A bash in the middle

Last Saturday I played a 35 point warmachine game.

My list was:

Krueger the Stormlord
- Riphorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax

Druids of Orboros
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
2x Gallows Grove

Opponent had:

Lich Lord Asphyxious
- Desecrator
- Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Bane Knights
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren

Scenario was Recon. Circle started and first picture is from the end of Circle turn 2. Looking back now at the pictures makes it easy to see one of my greatest mistakes during game.

Instead of moving in one big blob of dissolving fleshy tissue, I should have split up my troops. Now it was all too easy for opponent to block the advance of pretty much all of my one wound infantry. By splitting up I would still have had one major part of my troops blocked off, but perhaps not 100% of them. Oh well.

Counter Magic was blocking any nasty Excarnate tricks. Perhaps that was one of the reasons I chose to advance in one giant ball of meat - I didn't want any extra Bile Thralls on the board.

Turn 2 Desecrator landed a direct hit against Blackclad Wayfarer. Nightwretch also walked close by to shoot at things, but I forget where the shot landed. All in all Cryx just advanced behind the clouds.

Turn 3 Nightwretch was mauled into a wreck by Riphorn Satyr. Next Krueger advances to middle of the board, shoots a couple of Lightning Storms and a lightning bolt from his stick, and uses feat. Using Krueger's feat this cinematically is always a great pleasure, though there are some risks involved if enemy has units with Vengeance and ranged weaponry available. Of course I could have negated threat from Desecrator with Storm wall (spell, mind you) but wasting three Fury just for one pesky AoE shot seemed like a waste...

Anyway. So far so good.

Cryx turn 3 thralls struggle to get within striking distance. Desecrator scores a lucky hit against Scarsfell Griffon, and one of the Bane Knights also take a swing against it. Mind and Spirit branches break down. That was just about all.

Circle turn 4 I feel like I got strong enough position to throw the game. Sorry, I mean to take carefully weighed and meticulously balanced risks. Initially I had wanted to teleport Riphorn Satyr to place I've marked with a red star, but there wasn't enough space. I opted to take out Tartarus and Maelovus instead, then.

Then Gorax dislodged Scarsfell Griffon from melee and forced Primal on it. The rest of Circle tried to remove Bane Knights as much as possible, and did respectable job in doing that. Only three (3) remained.

Then I completely forgot that Scarsfell Griffon had lost two branches. Without healing (druids could have also done that, by the way...) the Griffon charged to Desecrator. Charge was free because my objective was Fuel Cache. I had kind of relied that Griffon would have broken at least something from the helljack, but without Mind and Spirit that proved to be too much of a challenge.

Cryx turn 4 Asphyxious and Withershadow Combine kill Riphorn Satyr, and Scarsfell Griffon fell like a lousy duck to deep fryer. Those were to be expected, all things considered. But I did not account for two Bane Knights to kill Gorax with a couple of swings. So I just all of my warbeasts. That just happened.

Circle turn 5 I just tried to scramble some sort of an unorganised assassination. Asphyxious was in Caustic Mist template, but he had no focus. I tried to score a critical knockdown with everything I got (even Stone Keeper!) but the only model that actually hit Asphyxious was Krueger himself, and that was with second attempt.

Druids of Orboros had over-enthusiastically even blocked lane for one or two Wolves of Orboros to charge Asphyxious, so the game was pretty much done.

Krueger was put out of his misery like a disfigured puppy with fatal heart condition. Two Bane Knights and a Bile Thrall purge was all that was needed. Poor Asphyxious didn't even get a chance to use Spectral Legion.

Though I wonder what kind of a monster euthanasises a puppy with corrosive fluids and ghostly halberds.

A league evening

A bit over a week ago was a bigger gathering of Riven Bonds league play than the usual 1v1. I played two games that night, one 35 point game and one 15 point game.

First game was against Convergence of Cyriss, and my list was:

Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Winter Argus
- Argus
- Wold Guardian

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Druid of Orboros + Overseer
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer Hero (with Electrical Augmentation, Crown of the Wild and Wilting Totem)

Opponent had:

Forge Master Syntherion
- Cipher
- Monitor
- Assimilator
- Diffuser
- Mitigator
- Corollary

Optifex Directive

Attunement Servitors
Steelsoul Protector Hero (with +2 ARM upgrade)

Somewhat curious match-up here. Opponent wouldn't lose warjacks, and I wouldn't lose infantry, when neither player had any upkeep removal abilities. Anyway, scenario was Close Quarters.

Circle started game, and first picture is from the end of Convergence turn 1.

Regrowth is on Wolves of Orboros, and Restoration on Wold Guardian. I couldn't bother with Harvest in this game, though I think I cast it once just for giggles. Opponent had only three models I could get Fury from.

Turn 2 Druids of Orboros cast Force Bolts on Diffuser, and got it within charge distance of quite a few Wolves of Orboros. Wolves didn't use Power Swell just yet, but they did manage to wreck the light vector.

Morvahna and Wold Guardian advance closer to friendly flag, and then Convergence starts their turn.

Wolves of Orboros and a couple of Druids are the only casualties, which isn't too bad. Farthest Wolves of Orboros had been outside of the range of Anti-Magic bubble of Druids of Orboros unit leader, so Syntherion was able to cast Magnetic Hold on the Wolves. Speed penalty was the most crippling effect here, since Wolves of Orboros wouldn't be able to charge any more.

Turn 3 Morvahna bring back five Wolves of Orboros, who then advance to have a little beating against Vector brick. They used Power Swell this turn, as it'd be unlikely officer would survive too many turns. Three out of four Wolves missed their attacks, which made Power Swell to feel a bit of a waste. Mitigator did take some heavy damage from various effects (I think a Druid of Orboros shot it with Force Bolt for a damage roll of double 6's) but in the end, no matter what I did, the Mitigator survived. I soon remembered how annoying that was, when you combined it to Field Marshal: Auto-Repair.

Oh well.

Morvahna was able to start dominating friendly flag this turn.

Convergence had so few models in their army that when Mitigator activated a little too soon, no-one was able to go and contest Circle's friendly flag.

Some more Druids died and Wolves were reduced to three surviving members. And I see a Shifting Stone has been destroyed somewhere, somehow. Culprit can only be the Monitor, who ignores Stealth.

Anyway. Control points were 0-2 for Circle.

Turn 4 Morvahna brings back four Wolves, who yet again go and tickle Convergence warjacks. And yet again Mitigator was left with just a few damage boxes. I kind of went desperate there, and Druids of Orboros charged into melee. Overseer personally Wrecked Mitigator. I guess there was some idea about clogging the enemy advance with infantry models, but all of the troops were small based - trampling over them wouldn't be a problem.

But it was third control point for Circle.

Convergence performed almost a board-wipe then. I have this gut feeling that Syntherion used his feat now, though I don't exactly remember when and where it was used. But considering there's not a single Wolf of Orboros or a Druid standing, it's a well-educated guess.

Monitor and Assimilator trample and/or charge into last meatwall of Circle, and Monitor gets close enough to contest flag. Their attack rolls are really bad and none of the little puppies die.

Turn 5 Wold Guardian rams Monitor away from the flag, but the heavy warbeast isn't able to destroy its target. All remaining models try to form a line to block contesting for the enemy. Circle is at four control points.

Both heavy vectors maul Wold Guardian, but Restoration (+2 arm) leaves Guardian standing with three or four damage boxes left. I think Mind and Body both broke down, but Spirit was still operational.

Corollary runs to contest the flag, and then it's just the matter of destroying Corollary on turn 6.

Corollary had already taken some damage in from early attacks made by Wolves of Orboros. But still it was a warjack with multiple damage boxes - destroying it with just a handful of models wasn't guaranteed. Well, of course Wold Guardian would have splattered Corollary all over the place, but Guardian would have to suffer two Free strikes, and DEF 9 + arm 21 with three to four damage boxes is a risk you don't want to take.

Well.

Blackclad Wayfarer advanced first and shot Stone Spray at the Corollary, and rolled double sixes for damage. Double sixes for damage in this game had come from rather unlikely sources. Druids of Orboros first, and now this. Anyway, Corollary died right there. And Circle went to five control points.

If I wouldn't have gained early advantage in scenario play, I doubt I could have chewed through all that heavy armor, especially with Reconstruct on Assimilator.




Game 2:

Second game was against Cryx, and my list was:

Krueger the Stormlord
- Winter Argus
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax

Blackclad Wayfarer Hero

Druid Wilder
2x War Wolf

Opponent had:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- Defiler

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Skarlock Hero (with Girded upgrade)

We played just for caster kill. Circle gets the first turn, and first picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1.

I have a thing for warlocks and warcasters that enable you to play in a very arrogant and impudent way. Of course you can't always push to the extremes, but this time I did. And it felt lovely. I guess I should play Lich Lord Terminus more, or something. But nothing compares to the feeling you get when you advance right into the middle of enemy army and just say: "What are you going to do about it, pal?"

Well, the usual answer is "I was thinking about shooting you to pieces", but you get the sentiment.

Turn 2 Krueger advances so close to enemy lines that every single enemy model would have enough movement to charge him. Less surprisingly he does use his feat, too, but only after he shoots Lightning Storm on Necrosurgeon.

Playing so brazenly is usually a bad idea. The allegory is there - if you got and get drunk (and hopefully have some fun, too) you get a hangover. If you go in middle of enemy army, you get assassinated or otherwise punished. This time 5" advance + 8" range was enough to get Crippling Grasp on Krueger.

I had been wondering if Krueger should use the last two Fury for damage transfers or cast Telekinesis on himself to get him away from Defiler. In the end I saved Fury for transfers, and got Grasped.

I think this was also the turn when Deneghra used her dreaded feat, so Circle didn't get to make any meaningful retaliation. Winter Argus tried to advance and shoot Deneghra twice with Critical Freeze spray, but the critical hit never came. I don't think any kind of hit ever came.

To get Dream Crusher milestone, Blackclad Wayfarer advanced to spray the Skarlock, but either didn't hit or didn't cause enough damage.

Skarlock then attempts to return the favor, and fails as miserably. Slayer puts the end to the bickering Heroes, or at least one of them. Arm Fracture, -2 STR.

Defiler advances and Deneghra casts Scourge on Krueger. Krueger is knocked down, and Scourge is followed by Venom. Damage rolls were rather poor, though. I'm not one hundred percent certain on this, but I vaguely remember that the Venom actually missed a knocked down target? There's only one Fury on Krueger at the end of enemy turn, and two Fury at the end of Circle turn so that probably is a hint that a damage roll was transefered somehow, somewhere.

Deneghra repositions herself so that Griffon wouldn't be able to apply beak to her face.

I guess I could have played safe and prolonged the game a little, but that Crippling Grasp on my Warlock was putting pressure on me. To continue with the theme of flying straight into enemy and seeing what happens, I tried to assassinate Deneghra.

First Winter Argus tries to Critical Freeze Deneghra again, but with just as bad results as earlier.

Krueger advances and casts Telekinesis on himself to get within 5" of Deneghra. Then the big question is if Krueger casts Telekinesis on Gorax (100% success) or on Deneghra (8+ on 3d6 that gives +2 to attack rolls for Gorax?). MAT 8 can still fail against DEF 16, so Krueger casts Telekinesis on Deneghra, hits her and she's moved 2" closer to Gorax, with back arc bonuses.

Krueger also shoots the lightning stick at Deneghra with last remaining Fury, but I don't think there was any important damage there.

Druid Wilder casts Primal on Gorax, and then Gorax charges Deneghra with effective MAT 10 and P+S 14. And that was the end of Deneghra.

Burn the Cheater

This is the last game from last Thursday.

It was a 25 point game against Convergence of Cyriss, and looks like war weariness had starting to take its toll that evening.

My list was:

Krueger the Stormlord
- Feral Warpwolf
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon

Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper

Minimum unit of Bog Trog Ambushers
Swamp Gobbers
Sepoh Thalasland, the Blackclad Janitor
Gallows Grove

Anything special about that list?

Well, for starters that's 29 points. Shifting Stones are so overpowered they forcibly teleport to your army even if you don't include them in your list, and bloodthirsty gobbers just wouldn't miss any chance to wreak havoc and mayhem upon Iron Kingdoms. That's pretty amazing mess up, which probably was caused by having mainstay models from three different lists scattered all around the board.

Luckily I don't have to feel bad about this, as we'll see later.

I was against:

Father Lucant
- Inverter
- Corollary

Maximum unit of Medium Base Infantry (shield wall)
Minimum unit of Medium Base Infantry (two initial attacks)
Attunement Servitors
Steelsoul Protector

So... kind of funny match-up, that is. Opponent had absolutely zero ranged attacks, so I kind of didn't really have any use for Stormwall. But on the other hand Lucant could just cross out the most whined spell out of his spell list: Purification, since I had zero upkeep spells and no animi that still had effect during opponents turn.

Scenario was Outflank, and Circle started. I was pretty horrified about Lucant's feat that gave his battlegroup +4 ARM. First picture is from the end of Convergence turn 1, so answer was simple: launch Feral Warpwolf at the heavy vector.

Things worked pretty fine, except that... well... Feral Warpwolf who warped for Strength couldn't take down the Inverter. It was left with just a few boxes, so Krueger attempted to come and shoot it down. Deceleration that had been cast by Lucant caused all three attacks to fail miserably. Krueger used feat next, and pushed everyone except the shield wall medium infantry on the left.

Then it's Convergence turn 2, and Father Lucant replies with feat of his own, where I learn that in matter of fact the feat works on every friendly faction model. Suddenly it looked like winning with scenario was my only option here. I didn't gain easy control points that turn yet, as two from the other medium base unit got to contest the zone.

Inverter takes swings at Feral Warpwolf, but at least it does as poor job as the wolf itself in killing large base targets. Feral Warpwolf survived, only to be killed by charging medium base infantry.

Turn 3 I bring Bog Trogs on the board, who charge and run to the zone on the left. If I remember right they dealt one point of damage. I decide to start scoring points this turn, but there was two arm 20 or something like that targets contesting zone. Gnarlhorn Satyr kills one of them, and Krueger casts Telekinesis on the other. So Circle was at 2 control points.

Krueger also tried desperately to score those few damage points in to Inverter, but first shot was taken in by Steelsoul Protector. Deceleration and feat also meant that Krueger needed really high damage rolls which never came.

Started to look like Game Over. Convergence turn 3 Inverter with Positive Charge charges Gnarlhorn Satyr and beats it into a pulp. Steelsoul and the minimum medium base unit also come to join the party at right zone, and Bog Trogs turn into sushi on the left.

Turn 4 I see no reason to hold anything back, so Krueger personally goes to wreck Inverter and one of the medium based ones. He forgets to heal (Krueger forgot! Not me!) Spirit branch from Scarsfell Griffon, so it was unable to do anything meaningful.

Blackclad Wayfarer runs away to safety. After all I didn't want my Hero to suffer injuries, though the game was all but lost.

Illegal Shifting Stones surround Steelsoul.

Then it's Convergence, who proceed to destroy the remains of dignity of the cheating druids. But for some reason Krueger wasn't attacked just yet, and Father Lucant even comes to hang around right next to Krueger. What is this? There is only one thing left to do!

Slit my wrists! Cut to full Fury!

Father Lucant wasn't very impressed about Krueger's obscene behavior. Damage rolls weren't too bad in itself, but Lucant was camping Focus and has 21 damage boxes.

Next Lucant personally skewers Krueger, and it's a victory for Convergence of Cyriss.

Even more respect for the opponent for playing four points short, and winning. This was the best result, really. Winning with such a grand mistake takes away all enjoyment from winning, but I believe it adds pleasure if you manage to win with a handicap.

Undergrowth

We started playing slightly modified version of Riven Bonds Warmachine/Hordes league here at my home town.

The only real and visible change was that we're not playing in the regions (since we're not sending the results anywhere).

Anyway, this was the first Riven Bonds league game.

I started playing the league with Circle since I happened to have one unpainted Blackclad Wayfarer hidden somewhere in the bits boxes.

Game was 35 points and my list was:

Krueger the Stormlord
- Megalith
- Feral Warpwolf
- Gorax
- Scarsfell Griffon

Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Sepoh Thalasland, the Blackclad Wayfarer

2x Gallows Grove
Lord of the Feast

Opponent had:

Grand Scrutator Severius
- Avatar
- Blessing of Vengeance

Maximum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard + Attendant Priest
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Daughters of the Flame
Paladin of the Order of the Wall, the Paladin of the Order of the Wall (the Stormblade Captain)
Covenant of Menoth
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Scenario was Close Quarters, and Circle got to start the game. First picture is from the start of Circle turn 2, where I have already teleported Lord of the Feast with Shifting Stones.

Defender's Ward is on Daughters, Vision on Avatar and Eye of Menoth is all over the place. Daughters had ran to block my advance, and Def 17 models sure are annoying to get rid of. Megalith and its animus eased that a little, but still... you can see my overall advance in the second picture for turn 2. Blackclad Wayfarer also scored an amazing attack roll with Stone Spray and killed one daughter and knocked down other. So it was pure luck that I killed four daughters instead of three.

I had been a bit scared if I'd have enough attacks to deal with all the infantry enemy had, but Lord of the Feast scored six kills on the Forge Guard. That should even things out.

Turn 2 protectorate rushed forward. Covenant denied spellcasting, Avatar gazed and if I remember right Severius tried to fry one shifting stone with a boosted Immolation - but dealt only four damage. Daughter of the Flame tried to poke the last remaining damage point in, but didn't succeed.

Turn 3 I kind of needed to deal with the Avatar, who had Vision on. Gorax cast Primal on Feral Warpwolf, who then warped for Strength and charged Avatar. Every attack hit, but there was not even a single damage roll above average. Not that much below average either, but the end result was that Avatar was still very much alive after Warpwolf had finished its activation. At least damaged columns had been somewhat lucky, as Avatar lost shield arm.

I had had plans that Megalith would have killed the Covenant of Menoth, but instead Shifting Stones had to teleport Megalith to destroy Avatar. This time first damage roll was a bit on the high side, and Avatar fell to initial attacks and one damage boost. Megalith used its animus, turning 5" area around him into rough terrain.

Krueger advanced and shot Covenant of Menoth three times - and then he used feat and pushed every enemy model 3" back, except Paladin of the Wall and Attendant Priest. Megalith scored one control point for Circle.

Looks like I've skipped Protectorate turn in picture. Severius cast Defender's Ward on himself, and choir boys and Covenant of Menoth attempted to contest the flag.

Turn 4 Circle mopped up all the contestors from enemy flag, and Krueger dominated flag, bringing Circle to total of three control points. Gorax failed threshold check and ate a shifting stone. Feral Warpwolf didn't have a choice in the matter either because of Primal, and it attacked Megalith for seven points of damage.

Shifting Stones just teleported to block movement.

Losing Megalith to a charge from Forge Guard and an Immolation from Severius was a bit of a scary situation. After all it made ultimate dice screw that much more possible. But it was not to be. After Gallow's Grove teleported to deny Tough rolls, Krueger cast Lightning Storm over the gathering of Forge Guard - and boosted every damage roll. Finally a shot from his lightning stick killed Attendant Priest, too.

And that was it, because last remaining Daughter of the Flame was a little too far away to contest.

Honourable mention goes to Swamp Gobber, who didn't fail his massive casualties check, and scored not only one, but two hits against Paladin of Wall during the course of the game. Well, one of them was a free strike, but still. No damage, though. Paladin kill would have been a legendary story that old gobbers tell to their young at campfires.

Blackclad Wayfarer got Electrical Augmentation for his league upgrade.

Gobber action

Okay, time to write this one up before a ton of other games come rolling in.

Last Thursday I played a 42 point game of Warmachine. I have an unexplainable aversion to the non-standard 42 point game size, but since it was tournament practice for the opponent, I did finally play my very first game of 42 points.

My list was:

Krueger the Stormlord (that's epic)
- Megalith
- Wold Guardian
- Scarsfell Griffon

Druids of Orboros
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Swamp Gobbers
2x Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Lord of the Feast
Thrullg

Objective: Stockpile

Opponent had:

Kraye
- Stormclad
- Hunter
- 2x Charger

Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
Rangers
Arlan Strangewayes
Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
Rhuper Carvolo

Objective: Effigy of Valor... or does it go by this name any more?

Scenario was the new one from Steamroller 2015, Recon. Cygnar started game, so Circle would actually need to struggle to win scenario. First poorly focused picture is from the end of Circle turn 1. Full Tilt is on Stormclad, and Arcane Shield from Journeyman Warcaster is on Kraye. Lord of the Feast was teleported by the Shifting Stones, and then he threw his bird at Stormclad. My initial thoughts had been in attempting to snipe Arlan out with the Lord, but when I walked over to opponents table edge to place my model, I noticed Squire was within reach, too. So Lord of the Feast ate Squire instead, a Nyss Hunter and dealt some random damage points to Stormclad.

Cygnar turn 2 (with even more poorly focused picture) light warjacks advanced around and tried to take shots at various targets, but the shots fell short because of Storm Wall. As a side note... I really wait to write a report of a game where I play epic Krueger against Cygnar with their Stormwall. That's bound to get confusing.

Anyway, Nyss Hunters ran forward, which was very annoying. I'd have to beat frail elves now instead of Stormclad I'd drag within my charge range.

And all Circle got to do was to beat some elves. Advance was painfully slow, and in the middle of my turn I decided to use Krueger's feat to blunt possible alpha strike that'd be coming my way otherwise. But still kind of lame feat, though it looks suicidally awesome in the picture when Krueger is standing almost in the front of my army with no screening whatsoever.

Turn 3 even more Nyss come to block any meaningful movement for me, and yet again many shots from the light warjacks don't get past Storm Wall. Something - probably a Nyss - killed one of the Shifting Stones.

And yet another turn of elf-beating commences. I do get rid of a few Nyss that were in really annoying positions, but that's about it. Griffon kills some Rangers, and all of my army packs into a small bubble in the scenario zone in an attempt to hide Krueger from sight and trying to be out of Stormclad's viable charge paths.

Oh, and Swamp Gobbers charge Rangers just for giggles.

Turn 4 Full Tilted Stormclad just advances into melee, though I think this was the turn where Kraye used his own feat. It was really a game of dice when Stormclad started beating Wold Guardian... but luck was in my favor, and Guardian stood still fully functional with six damage boxes remaining.

Charger kills Scarsfell Griffon, and another Charger attacks Megalith, which has taken considerable damage over the course of game.

And again the Nyss are in the way for anything. Two needs to be taken down somehow for Wold Guardian to get to beat Stormclad. One goes down with great effort and a lot of Fury from Krueger. The another Nyss has even greater will to live. I take a foolish risk when I declare a spray attack from Blackclad Wayfarer against the Nyss. The spray would easily clip Wold Guardian, which was indeed at six hit boxes. Of course I miss Nyss and hit Wold Guardian, and to pay for my foolishness Wayfarer manages to damage it! Two points only, though. Even with double sixes Guardian wouldn't die, but damn it, two damage to wrong column would break branches. But it was not to be, Guardian was now at four damage boxes and still fully functional.

Megalith has to sacrifice it's whole activation to get rid of that pesky Nyss. Well, it did get to make one attack at Charger.

Now Wold Guardian advances to critically cripple Stormclad, but thanks to high rolls Wold Guardian wrecked the warjack entirely.

After that last few rounds are mostly made of Cygnar attempting to pull off a lucky assassination and/or kill the wold warbeasts, but dice were not merciful here. In fact they were vengeful for no apparent reason, when Kraye charges Megalith and misses charge attack (MAT 8 vs DEF 11) and after that missing even one additional MAT 6 attack.

Something worth of mention did happen, though. When a Ranger broke off from melee with one of my swamp gobbers, the MAT 5 free strike was a hit. And as terrible as it is, damage roll had a decent chance of failing even against ARM 11, as Gobbers have P+S 5. Well, 7+ with three dice shouldn't be that hard, but needing 7+ against ARM 11 makes it a special case.

And 7+ it is. Another kill count for my swamp gobber!

The Amazing Fail

First Warmachine/Hordes game I played in Ropecon was kind of unplanned for.

There was a team tournament going on, and I was wandering around the Warmachine tables at the time when last round of team tournament was about to start. One team had lost a player, which meant a bye. I don't know how byes function in a team tournament, but I thought why not? After all it was only one round.

So I threw a list together as fast as I could. It wasn't especially planned out, and it turned out to be:

Epic Krueger
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax

Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Tharn Bloodweavers
Gallows Grove
Lord of the Feast
War Wolf
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Gatorman Witch Doctor

My opponent was another Circle of Orboros player. And a good one. Ah, well, he had Kromac for his warlock of choice, which was nice since I haven't played against Kromac ever before.

His list was:

Kromac the Ravenous
- Megalith
- 2x Warpwolf Stalker
- Gorax

Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Una the Falconer
- Rotterhorn Griffon
2x Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Druid Wilder

Scenario was Incursion. Leftmost flag disappeared.

It seems I have skipped one whole turn in taking pictures. Anyway, after the first picture it's Kromac's turn. Kromac is close enough to deny most of my spellcasting with Bestial. One Warpwolf Stalker was contesting middle flag under the cover of cloud effect from (enemy) Swamp Gobbers.

Another Warpwolf Stalker had ran to contest rightmost flag, but it couldn't get anything to trigger Prowl.

I'm actually quite happy about my next turn, as I think I made some good choices there game-play wise. Lord of the Feast throws raven at Megalith and attempts to kill Stone Keeper or shifting stones hiding behind the construct. Sadly he fails miserably, though he takes out one Blackclad Wayfarer.

Then Pureblood Warpwolf sprays center Stalker.

Krueger tries to pull Stalker from the right to charge range of Tharn Bloodweavers, but the drag roll is an utter failure. One full inch. That could have been devastating with 2 inches, and with 4+ inches there would have been a really good chance of knocking out the beast with Bloodweavers. But only one Bloodweaver got to charge Stalker, though one more ran to trigger Gang. War Wolf tried to charge Stalker, too, but one infantry model and one 1 point solo does not a dead warbeast make.

I don't remember if Krueger used the last two Fury to cast Telekinesis on Gnarlhorn Satyr or if he cast Bounding on it instead. If it was Telekinesis, then Gnarlhorn cast it's own animus on itself and then charged center Stalker, not quite killing it.

And then... since Druid of Orboros looked quite worthless unit in this bestial match-up, they charged. They didn't even do that bad - they killed Gallows Grove and a Shifting Stone. I don't remember if the two Druids who charged Stalker killed it or did Gnarlhorn activate after them and destroyed Stalker instead. However it was, the end result was a dead Warpwolf Stalker.

Again there seems to be a full round in between the pictures. The picture is as dark as the turn I played, because I tried to take a picture without flash.

But Kromac first.

Rightmost Stalker obviously kills a ton of Bloodweavers and the War Wolf.

Rotterhorn Griffon got Primal from Gorax and attacked Gnarlhorn Satyr. Megalith charges Pureblood Warpwolf, but fails to kill.

Kromac uses his feat and goes personally to whack the Gnarlhorn Satyr away, and backed off a little with Warpath movement. He had one Fury left for transfers.

Looked like there was quite a few potential assassinations for me, then. And there's no kill like overkill, right? RIGHT?

So, my plan: First Krueger uses Telekinesis on himself and advances full 6" and shoots Kromac with as many bolts of lightning as possible. He had to spend one or two Fury to heal Pureblood's aspects, though. However, it would be so-and-so if Krueger would get line of sight to Kromac, and there was one model standing in-between the maximum potential movement for Krueger. Not a problem, though.

Then Gorax would activate, use Primal on Pureblood and kill the model that was blocking Krueger's advance. Krueger would do his tricks then, and Primaled Pureblood would be teleported next to Kromac then.

So, Gorax activates, uses Primal on Pureblood Warpwolf. It advances next to Stone Keeper, and kills him.

Right after I do this I remember such funny on inconsequntial rules like unit coherency and the Command value of 4 on Shifting Stones. Oh my god, what the hell I was thinking? And of course I realised what I had done just five seconds after when it was too late.

So, instead of having a Primaled Pureblood right next to himself, Kromac faced only a shot from Krueger. Well, there might have been a tiny possibility to assassinate Kromac if Krueger unleashed five Fury worth of ranged attacks. Three POW 12's and a charge from two Druids of Orboros and warping for Ghostly with Pureblood Warpwolf, disengaging and spraying Kromac.

First shot misses.

Well, to be honest, I deserved a severe punishment from the powers of dice gods for my ultimate mistake. I don't remember if the second attack hit, but Krueger didn't really accomplish anything. Seeing how all chances of a decent assassination were going down the drain, Krueger used his feat to offer even a small measure of protection.

Pureblood Warpwolf didn't even try to spray Kromac, one POW 14 wouldn't kill him. Instead Pureblood attacked Megalith, who doesn't die just yet. Scarsfell Griffon has to come and finish the job Pureblood couldn't.

Horrible.

Just horrible.

I will have nightmares about this turn for many years.

Well, thanks to Krueger's feat he didn't die next turn. Enemy Gorax was teleported next to Scarsfell Griffon, and it kills the bird and uses Warpath to move away.

Rotterhorn Griffon kills what's left of Druids of Orboros, and looks like Kromac is going to try dominating rightmost flag.

My clock was starting to run out. I guess I wouldn't have had to go into a full-derp mode, but I didn't have the time in my clock even to attempt attrition game.

Well, my Pureblood frenzied from Primal.

Kromac had left five Fury left for transfers, but I tried to kill him anyway.

Krueger advances and tries to cast two Gallows on him, as Bestial had not been cast last turn. I figured that if I got decent drags, I might have got Gorax to charge Kromac as well as possibly doing melee with Krueger himself.

Again drag was 1-2, and I don't remember if the second unboosted Gallows even hit Kromac.

Gatorman Witch Doctor advances and uses Sacrificial Strike on one of my Swamp Gobbers and kills an enemy Swamp Gobber with the strike. Last remaining Swamp Gobber (who passes massive casualties test) charges Kromac in last and futile gesture of defiance.

Kromac runs to dominate rightmost flag and wins game with control points.

Damn that mistake was annoying. But looking on the bright side of things, I doubt I will forget about unit coherency with teleportation with Shifting Stones any time soon.

Facing my own medicine

I also got in a game of Warmachine today. These two occasions kinda took the whole day, though, but I guess I don't complain.

I played against a long time on/off player, who at the moment didn't have an army of his own, so I loaned my Cryx for him. It was a bit ironic situation, as I had bought the playing board from the same person and as his warcaster he chose Scaverous, a model which I had bought also from him earlier. So the original owner got the first game out of my Scaverous on a board that was originally crafted by him. Boo hoo.

(I haven't played Scaverous yet because he isn't painted yet.)

Anyway, it was a 35 point game with a straight caster kill. Lists were:

Me:
Epic Krueger
- Megalith
- Gnarlhorn Satyr

Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Totem Hunter
Reeve Hunter
War Wolf

Opponent:
Lich Lord Scaverous
- Harrower
- 2x Deathrippers

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Bane Lord Tartarus
Warwitch Siren

Opponent won the starting roll and the first picture is taken from the end of my first turn. I tried some laughable shenanigans there by making druids of orboros immune to elemental damage and casting two lightning storms on them, but to be honest, it was pretty ridiculous as the deviations strayed badly. Maybe it'd be good enough to try in some other situation.

Well, there's not much else to tell about the first round, except that druids with their antimagic really saved my bacon versus Scaverous.

Lucky shot from Harrower killed one of my druids, but that was really the only loss I suffered there. Otherwise it just could've been 2x Excarnate + 2x purges even at this point of game...

On my turn I got to do a nice pull tricks again. However, first I charged with Totem Hunter some bane thralls and sprinted behind the ruined pillar thing at the back of picture. Totem Hunter is just beyond picture. His prey was Bane Lord Tartarus, by the way.

Then Reeve Hunter charges a bane thrall, kills it and shoots two bile thralls dead. Then he gets greedy and tries to come poke bane thralls with his p+s 9 battle blade, failing miserably.

Druids advance and shoot off at Harrower some force bolts. Every bolt that hits drags harrower only 1" and the last one bring it into combat with Reeve Hunter too, so all in all that didn't go too well.

But then Krueger activates, moves up and casts Gallows on Harrower, boosting hit of course. Gallows hits despite of harrower's melee bonuses and is pulled whopping 6" directly towards. Learning to play safe I didn't boost the damage and cast Telekinesis instead, getting Krueger a bit farther from arc nodes and other stuff, retaining one fury for damage transfers.

Megalith starts beating up the harrower and doesn't do it just by itself and the satyr needs to come up and help. Harrower had the Death Ward spell on it, but throwing enough pillows at it finally wrecked the thing.

Now, then it's opponents turn and again counter magic from druids saves quite a lot.

Because for now, Scaverous casts Telekinesis on only one bile thrall, Tartarus and ghost walk on Bane Thralls.

Now, you may wonder why the heck Tartarus is where he is, but he went off to kill Totem Hunter. Which he did, really really well.

The one bile thrall who was moved up a bit tallied the following with a purge:
- Reeve Hunter
- 5x druids of Orboros + overseer
- 4 damage on Gnarlhorn
- 4 damage on Megalith

So... screw you bile thralls.

Now, I don't even want to imagine what would've been done without the counter magic.

If I'm doing my math right, it seems very possible that correctly lining up two bile thralls could've erased those things this one purge did, and on top of that most of my Wolves of Orboros. That imaginary potential will surely give me nightmares once I go sleep.

Anyway, on my turn the Megalith advances as far as it can and casts Gallows on Scaverous, who was without any camped focus. Scaverous is dragged for only 1", but boosted damage roll was a bit excessive, dealing 10 points in.

Then gnarlhorn beats up the lone bane thrall who was out-of-formation and Krueger advances towards Scaverous. Krueger had to cast telekinesis on himself as Scaverous was beyond 10" but below 12" away from Krueger.

First lightning hits, deals 4 points in.

Second lightning deals some 8 points in and it's game over.

This game really made me wonder again why I've been a bit hesitant to use Druids of Orboros...

Last two games of the warmachine tournament at Ropecon

So, third game was against Cryx, again.

This time I was facing epic Deneghra who had a rather big fella to back her up.

Yeah, I get to fight a real battle-engine, in flesh and blood! (Well, that may not be an apporpriate description...)

Anyway, I went with epic Krueger, because I wanted to have a full choice of lists during last round (because every list needed to be used at least once).

Scenario was the horrible Command and Control, or whatever the name is for the one where you have to control a small circle in middle of board with your troops and a flag somewhere else on the board to score points.

And this game was actually one of the most thrilling games I've had for a long while.

Opponents list was:

Wraith Witch Deneghra
- 2x Deathrippers
- Deathjack

Wraith Engine
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Skarlock
2x Warwitch Sirens

However, one thing became clear with the Battle Engines.

Lord of the Feasts annoyance factor goes up. This time he didn't roll all that well, he killed only Necrotech and did some random damage to two Withershadow members. You can see his horns peeking just behind the Wraith Engine. That's how far he went.

Luckily I had the druids with me. With Deathjack and epic Deneghra around I would have been rather messed up if two Hellmouths started flying around with a base Focus stat of 7. I mean, nowadays I can respect two hellmouths at fury 6...

Well, then.

Next picture is taken from the thick of action.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the turn after Deneghra's feat. First she stopped my army on its tracks and Wraith Engine moved up to beat up stuff, Megalith mostly. Then, during this turn the picture is taken, opponent cast Hellmouth on his own battle engine, dragging all nearby models closer so the huge wraith could have another round of beating up my models...

I did try to shoot it down with Krueger, but in the end it was left with just a few wounds.

Whoops. Looks like I'm talking nonsense here. Sorry people, that people was taken from the end of my round under Deneghra's feat.

And this picture:

is taken where my troops were Hellmouthed around. Sad picture indeed, no wonder I tried to forget its existence altogether.

I think I actually wanted to feat a round earlier, but forgot because I was too enthusiastic trying to get Thrullg into contact with Wraith Engine. So, as it turned out, Thrullg wasn't in range and I lost my chance to use Kruegers feat.

Well, because Krueger survived the turn, I actually got a good spot to use feat still.

And once the Wraith Engine went off, the board somehow seemed a lot more... empty.

Green AoE effect on shifting stone is a Lightning Storm from Krueger that nailed three bane thralls. Also, the unseen hero, the Blackclad Wayfarer, did a nice spray that dealt with plenty of bane thralls too.

I don't remember who or what did the final blow on the Wraith Engine, but seeing as everyone else except epic Deneghra herself was under Krueger's feat, I was fairly safe from retaliation.

My main interests besides the engine was killing off Tartarus and arc nodes. While I didn't wreck any bonejacks, if I remember right the one currently engaging ravagers lost its arc nodes and decided to go into offense.

Next round, when Gnarlhorn beat down the engaging bonejack, my other troops were ready to charge around. Thrullg disrupted the Deathjack and a couple of ravagers hurt it badly, but didn't wreck it.

However, this was a timed tournament with 59 minutes for both players. My clock was ticking, and damn it was ticking fast.

Well, opponent destroyed almost everything I had left. Overseer, all the ravagers and even the over-enthusiastic, drooling thrullg met their ultimate demise.

Reeve Hunter, on the other hand, survived about everything.

Could be that opponent didn't think of it as a too big of a threat, and judging from it's performance, I don't wonder. Early in the game it shot one scrap thrall and rest of the game it spent on charging warwitch sirens, always missing them.

So, when my turn started, I had Gnarlhorn Satyr, Reeve Hunter and epic Krueger left. And just above 5 minutes playing time.

So, I decided to try an assassination.

I tried to get Line of Sight for Krueger against Deneghra, but the small hill was in the way. First Reeve Hunter, finally getting a chance to do something useful, like killing Admonia, who had one or two hit points left. Missed.

Then I figured I had to burn fury for telekinesis.

I moved Krueger as much forward as possible and used telekinesis to place him on the hill so he'd have line of sight to Deneghra.

I was in a real hurry by then, so the picture shows Krueger behind the hill, but around three minutes playing game doesn't really leave much wiggling to try to balance a model to an unsteady slope...

I have a good record of missing the first shot with epic Krueger, but this time it wasn't so. First attack hit, and I boosted the damage. Bought another attack, boosted the damage. Deneghra was still left with some hit points, and I didn't have the fury to boost last damage roll because I had to use telekinesis to get into position. However, damage roll was enough to kill her (again?).

After that my head exploded with excitement.

Then, the last game.

Which was short.

Game 2:

Scenario was Destruction. If you see any Wurmwoods in the pictures, they're the objectives, as I was playing Mohsar there.

But... the game was all kinds of brutal. And opponent knew how to play against Mohsar and in my opinion he made no mistakes at any point of the game.

His list was:

Epic Thagrosh
- Carnivean
- Scythean
- Seraph
- Typhon
- 2x Shredders
- 1x Harrier or Stinger, don't know which

3x Spell Martyrs
2x Shepherds
The Forsaken

Now, starting the first turn, things looked "fairly" good.

However, Slipstream + 9" charge + reach proved enough to get Scythean to my first objective during second round.

Sure, it was a trade-off as there were my Bloodweavers and 2 heavy warbeasts, but given the scenario, I'd do the same trade if I had the chance.

Now, looking back at the game, I think I would've had two chances to counter that loss of first objective so early. I should've ran my warbeasts and infantry so that opponent should've charged them first, but. There is a big but, sacrificing troops that badly just for the sake of scenario feels absolutely horrible.

The other way could've been trying to place the pillar of salt so that it would have blocked any possibility of Scythean charging the objective without provoking a counter slam from Gnarlhorn, but salt pillars aren't exactly indestructible.

I honestly don't know what I could have done there differently to have a chance.

But, then. In next picture sun started shining through a nearby window.

That's why it looks a bit goofy.

But yeah. Then, on my turn, the next objective spawned. And I think opponent could hear the gulp of horror when I realised that I was looking at my last objective that was facing possibly 5x pow 14 sprays that were boostable and whatever the Seraph could do, and failing to kill the objective for some weird reason, feat would give plenty of melee attacks against it as well.

I tried to protect it with as many salt pillars as I could, to no avail.

Thagrosh and Carnivean sprayed the salt pillars away, one shepherd ran to block counter charge from Gnarlhorn and Typhon moved closer. A couple of sprays later the scenario was lost.

So, people. Pow 14 sprays are the absolute murder in Destruction scenario.

So, that was the last one of the tournament.

With my games I was exactly 10th, which is about where I have always placed in tournaments. Exactly, or very near, the absolute center.

Anyway, all games were awesome in their own way, even the last one where I couldn't do much else than raise my hands in the air and say: "gg". In its short brutality I feel I got some new insight about the expendability of the army, when you mostly need to do surgical strikes to remove objectives.