Better write this game up right away, as I forgot to take camera.
So, I just got back from playing a 50 point game of Warmachine.
My list was:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Woldguardian
- Woldwyrd
- Rotterhorn Griffon
Druids of Orboros
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Lord of the Feast
Druid Wilder
Gallows Grove
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Opponent had:
Borka Kegslayer
Family Reunion tier 4
- Pyre Troll
- Slag Troll
Maximum unit of Trollkin Champions + Skaldi Bonehammer
Minimum unit of Trollkin Champions
Minimum unit of Trollkin Sluggers
Stone Scribe Chronicler
2x Trollkin Champion Heroes
Gudrun the Wanderer
War Wagon
Scenario was Incursion and Trollbloods started game. Borka was coming from the middle. Gudrun and War Wagon were holding a flag on the left, and I didn't really have anyone there... A few stray druids only. Well, at least this left me good presence on the flag on right. However, all of the champions were nearing that flag, so I kind of needed most of my punching power there.
So, on my second turn the only model I managed to get within 4" of the flag on left was only a Druid of Orboros. Within Vortex cloud, though. Opponent had been limited in his movement options with the champion trolls, and I guess he didn't want to overextend them either because of Circle threat range shenanigans. This resulted in an easy grab of the rightmost flag with Wolves of Orboros.
Borka had cast Wind Wall, which safe-proofed two Sluggers, a Pyre Troll (I think) and just about every Stone Bearer. This blocked the perfect spot for Lord of the Feast's crow, but one Slugger who was outside of Wind Wall took the bird right in the face. The cheaty thresher attack with extended warranty took down the whole unit of Sluggers and two Stone Bearers. Lord of the Feast had Restoration on him, so he wouldn't be that easy to remove from the board next turn.
Well... I don't remember too keenly, but I failed to bring other models to contest the middle flag, or if I did it was a single Druid of Orboros. However it went, it was easy for opponent to get two scenario points there and then. Two Druids of Orboros died, as well as five Wolves of Orboros, but who counts Wolves of Orboros when they got Regrowth on? Perhaps Morvahna should, as she was left at zero Fury next turn after paying for the upkeep for Harvest and Regrowth...
I really wanted to get at least two Fury before I would activate Morvahna so that I could get Restoration somewhere. Druids of Orboros try to give her that. One druid kills the last remaining Stone Bearer grunt, and then there was only the stone itself remaining, who passed two Tough rolls. I really wanted the fury points for Restoration, so Shifting Stones teleport themselves within 4" of each other, and Stone Keeper teleports himself closer to the knocked down Krielstone. And another passed Tough roll. Turn later I realised that Woldwyrd goes through Wind Wall as it has a magical attack. Oh well. I ditch my attempt to get Restoration and activate Morvahna to use her feat.
Druid Wilder give sprint for Warpwolf Stalker, who then warps for Strength and charges into thick of Trollkin Champions. Skaldi counter charges, but thankfully doesn't break anything. Warpwolf kills one Champion and one Champion Hero and manages to knock down Skaldi. Then it sprints as much back as possible. Woldwyrd shoots Skaldi dead.
Wolves of Orboros charge and use Power Swell. This scores them three kills and a second scenario point for Circle.
Woldguardian tries to beat War Wagon, but the damage rolls... let's not speak about the damage rolls. Let's just... don't.
Then Borka uses his feat, and that turn was a serious blow to my attrition. Both Warpwolf Stalker and Woldwyrd died. Only one Druid of Orboros remained. Trollbloods go to 3 scenario points.
On my my turn the Rotterhorn Griffon charges the lone Krielstone Bearer, and this guy passes yet another three Tough rolls. Damn it you useless underlings... target the TROLL, not the stone! Wolves of Orboros activate, and finally the Krielstone Bearer is skewered for good. Other casualties for trolls included only a trollkin champion and one champion. I had had quite a few knocked down Wolves of Orboros at the start of their activation thanks to Hero's Tragedy, or whatever the actual name for that ability is.
Now that the damned stone was dead, Woldguardian killed Gudrun the Wanderer and brought War Wagon down to seven hit points remaining. I'm not sure what the heck that Guardian tried to do to the Wagon the whole game. Did it try to hug the fluffy and warm and soft buffaloes or something? Pet and play with them forever, and ever?
Morvahna was a bit cold hearted when she cast Eruption on Life on the Wagon. She needed to roll 13+ for damage to kill it in one shot, and of course she rolled exactly twelve. She had Fury for one more Eruption of Life, but needed 7+ on two dice to score the kill. Failing that, she'd have zero fury points for transfers. Ah well. There goes.
Damage roll is eight, so she gets one fury from Harvest and is teleported to safety via Shifting Stones.
Gallows Grove had teleported to control the flag on the right, so scenario points were 3-3.
So. Thanks to Regrowth Circle was a bit ahead on the attrition by now, but on the other hand scenario game was even and Trollbloods would most probably go to four points now.
It's a little annoying when a game ends this way. Opponent had laid plans thinking dominating a flag gave two scenario points in Incursion. Dice weren't with opponent this turn, and he struggled to remove two Tough Wolves of Orboros and Rotterhorn Griffon from contesting middle flag. It's possible nothing would have changed in the outcome thanks to some poor luck, but still winning because of or losing to oversights isn't that nice. It's the same, really, as when somebody learns just a little too late that warcasters and warlocks cannot contest zones or flags, or when someone isn't aware that both players score points during both players' turns.
But hey. Happens. Tough game anyway.
Showing posts with label morvahna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label morvahna. Show all posts
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Mid-autumn(blade) Warmachine/Hordes
I played against Cryx twice in a quick succession against different opponents. I had nearly the same list in both games, so I'll put both games to same post.
Fist game was last Sunday.
To some of you the armies involved may look familiar. Yes. They're both my own armies. We got a "new" old player who's about to start Cryx, but since his army is still in an unnamed freighter somewhere out there in the big world, I loaned my Cryx for this game.
My list is vaguely the same as earlier, though I made it a little more useable in the warbeast department.
My list was:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Argus
- Rotterhorn Griffon
- Riphorn Satyr
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Objective: Arcane Wonder
Opponent had:
Pirate Queen Skarre
- Seether
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 1x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Skarlock
Objective: Bunker
... and that's all. The way War Room handles warjack points caused opponent to build a 29 point list instead. Well. That's probably a mistake you make only once. High model count managed to make Cryx army look "big enough", so it didn't raise my suspicions either.
That being said, the game was far from a one-sided faceroll anyway. Circle of Orboros started game and first picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1. Morvahna cast Regrowth of Wolves of Orboros and Harvest on herself.
The platform in the picture blocks camera's Line of Sight to Bile Thralls, who ran to top-east corner. We had agreed that the walls were obstructions that give cover as one would expect, but the platform was accessible otherwise from all directions.
Anyway. Turn 2 Wolves of Orboros continued to move to east, as far from Bile Thralls as possible. They're just too cancerous for Regrowthed targets that mere sight of them gives instant tumors.
Rest of my advancement was cautious, too. I went to contest the zone and wanted to place Riphorn Satyr so it would be able to wreck enemy objective next turn and that no Seethers and/or Bane Thralls would charge it just yet. Morvahna cast Restoration on the goat. Druids put up some Vortex clouds and anti-magic field.
I wasn't expecting Skarre to use her feat just yet, but I think it was the right moment to do exactly that. Wrecking the objective was kind of out of question now. Skarre cast Hellfire on Riphorn Satyr, which was interesting since I had anti-magic field on. I need to make a better reminder token for that... Otherwise Cryx just advanced, though a couple of Bane Thralls charged Wolves of Orboros. A Bile Thrall purged Druid of Orboros dead and caused corrosion on Argus and a Shifting Stone. Or perhaps not... somehow I don't remember anyone using purge. Did RAT 3 really hit DEF 14?
Turn 3 Morvahna upkept all spells and brought three Wolves of Orboros back. White Mane and Blackclad Wayfarer tried to fill Morvahna with fury by killing soft targets. Soft armor 17-18 targets. Well. They were not enough, so Argus ate some rotten Bile Thrall flesh also. Morvahna finally activated and used her feat. She cast a couple of devastating Eruption of Lives and was left with no fury points for transfers.
Since opponent didn't have anyone to repair Seether, I thought that maybe with a little bit of luck Riphorn would be able to tear off an arm and throw the jack away with chain attack. Shifting Stones teleported Riphorn to brawl with Seether. Plan was a half-success. Damage was laughable even when I boosted it on a couple of occasions. I got mixed up in my calculations and had forced Riphorn full when I resolved chain attack. Satyr had no Fury left to boost, so everything relied on a 7+ with two dice. This time it worked - and I'm glad it did, since total damage being done was five or less.
Druids of Orboros tried to shoot some random thralls, and they managed to kill two. Then Wolves of Orboros activated and started poking Bane Thralls. And that's all they did, really. Harmlessly poked around. Two Bane Thralls who were outside of Morvahna's feat went down easily enough, but then either every attack missed or didn't deal enough damage to punch through Arm 15 and 20. So... Morvahna didn't get any forest templates from her feat. A feat well spent!
Bane Thralls must have had some sort of spell on them - outside of the game, I mean. Three thralls killed Riphorn Satyr, and not a single thrall missed attack roll against Wolves of Orboros.
Last remaining Bile Thrall purged Gallows Grove and a Druid of Orboros dead. This time I'm positive that Argus took the corrosion.
There were only two Mechanithralls contesting the middle zone, so turn 4 I made all efforts to start securing scenario victory. With Riphorn gone and Wolves of Orboros stuck in an endless fight against Bane Thralls, there weren't many models for me able to cut through even the pesky Arm 17 of Seether.
Argus and Blackclad Wayfarer cleared the zone, and then Morvahna charged the objective herself. It took quite a few attacks to chew through it, so she wasn't able to cast any actual spells. In the end Shifting Stones teleported her to safety inside a druid's Vortex cloud.
Rotterhorn Griffon charged Brute Thrall and killed it after spending all available fury. Yay...
Scenario was 3-0 for Circle now.
There wasn't much else for Cryx other than to try and stuff the zone full of random models and hope Circle would have a major dice screw next turn.
No dice screw, and 5-0 scenario victory for Circle.
Granted, Cryx was playing six points down against a warlock who does attrition pretty well in right circumstances. I should have probably left Seether alone on turn three and saved Riphorn to actually counter Seether and not throw it around like basket ball. After all Seether wouldn't have been able to charge anywhere itself either from behind the obstacle. But I got to make throw attack, the joy... almost a throw move.
Game 2:
Finally I had to admit that I'm wasting Rotterhorn's potential here, and I don't want to give me impression that it's a poor model. With a heavy sigh I dropped it from my list and got the following list instead last Tuesday:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Argus
- Riphorn Satyr
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
2x Gallows Grove
Reeve Hunter
War Wolf
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Opponent had:
Warwitch Deneghra
- Nightwretch
- Defiler
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Withershadow Combine
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
2x Pistol Wraiths
Scenario was Close Quarters, and opponent let me go first. The usual turn 1 happened again, Regrowth on Wolves and Harvest on Morvahna. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1. Cryx ran forward. Three Mechanithralls try to bait my forces into charging and over-extending. And they succeed. I clump a big chunk of Wolves and various other models closer to enemy friendly flag. Only two of the Mechanithralls die thanks to certain double pip.
Morvahna cast Restoration on Riphorn Satyr. Druids cast Vortexes and put up anti-magic field.
Cryx turn 2 Deneghra plays a little too safe when she uses her feat. Morvahna is out of her control area plus most of the Druid of Orboros. I had been afraid that Deneghra would advance straight forward and use Withering to deny me casting anti-magic field next turn. Yeah. Even after all these years I always initially think Withering forbids special actions also... which it doesn't. But hey. At Least I got a little bit of extra thrill.
Mechanithralls and Pistol Wraiths make impressive job in reducing Wolf count. From a full unit of twelve models only four remains. Bane Thralls who are up there in the picture miss their attacks against War Wolf and Ravager White Mane, so Wolves remain the only real casualty.
Turn 3 most of them just jump right back, though. This meant Morvahna was at zero fury even before activations began. To fill her fury pool I tried to teleport Riphorn Satyr so that it might be able to kill Maelovus and Tremulus and a lone Mechanithrall. Eight inches weren't quite enough to do that, so instead Riphorn was teleported to kill three Mechanithralls. Such fine use for a nine point warbeast.
Gallows Grove in north teleports itself to deny tough rolls from three Bane Thralls. White Mane kills one, but War Wolf is just as good at killing Banes as Banes were killing it. I think I activated Druids of Orboros first to score a few kills from easy targets, and of course to add anti-magic to the equation. No, actually that's not what happened. Druids knocked down and pulled Defiler to melee with Wolves of Orboros. It has had to be Blackclad Wayfarer who sprayed single Bane Thrall or something.
Morvahna finally activated and used her feat. She cast Eruption of Life twice - once on Bane Thralls and once on Pistol Wraith.
Wolves of Orboros charged (except for the two or three who were under Withering) and formed a nice wall of forest between Cryx and Circle. Well, except for the Riphorn Satyr who felt a sudden gush of loneliness and isolation when there were no friendly models in sight - only the dead, and the trees. Anyway. One of the Wolves managed to kill the second Pistol Wraith, who were greatest threat to anti-magic field.
Cryx then charges with Bane Thralls (who had Ghost Walk from Skarlock) but they fail to have any meaningful impact. Honourable mention goes to the three Bane Thralls who all miss their attacks against War Wolf.
The scary moment was when Withershadow Combine activated. I had been telling me throughout the game that "don't bring Wolves and Riphorn Satyr both close to Admonia". Well. What can I say. I really, really wanted to charge Mechanithralls, I guess. There went Regrowth and Restoration. Morvahna took two damage from the removal.
Deneghra cast one Scourge on Argus, but it missed and deviated back. It did take one Druid with it.
Turn 4 was rather brutal. Riphorn kills both Tremulus and Admonia, and Wolves of Orboros used Power Swell to take care of the Defiler. They also blew up Cortex from Nightwretch. Morvahna re-cast Regrowth on Wolves of Orboros and Restoration on Riphorn Satyr.
We didn't continue the game after Circle turn 4, since there didn't seem to be any potential even for an awkward assassination.
Fist game was last Sunday.
To some of you the armies involved may look familiar. Yes. They're both my own armies. We got a "new" old player who's about to start Cryx, but since his army is still in an unnamed freighter somewhere out there in the big world, I loaned my Cryx for this game.
My list is vaguely the same as earlier, though I made it a little more useable in the warbeast department.
My list was:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Argus
- Rotterhorn Griffon
- Riphorn Satyr
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Objective: Arcane Wonder
Opponent had:
Pirate Queen Skarre
- Seether
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 1x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Skarlock
Objective: Bunker
... and that's all. The way War Room handles warjack points caused opponent to build a 29 point list instead. Well. That's probably a mistake you make only once. High model count managed to make Cryx army look "big enough", so it didn't raise my suspicions either.
That being said, the game was far from a one-sided faceroll anyway. Circle of Orboros started game and first picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1. Morvahna cast Regrowth of Wolves of Orboros and Harvest on herself.
The platform in the picture blocks camera's Line of Sight to Bile Thralls, who ran to top-east corner. We had agreed that the walls were obstructions that give cover as one would expect, but the platform was accessible otherwise from all directions.
Anyway. Turn 2 Wolves of Orboros continued to move to east, as far from Bile Thralls as possible. They're just too cancerous for Regrowthed targets that mere sight of them gives instant tumors.
Rest of my advancement was cautious, too. I went to contest the zone and wanted to place Riphorn Satyr so it would be able to wreck enemy objective next turn and that no Seethers and/or Bane Thralls would charge it just yet. Morvahna cast Restoration on the goat. Druids put up some Vortex clouds and anti-magic field.
I wasn't expecting Skarre to use her feat just yet, but I think it was the right moment to do exactly that. Wrecking the objective was kind of out of question now. Skarre cast Hellfire on Riphorn Satyr, which was interesting since I had anti-magic field on. I need to make a better reminder token for that... Otherwise Cryx just advanced, though a couple of Bane Thralls charged Wolves of Orboros. A Bile Thrall purged Druid of Orboros dead and caused corrosion on Argus and a Shifting Stone. Or perhaps not... somehow I don't remember anyone using purge. Did RAT 3 really hit DEF 14?
Turn 3 Morvahna upkept all spells and brought three Wolves of Orboros back. White Mane and Blackclad Wayfarer tried to fill Morvahna with fury by killing soft targets. Soft armor 17-18 targets. Well. They were not enough, so Argus ate some rotten Bile Thrall flesh also. Morvahna finally activated and used her feat. She cast a couple of devastating Eruption of Lives and was left with no fury points for transfers.
Since opponent didn't have anyone to repair Seether, I thought that maybe with a little bit of luck Riphorn would be able to tear off an arm and throw the jack away with chain attack. Shifting Stones teleported Riphorn to brawl with Seether. Plan was a half-success. Damage was laughable even when I boosted it on a couple of occasions. I got mixed up in my calculations and had forced Riphorn full when I resolved chain attack. Satyr had no Fury left to boost, so everything relied on a 7+ with two dice. This time it worked - and I'm glad it did, since total damage being done was five or less.
Druids of Orboros tried to shoot some random thralls, and they managed to kill two. Then Wolves of Orboros activated and started poking Bane Thralls. And that's all they did, really. Harmlessly poked around. Two Bane Thralls who were outside of Morvahna's feat went down easily enough, but then either every attack missed or didn't deal enough damage to punch through Arm 15 and 20. So... Morvahna didn't get any forest templates from her feat. A feat well spent!
Bane Thralls must have had some sort of spell on them - outside of the game, I mean. Three thralls killed Riphorn Satyr, and not a single thrall missed attack roll against Wolves of Orboros.
Last remaining Bile Thrall purged Gallows Grove and a Druid of Orboros dead. This time I'm positive that Argus took the corrosion.
There were only two Mechanithralls contesting the middle zone, so turn 4 I made all efforts to start securing scenario victory. With Riphorn gone and Wolves of Orboros stuck in an endless fight against Bane Thralls, there weren't many models for me able to cut through even the pesky Arm 17 of Seether.
Argus and Blackclad Wayfarer cleared the zone, and then Morvahna charged the objective herself. It took quite a few attacks to chew through it, so she wasn't able to cast any actual spells. In the end Shifting Stones teleported her to safety inside a druid's Vortex cloud.
Rotterhorn Griffon charged Brute Thrall and killed it after spending all available fury. Yay...
Scenario was 3-0 for Circle now.
There wasn't much else for Cryx other than to try and stuff the zone full of random models and hope Circle would have a major dice screw next turn.
No dice screw, and 5-0 scenario victory for Circle.
Granted, Cryx was playing six points down against a warlock who does attrition pretty well in right circumstances. I should have probably left Seether alone on turn three and saved Riphorn to actually counter Seether and not throw it around like basket ball. After all Seether wouldn't have been able to charge anywhere itself either from behind the obstacle. But I got to make throw attack, the joy... almost a throw move.
Game 2:
Finally I had to admit that I'm wasting Rotterhorn's potential here, and I don't want to give me impression that it's a poor model. With a heavy sigh I dropped it from my list and got the following list instead last Tuesday:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Argus
- Riphorn Satyr
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
2x Gallows Grove
Reeve Hunter
War Wolf
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Opponent had:
Warwitch Deneghra
- Nightwretch
- Defiler
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Withershadow Combine
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
2x Pistol Wraiths
Scenario was Close Quarters, and opponent let me go first. The usual turn 1 happened again, Regrowth on Wolves and Harvest on Morvahna. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1. Cryx ran forward. Three Mechanithralls try to bait my forces into charging and over-extending. And they succeed. I clump a big chunk of Wolves and various other models closer to enemy friendly flag. Only two of the Mechanithralls die thanks to certain double pip.
Morvahna cast Restoration on Riphorn Satyr. Druids cast Vortexes and put up anti-magic field.
Cryx turn 2 Deneghra plays a little too safe when she uses her feat. Morvahna is out of her control area plus most of the Druid of Orboros. I had been afraid that Deneghra would advance straight forward and use Withering to deny me casting anti-magic field next turn. Yeah. Even after all these years I always initially think Withering forbids special actions also... which it doesn't. But hey. At Least I got a little bit of extra thrill.
Mechanithralls and Pistol Wraiths make impressive job in reducing Wolf count. From a full unit of twelve models only four remains. Bane Thralls who are up there in the picture miss their attacks against War Wolf and Ravager White Mane, so Wolves remain the only real casualty.
Turn 3 most of them just jump right back, though. This meant Morvahna was at zero fury even before activations began. To fill her fury pool I tried to teleport Riphorn Satyr so that it might be able to kill Maelovus and Tremulus and a lone Mechanithrall. Eight inches weren't quite enough to do that, so instead Riphorn was teleported to kill three Mechanithralls. Such fine use for a nine point warbeast.
Gallows Grove in north teleports itself to deny tough rolls from three Bane Thralls. White Mane kills one, but War Wolf is just as good at killing Banes as Banes were killing it. I think I activated Druids of Orboros first to score a few kills from easy targets, and of course to add anti-magic to the equation. No, actually that's not what happened. Druids knocked down and pulled Defiler to melee with Wolves of Orboros. It has had to be Blackclad Wayfarer who sprayed single Bane Thrall or something.
Morvahna finally activated and used her feat. She cast Eruption of Life twice - once on Bane Thralls and once on Pistol Wraith.
Wolves of Orboros charged (except for the two or three who were under Withering) and formed a nice wall of forest between Cryx and Circle. Well, except for the Riphorn Satyr who felt a sudden gush of loneliness and isolation when there were no friendly models in sight - only the dead, and the trees. Anyway. One of the Wolves managed to kill the second Pistol Wraith, who were greatest threat to anti-magic field.
Cryx then charges with Bane Thralls (who had Ghost Walk from Skarlock) but they fail to have any meaningful impact. Honourable mention goes to the three Bane Thralls who all miss their attacks against War Wolf.
The scary moment was when Withershadow Combine activated. I had been telling me throughout the game that "don't bring Wolves and Riphorn Satyr both close to Admonia". Well. What can I say. I really, really wanted to charge Mechanithralls, I guess. There went Regrowth and Restoration. Morvahna took two damage from the removal.
Deneghra cast one Scourge on Argus, but it missed and deviated back. It did take one Druid with it.
Turn 4 was rather brutal. Riphorn kills both Tremulus and Admonia, and Wolves of Orboros used Power Swell to take care of the Defiler. They also blew up Cortex from Nightwretch. Morvahna re-cast Regrowth on Wolves of Orboros and Restoration on Riphorn Satyr.
We didn't continue the game after Circle turn 4, since there didn't seem to be any potential even for an awkward assassination.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Adventures of Failhorn Satyr vol XVII
Last Tuesday I played a 35 point game of Warmachine.
I've had enough of Cryx for a little while, probably focusing on Circle of Orboros.
My list was:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Riphorn Satyr
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Rotterhorn Griffon
Druids of Orboros
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Opponent had:
Master Necrotech Mortenebra
- Harrower
- Slayer
- Helldiver
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Warwitch Siren
Scenario was Two Fronts and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Circle turn 1. Morvahna has no Fury at all since she cast Regrowth on Wolves of Orboros and Harvest on herself. Spectral Steel is on Harrower.
Turn 2 Cryx advanced forward aggressively. Though a couple of various thralls were able to charge random targets, no real damage was done.
Circle turn 2... Circle turn 2 was lovely to play. My only gripe was that I just HAD had to use my newly painted warbeasts, Rotterhorn Griffon and Riphorn Satyr. Rotterhorn might be okay there, but Morvahna's forests can make Satyr movement difficult.
Also I really wanted to see Riphorn Satyr in action, so I planned around on charging it to Slayer. Being enthusiastic about new stuff makes false impressions if you go to make piece trades with a nine point beast against a six point warjack...
Anyway. Morvahna was one of the first models to activate. Blackclad Wayfarer cast Stone Spray over Mechanithralls first to fill Morvahna back to full Fury. Gallows Grove repositioned itself better, and then Morvahna activated. She advanced forward to middle of the board, used her feat and started casting Eruption of Life. I cast that three Fury spell three times that turn, killed a Mechanithrall that was engaging Rotterhorn Griffon and was left with no fury at all.
As a side note I'm not entirely sure why on earth I placed Gallows Grove on the left. Well, actually I know why I did that. There was a forest, and a tree likes to hide in a forest. What escaped my attention was that if I really needed Stealth against enemy with not much real shooting, I could always trigger Prowl from Druids of Orboros vortex clouds...
Then rest of the infantry models activate and clear a few Bane Thralls and Mechanithralls. That one critical Mechanithrall was left alive. Bummer. Four Bane Thralls get destroyed, and then Riphorn Satyr charges Slayer. Arm 17 warjack with a light warjack damage grid wasn't a problem for a Fury 4 heavy beast with three P+S 16 initial attacks and Grab & Smash.
By now Morvahna got a couple of fury points from Harvest for transfers. Shifting Stones teleported her to safety.
Turn 3 Cryx uses Mortenebra's feat. Mortenebra charges Riphorn Satyr and does mediocre job in damaging it - even when she forgot to cast Terminal Velocity with the last three focus points she had saved for it. Sometimes you just get bloodthirsty like that.
It didn't actually ruin anything that much as Mechanithralls were able to kill Riphorn Satyr, and Harrower had enough movement to charge a Wolf of Orboros and a Shifting Stone. Bane Thralls don't do anything too impressive, though one had ran into contact with Riphorn before Mechanithralls charged.
Then.
Mortenebra didn't have any focus points on her, but she was in cover behind the wall.
I guess I could have tried to assassinate her with two Eruption of Lives and P+S 11 light warbeast. That just seemed too unlikely, so I tried to play safely and grind my way to victory with unending wave of Wolves of Orboros.
But annoying things started to happen. Well, to be more accurate, they continued to happen. Every goddamn time I give even a tiny amount of responsibility for Gnarlhorn Satyr, it fails. It's a good thing I've been keeping this blog going on for quite some time. I have the data to prove that there is something wrong in my Gnarlhorn Satyr. But I'm getting ahead of things a little.
First Wolves of Orboros activated and charged here and there. I dedicated only two to Harrower as I could and would use Power Swell this turn. They dealt a respectable amount of damage. I don't remember how much, but 7-9 or so would be my guess. More than enough to secure that at least one or two systems would break even if Gnalrhorn would roll badly.
Gnarlhorn. I wanted to believe in you. I put all my faith and all my trust in you. I was like Gandhi, who instructed to offer trust in an individual no matter how many times that individual betrays you.
But you worthless carcass of a goat did not even break the ranged weapon.
I even forced the fourth fury in desperate hope to cripple the fighting capabilities of the warjack even for a tiny amount.
But that was not the greatest failing. It was only the most outrageous one because of the history.
I got afraid of Helldiver and moved Morvahna as far as possible. I didn't pay attention to Rotterhorn Griffon, who had already activated an secured a location to contest my friendly zone.
Morvahna had three fury left for transfers, but she had no transfer targets.
Next turn Helldiver one-shotted Morvahna.
I've had enough of Cryx for a little while, probably focusing on Circle of Orboros.
My list was:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Riphorn Satyr
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Rotterhorn Griffon
Druids of Orboros
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Opponent had:
Master Necrotech Mortenebra
- Harrower
- Slayer
- Helldiver
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Warwitch Siren
Scenario was Two Fronts and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Circle turn 1. Morvahna has no Fury at all since she cast Regrowth on Wolves of Orboros and Harvest on herself. Spectral Steel is on Harrower.
Turn 2 Cryx advanced forward aggressively. Though a couple of various thralls were able to charge random targets, no real damage was done.
Circle turn 2... Circle turn 2 was lovely to play. My only gripe was that I just HAD had to use my newly painted warbeasts, Rotterhorn Griffon and Riphorn Satyr. Rotterhorn might be okay there, but Morvahna's forests can make Satyr movement difficult.
Also I really wanted to see Riphorn Satyr in action, so I planned around on charging it to Slayer. Being enthusiastic about new stuff makes false impressions if you go to make piece trades with a nine point beast against a six point warjack...
Anyway. Morvahna was one of the first models to activate. Blackclad Wayfarer cast Stone Spray over Mechanithralls first to fill Morvahna back to full Fury. Gallows Grove repositioned itself better, and then Morvahna activated. She advanced forward to middle of the board, used her feat and started casting Eruption of Life. I cast that three Fury spell three times that turn, killed a Mechanithrall that was engaging Rotterhorn Griffon and was left with no fury at all.
As a side note I'm not entirely sure why on earth I placed Gallows Grove on the left. Well, actually I know why I did that. There was a forest, and a tree likes to hide in a forest. What escaped my attention was that if I really needed Stealth against enemy with not much real shooting, I could always trigger Prowl from Druids of Orboros vortex clouds...
Then rest of the infantry models activate and clear a few Bane Thralls and Mechanithralls. That one critical Mechanithrall was left alive. Bummer. Four Bane Thralls get destroyed, and then Riphorn Satyr charges Slayer. Arm 17 warjack with a light warjack damage grid wasn't a problem for a Fury 4 heavy beast with three P+S 16 initial attacks and Grab & Smash.
By now Morvahna got a couple of fury points from Harvest for transfers. Shifting Stones teleported her to safety.
Turn 3 Cryx uses Mortenebra's feat. Mortenebra charges Riphorn Satyr and does mediocre job in damaging it - even when she forgot to cast Terminal Velocity with the last three focus points she had saved for it. Sometimes you just get bloodthirsty like that.
It didn't actually ruin anything that much as Mechanithralls were able to kill Riphorn Satyr, and Harrower had enough movement to charge a Wolf of Orboros and a Shifting Stone. Bane Thralls don't do anything too impressive, though one had ran into contact with Riphorn before Mechanithralls charged.
Then.
Mortenebra didn't have any focus points on her, but she was in cover behind the wall.
I guess I could have tried to assassinate her with two Eruption of Lives and P+S 11 light warbeast. That just seemed too unlikely, so I tried to play safely and grind my way to victory with unending wave of Wolves of Orboros.
But annoying things started to happen. Well, to be more accurate, they continued to happen. Every goddamn time I give even a tiny amount of responsibility for Gnarlhorn Satyr, it fails. It's a good thing I've been keeping this blog going on for quite some time. I have the data to prove that there is something wrong in my Gnarlhorn Satyr. But I'm getting ahead of things a little.
First Wolves of Orboros activated and charged here and there. I dedicated only two to Harrower as I could and would use Power Swell this turn. They dealt a respectable amount of damage. I don't remember how much, but 7-9 or so would be my guess. More than enough to secure that at least one or two systems would break even if Gnalrhorn would roll badly.
Gnarlhorn. I wanted to believe in you. I put all my faith and all my trust in you. I was like Gandhi, who instructed to offer trust in an individual no matter how many times that individual betrays you.
But you worthless carcass of a goat did not even break the ranged weapon.
I even forced the fourth fury in desperate hope to cripple the fighting capabilities of the warjack even for a tiny amount.
But that was not the greatest failing. It was only the most outrageous one because of the history.
I got afraid of Helldiver and moved Morvahna as far as possible. I didn't pay attention to Rotterhorn Griffon, who had already activated an secured a location to contest my friendly zone.
Morvahna had three fury left for transfers, but she had no transfer targets.
Next turn Helldiver one-shotted Morvahna.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
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.
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
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
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.
Friday, October 24, 2014
The Battle of Three C's
Last Saturday we played a 50 point game of Warmachine with three players.
Needless to say, this is a personal tragedy for my excel sheets, though playing a multiplayer game first time for a very long time was an interesting idea. But... statistically, who was my opponent? Which faction would I win if I won the game? To which factions and casters I would lose to, if I didn't win?
Eventually I decided that this game would go to the "weirdo games" block I have in my spreadsheets that I have reserved for things like Who's the Boss, 2v2 plays and things like that.
Anyway, I took Circle with me. Moreover, I took Morvahna the Autumnblade because I thought that Regrowth spell might be annoying indeed in a multiplayer game.
My list was:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Megalith
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Woldwatcher
- Winter Argus
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane
2x Gallows Grove
Idea in the list was to be well protected against spells and shooting and having enough models for a prolonged match.
Then there was Convergence lead by Iron Mother Directrix (why did I mistype that first as Dominatrix?)
It was a tier list somewhere up to tier 2 or so.
Iron Mother Directrix
- Prime Axiom
- Cipher
- Monitor
- Assimilator
- Mitigaotr
- Corollary
Optifex Directive
Accretion Servitors
And then we had Cygnar with epic Haley, whose feat is no less terrifying in a multiplayer game.
Major Haley
- Stormclad
- Lancer
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers + Officer
Maximum unit of Storm Lances
Maximum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard
Journeyman Warcaster
Squire
Eiryss (the ordinary version)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Gorman diWulfe
We played on 4ft x 6ft board with deployment areas vaguely 24" apart. Scenario was Mosh Pit with a 16" rectangle. Starting on 3rd turn, if a turn ended with no enemy models inside the zone, you win the game. Turn order was Convergence first, Cygnar second and Circle last.
I've taken pictures so that two faction will have completed their turns in between the pictures. First picture is taken from the end of turn 1, so Convergence starts turn next.
Turn 1 was had Arcane Shield cast on Storm Lances, Regrowth on Wolves of Orboros, Restoration on Woldwatcher and Harvest on Morvahna. Tactical Supremacy was probably on too, but I forget the target.
Turn 2 sees a little action. Convergence took small pot shots at Horgenhold Forge Guards who were passing their Tough (from Rhupert) godlikely. Eiryss was infiltrating Convergence, you can see her way up there in the picture.
Circle tries to pull Assimilator within charge range of Gnarlhorn Satyr, and they almost succeed. Or how to say it... they succeed too well? Three Druids that were shooting force bolts at the Assimilator all pulled the vector full 3", which engaged the vector. Last druids couldn't hit it any more because it was in melee. Gnarlhorn attempted to charge anyway, with Bounding. Still the charge failed for about a quarter of an inch. So now I had just pulled a heavy vector in middle of my army without being able to deal with it...
I had also spent all Fury from Morvahna, as I was sure I'd be able to kill at least one Storm Lance with sprays from Winter Argus, charge from White Mane and a charge from Wolf of Orboros. Turned out I couldn't. So Morvahna was entirely Furyless. I got so afraid that Woldwatcher ran next to Morvahna. At least she'd be safe from direct shooting now.
Turn 3 Convergence obviously smashes the foolish goat who tripped on a wood in a forest. Convergence also continued to harass the Horgenholds, who continued to roll Tough when damage rolls accidentally punched through their armor. Oh, and the Lancer went down to Prime Axiom's tow cables.
Cygnar killed Wolves of Orboros with Storm Lances and stuff. Eiryss tried to shoot Iron Mother, but missed. This time.
Morvahna decided to use feat, and filled Wolves of Orboros back to full strength with Regrowth. That went okayish. What didn't go okayish at all was the sad attempt at dismantling Assimilator. Everything I threw against it (including Megalith) just failed.
Turn 4 Convergence thankfully deals with Gorman diWulfe, but those damn dwarves still refuse to die.
Haley uses her feat that messes up absolutely everything. Miraculously Megalith survives a round of beating from Stormclad and Assimilator, but without being able to advance to engage Stormclad, Megalith would need to survive two rounds. Hah. Not going to happen. This time Eiryss doesn't miss, and Iron Mother would be focus-starved next turn.
So next round is pretty fast and straightforward. Megalith succeeds to beat Assimilator down, and to make it more appealing for Convergence to drag the Stormclad away, Megalith also uses its animus. Morvahna brings back wolves to engage gun mages, but for Circle that was pretty much everything.
Turn 5 starts with Convergence under Haley's feat and Iron Mother Directrix disrupted by Eiryss. Notable thing here was probably when Iron Mother went and beat Eiryss down personally in melee even without boosts. She wasn't in Haley's control area.
Stormclad finishes Megalith, and Gun Mages kill Wolves of Orboros in droves. As Circle had only Woldwatcher as a warbeast, Morvahna went into vengeful frenzy mode. I put all my efforts into killing Haley. Morvahna dropped upkeeping Harvest and brought back the maximum of six Wolves or Orboros, and they all charged Eiryss. Full 6 member Combined Melee Attack missed. Sad panda.
Turn 6 Convergence pretty much secures the middle zone. It's a bit hilarious that it's turn 6 already and I can still see some Forge Guards alive. What's not hilarious at all is that in the last picture I can see Morvahna nowhere alive. She died to two electro leaps. I think she had something like 7 hit boxes left from various bits and bobs.
Well, since it's a three player game, I did got to play with the Wolves of Orboros anyway. And they really wanted to at least deal some damage to Haley. And I think they did something like four points. Or maybe more. But doesn't really matter, as Convergence cleared the middle area from enemy models on turn 7.
It was kind of refreshing to see how three player game changes things. Of course you can't talk much about balance, but spells like Harvest and feats that affect enemy models instead of your own models have way bigger impact in the game in terms to power. It's a shame Convergence has so few truly living models, as it would have been nice to fill Morvahna with Harvested Fury from opponents fighting each other.
But the game took a long time to play. A very long time.
Needless to say, this is a personal tragedy for my excel sheets, though playing a multiplayer game first time for a very long time was an interesting idea. But... statistically, who was my opponent? Which faction would I win if I won the game? To which factions and casters I would lose to, if I didn't win?
Eventually I decided that this game would go to the "weirdo games" block I have in my spreadsheets that I have reserved for things like Who's the Boss, 2v2 plays and things like that.
Anyway, I took Circle with me. Moreover, I took Morvahna the Autumnblade because I thought that Regrowth spell might be annoying indeed in a multiplayer game.
My list was:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Megalith
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Woldwatcher
- Winter Argus
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane
2x Gallows Grove
Idea in the list was to be well protected against spells and shooting and having enough models for a prolonged match.
Then there was Convergence lead by Iron Mother Directrix (why did I mistype that first as Dominatrix?)
It was a tier list somewhere up to tier 2 or so.
Iron Mother Directrix
- Prime Axiom
- Cipher
- Monitor
- Assimilator
- Mitigaotr
- Corollary
Optifex Directive
Accretion Servitors
And then we had Cygnar with epic Haley, whose feat is no less terrifying in a multiplayer game.
Major Haley
- Stormclad
- Lancer
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers + Officer
Maximum unit of Storm Lances
Maximum unit of Horgenhold Forge Guard
Journeyman Warcaster
Squire
Eiryss (the ordinary version)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Gorman diWulfe
We played on 4ft x 6ft board with deployment areas vaguely 24" apart. Scenario was Mosh Pit with a 16" rectangle. Starting on 3rd turn, if a turn ended with no enemy models inside the zone, you win the game. Turn order was Convergence first, Cygnar second and Circle last.
I've taken pictures so that two faction will have completed their turns in between the pictures. First picture is taken from the end of turn 1, so Convergence starts turn next.
Turn 1 was had Arcane Shield cast on Storm Lances, Regrowth on Wolves of Orboros, Restoration on Woldwatcher and Harvest on Morvahna. Tactical Supremacy was probably on too, but I forget the target.
Turn 2 sees a little action. Convergence took small pot shots at Horgenhold Forge Guards who were passing their Tough (from Rhupert) godlikely. Eiryss was infiltrating Convergence, you can see her way up there in the picture.
Circle tries to pull Assimilator within charge range of Gnarlhorn Satyr, and they almost succeed. Or how to say it... they succeed too well? Three Druids that were shooting force bolts at the Assimilator all pulled the vector full 3", which engaged the vector. Last druids couldn't hit it any more because it was in melee. Gnarlhorn attempted to charge anyway, with Bounding. Still the charge failed for about a quarter of an inch. So now I had just pulled a heavy vector in middle of my army without being able to deal with it...
I had also spent all Fury from Morvahna, as I was sure I'd be able to kill at least one Storm Lance with sprays from Winter Argus, charge from White Mane and a charge from Wolf of Orboros. Turned out I couldn't. So Morvahna was entirely Furyless. I got so afraid that Woldwatcher ran next to Morvahna. At least she'd be safe from direct shooting now.
Turn 3 Convergence obviously smashes the foolish goat who tripped on a wood in a forest. Convergence also continued to harass the Horgenholds, who continued to roll Tough when damage rolls accidentally punched through their armor. Oh, and the Lancer went down to Prime Axiom's tow cables.
Cygnar killed Wolves of Orboros with Storm Lances and stuff. Eiryss tried to shoot Iron Mother, but missed. This time.
Morvahna decided to use feat, and filled Wolves of Orboros back to full strength with Regrowth. That went okayish. What didn't go okayish at all was the sad attempt at dismantling Assimilator. Everything I threw against it (including Megalith) just failed.
Turn 4 Convergence thankfully deals with Gorman diWulfe, but those damn dwarves still refuse to die.
Haley uses her feat that messes up absolutely everything. Miraculously Megalith survives a round of beating from Stormclad and Assimilator, but without being able to advance to engage Stormclad, Megalith would need to survive two rounds. Hah. Not going to happen. This time Eiryss doesn't miss, and Iron Mother would be focus-starved next turn.
So next round is pretty fast and straightforward. Megalith succeeds to beat Assimilator down, and to make it more appealing for Convergence to drag the Stormclad away, Megalith also uses its animus. Morvahna brings back wolves to engage gun mages, but for Circle that was pretty much everything.
Turn 5 starts with Convergence under Haley's feat and Iron Mother Directrix disrupted by Eiryss. Notable thing here was probably when Iron Mother went and beat Eiryss down personally in melee even without boosts. She wasn't in Haley's control area.
Stormclad finishes Megalith, and Gun Mages kill Wolves of Orboros in droves. As Circle had only Woldwatcher as a warbeast, Morvahna went into vengeful frenzy mode. I put all my efforts into killing Haley. Morvahna dropped upkeeping Harvest and brought back the maximum of six Wolves or Orboros, and they all charged Eiryss. Full 6 member Combined Melee Attack missed. Sad panda.
Turn 6 Convergence pretty much secures the middle zone. It's a bit hilarious that it's turn 6 already and I can still see some Forge Guards alive. What's not hilarious at all is that in the last picture I can see Morvahna nowhere alive. She died to two electro leaps. I think she had something like 7 hit boxes left from various bits and bobs.
Well, since it's a three player game, I did got to play with the Wolves of Orboros anyway. And they really wanted to at least deal some damage to Haley. And I think they did something like four points. Or maybe more. But doesn't really matter, as Convergence cleared the middle area from enemy models on turn 7.
It was kind of refreshing to see how three player game changes things. Of course you can't talk much about balance, but spells like Harvest and feats that affect enemy models instead of your own models have way bigger impact in the game in terms to power. It's a shame Convergence has so few truly living models, as it would have been nice to fill Morvahna with Harvested Fury from opponents fighting each other.
But the game took a long time to play. A very long time.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
TaTaPe warmachine tournament day 1
Last weekend I participated in a warmachine tournament at Tampere.
It was 50 points, 1-2 lists and divide & conquer [1]
My lists were:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Megalith
- Feral Warpwolf
- Woldwatcher
- Winter Argus
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gatorman Witch Doctor
And
Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
2x Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane
I made a last minute change to my Morvahna2 list, because I realised that neither list had power to crack any heavier targets, and changing ravager shaman and reeve hunter to Gorax I thought I'd be able to finish my turn a little bit faster.
And about the Morvahna1 list... well, that one I didn't practice at all. And why should I have practiced it? I played Morvahna a lot in Mk1 and during field test of mk2. End of sarcasm.
First game was against Retribution of Scyrah, so that pretty much meant I should pick Morvahna2 because of the abundance of Eirysses in that faction.
Dawnshadow got Issyria, the Sibyl of Dawn versus her. This was nice, since I had never played against Issyria, and I want to complete the entire set.
Issyria had the following list, barring any errors I've made in recollecting details from pictures:
- Hyperion
- Chimera
Maximum unit of Mage Hunter Strike Force + Commander
Maximum unit of Dawnguard Invictors + Unit Attachment
2x Mage Hunter Assassins
At least one Arcanist
Eiryss2
Sylys Wyshnalyrr
First scenario was Fire Support. First picture is from the end of Circle turn X. Carnivore was on Wolves of Orboros and Fog of War was on, too.
Next turn it's Issyria's feat turn, and Fog of War plus various Stealth abilities were made useless. Chimera had ran close to Wolves of Orboros, and Issyria cast Blinding Light on them.
Feat + Blinding Light meant that Mage Hunter Strike Force butchered most of Wolves of Orboros eventhough they were on a hill.
Ravagers also took some heavy casualties, but no unit was completely wiped out.
The thing that mattered most was, however, that Hyperion and Invictors shot Pureblood Warpwolf down to some six hit boxes remaining, after which it was finalized by a Mage Hunter Assassin.
Morvahna used her feat next, obviously. I had been left with too few models to make much damage against enemy, and Ravagers managed to whiff all of their attack rolls against Eiryss. So I would just receive another round of decimating shooting.
Gnarlhorn Satyr went and controlled one control point for Circle, and Winter Argus advanced and put on it's animus.
Next turn all but two Ravagers died, and all but two Wolves died. Gnarlhorn Satyr, Gorax and Winter Argus were still intact, as well as a broken unit of Shifting Stones and one Gallows Grove.
Issyria had been advancing closer, possibly to dominate flag later on. But to me it looked like there was around 10" in between Issyria and Winter Argus. That was the only thing I could possibly do to try to win. There was, however, some models standing in the way. Only one completely blocked the charge, but a lot more might be able to make a free strike.
I figured I could get rid of the prohibiting model with blast damage from a Death Knell blast damage, if Shifting Stone teleported close to it. Shifting stones, however, had Stealth from Stone Keeper.
Two remaining Wolves of Orboros activated, and one of them tried to kill Stone Keeper, and the other one wanted to poke the Winter Argus blocking Mage Hunter through a wall. Both Wolves failed in their attempts.
Gorax activated, used Primal on Winter Argus and ate the Stone Keeper. I'm not entirely sure if it's economical for a secret druidic cult to use highly trained spellcasters as ape food, but hey, the stones no longer had Stealth since it's a Granted ability on Stone Keeper.
Morvahna activates, casts Death Knell on the stone, kill the important target and then she casts Carnivore on Winter Argus.
Winter Argus charges Issyria, survives a free strike and kills the Sibyl of Dawn.
Game 2:
Second game was against Retribution of Scyrah. I was prepared to get another Issyria thrown against me, but instead Morvahna2 was eyeballing Vyros2 from across the table. I didn't feel like I had any choice in picking lists again. On top of Eirysses all over the place, Issyria list had Hyperion and Vyros list had Imperatus. My list with Morvahna1 didn't have even a remote chance of downing either one of those.
Vyros2 had a list:
- 6x Griffon
- Imperatus
Maximum unit of Dawnguard Invictors + Unit Attachment
Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Eiryss2
At least one Arcanist
Scenario was Rally Point. I think Retribution started game, and first picture is from the end of Circle turn 1. I tried to jam the enemy zone with Ravagers. I felt pretty confident that I could carelessly throw the Ravagers away. Two were even in charge range. One charged Invictors and the other one a Griffon.
But damn those Griffons are fast. Any hopes I had for dominating my friendly zone were lost by those three light myrmidons. I had decided to drop Carnivore alltogether, as there wasn't that many living enemy targets around. Morvahna advanced, cast Purification and re-cast Fog of War.
Next turn Vyros used his feat. He was a bit focus-starved. I had hoped that Vyros would have some problems with activation order since he had to activate first before any of the Griffons if he wanted Synergy chain going on that round. But there was no problems. He just activated first and cast Synergy.
Three Griffons on right raised the Synergy count, as well as two on the left. Then the last Griffon (who had some focus) charged Pureblood Warpwolf, who had already taken some hits from Invictors' shooting. Pureblood was no more.
On my next turn I make the thing that gives this write-up the "fail" tag.
I had lost a lot of models last turn and if I managed to destroy something, whole Vyros' battlegroup would just outmaneuver me. I see a possibility for an unlikely assassination. My plan was to destroy one of my own Groves, activate Morvahna, advance and feat the tree into Vyros' back arc. Note to self: Vyros does not have a back arc.
I was also going to teleport Winter Argus close enough to spray Vyros, hoping for a critical hit. If Vyros would be stationary, Blackclad Wayfarer would have no problem in landing yet another pow 12 hit to Vyros. So, I feated a Shifting Stone back into formation, too.
See anything wrong there?
It was absolutely worst time to learn that Dawnshadow's feat does not bring back non-living models. Well, harsh lessons like that are the best teachers, though. I doubt I'll ever forget about that again. I had, however, gone too far already in my assassination attempts to back off.
Morvahna cast two Sunder Spirits on Vyros, dealing damage well enough to make assassination a possibility with the remaining attacks I got.
For some reason, though, I had feated a wolf of orboros badly in the way of Blackclad Wayfarer, and Winter Argus would take three free strikes from Griffons.
Gorax was able to reduce that number to two by performing a successful two-handed throw on one of the Griffons.
It is possible that I could have reduced the number of free strikes to only two if I had not thought it was possible to bring Shifting Stones back with Morvahna's feat. Gnarlhorn Satyr could have thrown or head-butted one Griffon, and Gorax possibly another one. Ironically Winter Argus had all branches intact after resolving first free strike. Second free strike dropped both Mind and Body.
But, hey! It was the very same Winter Argus from my last game. It needed 11+ to hit Vyros and 7+ to damage, and with boosts these could be attempted with two dice.
Both sprays hit after re-rolls from Morvahna. One of them even did a couple of points of damage. Heck, that Argus did not fail - I did. This might have been a second caster kill for the woofie.
Blackclad Wayfarer was way too far because he had to dodge two Wolves of Orboros.
Well, at least I was able to fulfill someone's dream of getting to hit enemy warcaster/warlock with Imperatus with full +7 Synergy chain. I guess it was an icing on the cake that the warlock in question was one of the most annoying ones.
Game 3:
Oh my. Third game did not have Purification or Eiryss in either list. I was against Circle of Orboros, facing either Baldur1 or Krueger1. I took Morvahna1, as I could at least be sure that Regrowth is not taken away in as rude manner as possible. Every turn.
It turned out to be Morvahna1 vs Krueger1, and the Stormwrath had following list:
- Feral Warpwolf
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Woldwarden
- Gorax
Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Druid Wilder
Gatorman Witch Doctor
+2 points I just can't figure out
Scenario was the tried and tested good old Incursion.
I must say that 8" + large base + reach is an awful lot of threat. I guess I should know since I play Circle myself, but no. I think Krueger started game, and the first picture is from the end of my turn 1.
Krueger used primal on both Warpwolf Stalker and Feral Warpwolf, and Lightning Tendrils were on Feral Warpwolf. So... I just lost both of my heavy warbeast.
And most of my infantry.
At least Druids of Orboros were safe from Krueger's feat, and at least whole unit of Wolves of Orboros did not die, so I could burn away all of Morvahna's fury to Regrowth Wolves back. I guess that might have been my chance to do anything useful during the game had not Megalith and Feral Warpwolf fallen so ridiculously.
Well. At least I knew those two enemy heavy beasts were going to frenzy next turn. Wolves of Orboros failed in gathering Fury for Morvahna with Harvest, and Morvahna had only two Fury to use during her activation.
"I might as well try" was the main principle in charging to Warpwolf Stalker with Morvahna, scoring a hit and then killing the beast with transfer from Harrow.
I couldn't get anything done with Feral Warpwolf, and it was turn.
Stalker frenzied, and random target was indeed Morvahna. Damage roll was amazing - the beast killed itself and some damageeven came through back to Morvahna. Just as I had planned.
Then shifting stones teleport Woldwarden to Morvahna's back arc. Just... eh... as I had planned?
Morvahna died, and at the end of day I was at one victory, two losses.
It was 50 points, 1-2 lists and divide & conquer [1]
My lists were:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Megalith
- Feral Warpwolf
- Woldwatcher
- Winter Argus
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gatorman Witch Doctor
And
Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
2x Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane
I made a last minute change to my Morvahna2 list, because I realised that neither list had power to crack any heavier targets, and changing ravager shaman and reeve hunter to Gorax I thought I'd be able to finish my turn a little bit faster.
And about the Morvahna1 list... well, that one I didn't practice at all. And why should I have practiced it? I played Morvahna a lot in Mk1 and during field test of mk2. End of sarcasm.
First game was against Retribution of Scyrah, so that pretty much meant I should pick Morvahna2 because of the abundance of Eirysses in that faction.
Dawnshadow got Issyria, the Sibyl of Dawn versus her. This was nice, since I had never played against Issyria, and I want to complete the entire set.
Issyria had the following list, barring any errors I've made in recollecting details from pictures:
- Chimera
Maximum unit of Mage Hunter Strike Force + Commander
Maximum unit of Dawnguard Invictors + Unit Attachment
2x Mage Hunter Assassins
At least one Arcanist
Eiryss2
Sylys Wyshnalyrr
First scenario was Fire Support. First picture is from the end of Circle turn X. Carnivore was on Wolves of Orboros and Fog of War was on, too.
Next turn it's Issyria's feat turn, and Fog of War plus various Stealth abilities were made useless. Chimera had ran close to Wolves of Orboros, and Issyria cast Blinding Light on them.
Feat + Blinding Light meant that Mage Hunter Strike Force butchered most of Wolves of Orboros eventhough they were on a hill.
Ravagers also took some heavy casualties, but no unit was completely wiped out.
The thing that mattered most was, however, that Hyperion and Invictors shot Pureblood Warpwolf down to some six hit boxes remaining, after which it was finalized by a Mage Hunter Assassin.
Morvahna used her feat next, obviously. I had been left with too few models to make much damage against enemy, and Ravagers managed to whiff all of their attack rolls against Eiryss. So I would just receive another round of decimating shooting.
Gnarlhorn Satyr went and controlled one control point for Circle, and Winter Argus advanced and put on it's animus.
Next turn all but two Ravagers died, and all but two Wolves died. Gnarlhorn Satyr, Gorax and Winter Argus were still intact, as well as a broken unit of Shifting Stones and one Gallows Grove.
Issyria had been advancing closer, possibly to dominate flag later on. But to me it looked like there was around 10" in between Issyria and Winter Argus. That was the only thing I could possibly do to try to win. There was, however, some models standing in the way. Only one completely blocked the charge, but a lot more might be able to make a free strike.
I figured I could get rid of the prohibiting model with blast damage from a Death Knell blast damage, if Shifting Stone teleported close to it. Shifting stones, however, had Stealth from Stone Keeper.
Two remaining Wolves of Orboros activated, and one of them tried to kill Stone Keeper, and the other one wanted to poke the Winter Argus blocking Mage Hunter through a wall. Both Wolves failed in their attempts.
Gorax activated, used Primal on Winter Argus and ate the Stone Keeper. I'm not entirely sure if it's economical for a secret druidic cult to use highly trained spellcasters as ape food, but hey, the stones no longer had Stealth since it's a Granted ability on Stone Keeper.
Morvahna activates, casts Death Knell on the stone, kill the important target and then she casts Carnivore on Winter Argus.
Winter Argus charges Issyria, survives a free strike and kills the Sibyl of Dawn.
Game 2:
Second game was against Retribution of Scyrah. I was prepared to get another Issyria thrown against me, but instead Morvahna2 was eyeballing Vyros2 from across the table. I didn't feel like I had any choice in picking lists again. On top of Eirysses all over the place, Issyria list had Hyperion and Vyros list had Imperatus. My list with Morvahna1 didn't have even a remote chance of downing either one of those.
Vyros2 had a list:
- 6x Griffon
- Imperatus
Maximum unit of Dawnguard Invictors + Unit Attachment
Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Eiryss2
At least one Arcanist
Scenario was Rally Point. I think Retribution started game, and first picture is from the end of Circle turn 1. I tried to jam the enemy zone with Ravagers. I felt pretty confident that I could carelessly throw the Ravagers away. Two were even in charge range. One charged Invictors and the other one a Griffon.
But damn those Griffons are fast. Any hopes I had for dominating my friendly zone were lost by those three light myrmidons. I had decided to drop Carnivore alltogether, as there wasn't that many living enemy targets around. Morvahna advanced, cast Purification and re-cast Fog of War.
Next turn Vyros used his feat. He was a bit focus-starved. I had hoped that Vyros would have some problems with activation order since he had to activate first before any of the Griffons if he wanted Synergy chain going on that round. But there was no problems. He just activated first and cast Synergy.
Three Griffons on right raised the Synergy count, as well as two on the left. Then the last Griffon (who had some focus) charged Pureblood Warpwolf, who had already taken some hits from Invictors' shooting. Pureblood was no more.
On my next turn I make the thing that gives this write-up the "fail" tag.
I had lost a lot of models last turn and if I managed to destroy something, whole Vyros' battlegroup would just outmaneuver me. I see a possibility for an unlikely assassination. My plan was to destroy one of my own Groves, activate Morvahna, advance and feat the tree into Vyros' back arc. Note to self: Vyros does not have a back arc.
I was also going to teleport Winter Argus close enough to spray Vyros, hoping for a critical hit. If Vyros would be stationary, Blackclad Wayfarer would have no problem in landing yet another pow 12 hit to Vyros. So, I feated a Shifting Stone back into formation, too.
See anything wrong there?
It was absolutely worst time to learn that Dawnshadow's feat does not bring back non-living models. Well, harsh lessons like that are the best teachers, though. I doubt I'll ever forget about that again. I had, however, gone too far already in my assassination attempts to back off.
Morvahna cast two Sunder Spirits on Vyros, dealing damage well enough to make assassination a possibility with the remaining attacks I got.
For some reason, though, I had feated a wolf of orboros badly in the way of Blackclad Wayfarer, and Winter Argus would take three free strikes from Griffons.
Gorax was able to reduce that number to two by performing a successful two-handed throw on one of the Griffons.
It is possible that I could have reduced the number of free strikes to only two if I had not thought it was possible to bring Shifting Stones back with Morvahna's feat. Gnarlhorn Satyr could have thrown or head-butted one Griffon, and Gorax possibly another one. Ironically Winter Argus had all branches intact after resolving first free strike. Second free strike dropped both Mind and Body.
But, hey! It was the very same Winter Argus from my last game. It needed 11+ to hit Vyros and 7+ to damage, and with boosts these could be attempted with two dice.
Both sprays hit after re-rolls from Morvahna. One of them even did a couple of points of damage. Heck, that Argus did not fail - I did. This might have been a second caster kill for the woofie.
Blackclad Wayfarer was way too far because he had to dodge two Wolves of Orboros.
Well, at least I was able to fulfill someone's dream of getting to hit enemy warcaster/warlock with Imperatus with full +7 Synergy chain. I guess it was an icing on the cake that the warlock in question was one of the most annoying ones.
Game 3:
Oh my. Third game did not have Purification or Eiryss in either list. I was against Circle of Orboros, facing either Baldur1 or Krueger1. I took Morvahna1, as I could at least be sure that Regrowth is not taken away in as rude manner as possible. Every turn.
It turned out to be Morvahna1 vs Krueger1, and the Stormwrath had following list:
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Woldwarden
- Gorax
Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Druid Wilder
Gatorman Witch Doctor
+2 points I just can't figure out
Scenario was the tried and tested good old Incursion.
I must say that 8" + large base + reach is an awful lot of threat. I guess I should know since I play Circle myself, but no. I think Krueger started game, and the first picture is from the end of my turn 1.
Krueger used primal on both Warpwolf Stalker and Feral Warpwolf, and Lightning Tendrils were on Feral Warpwolf. So... I just lost both of my heavy warbeast.
And most of my infantry.
At least Druids of Orboros were safe from Krueger's feat, and at least whole unit of Wolves of Orboros did not die, so I could burn away all of Morvahna's fury to Regrowth Wolves back. I guess that might have been my chance to do anything useful during the game had not Megalith and Feral Warpwolf fallen so ridiculously.
Well. At least I knew those two enemy heavy beasts were going to frenzy next turn. Wolves of Orboros failed in gathering Fury for Morvahna with Harvest, and Morvahna had only two Fury to use during her activation.
"I might as well try" was the main principle in charging to Warpwolf Stalker with Morvahna, scoring a hit and then killing the beast with transfer from Harrow.
I couldn't get anything done with Feral Warpwolf, and it was turn.
Stalker frenzied, and random target was indeed Morvahna. Damage roll was amazing - the beast killed itself and some damageeven came through back to Morvahna. Just as I had planned.
Then shifting stones teleport Woldwarden to Morvahna's back arc. Just... eh... as I had planned?
Morvahna died, and at the end of day I was at one victory, two losses.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Blackclad Stormclad
Last Thursday I played a Warmachine game.
It has been a long, long time since I played Morvahna the Autumnblade. I also wanted to test my newly painted Winter Argus.
My list 50 point list:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Wold Guardian
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Woldwyrd
- Gorax
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Swamp Gobbers
Blackclad Wayfarer
2x Gallows Grove
Druid Wilder
Lord of the Feast
Reeve Hunter
War Wolf
I was against Cygnar with the following list:
Jeremiah Kraye
- Centurion
- Stormclad
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers + Officer
- 2x Hunter
Rangers
Lady Ayiana & Master Holt
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Journeyman Warcaster
Reinholdt
Squire
Scenario was Destruction, though yet again, it mattered not.
Circle started game and first picture is from the end of Circle turn 2. All the rangers aren't showing, but they're there on the hill left in the picture.
I screwed up with Harvest here, as I was thinking of shooting everything I got at the one ranger War Wolf is engaging to gain 1 Fury for transfer. I was thinking that two Rat 6 attacks with a boost should be able to hit at least once on a def 16 target. Well, once it did hit, but I was shooting at a completely wrong guy, because I was trying to maximize potential kills.
Well, Morvahna was furyless for a turn, then.
Restoration was on Lord of the Feast and Wolves of Orboros had Regrowth.
Next turn is a curious turn. For starters, Cygnar removes both Gorax and Woldwyrd from board with a few amazing damage rolls. Then charging Centurion removes about 80% of Wold Guardian'¨s damage boxes, and after Kiss of Lyliss, Master Holt & Kraye Gnarlhorn Satyr is left with only two damage boxes. If we'd count total damage boxes of my beasts, I lost way over 50% in one turn.
Well, my two heavies were left alive, though, so maybe all was not lost.
Wold Guardian rams Centurion and causes as much damage as possible to the warjack. Wolves of Orboros declare a charge and use Power Swell. Two Wolves charge the downed Centurion, a couple charge Stormclad, a few charge Aiyana & Holt and three charge Kraye himself. Thanks to Poweful Charge Kraye drops down to 5 hit boxes, but doesn't die yet.
Winter Argus does the only meaningful thing it did during whole game. It wrecked what was left of Centurion with two sprays and froze Stormclad with a critical hit.
Because I¨'m a bit worried that Morvahna would die next turn, I try to do a desperate thing and spray Stormclad with Blackclad. Result wasn't that good, though. Nothing was ever done to the Stormclad, but Blackclad killed three Wolves of Orboros.
Next Cygnar unloads every shot possible against Morvahna. Sacrifical Pawn and some atrocious attack rolls saved Morvahna. I guess amazing damage rolls of Cygnar's turn 2 took back a few double and triple sixes now, when average on three dice seemed to be two.
At first Kraye freed himself from melee with Arcane Blast, and then he noticed he had Parry. That might have been two more carbine shots at Morvahna, but I doubt that would have killed her, since there was a Shifting Stone and Stone Keeper still within 3" of her.
Next Morvahna regrowths as many Wolves as possible, and five make a charge against Kraye. They do one big Combined Melee Attack against Arm 20 Kraye. Damage roll was enough to bring him down.
I guess the biggest game-changer here was the fact that Wold Guardian refused to die to Centurion.
It has been a long, long time since I played Morvahna the Autumnblade. I also wanted to test my newly painted Winter Argus.
My list 50 point list:
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Wold Guardian
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Woldwyrd
- Gorax
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Swamp Gobbers
Blackclad Wayfarer
2x Gallows Grove
Druid Wilder
Lord of the Feast
Reeve Hunter
War Wolf
I was against Cygnar with the following list:
Jeremiah Kraye
- Centurion
- Stormclad
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers + Officer
- 2x Hunter
Rangers
Lady Ayiana & Master Holt
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Journeyman Warcaster
Reinholdt
Squire
Scenario was Destruction, though yet again, it mattered not.
Circle started game and first picture is from the end of Circle turn 2. All the rangers aren't showing, but they're there on the hill left in the picture.
I screwed up with Harvest here, as I was thinking of shooting everything I got at the one ranger War Wolf is engaging to gain 1 Fury for transfer. I was thinking that two Rat 6 attacks with a boost should be able to hit at least once on a def 16 target. Well, once it did hit, but I was shooting at a completely wrong guy, because I was trying to maximize potential kills.
Well, Morvahna was furyless for a turn, then.
Restoration was on Lord of the Feast and Wolves of Orboros had Regrowth.
Next turn is a curious turn. For starters, Cygnar removes both Gorax and Woldwyrd from board with a few amazing damage rolls. Then charging Centurion removes about 80% of Wold Guardian'¨s damage boxes, and after Kiss of Lyliss, Master Holt & Kraye Gnarlhorn Satyr is left with only two damage boxes. If we'd count total damage boxes of my beasts, I lost way over 50% in one turn.
Well, my two heavies were left alive, though, so maybe all was not lost.
Wold Guardian rams Centurion and causes as much damage as possible to the warjack. Wolves of Orboros declare a charge and use Power Swell. Two Wolves charge the downed Centurion, a couple charge Stormclad, a few charge Aiyana & Holt and three charge Kraye himself. Thanks to Poweful Charge Kraye drops down to 5 hit boxes, but doesn't die yet.
Winter Argus does the only meaningful thing it did during whole game. It wrecked what was left of Centurion with two sprays and froze Stormclad with a critical hit.
Because I¨'m a bit worried that Morvahna would die next turn, I try to do a desperate thing and spray Stormclad with Blackclad. Result wasn't that good, though. Nothing was ever done to the Stormclad, but Blackclad killed three Wolves of Orboros.
Next Cygnar unloads every shot possible against Morvahna. Sacrifical Pawn and some atrocious attack rolls saved Morvahna. I guess amazing damage rolls of Cygnar's turn 2 took back a few double and triple sixes now, when average on three dice seemed to be two.
At first Kraye freed himself from melee with Arcane Blast, and then he noticed he had Parry. That might have been two more carbine shots at Morvahna, but I doubt that would have killed her, since there was a Shifting Stone and Stone Keeper still within 3" of her.
Next Morvahna regrowths as many Wolves as possible, and five make a charge against Kraye. They do one big Combined Melee Attack against Arm 20 Kraye. Damage roll was enough to bring him down.
I guess the biggest game-changer here was the fact that Wold Guardian refused to die to Centurion.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Pointy ears versus pointy teeth (proxy warning)
I played two 35 point casual games at Ropecon too, both against Retribution of Scyrah and Ossyan. These are the last casual games, next in the works are write-ups from the tournament games.
Friday:
My list:
Morvahna:
- Woldwyrd
- Woldwatcher
- Woldguardian
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Lord of the Feast
Reeve Hunter
Thrullg
Opponent's list:
Ossyan
- Banshee
- Hypnos
Maximum unit of Houseguard Halberdiers + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Mage Hunter Strike Force + Commander
Arcanist
Sylys (warcaster attachment)
So, Phoenix model is actually Banshee there, and Discordia acts as Hypnos.
Anyway, this game is somewhat hazy in my memory, but I tried to do a funny list with only wolds in it as warbeasts for Morvahna.
I don't remember who won the starting roll, but sure it was sweet for once to rely on Lord of the Feast + Shifting Stones staying on board, because all were stealthed.
Green template is Ossyan's temporal distortion effect. Banshee shot its slam bullet to Woldwatcher too, which was a clever way to move the distortion template.
In next picture Lord of the Feast did naughtiness. It was in charge range of some Strike Force members and butchered them to pieces. After that the crow took Lord into contact with Banshee, where was fresh supply of elven hearts to feed the ancient horror.
And, well. Uhm. I can't find my Woldguardian in that picture?! Did it die already? Could be that I rushed it to protect my other beasts and Hypnos is standing there proud after killing my heavy hitter.
Then I use Morvahna's feat and hope to get random shots at Ossyan off. Well, I didn't, but the infantry opponent had was pretty much gone. However, two warjacks and me with no serious hitters didn't still look all that good.
I guess a turn or two earlier Shield Guard and Sacrificial Pawn messed up opponents attempt at assassinations.
Well, looks like I lost my Woldwyrd too and chose to go in with straight offense. Combined efforts of Morvahna and Wolves of Orboros destroyed Banshee. A couple of regrowthed wolves actually got to threaten Ossyan too, but to no avail.
I haven't taken a final picture, it seems, but that situation there was desperate enough.
It was possible that Ossyan hadn't even used his feat, so Morvahna was kind of a... dead.
Game 2:
Well, on Sunday I played the another game against Retribution.
This time I was with Cassius and damn, that came out as amazing game deserving the "epic" tag.
So, the lists:
Cassius
- Argus
- Woldwatcher
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
Maximun unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Shifting Stones
White Mane
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Opponent:
Ossyan
- Banshee
- Hypnos
- Discordia
Epic Eiryss
Sylys (warcaster attachment)
2x Arcanists
Ghost Sniper
In the picture you can see how Narn and Discordia destroyed two of my Ravagers that had been placed too far. Oh, and about the proxies here, Discordia is actually Discordia, Phoenix is the Banshee and Slayer is Hypnos, because the colouring reflected the name so well.
Ravagers had to deal with Narn, which was easy enough for them because of their impressive melee attack score during charges. Opponent had a bit too much infantry clearing power in the form of a range 10" spray and AoE's from Banshee, so I decided to try to be as offensive as I could (not verbally, though). I ran everything forward and used Cassius' feat.
Opponent didn't do much else than positioning.
Ossyan was camping 5 focus but he was at a delicious place, so I really tried to figure out how I could get the caster kill.
But as anything I could come up with seemed like a far stretch, I decided to beat up opponents warjacks instead, and, to be honest, that didn't go all too well.
Cassius casts Gnarlhorn's animus on both Argus and Gnarlhorn Satyr.
Lanyssa manages to hit Discordia with Hunter's Mark.
Argus charges first and misses its charge attack that I decided not to boost. I thought that hitting with 5 on 2 dice was reliable enough. It buys another attack, which needed a hit roll boost, because its MAT was back to 5 after Gnarlhorn's animus expired. If I remember right all it managed to do was 1 point in.
Then came in the Gnarlhorn and did impressive damage, yes, but didn't kill the thing.
Also random solos were flanking on the right side of the board. No wolf was facing Eiryss, so I had to creep the officer into melee range with her to propose her. And so they were engaged. Other wolves did random charges at the warjacks and killed the Ghost Sniper.
A picture from the end of opponents next turn where you can better see the situation with Eiryss, and the loss of Gnarlhorn, which was more than expected. Rather unexpected was, though, that the Argus survived.
Then Argus and a charge from ravagers wrecked Discordia. White Mane charged the arcanist behind Discordia and sprinted to engage Ossyan himself.
Eiryss survived two combined melee attacks made by Wolves of Orboros. The other one needed 7's to hit (rolled 6) and the other one needed 6's to hit (rolled 5).
I was confident enough that Cassius would survive where he stood because there was a shield guard nearby.
But, well. Lil' Argus was killed and the line of ravagers shattered too. Ossyan beat White Mane in melee by himself. Well, he cast a spell on it after failing melee attacks.
Anyway, my next turn was interesting, too.
First of all, I really wanted my Wolves of Orboros to charge. So I had to get rid of Eiryss.
I had grand plans of killing her in melee with Cassius, which I attempted too. But then I realised I had charged so far that Wurmwood was no longer in Cassius' control range. Pfft. At least Eiryss died.
Yet Wolves didn't manage to kill Banshee and I wanted to get a charge with my Ravager Chieftain at Ossyan. (It was only later I noticed I had teleported shifting stones from blocking Cassius's charge to block the Chieftain's charge...)
Then Woldwatcher took an aimed shot at the warjack and finished it.
Then it was opponents turn. Cassius was standing there in the middle of nowhere, Ossyan hadn't used his feat and he still had Hypnos with a nasty gun and his own nasty gun to shoot Cassius.
However, Hypnos activated.
It tried to disengage to get a good shot at Cassius.
Lanyssa Ryssyll makes a free strike. Opponent asks if any of the models have any special rule that will mess up his attempts. I say "Well, she has critical freeze" and shrug my shoulders. And then the dice came out as double 6's.
Pretty damn epic place to land a critical freeze on.
On my turn I walk Cassius as much forward as possible to get a spell at Ossyan. Boosted Stanglehold hit and did some damage.
Then the ravager chieftain, who was still carrying Narn's heart, charges Ossyan and kills him.
All kinds of unexpected things happening, which was cool.
Friday:
My list:
Morvahna:
- Woldwyrd
- Woldwatcher
- Woldguardian
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Lord of the Feast
Reeve Hunter
Thrullg
Opponent's list:
Ossyan
- Banshee
- Hypnos
Maximum unit of Houseguard Halberdiers + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Mage Hunter Strike Force + Commander
Arcanist
Sylys (warcaster attachment)
So, Phoenix model is actually Banshee there, and Discordia acts as Hypnos.
Anyway, this game is somewhat hazy in my memory, but I tried to do a funny list with only wolds in it as warbeasts for Morvahna.
I don't remember who won the starting roll, but sure it was sweet for once to rely on Lord of the Feast + Shifting Stones staying on board, because all were stealthed.
Green template is Ossyan's temporal distortion effect. Banshee shot its slam bullet to Woldwatcher too, which was a clever way to move the distortion template.
In next picture Lord of the Feast did naughtiness. It was in charge range of some Strike Force members and butchered them to pieces. After that the crow took Lord into contact with Banshee, where was fresh supply of elven hearts to feed the ancient horror.
And, well. Uhm. I can't find my Woldguardian in that picture?! Did it die already? Could be that I rushed it to protect my other beasts and Hypnos is standing there proud after killing my heavy hitter.
Then I use Morvahna's feat and hope to get random shots at Ossyan off. Well, I didn't, but the infantry opponent had was pretty much gone. However, two warjacks and me with no serious hitters didn't still look all that good.
I guess a turn or two earlier Shield Guard and Sacrificial Pawn messed up opponents attempt at assassinations.
Well, looks like I lost my Woldwyrd too and chose to go in with straight offense. Combined efforts of Morvahna and Wolves of Orboros destroyed Banshee. A couple of regrowthed wolves actually got to threaten Ossyan too, but to no avail.
I haven't taken a final picture, it seems, but that situation there was desperate enough.
It was possible that Ossyan hadn't even used his feat, so Morvahna was kind of a... dead.
Game 2:
Well, on Sunday I played the another game against Retribution.
This time I was with Cassius and damn, that came out as amazing game deserving the "epic" tag.
So, the lists:
Cassius
- Argus
- Woldwatcher
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
Maximun unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Shifting Stones
White Mane
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Opponent:
Ossyan
- Banshee
- Hypnos
- Discordia
Epic Eiryss
Sylys (warcaster attachment)
2x Arcanists
Ghost Sniper
In the picture you can see how Narn and Discordia destroyed two of my Ravagers that had been placed too far. Oh, and about the proxies here, Discordia is actually Discordia, Phoenix is the Banshee and Slayer is Hypnos, because the colouring reflected the name so well.
Ravagers had to deal with Narn, which was easy enough for them because of their impressive melee attack score during charges. Opponent had a bit too much infantry clearing power in the form of a range 10" spray and AoE's from Banshee, so I decided to try to be as offensive as I could (not verbally, though). I ran everything forward and used Cassius' feat.
Opponent didn't do much else than positioning.
Ossyan was camping 5 focus but he was at a delicious place, so I really tried to figure out how I could get the caster kill.
But as anything I could come up with seemed like a far stretch, I decided to beat up opponents warjacks instead, and, to be honest, that didn't go all too well.
Cassius casts Gnarlhorn's animus on both Argus and Gnarlhorn Satyr.
Lanyssa manages to hit Discordia with Hunter's Mark.
Argus charges first and misses its charge attack that I decided not to boost. I thought that hitting with 5 on 2 dice was reliable enough. It buys another attack, which needed a hit roll boost, because its MAT was back to 5 after Gnarlhorn's animus expired. If I remember right all it managed to do was 1 point in.
Then came in the Gnarlhorn and did impressive damage, yes, but didn't kill the thing.
Also random solos were flanking on the right side of the board. No wolf was facing Eiryss, so I had to creep the officer into melee range with her to propose her. And so they were engaged. Other wolves did random charges at the warjacks and killed the Ghost Sniper.
A picture from the end of opponents next turn where you can better see the situation with Eiryss, and the loss of Gnarlhorn, which was more than expected. Rather unexpected was, though, that the Argus survived.
Then Argus and a charge from ravagers wrecked Discordia. White Mane charged the arcanist behind Discordia and sprinted to engage Ossyan himself.
Eiryss survived two combined melee attacks made by Wolves of Orboros. The other one needed 7's to hit (rolled 6) and the other one needed 6's to hit (rolled 5).
I was confident enough that Cassius would survive where he stood because there was a shield guard nearby.
But, well. Lil' Argus was killed and the line of ravagers shattered too. Ossyan beat White Mane in melee by himself. Well, he cast a spell on it after failing melee attacks.
Anyway, my next turn was interesting, too.
First of all, I really wanted my Wolves of Orboros to charge. So I had to get rid of Eiryss.
I had grand plans of killing her in melee with Cassius, which I attempted too. But then I realised I had charged so far that Wurmwood was no longer in Cassius' control range. Pfft. At least Eiryss died.
Yet Wolves didn't manage to kill Banshee and I wanted to get a charge with my Ravager Chieftain at Ossyan. (It was only later I noticed I had teleported shifting stones from blocking Cassius's charge to block the Chieftain's charge...)
Then Woldwatcher took an aimed shot at the warjack and finished it.
Then it was opponents turn. Cassius was standing there in the middle of nowhere, Ossyan hadn't used his feat and he still had Hypnos with a nasty gun and his own nasty gun to shoot Cassius.
However, Hypnos activated.
It tried to disengage to get a good shot at Cassius.
Lanyssa Ryssyll makes a free strike. Opponent asks if any of the models have any special rule that will mess up his attempts. I say "Well, she has critical freeze" and shrug my shoulders. And then the dice came out as double 6's.
Pretty damn epic place to land a critical freeze on.
On my turn I walk Cassius as much forward as possible to get a spell at Ossyan. Boosted Stanglehold hit and did some damage.
Then the ravager chieftain, who was still carrying Narn's heart, charges Ossyan and kills him.
All kinds of unexpected things happening, which was cool.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
"They're only scrap thralls!" ... a lesson to be learned about 0.33 point models
I played a game of Warmachine on Vassal a couple of days ago. I had some hurry about and I wrote the report as the game progressed so I wasn't in a rush to update this while I had things still in fresh memory.
It was a 35 point game and I was playing Circle. I wanted to do something differently and decided to play without Druids of Orboros and without Shifting Stones. Oh my, exciting, new approach to Circle! Well... my opponent really beat me into that!
My list was:
Morvahna
- Feral Warpwolf
- Wold Guardian
Maximum Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Minimum Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Lord of the Feast
Totem Hunter
And he had:
Epic Asphyxious
- Leviathan
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
2x Revenant Cannons
Skarlock
Gorman diWulfe
2x Pistol Wraiths
2x Bloat Thralls
2x group of 3 scrap thralls
I don't know... at least it is a brave try-out of something completely unexpected and wacky, though opponent wasn't aware of the fact that most of his army blow themselves up so they cannot be brought back through Asphyxious's feat. Still it didn't hinder opponents game all that much...
Anyway, opponent won the starting roll.
From first round there isn't much to tell, Cryxian advanced behind a cloud wall and I came at them rather cautiously. In the picture the fury on my beast has been messed up, as I was thinking that I cast Regrowth & Harvest, but after "taking" the picture I realised that I said that I had cast Regrowth and Restoration on Warpwolf. It was okay for opponent that I reworked my fury management.
Well, then opponents turn started and it was a horror to behold. For starters, Revenant cannons took shots at my ravagers. Well, first shot missed ravagers, but deviation brought 2 of them under the template. Blast damage did 3 damage to both of them. Yeah, damage roll was 10 on both.
Then, the other cannon managed to hit the other ravager and killed it.
And then... Bloat Thrall scores a direct hit to the other damaged ravager with its RAT 4!
Oh wait, that wasn't all the humiliation. Next a Scrap Thrall charges one of my Ravagers. Misses, but blast damage deals 2 points of damage. Then, another scrap thrall charges and scores a HIT and kills the ravager. At least the last scrap thrall wasn't in range, it was left out of melee by mere pixels. Then, Leviathan moves and tries to shoot the ravager but misses and kills the scrap thrall instead. And the resulting damage roll deals damage, too... All of this just couldn't be happening!
I had totally misjudged 8 inches and on top of that, opponent rolled dice... well.
Scarlock then attempts to cast Excarnate on the last remaining ravager but finally something missed, though a pistol wraith killed it ultimately.
Oh dear, what a horrible turn.
Then, it was my time to punch opponent in the face. Which I did, in the most horrible imaginable way. I killed two scrap thralls and backed off.
Yeah.
I'm about to cry just now.
Both Wold Guardian and Morvahna put up Flesh of Clay, and Restoration was transfered to Lord of the Feast, as I was hoping I could position it better to entangle nearly whole army. But it was not to be, it got only into melee with the last scrap thrall you can see in the picture.
I ran away with Wolves of Orboros, as I noticed that the revenant cannons had a nasty remove from play -effect, which pretty much nullified my Regrowth on them. And having lost all of my ravagers I thought that keeping wolves alive was a priority of sorts.
Well.
But then... first attack from Scrap Thrall one-shotted my Lord of the Feast that had Restoration on. Needed 5 & 6 to do that. Hit roll was 5, 5 and damage roll 5, 6.
Then Gorman walks up and scores a hit on my Warpwolf with black oil. Exactly, with RAT 5. Game was starting to look hilarious.
Well, scarlock popped Parasite on the blind warpwolf and revenant cannons started shooting. First was just out of range, but the other hit home.
Bloat thrall took an aimed shot.
Damage roll 5, 6.
Other really exceptionall rolls didn't come out, but I think that was a good basement for killing off my wolf and tharn ravager chieftain. Wold Guardian was obviously Death Chilled.
Then came my turn, which did soothe my agony thus far somewhat.
Opponents infantry was nicely packed tightly together, so I activated Morvahna first. I didn't upkeep Regrowth on Wolves of Orboros, but put on Harvest. Two Eruptions of Lives later right in the middle of opposing army resulted in dead Gorman, two dead pistol wraiths, three bile thralls and about two bane thralls.
Morvahna even had enough fury to cast Restoration on Wold Guardian and to put Guardian's animus on herself. Guardian advanced to protect Morvahna, and Wolves packed up too. Then Totem Hunter charged two remaining bile thralls, killed both of them, filling Morvahna up to 3 fury and then sprinted to safety.
Phew.
But then came a weird turn.
First, Skarlock advances and casts Parasite on Wold Guardian. Things shot at it (one Bloat and Leviathan I think, could be others too, and at least one boosted Deathknell)
Asphyxious activates, advances and puts his soul template on and casts the said Deathknell, feats and teleports away.
Feated Bane Thralls destroy Wold Guardian, who had both +2 arm and -3 arm on. Two pistol wraiths charge Morvahna, dealing 7 points of damage in.
Then opponent launches all blast weapons in there that he could, resulting in no damage, except for dead Wolves of Orboros.
My turn.
Morvahna was death chilled by one of the pistol wraiths but upkept Harvest. She forfeited action and moved enough to get one Bloat Thrall under 10", who was then destroyed by an Eruption of Life. She used her feat, and charging Wolves killed the two remaining bane thralls, the skarlock and the remaining Bloat Thrall.
Totem Hunter ran to engage Revenant Cannons, risking a free strike on the way. It had amazing 16" move because it's current prey target, the bane thralls (when I did this they were still alive) were close enough.
Opponents turn.
Asphyxious comes a bit forward, sends in a Deathknell that kills four wolves and teleports away.
Leviathan moves a bit and shoots a boosted shot at Morvahna. Miss. Buys another, boosts hit. Hits and damage roll 6, 6.
Weird game.
But in the hindsight, I should have probably been more aggressive with my Wolves, a couple of them dying to "removed from play" effects.
Obviously losing my whole ravager unit to astonishing dice rolls didn't actually help.
It was a 35 point game and I was playing Circle. I wanted to do something differently and decided to play without Druids of Orboros and without Shifting Stones. Oh my, exciting, new approach to Circle! Well... my opponent really beat me into that!
My list was:
Morvahna
- Feral Warpwolf
- Wold Guardian
Maximum Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Minimum Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Lord of the Feast
Totem Hunter
And he had:
Epic Asphyxious
- Leviathan
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
2x Revenant Cannons
Skarlock
Gorman diWulfe
2x Pistol Wraiths
2x Bloat Thralls
2x group of 3 scrap thralls
I don't know... at least it is a brave try-out of something completely unexpected and wacky, though opponent wasn't aware of the fact that most of his army blow themselves up so they cannot be brought back through Asphyxious's feat. Still it didn't hinder opponents game all that much...
Anyway, opponent won the starting roll.
From first round there isn't much to tell, Cryxian advanced behind a cloud wall and I came at them rather cautiously. In the picture the fury on my beast has been messed up, as I was thinking that I cast Regrowth & Harvest, but after "taking" the picture I realised that I said that I had cast Regrowth and Restoration on Warpwolf. It was okay for opponent that I reworked my fury management.
Well, then opponents turn started and it was a horror to behold. For starters, Revenant cannons took shots at my ravagers. Well, first shot missed ravagers, but deviation brought 2 of them under the template. Blast damage did 3 damage to both of them. Yeah, damage roll was 10 on both.
Then, the other cannon managed to hit the other ravager and killed it.
And then... Bloat Thrall scores a direct hit to the other damaged ravager with its RAT 4!
Oh wait, that wasn't all the humiliation. Next a Scrap Thrall charges one of my Ravagers. Misses, but blast damage deals 2 points of damage. Then, another scrap thrall charges and scores a HIT and kills the ravager. At least the last scrap thrall wasn't in range, it was left out of melee by mere pixels. Then, Leviathan moves and tries to shoot the ravager but misses and kills the scrap thrall instead. And the resulting damage roll deals damage, too... All of this just couldn't be happening!
I had totally misjudged 8 inches and on top of that, opponent rolled dice... well.
Scarlock then attempts to cast Excarnate on the last remaining ravager but finally something missed, though a pistol wraith killed it ultimately.
Oh dear, what a horrible turn.
Then, it was my time to punch opponent in the face. Which I did, in the most horrible imaginable way. I killed two scrap thralls and backed off.
Yeah.
I'm about to cry just now.
Both Wold Guardian and Morvahna put up Flesh of Clay, and Restoration was transfered to Lord of the Feast, as I was hoping I could position it better to entangle nearly whole army. But it was not to be, it got only into melee with the last scrap thrall you can see in the picture.
I ran away with Wolves of Orboros, as I noticed that the revenant cannons had a nasty remove from play -effect, which pretty much nullified my Regrowth on them. And having lost all of my ravagers I thought that keeping wolves alive was a priority of sorts.
Well.
But then... first attack from Scrap Thrall one-shotted my Lord of the Feast that had Restoration on. Needed 5 & 6 to do that. Hit roll was 5, 5 and damage roll 5, 6.
Then Gorman walks up and scores a hit on my Warpwolf with black oil. Exactly, with RAT 5. Game was starting to look hilarious.
Well, scarlock popped Parasite on the blind warpwolf and revenant cannons started shooting. First was just out of range, but the other hit home.
Bloat thrall took an aimed shot.
Damage roll 5, 6.
Other really exceptionall rolls didn't come out, but I think that was a good basement for killing off my wolf and tharn ravager chieftain. Wold Guardian was obviously Death Chilled.
Then came my turn, which did soothe my agony thus far somewhat.
Opponents infantry was nicely packed tightly together, so I activated Morvahna first. I didn't upkeep Regrowth on Wolves of Orboros, but put on Harvest. Two Eruptions of Lives later right in the middle of opposing army resulted in dead Gorman, two dead pistol wraiths, three bile thralls and about two bane thralls.
Morvahna even had enough fury to cast Restoration on Wold Guardian and to put Guardian's animus on herself. Guardian advanced to protect Morvahna, and Wolves packed up too. Then Totem Hunter charged two remaining bile thralls, killed both of them, filling Morvahna up to 3 fury and then sprinted to safety.
Phew.
But then came a weird turn.
First, Skarlock advances and casts Parasite on Wold Guardian. Things shot at it (one Bloat and Leviathan I think, could be others too, and at least one boosted Deathknell)
Asphyxious activates, advances and puts his soul template on and casts the said Deathknell, feats and teleports away.
Feated Bane Thralls destroy Wold Guardian, who had both +2 arm and -3 arm on. Two pistol wraiths charge Morvahna, dealing 7 points of damage in.
Then opponent launches all blast weapons in there that he could, resulting in no damage, except for dead Wolves of Orboros.
My turn.
Morvahna was death chilled by one of the pistol wraiths but upkept Harvest. She forfeited action and moved enough to get one Bloat Thrall under 10", who was then destroyed by an Eruption of Life. She used her feat, and charging Wolves killed the two remaining bane thralls, the skarlock and the remaining Bloat Thrall.
Totem Hunter ran to engage Revenant Cannons, risking a free strike on the way. It had amazing 16" move because it's current prey target, the bane thralls (when I did this they were still alive) were close enough.
Opponents turn.
Asphyxious comes a bit forward, sends in a Deathknell that kills four wolves and teleports away.
Leviathan moves a bit and shoots a boosted shot at Morvahna. Miss. Buys another, boosts hit. Hits and damage roll 6, 6.
Weird game.
But in the hindsight, I should have probably been more aggressive with my Wolves, a couple of them dying to "removed from play" effects.
Obviously losing my whole ravager unit to astonishing dice rolls didn't actually help.
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