Journeyman no more

Last two games of my Journeyman League participation. League ended quite a while ago, and first game dates almost a whole month back.

Since both games were with and against the same list, I'll slap both games here though there was at least a week between the two.

My list had evolved into:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Wold Guardian
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax Rager

Shifting Stones
Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Tharn Ravager Shaman
Maximus
Druid Wilder
Gallows Grove

Objective: Bunker

Both games were Recon scenarios.

Both games were against Convergence of Cyriss:

Forge Master Syntherion
- Prime Axiom
- Cipher
- Monitor
- Galvanizer
- Diffuser
- Corollary

Optifex Directive
Attunement Servitors
Elimination Servitors
2x Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex

Both games had some similarities in how they played out.

First game I rushed to the flag on right, trying to drown opponent in meat, trusting that opponent wouldn't have enough attacks to get rid of everything.

Ravagers were pretty much struggling to destroy even one light vector, but at least they were passing their Tough rolls well enough.

Morvahna had relatively easy time to score points, when opponent got only servitors from Axiom to contest the flag. At one critical point opponent forgot about it, though, and that probably was what tipped tough game in my favor.

In the end where was Cipher contesting the flag when Circle had four control points. Wold Guardian had only Body branch still functional. Most Ravagers were facing completely wrong way. Looked like Morvahna would have to wreck the heavy vector and get back to flag with Reposition. Morvahna was quite injured, so she didn't have that much life left for various boosts and/or re-rolls. But she succeeded.

Game 2:

Second game I took a huge risk by running Morvahna to flag on the right on turn two or something. She did have seven transfers, though.

I wonder how different the game would have played if I had not charged Syntherion with Morvahna when he came a little too close.

And heck, Syntherion is a tough one to assassinate. Morvahna was uninjured and had seven fury points. And last possible attack with only one hit box remaining on Morvahna finally killed the clockwork warcaster.

How much hut would a Hutchuck chuck if a (oh come on, I'm not going there...)

Well, it must be something like three weeks or so since these games were played.

It was a caster swap week in Journeyman League, and I took Morvahna2 in.

My list was:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax Rager

Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Shifting Stones
Hutchuck, Ogrun Bounty Hunter
Blackclad Wayfarer

Objective: Bunker I think... not sure any more.

Scenario in both games was Extraction.

First game was against Cryx with:

Lich Lord Venethrax
- 2x Slayer
- Reaper
- Harrower
- Deathripper

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Skarlock
Necrotech
Soul Trapper

I opened the game by bringing Hutchuck to the table and lobbing knockdown grenade on a Slayer. Then Blackclad Wayfarer had easy time landing in Hunter's Mark. Ravagers charged in, but did overall very little.

I was wondering if I would be able to start some sort of scenario play, but I was not able to bring in enough meat to block Cryxian advances. Yet again - my initial battlegroup was not very optimal for wrecking even Arm 17 targets. Not that I actually got my battlegroup into action, but that's beyond the point... I was afraid. That's the point.

Well, I nibbled at the helljacks what I could, but attrition started to look like I had already lost.

But then opponent makes a blooper by activating with Venethrax, and bringing him to a certain position. Then Reaper advanced and got counter-slammed over Venethrax.

He had not activated all of his models yet, so promptly everything that could came to block Gnarlhorn's charge lane to Venethrax. If it hadn't been for a couple of Druids and their new and de-proved Wind Bolts, Gnarlhorn would most likely have been denied it's charge.

Considering Gnarlhorn's track record at failing in absurd situations, I wasn't expecting a caster kill. But that may have been a karma of Mk2, for this time around the Primaled satyr killed enemy warcaster. Yay.

Second game was against Convergence with:
(There's quite a bit of guesswork here, since I don't have Reconstruct on opponent's army list. )

Forge Master Syntherion
- Modulator
- Cipher
- Monitor
- Corollary
- Diffuser
- Galvanizer

Optifex Directive
2x Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex
2x Elimination Servitors
Attunement Servitors

I started pretty much the same as I did last game - Hutchuck enters field and knocks stuff down, which Ravagers then charge aided by Hunter's Mark.

This time it was even worse of a move than it was last time - after all, a couple of Ravagers aren't going to wreck heavies and Syntherion has this auto-repair thingy going on for him.

However, scenario game started to look a lot more promising. Opponent didn't have that many attacks to remove so many medium base models (and the smaller ones also, of course) so I started to snatch a control point here and there. But somehow a vector always managed to sneak close to contest things when they shouldn't have.

Came the time when all Ravagers were dead (twice) and I had completely lost the western front. I did have three scenario points I think.

At least I vaguely remember counting that if I somehow destroy enemy objective and the contesting Cipher on the same turn, I would win.

It wasn't lack of effort that kept the Cipher in game. My damage rolls all over the board were terrible, and I would have needed a little bit above average ones to actually stand any kind of a chance. But no. It took almost all of Morvahna's Fury to destroy Cipher, and then there was this Corollary that a Druid had missed with a Wind Bolt. There it was, still contesting.

Morvahna died to her own re-rolls in vain attempt to remove Corollary.

Night Witch Tournament

Last weekend I was in a (this time) planned Warmachine/Hordes tournament.

It was a 50 point Steamroller game with four rounds.

My lists were:

List 1:

Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood
- Gorax
- Woldwatcher
- Shadowhorn Satyr
- Warpwolf Stalker

Shifting Stones
Tharn Bloodweavers
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Lord of the Feast
Druid Wilder
Blackclad Wayfarer
Bloodweaver Night Witch
Lanyssa Ryssyll
Gallows Grove

List 2:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Gorax
- Riphorn Satyr
- Pureblood Warpwolf

Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain + Shaman
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Blackclad Wayfarer
Bloodweaver Night Witch
Gallows Grove
War Wolf

I had finished painting Bloodweaver Night Witch just a day ago, so I wanted to include her in both of my lists so that I wouldn't have the dilemma of "I should play this list because of the matchup, but I want to play Night Witch!"

So. First game was against Skorne. I chose Cassius as my warlock, though opponent had Titan Gladiator and Tyrant Commander handing out Pathfinder. Oh well. Enemy list was something like:

Supreme Archdomina Makeda
- Molik Karn
- Bronzeback Titan
- Titan Gladiator
- Basilisk Krea

Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Cataphract Incindiarii
Maximum unit of Nihilators
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer

Scenario was Fire Support. I forget who started game.

Even when I had quite a few models immune to fire damage, the Incindiarii were a pain. They managed to set Cassius, Wurmwood and tons of other models on fire anyway. I was really lucky in setting the fires out - about 66% of the fires got extinguished instead of the regular 33%. Lord of the Feast took down three Incindiariis, but that didn't seem to slow them down.

I was terrified of Molik Karn. Perhaps a little too much. Molik went for a little killing spree against Druids of Orboros and used his animus to back off.

The first picture is taken from the situation where Night Witch and Warpwolf Stalker have charged Molik Karn and killed him. Stalker rolled dice absolutely terribly. Under Primal it was MAT 8 and rolled damage with dice +2, and still Molik Karn would have survived if it wasn't for the couple odd points Bloodweaver Night Witch had done. I had been pretty sure I would have been able to get at least one, hopefully two attacks against Bronzeback Titan, but no. Not today.

Bloodweavers charged Bronzeback and dealt some damage in.

Opponent had been playing really slowly (it was his first tournament) and had around six minutes left on his clock after his next turn. Titan Gladiator had not been able to kill Warpwolf Stalker and Bronzeback Titan forgot to put his animus on, so his kill count for that turn was two Bloodweavers only.

I could have also played attrition or scenario game, since three Incindiarii and a couple of Nihilators were the only infantry opponent had.

And still I wanted to assassinate Makeda. Makeda had two Fury points left for damage transfers. Titan Gladiator was at maximum Fury. I tried to kill Bronzeback Titan first, but had no luck there.

Cassius hopped next to Makeda and tried to cast Curse of Shadows on her, hitting on 9+, and obviously that's a miss. Second Curse of Shadows miraculously hit, but Cassius had been reduced to just one unboosted initial attack that required 9+ to hit. It was a miss.

Well. I still had Shadowhorn Satyr leaping in with Primal on it. Shadowhorn required 7+ to hit, but had six attempts after Bounding Leap. I decided I needed to risk it and go for unboosted 7+'s since Cassius had failed to make any damage in to Makeda.

Out of the six attacks only two hit, and first one did very little damage. Second roll was high, I think, but it was transfered away.

Now, okay, 7+ can do things like this. Two hits from six tries isn't that far below average. However... out of the four Shadowhorn attacks that missed, none would have hit even if required score would have been 6+.

Suddenly my successful rolls for fire expiration made perfect sense, yet again. Furyless Cassius was cracked in two like a dry branch.

During lunch break I swore that if the rest of the games roll as badly as this one did, I'd get rid of this batch of dice. They've been failing so terribly lately (though making stupid mistakes haven't really helped to even the odds in case of bad dice...) and I was just about done with them. Superstitiously I shuffled all of the dice in the box and re-arranged them randomly to make sure I wouldn't be using the same bad dice that are on top of the box all the time.


Game 2:

Second game was against Trollbloods, and I chose Morvahna for my list.

Opponent had something like:

Chief Madrak Ironhide
- Troll Axer
- Mulg the Ancient

Minimum unit of Krielstone Bearers + Elder
Maximum unit of Fennblades + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Long Riders
2x Fell Caller Hero
Fennblade Kithkar
Horthol

Scenario was Incoming and Trollbloods started.

I thought that hiding Ravagers behind a wall and inside a forest would be kind of okay defence against Long Riders. I was kind of horrified when they got their MAT equal to eleven, or something? That was a whole lot of dead Tharn Ravagers right on turn two.

Circle second turn I decided to use feat to bring back the six or so dead Ravagers all around Longriders - without cavalry charge bonuses they'd be less frightening... right? Pureblood tried to spray Krielstone unit dead, and despite needing only 7+ with three dice to hit, I had to re-roll most of the attacks with Scales of Fate. And to make matters worse, out of the four Krielstone Bearers that got damage in, three passed Tough check. Morvahna casts Death Knell on the same lot, but, well. All Tough checks passed when I managed to breach their armor.

Wolves of Orboros advanced a little to bait Fennblades into charging, though I'm not sure if that manoeuvre qualifies as a successful bait, because that was exactly what they wanted to do in the first place anyway. I had also brought many too far ahead so that they received more losses than I had anticipated when it was Trollblood turn again. At least Madrak didn't use his feat yet, so Mulg killed only Pureblood Warpwolf, Gallows Grove and possibly Blackclad Wayfarer.

Trying to remove the key support piece had now pretty much cost me the game, unless I killed Madrak, who had two transfers or something like that. He had overextended himself, though, so I would be able to teleport Riphorn Satyr behind him.

I shuffle quite a bit on my turn and try to make it possible for Riphorn Satyr to throw Madrak closer to Morvahna with Chain Attack - in case that Mulg would be, like, close to killing Riphorn.

However, once chain attack triggered Riphorn still looked alive and well, so I chose to head-butt Madrak instead to the ground. Mulg had mercifully missed a protective fit. Riphorn managed to chew through all Madrak's transfers and bring him down to four hit points before dying to the Rune Club.

Only model that was able to reach Madrak then was Morvahna with Sunder Spirit. I had three attempts. I was pretty sure it'd be something like, one miss, one doesn't cut through armor and one passed Tough. So much faith I had in my dice. But the first Sunder Spirit was enough.


Game 3:

Third game was against Skorne, again. We drove two hundred and fifty kilometres to get a match with player from my home city.

He had:

Lord Arbiter Hexeris
- Titan Gladiator
- Bronzeback Titan
- Cyclops Brute
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea

Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Nihilators
Maximum unit of Croak Raiders
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Agonizer
Task Master
Extoller Soulward

Scenario was Two Fronts. Since opponent would become list locked for the final round if he didn't choose Hexeris for this game, I was fairly confident in choosing Cassius for this match. Again I had a lot of fire immune models, and enemy had Croaks and Ashes to Ashes.

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

Circle shot Lord of the Feast to Croaks and kills three of them plus one Nihilator. Not sure if worth four points, but the pleasure I get from just one dead frog counts at least for two. Two additional Croaks die in the middle.

Hexeris had cast Arcane Reckoning on Croaks, and this lead to first time in recorded history when that spells makes a casualty. I didn't remember that spell, and somehow didn't register that Croaks were in a trench. All the 2d terrain looks the same... Anyway. A druid killed itself with Force Bolt. Though we were not completely sure if that was possible, since unit leader had already put up Counter Magic. So possibly Arcane Reckoning wouldn't have done absolutely anything yet again.

Anyway, Cassius uses his feat. The various markers show the general area of the forest in second picture.

Opponent brings some remaining Croaks and Swamp Gobbers to contest Circle friendly zone and relocates his forces to Skorne friendly zone.

Turn 3 berserking Warpwolf with Sprint clears the zone, and Cassius starts dominating. I didn't realise until it was too late that I had placed Bloodweavers rather... foolishly, considering opponent had a spray basilisk nearby. Oh well.

Bronzeback Titan with Rush tries to charge a Druid of Orboros after Basilisk Drake had cleared the way, and thankfully the charge fell short. On my turn one Bloodweaver, Shadowhorn Satyr with Primal, Warpwolf Stalker who warped for strength and Cassius kill the Bronzeback Titan. Ech.

Circle friendly zone is cleared again, and Cassius dominates second scenario point.

Up until now things had looked really good for me. Warpwolf Stalker had taken some stray damage points in from different sources, and now a charging Cyclops Brute with enrage and Rush managed to kill the heavy warbeast. Drake and Titan Gladiator came to contest Circle friendly zone, and Shadowhorn Satyr would frenzy for sure next turn.

Hexeris had charged in to finish off Woldwatcher and casts Ashen Veil on himself.

Even if I somehow managed to clear Circle friendly zone again with some Force Bolt pushes, I'd get to three control points only... and then enemy warbeasts would be so deep inside the zone that my scenario game would stop right there and then. So, an assassination it would be.

First Druids of Orboros and Blackclad Wayfarer try to clear some Nihilators in front of Hexeris. Blackclad Wayfarer did a couple damage points in to Hexeris, even.

Next Shifting Stones teleport Bloodweaver Night Witch to the back arc of Hexeris. This was the moment I had been dreaming of for whole tournament and a couple of practice games. Except, that, she had to score a hit against a def 17 target (def 15 in back arc). She dealt three points of damage to herself with her ability to boost attack or damage rolls, so first attack was most likely the only shot she would get. But it hit, and Hexeris got Grievous Wounds in.

Now Cassius needed to finish the job with eleven fury points, four of which were needed for placements.

It took the very last attack Cassius was able to make, but this time he scored the kill.


Game 4:

Last game was against Legion of Everblight, and I chose Morvahna for the job.

Opponent had:

Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight
- 2x Ravagore
- Zuriel
- Naga Nightlurker
- Nephilim Bolt Thrower
- Shredder

2x Shepherd
2x Strider Deathstalker
Succubus
Anyssa Ryvaal

Scenario was Recon and Circle started game. First picture is from the end of Circle turn 2.

I'm quite happy that probably for the first time ever I played against Lylyth2 like you should: rush to her with everything you got as fast as you can. And it was nice to see that it was effective. Lylyth had to use her feat on turn two to defend herself and not to assassinate my caster. Damage was impressive, though... Riphorn Satyr has one box of health remaining in the Spirit branch.

Turn 3 Pureblood Warpwolf enters zone and deals crazy damage to objective and Lylyth herself. I think objective took thirteen points and Lylyth twelve (which was transfered to Shredder, though)

Riphorn Satyr runs to engage enemy beasts, Warwolf does the same and actually everything does the same, except for Morvahna who does full feat and has only one hit point remaining afterwards. Blackclad Wayfarer wrecks the objective, and Circle goes to three control points.

Opponent does respectable job again in clearing dirty hippies from the board. Only models that get to contest the zone are a Shepherd, Succubus and... a Ravagore.

Then it's Circle turn. Pureblood Warpwolf is left with two fury points, but it has quite good Threshold anyway. With eight or less I'd most likely win the game relatively easily.

It soothes my pain a little that Pureblood Warpwolf wouldn't have succeeded in the check even if it had to make it with zero fury... eleven was rolled. Blackclad Wayfarer was eaten.

This sucks.

Oh well. Let's see. I needed to keep Shepherd alive so that Morvahna would be able to Ram her to get within reach of Ravagore after being teleported with Shifting Stones.

Succubus would need to be taken down somehow, and I chose Wolves of Orboros for the job. I charged Succubus with three Wolves of Orboros and thanks to not thinking very straight one ended up blocking an easy charge for one Ravager. I wanted to make sure that the Succubus died, so I brought every Wolf there I could. First Wolf killed Succubus, though. Oh well.

Morvahna then got teleported, and she rammed Shepherd dead and started attacking Ravagore. She had healed some damage during enemy turn, but not enough to be completely careless of her own health.

There was one really good damage roll, and a lot of sub-par rolls. Though at least every attack did some damage in. Well, except once she re-rolled one 1,1,1,2. Luckily damage to her was only one.

In the end of the day, Ravagore was alive with three damage boxes remaining. Now... if I would have trusted that two Wolves get the job done with Succubus, Ravagore would have had an easy lane to charge enemy warbeast. Now, Bloodweaver Night Witch tried to kill one Wolf of Orboros out of the way, but still the Ravagore ended up being half an inch away from reach range.

Furyless Morvahna at one hit point in the middle of enemy army.

Well, funnily enough every Legion warbeast frenzied except for the one Morvahna had in melee. But still... even if Morvahna had Def 19 in melee, Lylyth gets to RAT 10 with aiming bonus.

It was so close. So close.

Well, even if Morvahna would have killed the Ravagore, I would have been in fourth place of the tournament. So that moronic Ravager block didn't cost me winning positions.

Still it sucks.

And I even need to keep using the same dice, because their fails weren't so egregious in the latter games of the tournament. Maybe they heard my threats.

A Pictureless Warmachine Tournament

I still haven't received any word about my camera, so I guess I'll have to write these down as soon as possible now.

So, last weekend I took part in a 50 point Warmachine tournament. Fortunately all of the games were memorable in their own way.

My lists were:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Gorax
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Woldguardian

Shifting Stones + Stone keeper
Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain + Shaman
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Tharn Ravager White Mane

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gorax
- Riphorn Satyr
- Warpwolf Stalker
Druids of Orboros + Overseer2
Shifting Stones + Stone keeper
Tharn Bloodweavers
Minimum unit of Ravagers + Chieftain + Shaman
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Reeve Hunter

Objective: Bunker


First game was against Retribution of Scyrah, and Issyria.

Issyria had Hyperion, Mage Hunter Strike Force and both Sentinels and Invictors.

I had picked Morvahna the Dawnshadow as my list. Scenario was Incursion.

I started playing scenario game after the full unit of Ravagers tied up Mage Hunter Strike Force and, to some extent, Hyperion. Issyria's feat took down Pureblood Warpwolf (plus tons of infantry, but they would just be coming back). Game looked pretty good, especially when I was looking at the scenario points. I would go to four points at the end of my turn, and opponent had got only two.

That was the extent of my strategic thinking, though.

Opponent also scored third point as I got my fourth. Now opponent would only need to get two points on Retribution turn, which was easy as I hadn't been dedicating too much contestants to the middle flag. Not that I even had that many contestants left any more.

But still. Game ended in 4-5 scenario victory for Retribution.

Game 2:

Second game was against Khador. Warcaster was Sorscha2, and there was the full nightmare of Winter Guards in the list, as well as Beast-09 and Iron Fang pikemen. I was playing Morvahna again. I think the scenario was Incoming.

Opponent rolled tough really well at the beginning of the game, and Ravagers weren't able to make much of a dent to the Winterguard detachment. I don't have any right to complain about those tough rolls. My Wolves of Orboros were passing tough rolls quite well also.

I started grinding scenario points again, as enemy was clogged down with Ravagers and even Wolves of Orboros to some extent. Shatterstorm and Freezing Grip were scary spells, though, but opponent wasn't able to completely devastate my game with them. At one point opponent forgot to cast Boundless Charge on Beast-09, and so it didn't come to wreck Woldguardian.

It was a bloody game and most of the infantry from both sides was either dead or frozen. Opponent still had Great Bears of Gallowswood and Greylord Ternion going on for him.

I'm at three scenario points when Beast-09 charges in to the zone I had been dominating. Beast failed to kill Pureblood Warpwolf, but the Spirit was broken.

If I would've paid closer attention to things, I would've probably been able to take a scenario victory. But as it happened, I wanted to heal Pureblood's spirit. That meant Morvahna had to activate first. And, well... though her damage output is pretty decent, she wasn't able to drop uninjured Beast in one round. Thanks to Sorscha's bond Morvahna froze in place. Nice.

Well, Pureblood did kill the Beast and I was at four scenario points.

Morvahna had a couple of Fury left for transfers, but she was DEF 5 and had something like two or three damage points left.

I was a little bummed that I had lost two games at four control points.

Game 3:

Then I was against Skorne, Mordikaar more specifically. Mordikaar had Aradus Sentinel, Cyclops Raider, a unit of Nihilators and a full set of Immortals. There was also a minimum unit of Incindiarii. Scenario was Outflank.

I took Mohsar as my list. Opponent used feat a turn too early, so the effects of +3 defense were mitigated quite a bit. My own feat usage was a little underwhelming, too, as I only got the Aradus with four fury under my feat. I almost had the Cyclops Raider under too, who had two or three. Aradus failed threshold check, and the distraction bought me time to start playing scenario game once more.

I pretty much gave the left side of the table to Skorne. There were only the remnants of Ravagers duking it out with Immortals. This gave me quite good presence on the right side, and I dominated four points relatively easy. The last point was the tough one yet again, when tons of Skorne started pouring into the zone to deny me that precious last point.

If I would've lost Riphorn Satyr to all the attacks opponent threw against it, the last turn would've been a lot more difficult. But now I had Riphorn Satyr and Warpwolf Stalker removing the enemy infantry. I felt so secure that I played a little bit of foolishly and trampled through my own models to get to the remaining Nihilators. Soon enough there was only Gatorman Witch Doctor remaining, and I charged the croc with Mohsar himself.

Game 4:

Last game was againt epic Lylyth with three Ravagores and Zuriel, and two Deathstalkers. I took Mohsar and the scenario was probably Recon.

This was kind of an annoying game. But sometimes you need such humbling experiences so that you won't become overconfident about eye gauging (gouging?) distances.

Opponent had zero fury points on Lylyth, and to me it looked like I'd be able to get her under Mohsar's feat. I decided to try a wacky approach, and run a Druid of Orboros within reach of Lylyth, and then deny transfers for Lylyth for two complete rounds. With Sands of Fate I would've tried to come and tickle her a little and then be off. Next turn hopefully at least a couple of Legion beasts would fail their THR check.

I did get Lylyth under Mohsar's feat, but the Druid of Orboros was less than two millimetres away. Damn. Also, only Naga Nightlurker failed THR next turn. If only one of the Ravagores or perhaps Zuriel had failed, my Riphorn Satyr could have survived. But not like this. Lylyth obviously tried to play safe and went deeper into the forest she was hiding in.

Next turn is depressing. I figured out that I'd be able to kill Zuriel and a Ravagore easily, plus with some good rolls another Ravagore would go down.

My plan was to shoot Hunter's Mark on a Ravagore in the woods near Lylyth and then charge in with Warpwolf Stalker with Primal. Blackclad Wayfarer advanced to cast the spell, but there was less than a millimetre in between Stealth range. Great. Well, at least I'd kill Zuriel and a Ravagore.

Druids would need to pull Zuriel just a little, one or two inches, so that at least three, possibly four Bloodweavers would be able to charge Zuriel. Obviously the druid pulled the full 3" so that a scather template made it impossible for one flank of Bloodweavers to even attempt a charge.

A couple of other Druids tried to come and pull the Ravagore that had been my original target from the woods. That was a miss, so a second druid would be way out of stealth range.

Two Bloodweavers that charge Zuriel don't really do much damage there, so instead of charging one Ravagore with four Ravagers, I charge the Ravagore with three and get one of the Ravagers to soften up Zuriel so that I wouldn't need to use Primal on Warpwolf Stalker.

Two millimetres attack again, and one of the three Ravagers didn't get within reach. And even with good rolls two Ravagers just aren't enough to kill a Ravagore.

To smear some salt into the many mental injuries, Warpwolf Stalker fails to kill Zuriel. I forget what model I used to finally kill it, probably Mohsar.

Damn it. I had wonderful opportunity to play a scenario game once more, but I threw it away in pursuit of greater glory. It was too late now, and being out of range by just a couple of millimetres on many different critical points in the game cost me everything.

Tournament Practice

I'm going to a tournament this month, and these are two practice games against the same opponent.

It's a 50 point tournament, and this was my list for the first game:

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gorax
- Riphorn Satyr
- Warpwolf Stalker

Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Bloodweavers
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer

Objective: Bunker

Opponent had:

High Exemplar Kreoss

- 2x Reckoner

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith
Initiate Tristan Durant
- Redeemer
2x Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanik
Epic Eiryss
Covenant of Menoth

Scenario was Destruction and Protectorate started game.

Mirage is on Ravagers and Defender's Ward on Temple Flameguard. In the first picture Holy Zealots are under Greater Destiny. Way too many Druids died to blast damage, but they were the only casualties that turn. Lucky deviations could also have landed on Mohsar, who didn't have a single Fury point left for transfers.

Circle turn 2 Mohsar was empty on the inside again. He upkept Mirage and cast four salt pillars. Ravagers charged Temple Flameguard just to open up the game somehow.

Somehow the game felt really oppressive and I started to figure out any desperate moves. And a plan emerged when opponent had only Holy Zealots to contest the scenario zone. I'd destroy enemy objective and dominate zone for two turns somehow. First three points would be easy, just advance Mohsar to the zone and cast salt pillars after the Zealots and objective is removed. If he somehow survived, Rip Horn and Mohsar himself with Bulldoze might be able to empty the zone and bring scenario victory.

Well, the plan didn't have all that great chances of success, but it was the best I could do.

However.

There was one "but" I didn't take into consideration. The Covenant of Menoth had said "no spellcasting within 10" of me", and that was where Mohsar found himself. With eight or nine fury points, unable to use them in any other way than to boost spray attack.

It was pretty much game over there, unless...

Riphorn Satyr made a double handed throw on Mohsar and threw him within Shifting Stones. Shifting Stones then teleported Mohsar to safety. Wow. Pro moves.

And Riphorn did save Mohsar - the game continued for one full round. Mohsar did lose all of his warbeasts, though. As a final act of defiance Mohsar charges a Reckoner, dragging at least one of the warjacks to grave with him. Except Mohsar missed quite a few attacks and didn't score that great damage rolls even with four dice. To Kreoss it probably looked more like an angry old man jumped to Reckoner and poked it a couple of times with a walking stick.


Game 2:

Opponent had the same list, while I took:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow

- Gorax
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Wold guardian

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit attachment
MAximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain + Shaman
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Gatorman Witch Doctor

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Scenario was Two Fronts and Circle started game. First picture is from the end of Circle turn two, I think. Finally I remembered to keep one of the Tharn Ravagers a bit behind not to make removing entire unit that easy. I didn't get the Ravager A that far because they only advanced. I wanted to kill two Zealots with Shaman's lighting stick, but failed the attack roll even with a re-roll.

Morvahna has Fog of War on and Carnivore is on Wolves of Orboros. Wolves are also zombified. Defender's Ward is on Temple Flameguard.

Protectorate turn 2 the Temple Flameguard charge a little, but only three get into contact with Wolves. Kreoss uses his feat and the rest of the army kills all but the one Ravager I had hidden behind Gorax.

That obviously meant Morvahna had to use her feat on turn 3 right away. Closest Reckoner had had Enliven cast upon it. I used the newly risen Ravagers to envelop it from all sides. Morvahna cast Purification to get rid of Defender's Ward and Fortify from Tristan's Redeemer. She cast Wold Guardian's animus on herself and called it a day. She had two fury points left for transfers.

Shifting Stones teleported Wold Guardian to the Enlivened Reckoner. Guardian didn't quite manage to destroy it, but fortunately the only Ravager who was able to charge dealt enough damage to wreck it. Ravager made it that far thanks to Hunter's Mark that had been cast on the Reckoner earlier.

White Mane failed a MAT 10 charge attack once more. He could have relatively easily eaten all three Flameguards and open up charge lanes for Wolves, but no. Not today. Not ever.

So the Wolves just advance and do a couple of Combined Melee Attacks to kill two Flameguards.

Game looked good enough, though I was afraid I'd lose all the Ravagers again, plus the Wold Guardian. But what I actually needed to be afraid of was the loss of Morvahna. She was not the only caster on board who had Purification on spell list. She lost the Wold Guardian animus, and then Reckoner and Redeemer attempted to assassinate her. Scary stuff.

But the key shot missed - Reckoner didn't get Morvahna under -2 Def Flare. Redeemer hit only with a maximum of one attack, and the damage rolls didn't raise concerns.

Covenant was reciting the "no knockdown or stationary" verse. I really wanted to knock Kreoss down with Wold Guardian. Opponent also ran Eiryss in between Kreoss and Wold Guardian, so there was an annoying Def 16 model that needed to go down somehow for a secure assassination.

This time the dice were rolling like a dream. The Covenant did break down, and Blackclad Wayfarer scored a hit against Kreoss. Pureblood Warpwolf killed Eiryss and dealt astonishing damage to Kreoss. Wold Guardian punched the protectorate warcaster in the belly.

Gambles of Fate

Last Monday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine.

My list was:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow

- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Woldguardian
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain + Shaman
Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Sentry Stone & Manikins
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Ravager White Mane
Reeve Hunter
War Wolf

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Opponent had:

Feora, Protector of Flame
- 2x Reckoner
- Vanquisher
- Redeemer

Maximum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Aiyana & Holt
2x Vassal of Menoth
Gorman diWulfe
Saxon Orrik
Epic Eiryss

Objective: Fuel Cache

Scenario was Recon, and Circle started game. First picture is from the end of Circle turn 2.

It's been a while since I played Morvahna the Dawnshadow, looks like. I don't know why I didn't leave one Ravager lagging far behind. Earlier some Ravagers and a few Bloodweavers have died to Redeemer shots. The two AoE's about there in the middle are forests from manikins.

Turn 2 Protectorate makes a massive dent in my forces. My only saving grace was that two combined melee attacking Temple Flameguards somehow missed the last Ravager who had charged Eiryss. Def 15 from treewalker special ability sure still kept me in this game.

Turn 3 I had to use Morvahna's feat. She brought all the Ravagers and Bloodweavers back as well as War Wolf. Morvahna was at two hit boxes remaining or something. I had been thinking of going to a nice little killing spree with White Mane and heal Morvahna with Carnivore, but that didn't quite work out. Carnivore removes from play and White Mane needs corpse tokens to do that...

Pureblood Warpwolf advances to use its spray to get rid of Saxon Orrik, Gorman diWulfe, a Vassal of Menoth and a choir grunt.

Shifting Stones teleport Woldguardian right next to Reckoner. Reckoner had Enliven on, but Woldguardian knocks stuff down with its bare fists. Damage rolls were only so-and-so. I'm not sure if any of the systems actually broke.

Bloodweavers dispelled Ignite from Temple Flameguard.

Turn 3 Protectorate killed off Woldguardian and a whole lot of Ravagers die, because that's what they do best. I think Feora used her feat this turn, but it was a little bit of a lacklustre. Def 14 miraculously saved Pureblood Warpwolf, which still kept me in the game. Though Pureblood was on fire and had, what, four or five damage boxes left? Death by fire was well within realms of possibility here.

Now, Warpwolf didn't die. Turn 4 Morvahna healed it and cast Primal on it. It then proceeded to slaughter absolutely everything! Yet it failed and killed none. The Reckoner who had already been beaten by Woldguardian was so badly injured after one attack that I relied on other models to bring it down. It crippled the other Reckoner well enough also, but not completely. This performance took quite a toll on Morvahna's life track.

Last remaining Ravager and even charging Reeve Hunter tried to score the few remaining points in to Reckoner, but it was all for naught. At least the Bloodweavers mopped up Eiryss and Temple Flameguards.

It started to look bad. Reckoners both were pretty useless by now, but I'd lose Pureblood now and there was still unscratched Redeemer and Vanquisher to deal with.

Except. Well.

Protectorate turn 4, and Pureblood defied all odds and stayed alive. One of the Reckoners killed last remaining Tharn Ravager. The other Reckoner and the Redeemer... uh. The dice rolls must have been really skewed.

Turn 5 Bloodweavers kill Holt, a choir grunt and the Reckoner. Pureblood Warpwolf frenzies and wrecks the other Reckoner. I don't remember where and why I did it, but I do remember that I did a re-roll gamble twice with Morvahna during this game.

I got no idea why there is a Ravager in the zone in the picture. It's dead anyway. Can't you smell the rotting flesh?

Protectorate then finally punches the Pureblood in the nose and it dies. Feora advances close by and casts Fire Step, which takes four Bloodweavers down. They fail their massive casualties check.

Vanquisher probably set Morvahna on fire somehow. I definitely remember rolling some fire checks for Morvahna. Perhaps that happened a turn earlier, since there is no longer a Reeve Hunter in the last picture. Maybe Vanquisher smacked him. Anyway, for the track record - only one fire continuous effect got naturally extinguished. Even from the many models that hadn't been in Feora's control area.

Feora had come closer to hug a wreck marker for cover.

This proved to be Feora's undoing.

Turn 6 Gorax destroys my friendly objective from the way of Morvahna, and shifting stones teleport themselves elsewhere, too.

Morvahna then charges Feora. I thought this would be an easy kill thanks to Morvahna's unsporting Life Trade sword. But this was before I learned Feora was at Arm 21 thanks to two focus being used to overboost power field, and Escort.

It was far from easy, and Morvahna was also far from her maximum health. It took all of Morvahna's life (except for one or two) and all of Morvahna's fury to kill Feora.

Tough game that I probably should have lost. Giving whole Ravager unit on a plate shouldn't have went unpunished - especially when opponent lost because of one small mis- (or fire?) step.

Flight of the Griffons

Last Thursday I continued to play Riven Bonds league games with Circle Orboros. It was a 50 point game.

My list was:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax
- Winter Argus

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Shaman + Chieftain
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer Hero (Electrical Augmentation, Crown of the Wild, Wilting Totem, Mark of the Omnipotent)

2x Gallows Grove
Tharn Ravager White Mane
War Wolf

Opponent had:

Grand Scrutator Severius
- Avatar
- Templar
- Blessing of Vengeance

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Daughters of the Flame
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Minimum unit of Flameguard Cleansers
Gorman diWulfe
Paladin Hero
Covenant of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Hierophant

Scenario was Incoming. Both armies had Arcane Wonder objective. Circle started game. First picture is from the end of Protectorate turn 1, and Defender's Ward is on Daughters of the Flame. Vision is on Avatar of Menoth, and Eye of Menoth ogles around the battlefield like a dirty old man. Morvahna tries to hide from the Eye inside Fog of War, and Carnivore is on Tharn Ravagers to make fighting Daughters a real possibility.

Turn 2 I thought that getting a critical freeze on the Paladin and killing Gorman diWulfe would be good use of Winter Argus. So Shifting Stones teleported the wolf thing forward, and then it took double sprays at Gorman. Gorman died and the Paladin died the first time to a lucky damage roll (he had the Greater Purpose upgrade, or something.) Winter Argus didn't score critical hits to the Paladin, and surely enough it would have done nothing - that damnable Covenant had forbidden stationary effects.

War Wolf ran to engage Avatar of Menoth just to act as a general nuisance.

Morvahna cast Death Knell on Daughters of the Flame and Cleansers. Two Cleansers and a Daughter died.

Protectorate engaged Tharn Ravagers with Daughters of the Flame. They also got rid of the Gallows Grove on left. Blessing of Vengeance ran forfward for Severius to cast Ashes to Ashes. Ashes spread to four additional targets, one of which was a Shifting Stone. A damage roll of triple sixes broke Circle's teleportations for the rest of the game.

Bastions and Avatar kill the Winter Argus, while Flameguard Cleansers shoot a combined ranged attack over themselves, setting a 4" diameter patch of ground into fire. Go figure, they're Protectorate... I guess they like stuff like that.

Oh, Vassal of Menoth had cast Enliven on Blessing of Vengeance.

Turn 3 I'm a bit afraid to engage warjacks in melee with warbeasts, especially when the closest of them had repulsor shield and enliven. I tried to navigate through this by spraying Blessing first with Blackclad Wayfarer, but he didn't score a critical hit. He did, however, score exactly one damage point, which was enough to trigger enliven.

Pureblood Warpwolf also tries to spray Blessing, and does some damage.

Wolves of Orboros charge all over, mostly just to block enemy advances.

Morvahna had cast her first Purification to remove Defender's Ward, and had re-cast Carnivore on Ravagers. Though she had three Fury available, she didn't cast Fog of War back on. Blessing of Vengeance still had fully functional arc node, so I wanted to save a few Fury for damage transfers.

Ravagers butchered all of the Daughters of the Flame.

All in all situation didn't look that bad... but I had some serious doubts if I'd ever be able to chew through Avatar and Templar, plus what was left of Blessing of Vengeance.

Exemplar Bastions then remove a bunch of Wolves of Orboros from board. Templar smacks the standard bearer dead and beat backs forward to take an attack against shifting stone. The 1" advance isn't quite enough to take Templar to melee with the stone. Templar now blocked a direct charge from Avatar to Scarsfell Griffon. But still the Avatar charged and got to the second Gallows Grove. Thankfully Griffon was out of reach, though it did get set on fire from Flame Burst of Avatar's sword.

Blessing of Vengeance killed Stone Keeper, which broke unit coherency of Shifting Stones. Severius cast Ashes to Ashes somewhere, but if I remember right attack roll was double ones.

Cleaners probably shot somewhere, but their most important function was contesting the zone. Covenant also brought its ancient and fragile holy scriptures right next to flamethrowers.

Turn 4 Ravagers just advanced into better position. Their last turn's charge/run against Daughters had messed up their facings, and the Shifting Stone on left was out of coherency, so I couldn't teleport it out of the way. So... Ravagers just advanced. Shaman was the only one who got to make any attacks at all.

Since Pureblood had done good enough damage to Blessing last turn, it attempted the same again and targeted Templar with the spray. Thanks to poor judgement the template didn't touch Blessing of Vengeance, and did perhaps one damage point in to Templar.

Avatar of Menoth had activated the Gaze, so retreat with Griffon was not an option... nor could Gorax back up. But Gorax could use its animus on Griffon, who then went to make a futile gesture of defiance. Or at least that was how I thought it'd go. Instead, I swear, the dice set themselves on fire right there on my hand. I still have the burn marks on my palm. Griffon alone tore down the shield from Avatar, and took, what, half of its damage points.

There was only two Wolves of Orboros alive any more - the officer and the leader model. I still hadn't used Power Swell, so I guess I was expecting I'd use it somewhere post-feat. But... hey. Griffon had almost wrecked the Avatar... perhaps last remaining Wolves might finish the job? So, officer ensues Power Swell and charges Avatar... alone. The other Wolf tried to run to safety so that I'd still have a unit to feat more models into.

And I swear the Wolf of Orboros officer set itself on fire right there on the table! Ah well, Avatar didn't exactly die altogether, but after a damage roll of something like 5,5,6,4 it had only a few damage boxes left, with movement system broken down along with the shield. Sadly there still was boxes left in the sword system, and Avatar doesn't have breakable Cortex to begin with. But impressive job from a 5 point beast and a lone unit officer, anyway.

But then the Exemplar Bastions charge Griffon and the heroic officer dead. Avatar advances into melee with Gorax and beats it with just a couple of swings.

Blessing of Vengeance hits Pureblood with halberd, and positions the arc node. Templar advances and Severius then charges Templar to get into the scenario zone. Afterwards he tried to shoot two Immolations at objective, but barely failed to destroy it. He casts Defender's Ward on himself

So Protectorate jumps to two scenario points.

Turn 5 I guess I had the option of trying to win with scenario, but since Protectorate already got such a headstart, I decided to try an assassination instead.

First Shifting Stones teleported away from blocking movement. Pureblood Warpwolf warped for Ghostly, and advanced forward with its back arc to Covenant of Menoth. It used its animus on itself, and sprayed on Severius. Attack was a hit, and damage was done.

Phase two was to shoot Templar with Hunter's Mark from Blackclad Wayfarer, but he missed. Oh wait, I was playing epic Morvahna. The Hunter's Mark hit instead.

Ravagers got a charge order. Shaman assaulted Severius, and a few ganged up on Blessing of Vengeance. Three attempted to maul Covenant of Menoth, but three attacks aren't nearly enough to deface the book by drawing crude pictures on its pages. Blessing of Vengeance was finally wrecked, so Morvahna wouldn't have to be afraid of any free strikes.

Morvahna charges Templar, and gets within 2" reach of Severius by doing that. But without Hunter's Mark this wouldn't have been possible.

So Morvahna would have to break a frail, almost a hundred years old DEF 16 ARM 16 grandpa with her seven Fury.

I've complained of it before and I will continue to complain about it, but Life Trader is completely unnecessary and excessive rule on epic Morvahna. Anyway, the attack that hit and was boosted and was life traded caused 1,1,2,2 damage. Oh wait, I was playing epic Morvahna. It was 5,5,3,6 instead. And then Severius died.

"Master" "Strategist"

So, last Thursday there was a bit larger gathering for Warmachine Riven Bonds league at The Basement.

I got three games in that night, and this post gives away the two I played against Protectorate of Menoth.

First game was a 35 point game, and my list was:

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Gorax
- Argus
- Woldwatcher

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Swamp Gobbers
2x Gallows Grove
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Sepoh Thalasland, the Blackclad Janitor

My adversary was:

High Reclaimer
- Repenter
- Dervish

Maximum unit of Choir of Menoth

Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants
Minimum unit of Deliverers
Maximum "unit" of Paladins (2x paladin + Vilmon)
... which, I now realise, cannot be done in the league. Oh well. Happens.
Vassal of Menoth
Wracks
Hierophant

Scenario was the Cutthroat Keep that shoots two AoE 3" templates at the end of every turn that causes POW 10 blast damage roll to everyone underneath... Circle doesn't approve. In fact... it's a weird scenario. Without very specific army builds I can't imagine that Cutthroat Keep would be won by a scenario at least in 35 points, or less! Perhaps there are more hard hitting tools available at 50 points and beyond.

But enough of that.

Protectorate started game, and first blasts from the keep caused massive casualties check on Swamp Gobbers, who failed and started to flee. Afterwards during whole game the poor little gobber didn't succeed in regrouping.

I think this first picture is from the end of Circle turn 1.

Not much happened yet. Turn 2 Protectorate dealt first two damage to the keep with a combo-striking Dervish. Exemplar Errants shoot a couple of Wolves dead, and High Reclaimer creates a smoke screen for the main body of his army. The most important thing was Repenter shooting down one of the Shifting Stones, preventing Gnarlhorn from teleporting next to High Reclaimer next turn.

Anyway when my turn starts I see a somewhat unlikely chance for assassination. Gnarlhorn Satyr had the Mirage on itself, so it was teleported 2" in Circle control phase. Gnarlhorn wasn't just yet in the Burning Ash cloud, meaning it couldn't see through the AoE. The distance looked like it was less than 1", though.

Defying the odds is always a struggle of will for me. So I decide to give it a go. Gorax casts Primal on itself, advances behind Gnarlhorn and makes Power Attack: Push. Animus made Gorax Strength 11 versus Gnarlhorn's Strength 11. Strength test comes out as 6 for both Gorax and Gnarlhorn, but after consulting the rulebook about this obscure Power Attack, it turned out that defender must beat the attacker's score. Attack succeeds if the roll is a tie.

Gorax pushes Gnarlhorn into the Burning Ash cloud, and then Mohsar advances and casts Primal on Gnarlhorn, who then charges High Reclaimer. Repenter gets a free strike on the way, but doesn't break any branches. Then Gnarlhorn Satyr breaks High Reclaimer.


Game 2:

Since first game had been so fast, we decided to play another 15 point game in the wait for the other board to clear.

I had decided at home that if I get two consecutive victories, last game would be played with Morvahna the Dawnshadow to maximise chances of gaining Master Strategist milestone.

But... Morvahna the Dawnshadow at 15 points?

Hell yeah, let's try that one out!

My list was:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Pureblood Warpwolf

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Sepoh Thalasland, the Blackclad Janitor
Gallows Grove

I was against:

High Exemplar Kreoss
- Crusader

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants
Minimum unit of Deliverers
Hero Paladin

Scenario was Close Quarters, and I was a bit worried about the amount of infantry models opponent had. I had only one warbeast, that would easily fall to ranged weaponry if DEF was dropped down to 5...

So I decided to try to pull off an annoying and difficult-to-counter assassination. Even with epic Morvahna I doubt I'd outlast the attrition game.

Wolves of Orboros hack down Gallows Grove, and Morvahna uses feat to bring it back close to Kreoss, who was camping only one Focus. But sometimes that one Focus is all it takes to survive.

First Sunder Spirit caused what, eight points of damage or something like that. I thought it was good enough score, so I didn't re-roll. But again I was horrified when I remembered in the middle of action that Kreoss has astonishing 18 damage boxes. So last attack needed to score quite high to actually kill Kreoss.

Second damage roll caused damage enough to bring Kreoss down to two boxes remaining. Which, incidentally, is exactly how much the one camped Focus lessened incoming damage.

Morvahna re-rolls, and the score only becomes worse. Kreoss is left with three hit boxes.

Kreoss decimates most of Circle's army next turn. Around six Wolves of Orboros and Blackclad Wayfarer are still standing after Protectorate is done beating.

Kreoss had been upkeeping Lamentation, and was camping some Focus, too.

With nothing additional to lose, Morvahna advances and casts Sunder Spirit with four Fury she had cut from herself. Attack is a hit, but damage roll was something like 1,1,3. But since it was epic Morvahna after all, that quickly turned into some 2,5,6 or whatever. Enough to kill, anyway.

I believe Protectorate should have used feat last turn to get rid of Morvahna's army entirely, but I guess opponent was saving it up for shooting/beating Morvahna personally down after the one and only Warbeast had fallen.

Master Strategist, my arse. Master Opportunist, perhaps, followed by a Master Damage Roller.

But however the milestone was gained, it was mine now. And Sepoh Thalasland gained some bats in the form of Crown of the Wild.

Fourth league game coming up sooner or later.

Ropecon Steamroller 35 - Morvahna the Dawnshadow

So, this is the second part of my 35 point Steamroller tournament at Ropecon.

This has both games I played with Morvahna the Dawnshadow, and her list was:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Shaman + Chieftain
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer

With a list like that I hoped I wouldn't clock myself out that easily.

First game was against Protectorate of Menoth. Heck, next one was, too.

Opponent had a list something like this:

High Exemplar Kreoss
- 2x Reckoner

Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith Bearer
Minimum unit of Deliverers
Rhoven & Bodyguards
Maximum unit of Choir of Menoth
2x Vassal of Menoth

If I'm reading the picture right, Circle got to start the game. Holy Zealots are under the effect of Greater Destiny.

Because there was a forest quite close there in the middle, I felt confident enough to push aggressively despite of the threat Kreoss' feat has. Circle's second turn starts with a charge from Ravagers. They try to tie up Zealots - after all Ravagers just might survive in melee against non-charging Zealots. One Ravager even gets to tease Deliverers, and Shaman assaults Kreoss. And hits. And deals five-six points damage in or so. Toten staff really overperformed there.

Pureblood Warpwolf stayed on watch at the left side, and everything else parks behind the forest hoping for mercy.

Kreoss didn't use his feat yet, which meant a nightmare for me the turn after mine. An annoying meat wall of infantry formed in-between Ravagers and Reckoners. Vassals were dealing out ancillary attacks and Enliven, so the heavy warjacks were out of my reach in every way possible. Luckily though damage done wasn't too bad overall. Pureblood was shot by Reckoners, I think, but it didn't go down. Three Ravagers were the only actual losses.

Since scenario had killbox, either Morvahna would back off now and give control points to Kreoss, or get knocked down next turn. I decide to go in for an assassination. I don't remember how much Kreoss was camping focus, if any, but with Morvahna's re-rolls I would most probably get in a POW 14 spray from Pureblood Warpwolf. And it did, but I no longer remember the damage done.

Gnarlhorn turns into a lumberjack and kills off Gallows Grove.

Morvahna charges objective, uses her feat to place Gallows Grove on Kreoss' back arc. First boosted Sunder Spirit kills Kreoss, but after the game we noticed that Morvahna couldn't have claimed back strike bonus - after all, the point of origin of spell hadn't been in the back arc of Kreoss from the beginning of Morvahna's activation.

Nobody could remember the actual hit roll, but it wasn't a near miss situation. As the attack would have most probably have hit anyway, I won't have a guilty conscience over this - but it does take away some of the enjoyment from victory.

Game 2:

Next time I picked Morvahna was versus Protectorate of Menoth again. And it was the right choice, really, as opponent picked Grand Exemplar Kreoss. I have really bad experiences from Grand Exemplar Kreoss against Kaya the Wildborne.

List was something like:

Grand Exemplar Kreoss
- Fire of Salvation
- Avatar of Menoth

Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Hierophant
Covenant of Menoth

Circle got to start the game, and scenario was Balance of Power. First picture must be from the end of Circle's second turn.

Exemplar Errants had Sacrosanct on them. Thanks to Sacrosanct and Self Sacrifice Ravagers were pretty much useless against them when it came to either healing Morvahna with Carnivore, or killing more than one model per turn.

Well, two charging Ravagers destroyed Movement from Fire of Salvation.

Next turn all but one Ravager die to all the weapon master infantry Protectorate has. Avatar of Menoth steps in to the scenario zone, as well as one Bastion. The Avatar was the hardest part here, but otherwise situation didn't look too bad. I could probably start to score for scenario.

Apparently it seems that this is last picture from the entire game. Oh well. Now there's a good chance I'll forget things.

I think Gorax used Primal on Pureblood Warpwolf, who then went to beat Avatar. Gnarlhorn Satyr killed the one Bastion who was contesting the zone, and I believe that Morvahna herself went and finished Avatar (I may remember this one wrong, but I remember I was at least thinking it during game), used her feat to bring back all the Ravagers to block Protectorate yet again, and then she used light cavalry movement to back off a little, but still dominating the area.

Oh, it might have been a charging blackclad wayfarer who wrecked Avatar! I promised a promotion to that guy.

Pureblood Warpwolf died to Fire of Salvation and some Bastions. Gnarlhorn Satyr survived, thanks to the Tharn Ravager screen. I don't remember who or what came to contest the zone, probably some Bastions were able to sneak their toe into scenario zone. Perhaps even Fire of Salvation? If it has speed 5, then maybe.

Gnarlhorn at least unleashed its full fury on Bastions, and if there were any Ravagers left they probably stalled Exemplar Errants. But it's useless for me to make vague guesses - the most important thing here was dominating the zone for second turn. Circle was at 4 points.

Next turn Kreoss uses his feat, and I believe all but Gorax and Shifting Stones died, though there weren't too many models standing at the opposing side either. Nothing could reach Morvahna, who was just within the zone, in the south-east corner.

Next turn all Morvahna had to do was to mop up any and all contesting Choir members. This was the last game for the steamroller tournament, as well as for Ropecon.

Rhyas + Morvahna2 = Sigil of Dawn?

Second game in Ropecon was a casual game against a friend.

It was a 50 point game, and I had:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Feral Warpwolf
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Shaman + Chieftain

Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Tharn Bloodweavers
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder
(Tharn Ravager White Mane)
Gallows Grove
Reeve Hunter
2x War Wolf

Opponent had:

Rhyas
- Angelius
- Seraph
- Carnivean
- Typhon

Minimum unit of Raptors
Blackfrost Shard
Anyssa Ryvaal
Shepherd

We played a random scenario that turned out to be... Incursion. Again. And with exactly the same flag disappearing as in last game. I believe Legion started the game, and first picture is from the end of Legion turn 2.

Opponent went to great lenghts to remove my whole unit of Tharn Ravagers from the board - and he succeeded. That was quite bad, but the positioning of warbeasts looked like I could land a severe punishment to the big beasts next.

I did, however, manage to royally screw up yet again.

Druid Wilder and Gorax cast Primal on both Pureblood Warpwolf and Feral Warpwolf.

Then Morvahna activates and casts Purification. There went the Primals, though I think they would still need to frenzy next turn.

I did get a couple of Spiny Growths away, though. Not sure about Rapport.

Morvahna casts Carnivore on Tharn Bloodweavers and re-casts Primal on Pureblood Warpwolf. Har har. Not funny, quit laughing.

Another mistake I made was not knowing what I actually wanted to do.

Bloodweavers would need to activate first to get away from charge lanes, but I was still wondering in my mind what would be best spot for Pureblood Warpwolf - teleport and try to engage both Angelius and Seraph, or just charge Angelius? Trying to leave a spot for Pureblood to land with teleport caused me to suffer a free strike with one Bloodweaver.

After that free strike it looked impossible to get Bloodweavers to charge Seraph and still leave space for Pureblood, so I decided just to charge with Pureblood. What was annoying here was that two Bloodweavers nearly killed Seraph - if I had had a clear picture of my future actions, the Bloodweaver who died to free strike would have probably killed Seraph.

Luckily Pureblood manages to kill Angelius (who had Hunter's Mark from Wayfarer) and Feral Warpwolf takes down Typhon.

Next turn is less than thrilling for me.

Rhyas uses her feat, and Blackfrost Shard freezes Pureblood. Seraph, Anyssa + Rhyas takes down Pureblood and Carnivean kills Feral Warpwolf. Worst of all Bloodweavers fail their command check. Opponent scored third Control Point this turn - loss of Ravagers really hurt my contesting possibilities.

Well, Circle next.

Blackclad Wayfarer, Reeve Hunter and possibly a Sunder Spirit from Morvahna takes down Seraph, and Morvahna uses her feat to bring back Bloodweavers and a couple of War Wolves.

For some reason War Wolves don't come back so that they could easily contest rightmost flag, and only one of them could even attempt it.

Next turn Legion just needed to remove the one and only War Wolf, and then run to dominate right flag with Rhyas. This game ended awfully same way as the other game that day.

After the game I noticed that Ravager White Mane had been sitting in the transport foams whole game. Argh. That model really could have been a game-changer.

I guess normally I would tag this game with "fail", but since this wasn't even close to last game in terms of critical mistakes, I'm leaving it out.

But playing against Rhyas was quite refreshing. Honestly, though, Rhyas' own presence in the game was quite little. Feat she used made it absolutely certain that both of my heavy beasts went down, but other than that she just hid and let the beasts do all of the work. Well, I guess Occultation could have a big impact against some armies, but my force didn't really care too much.

TaTaPe warmachine tournament day 2

I had to travel 150 kilometres to play against a player from my own town. And not only that - it was exactly the same list I had taken a sorry beating from with Morvahna2 some weeks earlier.

Well. I guess it was time for rematch, as the opponent had Vayl1 and Saeryn as possible choices, and both lists had a disturbing number of heavy warbeasts. Morvahna1 just would not remove that many beasts even as little as my Morvahna2 list did.

Opponent picked Saeryn. List was:
- 2x Angelius
- 2x Scythean
- Afflictor
- Raek

2x Forsaken
2x Shepherd
2x Deathstalker
Spell Martyr

Scenario was Two Fronts. At least this time around the scenario was a bit easier to contest for me.

I forgot to take pictures from the couple of first turns, but the situation in the first is this: Legion wins starting roll, but chooses to go second. I was thinking of trying to dominate my own zone with Morvahna, but this time I'd bring more than enough models to at least challenge enemy zone. Things looked pretty good, because quite few models were coming to my friendly zone.

Saeryn used her feat on second turn, and angelius came and killed Pureblood Warpwolf outright, and came to engage Gnarlhorn Satyr with Overtake. Pureblood had earlier attempted to spray Raek and Afflictor, and succeeded in dealing good damage in. In the picture I can't attack any of the opposing warbeasts, but despite that annoying feat I had managed to kill Raek with Stone Keeper and Blackclad Wayfarer. Blackclad Wayfarer rolled double sixes for damage.

Morvahna cast Sunder Spirit on Scythean as many times as possible. Afterwards Winter Argus came to spray Scythean. Damage rolls weren't all that good, and only branch that broke down was Body. Well, I would have liked Spirit or Mind more, but I guess Body was good too, since I could teleport Gallows Grove forward to deny healing. Oh, wait... their CMD is 3, not 4. Damn it, I always mix up those two.

Ravagers chargedand ran, but the only models I could charge were the objective and... umm, that's it. But at least I scored a control point from destroying it.

Next turn was brutal. A scythean on right killed Gnarlhorn, an angelius killed Gorax and the now healed Scythean killed Winter Argus. All warbeasts... gone. Gone.

Not only that, but most of the infantry was gone too. Saeryn had also cast Breath Stealer on Ravagers and was camping three Fury.

So I was not able to assassinate Saeryn, but at least I could try to make an amazing amount of damage.

Morvahna uses her feat and then charges Scythean by herself. I had planned on ramming Scythean up to Angelius and by using Life Trader I'd kill both of them, and then hopefully whatever was left of my troops would kill a third beast.

In this game I learned that you cannot boost damage on mount attacks. That much for ramming, but at least Morvahna destroyed the Scythean despite some very poor rolls.

Wolves and Ravagers did manage to kill an angelius, but it was nowhere near enough to keep me playing. Opponent had two heavy warbeasts, one of which was flying and had armor piercing special attack, and there I had a warlock on large base with only a couple of hit points left...

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Saeryn is a tough one.


Game 2:

Last game was against Four Star Syndicate led by Gorten Grundback. I had never played against Gorten before, so I was quite happy. Two completely new warcasters during one tournament.

However... I was not that happy about the fact that there was a colossal around, the Ghordson Earthbreaker. So epic Morvahna it was again.

Gorten had:
- Ghordson Earthbreaker

Maximum unit of Kayazy Assassins + Underboss

2x Kayazy Eliminators
Gorman diWulfe
Orin Midwinter
Ragman
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Thor Steinhammer
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw
- Bull Snapper


And scenario was Balance of Power. Circle got to start the game.

As I was reading Gorten's card a bit I realised how bad scenario this was for me. Gorten just had to bring the colossal to contest the zone, and possibly even score a couple scenario points with his feat pushing away my models from the zone.

So... everything ran as fast forward as possible. The colossal came so close that I thought I might be able to wreck it with Ravagers, Pureblood and Gnarlhorn.

Blackclad Wayfarer activated first an managed to score a hit with Hunter's Mark. I would have really wanted to use Primal on Pureblood Warpwolf, but 11.5" looked like it might just be in range, or it might just be a little bit out. I could not risk on not getting a charge in, so Morvahna cast Bounding on Pureblood instead - after casting Purification and removing Spiny Growth from Earthbreaker.

With Hunter's Mark and Bounding it was a clear charge right into Earthbreaker, and Pureblood warped for strength. It wrecked the right field of fire all by itself.

Then Gnarlhorn activated, and again 11.5" was in the range of possibility to fail the charge. It used Bounding on itself and then charged in, not performing nearly as well as Pureblood. Though if we're completely honest, Gnarlhorn had two Fury less to use. Earthbreaker was nearly broken, and I thought that even with below average rolls two Tharn Ravagers would finish it with overkill. One Ravager in the might have been within 13" of Earthbreaker, but it looked so uncertain that I rather took a successful charge against Kayazy Assassins.

So... which one is more important? Dealing the last box of damage to a colossal, or getting an attack against def 17 Kayazy?

Ghordson Earthbreaker was left with one box remaining. One goddamn box! I really should have risked the one charge.

Other Ravagers didn't even decimate the Kayazy, but at least they got a couple of attacks in.

Next Gorten uses his feat.

And yet again I lose both of my heavy warbeasts in one round. Though what was to be expected when colossal was left standing... the good thing here was that Thor Steinhammer had to use his activation in repairing Earthbreaker instead of Tune Up. He repaired five boxes, and which meant that every single system was fully funchional again.

The colossal advanced and slapped Pureblood a bit. Then Ragman advanced and cast Death Field. Not too many of my models were within Earthbreaker's reach, but two of them were Pureblood Warpwolf and Gnarlhorn Satyr.

"Yum yum!" said Snapjaw and Gnarlhorn was no more.

"Yum yum!" said even Kayazy Assassins, and Pureblood was no more.

One unit of Eliminators ran to engage Morvahna.

As Earthbreaker didn't have Spiny Growth on right now, Morvahna decided to skip Purification this turn, especially when Wolves of Orboros failed to kill even one of the Eliminators engaging Morvahna, though they got back strike bonuses with 2-man Combined Melee Attacks! First she cast Carnivore on herself and killed the Eliminators herself, boosting attacks. Then she cast Carnivore on Tharn Ravagers. I thought hitting Kayazy was more important than gaining a heart token from them if I rolled 9+ (they had pathfinder song from Rhupert on)

Other Wolves of Orboros tried to do something useful, and they did manage to get rid of the other, less important Eliminator unit.

Thanks to speed penalties from Gorten's feat no Ravagers could get to attack Earthbreaker, but with Carnivore on they did quite good job on removing Kayazy Assassins.

However... the last model to activate was Winter Argus. That was the only one I could get to attack colossal.

Following the grand tradition of doing what the heavy beasts cannot it wrecked Ghordson Earthbreaker. Okay, it had only about six boxes left, but still. Jokingly I said that this Winter Argus was in flames in this tournament.

Well, that was about all I could do.

Gorten comes in for an assassination attempt and takes a hand cannon shot at Morvahna, dealing some 9 points of damage in. Luckily Wrong Eye charges in to Wolves of Orboros and eats a few of them to reduce the number of free strikes Snapjaw would take.

Then Snapjaw tramples, and here I was hoping that the beast would succeed in every single attack roll. But it succeeded in only one.

Snapjaw buys a boosted attack that would kill Morvahna, but she transfers the damage away. Snapjaw has enough Fury for one more unboosted attack, which hits but does not kill Morvahna.

Things were starting to get desperate on both sides. Morvahna upkept Carnivore on Winter Argus, who dislodged a Ravager and Ravager White Mane from melee by killing two Kayazy Assassins with both Primal and Carnivore on. One of the assassins was in way of one more charge, anyway.

White Mane charges Gorman to free Ravager Chieftain, but this is where I noticed a fire token on White Mane. He had been set on fire by Thor Steinhammer's spray. And of course the old berserk died right there and then.

In the end I got only three Ravagers to charge Gorten. Still I was quite sure that three P+S 15 charge attacks would kill a warcaster with only a few focus points in camp. I ask armor and it's... 22. Just... what? Assassination didn't seem that sure any more. I might have been able to squeeze in a couple of awkward attacks with Wolves of Orboros, but I doubt they would have got through that high armor, because pure charge attacks looked impossible.

Well. It was time to roll some dice. Second Ravager failed horribly, but Morvahna's re-rolls saved the situation. Last Ravager rolls high enough to kill that sturdy dwarf.

Phew.

All in all it was a really nice tournament, though I made some pretty stupid and easy mistakes. I'm starting to see why it might be a good idea to practice your list before you enter a tournament. But that just feels... wrong.

Well, at the end of this month there is the Ropecon event where is some warmachine tournaments. We'll see if I change my habits by then.