Gobber action

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

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

My list was:

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

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

Objective: Stockpile

Opponent had:

Kraye
- Stormclad
- Hunter
- 2x Charger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, and Swamp Gobbers charge Rangers just for giggles.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Asphyxious delivers

A little while ago I played a game of Warmachine through Vassal. It's already been too long since last "real" game, so I needed to get my fix.

I played Skorne, with following 50 point list:

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

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment

Maximum unit of Paingiver Beast Handlers
Minimum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Venator Flayer Cannon
Extoller Soulward
Orin Midwinter
Thrullg

And I sure lucked out when I saw my opponent: Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon! I always take some delight in getting to play against warcasters/warlocks that I have never ever played against.

Anyway, the list:

Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- Kraken
- Cankerworm

2x Maximum unit of Bane Knights
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Warwitch Siren

Scenario was randomised and was Outflank. Cryxians took the start, and first picture is taken from the end of Skorne turn 1. Scything Touch has been cast on Cankerworm, and Ashen Veil is on Asphyxious himself. Actually pretty good target choice, since I had zero non-living models in my army...

I intentionally pushed my forces a little too much forward, but I made a serious mistake in sacrificing Bronzeback in such a way. I would've rather lost Krea & Archidon instead.

To cut story short, Cankerworm and Kraken under Mobility (that horrible machine threats 14" during its activation!) destroyed Bronzeback. To Bronzeback's defense it was the last Focus from Kraken that took its sorry life. Kill Shot took down Extoller Soulward and two beast handlers.

All kinds of banes rushed forward and Asphyxious went to hide behind Kraken, unleashing his Feat.

On my turn I saw I had a 19 point monstrosity in middle of my whole army, and my dedicated heavy hitter was slowly burning in the aforementioned colossal's furnace. Still, I think I managed to play at least a decent turn.

During my turn Cryx lines lost Kraken and 14 Bane Knights.

Beast Handlers enraged all of my beasts, and Krea and Rhinodon charged Kraken right away. I think I could have done something more clever with Krea, but she was in Hexeris' way, and opponent didn't have any shooting (at least after this turn, I hoped) so she went to bite some tendrils. And did about 3 points of damage, too! Rhinodon fared a little better, and when Hexeris had charged it and spent 4 focus on attacks, it looked a whole lot less intimidating. Asphyxious, who was racking up souls, started to look nasty, though.

Hexeris obviously used his feat, too, turning any living or undead models into zombies under his control.

I attacked around 8-9 bane knights with my own models, all of whom were not in Hexeris' control area. Chain reaction from that yielded the net result of 14 dead knights, but it could have been a lot worse. Whenever I brought any of the feat-created zombies to attack Bane Thralls, the attacks utterly failed. Either they missed (2 times) or didn't break through armor (1 time). Yes, p+s 11 weapon master attack didn't break through Arm 15.

With all those bane thralls I had this devious plan of destroying them and then come & try to stab Asphyxious to back arc. Effectively p+s 13 weapon master attack against arm 18 should to at least something, even without a boost.

I also missed a couple attacks against Bane Knights, but such is to be expected, MAT 6 doesn't hit that reliably even DEF 12 models.

Cataphract Cetrati charge and one targets Kraken, one targets Bane Knight next to it, and one targets a Bane Knight in the right. Here I tried to make rightmost Cetrati kill their target, and their target go and kill knight close to Kraken, and its target go and hit Kraken, so the Cetrati who charged that particular bane knight would get to pick new target for his attack.

Well, obviously the part where rightmost bane knight managed to hit leftern bane knight, failed...

This resulted in a moment of shame.

Kraken had only three boxes left or so. The Bane Knight that leftern Cetrati killed walked and smote the colossal down.

Despite all the effort I put into it, it wasn't even my own model that destroyed the first colossal I ever managed to wreck!

But anyway.

Line of Sight was clear now to Asphyxious, and since it had already 14 or something souls, I really needed assassination right now. So, off Archidon went. First attack dealt 9 points in. Second attack maybe 8 or something. But since I had to boost just about everything (Asphyxious still had Ashen Veil on), Asphyxious had healed 6 points back in-between first and second attack.

Needless to say, I was waiting what would happen next turn with nothing but dread.

About the first model that activated was Asphyxious, who had 22 focus still after casting Mobility. When he walked away from Archidon's melee range, I jokingly said that "Please critical hit now". And I rolled 5, 5. Critical Pitch. And to make matters even more worse, Archidon managed to hit Cankerworm with Asphyxious, knocking them both down, and since they couldn't stand up in the same turn they got knocked down, the game went weird...

Archidon eventually fell to the charge of Bane Thralls, as well as half of Cataphract Cetrati. Praetorian Swordsmen were pretty much devastated, and even failed their command check. Both Officer and Standard Bearer died to a spray from Warwitch Siren. All in all the game should have ended there, but thanks to the fickleness of dice and heroism from Archidon, battle went on.

Hexeris stopped upkeeping Death March on Praetorian Swordsmen, though the marker is in the picture, trying to fool everyone.

Basilisk Krea had not been accustomed to being used in melee against colossals, it was still a bit baffled about it and thought that Rhinodon looked exactly like Kraken. Failing threshold check, she bit a whopping 12 damage to the heavy warbeast. That's probably one of the greatest things Krea ever really did.

I tried to get Praetorians away from Bane Knights melee range, but failed to do just that. They did regroup however, so unit leader was contesting the zone again.

Hexeris started pulling off curious beat back shenanigans. He killed some bane thralls in the process, and finally ended up dominating rightmost zone. Everything else formed a wall of flesh to protect Lord Tyrant. Orin Midwinter cast Null Magic so that at least pathfinder would be denied for Asphyxious.

Rhinodon tried to get into position to make Amuck thresher against bane thralls, but it pretty much failed because of rough terrain that Kraken's husk provided. It ended up making a couple of futile attacks against Cankerworm and a bane thrall.

Next turn it turned out that Asphyxious was just hugging the leftern zone.

Seems like I failed to take a picture from the end of opponents turn, but bane thralls & Asphyxious himself dispatched Krea bitten Rhinodon, and Cankerworm and a most of remaining bane thralls went to contest rightmost zone. It really didn't take too much effort to remove Praetorian Swordsmen I had contesting leftern zone, so Control Point situation was Cryx: 2 Skorne: 2.

On my turn, unexpected things continued to happen. Krea managed to pull off a slam attack against Asphyxious with her MAT 4, knocking Hellbringer 2" away, and most importantly, away from dominating leftern zone. Then Paingiver Beast Handler was, ahem, persuaded to run into random point right in the middle of enemy troops to deny points from Cryx.

Hexeris danced again with Beat Back, pushing Cankerworm away from right zone (wrecking it was just a bonus) and killing whatever was left of bane thralls. However, now I'm just wondering how the heck did I destroy the bane thralls that helped killing Rhinodon? They might actually be hiding beneath Kraken wreck marker.

Anyway, Control Points were Cryx: 2, Skorne: 4. I would actually win by scenario if I only had something that would be able to run to contest enemy zone and had enough military assets to clear my own zone.

But alas, it was not to be. Asphyxious thought that he had really, really had enough of this nonsense Skorne was pulling off against him all the time. Yanking souls from Vociferon he charged to a Cataphract Cetrati, killed him off and started buying attacks against Hexeris now he got Line of Sight to him. Hexeris transfered some 11 damage away, and then all it took were two hits to bring the Tyrant down.

This game was exciting as hell. I guess Asphyxious' new title delivered what it promised.

I must say that I would have felt a little bad if I had actually won, because it just seemed that Cryx deserved that victory. Random crazy dice rolls made game drag on for this long. But those few critical rolls made the game a memorable experience that was lots of fun to play. Victory didn't come easily to Cryx, and I got to play against a completely new warcaster.

Perfect, everything was just perfect.

Finally part 2/3 of Turku Fanatic

Last game on first day of Turku Fanatic was against Legion of Everblight.

It was a little bit of a facepalm time, since I had already played twice with epic Hexeris, so if I took him the third time, I'd be playing with Rasheth for whole next day.

Sweating pure terror, I chose Rasheth. After all, scenario did not have Killbox artifice, and just maybe... just maybe opponent wouldn't pick epic Lylyth?

Well, he did.

List was something like:
Epic Lylyth
- 3x Ravagore
- Naga Nightlurker

Maximum unit of Raptors
Anyssa Ryvaal
Succubus
Forsaken
And either 1x Shepherd & 1x Spell Martyr or 2x Shepherd.

Everblight got to start first, which was also a bad omen, since that probably meant that Lylyth would use her feat on second turn. Which she did. A short story short: Battlegroup shot Bronzeback to pieces and scored random damage to Archidon, too. It was really bad news for me, because opponent had three heavies still standing, and I had lost my sledgehammer from my toolbox, and was left with only screwdrivers and chisels. Oh, and she had moved to dominate my zone. She would not score just yet, but if I couldn't move anything to contest during my turn, she would gain two points in a row. And I couldn't.


Next turn I killed a Praetorian Swordsman to Black Rituals and killed a Raptor with Breath of Corruption. Basilisk Drake tickled one, too, but didn't kill it. A POW 14 boosted attack didn't kill an arm 15, 5 damage box model. That was a crazy turn.

Opponent then launches Naga Nightlurker upon Basilisk Krea, but fails to kill. Ravagores destroy my objective marker, so that's three points raking in for this game to Everblight already. These losses I, however, could still take.

On my next turn I had to remove Naga first. This was accomplished by efforts from Basilisk Krea and Ancestral Guardian. Then everything else tried to kill off those Raptors, but it didn't really succeed. Cyclops Shaman just missed, and I tried to aim Basilisk Drake on closest Ravagore so that spray template would clip Raptor. Nope, didn't clip.

Black Rituals was used again, and I had a nice target where I hoped I would catch a Ravagore, Lylyth and Raptor underneath Breath of Corruption. This time boosted POW 12 doesn't kill a Raptor, and Lylyth was way out there.

Archidon runs to contest my zone so Lylyth couldn't dominate it on my turn.

And then, the last picture.

I had to actually stare at it for a long time until I realised what had happened.

So that picture is terribly misleading, epic Lylyth did not stand there during game, this picture has been taken post-game and for reason or another, Lylyth has been placed elsewhere.

She stood rather close to Basilisk Drake (the red-blue basilisk that is), actually. First her army killed the few models that were contesting Everblight's zone and then Lylyth ran to dominate that zone. Five points total for Everblight. End of game.

But, to be honest, I'm suprised I lost to scenario and not to caster kill for this match-up, heh.


INTERMISSION

So it was 2 losses and 1 victory after first day. A little depressing, but nothing too bad, really.

I take a moment to just sit and relax and ponder about the games I played. Then I get this idea - I could arrange my models neatly and organized to tray for tomorrow's games.

One by one I put my army very carefully, even lovingly, to the tray. Skorne must be my most beautifully (technically speaking( painted army, probably because it's my newest.

So, after a long day of wargaming I finished setting up my army for tomorrows challenges. I sit back on chair and release a sigh of accomplCRRRAAAASHH!

There was so much metal on the plate that it turned over the foam boards and 50% of my Skorne was on my lap and the other 50% on floor.

A rough estimate was that 25% of my Skorne suffered broken and bend parts, and if we count chipped paint, I'm afraid the percentage was even more fatal.

That was... Demoralizing.

END OF INTERMISSION

First game of Sunday

Next day I had recovered from my tragic resin/plastic/white metal heartbreak I had yesternight.

I was against Circle Orboros again, this time versus Baldur. Still construct heavy, though, and tier 4 list.

List was:

Baldur
- Megalith
- Woldwarden
- Woldguardian

Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
2x Woldstalkers & Stoneward
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Blackclad Wayfarer

I must admit I was shocked how fast Tier 4 Baldur was on midboard and beyond!

Anyway, I had picked epic Hexeris for my list, because Rasheth wouldn't really do anything for either of opponents lists. Last game would then be with Rasheth, come what may...

So, picture is taken from the end of my first turn, and Circle got the start. Ewww.

Circle shoots down Basilisk Drake with woldstalkers, and they do it ridiculously easy. Ashen Veil helps to keeping at least Swordsmen relatively safe. Baldur used his feat, too.

On my next turn I try some shenanigans with charging Lightning Strike'd Archidon to couple of mannikins and then retreating to better position to cast spells from. Archidon was Hexeris' bonded beast.

I also tried to protect Hexeris with rather an interesting way. I went to dominate my Effigy of Valor and moved it to front of opposing woldstructs. Little I did know it then, but it was a nonfactor, but idea behind it was that it would drain at least some resources from enemy to get it from the way of Megalith.

I don't remember what I did with Hexeris' fury, but at least he used his feat to empty some Wolds. Then at least one, maybe two Ashes to Ashes' took a heavy toll on Woldstalkers, but that was about it.

And then there was some insanity, with the end result shown in last picture.

A set (let's call it set A) of shifting stones teleported one shifting stone from stone set B so that megalith was inside the triangle of shifting stone set B. Woldguardian slammed a woldstalker (that had run just for this out of formation) into Hexeris (and here was a funny 5,5,6 damage roll from the collision...)

Then Shifting Stones teleport Megalith to knocked down Hexeris.

That was a short game.

Then there was one more game, that is written down here.

Turku Fanatic 2013 WM/H tournament part 3/3

I'm slowly getting back to home from my trip to Turku Fanatic 2013 miniatures event and visiting friends close by.

I'm currently traveling in train, so I won't post anything that requires uploading pictures. This is the reason why I decided to write up part 3/3 of my tournament experiences first. Last game I played was so short I didn't even have time to take any pictures.

Since I didn't have any choice for my list during last round (I had to go with Rasheth) I was mostly screwed by the scenario, too. I don't actually remember what the scenario actually was, but it had Killbox artifice.

And opponent had list with Adeptis Rahn, battle mages, Hyperion and stuff like that.

Best part of the game was how damn cool the opponents color scheme was - main color was striking yellow. It was beautiful.

But having to move my Def 10 Arm 14 warlock some 12"-13" outside of a table edge when opponent has a feat to boost all spell damage rolls and gain a little advantage to range too... Nope. Not cool. To keep Rasheth absolutely safe I would have had to put Castigate on and give opponent free control points by sitting outside of the 'box.

Game over, dude, Game over.

Burn, Wolf, burn! ... wait, you didn't?

Yesterday (or, technically the day before yesterday) I played a game of Warmachine, or should we call it Hordes?

It was my Skorne vs opposing Circle.

I continued to test around with epic Hexeris, and this was my 35 point list:

Lord Arbiter Hexeris
- Rhinodon
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
- Cyclops Shaman (bonded)

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen
Maximum unit of Paingiver Beast Handlers
Venator Flayer Cannon
Extoller Soulward
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor
Thrullg
Feralgeist

The idea this time was that I'd be having enough warbeasts to properly use Hexeris' feat even if only I had warbeasts on board. A couple of games earlier have proved that Hexeris can very well starvate himself on Fury with lousy planning.

Then, opponent was playing:

Epic Kaya + Laris
- Feral Warpwolf
- Feral Warpwolf
- Warpwolf Stalker

Shifting Stones
Druid Wilder
Lord of the Feast
2x War Wolves

Well, the game started with a sort of an omen. We rolled three times the same number on starting roll, when finally opponent rolled better than I and got to start the game. Things like that, if you're even a little bit superstitious, usually mean a tough game.

First picture is from the end of my first round. Kaya has Shadow Pack on and Forced Evolution on one of the Feral's (the unpainted one). Skorne has Ashen Veil on Praetorian Swordsmen. Oh, and Arcane Reckoning on Beast Handlers.

Well, then Circle closes a little bit in. Two War Wolves just stand there, annoying Skorne forces. Lord of the Feast throws his Raven to Cyclops Shaman, and he kills two beast handlers and the marksman from flayer cannon.

That wasn't too bad after all, considering what he could have done. Ashen Veil was a lifesaver first time during this game.

Circle had only two fury points on warpwolves, which was a bummer, because I used Hexeris' feat.

First, a lucky attack from Extoller Soulward killed Lord of the Feast exactly by dealing 8 points in. Then all of Skorne warbeast advanced a little and riled to full fury. Hexeris activated and shot Ashes to Ashes twice on a Shifting Stone. They were actually about the only models that Hexeris could target.

First Ashes to Ashes has 6 additional damage rolls. Second one has 5. Quite awesome, especially when Kaya was within 5" of target stone.

Game would obviously have been too easy if I'd been able to fry Kaya there - one of the two boosted POW 10 damage rolls came out as 1, 1, 1. Second one was better, which dealt 9 points in, which were then transfered away.

Laris took some serious damage here, and it was the reason why I charged the beast with Thrullg. With a good roll Laris would have went down, but the wannabe-Cthulhu didn't even hit, and it has Reach with only one attack. The other two attacks destroyed a shifting stone, so it did at least something.

I anticipated a feat from Kaya and was a little worried.

And - the feat did come. I lost Rhinodon and Thrullg. It could have been a lot worse, but I still lost my heavy warbeast, and had three heavy warbeasts against me.

Stalker tried to kill Praetorian Swordsmen with Berserk, but Ashen Veil saved their bacon again. Only two died.

Image is taken from the end of my next turn, because Circle warbeasts all teleported deep into the huge forest, and I did not much else except close in.

What was notable was that basilisk Krea paralysed the Warpwolf Stalker.

Extoller had given Guidance to Hexeris, so he was able to cast Ashes to Ashes on Warpwolf Stalker. Stalker didn't mind too much, but it took Druid Wilder down.

Next picture is taken again after one full round.

Opponent backed up to a nearby hill and healed up the warbeasts. Paralysation expired.

On my turn Krea tried to place it back on Stalker, but missed. It rolled 11, when it needed 12.

I tried the same shenanigan as earlier, giving Guidance to Hexeris and casting Ashes to Ashes to Warpwolf Stalker. However, the attack roll woefully missed.

And then I expected heavy losses on my warbeast front.

I just didn't expect it would go so badly. I lost all of them.

I juggled with Feralgeist in Cyclops Shaman and Basilisk Krea, but even that didn't help. It just made opponent to force Kaya's beasts a little more.

So I was left with pesky p+s 9 or 12 swords, my warcaster, rat 5 cannon and extoller to deal with three heavy warbeasts in middle of my army.

I did try my best, though!

Praetorian Swordsmen try to attack warpwolves with combo-strikes, and beast handlers charge enemy warbeasts now they don't have any of their own to handle...

Extoller tries to shoot the Feral Warpwolf at the start of turn, but as it was found out, it was engaged in melee with a swordsman. Def 20 Feral vs RAT 5 +3D6. It was a miss, let me tell you. A good miss.

Finally Hexeris himself tries to come and beat up the Forced Evolution feral, but no, it just didn't want to go down.

Then it was opponents turn, and Ashen Veil bought me another turn, really. Though swordsmen suffered heavy casualties, they weren't wiped out.

Extoller shot the Forced Evolution feral warpwolf down, and swordsmen tried to bring down Stalker. Well, they didn't manage to do that.

Venator Flayer Cannon tried to shoot almost dead Laris, but missed all attacks. It did roll a nice number of 9's, but without marksman it needed 10's.

With Laris and Warpwolf Stalker alive, I just couldn't risk charging Hexeris to Kaya. If I had killed either Stalker, I could have risked attacking Kaya even with Guard Dog bonuses (though even that would have been desperate), or with Laris dead I might have taken the small chance of surviving a free strike from Stalker.

But when situation was like this, Hexeris advanced to melee with Stalker and slayed it himself, after which Feralgeist jumped straight in.

A nice gesture, but it was game over.

Feral Warpwolf came and tasted Hexeris just a little. Only a couple limbs.

Protectorate has better Ashes to Ashes than Skorne does

Yesterday, however, I played Warmachine.

It's been a busy week playing games.

I played two 35 point games with Skorne. I recently finished painting Epic Hexeris, and I wanted to try how he plays. In both games I was facing Protectorate of Menoth.

My list in first game was:

Lord Arbiter Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Cyclops Shaman

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Paingiver Beasthandlers
Flayer Cannon
Thrullg
Extoller Soulward
Ancestral Guardian
Feralgeist

And opponent was playing:

Severius (the nonepic version, cannot remember his title right now)
- Crusader
- Revenger

Maximum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants + Unit Attachment
Exemplar Errant Seneschal
Vassal of Menoth
Hierophant

We were playing a scenario from Steamroller 2012 scenario pack. Scenario was called Restoration. What we found out is that you really need to have those cards at your disposal or interactive object abilities will be just... forgotten.

Opponent won starting roll, but decided to give me the start.

First picture is taken from the end of opponents first turn. There isn't much to tell, except that Exemplar Errants got Defenders Ward on them and Praetorian Swordsmen sport with Ashen Veil. Also, Hexeris' bonded beast is the Bronzeback.

Then I had a super-lame feat turn.

Bronzeback rushed forward, and all warbeasts riled themselves to the maximum. Hexeris then cast Black Spot on Temple Flameguard, and with last remaining three Fury he casts Hellfire on a flameguard. Then he uses his feat and is on full fury again. Then he casts Ashes to Ashes on a flameguard and spawns two extra bolts. Objective soaks up one of them, and one fails to kill. That's a whopping 3 models killed during a feat turn. Temple flameguarders.

Ah well. Then it was opponents turn to punish my puny actions.

Charging exemplar errants and errant seneschal nearly, but not quite, killed Cyclops Shaman and Basilisk Drake, and put a good dent on Bronzeback too. By the way, because of the mighty tusks Bronzeback is facing 180 degrees the opposite from where it stands. Because without reach you cannot engage it from the front, really.

Opponent also put Ashes to Ashes on the Basilisk Drake and killed feralgeist and some other few models with it. I think opponent rolled 5 extra attacks from Ashes to Ashes. I guess that Protectorate still has better Ashes to Ashes anyway.

Now, then came my turn, which proved to be ridiculously brutal.

First, Bronzeback puts on its own animus and kills something like 5 models, beat-backing as it brutalised everything in its path. This healed basilisk Drake and cyclops shaman to fully functional.

Shaman then kicks the errant seneschal down, and basilisk Drake moves forward and sprays not once, but twice thanks to Black Spot on Temple Flameguard.

Thrullg launches itself against Revenger and disrupts the 'jack with its tentacles. Push effect causes it not to be able to make its claw attacks against the bastion, but its main goal was accomplished.

Flayer Cannon kills about 3 models though it rolled only two attacks for itself. Need to thank Black Spot for that.

Temple Flameguard failed their command check. It was something like 16 models down in one turn, plus a disrupted arc node and a fleeing unit. Opponent was quite disheartened by this, which is quite understandable, but we still decided to play one more round.

It wasn't so good for opponent, though. Crusader missed the charge on Bronzeback by only about a quarter of an inch. Immolations from Severius and Revenger's efforts killed Basilisk Drake and exemplar bastions killed the cthulhu monster. Well, I still needed to get rid of two tough warjacks on my next turn.

Bronzeback beat the snot out of Crusader with overwhelming dice rolls. That was to be expected, though.

But then a few charging Praetorian Swordmen with combo-strikes and Ancestral Guardian wrecked the Revenger too with several 5,5,6 damage rolls. Protectorate raised the white flag, then, and hoped for some mercy from their conquerors. The fools... Victory for Skorne! And what a glorious start for previously unplayed warlock!


Game 2:

I played the second game with almost same list, except I changed Thrullg for Totem Hunter.

Opponent had following list:

High Executioner Reznik
- Crusader
- Revenger

Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Choir of Menoth
Minimum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants + Unit Attachment
Paladin of the Order of Wall
Hierophant
Vassal of Menoth

This time I won the starting roll and went first. We switched table sides because we were too lazy to set up a new map.

First picture is from the end of my second turn, and this time we were playing only caster kill scenario with Killbox artifice.

Ashen Veil is again on Praetorian Swordsmen. Ignite is on Exemplar Errants, and Iron Aggression is on Crusader.

Opponent has next turn, where errants charge basilisk drake. Drake is left with three hit boxes.

Opponent almost makes a short order from my Bronzeback by using Perdition. However, the boosted attack roll misses, thanks to concealment given by Ashen Veil. Revenger fails to kill Totem Hunter (who is left with one hit box after the attack, heh.)

Then it was my turn, and I decided to kill Reznik. Especially when basilisk drake was burned to death from a fire continous effect that was inflicted upon it by a lucky critical roll by errants.

Cyclops shaman took an aiming bonus and shot the errant engaging Bronzeback, and riled itself to three fury.

Beast Handlers enraged the Bronzeback, who then put on its own animus and charged Crusader (who had Enliven on).

Now, I should have slammed the jack instead I think, but I didn't. Anyway, Bronzeback charged Crusader and moved 1". Then it attacked a nearby Bastion and killed it in one go. That was actually pretty damn bad thing. There was no chance any more that I could train wreck the Titan to the face of Reznik. So I tried to position it away from other bastions' reach, but I failed.

I still wanted to use Hexeris' feat, which didn't actually do anything else except put on Black Spot on Temple Flameguard and kill about three errants.

Then I seem to have forgotten to take a picture from opponents next turn, but I'll give a brief summary what happened.

Believe it or not, but Bronzeback was killed. Crusader and Reznik cut it up and had a good grill party.

On my turn Extoller Soulward attacked Crusader and almost destroyed it. Hexeris tried to damage it too with a Hellfire. The one and only attack Bronzeback did to it destroyed it's cortex from column 4, so that was at least 12 points in. Though Extoller rolled it's POW 17 attack something like 4,5,6. It was left with one damage box in Movement system. Praetorian Swordsman came and auto-plinked that one point.

Situation was... interesting. I do believe that I could have won by attrition at this pointm possibly, since Revenger was in really bad shape and beyond that Protectorate had only a handful of infantry models standing. At least I could have had a chance to win the game. However, I had brought Hexeris too much forward.

Because this is what happened:

Vassal of Menoth... the pesky Vassal of Menoth shot down one beast handler with Arcane Bolt. Then Reznik cast Engine of Destruction on himself and charged the paingivers. Unsuprisingly, charge target died and Hexeris was now on Reznik's line of sight. He was, though, within 2" of Ashen Veil too.

Somehow Reznik managed to roll two misses against Hexeris.

Third attack was made with a boosted attack roll and a boosted damage roll. Hexeris had taken some damage in because of my stupid choices in wanting to use every possible fury on Hexeris' feat turn.

Well, Reznik butchers Hexeris with just one attack. And that's it. It's a pity, since he could have bought only one more attack.

I guess I went too cocky from my first victory with epic Hexeris and karma thought it best to bring my self-condifence back to normal boundaries.

Black Rituals

A quick change of plans and things went into Warmachine today.

We played a 35 point game at the local gaming shop, and this time I brought my Skorne along with me.

I was against epic Kaya with three warpwolves and other stuff, same list as earlier when I played against her.

My list was:

Dominar Rasheth
- Bronzeback Titan
- Rhinodon
- Basilisk Krea

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Venator Flayer Cannon
Extoller Soulward
Thrullg
Orin Midwinter

Opponent won the starting roll and went first. First picture is taken from end of opponents second turn. The map had a nasty bottle neck that was formed by the two buildings. This worked to disadvantage of both players, but, well. I was facing epic Kaya with a handful of beasts so I guess the buildings bothered Circle a bit less.

I tried to set up some counter charge lanes, but it was difficult. Next picture has a weird angle, but gives impression of how the buildings were affecting the game.

That turn Thrullg ate one engaging war wolf, and Rasheth cast Breath of Corruption to forest, nailing druid wilder and giving four points of damage to Lord of the Feast.

Orin Midwinter also cast lightning that arced 3 times to the other war wolf and scored a hit. Lightning bounced to heavy warbeasts, and much to my suprise, both warpwolf stalker and feral were damaged by the spell.

Then it was time for Kaya to use her feat. Rhinodon was hit with Dogpile and Rhinodon was smashed to bits by Warpwolf Stalker and Feral. Stalker would have probably made a barbeque party just by itself, but opponents dice were pretty damn cruel there. I guess that saved my basilisk Krea from being made into frog legs.

Another War Wolf came to engage thrullg, but Bronzeback counter charged it. Woo hoo. One point kill for Bronzeback.

Kaya's feat could have been a lot worse here, but still. Opponent was unassailable by my forces and I had lost a heavy warbeast.

On my next turn I was a bit obsessed by Lord of the Feast. But it's one of those models that usually cause somewhat obsessive need to kill him before the ravens fly.

This time the ancient manifestation of devourer wurm bit the dust (breath?).

With my other troops I just closed in, except Orin Midwinter, who shot another lightning that arced 3 times to a shifting stone. This time at least Laris took damage, don't remember the other damages.

Next picture includes both my turn and opponents turns, as Circle backed up and healed all damage Orin Midwinter ever did. Nice try there, old man, but your efforts were in vain. Laris came and ate him and then teleported to Kaya, wagging its tail merrily. At least that's how I picture it. "Aw, cootchie cootchie choo... You came back to mama... what's you got in your mouth there? Oh, is it someones pancreas? You naughty doggy, I hope it isn't one of our initiates again..."

Well, then. I try to get aggressive, but the only aggressive thing was the stern look basilisk Krea gave to feral warpwolf, which was paralysed as a result.

Oh, and a praetorian swordman charged a shifting stone and destroyed it. And after that he side-stepped so Rasheth might cast Breath of Corruption through him.

Stalker and Laris were damaged and the stone itself was left with one hit point.

Now, opponent just activated the stones and the stone in question took one point of damage and was destroyed. It melted away from blocking Stalker's charge.

Who then did charge swordmen. It killed three of them and sprinted to safety of a nearby forest.

On my turn extoller soulward gave Eyeless Sight to venator flayer cannon, who did the only thing right it ever did in this game: shot warpwolf stalker and dealt enough damage to knock its mind off. Encouraged by this thrullg advanced to be used as a target for black rituals. Rasheth activated and cast Carnivore on swordsmen and breath of corruption on last remaining shifting stone. Resulting damage killed Laris.

Swordsmen then charged warpwolf stalker, but this is where my dice failed. Two of the four who got in contact missed and the two who hit didn't roll exactly awesome numbers on damage.

Heh, looks like the dice I rolled for Krea's paralysis gaze are still on table in the picture. I just don't get it how you can just look so horribly wrong that your gaze misses.

Well, next turn opponent brutally crushes my beasts and deals 11 points of damage to Rasheth.

Feral Warpwolf kills the mighty titan whose best achievement during this game was killing an already damaged 1 point solo. Luckily titans don't go down easily and feral is maxed on fury.

Also pureblood warpwolf misses, what, four attacks in a row against basilisk Krea. So it becomes maxed on fury too.

Stalker has to heal itself to repair its mind, after which it does a little berzerk chain and is maxed on fury.

So Kaya charges basilisk Krea, kills it with one strike and casts Muzzle on Rasheth, dealing 11 points.

Since there was no damage transfer target for Kaya, Rasheth tried to blast her with spells. First he unleashes Plague Wind and then a fully boosted Sunder Spirit hit home. After that a breath of corruption with damage boost is landed on her, which damage roll was 5, 5, 5.

It was a good game, something different for a while. But I cannot feel like a scheming mastermind here now, since looked like that at times opponent couldn't roll above 4, even with 3 dice, and especially on somewhat critical places.

No rest for the Bronzeback

Played a game of Warmachine on Vassal during a course of couple last days.

That's one good point of Vassal, too. If game takes longer than you anticipate and you need to go, you can just save it up as a file rather than leaving your models sitting on the table.

We played 50 point game with my Skorne against my friends Protectorate of Menoth. We used scenario the scenario Gauntlet, which is represented by yellow areas in the pictures. You score a point from the opposing zone, and with two points you win.

My list was:

Tyrant Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Cyclops Shaman
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea

Minimum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Paingiver Beasthandlers
Venator Flayer Cannon
Swamp Gobbers
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor
Thrullg
Feralgeist
Orin Midwinter

And opponent was playing:

Epic Severius
- Templar
- Reckoner
- Redeemer
- Revenger

Daughters of the Flame
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith Bearer
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Vilmon
2x Paladins of the Order of the Wall
Reclaimer
Wracks
Vassal Mechanik
Vassal of Menoth

Opponent won the starting roll and first picture is from the end of my first turn.

Otherwise things would've been quite nice, but Severius had Awareness -spell to counter forest and cloud effect from the table. Boo. So, in a way, my most important defense against shooting was, again, Basilisk Krea.

On opponents next turn Bronzeback takes a good mauling from both Reckoner and Redeemer. The titan is set on fire, but otherwise not much happened there.

On my next turn I jumped at the chance when opponent made some mistakes in focus allocation and didn't upkeep Holy Ward on Daughters of the Flame. So Hexeris cast Obliteration on them and wiped most. Also Bloodrunner Master Tormentor managed to charge into melee and killed what, two models.

Cetrati were advancing in shield wall, so all in all, my line was approaching enemy alarmingly slow, when you take into account Reckoner and Redeemer and their firepower.

Then lots of stuff happened at once.

First, epic Severius uses his feat and takes control of all of my Cetrati except the unit leader. They don't manage to kill anything, but mess up shield wall and opened up a curious charge for Templar: It charged and killed Cetrati in front of Bronzeback, moved with Beat Back and killed Thrullg and moved with Beat Back and then engaged Bronzeback. Luckily it could buy only one attack, but the mighty titan was already on its death throes.

Vilmon luckily fell short on his charge attack against Bronzeback. That would have been all that was needed to finish it.

Zealots denied targeting spells on them and popped Greater Destiny.

So, damage I took in its entirety wasn't all that great during epic Severius' feat turn, but I had quite a puzzle to solve. After all I was close to losing my Bronzeback and opponent would still be left with one heavy warjack and two lights, one of which was Revenger.

Well. I did my best!

Krea and shaman were enraged. Two remaining Cetrati killed Vilmon and engaged Reckoner. Shaman tried to charge Reckoner but missed even with boosted attack roll. Damn that choking veil!

Oh, by the way, Hexeris had activated and used his feat. The only joy I got from using his feat was killing Vilmon and striking Templar with it, dealing something like 8 points in. Nice enough, but rather a lame feat.

Hexeris shot Soulfire through Basilisk Drake at Vassal Mechanic and managed to kill him.

Then a bit later Orin Midwinter shot lighting at Revenger and arced full 3 times, starting from Reclaimer who was about 2 pixels closer than closest Zealot. Double sixes did a couple of damage points to Revenger, and even the old man himself suffered two points of damage. Good job, Orin!

Bronzeback wrecked Templar. No suprises there.

So, then was opponents next turn, which I awaited with horror.

Reckoner slapped Cyclops down with just two hits, but the Cetrati engaging it proved to be a much difficult enemy. It didn't go down until Vassal gave Ancillary Attack to Reckoner, which could have hurt a lot more if applied to ranged attack.

Zealots decimated most of Praetorian Swordmen unit.

Revenger, fully loaded with focus, charged to Bronzeback Titan. Who died.

Then Feralgeist jumped into the carcass earlier known as beaten, battered and burning Bronzeback. So it's tormented existence was bound to continue.

Now, Revenger still has one attack after this. It hits and deals two points in, knocking off recently healed spirit and mind. Now... this is where I actually feel pity for the poor beast... It took the alpha strike to its tough hide, had to suffer volleys after volleys of rockets and whatever the Reckoner shoots and finally once its miserable life is coming to an end, it is resurrected as an undead beast.

It's only fitting that it lost its spirit and mind branches - I guess I would be a bit confused and terrified and attacking in frenzy whatever is in front of me had I lived a life of torture and finally when peace comes over me, someone, or something, invades my soul and keeps me from dying.

Then comes my turn.

Things could be worse. Flames on Bronzeback extinguish themselves. But still I was down to two basilisks as my beasts, because, well. Bronzeback was technically on the table but its full potential was gone.

Enraged Krea (who used its animus to give mindless Bronzeback a hitting chance against Revenger), Bronzeback and finally Hexeris himself combined their efforts to destroy Revenger. And they succeeded. Also, Flayer cannon shot the lone choir member inside the scoring area. Which was the best thing Flayer did during this match.

Then basilisk Drake advanced and sprayed Severius and dealt quite a bit of damage in. And, hey, first control point in gauntlet for Skorne!

Well, then opponents next turn.

Ancillary Attack by Reckoner drops the last Cetrati to one hit point (yeah, it's damage roll was 4), so Severius himself marches on and shoots Cetrati with Reign of Fire. Boosts attack and damage roll and deals one point in. Damn.

Then Reckoner charges basilisk Krea and kills it. Then Redeemer charges basilisk Drake and kills it. There Hexeris was, all beastless. Well, with the exception of one devastated Bronzeback.

So, when my turn came, I didn't have other option than to win the game now. Protectorate had won in attrition. I did all I could to the warjacks, but it was all for nought. Aptimus did kill one zealot with fully boosted Soulfire, filling Hexeris with fury. By the way, as a hint, Aptimus is awesome doing exactly just that with Lord Tyrant Hexeris - shooting a fully boosted Soulfire with a couple of souls and giving Hexeris one Fury beyond his maximum.

Then Hexeris charges Reckoner and because of the angle I used for charge, Severius was out of Hexeris' front arc at first. Beat back saves that situation, but Hexeris suffers from Reckoner's choking veil.

First boosted Soulfire at Severius. Miss.

Second boostes Soulfire at Severius. Hit. Damage boost. Three points in. Severius had three health boxes left.

Had not Aptimus been around giving Fury to Hexeris with Soulfire, the last damage roll couldn't have been boosted. Phew. Close call again for Hexeris.

Every single game with him has been awesomely exciting. And because of Bronzeback's epic elegy of "survival", this is tagged as an epic game.

"I do not lament my loss, dear High Exemplar, but I lament hearing your Lamentation"

Next I was against an old foe. High Exemplar Kreoss.

But since it was a completely new player in a completely different city in a completely different board, the game felt somewhat new. Heh.

I played Mohsar. We agreed on 35 point game and scenario was randomised to be... uh, well, I don't really remember the name of scenario, but it was the one where caster had to contest a flag and the army had to control a zone in the centre.

My list was:

Mohsar
- Megalith
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Argus
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros
Reeve Hunter
Thrullg

And opponent was playing:

High Exemplar Kreoss
- Crusader
- Vanquisher
- Repenter

Maximum unit of Choir of Menoth
Knights Exemplar
Minimum unit of Exemplar Errants + Unit Attachment
High Exemplar Gravus

This time around I won the starting roll. In my deployment I tried to make a suprise moment of teleporting Mohsar to contest a flag, but no plan survives contact with the enemy.

I was able to sneak into center pretty easily with the aid of salt pillars, but as opponent could react to my deployment more easily he was able to dedicate Repenter and Vanquisher to my Wolves of Orboros. Bad match-up at the eastern front.

My grand plan pretty much failed next round thanks to the utility of Exemplar Errants.

My plan was that about everything I got would just succeed in killing all the errants, and once that's over Gnarlhorn would slam Crusader over Kreoss and beat him down.

Thrullg removed Defender's Ward from errants, but still three of them survived. I did try to bring Mohsar close by and shoot the errant blocking satyr's slam lane but the blind granpa obviously missed. And Mohsar was under 14" of Kreoss, so Lamentation stopped all kinds of Crevasse shenanigans. So Mohsar teleported away to the flag, but not as triumphantly as I had visioned...

It seems that next picture is taken after a full round.

Opponent tried to beat up Megalith, but the stone fellow didn't go down. Everything else in my army, however, went down when Kreoss used his feat. Only Megalith and Mohsar were left on their feet.

Actually Megalith did have some bonus from not-getting-knocked-down, when Crusader rolled double 1's on the attack roll with its MAT of 8 (thanks to choir).

I think three Wolves of Orboros survived the combined efforts of Repenter and Vanquisher. But they failed their command test so, yay.

Well, I still tried to be devious.

Megalith healed itself fully functional. He then cast Curse fo Shadows on the engaging crusader and beat it up with everything else.

All the furry beasts had shaken themselves up.

Gnarlhorn used its animus and charged Kreoss over Crusader.

It did charge away from Mohsar's control range, however. But that didn't exactly matter as it was already at full fury. Charge attack hit and scored 8 points in. All the other initial attacks missed, however.

Argus charged crusader with a combo-strike. If I remember right by then Crusader had lost cortex and the mace.

Argus tied up the enemy for a turn, which in my book is an impressive feat from a 4 point beast that had just crippled a couple of systems from a heavy warjack.

Gorax did go down then, however, as did the Gnarlhorn with combined efforts from Vanquisher and Kreoss and Reclaimer.

On my turn Mohsar upkept Curse of Shadows on Crusader, after which Megalith charged past Crusader to nail the Vanquisher. I don't remember how badly the warjack was mauled, though.

Argus bit one exemplar and tried to do some damage on Crusader, but really, things started to look rather grim, as Megalith wasn't exactly in good shape any more.

Vanquisher, Repenter and Kreoss eventually destroyed the Megalith and Gravus killed the puppy. Shame on Gravus!

Reeve Hunter was engaged by running Errants, so I kinda needed to win Kreoss that had 10 hit points remaining, Lamentation on and was camping up armor at 19-20 with Mohsar and two wolves of Orboros.

No problem!

One Wolf of Orboros charged Kreoss to the back arc and one "charged" Repenter to get himself moving. Neither did damage, at least any important damage.

Then Mohsar advanced and cast Crevasse at the Wolves of Orboros officer and tried to spray Kreoss down with a boosted pow 12. Triple 1's or something.

Game over.

Last two games of the warmachine tournament at Ropecon

So, third game was against Cryx, again.

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

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

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

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

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

Opponents list was:

Wraith Witch Deneghra
- 2x Deathrippers
- Deathjack

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

However, one thing became clear with the Battle Engines.

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

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

Well, then.

Next picture is taken from the thick of action.

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

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

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

And this picture:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, I decided to try an assassination.

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

Then I figured I had to burn fury for telekinesis.

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

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

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

After that my head exploded with excitement.

Then, the last game.

Which was short.

Game 2:

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

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

His list was:

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

3x Spell Martyrs
2x Shepherds
The Forsaken

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's why it looks a bit goofy.

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

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

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

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

So, that was the last one of the tournament.

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

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