Helldiver or helldriver?

Last Wednesday I played a 35 point game of Warmachine.

My list was:

Infernal Machines tier 3
Master Necrotech Mortenebra
- Leviathan
- Reaper
- 3x Helldiver
- Stalker
- Deathripper

2x Warwitch Siren
Bloat Thrall
Necrotech & scrap thrall
Scrap thralls

Opponent was playing:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Defiler
- Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 1x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock
Gorman diWulfe
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall

Scenario was Outflank, and Mortenebra started game. First picture seems to be taken from the end of Mortenebra turn 2. Spectral Steel is on Reaper, who has just dragged enemy Defiler to its doom. Reaper alone couldn't destroy the bonejack, so Leviathan advanced and tried to shoot Defiler dead. RAT 5 isn't such a great asset against effective DEF 19, so the shot missed. Luckily it missed Reaper, too. Perhaps playing a bit too risky yet again Mortenebra then advanced and cast Doom Spiral on Defiler. The spell hit home and wrecked its target.

Here I realised that scenario play would be very difficult indeed. I had so few models while opponent had one regenerating unit plus another one that had Stealth and Tough. Nine points on my list weren't even on the table for the most part of the game.

Well. I threw the Scrap Thralls to contest upper zone and forgot to activate Stalker.

Deneghra used her feat on turn 2, but failed to catch Mortenebra under it. Both heavies and the Stalker were Withered, though.

Mechanithralls seized their zone and started scoring control points for Deneghra. A Bane Thrall and a Mechanithrall also charged Reaper, but Bane Thrall missed its attack and Mechanithrall dealt eight or nine points of damage. Damage overall wasn't too bad.

Turn 3 Mortbenebra's forces just tried to thin down some Bane Thralls, and I decided it was worth it to sacrifice one Helldiver to take out the Necrosurgeon. I had also thought that it would also be worth it to knock out Gorman diWulfe with a free charge from Terminal Velocity. Luckily I realised that there were three Iron Liches right next to Gorman - Iron Liches that would turn my Helldiver into a four of five point bonejack for Deneghra. Maybe... just maybe I'll let Gorman live for now.

Before this I had already cast Terminal Velocity, and I hadn't given the other Helldiver any focus that was supposed to kill Necrosurgeon. MAT 6 wasn't enough to score a hit, so Terminal Velocity was kind of a waste for this turn.

Turn 3 Deneghra clears the upper zone of that Faildiver plus Bloat Thrall. Skarlock casts Crippling Grasp on Leviathan, and a Mechanithrall and Brute Thrall charge Reaper. One Mechanithrall also took a swing at my Necrotech, which seemed to be a worse blow than the hits against Reaper. Spectral Steel caused the Helljack to be fully operational next turn, though it had less than 50% of its hit boxes left.

Bane Thrall Officer destroys my Stalker like a boss. DEF 16 wasn't even a challenge. But luckily the grunts of the unit didn't pay attention to the officer's performance, because the meagre Scrap Thrall survived any and all attacks that were made against it. Though when I look at the picture it's quite possible only one Bane Thrall attacked it.

One Stitch Thrall had mistakenly escaped the upper zone, so they weren't controlling the area any more. Deneghra also didn't feel bold enough to just run to the area and leave all the possible attacks undone.

Turn 4 I really wanted to assassinate Deneghra somehow. Both of my helljacks were going to break rather sooner than later, and had the worst things happened the scenario game might have been 0-4 in favor of Deneghra by now.

I got totally fixated on getting Helldivers to Head-Butt Deneghra and then either dragging her with Reaper's Harpoon or just walking up to her and killing her in melee.

Once I had wasted enough time in trying to get a proper angle for Hellidvers against Deneghra, I remembered about Reaper's Sustained Attack. Was that Head-Butt really that necessary with boosts from Terminal Velocity and re-rolls from Mortenebra's feat?

So instead Helldivers just did a couple of attacks just for funsies against Mechanithralls and Gormans and whatever there was blocking the walk to Deneghra. Deryliss cast Overrun on Mortenebra, who then charged the Mechanithrall and the Brute Thrall that had been teasing Reaper. Overrun triggered and Reaper advanced to get a charge off against Deneghra. Terminal Velocity and Recalibration were enough help for Reaper to kill Arm 18 Deneghra in two hits.

I don't know if three helldivers in 35 points is less than optional list construction, but for sure they're fun. And even if I mostly just failed with the Helldivers' target priorities, I think they had much more potential on the tabletop than what I was able to fully abuse.

Asphyxious vs Proxbloods

Last Sunday I played two 25 point games of Warmachine. Well, actually they were 26 points, but that way opponent didn't have to break the initial idea of his list too much by taking proxies for models he never intends to use, so better this way. There's a lot of proxies going on here, so pictures might be even more confusing than usual.

Trollbloods played both games with:

Chief Madrak Ironhide
- Dire Troll Mauler (Rhinodon and/or the proxy base in pictures)
- 2x Impalers
- Axer

Minimum unit of Krielbearers (Boomhowler grunts + Stage 1A Krielstone Bearer from another dimension)
Runebearer (Boomhowler himself, I think?)
Whelps (Gobber mechanics)

First game I played was:

Orchestrations of Annihilation tier 3
Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon (additional soul)
- Malice (additional soul)

2x Minimum unit of Mechanithralls + Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Scrap Thralls (additional corpse)
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Necrotech (free)
Pistol Wraith (additional corpse)
Machine Wraith (additional giggles)

Scenario was Supply and Demand, and trollbloods started this game. As I was trying out the tier list, I didn't have access to either Satyxis Raiders or Erebus. I couldn't figure a good target for Ashen Veil, so Asphyxious just slapped in on himself. Scything Touch is on Malice. Trolls were in a brick blob contesting the zone, but Malice was able to yank Dire Troll Mauler with a boosted Harpoon shot.

Damage rolls were disturbing, and Malice killed the Dire Troll all by itself. I had been thinking of charging the troll dead with a couple of Mechanithralls, but instead I got to run all over the place, trying to block entry to Asphyxious who is currently feating in the picture.

Pistol Wraith with an aiming bonus succeeded in Death Chilling the Axer, so I was pretty confident after my turn ended. However... I had never seen Madrak's feat in effect. I mean, sure... of course I was aware that most of my infantry would just die to the feat, but it'd be highly likely that Asphyxious would have a huge number of souls after that, and if I only had Asphyxious and Malice alive, maybe along with just a few Mechanithralls and whatnot, I'd have enough killing power to deal with enemy beasts.

Well... uh. There is a "before" and "after" picture, and all the destruction was caused by two Impalers and Madrak. Also, the Impaler on the right took off Malice's melee weapon.

Damn it. I was pretty much crippled if Asphyxious failed to kill Madrak, who was Defense 16, Arm 18, one Fury for transfers and the perseverance scroll unused. Asphyxious did have 15 Focus for use that turn, though.

Bile Thralls scored a couple of random points to Madrak, but most importantly they killed enough krielstone bearers so that Madrak dropped back to Arm 16.

After a lot of shuffling around Asphyxious finally charged Madrak, and 15 Focus did it's thing. Again Asphyxious couldn't have done it with his normal 7 focus, even when he didn't miss any of his attacks. And Madrak didn't pass Tough.



Game 2:

This game I had the following list:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Leviathan
- Cankerworm
- 2x Nightwretch

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
... oh, and it's one point short.

Scenario was Supply and Demands, but Cryx started this time around. Last game I had so many warrior models on board, and this time I had only a handful. Literally - if I didn't care for the chipping paint job, I could probably balance the nine models to one hand. It felt... scary. Especially as I had seen how many infantry models Madrak's feat can clear - though to be honest, nobody forced me to place them so tighly packed.

First picture is from the end of Trollbloods turn 1, and the Surefoot brick has taken nasty position on a hill. The empty base is proxy for Dire Troll Mauler here because Rhinodon just didn't want to balance.

On my next turn I try to kill the Axer with a fully loaded Cankerworm, Parasite and Scything Touch. It almost succeeded, the Axer was left with only a few damage boxes remaining. But, well... in the end it just didn't succeed, and I lost nine points worth of models thanks to such a random charge. Also it wasn't even a good bait or piece trade or anything - opponent was way too far for Cryx to counter assault.

Bad choices on my part just continued, though I was quite sure I was doing something I shouldn't be doing. But that Axer had slurred a personal insult against Asphyxious by refusing to die, so next turn I did absolutely everything I could to take the Axer down. I gave up a Nightwretch, Skarlock and Asphyxious' feat to deal the last remaining ~4-6 points to Axer.

Madrak also used his feat, and yet again I had packed the infantry I had too closely together. Four out of six Bane Thralls died to a charging Impaler. And yet again a feated Impaler rips off my heavy warjack's melee arm! They must use melee arms as some sort of trophy.

So. Impaler or Mauler has to go. Bane Thralls would decide - one went to beat Mauler and one went to Impaler. The one who got to Mauler only tickled the big guy, so Asphyxious goes to kill the Impaler instead. He really tries to save up focus for Arm boost, but rolls damage quite poorly. Impaler pops up a Whelp at some point, which Asphyxious also kills to gain an additional soul token.

I don't remember what Leviathan did that turn, but probably pretty much same it did whole game - missed things and cried its loneliness.

I also don't remember who or what killed Bane Thrall from front of Dire Troll Maulerodon, but the end result is that Mauler charges Leviathan, hits with both attacks and double-handed throws Leviathan at Asphyxious (with Chain Attack). Finally Leviathan didn't have to feel lonely, and for the first time in game it did something! It dealt damage to Asphyxious because it landed on top of him.

Madrak advances and throws the axe at Asphyxious as he is crawling out of reach of way too clingy Leviathan. Asphyxious is down to five hit boxes, and I guess an oversight from opponent (and pity from Madrak) made Stranglehold go unused this turn. I guess Madrak looked at the thing going on with Asphyxious and Leviathan and he thought that Asphyxious was Strangleheld enough already.

Next turn Warwitch Siren tries to charge Madrak, but doesn't hit. Bane Thrall runs next to Madrak, and Asphyxious who had shaken himself up walked to Madrak. Asphyxious had eight focus to deal with the warlock. The pillar was as well as Surefoot made Madrak equivalent of Def 18, so Asphyxious needed twelve to hit. First attack is a hit, and as a consequence every attack from then on was a hit, too. Hitting with first attack was probably what killed Madrak.

I don't know. Madrak the Thornwood Chieftain doesn't seem that bad against Cryx, as clearing infantry doesn't seem to be a big problem for him. And that's what Cryx is feared for, I guess. The infantry. Not the Leviathan.