Who's the Banest of Them All?

 A 50 point game of Warmachine over War Table.

My list:

Cryx Unlimited
Venethrax
- Desecrator
- Harrower
- Deathripper
Bane Warriors & Attachment
Scharde Ogrun Ironmongers
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock

Command cards: Gravedigger, Blessing of the Gods, Break Through, Old Faithful, Power Swell

Opponent had:

Cryx Dark Host
Bane Witch Agathia
- 3x Slayer
- Deathripper
2x Bane Warrior units
Pistol Wraith
Necrotech

Command cards: Infiltration, Power Swell, Old Faithful, Careful Reconnaissance, Break Through

Scenario was Payload.

First two turns Venethrax's army just ran forward, Desecrator and Banest on the left, with Venethrax and Ironmongers in the middle. Both solos and Deathripper were on the right, with Harrower repositioning there to help them for a bit. 

Opponent had launched his slayers against Desecrator and Banes. He wanted to make his warjacks incorporeal with Agathia's feat, but both Banes chosen for that managed to pass their Tough checks, and even Desecrator was left alive with a couple of damage points remaining. 

It looked pretty bad for Agathia, but somehow Cryx warjacks - no matter the side - were not living up to their damage potential standards. First Bane Warriors charged Slayer that had Hellwrought on, and while they managed to hit respectably - I think two out of three did that - their charge damage rolls were abysmal. Non-charging attacks versus another Slayer engaging Desecrator didn't do any better. 

Desecrator managed to bring Slayer down to a couple of damage boxes, but that just wasn't enough. Venethrax had to charge in and deliver the warjack from its misery. This left him in a subpar position... at least when there were opposing Bane Warriors involved! He kept a four focus in camp, just in case.

Harrower charged to Slayer on the right, and managed to take down two enemy Bane Warriors with a Thresher attack. Damage to the warjack was actually on the higher end, but Agathia was able to bring the thing fully functional with Old Faithful.

The now-repaired Slayer and remaining enemy Banes were able to wreck Harrower entirely. On the left, opponent wen all-in with assassination. Agathia landed Parasite on Venethrax, and the remaining Slayer trampled over a couple of my Warriors, not doing much. Five Bane Warriors charged, though. They needed 9's to hit, and two of them exceeded that roll. Damage rolls were stressful, and my warcaster was left with three health remaining after just two attacks. Fortunately nothing was able to score further hits, although Pistol Wraith certainly tried.

This left opponent dragging behind in scenario points - Venethrax now had a lead of two. 

It took combined efforts of Venethrax, Desecrator and Bane Warriors and even Scharde Ogrun Ironmongers to destroy Slayer and enemy banes from the right, but that was a devastating blow to Agathia. On the right, Warwitch Siren was able to spray one enemy flag terrain scoring Bane dead, and while Deathripper wasn't able to destroy Slayer there, the helljack no longer had functional cortex. 

In total, Venethrax took a four point lead on that turn, and Agathia didn't stand a chance to catch that. 

Venethrax had healed back to five health remaining, and Agathia's best shot was to throw a fully boosted Hellfire against him. First, Pistol Wraith tried to chill Venethrax, but trying to get a ten twice in a row was a tall order. Hellfire also missed, and we ended the game there in Venethrax's victory.

Venethrax vs Agathia

 A 50 point game of Warmachine.

My list:

 Lich Lord Venethrax [+29]
- Deathripper [5]
- Erebus [13]
- Leviathan [14]

Necrotech [1]
Black Ogrun Boarding Party (max) [11]
Mechanithralls (max) [9]
 - Brute Thrall (x3) [6]
 - Skarlock Commander [3]
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls [2]
Wraith Engine [15]

Opponent had:

Bane Witch Agathia [+29]

 - Deathripper [5]

 - Kraken [32]

Bane Lord Tartarus [5]

Necrotech [1]

Bane Riders (max) [17]

Bane Warriors (max) [14]

 - Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [5]

We had a steamroller scenario. Looked like I received the short end of the stick when it came to matchup, as I kind of lost: dismember and terminal velocity on Venethrax, had a lousy feat when opponent had just one warjack apart from arc node, and even Wraith Engine wouldn't be making any Machine Wraiths this game.

I started game, and rushed Wraith Engine up from left since nothing there posed a threat for it as long as it didn't lose incorporeal.

Erebus and Black Ogrun Boarding Party were aiming to go right, while Venethrax and Leviathan were ready to go either way. Mechanithralls were spread all over the board to die as needed.

Bane Warriors and their pals were coming from the left, but didn't close the distance to their fullest to leave me without charge targets. Bane Riders did the same on right, and the rest of Agathia in the middle. She used her feat, so all but Kraken were stealthed.

I tried to jam opponent by running everything forward, engaging especially Riders so they wouldn't charge around. Wraith Engine just walked to act as an enormous roadblock. Leviathan decided to come help the situation in left rectangular zone with Bane Warriors, and Erebus hid behind a screen of trash models.

Almost all Mechanithralls died, but what's that when they'd come back soon enough? Erebus received Parasite from Agathia. Bane Warriors charged Mechanithralls, and I decided to counter-charge one Bane with Leviathan - a decision I sorely regretted after another Bane Warrior came charging in towards the crabjack and struck over half of its health boxes away with one gigantic attack.

Machine Wraith removes Tartarus and a couple of Bane Warriors. Erebus, Black Ogrun Boarding Party and some operational Mechanithralls kill all but one Bane Rider.

Necrotech and warjacks on the right score two points.

But then, uh.

I've been playing Malifaux a lot lately, and this was a good reminder how the survivability of models is NOT the same here. Also I thought that opponent might get some Bane Warriors to my warcaster, but not some Bane Warriors and a fully loaded Kraken since "screen" of Mechanithralls was entirely and completely ignorable thanks to apparition on Banes and 4" reach on Kraken.

So... game over for Venethrax.

Brawling again

Had two games of Warmachine at the very end of February. Because of the format they were 25 point games. 

Game 1:

Cryx

Captain Aiakos [+29]

 - Corruptor [14]

 - Malice [15]

 - Stalker [8]

 - The Withershadow Combine [9]

Bloat Thrall [4]

Warwitch Siren [4]

vs

Trollbloods

Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain [+29]

 - Dire Troll Mauler [15]

 - Troll Axer [9]

 - Troll Impaler [9]

Janissa Stonetide [4]

Totem Hunter [6]

Trollkin Fennblades (min) [9]

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew [2]

We rolled off to see which lists we'd play. Why, oh why did the dice gods decide to put Aiakos again against Trollbloods? 

And against Trollbloods with a supercharged sniper Impaler, who removes Malice's Harpoon right away on the second turn?

Oh well. Maybe there was a still game to play. 

Stalker removes Janissa Stonetide from controlling enemy flag, so at least Cryx got the scenario lead. Corruptor and Bloat thrall also were able to remove three Fennblades, so removing their circular zone controllers wasn't that far off.

Sadly I had to sacrifice Warwitch Siren in contesting rectangular zone.

Turn 3 Dire Troll Mauler kills Warwitch Siren, and Stalker is removed by Axer. Totem Hunter charges Corruptor, who has to waste its activation in removing the foreign bounty hunter. What's left of Erebus nearly kills Dire Troll Mauler. I really wanted that troll dead, so Aiakos charged in to finish the job. 

On opponent's turn scenario goes 2-2, and on my turn 2-3 for Trollbloods because Aiakos had left the flag. 

Opponent got easily to 2-5 next, so there was little point in continuing the game, as we still had second armies waiting enthusiastically.

Game 2:

Cryx

 Lich Lord Venethrax [+26]

 - Erebus [16]

 - Ripjaw [7]

 - Slayer [10]

 - Satyxis Blood Priestess [4]

Machine Wraith [2]

Necrotech [2]

Swamp Gobber River Raider [1]

Bile Thralls (min) [9]

vs

Cygnar

Major Beth Maddox [+30]

 - Avenger [17]

 - Cyclone [13]

Alten Ashley [6]

Black 13th Strike Force [10]

Stormblade Infantry [9]

Second game was far quicker than the first. I decided to launch a full-blown offensive against Cygnaran forces and not wait for them to start shooting my forces to bits. 

On second turn Slayer charged a Black 13th member under Terminal Velocity. Then it counter-charged both remaining members into melee with it. 

Erebus counter-charged Cyclone and hit with melee attack, causing Cygnaran warjack to become stationary. 

Opponent breaks Slayer with remaining Black 13th and Stormblades. 

Bile Thralls purge all remaining Stormblades dead, and machine wraith charges Avenger, who tries to take a swing at Alten Ashley, failing at that. But wait, there's more! Erebus finalizes Cyclone and slaps cortex off of Avenger. Who is now without cortex and stationary. 

There was very little opponent could do to prevent Cryx from winning by scenario.

Fury Unseen

 Had a 50 point game of Warmachine a couple of days ago. 

My list was:

Cryx
Lich Lord Venethrax [+26]
 - Deathripper [6]
 - Erebus [16]
 - Helldiver [6]
 - Seether [13]
 - Slayer [10]
Bloat Thrall [4]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Misery Cage [2]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]

Opponent had:

Circle of Orboros

Iona the Unseen [+28]

 - Pureblood Warpwolf [17]

 - Rotterhorn Griffon [7]

 - Warpwolf Stalker [17]

 - Druid Wilder [4]

Bloodweaver Night Witch [4]

Tharn Bloodtrackers (max) [15]

 - Nuala the Huntress [4]

Tharn Bloodweavers [8]

Bloodtrackers picked Erebus as their prey. I wanted to reposition the character warjack so that it wouldn't be there for easy picking, but I had an annoying bottleneck on my side of the board. Oh well. There weren't any threatening AoE's around, right?

Pureblood Warpwolf sprayed Slayer, dealt some damage in and killed Bloat Thrall, which in turn injured an Ironmonger. 

I tried to offer some threat saturation for opponent by bringing Helldiver up and running arc node to channel some Blood Rains onto Bloodtrackers. Too bad only two Bloodtrackers were essentially killed. If four had died I would've been okay with the results, but six focus for two Bloodtrackers is rather a heavy price tag.

Bloodweavers attempt to take the circular zone on the right, and Bloodtrackers are ogling the one on the left. Rotterhorn Griffon attempts to flank Cryxian forces from the right. Helldiver and Bloat Thrall were acceptable losses, especially when I managed to use Terminal Velocity with Slayer and remove Pureblood.

That was the extent of my casualties inflicted, though. Some three Bloodtrackers and a Bloodweaver died, but tidings were grim.

I had tried to position Erebus so that if Warpwolf Stalker charged Seether, it would counter charge and make the warpwolf stationary. Turns out Bloodtrackers are enough to remove one pesky Seether from the board, and Warpwolf Stalker decided just to run towards Iona.

Bloodweavers dismounted Darragh, and flanking Griffon killed Warwitch Siren. Feralgeist charged an Ironmonger, thus engaging it. Suddenly all my support was severely crippled and I was down to one heavy warjack and an arcnode. 

Circle started to be ahead of the scenario, and when Iona had carelessly entered the charge range of Erebus, I decided it's my chance. And first attack hit the warlock, making her stationary and leaving her to two hit boxes remaining. But Iona had four transfers available, so.

Scenario loss for Venethrax after Circle forces were unable to tear through Venethrax and his focus camp of five. 

Only Misery Remains

 Played a 50 points game of Warmachine few days ago. 

My list was:

Cryx

 Lich Lord Venethrax [+26]
 - Defiler [8]
 - Harrower [16]
 - Helldiver [6]
 - Malice [15]
 - Skarlock Thrall [4]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [6]
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist [4]
Misery Cage [2]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Black Ogrun Boarding Party (max) [11]

Opponent had:

Protectorate

Grand Scrutator Severius [+28]
 - Dervish [7]
 - Indictor [14]
 - Purifier [8]
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist [3]
Deliverer Arms Master [3]
The Covenant of Menoth [4]
Vassal Mechanik [1]
Choir of Menoth (min) [4]
Deliverer Skyhammers (max) [13]
Deliverer Sunburst Crew [5]
Knights Exemplar [9]
Temple Flameguard (min) [7]

Scenario was the one from main rulebook that needed to tag all five flags on the board. Protectorate generously gave Cryx the start (this is probably one of better, or even the best, scenario to go second.)

And I don't know what the heck. I knew a big AoE was coming my way via Sunburst crew. Yet I still did not bother to check if my Black Ogruns were not practicing social distancing. Boom! One dead, two on fire. Doesn't matter though. It's not like I was outnumbered over 2:1, right?

But that's not all. One thing I also didn't bother to check was if Saxon Orrik was deep enough in the forest not to be seen at all. Turns out he wasn't. Deliverers took a shot at him and the dice just wouldn't roll 3+ for deviation. Saxon down.

I have to admit I was a bit demoralized by this, but at least Deliverers had packed themselves real tight to shoot that fatal rocket. Defiler ran forward and Venethrax cast Blood Rain on them, killing... two. But at least three more had corrosion.

Venethrax and Skarlock manage to kill some warrior models to trigger Dead Weight on both Indictor and Dervish. 

Black Ogruns miss their harpoon on Purifier, but Rat 5 against Def 15 goes only so far. With Saxon dead, only one Ogrun got in range and, ech. It was going to get ugly.

At least Protectorate wasn't able to do anything productive with his Indictor and Dervish, and opted to clog my warjacks with infantry models. All those souls for Harrower and Malice.

Allegiant neared the flag that had Gerlak sitting next to it. It was either a choice of denying me a point with no Shifting Sands, or letting me have one point and be nigh invulnerable. Sands it was, which is recommended action when you got a Mat 8 murder machine ogling you.

On my turn I'm trying to figure out how to best deliver Malice to Indictor. Only feasible way is to trample to it, buy an attack and... alright, I just slapped myself on the forehead. While writing this I realized I trampled with Malice before casting Terminal Velocity. 

Anyway, Malice triggers Vision and Possession and brings Indictor and it's back arc to face Harrower. Venethrax Dead Weights Dervish and casts Terminal Velocity. Then Harrower charges Indictor and while damage had been okay-ish, the columns were not. Damn. That one missed focus point from Malice could have dealt the few remaining damage points to various systems, say, Cortex.

Helldiver had surfaced to tease Sunburst crew. Gerlak took a free strike from Allegiant to gain back strike bonus, but 8+ wouldn't come.

At least the ratio of our forces had been kept about the same as in start.

Opponent then flooded Malice with attacks, and destroyed despite its Def 13 Arm 20. Protectorate souls don't protect that well, I guess. 

But this had been about expected. But what severely hampered the future of Cryx was when the only damage Harrower took was just enough to break melee hand. I was left with Venethrax, Gerlak, a weaponless Harrower, Helldiver far from anything, and Misery Cage. 

Venethrax butchers Dervish, and Gerlak misses Allegiant again. Harrower gave Indictor a friendly scratch. 

Opponent had steadily collected flag points, and was able to score all five. But that wasn't all.

Allegiant also killed Gerlak, something removed Harrower, Severius beat Helldiver into a wreck with a stick, and a lucky shot from Sunburst crew removed one focus from Venethrax, and still four points came in.

Three remaining Exemplars tore through Venethrax's focus camp and left him dying. Then the last remaining Flameguard charged the warcaster and dealt the killing blow.

Only Misery Cage remained to witness the crimes committed here. 

Counter Chain

A few days ago I had this 75 point game of Warmachine.

My list:

Black Industries
Lich Lord Venethrax [+26]
- Deathripper [6]
- Erebus [16]
- Malice [15]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Stalker [8]
- The Withershadow Combine [9]
Machine Wraith [2]
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor [5]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Soul Trapper [1]
Warwitch Siren [0(4)]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
- Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]
- Skarlock Commander [3]



Opponent:

Mercenaries
Soldiers of Fortune
Magnus the Warlord [+28]
- Blockader [33]
- Freebooter [9]
- Nomad [12]
- Toro [13]
- Toro [13]
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [0(4)]
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire [0(7)]
Anastasia di Bray [3]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Ironhead [4]
Steelhead Mortar Crew [0(5)]


Early on I gained slight scenario point advantage, which I as soon about to lose. Malice takes enemy Freebooter, but didn't manage to kill it. It took another Slayer to finish the job. So point investment was about three times the cost of Freebooter.

Flag on the right saw some action - I brought Erebus to contest the flag. On mercenary turn Stannis Brocker came to control the flag, and I had Erebus counter-charge him. This had Toro countercharge Erebus, which in turn had Malice countercharge Toro. Much fun and many joy was had, but effects were rather negligible.

Oh, except that there was now two of my heavies close to each other. Blockader with those absurd fists slammed Malice into Erebus and single-handedly wrecked both despite Venethrax having his feat on. That was 31 points that just went missing.

I can't help but compare P+S 22 slampush fists with 4" reach to my own factions Kraken's... with three less p+s.

Oh well. I had forgotten how sorry feat Venethrax has against Warmachine. Both Power-Up and Empower can circumvent it completely.

It was downhill from there.

Stalker managed to kill Alexia and ambushing Mechanithralls ended Stannis. Some enemy warjack had come to my rectangular zone, and it took Slayer, Venethrax, Withershadow Combine and Warwitch Siren to remove the thing. But Magnus was now so far ahead in scenario game that there was little I could do to prevent him from winning.

Kaya and Venethrax in stop motion

It's finally here.

This game was played over a month ago, but the format I chose to present it took a while.

Lightening conditions gave some trouble and it shows. Many of the frames have been individually adjusted in order to reduce flickering. And because I had to go image editing, why not take it a little further? I tried new things like edit away blu-tack or dice that were used to support Kaya and Venethrax during their climb and fall. And it worked out pretty well.

Anyway. Here it is.

Scourge of Tempest

About a week ago I played these two 25 point games of Warmachine.

Opponent played:

[Theme] Sons of the Tempest

Captain Victoria Haley [+27]
- Lancer [10]
- Stormclad [18]
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages [11]
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer [0(4)]
Tempest Blazers (min) [11]

First game I had:

Lich Lord Venethrax [+26]
- Deathripper [6]
- Erebus [16]
- Ripjaw [7]
Swamp Gobber River Raider [4]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Satyxis Raiders (min) [10]
- Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [4]

My main reason for trying this was to see if Venethrax + Erebus could be a viable combo to play outside of theme.

Unit of Satyxis Raiders took out two out of three Blazers, which had me pretty much dominating the zone on left. Warjacks were wrestling in the middle zone, with Erebus being able to neutralize enemy warjacks even if it didn't do a whole lot of damage.

Gun Mages shot all my pieces off from the zone on right, but this didn't help Cygnar in the long run after Cygnar lost Stormclad.

When opponent had only Gun Mages and Haley left, we decided to start a new game.


Game 2:

This time I played with theme that I won't be able to use for a long, long time in 75 point games. If ever.


[Theme] Scourge of the Broken Coast
Lich Lord Venethrax [+26]
- Defiler [8]
- Inflictor [13]
- Slayer [10]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
Satyxis Raiders (max) [16]
- Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [4]

Again Satyxis took out the Blazers, but situation in the middle wasn't that good. Some amazing damage rolls from Gun Mages wrecked Slayer after I had engaged enemy forces. Well, I did have a full unit of Satyxis still going on, but they'd be struggling to wreck Stormclad with Arcane Shield if I lost Inflictor.

Inflictor was able to get Line of Sight to Haley, so Venethrax cast Terminal Velocity and Inflictor charged Haley. It had to take a free strike from Lancer, but either it missed or didn't break anything of consequence. Inflictor did break something of consequence, namely the opposing warcaster.

Bane Rivalry

So a while ago I played these two 50 point games of Warmachine.

My lists were:

Game 1:

Goreshade the Bastard
- Corruptor
- Reaper
- Seether
- Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan
Bile Thralls (min)
Soulhunters (min)
Black Ogrun Boarding Party (min)
Machine Wraith
Necrotech

Game 2:

Lich Lord Venethrax
- Nightmare
- Malice
- Slayer
- Desecrator
- Ripjaw
2x Warwitch Siren
Necrotech
Machine Wraith

Opponent played this list in both games:

Bane Witch Agathia
- 2x Deathripper
- 2x Slayer

Bane Warriors (max)

Scenario was The Pit in both games.

There were some striking similarities on how the games played out.

In the first game Goreshade and Agathia had to settle it which one was more professional Bane Manager. Both players started scoring points from the flags until Goreshade seized the zone, getting my Cryx to four control points. I would win if I managed to dominate or control the zone or dominate my flag, so opponent decided to attempt an assassination. Vanish is quite a sneaky spell when it comes to that.

Charge attack missed as far as memory serves. Rest of the attacks did mediocre results. It was pretty much game over for Agathia when she left Goreshade at four or something hit boxes remaining with Deathwalker still alive. Deathwalker would have died and Goreshade would have been at one hit box, a Satyxis Blood Witch with that auto-hitting POW 6-7 would have been first legendary caster kill for my Mk3. But not this time. Victory for Goreshade.

Second game I switched to Venehthrax with heavy battlegroup emphasis. Again Agathia seized her flag, but I chose a most greedy route. I tried to conquer whole zone in the middle turn after turn.

It was a huge risk which could have paid off. I had some unlucky dice with Nightmare, when it couldn't wreck it's prey target (who, admittedly, had Hellwrought on) Malice and my Slayer wrecked second Slayer from opponent (I had had to suffer a feated, unlucky alpha strike that didn't destroy even one helljack from me. However, situation looks far better for me than it actually was - Desecrator and Malice were almost smoldering wrecks already, and Nightmare had lost at least one arm. Only Slayer was fully functional.)

So I ran out of attacks to clear the zone, all the while I had not really bothered to contest enemy flag. This was Venethrax' downfall.

Well, I would have needed to try some other kind of approach anyway, because if we consider model count, me getting random models to contest enemy flag was far more difficult than Agathia bringing models to contest mine.

One victory and one loss, good enough I guess.

Last two games of Kangasala Steamroller

Game 3:

Third game was against Circle of Orboros.

I was kind of happy that I was againt epic Morvahna. Somehow until now I've dodged all games against Morvahna2, so this was my first time playing against her.

Opponent had:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gorax

Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Maximum unit of Tharn Bloodtrackers
Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Maximum unit of Skinwalkers + Warpborn Alpha
2x Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Gatorman Witch Doctor

Scenario was Close Quarters and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 2. As someone may have already guessed, Venethrax has used his feat. Venethrax also cast Soul Harvester on Satyxis Raiders, but Gatorman Witch Doctor had cast Zombify on Bloodtrackers. Venethrax got only one soul from a lucky Ravager kill.

Nyss Hunters rolled damage terribly on any targets they acquired, but did manage to down one additional Ravager.

Circle turn 2 couldn't have started off worse. A full unit of Nyss Hunters fail their command check against Skinwalkers. A big minus for me. But at least the smoke screen I had gained from Venethrax feat delayed Circle's advance on the right. Most of the Satyxis Raiders died, but that was to be expected - Satyxis had been the Prey target for Bloodtrackers.

Turn 3 There was only one Bloodtracker near Cryx friendly flag that might be contesting it. So Venethrax with eight focus points and Dragon Slayer upkept for free by Admonia started dominating points. Bane Thralls were supposed to be some sort of reserve. Nyss Hunters passes command check to regroup. My heavies were patiently waiting on the hill for something to slaughter. It was nice to notice that Snapjaw's warlock bond made it possible to remove models from play.

Circle mopped up what was left of Satyxis and switched Prey target to Bane Thralls.

Tharn Ravagers charge in and one chops off left arm from Seether. Another takes a swing at Ogrun Bokur, but since Bokur is still in the picture I have to assume the attack missed. Skinwalkers continue to butcher elves. Which is kind of OKAY for me. Butchering elves. Especially if they pee their pants every time a warped human/wolf hybrid with axes bigger than the elves themselves charges in....

Two Skinwalkers also try to kill Snapjaw, and they do in fact break the body branch.

Turn 4 Venethrax dominated another scenario point and even gained one soul from a nearby Ravager who died somehow, somewhere.

Wrong Eye healed Snapjaw (finally I remembered and activated these two in correct order!) and then Snapjaw mulched two Skinwalkers into such tiny bulbs that even Morvahna wouldn't be able to resurrect them with her feat.

Admonia got to use Disbinding to remove Carnivore from Skinwalkers.

My Bane Thralls, however, were badly exposed now to attacks by Bloodtrackers and whatnot. Here was hoping for a streak of good Tough rolls... but I guess my opponent from tournament round 1 rolled even my successful Tough rolls on turns 1-3.

Turn 4 picture is terribly out of focus, but I chose to include it anyway to visualize Morvahna's feat better.

She didn't feel confident enough yet to start dominating her own points as she only had a couple of damage boxes left after she brought dozens (exaggeration) models to contest my friendly flag.

Suddenly it started to look rather unlikely to win by scenario despite the good beginning.

Rest of the game was mostly just opponent throwing everything he got against Venethrax and clogging my flag, so I won't go into too many details. Except to brag a little.

Venethrax stood there for, what, four turns taking charges in from Ravagers and Bloodtrackers, and even face-tanked a Primaled and strength warped Warpwolf Stalker (which Venethrax then ate for breakfast).

When scenario points were 4-2 for Circle on my turn and I had lost all but Withershadow Combine game looked like it was over.

But I had nothing to lose - I ran to the flag with Admonia, taking a free strike from a Skinwalker. Skinwalker hit, but dealt only four points of damage. Yay. Prolonged the game unnecessarily against all the odds.

In the end it was a scenario loss for Venethrax, however.


Game 4:
By now I was so exhausted that I actually asked opponent: "Wow, you got Venethrax too?" or something like that when I was looking at a tray on the other side of the board.

It was my own tray. Ahem.

Opponent played Retribution of Scyrah, and the list was:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan
- Banshee (which I believed to be Hypnos for no good reason...)

Maximum unit of Invictors + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Halberdiers + Unit Attachment

Maximum unit of Mage Hunter Strike Force + Commander
Maximum unit of Riflemen + Unit Attachment
Houseguard Thane
Some kind of Eiryss...?

Scenario was Fire Support, and I don't remember who started. I had picked Venethrax as my list. Picture is either from the end of Cryx turn 1 or 2.

I was happy for the fact that I had Effigy of Valor on a hill. With Ogrun Bokur I might very well be able to go and camp focus on the hill despite threat from Ossyan and Mage Hunter Strike Force. So I slowly started to drag Venethrax to the hill, all the while Wrong Eye & Snapjaw under Submerge advanced towards the soft and juicy Mage Hunters.

Feat turn for me was a complete waste of time. Attack rolls were so depressing that only four enemy models died - even if I had six Satyxis and a few Nyss Hunters making attacks.

At least Venethrax got to a relatively safe spot behind Ogrun Bokur and the objective. I had thought of asking about what Hypnos was able to do, but for some reason I didn't. If I had, I might have actually been informed that there was, in matter of fact, a Banshee on the board.

I made it all too easy for opponent.

Next turn Banshee just loaded a slam shot on Ogrun Bokur and knocked both Venethrax and Ogrun down. Ossyan advanced, used feat and various models killed objective. Mage Hunter Strike Force activated and turned Venethrax to the signature spell of Lylyth2.

Stupid mistake. This might have been a very interesting game otherwise. But I'll probably remember to double check unfamiliar warjacks from now on - at least for a while.

Kangasala 50pts Steamroller (first two games)

Last Saturday the big day finally came.

It's a good thing, because I was starting to get tired of playing Asphyxious1/Venethrax!

So, tournament was held in Kangasala. It was 50 points, 1-2 list DC [1] and used Active Duty Roster season 2.

I'm quite fond of playing less used warcasters, and what's better than getting a real incentive to use them?

Taking advantage of that my lists were:

List1:
Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Ripjaw
- Nightwretch
- 2x Slayer

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 2x Brute Thralls + Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius
- Harrower
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Saxon Orrik
Gorman diWulfe

Objective: Fuel cache

Specialists:
Stalker
Nightmare
Ogrun Bokur
Orin Midwinter
Machine Wraith

List 2:
Lich Lord Venethrax
- Seether

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Maximum unit of Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters
Ogrun Bokur
Satyxis Captain
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Specialists:
Corruptor
Warwitch Siren
Maximum unit of Bile Thralls
Madelyn Corbeau

This was a 30 player tournament. Surprisingly there were only three Cryx players, me being one myself.

Game 1:

So needless to say, first game was obviously against Cryx.

I don't remember what was the caster pairs opponent had, but I considered Venethrax to be good enough for both of them. Opponent ended up choosing following Deneghra1 list:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Slayer
- Nightwretch
- 2x Deathripper

Maximum unit of Bane Knights
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Withershadow Combine
Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
2x Warwitch Siren

Objective: Arcane Wonder

I used Active Duty Roster to switch Bane Thralls for Bile Thralls.

Scenario was Recon, and Venethrax started game. First picture is from the end of Deneghra turn 1. I thought that Lamentation might bring better defences against Deneghra if I only could somehow get rid of the arc nodes. Satyxis had ran forward pretty much as far as possible. Enemy Deathripper got engaged by a Satyxis Raider by accident. That was a major bonus considering Deneghra was free to cast Venom three times, or two with various boosts.

Turn 2 Venethrax used feat, which turned out to be somewhat of a lackluster (are there any other kind of Venethrax feat turns?) as enemy was advancing from two fronts. To make matters even worse, damnable Bane Thralls seemed to have something equal to 2+ Tough rolls. Only one Bane Thrall actually died, and another was knocked down.

Sea Witch used Power Swell so that they'd be able to crack through Slayer and Deathripper armor.

I had thought of shooting a couple of Bane Knights with Nyss Hunters, but decided against it because they were packed together so closely - even if I managed to turn somebody to Charnel Flame template, it wouldn't truly block Knights' advance... and I'd only trigger Vengeance.

Deneghra turn 2 Bane Knights charged Nyss Hunters, mostly just to engage them.

Four Satyxis on the left perished under Bane Thralls and a Pistol Wraith. Skarlock and a Warwitch Siren unleashed Venom over Satyxis, but on a hill they were quite capable of dodging the corrosive fluids that were flying left and right. One Venom, however, caught the Sea Witch and killed her and broke Satyxis Raider coherency.

Venethrax turn 3 Satyxis wrecked Slayer and tried to do something to Deathripper. By now Feedback had given quite a few damage points in to Deneghra.

Next two Bile Thralls advance to Purge, one takes down the Deathripper (and the two Satyxis engaging it...) and the other one purged over Bane Thralls and caused a number of successful Tough rolls yet again.

Nyss Hunters attack Bane Knights and roughly take half off the unit. There might be one ninja Knights on the right that's not seen in the picture.

Since Deathripper and the two Satyxis went away, Seether charged the Warwitch Siren. Somehow it felt like a good idea to give a little bit more additional threat saturation than just Venethrax on the middle, when Deneghra hadn't even used The Withering yet...

Deneghra turn 3 she does use her feat, though. She was afraid of coming too close to the action (probably because of having lost about half of her hit boxes to Feedback?) so she got only Venethrax, Seether and all the remaining Satyxis under it. That obviously spelled certain doom for Satyxis.

Gorman lobbed Black Oil over Seether, and Deathripper with three focus points advanced to dismantle the heavy warjack. Withershadow Combine also walks closer to Seether and shoots it with Dark Fire bolts. All this brings Seether down to some three or four damage boxes remaining.

Pistol Wraith shoots a few Bile Thralls away.

Venethrax turn 4 Venethrax was all but useless with his might 10" control area and penalties to everything. So he just stays there, giving the other Cryx a stern look.

Bile Thralls purge quite a few Bane Thralls away this time. Opponent probably expended all luck on Tough rolls over turns 1-3.

Since Bane Thralls were pretty much the only thing contesting the middle zone, I tried to destroy the enemy objective to get a scenario game going. It required quite a lot of shuffling because of difficult charge lanes, but in the end Ogrun Bokur and Snapjaw scored the kill.

Then I was about to activate Seether, and realised that I had Seether with less than five damage boxes remaining, and enemy Withershadow Combine were waving their hands in anticipation towards it. This would not do.

But I had already activated all but Satyxis Captain. She'd have to do it before enemy Combine does it.

And she succeeded. That might have cost me the game had she failed.

Remainder of the game was short. Opponent rushed in to contest, and I had to clear the zone. Clearance was successful, so the game was 5-0 for Venethrax.


Game 2:

Second game was against Convergence of Cyriss with:

Lucant

- Cipher
- Corollary
- Inverter

Maximum unit of Reciprocators
Maximum unit of Obstructors
Minimum unit of Reductors
Optifex Directive
2x Clockwork Angels
Attunement Servitors
2x Enigma Foundry

I picked Iron Lich Asphyxious for the job, but I somehow thought it would be good idea to switch Harrower for Nightmare and Saxon Orrik for Orin Midwinter. Somehow it escaped my thinking at the time that Harrower could have actually taken souls from the small based infantry, and that Cipher shot rough terrain batches.

Scenario was Incursion, and I believe Convergence started game. First picture is poorly focused and from the end of Cryx turn 1. I didn't have much of a plan yet. Mostly I was anticipating a feat round for Lucant.

Turn 2 was not a feat round for Lucant. In fact Convergence pulled back a little on the western front, and didn't press all that aggressively on east either. Two nasty 4" AoE's of rough terrain took most of my chances to get any kind of meaningful alpha strike off, however.

On my turn I'm absolutely certain Lucant will use feat next turn, so I have to use this turn to charge and engage as much of enemy forces as possible. It failed spectacularly. Most of my attacks missed or dealt no real damage. Nightmare charged the Reciprocators, and with three focus points did not kill even one ARM 20 target. And now I had thrown away the one and only model that might be able to do damage if Lucant uses feat... pro move, here.

Slayers at least did a little bit more. Two six point warjacks killed four models. At least the eastern flag was contested now.

Necrosurgeon built three Mechanithralls, so I did get about five Mechanithralls to actually charge despite the rough terrain. They killed one servitor, one Clockwork Angel and one Reductor.

Though why am I listing the kills here? All of them would just be coming back...

Turn 3 casualties were surprisingly few. Necrosurgeon was still alive and well, so Mechanithralls didn't count. Only Nightmare and possibly Pistol Wraith died permanently. And still Lucant didn't use feat! Well, I guess the damage done by both parties involved was rather laughable, so I guess there was no need to seize a turn of nigh invulnerability.

On my turn Slayers, Warwitch Siren, Orin Midwinter and even the oft neglected Scrap Thrall conquered eastern flag, so I would score 1-0 for Cryx this turn.

Other than that, Mechanithralls just shambled about and Asphyxious advanced under full focus camp. Skarlock cast one Breath of Corruption cloud to the middle just for kicks - and hopefully to block one wound infantry advancement.

Turn 4 is rather annoying. Opponent didn't have too much time left on his clock, so he went hellbent on assassination of Asphyxious. First he had to clear the charge lanes, and then successfully charge with two heavy warjacks. Cipher had easy enough charge lane, but Inverter needed a bit more work. Eventually one Mechanithrall or Stitch Thrall or something was left standing in-between, so Inverter had to charge that guy. Asphyxious was just out of 2", so assassination attempt failed and opponent's clock ran out.

I would've wanted to play that game properly, since the situation was rather interesting - not clearly in anybody's favor, though I think I was slightly on the losing side because of the strong attrition that Enigma Foundries brought.

But tournaments are tournaments. Oh, and the last picture looks like that since I was too slow to take a picture. We had already began removing models from board.

Venethrax Hard Mode

Week ago on Monday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine. It was against the same opponent as last game, and the same list also. I used a few Specialists because Nyss Hunters had been so useless last time I tried them versus full stealth army...

So. My list was:

Lich Lord Venethrax
- Seether

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Bile Thralls
Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Withershadow Combine
Madelyn Corbeau
Ogrun Bokur (Venethrax client)
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

Objective: Effigy of Valor

I was against:

Ravens of War tier 4
Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight
- Naga Nightlurker
- 3x Ravagore

Strider Rangers

Strider Rangers + free Unit Attachment

4x Strider Deathstalker

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Scenario was Two Fronts. I'm slowly getting tired of Two Fronts. Anyway, Cryx started game. I decided to run forward as fast as possible with just about everything I got. First picture is from the end of Legion turn 1, and see what's missing? Everything!

Well. At least my offence made Lylyth to use her feat right there on turn 1. I had been thinking if I should use Venethrax's feat also, but I had not been actually planning around on Lylyth using her feat so early.

I guess it could have been worse. The feat took off only, what... almost twenty points from my roster?

Turn 2 I continue to push stuff down opponents throat and Venethrax uses his feat. He makes a nice smoke screen for him from two Bile Thralls. I was aiming for some kind of scenario game here. Last turn Ravagores had been making some heavy shooting against Snapjaw and destroyed his Spirit. My grand plan of getting both under Snapjaw's animus was foiled by me forgetting to heal Snapjaw first. I was certain that it was over now for Snapjaw...

One Ravagore frenzies, but its anger is sated by eating just one Strider. Actually, make that two, since I see only five Striders on the left at the end of Legion turn, but there were six of them at the end of my turn.

Unpainted Striders on left tried to kill all Bile Thralls. Deathstalkers were busy with wiping off the remaining Satyxis. For no good reason two Bile Thralls survived the enemy turn, which was kind of miraculous.

The unexpected frenzy of two Legion warbeasts made it look like it's a possibility for Snapjaw to survive. Naga Nightlurker tries to land a final shot on the heavy alligator, but fails to kill. Last Ravagore that did not frenzy tried to shoot Snapjaw dead, but missed its shot. And obviously the template landed almost directly on Wrong Eye. "Yay" for Snapjaw's animus.

Now. Things did not look too bad at all when my turn 3 started. Well, okay, maybe it looked bad but I still had a game worth playing.

Two Bile Thrall purges killed three Striders and three Strider Deathstalkers. Well, one of the Deathstalkers was reduced to one hit box remaining and corrosion, so technically it was Venethrax's caustic presence that killed the third Deathstalker.

Bane Thralls and Snapjaw killed enemy objective and Naga Nightlurker. This time only Snapjaw had its animus on and Wrong Eye didn't, since he had to heal Snapjaw for two. I wanted to have one Fury for damage transfer, so he healed for three instead. I don't have a good explanation why I rather had damage transfer available, since only a couple of Striders could have charged Wrong Eye. It's a shame I couldn't figure out any way to kill the Strider musician on enemy zone... if I could have killed it, scenario would have went 3-0 for Cryx in one turn. Now it was only 2-0.

I didn't take any pictures (minus the very last one) after this, but the game went so that scenario was 2-1 for Cryx, 3-1 for Cryx, 3-2 for Cryx, 4-2 for Cryx and then suddenly opponent grabbed point situation to 4-4 stall. My scenario game had looked a real possibility and I didn't think twice about the chance that opponent might get to even scores. I completely forgot to bring any kind of contestant near to enemy zone, so we would score to 5-5 on my turn and then opponent essentially just needed to end his turn to go to 5-6, or the game would end on my turn to 4-5 for Legion if I didn't kill the Ravagore who was contesting.

There was no other option than to attack Lylyth and kill her with two Hellfires. Since she had three Fury for transfers, that would have required quite a few sixes on the damage rolls. There were no sixes.

Oh, and about the title.

Since his release back in 2010 I've played Dragon Slayer completely wrong. For some reason I had been thinking that you wouldn't be able to go over you Focus via focus points gained from Dragon Slayer. At some point during this game I re-read Dragon Slayer and much to my amazement I didn't find anything that would deny focus points over seven. I thought I must have missed something, forgotten perhaps. After the game I started to do some research on the subject, and turns out that there is indeed no limit.

During my research I also found out that Dragon Slayer is not restricted to melee attacks only. If Venethrax kills a warbeast with Hellfire or Blood Rain, those fury points get stolen also. Heck... Dragon Slayer doesn't even specify warbeasts as the targets you can get focus points from. Hello there Agonizers and Forsakens. And Krielstones and Sentry Stones too, though I doubt latter two will ever end up as focus for Venethrax.

Battle of Effigies

Last Tuesday I played a 50 point Warmachine game.

My list was:

Lich Lord Venethrax
- Seether

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Withershadow Combine
Warwitch Siren
Ogrun Bokur (Venethrax client)
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

Objective: Effigy of Valor

I was against:

Ravens of War tier 4
Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight
- Naga Nightlurker
- 3x Ravagore

Strider Rangers

Strider Rangers + free Unit Attachment
4x Strider Deathstalker

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Scenario was Destruction and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Legion turn 1, and things are already happening on the board. While Strider and Deathstalker shooting was less than impressive and Ravagores didn't get good deviations on top of Satyxis, the Scather templates neutralized Satyxis from doing anything too useful next turn.

Turn 2 was Venethrax's feat turn. Thanks to those nasty templates I couldn't make such an onslaught of cloud effect as I had originally wanted. But Venethrax was the very first model to activate, and he advanced closer to the middle and used feat. Not a single focus was spent that turn. Admonia even upkept the Dragon Slayer.

Also here I learned enemy was 100% stealthed. That made Nyss Hunter shooting all but non-existent. So they charged and killed a couple of Striders.

Warwitch Siren advanced and cast her Venom, but missed every model caught by the template. My own Nyss included, at least.

Wrong Eye advanced and forgot to throw Fury away. Then Snapjaw charged in to Striders. It managed to miss initial attack, and I really wanted two clouds to the middle. That meant Snapjaw went to full capacity on Fury, so Wrong Eye wouldn't be transfering anything if something tried to kill him.

Satyxis Raiders ran to engage enemy infantry and tried to place themselves so that if opponent attacked them I'd get nice cloud coverage.

Seether ran to block line of sight to Venethrax.

Then it's Legion. Lylyth used her feat, too. I guess Venethraxs' clouds did limit targets Legion had. But thanks to my blunder with Wrong Eye & Snapjaw, Wrongeye died to a couple of Ravagore shots. Possibly to just one.

If my math is right six Satyxis and six Nyss Hunters die to the feat, as well as Ogrun Bokur who took one shot that wanted to wreck Seether.

Turn 3 I thought that damn... I'm going to start dominating right here and right now. Tremulus gave Puppet Master for Satyxis Raiders, who then moved out of way of Bane Thralls and killed two Strider Deathstalkers.

Then it looked like 6" might be enough to get Seether to contact with one, hopefully two Striders close to the enemy objective. Well... perspective and desperate hope can lie to you harshly sometimes. Seether's advance fell short almost a quarter of an inch from the closer Strider.

Here I stopped trying to play scenario this turn at all. Well, sure, Bane Thralls charged the objective dead, but that's it. Venethrax advanced to the zone, but missed attack against a Strider Deathstalker, and didn't have guts to buy additional attacks.

One Ravagore frenzies. Lylyth2's tier list doesn't allow any kind of fury management, so I guess the turn after Lylyth's feat is always a little exciting. This time it cost one Deathstalker for Legion.

What's left of Striders kill Nyss Hunters. A Ravagore enters melee with Seether but fails to deliver the killling blow. Seether has only movement left.

Turn 4 the very same Seether hits with both hands against Ravagore. That's 4+ on one die! And both attacks dealt a minimum of two points of damage with one die. The jaws killed a Strider. Pretty good performance from a brutally mauled wreckage.

Satyxis ran to engage the back line Ravagores.

Venethrax advances to melee with Ravagore and provokes a free strike from Strider. Whee. Now that I think of it... only triple sixes would have dealt one damage point in. But it wasn't even a hit. I planned around on spending Fury enough so that once Venethrax cut down Ravagore, he would be at seven focus points again. And that succeeded.

Bane Thralls then charge around. One Bane goes for a Strider next to Venethrax and another for Ravagore in the back.

Legion then wrecks Seether and kills all remaining Satyxis plus most of the Bane Thralls. I think there were two left from the unit and the standard.

I don't entirely remember what Lylyth herself did here, but the end result was that opponent lost on Deathclock. We had been practising for a tournament. Otherwise I doubt I'd even mention that, but this was a special case that put me in a personal dilemma, distress, tragedy and you name it. Lylyth had been the last model to activate, and the clock ran out during last attack Lylyth was making. So there was no easy agreement of continuing game after dying to the clock.

Now. I have no problem of trying to play "as if" the clock would end the game. If I don't have much time left and we already have agreement of continuing game even after clock, I'm often willing to put myself in vulnerable position if there is a real-but-unlikely chance of pulling off an assassination or something during last few minutes of soft deathclock.

However.

I also had only a few minutes left on my clock when my turn would have started. There were two options here - to continue playing as normal, though game would have most definitely devolved into a slow-grind where Venethrax camps full focus every turn and kills any and all beasts that wandered too close to contest the zone. I felt like I had a strong position even if my forces were dwindling, but from that point either player might have emerged victorious.

Another possibility would have been to continue playing with clock as the most pressing imperative. But that would force me into a very silly position with game ending certain doom if failed and I might run out of clock during the attempt. I also didn't have the time to maximize my chances with the forces I still had left that turn, making it feel like I would basically give the game to opponent when the bell had already tolled for him.

This time the options were completely excluding each other out. Usually they aren't this extreme - especially in a situation where I'm running out of clock but opponent still has some. But in the end for the sake of authentic tournament practice we ended the game, but I still hastily activated Venethrax just to see if the few minutes would have been enough.

Now, this is my usual trick to make peace with my conscience. End the game, but still look forward a bit to see if end result would have been any different either way.

This time it would have made all the difference. Venethrax missed boosted charge attack against Lylyth, and all in total got only two hits out of four (boosted) tries and one unboosted try.

This sucks. I didn't even get a consolation for a tainted and cheap, hollow "victory".

Venethrax Doesn't Bother with Small Print

Last Saturday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine.

I thought to toy around with Venethrax since he's up in Active Duty Roster. If some sort of tournament comes around later this year, I might take part with Venethrax/Asphyxious1 list pair.

So this was my list:

Venethrax
- Seether

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
Withershadow Combine
Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Satyxis Raider Captain
Ogrun Bokur
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

Opponent was playing:

Northern Crusade tier 2
Hierarch Severius
- Judicator
- Reckoner
- Blessing of Vengeance

Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment

Rhoven & Honor guard
Covenant of Menoth
Hierophant
Vassal Mechanic
2x Vassal of Menoth

Scenario was Outflank and Protectorate started game. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1.

Turn 2 Blessing of Vengeance enters the... uh... right side? Upper? scenario zone, and Severius starts flinging spells. Most notably he just cast Influence repeatedly on Ogrun Bokur, who, as it looks like, still retains client bonuses even if he is controlled by the enemy. I guess Ogrun Bokur hastily showed up some sort of contract to Venethrax, who didn't even bother to read who had signed the contract. I bet he could have seen the shaky handwriting of the old man Severius on that paper.

Well, Ogrun Bokur single-handedly killed Snapjaw. Then Severius cast Fear of God on Seether, which came as a bit of a surprise. Somehow you'd think you can only cast that spell on units, but no, there is no such requirement.

I don't remember who eventually killed Ogrun Bokur, but its only use for me was to Shield Guard a shot against Wrong Eye. Wow. I didn't realise it then, but that Bokur truly was such a jerk. He shielded Wrong-Eye from damage all the while beating the crap out of Wrong Eye's pet alligator.

Temple Flameguard charge to engage Satyxis. They use their minifeat as Satyxis would ignore Shield Wall anyway. Satyxis passed their Command check.

Venethrax had cast Soul Harvester on Satyxis, and this was one of the first times for a long, long time where that spell was actually useful. But I'm getting ahead of things.

First Bane Thralls charge Blessing of Vengeance, but only two get into contact with it. Defensive Strike downs the other one, but it passes Tough check. I was thinking of using Admonia to get rid of Fear of God and possibly even Holy Ward on Temple Flameguard, but 6" move and 5" range fell about a quarter of an inch short from disbinding Seether, and almost two inches short of cleansing Flameguard. What a waste.

Now Seether could only go and punch Blessing of Vengeance once with no serious damage being done instead of performing a double handed throw and starting to score control points.

Venethrax advanced forward and camped some focus. He also had Dragon Slayer on. I wanted him mid-field to use his Feat.

Then Satyxis activated and used Power Swell. I should have probably saved that one for later, but somehow I was thinking the Sea Witch could die next turn somehow. Well, this yielded four souls for Venethrax and quite a few cloud effects.

Nyss Hunters sacrificed one of their own to cause a cloud effect close to Venethrax. They also shot one or two additional Flameguards, but that was all.

Wrong Eye advanced so that if it died next turn, he'd explode into a cloud that hopefully would block Line of Sight to Venethrax.

Turn 3 Severius used his feat and chose to kill Bane Thralls with it. Only Bane Thrall Officer died, though. Everybody else passed their Tough rolls. Next Severius casts enough Influences on a Bane Thrall so that it wrecks Seether. So now I had lost 18 points worth of models to attacks made by my own models. Oh well. At least Bane Thralls continued to roll Tough rolls like crazy - Bane Casualties for that turn were only the Officer and one other Grunt - and three that were knocked down.

I think only one Satyxis died to Flameguard, and Wrong Eye got pasted by Judicator.

But I needed to take some drastic actions now to stay in the game. Both Seether and Snapjaw were gone, and most of Bane Thralls wouldn't be charging this turn.

But the Banes that are able to charge, charge Blessing of Vengeance, and even Judicator. I thought I might as well try to bring -2 ARM for Judicator, even if the chances were really low as the thrall in question needed to survive a free strike from Blessing of Vengeance. Didn't make it, as expected.

Nyss Hunters charge next, and five get to Judicator. The rest just try to look like they're doing something, even if they are not. Damage against Judicator is a bit on the poor side, but luckily they are not the only models I've got reserved for charging the colossal!

Then I activate Satyxis Raiders. I get four of them to charge Judicator, and the rest attack what's left of Temple Flameguard. It was a risk, since Satyxis would need to make another Command check. But I didn't want to waste, what, four or five Satyxis and their attacks just becauseI was afraid to engage Temple Flameguard. So... instead I wasted the whole activation of Satyxis Raiders. yup. Command check was double fives. Why, Toruk... Just why??

This time Admonia succeeded in bringing down Holy Ward, and Tremulus gave Puppet Master for Venethrax.

Would P+S 16 Venethrax bring down a lightly injured Judicator with 10 Focus?

Nope. Even with Puppet Master he leaves Judicator to two hit boxes. Two hit boxes... Such a low number was the dice gods truly rubbing it in my face with Satyxis failing their command check. After all, four P+S 9 +3d6 attacks, with possibility for a couple of horns + lacerator Combined Melee Attacks would have most likely scored at least two damage. Cortex and Movement were the systems that were still fully functional for Judicator.

Turn 4 and it was Protectorate's time to repair Judicator just one point and end the game. Choir sang hymns of battle, and Vassal Mechanic proceeded to roll the repair check. This time the Mechanic was as skilled in his craft as Satyxis were in their leadership - the check failed. Was there a glimmer of hope I see, now?

Probably not, since Severius cast Awareness, and started removing Bane Thralls with help from Blessing of Vengeance. Bane Thralls had passed approximately around 60% of Tough rolls they had needed to make during the game. So this is how it goes. Pass a maximum of 2 Tough rolls for three games, and then balance it with being right next to immune to damage for one game.

Reckoner takes aiming bonus and tries to shoot Venethrax. Intervening models are no problem thanks to Awareness. RAT 9 vs DEF 19. About 50% chance of spelling doom for Venethrax - and the roll fails. Imporant bit here is that Venethrax didn't suffer Flare penalties. MAT 7 Judicator tried to punch Venethrax next. It needed 8+ to hit the Lich Lord, but since its weapon systems were broken, a boost meant it had only two dice to try and reach that elusive 8+. Which never came.

But I couldn't sigh from relief just yet. Rhoven & Honor Guard charged Venethrax. Though only Gius or Cassian got into contact with him, that tiny knight had Blessed on his halberd. One swing took nine points off from Venethrax.

And last but not least, even the Temple Flameguard officer charged Venethrax and survived a free strike by some random Satyxis. He scored a hit, but dealt only two additional points. But worst part here was that Venethrax was now set on fire...

Well then.

Looks like I still have a turn to play.

Venethrax backs off like the powerful and fearless supervillain he is. But not before the Nyss butcher up Judicator, and Satyxis Captain takes care of Gius or Cassian. Last Bane Thralls and two charging Nyss finally wreck Blessing of Vengeance. Shame that I got no solos nearby to run to the zone and start controlling.

Turn 5 Severius seizes scenario game. Bane Thralls had finally stopped passing Tough rolls, but not before Severius had expended his last focus point in clearing the zone.

Because game had already lasted for quite a while, and control points were 0-2 in the favor of Protectorate, I thought it'd be best to try and assassinate the hierarch once and for all, and not try to whittle down enemy troops and hopefully contest enemy zone for many turns to come.

Five Nyss get to shoot Severius, but fail to kill him. He had been left with, what, two or three damage boxes?

Tremulus had one soul from earlier kills and he used that one for attack boost against Severius. It's a hit. Five or six for damage and Severius would be dead. It would have fit the big picture if that damage roll would have failed, but it didn't. Tremulus exchanged the soul of Vassal of Menoth to that of Severius.

Had that failed I guess I would have tried to charge Venethrax as far as possible and hope for a good deviation from Blood Rain. But that would have been quite a stretch.

Yet again a very close and very awkward game. So many game changing moments, where dice just went awry or critical distances were misjudged by quarter of an inch.

Whatever happened to Reinholdt?

During my trip to Kuhmo I played a traditional game of Warmachine.

It was a 35 point game and my list was:

Lich Lord Venethrax
- Kraken

Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Bane Lord Tartarus

Opponent had:

High Executioner Reznik
- Devout
- Crusader
- Reckoner

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Minimum unit of Holy Zealots
Knights Exemplar
Dartan Vilmon
Hierophant
Vassal of Menoth
Rhupert Carvolo
Saxon Orrik

Scenario was Close Quarters and Protectorate started game. First picture is taken from the end of Cryx turn 1. We played the grey movement tray as an obstacle, skaven screaming bell as obstruction and 5" AoE ring attached to a cardboard flower of sorts as a forest.

So far Kraken has tried to shoot Vilmon. Pow 14 just didn't do it, and Vilmon took only one point of damage. A choir member behind him died to the blast damage.

Turn 2 the Holy Zealots prayer for fervor and charged Satyxis. Only three got to make attacks, and only one hit.

Protectorate's heavy warjacks formed a wall to block Line of Sight to Reznik. Oh, and Reznik is the lone Bastion out there. Original model had broken down (or had never been glued in the first place...) so we needed a substitute. Amon has also had to endure an insulting demotion to a mere hierophant.

Reckoner tried to shoot the Sea Witch, but missed. Those words will be plentiful in this battle report. This and that missed.

Cryx... oh, hey. Don't get any crazy ideas there. I may sometimes make sub-par choices on the field, but even I cannot wreck my own undamaged colossal on my own turn. The wreck marker is for a bit more accurate positioning,

First Kraken activated and put a Zealot into its furnace. I had loaded the thing with Focus, and Kill Shot was targeted at a gathering of Knights Exemplar. The shot missed. At least the blast damage rolls (some of which were boosted) were enough to kill three Exemplars.

Venethrax activates and casts Lamentation. He then advances as far as he was required to get Reznik inside his control area. He had both Ignite and Iron Aggression on. Venethrax uses feat.

Satyxis use Power Swell and charge around. Leader misses both attacks on Rhupert. Two Satyxis damage Crusader for a grand total of two or three damage points. Third one missed.

Five combined melee attacking Satyxis manage to kill three Zealots. "Yo dawg, we heard you like misses, so we put misses in your misses so you can miss with a miss." One Satyxis tried to attack a Knights Exemplar, but either missed or didn't damage.

Bane Thralls tie up Vilmon so he wouldn't win scenario alone.

Turn 3 Zealots, Knights Exemplar and Reckoner butcher almost all the Satyxis. An honourable mention goes to Crusader, who managed to miss three out of its four possible attacks. Reznik uses his feat, which made otherwise "okay" situation into a challenging one, as I couldn't load up Kraken with Focus.

Kraken eats at least one, possibly two Zealots.

Tartarus charges Reckoner and curses Crusader. Damage roll was abysmal. Satyxis then get themselves out of the way of Bane Thralls, and fail their command check because of Reznik's Terror. Good thing that Venethrax has command 9, because they didn't fail Venethrax' command roll. Out of all the attacks they did, only one hit but dealt no damage to Crusader.

Bane Thrall officer mauls respectable damage in to Crusader. Another Bane Thrall that was able to charge it... missed.

Venethrax advanced with full camp.

Turn 4 for Protectorate was an onslaught of terrible misses. With all of their combined might, Reckoner and one P+S 15 weapon master Knights Exemplar took only about half of Kraken's damage boxes. With no systems broken. Only an Ancillary Attack from Vassal caused Kraken to lose right arm.

Devout missed both attacks against Satyxis. Crusader did manage to destroy Bane Thrall officer.

Cryx loaded up Kraken with full focus, who rolls for some absurd damage against Reckoner and wrecks it. Of course effective P+S 23 helped there.

Remaining Satyxis, a Bane Thrall and Bane Lord Tartarus do some damage to Crusader, but I think it lost only movement and the fist weapon.

Turn 5 Protectorate kills Tartarus, and the last remaining Satyxis fails a command check. Reznik comes to the sight, and I curse my poor positioning, as Venethrax wouldn't be able to charge him from behind an obstacle. He was camping something like four or five Focus. Reznik, I mean. Not Venethrax.

Venethrax then loads up Kraken and shoots Vilmon dead with a boosted Hellfire instead. Kraken and Bane Thralls dispatch half-dead Crusader. Rolls are generally fairly poor, and I had hoped Crusader would go down in just a couple of swings. Devout might have suffered a few attacks, then. But as I had only one Focus left after wrecking Crusader, Kraken made an attack against Rhupert instead. Kraken hit him and killed him, and Kill Shot was launched against Hierophant, Vassal and last remaining choir members. Needless to say, the shot missed and killed only one of the choir boys. Sure... both Hierophant and Vassal did get caught under the template. But POW 10 blast damage only gave them a new haircut.

Turn 6 Saxon Orrik killed the Bane Thrall standard bearer. Somehow you'd think the old man is not such a great melee piece, but he does have MAT 7 and P+S 10, which actually is a fairly good chance of taking a Bane out. Then it was a clear charge to Venethrax with Reznik, who cast Engine of Destruction.

Why the title?

Well... I'll just leave this here. Call it Arcane Wonder, Effigy of Valor or even a Stockpile.