Game where nothing but epic things happened

Beginning picture was in fact an omen about the game to come.

We happened to roll for start with different dice so the dice were actually lying around in there so we could place them next to each other. Three times in a row we rolled same number for starting and only at fourth roll the starting the game fell on me.

Well, it was a 35 point game and lists involved were:

Epic Asphyxious
- Slayer
- Cankerworm
- Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall

Opponent had:

Epic Vlad
- Drago

Maximum unit of Winterguard Infantry (as this particular opponent builds love for them I have a firm foundation of dread, hatred and loathing of them + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Man-o-War demolition corps
Kovnik Joe
Drakhun (with dismount)
War Dog
Yuri the Axe + 2x Manhunters
Eiryss, Mage hunter of Ios

I had given a fair warning that I would be playing epic Asphyxious. In my opinion it is the Right Thing To Do in casual games because he really is a pain. Epic Vlad nicely counters on of the most annoying defensive mechanics of Asphyxious - the Caustic Mists.

But anyway, on with the game.

Winterguard Infantry were again on one flank and I was thinking of trying to ignore them again. This time I didn't have anything terribly fast in my list that could easily tie them up. I wrote in the picture some of the models that are either hiding from camera or too blurry. Eiryss tried to shoot Nightwretch with disruptor bolt but missed.

I begin my next turn from earlier picture by moving up my Nightwretch. There was less than half an inch too much so that counter charge from Drakhun didn't activate. I didn't know if that was good or bad. I tried to move close enough to give opponent the choice.

Withershadow gave Asphyxious the reroll and after that I activated Asphyxious. With Tremulus' reroll I was able to one-shot Drakhun to dismounted version with Excarnate. Losing the threat of counter charge I moved Cankerworm to kill one manhunter. With Asphyxious' affinity I then moved Cankerworm behind Eiryss. With everything else I advance cautiously, trying to stay far enough from Winterguard.



Yet I underestimated 6" move and 8" spray again. All except one Bile Thrall was destroyed by the sprays. Dismounted Drakhun tried to save Eiryss and actually hit Cankerworm and dealt loads of damage in. But would have needed one damage point more to destroy the armor piercing head.

Drago failed its charge for good which was a kind of a turning point in the game in a way. Man-o-Wars charged my Nightwretch and managed to destroy everything else except movement system.

Vlad moved then to position you can see him in and launched Razor Wind at the last remaining bile thrall. Had it survived there would have been quite a bit of sticky goo that formerly had been Winterguard.

Anyway.

I tried to charge with Bane Thralls but only one got to contact with Winterguard. One did go to the Man-o-Wars though. One failed its charge and rest just ran. Cankerworm made some lucky rolls and killed Eiryss.

Slayer advanced a bit and started beating Drago who was left with less than eight damage boxes after Slayer was done with it.

Enter Withershadow Combine. I actually managed to pull off Dark Industries on Drago and promptly got Harrower to deal with Winterguard. My joy wasn't long lasting, though.



I would have pretty much been Game Over there and then for me if I would've had any other warcaster in play. Did I mention I hate Winterguard Infantry?

Yuri killed one Bane Thrall.

Then body count for Winterguard Infantry for one turn: Admonia, Maelovus, Bane Thrall Officer & Standard Bearer, 8x Bane Thralls, 1x Winterguard Infantry, some scrap damages to my warjacks. Horrible. Absolutely horrible.

Just as things were going nice and smooth.

Also, dismounted Drakhun charged Tartarus and killed him.

Vlad used his feat and made remaining Man-O-Wars killing machines, one Manhunter and the War Dog.

War Dogs movement was enough to dodge Harrower and still go bite Tremulus. Tremulus was left with one hit point.

Man-o-Wars killed few remaining Bane Thralls and the Nightwretch.



On my turn I allocated focus to Cankerworm and Slayer. Cankerworm moved in and bit the dismounted Drakhun in half in scuttled next to Man-o-War.

Slayer one-shotted one Man-o-War with Combo-Strike. Remaining focuses were spent on trying to buy attacks against def 14 Man-o-War but all missed. But most importantly, Harrower was free now.

It moved as far as it could next to Winterguard and treshered its melee range empty.

Asphyxious was brave enough to charge the War Dog himself. Dog would've been killed but it passed its tough roll. Then Asphyxious teleported to safety.

Necrotech finished the bleeding puppy.

Tremulus then charged the remaining Man-o-War and managed to hit because he had gaind the war dogs soul and was able to boost his attack. Man-o-War didn't die, however.



Opponent was then hell-bent on killing the Harrower. All the Winterguard tried to shoot it and did damage. One Winterguard did kill the Necrotech, though. Remaining Man-o-War destroyed the Cankerworm with few good rolls.

Manhunter tried to charge Harrower but fell short. Yuri did the same and didn't fall short. Only his attack wasn't enough. How ironic - autonomous Harrower lost it's cortex and nothing else. It still had on damage box left in left and right arm and movement. Exactly everything that was needed.

Asphyxious himself charged remaining Man-o-War, killed him and teleported to where you can see him in pictures second part.

So, Harrower moved a bit forward and treshered Yuri, Manhunter and Winterguard officer to death. That warjack is a walking nightmare. Almost more so than the actual Nightmare. Slayer charged two winterguards and promptly killed them.



And the remaining winterguard bastards managed to wreck my precious Harrower!

Their death count for the game was staggering. But maybe my pain is eased by the fact that the Harrower wasn't actually originally in my army list.

I moved Slayer a bit to kill the winterguard standard bearer. I really wanted the two remaining to be killed too so I moved as near as I could with Asphyxious and launched Excarnate on one of them. I shot another one at the last guard standing and spent the last focus on boosting to hit because the last one was in cover to me.

Then Vlad himself came and did short work of my last model, the Slayer helljack. So it was Vlad & Kovnik Josef against Asphyxious alone.

Well, on my turn Asphyxious charged Kovnik Joe. I boosted to hit and Joe was killed. Asphyxious had 6 focus remaining. For a short moment it was two epic casters face-to-face.

Asphyxious boosted to hit and Parasite hit home with boosted hit. Vlad was behind my wreck marker so he was in cover but luckily for me, attack roll was high enough.

Then it was time to use Asphyxious' feat.



And then brave brave sir Asphyxious teleported away.

Tartarus cursed Vlad and charged in.

Attack roll was succesfull and enough damage sank in to leave Vlad crippled with 5 damage boxes remaining.

However, then the real challenge began, as now Vladimir was sitting at a nice defense of 18. My resurrected Bane Thrall officer had two MAT 7 attacks and the remaining had MAT 6. Because of Tartarus' Curse officer needed "only" 9's to hit. Missed both.

Then the little grunts started pouring in and I needed 10's to hit.

One bit home.

And rolled enough to make Vlad join the Spectral Legion.

End of a very cool game!

(Oh, and if you're wondering about the bane thralls in the close-up picture they were placed a bit shoddily there and Vlad's cloak messed up the placing of thrall officer.)

Lose some, win some.

I played Warmachine today at friends place.

We played two 25 point games with following lists:

Mortenebra
- Slayer
- Cankerworm
- Deathripper

Minimum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Withershadow Combine
Satyxis Captain

versus

Epic Vlad
- Drago

Maximum unit of Winterguard Infantry + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Kayazy Assassins + Underboss
Greylord Ternion
Kovnik Joe
War Dog


And second pairing was:

Warwitch Deneghra
- Corruptor
- Nightwretch

Minimum unit of Mechanithralls + Brute Thrall
Minimum unit of Soulhunters
Bane Lord Tartarus
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren

versus

Butcher
- Kodiak

Great Bears of Gallowswood
Maximum unit of Winterguard Infantry + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Kayazy Assassins + Underboss
Kovnik Joe
War Dog

So on with the game reports:

Game 1:



After first rounds movements things looked like that. I had originally deployed my Satyxis to the rightmost center but I decided that I got better use out of Satyxis elsewhere and tried to remove the Winterguard threat just by ignoring them. Also if they would actually present themselves as a juicy target I was sure I could launch Satyxis back at them with their amazing threat range.

Anyway. Such pondering was a bit useless as opponent did something unexpected.



So, epic Vlad used his feat. Four Kayazy Assassins were affected. If they had been about half an inch closer Mortenebra would probably have taken 3x MAT 12, P+S 15 damage boosted charge attacks where were one additional dice around, lowest discarded.

Well, luckily for me, they weren't half an inch closer and I got only one such attack. Still got six points in from only one such attack.

All in all things didn't look too bad because I had survived epic Vlad's feat with only six points of damage in and dead Sea Witch and one Satyxis Raider.

Those 3" area pieces of paper are, by the way, centered on the models they're closest to.

Well, I decided that the playing board looking like it did, it was time for me to wrap up the game and beat the snot out of Vlad.



It was all too easy!

Drago had moved to block Line of Sight to Vlad. However, Deryliss moved and put up Overrun on Mortenebra.

Then Mortenebra did something a bit foolish. She moved a bit and provoked one free strike. I wasn't too aware of the fact that Hand of Fate was active even on my turn. Well, Mortenebra survived the free strike. With one hit point!

Anyway, after that it was way like a walk in the park or a ride in the rollercoaster! Mortenebra cast Terminal Velocity, used her feat and killed one of the Kayazy near her, triggering Overrun. I moved Slayer so it had Line of Sight to Vlad, though there was one bothersome War Dog standing in its way.

Well, a three Satyxis Combined Melee Attack killed a Kayazy engaging Cankerworm, who after that charged the War Dog and ate it. If I smoked tobacco I would have lighted a cigar of victory at this point and if I grew moustache I would have twirled it already, savoring my awesome victory!

Well, then I moved Withershadow Combine and Admonia dealt 3 points of damage to Vlad via Unbinding. Tremulus gave his feared, game-winning re-roll to Slayer.

Then Slayer charged Vlad and decided to use Combo-Strike. Vlad had armor 19 at the moment.

So, Slayer crushed Vlad under its mighty strike that hit home. Victory for the mighty forces of Cryx!



Except.

Umm.

How the heck did that happen?

Well, for starters, the Combo-Strike damage roll was only 4, 3, 2 which meant I would be dealing 12 points in, which wasn't enough to one-shot Vlad. I decided to roll the 3 and 2 again using Tremulus' re-roll because it would've been so damn easier to deal only a couple of damage in with following attacks and getting 8 with two dice isn't impossible, which would have killed Vlad.

Well, the re-rolls came out as 3, 1. So I gave only 11 points in.

Then... Terminal Velocity gave boosts against living models and I had 3 focus on Slayer. That meant 3x p+s 16 attacks. Vlad did have defense 18 from his "get bonuses from being damaged" thingy but getting 11+ was within totally possible range even without getting to re-roll all the failed rolls.

But I did.

I didn't manage to roll 11+ even a single time from six tries I had.

Vlad survived with 4 damage boxes left.

Then Drago charged Mortenebra who had defense 15, arm 16 and one hit point left.

Drago had full focus and Hand of Fate from affinity.

End of this sad story.

Game 2:

Next game I happened to won the starting roll which seems to be a bit rare for me.



In this game too I was resolved to stay as far away from the Winterguard Infantry as possible, again.

But this time, as I was facing the Butcher, it meant that if I didn't confront the Winterguard I was against defense 17 Kayazy Assassins (defense 19 in melee).

I ran my Nightwretch real close to Kayazy and decided to try to put Crippling Grasp on them. And I succeeded and I thought I could sigh from relief until I realised that even after giving one of the best debuffs in the game to them they still had defense 17 against melee attacks.

Anyway, I put a Parasite on the Kodiak too. Then I just shuffled around because opponent didn't have any real threat range.



Anyway, things could have looked grim here.

I had placed Soulhunters way too up so Great Bears had an easy charge against them. Butcher also moved up front and used his feat. So two prancing ponies were reduced to little more than disgusting miasma.

This time Winterguard failed one important mission, though.

Four of them made it close enough to Tartarus so they could use their spray on him. And Butcher's feat really does affect also ranged damage rolls. I had to look that one up from the book, so amazing it sounds.

Well, the first shooter missed Tartarus altogether, that in hindisght probably was the miss that saved him. Because next spray hit and dealt 4 damage, next dealt 3 and last dealt nothing.

Tartarus still standing when people are lined up like there in the picture always makes Cryx player smile.

But also that line-up meant a devastating feat turn for Deneghra's feat.

Which promptly happened.

I moved Deneghra as much as I could to catch opponents whole army under her feat and flinged Scourge at the War Dog that was sitting real close to Butcher.

I scored a hit and the War Dog died and, well, Butcher was knocked down. That changed my plans somewhat. Even when the Thresher attack looked tempting on so many warrior models I really wanted Tartarus' weapons to bear at Butcher.

Remaining Soulhunter charged one Kayazy Assassin, getting itself so it could make two attacks at Winterguardsmen too who were standing in Tartarus' way. Well, it missed the Kayazy (MAT 8 missing any warrior model that suffers from Deneghra's feat and Crippling Grasp with other double 1's is just plain... wrong.) but killed the two Winterguard and used light cavalry movement to get from Tartarus' way itself.

Then Warwitch Siren moved up and lined a perfect Venom spray at three Kayazy's, all of whom died. Even the one who was preventing Tartarus' charge at Butcher.

Tartarus then charged and gave tons of damage in to Butcher. But still Butcher had tons of damage left so no big deal there...

Then Corruptor aimed and shot Butcher and managed to do some damage even (Butcher had -4 armor from Dark Shroud and Deneghra's feat).

Skarlock also threw one Venom at Butcher and it did some damage in too but still the bastard was left standing. (Yeah, he was standing even when he was knocked down! Or at least even when he lies on his back he still towers over the feeble, skinny wussies of Cryxian empire!)

Not many warcasters can boast surviving a well enough arranged Deneghra assassination run.

Luckily Butcher couldn't do much on his own turn as he himself and his army was suffering from Deneghra's feat. He did kill Tartarus though that kinda stuff he does in middle of breakfast and going to toilet in the morning.



He cast Iron Flesh on himself and camped one focus.

However, Kodiak came too close to him.

When it was my turn Deneghra upkept Parasite on Kodiak, gave two focus to Corruptor and launched a Scourge at Kodiak. Resulting area of effect knocked Butcher down too and then Deneghra charged in herself.

And Butch got served. On a plate. To lord Toruk.

2.12. War Dog kills Strakhov

Played against Khador today. It was a 35 point game.

My list:

Witch coven of Garlghast
- Slayer
- Harrower
- 2x Nightwretch

Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Withershadow Combine
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall

Opponent had:

Strakhov
- Kodiak

Great Bears of Gallowswood
Maximum unit of Winterguard Infantry + Unit Attachment
Greylord Ternion
Maximum unit of Man-o-War Demolition Corps
Widowmakers
War Dog
Kovnik Joe



Here is a picture I took from the end of first rounds movements.

Cycling Infernal Machine is something I have rarely done this "professionally". And sure my heavy warjacks ran disgusting distances! Oh, and in case someone is wondering about the wreck marker in the woods, it's actually the Kodiak that couldn't balance too well on some rubble.

Meatshield lining up in form of Winterguard Infantry gave me some headache but let's talk about it more when I get next picture up.



I thought I'd lose all my heavy hitting power next turn unless I used my feat. I could go and beat the hell out of Winterguard Infantry with Harrower but then there were Man-o-Wars just polishing their, umm, hammers?

So, I ran a Nightwretch into woods where the Kodiak was lying. Admonia had upkept Infernal Machine on Slayer.

I shuffled around in the middle, I knew that even with my feat on the Winterguard would be spraying around. But still I didn't realise how lethal rat 3 with boost could be... Anyway, I wanted to clear path for my Coven to move as much forward as possible, put on feat and Veil of Mists (no marker for it in the picture but it's in the forest where Slayer is) and shot Curse of Shadows on the Kodiak (who had Superiority on, by the way).

Tremulus gave his re-rolls to Slayer and then it charged to Kodiak.

And it would've been joyful to witness that dice-rolling if it didn't bring a tear to my eye.

Charge attack roll: Double 1's. So I had to use Tremulus' re-roll exactly there and not save it for dice screw at damage roll. Well, I gave 13 points in with my Combo-Strike, broke Kodiak's movement and started to buy more attacks.

Second attack: double 1's.

Third attack: Scored a hit. Damage roll: double 1's.

Also, by the way, Slayer is standing on top of the tree there where the crude arrow shows and wreck marker is still the Kodiak. Who, as it just happened, didn't transform into it's proxy.

Then I brought stuff forward. I didn't want to do anything "real" with the Harrower because bringing it to melee with winterguard would have probably meant some charging Man-O-Wars up its face. So I tried to place it as front as possible to make it difficult if not impossible to line Winterguard for perfect sprays.

Well, winterguard DID line up. And it sure looked hilarious, next picture is taken from Harrower's view...

I chuckled at the idea of Tresher attack.

I didn't chuckle any longer though when the infantry did their sprays.

Lost like 4 Bane Thralls and Necrotech, which was acceptable enough even from rat 3 sprays, but one of the winterguard one-shotted Admonia which wasn't only an insult to injury but also, like, a double injury (anyone noticing my figures of speech to be... lacking?). Pow 10 would kill a Withershadow member only on damage roll of 5 & 6 or 6 & 6. It was 5 and 6.

Anyway, curious things happened at the woods. Things that made the game, actually.

Strakhov himself charged Slayer (and in turn gave me 13 points in) and also put Overrun on Kodiak.

Then some Man-O-Wars came and mauled Slayer real good, too, and it was left to a shabby condition for Kodiak to deliver Overrun which would bring Strakhov to safety (Strakhov in middle of white circle in messy picture).

Kodiak beat next and scored hits with all of its attacks which were boosted. Superiority and my feat kind of canceled out each other. However, first damage roll was double 1's. Yay for me. Next damage roll was rather high, though, but not high enough. It left Slayer with just one damage point left in Cortex.

Well, then Widowmakers moved as close as possible and one of them was in range. They have the ability to deal 1 point of damage instead of a normal damage roll.

Widowmaker scored a hit and that's the reason you see Slayer wreck on top of a tree. But most importantly, no overrun for Strakhov.

Then the last turn of the game started.



One Winterguard was in front of Harrower on whom I had upkept (myself now as Admonia was killed) Infernal Machine.

Skarlock launched a Stygian Abyss on it and it was gone.

Then I decided to take a pot shot with aiming Nightwretch in the forest at one Man-O-War. It hit just barely but damage roll was double sixes.

After that I lined my other arc node in position to finish the dog. Then witches shot a to-hit boosted Stygian Abyss on the poor pup and boosted damage too. However, the bugger made its tough roll.

Then Harrower advanced, starting in the back arc of the unfortunate Strakhov.

It walked up to where you can see it and used Tresher. Only the War Dog was killed.

Tremulus had given its re-rolls to Harrower.

When Tresher came into contact with Strakhov I managed to score a hit but damage roll (which I boosted) was only 1,1,2. I decided to re-roll all of them via Puppet Master. I rolled 1,1,3.

So I bought another, damage roll equaled 4.

I was needing only fives to hit so I didn't boost my attack rolls and was able to buy still one more attack with focus. Damage roll was 6. That was 15 points in.

Then the soul of Strakhov's most beloved war dog got me yet one more attack and it was the end of Strakhov.

25.11. Epic Sorscha mistakes skorne's pointy bits as hammers to be nailed in.

So, today it was Skorne against Khador. It was a 35 point game and I was sporting with:

Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Minimum unit of Beasthandlers
Aptimus Marketh
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor (who you can see blurry in starting picture. At first I thought I'd take pictures that showed only or mostly painted models but, well, it was a bit impossible.)

Opponent had:

Epic Sorscha
- Beast 09
- Devastator

Great Bears of Gallowswood
Maximum unit of Winterguard Infantry + Unit Attachment
Greylord Ternion
Kovnik Josef
Gorman diWulfe

And it happened so nicely that for starters I won the starting roll. Nothing much happened as I advanced cautiously as did my opponent and to cut short on the reporting nothing here's a picture from the end of my second turn. I decided to take the picture a bit farther away so that the level of my unpainted-ness wouldn't show that badly.

Anyway.

I had put up Psychic Vampire, Death March on Praetorians and Soul Slave on the Bronzeback.

You can also see in that picture my greatest single mistake in the whole game, which was to gravely underestimate the 6" move and 8" boosted hit sprays.

Now thinking back I should have been more courageous with Hexeris and put him in middle of praetorian because I was sitting anyway with Krea's animus that made both Hexeris and everyone within 2" of him difficult to hit with ranged attacks.

But leaving speculation behind, here's a picture that makes things a bit more clear:

I was thinking that I'd lure the winterguard to kill a few of my swordsmen, I was considering 5 or even 6 kills wouldn't be too bad because I had Aptimus Marketh close by. But the resulting bloodshed killed nine of my swordsmen and the bloodrunner master tormentor.

Epic Sorscha came there a bit too close and got two damage points in because of casting spells under my Psychic Vampire. In that picture you can see a bit more clearly my futile attempt at making a death trap to one of the heavy warjacks. Luckily opponent didn't take the bait because, uhh, well, after that situation we had a talk where I was reminded that Beast had thresher. So maybe risking two free strikes Beast could probably have taken down all my Cetrati and Bronzeback too. Eww.

My response:

You can't see epic Sorscha in that picture really well but she's behind those two huge warjacks.

First I moved my Basilisk Drake up there and sprayed a lone winterguard who was standing there. Opponent had messed order of activations a bit so Winterguard didn't have Iron Flesh on. Had they had it quite a few of my swordmen would have been saved but no. It was the critical inch there...

Anyway, basilisk managed to score a hit on Sorscha and deal 8 points in which was a success in my book.

Then I got a bit too greedy with Hexeris. I wanted to get the full use out of his feat so I moved him to a risky position with only little gain. I had upkept all my spells with Aptimus. I tried to make a potshot with Obliteration against Sorscha, I hit Devastator in front of her and got a blast damage roll against her. I boosted it of course but resulted in no damage.

Then my remaining few praetorians advanced to the winterguard and used the minifeat of theirs. I managed to kill four winterguards, all of which were turned into my zombies but not one of them managed to hit their fellows. Why is this feat always so glorious when I use it?

Then I tried to put some stuff in front of Hexeris to block the easy charges against him.



You can see how much that helped, though.

Sorscha was feeling brave and moved close-by and used her feat. Then she shot remaining two praetorians with her quad-iron. Also she took one point of damage from casting Boundless Charge on Beast 09 so she had only 6 points remaining.

Then came the Greylord Covenant and tried to spray the remaining models from Beasts path away and well, they succeeded. Partially at least.

They didn't manage to kill Aptimus Marketh (who did take 2 points in from one spray) but they did kill the most important blocking Cetrati with few lucky enough rolls. Sorscha's feat is annoying because it escalates the lucky rolls of the little performers to astonishing heights.

But they all died to Psychic Vampire though, the Greylords I mean.

Then came the remaining winterguard and shot Aptimus to pieces.

Funny thing in the last picture, however, is the fact that it's not the picture of the last turn of the game!

Beast put on Murderous which even froze Hexeris on the first strike which also dealt 28 points of damage. Twenty eight.

But I had two fury remaining for transfers and such damage was promptly dispatched to Bronzeback.

Next damage roll was double 1's and I sighed in joy. Double ones dealt, under epic Sorschas feat, only 10 points in.

Last damage roll did a bit more, I think 22 points in. Which was transferred to my undamaged Basilisk Drake and some damage even came back from there. But Hexeris survived.

My response:

I thought my only chance would've been either to destroy the undamaged Beast 09 and then charge Hexeris to Sorscha or get a line for my Cetrati to charge to Sorscha. The line that was there would have provoked too many free strikes from both Beast and few Great Bears.

Earlier in game I had been toying around with the idea of Beat Back on Hexeris' weapon.

I got all I could away from my Krea and one I got from reaving a dying Bronzeback. Then I had to cut myself all I was able to and it resulted in having 6 fury for Hexeris, who was then at only one hit point.

Hexeris shaked off the stationary (though this was done on the hindsight - both forgot he was frozen but fury was enough to backtrack that a bit) and upkept Death March that Aptimus had cast on Cetrati on the last turn he was still alive.

So I shuffled there a bit and Beat Back Beast 09 as far as I could to open a charge lane to Sorscha who was behind a fence (+2 to defense in melee). I think Hexeris even did a few points of damage in the way!

Well, I needed 9+ to hit and I managed to bring only two Cetrati in melee with her. One died to a free strike from a Great Bear.

Sorscha had 6 hit points left and had one focus left on her. So if even one of my attacks hit her she would die on a damage roll of 11 with four dice.

But as it happened, even if I could have "combined" their attacks rolls together I wouldn't have hit her. First Cetrati rolled 1 and 2 for hit. Second one rolled exactly same.

Then it was the last round of the game.

Sorscha Cycloned in and killed all the three beast handlers you can see there and then charged Hexeris herself. She managed to hit and let's have the picture speak for itself: (the faction dice you can see there is the charge damage roll)

Painted pool party

I finished painting all the new Sacred Pool characters for talisman.

They are pretty much the finest miniatures that Fantasy Flight has come up with Talisman. Even Cleric who is the smallest of the lot is pretty decent sized. At least when you compare her to the ancient but tiny weeny vampire that was introduced in last expansion...

But anyway, now I'm ready to play a game of Talisman. Hopefully it'll be soon enough.

17.11.2010 - Touched by Evil. Twice.

Today I played two games of Touch of Evil at friend's place.

First game we randomised the villain and got Necromancer up.

Heroes involved were Anne-Marie the Schoolteacher and Eliza the Witch Hunter.

All in all that game was incredibly brutal. Zombies were popping up from everywhere, which was most of the fun of course. It didn't actually help that Eliza couldn't win any fights but luckily Anne-Marie managed to get herself one book that made her able to beat zombies rather single-handedly. Their ears may have rotten off but still they dissolved at Anne-Maries words of wisdom.

However, there were just too many and Eliza lost way too many turns by getting Knocked Down during mystery phase.

The game was over almost before it even started. When Anne-Marie bit the dust while Eliza was lying there at the Town Hall there were twelve monsters on the board by then.

Because first game was so short we decided to play another against the same villain. We randomised heroes again though and this time we got Katarina the Outlaw and Isabella von Took.

That was an awesome game.

Again it was "zombies, zombies everywhere!" atmoshpere but this time the heroes fought back valiantly.

It did help that Isabella was able to ditch most of the random wounds the Living Dead gave her by losing Investigation Points. Also Katarina was blessed with plenty of wounds and good combat abilities.

However, Isabella had a bit too high opinion of Katarina because she was sure Katarina could take on all the zombies marching toward the Town Hall. By leaving the village and venturing off to monastery Katarina was left with around four or five zombies to take care off.

It should have been piece of cake for Katarina though but even zombies can roll triple sixes with four dice it seems.

But it was not all in vain, because Isabella found spiritual enlightenment from the monastery. She found an item that rised the Honor of her by +2, and earlier in the game Isabella had the courage to eat a really exotic meal with the Hanbrooks at their manor (roll 3 dice, 1 wound for every 1-2 rolled because it tastes so weird and for every 6 you gain one honor because you manage to eat it with a smile). Those together raised her Honor to equal Katarina's, which in turn managed her to train her skills so that Cunning and Spirit was equal to 8. (If they weren't 8 or more combined the villain would've been next to impossible to defeat).

However, because of nasty rolls from the zombies Katarina shared the fate of Eliza from earlier games. She lost quite a many turns because she got knocked down during mystery phase, but different from Eliza was the fact that she managed to kill her tormentors before she went down herself, giving her enough investigation points not to lose items when she got up.

When Isabella came back from Echo Lake things were looking nice on the zombie front, both had enough brawn to fend them off. But then a few mystery cards made things desperate.

First, came The Hour is Late, meaning it was guaranteed that the Shadow Track dropped every single turn. And once it's red you get two zombies every turn instead of one.

But once "Something Wicked" hit the board it was decided that there would be no other chance than to start Showdown as soon as we could. We had geared up nicely, though both were rolling only 5 dice on damage.

Well, Katarina had spent most of her game lying knocked down at Town Hall. It was a bit weird that she hadn't figured out already that villain was hiding exactly there.

Showdown started with Isabella with three investigation, four base wounds and 5 dice on damage and able to prevent 2. Katarina had four wounds too and no way to prevent them and 5 dice too.

Villain had 16 wounds and 7 damage dice (one of each being the "Good" Doctor)

Well, Villain rolled rather badly but we didn't exactly shine either.

First round Isabella gave Katarina a total of 13 dice to damage.

On third fight round Katarina died but Isabella was still saved but left with only one wound. Fourth fight round Isabella was dealt two wounds, both of which she prevented. Villain had two wounds and Doctor Manning with him, which still meant 7 fight dice.

Isabella had 5 fight dice and crossbow, which meant that as long as one of the dice she rolls is a 6, one additional wound is delivered.

Well, Isabella was splattered to the wall, but as her last effort she managed to... roll a 6. Only one 6. Which meant the villain was left with one wound that obviously was Doctor Manning.

So if a storyline is to be found, the Necromancer either fell and Doctor continued his reign of terror or if not, he healed Necromancer after the heroes were turned into hideous zombies...

Sacred Pool in my pocket

I bought the Sacred Pool expansion to Talisman today.

First thing you really notice is how massive the new miniatures are. It will really be a funny game where there are the Magus, Pixie and Leprechaun together.

Best thing about Sacred Pool seems to be that the new characters aren't laughably overpowered. All of them are pretty "balanced".

Alternative ending cards are quite a disappointment however.

Sacred Pool card is nearly identical to the other "revealed" card that makes you complete four quests before you can win the game. The difference is that you don't have all the quests at the start of the game and you need 4 discarded quest rewards to start the race to crown.

Demon Lord is really stupid alternative ending too. It's a "boss" with lots of Craft. Also one of its rules makes it impossible for other players to enter the inner region when someone's at the crown, battling Demon Lord. So it's kind of an automatic win when a player with high Craft gets there.

Also that ending makes craft users more powerful, again. What I've played Talisman is most often won with Craft so if Demon Lord would use Strenght instead this might be interesting alternative end...

Last card, Judgement Day is actually quite interesting. It's a bit like Hand of Doom. Dice rolls of 4-6 are different kinds of wins, either by just you or with some other players.

2-3 results in your death. However, if you roll 1, the alternative ending is discarded and the game goes as it's printed in the rulebook. Also, every player can modify the roll before the roll is made by 1. So that means that you, as the entering player to crown of command, want as much + modifiers as you can get. Obviously other players don't want that so they give you as much - modifiers as they can... but if they give too much they actually give you a chance to win still.

Nothing exceptional caught my eyes when I skimmed through new adventure cards. Quest Rewards, stable deck or new spells didn't really make an impression either. They're all nice to be there though.

Vassal being the relief

when you can't arrange games in a timely fashion.

Today I played a 35 point game, epic Asphyxious vs Vayl.

My list was:

Epic Asphyxious
-Stalker
-Seether
-Ripjaw

Full unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Mechanithralls + Brute Thrall
Gorman diWulfe
Bane Lord Tartarus
Skarlock

Opponent was sporting:

Vayl
-Carnivean
-Angelius
-Shredder
-Seraph

Full unit of Hex Hounds + Bayal.


Legion of Everblight actually seems rather nice army against epic Asphyxious. Caustic Mists don't mess up opponent that bad so the battle feels more like it's taking place on equal terms.

Anyway, opponent won starting roll and opening was pretty brutal. Legion advanced real fast and so did I. I moved most of my troops way within opponents charge and all kinds of destruction range on purpose because hey, I was playing Epic Asphyxious.

First lesson learned: it's easy to dodge Caustic Mists if you place them badly. Second lesson learned: Tough works only 33% of time or actually a little less.

I got half of my army butchered including the Seether. Then opponent used his feat to move everyone away.

Well, I wasn't feeling too worried because hey, I played Epic Asphyxious. I managed some shenanigans (charged Tartarus to Hex Hounds and killed one and made one thrall able to charge Angelius while rest beat Hex hounds) and Skarlock succesfully cast Parasite on Angelius too.

When I charged that damn beast with that Bane Thrall I was giving it -5 to armor. However, Bane Thrall missed the attack and so did my Brute Thrall and two Mechanithralls. Yeah, three attacks needed 8 to hit it and two 9's but still I didn't think it would've been that impossible to get even one decent hit in.

My army slowly whittled away but I didn't think it was worrying because hey, I was playing Epic Asphyxious.

I did an unsuccesful attack with my Stalker against the beasts that were guarding Vayl and didn't really take Chiller into account. Dark Sentinel made mincemeat out of my Stalker (or, the next turn a frenzying Seraph did but before dark sentinel hit made me lose two focus.)

Hex Hounds, while they aren't exactly a tar pit unit tarpitted all my plans at my side of the board.

Finally they were down to one hound and I had a small score of bane thralls and bane lord Tartarus with me. Opponent had all beasts intact.

I had a moment where I could have charged my own bane thrall, used my feat and would have probably killed off Carnivean and maybe did some damage to Angelius. Now on hindsight I should have taken the chance because if opponent was reduced to only Seraph, Shredder and Vayl I could have had a decent chance of getting them with Asphyxious, a handful of Bane Thralls and Tartarus.

But I chickened out and did something real stupid instead, moved close to Tartarus and put up Soul Reaper and Caustic Mist on the remaining Hound.

Maybe I will remember now, then, that Hellbound doesn't actually prevent a charge when you're standing almost base to base with another model.

Carnivean charged Tartarus and after him it finished Asphyxious in two hits.

I weep, bitterly.