TaTaPe warmachine tournament day 2

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

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

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

2x Forsaken
2x Shepherd
2x Deathstalker
Spell Martyr

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Game 2:

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

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

Gorten had:
- Ghordson Earthbreaker

Maximum unit of Kayazy Assassins + Underboss

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Gorten uses his feat.

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

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

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

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

One unit of Eliminators ran to engage Morvahna.

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

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

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

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

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

Well, that was about all I could do.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phew.

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

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

TaTaPe warmachine tournament day 1

Last weekend I participated in a warmachine tournament at Tampere.

It was 50 points, 1-2 lists and divide & conquer [1]

My lists were:

Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Megalith
- Feral Warpwolf
- Woldwatcher
- Winter Argus

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gatorman Witch Doctor

And

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
2x Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Ravager White Mane

I made a last minute change to my Morvahna2 list, because I realised that neither list had power to crack any heavier targets, and changing ravager shaman and reeve hunter to Gorax I thought I'd be able to finish my turn a little bit faster.

And about the Morvahna1 list... well, that one I didn't practice at all. And why should I have practiced it? I played Morvahna a lot in Mk1 and during field test of mk2. End of sarcasm.

First game was against Retribution of Scyrah, so that pretty much meant I should pick Morvahna2 because of the abundance of Eirysses in that faction.

Dawnshadow got Issyria, the Sibyl of Dawn versus her. This was nice, since I had never played against Issyria, and I want to complete the entire set.

Issyria had the following list, barring any errors I've made in recollecting details from pictures:

- Hyperion
- Chimera

Maximum unit of Mage Hunter Strike Force + Commander
Maximum unit of Dawnguard Invictors + Unit Attachment
2x Mage Hunter Assassins
At least one Arcanist
Eiryss2
Sylys Wyshnalyrr

First scenario was Fire Support. First picture is from the end of Circle turn X. Carnivore was on Wolves of Orboros and Fog of War was on, too.

Next turn it's Issyria's feat turn, and Fog of War plus various Stealth abilities were made useless. Chimera had ran close to Wolves of Orboros, and Issyria cast Blinding Light on them.

Feat + Blinding Light meant that Mage Hunter Strike Force butchered most of Wolves of Orboros eventhough they were on a hill.

Ravagers also took some heavy casualties, but no unit was completely wiped out.

The thing that mattered most was, however, that Hyperion and Invictors shot Pureblood Warpwolf down to some six hit boxes remaining, after which it was finalized by a Mage Hunter Assassin.

Morvahna used her feat next, obviously. I had been left with too few models to make much damage against enemy, and Ravagers managed to whiff all of their attack rolls against Eiryss. So I would just receive another round of decimating shooting.

Gnarlhorn Satyr went and controlled one control point for Circle, and Winter Argus advanced and put on it's animus.

Next turn all but two Ravagers died, and all but two Wolves died. Gnarlhorn Satyr, Gorax and Winter Argus were still intact, as well as a broken unit of Shifting Stones and one Gallows Grove.

Issyria had been advancing closer, possibly to dominate flag later on. But to me it looked like there was around 10" in between Issyria and Winter Argus. That was the only thing I could possibly do to try to win. There was, however, some models standing in the way. Only one completely blocked the charge, but a lot more might be able to make a free strike.

I figured I could get rid of the prohibiting model with blast damage from a Death Knell blast damage, if Shifting Stone teleported close to it. Shifting stones, however, had Stealth from Stone Keeper.

Two remaining Wolves of Orboros activated, and one of them tried to kill Stone Keeper, and the other one wanted to poke the Winter Argus blocking Mage Hunter through a wall. Both Wolves failed in their attempts.

Gorax activated, used Primal on Winter Argus and ate the Stone Keeper. I'm not entirely sure if it's economical for a secret druidic cult to use highly trained spellcasters as ape food, but hey, the stones no longer had Stealth since it's a Granted ability on Stone Keeper.

Morvahna activates, casts Death Knell on the stone, kill the important target and then she casts Carnivore on Winter Argus.

Winter Argus charges Issyria, survives a free strike and kills the Sibyl of Dawn.



Game 2:

Second game was against Retribution of Scyrah. I was prepared to get another Issyria thrown against me, but instead Morvahna2 was eyeballing Vyros2 from across the table. I didn't feel like I had any choice in picking lists again. On top of Eirysses all over the place, Issyria list had Hyperion and Vyros list had Imperatus. My list with Morvahna1 didn't have even a remote chance of downing either one of those.

Vyros2 had a list:
- 6x Griffon
- Imperatus

Maximum unit of Dawnguard Invictors + Unit Attachment
Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Eiryss2
At least one Arcanist

Scenario was Rally Point. I think Retribution started game, and first picture is from the end of Circle turn 1. I tried to jam the enemy zone with Ravagers. I felt pretty confident that I could carelessly throw the Ravagers away. Two were even in charge range. One charged Invictors and the other one a Griffon.

But damn those Griffons are fast. Any hopes I had for dominating my friendly zone were lost by those three light myrmidons. I had decided to drop Carnivore alltogether, as there wasn't that many living enemy targets around. Morvahna advanced, cast Purification and re-cast Fog of War.

Next turn Vyros used his feat. He was a bit focus-starved. I had hoped that Vyros would have some problems with activation order since he had to activate first before any of the Griffons if he wanted Synergy chain going on that round. But there was no problems. He just activated first and cast Synergy.

Three Griffons on right raised the Synergy count, as well as two on the left. Then the last Griffon (who had some focus) charged Pureblood Warpwolf, who had already taken some hits from Invictors' shooting. Pureblood was no more.

On my next turn I make the thing that gives this write-up the "fail" tag.

I had lost a lot of models last turn and if I managed to destroy something, whole Vyros' battlegroup would just outmaneuver me. I see a possibility for an unlikely assassination. My plan was to destroy one of my own Groves, activate Morvahna, advance and feat the tree into Vyros' back arc. Note to self: Vyros does not have a back arc.

I was also going to teleport Winter Argus close enough to spray Vyros, hoping for a critical hit. If Vyros would be stationary, Blackclad Wayfarer would have no problem in landing yet another pow 12 hit to Vyros. So, I feated a Shifting Stone back into formation, too.

See anything wrong there?

It was absolutely worst time to learn that Dawnshadow's feat does not bring back non-living models. Well, harsh lessons like that are the best teachers, though. I doubt I'll ever forget about that again. I had, however, gone too far already in my assassination attempts to back off.

Morvahna cast two Sunder Spirits on Vyros, dealing damage well enough to make assassination a possibility with the remaining attacks I got.

For some reason, though, I had feated a wolf of orboros badly in the way of Blackclad Wayfarer, and Winter Argus would take three free strikes from Griffons.

Gorax was able to reduce that number to two by performing a successful two-handed throw on one of the Griffons.

It is possible that I could have reduced the number of free strikes to only two if I had not thought it was possible to bring Shifting Stones back with Morvahna's feat. Gnarlhorn Satyr could have thrown or head-butted one Griffon, and Gorax possibly another one. Ironically Winter Argus had all branches intact after resolving first free strike. Second free strike dropped both Mind and Body.

But, hey! It was the very same Winter Argus from my last game. It needed 11+ to hit Vyros and 7+ to damage, and with boosts these could be attempted with two dice.

Both sprays hit after re-rolls from Morvahna. One of them even did a couple of points of damage. Heck, that Argus did not fail - I did. This might have been a second caster kill for the woofie.

Blackclad Wayfarer was way too far because he had to dodge two Wolves of Orboros.

Well, at least I was able to fulfill someone's dream of getting to hit enemy warcaster/warlock with Imperatus with full +7 Synergy chain. I guess it was an icing on the cake that the warlock in question was one of the most annoying ones.


Game 3:

Oh my. Third game did not have Purification or Eiryss in either list. I was against Circle of Orboros, facing either Baldur1 or Krueger1. I took Morvahna1, as I could at least be sure that Regrowth is not taken away in as rude manner as possible. Every turn.

It turned out to be Morvahna1 vs Krueger1, and the Stormwrath had following list:

- Feral Warpwolf
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Woldwarden
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Nyss Hunters
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Druid Wilder
Gatorman Witch Doctor
+2 points I just can't figure out

Scenario was the tried and tested good old Incursion.

I must say that 8" + large base + reach is an awful lot of threat. I guess I should know since I play Circle myself, but no. I think Krueger started game, and the first picture is from the end of my turn 1.

Krueger used primal on both Warpwolf Stalker and Feral Warpwolf, and Lightning Tendrils were on Feral Warpwolf. So... I just lost both of my heavy warbeast.

And most of my infantry.

At least Druids of Orboros were safe from Krueger's feat, and at least whole unit of Wolves of Orboros did not die, so I could burn away all of Morvahna's fury to Regrowth Wolves back. I guess that might have been my chance to do anything useful during the game had not Megalith and Feral Warpwolf fallen so ridiculously.

Well. At least I knew those two enemy heavy beasts were going to frenzy next turn. Wolves of Orboros failed in gathering Fury for Morvahna with Harvest, and Morvahna had only two Fury to use during her activation.

"I might as well try" was the main principle in charging to Warpwolf Stalker with Morvahna, scoring a hit and then killing the beast with transfer from Harrow.

I couldn't get anything done with Feral Warpwolf, and it was turn.

Stalker frenzied, and random target was indeed Morvahna. Damage roll was amazing - the beast killed itself and some damageeven came through back to Morvahna. Just as I had planned.

Then shifting stones teleport Woldwarden to Morvahna's back arc. Just... eh... as I had planned?

Morvahna died, and at the end of day I was at one victory, two losses.

Prior Philip wins again (Pillars of the Earth)

We played a Pillars of the Earth game with some family members.

Not much to write about, except it was a three player game.

Prior Philip was there for anyone to pick in the very first turn, and he did not have to wait for long - in three player game that's almost a guaranteed six extra points.

And in the end scores were something like 54, 50 and 46, with winner being the player with Prior Philip.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Last Tuesday I played a Warmachine game.

There is a 50 point tournament coming, and I decided to do something different this time. First time ever I enter with a list I have actually played at least once before the tournament.

So, this was that practice game. Oh, and we were practicing some Deathclock, too.

My list:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Winter Argus

Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Shaman + Chieftain

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
2x Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Ravager White Mane

Opponent had:

Commander Adept Nemo
- Stormclad
- Ol' Rowdy
- Lancer
(Hunter?)

Maximum unit of Stormguard
Tactical Arcanist Corps
Journeyman Warcaster
(Hunter?)
Epic Eiryss
Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Ragman
Rhupert the Piper

I'm not sure if Hunter was with Journeyman or with Nemo. Scenario was Incoming, and Circle started game. First picture is from the end of Cygnar turn 2, I think. Fog of War is on, and Carnivore is on Wolves of Orboros. Arcane Shield is on Stormguard.

Eiryss drew first blood by sniping Blackclad Wayfarer with just one shot. White Mane avenged the fallen druid and killed with a charge attack, sprinting afterwards to engage Ol' Rowdy.

I decided to rush forward with all I got, and since I managed to block right side a little, I thought I might try to start dominating my friendly zone.

Arcane Shield is juggled to Ol'Rowdy next, and White Mane saves Morvahna from getting assassinated by a five focus Ol'Rowdy. Nemo activated too early, so Rowdy couldn't get the 3" movement boost from Locomotion. Instead Ol'Rowdy killed Gnarlhorn Satyr.

Emboldened by Morvahna's performance against the Protectorate of Menoth, she wanted to try to wreck Ol' Rowdy all by herself. Well, not all by herself. Winter Argus sprayed Rowdy to stationary. Wolves of Orboros tried to kill Stormguards to heal Morvahna, and they succeeded well enough. Then Morvahna activates and casts Purification to bring Ol' Rowdy's armor value to manageable levels. Mount attack hit automatically since Rowdy was stationary already, so now the warjack was both knocked down and stationary.

Morvahna did not wreck Ol' Rowdy, but if I remember right, she did knock off its Cortex. With light cavalry movement Morvahna backed off a little and used her feat to bring a wall of meat between her and Rowdy. Attrition was looking good at this point, but deathclock did not. I really need to speed up my game, or I will clock myself out from tournaments.

Anyway, there is now one full round in-between pictures.

Lucky location rolls had destroyed Stormclad's melee weapon, so it was an even fight between Stormclad and Pureblood Warpwolf. Nemo cast a couple of good Chain Lightnings that killed most of Circle's infantry, but Stormclad wasn't able to down the Warpwolf, not even with five focus. Sometimes that Def 14 seems like a gift from the sky.

Nemo had charged a Stormguard to get to the control zone to dominate it.

I had less than two minutes in my deathclock, so I tried to kill stormguard and Ragman with sprays from Winter Argus, and hopefully critical freezing the Stormclad. I don't remember what happened to the Stormclad, but just as I was going to activate Pureblood, the clock ran out. We still played it to the end, and Pureblood Warpwolf did tear Nemo in quite a few equal weighted pieces. However... in a tournament that would have been a loss, and a very annoying one.

Well, in about a week I'm going to see how it goes in a tournament.

The Talking Opal and the Singing Talisman

I had a quick chance to play a game of Talisman with just two players.

The reason I carried the many kilograms of expansion sets almost four hundred kilometres is that I wanted to play at least once with the Nether Realm before Woodlands expansion comes around. So, we played with The Hunt alternative ending, where you needed to collect four Nether Realm monster cards face down and reach Crown of Command first to win.

Characters we got were Tinkerer and Spy.

Both characters got quite amazing start - almost every card drawn was beneficial somehow. Spy in fact got such a bucketload of magic objects that he had to visit the alchemist in city and turn them to gold. Though he kept the magic wand and a bottle that could enslave any spirits or elementals he encountered.

Tinkerer, on the other hand, had plenty of friends. His friends included the Axe, who's advice was always welcome. There was also the Walking Treasure Map (which wasn't so successful) and once Tinkerer went to the Highlands, he found many jewels that whispered disturbing ideas to Tinkerer's head. Oh, and the sentient Winter Oil was an ingenious invention.

The fact that Tinkerer doesn't have any object - all object become followers instead - is quite amazing. He was completely immune to any effects that removed objects, and whenever some cards was drawn that did harm to followers, he just could draw a new one instead by discarding one follower.

Spy had a promising start, but somewhere along the way bad luck started following him. He missed turns in almost regular basis, and didn't draw any more good items, and no enemies. He did complete one Warlock's Quest and pastoral tunes brought a Warhorse for him.

Tinkerer managed to steal Spy's brass bottle and magic wand, and due to a miscalculation of odds he lost his Warhorse, too. I guess brass bottle found winter oil's eyes very beautiful, and magic wand had lively conversations with the four-clover leaf.

Too late Spy started to gain a lot of Craft, enough to try to race to Crown of Command. Late? Well, Tinkerer was already inside the Inner Region. The only possibility Spy had was to go and beat Eagle King, get Arnkell and Talisman somehow, enter Plain of Peril and then jump straight to Valley of Fire. It was a long stretch, but sometimes amazing things happen. Like the Vagabond starting a never-ending tale that Spy just had to stop listening every second turn (Vagabond makes you instantly lose the rest of your turn when you roll 1 for movement.)

Tinkerer had seventeen followers when he won the game.

Get off my lawn, you damn Raek!

Last Wednesday I played a 50 point game of Hordes.

I played with Circle, and my list was:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Winter Argus
- Woldwatcher
- Gorax

Tharn Bloodweavers
Maximum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Ravager White Mane
2x Gallows Grove

I had Legion of Everblight against me, with following list:

Saeryn
- 2x Scythean
- 2x Angelius
- Afflictor
- Raek

2x Strider Deathstalker
2x Forsaken
2x Nyss Shepherd
1x Spell Martyr

Eww. Not a nice list at all, but since I was playing Morvahna2, who am I to complain?

Scenario was Rally Point. Megalith and Wurmwood are the objectives for this scenario since I forgot to take the objective box.

Circle started game, and first picture is taken from the end of Legion turn 1. Well, it looked like both armies would horrendously dominate the enemy zone. Since Legion had so few models near their zone, I thought I might be able to contest my own zone better and possibly get scenario victory. Possibly.

Carnivore was on Wolves of Orboros.

I was a bit afraid of Scytheans and their animi, so Morvahna cast Sunder Spirit on the closest one, and then with light cavalry movement she rode far to the left, and Shifting Stones teleported her even further. I tried to get enough models to contest my friendly zone, but damn it. I didn't think of any of the basic tricks Legion has. And on top of that I was woefully underprepared for Saeryn's feat - I was expecting much more offensive use from that.

So, all the legion heavy warbeasts rush to their enemy zone, and Angelius just uses Repulsion to push the models away that other beasts had failed to kill. And then Saeryn used her feat. And the Raek was toeing my enemy zone, so Circle didn't gain any control points.

I had basically two options. Either I would focus on contesting my friendly zone with something a bit more meaty than infantry models, or then I'd try to kill Raek with Woldwatcher, Pureblood Warpwolf and two boosted Sunder Spirit's, and be back in the scenario game.

Well, I tried to take Raek.

Woldwatcher missed it's attack, but Pureblood hit. Morvahna used her feat to bring as many models to contest my friendly zone and then she tried to cast Sunder Spirit on Raek from a feated Gallow's Grove. Either I would make one fully boosted Spirit at Raek, or two half boosted spells. Morvahna didn't have too many damage boxes left, so she decided to cast only one fully boosted, since Raek would die if damage roll was 14. Difficult, yes, but hey, Scales of Fate work on herself, too.

It's a hit, and damage roll is something like 8 with three dice. Morvahna re-rolls, and the damage roll is something like 6 with three dice. Uh, that's it.

So now Legion only needed to wreck my objective and dominate their enemy zone for one round.

That's wasn't a big problem for them, really. Most contestors were repulsed away again, and the rest were killed by two Scytheans. There was one tricky Bloodweaver model, though. However, when Forsaken with its Abomination rule charged close enough, Bloodweavers failed their command check.

Now Angelius only needed to destroy the objective. Which it did, but not in one hit. In two hits.

Ah well, that game was lost because of some bad choices I made. I would have liked to play a little longer, though, since it would have been really interesting to see how the game would have went if there was a little more actual attacks going on. I mean, four heavies and two lights versus a ton of infantry models and only one heavy? And when a maximum of 15 of those infantry models would just come back, unless Scytheans managed to do some juicy bloodbaths with Slaughterhouse animus on?

Maybe one day.

Welcome to the Slaughterhouse(s)

Played two 35 point games of Hordes last Monday with following list:

Dominar Rasheth

- Archidon
- Rhinodon
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
- 2x Reptile Hounds

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen
Minimum unit of Paingiver Beast Handlers
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor
Feralgeist

And opponent had:

Thagrosh the Prophet
- Carnivean
- Ravagore
- Scythean

Maximum unit of Blighted Ogrun Warspears
Forsaken

Scenario was Close Quarters in both games, and Skorne started both games.

There's not much to say about the first game. Thagrosh was too close and had spent all his Fury because of a slight mismanagement of Fury. Rasheth had Carnivore on Rhinodon, Blood Mark on Thagrosh and then used his feat.

Warspears were lined up so that I really needed to kill a few of them or Rhinodon would take far too many free strikes on his was to Thagrosh. Basilisk Drake rolled pretty good rolls with the spray and killed maybe two warspears, and then reptile hounds took care of the last one who was threatening with a free strike.

But still... Thagrosh was Arm 16 with that -2 strenght bubble going on for him. Rhinodon was Enraged (P+S 16) and Thagrosh had Blood Mark and Plague Wind (-4 arm) so the final chances were MAT 7 (Carnivore) with all damage straight in to Thagrosh with four Fury. This time it was more than enough.

Well, next game went a bit differently. Or, quite a lot differently, in fact.


Game 2:

So, we got the same scenario and same starting order.

First picture from this game is actually from the end of Skorne turn 2. Carnivore had been cast on Rhinodon, and Rasheth has cast Blood Mark on Carnivean.

I thought I'd try to get some sort of alpha strike with Archidon, but the enraged charge was about quarter of an inch too short.

One full round has passed in between the pictures.

Warspears were punishing Praetorian Swordsmen, and Ravagore took a shot at Rhinodon, setting the turtle on fire. Scythean beat the crap out of Archidon, but didn't kill the beast. Carnivean backs up a little and sprays Archidon, killing it. This time I remember to use Feralgeist, who Spirit Binds the flying reptile.

Next Blood Mark is cast on Ravagore, and Rasheth cast Amuck to Rhinodon. Beast Handlers enrage Rhinodon and Rufus, the reptile hound. Basilisk Drake sprays Ravagore, and finally Rhinodon charges it, but fails to kill. Well, what can you expect from a 7 point base p+s 14 warbeast?

Next another Reptile Hound runs to engage Ravagore, after which Rufus charges with Slaughterhouse on. Damn the little dogs bite hard with that flank bonus - Ravagore was removed from play.

Again one full round is in between the pictures.

Attacking was tricky for Legion now. If Archidon would die, then Feralgeist would be free to give an additional hit to any of the many beasts Skorne got lined up in the front line.

I don't remember the exact activation order, but I think that Carnivean activated first and tried to kill Rhinodon, but failed.

Then Forsaken got Line of Sight to Archidon and charged it, killing it. Feralgeist popped out. Scythean used Slaughterhouse animus and advanced to remove Rhinodon and one of the Reptile Hounds from game. Since both heavy warbeasts were on full Fury now, Thagrosh started flinging spells all over the place. First he cast Mutagenesis on a Praetorian Swordsman, then advanced and cast another Mutagenesis on Feralgeist.

Meh.

Well, then it's Skorne turn. Swamp Gobbers run fast forward, and Rasheth uses one of them to cast Blood Mark on Scythean. He also uses Plague Wind, since it was quite imperative to get those heavy beasts removed from play. I think Rasheth also cast one Sunder Spirit at Carnivean.

Basilisk Krea paralysed Scythean, or at least tried to, I don't remember if it was a success.

Beast Handlers enrage Reptile Hound and Basilisk Drake. Drake charges Carnivean first and does impressive damage alltogether. But still the beast had a little too many hit boxes remaining that I could realistically hope for Reptile Hound to kill it... but that didn't stop Rufus from trying.

Reptile Hound uses Slaughterhouse and charges Carnivean. Damage roll was either 5, 5, 6 or 6, 6, 5. Oh my, Rufus had already taken down two heavy warbeasts. Was there any chance it would take down the whole trio?

No, no there wasn't.

Scythean Slaughterhouse'd both Basilisk Drake and Reptile Hound down, and the duel between Warspears and Praetorian Swordsmen was finally over.

So... I got two different options. I could try to kill Scythean with a couple of spells from Rasheth and Basilisk Krea. I think Scythean was on full Fury, so I also might try to kill Thagrosh with spells from Rasheth. Since Thagrosh had much less hit boxes than Scythean, I decided to try to go for the assassination, come what may.

Willbreaker gives Puppet Master to Basilisk Krea, who then advances and shoots Thagrosh with its blinded eyes. It's a hit! So, at least I wouldn't miss any of Rasheth's spells.

Slowly and unsteadily Rasheth lumbers forward and start measuring Control Area to see if Thagrosh was within 10". Turned out he wasn't. Damn it, why didn't I measure 14" before advancing? Well, then Rasheth tried to cast two Breath of Corruptions, hoping for good deviations. One of them actually was lucky, and I got to make a boosted POW 12 damage roll against Thagrosh. Well, I'm sure it's no suprise - it didn't one-shot Thagrosh.

Now. Situation was bad. It had been bad before, but now it was unbearable.

Ogrun Warspears assault Rasheth, but don't really do damage. There is, however, a Scythean within walking distance to Rasheth.

I took a close-up picture from the epic last stand of Rasheth. I mean, that Scythean sure has a meal on a plate right there. It's chin was in fact inside the chalice with that undefined yellowish drink.

The lack of a Bronzeback Titan was surely felt again in this game. It also didn't help much that I failed to estimate the 10.5" charge of Archidon on turn 2. Regardless, I was really happy with the Reptile Hounds. Their animi were quite essential in lessening Thagrosh's feat's impact. Now, come to think of it... I think every warbeast that got destroyed was removed from play in this game, except Archidon?

So, in this game Rufus played following tricks:

Kill: twice
Play dead: once.

Epic melé of ages

Last Thursday I played a 50 point game with Skorne.

My list was:

Lord Arbiter Hexeris
- Archidon (bonded)
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
- 2x Reptile Hounds

Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Maximum unit of Paingiver Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Aptimus Marketh
Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Opponent had the same list he had in last blog post, the one with Siege.

Scenario was Outflank, and Cygnar started the game. Since I played a game against Siege where my warcaster died straight to the get-go, I was a little bit too afraid of an assassination this time. In the second picture I start to chicken out with Hexeris. Looking back now I probably should have pushed more aggressively with the warlock, keeping a couple of Fury for transfers at all times.

As it happened, Siege just used his feat and destroyed both of my heavy warbeasts. And, well, all but two of Praetorian Swordsmen, too. It was quite apparent that I had lost the game already unless I went all kinds of crazy and the dice just wouldn't fail me.

I try to do the traditional Ashes to Ashes twice so that first Ashes went to Mortitheurge Willbreaker that ran close to Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers, and another was to go to back arc of Basilisk Drake. The Ashes to Ashes that was cast on Mortitheurge was quite successful, as it got five additional targets and didn't even kill the original target. The second, however... I didn't boost because I needed only 4's to hit the back arc of Basilisk Drake. Double 1's. Now that was a fine feat, wasn't it?

All in all the turn was quite miserable, but I got a good foothold to the control zone on right, and Siege was engaged by two Cataphract Cetrati. One of them even got a charge against the Cygnaran warcaster, but I don't remember if it did any damage.

Well, Cygnar continues to remove the warbeasts. Rufus the non-character character Reptilian Hound and Basilisk Drake are both destroyed. All the Praetorian Swordsmen are finally gone, too, as is the Mortitheurge Willbreaker. Since the game can't go much worse for me, I charge Hexeris in the middle of Storm Lances and Rangers and threshers them to death. He still has Basilisk Krea for a couple of damage transfers.

Then Defender smashes the blind frog into a paste, and Hunter takes a shot at Hexeris. Two Storm Lances charge Hexeris. I don't remember how much damage was dealt, but enough that Siege felt confident enough to charge in melee personally. Aaaannd...

Hexeris survives.

He was able to cut himself to full seven Fury, and Siege was focusless.

Now this was Hexeris's moment of glory.

However MAT 7, P+S 14 isn't enough to crack Def 14 Arm 20 warcaster (Siege had Arcane Shield on from Journeyman). I guess that's okay, since it would've felt like cheating if Hexeris had pulled off such a weird victory by just standing in the middle of enemy army when every attack made against him just keeps failing. It's good enough for me if Siege just crapped his warcaster armour when he saw that Hexeris just turned around and said something cool like "And you're next."

This was probably the first time ever I saw Siege in melee for two full rounds, and no less than against a warlock/warcaster model.

Rufus performed the Kill and Play Dead tricks in this game.