I visited some friends in Vaasa, and I brought a couple of board games with me. They were Dead of Winter and Small World.
We had three players for Dead of Winter. Mission for the first game was the usual "We need more samples". I had Gray Beard the Pirate and Meyers, the Psychologist, as my starting team. My personal victory condition was to equip at least four gun cards for my survivors, and drop morale to 0. Yes, I was the betrayer.
Gray Beard was terrible at searching, and psychologist was rather a bad fighter. He was a lot better at searching for stuff, so I sent psychologist to police station to gear up, and the pirate was left at the colony. He was ordered to clean the junk there, and that took a heavy toll on his dignity. First failed crisis was "Shaking things up", which made everyone to give one of their survivors for the player on right (or left?). Gray Beard the Pirate would not tolerate such insulting activities, and he deserted my betrayer party.
I got the sheriff guy with the baseball bat in his place.
The psychologist found a sniper rifle and night vision goggles at the police station, and sheriff got a cigarette lighter. That was already half of the guns I needed, so I started to consider the best possible and least suspicious was to lower morale. I tried to not contribute many cards for crisises, but suddenly another player made lowering of morale easy for me. Some kind of firefighter entered police station when there was already my psychologist and three zombies, plus a noise token. Fire fighter died to spawning zombies, and psychologist died to a zombie attracted to the place by the noise token.
Uh oh. Yeah, the morale took a dangerous dive, but now my survivors had the cigarette lighter as the only equipped gun...
Sheriff found a chemist at the gas station, who went to search for the body of psychologist at the police station. Turns and turns of frentic searching and polite asking of a gun from another player finally got me enough guns for my victory condition. However, there was something like eight samples already, so game might end very soon. Morale was at two when ninth sample was acquired, so before survivors checked for main objective, I needed to make the morale drop.
It seemed unlikely, though we did have a crisis we most likely wouldn't be able to handle.
But then suddenly a hope appears. My survivors rescue a truck driver, who moves to police station right away. He had lower influence than the chemist, so in case of additional zombies he would die first. There were three zombies at the police station, and now two survivors. Unless other players might somehow kill a zombie from police station, morale would drop for exactly two.
And that's what happened.
Crisis lowered morale, and suddenly a wild truck driver appears, who's only purpose was to go and die miserably.
I was the only betrayer. Game ending was very trigger happy.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Enter Venators - Venators have left the building
Last Thursday I got to play a 50 point Warmachine game.
This time around I played with my other tournament list, which with a little tinkering with specialists looked like this:
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Archidon
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer
Minimum unit of Venator Reivers + Unit Attachment
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Aptimus Marketh
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Opponent had:
High Executioner Reznik
- Reckoner
- Vanquisher
- Avatar of Menoth
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Hierophant
Reclaimer
2x Vassal of Menoth
Wracks
Scenario was Two Fronts, and Skorne started the game. First picture is from the end of Protectorate turn 1.
Iron Aggression is on Reckoner, and Ignite on Temple Flameguard. Skorne had Soul Slave on Archidon and Death March on Praetorian Swordsmen.
Turn 2 my newly acquired Venator Reivers advance and use their minifeat to add +4" range for their attacks. I wanted to take out Hierophant, and possibly tickle Bastions a little before moving back with Reform. But the curse of unfinished models must be true. First three venator CRA missed Hierophant with double ones. Second three man CRA hit, but dealt only something like three damage boxes. Wow. Such performance.
Other than that, Witch Doctor gave Zombify to Praetorian Swordsmen and Tyrant Commander gave them pathfinder. Then Praetorians ran, so a couple of them would engage Temple Flameguard and most probably trigger Vengeance. Bronzeback ran a little, and took concealment from the forest.
There seems to be a full round in between the pictures. Protectorate, however, mostly just advanced during their turn 2. Vanquisher shot a its towards Venators, but was out of range. Two tries (another from Ancillary attack) scored one perfect deviation, which caused the death of three Venators. Bastions charged objective and ran forwards. At least the objective didn't get destroyed right away.
Reznik shoots a Hex Blast to Venators' general direction, and just look at that. A whole unit of Venators didn't get to kill anybody, and got wiped by just a couple of attacks. Well... now I'm being unfair. Whole unit didn't die. The standard bearer survived.
Turn 3 seemed like it was the best timing for Hexeris' feat. Avatar had advanced so that I was wagering that Bronzeback might be able to get to Avatar, if it managed to charge a Temple Flameguard member and beat back to Avatar. So that's what I tried. But the concealment I took from the forest proved to be Bronzeback's downfall. Footslogging in the forest was enough to make the charge fail. Well played.
Witch Doctor gave Zombify to Swordsmen again, and Tyrant Commander gave Pathfinder for them. Then the tyrant charged Avatar and hoped for a good enough damage roll.
Basilisk Drake attempted to put some pressure to the leftern flank I was losing hard. The two damage rolls it got to make against Bastions were really good. First one scored something really absurd, and second attack would have killed a second Bastion also if it was not for their special rules of having the choice to divide damage. Oh my. I forgot to make feat move with the dead Bastion. I doubt it would have changed anything, though.
Swordsmen then use their minifeat and butcher a whole bunch of Temple Flameguards, who in turn transformed into zombies. It was okayish feat I guess, though it ate a lot of time from my clock.
Then there was operation "Save the Bronzeback". Enraged Archidon charged Avatar and hoped for some good damage rolls. Damage rolls were terrible, but scored a Critical Pitch. Archidon threw Avatar away, and managed to land it on a spot that made a charge to Bronzeback difficult at least for as long as Archidon was alive. If Avatar rolled only two focus, there might still be a game for me. Maybe. Possibly.
Agonizer cried for no arcnodes and no focus allocation, and ran forwards.
Turn 3 Avatar didn't roll two focus. It rolled four. So it removed Archidon with ease, and even had focus to activate Menoth's Gaze. Vanquisher set Agonizer, Bronzeback and Tyrant Commander on fire. The attack dealt seven points of damage to the Agonizer, which was somehow fitting. Tormented baby titan crying from unimaginable pain - what could be worse? A tormented baby titan on fire crying from unimaginable pain.
Bastions somehow manage to fail both at destroying the objective and killing the Venator standard bearer. Maybe this was a message for me - don't trust shooting. Only do melee.
But then Reznik charged the objective dead and cast Hex Blast on the Bastion that failed to kill the Venator. Attack hit and boosted blast damage killed the Venator. He wasn't a hero, after all.
Though situation on the right wasn't that bad, Protectorate scored three scenario points from this maneuver.
Turn 4 I followed my dreams and lived life to the fullest, not listening to the shallow expectations of society. In another words... I screwed up. I was so fixated on getting Bronzeback to Avatar and smash the holy vessel to smithereens that I noticed a little bit too late that I wouldn't be able to get anyone to contest my friendly zone. At the start of the turn I made a quick inventory of the situation - Beast Handlers, Basilisk Drake (provided it could get away from melee somehow) and Basilisk Krea all would be able to enter the zone. So no problems there. None at all.
Then Beast Handlers activate, and enrage Krea and Bronzeback. So much for running to contest. Praetorian Swordsmen continue to harvest Flameguards, and they punch some holes into Reckoner. Nothing fancy.
Tyrant Commander strikes a Flameguard dead, and then Bronzeback activates, destroys the objective and Avatar despite some lousy attack rolls. Whee. I succeeded. Now, let's get back to the more pressing matters at my friendly zone...
Well.
There was nobody to dislodge Drake from melee.
Krea had been enraged, so it couldn't run. It had to charge.
Protectorate went to five control points.
Obviously I dedicated way too few models to contest the zone. Of course it didn't help that the Vanquisher killed most of the unit in one activation. But with more modest casualties there on turn 2 perhaps I could have delayed the inevitable loss of the zone with one turn, or something. Who knows. Badly deployed and badly played. Hopefully I'll do a little better this weekend.
This time around I played with my other tournament list, which with a little tinkering with specialists looked like this:
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Archidon
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer
Minimum unit of Venator Reivers + Unit Attachment
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Aptimus Marketh
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Opponent had:
High Executioner Reznik
- Vanquisher
- Avatar of Menoth
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Hierophant
Reclaimer
2x Vassal of Menoth
Wracks
Scenario was Two Fronts, and Skorne started the game. First picture is from the end of Protectorate turn 1.
Iron Aggression is on Reckoner, and Ignite on Temple Flameguard. Skorne had Soul Slave on Archidon and Death March on Praetorian Swordsmen.
Turn 2 my newly acquired Venator Reivers advance and use their minifeat to add +4" range for their attacks. I wanted to take out Hierophant, and possibly tickle Bastions a little before moving back with Reform. But the curse of unfinished models must be true. First three venator CRA missed Hierophant with double ones. Second three man CRA hit, but dealt only something like three damage boxes. Wow. Such performance.
Other than that, Witch Doctor gave Zombify to Praetorian Swordsmen and Tyrant Commander gave them pathfinder. Then Praetorians ran, so a couple of them would engage Temple Flameguard and most probably trigger Vengeance. Bronzeback ran a little, and took concealment from the forest.
There seems to be a full round in between the pictures. Protectorate, however, mostly just advanced during their turn 2. Vanquisher shot a its towards Venators, but was out of range. Two tries (another from Ancillary attack) scored one perfect deviation, which caused the death of three Venators. Bastions charged objective and ran forwards. At least the objective didn't get destroyed right away.
Reznik shoots a Hex Blast to Venators' general direction, and just look at that. A whole unit of Venators didn't get to kill anybody, and got wiped by just a couple of attacks. Well... now I'm being unfair. Whole unit didn't die. The standard bearer survived.
Turn 3 seemed like it was the best timing for Hexeris' feat. Avatar had advanced so that I was wagering that Bronzeback might be able to get to Avatar, if it managed to charge a Temple Flameguard member and beat back to Avatar. So that's what I tried. But the concealment I took from the forest proved to be Bronzeback's downfall. Footslogging in the forest was enough to make the charge fail. Well played.
Witch Doctor gave Zombify to Swordsmen again, and Tyrant Commander gave Pathfinder for them. Then the tyrant charged Avatar and hoped for a good enough damage roll.
Basilisk Drake attempted to put some pressure to the leftern flank I was losing hard. The two damage rolls it got to make against Bastions were really good. First one scored something really absurd, and second attack would have killed a second Bastion also if it was not for their special rules of having the choice to divide damage. Oh my. I forgot to make feat move with the dead Bastion. I doubt it would have changed anything, though.
Swordsmen then use their minifeat and butcher a whole bunch of Temple Flameguards, who in turn transformed into zombies. It was okayish feat I guess, though it ate a lot of time from my clock.
Then there was operation "Save the Bronzeback". Enraged Archidon charged Avatar and hoped for some good damage rolls. Damage rolls were terrible, but scored a Critical Pitch. Archidon threw Avatar away, and managed to land it on a spot that made a charge to Bronzeback difficult at least for as long as Archidon was alive. If Avatar rolled only two focus, there might still be a game for me. Maybe. Possibly.
Agonizer cried for no arcnodes and no focus allocation, and ran forwards.
Turn 3 Avatar didn't roll two focus. It rolled four. So it removed Archidon with ease, and even had focus to activate Menoth's Gaze. Vanquisher set Agonizer, Bronzeback and Tyrant Commander on fire. The attack dealt seven points of damage to the Agonizer, which was somehow fitting. Tormented baby titan crying from unimaginable pain - what could be worse? A tormented baby titan on fire crying from unimaginable pain.
Bastions somehow manage to fail both at destroying the objective and killing the Venator standard bearer. Maybe this was a message for me - don't trust shooting. Only do melee.
But then Reznik charged the objective dead and cast Hex Blast on the Bastion that failed to kill the Venator. Attack hit and boosted blast damage killed the Venator. He wasn't a hero, after all.
Though situation on the right wasn't that bad, Protectorate scored three scenario points from this maneuver.
Turn 4 I followed my dreams and lived life to the fullest, not listening to the shallow expectations of society. In another words... I screwed up. I was so fixated on getting Bronzeback to Avatar and smash the holy vessel to smithereens that I noticed a little bit too late that I wouldn't be able to get anyone to contest my friendly zone. At the start of the turn I made a quick inventory of the situation - Beast Handlers, Basilisk Drake (provided it could get away from melee somehow) and Basilisk Krea all would be able to enter the zone. So no problems there. None at all.
Then Beast Handlers activate, and enrage Krea and Bronzeback. So much for running to contest. Praetorian Swordsmen continue to harvest Flameguards, and they punch some holes into Reckoner. Nothing fancy.
Tyrant Commander strikes a Flameguard dead, and then Bronzeback activates, destroys the objective and Avatar despite some lousy attack rolls. Whee. I succeeded. Now, let's get back to the more pressing matters at my friendly zone...
Well.
There was nobody to dislodge Drake from melee.
Krea had been enraged, so it couldn't run. It had to charge.
Protectorate went to five control points.
Obviously I dedicated way too few models to contest the zone. Of course it didn't help that the Vanquisher killed most of the unit in one activation. But with more modest casualties there on turn 2 perhaps I could have delayed the inevitable loss of the zone with one turn, or something. Who knows. Badly deployed and badly played. Hopefully I'll do a little better this weekend.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Big Bully Titan (and nothing else)
Last Tuesday I played a 35 point game of Warmachine. I decided to construct my list only from the models I got in my upcoming tournament lists.
My list was:
Void Seer Mordikaar:
- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- Cyclops Shaman
Minimum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Minimum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Objective: Arcane Wonder
Opponent had:
Lich Lord Venethrax
- Slayer
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Withershadow Combine
2x Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
Objective: Arcane Wonder
Scenario was Two Fronts and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 2. Venethrax had cast Dragon Slayer upon himself, and did not quit upkeeping it during whole game. Mordikaar has cast Hollow on Praetorian Swordsmen and, well... Also Banishing Ward on himself, but that was just a fancy way of dumping Fury away.
Turn 2 looks obviously quite a nice spot for Mordikaar's feat. I also have some fantasies about the minimum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen erasing all Mechanithralls from existence. But first Cyclops Shaman tries to stare down the Brute Thrall. He almost succeeds - only one damage box remaining on the target.
Archidon is enraged by the Beast Handlers, and then it puts its own animus and charges a corporeal Pistol Wraith. It's a miss, so last Fury has to trigger Sprint somehow. Archidon buys an extra attack against a Bane Thrall and hopes it doesn't succeed in a tough roll. But the extra attack is also a miss. Only a re-roll from Willbreaker's Puppet Master saves the situation. I nearly forgot about the ability altogether. With a little better memory I could have probably taken out the Pistol Wraith instead.
Bronzeback puts its own animus on himself and takes a modest start at wrecking things. Bronzeback only advances a little, kills a Mechanithrall and moves backwards with Beat Back movement. Mordikaar advances now, casts Revive to bring back one Swordsman, and then he uses feat to give +3 DEF for the whole army minus one Praetorian Swordsman.
Praetorians charge Mechanithralls, and their attack rolls are a beauty to behold. But some insist that true beauty always needs some imperfection to make the beauty more real. And looks like the Praetorian Swordsmen were true aesthetics, when they killed all but one... ONE Mechanithrall. And I had only the Catapahract Cetrati to activate any more, and of course I had blocked their most obvious charges with my own models.
There was one tiny spot one Cetrati could try to squeeze in (in the picture that's the Cetrati C), but looked like he'd never get within 2" of the Mechanithrall. But Cetrati had taken some advice from various meme owls and cats and whatnots and was like "if i fits i sits", and took down the last Mechanithrall. Phew.
Cryx couldn't do much on turn 3. They killed a couple of Praetorian Swordsmen, and that's it. But that also meant that Venethrax really didn't need to spend much Focus. I think he used one to boost attack roll against a Swordsman, or something. Bane Thralls also engaged everything on my friendly zone and destroyed the objective. Plasma Nimbus took one Bane Thrall with it. Whee.
On my turn I have the options of trying to reduce the Bane Thrall horde and hope I can somehow kite Venethrax for the rest of the game. But I have this personal problem of mine of trying to go for an assassination if I can get at least something like 50% chance of success. So that's what I tried.
I had to remove Warwitch Siren and a Bane Thrall from Bronzeback's way somehow, cast Ghost Walk on the beast and give a charge target for it so that it would get into contact with Venethrax. Cataphract Cetrati succeeded in killing the Siren with a Combined Melee Attack. And since I was going all out for assassination, after that Mordikaar cast Ghost Walk on Bronzeback and Essensce Blast on one of the Cetrati. Spray was targeted at Venethrax, who suffered one damage point.
Praetorian Swordmen offers itself as a charge target for Bronzeback, and Cyclops Shaman takes down the Bane Thrall that was in the way of Bronzeback. Archidon tried to come and wreck Slayer, but got a free strike from a Bane Thrall instead and lost its Body branch. At least it scored a Critical Pitch. Whee.
Then Bronzeback is enraged and given Puppet Master. Bronzeback Charges Praetorian Swordsman officer, and unleashes both initial attacks and five Fury on Venethrax. Dice -5 for damage was a pretty good chance of scoring a caster kill with so many attempts. But to get those "dice -5" damage rolls you actually need to score hits. Even with Puppet Master only one attack hit that I was able to boost for damage, and last attack I couldn't boost to hit or to damage got lucky on its own.
So... finally Bronzeback had some challenge in combat. Finally he was against somebody who could take a little beating with real chances (but not guaranteed) of surviving. This was a true test for the offensive capabilities of Bronzeback Titan. And what does it do? He fails so very miserably. My disappointment was great. Looks like Bronzeback is just a big bully who has become so used to beat little kids and the elderly that once he's against another tough guy like himself, he gets scared and doubtful. Shame on you, Bronzeback. Shame on you.
Turn 4 Bane Thralls beat Archidon and Venethrax beats Bronzeback. All three Bane Thralls who get to attack Cyclops Shaman miss their attack rolls, but other than that it's starting to look rather bad. But perhaps I might still try to play scenario game, if I'd be able to destroy the objective and all the contestors, and run Mordikaar to the enemy zone.
That would have required some rather exceptional rolls. Which I actually got! Oh boy, Cataphract Cetrati and Praetorian Swordsmen were able to clear just about every enemy model from the zone. But that's it. Just about every. Yet again the application of force is perfect, except for the last Praetorian Swordsman who isn't able to kill Necrosurgeon. To make matters worse, he's capable of inflicting damage on her. Some two or one damage boxes remaining.
Turn 5 Venethrax comes to my enemy zone and kills a couple of Cetrati. A bane thrall runs to Mordikaar to engage him, or perhaps he charged and missed. I don't remember. What I do remember that next turn I'm able to kill the Necrosurgeon, bring back the two dead Cetrati with Revive and charge someone with Mordikaar so I get to three control points. As I didn't have Fury to cast Ghost Walk, Mordikaar had to suffer a free strike from Bane Thrall that hit. Damage roll was on the high side and brought Mordikaar to just one hit box remaining, which was rather a bad thing when we consider the fact that all of my warbeasts had already died.
Not that Mordikaar survived Cryx turn 6. Venethrax came to finish him personally in melee. Two Cetrati were not able to block the Lich Lord's advance.
My list was:
Void Seer Mordikaar:
- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- Cyclops Shaman
Minimum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Minimum unit of Beast Handlers
Minimum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Objective: Arcane Wonder
Opponent had:
Lich Lord Venethrax
- Slayer
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Withershadow Combine
2x Pistol Wraith
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren
Objective: Arcane Wonder
Scenario was Two Fronts and Cryx started game. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 2. Venethrax had cast Dragon Slayer upon himself, and did not quit upkeeping it during whole game. Mordikaar has cast Hollow on Praetorian Swordsmen and, well... Also Banishing Ward on himself, but that was just a fancy way of dumping Fury away.
Turn 2 looks obviously quite a nice spot for Mordikaar's feat. I also have some fantasies about the minimum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen erasing all Mechanithralls from existence. But first Cyclops Shaman tries to stare down the Brute Thrall. He almost succeeds - only one damage box remaining on the target.
Archidon is enraged by the Beast Handlers, and then it puts its own animus and charges a corporeal Pistol Wraith. It's a miss, so last Fury has to trigger Sprint somehow. Archidon buys an extra attack against a Bane Thrall and hopes it doesn't succeed in a tough roll. But the extra attack is also a miss. Only a re-roll from Willbreaker's Puppet Master saves the situation. I nearly forgot about the ability altogether. With a little better memory I could have probably taken out the Pistol Wraith instead.
Bronzeback puts its own animus on himself and takes a modest start at wrecking things. Bronzeback only advances a little, kills a Mechanithrall and moves backwards with Beat Back movement. Mordikaar advances now, casts Revive to bring back one Swordsman, and then he uses feat to give +3 DEF for the whole army minus one Praetorian Swordsman.
Praetorians charge Mechanithralls, and their attack rolls are a beauty to behold. But some insist that true beauty always needs some imperfection to make the beauty more real. And looks like the Praetorian Swordsmen were true aesthetics, when they killed all but one... ONE Mechanithrall. And I had only the Catapahract Cetrati to activate any more, and of course I had blocked their most obvious charges with my own models.
There was one tiny spot one Cetrati could try to squeeze in (in the picture that's the Cetrati C), but looked like he'd never get within 2" of the Mechanithrall. But Cetrati had taken some advice from various meme owls and cats and whatnots and was like "if i fits i sits", and took down the last Mechanithrall. Phew.
Cryx couldn't do much on turn 3. They killed a couple of Praetorian Swordsmen, and that's it. But that also meant that Venethrax really didn't need to spend much Focus. I think he used one to boost attack roll against a Swordsman, or something. Bane Thralls also engaged everything on my friendly zone and destroyed the objective. Plasma Nimbus took one Bane Thrall with it. Whee.
On my turn I have the options of trying to reduce the Bane Thrall horde and hope I can somehow kite Venethrax for the rest of the game. But I have this personal problem of mine of trying to go for an assassination if I can get at least something like 50% chance of success. So that's what I tried.
I had to remove Warwitch Siren and a Bane Thrall from Bronzeback's way somehow, cast Ghost Walk on the beast and give a charge target for it so that it would get into contact with Venethrax. Cataphract Cetrati succeeded in killing the Siren with a Combined Melee Attack. And since I was going all out for assassination, after that Mordikaar cast Ghost Walk on Bronzeback and Essensce Blast on one of the Cetrati. Spray was targeted at Venethrax, who suffered one damage point.
Praetorian Swordmen offers itself as a charge target for Bronzeback, and Cyclops Shaman takes down the Bane Thrall that was in the way of Bronzeback. Archidon tried to come and wreck Slayer, but got a free strike from a Bane Thrall instead and lost its Body branch. At least it scored a Critical Pitch. Whee.
Then Bronzeback is enraged and given Puppet Master. Bronzeback Charges Praetorian Swordsman officer, and unleashes both initial attacks and five Fury on Venethrax. Dice -5 for damage was a pretty good chance of scoring a caster kill with so many attempts. But to get those "dice -5" damage rolls you actually need to score hits. Even with Puppet Master only one attack hit that I was able to boost for damage, and last attack I couldn't boost to hit or to damage got lucky on its own.
So... finally Bronzeback had some challenge in combat. Finally he was against somebody who could take a little beating with real chances (but not guaranteed) of surviving. This was a true test for the offensive capabilities of Bronzeback Titan. And what does it do? He fails so very miserably. My disappointment was great. Looks like Bronzeback is just a big bully who has become so used to beat little kids and the elderly that once he's against another tough guy like himself, he gets scared and doubtful. Shame on you, Bronzeback. Shame on you.
Turn 4 Bane Thralls beat Archidon and Venethrax beats Bronzeback. All three Bane Thralls who get to attack Cyclops Shaman miss their attack rolls, but other than that it's starting to look rather bad. But perhaps I might still try to play scenario game, if I'd be able to destroy the objective and all the contestors, and run Mordikaar to the enemy zone.
That would have required some rather exceptional rolls. Which I actually got! Oh boy, Cataphract Cetrati and Praetorian Swordsmen were able to clear just about every enemy model from the zone. But that's it. Just about every. Yet again the application of force is perfect, except for the last Praetorian Swordsman who isn't able to kill Necrosurgeon. To make matters worse, he's capable of inflicting damage on her. Some two or one damage boxes remaining.
Turn 5 Venethrax comes to my enemy zone and kills a couple of Cetrati. A bane thrall runs to Mordikaar to engage him, or perhaps he charged and missed. I don't remember. What I do remember that next turn I'm able to kill the Necrosurgeon, bring back the two dead Cetrati with Revive and charge someone with Mordikaar so I get to three control points. As I didn't have Fury to cast Ghost Walk, Mordikaar had to suffer a free strike from Bane Thrall that hit. Damage roll was on the high side and brought Mordikaar to just one hit box remaining, which was rather a bad thing when we consider the fact that all of my warbeasts had already died.
Not that Mordikaar survived Cryx turn 6. Venethrax came to finish him personally in melee. Two Cetrati were not able to block the Lich Lord's advance.
Monday, June 1, 2015
Road to Steam & Fury
Last Thursday I played a 50 point game of Warmachine. Now I'm starting to practice up my Skorne, which I'm taking to a tournament in about two weeks or so.
My list was:
Void Seer Mordikaar
- Basilisk Krea
- Cyclops Shaman
- Archidon
- Bronzeback Titan
Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Swamp Gobbers
Agonizer
Willbreaker
Void Spirit
Opponent had:
Forge Master Syntherion
The Great Machine tier 4
- Corollary
- Mitigator
- (free) Galvanizer
- Cipher
- Assimilator
- Inverter
- Monitor
2x Optifex Directives
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex
Attunement Servitors
Transfinite Emergence Projector
Scenario was Incursion, and Convergence started game. First picture is from end of Skorne turn 1 with a couple of activations done by Convergence in turn 2.
Hollow is on Praetorian Swordsmen, and Mordikaar put four Fury to Agonizer. So Mordikaar was at zero Fury. But I was sure that being on a hill and inside Paralytic Aura would be enough to keep the warlock alive.
Convergence has Hot Shot on Cipher, Synergy on Syntherion and Reconstruct on Inverter. Magnetic Hold that was cast on Praetorian Swordsmen missed its target even with a boost.
Some Praetorian Swordsmen died during turn 2, but it was mostly just about advancing.
Skorne turn 2 was Mordikaar's feat. With better management I could have scored at least two control points, probably three. But SPD 4 Bronzeback just doesn't run that far, and after I had activated Praetorian Swordsmen I realized that I couldn't bring anyone else to control rightmost flag. Oh well. At least Void Spirit scored that one point.
Mordikaar had cast one Revive, and gave Agonizer two Fury after it had cried "no focus allocation" agony.
Cetrati advance in shield wall, and Basilisk Krea follows them with her aura. Cyclops Shaman spreads the aura even further by casting it, too. And that's about it.
Turn 3 Mitigator scores a double 6 hit against Cataphract Cetrati. Whee. Next Transfinite Emergence Projector advances, and shoots three Cetrati dead with two POW 10+5d6 sprays. They were the only real casualties that turn, but even so they were a lot more than I expected. Cipher also tried to snipe off the pesky Agonizer that had forbidden focus allocation for Galvanizer and Inverter. Tormented baby titan suffered some 4-5 points of damage.
On my turn 3 I didn't want to leave Transfinite Emergence Projector alive because of the firepower I had just witnessed. But how much beating such a battle engine could take? I didn't know for sure, so I dedicated Basilisk Krea and Archidon for the job, both enraged. I couldn't figure out a good way to remove the servitor on the left, right next to Mitigator. I didn't want to waste Cetratis for that, so Void Spirit quit controlling the left flag and killed the servitor. Now Archidon was free to charge the battle engine without suffering a free strike from Mitigator.
Praetorian Swordsmen made some automatic damage points to Assimilator. Half-jokingly I was taking wagers on how many heavy warjacks Bronzeback would be able to take down in one turn. But as often is the case, you really shouldn't boast about anything prematurely. Sure, Bronzeback was Enraged and Mordikaar had cast Train Wreck on it, so heavy damage was to be expected. But damn that Reconstruct. I had completely forgotten about it's existence. So Inverter survived. Monitor broke down to pieces, but it took one attack more than anticipated thanks to just some two or three damage boxes remaining. And the last attacks Bronzeback was able to make against Monitor didn't even destroy it even if Praetorian Swordsmen had already softened it up. Meh.
I guess I shouldn't complain, but hey. It's the Bronzeback. Though I guess Bronzeback didn't forget about Reconstruct... I did. But I'm not going to look in the mirror, no! Always blame the minions.
Mordikaar had also cast Revive to bring back one Cetrati, and filled Agonizer with Fury. Agonizer was also controlling the middle flag. As it turned out, Galvanizer was less than half an inch too far to contest.
Turn 4 it was probably Syntherion himself who shot down the Agonizer, and then the vectors started to induct Focus for Inverter and possibly Assimilator, too. It looked rather worrying prospect for Bronzeback - a POW 20 knockdown hit followed by automatically hitting attacks by two heavies. But for some reason the Macropummeler attack feels like Lascannon from another game, another time. The attack that mattered the most missed here. And that was even with a boost.
As a consequence Bronzeback survived, so game was probably over barring some surprise assassination.
But as I was practising for a tournament, I had been measuring my time. And if it had been a real tournament game, I was in a real hurry, as I had only eight minutes or so left in my clock when my turn began. Threshold checks by Archidon and Basilisk Krea ate up that clock unnecessarily, as they both failed their checks and frenzied, and attacked each other. Still better love story than Twilight.
So. If it'd been in a tournament, I needed to hastily arrange all three flags for me, as I couldn't realistically pull off an assassination in this situation. Galvanizer looked like it might be within 4" of the middle flag and there were no models to control flag on the left. Both warbeasts had used up their activations in their fierce embrace.
Rightmost flag was the easy one. Willbreaker ran to the flag and Swordsmen/Bronzeback destroyed the contesting Assimilator.
Enraged Cyclops Shaman charged Galvanizer, and failed to kill (or so I thought - I hadn't counted the enrage bonus to damage rolls) the light vector.
Cetrati ran to leftmost flag, one into base contact with flag and another within 4" of the flag. The one that had been engaging Galvanizer had been too far and didn't get within 4" of the flag.
Mordikaar advanced into base contact with the middle flag. Then he cast Essence Blact on the Cetrati who was farther than 4" from left flag, and Revived another dead Cetrati right back, this time within 4" of the flag.
So it all depended if Galvanizer was within 4" of the flag. Well, it wasn't - and it was, in fact, a wreck marker because of the enrage bonuses for Cyclops Shaman.
Two and half minutes left in clock.
My list was:
Void Seer Mordikaar
- Basilisk Krea
- Cyclops Shaman
- Archidon
- Bronzeback Titan
Maximum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Swamp Gobbers
Agonizer
Willbreaker
Void Spirit
Opponent had:
Forge Master Syntherion
- Corollary
- Mitigator
- (free) Galvanizer
- Cipher
- Assimilator
- Inverter
- Monitor
2x Optifex Directives
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex
Attunement Servitors
Transfinite Emergence Projector
Scenario was Incursion, and Convergence started game. First picture is from end of Skorne turn 1 with a couple of activations done by Convergence in turn 2.
Hollow is on Praetorian Swordsmen, and Mordikaar put four Fury to Agonizer. So Mordikaar was at zero Fury. But I was sure that being on a hill and inside Paralytic Aura would be enough to keep the warlock alive.
Convergence has Hot Shot on Cipher, Synergy on Syntherion and Reconstruct on Inverter. Magnetic Hold that was cast on Praetorian Swordsmen missed its target even with a boost.
Some Praetorian Swordsmen died during turn 2, but it was mostly just about advancing.
Skorne turn 2 was Mordikaar's feat. With better management I could have scored at least two control points, probably three. But SPD 4 Bronzeback just doesn't run that far, and after I had activated Praetorian Swordsmen I realized that I couldn't bring anyone else to control rightmost flag. Oh well. At least Void Spirit scored that one point.
Mordikaar had cast one Revive, and gave Agonizer two Fury after it had cried "no focus allocation" agony.
Cetrati advance in shield wall, and Basilisk Krea follows them with her aura. Cyclops Shaman spreads the aura even further by casting it, too. And that's about it.
Turn 3 Mitigator scores a double 6 hit against Cataphract Cetrati. Whee. Next Transfinite Emergence Projector advances, and shoots three Cetrati dead with two POW 10+5d6 sprays. They were the only real casualties that turn, but even so they were a lot more than I expected. Cipher also tried to snipe off the pesky Agonizer that had forbidden focus allocation for Galvanizer and Inverter. Tormented baby titan suffered some 4-5 points of damage.
On my turn 3 I didn't want to leave Transfinite Emergence Projector alive because of the firepower I had just witnessed. But how much beating such a battle engine could take? I didn't know for sure, so I dedicated Basilisk Krea and Archidon for the job, both enraged. I couldn't figure out a good way to remove the servitor on the left, right next to Mitigator. I didn't want to waste Cetratis for that, so Void Spirit quit controlling the left flag and killed the servitor. Now Archidon was free to charge the battle engine without suffering a free strike from Mitigator.
Praetorian Swordsmen made some automatic damage points to Assimilator. Half-jokingly I was taking wagers on how many heavy warjacks Bronzeback would be able to take down in one turn. But as often is the case, you really shouldn't boast about anything prematurely. Sure, Bronzeback was Enraged and Mordikaar had cast Train Wreck on it, so heavy damage was to be expected. But damn that Reconstruct. I had completely forgotten about it's existence. So Inverter survived. Monitor broke down to pieces, but it took one attack more than anticipated thanks to just some two or three damage boxes remaining. And the last attacks Bronzeback was able to make against Monitor didn't even destroy it even if Praetorian Swordsmen had already softened it up. Meh.
I guess I shouldn't complain, but hey. It's the Bronzeback. Though I guess Bronzeback didn't forget about Reconstruct... I did. But I'm not going to look in the mirror, no! Always blame the minions.
Mordikaar had also cast Revive to bring back one Cetrati, and filled Agonizer with Fury. Agonizer was also controlling the middle flag. As it turned out, Galvanizer was less than half an inch too far to contest.
Turn 4 it was probably Syntherion himself who shot down the Agonizer, and then the vectors started to induct Focus for Inverter and possibly Assimilator, too. It looked rather worrying prospect for Bronzeback - a POW 20 knockdown hit followed by automatically hitting attacks by two heavies. But for some reason the Macropummeler attack feels like Lascannon from another game, another time. The attack that mattered the most missed here. And that was even with a boost.
As a consequence Bronzeback survived, so game was probably over barring some surprise assassination.
But as I was practising for a tournament, I had been measuring my time. And if it had been a real tournament game, I was in a real hurry, as I had only eight minutes or so left in my clock when my turn began. Threshold checks by Archidon and Basilisk Krea ate up that clock unnecessarily, as they both failed their checks and frenzied, and attacked each other. Still better love story than Twilight.
So. If it'd been in a tournament, I needed to hastily arrange all three flags for me, as I couldn't realistically pull off an assassination in this situation. Galvanizer looked like it might be within 4" of the middle flag and there were no models to control flag on the left. Both warbeasts had used up their activations in their fierce embrace.
Rightmost flag was the easy one. Willbreaker ran to the flag and Swordsmen/Bronzeback destroyed the contesting Assimilator.
Enraged Cyclops Shaman charged Galvanizer, and failed to kill (or so I thought - I hadn't counted the enrage bonus to damage rolls) the light vector.
Cetrati ran to leftmost flag, one into base contact with flag and another within 4" of the flag. The one that had been engaging Galvanizer had been too far and didn't get within 4" of the flag.
Mordikaar advanced into base contact with the middle flag. Then he cast Essence Blact on the Cetrati who was farther than 4" from left flag, and Revived another dead Cetrati right back, this time within 4" of the flag.
So it all depended if Galvanizer was within 4" of the flag. Well, it wasn't - and it was, in fact, a wreck marker because of the enrage bonuses for Cyclops Shaman.
Two and half minutes left in clock.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Ropecon Warmachine Tournament
I took part in Warmachine main tournament at Ropecon. It was 50 point event that used "Masters" rule set. Top 8 players would qualify for next days event.
Game 1: Scaverous vs Protectorate of Menoth
Feora, Protector of Flame
- Judicator
- Castigator
- Reckoner
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith
Aiyana & Holt
Covenant of Menoth
Wracks
+ 5 points I can't figure out. My guess is Hierophant + Vassal + Mechanic.
Cryx started game and scenario was Destruction. Even if the tournament had Divide & Conquer 0, I thought I'd play with Scaverous list at least once. I was hesitant to bring any of the more important models forward. A fully loaded Reckoner with all the Protectorate buffs would've made a heavy dent to Kraken, and after that there would have been a Judicator to take care of...
So somehow advancing on my toes and shooting AoE's seemed like a good idea. But the first turn is taken from the end of Cryx turn 2. I actually noticed my mistake when I switched the clock for opponent. I didn't have anyone to contest the zone other than my objective. Yay. Pro play.
Opponent took full advantage of that, and wrecked my objective with Castigator.
Also, it's my suspicion that this wasn't the first time opponent was playing epic Feora. Her feat was so beautifully orchestrated that in the end all of my models in he control area were set on fire even before she got to move the fire effects around, and despite casting spells and allocating focus and whatnot she still camped 8 Focus. She entered the zone, and look at that. Suddenly Protectorate had 3 control points.
I guess I had some sort of chance for assassination there, as Feora was easily within the range of most of my army. There were just a couple of... obstacles. First, Feora with ARM 25. Second, ton of Holy Zealots that were untargetable by spells and who wouldn't take damage from anywhere else except for spells.
There was at least three Zealots who blocked charge for Kraken, and they were spread over a large area. Taking them out with a single Feast of Worms was out of the question.
In the end I opted to use Scaverous' feat and cast Feast of Worms on Feora, and telekinesis on Gorman diWulfe, throw Black Oil over Feora, shoot her with everything I got and then trample to her with Kraken. But it had failed from the get-go. Even the damage roll Kraken made was insulting, something like 2,2,1. Second picture must be after resolving continuous effects on Protectorate's turn.
Looking back now I wonder if I could have made this "assassination" some other way. I don't remember the exact position of my models, but I think at least Warwitch Siren got burned by Feora's fire. But maybe I could have moved incorporeal Pistol Wraith close to two Zealots and taken them out with Feast of Worms, and slammed the third away with Ogrun Bokur? Most probably not. The loss of Warwitch Siren cut down my options quite a lot.
Having not learnt any lessons, there was only Kraken contesting the zone when it was opponent's turn. Arm 21 Kraken just isn't going to survive a full onslaught of Reckoner, Castigator, Judicator and whatnot.
Feora dominated for second turn, and it was a scenario victory for Feora there.
I swore I'd never-ever play this list again.
Game 2: Warwitch Deneghra vs Legion of Everblight
Bethayne & Belphagor
- 2x Angelius
- Shredder
Maximum unit of Hex Hunters + Bayal
Blackfrost Shard
Striders + Unit Attachment
Shepherd
3x Spell Martyrs
2x Strider Deathstalkers
Scenario was... Fire Support? Anyway, I was against Bethayne, who is a new acquaintance for me. Come to think of it... I got to play against three different warlocks I had never played against before during Ropecon. Lovely.
Anyway... I don't remember who started. Probably Cryx again, judging from the suicidal positioning of Deneghra if the picture wouldn't be from the end of Legion turn.
Deneghra uses her feat this turn, catching all but, what, three Striders and a Shepherd. Though it wasn't without risks... Aimed and boosted RAT 3 shots just might hit Deneghra, and Angeliuses did ignore her stealth.
But before all this happened, Warwitch Siren seduced one of the Hex Hunters so that once Deneghra activated she got back strike bonuses. Feat and a boost later Hex Hunters had Crippling Grasp on them. Arcane Wonder allowed Deneghra to even cast Parasite on Belphagor.
Then I kind of waste a lot of my feat potential - all thanks to Black Ogruns. I just HAD to go and drag Belphagor to one of the Ogruns. The rest Ogruns then shot their harpoons at Belphagor, but nobody ever hit it again.
Boosted harpoon from Malice at least hit it, but didn't kill or drag, because lane slightly clipped the Black Ogrun who dragged the warbeast in the first place. At least Defiler could shoot Belphagor... Technically, at least. That goddamn warbeast was immune to Defiler's gun, and Defiler didn't even succeed to kill the Black Ogrun! Finally I resorted into charging the Black Ogrun with Bane Thralls so that Belphagor would stop gaining melee bonus. Nightwretch and Aiakos thankfully were able to score those last few damage points Cryx needed to score a kill. But that was pretty much the straight damage output of Deneghra's feat - Belphagor, a couple of Hex Hunters and Black Ogrun.
At least the feat gave me quite strong position. Legion mostly just backed off with the heavy warbeasts at least. Hex Hunters came to engage Malice a little, and Bethayne moved closer to Legion's objective on the hill. Striders, inside Deneghra's feat or outside of it, killed quite a few Black Ogruns. In fact... looks like they killed all but one.
I'm always a little (or a great) bit scared when I play against Legion. Statistically Legion of Everblight is my nemesis, and as I didn't fully know what to expect from Bethayne, I decided to try an awkward assassination. I guess my other option would have been to remove one of the Angeliuses with Malice & company, back off with Deneghra and then reap whatever infantry models I could. But as I said... I was afraid of Legion, and a cornered beast is the most desperate and most dangerous one.
Deneghra allocated one Focus to Defiler and upkept Crippling Grasp just in case this long stretch would fail. Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on the Defiler, who then ran into position. Deneghra cast a boosted Scourge on Bethayne, needing 11+ to hit. It was 11+, so Bethayne was knocked down.
I don't remember who or what killed some engaging Hex Hunters in the middle, but I see Malice has gained at least one additional soul.
I was quite sure Escort 8" advance + 8" range in Malice's harpoon would get to Bethayne, but there still was two blockers on the hill. One was Spell Martyr and the other was a member of Blackfrost Shard. I was getting rather desperate, as the only attacks against either were a RAT 5 shot from Aiakos, a RAT 5 shot from Black Ogrun and possibly... maybe a spray from Warwitch Siren if moving around a Hex Hunter wouldn't take too much movement away.
Since Blackfrost Shard member had damage boxes (and stealth?) I thought my best bet was DEF 15 Spell Martyr. Black Ogrun missed it. Aiakos missed it (he didn't even have any focus to boost, since one went into upkeeping Escort and rest was allocated to Malice) so Warwitch Siren was my only chance now.
Turned out that I had been over-estimating the amount of movement Warwitch lost when walking around a Hex Hunter, so Spell Martyr was in range. So. I needed 8+ or only a miracle would save my overextended forces from retaliation next turn. And 8+ it was, and damage roll wasn't double 1's either.
Malice walked up front, shot harpoon at Bethayne and had three focus and two souls to kill her. It was more than enough, so game over.
I guess I was a bit lucky in this assassination. I had two 10+'s on two dice and one 8+ chance on two dice to succeed, and this was after a 50/50 roll of succeeding at knocking down Bethayne. I do have this bad tendency of going and trying random assassinations at tournaments. This is mostly because of deathclock. There is nothing more boring than losing or winning with deathclock... in my mind it's better to lose to a badly executed or far fetched assassination attempt.
Though sometimes they work. Sometimes.
Game 3: Warwitch Deneghra vs Cygnar
Temporal Barrier Haley
- Stormwall
Gastone Crosse
- Galleon
Tactical Arcanist Corps
Journeyman Warcaster
Dougal MacNaile
Squire
3x Stormcaller
Gobber Tinker
Scenario was Incursion, and Cygnar started game. Opposing list was disturbing. I'm not sure if I have played against two colossals ever before. Though I was familiar enough with Haley1, I was unsure again what to expect. Throwing my whole army at one colossal might destroy it, but getting there under Temporal Barrier felt nigh impossible. But at least scenario was really good for Deneghra against an army with very low model count.
First picture must be from the end of Cryx turn 1.
And... ugh. Double Powder thingy from Dougal and Fire Group from Gastone cost me Malice right away. Gun Ports didn't do that much, but a turn later they would be easily able to get to the soft targets. Not that I valued Bile Thralls in this match-up too much. But in the end it did open a very real scenario game for me when enemy colossals were unleashing their awe-inspiring firepower at my forces.
Deneghra activated, used her feat and cast Crippling Grasp on Stormwall via an arcnode. She was quite dangerously close to enemy even when she had used her feat, so I thought it to be better to camp for four focus. Amazing blast damage rolls wouldn't kill her, then.
Cankerworm killed Stormsmith Stormcaller on the right, and Machine Wraith started to control the flag.
Black Ogruns shoot the second Stormcaller from middle flag, and then I almost mess everything up. To me it looked like the Tactical Arcanist closest to Galleon might be within 4" of the middle flag, so Aiakos advances, jumps and shoots harpoon at the guy. It's just that... I place Aiakos really damn badly. Somehow it escaped me that once I drag TAC member to Aiakos, he'd be left at the other side of the flag, since there was no space for his base! And... that's exactly what happened. Aiakos scored a hit, dealt damage but didn't kill. Hooray. Well, at least there was no longer any question if that particular Arcanist was contesting the flag...
So. I had two options left - Defiler and Nightwretch. Luckily Tactical Arcanists didn't have reach, so their DEF was only 10. Obviously Nightwretch went in first as I didn't really want to spray Aiakos dead with a lucky shot. And I didn't have to resort to that - Nightwretch scored the kill. Two control points.
There wasn't much Cygnar could do here. Galleon advanced 3" closer to rightmost flag and shot harpoon at Cankerworm, scoring a hit and killing the snake.
Arcanists came to contest middle flag and I believe Stormwall shot a pod there, too. Stormwall had only 1" of movement that turn, so it couldn't come and contest middle flag. But in the end Cryx went to three control points.
Rightmost flag was secured, so Cryx would get to at least four control points on my turn. I was rather surprised that, at most, I needed to kill two TAC's and possibly a storm pod. I don't remember how much of my infantry was left after last turn's shooting, but whatever it was, it was enough to clear middle flag and win the scenario.
Game 1: Scaverous vs Protectorate of Menoth
Feora, Protector of Flame
- Judicator
- Castigator
- Reckoner
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith
Aiyana & Holt
Covenant of Menoth
Wracks
+ 5 points I can't figure out. My guess is Hierophant + Vassal + Mechanic.
Cryx started game and scenario was Destruction. Even if the tournament had Divide & Conquer 0, I thought I'd play with Scaverous list at least once. I was hesitant to bring any of the more important models forward. A fully loaded Reckoner with all the Protectorate buffs would've made a heavy dent to Kraken, and after that there would have been a Judicator to take care of...
So somehow advancing on my toes and shooting AoE's seemed like a good idea. But the first turn is taken from the end of Cryx turn 2. I actually noticed my mistake when I switched the clock for opponent. I didn't have anyone to contest the zone other than my objective. Yay. Pro play.
Opponent took full advantage of that, and wrecked my objective with Castigator.
Also, it's my suspicion that this wasn't the first time opponent was playing epic Feora. Her feat was so beautifully orchestrated that in the end all of my models in he control area were set on fire even before she got to move the fire effects around, and despite casting spells and allocating focus and whatnot she still camped 8 Focus. She entered the zone, and look at that. Suddenly Protectorate had 3 control points.
I guess I had some sort of chance for assassination there, as Feora was easily within the range of most of my army. There were just a couple of... obstacles. First, Feora with ARM 25. Second, ton of Holy Zealots that were untargetable by spells and who wouldn't take damage from anywhere else except for spells.
There was at least three Zealots who blocked charge for Kraken, and they were spread over a large area. Taking them out with a single Feast of Worms was out of the question.
In the end I opted to use Scaverous' feat and cast Feast of Worms on Feora, and telekinesis on Gorman diWulfe, throw Black Oil over Feora, shoot her with everything I got and then trample to her with Kraken. But it had failed from the get-go. Even the damage roll Kraken made was insulting, something like 2,2,1. Second picture must be after resolving continuous effects on Protectorate's turn.
Looking back now I wonder if I could have made this "assassination" some other way. I don't remember the exact position of my models, but I think at least Warwitch Siren got burned by Feora's fire. But maybe I could have moved incorporeal Pistol Wraith close to two Zealots and taken them out with Feast of Worms, and slammed the third away with Ogrun Bokur? Most probably not. The loss of Warwitch Siren cut down my options quite a lot.
Having not learnt any lessons, there was only Kraken contesting the zone when it was opponent's turn. Arm 21 Kraken just isn't going to survive a full onslaught of Reckoner, Castigator, Judicator and whatnot.
Feora dominated for second turn, and it was a scenario victory for Feora there.
I swore I'd never-ever play this list again.
Game 2: Warwitch Deneghra vs Legion of Everblight
Bethayne & Belphagor
- Shredder
Maximum unit of Hex Hunters + Bayal
Blackfrost Shard
Striders + Unit Attachment
Shepherd
3x Spell Martyrs
2x Strider Deathstalkers
Scenario was... Fire Support? Anyway, I was against Bethayne, who is a new acquaintance for me. Come to think of it... I got to play against three different warlocks I had never played against before during Ropecon. Lovely.
Anyway... I don't remember who started. Probably Cryx again, judging from the suicidal positioning of Deneghra if the picture wouldn't be from the end of Legion turn.
Deneghra uses her feat this turn, catching all but, what, three Striders and a Shepherd. Though it wasn't without risks... Aimed and boosted RAT 3 shots just might hit Deneghra, and Angeliuses did ignore her stealth.
But before all this happened, Warwitch Siren seduced one of the Hex Hunters so that once Deneghra activated she got back strike bonuses. Feat and a boost later Hex Hunters had Crippling Grasp on them. Arcane Wonder allowed Deneghra to even cast Parasite on Belphagor.
Then I kind of waste a lot of my feat potential - all thanks to Black Ogruns. I just HAD to go and drag Belphagor to one of the Ogruns. The rest Ogruns then shot their harpoons at Belphagor, but nobody ever hit it again.
Boosted harpoon from Malice at least hit it, but didn't kill or drag, because lane slightly clipped the Black Ogrun who dragged the warbeast in the first place. At least Defiler could shoot Belphagor... Technically, at least. That goddamn warbeast was immune to Defiler's gun, and Defiler didn't even succeed to kill the Black Ogrun! Finally I resorted into charging the Black Ogrun with Bane Thralls so that Belphagor would stop gaining melee bonus. Nightwretch and Aiakos thankfully were able to score those last few damage points Cryx needed to score a kill. But that was pretty much the straight damage output of Deneghra's feat - Belphagor, a couple of Hex Hunters and Black Ogrun.
At least the feat gave me quite strong position. Legion mostly just backed off with the heavy warbeasts at least. Hex Hunters came to engage Malice a little, and Bethayne moved closer to Legion's objective on the hill. Striders, inside Deneghra's feat or outside of it, killed quite a few Black Ogruns. In fact... looks like they killed all but one.
I'm always a little (or a great) bit scared when I play against Legion. Statistically Legion of Everblight is my nemesis, and as I didn't fully know what to expect from Bethayne, I decided to try an awkward assassination. I guess my other option would have been to remove one of the Angeliuses with Malice & company, back off with Deneghra and then reap whatever infantry models I could. But as I said... I was afraid of Legion, and a cornered beast is the most desperate and most dangerous one.
Deneghra allocated one Focus to Defiler and upkept Crippling Grasp just in case this long stretch would fail. Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on the Defiler, who then ran into position. Deneghra cast a boosted Scourge on Bethayne, needing 11+ to hit. It was 11+, so Bethayne was knocked down.
I don't remember who or what killed some engaging Hex Hunters in the middle, but I see Malice has gained at least one additional soul.
I was quite sure Escort 8" advance + 8" range in Malice's harpoon would get to Bethayne, but there still was two blockers on the hill. One was Spell Martyr and the other was a member of Blackfrost Shard. I was getting rather desperate, as the only attacks against either were a RAT 5 shot from Aiakos, a RAT 5 shot from Black Ogrun and possibly... maybe a spray from Warwitch Siren if moving around a Hex Hunter wouldn't take too much movement away.
Since Blackfrost Shard member had damage boxes (and stealth?) I thought my best bet was DEF 15 Spell Martyr. Black Ogrun missed it. Aiakos missed it (he didn't even have any focus to boost, since one went into upkeeping Escort and rest was allocated to Malice) so Warwitch Siren was my only chance now.
Turned out that I had been over-estimating the amount of movement Warwitch lost when walking around a Hex Hunter, so Spell Martyr was in range. So. I needed 8+ or only a miracle would save my overextended forces from retaliation next turn. And 8+ it was, and damage roll wasn't double 1's either.
Malice walked up front, shot harpoon at Bethayne and had three focus and two souls to kill her. It was more than enough, so game over.
I guess I was a bit lucky in this assassination. I had two 10+'s on two dice and one 8+ chance on two dice to succeed, and this was after a 50/50 roll of succeeding at knocking down Bethayne. I do have this bad tendency of going and trying random assassinations at tournaments. This is mostly because of deathclock. There is nothing more boring than losing or winning with deathclock... in my mind it's better to lose to a badly executed or far fetched assassination attempt.
Though sometimes they work. Sometimes.
Game 3: Warwitch Deneghra vs Cygnar
Temporal Barrier Haley
Gastone Crosse
- Galleon
Tactical Arcanist Corps
Journeyman Warcaster
Dougal MacNaile
Squire
3x Stormcaller
Gobber Tinker
Scenario was Incursion, and Cygnar started game. Opposing list was disturbing. I'm not sure if I have played against two colossals ever before. Though I was familiar enough with Haley1, I was unsure again what to expect. Throwing my whole army at one colossal might destroy it, but getting there under Temporal Barrier felt nigh impossible. But at least scenario was really good for Deneghra against an army with very low model count.
First picture must be from the end of Cryx turn 1.
And... ugh. Double Powder thingy from Dougal and Fire Group from Gastone cost me Malice right away. Gun Ports didn't do that much, but a turn later they would be easily able to get to the soft targets. Not that I valued Bile Thralls in this match-up too much. But in the end it did open a very real scenario game for me when enemy colossals were unleashing their awe-inspiring firepower at my forces.
Deneghra activated, used her feat and cast Crippling Grasp on Stormwall via an arcnode. She was quite dangerously close to enemy even when she had used her feat, so I thought it to be better to camp for four focus. Amazing blast damage rolls wouldn't kill her, then.
Cankerworm killed Stormsmith Stormcaller on the right, and Machine Wraith started to control the flag.
Black Ogruns shoot the second Stormcaller from middle flag, and then I almost mess everything up. To me it looked like the Tactical Arcanist closest to Galleon might be within 4" of the middle flag, so Aiakos advances, jumps and shoots harpoon at the guy. It's just that... I place Aiakos really damn badly. Somehow it escaped me that once I drag TAC member to Aiakos, he'd be left at the other side of the flag, since there was no space for his base! And... that's exactly what happened. Aiakos scored a hit, dealt damage but didn't kill. Hooray. Well, at least there was no longer any question if that particular Arcanist was contesting the flag...
So. I had two options left - Defiler and Nightwretch. Luckily Tactical Arcanists didn't have reach, so their DEF was only 10. Obviously Nightwretch went in first as I didn't really want to spray Aiakos dead with a lucky shot. And I didn't have to resort to that - Nightwretch scored the kill. Two control points.
There wasn't much Cygnar could do here. Galleon advanced 3" closer to rightmost flag and shot harpoon at Cankerworm, scoring a hit and killing the snake.
Arcanists came to contest middle flag and I believe Stormwall shot a pod there, too. Stormwall had only 1" of movement that turn, so it couldn't come and contest middle flag. But in the end Cryx went to three control points.
Rightmost flag was secured, so Cryx would get to at least four control points on my turn. I was rather surprised that, at most, I needed to kill two TAC's and possibly a storm pod. I don't remember how much of my infantry was left after last turn's shooting, but whatever it was, it was enough to clear middle flag and win the scenario.
Friday, May 22, 2015
Ropecon Warmachine Casuals
First game on Friday was against Skorne. I played the modified Deneghra list to see if it was any faster to play or if it worked better.
Opponent played:
Master Ascetic Naaresh
- Bronzeback Titan
- Titan Gladiator
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
- 4x Reptile Hound
Maximum unit of Gatormen Posse
2x Maximum units of Beast Handlers
Swamp Gobbers
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Paingiver Task Master
Scenario was Fire Support, but I forget which objective opponent was using. I'm not sure what turn it is in first picture. The only way I can make any sense out of this all is that picture is from the end of Cryx turn, and it's Skorne turn 2 going on as I almost forgot to take picture so Gatormen Posse has already activated.
Blood thirst or whatever the rule is that causes +2" charge distance against living models for Gatormen caught me by surprise. But even with +2 STR from Task Master only one Black Ogrun died. Titans ran so that Krea might safely cast her animus and charge a random target and still give +2 def & arm versus shooting.
I think Naaresh used his feat pre-emptively here to give +3 arm and strength for his battle group. One of the reptile hounds on the left ran next to Malice, and the other one charged it. Two attacks later Malice had lost its melee arm at least.
It looked like I'd have to use Deneghra's feat this turn. I was, however, fully aware of counter charge from Bronzeback, that would trigger before I had time to use the feat. So Warwitch Siren had to charge Bronzeback first and Shadow Bind it. When you got MAT 5 there's a big difference in between DEF 10 and 12... oh well. Siren hit, anyway, so no worries about that.
Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Deneghra, who then walked up front and used feat. She cast Crippling Grasp on Gatormen Posse via an arcnode. I think she also cast one Venom at the Gators, leaving her at zero Focus. She had foolishly allocated two for Cankerworm.
Necrotech tried to fix Malice, but rolled 9+
The two reptile hounds at Malice just refused to die. It took every model I was able to take there to finally kill both nuisances. Well, at least Malice got two additional souls.
Bile Thralls sprayed over Gatormen, and then Black Ogruns charge them. Still one remained, but with -4 to most stats.
Skorne turn 3 (I think?) the opponent mostly just backed off. Gladiator cast Rush on itself and took full 4" step backwards. Oh, and by now Naaresh had lost quite a few damage boxes to beast handlers, thanks to some disturbing damage rolls on their part.
One thing that puzzles me in the picture is that what happened to one of the Reptile Hounds on the left? The one that had been engaged by Scrap Thrall? Surely it did not die to a POW 8 free strike?
Cryx turn 3 Warwitch Siren Shadow Bound Bronzeback again, and Deneghra cast Parasite on it. Bane Thralls then made short work out of the beast.
This time Necrotech succeeded in repairing Malice's arm. I had great plans of Malice walking up front and shooting Titan Gladiator to him, and then killing the beast with charging Black Ogruns and Armor Piercing Cankerworms, but thanks to Basilisk Krea it all failed miserably. Black Ogruns tried to kill the last Gator and form a meat-wall to protect Malice from Gladiator's retaliation, and Cankerworm just ran to function as some sort of threat saturation.
Skorne turn 4 Paingivers whipped Naaresh for good - Naaresh had, during the course of the game, fallen to just two damage boxes remaining. Playing with a pair (see the pun?), opponent ordered yet one more Paingiver to whip Naaresh. A really high damage roll would've meant his death, but it was not to be. With just one damage box remaining Naaresh charged Black Ogrun and Cankerworm, killed the Ogrun and injured Cankerworm, and then cast Cyclone to move away. Blood Drinker brought him back to two or three damage boxes.
Basilisk Krea removed the other Ogrun, and now Titan Gladiator had a free charge lane to Malice. But as Malice was ARM 20 now from all the souls. Still I would have expected Malice to die, but somehow that just didn't happen. Basilisk Drake tried to finish Cankerworm, but failed in that. Both warjacks were, however, in very bad shape and would die to just about anything.
Well. Come Cryx turn, it looks like Titan Gladiator is the only beast Naaresh was able to transfer damage. So Bane Thralls, Malice, Warwitch Siren, Cankerworm and Aiakos take care of the Titan.
Deneghra was the only model now that could realistically make any attacks against Naaresh. I had only two Venoms to accomplish my goal, so there was a real chance of losing just because I HAD to try to get a caster kill.
I did not have to pay for my insolence, for first fully boosted Venom took the last damage boxes off of Naaresh.
I decided to keep this list for tournament, though if this had been a real tournament game, I'd have ran out of clock. But I still felt the list had better synergy than the earlier attempt.
Game 2:
There was this Iron Arena thingy going on, after the first game I played a second one right away. I decided that I'd try my other tournament list to see how it functions on the actual table.
And right after I had taken all the figures from storage foams I saw how much the list sucked. Well, yeah, I did have the Corruptor there so the list had no chance to shine whatever the case... but... Oh well. I was up for the challenge.
I was against Trollbloods, and I was pretty much horrified when I saw the opponent's list. Not only my list was really bad, but it also had good counters to any tricks I'd be able to do. It was Calandra's theme. There may be some inaccuracies in this list as Forward Kommander doesn't have Calandra's Evolutionary Elementalism theme force rules.
Evolutionary Elementalism tier 3
Calandra Truthsayer
- 4x Storm Troll
- 4x Slag Troll
- 2x Pyre Troll
- Winter Troll
Maximum unit of Krielstone Bearers + Unit Attachment
Runebearer (I think?)
Trollbloods probably started, and first picture is from the end of Cryx turn 2. Scenario is Two Fronts.
Well. Perhaps there might be some sort of chance if I'd be able to take out enough Slag Trolls before Kraken dies. Kraken and Scaverous were probably the only meaningful models I had, as Storm Trolls were electro-leaping Bile Thralls away and managed to die somehow early in the game. A surprise bonus was that Corruptor was immune to the main damage dealers opponent had - the Slag Trolls. Yay, Corruptor. Who didn't have much of a target for arc nodes or AoE attacks.
But so far Kraken has been loaded full with Focus, and Scaverous has cast Telekinesis on one of the Storm Trolls so that there was no chance of it blocking charge lane for Kraken. On the right side Gorman diWulfe advanced and threw Black Oil on Slag Troll and Pyre Troll. Afterwards Pistol Wraith shot Death Chill on the Slag Troll, so at least one of the dreaded Kraken-killers would be out of action for next turn.
Then Kraken was supposed to kill another. Well... Supposed to. Calandra had cast Star-Crossed, which caused enough attacks to miss that the tentacles probably just looked like delicious spaghetti that was flailing in front of the Slag Troll, trying to seduce him into a food orgies, despite him being on a diet.
Truth be told, opponent really had to spend a lot of resources to bring Death Warded Kraken down. It took Calandra's feat, some Fate Blessed rolls, three Slag Trolls shooting twice at Kraken, a Pyre Troll and a random number of Storm Trolls. And the damage rolls were rather on the high side. But... it did happen. Uninjured Arm 21 Kraken was one-rounded by light warbeasts.
But the game was pretty much lost there, so I tried to do some sort of assassination just for giggles. But Corruptor was too far, Pistol Wraith was too far, and Scaverous only got to make one Excarnate on Calandra.
Needless to say... though it was a difficult list to beat with my list, this game scared me in regards for next days tournament.
Opponent played:
Master Ascetic Naaresh
- Titan Gladiator
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
- 4x Reptile Hound
Maximum unit of Gatormen Posse
2x Maximum units of Beast Handlers
Swamp Gobbers
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Paingiver Task Master
Scenario was Fire Support, but I forget which objective opponent was using. I'm not sure what turn it is in first picture. The only way I can make any sense out of this all is that picture is from the end of Cryx turn, and it's Skorne turn 2 going on as I almost forgot to take picture so Gatormen Posse has already activated.
Blood thirst or whatever the rule is that causes +2" charge distance against living models for Gatormen caught me by surprise. But even with +2 STR from Task Master only one Black Ogrun died. Titans ran so that Krea might safely cast her animus and charge a random target and still give +2 def & arm versus shooting.
I think Naaresh used his feat pre-emptively here to give +3 arm and strength for his battle group. One of the reptile hounds on the left ran next to Malice, and the other one charged it. Two attacks later Malice had lost its melee arm at least.
It looked like I'd have to use Deneghra's feat this turn. I was, however, fully aware of counter charge from Bronzeback, that would trigger before I had time to use the feat. So Warwitch Siren had to charge Bronzeback first and Shadow Bind it. When you got MAT 5 there's a big difference in between DEF 10 and 12... oh well. Siren hit, anyway, so no worries about that.
Skarlock cast Ghost Walk on Deneghra, who then walked up front and used feat. She cast Crippling Grasp on Gatormen Posse via an arcnode. I think she also cast one Venom at the Gators, leaving her at zero Focus. She had foolishly allocated two for Cankerworm.
Necrotech tried to fix Malice, but rolled 9+
The two reptile hounds at Malice just refused to die. It took every model I was able to take there to finally kill both nuisances. Well, at least Malice got two additional souls.
Bile Thralls sprayed over Gatormen, and then Black Ogruns charge them. Still one remained, but with -4 to most stats.
Skorne turn 3 (I think?) the opponent mostly just backed off. Gladiator cast Rush on itself and took full 4" step backwards. Oh, and by now Naaresh had lost quite a few damage boxes to beast handlers, thanks to some disturbing damage rolls on their part.
One thing that puzzles me in the picture is that what happened to one of the Reptile Hounds on the left? The one that had been engaged by Scrap Thrall? Surely it did not die to a POW 8 free strike?
Cryx turn 3 Warwitch Siren Shadow Bound Bronzeback again, and Deneghra cast Parasite on it. Bane Thralls then made short work out of the beast.
This time Necrotech succeeded in repairing Malice's arm. I had great plans of Malice walking up front and shooting Titan Gladiator to him, and then killing the beast with charging Black Ogruns and Armor Piercing Cankerworms, but thanks to Basilisk Krea it all failed miserably. Black Ogruns tried to kill the last Gator and form a meat-wall to protect Malice from Gladiator's retaliation, and Cankerworm just ran to function as some sort of threat saturation.
Skorne turn 4 Paingivers whipped Naaresh for good - Naaresh had, during the course of the game, fallen to just two damage boxes remaining. Playing with a pair (see the pun?), opponent ordered yet one more Paingiver to whip Naaresh. A really high damage roll would've meant his death, but it was not to be. With just one damage box remaining Naaresh charged Black Ogrun and Cankerworm, killed the Ogrun and injured Cankerworm, and then cast Cyclone to move away. Blood Drinker brought him back to two or three damage boxes.
Basilisk Krea removed the other Ogrun, and now Titan Gladiator had a free charge lane to Malice. But as Malice was ARM 20 now from all the souls. Still I would have expected Malice to die, but somehow that just didn't happen. Basilisk Drake tried to finish Cankerworm, but failed in that. Both warjacks were, however, in very bad shape and would die to just about anything.
Well. Come Cryx turn, it looks like Titan Gladiator is the only beast Naaresh was able to transfer damage. So Bane Thralls, Malice, Warwitch Siren, Cankerworm and Aiakos take care of the Titan.
Deneghra was the only model now that could realistically make any attacks against Naaresh. I had only two Venoms to accomplish my goal, so there was a real chance of losing just because I HAD to try to get a caster kill.
I did not have to pay for my insolence, for first fully boosted Venom took the last damage boxes off of Naaresh.
I decided to keep this list for tournament, though if this had been a real tournament game, I'd have ran out of clock. But I still felt the list had better synergy than the earlier attempt.
Game 2:
There was this Iron Arena thingy going on, after the first game I played a second one right away. I decided that I'd try my other tournament list to see how it functions on the actual table.
And right after I had taken all the figures from storage foams I saw how much the list sucked. Well, yeah, I did have the Corruptor there so the list had no chance to shine whatever the case... but... Oh well. I was up for the challenge.
I was against Trollbloods, and I was pretty much horrified when I saw the opponent's list. Not only my list was really bad, but it also had good counters to any tricks I'd be able to do. It was Calandra's theme. There may be some inaccuracies in this list as Forward Kommander doesn't have Calandra's Evolutionary Elementalism theme force rules.
Evolutionary Elementalism tier 3
Calandra Truthsayer
- 4x Storm Troll
- 4x Slag Troll
- 2x Pyre Troll
- Winter Troll
Maximum unit of Krielstone Bearers + Unit Attachment
Runebearer (I think?)
Trollbloods probably started, and first picture is from the end of Cryx turn 2. Scenario is Two Fronts.
Well. Perhaps there might be some sort of chance if I'd be able to take out enough Slag Trolls before Kraken dies. Kraken and Scaverous were probably the only meaningful models I had, as Storm Trolls were electro-leaping Bile Thralls away and managed to die somehow early in the game. A surprise bonus was that Corruptor was immune to the main damage dealers opponent had - the Slag Trolls. Yay, Corruptor. Who didn't have much of a target for arc nodes or AoE attacks.
But so far Kraken has been loaded full with Focus, and Scaverous has cast Telekinesis on one of the Storm Trolls so that there was no chance of it blocking charge lane for Kraken. On the right side Gorman diWulfe advanced and threw Black Oil on Slag Troll and Pyre Troll. Afterwards Pistol Wraith shot Death Chill on the Slag Troll, so at least one of the dreaded Kraken-killers would be out of action for next turn.
Then Kraken was supposed to kill another. Well... Supposed to. Calandra had cast Star-Crossed, which caused enough attacks to miss that the tentacles probably just looked like delicious spaghetti that was flailing in front of the Slag Troll, trying to seduce him into a food orgies, despite him being on a diet.
Truth be told, opponent really had to spend a lot of resources to bring Death Warded Kraken down. It took Calandra's feat, some Fate Blessed rolls, three Slag Trolls shooting twice at Kraken, a Pyre Troll and a random number of Storm Trolls. And the damage rolls were rather on the high side. But... it did happen. Uninjured Arm 21 Kraken was one-rounded by light warbeasts.
But the game was pretty much lost there, so I tried to do some sort of assassination just for giggles. But Corruptor was too far, Pistol Wraith was too far, and Scaverous only got to make one Excarnate on Calandra.
Needless to say... though it was a difficult list to beat with my list, this game scared me in regards for next days tournament.
List Reference
I played five games of Warmachine in total at Ropecon - plus one Colossal Mania.
I'm placing my lists here into this blog post because I only used these lists - both in tournament and casual games.
List 1:
Warwitch Deneghra
- 2x Nightwretch
- Defiler
- Cankerworm
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock
Machine Wraith
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Objective: Arcane Wonder
So... I did some last minute changes to my list to lower model count. Since clock had been a problem in the practise games this felt like the right thing to do. But I ended up including banes...
List 2:
Lord Exhumator Scaverous
- Kraken
- Corruptor
- Nightwretch
Maximum unit of Bile Thralls + Skarlock Commander
Warwitch Siren
Madelyn Corbeau
Gorman diWulfe
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Pistol Wraith
Ogrun Bokur
Objective: Bunker
All I can say about this list is "oh god what was I thinking?"
I was so worried about the Black Ogruns that I didn't playtest this list at all. Luckily I played one practise game at Ropecon so it didn't come as such a shock in the actual tournament that this list was so bad that even Scaverous' own mother would be ashamed of seeing him in front of such an army.
I'm placing my lists here into this blog post because I only used these lists - both in tournament and casual games.
List 1:
Warwitch Deneghra
- 2x Nightwretch
- Defiler
- Cankerworm
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock
Machine Wraith
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Objective: Arcane Wonder
So... I did some last minute changes to my list to lower model count. Since clock had been a problem in the practise games this felt like the right thing to do. But I ended up including banes...
List 2:
Lord Exhumator Scaverous
- Kraken
- Corruptor
- Nightwretch
Maximum unit of Bile Thralls + Skarlock Commander
Warwitch Siren
Madelyn Corbeau
Gorman diWulfe
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Pistol Wraith
Ogrun Bokur
Objective: Bunker
All I can say about this list is "oh god what was I thinking?"
I was so worried about the Black Ogruns that I didn't playtest this list at all. Luckily I played one practise game at Ropecon so it didn't come as such a shock in the actual tournament that this list was so bad that even Scaverous' own mother would be ashamed of seeing him in front of such an army.
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Colossal Mania
Before I'm writing the tournament games for Warmachine, I'll write the little funsies first.
Somebody had constructed a beautiful Colossal Mania -board for Warmachine. I don't know where, how or even why the rules exist, but they're out there. Somewhere.
Basic idea is that you have four players, and each has a warlock or warcaster, plus a colossal of their chosen faction. Warcasters are locked in special towers until the colossal is dead. Once it's destroyed your warcaster is placed on an area in their very own corner, and becomes a fully playable model.
Game ends once there is only one warcaster or warlock remaining.
We had:
Iron Lich Asphyxious + Kraken
Krueger the Stormlord + Woldwrath
Grim Angus + Mountain King (that's me!)
Nemo2 + Stormwall
That's also the turn order, though not necessarily the starting order. I don't remember if it was Cryx or Cygnar.
First picture already has Kraken wrecked, but before that both Krueger the Stormlord and Grim Angus used their feats in succession. -5 SPD for Cygnar and Cryx. Har har. Oh, right. Colossal Mania has this rule that feats have the whole board as the control area, and range for defensive spells is unlimited.
Mountain King got some random shots in, and shed tons of whelps. Other than that there was not very much to do with Angus and the King except re-casting Return Fire on the gargantuan every turn.
But once the feat Hordes feat effects had worn off, Stormwall was within charge range to Kraken, and opened the game. Kraken got wrecked, and then it was Cryx turn right after.
Asphyxious cast Scything Touch on himself and Parasite on Stormwall, and destroyed the colossal. Well, at least he had to use his feat.
If memory serves, Woldwrath charged Mountain King then, but didn't deliver the killing blow.
Mountain King destroyed Woldwrath, and suddenly I had the only Gargantuan standing.
I don't remember what Nemo did, but he and Krueger were mostly harassing Asphyxious. After all... what were they going to do to each other, as both were immune to lightning and both mostly did just lightning damage? I'm not entirely sure how Mountain King died, but my guess is that either Asphyxious killed it, or Nemo, since he's in the middle.
Anyway, there was a big melee between Asphyxious and Nemo. Even when Nemo got the charge in, Asphyxious was the one left standing - all the while both Grim Angus and Krueger were peppering the Iron Lich with their ranged weapons. I don't know who dealt the damage when and where, but in the end Asphyxious had only one damage box when he killed Krueger.
Time for Grim to win the day with one well-placed shot that required, what, ten or eleven to score that point. Very much a 50/50 situation.
But no. It was not to be.
My kingdom for a the 'sniper' special rule.
Then Asphyxious ate the troll warlock.
Pretty impressive game for Asphyxious. He dealt the killing blow to all other warcasters and warlocks, and personally killed at least one colossal from 100% damage boxes to 0%, and possibly killed Mountain King, too - all the while just about everyone was focusing on him.
Somebody had constructed a beautiful Colossal Mania -board for Warmachine. I don't know where, how or even why the rules exist, but they're out there. Somewhere.
Basic idea is that you have four players, and each has a warlock or warcaster, plus a colossal of their chosen faction. Warcasters are locked in special towers until the colossal is dead. Once it's destroyed your warcaster is placed on an area in their very own corner, and becomes a fully playable model.
Game ends once there is only one warcaster or warlock remaining.
We had:
Iron Lich Asphyxious + Kraken
Krueger the Stormlord + Woldwrath
Grim Angus + Mountain King (that's me!)
Nemo2 + Stormwall
That's also the turn order, though not necessarily the starting order. I don't remember if it was Cryx or Cygnar.
First picture already has Kraken wrecked, but before that both Krueger the Stormlord and Grim Angus used their feats in succession. -5 SPD for Cygnar and Cryx. Har har. Oh, right. Colossal Mania has this rule that feats have the whole board as the control area, and range for defensive spells is unlimited.
Mountain King got some random shots in, and shed tons of whelps. Other than that there was not very much to do with Angus and the King except re-casting Return Fire on the gargantuan every turn.
But once the feat Hordes feat effects had worn off, Stormwall was within charge range to Kraken, and opened the game. Kraken got wrecked, and then it was Cryx turn right after.
Asphyxious cast Scything Touch on himself and Parasite on Stormwall, and destroyed the colossal. Well, at least he had to use his feat.
If memory serves, Woldwrath charged Mountain King then, but didn't deliver the killing blow.
Mountain King destroyed Woldwrath, and suddenly I had the only Gargantuan standing.
I don't remember what Nemo did, but he and Krueger were mostly harassing Asphyxious. After all... what were they going to do to each other, as both were immune to lightning and both mostly did just lightning damage? I'm not entirely sure how Mountain King died, but my guess is that either Asphyxious killed it, or Nemo, since he's in the middle.
Anyway, there was a big melee between Asphyxious and Nemo. Even when Nemo got the charge in, Asphyxious was the one left standing - all the while both Grim Angus and Krueger were peppering the Iron Lich with their ranged weapons. I don't know who dealt the damage when and where, but in the end Asphyxious had only one damage box when he killed Krueger.
Time for Grim to win the day with one well-placed shot that required, what, ten or eleven to score that point. Very much a 50/50 situation.
But no. It was not to be.
My kingdom for a the 'sniper' special rule.
Then Asphyxious ate the troll warlock.
Pretty impressive game for Asphyxious. He dealt the killing blow to all other warcasters and warlocks, and personally killed at least one colossal from 100% damage boxes to 0%, and possibly killed Mountain King, too - all the while just about everyone was focusing on him.
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