Does two Wrong Eyes make a right one?

Two 75 point games of Warmachine from this... month, or so.

Deneghra, the Soul Weaver
- Corruptor
- Defiler
- Erebus

Mechanithralls (min) +2x Brute Thralls

Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
The Withershadow Combine
Iron Lich Overseer
- Leviathan
Necrotech
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor
Pistol Wraith
2x Soul Trapper
Warwitch Siren

Opponent had:

Actually I got no idea what opponent had. I don't remember the names of the monstrosities and cannot easily tell the two drudge units from each other. List may have been something like this:

Cognifex Cyphon
- Warden
- 2x Wrecker

Alexia Ciannor & the Risen + Dominator

2x Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges (max)
Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges (min)
Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges (max)
Cephalyx Overlords
Horgenhold Artillery Corps + Dominator
2x Cephalyx Agitator

Scenario was Take & Hold.

This write-up is bound to be brief, as it's been way too long since I played this game and it was a long one.

In the first picture, for example, I forget why there is one monstrosity close to my flag. It was probably something with Leviathan having Stealth from Iron Lich Overseer, so that Cognifex was not able to cast Gallows on the heavy warjack. It's possible that opponent had used feat this turn, too, and when Gallows shenanigans and such went wrong, the benefits of feat were less than impressive.

So was my next turn, too. I really hope Cognifex had used the feat, because otherwise dice rolls must have been exceedingly subpar. I dedicated Leviathan, Iron Lich Overseer, Deneghra, Defiler and Pistol Wraith to kill the monstrosity - and failed. The monstrosity was at one hit box remaining, under corrosion and stationary from Death Chill.

Opponent killed Iron Lich Overseer, because somehow I had thought it more beneficial to take a POW 12 swing at ARM 22 target or something than cast Stealth. I think Erebus took a hit despite DEF 16 and obviously some Mechanithralls died, but other than that I cannot remember. Except, well, there it is in the picture. A daunting swarm of drudges closed in.

I think I used Deneghra's feat next and spammed Mortality all over the board. Corruptor is a nice piece of art when fighting Drudges with a warcaster that can remove Tough.

For some reason I also charged in with Erebus, getting four kills at maximum. Deneghra re-activated Leviathan under her control and used feat souls to fill it with focus. It probably killed monstrosity on the right next.

Of course I lost Erebus, foolish as I was launching him in to the thick of action. Necrosurgeon was steadily bringing in new batches of Mechanithralls - opponent had been extremely unlucky in his attempts to remove her.

Next I figure that if I kill the last monstrosity, Deneghra will have very little to fear. She and Leviathan killed it. From here on game went weird and awkward. We were both trying to dominate the enemy flag. Cyphon was continuously spraying Deneghra with the "cannot cast spells" gun, which meant I didn't have the courage to charge him. Not without Mortality, no.

Eventually Deneghra was more successful in grinding out scenario points. Killing blow was when Cognifex was unable to finish Leviathan that didn't have all that many health boxes remaining.



Game 2:

Second game was played about a week later. My list was:

Lich Lord Asphyxious
- Malice
- Ripjaw
- 2x Stalker
Bane Warriors (max) + Officer & Standard
Bile Thralls (min) + Skarlock Commander
Darragh Wrathe
Scrap Thralls
2x Soul Trapper
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

Opponent had:

Gorten Grundback
- 2x Ghordson Driller
- 2x Grundback Gunner

2x Kayazy Eliminators
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Kell Bailoch
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor
Savio Montero Acosta
Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
Rorsh & Brine
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw


Scenario was Entrenched and Cryx started game.

I had some success in removing some solos and whatnot with surprise SPD 6 Purge sprays from Bile Thralls.

Engaging didn't feel like an option when both had Star Crossed going on for them.

Looked like game would become a scenario grind-fest, but opponent got Savio Acosta into a difficult spot to remove and I didn't feel like I would be able to punch through enemy armor any time soon.

So, assassination attempt it was. All models I had tried to kill Wrong Eye first. It didn't succeed, so Asphyxious walked forward and cast Parasite on Gorten. Then he used feat and got seven thralls back or something. One thrall killed off Wrong Eye, and a four thralls or so succeeded in charging Gorten.

One was a miss, but three other attacks hit.

Last one caused a Tough roll, which obviously succeeded when I couldn't make any more attacks. Maybe with a little bit better positioning from the very start of my feat I could have got five thralls at him... but maybe it wouldn't have changed anything. After all, three 7+'s on two dice out of four attempts was far better statistics than what I have come used to...

Anyway, Asphyxious was butchered up many times over on the next turn. If I had saved up enough focus points for Teleport, maybe I would have played for one additional turn.

Now, Asphyxious3 needs to fail at caster kill because of Tough roll and I have a full set complete.

Deneghra Hard Mode

Played two 50 point games of Warmachine from last Thursday.


Deneghra, the Soul Weaver
- Corruptor
- Erebus
- Nightwretch

Mechanithralls (min) + 2x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Skarlock Thrall
Necrotech
Pistol Wraith
Ragman
Soul Trapper
Swamp Gobber River Raider
Warwitch Siren

Opponent had:

Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood
- Dire Troll Mauler
- Troll Axer
- Troll Impaler

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min)

Trollkin Sluggers (max)
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Totem Hunter
Trollkin War Wagon

Scenario was Standoff, and first game Cryx started.

In the first picture Deneghra has just used her feat and cast Mortality all over the place, most notably the objective, krielstone bearers, axer and sluggers. Corruptor succeeded to kill Axer outright, so I didn't want to commit Erebus anywhere just yet. I was fairly certain both warjacks would just die if I wouldn't somehow neutralize Mauler - and I didn't have tools for that. Damage on sluggers wasn't exactly inspiring. Pistol Wraith took out krielstone bearers. Nightwretch took a boosted damage shot at the objective.

Jarl Skuld uses feat next, and Corruptor is gone the instant Mauler takes a stern look at it.

Next turn Erebus dispatches Mortalified Dire Troll Mauler. Opponent doesn't manage to kill Erebus, but War Wagon feels rather oppressive when it blocks me from getting any points from zone closest to my side of the table. I was running out of attacks, and if Erebus would get wrecked I would have pretty much nothing on board except Deneghra.

So I want to assassinate. I collect a couple of souls from here and there, and then charge as far as I can. I couldn't reach Jarl Skuld, but I Deneghra could kill a couple of trolls from Erebus' way. A critical fail happens when Deneghra misses a krielstone bearer, and afterwards the bearer passes a tough check. I no longer had focus to cast a boosted Scourge on Skuld. I succeeded to land Mortality on him, though, but he was still within armor aura of krielstone.

Erebus charges and fails to kill the trollblood warcaster, despite hitting with first attack, making him stationary.

I put all the effort to this assassination, so I hadn't even upkept Grave Wind. Deneghra died easily - I doubt she would have survived even if I would have used her correct DEF stat of 15 instead of 14.

Game 2:

Next game Cryx goes second and we switch table sides.

Corruptor takes a nice shot at War Wagon, but it is compensated for on next turn, when I cast Mortality on Sluggers unit and then go make Burster attack. I would have nailed the entire unit on 6+'s, but only three died. Useless sacrifice of a Corruptor.

To add an insult, the two remaining sluggers make astonishing damage rolls against Corruptor. War Wagon delivers the killing blow. By now both Shield Guard Brute Thralls are dead. Skuld uses feat.

So I don't really have that many targets. Pretty much Totem Hunter and War Wagon.

Skarlock casts Mortality on War Wagon, and Ragman comes to offer Death Field for nearby attackers.

One Mechanithrall and one River Raider do not destroy War Wagon even if it had taken an impressive damage roll earlier. I don't have other options other than to bring Deneghra to the battle engine. Damage rolls are frustratingly low, and charge attack misses with triple 1's. She has to burn a disturbing amount of focus, and is left with two points only to reduce damage next turn. I should have used feat and cast Grave Wind on her.

Pistol Wraith and Erebus seize zone on the right, and that's three control points for Cryx.

Then opponent unleashes everything on Deneghra. Luck was on my side this time around, when Deneghra was left with around four damage points - and impaler had missed her while it had Mauler's +3 STR on.

Well, she was on fire so there was a chance for her to die on my turn anyway.

Which she didn't.

Deneghra uses her feat and gives Mortality everywhere - Axer, Impaler, Sluggers. She casts Ghost Walk on herself and Mechanithralls and Grave Wind on herself. One Ghost Walk may have come from Skarlock Thrall, though. She then retreats, heals herself a little bit. Then Necrosurgeon and Necrotech repair her.

Ragman gives Death Field once more, and Axer is swarmed with Mechanithralls. River Raiders kill a contesting Stone Scribe and shoot a harpoon at Death Chilled Impaler. This gave me quite a lead in control points. Opponent made a valiant effort at contesting zones, but eventually this game became the first scenario victory I've witnessed in Steamroller 2017 CID.

Her indecision

Yesterday I was a rival suitor for a princess for the first time ever.

There were two suitors, and considering how princess sent hearts for both of us, it must have been a tough decision for her to pick her companion for the end of days just on the basis of letters.

After eight rounds the situation was four hearts for both suitors. Fifth heart would be the most important decision.

And fifth heart was not mine.

Clearly there was some foul play going on behind my back, when princess herself was 'out of the game' during ninth round.

edit:

Since another round was played a day later, I'll edit that right in.

This time around I let nothing come in-between me and the princess, resorting to smear campaigns and forcing rival suitor to stay overnight at the church, buying me plenty of time to arrange the delivery of my letters, all the while taking care that no letter of my adversary would reach the hands of our beloved princess.

These lowly methods were prolific in securing me victory this time, but I'm afraid that one day princess will see through my fraud...

Monster horror story

Okay, now I feel dumb.

Once more I dropped my camera, and to my astonishment - image quality has drastically improved.

Overjoyed by this I took a couple of pictures of some models I've painted for Kingdom Death.

The smallest one is Mother that I plan to use as one of the starting survivors if I can't get hold of unarmored survivor sprue. Picture is not all that good but at least the weird vertical stripes are not there. I finished painting Mother exactly today and I'm going to tell a horror story right now.

When I had finished Mother, I started to spread gloss varnish on the miniature. Turned out the brush wasn't clean, and it started smearing grey all over the model. Panicking I ran for a sink to hopefully get most of the stuff away. This helped a little, but damage had already been done. I managed to salvage Mother adequately enough, but the final paint-job could have been tad better without this horrible accident.

The hard way to learn I guess.

Miniatures shown are White Lion and Screaming Antelope quarries from Kingdom Death: Monster and Mother survivor is some kind of collector extra or something.

The Price of Beauty

Two 50 point games of Warmachine. Both were played with Week 2 rule pack for Steamroller CID cycle. Both games had the same lists.


Deneghra, the Soul Weaver
- Corruptor
- Erebus
- Deathripper
- Defiler

The Withershadow Combine
Necrotech
Ogrun Bokur
2x Pistol Wraith
Soul Trapper [1]
Warwitch Siren


Opponent had:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Deathripper
- Nightwretch
- Reaper
- Slayer
Bane Warriors (max) + Command Attachment
Mechanithralls (max) +1x Brute Thrall + Skarlock Commander
Warwitch Siren


First game was the scenario Outlast and Deneghra started.

I forgot to take pictures for quite a while, but considering their quality I guess it isn't that much of a loss.

Enemy Mechanithralls had swarmed zone on left. Maelovus had cast Mortality on them. I think about three Mechanithralls survived.

In the picture Deneghra has used her feat and cast Mortality on Slayer, plus switched Grave Wind on herself. It had originally been cast on Erebus.

Enemy Slayer became quite a sorry piece when it was knocked down, stationary from Death Chill and had lost it's cortex.

However, for some reason I wanted to protect Deneghra from ranged attacks - and enemy had only one ranged attack available. Harpoon attack from Reaper wouldn't even have been able to drag Deneghra - but it sure could do that to Erebus. That's how I lost my newly painted Erebus right away.

I lost both of my Pistol Wraiths and of course the Erebus. Corruptor suffered heavy damage, and I felt quite a bit powerless when enemy was outnumbering me 3 to 1.

Souls converted to Focus points for Deneghra, bringing her up to twelve points. And Asphyxious was within charge range, so I decided to attempt an assassination.

Withershadow Combine cast Puppet Master and Ghost Walk on Deneghra.

I somehow needed to pull the only soul enemy had - Warwitch Siren - for Deneghra. I don't remember how that exactly happened, but Soul Trapper did it's job just fine, and Deneghra could charge, cast Scourge on Asphyxious, use the soul to cast Mortality on Asphyxious and then proceed with 8 focus points of attacks against automatically hitting P+S 13 attacks against ARM 14 target. Asphyxious did have three or four focus points in camp, but they did not save Asphyxious from an overkill like this.

Final score was 1 scenario point for Asphyxious and zero for Deneghra.


Game 2:

Second game was Spread the Net and Asphyxious started.

In the first picture Asphyxious is about to start controlling the rectangular zone. Deneghra uses her feat, and that must have been the most beautiful Deneghra the Soul Weaver's feat turns I've ever had.

Maelovus had cast Mortality on Mechanithralls once more. But Deneghra cast Mortality on Slayer, Deathripper and Bane Warriors, Ghost Walk on herself and on Erebus, and allocated extra focus for Erebus and Corruptor.

Then she charged close to the flag on my side of the board, killed stuff and used Reposition to get to control the flag.

Erebus charges and wrecks Slayer. I would have wanted to use Overtake to get to contact with Nightwretch and make it stationary and somewhat damaged, but wrecking ARM 15 target took all attacks and all focus it had.

Killing six Mechanithralls and the Brute Thrall, Slayer, five Bane Warriors and some stray points to Deathripper along with two control points felt quite nice indeed. But alas, then something happened.

Only one attack missed Erebus, so I didn't get that much mileage out of Poltergeist. Attacking models were two Bane Warriors, Bane Warrior Officer and Reaper. Okay, this was a loss I was ready to accept. What wrenched my guts was how all it took was two (2) Bane Warrior attacks that wrecked Corruptor also. It had taken some minor damage that had been mostly repaired by Necrotech. This was a loss I was not ready to accept, though I did not flip the table just yet.

It think scenario was 2-2.

I cleared flag and zone on the right, but I was outrageously starved of attacks. It also felt like a death sentence, when Pistol Wraith couldn't kill Bane Warrior Officer and then Defiler advanced to spray Warwitch Siren and Bane Warrior Officer - hit Siren, but missed officer. Did not kill Siren.

Soul Trapper ran to contest zone where Asphyxious was grinding victory points, and scenario went to 4-2 for Deneghra.

Opponent then wrecked Defiler, killed Ogrun Bokur and last remaining Pistol Wraith. Most terrible thing was a stray spray from enemy Warwitch Siren that killed Maelovus. I really wouldn't have needed that to happen.

Scenario went 4-4.

My memory is getting a little bit hazy on the minute details of match. Deneghra failed her activation. She only killed Warwitch Siren and missed Mortality on Nightwretch. She did some random attacks against the arc node, but pretty much just tickled it. Admonia made a valiant sacrifice by running to contest two zones, so scenario was still 5-5.

I lost Deathripper and Admonia, so all I had was Tremulus and Deneghra. Scenario went to 7-5 for Asphyxious.

Deneghra failed her activations yet again. She did remove Deathripper I think, and impact attacks nailed all but the flag bearer of Bane Warriors.


Final score was something like 11-8 for Asphyxious and game ended on the second player's seventh turn. It's more than likely that I messed up somewhere when trying to re-calculate the point scoring, but lots of points were scored by both players. And eventually both players had only their warcaster on the table.

It's been quite a while since I bought any new games. But today I walked home with Love Letter in my bag.

White Lion

So, this is what I've been up to for some time now.

It's a Kingdom Death miniature White Lion.

Kingdom Death has been a long time dream of mine to get to play. Availability and the price tag are both prohibitive for me, especially the price in one go. But I've tried to stitch Kingdom Death together piece by piece by buying parts of it from Ebay. It has been a painful thing to do, but eventually the game is nearing complete. Actual survivors are pretty much the only thing I don't currently have.

Because things have been bought used, there have been some mild annoyances (such as this lion being glued to the wrong side of the base and Screaming Antelope missing ears entirely) but I guess such cannot be avoided.

Odd feeling I've been in this situation before

A 75 point game of Warmachine from yesterday.

My list was:

Deneghra, the Soul Weaver
- Corruptor
- Defiler
- Harrower
- Nightmare
- Nightwretch

Withershadow Combine

Bloat Thrall
Machine Wraith
Necrotech
Ogrun Bokur
2x Pistol Wraith
Soul Trapper
Warwitch Siren

Opponent had:

The High Reclaimer
- Judicator

Choir of Menoth (min)
Exemplar Vengers (max)
Idrian Skirmishers (max) + Command Attachment

2x Knights Exemplar
Hierophant
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Vassal Mechanik
Wrack

Scenario was Take & Hold and Protectorate started game. For some reason the picture quality is even more atrocious than it has been these days.

Anyway. Opponent was juggling Hand of Fate throughout the game like a pro. I had Grave Wind on Deneghra. Nightmare had Judicator for it's Prey target, and Corruptor was the choice of Idrians.

Opponent had uneventful turn 2, when all shots from Judicator either did no damage or deviated off, and even Idrians managed to miss their RAT 11 shot against Defiler. A Venger charged Deneghra and dealt eleven points or something, which was dropped to six by expending a focus point.

My next turn wasn't all that grand either, when opponent was passing Tough rolls on Idrians way too often. Deneghra even missed Mortality on them. But I did get four Idrians and one Venger. Necrotech repaired Deneghra. I was quite alarmed by the Venger attack on Deneghra, so I crammed as many models in front of Deneghra as possible to protect her.

Turn 3 wasn't too bad. Vengers failed at wrecking any of my warjacks, and Idrians got only Soul Trapper and Pistol Wraith.

However, one deviation from Judicator was excessively annoying, when it just managed to clip Admonia a little bit, who received a damage roll of 11, which was just enough to kill her. Boo.

Regardless, I was optimistic.

Maelovus cast Mortality on Vengers after their Battle Driven had worn off. Warwitch Siren seduced a Venger, who galloped right next to a gathering of two other Vengers - all of which were killed from a Thresher attack by Harrower. Quick Work shot tried to kill the last Venger who was sitting in a trench. Attack missed, but deviation still gave POW 6 damage roll, which resulted in two points of damage - unless I forget what Pistol Wraith rolled. It tried to come and finish the cavalry model, and accidentally even scored a hit. Either no damage at all, or the earlier two points actually came from this attack.

Excruciatingly carefully I measured that I would be able to get Deneghra to spray the Venger dead, and then Reposition away from Judicator's charge distance.

Plan was all good, but execution was not. I had written a mental note myself to move Ogrun Bokur out of Deneghra's escape lane, but you can already guess what happened.

"You are safe right next to me, Deneghra, my liege, my generous client!"

"Uh, yeah, whatever. Just move a little so there is no reason for you to protect me at all, you know."

"NONE SHALL PASS!"

Then I pretty much had to run everything I still had left to activate to block Judicator's charge.

Turn 4 Deneghra didn't die thanks to valiant sacrifices made by my troops, but the game was lost anyway. All but Maelovus and Tremulus, Necrotech, Warwitch Siren and Bloat Thrall and Harrower died.

I wanted to take Judicator down with me at least, perhaps some miracle might happen and Deneghra would survive if the P+S gazillion colossal would go down.

So, Deneghra used her feat and spammed Mortality all over the place. And true to her traditions that she seems to hold in high esteem, she missed Mortality at least three times when needing 5+ to hit.

Anyway, then she charged Judicator and mauled it with all but three focus points.

Necrotech repaired Harrower with a LOT of spare parts (shame you can use only one at a time...)

Harrower then charged, but didn't wreck Judicator.

Warwitch Siren attempted to spray Judicator and did some odd points of damage.

Then Bloat Thrall took a free strike and exploded, killing a couple of Idrians. But not getting to land a shot at Judicator.

I suppose a miracle could have happened if Judicator would have died. After all, out of the six or so Idrians that charged Deneghra, four missed. But nope, the witch was dead. Once more.