Beast Handler Conversion

or: A 35 point Protectorate vs Skorne battle report.

Finally got to play against local players, which has been a bit of a rarity lately.

Anyway, my list was plain old Hexeris after quite a while. I wanted again to do things a little differently, and decided to try out only heavy warbeasts for Hexy's battlegroup.

Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- Rhinodon

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Paingiver Beast Handlers
Venator Flayer Cannon
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Aptimus Marketh

And opponent had:

Grand Scrutator Severius
- Crusader
- Revenger

Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Exemplar Errants + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Exemplar Errant Seneschal
Knight Exemplar Seneschal
Hierophant
Vassal of Menoth

And scenario was randomised to be Fire Support, and Skorne got to start game. Objective rules seemed to be match-made for the Flayer Cannon... d3 shots with increasing damage against larger bases + damage boost? Sad thing really that I picked Aptimus Marketh instead of Extoller Soulward, for I would've had real chances of dishing out incredible damage with it.

Ah well, but enough of such nonsense.

Soul Slave was on Archidon and Death March on Praetorian Swordsmen. First picture is taken from the end of Skorne's second turn, and a word needs to be said here about the forest. Next picture actually shows it a lot better. But anyway, we removed one part of it, because it was a pain to try to check if Rhinodon could trample and get a few shots at Exemplar Errant Seneschal. Two red dice and one black die mark where the forest had been.

So yes, there was a gigantic forest in the middle. But in friendly games I love to play in some weird set-ups, so I didn't see any reason to object this kind of terrain. But I sure did miss Eyeless Sight from that Extoller.

On opponents next turn I lose Rhinodon and way too many Praetorian Swordsmen. Bronzeback Titan counter-charges one Errant, but fails to hit their def 14. They had Defender's Ward on.

Severius also uses his feat, denying Hexeris and Aptimus Marketh any spellcasting.

On Skorne side of things, it's counter-feat time. After Vengeance shenanigans from Swordsmen, Hexeris activates, uses feat and charges away to one Exemplar Errant. Opponent was hesitant to let my feat start rolling, so Hexeris managed to kill a couple of Errants, before finally killing his target, and backing up 1" with Beat Back.

Bronzeback then uses Train Wreck animus on itself and kills about 6-7 models. Not too shabby, but zombies gained from Hexeris' feat do nothing except set one Flameguard on fire.

Archidon charges Revenger so that it couldn't be pushed away from melee range (next to Knight Exemplar Seneschal) hoping to shake things up. It did break its arc node, but nothing else. Too bad.

And that was about all I could do.

Next turn Revenger and Knight Exemplar Seneschal make some pudding out of Archidon, and anything else that is able to is launched at Bronzeback Titan. Who endures, though plenty of damage is done and the poor beast is set on fire.

Though things looked pretty good at this point, I was starting to worry, if I would actually lose to scenario. I had next to no models to contest things on leftern front.

On my next turn Bronzeback makes a complete failure at being a Bronzeback. It takes every last bit of Fury from it to wreck Crusader up. Yes, it wrecks it, but come on... it was even enraged! Rest of menite schmuck needs to be mopped up by Hexeris himself and a couple of lucky hits from Praetorian Swordsmen.

And then starts a race for Control Points. Neither player has been able to score any points yet, but opponent goes to 2 on his next turn.

And on my next turn Skorne goes to 2 and contest points away from Protectorate. I somewhat foolishly bring Bronzeback easily within charge range of both Revenger and Knight Exemplar Seneschal, but I felt I had to put some pressure on enemy, or lose to scenario.

However.

Next round opponent does something that really caught me by suprise. Well, now we know we actually played it wrong in a few occasions, but barring that, the thing that pooped in my sadomasochistic orgy party of black magic and dark powers was a failed CMD 8 command check.

Severius clears whatever was contesting his flag and converted a beast handler of mine. This was the first screw-up, since Convert special action is targettable ability, so it needs a line of sight. I was unsure of this and somehow was inclined to think that no LOS is needed if it's not separately said. But that thing was selecting a model... Ah well.

Then the beast handler in question activates and goes to contest my flag, bringing Protectorate to 4 control points and leaving Skorne to 2. Later we found out that you can't activate on the same turn with the converted model. Which is a bit funny, and I intuitively thought that it could activate, because so many abilities that bring back models and take control over models let them activate. Except Convert. I guess if you're brought back from the dead, you get more time and are more responsive to things on the battlefield, but if you have a sudden change of heart in your inner beliefs, you become so stupefied that you lose an activation.

Anyway.

Last picture is a rare shot of a scenario victory.

On my next turn I managed to bring points total to 4-4, and it looked that opponent wouldn't be able to get anything within 4" of my flag, so situation would be at least 6-6. But Revenger charged objective marker that had only 6 boxes remaining, wrecked it and gained one victory point. So victory for Protectorate of Menoth.

Though we played that one critical thing wrong the game itself was absolutely fantastic and exciting. And if the point is to have fun, all of this was a total success.

A Hobby Post (magnetised Desecrator/Leviathan)

Since I've written something about my magnetising projects earlier, I guess I continue the trend with Cryxian spiderjack chassis.

I already own a metal Harrower, so I didn' actually have to magnetise the head plate. Keeping an eye on future releases, though, I glued it into place with only tiniest bit of super glue. Once it breaks I might even use blu-tack.

So, magnetising desecrator/leviathan was ridiculously easy. Shoulder joints conceal magnets perfectly. Only thing I ever did was to glue the magnets into shoulder sockets and cut the weapon ball joints for them to have an even surface.

Heads didn't need any kind of magnets, but it was a little tricky to drill a deep hole into the neck tab. Let's just say that Desecrator/Leviathan has been baptised in blood. Or perhaps Blood Creation would be better term? Though that's Legion stuff.

I took a little picture from the assembled chassis, with and without weapons. Of course the pictures haven't been focused too well, but you get the point. For any and all spiderjack enthusiasts out there, you can especially see one nice detail in first picture. Yes, you can actually glue this model to its base!

If you're wondering about the book, it's "Extraordinary Popular Delusion and the Madness of Crowds" by Charles Mackay.

Magnetising warjacks is all nice and sweet (as in sugary). Of course it is a little extra challenge for aspiring hobbyists, and bang for your buck for those on limited budget (such as myself), and additional versatility to army construction... but I didn't mean those. Magnetising warjacks gives you the ultimate ability to do absolutely retarded things like this, and not regret it once glue sets:





And last but not least (oh well, let's admit it's least), I finally got my filthy little hands on some Risen. I've had Kraken on painting table for quite some time now, and these three guys will be the final little extra on such a centerpiece model. They will represent corpse tokens for Collector.

We put a Vassal in your Vassal so you can Enliven while you Enliven

Since it's been difficult to get a game in my hometown right now, I decided to start Vassal once again.

I would've wanted to go with epic Asphyxious, but you know... epic Asphyxious carries a sort of stigma with it.

I made a somewhat whimsical list for Witch Coven of Garlghast that I really wanted to try. It felt different enough that I ditched any plans I had for epic Asphyxious.

It was (a 50 point list):

Witch coven of Garlghast
- Harrower
- 2x Slayer helljacks
- Ripjaw
- 2x Nightwretch bonejacks

Maximum unit of Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Satyxis Raider Captain
Bane Lord Tartarus
Skarlock
Gorman diWulfe

I was against the forces of Menoth, controlled by someone from United Kingdoms. And the usual praise I often give to Vassal at this point is the fact that you easily get to play Something Completely Different.

This time it was:

High Reclaimer
- Reckoner
- Devout

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Exemplar Bastions
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith
Maximum unit of Croe's Cutthroats + Attendant Priest
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt + Attendant Priest
Madelyn Corbeau
Wracks
Hierophant
Vassal of Menoth

This was probably the second time in Mk2 that I got to play against High Reclaimer, and last time the match was so exciting that I have been waiting to get a second chance for a long time now.

Scenario was randomised to be Into the Breach. I won starting roll and decided to go first - I thought positioning would be the key here, since I had no over-excessive ways to remove infantry from board.

On opponents first turn I was horrified again that burning ash spell is only 1 focus. First picture shows the situation I started my second turn.

Since Holy Zealots hadn't gone into Greater Destiny, I tried to navigate through the smoke cloud by advancing Satyxis that had been given Desperate Pace by satyxis captain. Their effective speed of 9 + reach got them into good positions, and awkward Combined Melee Attacks later they had killed about 5 models.

First I had tried to trample with Harrower to kill 3-4 Croe's Cutthroats, but it got only within melee range of 2, and missed the extra attack I could buy.

Slayers advanced closer, and last but not least the Coven advanced as far forward as possible, and used Nightfall. I actually thought I'd be able to get more enemies under feat, but no, such key pieces as enemy warcaster were out.

-2 MAT & RAT effect from Nightfall actually did save Harrower. Fully loaded Reckoner missed one attack because of it. Actually when Reckoned ended it's activation Harrower had lost only ranged weapon, and I was almost giddy, because I was having fantasies about an assassination there. Then Vassal of Menoth activated and used ancillary attack on Reckoner... Boom, gone were movement and cortex, and the warjack itself was standing with about 3 damage boxes left.

However, I guess such a straightforward assassination wouldn't have worked, since opponent was really good at protecting High Reclaimer. Places where I could fit a large base close to the caster were nonexistent. Also Devout made it impossible to cast random Stygian Abysses at the Reclaimer.

Holy Zealots went into Greater Destiny and tied up Satyxis (strange... shouldn't that go the other way around?)

Plenty of the horned warriors died to Ashes to Ashes.

On my next turn Infernal Machine was upkept on Harrower, who made a thresher attack. It snatched two souls from Croe's Cutthroats, and boosted damage against Reckoner with a soul it had got from last turn. Damage roll was excessive. Oh, and two Satyxis Raiders happened to fall to the thresher, too. Anyway. Then Harrower buys another attack against Reckoner with a soul, and boosts damage, and another crazy damage roll. Both arms were gone.

Next a Slayer walks up and finishes the job Harrower began after Gorman diWulfe throws acid bomb on people who were blocking straight lane for that particular helljack.


Witch Coven cast Curse of Shadows on Exemplar Bastions, and Infernal Machine on rightmost Slayer. Or, actually I think it was Skarlock who did the Infernal Machine, but that's a minute detail.

I was terrified with the thought that High Reclaimer would use his feat next turn and bring back all kinds of stuff to kill one witch, so Coven walked back, and I even broke Perfect Conjunction so that one of the witches would not suffer back arc penalties in case of a random charge.

Rightmost Slayer advanced through an Exemplar Bastion that was standing about in the middle of the trench and killed both Lady Aiyana and Master Holt.

So, all in all it was quite good turn, but there was still High Reclaimer's feat to be involved.

I usually push way too aggressively with my warcaster(s) and die foolishly because of that. So now that I actually backed off I was pretty much saved (at least for a turn) because of that. Maybe this is learning or something crazy like that. However, High Reclaimer rolled five models back, and back came Lady Aiyana & Master Holt, two Bastions and a Croe's Cutthroat.

Harrower was obviously devastated, as well as middle Slayer. It didn't quite break, but if memory serves, it had nothing but Cortex left.

Last of the Satyxis died to Ashes to Ashes, and Tartarus was killed by charging Devout.

Just a round before everything looked quite okay, and then, suddenly, I had lost all attrition.

Slayer on the left, however, luckied out. It took heavy damage from two charging Exemplar Bastions, but damage that came in broke no systems thanks to columns rolled.

This was my chance. Curse of Shadows denying free strikes from Bastions, Veil of Mists to ignore Vassal of Menoth and Infernal Machine for speed & MAT boost for the only functional helljack plus 3 focus was enough to bring High Reclaimer down.

I need to say again how awesome this game was, and how it could have ended either way, and there were big swings in perception "who has the upper hand".

What played in my favor was probably the fact that this was not a Killbox scenario. I couldn't have ran back where I did with Coven unless I wanted to give in Control Points.

About a Demo (Warmachine)

What really made Levels 2013 Warmachine tournament such a success was some sort of publicity.

And by publicity I mean that it eventually lead into a demo game of Warmachine that took place about a week and a half ago.

Person in question was a long-time miniature gamer, so Warmachine was cross-demoed (I raise my middle finger to dictionary here I guess) with Hordes.

Game itself was somewhat epic, because it happened to go into caster versus caster personal melee combat. The melee combat itself wasn't that epic, however, because first Scaverous failed to nail down Kaya the Wildborne (she was left with two hit boxes) and in return Kaya didn't manage to bring down focusless Scaverous by herself, even by using her feat.

Gnarlhorn Satyr had to dislodge itself from melee and come and stomp Scaverous a bit more. Problem here was that Gnarlhorn Satyr had lost its Mind -branch, which was healed by Kaya to one point remaining.

Free strike was made by P+S 7 Nightwretch, so barring absurd damage the beast would survive, but even such a pesky melee ability could cripple such a mighty warbeast by rolling only one point of damage to wrong branch...

But it was not meant to be. If memory serves, Nightwretch rolled enough to get exactly to Gnarlhorn's armor value.

It seems that the Curse of Scaverous carries even into demo games.


What I did notice during this demo game is the amount of rules you, as a somewhat active Warmachine player, start to take for granted. Last time I gave a demo game of Warmachine it was to a player with next to zero experience in miniature games. It was easy to explain everything with "this is just how everything goes" mentality. I mean, I did not actually have to stop and give any introspection to the inner workings of game mechanics.

But this time around opponent (or rather the one receiving the demo game) had the experience to ask questions, and it was a very different thing to answer questions than to just say okay things happen like this - oh, except you can't do just that, you have to do it like this.... I guess some real questions gave some insight on what basic things do raise questions in first-timers.

Curiouser and curiouser, but that's for my musings now.

Clearage

And finally last game written up that dates waay back.

It was before the Levels -tournament, a practice-sort-of game with someone who was about to enter tournament (but eventually couldn't make it, sadly.)

We played a 35 point game with random scenario.

I took my Cryx with following list:

Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Malice
- Slayer
- 2x Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall
Skarlock
Warwitch Siren

Opponent was playing something like this:

Ravyn
- Phoenix
- Manticore
- Aspis

Maximum unit of Houseguard Riflemen + Unit Attachment + Soulless Escort
2x Arcanist
Ghost Sniper
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Scenario was Outflank, and area middle points are marked by Helldiver burrow markers.

Board itself was restrictive as hell itself thanks to the river. It was agreed as being only shallow water with no extra elements to it, though it is icky green and gooey and stuff.

On Cryxian side there was this nasty bottleneck caused by obstructions, river and covering fire templates by Manticore. That much for my mechanithralls advancing through.

However, I was able to pull Phoenix with Malice to that aforementioned bottle neck, possessed it and walked itas far into Cryxian territory as possible. I had messed up my activation order, I had planned to cast Parasite on Phoenix before starting all these fancy shenanigans. And I was reminded pretty well that you just don't do mistakes like that.

Malice was the only model that rolled a couple of good damage rolls. I was thinking if I should try to clear lanes for getting Withershadow Combine to make their Black Industries, but looking back I'm glad I didn't. Mechanithralls failed so badly, either they missed completely, or did next to no damage. And they did have Scything Touch on them that Skarlock had graciously managed to cast. But nonetheless, myrmidon was still pretty badly mauled, so I tried to soften it up a little more before going in with Asphyxious.

Withershadow Combine shot spells at it, doing nothing. Well okay, maybe Asphyxious might sacrifice a couple Focus points more, no problem.

Asphyxious charges and misses. All the following attacks fail miserably, and Aspyxious has to burn all focus to finally wreck the thing. All focus but two, of course, that were reserved for Teleport.

But still I would've liked to nail Eiryss down with Breath of Corruption.

Next turn opponent sent a fully loaded Manticore (that moved a bit with Locomotion) to Malice. Damage rolls were just not quite enough to wreck it, if I remember right it lost just about everything else except Cortex.

Combined Ranged Attacking Houseguard Riflemen shot my arcnode down on the leftern front. That's something those pesky Mage Hunter Strike Force wouldn't have done except with phenomenal rolls.

On my next turn I had learned my lesson about activation orders, and cast Parasite on Manticore first. This time two charging mechanithralls, almost wrecked Malice and possibly a few Dark Fires and/or random Hellfires brought the myrmidon down.

This pretty much secured right side for me so much so that on following turns I could actually start dominating the zone.

However, I did have some trouble on left side. I had Slayer and two solos there, and if I wanted to dominate, the Slayer wouldn't gain too much focus from Asphyxious. His control range isn't that far reaching, after all.

But what I could drag to the left side zone were enough to contest it long enough for Asphyxious to dominate twice and other Cryxian troops to control once.

Though Ravyn was footslogging in the river most of the game, it wasn't actually that bad position. For whole game I tried to find a good way of delivering 4x Hellfires into Ravyn, but it just wasn't doable.

Different terrain output really shaked the game here. I think board in the end favored Asphyxious because of his teleportation possibilities, but really... if you want something different, do weird terrain with scenarios. Maybe not in a tournament, but now and then it surely makes for interesting games.

Levels 2013 Warmachine tournament

Well, had a busy week so write-ups from last weekends small tournament have been dragging on.

This is, however where pictures help immensely to remember what happened.

Game 1:

My first game was against Legion of Everblight, and Absylonia's tier list.

The list was something like:

Absylonia
- Typhon
- Angelius
- Scythean
- 4x Shredder

2x Forsaken
Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Scenario was Close Quarters I think. The big building on board was played as a forest, because we sort of had a shortage of terrain that was not an obstruction by default.

Legion advanced in a big block of tall, hulking, muscular flesh of slightly tanned and pleasantly smiling warbeasts... oh wait, now I'm getting carried off.

Anyway, Typhon sprayed off some respectable damage to my beasts, but thankfully three sprays are not quite enough to actually kill off heavy beasts.

On my next turn Gnarlhorn and Stalker both charge Typhon and manage to kill it even when it had Excessive Healing animus on. Even more, Warpwolf Stalker makes a couple godlike rolls against Angelius, which encourages me to charge the beast with Kaya herself.

But thanks to Forced Evolution and Serpentine, Kaya gets only one or two attacks in before she has to use Spirit Door to escape. Yeah, she used her feat that turn, too. Sad thing, really, when Angelius was left with 3 damage boxes, and Absylonia had not used her feat yet.

Then I did lose all of my heavy warbeasts which was something I didn't like too much, when opponent had lost only Typhon and one or maybe two shredders.

Looking at the follow-up picture I can only wonder why I didn't use Dispel on my 3 tharn bloodweavers that got to fight Angelius...

Well, then. I pretty much lose any possibility of any attrition. Angelius munches Gorax after a Forsaken goes and scorches arm 11 bloodweavers away with that fancy special attack.

I was kind of lucky that Angelius chose Gorax as its lunch, because I had a certain possibility to win now.

Scarsfell Griffon used its animus and slammed Scythean. And then Absylonia was down, and took a charge from lone tharn bloodweaver, druid wilder and Kaya herself. Absylonia had two Fury for transfers, but they weren't enough to save her.


Game 2:

Second game was against Protectorate of Menoth, and I was not very happy about it, because Kaya had had some... troubles in the past when facing Menoth.

Board was same, so if anyone was annoyed by the 50% green 50% grey board setup, you're going to be annoyed again.

Opponent played with following list (the other list was Harbinger of Menoth)

Grand Scrutator Severius
- Blessing of Vengeance
- Avatar of Menoth

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Holy Zealots + Monolith
Wracks
Vassal Mechanik
Vassal of Menoth
The Covenant of Menoth
Hierophant
epic Eiryss
Gorman diWulfe

I'm not sure anymore who or what got to start the game, but my most beautiful demoralizing killing spree was when opponent cramped up all support in one nice clump, and Lord of the Feast did not fail to hit def 12 model. Lord of the Feast took down Vassal Mechanik, Gorman diWulfe, one choir member and Vassal of Menoth and dealt 3 damage to Covenant of Menoth.

And to put a super big insult to rather grave injury, Severius failed to kill Lord of the Feast with Immolations, so Avatar of Menoth came itself and beat the snot out of the Avatar of Devourer Wurm. Kind of fitting, no?

I did some rather succesfull yo-yo shenanigans and counter slams with my pieces, but let's make an unnecessarily long story excessively short: I thought that saving the life of my warbeast is more important than saving the life of my warlock.

I used Kaya's feat so that I got all my heavy beasts quite nicely out of retaliation range of Avatar of Menoth, and Blessing of Vengeance was knocked down anyway, so it would not do all that much.

Oh, except run into position to use arc node for Severius to kill my furyless Warlock.

Follow-up picture needs a little commentary, though. Gnarlhorn Satyr has been adjusted during post-game talky bit, I was not able to declare a counter slam from its original facing. So, placing Gnarlhorn Satyr like that after calling it back with Spirit Door would have saved Kaya's butt too, but no. Not today. Protectorate stays as the tough nut for Kaya to crack.


Game 3:

Last game I played against Retribution of Scyrah, and against Adeptis Rahn. Opponent actually jumped at the joy to play against Circle Orboros with no druids around.

Opposing list was something like:

Adeptis Rahn
- Aspis
- Phoenix

Maximum unit of Dawnguard Sentinels (at least I think they were sentinels?=
Battle Mages
Maximum unit of Mage Hunter Strike Force + Commander
epic Eiryss

Again, on this map the ruined buildings were used as forests, because the amount of obstructions would've been rather problematic otherwise.

I had had a few pushes and pulls too many lately at tournaments, so I didn't want to give out my heavy beasts out as easy kills this time around. That's why I got those shifting stones in front of gnarlhorn satyr.

I was actually a lot more lucky than I was supposed to. Phoenix runs close by and Rahn tries to cast Force Hammer to satyr to kick the goat out of triangle. The spell, however, misses. That means on my next turn Gorax uses its animus on Gnarlhorn, and stones teleport it next to Phoenix, who is nearly, but not quite, wrecked in the process.

I did manage to break it eventually though, and I deserve to be called a lucky bastard because of that. White Mane charges a Dawnguard model, kills it, overtakes within melee range against Phoenix and buys extra attack and finalizes what Gnarlhorn began.

Kaya takes Gnarlhorn back, and Warpwolf Stalker warps for berserk and makes a futile charge at mage hunter strike force. It gets only one model into its melee range. Luckily it had used its animus, so it sprinted to make itself a little more of a threat, but I sure would've wanted to take at least 3 of those pesky elves with me.

Now in hindsight I guess I should have tried to play a little more attrition, but both of my heavy beasts were almost dead and the place was swarming with opposing weapon masters.

So I decided to try a caster kill on my next turn.

Warpwolf Stalker was badly damaged and surrounded by enemies. Those needed to be killed first, or the wolf would just die to free strikes.

My troops did a respectable job on clearing enemies, but sometimes respectable isn't enough. Two mage hunter strike force members are left so that they got to make a free strike, when MAT 10 P+S 20 warpwolf with reach trampled next to Rahn with no focus on.

Spirit and Mind gone.

Ouch.

Anyway, all the games I got to take part in were rather nice and exciting, and none of them felt overpowering in such a way that "I just could not do anything".

I guess that's all.

A Second Take at Organising Something

Last weekend Fantasiapelit did a Warmachine tournament at Levels(a local con).

As earlier, (I'm getting crazy with linking, it seems) I was asked to be the tournament organiser, because staff still hasn't been initiated into the joys and wonders of this game.

I'm not exactly a good organiser or anything, and being responsible for everything would have been too much for me, but a small, compact (maximum of 10 players) tournament just might be within range of my possibility... could it?

First, there was a lot more interest than I would've thought. There was a larger Warmachine event in neighboring country that was bound to draw a lot of players away from Finnish meta (which isn't really that big in the first place).

Since I wanted to make tournament easily accessible even to beginners, I took away just about all fancy list building rules and tournament point values was 35.

This meant there were no:
- Specialists
- Divide & Conquer
- Character Restrictions

And 1-2 lists allowed, plus casual death clock limits. There wasn't too much usable time, so it'd been possible to either run 4 rounds with insane hurry, or 3 rounds still with a hurry, but at least more time for actual playing. If there is enough time, I don't see a reason why not to use more casual time limits.

I mean, I understand game time limits in tournament, they're a good tool to make tournament rounds to actually move forward. But there is few things that are more depressing than to actually have to end the game because time runs out. Thus, always more times to deathclock if schedule allows.

But then about the tournament itself.

History almost repeated itself when 3 players called off their participation the day before tournament, but with a struggle we still got 8 players in. And I guess it was a major boon to have 8 players, it'd mean we'd get an uncontested winner at the end of 3rd round, which may not have been the case with 10 players.

Since I was the 8th player, I got to play too.

And I felt that this was a perfect place to get in more games with Kaya the Wildborne against various opponents, since I wouldn't be able to actually win any prizes.

My two lists were: (And what sorcery is this... here in midst of my papers were an army list of Space Marines?!)


List 1:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Lord of the Feast

List 2:
Kaya the Wildborne
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax

Tharn Bloodweavers
Shifting Stones
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder
Tharn Ravager White Mane

Actual write-ups will come later when I've edited the pictures with my amazing digital editing skills.

Eventually part 1/3 of Turku Fanatic

Okay, it's been almost two weeks since Turku Fanatic tournament was held.

So it's really time for me to write down a small report of sorts.

I somehow ended up writing down these things in reverse order, so first two games are now being written last.

Tournament was 50 points with 1-2 lists and Divide & Conquer [2] and 10 point specialists.

I had never taken my Skorne to any tournament before, and I wanted to try how well they could do without Titan Gladiator or Molik Karn.

My lists were:

List 1:

Epic Hexeris
- 2x Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
- Cyclops Shaman
- Archidon
- Rhinodon

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + UA
Maximum unit of Paingiver Beasthandlers
Minimum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Agonizer
Aptimus Marketh
Feralgeist

Specialists:
Bronzeback Titan. (I somehow found it hilarious that there was a one huge 10 point beast as a "specialist".

List 2:

Dominar Rasheth
Basilisk Drake
Basilisk Krea
Cyclops Shaman
Bronzeback Titan
Archidon

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + UA
Maximum unit of Paingiver Beasthandlers
Venator Flayer Cannon
Agonizer
Extoller Soulward
Orin Midwinter
Thrullg
Totem Hunter

Specialists:
Basilisk Drake
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Ancestral Guardian


First game was against Circle of Orboros with Mohsar being the warlock.

Both lists opponent had included the Woldwrath and were construct & druid heavy overall. It was a tough choice between my lists, because Hexeris did fire damage with such low POW that it doesn't really interest any of the construct beasts, and Rasheth would be only able to aim for assassination with his feat and no other function whatsoever.

Opposing list was something like this:

Mohsar
- Woldwrath
- Woldwarden
- Woldwyrd

Druids of Orboros + Overseer
Maximum unit of Tharn Bloodtrackers + Nuala
2x Gallows Grove

Judging from the picture I think I got to start the game, and opponent is making his first turn. Ashen Veil was cast on Praetorian Swordsmen.

Well, there isn't much else to tell about first turn.

I advanced slowly, and scored first blood by killing a Druid of Orboros with Basilisk Drake. Whooppiedoo. And during this turn I start to look at my army a little more closely. Something had been bugging me about it, I mean... I had two heavy beasts and two light beasts... I had switched a few light beasts and feralgeist for Bronzeback Titan... but something was amiss.

Then I noticed it. I had not deployed Rhinodon. That was quite a face-palm moment, luckily opponent took it rather well and allowed me to place the beast somewhere in my deployment zone with no strategic elements to its placing whatsoever.

I guess I was a bit rusty with Skorne.

One heavy beast more was exactly what I needed, though, because on opponents next turn Mohsar used his feat Disjunction, and he used Woldwraths animus on himself. Then Druids of Orboros pulled Bronzeback closer to Woldwrath, and shortly after the gargantuan went and made my precious beast go splat.

Thanks to Disjunction Archidon went nuts and ate a beast handler that was standing on a hill, if you wonder that beasts placement.

Thanks to my Hexeris's feat I had a way of regaining Fury, but it was rather lame to use my feat that way.

Praetorian Swordsmen decided it was time for a suicide-run, and they charged whatever they could. Mostly Woldwrath, and then side-stepping for softer targets. This did remove a nice number of Druids from the field, but it was nothing but a piece trade.

Even Cataphract Cetrati charged, but did pretty much nothing thanks to missed hits and low damage rolls. I theoretically could have nailed Woldwyrd, but alas, it was not to be.

Upcoming turn from opponent was suprisingly merciful - I lost only 90% of Praetorian Swordsmen (only one was left standing) and 50% of Cetrati and a crapton of damage everywhere.

Mohsar advanced to dominate a flag to score control points.

That was my moment to try and win the game, because it looked like Rhinodon was within charge + reach distance. The old man did have 2-3 Fury for transfers, but better moment than this would probably not come.

So, Rhinodon became Enraged and Amuck was cast upon it by Hexeris. And then the beast charges and uses Thresher special attack.

I remember scoring one good damage roll that dealt something like 15 damage points in, but they were transfered right to the Woldwrath. Then there were a couple of crappy damage rolls that Mohsar took straight to the stomach muscles. I guess it's just too much for a giant tortoise-like enraged beast to kill a blind old man.

Luckily I still had Basilisk Drake who came to help Rhinodon with that awesome spray of his.

Either I missed or damage was transfered.

So, after trying everything I could I finally had to pass turn.

If I remember correctly, opponent actually won with scenario by killing off my objective marker and controlling & dominating different zones or something.

Anyway, it was quite nice game. And then on to the next one...



Game 2:

Then I was to be shocked once more.

I don't actually remember what opponents "other list" was, but I remember thinking that neither of them was "ok" for Rasheth, and if I ended up with epic Vyros, Rasheth would be all but doomed... I'm grateful I didn't pick him, since this was what I was looking at from across the table:

Epic Vyros
- 5x Griffon
- 2x Aspis
- Banshee

Maximum unit of Invictors + Unit Attachment + Soulless Escort
Sylys Wyshnalyrr
2x Arcanist

Not that the POW 10 damage roll from Ashes to Ashes would interest anyone on that list either, but still I felt a little bit more confident with epic Hexeris.

Scenario was Destruction, and I think opponent won starting roll and went first. Picture is probably from the end of opponents second turn.

I was quite sure that if I did nothing "big", all hell would break loose next turn. So, I charged. And maybe even used Hexeris' feat.

My grand plan in all its futility was to run Agonizer so that every warjack would be under the effect of "no focus allocation" agony and that way mitigate the upcoming crazy damage output.

It actually worked pretty nicely, but what worked even more nicely was absurd magic attack rolls I was able to pull off. Hexeris shot two fully boosted Hellfires to Vyros, and despite him being in melee (stupid me) they hit home and dealt respectable damage in. Not life-threatening, but certainly put up Vyros on his toes. Or his horse on its hooves.

Even without focus upkeeping of Synergy made more than enough damage.

Most Swordsmen were cut down, Rhinodon dead, agonizer released of its agony and plenty of Cetrati damaged. And all of this even when opponent constantly rolled very crappy damage rolls.

Vyros had also put up his feat. Funny thing here was that on my next turn it didn't trigger even once. Though that did mean that I destroyed not even one model in Vyros' control area...

Here is how it went.

Bronzeback Titan hammered one Griffon that was in melee, and threw it with chain attack to another griffon. I wanted to make Vyros burn focus somehow.

One Aspis in melee with Archidon was miraculously destroyed by godlike damage rolls from Archidon and a spray from Basilisk Drake. But that particular Aspis was outside of Vyros' control range.

Crazy damage rolls didn't stop there - I actually managed to destroy one objective marker with Praetorian Swordsmen. Though to be honest, that one had been softened up by Thresher attack from Rhinodon during last turn.

Aptimus Marketh shot a fully boosted Hellfire at Vyros, and the attack hit again. I was really expending all my available "above average attack roll" pool for whole tournament, it seemed.

Next turn opponent made a critical mistake with one of the griffons that Bronzeback had knockced down. Knockdown wasn't shaked off, and I think that was what "gave me" this game. Why?

That Griffon had been given a bit focus and had it been able to come into melee with Bronzeback Titan, there would've been a very real possibility of the Titan to die. After Synergy chain those attacks would've gone in with something like P+S 20-22.

But, instead, end result looked like this:

A couple of Griffons needed to be destroyed a bit first, or, the one in front of Basilisk Krea (black & white) and rightmost that was engaging Cetrati. Hexeris himself had to come and beat the warjack in front of Krea, but otherwise it went just fine. Hexeris even had the Fury to spare to cast Train Wreck on Bronzeback.

Bronzeback then charged one of the Griffons guarding Vyros, and three beat-backs later it was standing next to the warcaster.

It did take Bronzeback to max Fury, but finally Vyros fell down, as well as all the warjacks around him that had been such a pain in the rear.


Story of my Turku Fanatic warmachine tournament continues with part 2/3 here.