I was visiting Kuhmo, and here we had a 3 player Talisman.
Foolish as we were, we played with all available expansions, since it's somewhat of a custom to play first game with everything, while playing later games with a bit more streamlined system.
With three players, base game, Reaper, Werewolf, night/day card, Dragon King & inner dragon realm, Dungeon, Highlands and City the game took a little over 7 hours to play with only one break.
Again the game really did everything it could to drag the game on since character progress was somewhat slow this time around, at least for the first characters. But now I'm getting too far ahead...
Game started with Dragon Priestess, Magus and Merchant.
Dragon Priestess and Merchant started hoarding gold, and Merchant made quite a starting move - he acquired easily the panda called Lucky from Pet Menagerie, an a Warhorse as well from Stables. Shortly after Dragon Priestess got a Warhorse too. Magus didn't want to ride with anything else but his own chair.
Only Magus got any actual Strenght/Craft additions for a long time, probably because nights were insanely long. Seemed like no-one was able to draw any Event cards to switch the time to day!
Days, when they did happen, were quite long too, but never as long as the nights...
Dragon Priestess bought the magic spellbook or whatever it is from Magic Emporium, and started to waste spells to no-end. This resulted in a cruel and bitter farewell, when Dragon Priestess mesmerized Lucky the panda from Merchant. Soon after that Merchant's downfall began - he drank away his warhorse, and finally succumbed to some dragon from Cadorus deck.
It was probably because Mephistopheles had turned him into an Evil merchant. All the negative thoughts killed him. A new character was drawn: the Bounty Hunter.
Magus didn't fare much better. He did start gaining respectable amounts of Craft, and in combat he already had Craft value of 11. But he was struggling at just one life for what seemed like an eternity - and then Dragon Priestess came and cast enough spells to make rolling dice pointless. She just walked by and toppled Magus' chair. The poor fellow just couldn't raise it any more. A new character was drawn: the Doomsayer.
One of the first items Doomsayer ever picked up was the Rod of Ruin, that was immediatly used to lower Dragon Priestess' Craft. Her Strenght was about 4, and Craft 6 then. Not at all impressive for 3.5 hours of play, and the rest of us just drew fresh characters!
The dragon scale heap was completely emptied around here and was reshuffled. During the whole course of game it was nearly used twice over - only a small handful remained when game finally ended.
Dragon Priestess went to Dungeon to gain some levels to laugh at any and all Dragon Kings she might encounter. To everyone's suprise, however, Doomsayer and Bounty Hunter took some fast forward in gaining Strenght or Craft. Bounty Hunter was quite quickly Strenght 10+ and Doomsayer Craft 10+, so Dragon Priestess' headstart was mitigated somewhat, and everyone had if not equal, at least some chances of trying to win.
A special mention goes to Bounty Hunter, who nearly died a second time, trekking in Highlands and Outer Region and various Dragon Scales with only 1 life remaining. Yet, whenever a beast that should have killed him appeared, dice showed up either a Stand-Off (which bounty hunter automatically won) or outright victory for him.
In very late stage of the game it happened that entire Outer Region was filled with Dragon Scales. Never seen that one happen before...
But eventually Dragon Priestess was strong enough and went and beat up Lord of Darkness so bad that she appeared in Crown of Command.
She had drank Elixir of Rage, and Grilipus was the Dragon King at the moment. Thanks to the potion she sported Strenght 14, which made it next to impossible to lose the final fight.
So, after over 7 hours of playing, Dragon Priestess proved herself to be the equal or even superior to any Dragon King.
Hysterical laughter in response to very random happenings had started appearing in increasing frequency, so it was indeed better for the game to end now, less someone choked or something.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Friday, June 28, 2013
Asphyxious delivers
A little while ago I played a game of Warmachine through Vassal. It's already been too long since last "real" game, so I needed to get my fix.
I played Skorne, with following 50 point list:
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- Rhinodon
- Basilisk Krea
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Paingiver Beast Handlers
Minimum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Venator Flayer Cannon
Extoller Soulward
Orin Midwinter
Thrullg
And I sure lucked out when I saw my opponent: Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon! I always take some delight in getting to play against warcasters/warlocks that I have never ever played against.
Anyway, the list:
Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- Kraken
- Cankerworm
2x Maximum unit of Bane Knights
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Warwitch Siren
Scenario was randomised and was Outflank. Cryxians took the start, and first picture is taken from the end of Skorne turn 1. Scything Touch has been cast on Cankerworm, and Ashen Veil is on Asphyxious himself. Actually pretty good target choice, since I had zero non-living models in my army...
I intentionally pushed my forces a little too much forward, but I made a serious mistake in sacrificing Bronzeback in such a way. I would've rather lost Krea & Archidon instead.
To cut story short, Cankerworm and Kraken under Mobility (that horrible machine threats 14" during its activation!) destroyed Bronzeback. To Bronzeback's defense it was the last Focus from Kraken that took its sorry life. Kill Shot took down Extoller Soulward and two beast handlers.
All kinds of banes rushed forward and Asphyxious went to hide behind Kraken, unleashing his Feat.
On my turn I saw I had a 19 point monstrosity in middle of my whole army, and my dedicated heavy hitter was slowly burning in the aforementioned colossal's furnace. Still, I think I managed to play at least a decent turn.
During my turn Cryx lines lost Kraken and 14 Bane Knights.
Beast Handlers enraged all of my beasts, and Krea and Rhinodon charged Kraken right away. I think I could have done something more clever with Krea, but she was in Hexeris' way, and opponent didn't have any shooting (at least after this turn, I hoped) so she went to bite some tendrils. And did about 3 points of damage, too! Rhinodon fared a little better, and when Hexeris had charged it and spent 4 focus on attacks, it looked a whole lot less intimidating. Asphyxious, who was racking up souls, started to look nasty, though.
Hexeris obviously used his feat, too, turning any living or undead models into zombies under his control.
I attacked around 8-9 bane knights with my own models, all of whom were not in Hexeris' control area. Chain reaction from that yielded the net result of 14 dead knights, but it could have been a lot worse. Whenever I brought any of the feat-created zombies to attack Bane Thralls, the attacks utterly failed. Either they missed (2 times) or didn't break through armor (1 time). Yes, p+s 11 weapon master attack didn't break through Arm 15.
With all those bane thralls I had this devious plan of destroying them and then come & try to stab Asphyxious to back arc. Effectively p+s 13 weapon master attack against arm 18 should to at least something, even without a boost.
I also missed a couple attacks against Bane Knights, but such is to be expected, MAT 6 doesn't hit that reliably even DEF 12 models.
Cataphract Cetrati charge and one targets Kraken, one targets Bane Knight next to it, and one targets a Bane Knight in the right. Here I tried to make rightmost Cetrati kill their target, and their target go and kill knight close to Kraken, and its target go and hit Kraken, so the Cetrati who charged that particular bane knight would get to pick new target for his attack.
Well, obviously the part where rightmost bane knight managed to hit leftern bane knight, failed...
This resulted in a moment of shame.
Kraken had only three boxes left or so. The Bane Knight that leftern Cetrati killed walked and smote the colossal down.
Despite all the effort I put into it, it wasn't even my own model that destroyed the first colossal I ever managed to wreck!
But anyway.
Line of Sight was clear now to Asphyxious, and since it had already 14 or something souls, I really needed assassination right now. So, off Archidon went. First attack dealt 9 points in. Second attack maybe 8 or something. But since I had to boost just about everything (Asphyxious still had Ashen Veil on), Asphyxious had healed 6 points back in-between first and second attack.
Needless to say, I was waiting what would happen next turn with nothing but dread.
About the first model that activated was Asphyxious, who had 22 focus still after casting Mobility. When he walked away from Archidon's melee range, I jokingly said that "Please critical hit now". And I rolled 5, 5. Critical Pitch. And to make matters even more worse, Archidon managed to hit Cankerworm with Asphyxious, knocking them both down, and since they couldn't stand up in the same turn they got knocked down, the game went weird...
Archidon eventually fell to the charge of Bane Thralls, as well as half of Cataphract Cetrati. Praetorian Swordsmen were pretty much devastated, and even failed their command check. Both Officer and Standard Bearer died to a spray from Warwitch Siren. All in all the game should have ended there, but thanks to the fickleness of dice and heroism from Archidon, battle went on.
Hexeris stopped upkeeping Death March on Praetorian Swordsmen, though the marker is in the picture, trying to fool everyone.
Basilisk Krea had not been accustomed to being used in melee against colossals, it was still a bit baffled about it and thought that Rhinodon looked exactly like Kraken. Failing threshold check, she bit a whopping 12 damage to the heavy warbeast. That's probably one of the greatest things Krea ever really did.
I tried to get Praetorians away from Bane Knights melee range, but failed to do just that. They did regroup however, so unit leader was contesting the zone again.
Hexeris started pulling off curious beat back shenanigans. He killed some bane thralls in the process, and finally ended up dominating rightmost zone. Everything else formed a wall of flesh to protect Lord Tyrant. Orin Midwinter cast Null Magic so that at least pathfinder would be denied for Asphyxious.
Rhinodon tried to get into position to make Amuck thresher against bane thralls, but it pretty much failed because of rough terrain that Kraken's husk provided. It ended up making a couple of futile attacks against Cankerworm and a bane thrall.
Next turn it turned out that Asphyxious was just hugging the leftern zone.
Seems like I failed to take a picture from the end of opponents turn, but bane thralls & Asphyxious himself dispatched Krea bitten Rhinodon, and Cankerworm and a most of remaining bane thralls went to contest rightmost zone. It really didn't take too much effort to remove Praetorian Swordsmen I had contesting leftern zone, so Control Point situation was Cryx: 2 Skorne: 2.
On my turn, unexpected things continued to happen. Krea managed to pull off a slam attack against Asphyxious with her MAT 4, knocking Hellbringer 2" away, and most importantly, away from dominating leftern zone. Then Paingiver Beast Handler was, ahem, persuaded to run into random point right in the middle of enemy troops to deny points from Cryx.
Hexeris danced again with Beat Back, pushing Cankerworm away from right zone (wrecking it was just a bonus) and killing whatever was left of bane thralls. However, now I'm just wondering how the heck did I destroy the bane thralls that helped killing Rhinodon? They might actually be hiding beneath Kraken wreck marker.
Anyway, Control Points were Cryx: 2, Skorne: 4. I would actually win by scenario if I only had something that would be able to run to contest enemy zone and had enough military assets to clear my own zone.
But alas, it was not to be. Asphyxious thought that he had really, really had enough of this nonsense Skorne was pulling off against him all the time. Yanking souls from Vociferon he charged to a Cataphract Cetrati, killed him off and started buying attacks against Hexeris now he got Line of Sight to him. Hexeris transfered some 11 damage away, and then all it took were two hits to bring the Tyrant down.
This game was exciting as hell. I guess Asphyxious' new title delivered what it promised.
I must say that I would have felt a little bad if I had actually won, because it just seemed that Cryx deserved that victory. Random crazy dice rolls made game drag on for this long. But those few critical rolls made the game a memorable experience that was lots of fun to play. Victory didn't come easily to Cryx, and I got to play against a completely new warcaster.
Perfect, everything was just perfect.
I played Skorne, with following 50 point list:
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Archidon
- Rhinodon
- Basilisk Krea
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Venator Flayer Cannon
Extoller Soulward
Orin Midwinter
Thrullg
And I sure lucked out when I saw my opponent: Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon! I always take some delight in getting to play against warcasters/warlocks that I have never ever played against.
Anyway, the list:
Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- Kraken
- Cankerworm
2x Maximum unit of Bane Knights
Minimum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Warwitch Siren
Scenario was randomised and was Outflank. Cryxians took the start, and first picture is taken from the end of Skorne turn 1. Scything Touch has been cast on Cankerworm, and Ashen Veil is on Asphyxious himself. Actually pretty good target choice, since I had zero non-living models in my army...
I intentionally pushed my forces a little too much forward, but I made a serious mistake in sacrificing Bronzeback in such a way. I would've rather lost Krea & Archidon instead.
To cut story short, Cankerworm and Kraken under Mobility (that horrible machine threats 14" during its activation!) destroyed Bronzeback. To Bronzeback's defense it was the last Focus from Kraken that took its sorry life. Kill Shot took down Extoller Soulward and two beast handlers.
All kinds of banes rushed forward and Asphyxious went to hide behind Kraken, unleashing his Feat.
On my turn I saw I had a 19 point monstrosity in middle of my whole army, and my dedicated heavy hitter was slowly burning in the aforementioned colossal's furnace. Still, I think I managed to play at least a decent turn.
During my turn Cryx lines lost Kraken and 14 Bane Knights.
Beast Handlers enraged all of my beasts, and Krea and Rhinodon charged Kraken right away. I think I could have done something more clever with Krea, but she was in Hexeris' way, and opponent didn't have any shooting (at least after this turn, I hoped) so she went to bite some tendrils. And did about 3 points of damage, too! Rhinodon fared a little better, and when Hexeris had charged it and spent 4 focus on attacks, it looked a whole lot less intimidating. Asphyxious, who was racking up souls, started to look nasty, though.
Hexeris obviously used his feat, too, turning any living or undead models into zombies under his control.
I attacked around 8-9 bane knights with my own models, all of whom were not in Hexeris' control area. Chain reaction from that yielded the net result of 14 dead knights, but it could have been a lot worse. Whenever I brought any of the feat-created zombies to attack Bane Thralls, the attacks utterly failed. Either they missed (2 times) or didn't break through armor (1 time). Yes, p+s 11 weapon master attack didn't break through Arm 15.
With all those bane thralls I had this devious plan of destroying them and then come & try to stab Asphyxious to back arc. Effectively p+s 13 weapon master attack against arm 18 should to at least something, even without a boost.
I also missed a couple attacks against Bane Knights, but such is to be expected, MAT 6 doesn't hit that reliably even DEF 12 models.
Cataphract Cetrati charge and one targets Kraken, one targets Bane Knight next to it, and one targets a Bane Knight in the right. Here I tried to make rightmost Cetrati kill their target, and their target go and kill knight close to Kraken, and its target go and hit Kraken, so the Cetrati who charged that particular bane knight would get to pick new target for his attack.
Well, obviously the part where rightmost bane knight managed to hit leftern bane knight, failed...
This resulted in a moment of shame.
Kraken had only three boxes left or so. The Bane Knight that leftern Cetrati killed walked and smote the colossal down.
Despite all the effort I put into it, it wasn't even my own model that destroyed the first colossal I ever managed to wreck!
But anyway.
Line of Sight was clear now to Asphyxious, and since it had already 14 or something souls, I really needed assassination right now. So, off Archidon went. First attack dealt 9 points in. Second attack maybe 8 or something. But since I had to boost just about everything (Asphyxious still had Ashen Veil on), Asphyxious had healed 6 points back in-between first and second attack.
Needless to say, I was waiting what would happen next turn with nothing but dread.
About the first model that activated was Asphyxious, who had 22 focus still after casting Mobility. When he walked away from Archidon's melee range, I jokingly said that "Please critical hit now". And I rolled 5, 5. Critical Pitch. And to make matters even more worse, Archidon managed to hit Cankerworm with Asphyxious, knocking them both down, and since they couldn't stand up in the same turn they got knocked down, the game went weird...
Archidon eventually fell to the charge of Bane Thralls, as well as half of Cataphract Cetrati. Praetorian Swordsmen were pretty much devastated, and even failed their command check. Both Officer and Standard Bearer died to a spray from Warwitch Siren. All in all the game should have ended there, but thanks to the fickleness of dice and heroism from Archidon, battle went on.
Hexeris stopped upkeeping Death March on Praetorian Swordsmen, though the marker is in the picture, trying to fool everyone.
Basilisk Krea had not been accustomed to being used in melee against colossals, it was still a bit baffled about it and thought that Rhinodon looked exactly like Kraken. Failing threshold check, she bit a whopping 12 damage to the heavy warbeast. That's probably one of the greatest things Krea ever really did.
I tried to get Praetorians away from Bane Knights melee range, but failed to do just that. They did regroup however, so unit leader was contesting the zone again.
Hexeris started pulling off curious beat back shenanigans. He killed some bane thralls in the process, and finally ended up dominating rightmost zone. Everything else formed a wall of flesh to protect Lord Tyrant. Orin Midwinter cast Null Magic so that at least pathfinder would be denied for Asphyxious.
Rhinodon tried to get into position to make Amuck thresher against bane thralls, but it pretty much failed because of rough terrain that Kraken's husk provided. It ended up making a couple of futile attacks against Cankerworm and a bane thrall.
Next turn it turned out that Asphyxious was just hugging the leftern zone.
Seems like I failed to take a picture from the end of opponents turn, but bane thralls & Asphyxious himself dispatched Krea bitten Rhinodon, and Cankerworm and a most of remaining bane thralls went to contest rightmost zone. It really didn't take too much effort to remove Praetorian Swordsmen I had contesting leftern zone, so Control Point situation was Cryx: 2 Skorne: 2.
On my turn, unexpected things continued to happen. Krea managed to pull off a slam attack against Asphyxious with her MAT 4, knocking Hellbringer 2" away, and most importantly, away from dominating leftern zone. Then Paingiver Beast Handler was, ahem, persuaded to run into random point right in the middle of enemy troops to deny points from Cryx.
Hexeris danced again with Beat Back, pushing Cankerworm away from right zone (wrecking it was just a bonus) and killing whatever was left of bane thralls. However, now I'm just wondering how the heck did I destroy the bane thralls that helped killing Rhinodon? They might actually be hiding beneath Kraken wreck marker.
Anyway, Control Points were Cryx: 2, Skorne: 4. I would actually win by scenario if I only had something that would be able to run to contest enemy zone and had enough military assets to clear my own zone.
But alas, it was not to be. Asphyxious thought that he had really, really had enough of this nonsense Skorne was pulling off against him all the time. Yanking souls from Vociferon he charged to a Cataphract Cetrati, killed him off and started buying attacks against Hexeris now he got Line of Sight to him. Hexeris transfered some 11 damage away, and then all it took were two hits to bring the Tyrant down.
This game was exciting as hell. I guess Asphyxious' new title delivered what it promised.
I must say that I would have felt a little bad if I had actually won, because it just seemed that Cryx deserved that victory. Random crazy dice rolls made game drag on for this long. But those few critical rolls made the game a memorable experience that was lots of fun to play. Victory didn't come easily to Cryx, and I got to play against a completely new warcaster.
Perfect, everything was just perfect.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
They Came from the City
I gathered myself and painted the remaining Talisman character from The City expansion: Elementalist.
It was no accident that it was left last - the small character looked so intimidating and time consuming to paint.
But I did it, and here they are:
Again pictures are poorly focused and all manner of unprofessional, but it gets the job done.
And since there has been a couple of expansions since last group hug, I put all currently released Talisman characters on the box and took a picture. There sure starts to be quite a lot of them.
That's all I guess for now.
It was no accident that it was left last - the small character looked so intimidating and time consuming to paint.But I did it, and here they are:
Again pictures are poorly focused and all manner of unprofessional, but it gets the job done.
And since there has been a couple of expansions since last group hug, I put all currently released Talisman characters on the box and took a picture. There sure starts to be quite a lot of them.
That's all I guess for now.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Sentinel's "None Shall Pass" (Talisman)
And later we played a second game.
This time with Minstrel, Minotaur and Grave Robber.
It's kind of funny what you can find by grave robbing. I mean, the guy dug up at least Mephistopheles and some other more generic Devil.
Minotaur almot looked like a sure winner, thanks to its character progress. Well, it didn't really build up Strenght all that much, but main weakness of low Craft was undone when it gained Craft 4 and even 5 inn short order. After that it started pumping the iron on Strenght, too.
All the while Minstrel and Grave Robber were just struggling to survive. Both seemed to be unable to raise their Strenght. This was somewhat mitigated by a Unicorn that Grave Robber found, and later in the game Minstrel luckied out by finding both Ring (+1 Strenght & Craft) and Maiden (+2 Craft).
Minstrel did have a dark phase during his poetic career, though. Aforementioned Mephistopheles had turned him evil (Faust, anyone?), but shortly before or after hooking up with the Maiden he was absolved by succeeding at Warlock's Quest, turning back to Good alignment.
Minotaur wins a sort of prize for stubborness. He really really wanted to get through Sentinel.
Sentinel, however, just would not let it. Not when Minotaur was at Strenght 8. Not when it was at Strenght 9. Not even when it was at Strenght 10. At least not on the first try. Maybe Sentinel asked confusing riddles from Minotaur.
Anyway, once Minstrel found the Ring and Maiden his Craft started soaring up, raising to 10. His strenght was only 4, though, with only one animal companion.
Still, he tried to get into Inner Region. All went absolutely perfectly and fine up until he faced Pit Fiends. There were 3 of them, and those buggers stalled Minstrel for a short eternity. In fact Minstrel would have died there were it not for Armor that saved his songful arse a couple of times.
When he finally got to Crown of Command, alternative ending was Battle Royale.
Important statistics were: Grave Robber strenght 4 or 5, Craft 8. Minotaur: Strenght 10 or 11, Craft 6. Minstrel: Strenght 4, Craft 10. Yes, everyone had a Talisman by then.
Things looked pretty good for Minstrel, because he could declare attacks with Craft.
There were a couple of scary situations against Grave Robber (losing even once would've probably taken victory away from him) but thanks to amazing amount of Fate and being at least +2 against other characters finally made his songs famous.
Now everyone liked those, because Minstrel held the Crown of Command.
This time with Minstrel, Minotaur and Grave Robber.
It's kind of funny what you can find by grave robbing. I mean, the guy dug up at least Mephistopheles and some other more generic Devil.
Minotaur almot looked like a sure winner, thanks to its character progress. Well, it didn't really build up Strenght all that much, but main weakness of low Craft was undone when it gained Craft 4 and even 5 inn short order. After that it started pumping the iron on Strenght, too.
All the while Minstrel and Grave Robber were just struggling to survive. Both seemed to be unable to raise their Strenght. This was somewhat mitigated by a Unicorn that Grave Robber found, and later in the game Minstrel luckied out by finding both Ring (+1 Strenght & Craft) and Maiden (+2 Craft).
Minstrel did have a dark phase during his poetic career, though. Aforementioned Mephistopheles had turned him evil (Faust, anyone?), but shortly before or after hooking up with the Maiden he was absolved by succeeding at Warlock's Quest, turning back to Good alignment.
Minotaur wins a sort of prize for stubborness. He really really wanted to get through Sentinel.
Sentinel, however, just would not let it. Not when Minotaur was at Strenght 8. Not when it was at Strenght 9. Not even when it was at Strenght 10. At least not on the first try. Maybe Sentinel asked confusing riddles from Minotaur.
Anyway, once Minstrel found the Ring and Maiden his Craft started soaring up, raising to 10. His strenght was only 4, though, with only one animal companion.
Still, he tried to get into Inner Region. All went absolutely perfectly and fine up until he faced Pit Fiends. There were 3 of them, and those buggers stalled Minstrel for a short eternity. In fact Minstrel would have died there were it not for Armor that saved his songful arse a couple of times.
When he finally got to Crown of Command, alternative ending was Battle Royale.
Important statistics were: Grave Robber strenght 4 or 5, Craft 8. Minotaur: Strenght 10 or 11, Craft 6. Minstrel: Strenght 4, Craft 10. Yes, everyone had a Talisman by then.
Things looked pretty good for Minstrel, because he could declare attacks with Craft.
There were a couple of scary situations against Grave Robber (losing even once would've probably taken victory away from him) but thanks to amazing amount of Fate and being at least +2 against other characters finally made his songs famous.
Now everyone liked those, because Minstrel held the Crown of Command.
Cat Burglar Knows the Guild (Talisman)
I was visiting a friend in Helsinki who has Talisman.
So, what a perfect chance to play that game, since I would be staying for a few days.
This Talisman didn't have any expansions, though. And when I got all of them, I took what I could easily carry with me. That meant alternative endings and characters from all expansions, and decks they might need.
Expansions we could use were warlock quest cards and quest rewards, Reaper and Werewolf, and random alternative end.
Characters we got were Cat Burglar, Elementalist and Dragon Priestess.
It was truly a slow-grow game with none of the characters getting any especially awesome items or kills or anything. Whenever they could, the brave heroes took a severe beating from any enemy they could land on. This resulted in a situation where everyone was holding their breath at one life.
Curiously enough, no-one died there.
A special mention goes to Werewolf Juggling. Cat Burglar and Elementalist rolled 5's from Werewolf chart a few times too many, making the wolf look like a serious case of ADHD. And finally when the beast ended up trying to chew Cat Burglar with Strenght 8, it rolled 1 for its attack score and Cat Burglar rolled 6, just resulting in a stand-off. Cool thing, woofie.
Later it went and transformed Elementalist into a lycanthrope.
As I said, the game went on very slowly, but finally Cat Burglar got Craft around 8, and had this disgusting Gnome with her. This made it possible for her to try and reach the Crown.
Well, there was still the chance of facing any of those Strenght/Craft 12 bosses, right?
Nope, alternative ending was Thieves Guild, which was sort of fitting for Cat Burglar.
At least Elementalist had no gold at all, and neither of the other characters had more than 4 items.
After Cat Burglar got to the crown, the game went on for about 4 rounds.
So, what a perfect chance to play that game, since I would be staying for a few days.
This Talisman didn't have any expansions, though. And when I got all of them, I took what I could easily carry with me. That meant alternative endings and characters from all expansions, and decks they might need.
Expansions we could use were warlock quest cards and quest rewards, Reaper and Werewolf, and random alternative end.
Characters we got were Cat Burglar, Elementalist and Dragon Priestess.
It was truly a slow-grow game with none of the characters getting any especially awesome items or kills or anything. Whenever they could, the brave heroes took a severe beating from any enemy they could land on. This resulted in a situation where everyone was holding their breath at one life.
Curiously enough, no-one died there.
A special mention goes to Werewolf Juggling. Cat Burglar and Elementalist rolled 5's from Werewolf chart a few times too many, making the wolf look like a serious case of ADHD. And finally when the beast ended up trying to chew Cat Burglar with Strenght 8, it rolled 1 for its attack score and Cat Burglar rolled 6, just resulting in a stand-off. Cool thing, woofie.
Later it went and transformed Elementalist into a lycanthrope.
As I said, the game went on very slowly, but finally Cat Burglar got Craft around 8, and had this disgusting Gnome with her. This made it possible for her to try and reach the Crown.
Well, there was still the chance of facing any of those Strenght/Craft 12 bosses, right?
Nope, alternative ending was Thieves Guild, which was sort of fitting for Cat Burglar.
At least Elementalist had no gold at all, and neither of the other characters had more than 4 items.
After Cat Burglar got to the crown, the game went on for about 4 rounds.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
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.
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.
Monday, May 27, 2013
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.
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.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
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.
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.
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