Additional league games

And the Journeyman League continues, slightly sloppily when it comes to my activity at least.

But once I got to a gaming night, I played thee 10 point games.

I expanded my list with:

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax

Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder
Gallows Grove

First game was against General Ossrum, who had added Basher to the list. Basher broke off the base just before we started game, so it is the empty base with some cork in it.

This game went a little better than the first one. Not much, but at least I got to do something other than advance and die.

I tried to open up the game so that I'd block enemy heavies to the right side of the board, while wrecking things on the left and hopefully getting to Ossrum in time. However, Basher got to kill Gorax.

Also, Gnarlhorn Satyr was not able to kill one enemy light warjack, though it had Curse of Shadows on it. Well, sure, Ossrum had his feat on, but come on.

Basher destroyed any pillars that were protecting Gnarlhorn, and Energizer got Driller to position where it could easily go and make some minced meat out of the Satyr.

Ossrum had no Focus points, so I guess I really needed to make caster kill now. Mohsar charged in to cast Curse of Shadows on Ossrum but missed. Ossrum had Bullet Dodger on, so it advanced away from Mohsar's cast range. I accidentally thought of making some pillars to block Ossrum's advance, so Winter Argus was free to try and kill an uninjured enemy def 16 warcaster with two RAT 4, POW 12 attacks.

Failed. And Mohsar died.

Game 2:

Second game was against Cryx:

Lich Lord Venethrax
- 2x Slayer
- Deathripper

6x Mechanithralls
Skarlock

I was way too scared of Terminal Velocity in this game. And it didn't exactly help either that I didn't bother to ask about the Venethraxs' new feat's details. I was under impression that it forbade forcing when it instead didn't allow for to leech.

That was one ouchy touch turn.

But I did put up a valiant fight, though. Piece by piece I was removing Cryxian stuff from the board until there was only one Slayer left. Venethrax had been sitting on the flag, grinding scenario points whole time.

But it wasn't a scenario victory, no.

Slayer charged Gorax with Terminal Velocity and got within 1" of Mohsar. First attack brought Mohsar to one or two points remaining or something like that. Then Mohsar died.

New and improved Crevasse is quite a nice spell, though.

Game 3:

Last game was against Syntherion, who had added Corollary and some servitors to his list.

I chose to make a grand opening in this game and sent Gnarlhorn Satyr to its death, trading a 12 point beast to 7 or 8 point warjack. But I made that on purpose this time, as I thought Syntherion would now have to dedicate quite a bit of his resources to deal with a heavy and also Winter Argus, buying me time to start to score scenario points.

It almost worked. However, there was always some nasty enemy model that was able to run to contest my flag from one vector (pun...?) or another. And I had ran out of models to contest enemy flag.

A rare game, where both players went to 5 control points.

However, next Mohsar lost last remaining model from his army list - the Blackclad Wayfarer. Mohsar's game was doomed.

So that was three losses. Oh dear.

Journeyman League

A Journeyman League with slightly modified rule set started in my home town.

My initial list was:

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gnarlhorn Satyr
- Winter Argus
- Gorax Rager

0-point games were played with Mangled Metal rules.

My first game was against:

General Ossrum
- Ghordson Driller
- 2x of those tiny jacks with a single shot cannon
- 1x of the warjack with spray weapon

... and oh boys, was I rusty.

First turn I started to think about my fury management once I had already activated two of my beasts that only ran. So I had to cut up, what, four points on my turn 2?

Well, it was quite tough match up anyway. As there was no scenario pressure, I had to keep going at them, all the while getting shot to pieces. At least the salt pillars were a nuisance for Ossrum and protected me somewhat.

Once Driller got to charge Gnarlhorn Satyr and I had not seriously damaged even one of their jacks, I started to figure out a way to give me even a tiniest sense of accomplishment, as winning the game looked unlikely.

I ended up wrecking the Driller with Mohsar. Yay.

Game 2:

Second game was against Convergence of Cyriss:

Syntherion
- Monitor
- Diffuser
- Galvanizer

Oh, this game brought me back fond memories of playing Mk2 with Mohsar against Khador.

I used my feat on turn 1.

I was less afraid of the shooting aspect of enemy forces this time, and pushed forward much more aggressively.

Syntherion, however, got Magnetic Hold on Gnarlhorn Satyr, which made me feel a lot less confident.

All Gnarlhorn did was to walk over to Diffuser and beat it to the ground. I expected to lose it next turn.

Reconstruct was on Monitor, so I'd have to somehow wreck it twice with light warbeasts. Perhaps with Curse of Shadows.

However, a sort of miracle happened. Monitor did not kill Gnarlhorn, and neither did Galvanizer who came to help. Attack rolls by opponent were terrible. Syntherion spent all of his focus points that turn, so now I would have to try to assassinate him.

Mohsar charged Monitor and cast Curse of Shadows on Syntherion. Gorax gave Primal to Winter Argus, and Winter Argus then walked to back arc of Syntherion, who promptly died.

The Invincible Siren

I played these two 25 point Warmachine games about a week ago.

Opponent played with the same list; I, however, switched casters in-between. Scenario was the same in both games. Deployment sides also. Plus deployment.

Opponent had:

Iron Lich Asphyxious

- Slayer
- 2x Deathripper
- Helldiver

Maximum unit of Mechanithralls + 1x Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Warwitch Siren
Pistol Wraith

My first list was:

Witch Coven of Garlghast
- Nightmare
- Harrower
- 2x Deathripper
Pistol Wraith

Since Asphyxious has Breath of Corruption and I had to keep all of the witches rather close to each other, I started worrying about getting blasted with the POW 12's from first turn onward. Asphyxious started the game.

One enemy Deathripper runs forward to kill Pistol Wraith.

Witch Coven shoots the enemy Necrosurgeon dead with Stygian Abyss. It isn't very surprising that Coven used Nightfall. Arc nodes would still be a problem, though, but I didn't want to dedicate Nightmare for destroying one pesky Deathripper. Instead both heavies try to kill Mechanithralls. I was sure they wouldn't hit my helljacks under Nightfall. My own Deathripper goes and bites enemy Deathripper. Arc node survives, which worries me a little. I had quite a high bet for either destroying movement or the arc node with one free strike...

Then the Iron Lich. Asphyxious casts Parasite on Harrower but misses. He casts another, this time boosting attack roll, and it's a hit. Quite a few Mechanithralls are eligible for a charge. I was not very amused when only two attacks made by Mechanithralls (one didn't even get the charge bonus) and it took over half of the system boxes. Could've been worse when only ranged weapon was destroyed.

Deathrippers start a bite fight and Helldiver and Pistol Wraith run to threaten the coven.

So, either I take care of the aggressors or try to get Asphyxious. Of course I go in for the kill. My forces shuffle for quite a bit first, as there were three small based models blocking a charge to Asphyxious. Witches tried to remove enemy Warwitch Siren from the board and then charge Asphyxious, but that was not to be. Attack roll missed. I completely forgot about Nightmare's Ghostly ability in terms of free strikes, but oh well. I did remember it for the rough terrain...

So, I had to trample Nightmare to Asphyxious. Mechanithralls died just fine to the trample, but Warwitch Siren proved her resilience when Nightmare actually hit - but didn't deal even a single point of damage.

Asphyxious, on the other hand. That guy exploded all over the place.

Game 2:

My list in the second game was:

Master Necrotech Mortenebra & Deryliss
- Corruptor
- Reaper
- Cankerworm

Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Machine Wraith
Soul Trapper
Swamp Gobber River Raiders

And damn that Deryliss is bugged at the time of writing.

First picture is from Mortenebra's feat. Asphyxious didn't have any focus left from two Breath of Corruptions, so I thought I might be able to seriously damage Asphyxious and probably take out both arc nodes and what else. Corruptor shot one of the Mechanithralls into an arc node, and Mortenebra cast boosted Doom Spiral on Asphyxious, dealing eight or something like that damage in.

Reaper and assorted models wrecked one Deathripper, Machine Wraith, Cankerworm and Soul Trapper another.

Mechanithralls charge Cankerworm, but around one attack hit. Which, again, dealt crazy high damage. Warwitch Siren sprayed Deryliss and a River Raider dead. Asphyxious used his feat and sat on full camp of seven focus.

Corruptor shot Pistol Wraith into an AoE 5, giving a POW 10 to Warwitch Siren. Who survived. Really? Two games in a row?

I decided to rip Asphyxious' battle group into shreds and dragged Slayer next to Reaper. However, Reaper did next to no damage to Slayer. I had considered finishing it with Doom Spiral, or at least sealing its coffin ever more tightly. But... nope. I was certain that two heavy jacks just got wrecked there and then.

Next turn Mechanithralls swarmed my friendly flag, so I would have hard time trying to dominate some points, and Asphyxious had already started that. I think he went to three points now.

Siren Shadow Binds Reaper. Helldiver softens it pretty roughly, and Slayer finishes the helljack with tusks.

And then.

Out of five attacks Slayer could make, it missed four. Despite needing only 6+ to hit.

Well okay, I screwed up last turn by dragging Slayer right next to my vital parts and not having insurance against bad dice, but this... this. Wrecking Slayer with Mortenebra and killing the already injured Asphyxious with Corruptor felt like cheating.

Asphyxious does have impressive camp, but still... Corruptor just cannot make those few remaining damage points. And I had spent all of Mortenebra's Focus points. Tables had been turned so fast that the tableware didn't fall.

Asphyxious comes to cast Hellfires at Mortenebra and misses each and every one of them. Warwitch Siren misses Mortenebra. Everything and their dog misses Mortenebra. Well, one Mechanithrall may have hit her in the back, but didn't score a kill. Looks like the porcelain was in pieces on the floor after all.

A focusless Asphyxious with about three damage boxes fell to one hit.

"But I'm safe from blast damage!"

A while ago I played a 75 point game of Warmachine. Actually, make that two. Or make that one. However you wish. One and a half. One point twenty five. Enough rambling.

Both games (game and a non-game) were with same lists and scenario.

My list was:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous
- Seether
- Erebus
- Ripjaw
- Nightwretch

Maximum unit of Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Withershadow Combine
Aiakos
- Desecrator
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Machine Wraith
2x Soul Trapper
Ragman
Swamp Gobber River Raiders

Opponent had:

Severius2
- 2x Reckoner
- Redeemer
- Blessing of Vengeance

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Idrian Skirmishers + Command Attachment
Rhoven & Bodyguard
Covenant of Menoth
Hierophant
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanic

Scenario was Recon. I won't bother with the first game too much. I somehow thought it was a very good idea to bring Scaverous that much front. My objective was Bunker, so I was, uh. Safe from blast damage. Whee.

Assassination still comes from rather far away with Severius2. Though I don't think he actually even cast Awareness and blasted Scaverous with two Hex Blasts instead.

Game 2:

Okay, another try.

This time I decided to keep Scaverous a little bit better 'screened', though what the heck does that help against anything that has access to Awareness?

I tried to shoot scather template to block Idrians even a little, plus used arc node to cast Feast of Worms "somewhere", that landed on Idrians, giving Scaverous a soul or something. I think Protectorate started this game and the first picture in the doubled up scene is from the end of Cryx turn 2. Protectorate had shot Seether off the board. I sacrificed Ripjaw to cast Feast of Worms deep in the enemy line of supports. I forget how much actually happened, but quite a few choir members died. Scather falls to a slightly bad position, not doing much against single wound infantry now.

Next Severius uses his feat and everything dies. I lost objective (to shooting, actually. I lost Bunker to shooting.) most Black Ogruns, Aiakos (which made Desecrator inert), Warwitch Siren and Soul Trapper.

When I try to reply to this aggression, everything fails. Even Machine Wraith misses it's back strike attack against Blessing of Vengeance. I decided to launch Erebus forward anyway, both to contest the zone and to act as some sort of a dummy for Protectorate to beat instead of focusing on Scaverous.

Withershadow Combine casts Telekinesis on inert Desecrator and Scaverous comes to re-activate it. He casts Feast of Worms on enemy objective.

Next Protectorate has its fair share of bad luck when Reckoner misses back strike attack against Machine Wraith, and Redeemer fails as miserably against Pistol Wraith. Erebus is slammed out of the zone, though.

Machine Wraith and surviving Black Ogruns make Protectorate over-reach a little; Severius really wants to start playing some serious scenario game and he empties his focus pool relatively close to my troops.

This was my only chance, but it was quite a slim one. Severius had Holy Ward on himself, and he was on top of a hill also.

Admonia upkeeps the Feast of Worms, and then Pistol Wraith advances to shoot the hierarch a little. Wraith does some damage in, but doesn't succeed in Death Chilling its target.

No matter how I try to shuffle things, I can't find any other shot I could make other than from Desecrator, which would need 13+ to even hit in the first place. Covenant had denied spellcasting and I didn't have that many attacks available to deal with it...

So, Withershadow Combine gives Puppet Master for Desecrator, who then advances and shoots the biley cannon forth. I don't remember if I had to use Puppet Master or not, but in the end the attack hit and killed Severius.

Bokkens bokkens everywhere

After I had been introduced to Citadels, I got to play another card game called Samurai Sword.

I heard it's a bit like Bang! with hidden roles and not knowing 'who's side you are on'. Again we had six players.

Gameplay was smooth. Turns didn't generally take very long (unless somebody played three Ceremonies and a couple of Distractions in a row... which is a feat in itself.)

I had the questionable honor of not getting even a single blue permanent 'buff' card into my hand during the whole damn game. I mean... they're not uncommon at all.

I think I made only two or three attacks during whole game, as I didn't have reach anywhere. Both players next to me had armatures from the beginning, and I got only few reach 2+ weapons.

Now... what did I get? I guess some geishas, distractions and bokkens. Random jiu-jitsus here and there. Dodge/parry or whatever that card was had been quite a familiar sight in my hand.

I forget which team won. I think it was ninjas, but could have also been the loner role.

Citadels

Few days back I played the card game Citadels. We had six players.

It was a fun game, though I don't usually like 'deck building' games all that much. But the mechanics were interesting with the changing leader types.

However, the game seemed to suffer from the usual syndrome associated with game translations: rules were somewhat ambiguous and bogged. A lot of judgement calls had to be made with conflicting and/or weird card interactions.

The beginner's luck almost kicked in when I scored 29 points and the winner 31.

Kind of a success (Asphyxious2 vs Xekaar)

Last game from Ropecon has been waiting to get written for almost two weeks.

My list was:

Lich Lord Asphyxious
- Seether
- Corruptor

Maximum unit of Bane Warriors + Command Attachment

Minimum unit of Bile Thralls
Aiakos1
- Desecrator
Madelyn Corbeau
Gorman diWulfe
Darragh Wrathe
Warwitch Siren
Soul Trapper

Opponent had:

Beast Master Xekaar
- Agonizer
- 2x Basilisk Drake
- Cyclops Shaman
- Titan Gladiator
- Tiberion

2x Minimum units of Beast Handlers
Maximum unit of Nihilators
Aptimus Marketh

Scenario was Close Quarters. First picture shows how I try to block the advance of Nihilators with Caustic Mist AoE and scather template. It kind of succeeded. One Nihilator runs to contest my flag.

Next turn I bring Corruptor to the front of my lines because I want to shoot the shiny new 5" AoE over Nihilators. It kind of succeeded. I caught at least five of them under the template. Isn't that nice? Potentially yes. But only two of them die. No, not all of them passed their tough rolls. At least two didn't even have to make it. Me, bitter? Not the least! I considered that taking out five Nihilators and luring Tiberion out with Corruptor might be worth it.

Well, sure... it did lure in Tiberion. That part of plan was - yet again - kind of a success. Tiberion did charge in. However, also Desecrator was within Tiberion's reach. Not sure if baiting Tiberion with 30 points worth of warjacks was worth it. Thanks to some poor rolls by opponent also Gladiator had to charge in to remove Corruptor from the equation. Both heavies were well protected by Xekaar's disturbing "while within" style of feat.

Seether had been neutralized by Deadweight.

My next turn took quite a bit of time to resolve. Xekaar didn't have any fury points left for transfers, so this was my chance.

Now, if I only would get a Black Oil on Xekaar, I might be able to pull it off with Hellfire from Darragh Wrathe, a couple of Hellfires from Asphyxious and one Bile Thrall purge.

Gorman diWulfe obviously failed the very first step, so I decided I wouldn't try to go for an assassination unless I somehow got a really good damage roll with Bile Thrall. Bane Warriors charged and ran here and there, not doing much other than dishing out the -2 Arm from Death Shroud. -3 MAT had some severe inclinations here.

Next I wanted to take out Tiberion. Asphyxious had to cast Parasite on him and deal as much damage as possible by himself. He didn't do too bad, but had to teleport away.

Aiakos advanced an leaped to the back arc of Tiberion. I'm not sure if Darragh tried to cast Hellfire on the titan, too. Tiberion was now at one or two damage points remaining and with -5 Arm. Warwitch Siren charges in to finish the beast and give one or possibly two autohitting POW 12's to Xekaar with no Fury. She needed 4+ to hit. Do I really need to tell more?

I decide to try to get at least one Bile Thrall to Xekaar even if it needed to suffer a free strike. Of course Tiberion's mind branch was still functioning. Failed.

The rest of the Bile Thralls try to Purge Tiberion. Damage roll of 11 did exactly that, but it was a pyrrhic victory at best in this situation.

We still play for one round, but when I had only Darragh Wrathe, Seether outside of Asphyxious' control range, one Bile Thrall and a Soul Trapper while opponent has pretty much lost only Tiberion, I yield. It's a rare occasion I do that. And I was tempted to try and get Asphyxious' feat to kill Gladiator and perhaps a couple of other warbeasts, but exhausted as I was (and in a little bit of a hurry) I just couldn't defy those odds.

The Way of the Moo

Well...

It was a game with rules. So I'm obliged to write this.

However, the game and the rules were casually tossed out by the persons who were in charge of the miniature events during the weekend.

Game figures were made out of cones and represented cows. I'm not sure if cone cows are a thing outside of Finland. Game had a grand name:

Mooshido - the way of the moo

You got to choose from one of the three general cow profiles that had a little bit different 'stats' like endurance, strength and what else. You had to come into contact with the other cone to make an attack. If you rolled a hit and caused an injury, the other cow lost one point of health. All basic profiles had three wounds. Advanced profile like Batman cow had extraordinary stats, but had a balance mechanic: you have to pay ten euros to play Batman cow, because Batman is stinking rich and has more than enough money.

I played the Boogeymoo from moomins, and opponent had Pikamoo.

The fight was a very special one, since it was filled with brutal violence and tender hugs and questionable innuendo.

First it looked like Boogeymoo stood no chance against the more experienced Pikamoo, as their health remained at one point for Boogeymoo and two points for Pikamoo for quite a while. But then something happened. I guess Boogeymoo gave off its trademark growl from the TV-series and Pikamoo was either terrified or frozen. Pikamoo moved no more and Boogeymoo won a pile of gold coins. But... did Boogeymoo want the fresh kill at all? Or was it searching for a friend in a completely new arena?

We may never know.