Mechs vs Minions

When we played Kingdom Death, there was a sort of board/miniature game day at a local gaming club. And because I'm not going to move Kingdom Death: Monster sized box by walk, I needed a lift there and back. This meant I was tied to the schedule of the driver.

So after packing up Burkstad I got to play another board game, which was called Mechs vs Minions.

We had four players, and we played the third scenario where the boss model is introduced.

It was quite fun game. I had this yellow support mech with the Einstein-y looking person on top of it.

Of course I didn't know a thing what I was doing. It was, in fact, a little goofy that for a couple first rounds all my contributions that could be considered useful were all made by my mech's permanently broken systems.

I don't think I did even a single damage to boss, but I did dismantle boss' shields a few times, as well as enabled mechs to repair each other. Which happened around two times.

I don't think the end could have been more epic. The boss had already loaded up it's GG gun. I forget if boss had three or two wounds remaining, but definitely enough to make victory seem impossible. I went first and could only open up one shield.

Next player managed to bring boss down to one wound remaining and could have wrecked it had correct shield been down. Well, it wasn't.

Fourth player was too far to deal damage, so win or loss depended on player three. He did have a weapon that could deal damage, but he had like three broken systems that each forced movement. I believe it was fifty percent chance for the mech to travel to unfortunate direction. But rune die was on our side and boss was vanquished. Hooray.

Hand Giveth Hand Taketh

It's been a while, but the settlement of Burkstad has not been forgotten.

Yesterday our group continued this sorry tale, which ended up in The Hand giving the finger.

Somehow that makes sense.

Vladimirana, Igorina, Ennhilde and Gummi were to face the god-like entity known as The Hand.

Though Gummi wasn't exactly a promising survivor with his gaping chest wounds and all, he did have Last Man Standing fighting art. So he might actually be a fine candidate to survive rude slaps or full-powered flicks.

But the showdown itself. What a fight.

We were trying to arrange most of Hand's attacks to Gummi, who had been stacked with all evasion we could muster. On hindsight, why would we stack evasion or enduring capabilities on the survivor who would shine when there's no-one left but him? But in the end it worked fine.

Because despite being served severe injuries and brain traumas left and right, survivors put a miserable enough show for The Hand to appreciate. Shattered Jaw and something else on Vladimirana were the only permanent injuries for survivors, unless we count Disorders as such.

When situation looked right, we tried to injure The Hand. A total of three tokens were placed on Impossible Eyes, so when there were only three cards left in AI deck we just decided not to resist.

Hand is a theatrical fellow. Third last card was "Take Your Best Shot" and second last was the ominous chuckle that dealt five brain damage to all non-deaf survivors. I see that quite climactic and evil mastermind villain-y thing to do. And of course last card was a jump scare in the form of Bullet Jabs.

Nobody died. Would Burkstad finally play a one full Lantern Year without nobody dying?

Gummi rolls for The Hand's applause rewards. It came out as "1", which is unpreventable instant death. Nope, we didn't break the chain of death following Burk's spirit.

And literally ALL remaining survivors rolled a natural lantern 10 for applause rewards. Perhaps Gummi, the second last male of Burkstad, was the sacrifice.

Whoops, a little spoiler there. Because we did have Tourneghulle and Vladimir in the settlement at the time, too.

The player who had played Gummi drew us a settlement event and said jokingly that obviously it's going to be Murder.

It was Murder.

Tourneghulle, the red savior, had most hunt experience so he was the victim. He was the fourth savior Burkstad lost. So far settlement has been more of a lethal place to saviors than actual showdowns.

The Hand's legacy isn't ending here, because aftermath rewards killed yet another survivor from settlement.

However, The Hand had a retinue of King's Men with him, and these Armored Strangers gave some compensation for the playful little holiday trip of The Hand.

So, here's one more example of the weird way how random element sometimes just clicks so well in Kingdom Death. I find fascination in the full catalog of unlikely events this game offers.

Before showdown population was nine. And nobody died during showdown, so our population was still nine. Armored Strangers take destructive action on population of 8+. So in a way, the poor rolls on rewards and Murder settlement event were actually good things.

Because Burkstad was blessed with some resources we could innovate. Choices weren't that special, so we decided to try Petal Spiral.

As we have been continuously losing our highest experienced survivors, we used Shared Experience to get a couple of survivors to first Age milestone.

Augury gave some intimacy, so population was at seven. Which is terrible, but at least a step for the better.

Armor ritual was success and one Rawhide Headband was crafted. Petal Spiral was put to use right away, so we have an aspiring swordmaster coming up with zero hunt experience.

Coming up next is the Sunstalker. Which I need to start painting, I suppose.


Burkstad

Population: 7

Principles:
Protect the Young
Graves
Barbaric


Innovations:
Language
Hovel
Ammonia
Bed
Nigredo
Symposium
Paint
Family
Bloodletting
Inner Lantern
Cooking
Sculpture
Partnership
Shrine
Petal Spiral


+Guidepost

Locations:
Lantern Hoard
Bone Smith
Skinnery
Organ Grinder
Catarium
Gormchymist
Gormery
Weapon Crafter
Leather Worker

Gear:
2x Cloth
3x Stone Noses
Full Rawhide Set
1x rawhide vest, 1x Rawhide Gloves, 1x Rawhide Headband
Gorment Boots
2x Skull Helm
Bone Dagger
Bone Darts
Rib Blade
Greater Gaxe
Leather Shield
Cat Eye Circlet
2x Monster Grease
Lucky Charm
Monster Tooth Necklace
Bandages
Catgut Bow + Claw Head Arrow
White Lion Coat, White Lion Gloves
Scrap Sword
Flower Knight Badge



Resources:
2x broken lantern
2x organ
Skull

Winderoucity

A couple of days ago we played two rounds of Word Winder.

First round was the usual, but second round we decided to allow absurd compound words. Of course this doesn't translate well because language was Finnish.

However, some worthy mentions with free-form translation were Big Belly Witch and Methane Merit Syphilis.

Edit: I'll add one round of Word Winder here to this post that was played yesterday - 15th of September. After all these sessions have such a short time (about three weeks is a short time? Well, these days even a month feels like an extremely short time) so I believe these can be merged. It was another round with unrestricted compound words. This time let's mention the Fullsoul Cyst.

Counter Chain

A few days ago I had this 75 point game of Warmachine.

My list:

Black Industries
Lich Lord Venethrax [+26]
- Deathripper [6]
- Erebus [16]
- Malice [15]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Stalker [8]
- The Withershadow Combine [9]
Machine Wraith [2]
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor [5]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Soul Trapper [1]
Warwitch Siren [0(4)]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
- Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]
- Skarlock Commander [3]



Opponent:

Mercenaries
Soldiers of Fortune
Magnus the Warlord [+28]
- Blockader [33]
- Freebooter [9]
- Nomad [12]
- Toro [13]
- Toro [13]
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [0(4)]
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire [0(7)]
Anastasia di Bray [3]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Ironhead [4]
Steelhead Mortar Crew [0(5)]


Early on I gained slight scenario point advantage, which I as soon about to lose. Malice takes enemy Freebooter, but didn't manage to kill it. It took another Slayer to finish the job. So point investment was about three times the cost of Freebooter.

Flag on the right saw some action - I brought Erebus to contest the flag. On mercenary turn Stannis Brocker came to control the flag, and I had Erebus counter-charge him. This had Toro countercharge Erebus, which in turn had Malice countercharge Toro. Much fun and many joy was had, but effects were rather negligible.

Oh, except that there was now two of my heavies close to each other. Blockader with those absurd fists slammed Malice into Erebus and single-handedly wrecked both despite Venethrax having his feat on. That was 31 points that just went missing.

I can't help but compare P+S 22 slampush fists with 4" reach to my own factions Kraken's... with three less p+s.

Oh well. I had forgotten how sorry feat Venethrax has against Warmachine. Both Power-Up and Empower can circumvent it completely.

It was downhill from there.

Stalker managed to kill Alexia and ambushing Mechanithralls ended Stannis. Some enemy warjack had come to my rectangular zone, and it took Slayer, Venethrax, Withershadow Combine and Warwitch Siren to remove the thing. But Magnus was now so far ahead in scenario game that there was little I could do to prevent him from winning.

Ropecon 2019 Steamroller

Here's the games from Ropecon Steamroller tournament.

Only two days prior to the tournament the rules changed to use Oblivion update instead. It went fine as far as I can tell, but because of this I'm not even trying to put together opposing lists. The hassle of rule update in middle of event had TO to let in themes both from Oblivion and pre-Oblivion.


My lists:

[Theme] Black Industries
[Scaverous 1] Lord Exhumator Scaverous [+27]
- Corruptor [14]
- Deathripper [6]
- Deathripper [6]
- Inflictor [13]
- The Withershadow Combine [9]
Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius [0(4)]
- Reaper [13]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Necrotech [2]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Soul Trapper [1]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
- Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]
Wraith Engine [15]


[Theme] Scourge of the Broken Coast
[Goreshade 1] Goreshade the Bastard [+27]
- Harrower [16]
- Helldiver [6]
- Leviathan [16]
- Reaper [13]
- Seether [13]
- Stalker [8]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess [0(4)]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]

Satyxis Raider Captain [0(4)]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Satyxis Raiders (max) [16]
- Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [4]


Game 1:
First game was against Circle Orboros. Tharn theme with Iona.

It was a brutal and mostly one-sided game. I probably picked the wrong list here anyway.

As I was still thinking Bloodweavers had Dispel as one of their attack options, I didn't slap Death Ward on Wraith Engine. Since it wasn't warded against death, five ambushing Bloodweavers destroyed Wraith Engine from full hit boxes down to zero. Two of them also charged a Deathripper and destroyed it. At least it eases my pain a little that when you consider how Bloodweavers were rolling the dice, it would've mattered little if Wraith Engine would've had Death Ward on.

Wolf Rider Champion single-handedly breaks Movement system off from Reaper - after it had missed twice with harpoon attack.

Another Wolf Rider Champion puts a heavy dent on Inflictor. Some system broke. It even had Death Ward on. However, having a broken system was on me. I forgot I could've decided the column.

But it's rare to see dice that are on fire like this. I suppose it's bound to happen sooner or later.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out a way to assassinate Iona. Getting node close enough to cast Telekinesis on her as well as three Brute Thralls, but the arc node I would've needed went down with two charging Bloodweavers. I measured if I'd be able to get a node via Corruptor shot, but I couldn't see that far to the forest anyway.

I just did not know what to do, so I tried to stack some souls on Scaverous and wait for a turn and hope opponent makes a small positioning mistake. But opponent scored a point with Iona on my turn, and then four from both circular zones, flag and destroying my objective.

Not my most magnificent game.

Game 2:

Second game was against Khador, Vlad2.

Table was a nightmare to all but Dark Host. Which I didn't play.

I picked Goreshade as my list, as I thought I might be able to hit Vlad's feated models with Gang Fighter.

Opponent did have Greylord Adjunct to offer Behemoth Eyeless Sight turn after turn. This mitigated my Shadowmancer quite a bit. Also Vlad being able to upkeep two spells for free made Lamentation lackluster.

I thought I had placed Helldiver to wrong side of the board. So it was by accident that I had a contestant on rectangular zone on my right.

Vlad uses his feat on five models - both Eliminator units and a lone Kayazy assassin. Eliminators on right just ran to engage my Warwitch Siren. River being rough terrain robbed them of their charge.

Another unit came to tie up Satyxis. And did they tie up Satyxis. Kayazy Assassins attacked Harrower, that had been seriously damaged by Behemoth already. But Harrower didn't die, it just lost Cortex.

Cryx managed to clear all the assassins from circular zone and contest rectangular zone on right with Helldiver that popped up.

Satyxis Raiders, Axiara and Satyxis Captain all tried to do some damage in to Eliminators on left, and succeeded. Just to deal random damage points in. Not to kill anyone.

Yuri the Axe charges from woods and kills a bunch of Satyxis Raiders. Eliminators continue to kill them. Marauder cannot charge contesting Helldiver, so it positions itself so that next turn Helldiver won't be able to contest and be outside of Marauder's threat range. Warwitch Siren dies to another unit of Eliminators and I'm left with few warjacks that are seriously damaged.

Thanks to some lucky rolls I clear the circular zone with ease. Axiara Wraithblade runs to the flag, and Goreshade with Deathwalker is on the zone. That's two points.

Stalker charges Yuri, and Satyxis finally remove one of the eliminators.

I try to position my jacks so that next turn I'd be able to go to rectangular zone on the right that was about to fall to Khador.

But a miracle happened there. Marauder did the combo-smite thing and slammed Helldiver four inches or something. This was phenomenal luck. Because Helldiver was still contesting and was outside of threat range of Kayazy Eliminators. One inch more or one inch less and I'd have lost the zone.

Vladimir tried to remove Helldiver with Razor Wind, and failed.

Devastator wrecks Stalker and a mechanic comes to contest circular zone.

After removing contestors with Reaper, Seether charges Behemoth to tie it up. Seether had only one arm and no cortex, so damage wasn't spectacular. I spent quite a bit time on deathclock trying to figure if I should try to assassinate Vladimir. I would've probably tried that if both Axiara and Harrower wouldn't have missed. But they did.

When I'm looking at the game pictures now, it's absurd that Harrower survived that long. After Marauder wrecked Helldiver, Harrower still stood contesting. Behemoth took down Seether. Kayazy Eliminators charge last remaining Iron Monger, and position themselves to contest both the flag and the zone.

Goreshade takes care of the Eliminators and Axiara positions herself to the flag. Leviathan shoots enemy objective down and Reaper runs to contest the zone.

Behemoth comes to contest zone, Vlad wrecks Harrower and Devastator bulldozes Reaper off.

Reaper comes back for more, Blood Priestess runs to contest rectangular zone and Goreshade and Bane Warriors wreck Behemoth.

It was the last round, and one of first, if not the first game in my Mk3 tournaments that had to be resolved with tiebreakers. I had lead of three control points, so a victory for Cryx.

Game 3:

Last game I was against Blindwater Congregation. First time in Mk3.

I wanted to try if Scaverous would be able to score an assassination, but I should've thought about the position of objectives. Opponent picked anchor objective, and with this 5" template of shallow water with protection from ranged attacks had Barnabas1 in a safe spot.

I managed to kill Wrastler. A big mistake was to charge Sacral Vault with ambushing Mechanithralls. I thought three Brute Thralls ought to make a dent in the battle engine - and sure they did... but I had not paid attention at all that there was Gobber Tinker around. Who repaired for six. Yay. Then the thing shot all Brutes in one turn, and what were Mecanithralls to do when their only target was protected by this soul storm thing?

I charge Wraith Engine to that Sacral Vault, and poor rolls still have the thing standing. Well. At least someone was contesting enemy rectangular zone.

I had some trouble contesting flags. Swamp Gobber River Raider scored a point for enemy, and a small bottleneck had my heavy warjacks in a difficult position to do anything other than kill a couple members of Gatormen Posse.

Hilariously enough Wraith Engine didn't... oh wait, it did die.

But it took the combined efforts of Sacral Vault, Ironback Spitter, Gatormen Posse, Bull Snapper and even a charging Mist Speaker. And since they just couldn't do it, Barnabas destroys the thing with a spell.

But losing the engine was my downfall, and slowly and steadily opponent grinded control points to victory.

Looking back now the match-up doesn't look as horrible as it felt. Game was probably playable - I just succumbed to some silly mistakes and being too fixated on assassinating Barnabas.

Boarding with no Party Pirates

This was a traditional Warmachine game against a friend during Ropecon.

Tournament next day was going to use Oblivion rules, so we were practicing those.

Well thought-out choice would have been to practice with my lists... but no, I went with my newest painted warcaster, Captain Aiakos. And I even knew I'd be against Xerxis2.


[Theme] Black Industries
Captain Aiakos [+29]
- Defiler [8]
- Leviathan [16]
- Reaper [13]
- Seether [13]
- Slayer [10]
- The Withershadow Combine [9]

Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
- Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]
Wraith Engine [15]

Opponent had:

[Theme] Disciples of Agony
Xerxis, Fury of Halaak [+28]
- Agonizer [0(6)]
- Basilisk Drake [8]
- Basilisk Drake [8]
- Basilisk Krea [0(7)]
- Bronzeback Titan [17]
- Chiron [19]
- Titan Sentry [15]
- Titan Sentry [15]
Swamp Gobber River Raider [1]
Tyrant Zaadesh [0(4)]
- Titan Gladiator [15]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]

Scenario was slightly in my favor. Opponent had next to no units to grab points from circular zones. I didn't have that many units either, but Mechanithralls were ambushing.

The huge beast brick looks completely unassailable. So I try to go for the scenario instead.

Mechanithralls take a point from zone on left. I was thinking it could be worth it to trade a Slayer to Gladiator. +2" off from from warbeasts' movement as well losing access to Pathfinder could have been good enough piece trade even if I was outnumbered.

If it had succeeded, that is.

Pistol Wraith failed to make Gladiator stationary.

Tremulus failed to cast Puppet Master on Slayer.

Defiler failed to apply Corrosion on Gladiator.

Slayer succeeded in charging Gladiator under Assail, but failed to stay out from Agonizer agony range. And on top of that rolls were sub-par.

I think Xerxis used feat here, and assaulted Chiron to my Reaper, destroying it, killing a Black Ogrun and even Tremulus.

Slayer went down without too much of a hassle.

I thought I had lost too much of my damage potential, so started figuring out a way to kill Xerxis, who had only one transfer. Had it been actual tournament game, I would've ran out of clock. I did have a nice plan, though, which I realized not to work in midway of it's application. Seether didn't have a charge lane to Basilisk Krea, and I had forgotten the need to either charge or run during activation. Seether would've reached it's target with +3 SPD from Aiakos' feat.

It was one heck of a mess, then.

At least I removed Chiron and Agonizer, but eh. What was I to do?

Next turn for Cryx situation looked so grim that as a final gesture of defiance, Aiakos entered the fray. He cast White Squall to toss Gladiator away from zone, and then proceeded to destroy Basilisk Drake all by himself.

I did get that control point, so yay I guess.

Sorscha1 vs Goreshade1

Oh my. Ropecon starts tomorrow and this is still in queue for writing. Better do it now.

I played this 50 point game of warmachine about a week ago.

My list:

Goreshade the Bastard [+27]

- Deathripper [6]
- Leviathan [16]
- Malice [15]
- Slayer [10]
- Stalker [8]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess [4]
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Cephalyx Overlords [8]

Opponent had a list something like this. I can't figure out the remaining two points, though.

Kommander Sorscha [+29]
- Destroyer [14]
- Destroyer [14]
- Juggernaut [13]
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [7]
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (max) [16]
Steelhead Riflemen (max) [13]

Because it looked like I wouldn't be doing many practice games before entering Ropecon tournament, I built my list to somewhat resemble my second list. Which, by the way, was overhauled overnight because two days before tournament rules... changed. But that's another story.

We played one of the new 2019 scenarios.

Cryx went second, and all in all scenario game looked promising. If it wasn't for Eiryss, who came to contest flag on my side. I charged her with Iron Mongers, but they just pretty much tied each other into melee. Fortunately opponent didn't score lucky hits to critical systems on my warjacks just yet, so "losing" mechanics this early wasn't a fatal blow. And of course they tried to repair Eiryss off the board instead.

Slayer trampled to contest enemy rectangular zone. Then I decide to launch an all-out offensive. I thought if I could remove at least two Khadoran heavies, I would be able to take Sorscha's feat without too much casualties.

Goreshade used feat and Bane Warriors charged around. I forget if Malice finalized Juggernaut or what. Leviathan got full three shots and took at least two of them on Destroyer with boost to hit. Stalker charged another Destroyer. It has only few damage boxes left, so even Cephalyx try to come and use psychic storm.

All in all I could not destroy two Khadoran heavies, but both remaining were crippled enough.

Next Sorscha uses her feat, but she plays safe and stays behind her army.

I'm amazed that Slayer survived that turn. Stalker went to study what the heck does the word "smithereen" actually mean. But all things considered it wasn't too bad. Cryx focused on removing warrior models from board. Most Man-O-Wars perished, but that was it.

However, I had been getting lead in scenario game. Not a huge lead, but slowly it added up. Goreshade won by scenario.

Darkest Host

Alright, I need to write this one down in haste, though I've got one game that was played earlier. But here this time I forgot my camera, and my phone is lost so I couldn't take pictures with that one either. And memory is such an unreliable tool.

It was a 75 point practice game for upcoming tournament in Ropecon. We were both playing Dark Host theme for Cryx.

My list was

[Theme] Dark Host
Lord Exhumator Scaverous [+27]
- Corruptor [14]
- 2x Deathripper [6]
- Desecrator [14]
- Reaper [13]
- Skarlock Thrall [4]
Bane Lord Tartarus [0(6)]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Bane Warriors (max) [16]
- Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [5]
Wraith Engine [15]

Opponent had

[Theme] Dark Host
Lich Lord Asphyxious [+28]
- 2x Deathripper [6]
- 2x Stalker [8]
Bane Lord Tartarus [0(6)]
2x Machine Wraith [2]
Bane Knights (max) [15]
- Bane Knight Officer [0(4)]
2xBane Riders (max) [20]
Bane Warriors (max) [16]
- Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [0(5)]


Opponent had so little magical weapons available that I dared to run Wraith Engine pretty much to middle board on my right side - far from opponent's objective that could give magical weapons.

On second turn Asphyxious would actually have been within walking distance of Wraith Engine that benefits from Death Ride and Telekinesis. I wasted precious minutes in trying to figure out a way for me to land Telekinesis and Icy Grip on Asphyxious and throw Feast of Worms into the mix.

But I couldn't find even a theoretical way to do that.

Game in short summary: I was flooded with Banes. I had some AoE available for example in Corruptors gun, but Asphyxious could easily force Corruptor to expose itself for charges.

I conceded after fifth turn, because I had lost every important piece to even dream of an assassination, and had too few models left to contest zones in a meaningful manner. I pretty much wasted Scaverous' feat and opponent used his to remove Wraith Engine from board that had finally taken a few swings.