This Week in the Gnarls League, Part 3

vs Danny, part one.

Last week I was in a three-way tie for first in league, and on Monday I got in the first game of this week against one of the people I was tied with: Danny and his Cryx.  My first few trips to the FLGS for Thursday night Warmahordes I played against new or inexperienced players (which seems to apply to 50-60% of the regulars), including what was one of the first handful of games Danny played.  A nice guy who's eager to learn, I've kept an eye on Danny since then to see how he develops.  This game was the first since that initial game months ago and was a good opportunity to see first-hand how Danny has progressed (after a trip to Templecon no less).  We played at 50 points and I fielded the same Aby list I played last week (Typhon, Carni, Seraph, Angelius, Raek, 4 Shredders, 2 Forsakens, and a Shepherd).  I was concerned about facing 50 points worth of Cryx infantry, but fortunately the reality was slightly different as Danny fielded eSkarre with the Deathjack, Defiler, max Bane Thralls with UA and Tartarus, max Satyxis with UA and their solo, Darragh Wrathe, two Pistol Wraiths, and Saxon Orrik.  Our scenario was Whirling Gauntlet, which proved to be interesting.

vs Danny, part two.

The game was a tight one.  Unsure of how the Satyxis would perform, but none too happy with their innate high DEF, my first priority was to cripple the unit.  I gunned down the UA with the Angelius and then took a big chunk out of the rest of the unit before turning my attention to the Banes.  I was careful to stay out of their charge range but didn't account for the extra range that Tartarus gives them and ended up taking a charge from them anyway.  With a little help from the Deathjack (who finally did something) they took out my Carnivean and Angelius (who refused to tank at DEF 17 for most of the week).  During all that destruction I noticed eSkarre had crept rather far forward.  When the Whirling Gauntlet again cut through Danny's army and knocked down his Defiler, I saw that I needed to remove a single Bane to open up a charge lane for Aby.  While I didn't manage to kill the Bane, which made its Tough roll, I did knock it down.  One flying charge later and eSkarre was on the ground with Aby standing over her.  Danny had been cutting Skarre ruthlessly for upkeeps, plus her feat, and by the time I went in for the kill she was at half life (if not lower).  I meant to ask Danny why he kept cutting as he wasn't starved for Focus but forgot over the course of the week.

vs Ron

Next up was Ron on Thursday.  Though this was my first game against him, I'm relatively familiar with his collection through his blog (Miniatures armies, huge time sink), so I had to do less guessing for this game than previous 50 pointers.  I ran the same Aby list while Ron fielded Strakhov with the War Dog, Torch, Beast 09, the Great Bears, min IFP with UA, min Kayazy with UA, Kayazy Elminators, max Shock Troopers, a Widowmaker Marksman, and Reinholdt (because he had a point left over and I had Reinholdt in my bag).  The scenario was Most Pit. Like when I played Steve last week, I knew Ron's army at least as well as he did.  Despite this I still managed to walk more or less right into Strakhov's feat, which cost me Typhon and the (still refusing to tank) Angelius.  As with Danny, this game turned when Ron left his caster too close to the action (which is all but unavoidable with Strakhov).  It took a little bit of surgery and Slipstreaming, but I was ultimately able to get the Raek and Aby in against Strakhov.  When they couldn't seal the deal, I had to bring in the Carnivean to bat clean-up.  Ron played well enough, spreading his net wide for a good feat charge, but ultimately couldn't do enough damage on the feat turn to keep my gribblies at bay. 

vs Paul

My final game was against Paul and his Troll list.  I played with Paul in my first ever team game, though he was running Cygnar at the time, and I'd seen his Trolls on the table in the past few weeks so I had an idea of what to expect.  We played Occupy at 35 points.  My Aby list was the same from last week (Typhon, Carni, Seraph, 3 Shredders, 2 Shepherds, 2 Forsaken).  Paul ran an eDoomie brick of doom list with Mulg, an Earthborn, an Axer, a Runebearer (Trollses), Janissa, max Krielstone with UA, and the league Whelps.  I'm familiar with the basic concept of the list (clump up, Janissa puts a wall in front, everything in range of the stone), if not particularly familiar with eDoomie.  My basic plan was to spread out so that the brick either had to separate or else focus on a single target at a time instead of catching multiple pieces at once.  The lack of knowledge about eDoomie, combined with my plan of spreading out, nearly cost me the game real early.  Paul had warned me that his list was built to slingshot beasts forward, but when I had Mulg on Aby in turn 2 I was still surprised.  Fortunately Aby is a tough nut to crack (DEF 19 when B2B with the bonded Seraph and with Tenacity) and Mulg couldn't finish her off.  Even more fortunately, Mulg and his five Fury ended up between a pair of Forsaken.  After a pair of glorious 7 dice Blight Bomb Shrouds, and a bit of work by Aby, Mulg was down and Paul was distraught.  From there I was in the driver's seat, but I nearly threw it all away on the urging from my PG (who was eager for a team game as he also plays Legion).  I took an ill-advised run at Doomie and came up short, but Aby again managed to not get killed long enough for the Carnivean to come in and mop up.  Of note, the Angelius finally did some good evasion tanking in this game and held up the Earthborn for the whole match.

vs Ron again, this time at 15 points.

While the above was my last game that counted, I did play another on Thursday night.  After having put on reckless speed to finish the game against Paul, I found that my PG didn't have an opponent in mind for the team game he was so eager for.  It was soon too late to have any hope of getting in a team game, so I filled the remaining time with a 15 pointer against Ron.  I pulled out pVayl for this one, with a Carni, Seraph, and Shredder.  Ron took Strakhov with Beast 09 and Torch.  This one was over when I tried making a 15 point list, and despite barely budging from my deployment zone I still got charged at the top of turn two.  My two objectives for this game were (in order) to get a game in for Ron's third and to try and figure pVayl out a little bit.  The first I managed easily, the second not quite so much.  I did get to see how Incite looks on the table (pretty nice, especially with Chiller), so it wasn't a total loss.

I held a pretty healthy lead on the league for most of the week, though as results from the rest of Thursday and the weekend are updated that lead will be much smaller and possibly non-existent.  Despite playing larger games this week, I haven't been maximizing points through scenarios (some are worth more than others at equal points), which may be my undoing.  While I maintain a healthy level of skepticism, if I can manage one more solid week I have a good shot at finishing atop the league standings.  After a 3-0 record this week (in games that counted for me), I'm at 7-2 for the league, which is a mighty fine mark.  Over those games I've gotten to know my Aby list(s) very well, to the point where I don't need to check cards for stats, which is a first for me.  I'm having a hard time putting together a 25 point list for her though, so there's a real possibility I'll be running a different caster (and list) for the league finale tournament this weekend, which would be a real shame.  In happier news, I primed my objective markers this morning (WIP shots still to come) and hope to get them painted up on Wednesday.

Battle of the Buxom Babes: pLylyth vs eSkarre

Textbook definition of "buxom."

This is a report that's been in the hopper for a little while and is finally getting some love.  This is partly because I want to clear out the backlog (7 games and counting), and partly because EV told me I only do prompt reports of games I win.  While obviously untrue, I though I'd take a look back to last week (depending on when this gets posted) and the debut of playing Slipstream the right way with EV.  For this game I returned to pLylyth and went even heavier on the beasts (if that's possible) by dropping the infantry and adding some Shredders and a Deathstalker.  My list was thus:



35+6 points, 10 models
Lylyth, Herald of Everblight  +6 points
* 2x Carnivean  11 points each
* Seraph  8 points
* 2x Shredder  2 points each
Shepherd  1 point
Strider Deathstalker  2 points
2x The Forsaken  2 points each

EV brought out someone new, or at least someone I don't see too often: eSkarre.  He told me her ran this list before against me, which is very possible.  Other than a lack of magic support pieces (Withershadow, Skarlock) and no arc nodes, his list was also as usual:

35+6 points, 31 models

Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast  +6 points
* Deathjack  12 points
* Seether  9 points

10 Bane Thralls  8 points
6 Bile Thralls  5 points
10 Mechanithralls  5 points
* 2 Brute Thralls  2 points

Focus efficiency was a theme that even my relatively Cryx-ignorant eye could pick up on.  The Deathjack has a fearsome reputation (though it isn't particularly deserved in my experience) and I think I might dislike the Seether more than DJ.  It does just about everything better than any of my Khador jacks for 9 points, which is what I pay for a standard Destroyer, Devastator, Demolisher, etc.  It's not even a character jack, so you could potentially run multiples.  Not cool Cryx, not cool.
We rolled up the three objective scenario, then I won the roll to go first.  With little other option I deployed in the center.  My vague plan was to send a Shredder racing out to the flanking objectives while securing the center one, then rolling to one side as circumstances dictated.  EV also deployed in the center.  I put the Deathstalker in the woods, EV put the Deathjack behind the big drum, and the game was on.

Turn 1

Stuff ran.  Animi were cast, for no real good reason.  Upkeeps were cast, for good reason (Death Ward on DJ).  I reconsidered running the left Shredder to the objective and instead left it parked in the woods while the right Shredder continued with the plan.

End of turn one.

 Turn 2

Thanks to poor planning and positioning, the left Shredder Frenzied.  Fortunately it missed the Deathstalker, but even so a wrench had been forcibly inserted into my plans.

Near-miss noms.

Back with the plan, Lylyth took out some Bile Thralls with Eruption of Spines.  This spell could just as well be called "Bile Thrall Killer" because that's what it does.  And I love it for that.

Hate those Bile Thralls.

With both jacks running together I don't want to push my beasts too far forward.  DJ can eat a Carnivean in a turn with little hassle, and without Thagrosh's feat to bring it back I had to play with a little more caution.  As such I moved my beasts up some, but not a whole lot, to set them up to take the center objective next turn.  In the meantime the Deathstalker runs out to the left in an attempt to draw the Seether away from the rest of the Cryx force.  This job would have been the Shredder's, but it decided to get frisky instead.

Legion turn two.

EV starts off with the inevitable Purge and gets some good damage in on the Shredder, but is just out of range on the Shepherd.  One of the nice things about running with little (or no) infantry is that Bile Thralls go from "OhDearJesusKillItKillItBurnItWithFire" to a slightly substandard threat.  While nearly clearing out my Shredder in one shot is unfortunate, it's nothing compared to (potentially) clearing out my entire WGI Deathstar, Doomies, etc.

A less painful than usual Purge.

On the left the Deathstalker did her job, and better than expected.  The Seether charged out there after her but didn't kill her off.  Operation: Separate the Jacks was underway.  You can see the Banes spread out all across creation, EV's way of minimizing the damage Eruption of Spines could cause.  An Admonitioned DJ stands on the center objective, daring me to charge while feeling safe behind the bacon-saving spell.  Little does it know plans are already afoot to deal with it and its little spell.  On the right the MechThralls run in, but do not charge, and engage the Shredder (while also contesting the objective).  With this development in mind I begin to hope that Shredder Frenzies and eats the Brute Thrall.

Cryx turn two.

Turn 3

In the Maintenance phase, most of my hope pays off.  The Shredder does Frenzy, manages to pick the Brute Thrall, hits, and does seven damage.  The only problem there is that the Brute Thrall has eight boxes...

Still close, still no cigar.

This picture shows the result of my machinations: a dead Deathjack.  There's more to it than a simple Carnivean charge though.  First I ran a Rabid Shredder in behind DJ to either make it blow Admonition then or at least limit its options when I send in the hammers.  EV uses Admonition then to pull DJ further back into the Banes.  By doing so he not only spells the Deathjack's doom, but also sets things up so that I can leave the charging, Deathjack-killing Carnivean on the center objective.  As a bonus the spray kills a Bane.  As an extra bonus, the Carni does the job quick enough to be able to cast Spiny Growth itself.  It probably doesn't have long to live, but at least Spiny Growth will negate the Banes' -2 ARM aura.

Deathjack noms are the tastiest.

Anxious to join the fun, the other Carni charges out and joins the fray.  My main goal here was to ding Skarre with the spray, which didn't work out so well.  Said spray did kill two Banes though, and like it's counterpart this Carnivean has enough room for Fury to put up Spiny Growth.

Some beasts just want to watch the world burn.

Not pictured: the Deathstalker does no damage to the Seether, the Forsaken kill a couple Banes with a Blight Bomb Shroud, Lylyth and the Seraph do stuff.

Legion turn three.

The Suspense is Killing Me Part One: the Shredder dies a messy death.  No surprise here.

Close enough for the cigar.

The Suspense is Killing Me Part Two: the remaining Bile Thrall tries to catch the Shepherd in a Purge and fails.  Small surprise here because I would have used the spray instead of the Purge.  Not only would the spray have enough extra range to clip the Shepherd (the Purge was maybe a half inch short), but the Thrall would have survived to (maybe) get another activation in.  EV tells me their RAT is horrible, which I'm sure it is, but it still seemed like an odd choice.

That Shepherd is living a charmed life.

The Suspense is Killing Me Part Three: the Deathstalker's luck runs out.  She died serving the Motherland Everblight though, so there's that.  She also took the Seether out for two turns, which is very nice.

Good job taking it in the face.

 The Suspense is Killing Me Part Four: the Banes charge in, but do not kill the Carnivean.  They do kill a Shredder and a Forsaken though.  They do significant damage to the Carni, but it's still alive.  And hungry.

A pissed-off Carnivean makes a poor neighbor.

At the end of turn three we're tied at 3.  I'm feeling pretty good though.  DJ is dead, the Banes are down to half their starting number(ish), the Biles are dead, the Seether is off by itself, and I hold the center, or will soon enough.  The plan now is to finish off the Banes, then run down the Seether and Skarre.

Cryx turn three.

Turn 4

Things immediately go wrong, again, in the Maintenance phase.  My math was bad in my last turn and I'm running hot.  Even after not Reaving the Shredder when it died, I still have two Fury on the table that I can't Leech.  What I want to do is leave one on both Carnis and then pass both Threshold tests like it's my job, but if I tried that I'd inevitably fail both.  Instead I clear off the painted Carnivean and leave two on the unpainted one, which promptly fails its Threshold check and Frenzies.  Fortunately it eats a Bane, but unfortunately that's all it does.  Check that, it also moves away from the Seether and Skarre, or the opposite of the direction I want it to move in.

The beasts just didn't want to listen this game.

Back on track, I get to work killing some Banes.  The Seraph doesn't do much other than Slipstream the Carnivean to avoid a charge in the back.  Lylyth Parasites the Banes, then pops one in the face for good measure.

Sometimes you have to do it yourself.

The Suspense is Killing Me Part Five: the Carnivean eats all the Banes.

Carniveans are just misunderstood.  And hungry.

What I said at the end of turn four still applies, except that I know hold the center unopposed.  I've only gained a single point, but I've split EV's force in half and can now concentrate on Skarre and the Seether.

Legion turn four.  (This pic refused to upload properly)

EV's turn is real quick.  Admonition on the Seether, move it up, move Skarre to the objective, done.  It takes a minute for me to realize that the score is now 5-4 in his favor.  With the MechThralls all over the right objective, I have to stop EV from scoring with the left objective as well or it's all over.

Cryx turn four.  (Same deal here.  No action lost though)

Turn 5

I pop Lylyth's feat, Parasite the Seether, and get to business.  Once again, things go wrong almost from the start.  I've forgotten about Admonition, so when the Carnivean charge hits home, EV just backs up his Seether and all my glorious attacks (except the spray) have no target.  Not a fan.  The Seraph finishes the job off though, so there's that.

Seether down.

The other Carnivean goes rocketing into Skarre, but is just out of Lylyth's control area.  Thus no feat and no forcing, and therefore no damage.  I have feet on the objective though, so as long as Skarre can't kill a healthy Carni in one turn I should be good.

Legion turn five.

The Suspense is Killing Me Part Six: Skarre has a Great Rack.  It pushes the target 1" away on a hit.  Carniveans are not hard to hit.  Thus the game ends.

Great Racked.

While EV may have won by scenario, in my humble and modest opinion it was a hollow victory with his caster hiding on one side of the board, frantically pushing things away while yelling "Not in the face!  We're done here!  Not in the face!"

In a (slightly) more serious tone, this was a good game with all the back and forth swings of fortune, for both sides, that you could ask for.  The Frenzying Carnivean really hurt since it could have gone after the left objective a turn earlier, while also denying EV the chance to simply adjust his forces and stand pat in turn four.  In retrospect I should have Strafed Skarre instead of finishing off the Seether.  It may not have killed her (probably not), but you never know.  A Strafe hit or two plus a claw or bite landing and the game could have ended in a more pleasant manner.  Instead Cryx rolls to another victory.  In the end, if I have to lose I can think of worse ways to go out than by getting pushed around by a broad with a Great Rack.

P.S. - I'm on the warpath to get my internet back up to speed this morning, which means there may not be any painting today.  It also means that I wrote this on one of the dinky word processors that come with Windows 7 that doesn't feature a spellchecker.  After pasting this post into the Blogger interface, I ran its spellchecker.  Result?  A single typo.  Feel free to name your children after me.

P.P.S. - As the last post said, internets fixed.  No painting happened as predicted.  Formatting may be weird in this post since I was forced into evasive maneuvers trying to get those two pics to load properly.  You know which ones.

Family Feud: pThagrosh vs eSkarre

Show me "Playing like you've got a pair."

A couple battle reports ago, EV left a cryptic comment: "Next time I'll be bringing out the big guns again, so be warned."  Considering his preferences for casters and lists, I assumed this meant I'd be seeing eGaspy and his infantry swarm the next time we gamed (today[Tuesday]).  There was an outside chance of pDenny as well, or pGaspy, but I felt confident that I'd be facing eGaspy.  I didn't tailor my list to that match-up because I don't do that sort of meta-gaming (and if I do it's after a long stretch of crushing defeats).  Turns out my gaming integrity paid off today as I faced not Gaspy or Denny, but eSkarre.  Even more bizarre, eSkarre with two (2) heavy jacks and no (zero[0]) arc nodes.  After double checking that I was in the right place and facing the right opponent, we got down to business.  My list was the same as last time while EV's (obviously) changed.  He went with:



35+6 points, 31 models

Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast  +6 points
* Deathjack  12 points
* Seether  9 points

10 Bane Thralls  8 points
6 Bile Thralls  5 points
10 Mechanithralls  5 points
* 2 Brute Thralls  2 points

Still a solid core of infantry, but the usual magic support of Withershadow/Skarlock/arc nodes is notably absent.  I've seen what Bane Thralls can do with Black Spot, albeit from a distance while I was playing a game at the FLGS, so I was none too excited about facing them down.  eSkarre looks like quite the toolbox in general, and the Deathjack is no slouch (despite performances to the contrary), so I figure I'm in for a tough battle.  We roll up Mosh Pit for a scenario, further foreshadowing what is bound to be a real slobber-knocker.  Terrain is set up in the usual manner, then I take the unusual approach by deciding to go first when I win the roll that gives me that option.  This has the unfortunate side effect of negating my beloved refused flank deployment scheme, to say nothing of the scenario that demands models in the center of the table, so I dump my models in the middle.  The Swordsmen go on the side without the woods since they don't have Pathfinder and I have no way of giving it to them.  I plan to Slipstream Thagrosh to the front of the ruins in turn one.  Beyond that I have no real plan besides trying to win.  EV counters with his usual setup, though the Seether replaces the usual magical support in the middle.

Setup.

Turn 1

We all know how these go.  I put up Draconic Blessing on the Swordsmen, Fog of War, a smattering of Spiny Growths, and finish up by pulling some Fury with the Forsaken.  EV has the Deathjack cast Death Ward on itself, which I didn't realize it could do, and otherwise advances.

Turn one.

Turn 2

The real action starts with a whimper.  The unpainted Carnivean is well out of charge range, so I move it forward a bit and spray the Banes, barely clipping one.  I boost because why not, I've got the room for the Fury, and kill the one.  Then, Spiny Growth.  I also try to stay far enough back in the woods to nullify any charges from the Banes or the Seether.

Eyeless Sight + Sprays = Far Too Much Fun

On the left, I have decided to fling the painted Carnivean forward to do some murder.  As with all good things, this starts with a Slipstream.  That Slipstream is followed by a Strafe, which dings the Deathjack while also killing a MechThrall and a Brute Thrall.

Love that Seraph.

The subsequent Carnivean charge is less glorious than anticipated.  I do some damage to DJ, but nothing like what I had expected.  Even the Assault-fueled spray does little.  As a final cherry, I have forgotten to put up Spiny Growth and Thagrosh is well out of range to do so himself.  The Swordsmen move to the center to allow Thagrosh room to maneuver, the Forsaken on the right eats some more Fury, and that's about it.

Legion turn two.

EV begins his turn with the good (for him) stuff.  DJ eats the Carnivean without too much effort, which is a bit unsettling.  Granted DJ is a lock to show up on "top 3 jacks in the game" lists, often at the top, but the relative ease with which it dispatches my Carnivean (which admittedly does not have Spiny Growth up), which is not some paper tiger that folds under the first stiff breeze, makes me wonder how the rest of the game will go.  At least DJ doesn't get to heal since my Carnivean has no soul.

Unfortunate, but not unexpected.

The rest of his turn is uneventful.  Stuff moves forward, the Seether gets Admonition, and otherwise the second turn could have been a first turn.

Cryx turn two.

Turn 3

While EV was finishing his turn I was busy hatching a master plan to get revenge on the Deathjack.  It seemed more than a little foolhardy, but I thought it had a good chance to succeed.  Plus it would be entertaining.  It began, as all good things do, with a Slipstream, the Seraph carrying Thagrosh over some walls and into a charge lane.  Because Seraphs are awesome, I also go to shoot after Slipstreaming.  Even better, I got d3+1 shots from said Seraph (which is awesome), and ended up with the max.  A few die rolls later, four Bile Thralls went from undead to redead.

What else to say?  Awesome.

Sweet revenge is a thing to be savored, so I turned my attention to the center of the table.  I wanted to drop a Blight Bomb Shroud amongst the MechThralls to open up some charge lanes so I could send the Swordsmen into the Banes, or perhaps remove that one pesky Bane from in front of the Seether, but I couldn't figure a way to do either.  Instead I charged the Swordsmen into the MechThralls.  They chopped a few Thralls up and prepared to receive the inevitable counter-charge.

They kill stuff good.

Having gained a very little wiggle room for the Forsaken, I set off the Blight Bomb Shroud.  The blast took out three MechThralls and a pair of Banes, notably the one blocking the charge lane to the Seether.  Unfortunately said Seether was just out of range of the Blight Bomb Shroud, so I didn't get the tasty extra die of damage that the unspent Focus it had would have granted me.

Why can't this ability just be called Blight Bomb?

Continuing my campaign of shock and awe, I moved back to the left and the sweet, sweet revenge.  After declaring and making my charge move on the Deathjack with Thagrosh, I realized I wanted to put Draconic Blessing on him to help cut throught DJ's ARM 21.  Unfortunately I had to wait until my charge attack was resolved to do so.  It took almost all my Fury to do it, but in the end DJ was down and out.  To make matters even better, I popped Thagrosh's feat and brought the previously-dead Carnivean back, but I'll cover that in more detail in a bit.

Putting the death in Deathjack.

Back to the right (I do more jump cuts than a kung fu movie).  The Carnivean charged the Seether, Pathfinding like a boss the whole way, only to get roosterblocked by Admonition.  The cowardly Seether shuffled out of range and took my spray with it, turning what would have been a glorious Bane covering spray into a pitiful thing that just barely missed Skarre.  I was inclined to leave the Bane (played in the below shot by the red bear) alive to gum up the charge lane for the Seether, but EV pointed out that he had moved in a straight line with Admonition and was not impeded by the Bane and thus by the laws of logic would be able to charge back in along the same path whether the Bane was there or not.  As such, the Bane died (again) in a quick and chompy manner.  Spiny Growth happened.

Admonition is lame.  Unless/until I get to use it.

About the reappearing Carnivean: there were still two Bile Thralls floating around, and they were spaced in such a manner that I could (perhaps) engage them both with the Carnivean, but it seemed equally likely that by trying to do so I would end up engaging neither one, so I decided to definitely get one and leave the other relatively alone.  The Carni also put up Spiny Growth on itself and Thagrosh, who was camping a Fury in anticipation of the blow that was surely about to fall.  The rear-most Forsaken ate some Fury off the unpainted Carnivean, while being careful to not get too close to the fearful Shepherd, and my turn was done.

Legion turn three.

Cad that he is, EV charged the Seether straight into the unpainted Carnivean.  Since it is nigh-impossible to miss a DEF 11 beast, he got the chain attack off after doing a bit of damage and chucked the Carni into my line of infantry.  The Carni squished a Forsaken and a Swordsman, while also taking some damage, but in the end the throw saved the Carni from further jack-based attacks and was overall, I think, a Good Thing.

Ouch, but could have been worse.

Then the inevitable MechThrall charge.  They munched up a Swordsman and put a large dent in the Carnivean.

McCharge: I'm not lovin' it.

A bit of a head-scratcher followed.  EV moved the Bile Thralls, generating a pair of Free Strikes from the painted Carnivean in the process.  Unsurprisingly, both were slain.  I suppose the Biles wouldn't have stopped either the Carni or Thagrosh from moving through fear of Free Strikes, since they have no melee capability, but despite that EV threw them away for no apparent reason.  I was expecting a pair of Purges across some combination of Thagrosh, Carnivean, and/or Seraph.  Instead I got to eat two nasty, squishy Thralls.  I didn't understand it, but I'll not look a gift horse in the mouth.

Couldn't have happened to nicer models.

Returning to the center, the inevitable Bane charge.  This was much less spectacular than anticipated, due in large part to only a single model getting into melee range and (I imagine) the lack of Black Spot.  The lone Bane took another chunk out of the Carni, leaving it with three boxes and two crippled aspects, but still alive.  The rest of the unit just hung out in the woods, having a picnic or somesuch.

Close, but no cigar.

That was that for EV.  Skarre didn't do much of note other than put Admonition back on the Seether, denying my the glorious rear charge that the painted Carnivean was lined up for.  I had expected a brutal counter-punch here since I had strung my army out a bit in my half of the turn, and while the Carnivean took heavy damage and I lost some infantry, ultimately I didn't lose nearly as much as I had anticipated.  With all my beasts alive (thought just barely in one case) and all the Bile Thralls accounted for, I felt pretty good about my position.

Cryx turn three.

Turn 4

Know what the best way to tell that I'm fully engaged with a game is?  Complete lack of detail shots.  Kicking off my turn was the Shepherd who healed the Carni just enough to restore all its aspects.  Said Carni then shuffled up a bit and sprayed across a handful of Banes and Skarre.  The Banes died, and Skarre may have taken a point or two as well.  Spiny Growth before its activation was over.  The Swordsmen cleaned up the MechThralls.  I tried to bait EV into blowing Admonition by Slipstreaming the other Carnivean up, but he didn't take the bait.  Come to think of it, this probably happened before the spray.  Either way, the Seraph got in about 10 points of damage on Skarre with a nice Strafe.  The painted Carnivean probably sprayed Skarre as well, but again didn't do much notable damage if any at all.  I considered trying to get Thagrosh in amongst the Banes via Mutagenesis, but decided it would have left him far too exposed.  I thought my position was strong enough to wait another turn before trying for the assassination.  To that end, the remaining Forsaken filled up on Fury in anticipation of a Blight Bomb Shroud shot at Skarre, who I figured would be popping her feat in the coming turn.

Legion turn four.

EV maxed out his credit cards trying to kill the painted Carnivean with a Skarre charge, but came up a bit short.  In doing so, he also left Skarre on a single box.  He also popped her feat as anticipated, but that didn't worry me much.  I had been thinking of ways to damage models without targeting them since reading her card before the game started, so I had a couple ideas on how to finish her off.

Not even her Great Rack could seal the deal.

In other news, the Banes killed the Shepherd and a Swordsman.  The Seether also finished off the unpainted Carnivean.

Cryx turn four.

Turn 5

Getting straight to the point, I started with Thagrosh.  I wanted to lob an Obliteration at the Bane between Skarre and the Seether and almost fudged things up real good by not getting close enough to see through the Bane's Stealth, but I caught that in time to move Thagrosh up.  Despite boosting the attack roll. I missed with the spell.  (To be fair, the Bane was in melee and therefore DEF 16, but with Thagrosh being Fury 7 getting a 9 on three dice didn't seem like too much to ask for.)  As a pleasant side-effect of getting close enough to see the Bane, the Obliteration couldn't scatter far enough to miss Skarre.  The Bane died, the Seether and Carnivean didn't.  After a boosted damage roll, Skarre was finished.

Good morning, good afternoon, and good night Skarre.

After a string of less-than-satisfactory games, this one was a nice change of pace.  There was some good back and forth, and neither of us made any bone-headed mistakes that compromised the game.  Initial success aside, the Deathjack was again underwhelming.  Granted I pulled what was probably an unexpected maneuver when I Slipstreamed Thagrosh over to a charge lane, and the lack of a heal from killing the Carnivean didn't help either, but the anecdotal evidence is piling up that DJ isn't as tough a nut to crack as his reputation suggests.  The lack of Black Spot was surprising.  During and immediately after the game I figured that EV had just forgotten about it, but after checking Battle College I see that it's a debuff, not a buff like I had thought.  Given my near-total lack of units it's less surprising since it wouldn't generate extra attacks as well if used on a beast, but a DEF debuff is nice wherever it goes.  Of course if you're having a problem hitting a Carnivean at DEF 11 then you have larger issues, but the total absence of Black Spot is still a bit curious.


I know I've said this before, but I'm really liking how Legion plays.  Perhaps I should revise that to "I'm really enjoying how the Seraph plays."  I'd be happy with a simple Slipstream caddy, so getting the multiple shots with Strafe is a bonus.  It has a decent POW and range, plus the Seraph isn't so Fury hungry that I have to make a hard choice between boosting Strafe shots and doing other things.  The Carniveans make great payloads, but I think I could swap them out for Scytheans (one of them at least, want to have Spiny Growth around) without really losing much.  Of course I could also upgrade one to Typhon, but that will have to wait a little while.


Most of all, I like getting to play with a lot of heavies.  That sort of style just isn't viable in Warmachine, outside of a few jack-friendly casters, which is a real shame since it's the jacks/beasts that give the system its particular flavor.  Infantry is nice and all, but it should be support for the big boys, not the other way around.  The game is called Warmachine after all, not Warinfantry.  An unexpected bonus of being able to run beast-heavy is that I'm running less infantry, which means the Bile Thralls are less of a concern.  Since the Swordsmen (or Archers, depending on the list) are there as support and not as the heavy lifters, I can both run them at the back of my force and not be too worried if I lose them.  The beasts won't care much about a Purge, and it's an annoyance at best on a caster.  Without worrying about a Purge or two caving in the center of my army, Cryx infantry is less intimidating as a whole.  This is a very pleasant discovery indeed.  Will it cause a shift in our "meta?"  Perhaps, though I imagine it will be less of a move towards jacks/beasts than a move away from Bile Thralls.


I'm two for two on posting a battle report on the same day as the game now.  Might be a good idea to check Hell and see if it looks icy.