Cryx vs Khador, 35pts, 11/26/10

Part of my fun non-shopping Black Friday was spent playing Warmachine (amidst plenty of board games, as mentioned on my Cardboard Warriors blog).  Rob had been really excited to play Karchev, who he's been getting more and more experience with, and I was definitely eager to play.

I've been getting in the habit of randomly choosing my warcasters/warlocks before each game, this way I won't neglect casters just because I'm not good with them.  Occasionally, I'll be forced to play with casters/locks I'm not great with, and hopefully get some more practice.  My random choice this time was Epic Deneghra.  She's an interesting choice- most people think she's just the most amazing scenario caster in the game, and we just happened to be playing a scenario.  Hmm...  Sadly, I've not used her in MkII.  That means this would be an EXTRA interesting game.

My list:
Wraith Witch Deneghra
- Nightwretch
- Nightwretch
- Skarlock Thrall
Bane Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)
The Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith

Just about the same list I ALWAYS take.  Unfortunately, after randomly choosing my caster, I realized I didn't have her model handy.  It's assembled, but sadly it was at home.  Sad.  That means that yes, I did proxy her.  I can't go against the random-ness, can I?  I used regular Deneghra for her instead.

Rob's list:
Karchev the Terrible
- Berserker
- Juggernaut
- Marauder
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Man-o-war Bombardiers (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Koldun Lord

Rob ran a Tier 4 Karchev list.  Not a bad choice of models, honestly, although I might have switched up the jacks.  Regardless, pretty hard looking army.

Terrain:


Plenty of terrain on the table. That hill was our objective. We were playing Convergence (I believe that's the name). Basically, we need to control the hill to win.

Deployment:
Rob deployed first:

Since these were completely proxied, a quick translation for you. The Assault Kommandoes are Ternions, those medium based models are all Man-o-Wars of some stripe, the jacks are jacks, aside from the Slayer, which is actually Karchev.

My deployment:

Spread out, just like usual.

Turn 1:
Rob advances everything as far forward as he can.

I advance everything as well. I run a Nightwretch onto the hill, and cast Curse of Shadows on the Shocktroopers, and Pursuit on the Bombardiers.

Turn 2:
The Shocktroopers charge the Nightwretch, and do 10 damage to it (and most importantly, knock out the Arc Node). The Bombardiers shoot, and manage to kill a Bane Thrall. Everything else moves towards the hill.



The Nightwretch advances through the Man-O-Wars and shoots them, dealing 4 damage. The Withershadow Combine manages to kill one of the Bombardiers, and the Bane Thralls kill the unit of Shocktroopers. I move eDenny up onto the hill, and pop my feat, locking the Khador army in place for a turn. I also try to Hellmouth the Bombardiers, but don't deal much damage. The rest of my army swarms the hill.



Turn 3:
Karchev chooses to spray his own jack in front of him, and manages to get eDenny under the spray. He kills a Bane Thrall, deals 9 damage to Deneghra (and knocks her down!), and damages a Nightwretch. Rob tries to follow up with the 2 Bombardiers nearby, who should've killed her... but rolls a double one for one of the shots, and the second shot only deals 5 points of damage. The Ternions manage to kill 3 Bane Knights.

I finally remember to go Incorporeal at the beginning of my turn, and stand up, and move out to the back of the hill, away from the action. Eek. I keep swarming the middle though- my Bane Thralls, Mech Thralls, and Bane Lord Tartarus all charge into the Khador jacks, dealing a ton of damage, and crippling a few systems. I send the Bane Knights into the Ternions, locking them in place, and killing a few. The Withershadow Combine finish off the Bombardiers.

Things aren't looking too too bad at this point, I'll almost have killed the majority of Rob's threats, and I still have a few parts of my army intact. However, with some luck, Rob could definitely wipe out my front rank of guys, and I didn't have much left after that should he succeed.



Turn 4:
Rob knows he has to do things now to win, or else I would wear him out, and then he wouldn't stand a chance. He has the Juggernaut and Marauder trample through my troops, killing a total of 3 Bane Thralls. The Koldun Lord sprayed another Bane Lord... giving Karchev a path to move up and spray Deneghra. He does, and deals enough damage to kill her.



Unfortunately for the both of us, I learned a few days later that Karchev's spray isn't magical, and Rob definitely thought it was. With that said, I think the game was still fantastic, and I still have it marked in my books as a loss. Rob put himself in position to win throughout the game, and although I was saved by luck once, I was going to struggle to keep the pressure going on him after his mass trampling.

I'm still pretty unfamiliar with epic Deneghra, so I'm looking forward to playing her again. I'm not sure when it will be, but I need to re-evaluate what I take with her. I'm assembling some Soulhunters, which should help provide me some extra threat range, and I'll probably need to fit in another arc node. We'll see how I perform next time I use her!