Briefing
Our forth game of Warmachine we played immediately after the third, over the same terrain and with the same forces.
Forces
Cryx (Bernd Freigang)
Battlegroup
-5 pts
Warwith Deneghra
6 pts
Slayer
5 pts
Defiler
4 pts
Deathripper
4 pts
Deathripper
Protectorate of Menoth (Matthias Stein)
Battlegroup
-5 pts
High Exemplar Kreoss
6 pts
Crusader
4 pts
Repenter
6 pts
Revenger
Units
3 pts
Choir of Menoth
The Game
Deployment
Turn 1
Cryx/Protectorate Turn 1
The Cryx advanced without anything happening.
The Menites also advanced. Kreoss cast Lamentation on himself and Defender's Ward on the Crusader. The Choir protected the Crusader from enemy spells by intoning the Hymn of Shielding.
Turn 2
Cryx Turn 2
One of the Deathrippers moved forward and Deneghra cast Venom through him on the Repenter. The Repenter was left with a corrosive continous effect.
The Defiler also moved forward to join in with his Sludge Cannon but turned out to be a poor shot.
Position of the troops at the end of the Cryx second turn.
Protectorate Turn 2
The Repenter retaliated the corrosive attacks on him with the righteous fire of Menoths Fury. Unfortunately he missed both the Defiler (with a boosted attack roll) as well as the Slayer.
The Revenger advanced, then Kreoss cast Cleansing Fire through his Arc Node on the Slayer and damaged him.
The Choir again protected the Crusader from magical harm through their hymn.
Turn 3
Cryx Turn 3
Denegrah popped her feat and upkept the Crippling Grasp on the Repenter. The Defiler moved over to the flank, and then attacked both the Repenter and the Crusader with his Sludge Cannon. With the lowered DEF and ARM (twice with the Repenter due to feat and spell effects), the attack caused considerable damage.
The Slayer then moved in to attack the Crusader. With the effects of the feat, three inital attacks and three additional attacks through Focus, the Crusader went down destroyed.
The Deathripper then moved in as well and finished off the already badly mauled Repenter. On the other flank the second Deathripper attacked the Revenger, did some damage and was then pushed back by the Repulsor Shield.
Protectorate Turn 3
The Situation looked pretty grim for the Menites… Then I thought I could use Bernd's usual tactic, killing the warcaster, against him this time. Battling it out would not succeed anyway, at least not for me.
The Revenger limped forward three inches (Deneghra's feat was still in effect), which brought him inside of 5" of her, thus lifting the effects of her stealth ability for him.
The Coir moved forward and attacked the Slayer, but as expected did not manage to hurt him.
But they made room with their advance for Kreoss to move forward as well, bringing Deneghra into his control zone, and he popped his feat, knocking all Cryx models down.
He then cast Immolation with a boosted damage roll (leaving Deneghra with a fire continous effect and only 4 damage boxes left) and then Cleansing fire on the now DEF5 enemy warcaster, which was more than enough to broil her.
Dead Deneghra.
Would Deneghra not have been eliminated, the next round would have been another round of slaughter for the Cryx…
Aftermath
Protectorate of Menoth (Matthias)
This game was a complete reversal of the previous game. This time my force was decimated but I won by capitalizing on a free lane to the Cryxian Warcaster. As an afterthought, Bernd would have better used the right Deathripper to block the way of the Revenger to Denghra instead of attacking the Revenger, but he became too greedy for kills (his words) to think of that possibility.
This game again showed why Warmachine is a really good game: Although having relatively simple basic rules, the possibilites to combine abilities and spell effects, their general interaction, and timing these right, offers endless possibilites for attacks and counter attacks. This really adds a lot of depth to the tactical possibilities of this game I have not seen with other games. Most other wargames do not encourage coopertation between several models (or your whole battlegroup) in such a way.
Next comes the arms build-up to 20 point forces. More tactical possibilities… and hopefully more victories for the proclaimers of the one true faith! Praised be Menoth!