Michael had a pretty even spread of forces, so I placed my Stalkers as far forward as I could get them on either side.
Round 1
Cryx – Ed
I allocated 1 focus to each of Deneghra’s five warjacks, leaving 2 on her. I then used the Wraith Engine’s Apparition ability to place it 2˝ forward. Time for the turn-one-run!
On the flanks, both Pistol Wraiths ran forward, one into the Cactus Patch on the right and the other behind the forward-most building on the left. In the center, the Harrower ran to within 4˝ of the Water Tower.
On the right flank, thanks to Pathfinder, the Stalker ran straight through the Cactus Patch as far as it could go.
Also on the right, the Pistol Wraith and Warwitch Siren ran into the Cactus Patch, the Necrotech ran just ahead of the rock obstruction, the Deathripper ran behind the Cactus Patch, and the Scrap Thralls ran forward.
Over on the left, the Stalker ran up and around the corner of the closest building toward the far flank. The Defiler ran next to the Water Tower followed by the Mechanithralls that filled the passage between the Water Tower and the left-most building. I was careful to leave enough space for the Defiler to move forward, should I choose to activate it before moving the thralls.
In the center, the Wraith Engine advanced straight up the middle toward the Water Tower, followed by
the last Necrotech running up behind the Harrower.
Lastly, Deneghra cast Grave Wind on herself for +2 DEF and Poltergeist. She then advanced as far forward as she could get behind the Wraith Engine and Necrotech.
Round 1
Ed took a pretty standard first turn, and I wasn’t really surprised about where he was going with anything in his army. I decided not to allocate any focus to my battlegroup this turn, so I wouldn’t be tempted to over-extend too early.
The Tempest Blazers activated and advanced to put themselves in a strong shooting position next turn, hopefully without taking a charge before then.
The Black 13th followed suit, getting themselves a bit forward and into cover to avoid coming under fire from the Pistol Wraith on my right flank.
On the other side of the battlefield, Rhupert Carvolo used his March ability on the Horgenhold Forge Guard before advancing. The Forge Guard ran to put themselves as far forward as they were able, through the Cactus Patch thanks to Pathfinder from Rhupert.
Center-stage, Thorn advanced forward but not too far forward. I kept him at the center of the table so I could divert him to whichever side of the field would most need his support next turn. Next, Haley Prime advanced and spent 4 of her 8 focus to utilize her Time Walker ability twice, adding both Haley Past and Haley Future to her unit. These models can’t activate on the turn they come into play, but I needed them to set up for Round 2.
Haley Prime then cast Tactical Supremacy on the Forge Guard to get a little more distance out of them and Temporal Flux to give a defensive boost to any models close by.
Alexia & the Risen ran in behind the Forge Guard, ready to pick up any corpses Ed might create and to act as a second wave in case he wipes out my dwarves. The Squire advanced behind Haley to allow her to benefit from its various abilities. Ol’ Rowdy ran up behind the Tempest Blazers without spending focus, thanks to Aggressive.
To finish things off, the Journeyman Warcaster advanced.
Looking at how this is all playing out, I realized Haley wasn’t going to be sitting on very much focus this game, so I cast Arcane Shield on her unit. After all of my activations had completed, the Horgenhold Forge Guard made their Tactical Supremacy move, and I sat back to see what Ed had in store for me.
Cygnar – Michael
Round 2 Cryx – Ed
Deneghra upkept Grave Wind and allocated 1 focus to each Stalker. I then used Apparition to place the Wraith Engine 2˝ forward, after which it became Incorporeal thanks to its Wraith Walker ability.
Now it was time to put the Wraith Engine at the center of the battle. It ran forward, cutting through the Water Tower, thanks to Incorporeal. This would make it a big but tough-to-crack target and put it in prime position for Soul Collector. To take advantage of that right away, I advanced the Warwitch Siren to the center and cast Venom at a pair of Forge Guard. Hitting their low DEF was no problem, and thanks to a couple of high damage rolls, both died to the corrosive spray. The Wraith Engine gained their souls, but over on Michael’s side, Alexia picked up two corpse tokens. We literally split the spoils between us.
When it comes to WARMACHINE, I do not like to share.
I was going to have to get Alexia’s attention in the backfield.
To that end, I ran the Stalker on the right flank a full 14˝ to pose a threat from behind in the hopes that Michael would decide to deal with it sooner rather than later.
Also on the right, the Pistol Wraith advanced through the Cactus Patch and shot down another Forge Guard.
Soul to the Pistol Wraith, Corpse to Alexia. Grrr… The Pistol Wraith’s second shot hit another Forge Guard but failed to kill him. Maybe that’s a good thing—I had enough souls for the turn.
The Scrap Thralls ran around each side of the Cactus Patch and forward of the Pistol Wraith to create targets for the Forge Guard and hopefully to take attention away from the Pistol Wraith. Wrapping up activations on the right flank, the Deathripper advanced along the outside of the Cactus Patch.
Thanks to its proximity to the Water Tower, the Defiler was able to run to the front of the obstruction without spending focus. Deneghra then used her Soul Weaver ability to remove two souls from the Wraith Engine and place them on herself. This is where Deneghra becomes deadly efficient. Using her Soul Mastery ability, I removed one soul token from her to trigger Arcane Spirits, which allows her to cast a spell with COST 3 or less without spending focus. Mortality is my spell of choice in this case, which I cast through the Defiler’s arc node, targeting Thorn. Using a focus point to boost, I hit the high DEF warjack and caused it to suffer -2 DEF and ARM. Again using Soul Mastery, I removed a soul from her. This time I triggered her Vengeful Spirits ability, which allocates up to 3 focus to a warjack in her battlegroup within her
CMD range. I chose the Harrower and filled it with focus.
Deneghra then advanced up behind the Wraith Engine.
Between Grave Wind and the 3 focus on her, she was sitting at a respectable DEF 17 and ARM 19.
Next up was the Harrower, which advanced before boosting a Mortifier shot at Thorn. The shot connected, and thanks to Mortality, the boosted damage roll inflicted 8 damage despite mediocre dice results.
On the left flank, the Mechanithralls ran forward to the midline of the battlefield, engaging one Tempest Blazer in the process. The remaining Stalker then ran around the far building, keeping close to its edge to gain as much distance around it as possible. The Pistol Wraith followed up, taking shelter from all the magelock pistols behind the same building. Lastly, the Necrotechs advanced toward the Harrower so they would be able to move into base contact for repairs next turn.
Overall, this felt like a pretty good turn. There was a lot pressure on Michael’s army, and it was coming from a lot of different directions.
Round 2
That could have gone a lot worse! Thorn took a pretty solid hit, but I only lost three Forge Guard to Ed’s onslaught.
My Tempest Blazers were a little gummed up, but I was pretty sure I could get them free. To start things off, Haley Prime spent 4 focus to upkeep Haley Past and Haley Future. Haley Future had some work to do this turn, but with some quick math I realized she would be the one to handle my focus allocation as well. She allocated 2 focus to Thorn. The Journeyman Warcaster upkept Arcane Shield on Haley. Alexia discarded three corpse tokens and added three Risen to her unit. That Stalker on my left was getting too close for comfort, and she would soon need those Risen to buy extra attacks and boosts. I really needed to think about how I was going to get Haley across the board. It was starting to look like my ticket would be to blow a hole in Ed’s flank.
To get things started, Thorn charged the Defiler and boosted to hit with its Disruption Spear. The attack struck true, and it dealt 14 damage to the bonejack.
Not enough to take out its arc node, but this was a good start, and it was disrupted. Thorn then used its Shock Shield to dispatch the nearest Mechanithrall.
Alexia & the Risen activated next. I really wanted to use Dominate Undead on the Wraith Engine to force it out of its Incorporeal state, but the threat of the Stalker on my flank was too great to ignore. The unit charged into the Stalker, and two of the Risen attacked and missed.
Alexia then made her charge attack, removing a Risen from play to boost the attack roll thanks to Death Magic.
The attack hit and dealt 11 damage to the Stalker.
She removed another two Risen from play for a second boosted attack, which missed. I really wanted this Stalker out of my hair, so I removed two more Risen for another boosted attack, which hit. One more Risen bought me a boosted damage roll—enough to destroy the bonejack.
Along my right flank, I activated the Black 13th.
Ryan advanced to deal with a few Mechanithralls while Lynch and Watts stared down the Stalker on my right flank. Ryan used a Mage Storm attack targeting a Mechanithrall right in the middle of its group.
The massive 4˝ AOE destroyed three Mechanithralls.
My dice absolutely exploded on damage rolls against the Brute Thralls, killing one outright and leaving another with only 2 damage boxes remaining. I love the Black 13th;
they do great work every time I play them. Moving on to Watts and Lynch, both fired Brutal Damage shots at the Stalker. . . and brutally missed. This wasn’t going to be pretty…
Cygnar – Michael
With everything converging on my forces so quickly, I decided it was time for Haley Prime to use her Arcane Singularity feat. This immediately gave each of my Haleys +2 FOCUS and 2 focus points. Because of Thorn’s affinity with Haley, Haley Past was able to channel a Force Hammer through the engaged arc node targeting the untouched Brute Thrall. I spent a focus to boost, just to make sure it would hit. It did, and it slammed the Brute Thrall 3˝ over two Mechanithralls to destroy both with collateral damage. Haley Past’s Raw Talent ability meant I would roll an additional die on her damage rolls, which I expected to be more than enough to take out the Brute Thrall. I had just watched my dice fail me twice with the Black 13th, though, and I had nothing to do with her last focus point, so I boosted the damage roll to crush the Brute with impunity.
Ed took out a few of my models last turn, and I wasn’t too happy about that. Haley Future did her bit to fix that problem, casting Revive to return one of my Forge Guard to the fight. With her 1 remaining focus, she boosted a Phase Bolt against the Warwitch Siren. A few good dice rolls later and the warwitch was undone. Haley Prime’s Reiteration ability allowed her to cast Revive as well, bringing another Forge Guard back to the unit.
She used her last 3 focus to cast Domination against the Harrower to turn it around and swing at Deneghra.
The Harrower missed, and Deneghra chose not to push it back with Poltergeist. I was pretty satisfied with Haley’s activation, and I felt set up for success.
Cygnar – Michael
The Tempest Blazers activated next, advancing or aiming as needed. My first aimed shot was a Brutal Damage shot targeting the last remaining Brute Thrall. It inflicted 0 damage. That was okay, though. These things happen.
My second Tempest Blazer fired an Electro Leap shot targeting a Mechanithrall . . . and missed. This was not okay. This does not happen. The third fired an Electro Leap shot at another Mechanithrall—and missed. I was starting to feel a little ill at this point. My last two Tempest Blazers fired Electro Leap shots into Mechanithralls, wiping out three of them and finishing off the Defiler. I immediately started to feel a little better about my life choices.
I only had a few activations left, and I started with Rhupert using Heroic Call to assure the Forge Guard wouldn’t fail any command checks and to give them Tough.
The Forge Guard charged several targets, resulting in two demolished Scrap Thralls, 6 damage for the Harrower, one dead Forge Guard, a soul for the Wraith Engine, and hopefully some tough choices for Ed on his next turn.
Rowdy advanced toward the Stalker to threaten a counter charge, while the Squire and Journeyman advanced to hopefully block line of sight to Haley Prime.
Round 3 Cryx – Ed
I had expected to take some losses, but 15 models? Damn.
There was now a big hole in my left flank that Michael could potentially take advantage of to move Haley into my deployment zone for a scenario victory. I hoped I could count on my speed to cut her off, if it came to that.
I started things off by upkeeping Grave Wind on Deneghra and allocating 2 focus to the remaining Stalker.
The now-corporeal Wraith Engine used Apparition to start the turn 2˝ to its right and no longer engaged by any Forge Guard.
The Pistol Wraith by the Cactus Patch aimed a shot at Jonas Murdoch. He was just barely within range, and I spent the Wraith’s soul token to boost the damage, but Murdoch managed a Tough roll and survived. With the second shot, however, he wasn’t so lucky. Thanks to his proximity, the Wraith Engine sucked up Murdoch’s soul while his corpse stayed right where it was, far from Alexia’s reach. No sharing.
On the right flank, the Deathripper advanced and attacked the nearest Forge Guard in hopes of adding yet another soul to the Wraith Engine. But dice happen, and the attack missed. The left Necrotech advanced to the Harrower and performed a Repair special action, which also failed.
I was starting to feel a touch of desperation creep in.
I took a breath and walked around to Michael’s side of the table to activate my Stalker. Using its SPD 7, I was able to take the long route around the back of The Black 13th’s Watts and Lynch to stay out of Counter Charge range of Ol’ Rowdy. Two boosted Eviscerator attacks later, and Watts and Lynch were lunch.
Round 3 Cryx – Ed
I spent a few minutes thinking about what to do with Deneghra and almost decided to charge up the center.
In the end, I opted to play a bit more conservatively.
I pulled both souls off of the Wraith Engine using Soul Weaver. I spent the first to cast Mortality on the Forge Guard, softening them up before charging forward and right, over the Wraith Engine, at one of them.
The hit landed, netting Deneghra another soul and sending another corpse to Alexia. I cast Mortality a second time using a soul, this time hitting Thorn. I boosted my third casting of it, spending my final soul instead of focus to strike the nearest Tempest Blazer.
Did I say I spent my final soul token?
At this point, Deneghra used her feat, Hell Gate, to immediately gain 7 soul tokens. I then spent one of the soul tokens to allocate 3 focus to the Harrower and ended her activation with 6 souls and 3 focus sitting on her. I love her so much.
The Pistol Wraith on the left flank advanced through the front corner of the building and eliminated two Tempest Blazers to end its activation with one soul. To follow that up, the remaining Mechanithrall and Brute Thrall charged the Tempest Blazers and eliminated two more of them.
Next up, the Wraith Engine advanced to engage the three Forge Guard it had Apparitioned away from during the Control Phase. The first one it killed passed his soul to the Harrower, which was closer, while the second netted the Wraith Engine a soul it then spent to kill a third dwarf and gain yet another soul token. No corpses for Alexia—the sacrificial Stalker had paid off.
The second Necrotech advanced and successfully repaired 3 damage points to the Harrower. The Helljack then advanced into melee with Thorn, destroying it with two hits and boosted damage from its Perisher and suffering 1 point of Cortex damage from Thorn’s Shock Shield.
It felt like a good response to the devastation Michael had unleashed on me the previous turn, but I wasn’t confident it would be enough.
Cygnar – Michael
Well, things were starting to look a little grim. I had been hoping to hold out for an assassination attempt on Deneghra, but that was looking less and less possible every turn.
If I was to have any hope of winning this game, I was going to have to get Haley across the board. After replenishing my focus, I used the Squire’s Reserve Accumulator to give Haley Prime an additional focus point. I spent 2 focus to upkeep Haley Future, but I let Haley Past phase out.
Haley Present also allocated a single focus to Ol’ Rowdy.
Alexia gained another Risen for her unit.
First off, my Journeyman Warcaster advanced and fired a boosted Hand Cannon shot at a Mechanithrall, dispatching it quickly. Ryan, the last surviving member of the Black 13th, took aim and fired a Mage Storm shot at the last Brute Thrall. My dice cooperated this time, killing both the Brute Thrall and the Pistol Wraith.
Haley activated next, Prime advancing and Future aiming.
Haley Future cast Revive to bring back a Tempest Blazer, then fired a Phase Bolt shot at the Harrower, boosting the damage roll for 8 points of damage. Haley Present cast Temporal Flux and took a potshot at the Harrower with her Hand Cannon. She hit and boosted the damage, doing another 3 points to the helljack.
Rhupert advanced and used Dirge of Mists on Haley, increasing her DEF to a whopping 19! I was feeling pretty safe sitting on DEF 19/ARM 20, and I expected to be able to clear some serious board space next turn. The Forge Guard activated next and charged. The first attacked the
Rhupert advanced and used Dirge of Mists on Haley, increasing her DEF to a whopping 19! I was feeling pretty safe sitting on DEF 19/ARM 20, and I expected to be able to clear some serious board space next turn. The Forge Guard activated next and charged. The first attacked the