Deneghra v. Ossrum
Last Thursday I had a friend come over and we decided to throw down some Warmachine, which was awesome. I’ve not been able to do that often, as I’ve probably said a hundred times now, and I was really hankering for a new match up with a better list than the Deneghra 1 list I had on Saturday. He’d just got an Earthbreaker and really wanted to send it for another spin. We pulled out our lists and got ready to roll.
Fighting for the Nations of Rhul and his Mercenary Backers – General Ossrum
His Army –
[table id=1 /]
Fighting for the Dragonfathers Unholy army, -Warwitch Deneghra
And her army:
[table id=2 /]
If you want to skip the battle report, you can go to thoughts here
Our scenario: Supply and Demand.
Rhul goes first, then Cryx
Deployment:
Rhul: He deployed Herne and Jonne, the Earthbreaker, Thor and the TAC his left, A unit of Horgenhold to the right, and the rest to the center. the Bokur is set up on Ossrum.
Cryx: I deploy the Mechanithrall horde dead across from the Earthbreaker, leaning center. Bloodgorgers and Gerlak to my right, with a Nightwretch to both flanks, Deathripper to the center. Nightmare was center-right, and preyed the Earthbreaker to keep him honest.
Turn 1 was simple. with us both running into position to try and get pressure. Here is where I made a critical mistake, however.
I thought he was playing Gorten.
I am not one to make that mistake often, but I saw the model, and didn’t really think twice. This could would have lead to disaster except that I had a stealth caster and a stealth heavy. I seriously over-commited against Ossrum, and only my army selection saved my bacon. It wasn’t until he was talking about his range on the guns that I started to question who it was, and just asked him, and got a shocking answer. Time to rewrite the plan.
Turn 2 was bad for me, but It was built into the army somewhat. I’d learned from the first incarnation of this list to try and keep my Necrosurgeons far back, and it was rewarded this time. He popped his feat and set off for my army. He blew the center unit of Mechanithralls nearly off the table: the stable of Warjacks blowing holes everywhere. Thankfully, I’d positioned my stitch thralls well to catch almost every Mechanithrall that dropped. Unfortunately, my friend had early on decided that they needed to die. While he didn’t overextend himself to kill the little blighters, he sure shot his fair share of Earthbreaker AOE’s to catch them and remove them from the board. He even caught the Scarlock in one, blowing it off the board. He did the same to the left flank, but it took less models to get it done. Herne and Jonne blasted a few, but the Arcanist Corps took it home, as I forgot they were battle wizards, and got almost half the unit and some stitch thralls killed. He planned well, killing stitch thralls first, and I only picked up 2 corpses. The now fast and pathfindery Forgeguard slammed into the front line of my Bloodgorgers, removing a number from the board. It wasn’t hard as I kept failing toughs, and the rolls needed to remove a 12/15 aren’t hard for the Horgenhold.
My turn two was decided for me: I’d counter feat to try and break the deadlock of arm 20 models, and drop offensive spells where I could. Killbox forced my hand a bit, though, forcing me out of cover and into the center of the board. I was close enough to reach out and Crippling Grasp a unit of Forgeguard, I tossed parasite on the Earthbreaker through an arc node, and popped feat. The Nightwretch cannon took out Jonne, and I moved one Necrosurgeon up, and reinforced the Mechanithrall unit that then charged into and removed the TAC. The second Necrosurgeon, abandoning his unit -now with some 10 corpses in tow, bulked up the larger Mechanithrall unit. The Bloodgorgers remaining had one job: clear a path for Gerlak. Two Forgeguard threatened him with freestrikes if he went into the second line of the army, and he needed that area to be cleaned out if I was to make it in. With a lucky free strike he would be sent him flying, and I had no other answer to that second unit of Forgeguard. The few Bloodgorgers that can get in to make attacks do their job, overtaking and moving out of the way in the process, and getting another dwarf for their efforts. Gerlak plunged into the center of the army, and started taking down Rhulfolk. Thankfully, many of them head to leave the safety of Ossrum’s feat in order to get to my army, and the General was not to be denied. I didn’t keep track, but I expect he killed close to 10 Forgeguard, and only stopped when he was engaging both the Gunner and the Blaster, taking his final attack on the blaster and bouncing cleanly off. Nighmare went last, advanced up slowly, and got within prey range of the Earthbreaker. Stealth and the feat, I hopped, would keep me alive, otherwise I had nothing to break the Earthbreaker. I did have Gorman hiding behind the objective, though, hoping to get a blind off on the Earthbreaker soon.
His turn 3 came up, and we were both bloodied. I wasn’t in position for him to knock me quite out, though I was terrified that the Blaster would get free and spray my face off. He landed a few body blows, He shot the objective with the Earthbreaker, knocking down Gorman and doing significant damage to him and the arcnode, both in the blast effect. making my next turn all that much harder. Gerlak stood tall through a charging Bokur and a bashing Gunner, but I lost the final two Mechanithralls on the right, along with almost all the stitch thralls from both units and all but three of the Mechanithralls over on the left. The Earthbreaker was laying out many of the shots that were decimating my army, and I needed to take it out before I made a movement error that ended Deneghra to close to something, and got her exploded into next week.
My turn started, and I was dead set on removing the Earthbreaker from the table. I upkept parasite and started the chain of events, refilling the Mechanithrall unit with both Necrosurgons, popping 5 back to the unit. The Warwitch gave the Nightwretch another focus and he moved in to blow a hole in the Earthbreaker for a few damage. Nightmare got in there, as well, charging in with a full boat of focus. The Law of Averages kicked in, dropping my charge attack with snake eyes. Thankfully, it turned right back around and gave my second initial attack a set of boxcars, cranking the damage against my prey target. all said and done, Nightmare did a full grid of damage to the Earthbreaker. I needed the newly minted Mechanithralls to finish it off, and they did in surprising manner, dropping it with only three attacks of the 6 I had available.
That was the turning point of the whole thing. With the Earthbreaker down, and me having Nightmare with prey on Ossrum, it looked glum. The next turn I got a Nightwretch over and cast Crippling Grasp on Ossrum, essentially sealing the deal. It was late, and we called it then.
Ossrum is a mean caster, and I wasn’t prepared to fight him. I don’t think I’d have done as well if I would have brought a non-stealth caster, and a non-stealth heavy. Much of what went into killing everything I owned could easily have been down on my casters head as soon as turn 2, and I really don’t know what I would have done at that point. With the Knockdown torpedo, the ability to ignore cover, and Killbox, I was in a bad, bad position had I not had Deneghra. Thankfully, I did, and it was a bit of pressure relived from my army. However, much like the last army, this one brought the AOE’s and I brought the low armor, low defense CMD 6 bastards. There was a pair of misplays, in which we both did boneheaded things, as well. Ossrum didn’t keep enough focus to cast snipe, and I didn’t allocate the corpse counters correctly, and both made things a lot more difficult than they should have been. Snipe on his Earthbreaker probably would have removed a Necrosurgeon on turn 2 with a pile of corpse counters on her. I have to learn to keep them back even further, or keep a pair of Mechanithrall bodyguards, especially with Sacrificial pawn making sure I don’t ever get the blast damage.
This second load out worked much better. Gerlak and Deneghra are a match made in heaven, with Crippling Grasp and her feat making not only getting him to do the damage he needs to easier, but much more likely to survive the counter attack at an essentially 19 armor. The Mechanithralls I think are a great match. Sometimes, her feat can go to waste because you have to many targets, and not enough attacks, and that’s never going to be the case with Mechanithralls. In addition, Every infantry model has a pair of melee attacks, making every model twice as likely to land damage under her feat. Saxon Orrik was key, as well, as pathfinder freeing up ghost walk once the Scarlock died really helped me drop out as many offensive spells as I could.
As always, I’m not always sold on the Deathripper. I love my Nightwretches, but don’t get enough use out of them in order to grab a second set, and I sure as hell don’t want to paint another set. The Deathripper never used its teeth, but could have used a gun at least twice, even the 6″ tinygun it has.
The opponents list was a solid one but he hit the nail on the head when he asked whether or not he should trade out the second unit of Horgenhold for Highshields. Even though they are universally maligned, I say that that unit with Snipe and the UA is a terror, and it would have given him the reach that his army needed on feat turn to get into the guts of my army, and that armor under feat would be exceptionally hard to break.
It was a fun time, and I look forward to more against Ossrum and his damned Rhulic forces.