Continued Trials of Deneghra

I hope I can punch this out in a timely manner, Battle reports seem to take a lot longer than I’d like.

Over the past two weeks I’ve managed to play two separate games of Warmachine, One against Circle, and the other Against Protectorate. I used the same list both times, Run by my good friend Deneghra

[table id=14 /]

The goal was simple: Jam with Mechanithralls, and hammer with Bane Knights and the Feat. In one game, it worked well, and in the other, not so much.

The first game was against a circle list, with Baldur.

[table id=13 /]

I played this game Sunday before last, and I hate Circle as much this day as I have for years. This game, though, I was able to get the drop on him because I ran operation body block, and he was just a tad to cautious coming up the field. With the Necrosurgeons pumping out 6 Mechanithralls a turn, I was able to slowly overwhelm his forces, and then break his back with the feat. Between Crippling Grasp, Stone Skin, and my feat, I was hitting Tharn on 5’s with Mechanithralls. Pow 15 to those dudes will end em right good!

That game ended with an errant Mechanithrall charging into Baldur, miraculously hitting with out any assistance from spells or feat, and then spiking the damage roll super high, leaving him with one HP: I had the rest of my army clear a path and end the game.

I know, I made a high level of it, but my opponent was a great guy to play against, and the game was fun from start to finish. I was terrified, with three big, nasty forests on the field, that he was going to find a way to teleport over and kill me right dead. there isn’t much to Deneghra after you blast her into the earth with Tritus.

The Bane Spartans, in their first trip out, did alright. They and the Nightwretch got tied up on the left flank with Morraig and the Woldguardian the whole game, and weren’t really able to contribute to well.

The Mechanithrall boat, though, did its job. it body-blocked for nightmare extremely well, and delivered him not only to the Woldwarden, but also to Baldur to finish the last point off. In an army with few shooting options, the Necrosurgeons shined strongly, able to keep the pressure on the middle of the field and keep most of the army gummed up in the grease and bile of the cheapest troops I can field.

The next game played out very differently, and was a much bigger hurdle to overcome. My opponent came full to bear with the Cryx hate. Oh, and he had gotten the Kickstarter reward box in the mail Saturday, so he brought two with him:

[table id=12 /]

This list was squarely set to wipe off every model I had on the board. With up to 9 AOE’s every turn, it wasn’t going to end well, but I’ve never been one to shirk from a fight.

I made a good fight of it, but it was an uphill struggle the entire time. my Mechanithralls were dropping faster than I could replenish them, and my stitch and neurosurgeons were being targeted relentlessly. My Bane Knights, however, went ignored on purpose, able to advance uncontested at the Galleon. I made a pair of bonehead moves right before charging the same Galleon with my Bane Knights, and both should really have let the damn thing survive but I am more lucky than good.

Error 1: I didn’t move the arcnode into range of parasite on the Galleon. The feat helped a little, but it wasn’t going to be enough.

Error 2: I was in range of the Galleon with Gorman. The Galleon had a Devout next to it. Thankfully, I rolled snake eyes and scattered correct to still catch the big boy, but it was sheer dumb luck.

I managed to start my streak of luck off with popping my feat, dropping Epic Eiyriss’ defense, and having Tartarus swing at her. I needed a 7, and boom, new Bane Knight. I followed that up with Charging the Rusted, Feated, but not Parasited or Dark Shrouded, Galleon. I could feel the glee in my opponent as my first charging Knight did 4 damage, and the second rolled another pair of snake eyes. However, the Devils Luck is strong in this one, and the last Bane Knight rolled 16 on the dice to drop the Galleon, the last Colossal I’d yet to destroy.

I was able to push at that point, into the guts of his army. Kreoss fled into the zone to dominate and put me on a very swift clock, and I just didn’t have the juice left in the tank to pull it off. My last ditch effort of clearing the zone didn’t materialize, and Kreoss had his devout run in, headbutt Deneghra, and then charged in himself to finish me off.

I really enjoy playing the Mechanithrall boat, but it has serious matchup issues that you have to be prepared for. I’m fairly convinced that removing the Bane Knights and Tartarus, and putting in as much of the Scarlock Commanders and Brute Thralls as I can is a worthwhile endeavor. I think that two Brutes per unit might be the starting point, allowing me to have something along these lines:

[table id=11 /]

 

I think that’ll give me what I want in the list, with Deneghra able to tilt all the stats in the right direction.

After seeing both Gastone and Tristan in action, I can’t wait for Aiakos!