Game 96 - Haley1 vs Malakov2

From our Srawley slaughter we advance to....wait.....people are reading the Mark 2 thread? weird.
Anyway, our resident part time Hippy has dropped the trees once more for his preferred Vodka Infused Imperialists.

The list was already out, so Sloth wins!:
Haley1 - Stormwall, Gallant, Squire, Harlen Versh, Arlan Strangeways, Gun Mages w/UA + Defender
Objective: Bunker

Stuff about Thunderstrike here.

It's that guy whose sculpt sadly didn't emulate his picture:
Malakov2 - Behemoth, 2x Juggernaught, 2x Kodiak, Mechaniks (Max), Orin, 2x Eliminators, Drakhun
Objective: Fuel Cache

Scenario is Extraction, one my least played. Should work on that.

The most overwhelmingly important piece of terrain is a forest blob that sits in the middle of the board covering a corner of one zone. It provides a place that a caster can sit outside of line of sight while scoring.

I win the roll and pick first anyway. After last game I still field the need to get up the board for Temporal, more to the point that forest will be annoying to deal with but if I put Haley there then I die to Veil of Mists. No thanks.


No pic for Round 1, Khador correctly take the side with said super forest. We run at each other. The Khador Jacks move up in a great flying V of doom, the Eliminators space out in front of the Cygnar zone. I put Arcane Shield on Haley, feeling the pain of last "game".
Behemoth also did a scattering shot that git the Gun Mage UA. Fate was smiling me and he only takes one box of damage, but it was nearly the best of starts for the Reds.


Proxies for Khador are an armless jack that's a Kodiak.


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Cygnar 2: The two jacks on the left are Juggernaughts with Malakov behind the forest, centre jack is a Kodiak, then Behemoth, then the sub Kodiak. Most of the Elimiantors are dead for this pic.
I'm going to give away a defensive score to Khador, which is fine and in line with the plan. Haley is far enough forward that she has scoring potential, the crux of the plan is to Temporal every turn and push back with Gun Mages while the Heavies focus fire. After Malakov's feat Gallant will go into something as he'll out threat all the opposing models.

This turn priorities are killing the Eliminators, bunkering up with Haley and hoping Behemoth gets distracted by said Bunker to put the shots their rather than popping my Gun Mages whoa re precious to my anti-feat plan.
Haley's toes the zones, Lightings the Kodiak. Sadly it only bounces one, so I end up advancing the Gun Mages anyway which I was trying to avoid. The UA falls back to a hill, losing that Jack Marshall would suck hard. The Gun mages push the centre Kodiak back a bit and kill two Eliminators, leaving one survivor. I immediately regretted not casting Deadeye on them and have them doing all the work without the silly Chain Lightning attempt.
Defender and Gallant shield Haley, stay out of Kahdoran jack threat range. Stormwall advances, I save the precious Pod contesting pieces for later turns. The various guns on those jacks hits the centre Kodiak, chisels out the Cortex. Sweetness. Stormwall also puts down Covering Fire, principally to get in the way of the Eliminator who could potentially gak the more annoyingly placed Gun Mages.
Various support pieces run around like headless chickens in the backfield.


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Khador 2: I hadn't considered my Objective, so the right most Kodiak goes in and kills it, popping a cloud to kill a Gun Mage. Surprisingly the Objective lived on 1 box, sot he Eliminator charged it and Combi striked it to death, then went and engaged a Gun Mage off the Sidestep.
Behemoth actually shoots at Gallant per the plan, which was a nice surprise. Until he managed 10 damage points off that shot. Oh well, better than losing multiple Gun Mages at this point and I have Arlen if I need it.
The other Khadoran Jacks limp forward and get in threat range of my Jacks/Haley.
The Drakhun gets Prowl and hides in the Fuel Cache cloud.
Malakov sits content in his foresty bunker and feats.

2 points to the Reds.


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Cygnar 3: The plan is roughly working out, just have to ride the feat out.
I'll move Haley across, Termporal Barrier, use the Gun Mages to knock back anything in range, wait it out, equalise the scoring and use feat to push back/kill enough jacks to get ahead in the attrition, put a pod one round then the Stormwall to stop Khador Dominating for the long win.

Haley moves across in the zone and Temporal Barriers, puts Deadeye on the Gun Mages.
Anastasia, having ambushed from the side, charges the Eliminator and neatly decapitates her.
The Gun Mages then wiggle around and pop Thunderstrikes. The first four go excellently, knocking Behemoth and the right most Kodiak out of charge range on Haley.
I then have a brainwave. If I knock the Kodiak back another two inches, I can put Gallant in front of Haley, in position to both shield her and threaten anything approaching the zone. Brilliance!
Gun Mage shoots. Hits. Pushes back one inch. Does a damage point. Kodiak advances into threat range of Haley.
Well, balls. Good thing I've got another.
Gun Mage shoots, hits, knocks back one inch. Does two damage.
Dammit dudes. They even rolled consistent crits this turn, the mocking was real.

Nought to do now, but prey I core out the Cortex. Defender does a shot, damages the Kodiak a little, he advances after another meagre push into the zone. Own worst enemy over here.
Gallant moves in and does a smack for a few more points.

Stormwall walks back out of the Juggernaught charge range, shoots down the opposing objective and puts a pod down to contest.

Harlen runs up to be in the way and I await my inevitable doom.

Points now 2 to 1 in Khador's favour.


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Khador 3: Time for Haley to die.
Behemoth and Orin clear out the Gun Mages, bar the cowardly Officer on the hill, as well as Versh.
Painted Grey Kodiak gets repaired, charges Gallant and kill him.
Plastic Grey Kodiak walks to Haley, vents Steam, boosts its initials.

Leaves her on 1 box.

Well, damn. Alive but in a terribad position.

Drakhun charges and engages the Stormwall/Defender. One Jugger moves over and kills the Pod, the other runs into my zone for the sake of Surety.

3-1 Khador.


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Cygnar 4: Allright, I have to disrupt as much as possible, advance the Stormwall to get into the Khadoran score to stop the slow grind scenario win.

Haley feats, Scrambles the Painted Kodiak, heals for 2 and camps three with Arcane Shield.
Gun Mage Officer aims, knocks back the Red Juggernaught.
Stormwall advances, throws the Drakhun into said Juggernaught, pods the Khador zone.
Defenders gets Crush, advances, takes out the Red Juggers Cortex with his Hammer.
Arlen tries to get the crit disrupt on Kodiak engaging Haley with his spray, fails.
Squire and Anastasia run to the far right corners of my zone.


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Khador 4: Turns out the Kodiak engaging Haley was out of Malakov's control area and the attempted Disruptions from Arlen were a complete waste of time. Good thing he failed anyway.

Behemoth kills the Defenders, Grey Juggernaught pops half of the Stormwall.
Disrupted jacks stumble around.
The Kodiak on Haley Pops Steam. Does two damage, putting her back on one.
Drakhun charges Haley, misses everything.
Orin tries to lighting the Squire, does some damage.
Malakov gets a Sucker Circle of Mechaniks, kills the pod.


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Cygnar 5: The only win condition now is clock, though 7 minutes should be plenty for the reds. Alas.
Stormwall runs to contest the Khador zone, Haley heals again, scrambles behemoth. Various solos go into my zone.


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Khador 5: Juggernaught kills Stormwall, Malakov Dominates to 5. Alas.


I would have got away with it if not for those damn kids. I mean Gun Mages.
Thought my position was good overall, though I definitely put the Stormwall in the wrong spot, he should have positioned with an eye to getting him into the zone further to the left.

Haley1 will get one more attempt with this list, then changes are a-happening.

Game 95 - Haley1 vs Thyron1

Time to battle Southern Frawley. Is he a clone? A distant cousin? Descended of questionable parentage? A bird? We just don't know.

I've thrown my play-each-caster-a-few times-before-moving-on policy to the wind apparently, as Darius goes to his (inevitably temporary) place in the bin for another old time favourite of the game to pop up.

Haley1 - Stormwall, Gallant, Squire, Harlen Versh, Arlan Strangeways, Gun Mages w/UA + Defender
Objective: Bunker

Basic theory is I'll temporal Barrier, use the Heavy guns to focus fire and Thundershot stuff back to stay safe. Gun Mages are self clearing now in theory, so that's nice. Defender is there because I just don't know the Jack Marshal rules and want to give them a go, plus a potentially range 20 gun amuses me.
Yada yada list bad twinkle twinkle Storm Lancers.


And the emo chumps throw down:
Thyron1 - Imperatus, 2x Sphinx, 2x Battle Mittens, 3x Arcanist, Eiryss1, Mage Hunter Assassin, A unit that I think was Halberdiers?

In any event we have the Pit with some forests on the outside, an obstruction and Concealment granting wall in the zone.

I remember the Anastasia bonus! Still lose the roll! As planned!


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Ret 1: I've done that thing I hate of making a list that really wants to go first. Naturally Srawley nabs it, so I take the side with the Obstruction so I don't have to deal with a hidden model shenanigans at the edge of the zone.

Eiryss3 is proxying for Eiryss1, Sentinels are repping whatever the miscellaneous Ret melee infantry unit was.

Eiryss is in that left forest, jacks and one unit of Mages is the left side lump, right side lump is the other infantry unit and second lot of Mitteneisters, the spike is a converted Mage Hunter Assassin Model (Amateur poledancer, please give Loonies to upgrade to a reasonable pole. Quest not helped by the current standing of Canadian currency.).

Assail is on Imperatus.


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Cygnar 1: Alright, there are many mistakes this game, think I'll go with listing them at the end to keep the turn remembrances short.
Against Spell Piercer Arcane Shield seems like a poor choice, so I'm not going to bother with it. Plan is to get Temporal Barrier up the field, Stormwall is going to contest the zone and throw down pods if Thyron decides to go to the Ret flag for the defensive score.

Haley Temporal Barriers, advances. Gun Mages run in front of her, just shy of Imperatus' threat range (11 inch). Harlen runs up to be behind the Obstruction, idea being that Imperatus couldn't get to him and if the Gun Mages advances he'd clock them with Witch Hunt. Defender gets moves up, shoots Imperatus for some shield damage. Stormwall moves up toward the zone, puts down some Covering fire, misses big gun shots at the Halberdiers.


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Ret 2: The Battle Mages advance, two are in range of the Gun Mage in front of Haley. First one dies to Versh, second one gets missed, lands the 8 to hit the Gun Mage and kill them. Eiryss moves up, lands the 7, strips the focus, does a weaponmaster damage roll to put her on 4 boxes. Imperatus, being the last weapon in range, advances and pops Haley.

Quick game is a good game? The Pre-game Europa 4 recount lasted about twice as long.


So yes, we did screw up the rules, Eiryss 1 isn't a weaponmaster and Haley should have lived. Now onto the relevant mistakes:

What the hell was I doing?! Sure I don't care for the Swans that much, but this willingness for self torture is a bit beyond my own expectations.

The correct play is hold Haley back a few inches, enough to just tag Imperatus, then put the Defender and Gallant in front of her. Eiryss is a problem, as is stealth models in general, so that's probably worth examining.
In more specific and only minorly less egregious errors, HALEY HAS ARCANE VORTEX YOU TWIT. Sigh.

There was also a I-want-to-see-how-good-this-is moment at the end when the Assassin rolled damage out on the Stormwall. Zero points. Vindictive joy asserted.


Assuming I don't herp the derp, a number of issues occur. Specifically Eiryss and Imperatus. Imperatus out threats all my junk even under Temporal Barrier, so what I have to do is keep Haley safe behind the Heavies, use Harlen to stop the Defender getting moved, shoot Imperatus with the Heavies/Stormwall then knock him back out of threat range with Thundershot. Stormwall also has to covering fire to keep the Halberdiers back, so that'll be tricky. I think I have to throw away Anastasia to pop Eiryss, though the odds are pretty good (Pop in from the side and make an Opportunist attack).


Oh well, being a quick game it was pretty easy to nab in another one that I can guarantee at least manages to get past the top of 2. But how far? Not necessarily that much.

Game 94 - Darius1 vs Aurora1

Got bored enough to join the Skorne Memes group. On reflection, this decision drives me to extreme ambivalence I've not felt since......I guess the announcement of Preacher being televised? (that later turned to regret, which I expect will later make this simile more apropos).

Anyway, super aggro Aurora meant a re-rack, this time I plonked down the caster I like without reason (Ok, not true, I like him because he's the only model I've bothered doing a conversion that required effort, which has yet to overpower my thoughts on how good he might actually be, which is not a lot).

Darius1 w/adult digger toys - Rowdy, Centurion, Gallant, Thorn, Squire, Junior w/Sentinel, Stormcallers, Gorman, Tinker, Lanyssa, Versh

So.....probably need to explain this mess.
Basically, I made a Haley list. Then I made a Darius list. Then I realised that as I'd just taken the Cygnar models I liked the rules or appearance of and constructed the same list twice, so quickly changed the Darius list by swapping out the Stormwall for Rowdy, the Centurion and Gorman without applying much thought.
Tinker and Storm Callers should definitely be replaced, or at least some other 5 point model(s) put in with the Tinker as a points fill.
Otherwise, it's most of the character jacks bar Dynamo, who I don't own, and Triumph, who I feel no compulsion to own.

Ye old Frenemesis is doing the righty and actually practicing a list instead of throwing random junk at the table for the sake of amusement:

Aurora1 - 2x Conservator, Diffuser, 3x Angels, Shield Wall Medium based guys, the Sidestep Medium based guys, 2x the Soul collector solo, three man repair unit, Flare bots, 2x Steelsoul Protector

Scenario flips to the pit, one side gets a hill/wall, the other gets a wall/forest/water, the house sticks out on one flank.


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Round 1: I win the roll and take second. I've bemoaned not getting to go first with Darius for years, but at this table I'm even more disinclined to try to deal with the anti-Menoth forest in front of one deployment zone so took the other side with a nice wall I can plonk Darius behind.

CoC advance, Aurora is across my flag so I early on veto the idea of trying to score defensively on my flag. No good getting a point then being defenestrated.
The Sidesteppers run into the water, then Aurora and a unit of Angels are behind that wall at the top of the zone. One Vector is then on the left side of the forest, Shield Wall unit in said forest, other Vectors are to the right side of the forest.
The other two Angel units go hard right, one is mostly invisible aside from the wing tips protruding from the house they are presumably trying to rent. Front doors on the other side guys.
Aurora gets Admonition.

I mostly deployed in response, so mainly my models just shuffle up. I'm conspicuously keeping a relatively compact deployment, partly because of hte scenario, partly because ofthe outflanking Angels, but I suspect mostly because I put the Centurion out of control last time I played Darius and that was a painful experience.

I do have one proxy, Valachev is standing in for Lannysa as she is still in the painting process.

The halfjacks and Stormcallers go out to the right, my theory being it'll either draw the angels forward to kill my expendable models or I'll get to plonk mines around my flag and discourage scoring off it by the lighter CoC elements.
The Centurion gets a focus from Arlen, puts up Polarity Field, receives Arcane Shield from Junior and runs up near my flag. Gallant walks up a short distance behind him.
Squire, Harlen and Darius all go behind the wall, Gorman walks up and clouds in front of Darius, I then crane him to the back of his cloud for Lannysa to run in and proc Prowl. Thorn, Rowdy and the Sentinel go to the right. Thorn and Rowdy are technically in the Conservators charge range, but that's taking into account Hunters Mark that I can Shield guard.


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CoC 2: The various Angels lead out, the centre Angels go out to the left, engaging a halfjack. The housebound unit stays hiding away, the right unit runs in and threatens my backfield.
The Sidestep guys spread out in a half circle near my flag, trying to ensure I can't pop the whole unit.
Aurora sticks behind her safety wall, the Vectors and Shield Wallers just advance in the top of hte zone, The Diffuser and pair of Steelsoul Protectors leading out the front.


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Cygnar 2: My planning is a bit disjointed this turn. I'm ahead on clock and haven't lost any models, so I'll just go with killing stuff and playing it safe. Scoring is off the table.

The Centurion, Gallant, Thorn and a couple Jackhammers kill off all the sidesteppers. Honestly took a lot more effort than I expected, most important piece being the Centurion who was able to get up and pop the furthest couple of models in the unit.

Rowdy charges the Diffuser and popped it without any focus allocation. Sometimes you just have to be good?

I then did the random model activation's, where my dice decided to be heroes of our time. They could have even rolled an Australian boosted 9 this day I reckoned.
Tinker went into an Angel on the right, landed the boxcars to hit and killed him. Sentinel then walked in and blatted one with his shield without focus (As expected, Junior is so far back he's not even in the pic). Gorman walked up, did an out of range throw at one of the Shield Wall guys, scatted the Black Oil onto the two right most Shield Wall chaps and both Steelsoul Protectors. Marvelous.

Lastly for giggles Harlen, who was the recipient of Crane this turn, moved up and drew a bead on Aurora that voided the wall bonus, though it required nuzzling up to Thorn who is at best emotionally distant. Only rolled two shots alas, first was shield guarded, second burnt through a focus point to do four damage. Harlen loves him some opposing Admonition.


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CoC 3: Aurora decides its Agro time once more.
The Angels go first, they run in to engage various things. Aurora then feats, moves up and starts stabbing Gallant and Thorn with Flashing Blades. In the same way my dice were heroic, Chrisanthenums decided that giving their owner hope was beyond their means. Aurora, with Flank, missed the opening attack on Thorn, then missed another with flashing blade, allowing him to Dodge twice away. One of these triggered a Defensive Strike that also missed. Glorious.
After that desultory effort, she re-positioned further up the hill, outside of walk and stab range of the Centurion and Gallant, who was also minimally hurt, camping two with Admo up.

Just realised we didn't apply Mechanical Seizure and Gallant should have been Stationary. Doh. Would have been relevant to.

The Shield Wall and Steelsouls advance up, one Protector triggers Rowdy's Counter charge which kills it. They Shield Wall guys do a single CMA of doom on Versh. It misses.

Other than that the Vectors and various support pieces futz around, one does stab Gallant outdoing Aurora (5 damage versus 4 for a total of 9).


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Cygnar 3: Well, its not hard to feel confident after seeing all those failed to hit and damage rolls.
Simply plan, kill Aurora. Plan is to trigger Admonition, then move Gorman up, Black Oil, move a jack to engage and Jackhammer to Victory.

I start by spawning a Halfjack that runs to be in a the right Slam position. Thorn then slams him, taking two free strikes that lop off both arms. Aurora triggers Admonition and moves closer to my edge, making her travel distance in the game officially double that of Darius'.
Salt in the gears as Thorn then misses the four for the Slam anyway.

The plan was going so well I had to mess it up. Darius goes over his safety wall, does a shot on Aurora that blows through another four or so health after the focus point. I then realise the plan was to Jackhammer, so I hadn't allocated to sodding anybody, but I'd activated Darius early. Sodding Genius.I cast Full Throttle instead, it's all good, still recoverable.

I then trample Gallant, who gains a Versh focus as well. I curse my ineptitude once more, as I spaced on getting Gormans sticky stuff out. Just the worst at war dollies over here.

Full Throttle makes up for it thankfully, as Gallant's bought attacks land with the boosted hit rolls and just cap Aurora off thanks to the early damage Versh did.


Blargh. Why do I insist on making this harder than it needs to be?! I had one attack to come from the Centurion and Gorman still to activate.


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Me on the right.


CoC wise, I can't help but think on review that the proper play is to Admonition a Vector, Hang Aurora behind the forest with Arcane Might and boost damage when applicable. But then, armour skew is also not Aurora's thing as far as I can tell.

Happy with my plans. Let's not talk about the execution thereof though. As to the list....

It's bye bye to Junior, need more pieces to do stuff. As an unimaginative muppet I've just copied the net and thrown in Sword Knights and Dougal, now to dig up those models and despair at the needed repair work. Plasticize more stuff PP. The only other real question is whether or not I cycle the Stormwall in.

Game 93 - Haley2 vs Aurora1

Standard mid week madness. Well, not really, the standard mob didn't really appear so it became two games into the Frenemesis piloting Aurora.

Needing some time away from Merc shenanigans (Plus SUSS brain scratching from there being more gold loyalty inclined players), out pop the faction that gets way to much fluff focus.

Match one, I put down everyone's favourite:

Haley2 - Stormwall, Thorn, Gallant, Squire, Junior w/Sentinel, Harlen Versh, Arlan Strangeways, Stormcallers x3

So here's the thing: Trying to net list without owning Storm Lancers is actually impossible at the moment. The unit is ubiquitous to the point that I'd be nervous for them in the impending errata if I cared about cavalry at all (Horses evoke no real emotions in me for whatever reason, aside from Khadoran Murder Ponies that elicit some slight exasperation).

Double Centurion also crops up a lot, though as far as I can tell isn't hyper necessary for the Time Wizzzardess.

I find making Cygnar lists quite difficult, they all feel far to small without enough pieces to do work. In this case I'm crutching hard on the Stormwall and self-fuelling Gallant (Versh + Arlan means Haley doesn't have to dip into her focus bank).

Anyway, slightly changed Cocalanche:
Auror1 - 2x Conservator, Diffuser, 3x Angels, Shield Wall Medium based guys, the Sidestep Medium based guys, 2x the Soul collector solo, three man repair unit, Flare bots, 2 of the Protector solo things

My concerns are Angels getting into Haley or my support, my eyeball is that this otherwise is fine for me if my feat lets the Stormwall kill either one of the Medium unit and a Conservator or roughly equivalent stuff.
The Stormcallers probably aren't going much, disrupting the Vectors probably the only worthwhile play for them as the Angels have Blade Shield and they don't really hurt the other infantry.

Scenario is three flags, on side has a forest and water, centre line has a hill and a house, other side has a pair of walls.


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Round 1: Hmm, should have stood up for the pic. Traurigkeit.

I win the roll, pick first as table side doesn't bother me and I'll need to chip stuff down before I can reasonably start scoring consistently.

I have a central forest that the Stormwall runs up under Temporal Acceleration. Because some mistakes are traditional, Junior activates afterward and has to move up and put on Arcane Shield. Haley pops up Deflection, hides behind Thorn on the left side fo the forest, Gallant, the Sentinel, Versh go to the right of the forest, other random support bits spread out in the back field.

The Convergence response was to send an Angel unit screaming up each flank, everything else advances in an arc outside of the Stormwall's charge range, Shield Wall unit on the left of the arc, battlegroup in the centre and the Side Step fellas on the right. The remaining Angel unit stays in the backfield behind the right most wall, the Servitors spread out, solo Soul suckers go behind each Medium base unit.
Aurora gets Admonition.



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Cygnar 2: So the elliptical formation meant no Stormwall charge, at the cost of giving me board position and providing an excellent arc for Haley. Plan was to do that and clear off the left Angel unit, which would create a safe side for the more precious support models to hide (Arlen and Junior).

Thorn and Stormwall get some focus, Arlen then pumps up the Colossal to max focus.
Sadly, Haley's ideal position in the forest is occupied by the posterior of the Wall of Storm, so I won't be able to Temporal Accelerate him for an extra shot.

Stormwall moves up out of the forest, touches the centre flag. I then decide of my available targets the Soul sucking mini-factories are the best targets, the Shield Wall dudes are annoying enough for this list as it is. I then put my brain in lala land and shoot each one once rather then turning to face and focus firing one down, net result is they both take some damage instead of one of them popping. I opt to not put down a pod, it can't meaningfully hit anything and I only get three in the game, much as that wasn't likely to be super important. I try shooting the little guns, which achieves nothing (Not that anything in the opposing list is really effected by the wall templates, the Angels are the only things susceptible to it and they are far away).

Thorn charges one of the left most Angels and noms it.
Haley moves into the forest behind the Stormwall and feats, I'm essentially getting every relevant piece besides the Angels. I then arc two Arcane Bolts to finish off the left Angel Unit, reactive drive Thorn to the left flag. I had two focus left I wanted to camp initially, but I wanted Gallant to run up and engage the Side steppers for maximum annoyance which ended up requiring a TK.
Haley on zero camp can't possibly go wrong right?
Versh and the Sentinel drift between the central and right flag.

Lastly, out of camera shot on of the Storm Callers feels super brave and charges an Angel unit. He misses. Uninspired by this reminder of their MAT and POW the other two run to the left side.

Junior is so far back you'd think I'd forgotten to deploy him.


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CoC 2: There was some kind of running Vector assassination plan, foiled by my ingenious plays, such as (and only...) popping Haley's feat.

Everything moves forward essentially. Aurora decides to go super aggro, keeping Admonition on herself and going on the hill behind a Conservator. The suicide Stormcaller gets gutted by Angels, mission distraction being a great success.

That's.....really about it? Time wizards, keeping the fun in fundies, who at times say the darndest things.


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Cygnar 3: It's butcher aurora time, the assassination plan is fairly clear.

Thorn moves across.
Arlen gives an extra focus to the Stormwall.
Haley TK's a Conservator into melee range of the Stormwall and turns him around, does a bunch of Arcane Bolts at Aurora for giggles. Missing each one (My sight of the future is apparently dim). I've officially cast more Arcane Bolts in this one game than in all of Mark 2.
Stormwall Powerstrikes the Conservator, knocking down Aurora and a Shield Guard solo person. I stupidly forgot to put down a pod, so no sweet Storm Caller action. Getting the full 5 points there.
Harlen aims, rolls max shots, shoots through the one remaining Shield Guard to kill Aurora.

Had Harlen failed it would have been down to the no focus Sentinel shots and a throw attack from Gallant.


Well, Haley remains Haley. Truly the revelation the world needed.
I guess Junior plus Sentinel might need to change? 12 points is just painful for Arcane Shield. The Shield Guard is nice, but not the end all be all.
Think I need something fast that can act independently. Like Storm Lan..........goddamit.

Game 92 - Gorten1 vs Goreshade2

We return to Mōnandæg dolly pushing day, this time it's Teenmar's undead fellas.

There was a refusal to state the type of game desired, ergo I trot out my old favourite:

Gorten1 - 2x Driller, 2x Blaster, 2x Gunner, Wrongeye + Snapjaw, Rorsh + Brine, Acosta, 2x Kayazy Eliminators, Ragman, Aiyanna+Holt, Tinker
Objective: Bunker

Today's Nightmare Empire bros and bro-ets:

Goreshade2 - Nightmare, 2x Bitey nodes, Withershadow for something different,  Satyxis Raiders + UA, Bane Knights, Soul Hunters, Machine Wraith, Gorman, 6 scrappy dudes for feat
Objective: Effigy of Valor

Scenario is Recon, which is excellent for me. Nothing is immune to pushes accept the Machine Wraith, the table is laden with forests but the green blob in the zone is a hill.


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Cryx 1: The deadites win the roll, stuff runs forward.
Banes Knights on the left, Soulhunters up the guts, Satyxis on the right.
Gorten is Nightmare's prey, Soulhunters get Occultation, Satyxis get Mirage.


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Merc 1: Simple enough, plan is to push scenario hard, so set up is to not get jammed up to badly and position things to pop the objective.
There's a large, awkward forest on the right of my deploy, which forces the pigs to get placed super awkwardly forward in totally-going-to-die range.
Spray Bunnies, Eliminators and Beasts go to the right flank, across from the Satyxis. Wrongeye puts up Star Crossed for the central blob of stuff.
Jacks and other stuff go behind the Objective, Gorten throws up a wall to stop the Soulhunters charging him.

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Cryx 2: Goreshade goes up behind the Cryx objective, we have a quick break as I get distracted rolling my eyes at what happened to the C'tan. I liked them dammit! What's this shard crap?!

Um....anyway, Goreshade throws out his placement spell to move Brine up and spin him around, then throws down Curse of Shadows on him.
The Satyxis then charge and easily kil big pig and his two attendant Eliminators. Alas.

The Soul Hunters then charge the central block, star crossed messes them up quite badly, they still manage to take out Snapjaw's Mind though.

The Banes spread out in the zone, support junk stays hiding up the back, Gorman goes into the top of the zone and pops a cloud.


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Merc 2: Time to enact the plan.

On Bunny runs out of the way, copping a Soul Hunter free strike that knocks off his head.
Gorten then moves in, feat pushes most things toward the left.

Acosta and the Eliminators kill the objective and Gorman, Spray Bunnies, Rorsh, Driller and Snapjaw all kill the Soulhunters and all bar two of the Satyxis. I had no idea Rorsh was MAT 7. Glorious. Then again it is the first time I've made a melee attack with him....

Wrongeye hides behind the objectives, put up star crossed again and submerges.

I meant to put a protective wall in front of Gorten, oh well. I go to 3 CP.

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Cryx 3: Gorten is thankfully an inch out of Nightmare coming in and gutting him.

The Satyxis come in, then Goreshade feats a load of them back.
Acosta dies to the Withershadow, one Driller gets placed across and mauled by Nightmare.


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Merc 3: I have to pop Nightmare and a couple Satyxis and I scenario it out.

Nightmare gets Harmed by Aiyanna, various Hand Guns then mauled him quite badly.

It takes the Spray Bunnies, Ragman and a Driller throw but the relevant Satyxis fall down. Wrongeye heals Snapjaws mind, the Big Crocs charge attack kills Nightmare, job done.


Pretty standard Gortening. Sweet sweet Recon.

Game 91 - Darius1 vs Magnus1

One Line TV things Reviews:
XOXO - 92 minutes of my life gone, evaporated into space with no potential for it re-condense into the most precious resource in all our lives.
John Wick - When average films get rated to highly.
The Flash - Time travel, because flashpoint is a good enough idea we should bollicks it in the nuts until it will breed no more, even though now its bastard children are the screaming mewling infants of incestual horror.
Luke Cage - Sometimes it takes two thirds for the proper villain to emerge, who isn't Willis.
Nerve - Unsure if expectations were set far lower than ought to or if this was genuinely good, same as life.
Lights Out - Baseline horror executed quite competently
Curse of Chucky - Sequelitus crap that needed to be executed
The Shallows - The ocean, it burns!
Ghostbuster remake - No where near as bad as the goblin said
Warcraft - Look, I've watched all these things over one weekend, I remember some green CGI?
Devil's Carnival 2 - You know how the first was amazing in loads of ways? This is exactly the same, provided you make it worse in every way
Don't Breathe - I think this was the best film of hte weekend?


To the forest of monsters our grand hero Jeordikaar did ride, and shout a mighty challenge. Alas, all the forest had to offer was a shuffling, spluttering zombie that regretted awaking in the hours of daylight. Said zombie then shuffled over and put down that most mighty of Swan casters, unless you look around for another non-Constance one.

Darius1 w/Halfjacks - 'Ol Rowdy, Gallant, Centurion, Thorn, Cyclone, 2x Sentinels, Sylyss, Strangeways

Why yes, it is a list of trash. It just happens to be my non-Stormwall jacks.

Totally should have put in the Stormwall.

Anyway, in the hands of the Noble Knight:
Magnus1 - Galleon, Freebooter, Buccaneer, Steelhead Cav, Steelhead Halberdiers, Stannis, Kell, Boomhowlers (Min)

Scenario is the Pit.

This should be alright for me, Magnus1 isn't doing much if there aren't upkeeps out, which is Gallant's perfect prey, even the armour buff doesn't stop Jackhammered Gallant popping the Galleon.

The Freebooter is a Mariner conversion, I have a dwarf fire guy as a Sylyss proxy and a random metal model in place of Arlan.

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Merc 1: I lost the roll and got given second. The flashbacks to Mark 2 are already starting.
Pathfinder is weak in the list, so functionally I gave away the side with water hoping to make that forest and wall combo relevant for me, though either way it's a little awkward.
The Merc infantry run up on the left, the Jacks on the right.
Snipe goes on Galleon, Death Ward on the Renegade.

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Cygnar 1: .....and I've deployed like a fool, not setting things out to counter the opponents deployment. Both Sentinels should have gone to the right, just Darius and the Cyclone on the left.
In an ideal world there's an obstruction in the zone that the Cyclone can add his template to for maximum infantry scoffing, but in an ideal world the Cyclone isn't in the list anyway.

I left this report here for a few days lacking inspiration and just spent 5 minutes trying to work out why I played Magnus1. Not playing Mercs is clearly against my natural mental order....

Darius moves up the left, intent being to start the slow flag score next turn. The Cyclone moves up and puts down the Metalstorm wall, which will at least slow the Halberdiers, the Cav don't really care about it.
Thorn runs around the forest to be in front of Darius, as I was concerned about the Cav charging in and causing severe problems.

On the right is where the real mistakes are made. I Arc spells through Thorn before he legs it, I initially plan to put Fortify on Gallant, then get seduced by the Refuge Jackhammer plan and decide to Fortify 'Ol Rowdy and Refuge Gallant.
Gallant then runs up to be behind the wall,  the other jacks tot up behind. The Centurion I move out of my control area, because genius.

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Merc 2: Buccaneer knocks down Gallant, is in range of the Freebooter when it trashes a movement box, goes in and easily kills my most valuable model. Dumb on my part. Just dumb. Curse opposition competency!

Otherwise Galleon half trashes a Sentry, the infantry go in on the left and do some damage, Kell double shots Darius. Renegade knocks down the Centurion.

Magnus also feats, the jacks just futz around, one triggers Rowdy's Counter Charge, no attack but allows slightly better positioning.

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Cygnar 2: Well, there's a bunch of damage on the Sentinels and some scratch stuff on the heavies, time for the half hearted Darius feat?
Basic plan remains the same, I have to kill four cav and one halb to get the friendly score. In the meantime Rowdy pop the Freebooter and the Buccaneer.

Left side, Thorn moves across and kills one cav. This allows Darius to move to the flag, feat to repair a bunch of stuff (Halfjacks moved first), does a shot on a cav that'll hit four halbs in a beughtiful AoE. Except I miss and do nothing....
The Cyclone aims, does shots, kills one Cav.
This is going pretty bad.....
The Sentinel moves up, kills one one Cav. I couldn't clear the Halberdier, so no slow score for me.
Arlan moves into the forest and puts Elusive on Thorn.

On the right the Centurion rises and stumbles back into Control area, Rowdy vaults the wall and rolls miserably on damage, so kills the Freebooter but does sod all to the Buccaneer.


Well, this isn't going well, Rowdy is being thrown away. What I should have done is run the Sentinel in the way of the Galleon, which makes Rowdy very hard to remove and means I have the tolls to pull the right side in my favour.


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Merc 3: Boomies ambush in on the left.
On the left the Boomies and the other infantry press in, the Sentinel loses its Shield arm.
On the right Galleon gets Iron Aggresion, easily kills Rowdy. Buccaneer runs to the middle of the zone, Renegade does an ineffectual stab.

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Cygnar 3: I don't have a vector to kill Magnus nor the ability to clear out my flag easily, so I have to try to push attrition at the moment. Which means Galleon is a problem, I have to do as much damage this turn as possible to pop it or at least give Thorn a chance to finish it off.

To keep Boomies out of it, the Cyclone charges in and kills Greygore (Model then used as Unit Leader). Thorn stabs some Halberdiers.

Centurion goes into Galleon, stabs out most of the left side.
Darius then moves into the forest, in range of Sylyss range boost Jackhammers on the Centurion. Cast twice, enough to leave the Galleon on 13 boxes.
I'm then left in a sever dilemma. I can cast two jackhammers, on average I leave it on one box, I can camp against the now inevitable assassination attempt, or I can fortify either Darius or the Centurion.

I opt to fortify the Centurion, on average it easily survives a one armed Galleon, then I can heal the right arm and Jackhammer the Galleon down. We'll see how this goes down....
Darius Cranes Thorn forward to engage things as I apply Crane for the first time.
Arlan moves in and repairs the damage on Darius.


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Merc 4: The Buccaneer assaults Darius for the net throw, Sentinel Shield Guards. Renegade runs around to min scatter point, Magnus throws a Scourge that sits Darius on his metal, clunky behind.
Kell, Boomies and Galleon go to shooting location. Sadly the functional side of the Colossal rolls max shots, Darius gets left on five boxes.

The Cav move, Centurion freestrikes one down, the other sadly survives Thorn's spear and kill Darius.


Mistakes aside, I think this is an awful list that needs to change. When you need your opponent to make mistakes to have good odds, you are not doing things the way they should be done. Going to cringe every time I put Gallant on the table for a while, good thing it isn't my model yet....

Game 90 - Thexus1 vs Aurora1

Shambled along for some sweet dolly action, wherein Chriefferson was willing to deal with my zombie-esque form.

Decision making is hard, so asked if the almighty star gazing loons would prefer funnies or tourney junk. I'd already resigned myself to some Ashlynn silliness, but instead good old underdwelling mad surgeons got the ball.

It's everyone's favourite: Thexus - 3x Wreckers, 3x Wardens, Subduer, 2x Dominator + Eliminators, 3x Agitator

This time the self obsessed antique humanoid clockware is:
Aurora1 - 2x Conservator, Diffuser, Side Steppy Medium based dues, Shield wall medium chappets, 3x Shield Guardy solo, 2x Soul sucking things, 3x Clockwork Angels (Clearly future Doctor Who antagonists)

Juicy Outflank, on a table laden with triple forest, a hill, a wall and some water.

List on list, to my mind Cephalyx smash this, Wreckers can clear out the infantry lots without to much issue, most of the opposing models/units will only do about a half or 2/3rds health in return by my rough math.
Caster on caster though there is a bit of an issue, Thexus is super weak to melee and Aerogenesis plus Aurora's feat means that if I don't assassinate early Thexus is going to have to stay far back and hide, I'm very fortunate that this isn't a killbox scenario.

By joy of both of us wanting to practice time, we went with 8 minute timed turns with a single 6 minute extension.
I am so down with Deathclock being the base form.


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Round 1: Wind Up toys win the roll and pick first. I take the side with a wall for Thexus and more importantly and excellently placed forest that will shield a contesting/scoring model on the right zone.
Double Angels outflank on the left, single angel unit on the right.
CoC jacks are centre of the block, left side gets the Side Step guys, right side gets the Shield Wallers.
I put a Wrecker and two wardens to the left side, other four Monstrosities to the right.
I'd fully intended to just run stuff up without doing the random stab for focus junk, but then we we're on timed turns and became the optimal play. Most of my models just advance, the Heavy Vectors threat 13 with Apparition and the Diffuser shot. On the extreme right a Warden slams forward toward the outflanking Angels, primarily for some board space near the right zone.
Thexus goes behind the wall, he's actually technically in the threat range of the Vectors, but Sac Pawn and Shield Guard means the Diffuser shot get's panned far away if needed.


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CoC 2: Alas, the proper questions are asked and the wasted Diffuser shot doesn't happen.
Convergence basically just gets up the board, the far right and one left unit of Angels runs up and each engage a bunch of my Monstrosities. The remaining angel unit sticks far to the back left, mostly out of camera shot.
The Shield Guard/Defensive Strike solos run out the front, Side step peeps spread out on the left zone, Shield Wall guys form up in the right zone.
Aurora hangs back in the safety forest, her jacks blob up in front of her.


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Mercs 2: So I spent a minute and a half in the tank, which is fine on Dethclock. Totally fine. Tampering with the evidence at the death scene of Odin fine. Not so much in Timed turns.
What I basically got from that minute and a half was that Aurora was safe given the saturation of shield guards in the list, as the Subduer needed to do a drag in order to get her in Wrecker murder range. I'd put enough thought into it that I had to feat though, if only to reinforce the alpha strike.

Thexus went first after allocating two to the far right Warden (Which didn't feel great. I sling spells in this dammit!). Feat moves all the models around, suck it Angels that tried to get in my range. I then TK the right most Wrecker, walk as far back with Exulon as possible and TK again for more distance (Must. Not. Get. Charged.).

On the right side, we have a glorious tale of success. One Agitator advances and Instigates. The Warden that got allocated to throws one Angel into another, clearing way for the TK'd Wrecker to charge the Shield Wall unit where he manages to obliterate them all. Eliminators finish off the last angel on that right unit, which clears the zone for an early score. Woot.

Left zone things aren't so cherry blossomy, the more spread out nature of the units means I can't do the same Thresher of doom on all the side steppy units. I have to kill what I can anyway, as medium bases they don't get the full benefits of the recursion package anyway.
Again I Instigate, then send a Warden to pick off Angels and a Wrecker to clear out the Medium infantry.
The Warden cops a Defensive Strike from the Shield Guardy solo, so he punches her and the flying cheerleaders down, then the Wrecker pops off three of the Side Steppers.

Centre wise, the remaining Wrecker and the Subduer runs and hide Thexus as I don't have the luxury to find out if Thexus is safe or not. The last Warden just makes it over the supposed wall of safety, cops a Defensive Strike, utterly fails to dispatch the relevant solo, which was less than impressive though the efficacy of Monstrosities does take quite a big jump downhill without Agitators, one of which I wanted to keep safe for later rounds.

Mercs go to 1 CP.


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CoC 3: Aurora stays hiding in her personal forest, Flicks Admo over to one of the Conservators.
There are three Monstrosities of consequence, the left Wrecker contesting that sides zone, the other Wrecker doing the same in the right and the Warden that's been thrown right up the middle.

In the left zone, the rebuilding twit moves up and pops a Side Stepper back into play. The three ones with full activation's then charge the Wrecker and kill him.

Centre wise, the Warden gets mauled by one Conservator and Shield Guardy solo, but importantly keeps his Brain active.

On the right zone, the Diffuser and Admo Vector team up to pop the right side Wrecker.

Mechanics and other bits and pieces move around, the remaining units of Angels moves in, CRA's an Agitator that I Sac Pawn to that sides Warden, they then reposition backwards a bit.

CoC take the lead 2v1 in CP.


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Merc 3: I feel in danger of losing on scenario, the right zone I can prop up with the forest safety spot, so the impetus is to contest the left zone with my spare Monstrosities. The right zone is contested by one Conservator and a mechanic, so that is quite easy to clear out for another point.

Starting on the right, Thexus floats across, TK's the rightmost Warden into threat range, pops Hex Blast to get rid of Admo (after some generosity on a mis-measurement I did by the Head Controller), hides up back and casts Psycho Surgery.
Said Warden then slams the Conservator, killing the Mechanic. Had it been Deathclock I'd have followed up and made further attacks, but I had a few things to do this turn, so alas.

An Agitator moves up and Instigates the Centre Warden, who then utterly fails to do either meaningful damage or kill the Shield Guard solo. Bleargh. Kayazy then run to block/free strike line if the Conservator tries to pop Thexus.

On the left, Agitator Instigates, the Warden over there moves around kills two of the Sidesteppy dudes. I'd hoped for all three, but after the Slam was a success they apparently thought that was enough for the turn.
The backup Wrecker charges the Shield Guardy solo in the left zone, the centre Warden's failure to kill the same model actually caused me to expect some Beatbacks to get into the zone, but nope, killed straight off the bat. The Subduer then has to run to just contest the left zone.

Points level at 2 apiece.


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CoC 4: Attempt to counter maul!
Left side the side steppers go into that sides Warden and Subder, centre wise the Conservator and remaining Steelsoul Protector (Remembered the name eventually...) stab the Warden in front of them, while the Diffuser and other Vector stab the Warden in the right zone.

The dice bellcurve hit Convergence hard this turn, as all the various Monstrosities live. CLock prevented some miscellaneous activations as well.

The bad news for me is that all the Wardens are heavily damaged and lsot their brains, which makes refueling them very difficult (Heal brain>damage for focus>remove Brain system>lose focus>sigh).


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Merc 4: Simple plan this turn, score on the right, damage what I can, free up some of hte healthy Monstrosites to participate in killing the Vectors next turn.

Thexus moves and TK's into the right zone, where he's now in range to do an offensive TK on the Vector in the zone. Plan is to pop him out as I don't like my odds of fighting him.
Sadly I miss the boosted seven, so now I have to cast Pschyo Surgery and hop I can throw enough pieces in to keep Thexus safe.

I move up and Agitator and Instigate, the pair of mauled Wardens then claw away. To my surprise I roll very well on the relevant Warden, who damaged the in zone Vector quite badly, allowing a Combo Smite Kayazy charge to finish it off. The other, central Warden finally kills the damn Steelsoul, lightly scratches the Conservator he's trying to deal with.

I start activating my left side Monstrosities, it gets point out that if I clear out the left zone I win, which I genuinely hadn't spotted.
Between the Wrecker and the Subduer (I forgot to Instigate....) they clear out the zone and I go to 5 CP.


Good game, but while I see the value in the 8 minute turns by god do they produce a sloppier game for me, which I really don't like, turns should be played the same way as consistently as possible but the benefits of pre-measuring (Opponent agreement, Proxy bases, clear indications of intent) all get reduced considerably by the need to fit many activation in, as the lists aren't timed turn designed and that was definitely felt by both sides.

Aurorahas to aim for assassination in this I'm quite sure. Early spike turn had me worried, but full health Monstrosities tank fairly well in spite of their relatively low armour as later turns proved out.

Now to ponder random lists for a bit. Contemplating Skorne or Cygnar for the next Kapital Kup, though my collections of both are not that healthy...

Game 89 - Ashlynn1 vs Tannith1

Alright, think I've settled on replacing Rocinante with a Rover and Gorman.

Still have one more game to go through in any event, probably last iteration of the Rocinante list unless the Rover is Kardashian vapid levels bad, though it worked reasonably enough in the journeyman (Though that was an artifact of Snipe Mangled Metal abuse, because I'm terrible).

Ashlynn1 - Gallant, Rocinante, Sylyss, Dahlia w/Skarath, Rorsh w/Brine, Wrongeye w/Snapjaw, Aiyanna + Holt, Anastasia
Objective: Bunker

Into our our Ruski on a brief moment of worshiping some worm (sadly evil god monster thing rather than tequila related).

Tannith1 - Feral, Stalker, 4x Scarsfell Griffon, Shifting Stones, 2x Sentry Stones, Druid Wilder, Druid Blackclad, Reeves of Orboros (Max)

Proxes: A Sentry Stone on a Medium base and some Winterguard are one of the Sentry Stones, I think one of the Griffons was a different sort but given I can't tell teh difference between the models it's not super relevant.
I still have a Ranger subbing in for Sylyss.

Rolled up Incursion, same table as last match so we have a couple hill, wall, clouds and an obstruction/trench scattered around.

Looking at it I was certain that I lose the long game. Sentry Stones can happily contest the far flags and take more effort than their points should dictate to remove, making scenario difficult, the griffons wait out my feat turn then come in and kill Ashlynn or the Lesser locks and I lose.

Plan is to look for an aggressive play and alpha hard enough that Ashlynn can then find a position of safety while the Lessers mop up.


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Merc 1: I won the roll, normally I'd nab second and take the side with the safest terrain piece, but in accordance with THE PLAN i nabbed first to get in murder position the top of 2.
I put Quicken on Brine and Admo, then Ashlynn charges up the guts.
Gallant and the Snake go left, Rocinante, Crocs and Brine go right, the Pig goes out ahead in the Trench.
Anastasia is ambushing.


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Circle 1: Sure enough, each Sentry Stone heads in the vague direction of each outer flag. Because they're dicks.
Otherwise a Griffon goes out each flank, everything else blobs up in the centre, Tannit being that green model behind the wall and the two heavies.
Most importantly, one Griffon gets Admonition and goes up to the centre flag.


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Merc 2: As the circle turn progressed, Tannith activated fairly early and moved up. I then spent the entire turn hoping for incompetence, but alas the heavies moved in the way and Brine could no longer straight up murder the lead hippy. Foiled! A real game we must attempt then. Time to enact THE PLAN.

My goals is to kill the Admo Griffon and the heavies, run everything forward and hope the three Griffons and buddies can't get it done, allowing me to attrition further ahead and run Ashlynn away.
I really wanted to shoot that lead Griffon down, Harlan was practically salivating at the possibility. Shame about that stealth thing, at least that kink got worked out before money was spent on leather...........items.........

Spells upkept, Ashlynn feats and charges the Admo Griffon. The Light caw caw creature admo's backward, into a blocking position in front of the two heavies. I wanted to kill the Griffon anyway, so Ashlynn triggers her own Admo, falls back to be just in stealth negate range of the Griffon and does a Gallows Grove. I hit, a 2 lets Brine in, 3 or higher and Skarath can charge in and blat him.

Naturally the 1 rolls up. Balls. It's straight dice damage, so that hurts it a bit, but my odds just plummeted.

Gear change, I have to shoot the stealthy Griffon down.
Skarath moves up as the best chance, hits, boosts damage, leaves the Griffon on 2 boxes. Casts Counter Blast.
Last piece that can do it is Rocinante. He takes the shot, scatters onto the mob of three beasts. Nothing happens to the big fellas obviously, but I boost on the Griffon, need a 9 to finish him off. I get an eight and do one box.

I sign and mentally scrunch up my imagined image of a notepad page with "THE PLAN" written on it.
I try the only recovery I can see, throw Brine in to kill at least one heavy and jam up as much annoying effects as possible.

Rorsh moves across, pops smoke, hides in the cloud. Brine pops Animus, walks in, easily kills the Feral, misses the Griffon once, buys an attack to horribly overkill the light.

Gallant charges up on the left to kill a Manikin after Versh just embarrasses himself, Dahlia runs up ahead of Ashlynn, intent to get the unit under Haunting Melody. Snapjaw is a couple mill out of charging the remaining centre Griffon, so runs up but is out of engage range (The curse of Blood Thirst: If you can't charge a living model, you can't run and engage). Snapjaw Submerges and casts Star Crossed for MOAR DICE.

So I do multiple errors this turn, all on Ashlynn.
* She didn't need to Admonition, which is her safe guard again throws/slams.
* Didn't take the Handcannon shot, forgetting about Dual attack. Foolishly rolled it out, would have done the two boxes remaining on the griffon.
* Didn't Arcane Secrets, would possibly have spiked the Gallows rolled and given even better odds of a hit.
The admonition one is probably the most egregious error, definitely based solely on the greed of getting a Skarath charge in.


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Circle 2: Circle tank time! Or gold mining really, I like to think I presented a pretty strong puzzle, though as mentioned above it could have been so much better.
There's some per-measurements and rules clarifications, I'd read the Griffon card at the start of the game so sadly knew the pain that was incoming.

The left most Griffon runs across, avoids the Gallant free strike (Should have run him. Damn you greed!). Though there was another Griffon on the right that could serve the same purpose.
Tannith falls back out of Ashlynn's control area, feats herself, puts Affliction on the Griffon to be thrown (This is my favourite part of the Circle plan. That's just glorious). Dark Shroud on a stick goes on the Stalker, arcs a "Why not?" spell at Ashlynn, burns through a focus and does a third of Ashlynn's health. Eugh. This is why I couldn't recast Admo.

The Griffon of power advances, does a 6 dice throw power attack on the griffon in front of it dropping the highest three, needs a 5.
Gets exactly a five. Dangit.

I concede at that point, the Stalker can walk with no Free Strikes and easily kills Ashlynn.


That was thoroughly enjoyable, though that's always true of games with Drawde. It was a nice complete 180 on the list plan, though I maintain it's the plan that works. Normally I'd say Ashlynn could have held further back, but the Admo on the opposing Griffon makes me think that's not true the way this panned out.
 
Given the above mentioned list changes, I'd expect when Gibbs releases he'll replace Sylyss, particularly with the way Gorman's cloud now works, reposition and Hot Food in this list are all magic.