Deneghra1 - Nightmare, 2x Bitey Nodes, 2x Press Gangers, Sea Dogs + Mr Walls, Bosun Gorgspar, Killingsworth, Gorman, Ragman, Devil's Shadow Mutineers, Rockbottom, Warwitch, Saxon
That's more Merc infantry than I've had in any Merc list. The lols.
Had the pseudo pairing of Fiona and Thexus. I say Pseudo because I don't think Fiona is anything more than cute, but Gorten is on holiday and Thexus takes the Gunlines/Heavies/Armour while Fiona takes Infantry/Incoporeal junk.
The captain of the HMS Surprise elected to verse Squid heads, though at the time I was definitely of the view that Fiona would be the more imposing matchup in this case. Anywho:
Thexus1 - 3x Wrecker, 3x Warden, Subduer, 3x Agitator, 2x Dominator + Eliminators
Objective: Stockpile
Rolled up mighty Incursion. Most important terrain considerations probably being that one side has a hill off to the side, the other has a superior wall and trench combo going.
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Deployments: I win the roll and go first, Crowster picks the side with the safety wall. Nothing revolutionary about the deployments, it's a line of Monstrosities with Wrecks/Wardens spaced out between each other, opposing a metal horde of Press Gangers with Sea Dogs in the centre.
Nightmare Preys the centre Wrecker to the right of Thexus.
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Merc 1: Eliminators stab Wreckers, given they'll be key in the anti infantry matchup. Thexus then does some Surgery action and TK's the Wreckers forward, then everything runs or slams up.
The Preyed Wrecker (Purple Token) runs to the right and ends up on the hill. It's not super ideal as Nightmare is fairly central, but oh well.
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Cryx 1: God damn, that is a huge mass of infantry.
Obviously the pirates all run up and spread out. Ragman, Grogspar and Killingsworth are near the back of the trench, Devil's Shadow are behind that forest on the back right.
Gorman, Nightmare and Denny are near or behind the wall. An Arc Node goes to either side and hangs back.
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Merc 2: It is most assuredly feat turn. Denny will be feating in the next Cryx turn, which stops the important Thresher's.
Eliminators move in first and generate some focus, though Thexus had to some out.
Agitators move up, the centre and left ones both Instigate.
Thexus then does the healing and feat pushes the world, forming all the infantry into clumps. He then is forced to TK the centre Agitator to get the Instigate bubble far enough up. I'd intended to camp two focus, but when pre-measuring out the most important Wrecker move he needed another couple mill to get past the flag, so that last focus got spent on a TK instead.
That most important Wrecker charges in, becomes a green proxy base poking the trench, taking a freestrike on the way for a few points. He then Threshers on Ragman, Killingsworth and Grogspar, as well as some Sea Dogs. The important models die thankfully, making life much simpler.
After that the other two Wreckers both go in and Thresher some Press Gangers down. The left most Warden slams a placed Press Ganger, I'd lined it up with feat to slam into Gorman. I hit the Press Ganger and roll minimum distance, which shouldn't have been an Issue except I again screwed up the model placement and Gorman was 3.1 inches away and thus lived when I really would prefer he hadn't. Foiled again.
One of the Wardens and the Subduer then run into the forest in front of Thexus.
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Cryx 2: There was a theoretical assassination of an Arc Node running then Denny doing three Venom's on feat. It would've worked when it was diced out later, it's another reason Thexus doesn't like the matchup. That wasn't done at the time though, so on we go!
All the Wreckers transform into Green Proxy bases.
Denny goes into the trench, feats and stabs the wrecker. She then arcs Parasite on the left Wrecker and Crippling Grasp onto the left most Warden.
On the left, where we have the even more debuffed Wrecker/Warden couple, various Pirates charge and do some mauling, the Warden loses it's Brain. Sad. Gorman then Blinds the Warden and some Pirates.
In front of Thexus, where we have a Warden and Subduer, the Subby gets hit quite badly and is left with only its arms functional. The Agitator that is flapping out in the wind is also obliterated.
The Wrecker that cleared off the important Solo's gets a couple Pirates that do pretty well, then is finished off by Nightmare.
On the right, the Warden of the couple is untouched, the Wrecker (Nightmare's Prey) gets hit by a couple Gangers for a bit and hit up pretty bad by the Devil's Shadow, but limps on.
The Warwitch moves onto the right flag, though the Warden stops the scoring.
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Merc 3: The lack of Threshering and the Monstrosities losing their brains is causing me grief, the brains more so. I could Psycho surgery and put Eliminators in, but a low Surgery roll imperils the brain again, particularly on Denny's feat turn.
The Eliminators were far enough back to avoid Denny's feat, I'll need to use them. The plan is to chew on what I can and kill any models that aren't just Pirate schlubs if there in range. The lack of Power attacks also caused me grief here.
Thexus hands out a couple focus, casts Surgery, arcs a Telekinesis through the Subduer to turn Nightmare around and get him away.
The left Eliminators go in, on goes up centre field to gut a pirate. The blonde goes in on the left, aiming to free the Wrecker to move up and engage the Arcnode, alas I miss both 6's to hit.
The left Wrecker/Warden make attacks but don't achieve much, the centre Warden has a bit more luck and pops a couple Pirates.
On the right something gets accomplished, it takes the Wrecker, a Warden emptying it's full focus load and a pair of Eliminators but the Wrecker is cleared and the Devil's Shadow are no more.
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Cryx 3: Spells of pain upkept.
The Pirates do swings again, the Subduer again loses its Brain.
On the left, the Sea Dogs finish off the Crippling Grasped Warden, the nearby Bitey Arc Node had a full focus load and manages to finish off the Wrecker.
Around the Centre flag the pirates try and fail to kill an Eliminator, Nightmare ends up walking over and getting it done.
On the right Saxon and the other Node come up for some more stabs, they don't do that well.
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Merc 4: Four heavies still crawling along, essentially both Wardens are quite healthy, the Subduer and remaining (Still Prey!) Wrecker are quite damaged, really only having boxes in their arm systems.
More importantly though, I'm well ahead on clock and the Cryx list has had long turns with seventeen million attack/damage rolls, so clock is looking pretty good.
That being said, I still need to conjure up some other method of forcing a conclusion, so I'll start trying to nab some scenario points and kill more of these damn Pirates.
Thexus again arcs a TK and screams at Nightmare to please leave him alone, does Surgery, then backs the hell up the board.
Subduer swings and fails at life.
The centre Warden tramples over a few pirates, then buys an attack to kill Mr Walls while contesting the left flag. The Eliminators around stab a couple pirates.
On the right the Warden kills the Arc Node and knocks down Saxon with a tough roll, the right Eliminator then kills him and side steps to the right flag.
Mercs go to 1 CP.
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Cryx 4: It's go for assassination time, in moving Thexus back he went out of range of Sac Pawn targets. Derp.
An Arc Node runs up, fire three Venoms from Denny that leave Thexus on half a dozen health and Corroded. A pair of Sea Dogs then get Money Shot from Rockbottom, two move up and get into range, the first misses, the next puts Thexus on two health.
After this corrosion rolled out and Denny's throws her hands in the air in disgust.
Plan would be to heal a few on Thexus and run to the left, use the right Warden to slam Nightmare away, use the Dominatrs and Agitators to tie up the Pirates. Have the Wrecker shield Exulon.
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Me on the right.
Deflection would have been nice, but the need to do other things just over rode that. Needed to be more careful on my measurements in the feat turn, but that'll happen when Pushing 30+ infantry into ideal murder locations.
