This month:
Malifaux:
* Re-based Neverborn Malifaux Cherub.
Warmachine/Hordes:
* Unit of Cryx Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls assembled
* Unit of Cygnar Mechanics assembled
* Unit of Cygnar Long Gunners + UA Assembled
* Cygnar Black 13th assembled
* Cygnar Journeyman Warcaster assembled
* Taryn di la Rovissi assembled
* Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord assembled
* Bull Snapper assembled
* Skorne Cyclops Shaman assembled
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr assembled
* Anastasia di Bray assembled
* Orin Midwinter assembled
* Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios assembled
Monday, April 1, 2013
Friday, March 8, 2013
X-Wing battle report from 2/20/13
Unfortunately, we didn't have the Wave 2 stuff back in February, but nonetheless, BK and I played a game of X-Wing, and had a blast doing it.
My list:
"Howlrunner" w/ Swarm Tactics
"Mauler Mithel" w/ Swarm Tactics
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Total Squad Points: 99
This is just a basic TIE Swarm. I took a more useful set of upgrades this time, however- Swarm Tactics actually get my ships shooting before several other pilots, and it was definitely helpful in this game.
BK's list:
Luke Skywalker w/ R2-F2
Rookie Pilot w/ R2 Astromech
Rookie Pilot w/ R2 Astromech
Gold Squadron Pilot w/ Ion Cannon Turret, R2 Astromech
Total Squad Points: 99
3 X-Wings and a Y-Wing. R2-F2 with Luke makes him pretty tough to kill, and the R2 Astromechs should give the X-Wings more maneuverability. I am happy to see the Y-Wings in the list, of course.
Turn 1:
A quick note about our setup- I basically set up everything right in the middle, as you can see from the picture. BK put Luke Skywalker and the Y-Wing off to my right, and the two Rookie Pilots off to my left. It was different than I'm used to seeing, so I was eager to get into action.
Regardless, our first turn is of course, uneventful. We both move forward towards the center. Exciting.
Turn 2:
I have a choice here. I could go to my left, crush the Rookie Pilots, but then I'd have Luke and a Y-Wing behind me, which could really suck (getting hit with an Ion Token, then having Luke move to range 1 and Target Locking would be a dead TIE a turn, I'm sure). I decide to bank to the right, and take on Luke early.
Unfortunately, my piloting skills suck. A bunch of my ships run into themselves, but in general, I do manage to get my ships pointing the right way.
Both of BK's groups of ships turned slightly and headed towards the center.
We exchange some long range shots to little effect- the sole casualty is a single shield is taken off the Y-Wing.
Turn 3:
Well, it's action time. I figure that BK's ships are likely to bank to their right, and rejoin their buddies. However, I didn't want to fully commit to that way, so I tried to slightly go BOTH ways. Because the ships are already in position to not fall on top of one another, I actually get to take actions with everyone. Those actions, however, are 7 Evade actions. Seven. Yes, exciting.
BK's left group of X-Wings is forced to send one of them through the asteroid, but doesn't take any damage. The Y-Wing does bank to his right, but Luke goes straight forward, depending on his high agility to see him through the firestorm.
Well, he's right there. A few TIEs shoot at Luke, but fail to do any damage, and in return he deals a point of damage to one of my Academy Pilots.
On my left, I'm a little more successful- my massed shooting takes all the shields off the Y-Wing, and get a Critical Hit onto the starfighter (something minor). BK's Rookie Pilots deal two points of damage to an Academy Pilot as well.
So, three turns in, I'm in position to start hurting the Y-Wing, and I'm taking damage on my TIEs at a fairly mediocre rate. Not looking too bad, so far.
Turn 4:
Alright, what to do now? I'm fairly unsure about how well I can hurt Luke without sending every ship after him, and decide to give up on that for now, and focus on the other ships. I send my guys to the left, and try to spread out to cover as much of the board with firing arcs as possible.
BK sends his ships basically right into the middle of my lines.
I start off with some shooting at the Y-Wing with Howlrunner and a Swarm Tactic'd Academy Pilot, but fail to accomplish anything. Luke follows with a shot on Howlrunner, hoping to lower the effectiveness of my entire fleet, but fails to put any hits through (2 hits and 2 evades, I believe).
Mauler Mithel, however, has much better luck and lays into the Rookie Pilot right in front of him, rolling up four hits (to no evades), destroying him, and giving the Imperials the first confirmed kill of the match.
The Academy Pilot I had used Swarm Tactics on with Mauler also finds some success, and deals two damage to the Y-Wing right in front of him.
The Y-Wing gets a little revenge, however, and manages to put an Ion Cannon shot into one of my Academy Pilots, making my maneuvering a little more annoying next turn.
Unfortunately for said Y-Wing, he doesn't get to stick around and take advantage of it, as my remaining Academy Pilots bring him down.
At this point, things are looking pretty good. I've killed two ships, and although I've taken small amounts of damage on a few of my TIEs, I haven't lost any. If I can get my ships pointing the right direction, I should be able to depend on my weight of shots to carry the day.
Turn 5:
Every one of my ships turns around, except for the one that had an Ion counter. BK's ships slowly move up into the teeth of my squad.
My shooting is all at long range, and I fail to accomplish anything. BK's limited shooting is much more effective, however, and his Rookie Pilot puts two damage on an undamaged TIE (unfortunately, the only one he could get in his firing arc), both of which are critical (I don't remember the exact effects).
Now, ships are about to get close, which means things could get very ugly.
Turn 6:
And they do. I screw up all of my maneuvering, meaning almost none of my ships actually get actions (smooth), but unfortunately for BK, that's all that goes wrong this turn.
My shooting starts fairly weak- one of my Academy Pilots, shooting with Howlrunner's Swarm Tactics take a shield off of Luke, who fires back and gets FOUR hits... which I then proceed to evade all but one of.
My next shot takes two shields off the Rookie Pilot, who's shooting does nothing.
I finish my turn with two Academy Pilots, each shooting at Luke. Three shots apiece.... and each rolls three hits. Luke can't keep up with that kind of rolling, and gets destroyed.
With only a single Rookie Pilot facing off against my entire force, even damaged as they are, we decide to call it.
Thoughts:
This will probably be the last time I run a TIE swarm in a friendly match for some time. I'm really too eager to try all the new ships, and I really want to try running multiple TIE Advanced and see how they perform, as well as using the new Wave 2 ships. Running all these TIEs was fun, of course, but I want to try something different.
It's hard to say what I did wrong or right about this game - I got so lucky with dice at times that it didn't matter what I chose (killing Luke, for instance was almost purely luck). Obviously, I really REALLY need to work on my maneuvering, since I spent two turns without actions, practically. My overall game plan worked better than my last TIE Swarm game (I didn't lose Howlrunner right away, for instance), so that's progress.
So yeah, next time I play as the Imperials, look for a something with more variety as my list!
My list:
"Howlrunner" w/ Swarm Tactics
"Mauler Mithel" w/ Swarm Tactics
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Academy Pilot
Total Squad Points: 99
This is just a basic TIE Swarm. I took a more useful set of upgrades this time, however- Swarm Tactics actually get my ships shooting before several other pilots, and it was definitely helpful in this game.
BK's list:
Luke Skywalker w/ R2-F2
Rookie Pilot w/ R2 Astromech
Rookie Pilot w/ R2 Astromech
Gold Squadron Pilot w/ Ion Cannon Turret, R2 Astromech
Total Squad Points: 99
3 X-Wings and a Y-Wing. R2-F2 with Luke makes him pretty tough to kill, and the R2 Astromechs should give the X-Wings more maneuverability. I am happy to see the Y-Wings in the list, of course.
Turn 1:
A quick note about our setup- I basically set up everything right in the middle, as you can see from the picture. BK put Luke Skywalker and the Y-Wing off to my right, and the two Rookie Pilots off to my left. It was different than I'm used to seeing, so I was eager to get into action.
Regardless, our first turn is of course, uneventful. We both move forward towards the center. Exciting.
 |
Turn 2:
I have a choice here. I could go to my left, crush the Rookie Pilots, but then I'd have Luke and a Y-Wing behind me, which could really suck (getting hit with an Ion Token, then having Luke move to range 1 and Target Locking would be a dead TIE a turn, I'm sure). I decide to bank to the right, and take on Luke early.
Unfortunately, my piloting skills suck. A bunch of my ships run into themselves, but in general, I do manage to get my ships pointing the right way.
Both of BK's groups of ships turned slightly and headed towards the center.
We exchange some long range shots to little effect- the sole casualty is a single shield is taken off the Y-Wing.
 |
Turn 3:
Well, it's action time. I figure that BK's ships are likely to bank to their right, and rejoin their buddies. However, I didn't want to fully commit to that way, so I tried to slightly go BOTH ways. Because the ships are already in position to not fall on top of one another, I actually get to take actions with everyone. Those actions, however, are 7 Evade actions. Seven. Yes, exciting.
BK's left group of X-Wings is forced to send one of them through the asteroid, but doesn't take any damage. The Y-Wing does bank to his right, but Luke goes straight forward, depending on his high agility to see him through the firestorm.
Well, he's right there. A few TIEs shoot at Luke, but fail to do any damage, and in return he deals a point of damage to one of my Academy Pilots.
On my left, I'm a little more successful- my massed shooting takes all the shields off the Y-Wing, and get a Critical Hit onto the starfighter (something minor). BK's Rookie Pilots deal two points of damage to an Academy Pilot as well.
So, three turns in, I'm in position to start hurting the Y-Wing, and I'm taking damage on my TIEs at a fairly mediocre rate. Not looking too bad, so far.
 |
Turn 4:
Alright, what to do now? I'm fairly unsure about how well I can hurt Luke without sending every ship after him, and decide to give up on that for now, and focus on the other ships. I send my guys to the left, and try to spread out to cover as much of the board with firing arcs as possible.
BK sends his ships basically right into the middle of my lines.
I start off with some shooting at the Y-Wing with Howlrunner and a Swarm Tactic'd Academy Pilot, but fail to accomplish anything. Luke follows with a shot on Howlrunner, hoping to lower the effectiveness of my entire fleet, but fails to put any hits through (2 hits and 2 evades, I believe).
Mauler Mithel, however, has much better luck and lays into the Rookie Pilot right in front of him, rolling up four hits (to no evades), destroying him, and giving the Imperials the first confirmed kill of the match.
The Academy Pilot I had used Swarm Tactics on with Mauler also finds some success, and deals two damage to the Y-Wing right in front of him.
The Y-Wing gets a little revenge, however, and manages to put an Ion Cannon shot into one of my Academy Pilots, making my maneuvering a little more annoying next turn.
Unfortunately for said Y-Wing, he doesn't get to stick around and take advantage of it, as my remaining Academy Pilots bring him down.
 |
At this point, things are looking pretty good. I've killed two ships, and although I've taken small amounts of damage on a few of my TIEs, I haven't lost any. If I can get my ships pointing the right direction, I should be able to depend on my weight of shots to carry the day.
Turn 5:
Every one of my ships turns around, except for the one that had an Ion counter. BK's ships slowly move up into the teeth of my squad.
My shooting is all at long range, and I fail to accomplish anything. BK's limited shooting is much more effective, however, and his Rookie Pilot puts two damage on an undamaged TIE (unfortunately, the only one he could get in his firing arc), both of which are critical (I don't remember the exact effects).
 |
Now, ships are about to get close, which means things could get very ugly.
Turn 6:
And they do. I screw up all of my maneuvering, meaning almost none of my ships actually get actions (smooth), but unfortunately for BK, that's all that goes wrong this turn.
My shooting starts fairly weak- one of my Academy Pilots, shooting with Howlrunner's Swarm Tactics take a shield off of Luke, who fires back and gets FOUR hits... which I then proceed to evade all but one of.
My next shot takes two shields off the Rookie Pilot, who's shooting does nothing.
I finish my turn with two Academy Pilots, each shooting at Luke. Three shots apiece.... and each rolls three hits. Luke can't keep up with that kind of rolling, and gets destroyed.
With only a single Rookie Pilot facing off against my entire force, even damaged as they are, we decide to call it.
Thoughts:
This will probably be the last time I run a TIE swarm in a friendly match for some time. I'm really too eager to try all the new ships, and I really want to try running multiple TIE Advanced and see how they perform, as well as using the new Wave 2 ships. Running all these TIEs was fun, of course, but I want to try something different.
It's hard to say what I did wrong or right about this game - I got so lucky with dice at times that it didn't matter what I chose (killing Luke, for instance was almost purely luck). Obviously, I really REALLY need to work on my maneuvering, since I spent two turns without actions, practically. My overall game plan worked better than my last TIE Swarm game (I didn't lose Howlrunner right away, for instance), so that's progress.
So yeah, next time I play as the Imperials, look for a something with more variety as my list!
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Malifaux Battle Report, 2/6/13, Sonnia vs Mei Feng
Rob finally got the opportunity to break out his new Mei Feng crew last month, and challenged me to a game. Clearly terrified of my Lilith crew (he insists he thinks Lilith would be too easy for him to beat, but I know the truth ;) ), he suggested I take Sonnia, so I did so. We ended up playing a 30 Soulstone game, as well, since I was a little limited in my model selection for the moment.
To start with, my crew:
Sonnia Criid -- 6 Pool
Francisco Ortega
Samael Hopkins
Watcher
Witchling Stalker
Witchling Stalker
Witchling Stalker
I don't really have a lot to say about my list- it's her starter box + Fransisco (I figured I could use some extra ranged options) + a Watcher (to help offset bad luck).
Rob's crew:
Mei Feng -- 8 Pool
Emberling
Kang
Metal Gamin
Rail Worker
Willie, the Demolitionist
Admittedly, although I've read the Ten Thunders book, I only had a minimal amount of knowledge of what all the models did. I did know Mei Feng could combo a lot, however, so I needed to keep an eye out for that.
After flips, we ended with Shared Claim Jump as our Strategy (whoever had more models within 3" of a counter in the center of the table scored points). We each had two Schemes, which we both announced: I chose Bodyguard (Sonnia) and Raid. Rob chose Bodyguard (Mei Feng) and Grudge (Fransisco). We deployed in the corners, and the only thing notable about our terrain was that there was a lot of buildings.
Turn 1:
I win Initiative, and basically move everything towards the center. I send my Witchling Stalkers forward as a sort of picket line, hoping to create a wide area of Disrupt Magic auras everywhere. The rest of my models end up moving behind them.
Rob's activations involve Willie using Clear Out off Kang to move everyone forward a few inches, but Rob basically decides he had screwed up his deployment, and ends up just moving everything towards the center instead of more fanciness.
Turn 2:
Rob wins Initiative, even though I start by flipping a 12 (he manages to flip a 13). Grrr!
Willie starts off the turn by double walking towards the middle of the table, to catch up to the action. In addition, he puts a bomb up close to my forces. I respond by having the central Witchling Stalker use Defensive Stance and his Disrupt Magic aura before moving a little towards the middle, hoping to make life a little difficult for Rob's force.
Rob activates Mei Feng and the Emberling next. The Emberling walks up and tries to throw up a Vent Steam... but is sadly is in range of the aura, and fails. Mei Feng is able to move up, stay out of the aura, and cast it, however, providing her with some protection. I respond... by having my Witchling Stalker on my side of the building do the exact same thing as his brother.
Rob has a Rail Worker move in front of Mei Feng, presumably to block line of sight to her. I activate my Watcher, who lets me look at the top two cards of my deck. One of them happens to be the Black Joker, which I gladly throw on the bottom of my deck.
Rob parks his Metal Gamin next to Mei Feng. If only I had decent blast shots! I have my last Witchling Stalker do the same thing as his buddies, creating quite the area of magicless-ness.
Kang ends up going after the closest Witchling Stalker to me, but with Defensive Stance up, isn't able to put shovel to flesh. Finally, given that I have all the activations left in the round, I attempt to go a little offensive. Sammael starts taking shots, and manages to kill Willie, who unfortunately explodes, damaging the two closest Witchling Stalkers and Fransisco for two. Fransisco follows up by firing at the Rail Worker, doing a few points of damage.
Sonnia spends the turn... basically doing nothing. I don't know that I have a good early game plan for her, haha.
Turn 3:
Rob wins Initiative again.
Rob starts by having his Rail Worker charge a Witchling Stalker, and detonates the previously placed bomb, killing the two central Witchling Stalkers, himself, and Fransisco. That is really really unpleasant. Needing to delay for an activation, to get his guys into range, I have my remaining Witchling Stalker use Defensive Stance, Disrupt Magic, and have him take a swing at Kang, dealing two damage... which doesn't really matter since he recovers from it whenever he activates.
Rob's Metal Gamin activates, and double Walks over to my side of the board. I use the Watcher to move forward and help prepare my deck for the inevitable- revealing a 13, which I leave on top of my deck.
Rob then activates Mei Feng and the Emberling. The Emberling walks up and Vents Steam, just staying out of the Disrupt Magic aura. Mei Feng walks forward, casts Iron Skin on the Metal Gamin, and walks again.
I start salivating, hoping to put a ton of damage on Mei Feng. Eagerly, I activate Sammael, and declare I'm going to Rapid Fire, and make the first flip... then remember that I haven't used his Flaming Bullets spell. I also forget about his Arcane Hunter ability (so a net +2 Cb and +3 Dg I screwed myself out of). As it was, Rob is forced to spend a few Soulstones, but even so, I still put 2 damage on him. Honestly, had I remembered to use these, it would've probably cost him another Soulstone, which may have made a significant difference.
Sonnia ends the turn by activating, and throws a bunch more spells at Mei Feng, which force her to spend MORE Soulstones, but I still end up putting another two damage on her.
Turn 4:
I thankfully win Initiative.
For some reason, I activate Sonnia first, even though Sammael could've either killed Mei Feng, or forced her to spend every Soulstone she had. I don't really remember why I did this. Regardless, Sonnia starts throwing spells at Mei Feng, fails to kill her (but does manage to kill the Emberling), but does do a few more points of damage.
Mei Feng charges up, uses a string of Tiger's Claws strikes with the Tiger's Fury trigger, and kills Sonnia (but see below). I end up conceding (although I guess Sammael could've made an attempt at killing her and playing for less of a loss).
Rob would've won the strategy (4 points), Mei Feng survived (2 points), but he didn't kill Fransisco in melee, meaning the final score was 6-0. Quite a beating!
Thoughts:
I can't really say if this will end up being a good matchup. Having some experience with her now, Rob says he should be taking more Rail Workers with her to exploit Express Line, and move her around more, which will probably make her a lot scarier. On top of that, he did have some maneuvering issues that he'll be able to fix with a few more games of practice.
One big thing we DID screw up, however, is Mei Feng's trigger. The end reads "perform a melee Strike against another target in melee range." We played it that the target could be the same person (ie, Sonnia), which let him belt off the 5 attacks it took to kill her (she missed once). With the trigger, she'd have had to kill Sammael as well (she certainly had the range), but maybe would've killed him quickly enough to save Sonnia. Hard to say. I started Mei Feng's activation with more Soulstones than her, so it's possible.
Of course... Sammael would've been dead, Sonnia would've already activated, and I wouldn't have had any way to kill Mei Feng this turn, so it's hard to think the result would've changed at all.
If I remembered all of Sammael's rules, who knows what the result would've been as well. Extra damage plus a higher stat value is really sweet, and definitely makes me eager to see him on the table again!
Regardless, the game was a lot of fun, and it's nice seeing Ten Thunders models on the table. Also, Rob has been working extra hard to get his models painted, and the effort shows- his side of the board looked beautiful. Definitely something to make me more eager to paint, when I have the time to do so.
We should have another game of Malifaux soon- hopefully I'll have more Guild stuff assembled, giving me some options in the game. Maybe I can the next one a closer match :).
Until next time!
To start with, my crew:
Sonnia Criid -- 6 Pool
Francisco Ortega
Samael Hopkins
Watcher
Witchling Stalker
Witchling Stalker
Witchling Stalker
I don't really have a lot to say about my list- it's her starter box + Fransisco (I figured I could use some extra ranged options) + a Watcher (to help offset bad luck).
Rob's crew:
Mei Feng -- 8 Pool
Emberling
Kang
Metal Gamin
Rail Worker
Willie, the Demolitionist
Admittedly, although I've read the Ten Thunders book, I only had a minimal amount of knowledge of what all the models did. I did know Mei Feng could combo a lot, however, so I needed to keep an eye out for that.
After flips, we ended with Shared Claim Jump as our Strategy (whoever had more models within 3" of a counter in the center of the table scored points). We each had two Schemes, which we both announced: I chose Bodyguard (Sonnia) and Raid. Rob chose Bodyguard (Mei Feng) and Grudge (Fransisco). We deployed in the corners, and the only thing notable about our terrain was that there was a lot of buildings.
Turn 1:
I win Initiative, and basically move everything towards the center. I send my Witchling Stalkers forward as a sort of picket line, hoping to create a wide area of Disrupt Magic auras everywhere. The rest of my models end up moving behind them.
Rob's activations involve Willie using Clear Out off Kang to move everyone forward a few inches, but Rob basically decides he had screwed up his deployment, and ends up just moving everything towards the center instead of more fanciness.
 |
Rob wins Initiative, even though I start by flipping a 12 (he manages to flip a 13). Grrr!
Willie starts off the turn by double walking towards the middle of the table, to catch up to the action. In addition, he puts a bomb up close to my forces. I respond by having the central Witchling Stalker use Defensive Stance and his Disrupt Magic aura before moving a little towards the middle, hoping to make life a little difficult for Rob's force.
Rob activates Mei Feng and the Emberling next. The Emberling walks up and tries to throw up a Vent Steam... but is sadly is in range of the aura, and fails. Mei Feng is able to move up, stay out of the aura, and cast it, however, providing her with some protection. I respond... by having my Witchling Stalker on my side of the building do the exact same thing as his brother.
Rob has a Rail Worker move in front of Mei Feng, presumably to block line of sight to her. I activate my Watcher, who lets me look at the top two cards of my deck. One of them happens to be the Black Joker, which I gladly throw on the bottom of my deck.
Rob parks his Metal Gamin next to Mei Feng. If only I had decent blast shots! I have my last Witchling Stalker do the same thing as his buddies, creating quite the area of magicless-ness.
Kang ends up going after the closest Witchling Stalker to me, but with Defensive Stance up, isn't able to put shovel to flesh. Finally, given that I have all the activations left in the round, I attempt to go a little offensive. Sammael starts taking shots, and manages to kill Willie, who unfortunately explodes, damaging the two closest Witchling Stalkers and Fransisco for two. Fransisco follows up by firing at the Rail Worker, doing a few points of damage.
Sonnia spends the turn... basically doing nothing. I don't know that I have a good early game plan for her, haha.
 |
Turn 3:
Rob wins Initiative again.
Rob starts by having his Rail Worker charge a Witchling Stalker, and detonates the previously placed bomb, killing the two central Witchling Stalkers, himself, and Fransisco. That is really really unpleasant. Needing to delay for an activation, to get his guys into range, I have my remaining Witchling Stalker use Defensive Stance, Disrupt Magic, and have him take a swing at Kang, dealing two damage... which doesn't really matter since he recovers from it whenever he activates.
Rob's Metal Gamin activates, and double Walks over to my side of the board. I use the Watcher to move forward and help prepare my deck for the inevitable- revealing a 13, which I leave on top of my deck.
Rob then activates Mei Feng and the Emberling. The Emberling walks up and Vents Steam, just staying out of the Disrupt Magic aura. Mei Feng walks forward, casts Iron Skin on the Metal Gamin, and walks again.
I start salivating, hoping to put a ton of damage on Mei Feng. Eagerly, I activate Sammael, and declare I'm going to Rapid Fire, and make the first flip... then remember that I haven't used his Flaming Bullets spell. I also forget about his Arcane Hunter ability (so a net +2 Cb and +3 Dg I screwed myself out of). As it was, Rob is forced to spend a few Soulstones, but even so, I still put 2 damage on him. Honestly, had I remembered to use these, it would've probably cost him another Soulstone, which may have made a significant difference.
Sonnia ends the turn by activating, and throws a bunch more spells at Mei Feng, which force her to spend MORE Soulstones, but I still end up putting another two damage on her.
 |
Turn 4:
I thankfully win Initiative.
For some reason, I activate Sonnia first, even though Sammael could've either killed Mei Feng, or forced her to spend every Soulstone she had. I don't really remember why I did this. Regardless, Sonnia starts throwing spells at Mei Feng, fails to kill her (but does manage to kill the Emberling), but does do a few more points of damage.
Mei Feng charges up, uses a string of Tiger's Claws strikes with the Tiger's Fury trigger, and kills Sonnia (but see below). I end up conceding (although I guess Sammael could've made an attempt at killing her and playing for less of a loss).
Rob would've won the strategy (4 points), Mei Feng survived (2 points), but he didn't kill Fransisco in melee, meaning the final score was 6-0. Quite a beating!
Thoughts:
I can't really say if this will end up being a good matchup. Having some experience with her now, Rob says he should be taking more Rail Workers with her to exploit Express Line, and move her around more, which will probably make her a lot scarier. On top of that, he did have some maneuvering issues that he'll be able to fix with a few more games of practice.
One big thing we DID screw up, however, is Mei Feng's trigger. The end reads "perform a melee Strike against another target in melee range." We played it that the target could be the same person (ie, Sonnia), which let him belt off the 5 attacks it took to kill her (she missed once). With the trigger, she'd have had to kill Sammael as well (she certainly had the range), but maybe would've killed him quickly enough to save Sonnia. Hard to say. I started Mei Feng's activation with more Soulstones than her, so it's possible.
Of course... Sammael would've been dead, Sonnia would've already activated, and I wouldn't have had any way to kill Mei Feng this turn, so it's hard to think the result would've changed at all.
If I remembered all of Sammael's rules, who knows what the result would've been as well. Extra damage plus a higher stat value is really sweet, and definitely makes me eager to see him on the table again!
Regardless, the game was a lot of fun, and it's nice seeing Ten Thunders models on the table. Also, Rob has been working extra hard to get his models painted, and the effort shows- his side of the board looked beautiful. Definitely something to make me more eager to paint, when I have the time to do so.
We should have another game of Malifaux soon- hopefully I'll have more Guild stuff assembled, giving me some options in the game. Maybe I can the next one a closer match :).
Until next time!
Friday, March 1, 2013
X-Wing wave 2 released
Those of you who play X-Wing no doubt have already seen that this is the case, but yeah, the new stuff for X-Wing is out!
I managed to snag one each of the new models- they were starting to sell out even as I showed up (not long after they were put on the shelves). It's great to see this game doing so well.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting the new stuff on the table. In another two weeks or so, I'll play another X-Wing game, and I'll make sure to use the new stuff.
I managed to snag one each of the new models- they were starting to sell out even as I showed up (not long after they were put on the shelves). It's great to see this game doing so well.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting the new stuff on the table. In another two weeks or so, I'll play another X-Wing game, and I'll make sure to use the new stuff.
Hobby progress for February, 2013
(EDIT: Oops, forgot to update this as the month went along!)
This month:
Malifaux:
* One game played (using Sonnia Criid)
Saga:
* Starter Box of Jomsvikings Filed
* Starter Box of Skraelings Filed
Warmachine/Hordes:
* One game played (eHexeris)
* Unit of Long Gunners filed
* Unit of Cygnar Mechanics filed
* A few other Cygnar solos filed
* Cyclops Shaman filed
* Necrosurgeon filed
X-Wing:
* One game played (As the Imperials)
This month:
Malifaux:
* One game played (using Sonnia Criid)
Saga:
* Starter Box of Jomsvikings Filed
* Starter Box of Skraelings Filed
Warmachine/Hordes:
* One game played (eHexeris)
* Unit of Long Gunners filed
* Unit of Cygnar Mechanics filed
* A few other Cygnar solos filed
* Cyclops Shaman filed
* Necrosurgeon filed
X-Wing:
* One game played (As the Imperials)
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Firestorm Armada rules released for free!
Man, I'm really behind the times. Still, this is great news.
Although the rulebook is pretty sloppy, the game itself is pretty strong, and certainly worth trying out if you have any interest in space combat. And hell, the rules are free- you can't beat a price like that!
Although the rulebook is pretty sloppy, the game itself is pretty strong, and certainly worth trying out if you have any interest in space combat. And hell, the rules are free- you can't beat a price like that!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
First games using Venethrax, 1/30/13
Alright, time for some sweet battle report goodness.
On the 30th of last month, I broke out some Warmachine, and more specifically, broke out some Venethrax, who I had recently assembled, and had been interested in playing.
So, I enlisted Mr. Rob to play some games, breaking out his Khador.
Game 1:
The list I took for both games was this:
Lich Lord Venethrax
* Deathripper
* Stalker
* Deathjack
Bane Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)
The Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
General Gerlak Slaughterborn
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Admittedly, this isn't a terrible original list compared to the list I take with ANY caster, but I promise- I'm working on getting some new Cryx stuff up and running.
Rob's list for game one was a Tier 4 Full Assault list:
Forward Kommander Sorscha
* Conquest
* Demolisher
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard
* 3 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers
Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)
Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)
Gun Carriage
This looked pretty impressive on the table, with the Colossal and the Battle Engine.
We decided to play a Steamroller 2013 scenario, and ended up rolling Outflank. Basically, two circles around the middle of the table, and you need 5 Victory Points to win. You score one for controlling a circle, and two for dominating it (meaning your warcaster is in it, and it's not contested by your opponent).
Rob won the roll to go first, we set up our forces, and were off.
Turn 1:
Rob started the game off by running his large unit of Winter Guard central to the table, with a two in the zone to my right.
I had set up my caster on the right, after all, and at the very least, Rob wanted to make sure I was forced to engage him to dominate the zone.
With the Theme Force, Rob's mortars received a free pre-game move, meaning they were in position to try for acting from the first turn. He attempted to take a long range shot at the Deathjack, missed, but the deviation stayed on the Deathjack, still doing no damage.
Sorscha cast Boundless charge on a bunch of Rob's models, moved towards the center, and was joined by the rest of Rob's forces.
I start my turn by running my entire army forward aside from Venethrax and the Deathjack. No sense in risking the jack so early, I thought, and decided that Venethrax needed to set the town early. He walked forward a little, and used the Deathripper to arc a Blood Rain into the Winter Guard, which hit and killed four. Pretty good start to the game, from my perspective.
Turn 2:
Rob starts working to soften me up by shooting. His mortars take shots at my Bane Knights, and manage to kill one. The Winter Guard follow up by hoping over the fence, getting into position, and spray into my Banes, killing 2 Bane Thralls and a Bane Knight. Unfortunately, Rob forgets to give his guys the Bob & Weave order (for the extra defense).
The Winter Guard who didn't spray down my Banes take a CRA shot at my Deathripper, and at 'Dice plus 5' roll snake eyes, dealing a total of 7 damage (and to add even more insult, he rolls a column that ends up disabling none of my systems).
The Conquest tries to get into the action, walks forward, and begins shooting. He ends up killing Gerlak and drops four more damage onto the Deathripper, which I believe disabled the movement? I can't remember.
Rob followed this up by advancing his other big model, the Gun Carriage into the zone, and shooting as well, but only managed to kill a single Bane Knight.
His turn ends with him advancing Sorscha up to cast Iron Flesh on the Winter Guard. With Bob and Weave, that would have been incredible, but yeah, as mentioned above, it's just not fully there, sadly.
At this point, I've actually taken quite a bit of casualties from shooting, but I see that I've got a lot of space on my right to take over the zone, and scoring early will set me up for a good chance to win.
I start out by activating Venethrax, who moves into the zone, and casts a Blood Rain through the Deathripper into the Winter Guard, killing 3. I follow with Bane Lord Tartarus charging into them, killing another one, and finish with charging by Bane Thralls and a Bane Knight into them, killing yet another one. The poor Winter Guard decide they've had enough, and even with the Standard Bearer, fail their command check. At this point, I'm guaranteed to Dominate the zone on my right.
The other two Bane Knights charge into the Gun Carriage and between them and the Pistol Wraith (who activated earlier) manage to deal 14 damage to it, not enough to kill it.
The Deathjack ends the turn by killing another two Winter Guard, grabbing me two more souls to use for getting into the action next turn. I gain two control points, for dominating the right zone.
Turn 3:
Rob decides his chances are perfect for an assassination, and goes for it. He starts with Sorscha activating, and popping her feat. She then tries to shoot at my Deathripper, misses, and casts Iron Flesh on herself.
Rob activates the Conquest, aims, boosts, and takes a shot from the main gun into Venethrax, who I think had no focus on him (oops!). He needs a 9 to hit, but rolls an 8, which scatters to no effect. With his best shot to end me gone, he has the Conquest use his other shots to kill a Bane Knight, a Bane Thrall, and put 6 damage onto Bane Lord Tartarus, as well as kills one of my Pistol Wraiths.
The Gun Carriage activates, and kills a Bane Knight in combat with it.
Rob hasn't given up on his assassination though. The Mortars both take shots again Venethrax, both miss, and Rob is forced to concede (he can't stop me from scoring enough control points to win).
So, first game over, and I still don't feel like I have any feel for Venethrax. Plus, I really screwed up my setup. My Mechanithralls spent the entire game behind my army, unable to find a way to get out and into the action. We had decided to play another game, and I was determined to not make that mistake for this one.
Game 2!:
I took the same list as before. Rob chose to run:
Vladimir Tzepesci, Great Prince of Umbrey
* Berserker
* Conquest
* Devastator
* Drago
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss
Pretty heavy list. I won the roll to go first this time.
Turn 1:
I run everything forward, but have Venethrax cast Dragon Slayer on himself and advance.
Rob basically does the same thing. Everything runs up but Vlad, who casts Hand of Fate on the Conquest.
Turn 2:
I am still out of range to do anything, and again basically run everything forward. I can't score points this turn, so choose to get as far forward as I can to put pressure on Rob.
Rob responds by upkeeping Hand of Fate on Conquest, and getting to work. The Conquest aims his Main Gun at the Deathripper, and hits, dealing 12 damage to my poor little jack, disabling the Arc Node. His other shots manage to kill a Bane Thrall and a Bane Knight. He also throws down two templates in front of my Bane Knights, to try to limit my movement.
The Berserker attempts to charge my Stalker (off far to my right), but is a few inches out of range.
Drago walks forward and kills my lead Mechanithrall (I had sent the unit into the left zone to try to keep Rob back in his zone). Vlad joins in the fun, pops his feat, and charges a Mechanithrall, killing it. His side steps kill another two, and his Sprints back to safety. Rob's goal was to get forward to kill one of my Pistol Wraiths, but failing to do so, chose to get back to where he wasn't in danger.
The Kayazy activate and charge into the Mechanithralls as well, killing another two. They were a little too far out to get at the rest of them, unfortunately.
Rob ends the turn by advancing his Devastator, attempting to threaten my right zone some.
Turn 3:
I decide that the Kayazy are probably my biggest concern at this point. With some luck, they could get through all of my infantry, and if Rob managed to successfully contest my right zone, I'd have a hard time getting enough to the left to fight him. So I go all in, trying to kill them.
The Bane Knights, Bane Lord Tartarus, Mechanithralls, and a Pistol Wraith are thrown at them, and I manage to kill 5 of the Assassins, plus the Underboss. The Mechanithralls were of particular note, because with the 4 remaining, I manage to drag down two Assassins, needing elevens to hit.
The Deathjack charges and kills the Berserker, clearing out my zone for the moment. The Pistol Wraith on my far left Death Chills Drago, saving my poor infantry from being horribly annihilated. Whew!
With nothing in my right zone, and Venethrax right in the middle, I again dominate it, and gain 2 control points.
Rob has two objectives this turn. First, he needs to contest my right zone well enough to stop me from winning soon, and he needs to score some control points himself. He probably considers assassination at some point here (I don't actually know, I'm not a mind reader), but I'm camping some of my focus and have Dragon Slayer upkept by the Withershadow Combine, so I'm around armor 23.
Rob starts on clearing the left zone. His Kayazy go off to my left more, and kill a Pistol Wraith and a Mechanithrall.
The Conquest follows up by advancing towards the middle of the table (and doesn't contest my zone, importantly), and shoots into the large cluster of troops I have, killing, when it's all over with, 3 Bane Knights, 2 Bane Thralls, 2 Mechanithralls, a Pistol Wraith, and one of his Kayazy, as well as takes a point off of Gerlak. Not half bad!
Drago can't move and activate, so elects to move out of the way of Vlad, who charges Gerlak. Several crappy rolls by Rob later, Gerlak eventually dies, and Vlad kills the last Bane Knight in the zone, clearing it.
He ends the turn by moving the Devastator into my zone, contesting it, and scores two control points for dominating his zone, tying us at 2-2.
Turn 4:
Unfortunately for Rob, he reminds me that I can throw models, and I happily do so, moving the Deathjack forward to throw the Devastator out of my zone (I sure wasn't going to kill it!). I run everything else up to block the far side of my zone so that the Battle Mechaniks and the Conquest can't get into it.
I charge Bane Lord Tartarus at Vlad, but sadly, he's out of range. The remaining two Bane Knights attempt to be heroes, but sadly, don't manage to hit Vlad. I end my turn, and go up 4-2.
Rob realizes that he can't contest my zone, and that scoring his doesn't help him, and decides he HAS to assassinate Venethrax. He uses Flashing Blade to try to clear the Bane Knights engaging him, but sadly only manages to kill one, meaning he has to Flashing Blade AGAIN to clear a charge path.
Vlad charges, but now, I have all my focus camped, and prove too difficult to kill. Casters don't count as contesting zones, and Rob can't stop me from scoring what I need to win.
Summary:
Although winning is nice, I feel a little disappointed in that I didn't really get any use from Venethrax. I completely forgot about his feat (which isn't very good anyway), and other than a few castings of Blood Rain, pretty much didn't need to use his spells.
Rob's had a difficult time with Cryx, and as he pointed out, it doesn't matter what caster I take in the end, it's my army itself that is causing him issues. We may end up trying to switch it up just so that I can see how I would do against Cryx. In the meantime, I'll probably switch to Skorne for a while, just to keep my friends ;).
The Conquest didn't feel like it made much of an impact on either game, sadly. Sure, it killed some infantry with its shooting, but I never bothered trying to put damage on it (meaning the Mechaniks did nothing through both games). I suspect Rob needs to focus on getting the Conquest into a zone to contest it, and force me to deal with him. With this particular Cryx list, it might actually be a problem, especially if enough of my Bane Thralls die before getting there. The Deathjack can certainly hurt it, but I don't think I can kill it (especially with Mechaniks repairing it) before I'm crushed.
One day, I'll get Venethrax on the table again, hopefully against a Hordes opponent, and see how much mileage I get out of him in a matchup he's designed to be more useful for.
On the 30th of last month, I broke out some Warmachine, and more specifically, broke out some Venethrax, who I had recently assembled, and had been interested in playing.
So, I enlisted Mr. Rob to play some games, breaking out his Khador.
Game 1:
The list I took for both games was this:
Lich Lord Venethrax
* Deathripper
* Stalker
* Deathjack
Bane Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)
The Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
General Gerlak Slaughterborn
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Admittedly, this isn't a terrible original list compared to the list I take with ANY caster, but I promise- I'm working on getting some new Cryx stuff up and running.
Rob's list for game one was a Tier 4 Full Assault list:
Forward Kommander Sorscha
* Conquest
* Demolisher
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard
* 3 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers
Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)
Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)
Gun Carriage
This looked pretty impressive on the table, with the Colossal and the Battle Engine.
We decided to play a Steamroller 2013 scenario, and ended up rolling Outflank. Basically, two circles around the middle of the table, and you need 5 Victory Points to win. You score one for controlling a circle, and two for dominating it (meaning your warcaster is in it, and it's not contested by your opponent).
Rob won the roll to go first, we set up our forces, and were off.
Turn 1:
Rob started the game off by running his large unit of Winter Guard central to the table, with a two in the zone to my right.
 |
I had set up my caster on the right, after all, and at the very least, Rob wanted to make sure I was forced to engage him to dominate the zone.
With the Theme Force, Rob's mortars received a free pre-game move, meaning they were in position to try for acting from the first turn. He attempted to take a long range shot at the Deathjack, missed, but the deviation stayed on the Deathjack, still doing no damage.
Sorscha cast Boundless charge on a bunch of Rob's models, moved towards the center, and was joined by the rest of Rob's forces.
 |
I start my turn by running my entire army forward aside from Venethrax and the Deathjack. No sense in risking the jack so early, I thought, and decided that Venethrax needed to set the town early. He walked forward a little, and used the Deathripper to arc a Blood Rain into the Winter Guard, which hit and killed four. Pretty good start to the game, from my perspective.
 |
Turn 2:
Rob starts working to soften me up by shooting. His mortars take shots at my Bane Knights, and manage to kill one. The Winter Guard follow up by hoping over the fence, getting into position, and spray into my Banes, killing 2 Bane Thralls and a Bane Knight. Unfortunately, Rob forgets to give his guys the Bob & Weave order (for the extra defense).
The Winter Guard who didn't spray down my Banes take a CRA shot at my Deathripper, and at 'Dice plus 5' roll snake eyes, dealing a total of 7 damage (and to add even more insult, he rolls a column that ends up disabling none of my systems).
The Conquest tries to get into the action, walks forward, and begins shooting. He ends up killing Gerlak and drops four more damage onto the Deathripper, which I believe disabled the movement? I can't remember.
Rob followed this up by advancing his other big model, the Gun Carriage into the zone, and shooting as well, but only managed to kill a single Bane Knight.
 |
His turn ends with him advancing Sorscha up to cast Iron Flesh on the Winter Guard. With Bob and Weave, that would have been incredible, but yeah, as mentioned above, it's just not fully there, sadly.
 |
At this point, I've actually taken quite a bit of casualties from shooting, but I see that I've got a lot of space on my right to take over the zone, and scoring early will set me up for a good chance to win.
I start out by activating Venethrax, who moves into the zone, and casts a Blood Rain through the Deathripper into the Winter Guard, killing 3. I follow with Bane Lord Tartarus charging into them, killing another one, and finish with charging by Bane Thralls and a Bane Knight into them, killing yet another one. The poor Winter Guard decide they've had enough, and even with the Standard Bearer, fail their command check. At this point, I'm guaranteed to Dominate the zone on my right.
The other two Bane Knights charge into the Gun Carriage and between them and the Pistol Wraith (who activated earlier) manage to deal 14 damage to it, not enough to kill it.
The Deathjack ends the turn by killing another two Winter Guard, grabbing me two more souls to use for getting into the action next turn. I gain two control points, for dominating the right zone.
 |
Turn 3:
Rob decides his chances are perfect for an assassination, and goes for it. He starts with Sorscha activating, and popping her feat. She then tries to shoot at my Deathripper, misses, and casts Iron Flesh on herself.
Rob activates the Conquest, aims, boosts, and takes a shot from the main gun into Venethrax, who I think had no focus on him (oops!). He needs a 9 to hit, but rolls an 8, which scatters to no effect. With his best shot to end me gone, he has the Conquest use his other shots to kill a Bane Knight, a Bane Thrall, and put 6 damage onto Bane Lord Tartarus, as well as kills one of my Pistol Wraiths.
The Gun Carriage activates, and kills a Bane Knight in combat with it.
Rob hasn't given up on his assassination though. The Mortars both take shots again Venethrax, both miss, and Rob is forced to concede (he can't stop me from scoring enough control points to win).
So, first game over, and I still don't feel like I have any feel for Venethrax. Plus, I really screwed up my setup. My Mechanithralls spent the entire game behind my army, unable to find a way to get out and into the action. We had decided to play another game, and I was determined to not make that mistake for this one.
Game 2!:
I took the same list as before. Rob chose to run:
Vladimir Tzepesci, Great Prince of Umbrey
* Berserker
* Conquest
* Devastator
* Drago
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss
Pretty heavy list. I won the roll to go first this time.
Turn 1:
I run everything forward, but have Venethrax cast Dragon Slayer on himself and advance.
 |
Rob basically does the same thing. Everything runs up but Vlad, who casts Hand of Fate on the Conquest.
 |
Turn 2:
I am still out of range to do anything, and again basically run everything forward. I can't score points this turn, so choose to get as far forward as I can to put pressure on Rob.
Rob responds by upkeeping Hand of Fate on Conquest, and getting to work. The Conquest aims his Main Gun at the Deathripper, and hits, dealing 12 damage to my poor little jack, disabling the Arc Node. His other shots manage to kill a Bane Thrall and a Bane Knight. He also throws down two templates in front of my Bane Knights, to try to limit my movement.
The Berserker attempts to charge my Stalker (off far to my right), but is a few inches out of range.
Drago walks forward and kills my lead Mechanithrall (I had sent the unit into the left zone to try to keep Rob back in his zone). Vlad joins in the fun, pops his feat, and charges a Mechanithrall, killing it. His side steps kill another two, and his Sprints back to safety. Rob's goal was to get forward to kill one of my Pistol Wraiths, but failing to do so, chose to get back to where he wasn't in danger.
The Kayazy activate and charge into the Mechanithralls as well, killing another two. They were a little too far out to get at the rest of them, unfortunately.
Rob ends the turn by advancing his Devastator, attempting to threaten my right zone some.
 |
Turn 3:
I decide that the Kayazy are probably my biggest concern at this point. With some luck, they could get through all of my infantry, and if Rob managed to successfully contest my right zone, I'd have a hard time getting enough to the left to fight him. So I go all in, trying to kill them.
The Bane Knights, Bane Lord Tartarus, Mechanithralls, and a Pistol Wraith are thrown at them, and I manage to kill 5 of the Assassins, plus the Underboss. The Mechanithralls were of particular note, because with the 4 remaining, I manage to drag down two Assassins, needing elevens to hit.
The Deathjack charges and kills the Berserker, clearing out my zone for the moment. The Pistol Wraith on my far left Death Chills Drago, saving my poor infantry from being horribly annihilated. Whew!
With nothing in my right zone, and Venethrax right in the middle, I again dominate it, and gain 2 control points.
 |
Rob has two objectives this turn. First, he needs to contest my right zone well enough to stop me from winning soon, and he needs to score some control points himself. He probably considers assassination at some point here (I don't actually know, I'm not a mind reader), but I'm camping some of my focus and have Dragon Slayer upkept by the Withershadow Combine, so I'm around armor 23.
Rob starts on clearing the left zone. His Kayazy go off to my left more, and kill a Pistol Wraith and a Mechanithrall.
The Conquest follows up by advancing towards the middle of the table (and doesn't contest my zone, importantly), and shoots into the large cluster of troops I have, killing, when it's all over with, 3 Bane Knights, 2 Bane Thralls, 2 Mechanithralls, a Pistol Wraith, and one of his Kayazy, as well as takes a point off of Gerlak. Not half bad!
Drago can't move and activate, so elects to move out of the way of Vlad, who charges Gerlak. Several crappy rolls by Rob later, Gerlak eventually dies, and Vlad kills the last Bane Knight in the zone, clearing it.
He ends the turn by moving the Devastator into my zone, contesting it, and scores two control points for dominating his zone, tying us at 2-2.
 |
 |
Turn 4:
Unfortunately for Rob, he reminds me that I can throw models, and I happily do so, moving the Deathjack forward to throw the Devastator out of my zone (I sure wasn't going to kill it!). I run everything else up to block the far side of my zone so that the Battle Mechaniks and the Conquest can't get into it.
I charge Bane Lord Tartarus at Vlad, but sadly, he's out of range. The remaining two Bane Knights attempt to be heroes, but sadly, don't manage to hit Vlad. I end my turn, and go up 4-2.
Rob realizes that he can't contest my zone, and that scoring his doesn't help him, and decides he HAS to assassinate Venethrax. He uses Flashing Blade to try to clear the Bane Knights engaging him, but sadly only manages to kill one, meaning he has to Flashing Blade AGAIN to clear a charge path.
Vlad charges, but now, I have all my focus camped, and prove too difficult to kill. Casters don't count as contesting zones, and Rob can't stop me from scoring what I need to win.
Summary:
Although winning is nice, I feel a little disappointed in that I didn't really get any use from Venethrax. I completely forgot about his feat (which isn't very good anyway), and other than a few castings of Blood Rain, pretty much didn't need to use his spells.
Rob's had a difficult time with Cryx, and as he pointed out, it doesn't matter what caster I take in the end, it's my army itself that is causing him issues. We may end up trying to switch it up just so that I can see how I would do against Cryx. In the meantime, I'll probably switch to Skorne for a while, just to keep my friends ;).
The Conquest didn't feel like it made much of an impact on either game, sadly. Sure, it killed some infantry with its shooting, but I never bothered trying to put damage on it (meaning the Mechaniks did nothing through both games). I suspect Rob needs to focus on getting the Conquest into a zone to contest it, and force me to deal with him. With this particular Cryx list, it might actually be a problem, especially if enough of my Bane Thralls die before getting there. The Deathjack can certainly hurt it, but I don't think I can kill it (especially with Mechaniks repairing it) before I'm crushed.
One day, I'll get Venethrax on the table again, hopefully against a Hordes opponent, and see how much mileage I get out of him in a matchup he's designed to be more useful for.
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