This is the one metagolem I was really wanting to dodge. I don't think it's a horribly bad match for Cryx, in terms of what exists in the meta he's certainly not the worst but considering my 2 list pairing and the fact that I'm seriously looking like I'll get locked into Skarre in the final I think I have to play my list with a Kraken vs Wurmwood. God dammit. To make matters worse I'm playing a caster I haven't played in Mk3, hated in Mk2 and it's against my fellow WTC teammate Michael Dick. God. Dammit.
Also, this game went late. I eventually stopped taking photos because I was entirely focussed on the game. My opponent's list:
Wurmwood
-Pureblood
-Feral
-Stalker
Sentry Stone & Manikins *2
6 Wolves of Orboros
Gatorman Bokur & Shamblers
Shifting Stones
Wrongeye & Snapjaw
Seeing as this is my first (and probably only) game on this blog with Skarre, I'll repost the list:
pSkarre +28
-The Withershadow Combine 9
-Kraken 36
10 Satyxis Raiders w/UA 19
10 Satyxis Raiders w/UA 19
Darragh Wrathe 9
Orin Midwinter 5
Ragman 4
Scrap Thralls 2
75
I won the first turn roll, thank god. I took first. The Scenario was Recon (which is my favourite scenario, dear readers). Deployment looked like so:
Turn one I ran, sacced some stuff. Rolled a 5. Force barrier went up. Yadda yadda. Skarre stuff. Was mindful not to give away super mega god tier aim sprays for Mannikins.
So Mike makes some Mannikins and sprays some Satyxis, he pops Wurmwood into the cloud his objective makes with his stones, kills some more Satyxis, goes for an Errant Stranglehold on the Kraken which I let through and he raises an eyebrow and realises I'm not going to let him burn my Power Tokens for free, so he doesn't boost damage (to manage his Fury better). Then he goes for a CoS, which I actually care about and stop. He ports back to the tree. Otherwise his list runs up pretty aggressively and feats.
Well. There's a bunch of stuff that I'd like to kill but sadly Wurmwood feat. We shuffle, RitSac, Kraken gets in the zone, Mortal Fear goes up. Orin is behind the Kraken still, Skarre moves to a hill and starts going towards the flag on the right hand side. Satyxis continue their sadly short lives in a generally forward but also in a projecting-lots-of -reach-in-front-of-my-Kraken-to-annoy-Cassius-y fashion. Mike generally just keeps sandpapering here, doesn't commit and I take my medicine.
More whittling. Mike once again doesn't commit, but he did put Stranglehold up on the Kraken (rolling 17 for damage, which sets a trend for his damage on the Kraken by the way) after clearing out some (but crucially, not enough) Satyxis. Thankfully my plan worked, I figured if he wanted the hold plan he couldn't get the all the raiders due to lack of Hellmouth and I was right. He put a Growth in front of Wurmwood to screen him now and in future turns. Thankfully, this left Satyxis able to charge heavies and with Skarre that means dead heavies. Oh, he was offering Snapjaw up as bait so he charged him in, but maxed him out on Fury which was a huge opportunity for me. With the feat gone this is where the game actually started, by the way.
It was go time. I spent a lot of my clock working out the correct order of activations for this turn, and it was a pretty intricate puzzle. Basically the situation was he had 3 Manikins screening a Feral from the Satyxis unit that had to activate first (metal ones in the picture), he also had a Shambler in the way. If I could clear out one Manikin and that Shambler I could get 2 Satyxis into the Feral and one into Wrongeye (who had no transfer target). Thing is the Manikins were blocking my 2nd unit of Satyxis (behind the Kraken mostly in the above photo) so the Sentry stone had to die. Thankfully Mike had opted to boost lots of hit rolls so didn't have prowl on it, meaning my Kraken could shoot at it with the big gun, and if necessary one Satyxis could hit it with a pow 16 whip or 15 horns. So, the plan went something along the lines of: Skarre advances, casts Dark Guidance, feats on herself, the relevant Satyxis, including some insurance Satyxis to charge and kill Snapjaw if I don't kill Wrongeye, her Kraken and Darragh. She Sac Strikes a Raider to kill the blocking shambler. WSC go, Rit Sac & put a Puppet Master on the Kraken. Kraken rolls okay on the Sentry after a reroll, leaving it on 2 boxes. Metal Raiders charge, 2 on the Feral, one into Wrongeye, one runs for Gang on Wrongeye (this stage took a lot of lasers & proxy basing, lanes were tight). Wrongeye explodes to the Satyxis' whip. The Feral takes fairly mopey damage. Next unit of Satyxis charges the Feral, blows it up and manage to deal 6 to the objective. Darragh walks to within 9" of Wurmwood behind a wall and says bite me. I pass turn feeling like that should set me in good stead.
Now we're both getting low on time, so photos are a bit sketchier. What happened since the previous photo is that Mike ported a Stalker into the big clump of Satyxis and berserked a lot of them down. Hellmouths came out (at pow 10, hah) and killed some more, it also managed to nab Ragman. The Bokur came in and with his Shamblers did a horrible job of killing Satyxis. Darragh was his immortal self. So basically, Mike killed the models I sent into the Feral, Sentry Stone & Objective, and a couple more with a Hellmouth. No hold on the Arm 26 Kraken, funnily enough, nor could he CoS it because of Orin (and not having Fury spare). So, seeking to really put the pressure onto Mike I decided to not commit with the Kraken and give him the option to roll dice for an out, and instead didn't commit my Kraken. I had my WSC go. Poor Admonia got sacrificed for Skarre, Puppet Master went up on the big guy. The Kraken shot the objective off the table and did some damage to the Bokur, who was finished by Satyxis. Orin ran to protect Skarre because I felt like at this point Mike would be looking for the assassination out, rather than seeking to win by attrition or scenario. Darragh just put up Mortal Fear and stood in a place to make it really hard for the Stalker to get at my Kraken, even with CoS and Hellmouth. I scored 3 CPs because of Skarre on her flag. Oh, I think I healed for a tonne this turn too, because I had 12 focus. I think I was at 14hp by this point.
Alright, a lot happened before this end game photo. Lets see what I remember. Mike had a turn trying to get the Stalker to the Kraken with CoS. He had to clear Darragh and I believe 3 Satyxis Raiders, contest my flag and kill a Satyxis UA. He ported his stones (because I pointed out that it was the only model which could contest Skarre's flag, and this is a good time to point out that Mike and I had a super friendly, open game, and I remember at that point thinking that the Scottish Warmachine meta is something I was pretty proud to be a part of, because sportsmanship is really good up here, anyway...) to contest and also set up a Hellmouth. His Pureblood charged into Darragh and managed to dismount him. I fucked up and left Darragh a couple mm out of engaging Cassius, who could now run for free to my Kraken and land a CoS. A (pow 10, hah) Hellmouth came down on the stone in the middle of the Satyxis & Darragh and managed to hurt but not kill Darragh but Mike did get the dice he needed to kill the Satyxis UA unboosted, he also very narrowly avoided pulling his stalker into such a place he couldn't charge, which didn't matter anyway cause Darragh lived. So, with Darragh alive the Stalker had to trample, which it did, missing Darragh and then bought 3 attacks on the Kraken, rolling absolute fire and dealing a shitload of damage with only 3 hits. The poor guy was not feeling good at this point. I think I was on something like 29 boxes? Also, incredibly, his Sentry Stone which had 0 fury at the start of its activation did 13 fucking points of damage to my objective in 3 boosted sprays. Eeeeeeeek. So, with that incredible run of hot dice Mike passed turn.
So, at this point we had something of a crowd watching as the other semifinal was over and the pressure was really on. I like to think that one of my strongest suits in Warmachine is the lategame puzzle, and I intended to make it out of this the victor! I had my WSC walk up to my Kraken, put up Puppet Master and then have Maelovus sacrifice Tremulus and hide behind the cloud from my objective. Orin moved to be out of range of the Mannikins because well, I didn't want Skarre to die at this final hour. She cast Dark Guidance and the Kraken walked up and murdered the contesting shifting stone, killed his Stalker, kill shot the other stone that could contest and killed that too. At this point it's really make or break for Mike. I passed my turn, going to 4 CPs.
Mike has a plan. His Pureblood kills my Kraken, Cassius can then run to a position to both contest and stranglehold my objective to death. First thing's first, the Sentry Stone has its little dudebros murder Darragh and put some damage into the Kraken. The Pureblood then charges in, and I have a crowd of people watching me mark damage on my Colossal. He takes out the entire damaged right side with his initials and the bought attacks are pouring in to its left. The PB is rolling at dice -1 with CoS, and it comes down to me having 7 boxes left and it being on 3 fury. He rolls his damage for his last swing and gets the 1,1. Internally I'm thinking "Christ, finally, it's about time you rolled less than a 7 on that thing", but I had to keep my gameface on, cause I'm still not sure I've lost. Some fast measuring from Mike confirms that he can no longer contest, kill the Kraken and Stranglehold down the objective, so Cassius charges my Kraken, kills it and Wurmwood Strangleholds the objective to death, killing it and as the turn ends with both of us <10 minutes (I think Mike under 5) I go to 5-3.
OH. MY. GOD.
Jesus Christ. I could write up a post game tactical analysis here, but all I can say is that you shouldn't drop colossals vs Wurmwood, and also pSkarre is a caster for chumps and I still hate playing her. I would much much rather have had another drop here, and the Kraken felt like an enormous liability too. I wish I had had the models to run pSkarre with 5 Stalkers like I wanted to, but sadly couldn't get Stalkers for the event. I feel like that would have been a much, much stronger Wurmwood drop.
Anyway, incredibly good game to Mike. Hats off for this absolute nailbiter of a game, and as I previously mentioned, I had great fun the entire time, despite 2 shit casters being on the field. Really does make me proud to be part of Team Scotland. <3 Also makes me happy that games between my teammates are so close.
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