The Terminus Challenge: pIrusk

Monday night I faced pIrusk. He was controlled by Bitmactic from the Privateer Press forums, who also happens to be a team-mate for ETC trying his own ETC list. It needs some tweaking, but it's not a bad list at all.

Kommandant Irusk

- Behemoth

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Kayazy Assassin Underboss

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard

- 2 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Kell Bailoch

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Reinholdt
Sylys Wyshnalyrr

At first I thought it was missing some heavy hitters, but then I thought about Kayazy Assassins with Battle Lust + Gang + Kiss + Feat = MAT 11 & 4d6+ 14. I think pEiryss is there because of character restrictions, and the rest is pretty standard stuff.
 

Widowmakers AD on my left flank.

I got to start, since he wanted to deploy everything where I had nothing that could handle it. I got to do what we always do in round one (we should really just stop mentioning it). The terrain might need some explaining, but it was like that when I arrived and we sort of just rolled with it (we could encounter anything in the tournament).

Roooound one!

I had the Machine Wraiths on the right flank gunning for Eiryss, the Cankerworm out front making sure the Behemoth wouldn't come up front, and Brine hiding behind the house. Bile Thralls were stuck behind everything again, but some day I'll remember to make lanes for them.
 

Well, the Behemoth came within charge range: bonus!

He spread out, and I realized I was going to take it up my undead behind even with the first round advantage: #&%¤. Since I have no ranged capacity worth a damn I decided against going for the scenario (again something that supports my theory that a solid ranged game is needed to win on scenario).

Cankerworms time to shine!

I knew I wouldn't get a better shot, so Cankerworm got a shiny Focus. Darragh Wrathe charged up and killed the Kayazy, then popped Beyond Death and used his light cavalry move to engage a pile of assassins. I threw in both Machine Wraiths as well, forcing him to feat with the boss the next round or be seriously stuck (that plan sort of backfired, but more on that later).

A Machine Wraith made it to Eiryss!

Cankerworms time to shine with a charge! He put fifteen damage on the Behemoth, munching one of his arms, and there was much rejoicing! Then I noticed one of the Widowmakers had wandered within 9" of Tartarus, and with the added distance from his curse it was harvest time on the Widowmakers!

The resulting complete #@§$€?£ failure on my part made me forget to snap a photo, but Tartarus threshered all four of the little bastards, and then I picked up the tape measure to place my four shiny new Bane Thralls. 1"-2"-3"-4"-5"-6"-7"-8"-9"-10"-11"-12"- #@§$ OUT OF RANGE!

Four less Bane Thralls, but swamping the zone anyway.

With nothing better to do I swamped the zone in Bane Thralls and lined up for a counter punch. I knew I was going up against a kazillion tough models with very little left of my list, but I thought I had kept my important models safe.

Behemoth pounds the Cankerworm into dust.

Alright the Winter Guard hurts when you can't just stop their sprays.

I'm learning all sorts of new things here. Irusk popped his feat, Aiyana & Holt magicked up the Kayazy which then wiped the Machine Wraiths (MAT 11 with Gang & Feat), unhorsed Darragh, took down Maevolus (thanks tough), and killed a couple of Bile Thralls. That tough check on Maevolus was the only one I made that turn, so casualties were... pretty high...

I R TERMINUS, SEE ME FAIL!

Terminus pops feat and I charge the great bears. Screw that defense fifteen  (hitting them across a linear obstacle) crap, I can take them!

• Charge, Hit, Kill, Tough.
• Focus, Hit, Kill, Tough.
• Focus, Hit, Kill, Tough (seriously?)
• Focus, Hit, Kill, Tough (ah come on!)
• Focus, Hit, Kill, Tough (this is getting ridiculous!)
• Focus, Miss
• Focus, Hit, Kill, OMG I GOT ONE!
• Ravager, Hit, Kill, Tough

Alright, slightly problematic to have one soul and be parked in front on two great bears and a full unit of Kayazy with access to Battle Lust, but no problem because the Bane Thralls will save me! Tartarus manages to take down the two WG that found themselves with just 5+ tough, and this time I get my Bane Thralls.

Bane Thralls receive Pathfinder from Saxon, and with some fancy angles and the Bane Thralls I go crazy on the WG and Great Bears. Seven damage rolls later Terminus is sitting on two souls, and I'm pissing my pants and seriously considering the pro's and con's of boiling his dice (though at one point I just had to laugh). At this point a spectator walked in, and I proudly declared that he was just in time to watch me blow up my own army. I had no other choice, since Terminus was on two souls and I was going to lose badly if I didn't get at least four more.

KABLUI!

Tremulus died but Maevolus didn't so he ate the two souls I was planning to feed Terminus (sigh). Four Bane Thralls died and one great bear failed it's tough roll. Rorsh walked up and threw his Dynomite, rolled triple ones and killed nothing. Then he missed twice with his Pig Iron just to slight me. In the end I had Brine Trample up while boosting to hit, just to grab a few more souls. It all came down to corrosion then.

MELT YOU BASTARDS! MEEEEEELT!

Four more souls! Now it's beginning to look a little like winning again. Armor 26 means being immune to most things in his army, and one angry Great Bear wouldn't be enough. At this point my opponent gave up mentally (you can see it when the fight goes out of them), though we did finish the game. He killed Rorsh & Brine, my last Bile Thrall, the WSC melted to corrosion the following turn, and all but one Bane Thrall died. I got two more souls to friendly fire, netting me a grand total of 10 souls.

Spiked sword of forced intrusion!

Having learned from my mistakes, I decided to actually do something beyond charging with a 16 Focus Terminus (well 15 since I had to upkeep Malediction). Tartarus made six new Bane Thralls from the WG, taking him to a total of twelve kills and eight reanimations (twice as many as I've ever managed before), and they all happily ganged up on Irusk, turning him into a red sticky puddle, despite his Iron Flesh and Focus camping.

/Lamoron